"Urgency"
Alf kept staring at her.
Just laying there.
After he had spent the initial hours just cradling her in silence, eventually he was told to at least move himself and her - body - to a separate tent. Perhaps it was seeing him sobbing in public, or perhaps to shield the young children from the true misery of the situation - either way, Alf didn't protest. He carried her limp form in his arms, gingerly walking into an open tent before placing her body down onto a cot. And then Alf sat next to the cot, clasping her paw in his hands.
It was still outstretched towards him.
Alf tried to suppress the memory, but it came back.
There was hope in her eyes. Clear hope - a strong hope, there just a few seconds before the fire had engulfed her.
He could have sworn he had seen the brown eyes just begin to fade as she realized it was impossible.
It was too much.
Please wake up, Alf begged to himself, hoping this had to be a nightmare. Please wake up, please wake up…
He couldn't help but think of all the things he had yet to learn about her.
Her dead parents.
Asking why she came to the Valley.
Asking why she - of all people - would fall in love with him.
And it was that love that had doomed her.
That love that implored her to stretch out her paw at the last second, begging Alf to save her.
He felt robbed. As if some portion of his soul had been permanently removed - and he had lost the chance to recover it, understand it, or even discuss it anymore. All of his chances and opportunities were gone - yet all the memories were still there. So Alf sat there, dragging his mind through enormous strain as each and every good moment he had with her was painfully repeated in his imagination, conscience torturing him over all the potential that had been lost.
Would he have eventually asked her to be with him - permanently?
Would they have gotten married?
Would they - could they have kids?
Would they have grown old together?
It was too much ambiguity. Too much not knowing. Too much of everything.
He shut his eyes.
"Alf?"
His head shot up suddenly, streak of hope sparked by the femininity of the voice. However, it had come from behind him - and Alf's face again morphed into despair as he realized that it was just the golden-robed tiger that he had seen so often.
Tigress closed the cloth flap behind her. "Alf - I - I don't want to do this but - I need to speak to you."
Alf merely kept quiet, motioning back to clutch Yu's lifeless paw.
"It's important," Tigress insisted, walking over to crouch down and look at Alf. "I know this has to be the - worst timing."
Alf squeezed the paw tighter.
Off put by the lack of response, yet not surprised: Tigress continued. "It's - it's about your past."
Alf wondered just how painful it had been for her - to feel the inferno eat away at fur and flesh as she had tried to scream for help which never came.
"Well, it's about more than your past, actually…" Tigress persisted desperately. "... Omega, the Seekers, this planet, this place called Earth… the Soothsayer explained so much to us…"
Alf remembered a few hours ago, when he had peeled back the protective white cloth covering Yu's face - and the level of disfigurement and bloody scarring cut through his heart like fire.
She was unrecognizable.
Veins exposed. Facial bones exposed in messy redness.
Alf reactively shuddered, shutting his eyes.
"Alf?" Tigress questioned again, hoping for any kind of engagement.
"I don't care," Alf quietly responded.
Tigress seemed taken aback by this. "Wha - what? Alf - "
"I don't care," Alf repeated, running a hand against the bandaged portion of the fox's head. "Tigress - please leave."
Tigress merely stared at the boy, who hadn't even moved his gaze in her direction. Alf kept his grip and stare squarely at the blanketed body, voice minimal and movement completely non-existent. Tigress didn't care much for the words - that felt natural at this moment - but the body language of Alf was concerning her.
It looked just as lifeless as Yu's body did.
"I can't imagine how it feels," Tigress emphasized, whiskers flicking as her orange eyes softened - although Alf didn't notice. "But it isn't just about you, or us, or even the Valley anymore… Alf - you really need to hear all of the things the goat told us."
A momentary pause. It was filling Tigress with hope, because Alf slowly - and after a long few seconds - began turning his head towards her. Understandably, he didn't feel confident enough to stare right back at Tigress' softened eyes - despite being mere inches away from her face. Rather, Alf chose to stare directly at the ground Tigress was crouching upon, a feat which she assumed sufficient - especially given all that had just occurred.
Tigress felt hopeful that he would at least listen.
"All my life," Alf began smoothly, lost in wondering. "I've been searching for reasons - to - to keep it all going."
Tigress nodded empathetically in speed, feeling him slowly ease.
"Keep fighting," Alf continued. "Keep helping the Palace. Keep being in the Valley. Hell - just keep being alive."
Tigress smiled at him as calmly and as reassuringly as she could, hoping desperately that his quiet maple eyes would meet her own eventually.
"I lost the last reason yesterday," Alf finished, turning his head back to the blanketed body. "I'm sorry but - I'm done."
Tigress' heart sunk painfully. She watched the boy cradle the fox's covered head closer to his frame, looking more sunken and defeated than Tigress had ever seen him before. With a downcast gaze, she slowly stood up and walked out of the tent as gently as she had entered.
. . .
Po frowned, awaiting Li anxiously.
The older panda had told Po to wait outside the village, at an awkward meadow split in between the powerful, craggy mountainside all around it. A stone pathway led back to the village, sitting in foggy mist - but the meadow was strongly contrasting, with thick bushels of grass and tall lilies perforating the surface. A gentle flap of sunlight filtered in through the clouds, bathing the meadow in streams of highlighting colors.
Po thought to the panda's words.
Wait outside, at the meadow outside the village.
It helps build chi.
Trust me.
I'll join you.
Po scoffed. He already had a moderate amount of suspicion over how Li broached the subject - although he kept repeating words like chi, energy, and vibrations… there had never been anything specific that Po could use.
Not a single technique.
Not a single move.
Nothing.
It all felt - fake.
Manipulative.
"Lotus!"
Po turned his head up, seeing Li trounce down the hard, stony pathway leading into the meadow. The older panda seemed nervous and sweaty, large belly heaving underneath his green robe and straw hat.
"I've been waiting - dad," Po noted, still feeling a bit weird to use that.
Li cleared his throat. "Ahem - yeah - sorry about that… so let's begin!"
Po watched in suspicion, as the older panda spun on his toes and flung his arms into the air.
"This is called erm - chi build up!" Li let out half-heartedly. "Build up your chi - son!"
Po sighed, mimicking the motion as his arms went into the sky.
He waited.
He waited for anything.
A feeling.
A pulse.
Some glowing light.
Nothing happened.
"What's supposed to happen?" Po questioned.
"This erm - tingling feeling in your stomach," Li reinforced. "The place where um - all the chi is! Try it again son!"
Po repeated the motion, severe doubt plaguing his mind now.
Still, nothing happened.
"Uh - try doing this!" Li cried out, bending his back over and began to clap his paws like a maniac. "This is called - "
"Dad," Po interrupted, voice serious. "You - you don't know how to do chi - do you?"
Li appeared offended by the question. "Nonsense! Lotus - you just have to try a little - "
"My name is Po," the panda infuriatingly scowled, walking to Li. "Not Lotus. Po - the Dragon Warrior."
Li gulped, turning his eyes down. "Right - well… Po, it's all about the balance in your hips and - "
"Dad," Po forced, quieting the older panda quickly. "I - I kinda knew - maybe from the start… that this was gonna happen."
Li kept quiet, face appearing downtrodden.
"But to be honest with you - I didn't really ever expect you to teach me chi," Po mentioned. "But that's why I agreed to come here."
Li blinked twice, each conveying a burst of emotion. He wanted to speak up, but understood Po had to get some things off his chest.
"I - I came here because I thought I could - maybe start believing you're my father," Po concluded, smiling genuinely. "I tried. I really did - and all the pandas here… the celebrations… hehe, even Mei Mei… it's all good… you're such a nice guy."
Li felt his chest puff up with the compliment, but Po was more stern.
"But my father died five years ago," Po finally remarked. "Strangled to death by a psychopathic snow leopard… and as much as I'd like to just - I dunno - transfer all those feelings to you…"
"You just can't," Li finally chimed in, voice unusually serious like Po's - but a mild tremble was in the tone.
Po smiled gently. "You're funny, you're super cool - and - and it was so amazing to meet everyone - other pandas - for the first time."
Li again smiled reciprocally.
"But I have a family," Po noted. "Back at the Jade Palace. At the Valley. Who knows… maybe if we had more time… maybe I could - warm up to everyone."
Li nodded.
"But with Kai coming, and this whole chi thing being kinda a waste…" Po dismally noted. "Everything seems to be coming at the wrong time."
To Po's great surprise, Li walked closer to him with another genuine smile. "Lot - I mean - Po… I get it. You don't have to explain yourself. Go save the world."
Po smiled back, hugging Li with affection for the first time since they had met. "You're still my dad - and who knows, maybe after all this nonsense is gone…"
"You'll start thinking like my son again," Li finished. "I understand. Go save the world, son."
Po smiled peacefully, conscience elevated as he ran back onto the path leading to the panda village.
Li watched him go for a while - a sad, but accepting smile on his face.
And then his body started seizing.
His vision was narrowing.
His eyes burst into green light, face expressionless.
A new voice came in.
Touching. I assumed this planet's lifeforms weren't capable of higher emotion.
That will definitely be a focus of study after colonization.
Panda.
You know what to do.
Li's mouth spoke by itself, muscles and voice forced open, the panda powerless to say anything else - compelled by a mystical force he didn't understand.
"As you wish, Omega."
. . .
Tigress walked out of Alf's tent, feeling dismal. Seeing the hopelessness in Alf's eyes was bad enough - but perhaps, seeing everyone outside - that was even worse.
There were thousands of refugees - all scattering under the gentle sunlight, walking towards each other or white tents set up around this grassy plain of the Wu Dan mountains. There were many anxious families, some scared diplomats - all social classes, both rich, poor, and everything in between - it was simply a mass of scared citizens attempting to comfort each other and their loved ones, too terrified to do anything else. Most still wore their ragged and destroyed robes they had many days ago when they had been evacuated from the Valley - Tigress couldn't imagine the amount of property and wealth had been lost in the city's destruction.
So much crying.
So much praying.
And - as luck would have it - much confusion.
Tigress sighed.
"Hey."
She turned at the unknown voice, seeing Zhong's injured frame just start to appear - heavy bandages circled around his ribs and right leg, hidden underneath grey robes. Ordinarily, she wouldn't even bother to talk to him - but the circumstances of the situation meant he had nothing to lose.
"How's Alf doing?" Zhong asked gently.
"Why do you care?" Tigress harshly delivered. "Don't you have some pandas to go massacre? Or wait - did you and that freak Omega plan to get the Valley blown up?"
Tigress knew this was a ridiculously stupid statement, but the emotion of all the events that had just happened was catching up to her.
Zhong smiled disarmingly back, perhaps expecting this. "I just wanna know how the kid's doing. He's - he's helped me - a lot."
Tigress shook her head, groaning. "I - I'm sorry. He's in that tent."
She pointed out a tent for the wolf, who quickly began walking there. Tigress herself continued her walk forward, cutting a narrow path - across hordes of crying families and children - to a white tent larger than the others, situated at the very edges of the "camp" that been set up here.
Tigress pushed open the tent flaps, hearing a voice greet her immediately.
"Well - how'd it go?"
Tigress looked into the tent, at the massive lion posing the question, frustrated by his insistence. Wang was surrounded by the rest of the Five and Shifu. To Tigress' mild satisfaction, at least some work was being done - there were scrolls and plans clearly let drawn on a table in the center of the tent, and Monkey had closed the cloth flap door behind Tigress - again indicating something confidential was being planned.
"Where's the Soothsayer?" Tigress avoided the first question.
"With the rest of the refugees - outside," Wang promptly replied. "Healing the last of my soldiers. Tigress - what did the boy say?"
Tigress sighed. "He's out."
"Out?" Shifu questioned. "What do you mean - out?"
"He doesn't want any part of the planning," Tigress noted sadly. "He didn't even let me explain anything that the Soothsayer had told us."
The rest of the Five sadly turned their heads down - perhaps expecting this response from Alf, given his state - but Shifu angrily began walking out of the tent.
"That coward," Shifu started. "He loses one person he kind of cared about and - I'll show him…"
"Leave him be, Shifu," Wang urged, dragging Shifu back with an enormous paw. "The boy's been through a lot."
Shifu reluctantly stayed in the tent, but Wang turned to address Tigress. "Do you think he - he'll change his mind?"
Tigress merely closed her eyes and shook her head. "No."
Wang sighed. "Well - we better get to work then."
The lion beckoned everyone to the table, where Tigress better caught a glimpse of everything on the scrolls. Most of it seemed to be ideas and various words - some of it from the Soothsayer's scribbling - but others seemed to be rudimentary, hastily drawn maps.
"We now know that Omega and his army are nearing the world very soon," Wang emphasized. "According to my mentor - they'll tend to invade in stages."
"Stages?" Viper asked.
"Since Omega still cannot assume a physical form, we can assume that he is still a decent distance away," Wang forced. "But how far he is away - no one properly knows. The Soothsayer estimates - a few weeks."
"That isn't nearly enough time to prepare for a Seeker freakin' invasion," Mantis concluded. "Anyone tell the villagers yet? How the hell do you think the rest of the world will react to this?"
"We can tell them when we have a concrete plan that allows everyone on this world, to live," Wang noted. "Which we're making now. So, the first stage of the invasion - according to the Soothsayer - will likely be a machine attack."
"Like cannons?" Tigress asked curiously.
Wang laughed darkly. "If only. No - these machines will likely be incredibly more powerful than anything we're used to seeing. We - we're going to need to work together on this one."
"How together?" Crane questioned.
"As much people as we can get," Wang emphasized. "Someone ought to track down Po as well and see how much his chi training has progressed - we need every possible tool to keep as much people alive as possible."
"You think that'll be useful, considering we just saw Kai blow into a million pieces?" Mantis asked sarcastically. "I doubt there'll be anything chi-related that can stop the Seekers now."
"We have to try," Wang forced with a groan. "Anyway - the machine will be the least of our problems. If a machine fails, the Soothsayer says they'll likely send a scout - a Seeker - to determine how much firepower we're packing."
"We got cannons, and Alf's revolver things," Crane quipped. "You really expect that to fare well against magical energy weapon thingies?"
"Didn't you hear, Crane?" Shifu stepped in. "Everything we have."
Wang nodded. "The scout still won't be the last hurdle - we still have to deal with the army."
"There's no way we could even stand up to them," Tigress emphasized. "I mean - it took just one of them to beat us, you, the Yongshi, and all of Team Jade!"
"We're not fighting the army," Wang quickly corrected with a wink. "That'd be suicide - we do however, have an escape."
"An escape?" Monkey retorted with irony. "There's no place on this world that… wait…"
Everyone saw Wang grin in mild confidence.
"... you're thinking of leaving this world, aren't you?" Tigress asked in surprise.
"It is the only possible way to escape mankind," Wang asserted.
"Like hell we can," Crane retaliated angrily, feathers prickly. "We've all seen the tech that the Seekers have. We're way behind building anything that can even fly, and way way way WAY behind building something that can go beyond the - the sky."
"Fortunately, we won't have to," Wang let out with a smile again.
"You've lost us all, Wang," Shifu noted, watching his students give each other exasperated sighs.
Wang groaned. "How do you think the boy got onto this planet?"
A moment of recollection.
Then realization.
Then anger again.
"That weird - space vessel he crashed down in," Viper started.
"That's worthless," Shifu promptly cut in. "We don't even know where it is… and even if we did, how could we possibly fit everyone on this world… into such a tiny ship?"
"You haven't seen a Seeker ship, have you?" Wang emphasized with a smile. "Let me worry about cramming everyone. Let's focus on finding it first…"
"And after we find it?" Tigress asked curiously. "After we do this series of increasingly more impossible things - when we get into the ship, and somehow magically figure out how to work it - where will we go?"
Another silence fell upon the room.
Wang frowned. "It's our only shot, Tigress. I never said it would work. Nor would I say what to do - even if it did work."
The rest of the group reminded themselves of this as well.
It was out of their hands now.
But they had to try.
"Let's get moving," Shifu urged.
"Right," Mantis noted. "So all we have to do is tell Po, somehow tell everyone in the world about what's happening, convince them to meet up with us to find this mythical ship that we have no idea where it is, somehow expect to cram everyone in there, and then blast off into nothingness. Oh - and we also have to take on a death machine, a Seeker scout, and a Seeker army all before everything tries to kill us."
Everyone held the series of impossibilities Mantis had uttered.
The series of impossible tasks.
It felt absolutely nonsensical to achieve.
It felt completely idiotic to plan for.
Yet they must keep up the fight.
The will to live.
Something had to keep them going. It felt weird - knowing these might be their last few days at - home. Not just the Valley, or China… but the last few days on this world itself.
Tigress just wished that Alf had found a reason too. To be honest with herself, she didn't know what she was struggling for either - yet she knew that it couldn't end like this.
It just couldn't.
A/N
Surprise surprise… Omega and Li do indeed have a connection - although the exact nature of that connection will come up later.
One thing I wanted to show in this chapter is how peacefully and realistically Po resolves his father thing. On one hand, he always kinda suspected Li didn't know anything about chi… so he skips past that by saying he wanted to come to the village because he wanted to understand more about his father's past, and the pandas, and himself - and maybe - just start to love him like a father.
He couldn't.
A lifetime of experiences in the Valley - as well as with the late Mr. Ping - all couldn't be thrown away in just a few weeks of meeting the new father, even if they are related.
But Po left the door open! Maybe after all the conflict is over… they can learn to be father and son… never lose hope! Although remember - Po still thinks Kai is the threat, lmao.
In other news, Wang and Team Jade have an enormous task on their hands - to somehow ensure the safety of the Valley's refugees, and protect the rest of the world - from an enormous Seeker invasion. I know a lot of people might be thinking… how the hell are they advanced if it's taken them this long to come to the planet? XDXD. I can only say that they were VERY far away - even by human standards. Let's just say some million light years, or some nonsense.
But regardless, they're close. KFP 3 WILL have the Seekers landing on the planet.
And Wang, Team Jade, and everyone else - has to find a way to make sure everyone lives. As Wang said - fighting these things isn't an option.
And poor Alf! I wanted his mindset to read like: "ok, so who gives a sh about the seekers or anything else - i just lost everything i had" - so he doesn't even bother hearing the rest of what Tigress wanted to say because he's in the mindset where nothing matters. The essential message is that Alf feels kinda worthless right about now, kinda like it doesn't matter what happens now… considering that the universe has been so crappy to him, it can't get any worse…
Can it?
Jk.
See ya next time. Lol.
Support is so incredible I wet myself every time. (TMI, I know.)
~TW
P.S: Again, on a writing "high" so will pump out chapters quickly - really wanna get to the end of KFP 3... and we're at the halfway point. (9ish chapters to go!)
