Chapter 7
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.
A/N: Hey everyone! I know it's been a while, but some good news—I passed my final tests, got my master's degree and got married! Things are a lot calmer in my life now, which led to me finally being able to sit down and write this chapter. It's a bit shorter, but I hope you like it!
[Scene: fade in from black. We see first a flickering lantern-light, and then Tigress's face comes into view—fast asleep on a pile of papers, and actually drooling a little. She's in the imperial guard offices, slumped over on her desk; everyone else has already left hours ago.]
NOISE: (A soft creak and then thud of the doors opening and shutting behind her, and then the creak-creak-creak of heavy footsteps. A black furry paw descends into the shot and lightly rests on her shoulder)
(Tigress's eyes blink awake, and she looks up blearily and then quickly wipes her mouth, embarrassed. Po is standing over her with a plate of dumplings, smiling.)
PO: Hey. (Shows her the food.) We missed you at dinner.
TIGRESS: (Sitting up and rubbing the fur on her forehead) I was reading old tax reports from the canal neighborhoods; I must have fallen asleep...
PO: (Setting the plate down on the desk and pulling up a stool to sit beside her; knowingly:) Y'know, sleeping on a desk's pro-obably not healthy. (Tigress hums noncommittally.) Why were you reading those old things anyway?
TIGRESS: Discrepancies in the records might be able to tell us which of those businesses is a false front.
PO: You heard Viper earlier, she's got it. (Another hum; she's rifling through the papers again.) Tigress, c'mon, you're working yourself to the bone here. I know something's up with you.
TIGRESS: Nothing's "up" with me. I just take this mission very seriously.
PO: Yeah, but we're all taking this seriously. You're the only one who's falling asleep on tables. (Tigress half-ignores him, shuffling through papers, and he nudges her to get her attention.) Come on. If you can't talk to your best friend, who can you talk to?
(This finally seems to get through to her, and after a moment she sighs and sets down the papers.)
TIGRESS: I know. You're right, I just feel like I have to do this myself. If something went wrong on my watch…
PO: This is really getting to you, huh. (Her eyes flicker away, which is confirmation enough.) Why?
TIGRESS: (After a thoughtful pause) ...Po. When you were younger, did you feel like you belonged in the Valley of Peace?
PO: (Considering) Huh. I mean, not really. I always felt kinda out of place, like I didn't really fit in—until I became the Dragon Warrior, anyway. After defeating Tai Lung it was like, yeah, this is who I'm meant to be, this is what I'm meant to do! (Punches the air in solid form, and then smiles at her.) You know what I mean?
TIGRESS: (Nodding) I do. (Looking at the lamp flame pensively.) That was how I felt at Bao Gu. There was no one like me; certainly no one trusted me. I was too dangerous. But then… Master Shifu gave me a home, a purpose. Everyone said he was a fool to take me in, after what Tai Lung had done to the Valley, but he didn't see a danger…he just saw a little girl.
(Cont'd:) The Emperor did the same for my people. Even though so many of us had given him reasons not to trust us, he gave us a place in China. I have to prove to everyone that he didn't make a mistake.
PO: C'mon, you can't put that pressure on yourself.
TIGRESS: As the leader of the Furious Five, that is the role I play—whether I want to or not. (Seriously, to him) It's the role you play as well, Po.
PO: What do you mean?
TIGRESS: In the Valley of Peace, nobody questions our working together. But things are different here. The people see us live together, fight together—do everything together, as a team. What the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior symbolize to China…(turning back to the papers) it's more than just kung fu. And any failure to live up to that ideal is another arrow in the Ten Thousand's quiver.
(She reaches for another page, but a black paw reaches out and covers hers. She looks up in surprise.)
PO: (Insisting) Viper's got it, Tigress. (She hesitates, and he presses:) You said we're a team. That means you gotta let the rest of us do our part. Right?
(Another moment of hesitation, and then Tigress reslents and gives a small smile despite herself. She sets the papers down; Po tosses her a dumpling, which she catches with her free paw, and they share a chuckle and the start of a conversation as they dig in.)
[Scene: somewhere dark and wet, with dripping water. We see a flare of reddish light, illuminating a cloud of noxious gasses which turn the flame green as it burns them. The green light illuminates a small party: MASTER SHIFU, VIPER, WU, and the COURT PHYSICIAN. They appear to be in a sewer: a low, curved roof extends overhead into the darkness, with pillars holding it up and thick clay pipe in a dry canal below, with a walkway along the side. The sound of flowing water echoes from within the clay pipe, which is made of successions of nested pottery tubes. The clouds of gasses waft in the air from uncertain sources.]
SHIFU: How far does this go?
WU: (Holding the torch aloft and waving slightly as he steps forward; the light flickers from orange to green periodically.) All over the developed parts of the city. If we follow it far enough we'll get down towards the rivers and shipping lanes.
SHIFU: Does it have access to the palace?
WU: No; our drainage system empties directly into the moat.
PHYSICIAN: (Looking around nervously, his ears flickering from side to side) Begging your pardon, masters, but I still don't understand why I'm necessary…
SHIFU: Viper, I'm curious about this plan of yours; perhaps you could explain?
VIPER: (To physician) Actually, your daughter gave me the idea.
(Shot suddenly zooms out above-ground to show us the Capitol from the sky; as Viper speaks, lines of glowing red spider across the "map," showing where the sewers run under the city.)
VIPER'S VOICE: These sewer tunnels run for miles, and there's no time to search every single one. We'll never find the Den of Claws by looking for it…(sounds from the city begin to filter in: carts rumbling, people talking, blades sharpening.) So, we're not going to look for it.
(Zoom back in. The idea has just dawned on Shifu, whose ears are flickering from side to side.)
SHIFU: Brilliant, Viper. We can pinpoint the location by sound, even if not by sight!
WU: (Impressed) Your hearing is superior to ours…
PHYSICIAN: (Nervously) But these tunnels are miles long! Even we can't hear that far, and the echoes would get confused.
WU: (Confidently, taking a map out of his armor and handing it to the Physician) Our informant said the hideout is in a warehouse somewhere on the river. That should narrow our search.
SHIFU: Lead the way.
[Timeskip; the group is now in another part of the sewers, moving along the walkway at a slow, careful pace. Down below, Wu is still waving the torch back and forth; it's burnt down somewhat considerably. The sound of rushing water is much louder here; the shot moves upwards, passing through the stones of the street, to show that they're not far from the river.]
[Down below, as the physician passes along a stretch of the wall, shoulders hunched, his ear suddenly flickers to the side. Shifu notices this and suddenly holds up a hand.]
SHIFU: (Loud whisper) Wait. (The group stops; to the physician:) Listen… (They stand in silence for a moment, ears flickering back and forth as Shifu looks above and then around. All that the audience can hear is rushing water.)
VIPER: (Whispering) What is it, Master?
SHIFU: (To the physician) Do you hear that?
PHYSICIAN: Voices, a long way off. And...something heavy, being moved around. (Bewildered, turning all the way around) Where's it coming from?
(Our sense of hearing grows stronger as Shifu, frowning, moves towards a wall; we do indeed hear the faint sound of distant shouting, like workmen loading things, and the soft grinding of wheels moving or boxes being shoved around.)
(Shifu picks up a small rock from the ground, frowning at a stretch of wall, and then suddenly throws the stone with perfect precision. The SNAP! echoes around the tunnel as it hits the wall, but the camera follows another echo: that on the other side of the wall, where another bricked-off tunnel descends slowly downwards.)
SHIFU: There's another tunnel here. It's been bricked off. (He advances and strikes the wall in several places like a nerve-attack before finding the right one and pulling out a large rock about the size of his head, without collapsing the fake wall.)
(On the other side of the hole we see Wu's torch come into view as the leopard crouches down to peer with the two shorter men and Viper through the gap.)
PHYSICIAN: (Unfurling map and pushes up his glasses) According to your map, Captain, that tunnel should lead to a storm sewer that empties into the river.
CAPTAIN: A dry storm sewer, huh? (Looking at Shifu) Sounds like the perfect place for a criminal hideout.
VIPER: (To Shifu) Do you want us to investigate it, Master?
WU: (Before Shifu can speak) No; leave it to my men. (As he talks we get a fade-in to a flashforward of several small mice in Imperial uniforms sneaking through the hole and down the tunnel, making spy-signals with their hands.) Once we have enough information, we can send our spies in to take the Den of Claws down from the inside.
(One mouse presses herself against a wall, peeks around a corner, and then motions the others forward. We see them scurrying along the inside of a massive round storm drain lit by torches, several stories high, in which workers—mostly tigers, wolves, leopards and other large predators—are moving boxes, doing guard rounds, and doing training. The mice follow a pair of guards ascending a built-in wooden staircase around the outside, which disappears into a tunnel. The camera rushes ahead and upwards to show the staircase leading up into a "warehouse" with a manhole in the floor, hidden in a maze of crates.)
WU'S VOICE: The Ten Thousand won't know what hit them.
[Scene: purplish sunset over the Forbidden City edging on towards night. In the soldier barracks, Po is getting ready for bed. The mood is calm and content; we see him do a couple tidying-up tasks—plumping his pillows, adjusting his Crane figurine on the little chest of drawers, nudging the Dragon Scroll so it's parallel to the edge of the dresser—before he lights the oil lamp and sits down cross-legged on his bed, closing his eyes and breathing deeply through his nose.]
PO: (Determined to meditate) Inner peace…
(A pause. His nose wrinkles and he quickly scratches his back, and then settles again.)
PO: Inner peace…inner…(yawns) i-inner peace…mm…
(Predictably, his head droops, followed by his shoulders. A moment passes, and then Po snores loudly enough to wake himself.)
PO: Wha– whooza– (looks around, startled, and then yawns again.) Man this meditation stuff really gets you relaxed…okay, come on, Po, focus! Inner Peace…
(The lamplight flickers over his closed eyes, the atmosphere growing more dreamy.)
PO'S VOICE: (Slightly echo-y) Inner (yawn) peace… (There's a pause, and then his eyes crinkle as he smiles, the atmosphere turning golden.) Mm. What's that smell? (Sniffs the air.) Smells tasty… (He opens his eyes and lets out a delighted gasp) Who-oa!
(Our loveable panda has taken the form of a large golden dragon in paper-cutout form, green-eyed and red-footed, flying through a yellow sky surrounded by paper peach petals. He soars over a watery surface far below that shimmers like the rivers in the Valley of Peace. Obviously, he's fallen asleep and started dreaming.)
DRAGON-PO: No way! I can fly! (The paper-cutout dragon arches his head like a snake and immediately rises through the air.) Yeah-hah! Whoohoo! (He gasps as he passes by a peach bobbing in the air and grabs it.) Awesome!
(He soars like a bird, weaving through jetstreams of petals and clouds, being the general loveable dork he is and grabbing paper-maché peaches out of the air with his dragon-teeth to snack on whole.)
DRAGON-PO: Thank you (gulps; grabs another) thank you. Man, no pits! Can this place get any better!
(He flies through a cloud of pink petals, scattering them and making loops in the air with his long scaly body.)
(It's a very pleasant dream, and Po is clearly enjoying himself. He dives down towards the water, which seems to be made of silk, and skims over the surface, his tail making ripples.)
DRAGON-PO: Little refreshment? Don't mind if I do! (Rears his head and then plunges down into the silk water, which ripples with a strangely ethereal quality. As he goes deeper into the water, trailing gold paper bubbles from his dragon-whiskers, he sees paper cutouts of exotic fish and seahorses that look like dragons. When he speaks, his voice sounds burbling and distorted:) Sweet!
(He plunges deeper into the water, and now the lower part of the ocean or lake—wherever he is—comes into view: a plane of olive-gold silk seaweed, gently waving in the water like a field in the wind. Intrigued, Po dives into it until it swallows him up. Where there should be an ocean floor, it instead seems as if the seaweed keeps going, slapping over his vision, getting in his mouth.)
PO: Ouch! Ow– hey! (Struggles to fight forward, though it's not totally clear why. The seaweed grows darker and more tangled.) Come– on–
(He starts fighting through it with his paws as he swims downwards—realistic panda paws, that is. At some point he seems to have transformed back into his regular self. The paws shove tufts and tangles of silk seaweed out of the way as the atmosphere grows more ominous.)
PO'S VOICE: Let– me– through–!
(He pushes through the last few layers of fabric-woven "seaweed" and at last comes out the other side, gasping as if for air, and yet finding himself completely dry. Strange ambient noises like chimes and fluttering bird wings hover around him. He turns around, bewildered, and then looks up—and abruptly stumbles back in shock.)
(In front of him hangs a massive tapestry, many stories high, of floating, rippling strips of cloth. Depicted on the tapestry is a Chinese-style tiger, in painted brushstroke and with slightly-too-large amber eyes, dressed in golden battle armor and seated heavily upon a warlord's throne. He has a sword in his left paw, and the claws of his right paw are bared. As the threads ripple in the invisible wind, those eyes seem to turn to face Po, fixing on him...the striped tail begins to lash… Po backs away, but it's too late: the tiger is stirring, rising to his feet—he snarls—he lunges, and the panda shouts—!)
VOICE: Po!
(Po's eyes snap open. The glowing amber eyes are right above him.)
PO: Gyahh! (Flips himself backwards, kicking the person above him away from him and rolling back onto his feet. The person flies across the room and smacks into the opposite wall with a loud "oof!")
VOICE 2: Po! Calm down!
VOICE 3: It's just us, buddy!
(Po looks around wildly. His room is dark, the lamp burnt out, but as he peers into the shadows he sees first a frightened Viper, then Mantis, Monkey and Crane, the door behind them swung open.)
PO: Who–?
TIGRESS: Ooh… (Sitting up against the wall with a grimace and rubbing her bruised ribs. Mantis has hopped over to her in concern.) Po!
PO: Oh my gosh. (Hurrying over, fretting.) I'm so sorry, Tigress, I didn't know it was you!
TIGRESS: (Wincing and annoyed, but brushing it off) It's fine. (She waves off his proffered hand and stands up on her own.) You woke us up; we thought you were in danger.
PO: I did?
MANTIS: Yeah. (Hopping onto Tigress's shoulder.) You shouted; what's wrong?
PO: I don't– (he shakes his head, looking confused) –I had– a dream.
MANTIS: (Annoyed) A dream?
PO: Yeah. No! I mean, I was asleep, but it was more than a dream! (Realizing) I think… I think I was in the Spirit Realm.
THE OTHERS: What?! (Po sits back down on his bed, looking stunned.)
CRANE: You can just, like, go there?
PO: I-I don't know! It's never happened before!
TIGRESS: (Seriously) Po, what happened?
(Po looks up at them; from his position on the bed, they're somewhat looming over him, causing him to stammer for a moment:)
PO: L-look, I don't totally know what just happened, but—I was dreaming, okay, and then suddenly I was in the Spirit Realm, and I was a dragon–
TIGRESS: (Frowning) You were a dragon?
PO: Yeah! And then I turned back into me, and I fell into this water and then—then… (he trails off, looking down at his hands as his eyes widen.) Look, I know this doesn't make any sense, but…I think it was a message from the Universe.
(The others share stunned looks. Po looks abruptly and states, with absolute certainty:)
PO: Something's changed. With the mission, something's happened. I don't know what, but we've got to be careful.
CRANE: Should we tell the Emperor to call it off?
PO: No, I-I don't think that's it.
TIGRESS: (Pressing) Then what is it?
PO: (Frustrated) I don't know! Something's changed and someone's in danger; that's all I got, okay? (The others share looks.)
VIPER: (Kindly) We should go get Master Shifu. He should hear about this. Po? (He looks up at her, exhausted.) Maybe you could, I don't know, meditate or something? Try to find out more?
PO: Yeah, I guess… (He sits back further on the bed cross-legged, though he doesn't look hopeful. The others troop out; the room is still dark. At the door, Tigress, last in line, pauses and looks back.)
TIGRESS: Po? …Are you alright?
(Po looks up. His friend's amber eyes glow like firebrands in the night. For a moment, he seems unable to speak.)
PO: ...Yeah. I'm fine, Tigress.
TIGRESS: (Watches him disbelieving for a moment, and then nods uncertainly.) Well. If you're sure.
(She turns to leave. The room fades to dark, but the glowing spot where one of her eyes had been doesn't stop glowing: the amber light fades in and out, gleaming brighter as it turns into a torch which illuminates the scene around it.)
(The torch hovers closer to the eyes of a teenage wolf cub, gagged and terrified.)
VOICE: (Smooth growl) Let him speak.
(A paw yanks the gag down. The KID gasps and then shuts his mouth. Tears are brimming in his eyes; he looks to the torch in fear and then again to whoever is holding it.)
VOICE: (Faux-pleasant) Good evening. (The KID trembles.) I think you know who I am.
THE KID: (Stammering hoarsely) G-General Zhong…
ZHONG'S VOICE: (Low half-chuckle) Hn. So you're not as stupid as you appear. (Tone turning flat.) You know why you're here. What did you tell the monkey?
THE KID: I-I don't kn-know what you're–
ZHONG'S VOICE: (Growl:) Don't. (The kid flinches.) Lie… to me. (The torch draws nearer the wolf's fur; it starts to sizzle and curl up, blackening. The teenager lets out an unintentional sob, eyes still wide.) Your uncle, he lied to me once. He lied to all of us. He lied to his Emperor. For a crime like that, there must be retribution. (More furs singe; the kid, hyperventilating, closes his eyes and tries to turn his head away, but the flame is too close.) But I am forgiving, boy. Your uncle's...betrayal...can be redeemed. Starting with you. (The wolf cub's teary eyes open again, squinting in the firelight.) Do we have an understanding?
THE KID: (After a long pause, he looks away in shame, tears rolling down his fur:) …Th... They…know about the Den of Claws. That it's real. Th-that's all I told them, I swear!
ZHONG'S VOICE: (With mild humor) The Den of Claws? Well, how ironic. (The torch pulls away; the kid goes limp in his ropes, gasping for air.) Loi, free him.
(Wide-shot. We see Zhong, torch in hand, sitting opposite the bound teenager, in a shadowy cell. As Loi hurries to untie him, Zhong regards the young wolf before him with something resembling approval.)
ZHONG: I'm sure the commander has some armor in your size lying around. You'll make a fine soldier, boy.
THE KID: (Crying, crumpling in on himself) Please…I told you what you wanted, just let me go home…
ZHONG: (Stands to his impressive height. His paw descends and sets on the boy's hand; the teenager starts, but Zhong merely ruffles the fur on his head) I know. But you'll see, in time: (The boy looks up, afraid, and we see Zhong smiling almost benevolently down at him.) You are home.