Author's Note: When I saw the film, I absolutely loved it. But had an idea for a follow up that changed the ending slightly. This is the ending change. Unfortunately I lost some of the last section at the temple and had to rewrite it, and the rewrite wasn't as good IMO. It picks up at Sky Dome as Meilin knocks her mother unconscious. I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up.
Mei had knocked her mother unconscious with her massive head butt and began freaking out.
"Mom!" Mei shouted seeing her mother lying only half in the circle as the red moon began to wane quickly. "You have to get in the circle!" She said as she shifted back into panda form and began tugging on her mother.
Jin knew that this wouldn't work. Simply put, there was no way that Mei, even with the increase in strength that the panda gave her, would be able to pull her back into the circle. He was surprised to see what his mother-in-law did next.
Wu bowed her head and almost silently said, "Sun Ye, give me strength," as she removed her wristband and threw it to the ground, shattering it. Immediately she was replaced with her red panda, something that none of them had ever seen before. She was big; not quite as big as Ming was, but still almost a foot larger than Mei.
Quickly, Wu leapt next to her granddaughter and began pulling on her daughter to bring her back into the circle.
"Grandma?" Mei asked, not knowing what had transpired in the last few moments.
"I'm not losing my daughter," Wu said she continued pulling. "Pull Mei Mei."
Wu looked at the rest of their family, still standing around the circle singing, and motioned her head towards them. "Don't just stand there. What are you waiting for?" She shouted.
All Mei's aunties smashed their charms containing their spirits and also joined Mei and Wu in pulling the still unconscious form of Ming's panda, while still singing. "Make room for your elders, Mei Mei," one of them said.
Another began complaining about itchiness of the fur. Still all of them were singing as they tried to pull.
"Louder! Sing from the heart!" Mr. Gao shouted from up on the top of the Sky Dome's seating area.
Miriam, seeing that whatever they were trying to do wasn't working had an idea as she saw the members of 4Town climbing down from the ropes they were attached to. "Come on, guys!" She said as she ran towards the members of the band. "Can you please still sing one of your songs!" Miriam asked to Robaire.
He looked around at the other members of the group, who all nodded. "You want it," Robaire began singing as the rest of his band mates joined in answer.
The circle began lighting up as the song volume became loud enough and with enough emotion from the heart, but Jin was still concerned. The red moon was waning rapidly. They only had a matter of minutes left. There wouldn't be enough time.
Jin looked at the still partially eclipsed moon, whispering a prayer to it. "Please," he said as he began running towards them, "Sun Ye, if you can hear me, help me!"
Wu saw the still human Jin running towards them. "What are you doing?" She asked as he slid in to Mei's left, the opposite side of her as Wu was, with her aunt there sliding over.
Jin didn't answer. He just continued pulling on his enormous wife's fur, grunting from effort. "Please!" he shouted again towards the moon. "I'm begging you!"
As soon as that last 'please' was out of his mouth, the pink mist, that the entire family was familiar with, engulfed Jin and replaced him with the second largest red panda in the dome, second only to Ming. "Pull," Jin said as they began quickly making progress.
"Dad?" Mei asked realizing what had happened. "But how?"
"Later," Jin answered.
As soon as they completely got Ming into the circle and Mr. Gao raised his sword to focus what was left of the red moon through the jewel and onto Ming, all 8 of them were transported to the astral plane.
"Mom," Mei shouted as she searched for her mother's form. "Mom, where are you?"
Just as Mei found a girl with vibrant red hair just like hers, lying on the ground crying, another voice came out. "Ming!" This new man's voice shouted.
The girl looked in the direction of this new voice. "Jin?" She questioned.
Barely another minute passed before a young man, about a year or two older than Mei entered their area and picked up who Mei could only guess was her mother as a 15 or so year old girl in his arms, swinging her off her feet.
"Ming," he said relieved as he kissed her on her cheek.
Mei wasn't expecting to see this. The man was a couple inches taller than Ming, his hair short, but also the same vibrant red and age to the other girl. "Dad?" Mei asked.
The man just smiled, still focusing his attention on the other girl. "It'll be okay," he said as he set her down. "Your mother will come around eventually. Just give it some time. And you don't have to be perfect all the time," he said as he grabbed her hand. "Just be my beautiful, beautiful Ming."
Mei smiled at her father's younger form. "He's right," she said to her mother.
Both Jin and Mei grabbed one of Ming's hands and began leading her towards the sound of older voices chattering in front of what looked like a big mirror with an older woman floating over it. As they got closer to it, the two others with Mei began aging back into the ages that Mei was familiar with. It was clear to her that these indeed were her parents.
Upon entering the clearing, all the people had the same vibrant red hair that they had become accustomed to. Wu walked quickly to the three as Jin and Mei dropped Ming's hands. "I'm so sorry," Ming said, still fighting to contain tears.
Wu embraced her daughter as Ming kept crying on her shoulder. "Shh," Wu said softly as she rubbed her daughter's back to comfort her, "you don't have to apologize. I'm your mother. Nothing will ever change that." Wu turned to her son-in-law. She was surprised that he was blessed with their family's gift for a couple of reasons. First, no male in their family previously that Wu was aware of had been blessed with the ability to turn into a panda. Second, as far as all of them knew, Jin had no relationship to Sun Ye. "Thank you, Jin," Wu said as he joined into the hug.
"You're welcome," Jin said as he broke away from the hug and pointed to the mirror, "but you've got to go."
Wu looked up. The red moon had a minute left at most. "Move ladies," Wu said to her family.
"That's it?" One of the aunts said. "Mei's keeping the panda?"
Another one of them answered, "It's her life."
"Quickly ladies," Wu reiterated as she went through the mirror and her panda spirit was removed from her. All of the aunts quickly followed Wu through, leaving only Mei and her parents.
"Let's go, Jin," Ming said to her husband as she started walking towards the mirror, but Jin didn't move.
Jin looked towards Sun Ye who floated over the portal and he bowed his head slightly, then looked at his daughter. She had made her decision. Mei was keeping her panda, which built resolve in him as well. "I'm keeping it too," Jin said with a confidence in his voice that Ming wasn't used to hearing from him. He generally yielded to her, but now he was holding his ground. "But you'll have to make your own decision."
Ming started panicking. She had failed so often in controlling her panda that keeping it seemed like a huge mistake. "But I can't control it," Ming admitted, trying to hide the hurt in her voice.
"Why are you so hard on yourself," Jin said hugging his wife. "You can do anything you put your mind to. I know you could do this too if you tried. But make your choice. Time's almost up."
Ming looked at Sun Ye. She had made too many mistakes in the past and didn't want to take the chance. "I can't," Ming said toward Sun Ye as she entered the portal and her panda spirit circled both of them. "Come with me," she pled to both her husband and daughter.
Mei shook her head. "I'm changing mom. I'm finally figuring out who I am. But I'm scared it will take me away from you."
Ming dropped her head in sorrow. "Me too. I see you Mei-Mei. You try to make everyone happy but are so hard on yourself. And if I taught you that, I'm sorry. So don't hold back. For anyone. The further you go, the prouder I'll be."
Ming looked at her husband and asked, "Why you?"
Jin looked at Sun Ye. He had heard the legends before, when Ming showed him her panda the one time she did. He thought of what Mei had said that first time she heard the story of Sun Ye; the real story. "It's not a curse," he said looking at both Sun Ye and Ming. "It's a blessing. It's all about how you look at it. And I'm keeping it." Jin looked at his daughter, confident that he had made the right decision, at least for him. Then turned back to his wife, "Remember what my father told us on our wedding night. Whether you think you can or cannot, you're right."
Ming continued walking away from them through the portal. But paused for a second. Had she really made the right decision? And then it hit her. Jin was right. This wasn't the curse she thought it was. "No!" She shouted as she ran full speed back towards where Jin and Mei were and her panda spirit also was returning towards the mirror. As she passed through it again the other way, her panda spirit rejoined Ming and her hair turned back to red.
Sun Ye lowered her levitation towards the three of them. It was Mei who asked the question they we're all thinking. "I'm not going to regret this, am I?"
As soon as Mei said this, Sun Ye flew though the air and grabbed her. When the two touched, both instantly burst into their panda forms and the two flew up past the trees and watched as the last hues of red left the moon. The two met nose to nose in an Eskimo kiss, which brought out a smile on all four of their faces. Immediately after this, the three left the astral plane and returned to the Sky Dome.
When Mei, Ming and Jin returned to the Sky Dome, all three were in their panda forms. Surprisingly, Ming's wasn't as big as it had been just moments ago. She was bigger than Jin's, but she wasn't the Godzilla sized one that had been wrecking the dome, now only about 12 feet tall.
Mei's panda quickly searched out her friends, and that now included Tyler. "Guys!" She shouted when she saw them next to all five members of 4Town. Mei poofed back into her normal self just before she hugged them; all of them, including Tyler.
"Mei!" Miriam cried as their arms met. One thing that was instantly noticed by Miriam was the new sense of confidence in Mei. There was just something to the new expression on Mei's face that Miriam couldn't place. "Wow," she gasped, "you look amazing."
"Thanks," Mei said, a smile now completely consuming her face. "This is so cool," she added seeing her parents snuggling into each other still as pandas.
Mr. Gao slowly walked down from the upper catwalk of the dome carrying five different items, that all were necklaces, only one of which was a medallion like Ming had before. He slowly handed them out to Mei's aunts, saving the last for Wu.
When Wu saw what contained her panda spirit, she groaned. "Four is the worse number!" She complained as she took the red 4Town necklace and put it on. "So unlucky."
"I had to work with what I had," Mr. Gao countered.
Wu shook her head, but let it go for now.
"Why did you keep the panda?" Wu asked to both her daughter and son-in-law.
Ming really didn't know, even though Jin had given her the advice she needed long ago.
Jin answered her, "Embrace the extra."
Ming looked confused. She had heard Jin's mother use the saying many times but never knew what it meant.
"What extra?" Wu asked.
"My mother's favorite saying was 'embrace the extra.' After the old saying that the only thing that separates the ordinary from the extraordinary is that little extra. Learn to embrace the extra and you'll never be ordinary. And the panda certainly would qualify as extra."
Ming smiled. She never had this explanation but it was exactly what she had been missing. Jin was right. This wasn't a family curse. It truly was a blessing. She just never had seen it that way ever since the incident where she scarred her mother.
"Wow! Your dads really smart," Miriam said to Mei.
Mei had never heard him get philosophical before, but he clearly had good advice. "He should give more," Mei said to her friends.
Three days later and things had more or less returned to normal. Jin had joined Mei and Ming in their daily adorations of Sun Ye since she blessed him with their family's gift as well. The news still talked about Panda-pocalypse 2002 or as we called it, embracing the extra. Things at the temple had never been better. As they finished, it was time to open the temple for the day.
"You ready?" Mei asked to her mother.
"Let's do this," Ming answered with a smile.
The two ladies opened the door to the temple. It had taken some getting used to, but their family's shrine had now become a major tourist attraction, no doubt because of the pandas.
"What up, Toronto," Mei said as she shifted into her panda form. "Get in here!" It still surprised both of them how easily Mei had been able to control her panda. She was by far the largest attraction there and never had any problem with posing for pictures with all of the guests.
About an hour after the temple opened for the day, Mei's friends showed up. "Mei!" Miriam shouted as they entered.
"Guys!" Mei answered as she set the last group of people down from their picture.
The entire group bumped their butts, which had become their greeting and that now even included Tyler. "Ready to get your karaoke on?" Miriam asked.
"Totally," Mei answered as she shifted back to normal, other than leaving her panda ears and tail still intact. "Bye mom. Bye dad."
Ming's eyes grew wide. "Hold on. You're not going out like that, are you?" Ming asked.
Mei let out an irritated scoff. "My panda, my choice," she replied but it did nothing to satisfy her mother. Seeing this wasn't going to work, she promised something else. "I'll be back before dinner, okay?"
Jin saw their exchange. "Time to let the baby bird out of the nest, mama bird."
Ming sighed, knowing that Jin had taken Mei's side. "Fine. Oh, um… You're welcome to join us," Ming said to Mei's friends.
This surprised all of them. They had never been invited to do the normal things that a teenager's friends were normally invited for, be it a sleepover or simply coming over for dinner.
"For Mr. Lee's cooking?" Miriam asked as all of them gasped in shock. "Uh yeah!"
"Don't load up on junk," Ming admonished as the group started out.
"Thanks for covering for me, dad," Mei said as their group stared passing through the gate
"Have fun," Jin said as he closed his eyes to focus and was quickly replaced with his panda. It was still bigger than Mei's, but smaller than his first time. And it shocked Ming just how easy it had been for him to master his panda. In fact, he had been calmer than anyone that Wu was familiar with. He truly had embraced the panda.
And while Mei missed the way things were before she found her panda, she wouldn't change the aftermath from it. After all, when you embrace your extra, you've gotta be ready for anything.
