Dex: Wow it's been a while. Anyway...yay for my first update! Disclaimer: I do not own the Kung fu Panda characters or the whatever else i may use that would be illegal without this discaimer. I do own my own characters.

My first OC makes his appearance in the next chapter. For a while I thought I had written myself into a corner...but NO. This was kind of rushed but please R&R. I love reading comments (good and bad).

Tai Lung awoke. Oh hooray. I'm not dead. He noticed several things had changed since he passed out. First, he wasn't dead (always a good sign). Second, his bandages had been changed. Third, he wasn't in the Hall of Warriors anymore. He was in his old room. If he wasn't mistaken, his room was surrounded by five empty rooms which probably belonged to the furious five now. The last thing he noticed was that he wasn't tied down and there was nothing stopping him from walking out the screen door and doing whatever he pleased. He stood up rather easily and opened up his window. Breathing in deeply, he let the cold air rush down into his lungs. A gentle breeze ruffled through his fur. He hadn't been out for long as his acute hearing could still pick up festival music from down below.

"He's probably still unconscious." Tai Lung heard from outside his door. He silently crawled over to the screen and pressed his ear against it.

"I see. I'd like to talk to Po." That was Master Shifu's voice.

Loud squeaks and heavy thuds were heard as a large panting and gasping panda was approaching Master Shifu. I can't imagine who that could be. the snow leopard thought sarcastically.

"Dragon…ha…Warrior…hah..hup…here...hah…Master Shifu."

"Po. I want to know exactly what happened during your fight with Tai Lung two days ago."

"Why Master…hoo…is something wrong?"

"YES Po! I want to know why Tai Lung is still alive!" Master Shifu shouted angrily.

The snow leopard pulled his ear away from the door. Did his father really want him dead? He thought sadly. No. He would have killed me earlier when he found out I was alive. It doesn't make sense for him to change my bandages and drag me to my old room to kill me. Tai Lung pressed his ear against the door again.

"…was using the Wuxi finger hold on him. There was a really bright light and dust flew everywhere. Then I went to find you. We then went to have lunch and—"

"Yes, yes I know what we did. I was there, Po. I…want…to know…how it came to be that Tai Lung…was in the Jade Palace…ALIVE."

By the tone of his voice, Po could tell Master Shifu's patience was growing thinner. He decided to wrap things up.

"I guess I did the hold wrong or something and the wind from the blast only gave him some major cuts and sent him flying away. I made up the part about him dying because I thought no one would ever, you know, find out…and I don't know how he ended up in the Jade Palace since the blast sent him in the opposite direction."

"I…see. You'd better get some sleep Po. We have a trial to attend tomorrow. Believe it or not, we have another major problem to deal with right now."

"Yes Master." Was Po's only reply.

In the silence that followed, Tai Lung rolled over onto his mat. Several things were bothering him. What was I suffering from if the panda performed the Wuxi finger hold wrong? There is a…bigger problem…than me? Is that even possible? That's good to hear but who could've done something even worse than what I did? Still deeply troubled, the snow leopard fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

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GONG!

"Good morning master." Six warriors were up, dressed and standing outside their respective rooms. Po was not one of them.

"Good morning students," came the master's reply.

Tai Lung was trying to hide his shock. None of the furious five seemed to be surprised that he was standing there. "Umm…excuse me but…what is—"

"Po doing? A very good question. PANDA! Get out here. I don't care if you're the Dragon Warrior, you still have to wake up with everyone else." A sleepy and dreary eyed panda walked slowly out from his room, yawning several times.

"Furious Five and Dragon Warrior. Head down to the town plaza first and help them prepare." When he was sure they were alone, Master Shifu began explaining to Tai Lung.

"The reason no one has asked why you are alive or why you are here is because your conscience spoke for you while you were unconscious. This is also when your mind is the most truthful. You apologized for you actions, promised to make amends, and vowed to turn your life around. As long as you uphold this promise, everyone will trust you. If you haven't forgotten, you were quite helpful in keeping the valley of peace peaceful before the effects of my mistake."

Tai Lung listened to every word his master said and with every word his spirits lifted higher and higher almost to the point where he was happy. Thank God for sleep-talking. "Thank you Master," Tai said quickly, "but if the villagers found out I was alive last night, why were they still celebrating?"

Master Shifu looked puzzled, but when he realized what his son meant, his face brightened immediately. "Oh...you think the villagers were celebrating your death, am I right?" The intrigued snow leopard nodded his head waiting eagerly for what his master was going to say. "No, my son. They are celebrating the coming of the empress. Tai Lung was about to speak when his father silenced him. "I know that no one likes the empress, but we must obey her every...whim if we want the valley to remain peaceful.

Master Shifu flashed a faint smile which quickly died away. "Come, my son. We must hurry. Our troubles are far from over. The Empress's messenger arrived late last night with very bad news. The Empress is on her way to the village to execute Tian Xu, the village's local weaponsmith and your childhooh best friend on false charges. We have figured out, that since there are no real charges on Tian Xu, there must be some alterior motiv for his execution. A later messenger from the Empress has confirmed our suspicions. She wants to eliminate our weaponsmith and all weapons he has created. By doing this, the village will be powerless...and will fall completely under her control. But most importantly, she will NOT execute one of our villagers! YAAAAA!"

Although he was laughing at his father's uncharacteristic warcry, Tai Lung had to admire his father's powerful resolve as he watched the red panda dash down the stairs. Tai took off after him. How did I heal so quickly? Off in the distance, Tai Lung could make out the outlines of the Empress's Guard traveling towards what he remembered to be his best friend's home. Grr...It's just one thing after another.

If anything was unclear in the first chapter, I purposely wanted to clear it up in this chapter. Unfortunately it took me a really long time to think of ideas. If you like the story, I'll try not to keep you waiting so long for the next update.

R&R please. Thank you for the advice and support to all who commented buy especially from Falconmage and LunaGoldsun.
On a random note, the name Tian Xu is the name I received from the mandarin tools website which converts your name, birthdate, gender, and personality into your Chinese name.