Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I neither own the rights to DreamWorks, Kung Fu Panda, the Kung Fu Panda cinematic universe nor any of its associated media, derivatives or products. I do not profit from this work.
[Scene: travel montage: the group crossing a river on a ferry under towering Chinese karst mountains; crossing the bridge once used by Tai Lung; passing through a cheery village of ducks and rabbits strung with red lanterns, the villagers eagerly greeting the heroes; meandering along through rice-paddy paths; getting lost in the streets of a massive city where Po tries to read a street map, only for Monkey to hop on his shoulder and turns it right-side-up; pushing uphill through the bamboo mountains against a driving rain; walking along a peaceful forest path at sunset. End montage.]
[Scene: evening in a bamboo wood in the mountains. The sky above is a peacock blue and sprinkled with stars, but below the boughs of the bamboo the group is gathered around a cheerfully crackling fire. The scene is warm and friendly; the group is telling ghost stories. Viper is curled up next to Po, watching Mantis with interest, while the panda roasts a dumpling on a stick; Monkey and Crane are peering on. Tigress is watching with brows raised, pouring herself a cup of tea.]
MANTIS: And then… (raising his forelegs so the fire casts large shadows) she BIT OFF HIS HEAD!
PO: Eeugh! (Shudders badly as Viper hisses, looking annoyed.)
VIPER: Seriously, Mantis?
MANTIS: What?
CRANE: Okay, gross.
VIPER: Why would you tell us that? (Mantis shrugs.)
PO: Man, why don't we do this more often! (Plucks the toasted dumpling off the stick and pops it in his mouth; half-muffled:) Where's Shifu, anyway? He's totally missing out!
TIGRESS: (Setting down the metal teapot back on the spit) He went to go meditate.
PO: Haha, you mean he didn't want to listen to scary stories!
TIGRESS: Yes... scary stories.
[Cutaway to Shifu, far, FAR away from the group on a cliff overlooking a river—sighing as he meditates and enjoys his first peace and quiet in weeks of travel.]
SHIFU: Inner peace…
[Cut back to group.]
PO: Okay! (Rubbing his hands.) Who's up next?
VIPER: I think it's you, Po.
PO: Huh? (Counting off on his fingers.) Monkey, Viper, Mantis—huh, yeah I guess! Tigress, you wanna go first?
TIGRESS: I don't know any scary stories. I grew up in the Jade Palace, remember? (Studying the steam rising from her cup with a faint smile.) Master Shifu wasn't big on…ghost stories.
PO: Aw, that's lame. Let me see, a scary story… (Taps his chin, and then his face lights up.) Okay, so this is a story I heard from dad a–ages ago! (Holding up his paws as the others lean closer.) Long ago, there was a warrior of legendary awesomeness.
TIGRESS: (Dryly) Naturally.
PO: (Lifting his snout in pose.) This warrior was noble! Attractive! (Back to normal) And most importantly of all, he was the lord of a great province. His lands stretched as far as the eye could see…
[Fade to paper cutout of a panda-warrior in fantastic Chinese military gear, looking over his realm of rice paddies and villages from atop a large mountain, all overshadowed in gold. It looks very much like the Valley of Peace.]
PO: The people in his province were happy. But one day, a black cloud appeared on the horizon—moving at an incredible speed!
[The panda lord turns as a shadow falls over the land.]
PO: But this was no mere cloud, no—these were demons from the underworld, with claws as sharp as knives and eyes as red as the pits of fire!
[Shot close-up of the cloud, showing the Ten Thousand Demons of Demon Mountain from Po's dreams.]
PO: They were led by a great demon, a torturer of the underworld, whose face was the most hideous ever seen in China!
[Shot of the demon leader emerging from a fantastically tall gate; he looks like his minions, but nearly as tall as the mountains themselves.]
PO: Together with his strongest allies, the legendary warrior sallied forth! [The panda lord and knock-off versions of the Furious Five are seen standing on a cliff before the snowy Demon Mountain with its arrayed army of monsters and flying red banners.] They met them upon the field of glorious battle at the gates of the underworld, and faced down the Ten Thousand Demons of Demon Mountain in a battle that was the stuff of legend! [The six fly through the air, paws/wings/tails extended, to engage in bodacious battle with the demons.] There was much of kicking and punching, and in the end the demons fled before the heroes back to the underworld where they belonged! The lord slew the demon leader with his legendary sword! [Fantasy-panda draws the Sword of Heroes and leaps to the height of the mountains to bring the blade down on the demon's head; there's a flash of bright gold light.]
PO: But tragically, in their battle… [shot of the heroic panda lord lying in the snow, dying of a relatively minor wound, surrounded by his allies] ...the well-loved lord lost his life. Legendarily. [The panda lord clings to the imaginary Tigress's paw, and then, with great drama, his grip loosens as his head falls to the side, tongue lolling out and Xs appearing over his eyes.] Never before had a lord been so feared, or so loved… and never since.
[Flashback fades. Po looks at the Five eagerly.]
PO: Pretty cool, huh?
[Shot cuts to the others. They stare back at him, mouths agape, with expressions of disbelief.]
PO: I know, right! There's danger! There's drama! There's kung fu! (The Five, still agawp, shift their gazes to Tigress, whose eye is twitching and tea saucer halfway to her mouth, and then back to Po.) I mean, what's not to love!
VIPER: Po–?
PO: Yeah?
VIPER: Po, um… (trying for a quick polite smile, but it comes off as nervous:) –why do you think we're going to the Imperial City?
PO: (Startled) Uh– to protect the Emperor and… (He's stammering off as he sees the looks the Five are giving him) ...save… China…? (There's a beat of silence.) What?
CRANE: (Fake whisper) He doesn't know.
MANTIS: (Aloud) Yeah, obviously he doesn't know.
PO: What don't I know?!
CRANE: (To Mantis) Well, one of us has to tell him. He can't go to the Northern Capitol without knowing.
MONKEY: (Agreeing judiciously) It would be very embarrassing.
PO: Guys!
TIGRESS: I'll tell him.
(The other four turn to her, looking surprised.)
VIPER: Tigress— you don't—
TIGRESS: He needs to hear it, and he should hear it from me. Po. (Leaning forward and setting down her saucer.) You say your father told you that story? (He nods.) Your father, Mr. Ping, the—ah—goose who didn't tell you you were adopted? That father?
PO: (Slightly self-conscious) Sure; I heard some customers talking about it as a kid one night and I asked him about it. He told me it was a scary story from back in the day; it was one of my favorite stories, y'know, when I was—like, really little, psh, baby stuff. (Winces all around; he grows exasperated.) Why are you all getting so weird over some silly story! You're the Furious Five; you shouldn't be scared of some fairytale demons with their claws and– fangs and– red eyes… (He trails off, looking at Tigress, whose red eyes are glowing in the firelight.) Oh. ...Whoa, wait, Tigress–
TIGRESS: The Ten Thousand are not a legend.
[Flashback, through her red eyes, to a paper-cutout land. We see the Emperor, an ox, handing a scroll to a tiger in a general's military armor.]
TIGRESS: Forty-five years ago, the Great Tiger General, the Emperor's greatest soldier, was sent to help mediate a dispute between Imperial governors and a local rebellion. [Paper cutout shows a group of torch-and-pitchfork-bearing rabbits arguing with a snooty golden-cat lord.] The Emperor believed that the General would calm tensions and help both sides reach an agreement—but the General had other plans.
[Flashback: the General sends in his men, swords drawn.]
TIGRESS: He cracked down brutally on the peasants, throwing hundreds into prison and burning their homes. [A string of chained rabbits are led away from burning cottages.] He returned to the Imperial City expecting a reward for his service… [the general kneels before the throne, as the ox emperor orders him from the palace] ...but instead the Emperor sanctioned him for his violence and removed him from his post. The General was enraged, believing he had been slighted for his loyalty. [Shot of the general stalking away from the Forbidden City gates, the palaces arrayed behind him.] He decided that China needed a new leader, and if the mandate of heaven would not ordain him emperor… [shot in on the general's paw on his sword] ...then he would take the mandate by force.
TIGRESS: He rallied the best generals in the empire to his side and unleashed fifteen years of brutal war upon China. [Scenes of battle and carnage.] Only the Valley of Peace, protected by Master Oogway and Master Shifu, was spared the destruction. [Shot of Master Oogway and Shifu looking anxiously out over the Valley.]
TIGRESS: Tigers are…independent creatures. [A teenage Tigress chasing a bandit around a corner, calling over her shoulder "I'm not waiting around for you slowpokes!" to the other Four.] We usually prefer to work alone. But the General did what no one else could. He bound together hundreds of tigers, leopards, wolves and more into a common mission: to put one of their own on the Imperial Throne. [Lines of tigers, wolves, snow leopards and other large predators, mostly tigers, in Chinese military gear.] They believed that might made right, and that because of our…natural advantages [A tiger soldier brandishing his claws at a cowering duck commoner]...we had the right to whatever we wanted—including China.
TIGRESS: After many years, the General's forces had been pushed back to the Sacred Mountain in the west. Though his followers numbered in the hundreds, those of the Emperor numbered in the thousands. [Countless ducks, rabbits, pigs and other smaller mammals in military gear standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the still-loyal tigers and other large predators at the base of a snowy mountain.]
TIGRESS: But the General was betrayed. While besieged, his relief forces, seeing that the battle was hopeless, refused to come to his aid. [Shot of the general inside an abandoned monastery's prayer hall, furiously reading a letter from his hawk messenger.] Furious, he ordered a final frontal attack… [The general brandishes his claws, splitting the screen into a snowy scene of the battle between the ox emperor and his once-trusted general] …where he himself slew the emperor and declared the Mandate of Heaven to be his.
TIGRESS: But the victory was phyric. [A snowy scene of the general and his bedragled remaining forces looking anxiously down the slope.] His sons had died in the battle and the attack had shattered his forces, so when imperial reinforcements appeared on the hill– [Through the rolling lower cloudline, the emperor's massive forces become visible] –his supporters fled. He however charged them single handedly, and though he killed many warriors, he could not best such odds. [The general dies, taken down by many foes.] He died on the mountainside, and his supporters were scattered to the four directions.
TIGRESS: [Transition shot to the Northern Capitol, where the lords and ladies of China are gathered, including Oogway and Shifu, and the two peacocks of Gongmen City, among others.] With both the emperor and the usurper slain, China seemed lost. [Shot of Master Oogway and the other soothsayers, including a goat, meditating by candlelight.] But Master Oogway and the other soothsayers of the kingdom were granted a vision: [Master Oogway looks up abruptly, eyes flying wide and the shot zooming through them] –that the Mandate of Heaven had passed to a little-known lord and scholar in the Imperial court, who had served China humbly all his life. [We see in the "vision" a white paw doing quick sums on an abacus, with a brush and paper in the background. The paw stops suddenly; camera pans up to Oogway and the Soothsayer, looking pleased.]
TIGRESS: The young lord was made Emperor, and peace returned to China. [Back to the Valley. Master Oogway and Shifu are looking over the morning sunrise; Shifu looks pleased, but Oogway looks grave and more thoughtful.] But Master Oogway foretold that one day, the General's forces would rise again under the leadership of his most loyal follower…and that only one of Oogway's own students could defeat them.
[End flashback.]
TIGRESS: And that– (picking up her teacup again with an almost unsettling calm) –is why we are going to the Capitol. Dragon Warrior.
PO: Whoa… Tigress, look I didn't–
VIPER: (Cutting him off gently) Po, I think your dad must've told you it was just a fairytale so you wouldn't be scared. He probably thought you'd figure it out when you got older.
PO: Yeah, that sounds like dad… (suddenly realizing:) Wait, so then that prophecy Shifu has–
MANTIS: Is probably about you saving the Emperor's life.
MONKEY: Wouldn't be the first time.
PO: Wow. (A little shell-shocked, in a good way.) I mean, I've done the whole "saving China" thing before, but it's always been, y'know, a little more abstract. (Gives a little punch, and then sobers) But…
TIGRESS: (Brusquely, not looking up at Po) There have been many smaller insurrectionist groups taking up the Ten Thousand's mission in the last few decades, but they've never been as unified as they are now. The more united these groups become, the more dangerous they are to the Emperor and to all of China.
PO: (Pressing) But if all that stuff really happened, then Tigress–
VIPER: (Quiet hiss) Po–
PO: I mean, what if that's why you ended up at Bao Gu! That has to be it, right?
TIGRESS: (Coolly) Probably. Many of the other children were war orphans; likely so was Tai Lung, for that matter.
PO: Well don't you want to find out!
TIGRESS: Not particularly.
PO: But what if they're still–!
TIGRESS: Po! (He shuts up. Tigress's eyes have shot up at him, burning red, and for a moment hold his gaze before returning to her tea saucer. Very briskly and curtly:) China is a large empire, I doubt I could find the people who left me at Bao Gu even if I wanted to, and the odds are that I wouldn't want to know them in any case.
PO: …I'm sorry, Tigress, I didn't mean to–
TIGRESS: (Setting down her tea and standing abruptly) Someone should go check on Master Shifu. (Leaves, vanishing into the trees.)
(Beat of silence.)
PO: (To the others) Did I do something wrong?
CRANE: Tigress is… touchy, about her parents and the war.
PO: But wh–?
MONKEY: (Sagely) Because she is not sure which side they were fighting on.
PO: (Eyes widen as it dawns on him, and then he looks over in the direction Tigress had left.)
CRANE: (Behind him, trying valiantly to restart the conversation) Ahem, a-anyway… my turn to tell a story?
[Po continues to look worriedly in Tigress's direction.]
[Shot shifts to Tigress emerging from the treeline next to where Master Shifu is meditating on the cliffside; the moonlight is silvery and a soft breeze stirs the trees. She sits down beside him, closing her eyes.]
SHIFU: (Raising his eyebrows without opening his eyes) Did the panda stick his foot in it?
TIGRESS: (A beat, and then:) ...Yes, Master.
[Shot from behind of them sitting straight-backed on the cliff against the full silvery moon.]
[Smash-cut to: a dark room, somewhere far away. There is a table with a map spread over it; a lamp smolders, low-burning and red, on the edge. A pair of orange-and-black striped paws set down a furled scroll of paper on the map.]
[The door opens, and a duck enters, quaking and bowing.]
LOI: (Shaking) Y-You called for me, My lord?
VOICE: (A smooth, low and self-assured voice:) Loi, you have been keeping secrets from me.
LOI: S-Secrets? My lord?
VOICE: Yes… (The paws unfurl the scroll and smooth it out; it's a promotional poster of Po and the Five, emblazoned with the words "Dragon Warrior Noodles & Tofu: Now Serving The Servants of the Emperor!") Why didn't you tell me the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior were coming to the Capitol?
LOI: (Gulping) My lord. Forgive me, but I-I thought you'd be furious! The Furious Five are terrifying; Mantis alone could best many of your strongest warriors!
VOICE: (Amused) I see. And you were afraid I would, what is the phrase—disembowel the messenger?
LOI: I think it's actually sh– (quails, literally, under Zhong's sudden shadow) –oot, um, y-yes, Master Zhong.
[The voice chuckles; shot pans up to at last show us the speaker's face. He's a tiger in his mid-sixties, but in remarkably good shape, and notable in appearance for old claw-scars slashed across his right eye, which is missing.]
ZHONG: Why would I be furious? Their arrival helps our cause, Loi; the heavens have at last granted us our opportunity. Or haven't you heard that old saying about tigers never changing our stripes?
LOI: My lord?
ZHONG: (Back to business) Bring word to the others to gather at dawn. Our time has come; at last, our emperor will be avenged.
LOI: (Still confused, but not questioning) My lord.
[He leaves, closing the door behind him. Zhong picks up the poster again and holds it up to the light of the dim flame. Po and the Five look back out at the viewer, dressed in their yellow Imperial jackets. Zhong gives another chuckle.]
ZHONG: It's been a long time. (With a not-completely-unpleasant smile.) You look good in yellow, Little One.
[The edge of the poster catches fire, crisping and burning away. The last thing we see are Po and Tigress's faces, standing side-by-side, before the charring from opposite edges burns the image to cinders.]
A/N: I hope you enjoyed it. :) If you did, please like and review. -FFcrazy15