Months passed since my father and I were finally at peace. I was more attached to Po then I had definitely been before, but it was very platonic. Still, he was a good friend and I knew he would never betray us. Today was a winter day and despite the rarity of snow in our winters, it was snowing a lot and the whole village's mood seemed to suddenly spike up. Even so, I was surprised when Master Shifu allowed us to have a day of training, and I believe the last day he did it was the day we became masters. Anyway, Po was taking total advantage of it. Already, he was throwing snowballs at us.

Ducking one, I pitched my own at his face, and I just barely missed it, "Don't aim where I am. Aim where I'm going to be," I advised him, but before he started to fallow my advice, he spotted Master Shifu. He was obviously done meditating and had come outside to enjoy the weather. Po quietly snuck behind him, and then threw a snowball at the back of his head. Quick as a flash, my master did a jumping backflip to stop the snowball before it landed in his hand as he hit the ground. Even now, I was still amazed at how fast he could move.

"Nice catch, Master," Po laughed. Immediately, Master Shifu pitched a snowball with deadlier accuracy than I had, catching the panda straight in the face.

"If only you could catch as well," I couldn't help mocking him. He looked so silly covered in snow like the goofy guy he was. Viper laughed, trying to cover it up as he looked disappointedly at her and Mantis snorted, obviously fed up with talk and ready for action.

"Gotcha," Monkey suddenly chuckled, and I turned to find a snowball heading towards my face. Not surprised in the least, I raised a calm paw to catch it softly and then crush it harshly in my claws. Raising my paws and spreading my feet, I took up a pose ready for attack. Leaning down, not taking my eyes of Monkey's blue gaze for a second, I silently rolled a pawful of snow into a hard round ball.

"Tigress, don't-" Crane started and I paused momentarily. If he was going to get all high and mighty about playing…. Viper stopped his protesting by throwing a snowball to hit him in the chest, making him stagger back and squawk with indignation. Immediately, this triggered everyone into throwing snowballs and I laughed at the humorous scene. Here, respected masters of kung fu, were having a snowball fight, of all things. As I stood there, I dropped my snowball and crossed my arms, with a small smirk on my face.

Suddenly, a sharp coldness trickled down the back of my neck and I screeched loudly, turned, and began violently cuffing whoever it was who dared to put snow down the back of my shirt. Unsurprisingly enough, it was Po. He quickly backed away and with a shudder, I shook the cold snow out of my fur and glared at him. Seeing very little reaction, I hissed.

"Pussy," he stated and I stared at him with total disbelief. This panda could be such a child at times.

"What did you call me?" I growled.

"Erm…"he stuttered and I almost laughed as he immediately scented of fear. He hadn't wanted to hurt my feelings, I knew. Grabbing a pawful of snow, I faked a launch at him, before turning to whip it at Master Shifu, who had been standing here the whole time.

"Tigress…" he warned, having already dodged my missile, but I just chased him around. Whirling snowballs at him as I ran after him as fast as I could go without hitting anybody, I couldn't help having fun with my father. "What kind of respect is this?" he yelped, having growed bored of running from me, and leaping up high into the tree he usually played his flute under.

"Snow war!" Crane proclaimed, and Viper, Mantis, and I teamed up against Po, Crane, Monkey, and Master Shifu. We were about to have a snow war, but then I heard something, and before Crane could continued speaking, I paused and growled.

"Shh!" I whispered to him.

"Don't 'shh' me," Crane protested, sounding rather irked, but I just ignored him. His feelings weren't of great importance at the moment. I could hear a funny knocking sound on the door, that I hadn't heard earlier.

"Shut up birdbrain!" I growled, angrily silencing him again. The others fell silent too and I knew they were looking oddly at me, but I didn't care. I could have sworn there was someone at the door. The knocks on the door came again, and this time I wasn't the only one to have heard them.

"Hello," a small voice called and I knew I had been right. Someone was here and it sounded like they needed help. I wondered what was going on, and I saw Master Shifu head hesitantly towards the door. Who was it? Did he know whoever it was?

"Hello," my master replied as he opened the door a short ways. To my bewilderment, I saw the newcomer…and she looked similar to my master. Of course, she was a red panda. Her fur had more red as a normal red panda had, and it was a beautiful bright red, and her eyes were a rich deep brown. They must have been related though, because she had a similar facial bone structure to Master Shifu at least twenty years ago. Who was she?

"My name is Lucy. Are you Shifu?" she asked, and I felt much more confused. They were clearly related, but she must never have met him. Judging by the bewildered look on my master's face, he didn't seem to have known her either. The others behind me were gaping in shock and I heard another pair of feet coming up the stairs.

"I'm Jet. Hi," he told us as he finished climbing the stairs, rather windily I might add. He looked more like Master Shifu, with definitely more white fur than his sister and a shade the same as twenty year younger Master Shifu would have looked like. His eyes were more of a hazel color and he was nearly the same height as my master, tough he was clearly younger.

"Yes, I'm Master Shifu," the old red panda told them, and I stared at him. Had they really not met before? Were they his children? They resembled him a lot, but they couldn't be siblings with him, seeing as they didn't know him and were much younger. In fact, they looked at least my age and I wondered if they were twins.

"Wait…who…what?" Po started, clearly too surprised to finish either of his sentences.

"Who are you?" I asked the two. They had obviously already given their names, but who were they compared to Master Shifu? "Shifu…" I started to say, but it was so awkward. I didn't really want to ask him if these were his children. Or whoever they were.

"What?" my master growled and I could tell he was becoming upset that he didn't know what was going on and we were starting to. How could he not tell though? The two red pandas obviously resembled him.

"Oh my," Viper sighed and I saw her slither closer to peer at the two.

"Don't you know…?" I started to ask Master Shifu. Surely he would know if he had children. I just couldn't see him as the type to have a girlfriend, much less to leave her.

"We're your children," Lucy helpfully pointed out and I stared at Master Shifu again to see his reaction. At her news, he stiffened and I could feel shock and confusion radiating from him.

"I actually did not see that one coming…Ow!" Po yelped indignantly as I swatted the side of his head with a sheathed paw. Couldn't he tell this was a bad moment to be putting in his little weird words of encouragement or whatever they were? Well, this was certainly something I had not expected. I was at first a little disappointed that I would not really be as close as a daughter to my master, but then I knew I could still be his friend and sort-of daughter. The two children were not quite young enough to be children, seeing as they were almost our ages, but they were still so small. Not that I considered Master Shifu or Mantis a child…

"Okay, what the heck is going on?" Mantis asked, and I rolled my eyes. Couldn't he see what was obviously going on?

"I don't know, but it's a doozy," Monkey sighed and I had nothing to say to that. Great. Thanks for letting us know.

"She survived," Master Shifu murmured and I started with surprise. Of course. If he had thought for some reason that the one he had…mated…with died, of course he wouldn't expect children.

"OMG," Viper gasped and I stared at her. Well, she had guessed too then.

"Come to the kitchen and I will tell you," Master Shifu said and I fallowed him, along with the others, as he brought us into the training hall to explain. His two children entered, looking around with apparent amazement as Po once had. I didn't really pay attention to them right now though, for I could tell there was a long story coming from my master. As we sat there, he looked kind of awkward and Po started out by asking him a question.

"Why did you never tell us you had children?" Po asked, "They're cute!" Well, I guess they were in a small fuzzy sort of way. I noticed that Lucy had a tail surprisingly longer than Master Shifu, and red with only a few jagged stripes. It was very swishy and feminine. Jet, on the other hand, had a shorter one, but it was still quite fluffy. I think their tails were the most noticeable thing on a red panda, although in Master Shifu's case, his electric blue eyes were.

"I never knew I did. Their mother, Ming Yue, was my adopted sister. A long time ago, Tehn-Xiu killed our mother. Our father died of illness a few months before we were born. One of her friends, Baihehua, a female fox; Ming Yue, and I went to train under Oogway with Xiongmeng, of Master Flying Rhino; and Yingzi, a male wolf. Ming Yue married, we adopted a son, Tai Lung, and a few years later, she became pregnant. Tehn-Xiu and his army attacked during that time, and he killed Baihehua, and his mate stole my wife. I was unconscious when it happened and Tai Lung and I were both devastated. Xiongmeng left, Yingzi could not kill his own kind, and I kept going off to search for her. Tai Lung was alone and when I returned for good, he tried so hard to please me." The next thing he added for his children's sake, "Eventually, he betrayed m, twenty years passed, and he tried to kill the Dragon Warrior and I, but he didn't succeed." His long story finished, I was amazed. His adopted sister…was his wife. And where was she now then? How was he at peace without her…or was this one of the very few times he had truly given up?

"Whao!" Monkey gasped.

"Where is she anyway?" Crane asked the question that I had been thinking. I was a little surprised when I caught on that Master Shifu had never said Tai Lung was killed, but then, I suppose, he didn't want to make Po feel bad. I knew he was still upset about the fact that he had killed Tai Lung.

"Yes, why didn't she come?" Master SHifu asked, and I braced myself. She would have loved him, I knew, and if she could, she would have came.

"Is she dead?" my father asked and I wished violently in my head that the answer was no. I couldn't stand for him to have more heartbreak after he had just gotten peace at last.

"No!" Lucy growled and I said yes in my head. At least she wasn't dead. But where was she?

"Our village was visited by a wolf pack. They told us to leave within three days and took our mother and several others as prisoners, threatening that they would kill them if our village didn't leave by the deadline. It took us nearly a day to find you guys with the other villages' help. We need you to help rescue her," Jet told us, his tail twitching ominously. I felt relief that the answer to this dilemma could be solved so easily. We knew how to fight. We were the best.

"How did she escape the first time?" Master Shifu asked them. I wondered that too, because if they were good enough to capture her, how did she get free?

"She was unconscious when they captured her at first and when she woke up, she was blindfolded. They obviously underestimated her because she fought her way free," Lucy explained, "After that, she arrived at a red panda village, but she never found her way back here." How was that possible if she had came with Shifu when they were younger to the Jade Palace?

"But the red panda village is only a mile away," Master Shifu protested with confusion and I knew he was asking the same question I had in my head.

"There's more than one in China," Jet explained.

"Lead the way then. The rest of you, stay here," my master ordered us and I felt a spark of indignation. There was no way that I was going to leave him again. Even if the wolves didn't sound too much of a threat, I wasn't about to take any chances. Besides, there hadn't been much interesting going on in the valley since Po had saved it from Tai Lung. I was a little bored…

"It's too dangerous!" I growled at him. I wasn't entirely sure if that was true, but I wasn't about to let him go off alone. I suppose he had Jet and Lucy to help, but they hadn't been trained as we had.

"She's right. We need more warriors to fight our way into the fortress. They've been steadily increasing their territory, and they captured a castle from the tortoises," Lucy said and I felt a brief surge of anger. The tortoises were peaceful creatures, and apart from Oogway, few new how to fight.

"We've been against odds far worse before, and the wolves are rogues with brute force, not warrior with strategies and skill. They will not be hard to beat," Master Shifu glared at me, but I glared right back. There was no way that I was giving in. He may be our master, but we were masters too, and we had the right to decide.

"You left us behind once. You're not doing it again!" Crane shouted angrily and my gaze flicked over to him, surprised at his outburst. Usually, he was more quiet than this.

"Exactly," Mantis agreed.

"Right on," Monkey added.

"Count me in," Viper eagerly hissed.

"Let's kick butt! Ya hear that, wolf boys? Get ready to feel the thunder!" Po yelled happily. I rolled my eyes and shook my head at his way of expressing his eagerness and shuffled a few feet away from him.

"So deal with it," I told my master.

"Fine, we'll leave in the morning, arrive at night, and fight the next day," he agreed, and I looked closely at him, dubious. He hardly ever gave in so quickly….What was he doing? Then, I was pretty sure I figured it out. His tracking skills were good, so he was probably going to leave his children out of the fight instead. Well, they wouldn't be too happy about that, I guessed. I would not be part of that plan.

"Meanwhile…can we do training?" Jet asked, and I looked at him too. He was almost acting like Po when he first came here, eager for action.

"What?" Master Shifu asked. He clearly hadn't been paying much attention.

"Can we?" Lucy added in.

"Our mother taught us a lot," Jet helpfully said, and I wondered how much training Ming Yue had remembered. Was she as good as Master Shifu?

"I'd like to see how they do," Monkey tried to help them out with convincing my master.

"You could teach them too," Mantis added.

"No, you can all practice with each other. I'll join you at dinnertime," Master Shifu said instead, surprising me. Where on earth was he going? Wouldn't he want to spend time with his children?

As he left, I watched him and murmured softly, " We should follow him."

"What?" Po looked at me with surprise.

"Without him knowing," I patiently added. I wanted to know, and we would use stealth mode to watch him.

The others followed me as I quietly lead the way. To my relief, it seemed that Lucy and Jet could do it quite well. Only Po had a little trouble, as usual. Oh well… When we arrived at Master's Shifu's destination, we hid in the bushes and I stared with surprise. Po's toe claws scraped through the snow and hit roof tiles, for where we were hiding, we were on the roof behind a snow bank. The roof went along a wall that formed a square around what looked like a different training area. I made a motion for him to be quiet and peered around the drift. It didn't look like Master SHifu had noticed. He wouldn't take kindly to us spying on him. This place was so cool though. I wondered why we had never been there.

Our training hall had the Field of Flames, Seven Talon Rings, Jade Tortoise, Gator Gauntlet, and Swinging Claws. This one had a field of wires that could be set on fire. The seven talon rings were connected by the tips of their blades to form a high wall. The tortoise he balanced on was made of wood instead of jade. The gator gauntlet was made of iron instead of wood. The swinging claws had large ax heads instead of wooden clubs. This whole setup was amazing and we all gaped at the training course. Once I thought about it, it kind of made sense though. He was much too powerful to practice on our training course.

Watching him, I barely saw him move as he flipped and contorted his body to leap through the obstacle with the flaming wires. His feet barely touched the ground as he sped through with an amazing speed and agility that even Mantis could not match. I guessed speed was the key point that was what the practice was for.

As he moved on to the axes, he leaped onto the twirling wooden snakes, keeping balanced and strongly flipping and dancing to avoid the speed at which the axes came flying at him. I recognized snow leopard style, and was surprised, though I naturally accepted that he had probably mastered all the types of kung fu. Suddenly, he flipped forward and shot his right leg out to smash directly into the flat of one of the axes. Metal shards sparkled in the air as they flew every which way. Done with that, he did a triple-backflip off of it and landed in a crouch on the ground near the wall of seven talon rings. Strength had been what he was practicing on the ax obstacle but now he needed agility.

With great control of his muscles and joints, he twirled and slinked through the rings, sometimes swiftly pulling himself through by only a hand or a foot. I was amazed at how he managed to keep balance, speed, and agility all in harmony. Once he reached the top, he back-flipped off of the wall, performed several extreme kung fu moves in the air, and landed on his hands, bouncing immediately to his feet.

Next, he leaped up high, and then to my shock, came down on the wooden tortoise, but just as it immediately sank under his weight, he began to flit around the edges, backward and forward to keep the lightweight bowl in balance. I knew he was small, and that was to his advantage on this one, I doubted any of us had such balance. He jumped off and steadied the bowl with his hand, before moving on to the last-the gator gauntlet made of iron.

This tested the reflexes, and I could immediately see, that like all the other things on this course, he was well-prepared for it. Po gasped with admiration as Master Shifu managed to avoid the hard swinging arms and tails of the gators. Even when something swung at him from behind, he seemed to notice, immediately compensating for the challenge with the agility of a cat. Sensing he was done with the course, we began to quietly sneak away through the snow. Hopefully, he had not noticed us.

'So, what would you like to do now, my students?" my master asked with a hint of humor in his voice. Darn it. Annoyed at being found out, I stood up on the roof, and so did everyone else.

"We can train now, I suppose," Lucy suggested.

"We could all spar with each other," I added, as it was one of my favorite things to do.

"Then come to the courtyard," he told us, heading off. I leaped down and the others followed me as we went. Once we got there, we immediately paired off, but my mind was not on the fight. If Master Shifu was planning on leaving without his children, I didn't want to be part of it. Po and I sparred with each other as Lucy and Jet, Viper and Mantis, and Monkey and Crane did. I taught him a few new moves, and we dodged, flipped, and punched, trying to get the best of one another. The sparring was not meant for us to hurt each other, but to practice our skills and teach ourselves new ones to help improve. We took turns practicing with each other, and I had a little fun with Po, was accustomed to fighting Crane, Monkey, Mantis, and Viper, and eventually fought Lucy, Jet, and Master Shifu. Lucy was nearly as fast as her father, and I almost underestimated her. Jet was almost as strong as me, and I was surprised by his inner ferocity. Master Shifu's mind didn't seem entirely on the fight either, and I almost landed a solid blow on him a few times, before he quickly reacted to block it.

We had dinner after a few hours of our sparring, and everyone seemed exhausted. Even I was a little bit tired. I didn't really know how Master Shifu would expect us to travel so tired, but maybe it was so Lucy and Jet would be so tired that they would sleep through our departure.

"What are you planning?" I asked my master as he headed off towards his room. I did want to know what the plans exactly were so I wouldn't get a surprise awakening early in the morning.

"I'm not Tigress," he replied and I looked at him, confused. If he was planning to bring us, why on earth would he not tell us?

"Please, whatever you're doing, just leave me out of it," I sighed, and turned away to walk towards my own room. He was such a confusing person sometimes.

Laying down, outstretched in my bed, my sleepy mind raced with confusion and thrill. A fight would be something I hadn't done in a long time and I was glad to punish evil. When we recovered Ming Yue, maybe my father would be at peace again too. I couldn't wait for tomorrow. Then, I closed my eyes.