We pick upm from where we left off when Zeke FINALLY opens up to Musaki. I know, the suspense is killing me as well. Well, the wait is OVER!!!


Chapter 12: Opening Up, part 2

Musaki had his ears open so that he can hear his brother, Zeke, open up with things from his past. He took a deep breath and breathed heavily with anxiety until Zeke finally breaks his silence about his past.

He told him, "I was very young at some point and I know that our parents had given birth to us and they decided to give one of us up and they kept you and gave me away. But after that, things started to fall apart at the seams. As I was two or three, I've been mentally, physically and verbally abused by my foster father. He would be mad over the slightest little things that I had nothing to do with and would just harm me in every single way."

Musaki's eyes widened and never realized something like this could actually happen to Zeke. He exhaled sharply and never knew what to make of it, but sat there and said, "That's rough."

"I don't know why, though. He said that my face was the burden for his rough days."

"No! Are you serious?!"

"Yeah. And that's not even worse."

"What could be worse?"

"I don't know how to explain this, but--"

Zeke's eyes are starting to get a little misty-eyed and couldn't quite get it out just yet. He tried to find his voice and he told him in a breaking voice, "My foster parents....bring home weapons."

"For what?"

"Obviously, they use it so they can...kill me."

Musaki gasped loudly and covered his mouth and could not believe what he just said. His foster parents owning weapons to even think about killing Zeke. He sat there, fell silent for a while and only said, "Wow. That's rough."

"Yeah. My foster dad could use every single weapon whenever trespassers could break in our house and also use to to kill me."

"What's wrong with this dude?"

"I don't know! He would get so angry with me, he would throw things at me and leave me with only bruises, scars, burns and whatever for no reason at all."

"Did your foster parents did anything....bad?"

"They're drug dealers."

"What?!"

"It's true."

"What kind of drugs would they even sell even when you're in the house where you can't be seen?"

"Crystal meth and marijuana."

"Yikes."

"When they would see me while they're hiding their 'stash', my foster dad would come up to me and just punch me in the face and I end up getting a black eye or something like that. It's unfair to me and I never even did anything wrong."

"Wow. That's hard. Whatever happened to them?"

"One day, I was only three years old, just sitting in my room, feeling completely scared that my dad would harm me again and when he came to my room, he just threw stuff around and sees me scared and one time, he used one of his weapons towards me and try to kill me. He didn't know that the rhino guards were breaking in the house, searching the entire house for proof that they kept some illegal items there and they could their 'stash' in the closet and some dangerous weapons behind there. One guard walked towards the rooms to find what else is there and when he burst in my room, he caught my dad holding a knife directly to my throat and he was shocked to what he saw. My foster dad was busted and one of the others released me from him and one dragged him downstairs and brought both of them outside and took them away. It was just devastating to me that my innocence has gone away because of my foster parents." Zeke explained.

"Oh, man. I'm so sorry to hear that." Musaki said.

"Since then, I had no one to trust and I was only three when that happened. One of the rhinos took me to the Valley of Peace and see if I'm happy there. The people who took me in were really nice. I wasn't sure if they would consider trustworthy, but I'm happy with them. All of them are wolves. It's kinda weird that wolves would take a panda in, but it seems a little cool."

"How are they treating you?"

"They're actually okay. I never actually made any friends since that happened, but often times, every night, I would relive that dreadful moment that happened between me and my abusive foster dad and to this day, it just won't go away."

"Every night, I would often relive that worst case scenario about my parents being killed by Tai Lung and it still hasn't healed my wounds when I was younger because I didn't know how to cope with it. As I said, I never understood what death even means and how that my parents were never coming back. It just pains me so hard."

"So you never made any friends?"

"Mostly, I had only 9 friends at the orphanage, but I was only an outcast. Nobody would care about me."

Zeke puts his paw on Musaki's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry about what happened. If I only knew about what happened to you, I would've shutten everyone else out."

Zeke's brown eyes met Musaki's blue eyes and it seems as though they have a common ground of their past, but in different ways. Musaki and Zeke's bio parents were killed by Tai Lung and Musaki was the only one that witnessed it and Zeke's foster parents were drug dealers and weapon owners and Zeke's foster dad would physically and verbally abuse him and they were arrested when he was three. It seems as though a form of brotherhood was starting to grow.

"Well, I guess I've opened up more that I could ever open up to." Musaki said.

"So have I. I guess that means that we're actually--"

"Brothers."

"Yeah, we are."

"How'd you find out anyway?"

"Well, someone from the Valley of Peace told me about you and that they put a file in the Bao Gu Orphanage and said that I'm your twin brother. They searched our parents' relatives and they said that they were born with twins, which is both me and you. I didn't know anything about it until I came here and saw you for the first time. At first, I didn't believe it, but now seeing you, it's like a part of me wants to actually realize that this is the real thing. I found my twin brother."

Musaki's eyes welled up with tears and so have Zeke's. A few tears were rolling down on Zeke's eyes and said, tearfully, "I found you, Musaki."

Two tears fell down on Musaki's face and said, "I found you too."

Both of them stood up and hugged each other. Zeke was crying on Musaki's shoulder and Musaki cried on Zeke's as couldn't believe that they actually found each other and how amazing it is that in a short amount of time, Musaki finally realized that he's not an only child anymore, but he has a twin and didn't even know about it. They both let go and Musaki said, "This is so far the best day of my life."

"Mine too."

"Even better when I kicked your butt at the training hall this morning."

Zeke laughed while wiping his eyes at that joke. He smiled and told him, "I agree. I'm sorry if I said I didn't trust you. I'm willing to trust you and consider you trustworthy."

"Of course you can trust me. You have to trust the others as well."

Zeke sighed heavily and said, "I'll try."

"Try to take it easy on everyone, okay?"

"Sure thing."

Musaki hugged Zeke one more time and they were both smiling and closed their eyes. All of a sudden, they heard someone crying in the background. They let go and Zeke asked, "Who was that?"

Musaki scoffed and said, "Take a wild guess, dude."

He walked towards the door, opens the door and sees Po crying. Musaki sighed heavily and asked, "Couldn't let it go, right?"

Po looks up and saw Musaki standing there in the door and wiped his eyes and said, "There was something in my eye."

"Liar. You were crying." Shanghai said.

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

Shifu sighed heavily and looked at Musaki and told him, "I saw both of you hug each other. Seems as though you two have found each other."

Musaki smiled happily and looks at Zeke and tells him, "Yeah, we have."

"I'm glad for you. Let me have a little talk with just me and Zeke."

"Of course, master."

Musaki departed out of Zeke's room and saw Po letting down one more tear. He scoffed and said, "Dude, you're pathetic."

"I saw hugging." He said, sing-songy.

"Yeah, we hugged. We're just lucky to find each other, that's all."

Po sighs heavily and looked extremely happy that they're both brothers now. Brian looks at Po and said, "Some Dragon Warrior you are."

"Oh, yeah? Ya wanna feel the thunder?" asked Po.

"I wouldn't even feel the rain."


Was that cool or what? We finally got to know much about Zeke and he's finally opening up to Musaki. Maybe he can start trusting him. Bet you can't wait for some words of advice from Shifu, right? Stay tuned for the next chapter!