And here's the first attempt at trying to squash this rivalry and you can feel the tension brewing through.
Chapter 31: Settling This Rivalry...?
The next day, Mako was walking downstairs to the living room and he sees Max sitting there, looking a little anxious about this whole thing and Mako could share the tiger cub's anxiety and he comes towards him and he said, "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. I just hope that she's still not mad at me." Max replied, a little worried.
Mako patted Max's shoulder for comfort and assured him that everything will be okay and that he'll get through this and that this whole thing will be settled and that maybe this would be the end of the jealous rivalry between the two because Max doesn't really like to be in the middle of Tigress' envious wrath and it scares him to death that something might happen that could trigger Tigress' further dislike towards the cub through those few years.
"Don't worry about a thing. Shifu, Kaizer, Kiba, Takami, Ryo, Skyler, Layla, Ligress, Hope and Tamaki are gonna keep an eye on things as soon as they get there. Shifu made sure that no harm or argument will commence during this time. I promise." Mako added.
Max knew that he could count on his father and the minute he looked at his dad in the eye, he knew that he could trust him for anything and everything and he nodded his head and replied, "Okay."
Mako smiled and lifted his chin up for comfort and reassurance and it made Max's anxiety calm down a little bit and it really helped a little bit and soon enough, they heard a knock on the door and Max knew that it was Shifu, Tigress and most of the Hazards coming in and Mako walked towards the front door to answer it and indeed it was them.
"Thank you all for coming on such short notice." Mako said, greeting them with a bow.
The others bowed back as well and Shifu said, "Thank you for allowing us to settle this feud. Let's hope that it's over and done with for good."
Tigress already felt uneasy about settling this feud and she's still haunted by all the stuff that she did to Max months before and just recently when she attempted to attack both him and Jason due to her prideful jealousy that she doesn't know if it'll be the end of their issues just yet because she still carries her uncontrollable jealousy and bitter resentment towards Max.
Takami could already sense that something's gonna happen during this meeting and has a bad feeling on the pit of his stomach that another fight might commence and that Max will get the worst of it soon enough, but he's prepared for what will happen soon and his main focus is sorely on Max and his safety.
Mako led them towards the living room and that's where they see Max sitting there and as he waved 'hi' to all of them, Tigress could tell that he's still regaining his positivity and has extreme second thoughts about this and couldn't bear to face Max and she said, "I can't do this."
She turned to leave, but Shifu stopped her right away and said, "We are not having this today, Tigress. Me and Mako have already discussed it and you have to end this constant rivalry between the two of you!"
"Shifu, I can't face him! And I certainly can't talk to him!" Tigress shouted.
Max could tell that the early tension is coming up fast and he was reluctant to go through with this, but he's more willing than ever to put an end to this bitter blood between two tigers right this instant and Mako looked at Tigress in the eye and said, "You can walk away from everything in your life, but this is something you're not gonna talk yourself out of doing this time. Now it has to end right here, right now."
Tigress wasn't willing to go through with this because she's too consumed with fear, regret and bitter jealousy towards Max and no matter what she does when he's around, the envious feelings wasn't gonna go away sooner, but the minute when Mako meant everything he said made her back down a little and she brought herself to face Max and everyone else sat down on the couch in the living room, but there was a huge amount of tension brewing betwen both Max and Tigress.
Mako sat down on his seat and he can sense some early tension coming in and he's doing whatever he can to keep the peace from there and he said, "First of all, thank you so much for coming here and place and end to this rivalry between my son and Master Tigress. The reason why I called this settlement is that Max shouldn't deserve to go through stuff like this and that his positive spirit shouldn't be rivaled by anyone. Master Shifu, would you care to comment?"
"I would love to." Shifu replied.
Shifu got himself up, clears his throat and started with Max first and he said, "First and foremost, you're a remarkable young man who has a lot of energy and great outlook on life for someone young as yourself. I just hope everyone around this valley has a Maximus like you do. But I really want to let you know that you acknowlege that you don't want to have this rivalry between you and Tigress and I highly respect that. My only comment to you is at least try your hardest to remain as positive as possible and if there's any issues about this, do not hesitate to come to me, your father, the Hazards or the Dragon Warrior."
"Okay." Max replied.
"And there's something else I want to tell you...those things like that are not your fault. I'm too old to handle this tiger rivalry. Not that I'm sick of both of you, but that I am tired of having to put up with this. And I know you know better than that. I personally don't think there's a problem with the way you are and as long as you are fine with it, so are we." Shifu explained.
Max nodded his head in understanding with regard to where he's going with this and he said, "I don't wanna hurt Tigress. I would never hurt anyone else's feelings or make them feel like they're second or third or anything. I treat them with kindness and respect and compassion too."
"And that's what we like about you, Max." Layla spoke up.
The other Hazards agreed with that and Hope also said, "We just like you for you. And like Shifu said, you can come to us if there's a problem you have that you can't handle on your own."
Tigress sat there and watched everyone settle this issue and as Max opens up a little more, Tigress got more and more and more tense by the minute and it's like the biggest tension kept building up and building up more tighter than ever and her jealousy level kept soaring to a new level. Takami could take one look at Tigress and that she was gonna pop off on Max any minute and with pleading eyes, Tigress could look into Takami's face that completely begged her to place her pride aside and leave it alone and miraculously, Tigress simmered down.
Now, Shifu came towards Tigress and asked, "Why are you always so jealous of Max all the time?"
Tigress wasn't willing to open up about this and Shifu wanted to ask that question again and he kept repeating it until Tigress sighed in annoyance and she said, "He knows why I'm so jealous of him."
That wasn't a good enough response and Mako said, "He does. He just needs to know why you're always like that."
"Listen, Mako...there's really no reason to tell you why I'm jealous towards him all the time. Everytime I see his face, it's like I want to rip it apart to put him out of my misery." Tigress answered.
"What awful things has he done to you, Tigress?" asked Layla.
"Everything! Why can't you see that I don't want to be bothered by this anymore?!" Tigress shouted.
Mako stood up and said, "Lower your voice. This is not the time nor the place for this. We came here to end this rivalry between you two. Max is willing to move forward and you have to do the same."
"No matter what I do towards him, I'll never get over my jealousy towards him! It's not gonna go away and it will probably NEVER go away! The reason why I'm so mad with him; he's been through suffering and yet he smiles about it, always has his attention towards you all and he accomplished everything so quickly! Why can't I be happy just like him?! It's just not fair!" Tigress shouted.
Mako could tell that Tigress wants to hit and/or break something any minute and he immediately got in the way to try his best to simmer her down and what happened after that? The first thing Tigress did is hit Mako straight to the face and when she saw what she did...the result was giving Mako a black eye.
Mako grunts as he got up and stared at Tigress in the face and witnessed a very shocked and completely remorseful Tigress being horrified by what she did and Max just stood there frozen and any chances of reconciling were vanished very quickly and she just ran out of the house in all fours to head back to the Jade Palace.
Shifu sighed heavily and just shook his head in disbelief and here was the chance to put it all behind them and that chance was already gone because of Tigress' refusal to let it go and fear of being forgotten because of Max and that literally frustrated Shifu and he knew that no matter what, Tigress would never bring herself to end this rivalry and he fears that it's just begun.
"I'm sorry this happened that way, Mako. We failed." Shifu said, in remorse.
Mako sighed and he turned to Shifu and said, "No, don't say that. Don't say you failed. It's just a little setback, that's all."
"Yeah, never stop trying." Max chimed in.
Even in a very twisted turn of events, there's always still good in the end and Mako said, "I do appreciate you for trying though."
Before long, everyone left the residence to head back to the Jade Palace and as they were walking back, Takami could see Shifu's head hanging low due to what had just happened and Tigress threw away that chance to end this rivalry because she can't control her own jealousy and to top it off, she punched Mako in the face hard.
"So...what do we do now?" asked Takami.
"I'm washing my hands out of this whole thing, Takami. From now on, it's Tigress' problem." Shifu replied, bitterly.
And that's proven unsuccessful...which then leads to the other fic 'End of the Tiger Rivalry' where Tigress' jealousy towards Max comes to an end. Check it out if you want. Here's the final chapter coming up!