Hey all! So, during this quarantine and a little before that, I don't know I just had an urge to write again. It had been years and all of the sudden, I just felt like writing again! I am finally done with school and now a nurse that gives days off work, so I actually have time to write. My style has obviously changed as I have gotten older. I hope you all enjoy this fic though and remember to review! Stay safe.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda
All over China, the citizens are preparing to celebrate a very triumphant time in their history. It has been almost ten years ago that a peacock and a cannon were about to destroy everything they held dear to them. They had submitted, all their heroes who they counted on to protect them had fallen or gone into hiding. This weapon destroyed Kung Fu. How could a Kung Fu hero destroy a weapon that destroys Kung Fu? Well, that answer was in their savior The Dragon Warrior. Just as China had begun to fall and give in, a hero of black and white, swooped in. He stood on the rock in the middle of the sea, ready to die for his country.
The weapon shot and he was able to beat it! No one had for weeks. It killed anything that stood in front of it. The hero of black and white though, he stood in front of it and beat it. No one knew how at the time. Witnesses say he literally grabbed the deadly weapon by his bare paws and threw it around like it was a dodge ball. He deflected the weapon, destroying Lord Shen's weapons. That is how China was saved and it was that day every year, they celebrated the defeat of Lord Shen and celebrated The Dragon Warrior defeat of him. It was in his honor and honoring China that they celebrated. It was a day children and adults together looked forward to.
The ones who don't particularly care for it are the heroes who still remember the battle as if it was yesterday. The ones who remember each bruise, beating, mental toll, the scars, they remember the day but don't celebrate it privately like the rest of the country. Sure, they'll come out to the public and celebrate for them, but in The Jade Palace, it is an ordinary day to them.
For one warrior, he nearly loss his natural ability. The ability to fly. His right wing was damaged while trying to escape the tower. He remembers that gut-wrenching feeling every time he flies about what he almost lost. He remembers how he almost cost his team their lives as he slowed them down because of his injury. They say he didn't, their alive and that's what matters, but he feels the guilt. They almost were crushed under the tower. He remembers it every time he flies. An ability he once loved and barely thought of, now is always on his mind.
Another warrior remembers how short life was. He luckily wasn't bruised up much in the battle given his size. He was always the member of his group to be the least injured due to it. Even he remembers though, being caged up though, feeling even smaller and yet bigger than he has ever before. His life flashed before his eyes. All he could remember was Kung Fu training and the palace. Nothing from his life before. Sure, there were one or two moments, but nothing that significantly impacted him. Now, he is thankful every day he wakes up and has a life. He intends on living it like it his last.
The other warrior, she was more affected by the aftermath of the battle than the actual battle. Sure, she got bruised up and a scar or two here and there from fights, but that's normal for a Kung Fu warrior. That wasn't anything new to worry about. She healed the quickest out of the 5. She still remembers comforting her friends during their gut-wrenching nightmares. She remembers their screams. In training, if they scream, she has to remember it isn't due to a nightmare, it was a natural scream. She remembers comforting the ones who cried from the realistic nightmares or those who would literally shake from the fear of what their nightmares revealed. Some of her friends have less and less nightmares now, but she still remembers how they felt and her need to comfort them.
There was a warrior who remembers nearly losing his best friend. He tried to keep up the positive spirit he knew his friend would want the group to have. How could he be happy though when his friend was gone? Sure, he didn't like him at first. Mostly he was sticking up for his friend who lost the title of honor. However, after defeating Tai Lung, they got close. He realized how similar their humor was and the pranks they pulled together, legendary. Two pranksters in The Jade Palace. He was alone again, and it hurt. He realized when his friend lived how much he didn't appreciate him before. Now after ten years, they are basically brothers.
The oldest warrior will still wake up in cold sweats from time to time, remembering how he almost lost a student and a good friend. He'll go and check to make sure they are still breathing in their rooms. He remembers that night vividly. He remembers seeing his students all tied up and how he showed up too late. Sure, they claimed he arrived just in time, but he didn't feel that. He felt had he shown up earlier, maybe he wouldn't have nearly cost a student his life and his students wouldn't have been chained up like something that was about to be slaughtered. He remembers that just because they are all grown up warriors, doesn't mean they still don't have a lot to learn and they need their teacher no matter how many times they claim they don't. He failed them that day, but never again.
Then there was another warrior. She was claimed to be a hardcore warrior who felt nothing. They don't know though. They don't know that she felt everything. The first few months after coming home were the worse. She had vivid nightmares of that weapon firing at her friend, how she wasn't able to save him the first time and she thought he was dead. He'd come back in the dream and yell at her, saying how he could've been saved. He was dead she thought, he should have been dead. She doesn't know how he survived. When she took the majority of the hit from the second cannon that came towards her friend, it took months for her to recover. Knowing the pain, he went through, the guilt laid with her till this day of him suffering because of her slowness and inability to save him the first time
When they thought he was dead, she remembers her friends saying they should be hardcore like her because that was what he would've wanted, but right then, she didn't care. Hardcore. All her walls were down when she thought her friend died. She cried silently for the friend she lost while being chained up about to be dead herself. She doesn't remember the last time she cried. She has never cried except for when she was a cub. That night was the first time she cried as an adult and it was like a dam broke. She cried nightly, screaming bloody murder the first few months. She would go into her friend's room to make sure he was still alive and breathing. After that battle, she wasn't hardcore, she wasn't hardcore anymore since he has shown up in their lives and brought down all her ironwood walls. She felt everything. She felt every pain, every emotion and she hated it.
Then there was the final warrior. He was the one who suffered the most during that battle, but he was the one that gained the most. He was the one who stood on the rocks in the middle of the sea, ready to fight or die. He remembers everything. The peace, the water, the fear, the fire. He remembers how much power he had in his hands when the ball of cannon came shooting in his hands, the destruction he could hold. It was the destruction that should've ended him, it almost did. He still remembers the first time he faced the weapon and how he landed in his first home. The home that was taken away from him too soon. The home where he should've learned it all. It took all his will power to not just give up and stay in his old panda village. He knew people were counting on him though. He couldn't let the citizens of China fall because of some peacock and let his friends die because of his cowardness or pain.
He still has many nightmares from the night. There were many versions. The main reoccurring one was learning about his mom sacrificing her life for his. That she willingly let the wolves and Lord Shen kill her to protect him. It still haunts him. Another nightmare was if he had been unable to learn inner peace and watching his friends and family fall and blame him for holding on to the past. There was one nightmare that always struck him odd. He and Lord Shen were battling it out on the boat, last fight, last chance of redemption. He offered Lord Shen, the man who killed his species, who killed his past and home, he offered a monster redemption and peace. The stupid peacock, of course, chose death and anger. The fact that he did bother Po to this day, why was he, someone with so much pain from his past able to push through it and he couldn't offer the same to another? He told himself that China was safe from him though at least and he did what he could do.
The battle affected China too. One change was the amount of people who wanted to learn Kung Fu and thus, this led to the opening of Kung Fu Training Academy at The Jade Palace. There was a small class before, but now it was a large and popular class. Another change was the treatment towards the peacocks and wolf species. There were no official law changes. Though many of the citizens believed there should be. Peacocks and wolves were completely discriminated against, basically living in exile, in hiding. The citizens irrationally blamed the entire species for what Lord Shen had done. There had been very little peacock or wolves sighting to this day. The peacocks had gone into hiding while many of the wolves were in Gongmen Prison rotting away.
In a land far from The Valley of Peace, a village of peacocks thrived in secrecy. No one knew of them. They lived in peace and not bothering to contact the outside world. No one could find them. They were high in the mountains far from civilization. There was a particular peacock who disagreed with his village's willingness to lay low and allow the citizens of China to dictate how they lived their lives. They'd done nothing to them why should they suffer? He's left the village before despite his mother's warnings. He had to see the hatred and discrimination himself. He was a young teen and almost ten years ago, he visited The Valley of Peace. He wanted to attend the new upcoming Kung Fu class. However, the battle was still fresh amongst the citizen. He definitively received many comments and even some attacks along his travels. Nothing he couldn't handle though. It wasn't his fault he was born a peacock and damn the people for trying to make him feel bad. He wanted to attend the class and damn anyone to stand in his way.
So, he went. The Valley of Peace citizens certainly didn't like him. Nearly every citizen glared at him like he was trash. He ignored them though and walked up the countless steps that awaited him. He arrived and the class backed away from him. Afraid of someone who posed no harm. He introduced himself and the masters acknowledge him, showing no fear in him. Sure, he saw some surprised looks, but they still accepted him. He smiled internally. He trained for as long as he could under The Dragon Warrior and The Furious Five allowed him. They didn't question his age, luckily, they had a teen/young adult class. They didn't discriminate him. They were the only ones. However, his mother, despite her warnings of not leaving the village, dragged herself to The Valley of Peace and reprimanded him. She brought him home.
A few years went on, his mother fell ill. Of what the healers couldn't figure out. He begged her to let him find a healer outside the village. She had forbidden it. She said it was her dying wish. She didn't want her last memory of them tainted with hatred and loathing. He couldn't break that oath. He wanted to so much, but he knew his mother was running out of time and if he left now, she would die before he had a chance to say goodbye.
The following day, his mama was lying on a bed outside in the open fresh air. She knew today was her last day. She was writing a letter.
"Mama just tell me what you are writing in the letter. Save your energy," he begged.
She shook her head, dipping the quill in the ink and continued to write, "You need to know this information I am writing, but I want our last memories to be nothing but love."
He obliged. She finished writing the letter and told him to read it after she pasted. They talked for hours after. He noticed his mother was breathing funny. It wasn't normal.
"Mama!" He yelled in alarm.
She smiled weakly, "It is time my son, I love you," she said somberly.
"Mama hold on, let me get the healers," he said, he felt her grab him though. She shook her head.
"What is meant to be is what is. Don't be afraid of dying or death. It is a part of life," she told him, "I love you, my sweet child," she closed her eyes and her breathing became agonal. She started to gasp and then, she took her last breath. He cried on top of her, mourning the loss that could've been prevented if she had just let him get an outside healer.
The following days he promised to read his mother's letter to him. He found a place his mother loved to take him too. On the outskirts of the mountain, a forest and a lake stood. He sat on the edge of the lake.
"To my little Zí,
In this letter, it will answer all of the questions you have asked of me for years. I have believed and still do that you do not need to know these answers due to your nature. You are a kind boy, a boy with passion and love. However, you are rash and I worry by revealing your past it will awaken something.
But everyone deserves to know their heritage. Your past was not particularly kind to you my child. If you do not wish to know, stop reading now. If you have stopped reading now, know my sweet son I have loved your whole life, life is full of pain, but life is also full of love and surprises. It is a wonderful life. I urge you to look at life in the best way because if you don't, your heart and soul turn black and it is hard to let the light in.
However, I know you very well, so I know you chose to continue. Just know what I said before still holds true even till after the letter finishes.
I was young. I was a beautiful peacock in my prime. Every male peacock wanted me as their wife, wanted to marry me for my looks and wealth as I came from a wealthy family. None of them interested me though. My family, like any, had found someone perfect in their eyes. To me though, he was a jerk. I put on a façade and pretended to like him. He was no match to who I thought I truly loved.
The guy I truly loved was adventurous, bold and outspoken. He was rich, but not caring about his wealth but more for his words and passion. He intrigued me, believed me to a life outside of what was meant to be. However, the further our relationship went, he began to show his true colors. He spoke first of his disdain for his parents. It was pure hatred. It didn't scare me off. It should've. Then he began talking about vengeance and how to show them what he was capable of. Then he revealed his plan. To use the gift of color and joy and turn it into destruction. It made me sick. I left him.
I thought I was done with him. I came home and planned my wedding with my fiancé. Instead of a wedding, I got disowned due to my having of you and as the fiancé was not the father, I was unofficially exiled in shame. I do not regret that. I'd make the same choice again if it meant to have you.
Years past and my eyes disbelief me. I had believed your father died. No, he was alive and had China in his hands. He did what he told me so many years ago, he would do. Turn joy and color into destruction. Yes, your father is Lord Shen.
I never wanted you to find out your father was a man ready to kill millions. I wanted you to always know love and happiness. Life isn't that way though. I tried my best for it to be yours though. So, now that you know that even though one of your birth parents is who he is, you are still my son. Remember everything I have taught you and you will have a happy, successful life. Follow his, your path will bring destruction and your demise.
I love you, my son, make the right choices in life.
Love,
Mama."
His face was wet after reading the letter, his blood boiled. He read it ten times over. He was the son of Lord Shen. A man that he should've gotten to know his whole life was dead. He could've asked him all the questions he wanted. He wouldn't know if his father would be proud of him and his accomplishments because someone killed him. He always wanted to know his whole life about who his father was, but it hurt his mama to talk about him, so he never pushed. He wished he had. He had a right to know who he came from and his past. Yes, his father had done some evil things, but what if his father knew of him, could he have changed? Would he have actually grown up with a father? He would never get to know though because of the citizens of China discrimination towards the peacocks and The Dragon Warrior who killed his father.
He tried to not let the hate in his heart like his mother suggested. Oh, how he was trying. The thing was though, he had received nothing but hate from others, even from his own kind. He never told his mama that though. He assumed now it was due to his resemblance of his father. The hate had built up over years though and he was ready to accept it. He couldn't forgive, what's the point? To let those who stepped on him for years to win? No. Who should he even forgive? The killer of his father or those who discriminated him and his kind so much he couldn't even give his mother the proper care she deserved in her illness? No. No point to forgive. He was going to avenge his father and his mother. The people expected that of him so why not give in? He had nothing to lose now. This was his faith and destiny. His past had written it for him.
Thanks for reading yall! It is a different style from my other Kung Fu Panda fics as I have matured in my writing (I hope). Please leave a review and see you in the next chapter.