The Demon Awakens
"You didn't tell us this part of the story!" Lee exclaimed.
"Well, I didn't want to tell you that Tigress's mom tried to kill me," Po replied.
"What happened after he killed Hun?" Tigress asked.
"Oh, your father didn't kill him," Po answered.
It was an interesting mess: Po pulled his sword out and stopped Qiang's blade while Tigra pulled out her knife and lightly pressed it to Po's neck while Hun held a kunai knife next to her chest. "Seems we've come to an impasse." Tigra glanced at Po's katana. "And I was right to assume that you were a special panda, Prince Po."
"So the shop is a front?" Po grunted.
"Really? That's what you're worried about?" Hun asked.
"It's a good question." Hun rolled his eyes.
"I have to admit. Most people would be terrified at this point. Yet you two seem well adapt to it," Tigra smiled almost evilly.
"You have to in order to be around this guy," Hun grumbled.
"I'm sorry about that girl, geez!" Po muttered. Suddenly, Qiang pushed harder on the panda's sword, and Po quickly readjusts so he could hold his blade up. "Okay, what do you want?" He grunted.
"Wong-Hu mentioned you were a sneaky panda. I was right not to underestimate you," Tigra said. "But you've proven to be... different."
Po's eye shut as he focused on keeping his blade up. "Thanks, but what is it that you want? If you want to kill me, then do it, but let Hun go."
"But Po-"
"Shut it, Hun. That's an order," Po barked firmly. Hun gritted his teeth as he held the knife at her chest.
Tigra's smirk disappeared, "Y... you would sacrifice your life to save a lower servant."
"Is that so foreign to you? I thought it was universal," Po strained. Tigra absentmindedly looked at the table.
"Tigra?" Qiang spoke, probably for the first time in a pensive minute. Po's arm grew weaker until a thought came into his brain. He could slide his katana into Qiang, but it might cut Tigra in the process. The more he thought about it, the weaker his arm got, and the more permissible the idea became until Tigra suddenly said,
"Let them go, Qiang."
"What?"
"Put your sword away." The weight on Po's blade slowly lightened, and Qiang's sword found its case again. Po dropped his katana to the side of Hun as Hun pulled the kunai away from Tigra who put her knife back.
"Okay, that was intense," Po sighed, "So you know who we are and we know who you are. Why let us go?"
"You're... not the kind of panda I was told you would be. I wasn't expecting someone so... selfless."
"You're letting us off because... we're kind?" Hun asked.
"No. You two are probably more honorable than the people I work with. I... I almost forgot what that looked like. Aside from Qiang, I've never thought I... I never thought I'd seen anything other than... lies and deceit. It's something that I wanted." Her eyes pierced through the table.
"Mrs. Tigra, what do you want?" Po asked, mistakenly placing his hand on hers. He immediately felt the fire from Qiang's eyes burning his hand. Po would have pulled his hand back if Tigra hadn't rested hers on his. She looked him deeply in the eye. A small tear silently streamed down her fair face as she forced out of her heart,
"I want this war to end."
"But... why talk to us?" Po asked.
"You're different. You're not what Wong-Hu lied about. He told us you were a conniving panda that would eat us alive," Tigra chuckled.
"Are you sure he didn't mean, 'he'll eat you out of house and home'?" Hun asked.
Tigra smiled lightly at Po's pout, "I'm sure. You're more honorable than that evil cat ever will be."
"So you don't like Wong-Hu or the leader?" Po asked.
"You mean the puppet leader? No. He's not even worth mentioning," Tigra growled out.
"Oww ow! My hand!"
"Oh! Sorry, sorry," Tigra quickly released his wounded hand. "Are you okay?"
"Hehe, it's fine. I'm used to it," Po chuckled with a goofy grin. The female tiger smiled. Her smile seemed more and more familiar. "So... are you telling us that you want to be... one of our spies?"
"If you're this clumsy with your operation, then no," Tigra smirked. The panda huffed and crossed his arms. Tigra smiled a bit warmer, probably warmer than she intended to. "But you are very unpredictable, so I give you that."
"Yes!" Po celebrated. Hun rolled his eyes.
"But I do want another thing," Tigra's eyes turned serious. "You said you were from the Valley of Peace. Is that true or false?"
"It's true."
"When you lived there, did you happen to hear of any orphan tigers around the area?" Po blinked and slowly nodded. "How many do you know?" The panda stared at Tigra more closely and then at Qiang. "And... is it a girl?"
"Yes... an awesome female tiger. She was an orphan at the Bao-Goo Orphanage for a while," Po said ominously. Tigra gasped as she grabbed her husband's hand. The big tiger grasped hers but no emotion sprung to his face.
"Are there any other tigers around the area? Any other female tigers that come in and out and are orphans?"
"No." Tigra's breath caught her throat.
"Is... is she alive?" Qiang asked.
Po smiled warmly. "Yes, if you're talking about who I think you are, she's more than okay. She goes by the name of Tigress."
"That's her! That's her!" Tigra jumped at Po and wrapped her arms around his neck. She would have crushed him if she wasn't careful. Po couldn't really hug her back; she was moving too much. She gasped as water streamed down her eyes. "She's alive. She's alive." She sighed, releasing him and hugging Qiang's hand. The big tiger smiled as a small tear came out of his eye.
"It's okay. It's okay. She's more than okay. She's actually a Kung Fu warrior," Po smiled. The two tigers swung their head back at him. Their jaw slightly hung open. Before Po could ask, Tigra grabbed his chest fur pulled him forward, growling and glaring.
"Tell me you're lying! Swear on your country!"
"I swear! She's a Kung Fu warrior. She's part of the Furious Five too!" Po gulped for air. Tigra threw him back to his seat. She panted heavily, glaring at the table while her hands clenched into fists. "Mrs. Tigra, what's wrong?" She blinked twice and looked at him.
"You really don't know?" She asked with less anger in her voice. Po shook his head. Sighing, the female tiger rose up from her chair. It was only now they noticed how short she was compared to Qiang. "Have your spies told you about the Jin-Min warrior?"
"Uh... let's say a valley pigeon told me. Hehehe," Po nervously chuckled.
Tigra showed a sad smile. "Well, it was foretold that our country would have a warrior that would lead us to glory and end the war."
"Yeah, so?"
Tigra looked at him. A slight furrow formed on her eyebrows. "You can't be this dense."
"I don't get it," Po said, "There are lots of tiger warriors."
"Yes, but she was an orphan. The legend also says that the tiger would be an orphan and a warrior!" Hun and Po's eyes widened. "Your spies didn't tell you that?"
"Valley pigeon! And no, they... he didn't. We just knew it was supposed to be a warrior," Po sighed heavily.
"But there must be thousands of baby tigers that grew up to be warriors around here. One of them has to be an orphan," Hun argued.
Tigra shook her head, "No. Ever since Wong-Hu heard of that legend, he proposed that he was the Jin-Min warrior. His spies even made sure of that," her quiet roar rumbled the table. "He ordered them to kill the orphans."
"WHAT!" Po shot up and glowered deeply at his lanky tiger friend. "Why weren't we told about this Hun?"
"I-I didn't know, Your Highness," Hun quickly said.
"That's because people thought the orphanage was accidentally burned. What they didn't know was that only the animals that weren't tigers survived," Tigra explained.
Po slouched back into his seat. "That's why. I heard about that fire and the mysterious circumstances. I tried and examined every single soldier I had to see if they weren't the culprit. I can't believe Wong-Hu would do that," Po gritted his teeth. Tigra gave a small smile. Even enemies have sympathies.
"After that," Tigra said, "Wong-Hu made the puppet leader sign a decree that no orphan could leave Jin-Min kingdom or become a warrior."
"But why did you leave Tigress at the orphanage?" Po asked.
"For a better life." Tigra sighed heavily, "Because of my position, my children would automatically become part of Wong-Hu's army. I couldn't have that and we couldn't outright resign."
"I've known Wong-Hu for a while. How is a female tiger working under him? He's not about equal treatment," Po said.
"He mostly uses them as tools, as spies. Qiang is one of his bodyguards while I'm part of his spy-force."
"So you had to let Tigress go." Tigra nodded. "I'm... I'm so sorry," Po sighed.
"Wait, but that doesn't mean that Tigress is the warrior," Hun interjected.
"It also said," boomed Qiang in a low voice, "That the warrior would be one so strong that they would need no weapon."
"Nope, that's Tigress," Po sighed. "Wait, you said children. Does that mean-"
"Tigress's brother, Tiger, was born before we could hide him from Wong-Hu. Now he's head of Wong-Hu's spy force. He's the one that actually helped us track you down," Qiang answered coldly.
"Ah, okay." It was quiet for a while. "So what do we do? Tigress is a Kung Fu warrior, and even if Wong-Hu goes down, Tigress is still fated to destroy Japan," Hun said.
Their shoulders sagged, but Po suddenly pointed to the ceiling in epiphany. "Tigress doesn't need to know that."
"What?" the tigers asked.
"Hear me out. The legend can only be fulfilled if the warrior knows what she is the Jin-Min warrior. Wong-Hu might know about Tigress, but there's no way he could possibly fight her without having her and China attack him. A two-front war is hard to win. The point is that Tigress can't fight a war she doesn't know about, and it's pretty easy to intercept messages coming to the Jade Palace."
"How would you know?" Tigra asked. Po rubbed the back of his head.
"I've... uuhhh... made some mistakes. Anyways, if we keep her in the dark, we could finally be done with this war without anyone else getting hurt," Po gave a great sigh. "The only problem is the Chinese Emperor."
"Don't worry about that," Tigra said, "The Emperor isn't too happy about our conduct here, but he's been too worried about the Mongols to do anything about it."
"So it's settled then?" Hun smiled, "Po will keep Master Tigress in the dark, Tigra and Qiang don't have to see their daughter fight in a nonsensical war, and we can finally end this fighting once and for all."
"The only problem is how are you going to get back to the Valley of Peace. I thought you were a Japanese Prince," Tigra replied with a raised eyebrow. Po sighed, shutting his eyes briefly. The female tiger cleared her throat, "Well, I'll let you worry about that later." Suddenly, she grabbed Po's chest again. "But make sure that my daughter is safe from this war. If there is one fur of hers out of line-"
Po shivered so much he couldn't finish the story. "Needless to say, she was very concerned about you."
"But how could you have saved me if I was a Kung Fu warrior and you were a cook?" Tigress asked with her arms crossed. The night air quietly listened for Po's answer. The panda felt the heat rise in his neck, making him scratch the non-existent itch. Tigress rolled her eyes and looked at him, smirking, "You didn't plan on doing that, did you?"
"Your mother said to keep you safe from the Jin-Min-Japanese war. She mentioned nothing about anything else."
"Is that why you knew so much about us when you came?"
"Oh no, I was already a fan of you guys, way before that," Po explained. The lanky wolf stretched his limbs as a wide dog-like yawn left his mouth.
"Well, I think we should be getting to bed. We have more ground to cover in the morning," Lee said. Mei nodded as the royal warriors went to their tent. Tigress and Po still sat by the fire.
"There's just one thing I have to ask, Po. Why Tigress?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, my name is very... basic," Tigress replied.
"Oh... well, I asked your mother about that. She said she had several names for both you and your brother, but none came to mind except those names. They were basic, she admits, but for some reason, they just fit you two. I think she made the right choice," Po smiled. The striped feline smiled back. "We better get some sleep. We have a long walk tomorrow."
Suddenly a loud noise ripped through the sky as the wind tumbled over the noisy leaves. Black and dark blue hues were all around them with the full-moon and the fire as their only light. The rustling trees didn't compare to the awful sound that bounced off the dark trees. The stars themselves seemed to shiver. "Ooookay, that was weird."
"That sounded like a howl, but... that couldn't be Lee could it?" Tigress asked.
"No, that was something like... like a tiger's roar mixed with a wolf's howl. It almost sounds like a..." Po gulped.
"A what?"
"I think we should get to bed." Tigress slowly nodded. Po darted in the tent and sealed the flap. "There's no such thing as demons. There's no such thing as demons." Tigress could hear him mumble. Though she never believed in those things, she couldn't help wonder.
Continued...
