AFTERMATH
FAMILY AND FISH
DISCLAIMER: FOR THE LOVE OF OREOS AND KITTENS… I DO NOT OWN KFP! AND I'D BE HAPPY TO EXPLAIN THE EXCUSE FOR THE DELAY THIS TIME AFTER THE STORY
Within the depths of Shen's factory, she and the rest of the Five raced as fast as they could to Po's position. Tigress wanted to ask herself, 'Why couldn't he just listen to me?' or 'He honestly expects Shen to just *tell* him what happened to his parents?'
But deep down, Tigress knew both answers… because she may as well have been looking into the past three years ago… at something she did…
Looking ahead, there was that damned peacock, stalking the panda; and approaching her and the others was another big group of his wolf henchmen.
"We got these guys! Go!" Tigress heard Mantis yell. The feline leapt over the hostile canines and onto the next platform and easily dispatched two other wolves ready to attack her. That was, unfortunately, when one of the massive gorillas of Shen's army jumped down to confront her.
*"Dammit, I don't have time for this!"* She thought to herself as she snarled at the large primate. What these gorilla fighters lacked in kung fu skill and overall intelligence was easily compensated with their massive strength and size. Tigress dodged the brute's giant fist and landed a solid kick to the side of his head. Just as she did this however, three more wolves joined the fray. Under normal circumstances, this would be a cakewalk for someone as experienced as the unofficial leader of the Furious Five; but between this and desperately trying to catch up to the panda foolishly fighting Lord Shen on his own, Tigress for once in her life had her paws full.
In between fighting off the four adversaries, she finally noticed that two other wolves had tackled Po to the deck further away from her.
"Po!" She cried out as she kicked one of the wolves she was fighting over to the two that had tackled the bear. The first wolf hit dead on to the other two, sending all three of them down to the ground. It was at that point that Po glanced over at where the third wolf had come from. For a brief moment Tigress could've sworn… no, KNEW that Po had to have seen her trying to get to him. But that didn't stop him from trying to reach Shen. Was he really that desperate to learn what happened to his parents?
"Po, get away from him!" Tigress cried out once more as the gorilla grabbed her from behind. Tigress found to her surprise that the giant ape had managed to get a good grip on her. As the feline struggled to break free of his grip, she could hear the inevitable exchange of words between the panda and the deranged peacock.
"No more running Shen!" She first heard Po yelled.
Shen replied matter-of-factly; "So it seems…"
Po then continued in a tone Tigress never thought he would be capable of, "I want answers… NOW!"
*No…* she thought to herself as she continued to struggle free from the ape's grasp; *…not again. Not like me and him at the Thread of Hope…*
But it was what Shen said next that only sealed what Tigress was trying so hard to have Po avoid in all of this.
"Oh, you want to know so badly. You think knowing will heal you, eh? Fill some... crater in your soul? Well, here's your answer: Your parents didn't love you."
While she didn't see it, Tigress could greatly sense the feeling of disbelief and sadness on Po's face as Shen spoke; something that again played out in a scene similar to one she herself had only three years ago. This was the reason why she didn't want Po getting involved in the assault on Shen's factory. Tigress knew that Shen wasn't going to just tell Po the truth about his parents, but instead play mind games with the Dragon Warrior.
The worst part of it all was that it was both working and that there was now nothing that she could do about it.
"But here, let me heal you…" Shen finished cryptically as he catapulted himself over and on top of the covered structure he was standing in front of. As the cover fell loose it revealed itself to be…
…another cannon. This one was much larger than the other ones that were in mass production. And it was aiming right at Po.
That sent Tigress into an absolute, panicking frenzy. She was forced to do something that she has sworn to never perform in any battle. And that was to unsheathe her claws in her right paw and slash across the gorilla's face, forcing him to finally let go of her as he grabbed his face in pain. Not caring about the wolves that were closing in behind her. She raced towards Po's position, praying that she would make it in time to shove him out of the way.
But Shen's talon scrapped across the fuse…
The cannon fired…
And Po got blasted right in the chest and was sent flying out of the factory.
"NO!"
Tigress bolted awake. Her heart was racing, her breath at a fast rate; as though she had just come out of yet another massive fight.
After several long seconds of this, she finally took the time to examine her surroundings. She was inside a boat cabin, a bit larger than the one she, Po, and the rest of the Five rode to Gongmen City in. Looking around, she saw the other members of the Furious Five, Master Shifu, and Mei Ling all sound asleep; not disturbed by Tigress' sudden awakening. At last she let out a sigh of relief. What the tiger had just experienced was all nothing but a nightmare; albeit a very realistic one.
Seeing that her nightmare was guaranteed to keep her awake for a while if not the rest of the night, Tigress decided some fresh air would remedy that. Getting up, quietly as to not disturb the others from their sleep, the striped feline walked out of the cabin and onto the deck of the boat.
"Come on guys; let's show these losers not to mess with us!" She suddenly heard from further on up on the deck.
Tigress instantly recognized the voice as Po's; which was where she remembered that it was Po's turn to be on night watch. While they heeded Master Croc's warning and avoided the southernmost river which from what he said was filled with pirates and other bandit gangs, one can never be too careful with night-time boat riding.
Walking over to the source of the voice, Tigress saw just what the panda decided to do to pass the time. From behind him, she saw Po with his action figures of himself and the Furious Five squaring off against an armada of apples from some of the crates. It didn't take long for the tiger to figure out that the apples were playing the role of some bandit gang.
(A/N: You can thank Rick Moranis' character from "Spaceballs" for the inspirationfor the following scene…)
"At last, we meet Dragon Warrior;" Po acted out, playing the part of the head apple, which apparently had some black string pasted onto its front; giving the impression of an evil moustache. "And I see that you've brought your five little pets with you."
Po then made the figure of Mantis 'speak'; "Did you just call me little? !"
"I hardly believe that six of the greatest warriors in all of China can be counted as just 'pets.'" The figure of Viper then 'spoke'.
The lead apple then gave an evil laugh as he retorted, "Now you will all see that evil will always triumph… because good is dumb."
Oh dear lord… Tigress thought to herself.
Before anything else could be said, the army of evil apples and the wooden Kung Fu warriors charged at each other and the battle began. Knowing Po, Tigress figured that the panda would have it all set so that the wooden versions of the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five would win the day.
And rightfully so, as 'Crane' performed his "Wings of Justice" to knock five evil apples out of the battle; 'Monkey' doing awkwardly off balanced flips and airborne maneuvers to outwit the enemy fruit; and the real Tigress had to admit she was rather humbled by wooden Tigress taking on ten apples at once.
Once the 'battle' was over, the head apple was begging for mercy.
"Wait! I should have never messed with you! Let me live! I'll let you kiss my sister!"
Wooden Dragon Warrior however didn't believe him. After delivering his catchphrase "Skadoosh!" he punted the apple into the river.
Po let out a big cheer and had the wooden versions of his comrades give similar congrats to each other.
"We sure showed them whose boss." Wooden Monkey said.
Wooden Crane then added, "Po, you really gave it to them."
Po pumped his real, furry fist in the air, "Yeah that was awesome! Wasn't it guys?"
"That was quite the spectacle Dragon Warrior." It took Po only a split second to realize that it wasn't the Wooden Tigress speaking.
The panda let out a surprised yelp, and as quick as lightning, Po swept the wooden figures underneath a wooden box and spun around to see Tigress standing there expectedly.
"Jeez Tigress! Don't sneak up on me like that!" After a long pause the embarrassed panda then asked rhetorically, "You didn't see anything. Right?"
Tigress gave a sly smirk as she responded, "No Po; I did not see you playing with your dolls."
Despite everything, Po then had an annoyed look as he grumbled, "They're ACTION FIGURES…"
Tigress for her part then remained silent. Fortunately for her, Po immediately got the message behind the pause in their conversation. He responded after taking a deep breath.
"It's time we had the talk we both knew was going to happen, isn't it?" Po asked.
The tiger nodded as she pulled over another box and used it as a seat while the panda remained where he was. Tigress naturally was the one to get the ball rolling.
"I get it Po. You're not just out here because it's your watch shift… it's something else. Isn't it?"
Po knew exactly what she was referring to. "If by that you mean my parents… then yes. I know I had that memorial ceremony several days ago, and I said to you guys… and I myself that it's behind me. But it looks like believing that is a bit harder than I imagined it would be. Not that I thought it would be easy but… you know…"
"I had to live with that for pretty much my entire life." Tigress responded. Yes, the feeling of losing one's mother and father at a very young age; not knowing much about them; or if they loved them. THAT was why Tigress hugged Po in Gongmen Jail; because she knew EXACTLY what was going through his head when the topic of his biological parents came to light during their mission in Gongmen City.
Looking back at the panda, she continued; "Po, what I'm about to tell you stays between us." Po nodded and allowed her to continue.
"Do you remember that night, when I tried to go after Tai Lung by myself?" The bear again nodded, "I of course did it to try to make Master Shifu proud of me, and protect the Valley…" She took a deep breath, "…but I also had far, far more personal reasons for wanting to face him alone. It's because I was so convinced that he was the one who killed my parents."
"What…?" Po asked breathlessly.
Tigress further explained, "About five years after Master Shifu adopted me from the Bao Gu Orphanage, I learned about Tai Lung's rampage in the Valley after being denied the Dragon Scroll. And seeing that my parents were killed in the same week… I foolishly put two and two together."
Tigress then went on about how she intended to fight Tai Lung alone to gain the answers she sought about her family, how after said snow leopard used his signature nerve attack to stun all but Tigress, where she demanded what he knew about her mother and father. Then how Tai Lung taunted her by saying that he enjoyed killing them, something that stunned Tigress long enough for the snow leopard to use his nerve attack on her. Finally, the worst of the whole ordeal, was when Tai Lung bent down and told her that he lied and that he had never met any tiger before in his entire life; all right before he released Crane and instructed him to bring her and the rest of the Five to Shifu and the Dragon Warrior as a message.
There was a very long and uncomfortable pause in her story; until Tigress continued in a quiet tone.
"A week after you defeated Tai Lung, I learned from a survivor of his rampage that my parents weren't killed by his paws…or at least, my father wasn't killed directly by him. I was only an infant when my mother died; she died of a terrible disease shortly after I was born. As for my father, he was helping the injured villagers after the rampage. There was a little girl trapped inside a home, and my father volunteered to go inside and help her. Just as he got to her though, the building they were in began to collapse; he managed to get her out in time… but he couldn't. By the time other people managed to pull the debris off of him, it was already too late."
There was another long pause, the tiger's words sinking in to both the speaker and the listener. Finally, Po spoke.
"Tigress… I'm so sorry. But your father also died a hero. If it wasn't for him, that child would be dead. Sounds like being a hero runs in your family's blood; huh?" He said with a small smirk at his last words.
Tigress gave a small nod before she then said, "Yes, I guess you got a good point there. But that experience I went through was another reason I didn't want you to face Shen at the factory. Not only were you too emotionally attached to everything that was going on, but I didn't want you to make the same damned mistake I made." Yet another pause; "But in the end, I guess it doesn't matter now; Shen is no longer a threat, you discovered your past and came to terms with it."
Po nodded and then spoke, "Yeah, but how about this? From here on out, no more of these kind of secrets between us. Unless of course if they're surprise birthday parties or something as awesome as that…"
Tigress gave a small laugh and agreed to the panda's terms when a third figure came up to them. It was Crane, having just woken up himself.
"Oh, I thought it was my turn to keep watch on the boat after Po." He said looking at Tigress.
The feline responded, "Relax, I just had trouble sleeping so I decided to spend some time with Po."
Po then got up and walked over to Crane, "You know Crane, I think this is the perfect time to for you to give that wing of yours a little exercise; and do your favorite hobby at the same time…" The panda was talking of course about both the bird's injured wing and fishing. While Tigress could clearly see that Crane longed to do both once more, the bird naturally hid this behind a shroud of shyness and uncertainty.
"Uh… I don't know. I don't think my wing's fully healed yet and-"
Crane was cut off by Po when the panda leaned in and said, "Do you really wanna miss out on the chance to impress your girlfriend and bring her something delicious for dinner?"
"Po, you do realize that you'll most likely be the one cooking dinner right?" Crane deadpanned rhetorically.
Po scoffed, "Well, duh. But how else am I gonna cook a fish dinner for everyone without any fish dofus?" Po sighed and added slyly, "Look, I know you and Mei Ling are now together, but think about this for a second, the only way you're gonna seal that connection between the two of you is if you bring her something she'll go gaga over. You might even get to kiss her again…"
Crane only stared at him for a few seconds, then at the speed of lightning flew off towards the water, swooping downward and began collecting as many fish as he could back to the boat.
Feeling victorious, Po walked over to Tigress who had a very quizzical and amused look on her face.
"Sometimes," Po said, "you just gotta know what to say to people to get them to do what you want them to do."
Tigress chuckled, "I'll keep that in mind when we get back to training back at the Palace."
A/N: *Holds baseball bat up protectively* Don't hate me please! I said I'd explain the delay this time!
I'm laying this one on laziness, lack of inspiration, my job… oh and catching up on my latest interest that's been sweeping the Internet for the past year that is… My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Seriously. It's an awesome series. I'm proud to call myself a Brony and 20 Percent Cooler.
God Bless and Merry Christmas. Happy birthday Jesus!
