*edges out from behind hiding place* h-hey there everyone...it's been a while since you've seen me...like a LONG time...

This chapter follows on immediately from the last, so I suggest reading over the last scene of chapter 10 so you don't get confused haha.

Shifu stepped closer to him. "Where are my students!"

"They… they left." Po said in a small voice. "For Malaysia."

Shifu growled in frustration, curling his hand into a fist in anger. "They weren't supposed to leave until tomorrow!"

"Is – is that bad?"

"They went against my -!" Shifu began to rant again, but stopped suddenly, his mind working overdrive. "No… no it's not bad…" He muttered, more to himself than Po.

Po looked at him questioningly. "I don't get it."

"They'll be fine," He carried on. "they'll never know and they'll be fine and they'll be back within a week." The mantra quenched his worry momentarily, and Shifu paced the length of the kitchen, finally sitting down.

"Why don't you – um, contact them?"

Shifu's hand twitched towards the phone buried deep in his pocket. He could call them, leave a demanding text or even send an angry email to show he meant business. And they'd definitely see it, their generation having an intense addiction to their phones with his students being no exception to that. But would that really be a good idea? Surely it would only serve to worry them? Even if they had left early, it was such a bad thing?

"Master Shifu? Sorry to be rude but what – what's wrong with them leaving a day early?" Po asked, innocent and obviously terrified of another outburst.

Shifu had to admit it was partly his fault for getting off on such bad terms with Po when they first met (not entirely his fault mind you), and a twinge of guilt hit him at the scared tone in his voice. Shifu cleared his throat and composed himself as to not give anything away. "It's alright, I was only worried about their wellbeing – startled is all, at not finding them here."

Yes, that was the way to go about it. While his students were smart, quick-witted and trained to find the smallest detail in any situation, he doubted they'd have the chance to uncover what he desperately wanted to keep secret. And he found consolation in knowing that they most likely wouldn't get caught and land in the news again (god forbid if that happened), leaving their cover exposed. No, no they'd be fine.

"Oh, okay then."

Shifu glanced at him. "Why are you still here?" It came out far ruder than he intended, but there was no helping the question.

Po appeared unoffended. "The others told me to just wait until you got here."

Shifu pursed his lips and had to make an effort to not become angry.

"Please don't throw me out." Po squeaked out. "I – I don't have anything outside of working in my dad's noodle shop. No university applications, no other jobs, no friends."

He faltered at Po's confession. Ying had told him during the explosive argument, but he didn't think much of it at the time.

"I know it was bad of me to sneak up on Ying and catch the Five, but I promise I didn't mean to, it was an accident," Po carried on, fiddling nervously with his hands for something to do. "but now that I'm here, I'm not going to expose you or – or go tell the news, no one would believe me anyway." He took a deep sigh. "Please just – teach me, I don't know where the Five came from but I know they weren't born here. So if you can train them, then you can train me."

A scalding remark sat on Shifu's tongue, and for once he pushed it away. "Do you really want to be a spy?"

"Yes! Please, anything to get me out of living my life!"

Shifu turned to face him. "Are you sure? Do you know the repercussions of this?"

"Well, no –"

"Have you been told what you're getting yourself into?"

"No one's really told me –"

"For good reason, there's a lot to take in that you surely aren't ready for."

Po faltered at this. "But I am ready, I must be!" He persisted, reminding Shifu strongly of Ying. And that was certainly a painful tug. "I'm older than the Five were when they formed –"

"Age has nothing to do with this." Shifu snapped, then retreated once again as he realised his cruelness. "It – it is not a good method to judge maturity."

"Then what is?" Po's sudden challenge made Shifu stop. Though he'd hardly talked to Po, he could tell he was mild-mannered, quiet at the best of times and undeniably weak in character. So this was extremely out of the blue unexpected.

"I – I cannot – I am not sure." It wasn't Shifu's proudest moment, but in his defence, it wasn't his easiest moment either.

"Well I know."

Shifu whipped up to glare at him.

"You told me to leave, instructed Ying to get rid of me, slammed me to the floor, and –"

"And yet you stayed!" Shifu bit back at him, anger getting the best of him. "Why?! That is not a test of maturity!"

"Because every time you said you didn't want me here, the others avoided me, you sent them emails saying how to get rid of me, when you called me weak and fat – it hurt! But it could never hurt more than it did every day of my life just being me! And that – that is maturity, realising that training as a spy under you is better than living a life I hate."

For once in his life, Shifu had no response. When it was listed out like that he sounded like… a bad person. Not just a bad person, a terrible person. Someone no one wanted to be around. And evidently, according to Po, a bad teacher.

Inner peace

The argument for him being an objectively good teacher was that he single-handedly trained and kept the Five hidden in plain sight. The most notorious vigilante spy group in all of China, who solved crimes and righted the wrong, all whilst hidden in the shadows.

Inner peace

Was this how his students felt? Did they see him in the same way Po did? That would explain the loud voices becoming hushed whispers the moment his footsteps became apparent outside a room they'd be conversing in. And their hesitance to evict Po the moment he instructed them to.

Inner peace

"I –" Shifu closed his eyes, thinking of the prediction he was told that almost sent him spiralling. That damn prediction. The one that may have ruined everything, but was there an easy solution? "You're…you're right…"

"Whoa really?!"

Shifu could have punched him in the face again at his tone of joyful surprise.

"Not you!" He snapped, though not unkindly. "I wasn't talking to you!"

"Who then?"

Shifu looked at him intently, there was only one thing he could do in this situation. "Someone you don't know; someone we're going to give a visit." He said simply, drawing his voice back into something quieter and more attentive.

None of this was what he intended to do, but it was predicted from the start. Shifu had to make sure he was right.

He beckoned for Po to follow him out. "Come, let's get started."

Po was sure he'd sweated enough to look like he'd just stepped in the shower. The gleaming sun on his back did nothing to quell the sweltering heat emanating from his body. He took a swig of water, unsticking his dry throat after panting rapidly. Man, he needed to shape up. Shifu, a few steps ahead of him. Seemed to be fairing just fine, walking along as if it was the easiest thing in the world. Almost at peace.

"I know you're trying to be all mysterious and kung fu-y –" Po paused to take an engulfing breath mid-sentence. "but could you at least tell me where we're going?!"

Shifu said nothing. Po, too tired to repeat his question, fell into silence once again. Well, silence completed with his heaving and panting with each step. He was certainly not used to any of this.

Where they were going was a mystery to Po. Shifu had given him a backpack and beckoned him out the house with so much as a simple word to bring some water. Why they didn't take a car, or a bus, or a train, or virtually anything except walking was absolutely absurd. They'd been walking for almost an hour now and there was no sign of civilisation. And it wasn't even a normal walk down the street, Shifu was taking them up a cliff. Was this some sort of initiation thing? Hazing maybe? Po wondered if the Five were made to do the same thing when they first started learning under Shifu.

That itself was also unknown to Po. One of the questions he never had the chance to ask was how long they'd been with Shifu. He knew the time and date they were first caught obviously, but by the sounds of it, they'd been operating long before then, though the number of years were unclear. Their friendship and connection made it seem like they'd known each other for life, though that surely wasn't true. Unless Shifu picked them all up from orphanages or foster homes.

Po took a glance up the path they'd been taking, and the sun glared back at him. "Are we – are we there yet?"

"We're close." Shifu replied, sounding as though he was enjoying a relaxing day, not hiking up a damn cliff.

Po was tempted to ask how close, but instead took stumbled on a rock, closing his eyes for a second and wishing he'd never followed Shifu on this stupid walk.

"Po, we are here."

Shifu gestured out to a sort of modernised, renovated siheyuan. Sleek, wooden walls held up the traditional slanting roof seen in paintings of ancient China. Round windows on the side let Po see a glimpse of a healthy green garden through the glass. It was picturesque and, in the thick of all the craziness surrounding Po in the last week, very serene. Serene, peaceful, beautiful.

Knocking first on the beautiful front door, Shifu inserted a small key that seemed to come from nowhere. It unlocked with a small click and drifted open, to which a middle-aged woman in a light-coloured uniform beckoned them in, and quickly made herself scarce. Shifu walked in, and Po followed. It was only a few steps until they found themselves in an open courtyard, as pretty as the outside of the building. In the middle, there was a small peach tree, and an elderly man, sitting in a wheelchair, looking up at it. Po supposed she the woman in the uniform was the caretaker of the elderly man.

Walking forward, Shifu bowed to the man in respect. "Master Oogway, I hope you are well."

The man, Oogway, turned to look at Po inquiringly, who took an involuntary step back. "Shifu, this is an unexpected visit," He said, an old, worn voice, smooth like jasmine tea yet drifting so easily across the wind. "with an unexpected visitor." The upturn in the tone of his voice gave Po a sense of peace.

Po, suddenly fumbling over his words, quickly bowed the same way Shifu had. "N-nice to see you."

"Unremarkable…" Oogway muttered to himself, a pleasant smile on his face. "yet…so remarkable," He chuckled. "I hope my prediction rings true."

Shifu turned to him with urgency. "Oogway, your predictions, the ones you told me of almost a week ago, they're coming true."

Oogway looked genuinely surprised at this. "So it seems, the universe is finally telling me the truth."

"Master, this, this is the one who broke in, who uncovered the secret! The one you predicted!" Shifu pointed at Po desperately. "Do you remember what you predicted for him?!"

Oogway nodded, eyes sliding shut. "Ah yes, I can recall what I said."

"Do you…take it back?"

He opened one eye and looked Po up and down. "No." He said after a pause.

Shifu let out a barely disguised huff of annoyance. "You have got to be kidding me!"

"Now now Shifu, have patience, give him time."

"We don't have time!" He growled through gritted teeth. "If he is truly meant to defeat Tai Lung then –"

"Wait wait wait…what?!"

They both looked to Po, who'd interrupted their conversation with as much panic as Shifu seemed to have.

"Defeat Tai lung? The – the crazy guy who went rogue and killed a bunch of people?!"

Guilt came over Shifu's face. "Look, Po –"

"I know I said was ready for this and everything but…but this, this is not what I meant man!" Po exclaimed. "This isn't what I signed up for! I didn't think you were gonna throw me in the deep end like this -!"

"You don't have to!" Shifu cut through. "either he will never find us or the Five will go after him and do the job for you."

"I swear the guy is in prison." Po said gravely. "Ying told me he was in prison."

"He escaped." Shifu said quietly. "We don't know how, and we don't know where he is now, but he's out there and someone must stop him."

"Well it's not going to be me."

"It could!" Oogway's cheery voice rang out. "It might!"

"Oh please, how can you make this –" He gestured to himself. "into someone who can defeat a crazy murderer who is a master at kung fu!"

"Oh don't think so little of yourself Po," Oogway wheeled himself over to him with surprising strength for an old person. "who would have thought that you, a young boy who only dreams of what he wants, could uncover the secret of the Five, something even private investigators haven't managed."

"They slipped up! They even told me themselves, Ying shouldn't have left the door open, Cong shouldn't have punched me after I figured it out when they easily could have lied, Shifu could have kicked me out immediately because – who'd believe me?"

Oogway nodded. "Very true Po, but those variables were so unlikely, I've never known Ying to be so clumsy with leaving doors open behind her, she always used to slam them in everyone's faces," He smiled slightly as if remembering a fond memory of being slammed with a door. "and Cong very rarely acts on impulse, if anything it's Fan Hai who does that, and I'm sure Shifu was infuriated when he found you there, but did he enforce anything to have you gone? Not really."

Oogway said it all so nonchalantly Po almost forgot his life was on the line.

"Oogway," Shifu interrupted. "what do I do now? The Five are in Malaysia, do I send Po away –"

"Train him." Oogway cut through. "Train him, and we'll see what happens."

Shifu gave him a look of 'are you kidding me' and Po almost rolled his eyes.

"Yeah yeah yeah I get it, I'm useless – "

'No you're not," Oogway smiled encouragingly at him. "you have potential, just like everyone else."

Po scoffed. "Yeah right, as much as I want to learn kung fu and be like the Five, I'm just not."

"The Five were like you when they first started, young, naïve, not the brightest nor the strongest, and none of them looking like kung fu masters." Oogway said. "But now, under Shifu's training, they are the Furious Five, he took five normal people and made them into something both idolised and feared."

"I don't think it will work for me, I mean look at me!"

"I am!" Oogway's cheerful manner was starting to annoy Po.

"There's no way I could ever learn kung fu, especially not to defeat this maniac Tai Lung."

"I have faith in you, and in my student Shifu, he is an excellent teacher despite his flaws and I trust that his training will prove sufficient."

Po looked over to Shifu and he nodded. "Po, I will do everything in my power to train you as best I can, I promise."

"So… no longer trying to get rid of me?"

"Ying was already one step ahead with that," Shifu looked down guiltily. "I kept telling her to get rid of you but…she never did, in all honesty I think she always wanted to keep you around."

"Do you know why? I thought – I thought she hated me, then suddenly she turned around and said she wanted me to stay."

Shifu tilted his head. "Ying has an odd way of doing things, she's still a teenager and teenagers are…very confusing."

Ying was very confusing. She'd had such a sudden change in mind in the way she viewed him Po had to wonder if one of the Five had something to do with it. There was no gradual shift, just like one day a light had gone off in her head and she'd found out that Po didn't mean to cause any trouble or harm.

"And Po, I will take a leaf out of Ying's book and we can start afresh." Shifu said, as if they were making a truce.

Po nodded slowly. "Sure, okay."

A look of satisfaction grew on Shifu's face as he turned back to Oogway and bowed. "Thank you master, I bid you well."

Po bowed too, before the caretaker started leading them out the front door.

"Po!" Oogway called, just as he was about to step out.

He beckoned him closer with a withered finger. "Po, remember this, you are a person who only dreams of what you want. Do yourself a favour and start striving for what you want, it does you so much good." He winked.

Po blinked at him, unsure of what to say.

'If you hadn't pushed for a job at the Jade Palace then you wouldn't be here now."

"How – how do you know that?"

Oogway only winked. "I know a lot about you, I know you have no friends to speak of, no current life goals or ambitions, no university placement, no future plans and no confidence, I know that all makes you unsatisfied with your life."

Po was rendered speechless.

How on earth did Oogway know all this? How could he possibly know the intricacies of his life that Po had yet to reveal to anyone else, the insecurities and doubts he faced, the utter loneliness he felt living with his dad and the desperation he had to become better.

"You told the Five a little lie that first day you met them," Oogway spoke again. "you said you were there to ask for a job vacancy, yet you told your father you'd be back by nine in the evening, you told him that before Cong knocked you out."

"I – it was just a white lie it didn't mean anything –"

"The truth is you were going to hop on a train to nowhere," Oogway spoke over him. "wander around aimlessly, maybe have a drink or two, and bask in your own loneliness and perceived failure. Then you were going to go back to your father and finally have the chance to tell him you're making something of your life and that you've made such good friends with all your coworkers."

Po looked at his feet. When said like that…he sounded incredibly sad.

"But the difference is, you didn't do any of that."

Po looked up, Oogway was smiling.

"You broke a few rules, yes, but we're also breaking the law here, the whole system breaks the law… – you, my friend, by doing what you wanted most, managed to solve most of your problems in one go."

"I – I did didn't I…"

"The Five, by the sounds of it, have fully accepted you as friends and even as a teammate, Shifu, has agreed to train you and soon you'll be living the dream you always had but were too afraid to live."

Po's breath caught in his throat. It was all true. Every day he spent at his dad's noodle shop, hating his job, hating his life, hating that he had nothing else to live for. He had dreams like everyone else, of maybe going to culinary school and becoming a chef, but were those really his dreams? Of course they weren't, Oogway was right. Kung fu was the thing that kept him going. The thing propelling him to climb the stairs of the Jade Palace. The thing that, as much as he persisted he wanted to go home, kept him with the Five. This whole situation had turned him into a bit of a pathological liar, but all Po wanted was to spend his days with the Five. Join in on their teasing and playful banter, train with them, go on trips with them to defeat whatever criminal they were instructed to. Together, the Five had found a family. And though Po sincerely loved his dad, he couldn't help but wish for the kind of friendship they had.

"You're right master, you're totally right."

Oogway chuckled. "Oh don't give me all the credit, the Five were a little suspicious too, which I suppose is why Ying was so wary of you in the beginning. She couldn't trust that your only plan for that day was to ask for a job vacancy, why go there in the early morning and tell your dad you'd be back at nine in the evening?"

Po almost laughed along with him. "I guess it is suspicious yeah."

"She must have been wary of you at first, though I guess she might have figured it out."

"Yeah…" Po's mind drifted back to one of their conversations. "I think, I think she did actually…"

In the limelight Po saw Ying give a sinister smile. "You have nothing to lose," She gestured to the dingy town around them. "otherwise you wouldn't have come with me."

"H – how did you…?" Po stuttered before scowling at her. "You know nothing about me, you have no idea."

Holding up one finger, she smirked. "First rule of going undercover, don't incriminate yourself."

The memory was still fresh in his mind. That whole night was fresh in his mind. It was the first time he'd properly had any fun, which was ironic since Ying seemed like the least fun person in the universe, and at the time he was stressed out beyond belief.

"Now Po, go ahead and do us all proud, do what you were born to do." Oogway gave him an encouraging smile.

"Th-thanks master, thank you!" Po exclaimed, brimming with excitement as he ran outside to join a waiting Shifu.

Jia gripped the arms of the airplane seat so tight the leather creaked in protest. He craned his neck back to hit the headrest, knowing it was a trivial attempt in trying to stretch himself out. Planes were the worst invention man had ever made, he was sure of it. No space to move, stuck in a metal tube, thousands of feet in the air.

Closing his eyes, he sighed realising that this particular headrest was probably the most uncomfortable headrest he'd ever had the misfortune of using. He muttered a swear word under his breath.

"Don't frown like that," Yu said, and reached over to smooth the skin between his eyebrows, and he let her, not having the energy to swat her away. "you don't want wrinkles."

His eyelids slid open the tiniest bit to take a peek at her. "I don't care." He muttered.

There was already an aching pain in his tail bone from how he slumped over in the seat, and to accompany that, the seat in front was far to close for him to be able to stretch his long legs.

"Just put some music on and relax," She said gently. "it's only another two hours."

Deciding that her advice was better than groaning and complaining at the sheer frustration of having to fly in a plane in the first place, he took his red earphones out and started the task of untangling them. Finally, playing some atmospheric music. It was enough to drift him off, pulling him slightly into unconsciousness…

"Jia."

Oh come on…

"Jia."

Let me sleep.

"Jia."

She was poking him too, god did she have no sympathy?!

"Jia."

Jia's eyes snapped open. "What?!" He exclaimed, whipping to his right to see Ying, sitting on the other side of Yu, watching him expectantly. "What do you want?!"

"Can we swap seats?"

"No!"

Yu gasped at him. "Jia! You've got the window seat and you want to sleep through the flight, it's not fair if she wants to look out the window while you won't." She reprimanded him harshly, elbowing him for effect.

"But I've just settled myself down!"

"So? Ying wants the window seat –"

"And you were the one who told me to relax!"

"All I want is the window seat, I never get to have it when we go in a plane." Ying butted in.

"Shut up Ying." He growled at her, earning him a kick from Yu.

"Just let her have the window seat, alright?"

"Just because she's the youngest -!"

"Jia let her have the window seat!" Fan yelled, standing up from the row of seats behind them.

Jia groaned, he was not planning on a fully-blown argument.

"Yu's right, it's not fair if you're going to sleep." Cong agreed, standing up too and resting his chin on the back of Yu's seat.

"Oh for gods sake…" Jia rolled his eyes and turned to Ying. "why is this such a big deal to you anyway?"

"Because we hardly ever get to fly on the plane and now that we are flying I want to have the window seat." Ying said, glaring at him. "I want to watch the clouds."

"You hear that Jia?" Fan teased, toying with his hat from over the seat. "She wants to watch the clouds, why would you take that away from her?"

"I don't care if you're the youngest, I don't care if you planned the mission, we've all been stressed out recently, but you can't just demand we swap seats."

"Just swap seats with her." Yu said tiredly.

"No, I'm not budging."

A mass sigh followed from his friends.

Jia looked them all in the eye. "You're not stopping till I swap seats are you?" They shook their heads in response.

He rolled his eyes and got up. "You all better let me have a decent hour of sleep." He muttered grumpily as Ying eagerly sat in his seat.

The short, yet rather eventful plane journey to Malaysia had finally come to an end for the Five (bar the little kerfuffle over who got the window seat between Ying and Jia). The car they'd hired picked them up from outside the airport and Yu drove them to a dingy motel after drawing straws to choose who had to drive.

"Remind me why we only booked one room." Fan said dryly, as they stood in the doorway and looked out to the space they'd be living in for the next few days.

"Budgeting." Yu muttered.

"I still don't understand why Shifu couldn't fork out anymore just for another room." Cong said, striding in and dropping his bag on the moth-eaten carpet. "Right, should we draw straws?"

"For who gets the beds?" Jia eyed the measly two single beds with disdain. "This feels a bit extreme…"

"I vote youngest two get the beds." Ying said with a grin while Yu nodded along eagerly.

"Absolutely, it's only fair." She smiled.

"Oh come on don't pull the age card on us." Cong glared at her and got out the wooden coffee stirrers they took from the museum. "Here, whoever gets the short straw gets one bed."

"Does this place even have mattresses?" Fan walked around, inspecting every storage space for a sign of something to make their stay slightly more comfortable.

"I sincerely doubt it," Jia said. "the most we can do is put some towels down and pray we don't ruin our sleeping patterns by going on the floor."

Fan looked at the floor and made a disapproving face. "Okay guys… I propose we share the beds."

"They're single beds!" Cong exclaimed, hitting it for emphasis.

"We share as in, let's take turns each night, in twos so everyone gets a taste of the shitty floor and the shitty single bed, that sound good?"

Ying sighed. "I've never known you to be diplomatic, but sure, it's not like we've got luxury mattresses here."

Fan grinned. "Great! Now I propose Jia takes one of the beds tonight, he needs his sleep for that important job interview tomorrow!" He put on a tone of mock congratulations.

"Dear lord don't remind me…" Jia ran a hand over his face.

"Should we go over the plan for tomorrow?" Ying suggested.

"Please no it makes me more nervous –"

"Yes, I forgot it already." Cong interrupted Jia which earned him a glare.

"Right," Ying got out her phone to read what she'd typed out in her notes app while on the plane. "first, Jia will get let in through the front entrance, we've got the fake ID here and while he's in the interview…"

They went over the plan at least four times that night. It was absolutely fool proof. No one could mess this up at all, everything would run smoothly and they'd be in and out the building before anyone could notice they were even there.

What can I say, life got busy. Like, unexpectedly busy. You'll be pleased to know I am officially done with school from now until September when I go to uni (yay more homework...), and while that should mean more free time, I currently have three part-time jobs (don't ask me why I took on three, it's complicated haha), so I can't guarantee updates will be as quick as they used to be.

1. I'm aware that Ying's perception of Po changed drastically quickly, and that was probably due to bad planning on my part, stuff like cutting out scenes and rewriting things definitely doesn't help. I had the characters mention it in this chapter because yes, it was an odd change in character. But I have an explanation for it later on, so thank you to those who pointed it out to me :)

2. I was going to cut out the scene when the Five were on the plane because it felt out of place/too childish in a chapter like this one, but my hiatus was so long that I thought it would be unfair to cut the chapter short like that.

3. It's probably already obvious but I've rearranged the timeline of major events quite a lot so I'm aware most of the scenes I took from the movie don't line up with the original plot.

4. I made a small attempt at redeeming Shifu (if you can call it that haha), a couple of readers pointed out to me that I made him too mean and I admit reading back you're definitely right about that. I always tried to soften him out at the edges but I didn't make it as obvious in the earlier chapters OR his bad traits were just too prominent. So I've thought about that a lot while writing this.

5. I'm not sure if the pacing for this story is quite where it should be... I initially thought it was too slow until a commenter pointed out they felt it was going too fast. I've revised over my plans and I'm actively looking over the pacing as my next focus for improvement :) so if any readers have anything you want to say on that then I'm welcome to it!

6. As stated above, I'm really trying to improve on this story! I think earlier on I bulldozed through most of the chapters and wrote them all really fast, which meant I never got the time to look back and read through what I was writing. But I got the chance during my hiatus so now I'm back and ready to make everything better :D so if anyone has any constructive criticism (and please be constructive haha, as a fanfiction author everything i do is voluntary)

This author's note is REALLY lengthy so I will leave it here. Please make sure to leave kudos/subscribe for more/follow/favourite and most important of all, comment! If you want to message me I'm on Tumblr under HufflepuffleMarauder and on discord under tofuffle#1465