Author's Note: All characters and locations belong to Dreamworks and affiliates. Here's another chapter. Apologies for the delay. I've had a lot of medical problems recently that have made writing harder and harder, but I've worked really hard to get another chapter out for the readers. I know where I want the story to go and have the entire thing outlined and I will be working hard to get it done. Remember to please, please review and let me know your thoughts! Enjoy your chapter ten: lots of drama and tension.

Chapter Ten: Meditation

"What's happening?"

"The arrow has cut through near his heart," Djaq was saying quietly as he worked, his fingers flying like slithering snakes, knotting off and weaving through the mass pooling of blood on the wound.

Viper swallowed thickly.

"He can't die," she said, her voice not sounding her like her own.

"I'm well aware of that, Master Viper," the boy said, his voice straining to be polite. Blood dumped out of the shoulder wound and Viper screamed, jumping back out of the way. "You can't be in here," Djaq snapped, "leave and let me do my work."

Viper hesitated a moment before trailing away from the tent, allowing the sheets to close behind her, shutting off her view. She felt her heart beat rapidly and the knots in her stomach tighten. She caught sight of Tai Lung and moved over towards him, not failing to notice the glares and stares coming from the others around her.

"How—how is she?" she asked, her gaze falling on her meditating friend. Even from far away, she could see the lines of exhaustion and stress on Tigress' features. The red head was tucked away in a dimmed secluded corner of the camp, where no one seemed to notice she was, save the three dotingly waiting her.

Kali scoffed, muttering something under his breath along the lines of "why would you care". Viper ignored him and turned to Tai Lung. The salt and pepper haired man frowned and ran a hand through his hair.

"Not well. Think it was a panic attack. Your boyfriend seemed to be the trigger."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"Anyways, she seems to have settled down a little bit with the meditation. We'll see how she is once she comes out of it," he continued as if she hadn't spoken. "We'll need her to be ready before we make a decision about the mess you just made."

"Longwei would never

"Are you calling Tigress a liar?" Kali challenged with a glare. The bandage wrapped man looked threateningly at Viper who ignored him.

"Oh course not!" she snapped, "maybe she's just…confused or something. I don't know. But Longwei isn't like his uncle. He wouldn't do something like that. He couldn't."

Tai Lung whistled and crossed his arms. "Gods, this pretty prince rich boy has you whipped, Master Viper, what would Crane have to say about that?" The man didn't even try to duck the iron fisted punch that came his way.

Tigress was meditating.

Her heartrate was slowed to an almost soothing rate and her breathing levelled out, coming and going like smooth ocean tides. The quivering in her lungs seemed to die down and the pit in her stomach seemed to unravel as she sunk deeper and deeper into her unconscious.

She knew she had reached a level of peace when the darkness of her eyelids flowered into colors, blues and greens, and suddenly a place bloosomed in front of her and she found herself on the side of a mountain she had once visited with Shifu when she had been a young girl. The misty and quiet pond had been a getaway trip for the Master and student long before there had been any whispers of the Furious Five.

"You're tired, my child."

Tigress frowned and turned around in the mountain pond, trying to find the source of the sound. "Who's there?"

"Master Oogway?" Tigress frowned slightly. "What—how are you here?"

"I'm simply visitng for a moment or two, child, nothing to be frightened of," the old master said, stepping out of the haze and coming to rest in front of her. The bald and wrinkled master was tall and willowy, dressed in rich purple and gold robes. His wispy white beard move and crinkled as he talked.

"I don't understand, Master."

The old man smiled gently and reached out towards her. The tips of his fingers tipping her chin up, their eyes meeting. "Take heart, brave one, the fighting is almost done."

Tigress slowly exhaled and asked the question weighing on her mind. "What if our plan doesn't work?"

Oogway chuckled and turned to face the pond, the fog and quietness settling around the mountain side. "You were always the worrier, my child. A worried inside of the warrior. Not a bad thing in itself but a tiring thing none the less. Do not doubt yourself or your skills. Trust me when I tell you, girl, that you have been trained for everything that is to come."

Tigress swallowed and nodded. "We're outnumbered and underprepared. There's a mad king on the throne and his nephew has Viper under his spell. I can't go anywhere without the threat of being seen. We cannot train enough troops—the Jade Palace has been burned to the ground—and…"

"And sometimes you feel as though you're back in that throne room," he prompted. The warrior fell abruptly silent. "Suffering is not a weakness, Mei Ren, it creates strength."

She averted her eyes.

"I miss the Jade Palace," she admitted quietly, rubbing her arms around her torso loosely. "And the peace of it all. I miss Five and training. I miss Master and knowing what to do. I miss you."

His eyes bore gently into hers.

"You may be back to what you know sooner than you think," he said, raising an eyebrow. He paused tilting his head slightly. "The boy that fancies you is coming this way. I fear our time together is ending quite soon." He turned to her, laying a thick hand on her arm.

"Tell Shifu that the time for the Turtle's Box has come, brave heart. He'll know what I mean and what to make of it. Oh, and one last thing, Master Tigress. Do not discount those who help put you back together after you have fallen; they are the ones who help you become strong. But once you are strong again, do not hang on those people, for holding onto them will end up making you weak."

His image became hazy and blurry.

"Master!" Tigress called after him, just as she heard her name being called off in the distance and a calloused hand on her shoulder. But before she came out of the trace, something else was in the mist of the distance; a hazy figure and just as she was trying to resurface to the present, they collided.