Three weeks and six days before the Jade Palace's destruction...
In one corner of the training hall courtyard, Po was in the middle of a crisis.
"Hang on..." Po muttered under his breath. "Hang in there just a little longer..."
This wasn't going as well as he'd hoped. If he didn't stop the bleeding soon, it would be all for nothing. Keep trying, he told himself. Keep... trying...
Minutes passed, and he was making no progress. Po started biting his lip. His paws were shaking. "Hang on... hang on... hang on!"
"For crying out loud, it's just a tree!" Monkey yelled after an hour and a half of leaning against a tree trunk drumming his fingers.
"It's not just any tree!" Po retorted. "It's a hurt tree! And Shifu says I have to practice using what little Hero's Chi my body can generate!"
"Yeah, yeah..."
Po stood up. Any other day he would put up with Monkey's attitude. Not today. "Excuse me, but this technique saved Tigress's life in the Himalayas! If I hadn't gotten the hang of it at the time..." Po realised he was reminding himself of that terrible night and turned back to the tree. "Sorry. I shouldn't have snapped. It's just that I've been working on this for weeks and I've got nothing to show for it!"
Monkey got up from the trunk. He looked like he was doing a little regretting himself. "Don't worry, Po. You'll get the hang of it. The problem is that you've got so little chi to work with, so it's going to take a little longer."
"I know, I know." Po pressed his paw against the tree, beside a cut that was leaking orange sap. "I don't get it. I pulled it off with Tigress, so why am I sucking again?"
"Probably because it's not Tigress." Monkey suggested. "Like I said, it's just a tree. We've been here for hours. Why don't you have a break? I'm up for some dizzy kung fu."
Monkey grinned. Po started grinning himself. "Last one to the turtle bowl has to spin it!"
"And the first one to the turtle bowl will be dusting the artifacts for two weeks." Said a voice behind them.
Crap.
Po and Monkey slowly turned round. Shifu was standing by the fallen tree trunk. "However, Monkey is right." He said. "You need a break. Unless you want to spend the afternoon mopping up your own vomit, you will spend it meditating with me."
"Awww!"
"No awwws. Hall of warriors. Five minutes." Hands behind his back, Shifu strolled off.
While Monkey apologised and headed inside to train some more, Po raced to the hall of warriors as fast as his short legs could carry him, making it through the massive wooden doors just in time. Shifu was already in a lotus position before the turquoise moon pool.
"You're late." Shifu replied.
"No, I'm not!" Po replied, and he knew it. He'd counted the seconds on his way here. "Wait, are you messing with my head like Oogway used to do to you?"
"How did you know about that?"
Po shrugged.
"Po, just sit down."
Po sat down. "Master Shifu, are you okay? It's about Eagle Jr. and the top dog of HQ visiting tomorrow to discuss Ember and the Order, isn't it?" Shifu's ears went flat. Po was on the right track. "Tigress told me you hate the top dog. What's his name, anyway?"
"No-one knows, and no, I don't hate him." Shifu sighed. "He's a decent enough person, but he always goes around calling himself 'Top Dog' and insists that everyone else do the same. He claims he's too important to put his true identity at risk, but in my opinion it's ridiculous and immature. He's just another example of HQ's incompetence." Shifu's eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare tell anyone I said that."
Po mimed the zipping of his lips. "Zip it, lock it."
"Let's just meditate. Close your eyes and still your mind."
Po closed his mind and tried to still his mind. After five seconds he asked, "Aren't Tigress and the others joining us?"
"This session is only for those with inner peace." Shifu explained.
Even with his eyes closed, Po frowned. Something in Shifu's voice was causing alarm bells to ring in his mind, just like that time when Shifu had told him his kung fu would improve if he wore a bucket on his head.
"Okay, what are you up to? Am I in trouble?"
Shifu didn't answer for a while. Then he grunted and stood up. "There is no point in lying. There is something I wish to test. Two days ago I experienced something very disturbing during my meditation session with the junior kung fu class, and I want to see if you feel it too."
"Ooooooo... kay..." Po had a sudden urge to eat something. He could feel the tension emanating from the red panda and felt a sense of dread. Something was upsetting Shifu, and it wasn't Top Dog or the fact that Po had caught on to his plan. What had Shifu experienced? Did it have something to do with Ember? Po didn't want to know, but even so he didn't protest to Shifu's test. "So, how are you going to test me?"
"In a moment, Su and Viper will be joining our session. They would be here earlier, but Su broke a bowl during lunch. I told them to come straight here once she'd cleaned up the mess."
"Su and Viper?"
"Once they get here, just act normal. And not a word about the test to either of them."
Po nodded and resumed meditating. Before he knew it he heard the doors open, and Viper and Su step in and apologise for the delay. They sat down behind Shifu and Po.
"Before we begin the session, I would like to remind you all that Master Eagle Jr. and Top Dog will be arriving tomorrow morning." Shifu said. "I want you to be on your best behavior, as Top Dog is one of the most important men in the country. The purpose of their visit is to discuss possible countermeasures against... the Order."
The hatred hit Po like a wave of liquid fire.
The traitor!
The treacherous witch who joined forces with the monsters who murdered her children, ravaged their homes and took her life! They took everything from her! Everything!
Kill them! Tear them apart! Destroy everything they've worked for!
The traitor's followers were different from the monsters. They were mortal, flesh and blood, just like her children. Inside, they were no different from the monsters.
What the heck?!
Po shuddered. His palms were sweaty and his eyelids twitched. His heart thudded so hard he thought it might explode. He wanted to run away, to escape the hatred, but he was paralyzed.
Every single one of them had to die. Every single one. They had made her children bleed. They had made her children scream. She would make them scream louder.
The burning hatred slowly but surely faded to a mild scalding pain inside his head. Po's limbs started to work again and he clutched his head, sweating profusely. His ears were ringing. The violent thoughts echoed in his brain. He wanted to scream, but his mouth wasn't working. He was dimly aware of a sobbing behind him.
"Su?! Su, what's wrong?" Viper yelled.
Po forced himself to open his eyes and turned his body. His heart sank when he saw Su's eyes streaming as she pressed her small paws against her head in obvious agony. "Shut up." Su whimpered. "Shut up!"
"Viper, take her to the doctor, now!" Shifu ordered.
Po was sure Su's tears had a faint reddish tint.
As Po searched the desolate rooms for the key to the big heavy door that looked a lot like an exit, he wondered if Su was here somewhere, a prisoner like he was. A part of him hoped it was true, since it meant she was definitely alive. He hadn't seen her since the afternoon before the Jade Palace was destroyed.
He remembered the day of Shifu's test. Su's headache had faded soon after they brought her to the palace doctor, but the hatred Po had sensed didn't go away for hours. It wasn't until sunset that Shifu gave him the explanation he wanted. Su had been part of the kung fu class when Shifu first experienced the hatred, and since then, whenever he mentioned the Order in her presence, he would sense it again. However, no-one else could, except for Po. Apparently, it was because both he and Shifu possessed inner peace. After all, inner peace supposedly allowed you to hear a butterfly's wing beat.
Confirming that theory had been the purpose of Shifu's test, but it wasn't the only purpose. It had also confirmed something Shifu had feared for some time. Ember had definitely done something to the little girl. When she'd tried to force Su to do her bidding, something had broken.
Wherever she was now, Po hoped she was okay.
He hadn't seen Ember since their encounter in the barred room, but he had a prickly feeling in the back of his neck that she was watching him. As he dug through the debris, he kept glancing at the darker corners of the room. What the heck did she want, anyway? Why did she attack the prison? Was it to get to him?
Just as Po was about to lift an upturned table in a small bedroom, he heard the faint crackling of stone being crushed underfoot.
Being a panda who punched first and asked questions later, Po pulled the frying pan from his belt and swung in one fluid motion. With a resounding clang he struck the armoured buffalo that had been sneaking up behind him with a mace. The buffalo dropped his weapon and fell to the floor, stunned.
Mildly surprised that someone was still alive in this place, Po rushed over until he was right on top of the assailant and aimed the frying pan at his face. The buffalo's eyes were brown, not red, and were wide as dinner plates.
"Who are you?" Po demanded. He wasn't in the mood for jokes.
The buffalo rubbed the side of his face, blinking. "You're one of the prisoners from the Jade Palace."
"Don't make me smack you again." Po said. "Who are- wait, what do you mean one of the prisoners? Are my friends here? Answer me!"
The buffalo got up on his knees. "What if I don't want to tell you?"
Clang!
When the buffalo got up off the floor again, he was much more cooperative. "We only got you and the tiger girl. The rest of you got away. I was the warden assigned to oversee your confinement."
So the others are probably okay, but Tigress is here, somewhere.
Po leaned over the buffalo to hopefully look more intimidating. "Where is she?"
"No idea. We were just about to transfer the pair of you to another location when everything went to hell. The others probably got her out in time."
"Darnit!" Po slammed his free fist into the wall. Tigress could be anywhere now. A sudden humourless laugh from the buffalo did nothing to quench the panda's fury. "What's so funny?!"
"Panda, that's the least of your problems. There's something in this prison. Something not even you kung fu fanatics will have faced before. Did you see it?"
"See what? Ember? Yeah, I saw her."
"No, not her! She showed up after this all started!"
Po stared in disbelief. "You mean something else caused all this?" He looked around at the destruction.
The buffalo glared at Po. "Yeah. It's more or less killed everyone in this place, and it's gonna kill us too if we don't get out of here!"
"Well the only door out of here is locked." Po replied. Something connected in his head. "If you're the warden, then you would have access to the keys. Hand it over."
The buffalo didn't move. "You warriors have a code of honour, right? If I hand over the keys, you have to promise to get me out of here."
Po was tempted to take the easy option and beat the crap out of him, but it wasn't something either Tigress of Shifu would want him to do. Besides, he wasn't that kind of person. He lowered the frying pan. "Fine, I promise. Try anything and you're dead meat."
"Yeah, whatever." The buffalo stood up. "The only exit that wasn't destroyed by that thing is the one leading to the catacombs, where all the poor clods who die here go. I'm guessing that's the door you're talking about. Let's get going. And by the way, keep the noise down."
With that, they left the room and quietly made their way to the big doors. Po glared at the warden. "Keys. Now." The warden stayed still. "Don't make me punch you." The warden grumbled and handed over a set of keys. "You're not going to tell me which one fits?"
The warden smirked. "You hit me in the face with a frying pan. Twice. Consider this payback."
Po did a little grumbling himself as he tried key after key. He got it right with the seventh key and pushed one of the heavy doors open. On the other side he discovered a tunnel carved out of the earth, lit with flaming wooden torches. He listened, but didn't hear anything. "I don't like tombs. Do we have to go in there?"
"If you want to get out of here alive. Like I said, all the other exits were destroyed in the chaos."
"Speaking of which, what did you mean when you said something other than Ember caused this?" Po asked as they started down the tunnel. "Is there a Dragon Emperor?"
"I dunno, maybe. Nothing like Ember, though. It's a monster."
"I've faced monsters before."
The warden shook his head, the fear returning to his eyes. "Nothing like this. You can trust me on that, if anything."
Po wasn't sure if he was exaggerating. As they walked he kept turning his head, making sure they weren't being followed. "What does it look like? It may be something I've faced before."
"I only caught a glimpse. It was like black smoke, and it seemed awfully keen on killing the creepy masked guy Lady Hei Nuwang sent to escort you and the tiger girl."
A shiver crawled up Po's spine. That masked guy from the kitchen... and that black blur... oh, holy crap. Suddenly the stone and chain and the frying pan felt very inadequate. "Who's Hei Nuwang?"
The warden didn't answer. Instead he pointed to the opening up ahead. "Up ahead is the room where they prepare the dead for burial. We get into the catacombs from there and after that, there's a tunnel that leads out. You should stick with me, though. It's a maze down there."
They soon stepped into a big hall. There were a dozen wooden tables big enough to lie on, covered in chains, and all over the place were strewn knives, hooks, and far more disturbing looking tools. Po had a mental picture of what might have gone on here and cringed. This did not look like a place to prepare the dead. He forced himself to think of his father, boiling noodles in the jade tortoise of wisdom. That mental picture was a lot more soothing, and even made him smile.
The warden pointed to a narrow tunnel across the hall. They got halfway across before Po hesitated. Unlike the torch lit tunnel they had just passed through, this tunnel was a pitch black abyss. It looked claustrophobic. Everything about it screamed danger. Po turned to face the warden. He wasn't going down there until he got some more answers.
"You know, you never answered my last question. Who is Hei Nuwang?"
The warden gave his best 'are you kidding me?' look. "Look, when we get out of here we can discuss this over a drink."
"Answer me." Po fingered his frying pan. "Now!"
"Alright, fine! She's the big cheese, the crazy black cat running the show! Can we go, now?"
Now Po knew the identity of that panther. He was looking forward to seeing her again. "Not yet. Earlier you said me and Tigress were going to be transferred. Where?"
"To their main base of operations. I don't know where..." the warden trailed off, his ears twitched. "Do you hear that?"
Po fell silent.
At first he didn't hear anything but the warden's quiet breathing, but then he heard a sound that was so soft he didn't know what it was. He slowly turned round, but all he saw were the shadows flickering on the roughly hewn walls. He had been ambushed by bandits enough times to know that this was no normal sound. They weren't alone.
Black shadows crept around the room. Po pulled out his frying pan. Keep on your toes, that's what Tigress always said.
"Something's off about this room." The warden said. "We've gotta go. Now."
Suddenly his body seized up and he choked.
Po gasped out a scream.
On the wall behind the warden, one of the bigger shadows had formed a pure black tentacle that was reaching behind the buffalo's back. Po heard the tearing of flesh and the dripping of blood.
Po staggered back, his body hitting a table behind him as the warden was dragged backwards, up the wall towards the shadow. A thick, massive black arm reached out, and then the warden disappeared into the shadow in an explosion of black mist.
The warden's final scream reverberated off the walls, and then silence followed.
Po's legs turned to jelly and he sank to his butt. "What was that... what..."
A shadow had just come alive and killed a man. That never happens. That never happens.
He wanted to throw up. A gruesome, horrifying death had occurred right before his eyes. He wanted to curl up into a ball and hide from this nightmare. He wanted to run and hide, from Ember, from Hei Nuwang, and the black killer, from everything that had gone wrong in his life. No way was he going down into the catacombs, where he could very easily meet the same sticky end.
Then his eyes caught a glint of green on the floor. Po blinked as he realized what it was. He crawled over and picked it up.
The Heart of China was as beautiful as ever as it glimmered in his gloved paw. The warden must have taken it for himself. Po, however, wasn't angry in the slightest. Here was his reason to keep going. Tigress was out there, still in the Order's clutches. He had to find her. He had to save her from this nightmare and give her back the precious jewel. Then together they would wipe Ember and the Order off the face of the earth.
The black suit had no pockets, so Po put the Heart of China around his neck and tucked the heart shaped gem beneath the cloth. The gemstone gradually grew warm against his chest.
With one last nervous glance at the shadows, Po entered the dark tunnel.
