Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Kung Fu Panda (c) to DreamWorks and whoever-else-made-it

Author's Note: I am having serious writers block right now for all my stories, but half the next chapter already done :)

Next chapter may come out on the 25th!

Thanx for all the alerts and faves :)

Chapter 4

An Outrage

There was a frantic search of the Jade Palace grounds, but no sign could be found of Shifu.

"This is not like Shifu at all." Said Tigress. "He has never gone away like this before without forewarning us." Without forewarning me...

"Maybe he's just gone off to get some air, you know, chill out. He did sound a bit stressed from what you said last time." said Po, trying to be helpful.

"Tai Lung may have been a monster but you forget he was also once Shifu's son, of course he is upset!" Tigress replied heatedly, ears lying flat against her head.

She wasn't quite sure why she was so upset; normally she was much more capable of keeping herself in check, she hadn't felt this uneasy since the incident 20 years before. And it all seemed to be coming back, repeating itself...Shifu becoming cold and distant once more as a result of Tai Lung...Tai Lung gone once more, never to return...Oh how she hated his memory!

"Crane, check if you can see Shifu from a greater height." she commanded, adverting her eyes from Po; Crane took off immediately. "Viper and Mantis, continue your search of the Jade Palace, Monkey go ask around the village whether anyone has seen Shifu or not, and Po...you can go with Monkey. I'm going to stay here and wait for Crane to return."

"But Tigress, I only just woke up and haven't even had breakfast yet. Is there a small possibility that I don't have to go all the way to the village? That's a lot of steps on an empty stomach." Po complained, though it was said rather meekly; he was a little afraid of upsetting Tigress and it was obvious.

Unfortunately for Po, Tigress was feeling more than annoyed and would have replied angrily once more, but before she could say anything Crane returned, flapping his wings frantically.

"I found him! He's just coming down the mountain, I think he may have been at the Sacred Pool of Tears."

Suddenly there was a loud crack, it was in the far distance but they all heard it. The sound came from the village, it was nothing like they had ever heard before, the closest thing they could compare it to was the cracking of stone against stone magnified tenfold. Shifu was by them in seconds, suddenly seemingly appearing from nowhere, his eyes wide and his gaze focused on the village below; anxiety clear on his face. Before any of the could even think of asking him any questions he had already given out orders.

"Tigress, Crane, you two are the swiftest, take the lead! Everyone else, follow me!" And without hesitating, they obeyed, all except Po, who whined once in a childish manner before hurrying after everyone else.

Tai Lung had gathered his senses together rather quickly and realized the seriousness of the situation. Everything was under control now, but he was still in potential danger, he didn't know how recogniseable he could be but he knew the guardians of the valley would be here soon, the furious five and the dragon warrior, maybe even Master Shifu; and there was no doubt that they would recognise him in an instant.

A wolf was standing up on the roof now, the mayor standing proudly beside him as the wolf talked about the unexplainable horror before him as if it was a positive, for the greater good and for some reason everyone was believing him! All Tai Lung could see though was the blood stained ground and the look of horror that had crossed the buffalo's face the moment it had known what was going to happen.

Subconciously, he glared fiercely at the wolf while his mind was elsewhere. It was impossible to say whether he was noticed, the crowd was huge but the canine did promptly seem to look back, though it seemed more like a glance. Tai Lung promptly fled the scene, just as Crane flew over head with Tigress bounding over the roofs towards the scene; unknowing of the supposingly dead snow leopard going the opposite direction below them.

Quiang was confused, Jie had always been kind and understanding in the past, so why was Wei dead now? The act had been completely planned, set up and staged, but Wei's death had not been.

It was the evening now, several hours after Jie's speech to the valley, and Quiang was currently sitting at a small round table playing a game of mahjong with three others. Quiang was currently losing, but this didn't come as a surprise as he had never really understood the rules of the game in the first place. Jie wasn't playing, he had left on some sort of errand a while back and they hadn't seen him since.

Everyone was rather silent, the death of Wei had come as a surprise for almost all of them, and for those it hadn't knew better than to say anything. Quiang was not the smartest of people, and normally he questioned nothing that his boss told him and their gang, but this was different and he was confused. Wei had been a friend of Quiang's, and this only made his doubt intensify. Someone murmured "majong" faintly as they recieved another hand and whole lot of points, and finally the silence was broken by more than lifeless whispers as Quiang finally spoke.

"Why was Wei killed?"

Everyone stopped in the middle of their game and looked at Quiang like he had grown a second head.

"You questioning the boss's motives?" asked a bear gruffly, Meng, who also currently losing the game of majong; he sounded defensive, itching for a fight.

"And he has every right to."

Sometime before, without any of them noticing, Jie had joined them and was standing just a few feet away.

"We all know Wei was a liability, he was becoming dangerous to have around . Do you not remember, comrades, that only last week he was talking of leaving? That he thought what we were doing was wrong?" The wolf pulled up a chair for himself and joined them at the table. "Do not think that he did not know what he was getting into, he already knew what was going to happen. Wei died with honour, for what he believed in so that you could have a better future ahead of you." The wolf glanced up at Quiang, who was about twice his height even sitting down. The large crocodilian looked away, head down, feeling almost ashamed at his questioning; of course Jie had told Wei, Jie always knew the best for all of them; how had he dared questioned Wei's honour and Jie's judgement?

"Did anyone else notice that panther in the square?" said Meng, speaking up again. "I had a right mind to get down and smash his face in, the way he was scowling at us, he was asking for trouble."

"I'm pretty sure we all noticed him, it would be pretty hard not to, he stuck out from the crowd from a mile off. You would have to be both blind and stupid to not notice him." stated Jie bluntly, though it was said in such a smooth voice that the bear did not pick up the thinly veiled insult.

"Do you think he will be trouble?" the bear said, with just a little too much enthusiasm. Jie seemed to consider this option for a moment, but in reality he already knew his own answer; but being pensive had its positives.

"He could be trouble, but he might also be useful. Quite a strong looking fellow, don't you think? He might be interested in employment if asked, but if he does cause trouble then we'll simply get rid of him. But I think our major problem is going to be the kung fu master Shifu. From what I've heard of him I would guess he would not be very tolerant to our line of work nor appreciate the undeniable modern outlooks on life that are present now. Master Shifu is the type of person who likes to cling to ways of old, a dying breed, kung fu masters as protectors are very rare these days. No need to worry about Master Oogway though, I heard he died quite recently. I have worries about the Furious Five as well, their minds have probably been tainted by Shifu, they could also be a problem. But let's just face problems when they face up, no need to go charging in unprepared like a drunken buffalo."

There was a round of laughter at the inside joke which Quiang found himself unable to participate in. He thoughts had wandered back to Wei and the panther, and in some far corner of his mind he knew that the if panther joined them then he would simply take for Wei place; like Wei had never existed.

"This is an outrage!"

Po winced at Shifu's outburst, even though it was not aimed at him. Po had never seen Shifu this worked up in...forever! Similar lines were floating around in the other students' minds.

"This was murder, pure and simple! And how could it even to occur to them that such a thing as these muppets could possibly bring peace to our valley?"

"Actually Master Shifu, I think they're called muskets." The glare that Shifu immediately sent Po was so fierce that it even seemed to carry its own power making Po stumble back several feet.

"What happened today was an anomaly, there hasn't been any crime in this village since Tai Lung..." Shifu's sentence drifted off into nothing and his ears went down and his expression turned troubled. "But even if such an anomaly were to occur again we are the valley's defense, we are the guardians, and we have never needed to deal out death like this!"

Tigress took her leave now, she didn't bother using an excuse, she didn't need one, and with current situation people were unlikely to notice. She walked aimlessly, just so she could think and free the thoughts that were plaguing her mind. She already knew where she wanted to go.

Soon she could hear the slow rumble of the river as she approached. She reached its edge and stared into the murky depths, but upon seeing her own anxious expression staring back at her she drew back and turned to walking along the edge of the deep slow moving river, a river that flowed right through the valley.

The river had always been a source of great peace to Tigress, ever since she had found out about it as a cub, a never changing landscape mark that had never flooded nor dried out, always slow, always there, never changing. The villagers often came here with buckets to take water yet the river never went any lower. Out here beside the river everything was calm, the deep waters rolled past slowly without ceasing, the ancient trees rustled softly in the wind and there was no anxiety. Tigress rested her back against one of the trees and nestled down into its overgrown roots, meditated under its cooling shade. She was alone, for now.

Presently the bell like voices of young children came with the breeze, Tigress opened one eye slightly and spotted a small group of very young rabbits pushing oversized handcrafted boat into the water. While it was still half way up the bank, and secure from floating away, the largest of the younglings climbed up onto the boat took the oars in its tiny paws, only to find that it couldn't reach the water.

Tigress closed her eyes again at this point and went back to her realm of calm. She breathed in deeply and exhaled, all worries were currently far away and Tigress did not want to return to them.

There was the pitter-patter of little paws approaching her, Tigress opened her eyes again and looked at the trio of rabbits who had come over to her, the other two smaller cautious looking ones having stayed back at the boat.

The tallest of the little rabbits gave a little bow.

"Master Tigress, we would be truly grateful if you would assist us in crossing this mighty river." he said, trying to sound as mature as possible, but this was impossible with his still young and high pitched voice.

"We want to get across because our big brother works in the orange groves on the other side and we want to give him a surprise." said another of them.

Tigress blinked at them in surprise for a moment, she was not used to being asked such a peculiar task nor was she used to talking to children. She smiled warmly at them and nodded, getting up to follow after them. The little rabbits beamed and ran ahead excitably. Tigress eyed the boat cautiously, wondering whether it would be able to take all their weight combined and then she looked at the river.

Tigress was not scared of water, she didn't mind water whatsoever, unless she was in it. She had never learnt to swim, it seemed stupid but this was the way things had stayed since she was a young child when she had nearly drowned and had learned to fear any water that came higher than her waist.

The little rabbits were watching her expectantly, too late to turn back now. Tigress climbed up onto the little boat which rocked slightly as she sat down. The river was around twenty meters wide at least, but this was still a relatively short distance, Tigress knew as soon as she had gotten across then she would have nothing to worry about. One of the rabbits pushed them off and then quickly jumped onto the boat before it floated away. Tigress took the oars and began to paddle slowly so as not to upset the boat, there was very little resistance from the current which was fortunate. She dimly wondered where the parents of the little rabbits were, she could see two figures coming towards them from the village, but even from this distance she could tell they weren't rabbits.

They were around half way across the river when Tigress noticed the fish; the children noticed them too and grew extremely overexcited, pointing and laughing. She saw it moments before it happened, the children obviously didn't. Just as a particularly exotic looking fish passed underneath the young rabbits all were overcome by the urge to look over board at the same time. The little boat didn't even rock, it simply turned upside down and Tigress and the rabbits ended up in the water.

Tigress's fear immediately overcame her, she struck up so quickly in order to escape the water that she struck her head against at the side of the boat, making stars dance before her eyes. She saw the little rabbits frantically paddling upwards towards the upturned boat, shocked but not in danger, she on the other hand was rapidly sinking.

Tigress was out of oxygen, she was terrified as images of a similar occasion in her distant past came to her mind, but she still was aware enough to not breath in water; but along with the world this was rapidly fading into black.

The last thing Tigress saw as she floated down to her certain death was a dark shape rapidly coming down towards her, but for all she knew this was just the darkness of her vision spreading.

A/N: Annoying OCs are Annoying... but don't worry, Tai Lung and Tigress are still going to remain the main characters.

Translations

Quiang - Strength/Strong

Jie - Hero/Heroic

Wei - Big/Large/Great

Meng - Fierce/Ferocious