A/N: And I am back again! I know all of you probably hate me for just leaving it there… But come on. It made it more exciting right?
Thank you guys for hitting the hundred views! If we continue that way, this might be my most reviewed story! Wouldn't that be amazing?
So I'll just start now, so we can all see what happened.
I do not own Kung Fu Panda.
Long Lost, Long Hidden
All Around Me
"Tigress?" Po asked, nearly not believing what he was seeing. It could not be true… Could it? He knew that the tiger was dead. That thought was being repeated over and over in his brain.
Then why was she right in front of him?
"Tigress!" he yelled, suddenly excited. "You are alive!"
The tiger did not say a word, but continued walking towards him. When he noticed how she was not smiling, he asked, "Tigress?"
"And you call yourself the Dragon Warrior," she snarled at him, standing right in front of him. "You could not even save me!"
"But… But…" Po tried to say, trying to figure out what was going on. "But you are here…"
"I am dead, stupid panda," she hissed. "Because of you."
"Then I am… I'm dead too?" he asked, looking around, but saw only an unknown bamboo forest. Was he really dead?
He then remembered what had happened. He remembered the snake… Seh was his name, right? And the bandits… He and the others had been trying to find Tigress' murderer! The others…
The cave… The explosives… Oh no! Were they really dead? Had the rocks crushed them? Where were the others?
Were they…? Were they dead too?
But Tigress shook her head. "You not dead," she told him sternly. "You are just being lucky. Again!"
"Again..?" he whimpered.
"Yes, again. Don't you remember how you landed in front of me?" she asked him.
"Of course I do! That was like the most awesome day ever! I…" he trailed off when he saw her angry eyes. "You don't think that, do you?"
"You took everything away from me!" Tigress roared. "My dream. My rightful title. My chance to get a father."
Po looked utterly confused. "Wha…? What are you taking about? I thought…"
"That Shifu was my father?" she finished for him. "He would have been, but then came you… You took away my chance to finally make him proud!"
"Tigress, you know that I would never-"
"And finally, you let me be killed," Tigress told him. "Now you finally get rid of me. Happy?"
"I never wanted that!" Po exclaimed, mouth agape. "We are friend, Tigress. Buddies! Don't you remember the hug? I-"
"Enough," Tigress yelled. "Do you expect me to forgive you, panda? To pretend that dying didn't matter?"
"I…" For Po the whole situation was like a horrible dream. "I am so sorry, Tigress!" the panda exclaimed. "I tried!"
Tigress glared at him. "But failed."
"I miss you so much! We all do! Shifu is-"
"Shifu doesn't care. The others don't care. You don't care. That's why you all let me drown!"
"That not true! You know that!" Po yelled, tears dripping from his eyes. Angry of how this Tigress was behaving, he walked forward and tried to grab her shoulder.
But his eyes became widened as his paw could not grab it, but instead went directly through. "What?"
"You can only thank yourself," Tigress said as she faded away.
"Tigress!" Po yelled, but she was gone.
Once again, she was gone.
Had she truly been thinking this? Had she really been that angry? Did she really blame him?
He hoped not. Remembering how weak she had looked while fighting the river…
Po had not been able to save her life. Yet, she had taken the blast from Shen's weapon for him that time in Gongmen City. She had saved his life.
Why had he not done the same with her?
Was he really that pathetic?
Suddenly, he heard a laugh. Turning around he saw…
Tigress.
But this Tigress looked different. She was happy. Smiling.
Though, she did not seem to notice him. Instead she was talking with…
Another panda.
Po widened his eyes. Was it really true?
This panda was a girl, and looked some years younger than him. She was wearing a blue dress and was busy telling Tigress something he could not hear.
"Hey!" he yelled to try and get their attention. But they did not even turn their heads. Po then tried to move forward, but found out that he could not. It was like his feet were stuck to the ground.
He could only watch helplessly as Tigress and the panda disappeared as they walked away.
"Are you looking for someone?" a voice suddenly asked him.
Po immediately turned around, and what he saw surprised him. Another panda… But he had seen this one before.
It was an older panda, and he was staring at Po with his green eyes.
And then Po knew who it was.
"Dad?"
"Po?" a voice called his name, and finally the panda opened his eyes.
"Wha…?" He could just see the face of Viper in the darkness. "Ouch!" he then exclaimed as he felt a pain in his head.
"Slowly," the snake said. "You just woke up."
Sitting up, trying to look around, Po asked, "Where are we?"
"In the cave," Viper told him.
"But…" Po said, remembering Seh and his bandits. "Wasn't it destroyed?"
"Yes, but we were very lucky," Viper said and pointed at the ceiling. "Look up."
And Po then saw what had saved them. A large piece of rock had gotten stuck between one of the walls and a big bunch of rock, and had been shielding them for the rest of the stones like an umbrella. Now it was like a ceiling and the big bunches of rocks around them were the walls.
But there was no door.
"Where are the others?" Po then asked.
"I'm here, Po!" a voice called, and he recognized it as Monkey's.
"Me too!" Mantis yelled.
"And I," Crane said.
And slowly Po could catch a glimpse of all of his friends' faces. "So we survived?" he asked, confused again.
Viper smiled. "We did. Now we just have to get out of here."
"And how are we going to do that?" Crane asked. "The stones can all down, and then we have no luck left."
"We just have to be careful then," Viper answered and moved the first rock with her tail. Soon the others did the same as her, slowly making their way out.
Shifu recognized the snake without even having seen him before. He just knew that this was the snake Viper had described.
So when he saw the snake… His little hands turned into fists, and his mind became filled with dark thoughts. Darker than he found comfortable, but at this point he could only think of Tigress' fate and the ones who had sealed it.
And they were going to pay!
That was when the snake spotted him too. "Ah… The great Grandmaster Shifu. What an honor to see you!"
"Where are my students?" Shifu growled, taking his battle stance. He then noticed the many warriors behind the snake, all different kinds of animals.
But right now numbers did not matter to him. They had killed his daughter, and that made him angry. Dangerously angry.
None of them had a chance when he was in this mood.
Not even back in Gongmen City he had been feeling like this. This was not just anger… He wanted to kill the snake.
In the moment he realized that, he understood that he had to be careful. He would not do something he would end up regretting later. Even though he wanted it…
"They are up there," Seh said, pointing at the sky with his tail. "If you understand what I mean."
Feeling how his blood turned into ice, Shifu managed to stutter out a, "What?"
"You really just should have stopped. I mean, the tiger's death was… Uhm… Tragic?" He chuckled silently. "So maybe you should have taking better care of your last students."
"What did you…?"
"I am sure you heard the boom," Seh said. "They are in the cave in that," he pointed towards west, "direction."
Shifu knew what he was doing. The snake was forcing him to make a choice.
He could either stay here and beat those murderers as he wanted to…
Or he could check up on his students.
Not much of a choice.
Giving the snake a last snarl, Shifu turned towards the direction he had been given. He briefly heard Seh saying a sentence involving the word 'daughter' but decided to ignore it.
He had already lost Tigress.
He would not lose any more.
Shifu ran as fast as h could, and when he saw the cave, his heart skipped a beat, as he saw how the entrance was completely blocked. Big pieces of rocks were making it impossible to enter it.
No.
But that was when he heard the voices. They were too low for the words to be heard, but definitely voices.
"Po?" he asked as he laid his ear against the rocks. He could clearly hear the panda's voice.
"Master Shifu?" the voice asked. "Hey guys! It's Shifu?"
"Master?" Now it was Viper.
Shifu felt his heart speeding up. Were they alright? "Are you all there? Are you hurt?"
"We are all here, Master Shifu," the snake answered from behind the rocks. "And we are alright."
The red panda let out a relieved sigh.
"We are working on moving the rocks," Monkey explained.
"Then I'll help," Shifu declared and started to lift the first rock. "Hang on."
"What are you doing here, Master?" Crane asked, remembering how Shifu had been in the Jade Palace the last time they had seen him.
"I decided to follow you," Shifu explained. "In case something like this would happen."
"They got away, Master," Viper said. "They were too fast."
Shifu nodded even though no one could see it. "I met them on my way here."
"His name is Seh," Mantis said. "And he likes himself a bit too much."
"A bit?" Crane asked sarcastically.
Viper sighed, and then said, "It wasn't exactly a nice meeting."
"I don't think a nice meeting would end up with explosives," Monkey muttered.
"What did they say, Master?" Viper asked Shifu.
"That you were here," the master said. "And then I had to let them go." When he heard the panda's disappointed sigh, he said, "We'll get them another time, Po."
Finally the last rock was moved.
"Freedom!" Mantis exclaimed as he jumped out. "I missed you, clean air!"
Even Viper could not help but smile a bit.
"So what are we going to do now?" Crane asked and they all looked at Shifu.
"We are going back to the Jade Palace," Shifu declared. "Seh and his bandits are long gone now, and it would be a waste of time to try and find them. Besides," he turned his back to his students, "Master Ox and Master Croc will be coming soon."
The students dropped their jaws. "Master Croc and Master Ox?!" Po exclaimed. "But why-?"
"I received a letter from them today," Shifu answered. "They, along with the rest of China, have of course heard of Tigress'…" He stopped for a moment, thinking about which word he could use. Just having to say this sentence made his chest hurt. "Passing," he then said. "They want to discuss of this new threat Seh and his warriors can be."
His students bowed to him. "Yes, Master."
"Come," Shifu said, turning around again. "Let us go home."
Seh was smiling brightly when he met his leader. "I am home!"
"Have you lost your mind?" The female wolf turned around, walking away from her throne to face him.
The snake's smile faded a bit. "Of what do you mean?"
"I specifically told you not to kill them," the wolf snarled. "And what did you do?"
"They were getting annoying," the snake sighed. "Besides, they are still alive."
"I know that! What I want to know is if you dare to go against my orders?" she snarled.
He bowed his head. "Of course not, Jung. You know me."
"Then why the explosives?"
"Because you don't want to be revealed," he told her. "Not yet."
A little smile was shown on her face. "True."
"I just don't understand your mercy to them."
"Believe me; they won't get my mercy," she snarled.
"Then why not just kill them?" Seh asked him. "You saw how easy it went with the tiger…"
"Because I don't want them to die!" Jung roared. "I want them to suffer!"
Seh nodded. "I see."
"Believe me," Jung said, "This is only the start."
Nobody had touched her room. Nothing had been moved. Instead they stared at the door every morning when they awoke, only to realize that the door would not be opened.
Now Shifu walked past it, on his way to his own room. What a day! At least the rest of his students were still alive.
But for how long?
Would this snake first stop when they were all dead?
He did not know. But he knew that he would fight back with all his might.
He entered his room with a sigh. Why was this happening?
They were supposed to protect the village. Now they had to be careful and concentrate on protecting themselves.
Who was it who dared to threaten his students?
To let out some of his anger, he threw his staff into the corner of the room. What use was it now?
Tigress was dead. He had to protect what was left.
Shifu's ear twitched as he heard something falling to the ground. Throwing the staff had made something to lost balance and fall down from shelf.
A box of dominoes.
Now the little pieces of wood were spread all over the floor.
Shifu just stared at them, suddenly reliving his memories with Tigress.
Tigress.
Dominoes.
As in a trance Shifu sat down. In a long time he did not dare to touch them, but finally he reached out and grabbed one single domino.
Tigress.
He placed it on the floor. It remained standing.
Shifu then picked up another domino and placed it beside the first one.
He could do this.
Tears dripping from his eyes, Shifu slowly made a pattern.
A/N: Yeah… I know! No Tigress! Where is she? Don't worry; she will come back in the next chapter! I promise! So now you know a little about Jung. The real leader. A lot of her will come later.
Awesome knowledge! I wrote all this today! TODAY! That's freaking epic! I am fast!
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