Hello there!

I'm sorry, I'm sorry! This isn't the final chapter either! Yeah, I know I said it would be, but it turns out I'm really bad at making promises before I actually know what's happening!

I was planning to simply connect this with the final scene, which would have made it really long like I planned it, but when I started writing it, there's a time break between the end of this chapter and the beginning of the final scene, and connecting it with the words "and a few days passed" feels awkward and forced. A break in chapters makes a lot more sense (to me, anyway.) I learned that if a final chapter is going to be large, it's because it actually works like that, and is not simply multiple chapters sloppily sewed together.

I think that the next chapter is going to be the final one, but at this point, I'm just going to stop making promises like that. However, I can promise that we'll get there... eventually.

Sorry if I'm getting on your nerves.

Anyway, on with the show!

Valley Streets

Lianmin walked slowly through the crowded streets of the Valley, her eyes pointed at the ground, her ears flat on her head, and her tail dragging along the ground.

She had been so close, but she had let him slip from her grasp. After she had jumped out of the window and began following his tracks, she followed them as fast as she possibly could. But he had too much of a head start, and she finally reached a point where his tracks stopped at a tree with low-hanging branches. She knew had been able to scramble up that tree, jump to another branch on another tree, and continue his running. Lianmin had frantically searched for the place the tracks started up again, but it had taken her precious minutes, and when she finally found them, she knew that it was already too late; he would have been long gone.

It was with a heavy heart did she accept defeat. She had been so close, she thought, but he had still managed to escape. However, all was not lost, as she was now confident that he was the person they were looking for. All she needed to do now was confirm that the person Po had bumped into was the wanted killer, and he and the Five could have the city and palace guards launch a full-scale manhunt for the goat. It may not work immediately, Lianmin thought to herself, but at least it would force the goat to flee the Valley, giving her a second chance to find him and buying the Jade Palace masters more time, in case he still planned to murder one of them.

Ever since Lianmin came to the revelation that this goat might be nothing more than a predator-hater, she realized that Po might not have been the target after all, but rather Master Tigress. She still hadn't made up her mind yet if she should tell Master Tigress this or not, as she couldn't be certain of the goat's motives, and if she was wrong, she would be putting unnecessary stress on someone who already had plenty of that.

But before she did anything, she needed to find her son.

She passed the shops and signs, many of which were now becoming familiar to her. She eventually found the shop labeled "Dragon Warrior Noodles and Tofu" and entered the round doorway.

She quickly scanned the area, but her son was not to be found. Lianmin turned around, looking up and down the streets to make sure he wasn't waiting for her there. But he was still not to be seen.

"Where could he be?" she nervously asked herself. She quickly stepped up to the counter, where Mr. Ping was ready to take orders.

"Oh, hello Master Lianmin," he politely greeted when he saw her. "How is your search going?"

"Have you seen Peng?" she quickly replied, ignoring his question.

Mr. Ping's brow raised. "Peng? No, not since you ate here yesterday."

Lianmin put her paws on the counter and leaned over, showing Mr. Ping how serious the matter was.

"Are you sure? He didn't even step in here during the last thirty minutes?"

Mr. Ping shook his head. "No. I'm sure he hasn't been here. I'm sorry."

Lianmin stood up straight again, turning away and throwing a sullen "Thanks" over her shoulder.

She quickly walked back to the entrance of the restaurant, leaning on the edge of the doorway with her shoulder. She looked up and down the street again, as if he might suddenly emerge from the crowd.

He didn't.

"Where are you Peng?" she asked herself. Her heart began to beat faster as she began to realize that she didn't know where her son was. She decided to wait a little longer at the restaurant entrance, hoping that he had only left it with the intent to come back.

But as seconds turned into minutes, Peng was still nowhere to be seen. Even though she might have been rather cold and unemotional, she loved her son very much, and the thought of anything happening to him made her head stop functioning. Which was saying something, as her profession required her to maintain a cool attitude and a level head at all times. Panicked or rushed decisions would lead to failed captures, or worse, an encounter with a vicious killer who didn't mind making her their next victim.

But she pushed all thoughts of Peng being hurt out of her head, as she couldn't help him if she was too busy worrying about him. She tried to place herself in her son's shoes.

"Okay, Peng. First, I told you to come back here, to the noodle shop. I know you tried to, as you actually followed my orders for once and didn't follow me. So you headed back towards the Valley, and then what? You never made it back to the restaurant. So where did you go in between the goat's house and this restaurant?"

She tried to rationalize what must have been going through her son's head as he was walking back to the shop.

"Were you worrying about me? Did you turn back and head back into the woods?"

Somehow, she didn't think that was the case, as Peng had already obeyed her command at that point, and the chance of him finding her after all that time in that thick bamboo forest was low. Lianmin concluded that if Peng made it that far, he wouldn't have turned back, his mind already made up.

"So where else could you have gone? The Palace? Did you go and try to tell them that the same goat that Po saw was the killer?"

Once again, she felt as if this wasn't the case. She knew her son was impatient, but she also knew her son well enough to know that he was impatient for results, but less so when it came to filing reports, especially when said reports weren't favorable. He wouldn't have gone back to report to Master Shifu, the Dragon Warrior, and the Five without her.

Lianmin growled in frustration. "So where?" A thought suddenly struck her.

"Did you go back to question that ram again? Did you think that he might know a little more about his employee? Did you think that maybe-"

Lianmin instantly abandoned her position by the entrance of the restaurant, as she now knew where Peng was. She remembered something the ram had said-

"I can assure you my employee is not the person you're looking for." But Lianmin now knew for sure that he was. If his boss had worked with him for so long, then how could he not be at least a little suspicious that the goat had issues? He couldn't. There was no way.

"Not unless he was trying to cover for him. Not unless they're both involved."

Lianmin now knew exactly where Peng was. If he had come to that conclusion, then she knew that he would have acted upon it, trying to aid his mother by making sure that the ram hadn't tried to escape the Valley.

Lianmin was now sprinting through the streets on all fours. She was aware of all the unhappy people narrowly diving out of her way, but she didn't care, as her son had now become her number one priority.

"Damn it, Peng!," she briefly thought to herself as she sprinted through the familiar path from the restaurant to the pharmacy. "I know you wanted to help me, but why didn't you just listen to me!?"

Lianmin briefly remembered something she had told him while they had been waiting outside that bar.

"One day you'll understand why I tell you these things, Peng."

Someday he might understand. Today was clearly not that day.

How far away that day now seemed. Before they had heard of the death of Master Croc and found themselves in this mess. A very dangerous mess at that, with extremely high stakes. But, of course, she had no one to blame but herself, as it had been her decision to take up Master Croc's case.

Lianmin finally arrived at the pharmacy. She got back up on her two feet and shoved the door open, barging her way inside.

She closed the door behind her and quickly scanned the room. Her stomach began to sink as she realized Peng wasn't there. Only the ram was there, in his usual spot on his stool by the opposite corner of the counter.

Lianmin instantly spoke up, her voice intense. "Where's Peng?"

The ram scrunched his face in confusion. "Who?"

Lianmin stepped forward so she was only arm's length away from the ram. "My son. Has he been here since we left?"

"Ohh, your son. No, I haven't seen him."

But as he said it, she had heard him talking, and she had seen his face. She made a living tracking people down, and one central skill she needed to have was the ability to tell when someone was telling the truth and when they were lying.

And the ram was lying.

So he may have been involved in Master Croc's death, and he had seen Peng, but was choosing to lie about it.

Lianmin felt her maternal instincts kick in, a protective rage burning inside of her. She wrapped her paws around Qian's throat, picking him up out of his sitting position on his stool, which clattered to the floor. She lifted him up and slammed him against the wall, hitting the shelves, sending bundles of plants and mushrooms falling to the floor.

"WHERE'S MY SON!?" she screamed right in his face as he dangled up against the wall, his legs pedaling in the air and his hooves desperately trying to pry the leopardess' paws from his throat, but he might as well have tried to move a mountain. It even seemed to Qian that her grip was still tightening.

"WHERE IS HE!?" she shouted again, but Qian was beginning to lose consciousness under her merciless grip. Suddenly, she heard a door opening behind her, and she briefly made out a huge green blur as something flew at her face, and suddenly, everything went black.

Qian fell to the floor, landing on his knees, clutching his throat, heavily coughing, suddenly appreciative of air. As he was trying to regain his composure, Duan Jing simply laughed at him.

"And that's why you should only gloat after you've won. I told you that I should be here in the room when she came, but no. You had to gloat to her the same way you gloated to her son. It's a good thing I was right on the steps, 'cause she looked ready to snap your neck."

Qian felt insulted, as he especially hated criticism from anyone else, but he was too relieved to be alive to come up with a comeback. He simply stood back up again and looked down at the unconscious leopardess.

"Well, we have both of them now. Can you take care of them for me?"

"I've already arranged for some of my assistants to come and take them away."

Qian looked down at Lianmin with anger, as her attempt on his life was still fairly fresh in his mind. "And what are you going to do with them?" he asked, hoping that the answer would be something painful, lethal, or maybe even both.

Duan Jing smiled again, sensing his grudge on the leopardess. "Don't worry. We'll take good care of them. We pride ourselves on our hospitality."

Jade Palace

During his daily spar against Tigress, Po had a debate raging in his head.

Of course, he needed all of his focus if he wanted to compete with Tigress, and without it, Tigress easily wiped the training floors with him.

"You okay there, buddy?" Monkey had asked after Po had hit the ground for the fifth time. "You're losing to Tigress even harder than usual."

"What!? Me!? I can do this all day!"

Monkey had only smiled, a little miffed that his little joke had flown right over Po's head.

But the rest of the fight did not play in his favor, as Tigress threw back or blocked whatever attempt at a kick or punch he gave, and quickly returned the favor with her own, which Po tried his best to defend against, but often found himself overwhelmed.

After training was over for the day and everyone left the training hall, Tigress had pulled Po to the side to get some privacy.

After Shifu's talk with Tigress the day before, she had gone to rest in her room, lying on her bed. She tried to sleep, but all she could think of was Po. She had held up her paw and kept rubbing Po's ring. She simply wanted to touch it. It made her feel close to him. Her nausea had begun to act up again, but luckily, she didn't vomit a second time.

The night had passed, and the next morning, her nausea was gone, and she joined Po and the Five for breakfast, where she noticed that Po had been quieter than normal. Even stranger, Po had brought that quiet, thoughtful mindset with him into the Training Hall, where he seemed unfocused and distant as he oversaw the Five's training. But when not even a spar with her had brought him out of his state, she began to grow worried.

"What's wrong, Po?" she asked him. "You weren't focused out there today."

Po uncomfortably scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, about that. It's just… I've been thinking…"

"Yes?" Tigress asked, eager to learn what could distract Po from a spar with her, as very few things could.

"I mean… we're engaged now-" Tigress gave a soft smile at the word engaged, always happy whenever she was reminded of that fact. It almost seemed like a dream; something too good to be true, and whenever someone verbally said it out loud, it was like the dream became reality for Tigress.

"-And I was thinking," Po continued, "Maybe... we could go ahead and get married?"

Tigress' eyes went wide. "Married? Now?"

Po chuckled. "Well… yeah."

Tigress tried to comprehend what Po just said. "I mean, right now? With the killer still out there?"

Po waved his paw. "Oh, come on. A wedding would be the last place he would go. How would he ever escape?"

Tigress seemed doubtful, and Po could see that in her amber eyes, but he quickly tried to reassure her. He gently grabbed her by the shoulders, leaned forward, and kissed Tigress on the forehead.

He brought his head back, and Tigress got lost in his warm, jade eyes.

"Tigress, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I know you're concerned, but come on, who could ever stop my awesomeness? Who could ever come between our awesomeness?"

Tigress smiled at the phrase "our." All Tigress wanted was to keep being "awesome" with Po forever.

Po cocked his head to the side. "So, what do you say?"

Forcing herself to focus on the current situation instead of fantasizing about her future with Po, Tigress sighed. She paused, trying to make a decision, weighing the dangers the wedding posed to the happiness she knew it would bring. But she looked up into those warm jade eyes, and she knew what the right answer was.

"Okay. Let's do it."

Two Days Later- The Jade Palace Grounds

The night sky seemed so peaceful to Tigress. It sheltered her and kept her and Po safe. The stars looked down at all of them, like a million eyes of her ancestors, each watching them, protecting them.

There were only five days until the wedding now, and Tigress was trying to balance being impatient for the day to arrive and trying to live in the moment so those days weren't utterly nerve-racking. It seemed almost impossible to Tigress. She had dreamed of love ever since she was a child in the orphanage. All she wanted was to love and be loved. She thought she might get it with Shifu, but he began to become distant after a while, and the Furious Five soon became more of co-workers than friends after they succumbed to Shifu's merciless training program. But now that she had Po, who really loved her and whom she really loved, it seemed like nothing more than a dream. Sometimes she would pinch herself just to make sure that it wasn't.

In order to ease some of her nerves, Po had decided on a wonderful idea. A date. They had never really shared one. Unless you counted any number of their fights against the bandits, in which case they had been on too many dates to count.

But this was their first, true, date. She was aware that most couples had multiple dates before they got married, but given how she already lived with Po, going on dates had seemed unnecessary.

But now, just after the Sun had set, she found herself laying down on the grass outside the Jade Palace, staring up at the sheltering sky, with the love of her life right where he belonged: by her side.

They had said very little to each other while they laid there, their paws stretched out, holding the other's. They simply wanted to be together, alone, with nothing and no one to distract them. It was at that moment that Tigress realized that the silence wasn't all so bad. The silence seemed to obey nothing, and not even time had control over it. Instead, time stood still in the silence. No worries, nothing to think about. Only the person you were with, next to you for what seemed like an eternity.

At first, Tigress had wanted to say something, but she soon realized that saying nothing somehow said more than anything she could come up with. How could she ever find the right words to tell Po how she felt about him? She couldn't. So she decided to let the silence speak for her, to let him know just how perfect he was, not with her praise, but rather her silent state of being with him. It was enough.

It was enough.

Tower of Sacred Flame- Gongmen City

Ever since the death of Master Croc, life had not been the same for the Soothsayer. Life now seemed so much slower, as if time was using every minute of every day to mock her; remind her of her failures.

Why had she been given these gifts, she wondered? They hadn't ever helped anyone. She could only see the future, not control it. So when she foresaw a future that someone didn't like, they tried to change it, which ironically led to that very future taking place. Interestingly enough, she always seemed to see what happened at one time, but could never see what might lead up to that or what might happen after. There were certain events that held such importance that she seemed able to see only them.

After Master Croc's death, she had begun to resume her duties as an advisor to Master Ox. The two of them grieved together for many weeks after Croc's death. The Soothsayer even told Ox that she had caught the assassin, yet let him go in the hope that he might make the right decision. But Master Ox hadn't blamed her for it, as he could see in her eyes just how much she regretted that decision.

The days had begun to merge into one for the old goat, but one day, she received some very interesting news.

The Dragon Warrior and Master Tigress were to be married in only five days.

Ever since she had explained to Lianmin and Peng that Master Croc's killer would strike in the Valley of Peace next, she had been holding her breath for the news that he had been captured. But nothing came. Every day, the tension increased, as every day that passed was one day closer to the future she had seen in her visions.

And now, with the wedding, the Soothsayer felt compelled to look once again into the future and decipher its meaning. Maybe she had misinterpreted it the first time, or perhaps things had changed that would prevent the future she had seen.

In her room in the barracks, the Soothsayer sat down in front of her fortune-telling equipment. The looking-bowl, and her various "magical" powders, as they called them. Though that wasn't entirely accurate: the fortune-telling ability came entirely from her, not the powders.

She set the bowl down, and threw the powder into it, where it ignited. Smoke rose out of it and turned into a mist, and the goat looked deep into it. Most people could only see colors flashing by, swirling together and almost forming a recognizable shape before dissolving and swirling around once again. But the Soothsayer had a gift: she could let the mist take her far away. With it, she could see things that others could not.

She stared deeply into the smoke, the mystery of the future laying down its puzzles and riddles for her to try and solve.

She fell into a trance-like state as she looked into the mist. She began to incoherently mutter to herself, trying to make sense of the kaleidoscopic mess. She kept on like this for a few minutes, until finally, the mist vanished into the air and the Soothsayer blinked, coming out of her trance.

Her visions had been the same. All except for one thing. Something had changed between her last visions and now.

The visions were now worse. Much worse.

Her head shot up as she realized what might now happen. The old goat scrambled up the best she could, snatching her walking stick from the corner, quickly leaving her room.

She was on her way to see Master Ox. She planned to request the fastest boat they had to take her to the Valley of Peace.

As she hobbled down the hallways as fast as she possibly could, she ran over her new discovery in her head, and what it meant for a certain kung-fu master.

"Her greatest enemy. A warrior of black and white."

Okay, okay, maybe the next chapter will be the last one. I'll stop making promises. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you tune into chapter 20, 'Predator and Prey- Part 3' when it comes around!

Keep being awesome!