The red eyed panda was relaxing on his bed, apparently too engrossed in the scroll he was reading to notice the water raining from the ceiling when Izumi burst into the room. He'd grown taller since the last time Izumi had seen him. About two weeks ago if memory served her correctly.
The red eyed panda looked around the room, faux-nonplussed by the water, then turned his attention to Izumi. "Would you mind explaining to me why the world is flooding instead of unifying?"
"I was hoping you could tell me!" Izumi violently brushed the water from her fur. She'd lost her chance at killing Viper, and an angry sentient flood was out for their blood. She was in no mood for his cheek.
The red eyed panda sighed and put down his scroll. "You do realise that when this body fully matures, there is nothing stopping me from punishing you for your insolence."
Izumi immediately bowed. "Forgive me. Everything has gone horribly wrong." She repeated her earlier demand with forced politeness. "Do you have idea why this has happened?"
"If you're talking about Nuwa's liquidation, it's hard to say, but I have a theory." The panda sat up on the soaked bed, his short legs hanging over the side. "The creature that was the physical manifestation of Nuwa's rage and hatred was formed from the water that Nuwa had power over, and the darkness of the night on which it was born, and the girl's chi was the glue holding those two components together. When the girl was poisoned, it slowly killed the chi inside the creature, causing its body to slowly fall apart. In an attempt to save them both, it fused itself back into the girl's body, and the Mother of Mortals was once again whole." The panda stood up, his eyes on the leaking ceiling. "But alas, the damage had already been done. The girl's heart stopped beating, and in the end the creature's physical form came undone. In the process the girl's body, the source of its creation, was absorbed, triggering this infinite downpour."
"Infinite downpour?!" Izumi nearly screamed, digging her claws into her scalp. "You're telling me this will never end?!"
"Yes, actually." The panda held his paws behind his back as he casually paced the room. How could this infernal beast be so calm? "Fortunately it's occurring at a rather slow pace. We still have time to find a way to undo this. But in the meantime, we should take Hei Nuwang's advice and get out of here. Where is she, anyway?"
"She's going to set of the palace's defence system." Izumi stepped forward to usher the panda out. "What a disaster. If only the brat hadn't liked that old coot so much, then the creature might never have existed!"
"Indeed..." The red eyed panda sneered. "Indeed."
"I... will make... everyone... PAAAAAAAAYYYYY!"
Viper was on fire. Terrible, searing heat was permeating every inch of her body. The worst of it was in her chest, the heat literally a physical force pushing the water from her lungs and repairing the damage it left behind. Through the heat and the voice of the madwoman in her ears, Viper heard someone telling her to breathe.
Her body obeyed, sucking in air as the heat in her lungs vanished and allowed them to expand. The heat lessened, becoming bearable, warming her cold-blooded flesh after its stint in the icy flood.
Viper opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by shelves loaded with scrolls and books. She was in the palace's massive library, on the top floor. Standing beside Viper with glowing red paws held out was the Dragon Empress.
The snake gasped and curled up into a spiral, heart pounding in the presence of this enigmatic creature. This creature who has suffered so much... brutally ended Tujiu's life... and saved mine.
"What... what..." Viper breathed weakly.
"I sensed your chi beneath the water and teleported beneath the surface to get you. Mother was not pleased." Yujin said coldly.
"Why?" Viper asked. Why had Yujin saved her life?
"She's not in her right mind." Yujin insisted, as if trying to convince Viper and herself. "What Hei Nuwang did, what's she's turned her into... it's torturing her. The water is so cold because she'd trying to numb the pain. She's suffering." Yujin hugged herself. Viper did not see her expression due to the helmet, but she was shaking. Could she somehow feel Nuwa's pain?
Viper's eyes stung with tears. Her heart, once pounding with terror at the mere thought of the Dragon Empress, instead went out to her. How much more torment would she have to endure at the hands of her own family?
"Is..." She was sobbing now as her mind turned to Su. A horrible thought had come to her. Is that beautiful little girl truly gone, or still somewhere inside that flood and suffering unimaginable pain? "Is there... any way... to..."
Yujin stopped trembling, her body going stiff and hard, and knelt down beside the snake. "There may be a way."
"How?" Viper's heart leapt.
"Did you hear her? Did your hear the little girl inside the thing that was once my mother?" Viper knew right away what she was talking about. She nodded. "Su and the creature reuniting is what caused this. Separating them again can end it."
"But... how?!" Viper started crying again, but this time it was from the overwhelming hope that she might just get her favourite panda cub back.
"Their bodies were both destroyed by the poisoning of their chi and became the flood. We will use chi to create new bodies for the two of them."
"We can do that?" Viper squeaked, now truly awed by what Yujin was proposing.
"I have studied the mysteries of the universe in the Palace of the Mind alongside the Yeti people for centuries." Yujin said. "With the knowledge we've gathered together, we may have a chance." She held out her gloved paw. "There are several things we need to make this work, and you are one of them."
Viper gulped. She told herself she wasn't doing this just for Su, but for everyone else as well. For her country, and the entire world. Without a word, she raised her beaded tail.
Long Feng's cries of agony echoed in their ears as Po slung the coughing Tigress over his shoulder and took off faster than she could ever have imagined the panda could move. Tigress was soaked, wounded, not fully recovered from her near-strangulation, but she felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
Finally, after so long, her panda was here. Po was here! He even brought the Sword of Heroes, long since thought to have been destroyed in the skirmish with its undead creator! Tigress didn't care that she, the most powerful member of the Furious Five, had her butt handed to her by a psychotic demon-rhino-thing. Po was here!
They finally stopped in a part of the tunnels the flood hadn't reached. Po was panting, his legs shaking as he set Tigress down. She was barely back on her feet before she flung her arms around him, casting aside all the parts of her that made her 'hardcore' for this one joyful moment. "Po... where the hell have you been?" She spoke in his ear.
She felt Po's warm, thick arms wrap around her in turn. "Oh you know... fighting bad guys... making alliances with physical goddesses... falling down stairs..."
Tigress laughed, it felt so good to laugh, and then she winced as the pain in her leg increased in earnest. Po lowered her to the ground and took a good look at her thigh. He started to look green, and it wasn't just from the sword's light. "It's bad, isn't it?" She asked.
"Ugh... not that bad!" Po replied unnecessarily loudly. "Nothing a little chi can't fix! Hold still!"
He held his paw out over the gash, and in a few seconds it was glowing gold. When he stopped, the cut wasn't as deep as it was before, the bleeding had stopped and the pain wasn't so intense. "Sorry, still getting the hang of it." Po fell silent as he started to try again. Tigress stopped him with a paw on his shoulder.
"Don't overdo it. You might need the energy later." She pushed herself up.
"You're right. Let's get the heck out of here before Long Feng catches up with us."
"Or this flood." Tigress said.
The wound was still too painful for her to fight, but at least she could walk a little faster. They heard Long Feng howling for Tigress as they continued on through the tunnel as fast as possible, only stopping when they reached a fork. "Which way, Po?" She asked, hoping he remembered the route he took to get down here.
Po looked troubled. "I don't know. I got washed into these tunnels by the flood. It was a wild ride, I'm telling you..."
He stopped talking when they heard a sound coming from the left hand tunnel. It sounded like pieces of pottery scraping together. Tigress grabbed Po's arm. "Po, I know what that is. It's those terra cotta warriors. The blind ones."
"Oh... oh!" Po bounced. "I remembered crashing into a load of statues when I was being washed down here! I think that's the way we need to go!"
Tigress felt wetness rising up her feet. The flood had caught up with them. "You're sure?"
"Defo. Besides, it's either that or we get torn to bits. You doing okay on that leg?"
"As best as I can. Remember, they can't see but they can hear. We might be able to sneak past them."
"Okay." Po didn't look very confident. Considering that stealth mode wasn't one of his stronger modes, as the panda himself once admitted, that was understandable.
As they walked, the scraping ahead grew steadily louder. Behind them, Long Feng continued his cries. He sounded more pained than angry. Tigress felt Po's paw tighten around hers, the other paw holding the glowing sword before them like a torch. "Po?"
Po loosened his grip. "Sorry. It's just so creepy down here. Between spooky blind claymen and an ax-crazy flaming demon rhino, it's like a horror story."
"It'll be something to tell the kids during the Ghost Festival." Tigress smirked.
Po gave the smile she'd been after. "Yeah. You're right."
Then the first of the blind claymen came into the green light. Po was right about them being spooky. They were frozen in tortured poses, and completely silent. Come of think of it, Long Feng had stopped screaming not long ago. His cries must have been what had disturbed them earlier. Tigress squeezed Po's paw, drawing his attention. She mimed zipping her lips. Don't make a sound, she was telling him. Remember, they can't see.
Nodding, Po inched closer so the warriors were more in the light. The Sword of Heroes illuminated twelve warriors. There were probably more further in the darkness.
Tigress thought about sneaking past them. They weren't tightly packed together, so even with Po's wider girth it was possible... But then Po gave a huge, almost evil looking grin and went into his sword stance. Or I could just stand back and let the Dragon Warrior do his thing.
That was when the flash flood hit them from behind.
It was like being blasted into Gongmen Harbor all over again, but instead of fire and wood she felt nothing but ice-cold water engulfing her body. The sword's light was gone, leaving her vision in complete darkness as she tumbled helplessly. She was somersaulting over and over in the raging water, all the while holding her breath. Something hard hit her thigh, bringing her to the brink of screaming.
Just as quickly as it started the torrent stopped. The current slowed to almost nothing, and Tigress could finally right herself. Just when she was thinking that had luck had finally run out, she opened her eyes to find herself face to face with Po and his glowing green sword. There was no sign of the clay warriors, but the tunnel they had ended up in was completely underwater. Po grabbed her arm and pointed furiously with his sword. The light revealed an air pocket in the ceiling a short distance away. Not wasting a second, they swam for the air pocket, and found it just big enough for their heads and shoulders.
"Now what?" Po panted, looking utterly dismayed. The glowing sword was right next to their faces, meaning they had to squint their eyes.
Tigress had to admit that things had taken a turn for the worse, but there was no way in hell they were giving up now. She could only hope that the flood was the worst of their problems.
The water! The water! It hurts! It hurts!
Long Feng flailed, screaming silently in the water. He had no need to breathe. He'd lost the need to breathe when he'd poisoned himself with that cocktail of chi. But gods, it hurts!
The water was alive. He could feel it pulling at his limbs, stabbing at his flesh. At first he blamed Ember, but fire was her forte. This was something else. A madwoman laughed in his ears as the water dragged him through the tunnel at rapid speed, playing with him like a ragdoll. Again a part of him that was still rhino bemoaned his mistake. Why had he been so foolish?
That was when he saw the light.
Emerald green, it shone like a star and grew bigger as the water's pull brought him closer. He saw two pairs of legs. One pair short and black, the other bearing a half healed gash on one thigh.
Po. Ember.
Long Feng laughed beneath the water and waited for the right moment. The moment came when he was right beneath them. He grabbed for their legs, catching one of each pair, and the panda and witch were dragged with him through the tunnels.
Even the power of the water rushing against his body was no match for his own as he released the panda, focusing on the witch. He grabbed her with both hands, paused to relish the shock and fear in her eyes, and brought her towards his mouth. She pushed pack, pressing her paws against his face, but it would all be for naught. He would savour the cat.
Something grabbed his tail. The panda had escaped being left behind. The distraction made getting the witch between his teeth even harder. Holding her with his rhino arm, Long Feng bent his body and lashed out with his demon arm, trying to slice off the panda's fingers. The water's relentless torture meant he missed every time. Holding the hilt of the sword between his teeth, the panda grabbed the tail with his other paw and started pulling himself towards Long Feng's legs. Then there was a stabbing pain in his face. The witch had resorted to her claws, black and shining as they pierced his chin. Long Feng howled, sending massive bubbles flying past the witch's face. He would devour her even if it killed him.
The panda reached out, grabbed Long Feng's belt, and started clawing his way up Long Feng's back. If they weren't underwater, the former rhino's aura would have melted the flesh from his bones. The witch thrust her claws at Long Feng again, sinking them into his forehead like daggers. Again, Long Feng screamed. Between the claws and the water and his own transformation he couldn't take much more. Then the Sword of Heroes was plunged into his back, all the way to the hilt.
That did it. Long Feng thrashed violently, the accumulated pain too much to bear. The living, fast-flowing water propelled him into the wall, shattering stone and breaking his grip on the witch. In a second she was gone, and so was the panda, left behind in the darkness as the water carried him on, the sword still embedded in his back, laughing at his loss and his suffering.
The battle was won, but at a cost.
When Long Feng crashed into the tunnel wall, Tigress was also slammed into the rock back first. Most of the air rushed out of her lungs, and her ears rang as the back of her head also struck the wall. Just like that, the fight went out of her.
Tigress floated in the darkness, holding onto what little breath she had left, searching for the glow of Po's sword. She couldn't see it. She couldn't see anything in the darkness. She was alone.
As her lungs burned, Tigress closed her eyes against the terrible darkness, unable to bear it. So this was to be her fate. To die alone in this dark, freezing hell. The cold stabbed at her entire body, almost intentionally tormenting her.
Tigress felt a surge of dread as her body couldn't take it anymore and released the last of her air. This was it. She was going to drown. Then confusion as the darkness turned to warm golden light that gently penetrated her eyelids, the cold turned to warm lips that enveloped her own and instead of water, life giving air filled her lungs and gave back the strength she had lost. Her first thought was, isn't drowning supposed to hurt? Followed by the stunned recognition and burning arousal as she was taken up towards the surface and salvation: Po.
