Chapter 26
The sky only grew darker and darker as Shifu stood at the top of the thousand steps. The doors to the Hall of Heroes were shut tightly behind him, concealing all the ancient artefacts inside. The wind blew across every individual hair on his face as he watched the glare of the light down below. The evacuation was running along smoothly, or so he hoped. His students didn't waste time getting the villagers moving, and without a doubt, most of the Valley would be safe already.
Shifu took a deep breath and closed his eyes, awaiting his fate.
He knew how this would end. There was no way he was going to defeat Tai Lung on his own. The student truly outgrew the Master, and not for the greater good. He stretched out longer, reached out farther before he fell and became this... monster, someone he didn't recognise anymore. Thinking about the final time he saw Tai Lung, sprawled out on the floor unconscious, sent a wave of pain through his hip and leg. He remembered hearing the sickening crunch of his bones, and the sharp impact of the marble floor when his body crashed into it. He also remembered seeing Sying's staring down at his limb body, afraid to touch him, no longer recognising him as the man she loves.
Loved.
She moved on with her life, and left his image behind... did she know he escaped? Would Jian and Azure reach her in time to take her somewhere safe? Surely she knew somehow, word does spread fast after all.
A clap of thunder and a flash of lightning roared above him, and his eyes opened. What was Jian doing here?
Wait. It wasn't him. Jian was safe.
Tai Lung towered over him- the wind brushed through every hair on his body, as those dark golden eyes stared him down dangerously. It never was the boy, and Shifu realised that now. He was innocent, forced to grow up with this dark shadow looming over him at every turn. This ungodly fear that he would only be just like Tai Lung- the man that never got to hold him, let alone see him.
He was tired of running away from the past. Tired of having these dark shadows looming over him every second of the day. Tired of being a coward.
Shifu glared up at his former student, watching him bend his back as he inclined his body slightly as if to try to peer into his soul. "I have come home, Master." His voice was so smooth, for something that was cold sounding. His eyes glowed menacingly- which took Shifu back to when he was a young cub. Barely walking, the female workers were marvelling at their glow as they assisted Shifu in his natal care. "Oh, how beautiful!" He remembers one say. "Can you imagine having eyes so beautiful?" Their voices soon echoed out into ones of concern when Jian was born. Oogway conversed with Shifu privately about how upset Sying became after one of the staff members became startled when Jian looked up at her in his cot, crying softly for his mother. "His eyes..." she couldn't finish the sentence, but Shifu didn't do anything about it; it would only make him out to be a hypocrite.
"This is no longer your home. You are no longer welcome here."
"Thought as much." Tai Lung's face contorted into a look of mock disappointment. He then looked incredibly bored, before scoping out the area around them. "Despite it all, you have something else I'm looking for." Shifu narrowed his eyes, but before he could even ask anything, the leopard spoke again, leaning forward slightly. "Where is my son?" Shifu's ears lay flat across his head briefly, before straightening his posture.
"He's gone," this ignited a low growl from Tai Lung's throat; it was loud enough for him to hear, and just as threatening. "You won't be able to harm him." The end of his statement seemed to have surprised Tai Lung- the growling disappeared almost instantly.
"You'd think I would hurt my own flesh and blood?" He laughed then. "You really do peg me out to be a monster, don't you?" Shifu didn't respond, but something clicked with him. "I didn't harm my daughter, so why would my only son be any different?"
"You can answer that for me... what if he were here to fight against you?"
Tai Lung merely shrugged. "Then there lies a problem. He shouldn't, for his sister's sake. It would be just a minor chip in the road. The cause? Well, it's right in front of me, isn't it?" He motioned a large paw towards the red panda. "None other than our dear Master Shifu."
"I'm no longer your Master," Shifu replied bluntly.
"Oh yes, of course. You have a new favourite." The ex-master had sarcasm dripping off every word. "So where is this... Po?" He chuckled softly. "Did I scare him off?"
Shifu's eyes narrowed. "This battle is between you and me."
Tai Lung straightened his posture before turning his back on him. "That is how it's going to be?"
"That is how it must be," came a cold response as he moved his body back slightly, paws no longer linked behind his back.
Jian felt his heart pulsating through his ears as thunder tried to hammer its way through the clouds high above him. Running on all fours, he began ascending the steps; he had tunnel vision, and in what seemed like a fraction of a second, everything else seemed to have faded away from his mind; he didn't need to think about his mom- she was safe in the city, and there was no way Tai Lung was coming after her.. at least not yet. Tigress would've been too busy helping the villagers to figure out where he was, as would the rest of the five. Po would be helping his dad, and he saw Azure with him, so he didn't need to worry about her right now.
He needed to focus on stopping Tai Lung.
There was a sudden outcry up ahead- Jian saw someone leaping into the air, and landing heavily on the ground. He almost stumbled to a halt, momentarily thinking crap, this is really it. This is a real deal... was that a lump of concrete torn from the ground? DID SHIFU JUST SPLIT IT APART WITH HIS BARE PAWS?!
This grey shape- his father was that shape. Someone he had never met, yet constantly thought about from a conscious age, always trying, oh so desperately trying, not to be like him in every aspect, with the only thing out of control being his physique. What the hell was he going to do?
A smashing of wood got his attention again- so he quickened his speed.
"I rotted in jail for twenty years because of your weakness!" Tai Lung snarled as he stormed into the building. Shifu stood several feet away, watching as he closed in on him.
"Obeying your master is not weakness!" Shifu snapped.
"You knew I was the Dragon Warrior!" The leopard argued, now only metres away from him. "You always knew..."
This brought Shifu back to the day Oogway changed everything; a slightly younger Tai Lung was presented to the older Master, smiling expectantly. The sun was shining, both Sying and Tigress nowhere within proximity of the Hall of Warriors.
"But when Oogway said otherwise, what did you do? What did you do?!"
Shifu couldn't forget the look Oogway gave him- a look of soft, yet evident disapproval. Denial of what ''should've been'', as Tai Lung turned his gaze towards him, uncertain. Shifu himself remembered the dismay that swelled his heart as Oogway walked away, and he eventually followed, defeated.
"You did nothing!"
"You were not meant to be the Dragon Warrior!" Shifu shouted, his eyes sharpened dangerously with every word. "That was not my fault!"
"NOT YOUR FAULT?!"
His voice was darker and deeper than he could ever have imagined, but if there was a competition on guessing how exactly his voice sounded, Jian would not have been even remotely close enough to win. As he reached the top of the steps, he nearly fell into the freshly made hole in the concrete. "What the..."
He heard crashing inside. Leaping over the hole, he peered inside, crawling stealthily, to avoid detection.
Tai Lung had begun to knock over a variety of artefacts, aiming them at Shifu. A long thin blade with a blue handle lay before the young leopard's feet, glinting with opportunity.
Darting his eyes towards the noise, he hid behind the pillar, not before picking up the blade with his tail.
"WHO FILLED MY HEAD WITH DREAMS?!" Shifu dodged each attack with ease, but what Jian couldn't understand was why he wasn't fighting- was he surrendering? Or was this a distraction? "WHO DROVE ME TO TRAIN UNTIL MY BONES CRACKED?!" A shield cut into the pillar effortlessly, merely inches away from Shifu's head. "WHO DENIED ME MY DESTINY?!" A rack of spears was thrown at him, which he knocked away easily. But Tai Lung soon had the Sword of Heroes aimed and kicked in his direction without a wasted breath. But Shifu countered it, briefly seeing his reflection, before driving it into the marble floor with a metallic screech.
"It was never my decision to make!" Shifu argued, peeling his paws away from the handle.
Growling, Tai Lung jumped for the next artefact, ready to grab it and attack- but he stopped, and straightened his back. Shifu observed him, before realising what he was standing in front of.
A knowing smirk crawled across Tai Lung's face as he held Oogway's staff in his open palm, turning to face Shifu. "It is now."
Now angered, Shifu finally got on the offensive and jumped to fight. Tai Lung blocked his kick with his forearm and swung his leg out as soon as Shifu touched the ground, kicking him back a bit. Oogway's staff was still in his paw as Shifu leapt over his head, and as soon as he saw the opportunity, he used it to pin the red panda to a nearby pillar by the throat, before moving him to the floor.
"Give... me... the scroll!" Tai Lung snarled through gritted teeth as Shifu struggled to free himself.
"I would rather die!" Shifu managed to say, before Tai Lung applied more weight to the staff, ready to crush Shifu's throat against the floor.
Jian scaled behind the pillars to get close enough to attack, until he- rather, they all heard something snap. Both Shifu and Tai Lung fought against one another without any leniency, until the staff broke, and lay in pieces on the ground. Jian had to plant a paw over his mouth to stop himself from gasping. Shifu rose his upper body from the ground, devastated. A few greyed petals hovered over the staff, as if to mourn it, but Shifu's attention quickly turned by to Tai Lung, as he closed in on Shifu again... only to be shoved away from the red panda before he could lay a finger on him.
Slamming into a pillar, he landed heavily on the ground, temporarily blinded by whoever winded him.
Jian stood between them, blade in hand, pointing towards the older snow leopard steadily. His robe was gone, and where it went Shifu didn't know, but he winced slightly at the sight of Jian's back, which bared an old scar, the one from his first mission with the face, that was still visible within the fibres of his fur. Tai Lung didn't say anything at first- in fact, whatever Jian said didn't seem to register with him.
Instead, he rose up slowly as if nothing violently conspired merely moments ago. "Stay away from him." He snarled. "Don't come any closer, I mean it."
Shifu inwardly gasped, as Tai Lung's raised his head, eyes widened. He was back on his feet, eyes alight with realisation; it was like looking in a mirror. Jian could feel something inside him squirming at the sight but remained firm... only surprised when Tai Lung started to laugh. "Jian... you poor boy..." he felt a shiver down his spine hearing him say his name. "For twenty years... I could never have imagined you looking as ugly as I." Tai Lung ran his pinky under his left eye as if to wipe a tear away, but neither Shifu nor Jian could see one visible. "You mustn't tell lies Shifu..." he was watching the panda slowly get to his own feet. "You told me he left..." Shifu was taken aback- he wasn't wrong.
Technically, Jian was on the way out... what the hell was he doing here? Shifu thought.
"I will not be driven out of my own home, I will protect it with my dying breath." The blade rose higher, with Jian drawing it closer to his chest. "Even from you."
Tai Lung narrowed his eyes. "You shouldn't be afraid of me, I'm not here to fight you son. You're not part of this."
"Don't call me 'son'," Jian snarled. "You're just a stranger who has attacked my home, and my Master." He could see those golden orbs darken dangerously. "I'm not afraid of you..." Not anymore.
Tai Lung merely rolled his eyes. "You're wasting your breath, boy." He replied. "Nothing here is worth protecting. Now, I am giving you one chance-"
"Bring it on," His grip on the sword tightened. "I have nothing left to lose."
Chapter 26 is finally here AHHHHHH!
Jian has finally come face to face with his father. What will happen next?
Stay tuned!
