It was later in the evening as the sun gave into the horizon and the moon was full and many bright stars grazing blanketed the dark sky,

While the Jade Palace warriors were done training for the day, Master Shifu decided to occupy himself in the Training hall to meditate in silence,

With his eyes closed he sat into position surrounded by many lit wax candles trying to ease his troubled mind about today, but the inner turmoil causied him to fidget relentlessly mumbling and chanting,

"Inner peace…inner peace…i-in…in-in…inner peace..."

The air bending master took another deep slow breath as he suddenly heard a faint yet audible thumping sound in the distance, he chose to ignore it the first couple times but it then it became constant enough causing him to loose his concentrate. His eyes slightly opened and his right eye twitched in frustration and turns around,

"Would whoever is making that sound, quiet down!" he called out but nobody answered

Silence again

Satisfied, Shifu resumes his meditation chanting again,

"Inner…"

BANG BANG

The doors from the hall busted open with such force it startled Shifu enough to get his full attention, he stood up and turned around now scowling ready to give this person a piece of his mind for disturbing his precious meditation time

Shifu turns to find Zeng the palace messenger out of breathe, and sees him holding message scroll in his hands

"Ah Zeng," Shifu smiles and walks briskly towards the messenger,

"Excellent, I'm glad you've made it. I could use some good news right now."

Now standing before the trembling messenger as he hesitates to answer yet mouth agape, Zeng has anything but good news and quickly hands Shifu the responding message scroll from Chor Gon with quaky hands.

Shifu gladly accepts the message and dismisses Zeng for the night, bowing in respect immediately leaving without another spoken word. He wouldn't want to be around the air bending master when he was upset.

As Shifu opened and scanned frantically over the few sentences his eyes went wide,

"What! No. I can't be…" Shifu then dashes out of the hall dropping the scroll to the ground and went out to look for Avatar Oogway to tell him of the dreadful news.

Minutes later Shifu finds his master up the Peach Tree hill, a thousand thoughts rushing through his mind like a whirlwind hurricane, consciously hoping that Avatar Oogway would somehow wake him up from this lie of a nightmare, to tell him of a different prophecy that somehow Tai-Lung would not came near the Valley of Peace.

The Avatar stood under the tree, slowly performing Tai Chi movements as flushed pink blossom petals fell floating elegantly from the branches.

"Master! Master!" Shifu called out to him as he finally reached to the top almost out of breath in panic,

"Hmmm?" Avatar Oogway wasn't fazed by his pupil's dramatic entrance as he continued with his peaceful Tai Chi practices,

"I have…it's…it's very bad news." Shifu stammered in a shaky breath,

"Ah, Shifu" the Avatar gave a soft smile, "There is just news. There is no good or bad."

But that didn't seem to calm the poor air bender, "But, but Master, your vision…your vision! It-it was right! Tai-Lung has broken out of prison! He's on his way! Here!"

Then there was a silent pause that even the softest breeze was heard, this bit of news stunned the Avatar a bit,

"That is bad news…" but instantly changed his posture, "If you do not believe the next Avatar Warrior can stop him."

"You mean that boy?" Shifu was clearly not calming down anytime soon as he raised his voice and ranted on, "Master, that boy is not the next Avatar. He wasn't even meant to be here! It was an accident!"

"There are no accidents." Oogway firmly yet softly remarked this his pupil as he fully turned his attention to Shifu,

Finally Shifu was able to catch his breath and calmed down a bit letting out a small sigh,

"Yes, I know. You've said that already. Twice in fact." Dropping his head in slight pensiveness

Oogway chuckled at this, "Well, that was no accident either," walking near Shifu placing a wrinkled hand on his shoulder

"My old friend, the boy will never fulfill his destiny, nor you yours, until you let go of this illusion of control."

Shifu looked up, his eyes showed confusion,

"Illusion?" his tone was incredulous

To help prove his point the Avatar made an example,

"Yes. Look at this tree, Shifu" Oogway looks up at the tree's branches and points up with his staff, the blossom petals continue to slowly rain down gracefully,

"I cannot make it blossom when it suits me, nor make it bear its fruit before the right time."

"But there are things we can control!" Shifu then argued this by swiftly kicking the trunk of the tree's bark and a hundred peaches fall to the ground with soft thuds. Avatar Oogway simply gazes at him in silence.

"I can control when the fruit will fall!" suddenly a single peach falls on top of Shifu's head and winced in aggravation in response,

The Avatar chuckled lightheartedly as if the universe was teasing the poor air bending master how silly he is trying to go against his master's teachings,

"And I can control…" Shifu then tosses a peach in the air, leaping up and splits it with a chop of his right hand, freeing the seed from it, "…where to plant the seed…hi-yah!" he punches the ground, creating a small hole as the pit falls into his grasp,

"That is no illusion, Master!" finally tossing the seed roughly into the manmade hole he created,

Avatar Oogway steps forward while Shifu begins pacing in frustration,

"Ah, yes. But no matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple, or an orange…but you will get a peach."

Shifu abruptly stops his pacing and turns to Oogway, "But a peach cannot defeat Tai-Lung!" his breath hitched and eyes widened toward his master,

"Maybe it can." Oogway gently leans down covering the pit seed with dirt, "If you are willing to guide it, to nurture it…to believe in it."

Shifu's eyes were pensive his master's words sinking in very slowly,

Unexpectedly Oogway let out a hoarse cough as his body gave away making him lean on both his knees,

"Master!" Shifu called out, immediately standing next to his master, "Are you-?"

Shifu knew all too well his master's fate would come, but he never predicted it'd be so soon, right now. Oh and what timing too, such dreadful timing. No, not now, anytime just not now!

Shifu then laid his master down onto the ground his head propped onto his lap,

Oogway in took a sharp breath, "My time has come, old friend. You must continue your journey…without me."

Shifu began trying not to let his emotions take the better of him, "Why? Why now? Don't go. I need your help, Master…now more than ever."

"No…you just need to believe," Oogway held softly onto Shifu's arm leaning slightly towards his friend, "Promise me, Shifu. Promise me you will believe in the next Avatar."

Shifu was taken back, hesitating to answer back and holds back incoming tears that never come out,

"I…I will…try."

Seeing sincerity in Shifu's eyes, Oogway could now go in peace as he felt his soul leaving to the spirit world,

"Good" Oogway glances up at the starry sky, and gently hands Shifu his staff

Suddenly the petals begin rapidly falling from the tree as the wind started to pick up,

Shifu realizes his master's fleeting exit, he reacted holding his master closer to him, "Master! You can't! You can't leave me! Not now!"

The petals surround Oogway as his aged old body begins to emit a divine glow and with final words it echoes into Shifu's mind,

"You must believe."

Shifu wasn't emotionally ready to finally see his master disappear before him, as the many recollections of training and spending time with his dear master will be gone forever leaving him nothing but his memories of him.

"Master!" Shifu cried out

And in a blink of an eye, Avatar Oogway is engulfed by peach blossoms as he begins glowing with a lovely blue light. And finally disappears from Shifu's arms now holding onto an empty void of what was.

Now Shifu stood alone on the hilltop of a barren tree naked from all its lovely petals, all gone just like his master.

The winds settled in, Shifu stood near the edge of the cliff, clutching tightly to Oogway's staff staring after the mass of petals as they float up into the sky,

With everything going on, reality settled inside of him in the pit of his stomach, realizing it all

That Oogway was gone.

That same night ...

The Furious Five, minus Shifu, were present in the kitchen for dinner. Po was cooking for the Five, as a treat more than anything! The Five were all sitting at their respective spot at the table waiting for Po's promising salted steamed 'secret ingrediant' noodle soup for their dinner.

Po expertly chops a radish mid-air as the thin slices fall into the boiling pot on the stove. He was re-telling a story of when a bandit came to his father's noodle shop when he was a youngster the Five listening to Po's story with amused skepticism minus Tigress who didn't care much about his story but listened to the majority anyway,

"And so then I'm like, fine, you may be the scariest bandit in Hai-jin Province, but you're a lousy tipper." Slightly looking away from the pot gesturing his final part of the story,

"Really?" Crane leaned onto his arms forward incredulously, "So, how exactly did you get out of there alive?"

Po falters for a moment, "I mean, I-I didn't actually say that to him…but you know, I was thinking it…in…in my mind." Po then flips some bowls and lines them up on his arm as he ladles hot soup into them,

"I mean, if he could read my mind he'd have been like, 'What?'…umm, anyway soup's on!"

Sliding out the bowls of noodle soup for each of the Five, except for Tigress who already has a plate of tofu in front of her,

"Hope you guys like it" Po's dad had taught him everything he knew about how to make noodles he only hoped it was good enough for his heroes as he watches for their reaction in anticipation, if the customers kept coming for his dad's noodle soup why wouldn't four kung fu master's enjoy them?

The four looked at their hot bowls of soup, Mantis was the first to take a sip, his eyes then widened, "This…is really good!" he beamed in delight and hunger, devouring another spoonful of noodles into his mouth as much as he can

Po scratched the back of his neck in bashfulness, "No, c'mon you should try my dad's secret ingredient soup! He actually…knows the secret ingredient." he said mummbling the last part of the sentence

Viper then dips her soon into the hot soup and brings it up to her flushed lips taking a loud sip as the flavor gushes from that one spoonful of noodles,

"Mmm! What are you talking about? This is amazing!" smacking her lips with delight

Now the rest took spoonfuls convinced that it was good enough to eat,

"Ohh-mm, Wow, you're a really good cook Po." Crane comlimented

"Ugh, why can't my mouth be bigger!" Mantis whined with need and ate another spoonful

Monkey was too enamored to compliment Po and noticed Tigress not only joining them but simply looking at everyone's bowl and then stared down at her plate of cold tofu squares,

"Tigress, you've got to try this." Suggesting his friend as he took another spoonful of hot noodle juice into his mouth,

Tigress lifts up her porcelain platter of tofu and with her chopsticks pinches up a piece ignoring her comrade's delight in Po's steamed noodles,

"It is said that the current Avatar possesses infinite knowledge from their past avatars before them, and legend has it that the first avatar survived for months at a time on nothing but the dew of a single gingko leaf and the energy of the universe." Taking a mouthful of her cubed tofu her eyes narrowed at Po,

There was a brief silence as everyone realizes that Po has been put down yet again, however Po shrugs it off and replies light-heartedly at her comment,

"I guess my body doesn't know it's the Avatar yet. I'm gonna need a lot more than dew…and, uh, universe juice." Picking up his bowl of noodles and takes a giant gulp,

Finishing most of the soup he lowers the bowl revealing a strand of noodle hanging from his upper lip looking like an elongated moustache without noticing it until Mantis snickered loudly causing him to spit out the soup in his mouth, Viper looked up from her spoon, "Mantis?"

Po noticed this and raised a brow, "What?"

"Oh, nothing…Master Shifu!" The rest noticed this too and started giggling

Po looked down at his 'noodle moustache' and decides to play along picking up a pair of chopsticks imitating their air bending master in a huff tone,

"You will never be the next Avatar, unless you lose five hundred pounds and brush your teeth!"

The Five hollered in laughter, and as usual minus Tigress who stared at Po but stayed silent, they knew their teacher was strict but loosing up once in a while did wonders to the bending warriors, as Po continued

"What is that noise you're making? Laughter? I've never heard of such a thing! Work hard and, uh, maybe someday, you will have a moustache like mine!"

Po's gag has the four warriors near hysterics until they suddenly stopped laughing with their eyes wide, seeing someone they least expected to be behind Po, who was away from the table still pretending to be Shifu.

He saw their stone-faced expressions, "You know a moustache. It's not working for you guys? I thought it was pretty good."

"Sh-Shifu, it's Shifu" Monkey stated to Po who seemed unaware of their teacher behind the lad,

"Of course it's Shifu. What do you think I'm doing?"

Gaping, the team shifted their eyes darting back of him until Monkey points catching Po's attention as he finally turns behind him seeing Shifu standing there holding Oogway's staff having an un-amused scowl on his face,

Mortified Po slaps his mouth shut trying to cover his 'joke' and steps back a bit,

"Ooh! Master Shifu! I…uh…" looking down at his hand where the noodle fell gobbles it leaving a strand sticking out of the corner of his mouth and lowers his arms in awkwardness

The Five stifled a giggle at Po's weak attempt,

"You all think this is funny!? Tai-Lung has escaped from prison and you're acting like children!" barked out Shifu

This definitely changed Po's mood and immediate attention as he turned to the air bending master, "What?"

"Yes! He is coming to take his revenge on the valley and you are the only one who can stop him!" Shifu dictated

Po then suddenly starts to chuckle at the supposed 'joke'

"Ha-ha-ha! And here I am saying you have no sense of humor… of me stopping…Tai-Lung…" But before anyone could join him Shifu just stares at him being deadly serious.

"What, you're serious" Po's expression dropped, "And I have to…uh…no…wait, yeah! Avatar Oogway stopped him before he could do it again! Right!"

Shifu snapped at the mention of his deceased master, "Oogway cannot!" but rapidly softens as he looks down at Oogway's staff in rememberance,

"Not anymore."

The Five gasped sharply in union and looked up in shock, realizing what this means yet internally sadden by the news.

"Our only hope now…is the next Avatar Warrior." Shifu looked up at his students

"You mean Po?" Tigress questioned as if it were the biggest joke in all of Kung Fu history

"Yes, Po!" snapping abruptly again

Tigress has had the last straw, pushing her chair back so fast it almost fell down as she stood up,

"Master, please! Let us stop Tai-Lung, this is what you've trained us for!" Tigress raised her voice, trying to convince her master to reconsider his decision

"No! It is not your destiny to defeat Tai-Lung. It is his!" Shifu dramatically points at Po… who is gone.

Shifu's head jerked back not noticing his absence to begin with, "Where'd he go?" looking back and dashes out of the kitchen after Po.

Leaving a now steamed Tigress and a baffled team of benders,

Viper looked at Tigress and back at her team who were in a mixed field of confusion, "What do we do now?" She asked softly to nobody in particular but before anybody could muster up an answer Tigress then stormed out of the kitchen as well without glancing or speaking a brief word to her team.

Outside the barracks, Po raced down the stairs in total panic yelling frantically, he was almost to the stone stairs leading down to the village when Shifu suddenly jumps in front of Po as he skidded to a stop,

"You cannot leave! You are to take the responsibility as the next Avatar Warrior and a real warrior never quits!"

"Oh yeah? Watch me!" Po then tries to maneuver around the air bending teacher but is redirected back by a strong gust of wind caused by Shifu

Seeing his situation hopeless enough Po retorted,

"Oh come on! How am I supposed to defeat Tai-Lung? I can't even bend my own element let alone beat you to the stairs!"

"You will defeat him because YOU are the chosen Avatar!" Shifu emphasized his point by stabbing Po in the belly with the staff, avoiding him to escape.

"Ow! You don't believe that! You never believe that! Since the first moment I got here, all you've been doing is trying to get rid of me!" Po then attempted to maneuver yet again, but Shifu had the upper hand and sweeps his legs with another strong gust causing Po to fall on his back,

"Yes! I was!" Shifu pointing the staff at his face, "But now I ask you to trust in your master as I have come to trust in mine"

Po lifts himself from the floor shoving the staff away, "Shifu...you're not my master. And Oogway was wrong I'm not the the next Avatar."

Shifu had enough of many things tonight and Po was certainly not helping in anyway,

"Then why didn't you quit!? You knew I was trying to get rid of you, and yet you stayed! Why would you stay when you knew well that you were never wanted in the first place?" Shifu shouted at him,

Po then stands up to his feet, his expression just as serious as Shifu's and he finally confessed,

"Yes, I stayed. I only stayed because, every time you made fun of me, or threw a rock at my head …or said I smelled bad, it hurt…but...you never understdood that it could never hurt more than it did every day of my life just being me." Po spoke sincerly to Shifu for the first time as he was in a stunned silence seeing Po standing up for himself like this,

"I only stayed because, I honestly thought ...that if anyone could change me…could make me…someone, anyone that was not me, it was you! You're the greatest kung fu teacher in all of China!" Po exclaimed

"But I can change you! I can train you to become the Avatar! And I will!" Shifu wasn't prepared for such a confession toward Po, he would not break his promise to his master

"Oh, come on! The most dangerous fire bender in all of China is on his way here right now! And even if it takes Tai-Lung a hundred years to get here, how are you going to train me all four elements before he gets here? Huh?"

With his mouth agape and frozen by Po's behavior, Shifu didn't react to his direct outburst,

"How will you do it Shifu? Tell me...how?" Po truly wanted an explanation seeing it just as impossible to be the next Avatar with little to no training what so ever in the art of Kung Fu and bending, let alone defeating Tai-Lung.

Shifu was still speechless until Po woke him from his confused daze

"HOW SHIFU!?" he screamed

"I DON'T KNOW!" Shifu yells out in frustration

He sighed deeply

Shifu missed his master, he hated being so lost, he didn't understand Avatar Oogway's timing, why he had chosen an inexperienced bender to take his place, and Tai-Lung escaping after 20 long miserable years to come take his final revenge… he didn't understand it one bit,

"I don't know" Shifu mumbled no louder than a whisper

Po's anger melted, feeling a knot at the pit of his stomach and lowered his gaze to the air bending master, his mind going numb,

"That what I thought." Po sighed in defeat

This was too much for Po and Shifu, first his master deserted him in his time of need and second with Tai-Lung coming he felt so unprepared almost vulnerable

Shifu walked away leaving the path open to Po, who didn't move an inch only seeing the master walk away towards another route.

Unnoticed in the shadows, Tigress hid from behind the corner edge of the palace. She witnessed the entire ordeal between Shifu and Po. Her own thoughts whirling inside her, of Po's confession and Shifu's uncertainty about the situation made her cringe inwardly with anxiety.

Tai-Lung was estimated to arrive was uncertain, but she knew it would be soon and her determination began to take over her.

Tigress then turned away walking down Palace steps, a look of resolve on her face. As she was walking down her eyes narrowed into a hard gaze, looking outwards toward the mountain hills that were far away from her home.

She couldn't just stand by, Avatar Oogway just passed into the Spirit world and their hope lies with a boy who knows nothing of the art of Kung Fu let alone bend his own element and is now expected to know three more.

No, she knew what had to be done. For the sake of the valley, for the sake of her home and the people whom she vowed to protect.

She would not let them down

She would have to face Tai-Lung, the one who had done more than just physical damage to the village and her master those twenty years ago…even if she had to do it alone her mind was set.

Tigress then broke into sprint, she ran so fast she passed by like a rush of wind down the stairs towards the village in the valley below.

At the last second she jumped off the few hundred flights of stairs down on a pagoda roof and lands gracefully on the rooftop her ponytail whirling behind her.

Her chest heaved and exhaled, she looked back up at the palace way up into the sky that looked to reach up to the moon,

"This is what you trained me for…And I won't give up without a fight." she muttered to herself, promising Tai-Lung's defeat even if it cost her life.

Tigress looks up at the horizon, and takes off again jumping and running skillfully across the many rooftops.

Unaware to her, four figures were right behind her, having suspected where she would be going,

"Tigress!"

A familiar feminine voiced called out to her, she looked back eyes wide seeing, and Monkey, Mantis, Crane and Viper, her fellow teammates on her pursuit, but Tigress didn't stop.

She refused to just sit by and let Tai-Lung do as he pleases.

"Don't try and stop me! I'm doing this whether you agree to it or not!" she answered them, determined by her solo mission as the chase continues through the village,

"We're not trying to stop you!" Viper called out once again, being the voice to her team

"What?" she asked while briefly looking back as her team were now right beside her joining her from left and right,

"We're coming with you!" said Viper with confidence beaming in her blue eyes

Tigress looked to her other side seeing the rest of her team nodding at her in approval, Monkey gave her thumbs up. Their gestures said it all.

Tigress never felt so grateful to have such a loyal team right behind her, as for the first time before Oogway announced the new Avatar she gave her teammates a genuine smile.

As the Five ran off into the night, to face against Tai-Lung

Unknown what lies ahead of them ...

Well that could have gone better right?

Oh well i might edit some things here and there in the near future...

It's 3:20 am, what is it with me in updating so late?!

Here's the chapter guys, hope you like it :)

more to come very soon! I want to start on the second film to this interpretation!

That'll be something fun xD lol

take care guys, God bless xoxox