The masters had left to start their travel today. Mr. Ping and Li Shan were helping each other finish things up in the restaurant.

Both fathers did not like the fact that their son has disappeared just as quickly as he had reappeared. They were just both thankful that it wasn't another battle.

"I miss him already." the goose whined.

"I know you do. He'll be back before we know it." Li said trying to cheer him up.

"Back before we know it, Li? Our son is going to be gone for weeks!" Mr. Ping protested.

Li sighed. Deep down, he felt the same as the goose. He hated that his son was gone, especially with those nightmares he'd been having. But Li knew he had to stay strong.

Just then, he heard... crying? He stepped outside of the restaurant to see what all the commotion was about. He saw the panda, Lei Lei, sitting with her Tigress doll, crying.

She noticed him and looked away in shame. Li stepped closer to the young panda and leaned over to pick her up. He brought her to his shoulder and put his arm around her back.

"Stripey Baby..." Lei Lei whimpered.

To Li, this was so adorable but yet so sad at the same time. Lei Lei had grown very attached to Tigress, and this was her first time being away from her.

"It's okay." Li said as he rubbed her back. "She'll be back soon, Lei Lei."

"Po!" yelled an angry Tigress.

The rest of the five and Shifu were staring at the panda who was getting scolded. They had no choice but to side with Tigress on this one.

"It's nearly sunset! Can't we call it a night?" the exhausted panda pleaded.

Tigress faced him and put her paws on her hips, obviously annoyed.

"She's right, Po. We should travel as far as we can so we can cover more ground." Shifu explained.

"Oh, come on. We've been at this since late morning!"

Tigress gave him that look. The look that basically means, 'if you don't stop being stupid you're going to pay for it.'

Apparently, everyone else knew what the 'look' was too, because they slowly crept away from the two. Shifu found the whole thing amusing.

Po immediately got his attitude together and started leading the way, even though he had no idea where he was going. He just needed to start walking so Tigress knew he was done complaining.

As the masters continued waking, Po eventually started to slow down again, but didn't dare to object this time. Instead, he let Shifu... and everyone else, lead the way.

"Master, when do you expect we arrive in Shandong?" Viper asked it of curiosity.

"If we continue this pace, about six weeks."

Everyone stopped in their tracks and looked at one another. They thought that the trip would be six weeks all together, not just to Shandong...

Tigress couldn't help but wonder how the panda was going to survive the two month round trip if he couldn't even last one day...

"Oh, my Dad's are going to kill me!" the panda yelled as he put his paws on his head.

"They wouldn't do that. They love you, Po." Viper assured him.

"I told them that I'd only be gone for a few weeks!"

"Calm down, Po. I'm sure they won't get that mad." Monkey said.

"Yeah, even my dad wouldn't do that." agreed Mantis.

Mantis was suddenly getting stared at. The bug couldn't put two and two together to figure out why exactly everyone was looking at him. Then, he figured it out...

"Oh right!" Mantis exclaimed. "I forgot that Mom kind of ate his head..."

They rolled their eyes.

"Oh, Mantis..." Crane sighed.

"What?! I forget sometimes!"

They pushed the situation aside for now so that they didn't waste to much time standing still. The whole ordeal probably took roughly five minutes of their precious daylight.

As they were walking, no one was speaking, so Po was getting a little bored. Okay, maybe not a little, maybe a lot... He decided he would start a conversation.

"Hey guys, what's the sickness that only a master can get?" Po asked full of excitement.

Shifu wasn't paying attention, it he didn't care... Monkey and Mantis shrugged to each other. Viper and Crane looked at each other, then back to the panda. Po turned to Tigress to see if she knew.

"Tell us, Po." she said without even looking at him.

"Well, it's kung flu!"

Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and Crane laughed a little. They had to admit, it was a pretty good joke. Tigress felt the corners of her mouth raise into a small smile.

'That panda...' she thought to herself.

Strangely, out of all people, Po was the only one who could give her a reason to smile at something so stupid and childlike, such as that joke he just told...

If anyone else were to make a joke like that, she wouldn't have needed to even try and hold back a smile, because there wouldn't be one. The panda had somehow made Tigress lessen her need to always be serious and professional.

"That's a good one, Po." Monkey complimented.

"Thanks. I came up with it myself..." Po said as he scratched the back of his head.

For a couple of more hours, the seven masters went on with their journey. They kept walking until it was almost dark, then, they decided to get settled down to get some sleep.

Po got himself comfortable on his mat that his goose dad insisted he bring with him. This was going to be a long trip, after all. He was glad he brought it with him.

Po looked up at the bright stars above him. He found that when he looked to the stars, he felt relaxed. In no time, the panda had drifted off to sleep.

Tigress on the other paw, did not think she was going to be able to sleep at all. At least with her last memory being with a crying Lei Lei. She felt really bad having to leave the little panda like that.

Flashback...

Tigress and the others had just announced that they were headed to leave. Everyone was saying their 'goodbyes' to each other.

Tigress really only had one person that she needed to say 'goodbye' to. That person was Lei Lei. She looked through the crowd searching for her, but she couldn't find her.

Tigress felt a familiar tug on her pants.

"Stripey Baby?"

She bent down to the small panda's level. Lei Lei gave Tigress a look of sadness as she slowly stepped to her.

"Stripey Baby leave?" Lei Lei pouted while he eyes filled with tears.

Tigress could only hold out her arms and comfort the baby. As soon as Lei Lei was cuddled in her arms, she began softly crying.

Tigress hugged the panda a little tighter.

Lei Lei's crying, however, did not ease. Instead, it got stronger and louder. Tigress could feel the little one breathing heavily as she sobbed into her shoulder.

People had slowly gathered themselves around at the scene. All of them held sympathetic expressions for the baby panda.

After a minute or so, Lei Lei's crying slowed. She was still whimpering, but she wasn't weeping as much as she had been before.

Tigress took the panda off of her shoulder and put her back on the ground. The fur under Lei Lei's eyes was soaked wet with tears.

"Be strong for me." Tigress said to her.

Lei Lei nodded as she struggled to hold back her sobs.

Tigress stood up and looked down at the baby. Lei Lei was doing her best to follow Tigress' order.

When everyone was ready, they headed out. Tigress turned around and waved to Lei Lei. The small panda waved back at her.

End of flashback...

Tigress could only hope that the little panda was doing okay. If she wasn't, Tigress hoped that she would be okay, because she wouldn't be coming back anytime soon...

Tigress tried to think of the happy memories with Lei Lei, instead of the recent bad ones. After awhile, it worked.

She thought of all the fun experiences she has with the small child of when they first met. Tigress remembered when she finally gave in, and started letting Lei Lei hang on her back...

Eventually, memories of being with Lei Lei filled her head one after the other. Tigress unknowingly drifted into a light sleep with a smile on her face.

Hey guys! First chapter is finally complete! I can already tell that this is going to be a much better story than the original...

Well what do you think?

Peace.