A/N: Welcome back! As you will probably soon see, this chapter is written a bit - differently compared to most of my chapters, mostly to illustrate passing time better. It's also VERY LONG - at 16k words (goodness me…) BUT WAIT!

But future chapters will go back to my usual style AND length (4k words a chapter), no worries! This chapter is just to fill in the "gaps" on what our fav. Characters have been upto since the ending of KFP 3…

Enjoy? The chapter's quite depressing as a disclaimer, but READ THE A/N at the end! I promise I won't disappoint you.

Try to read carefully, cuz this chapter sets the stage for the rest of the fic...

~TW

P.S: Also added a numbering system for the lolz.

Lol.


Arc II, Act I: World War Seeker


1

"After The End"


It had been a few seconds since Reformation.

The crowd was completely silent. In the smoky remains of the large, rocky antechamber, the atmosphere was dark and heavy - putrid from rotting flesh and decaying corpses and atmospheric pollution. Everything felt dark and cramped - and the amount of enormous, armored Seekers in the room had restricted the rest of the refugees to clambering around each other, shivering and shaking in place as they huddled near the broken remains of the exploded escape vessel. Bodies and mutilated corpses were everywhere, further destroying any hope of personal space being a priority. A sole crack in the cave ceiling let in soft moonlight, bathing the refugees in innocent highlights. The golden-armored Seekers stood in contrast, on the other end and encircling the entire antechamber so escape was impossible. They all stood heads and shoulders above the refugees, making the entire event feel like a prison camp.

A particularly tall Seeker stood out, highlighted by his bold red and black armor.

"Dispose of the traitor's body," Omega declared with disgust.

Tigress shook in place, watching the guards drag Alf's body away. She just saw the tips of his motionless fingers disappear as the guards walked to the nearest metal ship - a new one, conveniently brought inside the cave - pressing their hands to the exterior to bring out several panels. They lit up gently as the armored soldiers pressed in several combinations - then after a quick moment, a dark, metallic panel retracted as a red-hot fire was exposed by the ship's underbelly, stuffed into the vehicle. Tigress could only watch in horror as the guards casually tossed Alf's motionless corpse inside.

She only managed to see the last few seconds before they closed the panel.

She saw his face desecrated first.

Then she saw his body slowly start to burn as the flames touched him.

Then she saw his beautifully thick black hair lost in orange streaks of light.

After the panel closed, it really hit her - Tigress understood it perfectly now.

It was over.

"YOU MONSTER!" Po roared, as Tigress suddenly was inclined to look back. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

Tigress begged the panda to stop, but he broke free from her grip and rushed at Omega. Laughing, the enormous Seeker prevented his guards from stepping in and ending it prematurely - he wanted to enjoy this.

Po swung as hard as he could, fist fracturing on Omega's armor.

"ARGH!" the panda squealed, voice silenced as Omega backhanded him hard enough to knock fresh blood from Po's mouth.

Tigress watched Po collapse on the ground.

Omega walked a bit more to the center of the antechamber, seeking to address his guards first.

"Dispose of the rest of the bodies, conquer the survivors, and brand any alive captives," Omega addressed. "Mark them accurately - A.G.E's needs are diverse and we have yet to understand the physical capabilities of these… refugees…"

Tigress watched more golden-armored guards drag away the corpses and rotting flesh, throwing them into the exact same fire pit she had seen previously.

"Mark this bitch first," Omega noted with a smirk, pointing at Tigress.

She felt an enormous guard drag her face up effortlessly. He grinned at her, exposing Tigress' cheek fur to a strange blue device.

Tigress felt all the pain that the device was doing - burning away fur and forcefully inscribing something on her - yet she didn't scream.

She could only think of the fire pit.

Of seeing him last.

That thick dark hair.

. . .

It had been a few days since Reformation.

The rest of the planet had been conquered in short time. The Seeker ships practically teleported from one place to another - first fizzling, then shifting in place - then bursting into light. Through their destructive energy weapons, armored technology, and speed of conquest - the rest of the planet was subjugated in mere moments. Tigress wasn't sure how high the death count had been.

She wondered if any civilizations - Chinese or not - had fought back.

Maybe something in Europa.

Maybe something else.

But the result was clear.

Much death - and much submission.

Zero resistance.

Zero recovery.

It was only after a few days - after all the refugees had been rounded up and branded, and firmly separated into distinct groups - that Tigress understood more of what Omega was planning. It was a surprisingly bright and sunny day, and the similar method of controlling refugees was made use of - Seeker guards stood around a band of refugees in an open dirt area, in Chinese wilderness well away from the destroyed remains of Gongmen. At least fifteen gigantic metal ships surrounded everyone - fractured and jagged silhouettes casting a dark appearance on everyone below. Tigress recognized some of the refugees, and some she didn't. She saw the rest of the Five, Shifu and Po in different sections of the crowd, stretching enormously far - perhaps millions of them since fresh captives had been relocated into this area - uneasy to see how downcast their gazes were.

Were they starting to accept it?

"You will all be split into several distinct groups based on physical ability and biological makeup," Omega declared to the crowd of refugees sitting in front of him, encircled by his guards. "You will be transported to a production planet that needs your labor desperately - feel free to ask your designated ship captains if you need clarification."

Tigress was forced up from her sitting position, shoulder crushed by the movements of a large Seeker hand above her.

"You are all official duty workers for the Alliance now," Omega indicated. "Please psychologically adjust to your new status, and the new civilization we are blessing you all with - as quickly as possible if you wish to prolong your lifespans."

The crowd didn't understand what this meant, but they had a feeling about what was to come.

An intuition.

Tigress felt it too.

"Follow me, TF-17," the guard proclaimed robotically, referencing the insignia now burned into Tigress' cheek.

Tigress obeyed the forced movement - he was leading her to a large brown, metal ship. She turned around for a second, observing that the rest of refugees were splitting up into different groups destined for different ships - all with a Seeker guard to keep them docile. Tigress hoped desperately that there would be someone in her group that she recognized.

She didn't.

Tigress watched the rest of the Five and Shifu be forcibly split into different groups. She saw Po for a fleeting moment as he turned back.

She knew she couldn't say much, given that her guard would kill her instantly if she made a scene.

Tigress blinked as lovingly as she could. She put as much emotion into it as she could. She put her heart and mind into conveying as much as she could - all the things she should have said - all the while letting a few tears just escape her eyes.

Po saw her. He started to mouth words.

I.

Love.

The guard had pushed the panda into an open section of a separate ship, failing to allow Po to complete his words. Tigress' guard shoved her into the metal ship of her own - Tigress started feeling her group of refugees surround her as the guard made his way up a metallic staircase - clearly going to some command or control deck. The ambient sunlight was lost as the panel closed, encapsulating the crowd inside the strange metal ship.

Tigress took in her surroundings.

Everything was flashy, lighted, and metallic.

It all seemed so - futuristic. Bright panels. Flashing numbers. A text type she could not read.

The space that the refugees were supposed to occupy was immeasurably cramped, but there was at least one window. Tigress rushed past the rest of the anxious refugees - each muttering scared comments to themselves while protecting their loved ones - the ones that managed to stay together, anyway.

Tigress looked out the window, seeing the dirt area.

She saw the destroyed remains of Gongmen far off into the distance.

She saw the metal ships all around the ship she was on.

A booming voice from above everyone.

THREE.

Tigress watched the ships emit huge bursts of light, as the devices fastened to the bottom of the ships lit up.

TWO.

The noise was growing deafening.

It didn't sound normal.

ONE.

Tigress closed her eyes, imagining Po's face one last time.

INTERGALACTIC TRAVEL ENGAGED.

An enormous burst of energy - so shocking that most of the crowding refugees were thrusted to the side of the metal ship as the Seeker guard above them - clearly controlling the ship - smiled cruelly.

Tigress watched out of the window in anxiety, sensing enormous energy being expelled by the ship they were on.

Whizzing air. The grasslands faded into a small patch of green. Gongmen faded to a small circle. Then the clouds rushed past the window and faded into white streams. And finally, she was so above the sky that Tigress could only see a small, rocky sphere fade into the distance…

...and just then, Tigress realized that they had left their world.

. . .

It had been a month since Reformation.

Throughout the entire journey, Tigress hadn't taken her eyes off the window. Space-travel - as the Seeker guard had explained- was traversing distances far beyond the scope of what had been normal on Tigress' "home planet". She thought back to the moment when they had spent weeks to go from the Valley to Gongmen - but now, she had apparently traveled a distance equivalent to several million sextillion times that distance, in the same time. The number was so big that Tigress couldn't even fathom it. She had been amazed and shocked at the wonders she saw outside the window in the endless hours she spent looking out of the cramped area…

Space, as it turned out - was even more beautiful than she had imagined. Even though Tigress had always to an extent - imagined there would be something beyond the blue skies and starry nights she had seen often back when she was in the Valley - she never expected space to look like this.

Endless stretches of pitch-black darkness. An enormous, foreboding sense of danger. And some of the most brilliant, shining lights she had ever seen. Tigress had heard some words that the Seeker captain had used - nebula, galaxy, stars - but she never quite understood them all. She was relentlessly impressed by the visuals however - space almost seemed like a large, infinite oasis of pure darkness highlighted by spectacular, shining formations - nebulas and galaxies - as she learned to understand, which shone much stronger than the "Sun" on her world ever did.

Despite the awe-inspiring sense of miraculous space travel, there was the constant reminder of who they were under. Just four days into the journey, a refugee child had broken away from his mother and begged for more food - the Seeker captain ignored it at first, but after a few hours of the child whining - he forcibly ejected the child into deep space.

Tigress only barely managed to console the horrified mother.

The process was terrifying. A strange tube-like machine had descended from the metallic ceiling, seizing upon the sheep child with pinpoint precision. The mother wailed and slammed her emaciated fists against the glass tubing - but to no avail. The child was jettisoned into the tube and - as Tigress saw in a second through the window - was forced into deep space.

And just then, everyone watched a visual representation of the dangers of space.

Space had made the child float - which was incredible to see at first. Then however, the child began to seize, convulsing violently as she grabbed her throat. It almost looked like she was choking - Tigress later understood that space had no air - and in a matter of seconds, the child stopped moving. Tigress watched the child's body swell and grow with fluid - blood starting to be forced out of orifices in such great quantity that she looked away in fright. The mother was paralyzed by the vision, standing near the window in awed shock.

No one complained after that incident.

And two days later - when the mother, driven mad by grief, stabbed herself with a spare scrap of metal - the Seeker ejected her out efficiently too.

Tigress didn't watch this time.

But the true surprise - indeed, the moment which really changed her perspective - was landing on the planet.

The "production" planet.

She had been sleeping at the time, so she felt an old hand gently graze her face.

"Wake up, Master Tigress," a pig refugee noted. "We're here."

Tigress stood up, grateful for her height allowing her to be slightly taller than the rest of the refugees.

An enormous, grating noise.

Followed by thick light blowing through the entire space.

Yet it didn't feel like normal light. Tigress was blinded at first, but felt the push of refugees simply shove her forwards - motioning and "feeling" her way forward, understanding that they were being forced out of the ships. It took a few moments for Tigress to understand where she was, and begin to take in her surroundings.

She finally managed to open her eyes. The first thing that came was light - but it wasn't bright, or warm like the light she remembered back home - it was thin, fleeting, and very noxious. It barely lit up the surrounding ground - which Tigress was shocked to see. The ground wasn't cobble, or dirt, or even stone - it seemed like molten lava, crushed over earth with red streaks running through it. She turned her attention upwards - the sky was black and filled with a heavy smog, no clouds, with blue streaks of lightning running past the entire surface. She was particularly repulsed by the air - although breathable - was heavy and dragged in Tigress' lungs, exhausting her so effortlessly without even moving. It irritated her fur and was dry and hot, feeling nothing like the cool, mild breezes she had experienced back at the Valley.

Tigress was taken aback by the scale of the area - they had to be in some kind of city, but the city was so vast and incredible that it could have been a whole country by itself. There were no mountains nor fog to distract from the sheer size of the rocky expanse - stretching well beyond what Tigress could see. The architecture looked so strange - numerous gigantic citadels were everywhere, at least as large as Gongmen itself - pierced into the sky. Everything was made out of some kind of shining metal hybrid.

The activity in front of Tigress was frantic and busy. Strange flying machines scoured over the enormous, rocky expanse, appearing almost miles away before suddenly arriving closer. Many machines emit bursts of light onto the ground and into the air, performing all kinds of confusing functions - and to Tigress' great surprise, other animal refugees were here - although they all looked much older and starkly different from her own refugee group… they looked like they had spent their entire lives on this planet. As far as Tigress could see, work was being done - usually a Seeker supervised them, as animals old, sick, young, and dying toiled by mining through the crust of the planet with specialized machine equipment that Tigress didn't recognize. They were definitely trying to extract something from the ground - although slowness or punishment was immediately retaliated by the Seeker supervisor, who casually and joyfully shot the animal workers with some kind of energy weapon. Another one of Tigress' intuitions about the hazardous atmosphere and air were confirmed with more observation - all the Seekers in the area (even the captain) stayed inside their imposing armor, while the animal duty workers labored in grey and blue fatigues, a few audibly collapsing under the strain of such poor working conditions.

The overall picture Tigress was getting was one of efficacy yet cruelty - the planet, and its noxious, lava-colored ground along with its thick, impenetrable black sky - was stuffed to the brim with a mix of metal and flesh work. Enormous buildings as far as the eye could see, a flurry of hustling machines, animals, and occasionally Seekers - and most directly in front of Tigress, her ship captain was speaking with a rather aged female lion with pink streaks in her fur, who was shockingly the same size as the Seeker captain.

Tigress perked her ears up to listen in.

"We got some fresh duty workers Karla," the captain noted, making a scribble on his clipboard. "Level 2 civilization from some shithole called XN-44 - got a mix of tigers, pigs, sheep analogues…"

"Oh come on!" the lion named Karla groaned, wearing distinct grey fatigues, which had a golden symbol that seemed to indicate seniority above the other animal workers Tigress was seeing. "I put in a request for some Level 5s - and the Alliance gives me this shit?"

"We can't always get what we want…" the captain coolly answered.

"Level 2s take so much time to train," Karla answered angrily. "They don't understand machine work, the language, the civilization yet, the - "

"Not my problem," the ship captain again answered nonchalantly, forcing Karla to sign some flashing light panel before walking back to his ship.

Tigress watched the captain climb into the enormous metal ship through a staircase, closing it behind him. With another bestial roar that shook the entire area - the ship powered on and blasted into the atmosphere - disappearing behind the thick blanket of dark air.

Tigress watched the rest of her refugee crowd act nervously - not just because they were now stranded in some foreign area, completely in shock at everything around them - but also because a few Seeker soldiers had already began shoving the group forwards, pointing glowing energy weapons at the backs of the refugees - prompting quick movement. Tigress moved with the crowd forward, reaching Karla in no time.

"Attention erm - new duty workers!" Karla announced. "I understand you might be all confused as to your roles here - and all of this um - technological sights that may puzzle you."

Karla cleared her throat. "Be assured - we will take care of the acclimatization process. You will be separated into different groups, along with a human supervisor who will help transition you to this world and tell you your roles."

Almost on cue, four other Seekers suddenly appeared from the sides of the large refugee group and began splitting up people. Unlike the initial split, these soldiers did allow families to stay together if a large enough scene was created - and so, the refugees began following the supervisors in straight, neat lines away from each other. Tigress broke away from her supervised group for a second, approaching Karla in desperation.

"Hello," Tigress let out, confused. "I - I - "

She was at a loss.

What could she ask?

What the hell was happening?

What happened to the other ships bound for different planets?

Could she contact the rest of the Five, Shifu and Po?

What was she going to do?

"I understand if it all may be a bit much erm... " Karla started, staring down at Tigress' cheeks to get her insignia. "... TF-17, but I promise you we will…"

"Can I um - contact my friends?" Tigress asked desperately. "Like um - contact the people who were in the other ships that uh - came to our planet?"

Karla sadly smiled. "Forget about them."

Tigress felt taken aback. "What? No - I need to know if they're still alive and - "

"Trust me kid - I've been a duty worker for a longass time," Karla emphasized. "Just take my advice - don't think about them anymore."

Tigress felt her heart break. "I - I - "

"TF-17!" the supervisor called out, noting Tigress' absence from his group a few hundred feet away. "GET OVER HERE!"

Tigress gulped.

"Just do what you're told, kid," Karla emphasized. "Let go of whatever your life was before - and start worrying about yourself."

Tigress felt a few tears slip out, but another roar from the supervisor brought her running back to her group.

. . .

It had been a few months since Reformation.

Tigress was shocked at the amount of knowledge that she had gained in just fifteen weeks. Technology that seemed to baffle her before now became routine to her - and people and civilizations that previously seemed alien now were just a matter of everyday life. As Karla had also explained - many conditions of this planet, which Tigress now knew to be SD-77, were different compared to her previous world - which Tigress also now understood to be named XN-44. Tigress was alarmed to understand that her world was not the only one to undergo Reformation - humanity had subjugated countless civilizations of animal life on different planets, relocating them to "production planets" - vast worlds where economic efficiency in the form of energy mining was key. On SD-77, gravity - or, the force that caused compression and attraction between all things - was much weaker, leading to a progressive engorging of most of the animal workers' skeletons - explaining why Karla and by now - Tigress - had grown to near-Seeker heights and weights.

Speaking of gravity, there were so many fundamental truths of life that Tigress had absorbed by now that she seemed amazed how she had lived in the Valley with no knowledge of these things… she learned about philosophy, mathematics, the art of constructing machines, the native language - called EVOL - as well as more about the civilization that she and so many others were forcibly subjects to. It wasn't just the amount of new concepts and new words she had memorized and understood - it was the culture of an entirely new society, as well as understand so much more about the universe around her. As Tigress had learned, humanity was not restricted to living on just one planet, and had not been for quite some time - they had colonized at least fifty-seven galaxies, were finding more with each passing moment, and had progressed their means of transportation and weapons to near cataclysmic levels.

The Alliance for Galactic Evolution (everyone just referred to it as the Alliance) - or A.G.E - was the ruling body that governed all life under those fifty-seven galaxies, and in all likelihood beyond - with Earth as an intergalactic capital. Contrary to what Tigress used to believe, she later realized Earth had been rebuilt by humans many times - even after multiple destructive events.

At the top of the Alliance's social hierarchy were Designators, specially-chosen humans who were usually experts in a particular branch of study like cosmology or biology, who made choices for all subjects under the Alliance - choices were pervasive and thorough, from things the subjects ate to the clothes they wore. For example - intergalactic army guards - or Alliance Protectors (colloquially referred to as APs) sported a distinctive golden, titanium-carbon fiber alloy armor… while regular duty workers wore standard grey fatigues. Technically, the APs were duty workers by themselves - but this didn't stop them from enforcing Alliance laws and regulation upon all disobedient workers. It had taken Tigress nearly four weeks to learn that Omega was a high-ranking AP - by some unconfirmed rumors, the Commander of the Intergalactic Army.

The Alliance's subjugated population was enormously diverse and strictly controlled - composing of ninety quadrillion lifeforms - which consisted of eighty-nine quadrillion humans and one quadrillion animal species, including rare animal-human hybrids created by millennia of illegal "breeding" - something Tigress didn't believe until she saw an actual hybrid while mining.

In sharp contrast, while the Designators numbered just four humans - names not revealed to the public - there were a couple quadrillion APs scattered at every populated corner of a galaxy or planet, which left the vast majority of the A.G.E population to be normal human citizens of the Alliance. This subpopulation lived on "Alliance" planets - forbidden to all duty workers - which boasted thriving mega-cities, extremely high standards of living, and various sights and sounds which the disenfranchised could only dream of.

Speaking of the disenfranchised - or duty workers, as Tigress understood herself to be - they consisted just 1% of the Alliance population, yet produced 90% of its economic output in the forms of energy resources. However, the group possessed virtually no ownership of property, weapons, and lived in desolate conditions and near inhospitable planets - most worked for endless hours, labored under constant threat of abuse, torture, or death, and only granted a moment of reprieve when human supervisors would come and inject "duty cocktails" - vaporized concoctions of hormones that offered a joyless replenishing of energy levels and even sleep. Rarely, if workers performed well enough - they could afford certain privileges like reversion back to their "Pre-Reformation" names, actual sleeping time, actual food instead of the duty cocktail - and although its existence was highly contested… even own a sizeable property, and marry - on a better, "resident" planet. Resident planets - although extremely few in number and infinitely inferior to Alliance planets - offered better living conditions than production planets and - if nothing else - gave hope of marginally better lives for most duty workers. One of the central issues however, was the disparity in life expectancies - those unfortunate enough to live on production planets (like Tigress' current home, SD-77) barely lived past thirty; those on resident planets were mostly capable of living into old age, perhaps seventy or eighty. Humans on Alliance planets however, benefited from incredible scientific advances, medical treatment, and stunning quality of life - such humans lived for thousands of years without fail. Thus Tigress could see why colonizing planets with life was such a focus for A.G.E - with a human majority population that barely worked, and an extreme, quickly dying minority of slave workers - finding new sources of "duty workers" was essential to making the intergalactic society go around.

And everything was based on this system.

The system Tigress was subject to now.

The system everyone - all ninety quadrillion of them - had to abide by.

The Designators decided everything.

No choice.

Only the fulfillment of one's "evolutionary purpose".

Under Alliance Constitution - all species, whether human or animal-based - were granted equal rights, as long as they were evolutionarily reasonable. Everything in society was based around evolutionary purposes - birds were best suited for flying roles, large animals best for pulling and mining roles, while humans occupied all possible positions. To Tigress' initial shock, although the clear superiority of "human" over "animal" was enforced on private and public sectors - the two sides often intermingled. Although only pure humans could become Designators, it was theoretically possible to become an AP as an animal - although Tigress hadn't seen any in the few months she had spent on SD-77. Duty workers - while predominantly consisting of animals and animal hybrids - did have sizeable human minorities, often war prisoners or expatriates from Alliance planets.

Tigress even had a human friend.

Well - she was trying anyways.

"Damn this heat," Tigress noted in her grey fatigues, operating a handheld energy saw that was beginning to fail her. "Hey Ceci - name a planet hotter than SD-77."

"I heard GG-31 was pretty bad," Ceci emphasized, grey fatigues clouded with dust and smoke from mining so deep underneath the ground - alone with Tigress. "Five hundred degrees Celsius."

"That isn't too higher than here," Tigress retorted, trying to pry an energy crystal from within layers of molten rock. "Plus we've got the nitrogen air thing - don't they have good oxygen there?"

"I dunno…" Ceci noted, shoveling a large rock away from Tigress - lightening the load. "Hey - I always wanted to know… what does TF-17 stand for?"

"Tiger female, 17th on my planet," Tigress instantly answered, having heard this many times. "Don't you know yours?"

Ceci turned, showing a burned cheekbone. "HF-194019 - "

"Alright stop," Tigress cut her off, bored. "That just means human, female, numbered - whatever the hell that number is. Didn't they tell you this?"

Ceci merely smiled. "I - I'm kind of new - I just got my fatigues a few hours ago."

Tigress smiled, resuming the slicing away of rock.

"Any tips you got for me?" Ceci queried.

Tigress reached in, extracting the golden energy crystal with ease. "Shut up, and do what you're told."

. . .

It had been a year since Reformation.

"TF-17!"

Tigress awoke with a startle, fear and emotion rushing through her. She gained an observation of her surroundings - she was still gratefully in the supervisor headquarters, and none of her limbs were damaged or missing - so everything was relatively fine. The dark, metallic pod that she had just awoken from was similar to the metallic paint of the supervisor's room - Tigress was a bit surprised every time she came here - it was just a bit better than the duty worker sleeping quarters, and not by much.

"How was your first sleep?" the human supervisor asked from his desk, red armor signaling his status.

Tigress remembered the memories that had came - that had rushed back while having her first sleep on SD-77.

His dark hair.

Omega.

The fire.

Watching her friends be torn away.

Po's smile.

His beautiful face.

All burning in the fire.

"Wonderful," Tigress lied, trying to avoid crying. "It - it was really wonderful… thank you so much…"

The supervisor walked closer to Tigress, smiling at her. "No - thank you. You're one of my best duty workers - that's the reason I'm giving you sleeping privileges. Keep it up, and you just might get some other stuff too."

Tigress narrowed her eyes. "Other… stuff…?"

The human supervisor smiled, retracting his faceplate. "Maybe - food. Maybe… a house… on XS-211…"

Tigress nearly broke herself with joy. "Oh my - oh thank you thank you thank you…"

"Calm down," the supervisor noted, pushing Tigress into place. "Nothing is confirmed yet, and it'll take a while for me to submit the request to Alliance housing - but… keep up the good work, that's all I'll say."

Tigress merely nodded, rushing back out of the room to complete her tasks with a newfound fervor. She walked out of the metallic bunker, breathing a deep sigh - before setting off in a paced walk towards the surface mining area about five hundred paces away. Tigress started moving.

She took in her surroundings, never failing to be surprised by the amount of activity on SD-77. As weak light drifted down from the smoky black sky, showering the molten, red ground with mild illumination - Tigress noted that at least two of the duty worker citadels had been torn down. This was evident from the huge piles of metal debris which stuck out oddly against the massive, rocky expanse - Tigress watched duty workers and machines gradually clean up the citadel remnants about three miles away. Housing was always historically low - but this seemed atrocious. Above her, a few flying "retrieval" bots powerfully soared above her - evidently going to acquire more energy saws and drills from the supervisors' headquarters. It was fortunate as well, as this week the entire team was working on harvesting an energy crystal that weighed nearly 4000 pounds - the only issue was that it was encased in a mineralized carbon rock composite, which had comfortably broken about fifty saws and pickaxes. Tigress herself had to call in every favor she knew to even get her team a refurbished Tank-Driller, a giant but operable machine able to cut through some of the more dense minerals. Supplies were notoriously low among SD-77's vast force of duty workers - the APs guarding them, however - never seemed to understand this, choosing to torture and kill any "disobedient" workers for not working "hard" enough and "complaining" too much.

Tigress never complained. She understood the situation.

"TF-17!" Karla called out.

Tigress smiled, watching the tall lion meet her in the middle of the long pathway leading back to the surface mines.

"Where have you been?" Karla questioned, walking alongside her junior duty worker.

"Guess who just got sleeping privileges," Tigress slyly mentioned.

Karla stopped her. "You're bullshitting."

Tigress shook her head with a smirk, continuing forward. "Nope."

"But it took me years to get sleeping privileges!" Karla affirmed, groaning. "Hell, I only got my Pre-Reformation name back like two years ago!"

"Maybe I'm just better at mining," Tigress acerbically commented, earning a punch from Karla.

"Like hell," the lioness countered, grinning. "I taught you everything about mining… maybe I'm just better she says…"

Tigress and Karla reached the mining area in another thirty seconds of walking. They watched the duty workers digging and mining in a deep trench, aided with a few machines and replaced energy saws. At the taller edges of the trench were the usual circle of APs - stern golden armor and oversized energy rifles pointed squarely at the mass of grey-robed duty workers in the trench, looking for any signs of slow work. Tigress and Karla walked to a laughing AP, who sported a red and black insignia of the Alliance on his chestplate - signifying seniority.

"TF-17," Tigress smoothly pronounced. "Reporting back for work after private meeting with team supervisor."

The AP promptly brought out a blue scanning device, motioning for Tigress to show her cheekbone. With a whizzing noise and flash of light, the device passed a sensor over the burned lettering in Tigress' cheekbone.

"Alright, access granted TF-17," the AP confirmed, handing Tigress her energy saw.

Tigress moved forward, but was stopped by another APs metallic hand - this man appeared to be more junior, with just the standard golden armor.

"You trying to screw your way to more privileges, TF-17?" the younger, shorter AP asked.

Tigress merely kept silent - a well-conditioned, perfect response whenever something like this happened. Karla alongside her was similarly quiet.

"Let it go, soldier," the senior AP emphasized.

"I've seen this furry bitch work," the younger AP noted, grabbing Tigress by the neck - holding his energy rifle near her throat. "You think you're doing good work, TF-17?"

Tigress again kept quiet. Karla looked away. After a few seconds, the AP started to grin devilishly.

It was different.

Tigress had been warned of "that grin".

She had to be strong.

"You know, I've had friends in the force tell me how being with an animal is compared to a human," the younger AP let out, smirking cruelly. "They say it's more - passionate. Intense…"

Tigress felt the AP's hand clasp her bottom, squeezing tightly.

"Lustful," the younger AP mused, eyes narrowing malevolently. "I dunno - maybe it's because your species is so primitive… I find that kinda hot… I mean…"

It took all of Karla's strength to not make any motion or word. The younger AP pulled Tigress closer to himself, both hands on Tigress' bottom - moving his hands in rhythmic motion while his pelvis nudged forward, bumping Tigress repetitively.

"You look like a slut who wants it," the younger AP concluded, face hidden by his visor. "Maybe we should head back to the AP bunk… I got some friends who'd love to join in on the fun… "

Tigress kept quiet, but fear was shooting through her like wildfire. She had experienced various levels of the treatment before, but this was the first time it was progressing this far.

"That's enough," the senior AP finally stepped in, shoving his soldier away from Tigress. "TF-17 - go to the trench and complete your work."

Tigress merely nodded, but joy was filling her body. She breathed a massive sigh of relief, holding her energy saw closer to her chest and fatigues - almost protectively - while she tried her best to forget the experience she just had. Tigress walked past the senior AP, stopping at the edge of the trench - staring down at a large, dirty staircase that lead down to the crowd of duty workers toiling on the enormous, glowing energy crystal.

Tigress heard something behind her.

"Let me have this one at least," the junior AP's distinctive voice growled.

Tigress turned imperceptibly behind her. The senior AP watched his soldier fondle Karla, grabbing her chest and behind - shaking both lightly with a broad grin on his face.

"Keep it off the records," the senior AP emphasized. "You know if the Alliance catches us…"

"I'll keep her as quiet as possible," the young AP sneered, planting a kiss on Karla's completely blank face. "Come with me - let me introduce you to my friends."

Tigress' heart sank, watching Karla offer just the slightest reluctance as the young AP dragged her on a pathway leading to the AP bunker, both hands still aggressively fondling Karla's chest and behind. Tigress watched the lioness just quiver a bit, although the careless AP didn't catch this. Tigress didn't want to even think on how Karla must have been feeling.

"Get to work, TF-17," the senior AP commanded.

Tigress nodded, turning away from the situation as quickly as possible. As she made her way down the staircase, about to join her fellow workers and machines laboring over the giant crystal - she tried her best to forget the experiences she had just witnessed.

Tigress couldn't mull over this. She just couldn't.

She had to survive.

Keep moving forward.

The one thing Karla had always told her to do.

Tigress reached the pit, quickly earning a few mild acknowledgements from the duty workers - but they kept working, offering greetings very briefly.

"TF-17!"

"Back from the depths of hell, I see…"

"How'd your meeting go?"

"TF-17! My main girl!"

"Well wishes to you, TF-17!"

Tigress ignored the crowd of animal voices, not bothering to respond. She quickly took an empty spot at the edge of the massive crystal, choosing to pair up work with Ceci.

Ceci was nice. Although she complained often and cracked jokes that would often get everyone in trouble - Tigress noted that the human still had her childish innocence with her, something Tigress had lost a long, long time ago. Also, Ceci was the best person to send when the team needed to ask the APs for more equipment - humans often reacted more favorably to humans, even if there was a fundamental difference in status.

"Hey girl," Ceci cheerfully responded. "Wait - where's Karla?"

"Doing something," Tigress lied, choosing to start sawing as she began seeking to get those images out of her mind.

"Hmph, that old bitch never is around when we have lots of work to do," Ceci let out in irritation, resuming her usual sawing of the mineral in front of her. "I suppose years of being a good little kitty for the Alliance really gave her a lot…"

Again Tigress kept as quiet as possible.

"Anyway, I got something to give you," Ceci noted, pausing the work for a second. "Here."

Tigress kept sawing, but casually passed her gaze over to Ceci's clandestine hands.

What she saw shocked her.

Absolute horror.

Paper.

It felt so ancient.

And so illegal - by Alliance standards.

Tigress instinctively shot her gaze to the sky, noting that no observer drones were monitoring their activity closely. She also looked up outside the trench - to her comfort, the APs guarding this section of the work squad were busy laughing and talking to each other.

"Are you insane?" Tigress spat, pretending to use her saw again. "Put that shit away. You know papyrus is contraband."

"I got this from a friend who knows a friend who knows someone else," Ceci forced. "He specifically told me that you have to see it."

"I don't want it," Tigress immediately cut across. "Throw it away."

Ceci growled, looking back at the paper. "My friend tells me it's from a - erm - bird duty worker."

"I don't care."

"Says his name's BM-193 - pre-Reformation name known as Crane. He said you'd know who it was."

The name shot through Tigress like an electric shock.

It felt overpowering.

Too much.

Too many memories.

So much suppressed moments.

She couldn't lose her composure now.

There were APs.

Murder drones.

Energy rifles.

Torture.

So many reasons to listen to what Karla had always told her.

Do what you're told. Keep your head down.

Yet Tigress couldn't resist.

The name meant too much.

Too much of her emotion was winning.

She ripped the letter from Ceci's hands.

Tigress knew she had to act fast. There were drones who'd be surveying movement. The APs guarding would eventually stop laughing and chatting and go back to strictly observing their designated workers.

Her fingers trembled as she opened the letter.

A moment of pause.

Her heart beat faster.

She unfolded the scroll within - horrified to see thick red stains permeate the pages. Tigress was equally confused by the odd grammatical and spelling errors - uncharacteristic of the letter writer she had known.

Tigress,

I don't knofw if this messcage will ever reacah you - but here's hoping it does.

I just want to start off by saying I haope that you're doing okaay and eating enough foood. I hope you are good and happee and safe.

I sasw Mornkey on a transport veswsel a feww days back. I twhink he's still alive. He was heading to that shithowle XN-4966 - I hope he deawls with it okay. We smilged at each other bdefore they shoveda him into the ship.

I've seen Po, Viper, Mantis, Shifu's nasmes listed as -ACTIVE- on the Inttergalactic Duty Worker Database the lasst time I chegcked (two monthws ago, I think) - SO i think they're still alive. You can maybe atry contacting them.

Tigress its soo good even to think about you and the life we used to have. It really keeps me going on long hhour days. I hope one day we'll see each other agaain. I'm on KR-5, but I dont know for how long.

Your friend,

Crane

P.S: My suspervisor found meg smuggaling actual food last week (got sick of that duty cocktail) so hge clippeed my right wing off - so plefase excuse any bloood stains and bad sppelling.

Tigress nearly broke herself in raw emotion.

It was a combination of factors.

The joy of seeing his name again. The joy of imagining a physical Crane writing this all down - maybe silently, secretively - risking everything in his life to get this message smuggled. The joy of realizing Crane was resourceful enough to somehow bribe whoever his senior AP was to get the message smuggled - all the way from KR-5 - that was in a different galaxy altogether!

And then the grief hit her.

The red stains. Imagining Crane's wing get clipped off. Imagining how skinny he possibly was now (even Tigress had lost considerable weight). Imagining the strain of flying for most of the day, without break… and now, with one wing.

Then Tigress read the rest of the Five's names. She read them over, lost in memories.

She read Shifu's name again.

Father.

That concept seemed so out of place now.

Tigress read Po's name.

She sniffled.

It was too much.

She couldn't think about it anymore.

She had to remember where she was.

With an elegant stuffing of the letter into a pocket of her fatigues, Tigress made no other reactions or motions - simply turning her energy saw on and resumed the steady cutting away of mineral rock.

. . .

It had been three years since Reformation.

"We shouldn't be doing this."

"Shut up."

Tigress felt the male tiger press her against the metal wall, nibbling on her lips while his muscular hands moved to her hips with gusto.

"Every time we do this Angel, I'm scared," Tigress breathed out, restricting her passions for a second to allow her mind to speak. "Scared a drone will detect our heat signatures. Scared an AP will come by and blow us to pieces. Scared - "

Angel silenced her with a furry paw, closing Tigress' mouth. "Look around us - I always take us somewhere safe - and I always have Karla think up a good cover story."

Tigress let Angel continue kissing her neck, but she examined her surroundings. Usually whenever her and Angel would escape away for one of their - meetings - there would always be an element of danger to it, yet she had to admit that Angel was extraordinarily careful. Karla usually would formulate some kind of excuse to the APs, or plainly bribe them with stockpiled energy crystals - which allowed Tigress and Angel to escape away, off the books - for at least five minutes at a time. The location had to be changed constantly - sometimes it was behind empty AP barracks, sometimes within the ruins of a destroyed Citadel, and sometimes Angel had been bold enough to lead her behind the supervisor's quarters - basically, any place where there was minimal guard and drone presence. The trick only worked once or twice a month though - which both intensified anticipation for their next "meeting" while also making sure that they had to make every minute count.

"Anyway, that's not the reason I wanted to get away this time," Angel finished, oddly removing himself from Tigress. "I wanted to do something different."

"You try something different every time," Tigress noted sarcastically, mild smile forming. "Remember that time you tried incorporating a blunt energy drill? That was hilarious!"

Tigress let herself laugh genuinely for the first time in years, remembering that rather awkward five minutes.

"You didn't seem to complain…" Angel noted with an alluring smirk, kneeling down.

Tigress was taken aback by the tiger's kneeling position. "What are you doing?"

Angel gently smiled, bringing out a shining energy crystal from his paw. Yet the crystal looked different - a bit more shiny than usual, almost as it had been polished for days - and it took a while for Tigress to realize what was happening.

Tigress smacked the crystal roughly of his paws, firmly beginning the walk back to the mines.

"Tigress - wait!" Angel let out, surprised - scouring the rocky dirt for the crystal.

Tigress looked all around - nervous and anxious - hoping desperately that no AP or drone had heard her. The mines were about a quarter of a mile away from the location they were at now - the empty AP barracks - so she had enough time to comfortably get back into the trenches and act like nothing had happened.

Yet Angel roughly pulled her back, staring angrily into her eyes.

"What the hell was that?" the tiger growled.

"I'm saving you from doing something stupid," Tigress spat, annoyed. "Whaddya think will happen when an AP - sees a contraband crystal on me? And he figures out that we're - married?"

"Maybe congratulate us?" Angel smirked.

"Screw off."

"Listen, I've been thinking a lot about this," Angel reaffirmed, slightly taller frame just beginning to envelop Tigress. "You don't wear your crystal in public, we cut back on these little trips of ours, we - "

"I don't wanna hear it," Tigress countered angrily. "Leave me alone."

"You never said no when I came to SD-77 a year ago!" Angel forced. "You were all for these little trips back then!"

"Because I was desperate!" Tigress cried, feeling tears slip out. "You know how it is to work all day - every day - and suddenly, a - a member of your own species…"

"A handsome one…" Angel quipped sarcastically.

"...just comes into your view?" Tigress finished. "Maybe it was - having my desires suppressed, ignored for so long… I dunno…"

Angel stood back, somewhat affected. "That's why you got with me? Because you just wanted a friend with benefits?"

Tigress nodded firmly, ignoring the section of her mind screaming that it was a lie. In truth, she had fallen for the tiger - she was attracted to his body language, his confidence, his sense of style (even in grey fatigues!), his kindness - and it didn't hurt that all the times she had escaped with him to some secret location… those five minutes were some of the best minutes of an otherwise joyless existence.

Angel ignored what Tigress noted, kneeling down again - extending the energy crystal. "I think you're the most beautiful person I've ever seen."

Tigress laughed, imagining what it would be like to propose to an emaciated tiger in loose grey fatigues, with dirt and soot running through her fur with so many scars and injuries various APs had given over the years.

"You must not know what beautiful means," Tigress sighed ironically.

"I think I do," Angel forced, standing up to give Tigress the crystal - she hesitated, but accepted gently.

Tigress wrapped herself around Angel, old anxiety peaking again. "Oh what are we gonna do… oh… you know this doesn't mean anything official, right? You know duty workers usually can't get marr - "

"It doesn't have to be that official - I'm not looking for the Alliance to bless us," Angel remarked, smiling. "I just want it - our thing - to mean something."

"What are we going to do after?"

Angel smiled. "They - they say that - the hardest working duty workers manage to get onto the resident planets…"

Tigress sighed. "Angel - both of us know that SD-77 hasn't sent a single duty worker to a resident planet in over two hundred years…"

"All the more reason to break that trend," Angel emphasized. "And once we're on a resident planet - we get communication privileges… so even if we end up assigned to different planets… we can find our way back - to each other."

Tigress sighed, admiring the energy crystal with a waning gaze. "It's a lot to hope for."

Angel grinned, nudging Tigress' nose with her own. "What else we got?"

Tigress sighed, although the happiness of the moment was overwhelming her otherwise rational senses.

"We'll get out of this hellhole together, don't worry," Angel firmly noted. "I promise."

Tigress felt Angel's lips mesh into hers, losing herself in the heat of the moment.

"Now come on," Angel remarked, pointing out the metallic wall of the AP barracks again. "We still have two minutes left."

"Hmph," Tigress groaned, moving with Angel excitedly back to the secretive wall. "You're usually finished in one…"

"Let's see if I can't get you done in thirty seconds," Angel countered gleefully.

Tigress grinned.

"You wish."

. . .

It had been ten years since Reformation.

Tigress' negotiation skills were becoming legendary.

Due to her status as senior duty worker, she found herself at odds with a variety of people - not just hordes of duty workers, but also unstable APs, untrustworthy supervisors, Alliance inspectors, faulty drones, and a whole variety of flaws and instability on SD-77. Thus, the key to Tigress' abilities were her smooth, logical speech and powerful, captivating arguments. She always approached tense situations with an air of nonchalance and perfect poise - for instance, just last week a rather recently-arrived duty worker had complained of the long hours, saying that on CR-57 (the worker's previous planet, before it was destroyed in a supernova) - working hours were far lighter. This of course, completely ignored the fact that planets like CR-57 were by far the exception rather than the rule, governed by aging human supervisors more intent on collecting Alliance welfare payment rather than enforce strict regulation and work orders upon duty workers.

And as soon as an AP heard of this worker's complaint, he pointed his energy rifle at the terrified individual.

Until Tigress had stepped in, defusing the situation.

It was an oddly enjoyable role for her. Tigress always used the same strategy when dealing with any dysfunctional member of SD-77, although the approach differed depending on situation and context. The general principles were simple, something Karla often repeated to her - be calm, choose the path of least resistance, and admit fault. Part of Tigress' pride always had issue with the last bit, but this had been squashed out of her after tasting the end of the APs shock cannons more times than she would have liked.

There also seemed to be an odd respect growing around Tigress as well - perhaps it was in the extensive scarring in her body, which shone through rips in her aged grey fatigues - or perhaps it was the manner and poise which she carried herself, in simple elegance and dedicated persistence in work…

...or maybe it was just the fact that unlike most of the duty workers she had met, she had sleeping privileges.

Or was secretly enjoying a tense but hopeful relationship with Angel - her unofficial "husband" of seven years.

Whatever the reason, Tigress felt a sense of seniority that Karla explained was normal with extensive experience working under the Alliance - new duty workers often went to Tigress for advice, and emotional turmoil was first resolved by Tigress and Karla before anything else. Six months ago, when Tigress' longstanding human companion and fellow duty worker - Ceci - had mysteriously disappeared, the first one to implore everyone to move past the grief and get back to work was Tigress. Although APs had explained it as the human being relocated to another planet, the senior duty workers such as Tigress and Karla knew the truth - whenever there was a mysterious disappearance, the Alliance usually had an issue with a particular worker.

The issue was resolved permanently and silently - and Ceci was never to be seen again.

Tigress however, was typically unaffected and stone cold.

"I don't think I've ever seen you get angry," a nearby worker initiated, addressing Tigress at the head of the working group.

"Yeah, even down in this dump you haven't even said a word of protest," a jackal mentioned calmly, smiling at Tigress.

Today's work assignment was especially strenuous - with the sudden Alliance regulation change, duty workers were no longer allowed to operate heavy machinery such as the Tank-Driller and Energy Crane - both enormously useful vehicles for moving and crushing hard mineral, of which most of SD-77 was composed of. The regulation was poorly received on both ends - APs and supervisors now had to deal with thousands of energy crystals wasted in purchasing these expensive machines, while duty workers now had to deal with enormous labor inefficiencies. Crushing and extracting energy crystals from a three ton carbon boulder would usually take less than a day using the Tank-Driller - but now, workers were forced to mine with the crappy energy saws that were as usual - blunt and ineffective. Weeks had been wasted, and the economic productivity of SD-77 was far before Alliance goals for the planet. Yet, despite the horrible conditions - daily newsfeed streamed in on hologram panels set all of over SD-77 - all of the news boasted about how rich the Alliance planets were, how excellent life was becoming because of the Designators, and a final hymn towards the glory of "evolutionary purpose". It was an ideological assault in gigantic proportions, but more hurtfully the images that the workers saw, of Alliance planets - the buildings were carved out of exquisite nanocrystals that stretched into the sky, streets were paved with high-speed railing that exploded forthward across entire continents and megacities, a pleasant atmosphere with high oxygenation levels, every human citizen possessed a personal spaceship, a luxury of wealth and splendor…

...and the Alliance firmly believed that this was the "best-case" scenario possible via evolution. So, despite the duty workers' suffering (painted as "evolutionary sacrifice" in the newsfeeds) - the Alliance firmly believed it was a necessary evil in making sure the rest of the population was as happy as possible.

"These damn regulations," a sheep worker exclaimed, angry. "Always screwing us over… even my pre-Reformation planet at least had freakin' cranes, now they won't even let us have those…"

The crowd of workers, still cutting away at the surrounding rocky cave walls with energy saws, tried to shush the defiant sheep worker. Tigress was growing annoyed too - the sheep was sure to attract too much attention.

"I mean what the hell are we working for, right?" the sheep went on, brainlessly protesting in the cave. "All this shit all for a hope for some mildly less crappy resident planet, while the rest of humanity gets stinkin' rich off our - "

"Be quiet, SM-244," Tigress called out, annoyed.

"TF-17."

Tigress stopped, uneasy.

That was definitely an AP's voice.

She could tell by its robotic coldness.

She turned back, scared to see two golden-armored APs suddenly stand at the center of the cave - distinctive devices on their hands shocking her.

Teleporters.

All duty workers knew that anytime an AP came by the mines with a teleporter - they didn't want the teleportee to know where they were going.

And it drove fear into Tigress' heart.

"TF-17, step forward," the taller AP announced angrily.

Tigress reluctantly obeyed, swallowing. Her crowd of fellow workers continued the sawing, too terrified to do anything else. Tigress wished with all her might that Karla had been around - at least she could perhaps organize a bribe of some kind.

Even Angel. His calm, reassuring face would have helped her.

Tigress clasped onto the APs hands, feeling a spectacular sensation of light flood through her. She closed her eyes, feeling a zooming sensation.

Then nothing.

Nothing.

Darkness for a while.

For more time.

Then she felt her feet hit cold, metallic floor.

Tigress opened her eyes reluctantly.

The room she was in perfectly white. She had absolutely no reference to where she was - the room had no windows - and the two APs that had teleported her were not present. Tigress also noted that she was sitting down, unrestrained (at least for the time being) - sitting across a table that had one human, dressed in a blue and yellow carbon suit, at the other end.

Tigress observed the silent man make a few notes on his electronic panel. She read his holographic nametag.

Alliance Interrogator.

Fear shot through her.

Tigress had heard of these humans only a few times.

Each time, the stories about them scared her.

They always ended with the animal being interrogated…

Tigress forced that thought out of her head, adopting the neutral expression that had got her this far on SD-77.

"Speak only when spoken to," the interrogator announced. "Nod that you confirm this."

Tigress nodded slowly.

"State your name, age, and brief history," the interrogator followed up.

Tigress knew that the interrogator already researched this, but she had to follow protocol.

"TF-17, thirty-two years old," Tigress expressed in monotone. "My native planet was XN-44. We were reformed ten years ago."

The interrogator made a few swipes across his electronic panel. "Would you please recount your history on XN-44?"

Tigress was mildly surprised by the question. It also brought up a wave of painful memories, moments and thoughts that she tried to suppress and disengage with every time they came up - and to be honest, it had been so long since XN-44 that she…

"Answer not given in time," the interrogator announced. "Disciplining."

Tigress felt a red device break out from the table front and stab her in the paw, letting loose a fresh stream of blood.

"AGH!" Tigress let out weakly, not expecting the level of pain that was coming.

It was worse than the usual torture the APs often inflicted on her.

The device emitted a shocking pulse through the wound, effective cauterizing it yet causing immense pain.

And just as the device retreated, Tigress' paw healed back.

She was always amazed by the efficient torture methods the Alliance had designed - methods to make sure their "investment" was not significantly injured, yet experienced the maximal discomfort possible.

"I - I'm sorry," Tigress mumbled out.

"Worker speaking when not asked to speak," the interrogator spoke. "Disciplining again."

The red device repeated the stabbing motion into Tigress' paw, yet this time it expanded and emitted an even stronger current. Tigress wanted to scream - the pain was so intense - yet she just managed to bring herself back.

The red device cauterized and removed itself. Again the wound healed.

"Proceeding with interrogation - I'll read off your history then, if you can't remember," the interrogator concluded, looking at his electronic panel. "Female tiger species. You spent twenty-two years on XN-44."

Tigress merely nodded.

"Job title and location of living?" the interrogator asked.

This brought back several painful memories, but Tigress was compelled to respond as she eyed the red device blinking threateningly.

"I - I - I was a kung fu master," Tigress noted, shocked to hear those words again for the first time in years. "I lived in erm - the continent of Asia-China, in uh - the Valley of - Peace."

Flooding thoughts and emotions.

Mostly sensations.

Early memories.

The Valley.

A Palace.

The Jade Palace.

The training grounds.

The wooden dummies.

The Dragon Scroll.

The Dragon Warrior.

Thick black hair - lost in flames.

Tigress snapped back to reality, shoving the images out of her head.

Not now.

Not now.

The interrogator merely made more swipes on his keyboard. "Did you experience any radicalization upon your relocation to SD-77?"

Tigress shook her head.

The interrogator smiled. "Amusing, considering how you've carried over traditions from your native planet - traditions the Alliance has deemed illegal for duty workers."

Tigress tilted her head in surprise, although she chose to stay silent again - fearing the red device.

"Such as marriage," the interrogator confirmed.

Tigress panicked.

A raw, instinctive panic.

They couldn't possibly know.

They had kept it so low-key.

No one except Karla and Angel knew.

No one.

The interrogator pressed the red device into a panel of the table, getting up to walk over to Tigress - who recoiled in fear at what he may do.

"Answer, TF-17," the interrogator forced.

"I am not married," Tigress lied instantly, unwilling to even think about giving up Angel.

CRACK.

Tigress was bludgeoned away by the interrogator's palm. She fell down onto the white, metallic ground - groaning.

"Enough lies, TF-17," the interrogator spat, grabbing Tigress by the head fur. "Don't make this worse for yourself."

Tigress struggled to keep her neutral expression, shaking.

"ANSWER!"

"I'm not married!" Tigress cried out desperately, earning another ferocious slap from the interrogator.

"Proceeding to stage 2," the interrogator noted on his panel, pinning Tigress down with a heavy foot.

He brought out a golden needle, spiked at the end.

He shoved it into Tigress' exposed knee.

"ARGH!" Tigress roared, pain so intense that she couldn't help herself. "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!"

The device was clearly ripping out flesh in some manner. The knee joint was being systematically destroyed - the interrogator spun the needle around with a press of a button, watching Tigress scream and writhe in agony under his foot.

"TELL US!" the interrogator screamed, bringing out a strange, miniscule machine in his hand that Tigress didn't recognize.

"I - I - I'm not married…" Tigress begged, desperate to not get Angel involved as the needle broke away all of the joint bones in her knee.

The small machine in the interrogator's hand was dropped. It latched itself onto Tigress' chest, immediately pulsing with energy before another press of its button by the interrogator.

The device spun.

Tigress roared louder than she ever had.

The device was penetrating past her sternum.

"AGH! AHHHHH! AHHHHHH! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!"

"TELL US WHO HE IS!" the interrogator screamed.

Tigress defiantly kept quiet, completely unwilling.

She couldn't.

Not to him.

Not after seven years.

She loved him.

She loved him enough - where the golden needle and device, and all the pain it was starting - didn't matter to her.

"What if I threw in relocation?" the interrogator motioned, smiling. "Relocation to a - resident planet."

The words hit her like a brick wall.

After all this time?

Ten years.

And now - there was a chance?

The resident planet?

Tigress decided against it.

She couldn't reveal Angel.

She just couldn't.

"TELL ME HIS NAME!" the interrogator yelled.

The pain rode through Tigress like fire. She had never experienced such immense agony in her entire life.

"HIS NAME!"

It was all-consuming.

It was too much.

All she had to do…

"TELL. ME!"

She could escape.

She could be more free.

A resident planet.

"HIS NAME!"

"TM-91!"

A pause.

Tigress felt the pain go away.

Then shock.

Because she realized what she had just done.

Realized the choice she had made.

It was irreversible.

Tigress was suddenly brought to a sitting position, finding herself at the table again while the interrogator made another note on his electronic panel.

"TM-91…" the interrogator repeated, checking the panel. "Pre-Reformation name… Angel."

Something about the name made Tigress revolt inside.

No.

She couldn't.

She ignored her rational side.

Tigress dove at the human, grasping his carbon suit with desperation. "Please please please - I'll do anything… anything… please don't kill him… please don't kill him…"

"In exchange for providing us with this information," the interrogator noted out loud. "You have been granted relocation to resident planet XS-211. Turn in your fatigues and requests to your senior duty worker, LF-88 - Karla."

Tigress kept pleading, ignoring his words. "Please… please… I love him… I love him… I'll stay here forever, I don't want to go… please…"

The interrogator shoved Tigress off him, activating his own teleporter as he faded and burst into a beacon of light.

Then he was gone.

A moment of pause.

Then another flash of light.

Tigress opened her tear-filled eyes to see Karla standing in front of her, teleporter in her hand as well.

The lioness' face was depressed and understanding, almost as if she was expecting this to happen.

"TF-17," Karla started, saddened with a downcast gaze. "Please turn in your fatigues and - "

Tigress jumped forward, wrapping her arms around the older animal.

"I - I killed him…" Tigress let out, moaning. "I - I killed him…"

"Shush…" Karla tried, squeezing Tigress's back while resting her head on Tigress'. "Shush… you just did what anyone else would have done…"

"I - I killed him…" Tigress groaned, weeping profusely. "My h - husband of seven years… oh I loved him…"

"It's alright, it's alright," Karla noted, soothingly massaging Tigress' forehead. "What do we do - we keep moving forward, that's it… we keep moving forward…"

Tigress sniffled, voice wrought with emotion. "How - how did they even offer me the chance to go to a resident planet… I - I - they'd only allow it if - if…"

Tigress suddenly became logical for a second, mind jumping to conclusions.

The interrogator could have easily tortured the information out of Tigress in time.

He didn't need to offer the deal.

Tigress looked up at Karla, suspicion aroused. "You - you…"

Then it hit her.

Tigress gasped. "Karla…"

The lioness smiled. "All it took was me promising to be on SD-77 a little longer… in exchange for well - giving you a shot at getting out of his shithole."

Tigress wept even more strongly now, thick tears drenching Karla's fatigues. Now she had two things to mourn - Angel, who no doubt had zero clue on what was going to happen to him - and Karla's sacrifice.

She had always been fond of her - but this was a debt that couldn't be repaid.

Ten years of working together.

"You had your own - own plans to l - leave SD-77…" Tigress let out between sobs. "W - Why waste it on - on me?"

Karla smiled, hugging Tigress fondly. "You're - different than the rest. Despite going through all this - this Reformation bullshit - you haven't lost who you are."

Tigress weeped harder, everything hitting her all at once. "We - were going to get to a resident planet together… me and him… now…"

"I know Tigress," Karla softly whispered into her friend's ears. "I know…"

Karla never used Tigress' name before now.

So it meant something.

Tigress only sobbed harder.

. . .

It had been twenty years since Reformation.

Although it often passed her mind multiple times, perhaps during her long walks that Tigress often took during her recreational time - life on XS-211 was so starkly different than SD-77 - the planet she had left ten years ago.

She still remembered the shock of landing on the resident planet. Most notably, her grey fatigues had been replaced with one of four standard clothes - a choice that Tigress actually got to make before her transport ship had even landed. Thus, sporting new blue attire which fit comfortably over her body - Tigress was exposed to the brilliant, wonderful joys of living on a resident planet - privileges that she perhaps had forgotten after spending so much time on SD-77. Even her name had been legally reverted - from TF-17 back to Tigress.

On XS-211, all residents worked only twelve hour days - essentially from dawn till dusk, with the remainder of time being purely reserved for recreational usage, although all activity was monitored by the planet's ever-present system of monitor drones which flew over all citizens' heads. Duty workers here still worked under the same hazardous conditions, albeit a bit lightened - there were less APs guarding the mines, and they were often less stringent with Alliance regulation. Mining by and large - was the only job that physically fit individuals could do, while very aged workers could settle for a typist's life, usually encoding messages that the supervisors wanted to send to Earth or some other Alliance planet.

Also, the scenery of XS-211 was miles better than SD-77. Although both paled in comparison to human-populated Alliance planets, XS-211 sported a dark brown sky which occasionally sent mild rain down - a sensation Tigress had nearly forgotten. The geography was also slightly more aesthetic - while there were no mountains, there were functional (albeit aged and deformed) metallic buildings all around. These weren't purely housing Citadels - there were small shops, recreational grocery stores, and even public parks that could all be utilized after the working hours were gone. In fact, there were even facilities such as schools and courts of law - a streaking semblance of civilization well beyond what SD-77 offered, which was just miles and miles of endless mining facilities overseen by the harshest APs and strictest supervisors in the galaxy. XS-211 had just beginnings of an actual society where lifeforms could live, with enough utilities to make it bearable. Sure, there was still the constant threat of violent AP brutality and enormous censorship and Alliance control over personal belongings and income…

Income.

Tigress was baffled by the concept, despite knowing fully well what it meant.

Living on a resident planet actually meant one could earn income.

It was tiny - estimated at less than one thousandth of the minimum wage on Alliance planets.

The income however, could be used for any recreational activity - Tigress had elected in particular, to save up a month's worth of wages to purchase a rather expensive book. The book detailed a brief history of the Alliance, the topology of the galaxies under the organization, and several fun facts about all the planets that had been "Reformed".

And although Tigress would never admit it publicly - what she was really searching for was any mentions of XN-44.

Her native planet.

She knew it was wrong.

She knew it was hurtful to hold onto a long foregone past.

Yet the feeling was still there.

What had happened?

It never left Tigress.

She had stockpiled the book in her humble, Alliance subsidized home: a simple brown metallic box with a number eight painted on the edges. Inside the home, there was one simple, albeit somewhat spacious room - it held Tigress' sleeping cot (which had taken years to save up for), the book she had purchased, and a small electronic display that showed two channels: a news broadcast, and a "recreational" channel - mostly displaying random facts about Alliance history, human vs. animal physiological differences, and other ideological nonsense that Tigress didn't bother with.

Thus, Tigress had found herself with a lot more free time than she was accustomed too. Often times she would think back to her life on SD-77 - the stressful mining, Karla, Angel…

She always promptly stopped thinking, feeling too much emotion run through her. She had occasionally sent messages out, trying to gain a feeler for how Karla was doing on SD-77 - yet nothing had ever been delivered back.

Tigress chose not to think about Angel's fate. She had long since locked away the crystal he had given her all those years ago, locking it in a safe box within her house - determined to never be reminded of that phase of her life again.

Even more importantly, Tigress would have liked to get Karla's input on some things - she was, after all, doing the same role… managing her own mine.

Today, she was greeting freshly "reformed" duty workers - who were being brought to XS-211 only transitionally before being shipped off to an actual production planet.

Tigress watched the enormous metal ship settle down, displacing so much dust in the process. She was happy that today was a decent day to introduce newly reformed lifeforms to life under the Alliance - bright brown skies, and a relatively peaceful although heavily AP-guarded area, with numerous unassuming metal housing barracks all around. It was so different compared to when Tigress first arrived twenty years ago on SD-77 - she remembered the shock, the awe, and most importantly the fear that she had being in an unknown place, knowing so little about the civilization and so little about what was her life to come.

So Tigress felt a need to help the new workers settle down more easily.

The metal ship sprung open a panel, as hordes of refugees - clearly still scared from what Tigress had deduced to be their first space journey - stumble onto the hard, rocky ground in front of them. The small crowd - perhaps just fifty animal refugees - looked around rapidly, senses overwhelmed by all the things Tigress had been shocked by when she first was relocated.

"Got some Level 3s for ya, and some animals with no written designation," the ship captain noted to Tigress, enveloped in a golden black armor. "They'll stay for a few days then be shipped back to a production planet or - somewhere else."

"I asked for Level 4s," Tigress gently countered. "My energy mine is down twenty percent productivity because a worker's strike just ended with an AP gunning down fifteen workers."

The ship captain merely growled, showing her an electronic panel. "Sign here."

Tigress did so with a sigh.

The captain marched back to his large metallic ship, opening a panel to climb in. The refugees watched him with great fear - gasping as the gigantic ship burst into light and soared past XS-211's brown atmosphere, disappearing.

The AP guards promptly shoved the refugees towards Tigress, who eyed them all sympathetically.

"I understand many of you may be going through - a lot, right now," Tigress started, remembering Karla's first words to her. "Don't be scared… just take it one step at a time. Your supervisors…"

Tigress pointed out some humans who stood at the edge of the AP guards, with specially designed badges on their armor.

"... will split you up into different groups," Tigress emphasized. "There, they'll teach you the ways of the Alliance and how to adapt."

Tigress motioned, as the supervisors began splitting up the groups of refugees. Tigress watched the APs do the same intimidation tactics - shoving people, tearing families away from one another - yet, she was hopeful that her words were at least partly assuaging to them…

… a sudden movement in the crowd.

Tigress narrowed her eyes.

It couldn't be.

Yet it was.

It's a lie.

Tigress shook her head.

Yet it was still there.

It absolutely couldn't be.

A green tail.

The green tail of a snake.

With a bow.

Tigress shuddered.

It was impossible.

She ran forward suddenly, cutting through the dispersing crowd to catch up with the green snake with a bow that she had seen.

Two fangs.

A pink bow.

It couldn't be anyone else.

"Viper," Tigress slowly motioned, shaking. "Viper…"

The snake merely let her head go from side to side. Tigress noted that the snake's head was greatly injured - with multiple fractures and bleeding lacerations that hadn't been fixed, while the tail was disjointed and clearly broken in several places.

Yet it had to be her.

No other snake had the bow.

Tigress knew.

"Viper…" Tigress tried again, watching the supervisor drag the clearly unresponsive snake away from her.

Tigress narrowed her eyes.

Was that really her?

Could she even be alive after all this time?

Tigress wanted to check the hyperwebs - search the Intergalactic Duty Worker database - try to find evidence that the people she had known back on XN-44 - were still alive.

But she also feared finding out the opposite.

So she stayed away.

Ignorance was bliss.

Tigress liked to think that they had all found resident planets of their own - and were living in relative peace. Aside from the letter she had received from Crane nearly nineteen years ago - and today's incident - Tigress didn't remember finding out anything new about the Five, Shifu, or - Po.

Just thinking the names felt weird to her.

It had been so long.

"Um, excuse me…"

Tigress turned her attention back to the present, seeing a nervous young wolf struggle to say anything to her - clearly a refugee.

"I - I - " the young wolf started, scared. "I wanna see - see my friends back at the planet I was - um - taken from… do you know how I could - "

"Don't worry about your friends," Tigress quietly noted.

The wolf became saddened. "No - no - no I have to find them - I have to get back to them…"

Tigress held the young wolf's shoulders in her scarred, experienced paws. "Kid - trust me on this… let it go."

Tigress watched a supervisor call away the young wolf, who began to cry.

. . .

It had been fifty-eight years since Reformation.

It was an oddly peaceful day on XS-211. AP presence in the city centers was unusually lightened today, because it was the annual commemoration of the Alliance's birth. Conversely, the Alliance for Galactic Evolution was formed under quite unusual circumstances - tens of millions of years ago on this very day, Earth had been destroyed by a burgeoning human population that sought to expand their control over the cosmos. Suddenly lost without a host planet, the human race was forced to seek alternative planets and resources to fuel their exploding populations - and in colonization of fifty-seven galaxies, countless solar systems, and subjugation of innumerable lifeforms - A.G.E truly became the most powerful governing body under intergalactic law. Everyone celebrated this day every year - duty workers, those living on resident planets, and of course - humans living on Alliance planets. It was the one day every year where no conflict was to be had, and no mining work was to be done - it essentially served as an intergalactic holiday, with only minimal AP presence peppered through the cosmos to retain a general sense of peace and order.

Today, nestled in the capital of XS-211's enormous, rocky surface - a hustling population of free animals and low-status humans freely mingled and shared food, drink, and shopped together. While the shopping of XS-211 left much to be desired (with tawdry, beaten down store fronts and demented alleyways perforating the entire area) - the reduced AP and drone presence was appreciated, naturally taking the stress off the duty workers' faces. Alliance Day - as if the organization hadn't run out of things to call themselves - was the one day, the one night where everyone could simply live in peace.

Under the mild brown sky, with beams of light wafting down to the mineral ground - two animal children played "Crystal Ball". The premise of the game, invented by duty workers, was essentially to throw an energy crystal back and forth until it shattered - and the first person to give a "faulty" throw was eliminated. The last one standing was named the "Crystal King" - an unusually dramatic title for such a simple game.

These particular animal children had elected to move away from the hustle and bustle and crowded metallic infrastructure of XS-211's capital city, choosing to play in the quiet, dark, damp suburbs nearby. Here, there was just enough skylight to see the crystal being thrown - the backdrop was the magnificently shining city five miles away, while the current environment consisted of a small shantytown, with a few houses positioned mildly on rocky ground. The animal children tossed the crystal back and forth in their grey and blue fatigues, joyfully running down the squalid streets - clearly not knowing anything better than the horrid conditions they lived in.

"You dropped it, ooh!" a small, female sheep let out, watching the crystal tumble out of a pig's hoof and collapse onto the ground and shatter.

"Nuh uh," the young male piglet retaliated, picking up the largest shard. "Best five out of nine!"

The sheep smirked, holding her hooves together. The piglet tossed the shard as hard as he could - watching her miss it, and finally watched the crystal fly into an open window of a nearby metallic brown home.

"Idiot!" the sheep exclaimed, looking at the small brown home with anger. "You threw it into someone's house!"

The piglet walked closer to the brown home, seeing the number eight painted onto the front wall.

The door was clearly open.

"I'm going to go get it back," the piglet renounced.

"Be careful!" the sheep called out, watching her friend walk into the house unfazed.

She waited for a while, idly kicking around dust.

Then noise.

Then a movement.

"Al come here!"

The sheep grew alarmed, hearing the noise coming excitedly from inside the house.

"No!" she sounded back. "Bring the crystal back!"

"Get in here!"

The sheep groaned, wondering what stupid things her friend was doing this time. She reluctantly traversed the narrow path forward, a bit surprised at how well-kept the exterior walls of the house was - most houses on XS-211 were poorly-maintained, but whoever lived in this house clearly took care of it.

The sheep walked through the open door, feeling a cloud of dust start hitting her.

"Al you've gotta check this lady out!" the piglet squealed from within the center of the one room of the house.

The female sheep named Al surveyed the house quickly. Like all homes on XS-211 - it wasn't much, but she could sense that the owner was quite old, sheerly due to the amount of memorabilia and amount of stuff that was here. Books, clearly preserved for antique purposes, were held on a metal shelf positioned on the left wall - while the right wall bore a small electronic panel that had the same two channels everyone else had.

However, the most interesting information was in front of Al - she saw her piglet friend first, but he was sitting down - and sitting above him, on a cot - was the old lady.

And she was quite old - but fit. Al saw a female tiger sitting in the cot - much taller than both herself and her piglet friend - and she had to be well into senior age. Dark wrinkles ran through the tiger's orange and white but faded, thinning fur, and she was wearing a mild blue robe that appeared aged and used. Al noted that there was a heavy bandage around tiger's right knee, and a primitive walking staff fashioned out of scrap metal laying by the cot's side. The aged female tiger sat with a relaxed nonchalance, gentle smile betraying a particularly focused set of orange eyes - glimmer just starting to dim with old age.

"This lady's so cool," the piglet friend noted immediately. "Did you know she called me handsome?"

"Well, you are handsome Brog," the old female tiger noted with a disarming wink. "Quite a handsome boy…"

Brog the piglet grew giddy with the compliments. "Her name's Tigress."

Al approached the old tiger with a smile. "Hi erm - Ms. Tigress. Sorry about throwing our crystal through your window…"

Tigress smiled, bringing out the crystal in question with a thin but firm paw. "Oh - this thing?"

She tossed the crystal into the air, elegantly catching it in her other paw with perfect balance.

"When I was younger, me and a friend used to play this game," Tigress mused, lost in memories.

Al sat down, intrigued by the mystery of this old tiger. "Was it a he or a she?"

Tigress smiled, crow's feet turning up at the edges of aged eyes. "A she. Friend named Karla…"

"She sounds cool," Brog let out.

Tigress smiled. "Not as cool as you, little one…"

Brog smiled, definitely fishing for the flattery.

"Where is she now?" Al asked.

Tigress held the thought in her head. "I - It's been a while since I've seen her. She's on a different planet, I think."

This was true. The last physical contact she got from Karla was a few years ago - to Tigress' great happiness, the now aged lioness did manage to eventually relocate outside of SD-77, to a comparably much better planet called KA-11. Karla had called in a favor from an old AP she used to know, allowing her passage into XS-211 for a few days - enough to catch up with Tigress, and discuss all the crazy events that had gone on in their lives since the latter had left SD-77 nearly fifty years ago.

Karla had a husband - a happily and legally married one at that - for about five years.

After relocation to KA-11, they had two children - both girls.

Tigress smirked, remembering Karla's insistence to find Tigress someone to lie in bed with - yet she had turned down all of the lioness' opportunities. Most of the reason was that it would be very odd for Tigress - who was pushing eighty years of age, with a bad knee and walking cane - to suddenly start looking for males to "hook up" with. Another reason - one that Karla didn't even dare bring up - was Tigress' previous relationship on SD-77 which, although Tigress had made peace with it - still found uncomfortable to talk about.

After that meeting with Karla, Tigress was enormously grateful to get an update message a few months back - mainly just to touch base and to crack a few jokes. The minimal contact didn't bother Tigress - in this kind of universe, having any kind of connection last beyond infancy was a pure feat, and as such - each friendly interaction was to be treasured.

"Why're you living all alone out here?" Brog interrupted, noticing Tigress fade away mentally.

"Yeah," Al emphasized. "Don't you get bored? Were you married?"

Tigress chose to answer the easier question first. "Well - I may be old but - the Alliance could always use some good typists! I transcribe messages - usually AP cyberstuff, nothing too important."

This was also true. She had given up mining nearly twenty years ago, when the accumulation of AP-inflicted injuries and natural old age set in, making physical work an impossibility for Tigress. Still, being useless to the Alliance was usually followed by a private execution, so Tigress had managed to secure a humble transcriber's duties to live out the rest of her days in her own semblance of peace.

"How'd you mess up your knee?" Brog queried, poking at Tigress' bandaged knee cap.

Tigress merely smiled, definitely choosing to lie. "Workplace accident."

"Is that before or after you - well - did you get married?" Al jutted in again. "Sorry - I just love romantic stories!"

"Oh here she goes again…" Brog groaned.

Tigress smiled, shaking her head in amusement. "I - I did. Seven years."

The gravity in her tone seemed to ward off further inquiry from Brog and Al. Interestingly, the female sheep child walked closer to Tigress, admiring her features with an intense interest.

"Oh come on," Tigress let out, smiling. "I can't be that old."

Al giggled. "No it's just - you look like you might be one of those - people who know about everything before um - Reformation."

Tigress blinked slowly.

"Did - do you remember how it was - before Reformation?" Al questioned.

Brog chimed in. "Yeah - my dad says he came to XS-211 after working in a different, super bad planet for a while - but even before that, he says humans came to his native planet and well - took him."

Tigress kept silent, lost in a sea of memories.

The truth was that she didn't even know how to broach the subject to these children.

How could she?

How could she convey everything that she had experienced?

How could she mention what it felt like to get on that first ship?

To listen to Omega give that huge speech?

It was so long ago.

Did she even remember?

"I tell you what," Tigress avoided. "You guys come back tomorrow, after I finish my nap - and I'll tell you."

"Cool!"

"Super cool!"

Tigress casually threw the crystal towards Brog, who caught it effortlessly. The piglet ran outside the home swiftly, letting loose a whirlwind of dust and thick light shining in through the open door.

"Nice to meet you, Al," Tigress stated kindly.

"Oh that's not what my name is," Al noted with a sigh, rolling her eyes. "Brog just calls me that because he likes to annoy me."

"Oh," Tigress restated, surprised. "What's your real name?"

Al merely grinned sheepishly. "Alph."

The phonetics of the word brought a sudden shudder to Tigress.

It sounded so similar.

Tigress shook it off.

That was too ancient a feeling.

One she hadn't felt in a long - long time.

She had worked so hard to push those images out of her head.

"Are you okay? Something wrong?" Alph questioned, noting Tigress' lost expression.

"Nothing," Tigress promptly answered, clearing her throat. "You just - reminded me of someone I used to know."

Alph brightened up. "Oh - who?"

Tigress sighed. "He - he had your name. At least - it sounded similar."

"Oh," Alph remarked, pursing her lips. "Well - was he nice?"

Tigress closed her eyes, voice wrought with emotion.

"Yeah - yeah, he was nice."

Alph smiled. "Well - I think you're pretty darn nice yourself, Ms. Tigress."

Tigress smiled, aged features just shivering a bit. "Thanks - Alph."

Just saying the name brought back so much.

Tigress watched the sheep skip away and outside of her home. She turned back and lied down on the cot, feeling her aged muscles and bones just sink gently into the cloth contraption. Tigress listened to the sounds of laughter and the children playing outside, though it didn't distract her from focusing on the name - the one name that no matter how hard she tried to forget in the fifty-eight years since seeing him - it never truly left her.


A/N

Wow… Um… yeah…

I really wanted to fill in the gap since KFP 3. I also wanted to drastically depart the series from kung fu animals to the kind of futuristic, dystopia feel I've given it now. To do this, I wanted to take the reader on a journey with Tigress - a 58 year journey that starts from the very beginning of when Reformation happened, to the current situation.

There are many cool things to work with now, along with being unrestricted of KFP canon. (eg: I don't have to follow any storylines anymore… I can just write my own thing now!)

-The role of kung fu in a hypermodernized world?

Don't worry. Kung Fu is still very much important in this fic - and you might see a lot of connections that you might not have seen before. But since this is the first chapter of a new arc, I've gotta build that up slowly...

-What the hell happened to the Furious Five and Master Shifu?

As you can see, our heroes aren't doing so hot and Tigress in particular hasn't seen most of the Five or Shifu for well over fifty years (she's old now too!) - aside from the letter from Crane she got way back and possibly seeing Viper about forty years ago

-What the hell has the world come to?

So here's the basic social hierarchy:

*Top-level, Ruling Class: Designators: these are the guys who select people and different species to do what they're supposedly the evolutionarily the "best" at. E.g: Tigress is good at moving heavy stuff, so she moves that… Crane can fly, so he might deliver messages, etc…

*Lower-Level, Everyone Else: APs/Duty Workers. These are people who are sort of "born" into their roles in society - there's still lots of Seekers in this class, along with the animal species we've all come to know and love. Point is: Seekers can both be duty workers (read: slaves) as well as designators. Animals however, are pretty much all duty workers. APs are the military.

Basically the whole principle of this new society is that everyone is selected to be best suit for their role.

No choice.

You're born into your options.

Interesting note, I took a LOT of inspiration from the news and images I've read about prison camps around the world (note: read up on these only if you're of a mature age) - and for those who know what those are, I'd like to take the time to urge everyone to do whatever they can today to end these brutal and blatant violation of human rights.

-What the hell happened to the rest of the entire cast? (Tai Lung, Shen, Kai, Zhong, Yu, Soo Lin, Alpha, Omega, Wang, the Soothsayer, the Valley citizens, etc etc.)

;)

Don't worry.

Things will be revealed in time.

Basically all I'm tryna say is - stick with the bumps and jolts in the road. I haven't forgotten about any of the characters or storylines from KFP 1-3. The only thing this series is now undergoing is a transition - from a Kung Fu Panda timeline to a Kung Fu Seeker timeline? Does that even make sense? heh.

That's all.

I promise. :D

And um - stay in for the ride. It'll be long, but I can GUARANTEE you'll enjoy it. THE BAD GUYS DO NOT WIN IN THIS FIC…. I REPEAT….

THE BAD GUYS

DO NOT

WIN.

Don't worry. Injecting some sad drama into something doesn't mean I will ever write a bad guys win ending.

You gotta fall hard before you get up, right?

Kk im gonna stop before i start spoiling.

Support is incredulous.

~TW

P.S: Again, don't assume anything - got a lot planned, hehe. Also feel free to contact me if anything's confusing, I know I just pulled a super AU move, lol.