"Beginning the End"


"AUGH! OWW! I thought acupuncture was supposed to make me feel - ERGH - BETTER?!"

"Trust me, it will," Mantis affirmed, walking up to Po's shoulders. "It's just difficult to find the right nerve points under all this - um - "

"Fat?" Po finished for him.

" - fur." Mantis lied. "I was gonna say fur…"

Po tried to roll his eyes, but realized that a needle was somewhat holding them in place. "Sure you were…"

"I mean - who am I to judge a warrior by his size? I mean - look at me." Mantis continued, sighing as Po tried to locate his diminutive frame. "Over here."

He jabbed a sharp needle into the panda's scapula, earning a vicious jolt from Po. It was bad enough that he had offered to do this - and Po had taken him up on it - but it was worse that it was nighttime, Crane and Monkey were trying to sleep, and Viper had somehow lost the nerve chart that would have made this process so much simpler. The dorm's narrow hallways bounced and amplified every little noise Po made, which Mantis was sure would become enough to cause someone to start a fight over.

"I know he's trying to like - inspire me and all… " Po began. "But if I didn't know any better, I'd say Master Shifu's trying to get rid of me. Haha, um - "

Mantis exchanged a glance with Viper. Both smiled gently towards Po.

"At least I don't have the worst of it," Po noted. "Poor Al -"

The panda stopped himself, knowing better than to bring up Alf right now. Mantis however, saw right through this.

"Dude, what exactly is the deal with you and the kid?" Mantis asked, resuming his acupuncturing work. "We've seen some crazy stuff before, but an actual Seeker…"

"You only read about them in children's scrolls and the legends," Viper interrupted, adjusting her bow with her tail. "Then again, this kid - what'd you say his name was?"

"Alfalfa," Po finished for her.

"Right, that - he doesn't seem like any Seeker I've ever read about."

"Yeah well," Po mulled. "I didn't know what the heck he was when I first met him. This weird, furless, clawless thing… but he and I got together pretty well since then."

"How old were you?" Mantis questioned, pricking another needle into Po's shoulder.

"Probably eight or ten," Po noted. "He's a little younger than me. We used to play tag together… well, used to - that was before - "

Po stopped, unsure whether to continue.

"Before what?" came a new, stern voice.

Po stopped, watching the new figure standing in the now open dorm entrance.

Tigress narrowed her eyes at Po. "Panda, before what?"

"You know," Crane's voice came through from the adjacent room. "We're not really supposed to talk about the kid…"

"If he's going to stay here," Tigress started. "We should know. Everything."

Po gulped, watching Tigress approach with an angry stare.

"Before my dad banned me from talking to him," Po continued. "I've been sort of sneaking him into my room for the past few years, usually when he can't take the cold outside…"

"What was he like before you two idiots met?" Tigress asked with a huff. "Dangerous? Anything I should know about?"

Po could practically hear her reaching for the button which would almost inevitably end up causing Alf immense pain. He wanted to sidetrack the conversation immediately, but the question was intriguing...

Po often wondered about Alf's history for many years. "I don't know. He doesn't talk to me much about it, or says he doesn't know much, which could be true too…"

"I mean he must have been like six or seven, right?" Viper speculated. "I don't think even he remembers."

"From what the villagers tell me," Po continued. "He sort of was here since well - since being born, I guess."

"In the Valley?" Mantis queried. "Can Seekers even be born? Have an actual Mom and Dad?"

"There's probably some weird witch in the woods who assembles them," Monkey's voice broke in from yet another adjacent room. "Tries to put the ugliest parts of every single creature on Earth into one, super-ugly, deformed thing… then adds some poop in the mix, just to spice it up."

Mild chuckles came from the Five, but perhaps not as much they would have several weeks ago. Po kept quiet, being in a particularly vulnerable position with Tigress standing a few feet from him and Mantis still picking away at his backside with sharp needles.

"Point is, he's not trying to get in anybody's way," Po emphasized. "He's just a kid, yanno? And despite that little yelly-screamy match he had a while ago with Shifu - he doesn't deserve this, really."

The Five stayed absolutely quiet. Po didn't dare try to get any sort of agreement from them.

"And besides, he's gonna be out of our fur soon," Po denoted, remembering Alf's promise to get Oogway to remove the shock collar - facilitating his escape. "Trust me."

"Speaking of which - Po," Crane's voice came again. "Are you - really going through with this?"

The same awkward silence came again. Po attempted to read the Five's expressions this time - Mantis and Viper looked doubtful, Tigress was of course harsh and unforgiving, while Monkey's peeking head quickly retreated into his own dorm as quickly as Po stared at him.

"Listen guys, I can totally understand why everyone's sort of - " Po struggled to find the right words. " - not supercool with me being chosen, I mean - I get it."

Po paused, making sure everyone was calm enough to continue.

"But I sort of - you know, just wanna at least try," Po stressed, remembering his conversation with Oogway. "So maybe I fail. Maybe I can't fight like you guys. Maybe I end up embarrassing myself. Maybe I'm just like - a total loser…"

The pause was involuntary this time, as Po tried to keep his composure.

"But at least I can go to bed knowing I tried," the panda finally continued. "And if I end up wasting everyone's time - don't worry, I'll just pick up the autographs and skedaddle, you know?"

Monkey's head drooped slightly to this.

"But I gotta try." Po finished. "I gotta - DOYEE!"

Po's face seized, stretching itself into a deformed grin while his limbs locked up.

Some of the Five chuckled. Tigress raised her paw in anger.

"OH THAT IS IT!" she roared.

"WAIT! MY FAULT!" Mantis reappeared from behind Po's back. "I ACCIDENTALLY TWEAKED HIS FACIAL NERVE!"

Po collapsed forward, showing easily 150 needles shoved into his back.

"And - may have also stopped his heart," Mantis ended, prodding at the unresponsive panda's face.

. . .

Alf couldn't find Yu.

He had spent nearly four hours searching - going to the rock she had shown him outside the Valley, deftly checking every room in the Palace, walking through the Valley and calling her name…

And after having several shoes and derogatory names thrown his way by villagers, Shifu, and another round of good shocking - he had given up.

Not on Yu - but on the situation.

She would present herself again. He had verified her position with the Palace guards (after bypassing some more demeaning epithets) - she really was a caterer.

He had more important matters to attend to.

Oogway. He was the only one who would even remotely think about removing the collar.

So here he was, scaling the ridiculously uncomfortable mountain slope that would lead him to the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom - the one definite place Alf knew Oogway would like to spend his nights meditating.

Alf jumped over a nearby rock, immediately returning back and hiding behind it as a few new voices came. He could just make out the peach tree and the tips of green grass, moonlight shining through the back.

"You must continue your journey without me."

"Wait - what are you - Master!"

Alf's ears twitched. He peeked above the rock.

Oogway was there.

But so was Shifu.

Oogway had a spectacular aura of petals revolving around him. Something in the air felt different, and Alf felt shameful for watching. This felt too private, too sincere - something with an air of finality was occurring.

"You can't leave me!" Shifu begged, Oogway's staff in his hands. Alf could make out a few tears just gently rolling down his face.

The old turtle gently locked his arms together, closing the aged eyes. He looked accepting.

"You must… believe…."

The aura of petals wrapped themselves around Oogway. The light was intense - too intense to look at directly.

Then Alf realized what was happening.

Oogway had disappeared. A chiral of flower petals, smoothly oscillating away from Shifu and Alf - flew into the bright night sky. The petals grew farther and farther away, until the only thing left was Shifu on his knees, staff clutched close to his chest.

A brief whimper.

Alf suppressed a gasp. He took a second to adjust his collar, then sprinted down the mountain in the hopes that tonight was merely a dream.


A/N

Shortie but hopefully a goodie… I'm trying to budget out all the key scenes and obviously adapt to them to this fic. And again, don't worry - it's all building up… Movie scripts are typically about 7500-20000 words, so I'm trying to tell a good story with more words!

Shoutout to all the viewers still sticking it in for the long-haul. And I'm always flattered by the support you guys show. :)

~TW

P.S: DragonChronicle: seems like we're wired by one brain given our concurrent publishing dates!

Anyone who's reading, go check out his stuff too - it's flat out amazing. (I gotta get off my lazy a** and start supporting it too...)