He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen the light of day. He only remembered darkness, damp air and pain. The pain never left him. If he could see better, he'd see his fur was matted with dried blood.
The door opened and he could see the flicker of a candle. He could make out the shape of one of his captors, a wolf. He carried a sword.
"Now, panda we've given you plenty of chances to tell us where the other kung fu Masters are. Our patience is running thin. This will be your last day alive if don't decide to tell us. Well, even if you do tell us, you won't live past the night."
Po drew a shuddering breath, pain wracking his while body. "Then why should I tell you? Either way I'm dead."
The wolf grinned, all the fangs showing. "Let's put it like this. There is a mostly painless death, and there's a horribly painful death. The choice's yours."
Po wheezed in another breath, slowly letting it out again. The choice was obvious. "You're crazy if you think I'll tell you anything."
The wolf shrugged. "As you wish."
The panda blinked as the candle was blown out. He couldn't see well enough in the dark to know where the wolf stood. His hearing was better than most, and his sense of smell was exceptionally good, which served him well in the kitchen. His hearing served him well right now as well.
He could hear the wolf stepping closer to him, and soon there was a new pain mixing with the older ones across his chest. The wolf continued to line the downed panda in front of him with the tip of the sword. Occasionally he would stop at a certain place and the sword would stab downward, penetrating deeper and causing more pain.
Po was used to pain and could hold in his vocal responses better than a couple of weeks ago, but his body betrayed him. After several weeks of daily doses of pain, his body had been conditioned to twitch and tense at the slightest touch of the sharp sword trailing over his skin.
"I wonder if your friends will come and rescue you, or if they care so little of you that they'll just leave you to die in pain."
The panda involuntary let out a quiet sob at the thought of his friends. It had only been a couple of months since he'd been accepted by the Furious Five and their Master. For the first time in his life, he had felt a sense of belonging and of companionship. It wasn't fair that it was going to be taken from him so soon.
However, he also knew his newfound friends wouldn't be looking for him. They were all chasing the wolves away from a village when he'd been knocked unconscious by a blow to the head. The wolves had been occupying the town, intercepting all their food.
Master Shifu had suspected some sort of trap, since the village was one of the most peaceful in entire China, filled with pacifists and monks as well as regular animals.
Pos thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pain under his foot. The pain was followed by a sharp smell of burnt fur. The sting of the burn didn't disappear for several moments but before it faded completely a new pain came from the vicinity of his left elbow.
The blows, cuts and burns were coming faster now, and Po felt himself slowly fade away from reality, not really feeling like he was in the dark place, but floating someplace warm and safe.
He didn't know how long he was out, but when he woke up he could feel his hands and arms tingling and the pain seemed to have multiplied. He could also feel himself lying on something very soft. Then he faded again.
The next time he woke it was lighter than total darkness, which was his first clue that he had been moved from the torture chamber. The next clue was the jade walls and ceiling surrounding him.
He tried to sit up, but was forced to lie back down with a grunt at the stabbing pain in his body. He could hear footsteps hurrying in the hallway outside the door. Then it was opened and in strode his elderly Master.
Shifu looked like he hadn't slept in a year. His usually pristine robes and tunics were rumpled and crooked in places. His mustache was frizzled and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a while.
"Po. You're finally awake. I almost gave up hope that you would ever wake."
The old Master swallowed noisily before he stumbled forward to kneel beside the large panda on the bed. A hand reached out to pet the arm of the great panda, but stopped when Po flinched away from the touch. Shifu swallowed again and fidgeted, something that Po had never witnessed before.
"I'm sorry Po. It wasn't you they were after, it was me. They wanted to know how to defeat kung fu and targeted me. If you hadn't been where you were during the chase they would have gotten me. And I would not have survived what you did Po. I would've broken down faster than you. I'm an old fool, Po, and I'm so sorry that you had to endure this."
The old Master blinked furiously for a moment, then swiped a hand across his eyes, but he couldn't hide his tears. Po found it fascinating to watch, and painfully slow he raised his hand. With a fingertip he reached out and caressed the other, catching a tear on his claw.
Shifu broke. He buried his face in the fur of Pos arm, his sobs unheard but very much felt by his student.
"Don't apologize, Shifu. Not for something that wasn't your fault."
The whispered words only caused the smaller panda to shake even more. Po lied still and tried to convey some sort of comfort. It was a long while before Shifu calmed down enough to pull himself together.
Later in the day, the rest of the Masters would drop by and visit, telling him the grand story of how they found him by following the tufts of fur that had stuck to various bushes as he was dragged through the forest by the wolves and how they rescued him by beating them up in Po style.
They would tell him how his father and Master Shifu had both been frantic, though the red panda had hidden it better. They would serve him some of his favorite food and fluff his pillow for him before leaving him alone to rest.
But for now, the two pandas looked into each others eyes and felt a deep connection to each other. And Po was quite sure that he would not be left completely alone, and that his rest would be far more restful that way.
.oOo.
I hope this was worth the long wait. Haven't had time to write in a while, and this was thrown together in a couple of hours. R&R people! And I would love to hear if you have ideas of your own. Planning to write a proper story with this pairing, what do you think?
