Beyond the Black and White Chapter 2, a kung fu panda fanfic

I was high off my ass and feeling pretty depressed when I wrote this chapter. As such, this chapter contains some brutal, intense ideas that some readers may find disturbing. Please keep this in mind if you have a hard time with these types of things

Chapter 2

The experiments

"Po! You are in chamber four today!" Tzu Lin yelled out.

Po was paralyzed, it had only been one day since he was abducted yet it felt like it had been an eternity. He was completely terrified of what lay inside the chamber as the wolf escort's words echoed through his mind. "Please forgive me for whatever he does to you…" What was the bear going to do to him and the other kids? Suddenly Po was thrown out of his cell and forced to move towards chamber four. The other captives watching in equal parts fear and interest as Po was escorted towards the door. Each step Po took only served to increase his anxiety as he neared the door.

*drip*

The door was opened by one of the wolves. Po peered inside before taking a cautious step in. The door was slammed behind him and he heard the sound off it being locked. His heart was racing and any courage he had melted away the instant he heard that lock. Inside the chamber were two wolves and the bear Tzu Lin. One of the wolves was dressed in a white robe and held a scroll whilst the other was dressed in rags, looking as though he hadn't eaten in weeks. Tzu Lin simply stood there, arms crossed, eying the panda. There was the sound of water dripping coming from behind Po. Tzu Lin beckoned Po forward. Po obeyed out of fear.

"So! As you are the first specimen, you will be the first one to learn how things are going to work around here!" Tzu Lin boomed.

"Specimen?" Po thought

"You will be playing a major role in my very own research project! You and the other lovely children will be test subjects for my experiments!" Tzu Lin continued. "Here's how it will go. For the next week, you will be meeting me in here every day."

*drip*

Po was beginning to feel more uneasy. Research project? Test subjects? Experiments? Something was off.

"After your week of testing is done, then I will select the next person to have their week. You will each also fight your... friends over an apple to each with you rice during dinner! This will help you get strong and stay strong! Understand!?"

Po simply nodded slowly. Fighting?

"Excellent! Let us begin."

Suddenly Po was pinned to the wall where he was bound by chains. The wolf in white began speaking.

"Po, answer each of the questions honestly and we will reward you with a shorter session."

"Ok." Po whimpered.

"What is your worst fear?"

"Drowning." Po responded immediately and the wolf began writing something on a scroll. What was going on? Why did they need to know his worst fear?

"What noises do you hear in this room?"

WHAT!? What does that have to do with anything?

Po listened intently, still confused.

*drip*

"I-I can only hear the-the sound of dripping water." Po responded after a second.

"Hmm… would you please take a mental note of this sound?"

Okay… This is getting a bit odd…

"Yes sir…"

"Good, now we may begin experiment number one, Associative External Stimuli!"

*drip*

Suddenly Tzu Lin grabbed the wolf in rags and threw him against the wall. Po couldn't help but notice the steady drops of water, still going at the exact same rate. Po's heart was pounding as Tzu Lin began to torture the wolf. He slowly broke each of the wolf's fingers before moving on to the wrist then the arms. Po watched on in horror as Tzu Ling then began stabbing through different parts of his body, pinning him to the wall behind him with blades.

*drip*

The wolf just kept releasing agonizing wails as Po was forced to watch the wolf be tortured for nearly two straight hours until finally Tzu Lin granted him mercy by planting a dagger right between his eyes. The feeling Po had was odd. He felt terrified and disgusted at the same time. Happy that the wolf's suffering had ended, but disturbed by the events that led to it. The wolf's screams echoed through his mind as Tzu Lin began glaring at Po.

*drip*

Tzu Lin grabbed a short cane from the corner of the room and slowly made his way over to Po. Po's heart started racing again and his eyes darted around the room. He noticed, out of the corner of his eye, the wolf in white frantically writing something in his scroll. The sound of the water droplets still going steady.

*drip*

Suddenly Tzu Lin reared back his arm and shot it forward, striking Po with the cane. He hit Po wherever, there were no rules. Each stroke only got more painful as cuts and bruises began to appear. For one hour Tzu Lin mercilessly beat Po to the point where Po didn't even have the energy to scream anymore.

*drip*

Why is he doing this!?

None of this makes any sense!?

That poor wolf…

Why is that water sound still GOING!

These were the thoughts running through Po's head as the wolf in white brought him down from his shackles and guided him out of the chamber. Instead of taking Po back to his cell, however, he took him to a different chamber. Inside this chamber was a large tub full of a slightly yellow liquid. There were assorted medical supplies lining the shelves inside the room. The wolf picked the panda up by the armpits causing him to wince before dropping him into the tub. Immediately all the cuts and scrapes on Po's body began to sting as the disinfectant cleaned all of them. Po could only sit there, paralyzed by pain, his eyes wide and his face in a grimace. Soon the stinging subsided and he was brought out of the tub before being dunked in a tub of hot water where he was left to soak for five or so minutes. When the wolf returned he dried the panda off before bandaging him up and sending him off to his cell where a small bowl of white rice was waiting.

Each of the other captives stared at Po in horror as they took note of the shape he was in. Each of them recalling the sound of two different people's agonizing wails. Po could barely move because of the pain all across his body. He couldn't hear anything but the wolf's screams echoing through his mind as he sat and tried to eat. He could only just barely chew and each swallow pained his hoarse throat. Eventually he laid down, barely moving and fell asleep. The wolf's screams haunting him throughout the night.

He woke the next morning in even worse pain. He tried to groan as he sat up, but all that exited his throat was the sound of air. His throat and mouth were incredibly dry.

"PO! Chamber four STAT!" Tzu Lin called.

Po froze up again as he realized that he had to go back. What were they going to do to him this time? One of the wolf guards opened Po's cell and escorted him to chamber four.

*drip*

The instant Po heard those drips he broke out into a nervous sweat. The events of the previous day came flooding back to him in a cavalcade of pain and fear. His breathing became labored and his heart rate shot up. The wolf opened the chamber door only to reveal Tzu Lin standing inside, a bucket of water in front of him. Tzu Lin was wordless as he watched the battered panda get tossed into the chamber. The door was shut and locked behind him once again and the wolf with the scroll began writing again. Tzu Lin walked forward and grabbed the back of Po's head before shoving it into the water bucket. Po panicked as he could no longer breath and he was surrounded by blackness. Tzu Lin kept Po's head inside the bucket until the panda began frantically squirming. Tzu Lin let him up and the panda gasped for air before Tzu Lin shoved him back in. This process was repeated over and over again for the next three hours when Tzu Lin promptly threw Po back into his cell. Eventually a wolf came around passing out a small bowl of rice and some water out for everybody. Po managed to eat his rice and drink the small cup of water before laying on the cold ground and quietly sobbing himself to sleep. As he fell asleep he was thinking about the Jade Palace, about his dad and Tigress. He thought about Shifu and Oogway. Each time a thought came through his mind a sob escaped his lips. He lay there, praying that they would come to rescue him.

"PO! You know the drill, chamber four NOW!" Tzu Lin bellowed.

Po was shocked awake. He looked around him and remembered where he was. He remembered that he wasn't dreaming that he was in Hell. The wolf guard opened the cell door and escorted the poor creature back to chamber four.

*drip*

The same dripping noise was still going. It filled him with fear and anxiety and forced him to relive the previous two days. As the wolf slowly opened the chamber, Po could only pray that it wasn't the bucket inside. He had never experienced a greater fear or pain than what he went through the previous day and he would gladly take another caning over a second drowning. When he peered inside, his breathing calmed. There wasn't a bucket in sight. Instead, he only saw a small rabbit with multiple acupuncture needles as well as Tzu Lin.

The wolf threw Po into the chamber where Tzu Lin said.

"Please Xao, if you wouldn't mind." he was speaking to the rabbit.

The rabbit walked forward to Po and swiftly stuck him with five needles. Po tried to move, but he couldn't, he tried to speak but he couldn't. The rabbit had immobilized him. Po's muscles were all relaxed as well despite the fact he should have been incredibly tense. Po's eyes darted around the room and his heart nearly stopped at what he saw next. Tzu Lin stood above him, looking down at Po with a sick smile. In his right hand was a barbed whip. Po's eyes tried to plead with the monster that stood before him, but it was no use. Tzu Lin walked behind the child panda and unwound his whip. Po simply braced as best he could as he saw the shadow of Tzu Lin raise it's arm.

*drip*

*CRACK*

The sound of the whip cracking was deafening as it reverberated off of the walls of the chamber. Suddenly Po felt a searing pain in his back as each of the barbs planted themselves in his flesh and the rope zapped his skin. The pain was immense, but he couldn't move, he couldn't scream, he couldn't even tense up. The pain worsened as Tzu Lin pulled his arm back again, tearing the barbs out as well as a chunk of flesh with each one. Po's eyes darted around the room. He wanted to scream so bad, but he couldn't. Tzu Lin lashed Po ten times before he had some semblance of mercy by switching to a normal whip. The torture went on for the usual three hours after which Po was once again carried to the med bay where he was plunged into disinfectant, bathed, and patched up before being thrown back into his cell. He cried himself to sleep again after forcing down the rice. He fell asleep accepting his fate as the thought of the next day's tortures loomed over him.

The rest of the week, they performed the same experiments on Po just with changes in the minutiae. An extra lash, or maybe a different smell or taste or sight. Perhaps a bit of psycological torture sprinkled in.

The week finally ended for Po. He finally got a break, for three weeks he wouldn't be tortured. The next victim was a female leopard with a limp. After her a male gorilla with thin, patchy fur. Finally a male wolf with bright white fur.

As the new month arrived, Tzu Lin introduced the fighting policy. If you were capable of walking, you would be put up against one of the other captives in a fight, the winner of the fight receives an apple and the loser receives fifteen lashes. But first, it was Po's week now which meant he had to be tortured before he could engage in combat.

What scared Po the most about this drowning in particular was the thought that penetrated his mind on the second dunk. What if I just stop struggling… What if I just stay inside the water until everything goes black… I would be free of this… HELL once and for all… He never went through with it though, as he still held onto the hope that one day… one day he would be rescued and he would go running back to his dad and the Jade Palace and live out the rest of his life normally.

Soon it was time to fight. Tzu Lin put him against the gorilla. Neither of them really wanted to fight the other, so they just circled each other until Tzu Lin cracked his whip. The instant he reminded them of their fate if they lost they both pounced. The gorilla easily overwhelmed Po with his superior strength and size. By the end of the match, Po looked like he had just been caned and the gorilla was tossed an apple, which he eagerly devoured. Po was dragged into chamber four where Tzu Lin delivered fifteen lashes to Po's already scarred, damaged back.

As Po was tossed into his cell that night, he realized something. He realized that he had given up, he had accepted his fate. This is who he is, and he will never be anyone else. His spark of hope had vanished and was replaced by the infinite black void as he laid down his head on the cold floor.

It had been six months since Tai Lung had begun searching for Po. He had searched every village he could find, every forest, every temple. Shifu's search teams had done the same as well as posting small posters with a sketch of Po all over different villages. The posters all read

Missing

If you see a panda cub with green eyes, please bring it to the Jade Palace at once. There will be a reward of 500,000 yuan to the person who returns him.

He should respond to the name "Po" and he is generally happy.

Unfortunately, even after six months, Tai Lung and the search teams had failed to find his son. Shifu eventually called it off declaring that Po was more than likely dead. He allowed the posters to stay up, just in case Po miraculously returned to the Valley of Peace .

Tai Lung was broken. He returned to the Jade Palace a different person.

"How could I let this happen!" Tai Lung yelled as tears fell from his eyes.

Shifu brought him into an embrace, rubbing his back.

"I was supposed to save him from a life of suffering!" he sobbed, every word pained Shifu for he too had grown attached to the little panda cub.

They stood there for a long time, Shifu shedding a single tear as he tried to comfort his foster son. Eventually they released each other when Tigress came in with a hopeful look on her face.

"Where's Po? Did you find him?" she asked.

Tai Lung took a shaky breath and mustered a weak smile as he crouched down and rubbed Tigress's head.

"Po isn't coming back." he said, a sob escaping his throat.

Tigress's face instantly changed from a face of shock to a face of pure sadness as she tried to suppress her tears. Tai Lung simply gave her a pat on the head before walking to the training hall. He looked around at the hall that stood before him. He remembered how he looked forward to seeing his adopted son training in here. He jumped down and began destroying the wooden dummies in a fit of rage. As he destroyed the final one he collapsed to his knees and let out a wail of agony that filled the whole palace before cupping his face with his hands and weeping.

As Tai Lung gained his composure over the next few weeks, he fell into a deep depression. He only smiled if he was faking one for Tigress. He spoke very little and ate very little. He had dark bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. Tigress wasn't in great shape either, she cried far more frequently despite Shifu trying to teach her to be stoic. She ate only when Shifu made her and she spent much more of her time in the training hall. Oogway did his best to remain optimistic, but even he had grown fond of Po and was deeply hurt by his loss.

Eventually, Tai Lung decided to try and ease his pain by shifting his focus off of his son and instead onto perfecting Kung Fu. He dedicated the next twelve years of his life to learning and completing each of the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu hoping to distract himself from the happy, smart panda cub that he called his son.

Well there's chapter 2. Dark right. If you guys think this is too similar to Fate Can Be So Cruel please tell me. :)