I don't own Kung Fu Panda. Kung Fu Panda is the property of DreamWorks Animation, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.
„So what exactly were you thinking?" Baihu asked calmly while he was hanging on the edge with one hand and holding Tigress by her ankle with the other.
"How did I get here!?"
Figures.
"Brace for impact."
He tossed her over the edge before climbing there himself.
This situation was getting out of hand very quickly and Baihu knew it. How could he be so stupid to think, that the problem would just disappear if it was ignored. This incident was completely his fault.
They both got up when he noticed that Tigress' knees were trembling.
"Can you walk?" He asked with worried expression.
"I'm-I'm fine." She said and took a few steps only to fall on all fours.
"Come on, I'll help you."
"I don't need…" Was all she managed to say before the white tiger picked her up in a bridal style.
"Put me down!"
"Nope."
"I said PUT ME DOWN!" she tried again only this time with a knee aimed at his face.
"Was that supposed to tickle?" He asked with a smirk.
She was ready to kick him again only to be stopped by few drops of blood from his nose which landed on her vest.
"Sorry…"
"It's okay, I've had worse. You didn't even break anything so relax."
He carried her down the hill after that in a complete silence.
"If you tell anyone about this…"
"…you will kill me, I know." He finished for her with a smile.
"Slowly and painfully."
It didn't take him long to get Tigress back to the Jade Palace.
Luckily there has been no one awake to see them in this position.
"Well, I suppose you'll be able to get to bed by yourself. Try to catch some sleep." Baihu said when he put Tigress back down on her feet next to her room.
Tigress just looked at him with embarrassment written all over her face and so he decided to give her some alone time, but as he turned around to leave, she put a hand on his shoulder.
"Wait."
He turned back to her.
"What is it?"
"What's going on?"
"Huh?"
"I am not an idiot and I know something is going on. My memories sometimes disappear and each time that happens you are near me."
"Now it's not the right time…"
"I WANT TO KNOW NOW!"
Baihu sighed.
"Okay then. I will tell you, we should probably go inside, it's not something that should be discussed in a hallway."
They were both seated in Tigress' room. The tension around them was as heavy as lead.
Baihu made the first step.
"Are you completely sure you want to know?"
"Of course I am." She said with a slight aggression in her tone.
"I am sure, it would be much better to talk about this tomorrow…"
"JUST TELL ME!"
The white tiger took a second to sort his thoughts.
"Where do I begin, I think I should start by saying that you are ill…"
"Wait a minute if you think that I will fall for that trick again, you can get up and…"
"I know what you think, but even if you don't believe just tell me why would I lie to you now? Back then it was just to get you to eat something, so you could heal from your injuries. I literary had nothing to gain and right now I have once again nothing to gain, I must be a pretty stupid villain, huh."
After Baihu noticed how much she was taken aback by his answer he decided to continue.
"This decease doesn't affect your body nearly as much as it does your mind."
"What do you mean?"
"All that rage in your heart, fainting and the memory loss are all symptoms of something even worse deep within you."
"That's nonsense, everyone can get a little dizzy, it happens to Po all the time." She retorted as if she was trying to convince herself more than him.
"Let me know if this sounds familiar. You almost never remember your dreams, you wake up tired and during the day you often get lost in your thoughts, spending more and more time thinking about your past."
The look on Tigress' face told him everything he needed to know.
"How did you…"
"I saw a lot of others go through the same thing and it never ended well for them."
Her hands started shaking and her tail swaying nervously.
"I-I don't have to listen to you." She said sounding a little shaken.
Baihu sighed for what felt like the thousandth time.
He knew that this was going nowhere and that this approach was just making the whole situation worse.
"You are right… you don't have to listen to me, but please be careful. What happened tonight may happen again and next time I might not be close enough to help you." He finished calmly, stood up and slowly walked out of her room.
If there was one thing he learned in three hundred years it would be that there are some moments in life during which even words are pointless.
Tigress was once again left with no answers.
She just stood there looking at the closed doors dumbfounded.
How could he do this to her? He filled her head with even more questions and made her even more confused.
Something inside her broke and uncontrollable rage started flowing throughout her entire body.
That's when she heard his steps as he was slowly getting away.
She balled her fists, jumped through the paper wall and landed into a perfect fighting pose.
The older master turned around just in time to dodge a thrust kick aimed at the sternum.
Baihu instincts kicked in and his mind produced three thoughts.
Closed space.
Possible collateral damage.
Need to get outside, quickly.
But before he could do anything a perfectly executed palm strike came at his throat. With no time to dodge the attack he crossed his arms to block it.
The white tiger was shocked when the attack pushed him at least ten feet away. It was obvious that if the strike hit as intended, it would crush his windpipe in an instant.
But the attack didn't stop there.
Tigress leapt at him and delivered a flying kick to his ribcage, this time Baihu couldn't do anything to stop her.
A crushing kick connected with a full force and threw him across the hallway, through the door to the outside.
His back collided with wet stone ground. Baihu rubbed his torso to check for broken ribs and even though he found none the pain that came from it was excruciating. He kip up to see Tigress running at him, this time though, he was ready.
He used her own momentum to perform a quick hip toss which sent her rolling on the ground. Once Tigress got up he got his first chance to look at her stance and it surprised him to see it was completely different than her usual one. It's perfection was so breathtaking it could be compared to Master Oogways'.
Tigress quickly closed the distance between them and launched a quick barrage of precise strikes. It took all of Baihus' speed and flexibility to dodge them.
Instinct told him to fight back, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
His heart was beating like a bell and blood was quickly flowing through his body. This felt so nostalgic yet exciting and new to him.
The barrage went on and on and there was no slowing, Tigress just got better, quicker and more precise with every attack.
This was the feeling he had so lost long ago, knowing that each of her strikes could break a bone or even end his life. The feeling of challenge.
The white tiger then decided to look her directly into eyes and even though her face was full of rage her eyes clearly showed deep concentration.
They were going at it for twenty minutes and neither of them showed any signs of tiredness or loss of focus.
It reminded Baihu of the only fight in his long life which ended in draw. The only time when Oogway agreed to spar with him. That fight lasted for three days.
All he was thinking about now was how to end this as soon as possible without harming her. First idea that came to him was to use acupoints, but he quickly dismissed it. She was moving way too fast to precisely target her weak spots and the older master was not going to risk permanent paralysis.
After giving it some thoughts he decided to test the limits of the technique that had saved his life on multiple occasions.
Baihu suddenly pushed her away and did a back flip to get some time and space to prepare himself.
As soon as he landed he stomped both of his feet deep into the ground and got into his defensive stance, took in a calming breath in before closing his eyes and flexing all of his muscles.
He could feel the blood in his veins slow down, until his heart stopped beating. He stood there with his feet under the ground and still as a statue, waiting for her next attack.
The strike came even stronger then he thought it would, but Baihu kept his mind calm when the first punches struck his face, knowing that flinching now would bring him a quick death.
Every time she hit him he could feel the force and the pain, but no matter how much she tried, Tigress couldn't leave a single bruise on him.
Another ten minutes passed and Tigress was staring to become exhausted, but she wasn't going to give up on a fight.
Baihu expected this , but could feel his heart slowly wake up. He had maybe another minute if he was lucky.
Her movements were becoming more and more sluggish, her breathing ragged and her aim less precise every second with every drop of energy leaving her body.
Baihu was also at his limit, his heart started beating again, the air in his lungs was nearly depleted and his mind couldn't hold the concentration for much longer.
Baihu took her last hit and they both collapsed on the ground from complete exhaustion.
Muscles, bones, organs everything hurt with each breath Baihu took. It was a wonderful feeling to be reminded of his mortality after a long time. It was as if someone just rekindled the fire in his soul.
Tigress' knuckles and insteps were badly bruised screaming in pain, her muscles were strained more then after any training session, but even in this state she felt well, it was almost as if someone lifted a large boulder from her mind and even bigger one from her heart.
They both lied there next to each other breathing heavily as their minds began to slowly drift away from the pain and into the sweet abyss of unconsciousness.
