Chapter 4 - Uncovering

Luke's POV

I found myself in the same mindscape of the streams of light and the dark figure stood in front of me again.

"I've already dealt with your little snake friend, I might go for your tiger friend next." The figure said to me with glee. The fact that he's already hurt Viper is bad enough, but if he thinks he can mess with Tigress, he should reconsider that notion.

"Don't you dare even say a word to her, you fucker!" I yelled at the figure. Instead of being intimidated, he just looked as though he earned a victory, I now felt more scared.

"Oh…. I forgot, you love her. Why love someone who can't stand you? She'll toss you aside when she doesn't see any more use for you. She did call you a freak after all." The figure further pushed buttons and I can't stand it. I was crying and falling to my knees and the figure just walked up to me and knelt down to me.

"Believe me yet?" The figure asked me.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled as I threw a punch at the figure, but then I woke up and I shot up, but I noticed that I'm not at the Pool and instead, I'm in my and Tigress's room. How the actual hell did I get here, and I noticed that it's daytime outside, I've been unconscious for that long?

I decided to go and see if I could find Shifu and talk about what I've been experiencing. But as I opened the door, Tigress was right in front of me and she at first looked stunned, but then she looked stern and slapped me across the face, it stung like hell and I never expected her to do that to me.

"What was that for?" I said to her bewildered.

"For leaving in the middle of the night. What happened?" Tigress said to me in frustration.

"I'll tell you later but first, I need to talk with Master Shifu." I told her and then ran out of the barracks and to the Hall of Warriors, and thankfully Shifu was there and he was reading some scrolls.

"Master Shifu, I need to talk with you." I said to Shifu whilst I bowed to him. He acknowledged my presence and he gestured to me to sit by him.

"I see that you're awake. What do you want to talk about?" Shifu said to me. I could tell that he was concerned for me.

"It's about what's been happening for the past several days. When you told me to meditate on what has been bothering me, I've had visions of a dark figure standing over some bodies and then yesterday, it started to interact with me. It's trying to make me believe that he's my friend. And it's trying to make me believe in something that I'm sure isn't true." I explained to Shifu and he just sat there stroking his chin taking in all this information.

"I see. Can you describe this figure to me?" Shifu asked me. I tried to remember the various details of the figure and they gave me chills.

"It was all black, it had claws on its hands and….it had glowing red eyes." I told Shifu and remembering those red eyes made me pause. Shifu looked as though he was getting scared and that worried me as he was supposed to look out for me as a student.

"From what you told me, it sounds like a demon named Xing. A demon that tries to control people by making them depressed and when they're in a weak enough state, the demon possesses the person and wreaks havoc. We cannot tell the Five or Po about this, it'll cause problems and they'll all might play into the demon's plan somehow. The only way to defeat it is by having a strong mind and constantly thinking of stuff that makes you feel good." Shifu explained to me and it made me annoyed to know that I can't explain to Tigress later and the fact that I have to deal with this by myself is going to be taxing.

"Understood, Master." I said to Shifu as I stood back up and bowed to him. But before I left him, I decided to ask something that I noticed.

"By the way Master, where's Viper? I haven't seen her around." I asked Shifu. And he just looked at me blankly.

"She's in some kind of coma. She's been like that since she and Tigress found you by the Pool of Sacred Tears." He told me and I immediately ran to the barracks.

I got to Viper's room and there she was, laying on her bed and I saw that she definitely was in a coma. My first assumption was that the demon somehow did this. I felt so angry that I stormed off to the Training Hall and took my anger out on the swinging dummies. I was so angry that I broke the dummies apart and the splinters struck my hands and I let out yells of frustration.

"Whoa, Luke. What is wrong with you?" I heard Monkey say to me at the doorway. I turned and saw him with Po and Mantis. I walked towards them as I was leaving to get something to eat.

"I just found out about Viper." I told him darkly.

"Why are you angry about it?" Po asked me. Why the hell would he ask me that as he should since he saw it the first day I was here.

"Because she's the one that made me feel easy and looked after me when I first came here!" I yelled at Po and he jumped back at my response. Then I just walked off.