Hello there!

Welcome to my latest chapter! Ohh, things are starting to get a little tense now!

Fun fact: When I first started reading KFP fanfiction, I liked all of them, but I was really partial to the action-based ones and that was actually what I thought I would write if I ever decided to write a fanfic. Now, here I am with a story that has fifteen chapters and has action in only one of those. Go figure…

For those of you like that, who read the first chapter of this little story and expected some more action, don't worry, there's a place for everything. It just so happens that that place isn't in this chapter ;) But soon, soon...

On with the show!

Qian's Pharmacy

Qian sat by the counter, curious as to why his employee was late. He was slightly miffed, as Shao was no longer on paid vacation.

"Ah, I'll let it slide," Qian thought to himself. "After all, I need him if I'm to pull off my plan and get a good standing with the bandit clan."

The ram's slow day was broken when the front door was thrown open and his employee came flying though, slamming the door behind him.

Shao put his hooves on the other side of the counter and leaned over the table, sweating and panting. Qian calmly waited for him to calm down, as he had already expected his frail employee to have a panic attack or two due to his planned exploits.

"You okay?" the ram asked after a while. In return, Shao looked up at him, his eyes looking for something. Somehow, when his eyes met his bosses', Qian got the feeling like Shao's eyes were searching, still searching, but his boss was not what he was searching for.

Finally, Shao dropped his head back down and shook his head.

"I thought I escaped," he muttered.

Qian held out his hoof. "Whoa, whoa, slow down. Escaped from what?"

Shao kept on panting a little more before answering, "They know where I live. I thought… I thought..."

Suddenly, his words began to make sense to his boss.

"Oh, Shao, you idiot!" Qian mentally screamed in his head. "You said you got away! Not that they'd follow you!"

On the outside, though, he acted a little differently. He gently put his hoof on Shao's shoulder.

"Hey, look at me." When Shao kept looking down, muttering to himself, Qian gave his shoulder a small shake. "Look at me," he said with some more firmness. Shao reluctantly looked back up, his eyes seemingly satisfied with staring down at the ground below.

"Hey, you'll be okay. They're not going to catch you. There's a few people around here that can vouch for you. Me included." Qian tried to give a soft smile to comfort his employee, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.

"Who?" he asked.

"Who what?"

"Who would vouch for me?"

Silently, Qian bit his tongue for saying something that stupid. He had meant it as an expression; he knew that Shao didn't have any friends or family.

"Umm, well, you know, they could always ask... " Qian frantically searched his brain for names. Fortunately, one came to him. "That guy who owns the noodle shop! You go there almost every day, surely the owner could vouch on what a nice guy you are!"

Shao didn't seem convinced.

"Really?" he asked sarcastically. "They're not going to arrest me because the noodle-maker says I'm nice?"

"Ah, well, I mean, that was just one example. Hey, what about that guy on the park bench you told me about? You feed him, surely he would vouch for you."

"I told him about what I did," Shao suddenly cut in, his voice now replaced with something firm instead of its usual fickle, panicky self.

Qian kept on smiling, his brain not processing those words.

"I know I just didn't hear that," he thought to himself.

"I'm sorry," Qian said, "what did you say?"

Shao took a deep breath. "I. Told. Him. What. I. Did."

Qian removed his hoof from the goat's shoulder.

"I'm surrounded by idiots," was all he could think to himself.

On the outside, though, Qian simply sighed. "Well, I'm sure they're not going to ask him anything. But I can vouch for you, I can say you were here the whole time."

"But you can't prove I was here."

"They can't prove you weren't."

There was a moment of silence between them as Shao let his new troubles set in.

"Oh, I don't know anymore," Shao said, his head drooping down and his shoulders slumping. "I don't know if I can do this."

"Wait, what?" Qian thought.

A mixture of feelings were going through Qian's mind at the moment. He needed Shao if his plan was to work. Yes, he may have been nothing more than a pawn in a bigger game, but he was a necessary pawn. He couldn't have Shao quit now. So Qian raked his brain for ways to get Shao back on the path he wanted him on.

"Hey," he gently said, and Shao looked back up at him again, this time without moving his head. "Just remember why you started this in the first place. This is going to help people. You still believe that, right?"

Shao was silent for a few seconds, but his breathing began to slow down, and he became more relaxed. He straightened up again and tried to look confident. Inside, he was still afraid, but he knew he had to push through it.

"You're right," he said. "My parents, Liao's daughter, everyone who's lost someone because of all the predator bandits: I have to make sure their deaths weren't for nothing."

Qian wasn't sure who Liao or his daughter was, but he was happy that it pushed Shao along in the desired direction.

The Jade Palace

"Who do you think it is?" Po asked.

Zeng had been sent to deliver the message to the Five, who were still in the Training Hall, that they had some visitors. However, Zeng had left them in the dark as to who it was, and Po's child-like curiosity spent a little more time than it should have in guessing.

"I don't know, Po," Tigress responded for the third time since they had been making their way to the kitchen.

"You think it's a fan of ours come to admire our awesomeness?" Po seemed excited at the prospect, as he was always eager to make someone else's day.

"How many fans would climb up all those stairs?" Monkey asked.

Po shrugged. "It happens sometimes."

The six of them finally rounded the corner and reached the kitchen. Already sitting on the table was Shifu, looking at his students by the door with an expression that suggested a fan was in fact, not here to see them.

Accompanying him on either side were two leopards. On his right was a familiar face. Peng's face lit up as seeing Po and the rest of the Five.

Meanwhile, on Shifu's left was another leopard, only a little older than themselves. Po was taken aback for a second, as a familiar memory flashed by in his brain.

The memory of Tai-Lung.

But, upon a better inspection, he saw that he was looking at a leopardess, and not a leopard. Although she did look a lot like him, Po had to admit.

Po and the Five bowed their heads and put their fists in their palms.

The two visitors each stood up and returned the gesture.

"Students," Shifu began, "We have visitors."

"Peng!" Po said, glad to see him again. He briefly wondered how his kung-fu club was coming along.

Peng nodded his head again. "Hey, Po! It's good to see you again."

"How've you been doing?"

"I'm well, thank you, but I think I should introduce you to my mother."

Po turned his head to their other visitor. "Your mother?" he asked. It surprised Po that he hadn't come to that conclusion before.

She nodded her head in return. "Greetings. My name is Lianmin. I've heard you've met my son already."

Po, as well as a few of the others, chuckled. "Yeah, we… met before."

There was a brief moment of silence as Po debated on whether or not he should ask the question that he had been wondering.

However, Lianmin sensed this, and decided to break the ice early. "Yes, before you ask, I am Tai-Lung's sister. And no, before you ask, I didn't know him."

"Oh," was all that Po could get out, the prospect of one of his deadliest enemies having a sister going through his mind. Of course, he had always known that he had a sister, as Peng had told them, but to hear about her and to see her in person were two very different things.

"Have a seat," Shifu prompted. Po and the Five quickly took their seats, eager to learn why their visitors were here.

"So," Tigress began, "What brings you to the Jade Palace?"

"I'm a-" Lianmin paused for a brief second as she considered the way she should phrase the next word. She couldn't come up with anything, so she said, "I'm a bounty hunter." In all honesty, she was going to explain again how that wasn't exactly correct, but twice in one day was too tiring for her.

"It's my job to find criminals and, most recently, I've been looking for the assassin of Master Croc."

A grim silence hung over the table as the name of the late master was mentioned.

"Well, how can we help?" Tigress asked.

"Are you acquainted with the Soothsayer of Gongmen City?"

"The Soothsayer?" Po asked, his attention having been grabbed. "Sure, we know her. We met her back when we stopped Shen."

"Hmm, I see. Then, you know how she can see certain things in the future?"

She was met with some nods.

"Of course, we started my search for the assassin in the Tower of Sacred Flame. Peng and I met her, and she gave us a warning." Lianmin paused as she let those words sink in.

"What kind of warning?" Viper asked.

Lianmin sighed. "I'm afraid that the assassin isn't done yet. She warned us that he intends to assassinate someone of the Jade Palace." She looked over at Po. "And we believe she's talking about you, Dragon Warrior."

Dead silence. Everyone was shocked. It wasn't as if they were afraid, they protected the Valley and fought against bandits- who wanted them dead- for a living. Of course they knew their lives were in danger every time they went into a fight, but that fear wasn't very high on their minds, as they were simply so much more skilled than the bandits they fought against that there was no real fear of dying. If they ever got hurt during combat, it was because they did something stupid all on their own, and Po was the biggest offender when it came to bad ideas.

But this was different. This was no ordinary bandit. This person had already murdered Master Croc and got away with it. All of a sudden, they didn't feel quite so powerful.

Tigress was the first to break the silence. "I mean, are you sure she knows this?"

Lianmin grimly nodded. "I wish it wasn't so, but she was dead serious when she told me. She told me it was of absolute importance that I catch this assassin."

"Well, what can we do? How can we help?" Tigress asked, her tone remaining its usual countenance, but fear and anger beginning to build on the inside. She had just realized her own feelings about Po. They had confessed to each other. They were in a relationship. They would get married soon, then they could live life together forever, each in eternal happiness. It didn't seem possible that something could come in between them and their love.

In fact, she would make sure that nothing came between them and their love.

And may the gods have mercy on whoever tried to hurt Po, because Tigress would have none. And if that meant searching for this assassin in every single house in the Valley, in every street and alley, opening up every door, and digging through every trash can to find this person who threatened Po, then she would do it. No one was going to hurt her family, much less the love of her life.

"I'm afraid that's the issue," Liamin said. "You can't help. You all are some of the greatest kung-fu masters of our age-" Po and the rest of the Five either smiled or blushed at the compliment.

-"But I'm afraid you all are not trained for this kind of work. You cannot help me in my search. But, I strongly recommend that you stay up here, in the Palace, until he is found. I also recommend staying away from the Valley and its citizens. At least the Palace is isolated from it, and a stranger would have a difficult time justifying his presence on the Thousand Steps."

"So, you want us to hide?" Tigress asked, her anger starting to grow as she thought more and more about the fact that someone wanted to hurt Po. She wanted to find this person now and send him straight to Chorh-Gom for his crime against Master Croc, and then forget all about it and continue her life with Po. What she did not want to do was sit around waiting for things to happen for her. Especially since she was usually the one who did that same thing for everyone else in the Valley.

Lianmin sensed this, and could tell that Tigress was on edge.

"I understand your concern-" she began, but Tigress cut her off.

"-Do you?"

Tigress and Lianmin stared at each other, amber eyes meeting golden ones. Tigress was angry that Lianmin was holding her back, and Lianmin was beginning to find Tigress a nuisance, which wasn't helped by the fact that Lianmin had never really liked people in the first place. While she had been doing her job, she only got to see a certain kind of people, and her opinion of humanity didn't ever go up because of it. She lived off of the philosophy that individuals, such as herself, were intelligent, but people were selfish, short-sighted, and panicky creatures that couldn't be trusted with their own freedom. Learning that she had a brother- who actually turned out to be a dead criminal- didn't help either.

The two felines stared at each other in an uncomfortable silence, and everyone was too scared to be the first one to break it. Finally, Lianmin tried to continue.

"You all will be safer if you stay up here and do not interfere; you don't want to make yourself easy prey for this assassin," Lianmin said, her last words directed at Tigress.

"Oh, come on, you got to let us help," Po replied, also eager to put this new and unwanted nuisance to his plans behind him. "This is what we do. We can take care of ourselves."

Before Lianmin could say anything, Tigress interrupted again, with, "If this person poses a threat to us or the people of this Valley, then it is our duty to find him."

Lianmin shook her head, tired of making the same point over and over again. "I can't let you do that."

Tigress suddenly stood up, her chair scraping across the floor as her legs pushed it away. She put her paws on the table and leaned over it.

"You can't stop me."

Lianmin, beginning to get angry herself, stood up in return.

"Is that a threat, Master Tigress?" She said the word "master" in a rather mocking tone, as if she wasn't deserving of the title.

"Why don't we find out-" Tigress was about to say, but a strange sound came from the hall.

"Hey, wait, no, don't go in there!" Zeng was shouting from across the hall, his voice getting closer and closer to the door.

Finally, Lei Lei ran through the doorway. She hadn't been up to the Palace for a few days, and she was very excited to see all her friends at what she called "The Shiny Place." Once she reached the top of the stairs, she had blown right past Zeng, who had fruitlessly chased her through the halls and toward the kitchen.

Lei Lei ran in the room, stopping when she saw visitors. The tension between Tigress and Lianmin died down, and some of the awkwardness of the situation was lifted off of everyone's shoulders.

Lianmin sat back down again, but Tigress turned away from the table and stormed off, Lei Lei quickly following. She passed the doorway and out through the hall.

"Tigress!" Po called out, hoping to get her to come back. When she didn't, he sighed, and turned back to the table.

"I'm sorry, she's just upset-" Po was beginning to say, but Lianmin held her paw up,

"No. It is I who should apologize. It was wrong of me to insult her like that. She is right. I cannot understand what she is going through right now."

Yet another silence fell on the table as everyone thought about what she was "going through." An assassin- who had already killed Master Croc- now had their sights set on them, and most likely Po. It was no laughing matter. This was a threat equal to Tai-Lung, or Shen, or Kai. It deserved- no, demanded- their attention, which is why it felt so wrong to turn a blind eye to it and let others handle it.

"I apologize again for my disrespect. I hope you all will forgive my trespass, and I hope you will share my apology to Master Tigress the next time you see her," she directed to Po. She stood up, and gave a quick nod to Peng, who also stood up.

"As I said before, I advise you to stay in the Palace. It is the safest place you can be. And now, if you all will excuse us, we must be going." She and Peng began to walk away, but she turned back around before she reached the door.

"And one other thing. If you absolutely must go to the Valley, be on the lookout for a young male goat with pale white fur. We've already put up a few copies of some sketches we had made of him around the Valley."

Suddenly, Po straightened his back and his face went pale under the white fur that covered his face.

"A young male goat with pale white fur?" he echoed.

Lianmin nodded, and she raised her eyebrow, as Po seemed like he knew something she didn't.

Po looked down with wide eyes.

"Guys," he began. "I think I… I think I've seen him."

And, that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed this latest chapter!

Keep being awesome!