Chapter 19: Worry Founded

It was black and green. "Kai is coming," said the voice in the darkness. Po was lit up with gold and peach petals flowed about him. Po's eyes were white, whether with determination, awesomeness, or power, it could not be easily determined.

"Kai! You're going down! Prepare for the earth-shattering awesomeness of my ultimate technique: the Wuxi Finger Hold," said Po.

"Then, come at me, oh, bodacious Dragon Warrior," mocked Kai.

They launched toward each other, like Yin and Yang colliding. Dai was watching this sky battle from the ground. When Kai and Po collided in the air, they disappeared in a wave of light. Peach petals fell from the sky. They radiated light, but for only a few moments before going dark. Dai sobbed mournfully as the darkness closed in around her. "No… please," she pleaded.

"No!" Dai exclaimed as she quickly sat up in bed. The first rays of morning were coming in through the slits in the door and windows. It had been a horrible dream.

At Dai's scream, Po was roused from his snoring sleep. "What happened? Where are the bad guys?" asked Po, already up and taking a defensive stance.

"It was nothing, Po; just a bad dream," said Dai as she quickly wiped the tears from her eyes.

Upon seeing that Dai was troubled, Po sat down on the edge of her bed. Despite the added reinforcing put into these beds to sustain a panda's weight, this one broke. Dai fell harmlessly wrapped around Po. Po said, "Aw, come on! I'm not even one of the heavy pandas!" Dai, meanwhile, was laughing hysterically. Po lifted his arm to look at her and smiled. "Well, I'm glad you thought that was funny." He faked indignation.

"Aw, come on, Po. It's a little funny," replied Dai.

"Yeah, I guess it was," he said, laughing with her.

"What is all this noise about so early in the morning?" asked Mr. Ping, entering the room.

"I thought you liked mornings," said Po.

"I like mornings so long as there are paying customers," replied Mr. Ping.

"Fair enough," said Dai. "So, now what?"

"Well, usually I would sleep in as part of my panda training," replied Po.

"Well, I'm not one to stand in the way of important training. Let's hope you don't break the bed this time," said Dai, laughing.

"Po!" scolded Mr. Ping. Po was confused at his dad's tone and Dai just laughed more.

"Hey, where's the washtub?" asked Dai, changing the subject.

"Behind the house. There's also a curtain for privacy," replied Mr. Ping, still giving Po "the eye."

"Thanks, Mr. Ping. Oh, and, the bed broke from Po sitting on it," said Dai with a smile. With that, she left them to any further discussion that needed to happen.

After Dai's bath, she shook off most of the water before drying further. She felt herself wishing she had taken the time to pack more. Her favorite bath oil was back at the Jade Palace. She did find an interesting replacement, however. It was a soap that smelled like eucalyptus. A few pandas were awake at this time and seemed to notice the difference in her scent. Dai felt weird at that realization, so she went to the village entrance to cool off.

When Dai got there, she smelled someone familiar. They were hurt, badly. Dai rushed to them and helped them into the village. It was Tigress!

"What happened?" asked Dai.

"Kai attacked. Has Po mastered chi yet?" asked Tigress.

"I don't know. Why don't we get you patched up? Then, Po can tell you himself."

Tigress nodded, "We need to hurry. He's on his way here."

"Tigress!" Po rushed to the two of them. "What happened?"

"Kai attacked the Jade Palace. It's all gone," said Tigress.

"What about Mantis, Monkey, Crane, Viper?" asked Po to which Tigress shook her head at each name. "Master Shifu?" Tigress's sad expression was enough of an answer.

"Po, he's on his way here," said Tigress.

Other pandas had gathered at this point, Po's dad being among them. "Dad, I have to learn chi now," said Po.

"No, you're not ready," said Li Shan as he worked to get others to get ready to evacuate. It seemed Li was more focused on getting his people to safety, which was understandable.

"Come on, you still need to be patched up. Po will learn chi, I'm sure of it," said Dai, though whether this was more to convince Tigress or herself, she wasn't sure.

Some time later, Dai went looking for Po as she learned from Mr. Ping that Po's talk with Li hadn't gone to plan. Dai found Po sparring with a mock Kai. Dai had never seen Po this upset. "You want company or would you rather be alone?" asked Dai.

"Daiyu!" Po said, surprised and happy to see her. He enveloped her in a big panda hug. "You smell different," he noted.

"Different in a good way or a bad way?"

"I like both, so, I guess, it would still be a good kind of different."

They both laughed a little at that. Po pulled away to look at Dai better. He put his hand to the side of her face and she nuzzled into it. She grabbed that hand gently and looked at him with sincerity. "Po, I'm still worried about you," she said.

"You don't have to; I'll be all right."

"How are you going to face Kai?"

"I'll just fight him and if he tries to take my chi, I'll just use my special move."

"The Wuxi Finger Hold?"

"Yeah. Why? You think I use it too much or… is this about something else?"

"Po, I should have told you this morning, but-" she stopped talking upon noticing a few smells coming close. Pandas from the village. Li apologized to Po and offered his help along with the other villagers. Po also figured out how to teach kung fu: turning them into themselves, as Po put it.

A few days later, Po stood proud as he overlooked the villagers from a nearby hilltop. Tigress stood next to him, mostly recovered. "They are ready," said Po.

"What?" asked Tigress in confusion.

Later, Po gathered everyone and went over the plan. Everyone except Po would be distracting the "jombies" while Po used the Wuxi Finger Hold on Kai. Dai still felt concerned for Po, but she lost her courage to tell Po about her dream.

As Po was giving his breakdown of the plan to the others, Dai quietly walked away. She smelled something different. Something weird. Dai made it to the edge of the village to where the ice cliff was. Dai looked over the edge and saw Kai swinging two jade blades attached by a long chain. Kai took the blades he was twirling and threw them up. Kai wasn't just "coming," he was here.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Stay tuned for Tuesday for my mega update. All in-progress stories will get a chapter added to them and I will put up stats for the past year on my profile page. After that, the schedule will go on as normal. I hope you are all enjoying the regular updates and I hope you will please keep reading and reviewing, thanks :)