A/N: Wow was I gone for a while… um… just re-read anything if you're feeling lost? XD
All joking aside, I promise to be more consistent from now on. :)
~TW
"Split Paths"
"Are you being serious?"
"Yes."
"But… I don't understand…"
"Neither did I - until… well… now."
Po walked a bit farther away from Li, staring back at the large panda with a confusing glance.
It had been an interesting week. Just days after Li had come to the Valley, those pesky Jade zombies had been defeated, and the Valley was peaceful once again - Wang had dropped the bombshell that a mysterious spirit warrior named Kai was coming to destroy the Valley.
So Po had the option to be rightly concerned.
Everyone had decided to congregate in Wang's room once more at noon. To the panda's surprise, the Palace's sole guest room was enormous and spaciously occupied - there were drawings and scrolls of Kai and eyewitness accounts on the floors and adorning the bamboo walls, but there were also a few bags that Wang had ordered no one to touch. Still, the room was beginning to get crowded - with Shifu, Wang, the Furious Five, Alf, Yu, and even Zhong anxiously waiting around Li and Po. Thick sunlight filtered through bamboo shading - tantalizing everyone with its bright luminosity.
Li had just made a series of revelations just two seconds prior - that there was a secretive panda village far away, and the pandas knew chi.
Which coincidentally, turned out to be the one thing that could defeat Kai.
All of this smelled like absolute nonsense - coincidences atop coincidences, almost as if everything was going right randomly.
"Po," Li tried, watching everyone else give him anxious stares. "I understand if - "
"Let me think for a second," Po forced out, sighing to himself.
Chi, as it turned out - was known to Shifu as well, yet the myths and legends had shrouded most of the accuracy that could have helped them. One consistent fact was that chi was enormously powerful and able to bend into different energies and shapes at will - Shifu had sometimes shown this by injecting a bit of life into a wilting grassblade - but for most of the Five, Po, and Alf: it was just a random, inanimate concept.
Po turned back at Li. On one hand, he was dying to spend more time with his biological father - yet on the other, he was completely opposed to trying to figure out how Li could have magically known about Kai, just in time talk about chi, and let everyone know that the pandas weren't dead in a hailstorm of coincidences.
"This past week has been crazy," Alf let out, to minor chuckles from everyone else. "Think everyone can agree on that?"
The Furious Five let out hearty chuckles, as Yu wrapped her arms around Alf and guffawed loudly. Even Zhong squeaked out a small sound, but was silenced as Shifu glared at him. Wang merely kept a firm glance on Li.
"Dragon Warrior," Wang started slowly. "If you must know - I believe the panda. The Yongshi have found reports of such pandas… never anything concrete but…"
Po shot a quizzical look at the massive lion, whose head nearly touched the low ceiling. The Yongshi - as it turned out - were very much silent like the wolves that had been previously with Wang: silent, firmly following the lion's command, and perhaps fifty in number. They had taken camp in the Wu Dan mountains - only Wang had spoken with them at lengths.
"We need to explore every possible resource to defeat Kai," Wang noted. "If Li says he can teach you chi… well then, I say trust him."
Mild nods and agreement from everyone else.
Po eyed Li with a defeated expression. "I guess it's settled then - I'm goin' back home."
At once, Li ran up to the panda and squeezed him with a ferocious intensity.
"You won't regret this Lotus!" Li emphasized in happy squeals.
"You won't!" he said again.
"I hope not…" Po reluctantly tried… unsure of his destiny but confident that he needed to do this.
"Wait wait," Mantis interrupted atop Alf's shoulder. "If Po and Li are leaving - where does that leave us?"
"Yeah, don't need the villagers need protection?" Monkey asked genuinely.
"They'll be slaughtered without our presence here," Tigress affirmed.
"We'll be staying back," Shifu urged, as Wang nodded his head slowly. "With the Yongshi and the full might of the Palace - we should be able to at least, learn more about this - Kai - and evacuate the villagers as well."
"Can't really call 'em villagers anymore, can you?" Alf let out, as Yu nodded beside him. "These are cityfolk now."
"What's your point, boy?" Shifu asked.
"Alf's right," Viper agreed. "The Valley is more like a gigantic city now. Imagine evacuating thousands of people, shops, factories, schools, courts…"
"It'll be an organizational nightmare," Yu concurred, imagining how impossible it was to see the Valley's architecture and broad buildings completely empty now. "The ol' evacuate approach can't work anymore…"
"Maybe we can ask the guards for help," Zhong surprisingly rang in.
Absolute silence.
Alf hated this.
Everytime when Zhong would somehow interrupt - with a courage Alf could never understand - everyone surrounding the old wolf would sneer and glare at him.
And no one glared harder than Shifu.
"It is only by Wang's blessing that you would even be allowed inside this room," Shifu spat at the crestfallen wolf. "Don't contribute your worthless ideas ever again."
Zhong turned his head down to the ground, then exited the room through bamboo blinds. Wang attempted to stop him, but was ignored as Zhong audibly sniffled and moved out of the room.
Alf was seething with anger - and he could sense that Yu was too.
"Go make sure he's okay," he whispered, as Yu nodded before giving Alf a quick peck on the cheek before pursuing the wolf.
"We will figure out some plan," Shifu spoke over everyone else. "We have time… right erm - Wang?"
The lion merely nodded, but it was careful.
"For now."
. . .
"Father?"
The old master turned back, smiling as he saw Tigress' form gently enter into his room with a nervous disposition. This surprised Shifu more than anything - the fact that his daughter had anything in the world that could make her nervous. That, and combined with the fact that she was calling on him at midnight - a time she wouldn't dare approach her master usually.
"You don't call me that unless you're stressed about something," Shifu began, allowing Tigress to walk fully into his spacious, graceful room. He shut the bamboo blinds behind her.
"I wanted to ask you something, Master," Tigress began, bowing mildly as she secretly observed the ornamentation and amount of scrolls carefully organized in Shifu's room - always perpetually impressed with the amount of dragon logos and inner peace symbols that covered the entire flooring and brown walls.
"What is it?" Shifu asked gently, leaping atop his staff in trademark fashion.
"How did - did - did you handle… Tai Lung leaving the Palace?" Tigress asked in anxiety.
Shifu felt her tension constrict in her humbled features. He knew she was taking a risk asking him this.
But he removed himself from all those memories. "He didn't leave, Master Tigress - he was imprisoned."
"Yes but did you think that was best for him?" Tigress pressed, fiddling with her paws and golden robes.
"Did I think prison was best for him?" Shifu smiled, almost wondering whether she was making a joke. "It was what needed to be done."
Tigress gulped, pacing around. "And he - he hated you for it, right?"
"Yes," Shifu quickly agreed, mind racing to memories despite his best efforts. "I suppose so…"
Shifu came down from his staff, moving to his desk as he clasped his hands and staff behind him, ears dropping down imperceptibly as old memories crushed back into his psyche.
"I didn't mean to…" Tigress started.
"No, it's not something you were responsible for…" Shifu noted, still having his back turned to her. "But why ask me this now?"
Tigress sighed, again fiddling with her robes as she turned down her gaze. "I just - just wanted to know…"
Shifu examined his student much more closely. In particular, he focused on the small details of dishonesty ingrained in her face - the awkward eyebrow position, the half-upturned mouth, and a downcast gaze.
"I was wondering whether you could start training Alf again," Tigress asked suddenly.
Shifu gave her a bemused look. "Why do you ask?"
"I just - feel that he's learned all he can from me," Tigress noted, shaking her head in a mock-unassuming movement. "It's all - "
"Why do you so suddenly ask for this?" Shifu asked again, watching Tigress' face tense up. "You aren't thinking of - giving the title of master back to be, are you?"
Tigress fell silent.
"This is about the Seeker, isn't it?" Shifu questioned, sighing in acceptance. "About the things Wang said…"
"No!" Tigress quickly tried to deflect. "I was - wait, how do you know about - "
"Wang has told me of his - offer to take the Seeker from us," Shifu noted. "Have you told the boy about it yet?"
Tigress huffed, staring at the ceiling with an exasperated groan. Of course Wang would have told Shifu - this was just yet another sign that the enormous lion wasn't at all being completely honest with her about anything.
"How can I?" Tigress started, shaking her head. "He - "
"The boy needs to know, Tigress," Shifu cut in, staring at her with a forceful, dedicated gaze. "Regardless of any misgivings you feel between yourself and the lion - his offer seems reputable. Concrete."
"I - I just don't trust him," Tigress at last restated for perhaps the hundredth time. "I - I mean he revealed our Revolver to the entire world, for Scrolls' Sake!"
"From what he told me after," Shifu countered. "It seems like the leaked technology would lead to China being more able to fend off threats."
Tigress huffed.
"We can't hoard knowledge and power, Tigress," Shifu noted. "But I think the real reason you won't tell the boy - is because you're afraid he'll immediately accept Wang's offer."
Tigress smiled a bit, almost in disbelief. "Why would he? He doesn't know Wang or - "
"Yet he knows how his life has been for all the years here," Shifu addressed promptly. "He knows all the scars - inside and outside - that this city, that China has given him."
"So?" Tigress fired back.
"So if you give a dying man even a drawing of water, he will long for it," Shifu metaphorically quipped. "And the boy needs much more than water - he needs things that Wang, perhaps - is capable of providing for him."
"So you agree with him," Tigress cut across hastily, feeling great disappointment rush to her.
"I don't care enough about the Seeker's fate to involve myself," Shifu emphasized, recalling more thoughts. "If he stays - we can always use the extra team member. If he goes - we will find ourselves free of a legal and political loose end. It simply doesn't matter to me."
Tigress felt taken aback.
Although she certainly wasn't actively hugging or congratulating the Seeker (in fact she often did quite the opposite) - she at least acknowledged his contributions.
Tai Lung.
Shen.
Countless enemies and bandits along the way.
"He has been useful to the Palace, yes," Shifu emphasized. "But at the same time, it is because of him that the Jade Palace is under so much more scrutiny, so many more trials, the reason why the local guards often fight with us…"
"That isn't because of him!" Tigress retaliated, finding these accusations completely absurd. "He never did - "
"Him being him is the problem," Shifu forced, silencing her immediately. "And I for one - would have no problems with him following a different path than ours."
Tigress felt upset, almost cheated out of something. It was almost as if she had expected some guidance from her father - but instead he had berated how naive she was, insulted Alf's worth, and calmly denoted how rational Wang's offer was.
"Tell the boy," Shifu forced, walking to the bamboo blinds before slightly shifting them open. "Leave any attachment you have behind you and do what's right for this Palace."
Tigress snorted in sarcasm, but kept it lowkey so Shifu wouldn't hear. "And what's right?"
"He's your responsibility Tigress," Shifu noted. "Don't prolong the inevitable. Tell him."
Shifu turned to leave, looking behind him at Tigress' crestfallen frame. She clearly mulling it all over - and for a second, the old master thought he might stay back and talk more, but decided against this instinct.
"He's just another student Tigress," Shifu allowed himself to declare before leaving. "Nothing more."
She had to do this herself. He closed the blinds behind him.
. . .
The leaving was unremarkably unceremonial.
The supplies were simple. Po had packed just enough food to last them the journey there - which Li estimated to be about two weeks worth - and he had also made some final goodbyes to the Five, Alf, Yu, and Shifu. Although Alf had pestered Po to see Zhong as well before leaving, the panda merely growled this off and refused to meet with the wolf.
From a practical standpoint, they had elected to leave at noon instead of the usual nighttime traveling plan - noon allowed them to focus all their energy on stocking up on food and eating, before leaving for the long journey. Li was characteristically upbeat and positive, screaming declarations.
"You're gonna love the village!"
"I'm gonna show you where you pooped your pants!"
"Great scenery!"
"I love you Lotus!"
Po was less impressed. He was honestly just doing it because of the entire chi argument - he wasn't at that stage where he was attached to Li, and he wasn't sure why the panda was acting so attached to Po considering that they had been separated for so many years.
The only thing however - that made this moment worthwhile - was Alf's parting words to Po.
They were words that Po was thinking about even today, as the Five, Wang, Shifu, Alf, and Yu all waited in the Palace Courtyard, patiently waiting for Po and Li to begin the journey away.
Tell her, Alf had begged Po. You've waited long enough.
"Tigress?" Po questioned, pulling her gently to the side. "Can I - talk to you?"
She seemed very confused, but obliged the panda and distanced herself from the rest of the crowd around Li, all of them laughing around the squaling panda.
"I haven't changed the way I feel about you," Po whispered, recoiling as Tigress' face instantly morphed into disappointment. "Wait wait lemme finish!"
"Po - "
"Just let me finish, alright? I know you weren't in a good space two years ago and stuff but - "
"Po - "
"I feel exactly the same way I have about you…"
"Po - "
"...and I'm not gonna just give up because…"
"Po! I feel the same way!"
This stunned him.
Baffled him.
Po could barely close his mouth, as Tigress looked back at the rest of the Five, Alf, Yu, and Shifu as they laughed at another one of Li's never-ending jokes.
"Po you have to realize there's a concrete reason why I haven't - reciprocated," Tigress noted, tilting her head squarely at Shifu's form a distance away.
"He'll be fine with it… he's Master Shif - "
"To you," Tigress emphasized. "But to me? He's my father… and everything with Shen has seriously crushed any trust he had in me…"
"And dating the Dragon Warrior probably isn't the way to go," Po started, sad acceptance coming to him. "Hmm…"
"Lotus! Let's journey beyonder!" Li let out, picking up his sack and slinging it over his shoulder.
Tigress smiled. "Try not to kill him on the way there."
"No promises," Po smiled, clasping Tigress' paws gently. "Tigress - I - "
Tigress forced a paw to his mouth, carefully keeping a side eye on Shifu. "You don't need to say anything. We'll figure it out."
Po smiled, satisfied enough to swing by the rest of the group to give a few handshakes and hugs, before following Li out of the large gates exiting the Palace Courtyard.
. . .
At night, ordinarily everyone would be asleep.
For the Jade Palace, it seemed alright - after Po and Li had left at noon, Shifu had subjected the rest of the group to vigorous training routines while he discussed tactics to protect the city with Wang… so it made sense that after such a tiring day, everyone would be sound asleep in the Jade Palace dormitories. Notably, almost everyone conformed to this pattern - Yu, Mantis, Monkey, Viper, Crane, Shifu - even Wang and Zhong were likely sound asleep, completely at peace with the situation somehow.
Only two individuals were out on the Jade Palace Courtyard at midnight, sparring intensely against the backdrop of cascading moonlight and the bustling sounds of the Valley behind them.
One of them was there because she wanted to train.
The other was here because she had forced him to.
THUD.
"Again!"
Alf wheezed and gasped, trying to recover his breath as Tigress stared down at him with an angry gaze.
Even for Tigress, this seemed to be pushing it: midnight sparring sessions?
And why was she fighting so angrily?
More angrily than usual.
If that were possible.
WHACK.
"Again," she spat, albeit a bit more calmly.
Alf groaned, grasping his side where she had front-kicked him. "Tigress - I'm so tir - "
Tigress growled at him.
"Oh my - fine, Master Tigress," Alf corrected quickly. "It's midnight and we already trained super hard today can I just - "
SMASH.
"AHHH!"
Alf was on the floor again, staring up at Tigress as she growled even more fiercely.
"Don't ever call me your Master again," Tigress let out, calming herself down later. "You don't realize the stress that the title brings."
Alf was very confused but chose to ignore this. "Okay - um - can I please go sleep now?"
She obviously ignored this request.
Alf groaned again.
Tigress whipped back at him. "What do you make of your life here, Angelina?"
Alf held the thoughts in his head, quickly moving away from Tigress' characteristic double-palm strike.
"I dunno," he noted. "Whaddya mean?"
"Are you living - well?" Tigress queried, leaping up to the air to deliver a powerful elbow downward.
Alf swerved out of the way. "Living we - hell no!"
He almost laughed at Tigress' question, as she paused the sparring for a while.
"What do you mean?" Tigress asked, whiskers flaring in intrigue.
"I mean it's shitty here," Alf noted, fingers trailing to the ever-present reminder of his status - the collar squished around his neck. "It's been shitty. The way people look at me, how I get treated… I mean - come on…"
"But...?" Tigress demanded, almost as if she was expecting him to balance his response with something else.
Alf searched his mind for the positives. "... but I guess this is my - weird, dumb, yet charming home… I mean, I couldn't imagine a life anywhere else… and this place has all the crazy people like Po and the Five I've met…"
Tigress breathed a sigh of relief. "Good - that makes my job a lot easier… thank the Scrolls…"
"Job?" Alf wondered out loud. "What job?"
Tigress blinked her eyes slowly, almost as if she didn't want to say anything back for fear that Alf would become angry at her.
She was afraid that Alf could be mad at her.
That pinpointed just how much Wang was stressing her out.
"That stupid lion made me - well, made you an offer - through me," Tigress started.
Alf walked closer. "Wait, what? Whaddya sayi - "
"He offered you a place with the Yongshi," Tigress let out carefully, choosing a neutral tone as to not bias Alf one way or another. "Says he can give you a better life, teach you your real history… and this is the kicker…"
Alf was flabbergasted.
"... help him stop a Seeker army about to reach our world."
Alf laughed heartily. "Wha - what the - oh man! I didn't know you could tell jokes like - "
"I'm not joking," Tigress cut across harshly, delivering a sound punch to Alf's shoulder as he recoiled in pain. "I - I wish I was…"
Alf's smile slowly disappeared.
He truly couldn't believe what she was saying.
Some part of him always wanted to ask Wang if he knew more about his history… I mean, they had corresponded two years ago…
...but Alf never could have predicted this.
This was too much.
Plus, it felt unbelievable.
"He's saying he knows my past?" Alf questioned, staring at Tigress' oddly downcast face. "He's saying he - I could eat something other gruel and Shifu's leftovers for a change? He's saying - there's a Seeker…"
"Slow down Argo," Tigress denounced, punching Alf again in the stomach. "Don't get too excited…"
Alf was jumping up and down.
He couldn't contain himself.
He was sure of it.
Sure of the fact that he would die in this Valley.
Never see the world.
Never be free.
Never learn about who he was.
Never.
It was changing.
He had a path.
An out.
"I gotta tell him yes," Alf squealed, walking away from Tigress. "I gotta - hey OUCH!"
Tigress roughly yanked him back by his spiky black hair, discombobulating him.
"Calm down, wait until morning," Tigress forced. "You think he'll accept you if you wake him up at midnight and beg like the little girl you are?"
Alf was so ecstatic that he completely bypassed the insults. "Right right right! Okay I'll tell him in the morning! Let's continue the spar!"
Tigress got in her stance, but felt slightly downtrodden. "You - you have no doubts about this? You - you really wanna go?"
Alf smiled more genuinely than she had ever seen him smile before. "I mean - I'll have to make sure he's not fibbing - but - yeah - I - I can't wait to - to have a life somewhere. A real life…"
Alf grew lost in thought. Tigress reluctantly continued the spar, feeling a sense of regret burgeon within her - an ancient feeling she had never felt with anyone before.
He wasn't just a student.
And that was making all this much harder.
A/N
Ahhh… the conflicts and stuffs… LOL.
I actively chose to have Po leave quite quickly, because I think it's just a minor plot point to just knock out of the way - I mean at this point - we have so many exciting storylines to do!
Hence my priorities now:
Reproduce the key points from KFP 3
Add on all my fancy plotlines
Profit
Support is incredulous.
~TW
P.S: Tigress and Alf have probably my fav. Relationship of all time. Also TiPo confirmed? Hehe.
