Chapter 14: Broken Warrior

"Let them go!"

Huang Zu smiled. He had Tigress in his grasp.

"I will if you agree to marry my son," he told her.

Tigress hesitated.

"Don't do it, Tigress!" Vixey cried.

"We'll be okay!" Po called. "I hope," he added under his breath.

Tigress saw them struggling with the acupressure cuffs. She slowly turned back to Huang Zu.

"You will let them go if I marry your son?" she asked.

"Yes," Huang Zu told her, "they will be freed from their confines."

Tigress felt sick. She knew there would be something else he would do, but she couldn't risk the lives of her friends.

A terrible taste filled her mouth before she spoke.

"I will marry him."

"No! Tigress!" the others cried.

Huang Zu's expression brightened. He signaled to the guards and one of them tossed some keys to the trapped Masters. One looked like he was going to bring the cage out of the pit.

"But I didn't say where they would be released," Huang Zu whispered to Tigress.

Immediately, Tigress whirled around. The guard closest to the pit held the chain out while another was about to swing an ax.

"NOOO!" Tigress screamed.

She tried to run to stop the guards, but they cut the chain before she even had a chance. Several guards kept her from reaching the pit and they all heard the Masters' screams as they fell.

Tigress kept fighting, but froze when she heard a deep, resounding...

BOOM

Tigress's head surged with many thoughts. The most common were about her now dead friends.

Viper is dead. Monkey is dead. Mantis is dead. Crane is dead. Vixey is dead. Po is dead...

Frightened at how still Tigress had become, the guards around her backed up. Tigress turned to face Huang Zu.

A single tear fell down her cheek.

"MURDERER!" she screamed.

Her image had become terrible - a nightmare worse than anyone could have imagined.

She leapt at Huang Zu, losing all control over herself. As soon as she was an inch away from him, he moved just enough to dodge her completely. Tigress landed and rolled, taking out several guards. She struck in a flurry of attacks, striking down as many guards as were unfortunate enough to stray near her. Many of the guards didn't even see her coming.

Finally, the path was cleared to Huang Zu, and she charged him again. When she was about to reach him, the tyrant jumped over her and slammed down on her. He stood, waiting for her to rise.

Tigress stood up, aching to obliterate every inch of the tyrant within seconds. She punched at him, but he struck her shoulder, rendering her arm useless. Tigress was about to attack again, but felt a nerve-strike to her neck. She fell to the ground, unable to move.

Two guards came in from another room. Huang Zu made them hold her up so she could see him.

"You should have told me you didn't want them killed, Tigress," he told her, the sarcasm clearly evident in his voice. "I may have spared their lives."

He turned and walked away. Tigress was about to shout at him, but one of the guards pinched several nerves in her shoulder, making her lose consciousness.

The young prince looked sick.

"You... you killed them?" he said, bracing himself against the wall. "I told you I'd be just fine looking for another girl, Dad!"

"She agreed to marry you," Huang Zu told him.

"Because you bribed her!"

Huang Zu gave his son a stern look.

"I will do whatever it takes to get you what you need," he firmly stated. "But now you need to meet her."

Jian Kang laughed nervously.

"What? Is that a death sentence?" he asked. "You just killed her friends and now you want me to meet her? May I remind you that she took out half our guards with barely an effort?"

"I will make sure you won't be killed," Huang Zu reassured him. "Go, now."

Jian Kang walked down the corridor with two guards behind him.

"I need to speak with Rumi," he told the guards.

"Yes, sir," one of them answered, and broke away."

The nervous prince continued toward his destination.

"Dad's insane," he whispered to himself. "He's completely insane and turned this place into a nuthouse. Pairing me up with the only person in the world who's scarier than himself. I must have the bloodline of idiots!"

A young tiger maid approached the prince and his guard.

"You called for me, Master?" she asked.

"I told you not to call me that, Rumi."

"Sorry, M... Sorry, Jian. What did you need me for?"

"How does one deal with an angry woman?"

Rumi paused.

"What?"

"I thought it'd be better for me to get a woman's opinion rather than asking guys who have no idea."

"Are you talking about her?"

"Of course. Didn't you go in her room once or twice?"

"Yeah. I guess you heard that the guards were getting too scared of her to risk their necks so they started sending in servants."

"How did you keep her from attacking you?"

"Well, since she was raised in the Valley of Peace and had just lost several of her friends, I guessed she mourned the same way."

"With the candles?"

"Yeah, but I didn't know - and still don't know - how they do it, so I just went in with a big crate of candles. The next time I was in there, I noticed she'd taken six of the candles."

"You women and your antics..."

Rumi gave him a look.

"So why did you tell your dad you had the hots for her anyway?" she asked.

"I thought she was just one of the village girls!"

"Well, now you know not to tell him anything. Do you know who your father-in-law will be?"

Jian Kang's face turned to terror.

"I hope Tigress kills me before the wedding. Shifu would murder me for being the reason why five of his best students were killed."

"I'm sorry I spoke up."

They arrived at the door.

"She's been quiet," one of the guards told the prince.

Rumi looked at the prince with concern.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" she asked.

Jian Kang looked back at her and smiled nervously.

"I'll be worse off if I survive," he told her.

Rumi bowed and left. Jian Kang faced the door.

"Open the door," he ordered.

One of the guards did as he was told. Carefully, the prince entered the room and the door was closed behind him.

Jian Kang cautiously stepped through the room. It no longer looked like a finely-furnished bedroom, but rather a jungle of torn fabric and furniture apparently snapped in half. The prince was careful to avoid any splinters that could be found. Even though the room wasn't very long, it seemed like an eternity until the far edge of the room was reached.

Tigress sat looking away from the approaching tiger. She seemed to be hypnotized by the flames of six individual candles melting on the remains of a bedside table.

As soon as Jian Kang came within two feet of Tigress, the scents of the burning candles hit him as if he had run into a wall. He stumbled backward and braced himself against the wall. He blinked once, and Tigress was immediately in front of him, ready to strike. Her hand came toward his face, claws extended, but he ducked and there was suddenly a chunk taken out of the wall behind him.

"Wait! Tigress, I-!"

"I DON'T LISTEN TO MURDERERS' OFFSPRING!"

"I'm not like my father!"

Tigress continued to attack and Jian Kang continued to dodge each attack, resulting in the room taking another beating.

The prince tried to use the bed as a shield, but Tigress overturned it. Somehow, even outside his own knowledge, Jian Kang escaped it before he could be trapped.

Eventually, Tigress caught Jian Kang by the throat and held him up, ready to finish him off.

"Wait! Don't kill me yet!"

Tigress froze. Jian Kang noticed that the fur on her face looked wet from her tears.

"Yet?" she growled, sounding like rocks rolling off a mountain side.

"I'm - I'm sorry for what my dad did!" he told her.

Tigress's grip tightened.

"No apology can bring them back!" she hissed.

"I know!" Jian Kang gasped. "I'm just trying to tell you that, even before Dad killed your friends, I felt dishonored because I'm his son! I want to help you! Then you can kill me!"

Tigress released her grip but kept her stance.

"You'd better talk quickly!"

Jian Kang regained his balance.

"If you kill me," he told her, "Dad would completely lose it, since I'm his only heir. Kill me, and then kill him."

Tigress thought he was insane. No reason not to finish him off, though.

She raised her claw and the prince submissively stood there, but before she could attack, the door behind him opened and Huang Zu pulled his son out of the room.

"NO!" Tigress roared, burying her claw into the now closed door.

On the other side of the door, those within earshot could hear her savage, yet futile attempts at knocking the door down.

"That was close, son," Huang Zu stated.

"Well played, Dad," Jian Kang said under his breath. "Well played."