A/N: Sorry for the wait, guys! But I had to work on some of my other stories. Hope you understand. But of course I could never dream of abandoning this story.

So you don't believe that Tigress had friends? Well, you'll get the truth in this chapter! I know that these chapters can feel slow, but they'll lead to something good! Believe me, guys! I don't even think we are halfway!

Some of you may wonder why it is that Tigress keeps visiting them, even though she doesn't like them. Tigress has been isolated all her life and has only seen a few people. Now she has five chained under her, and of course her curiosity forces her to try and figure out who they are.

I do not own Kung Fu Panda.

Spread Your Wings, Worst Of Friends

"What is he doing?"

"Hush! I think he is meditating."

"Just poke him and be over with it!"

"Monkey!"

"What?"

Viper sighed and rubbed her forehead with her tail. How was it again that they had ended up in this situation? Oh, yes. Because of Tigress…

She then turned her look on her panda friend that was sitting with crossed legs. Everybody was looking at him, trying to figure out what he was doing.

"Po?"

"Shh! I am being awesome over here!"

Again, she had to sigh. "Po, what are you doing?"

"I am concentrating."

"I can see that."

Monkey leaned closer to Mantis and whispered, "It looks like he is going to pee!"

"Po…"

"She is coming. I just know it!"

"Why is that you keep wishing she will come? She's not only evil; she's annoying!" Mantis exclaimed, before sinking towards the ground. "I hate being in a cage…"

"And that's why I am trying to get you out of there!" Po explained once again. "And I can do that…"

"By making Tigress like you," his friends said in unison. They had all heard the plan so many times now.

The giant panda scowled. "And it's going to work."

"Sure."

"I am serious."

"Of course you are."

"Seriously, I can do it!"

"What can you do?" They all fell silence as Tigress asked the question. No one had heard her enter the dungeon. "I ask you a question, panda."

Po suddenly looked nervous. "I…. Uhm… I can make you laugh!"

The tiger looked at him with a blank face. "I don't laugh."

"Not yet!"

"Seriously, panda; just forget about it."

"No, I won't!"

"Then I'll have to make you do it!"

"Okay, you win."

Tigress smiled amused. "Good."

Monkey sighed from his corner of the cell. "So why are you here this time?"

"Do I have to tell you?"

"Yes…"

"No. And I won't. Why I am here is my own business."

The monkey rolled with his eyes. "Okay. As long as you are happy…"

Tigress sat down in front of them, the bars between them. "You were Shifu's students," she began.

"Duh! Yes."

"How did he find you?"

Viper slithered closer. "Why would you like to know our stories?"

"Because I want to know who you are," she said flatly.

"And what about you?"

"Me?"

"Maybe we want to know who you are."

Tigress tilted her head. "Didn't I tell you about my past at the dinner?"

"Yes, but right now I am not sure of what is a lie and what it the truth," Viper said slowly.

"And what if I do not want to share my past with you?"

"Then how can you expect we will tell you about our pasts?" the snake asked her.

Tigress snorted at the question. "Because I am not in chains. That's why."

"We could make it a game!" Po suggested. "You know, you ask one question, we'll answer and then ask you about something that you will have to answer."

"I don't do games, panda."

"Come on! It isn't that hard! You are bored, right?" Tigress nodded ever so slightly. "Then why say no?" the panda kept begging her.

Finally the tiger gave up. The panda was right. She was bored. She still wasn't allowed to go to the village, and her mother was busy. With what, Tigress didn't know, but she didn't dare to disturb her. And with no lust to train, she had made her way to the dungeon once again.

"Fine," she said with a hard voice. "But I will start."

"Hey, I am not going to answer anything!" Mantis yelled from his little cage.

"Then it's a good thing that I have no interest in you, bug," Tigress sneered. She then finally laid her eyes on Po. "You."

"Me?"

"You are… Was the Dragon Warrior. But you were never supposed to be it. Why did they allow it?"

The panda shrugged. "You know, it was like… Uhm, Master Oogway said that I was chosen by the universe. And everybody had to kinda follow the universe, so…"

"You don't look like a warrior," she commented.

"I know… You are not the first."

"But he is one," Viper told him, causing Po to smile.

Crane nodded. "He defeated Tai Lung."

"And Shen," Monkey added.

"And he is going to defeat you and your mommy too!" Mantis said.

Tigress rolled with her eyes at the comment. "Charming."

"It's true!"

"Then why are you still in chains? Back to my first question; I don't believe that Shifu would let you stay and be happy with it."

Po looked offended. "Why…?"

"Because Shifu wanted perfection," Tigress told him, cutting him off. "And you, panda, are not perfection."

The panda looked uncomfortable, and the others' had saddened faces as they thought of their lost master. "Well, he wasn't that happy at the start, but after Tai Lung he got his inner peace, and then we went along, you know. Became friends."

"Of course," Tigress said sarcastically. "Don't you get it? He changed his mind because he saw something in you. Suddenly, you were the Dragon Warrior, and that was something he could be proud of. Another warrior he could show of."

She stood up and leaned against the wall. "I actually wanted to meet Tai Lung. It was one of my dreams. I kept begging mom if she wouldn't help him get out of that prison, but she wouldn't risk it. We could have made a fantastic team," Tigress said with a distant voice. "But I never understood Shen. He was a bit crazy after my opinion."

"I agree," Monkey said.

"It's our turn now!" Po exclaimed, rubbing his paws against each other in excitement. "Which question…?"

"I don't have all day," Tigress reminded him with crossed arms.

"Fine! You lived on a mountain, right?" She nodded, and he continued, "With your mother?" Another nod. "So what have you been doing all life?"

"Trained to kill you."

All warriors widened their eyes at the answer. "Okay… Nothing else?"

"When I was younger I played with my mother. Sometimes my uncle, when he was there."

"Who is your uncle by the way?"

She sat back down again. "His name is Yun-qi. He's a lynx. He travels a lot."

"And he is in family with you how…?"

"He's an old friend of mother. Helped her with getting food and so on when she needed it. Living on a mountain isn't easy. Especially when you can't go to the village. If we did that, they would lock my mother in… We couldn't risk that. So we lived of what we could find."

"Wow…" Po said slowly. "That must not have been nice."

"You get used to it. It became my mountain. Even as a young cub I learned how to climb it. My turn again." This time she laid her eyes on Viper. "You."

The snake sighed. "What do you want to know?"

"How a girl with pretty flowers can be a warrior."

"Maybe I am pretty, but I still know how to fight. That's how I ended here. I learned how to dance with ribbons. But myself and my parents found out that my dancing also was effective against enemies," Viper said with a smile as she remembered back. "So when my skills were discovered, they took contact to Master Shifu and he agreed to let me become his student."

Tigress raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Ribbon dancing? Really?"

"Really."

"Okay… Interesting story…"

"My turn again!" Po said loudly. "What should I…?"

"Actually," Viper cut in, "it's my turn." She then turned towards Tigress. "Did you ever see everybody else then your uncle and mother?"

Tigress looked at her with hard eyes. "That's a weird question."

"But it's my question. And you have to answer."

"When I was older I was allowed to go to the village with my uncle."

"We know," Monkey snorted. "We met you. You stole Tiger's wallet."

Crane took a step forward. "And then we gave you the money."

"Yeah, that was actually pretty fun. An ironic, of course. My mother and uncle truly praised me for that."

Po leaned towards Viper. "Why did you give her money?" he whispered.

"She looked like a homeless cub! And she said that her mother was sick. You couldn't help but feel that you were responsible for her," Viper whispered back.

"You know, giving her money is so much worse than inviting her to the Jade Palace," Po whispered.

"No, it isn't. You still made the biggest mistake."

"Worth a try."

"Are you even listening?" Tigress asked them loudly. "Or should I just leave?"

"Stay!"

"Leave!"

Viper sent Monkey a sharp glance as she heard his answer. He just shrugged. "What? You know I don't like her."

"Have I answered your question snake? I actually have thing to do, you know."

Viper looked her into the eyes. "You have never had a friend, have you?"

Tigress squeezed her eyes together. "I don't need friends."

"I'll take that as a no," Viper told her, but then looked at the ground. "That explains a lot," she said quietly, almost to herself.

"Are we done talking about my life?" Tigress asked, yawning.

"I don't believe you," Viper suddenly said, looking up again.

Tigress widened her eyes slightly. "Excuse me?"

"Your eye twitched when you said you didn't need friends. I believe you lied."

Tigress' hand went up to touch her eyes as soon as Viper mentioned it. She didn't do such thing, did she? No, please no! Was that the way her mother always could figure out when she didn't speak the truth?

"I…" Was this one of the most humiliating moments in her life? Yes. Absolutely. "I have nothing to say."

"What happened?" Viper asked her calmly.

"You are not my psychologist. I have no need to talk with you. You have already used your question."

"But…"

"If you answer this, we'll answer all of your questions," Po suddenly said. "And we won't ask more."

"Yeah, like that would happen."

But Po continued begging. "Come on! Please? Just one question…"

Tigress thought about it. It was actually a good deal. Just tell that stupid, old story and she was free for their annoying questions. "Alright. But you better keep your deal."

The other came closer, actually excited to hear what she had to say.

"It was about a half year after my mother adopted me. I was about seven, I think. I was on my own while climbing when I met two vultures. They were about twice as old as I was, and they were named Gao or Hao or something…"

"What a great memory," Mantis snorted.

Tigress decided to ignore him. "They liked to talk with me, and they invited me to meet them again the next day. I had never had a friend before and was so happy, but I didn't tell my mother about them. The vultures had told me not to say anything about it to her; they wanted to surprise her when they came and visited me. They had promised they would do that at one time. So I found them again the next day."

"Well, look who is here! It's the tiger-owl!"

Tigress smiled as she came closer. So they were still happy to see her.

"We didn't think that you would come!"

"Why?" she asked them. Why should she miss this?

"Because the mountain is dangerous for such a little tiger! We didn't think that Fenghuang would let you go out on your own again!"

Tigress smiled brightly. "She says I can handle me on my own now!"

"Lucky you," one of the birds said.

"I can go anywhere. Just not the village."

"Yeah, your mother can't go there, right? She would get caught?" the boy asked, his brother sitting beside him on the branch.

Tigress nodded. "And send to prison."

"But us two can fly everywhere!" the vulture said, pushing to his brother that nodded in agreement.

"Me and my mother can only stay at the mountain. Just because we are too strong!" Tigress said while scowling. "Nobody likes us."

"Your mother didn't exactly make friends by doing what she did," the brown bird said. "But she sure shocked the country! Even we heard of her!"

"Stupid, evil Oogway," Tigress said.

"Wait! What did you call him?" Both birds leaned closer to her.

"Stupid?"

"No, not that."

"Evil?"

The brothers looked at each other. "You know, girl, I believe there's something you have gotten wrong."

"What?"

"Your mother is a villain!"

"What? No! Shifu is!"

As the vultures started to laugh, Tigress started to get angry. "What? It was them that judged us!"

"With good reason, girl!"

"I don't understand…"

The birds landed in front of her. "Your mommy is very bad. Understand it now?"

"Don't call my mom that!"

"She didn't tell you?"

Tigress growled at them. "She did what was right! They just didn't like her! They were afraid!"

"She shocked whole China. And she didn't even tell you! Man, this is hilarious!"

The tiger looked at them confused. But then she understood! Those were brainwashed as everybody else! Just because that they lived on the same mountain as her, didn't mean that they understood.

She turned around while saying, "You guys are stupid! I go home now!"

"Wait a minute! Didn't you want to play with us? Wasn't that why you came here?" one of the birds asked.

"You're liars! I don't want to play with you!"

Suddenly, the vultures were in front of her. "Oh… But we want to play with you!"

She hissed dangerously, and tried to hit them with her claws, but they were too fast. They grabbed her shoulders hard, and started to fly.

"Stop it!" she yelled at them.

"You are a very bad girl! Calling people for liars, that isn't nice! We have to teach you some manners!"

"Let go of me!" But when she looked down, she regretted her words. They were far away from the safe ground, and below her was only mist. "Put me back down!"

"Your mommy is very bad! We're only doing what's right!"

Tigress pulled herself together and let out a roar. It was the loudest one she had ever made, but still they didn't let go of her.

But then something slammed into the two birds, and in the next second Tigress found herself falling. But she didn't even have the time to scream, before someone caught her.

"Mom!" she yelled happily.

Fenghuang sent her a calming smile, but then fly even faster. And suddenly, they were back at the cave. Fenghuang let go of her, and Tigress landed on the safe ground.

"Stay here," the owl told her, before flying away to find the two vultures.

Tigress waited patiently for her to return. How could she have been so stupid? She should never have trusted them! They had just been laying plans about how to take her away from her mother. This was bad. Very bad. But she knew that her mother could fix it.

Fenghuang came back about an hour later. Tigress thought first she was going to scold her, but the owl only asked, "What did we learn today?"

"Not to talk with strangers?" Tigress said quietly.

"Exactly. Think about what could have happened, and promise never to do it again."

"I promise." Tigress then hugged her mother that petted her on the head.

"Good. Now go to bed."

"Okay." She did what she was told the rest of the day. She hid from strangers if she ever met one on the mountain.

And she never saw the vultures again.

Tigress finished her story, leaving the warriors stunned. "That was a sad story," Po said quietly.

"No, it was a story you can learn something from. And now I can ask all the questions I want…"

"TIGRESS!"

The tiger flinched as she heard her mother's voice from above.

"And I'll ask them later."

"Mommy's girl!" Mantis snorted.

Tigress ignored him and walked out of the dungeon.

When she was gone, Monkey said, "Po?"

"What?"

"You forgot to try and take the key."

The panda then slammed his face against the wall.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it.

Important news! You know what, my dear readers? This chapter, this chapter that you are reading right now…. IT'S MY 100'TH CHAPTER! I've counted all my chapters (including one-shots) and this is the hundredth! Isn't that amazing? Shouldn't we celebrate it?