Chapter Seven
The morning following Tigress' vision, she sought Shifu out. As usual, he was meditating. Tigress bowed, then spoke, "Master, I... I need your wisdom on a new concern."
Shifu woke from his meditation and turned to face Tigress. "I'll tell you what I know, master Tigress. What is this concern of yours?" Tigress inhaled deeply, then began to recount the details of her vision. When she finished, Shifu paced momentarily in thought. Finally, he spoke: "This seems far too vivid to be a random dream. Too... detailed."
"So... I have had a vision of what is to come?" Tigress asked.
"It would seem so," Shifu responded. "But what Lokahviing said, near the end of your dream, before he went to confront the Wu Sisters' army... zu'u los yol, zu'u los nahkriin, zu'u los dinok... I'm certain it's in the language Lokahviing calls Dovah. But the meaning..."
"I confess, the meaning of the words elude me, as well," Tigress admitted. "But he spoke them with such... malevolence."
"I'd be inclined to agree, based on what you told me," Shifu agreed. He hummed for a moment in reflection. "This a most disturbing turn of events... your vision suggests that the valley will come under attack by the Wu sisters – incredible, given they've been dormant for years – and that, for one reason or another, Lokahviing will feel compelled – or be compelled – to defend us, standing alone before the fury of the Wu sisters' army."
"Master... in the vision, Lokahviing seemed... angry," Tigress said. "His eyes were glowing red, and he-"
"And he felt that, in the vision, it could be when he earns this," Shifu cut her off, showing her the cracked blue crystal.
Tigress frowned. "What is that?"
"I have reason to believe these are what gives his lightsabers their color," Shifu explained. "I feel I am coming to understand why his lightsabers are the color they are, and why he uses them in different styles. More than necessity. Belief. State of mind."
Tigress thought for a moment, then realized Shifu was on to something. She saw how Lokahviing was when he wielded the violet blade – calm, collected, skilled and graceful. When wielding the crimson blades, he was angry, erratic – vicious and completely unpredictable. But why, then, did he use a violet blade with the former? Why not a...
Comprehension dawned on Tigress. When I have earned it, you will know what to do with it, Lokahviing had told Shifu, when speaking of the crystal. Shifu was right – belief. "So where does this leave us?" Tigress asked.
"I think we should approach Lokahviing, ask him if he knows the Wu sisters," Shifu suggested. "But we should speak to him alone. I don't want to risk the others overhearing this."
"Agreed," Tigress said, rising to her feet. "I don't even want to imagine how Po would react, considering how he took the story of Darth Taral."
"I imagine the reaction would be much less severe, but I still agree," Shifu stated. The two of them headed to Lokahviing's domicile, where they followed the sound of unfamiliar music to a lower area, where Lokahviing sat at a workbench, working on his crossguard lightsaber.
"Master Shifu, Master Tigress," he greeted them, rising from his seat to turn, face them, and bow.
"Master Lokahviing," Shifu and Tigress both responded, returning the bow.
"What brings you to my workshop?" Lokahviing inquired.
"We wanted to ask you... if you knew anything about the Wu sisters, or if you'd heard of them," Tigress said. Shifu and Tigress watched as Lokahviing put a cracked crystal into an open compartment of his crossguard lightsaber, secured it, then closed the compartment. He picked up the weapon, gestured, and it flared to life with that crackling violet blade. He twirled it for a moment, then deactivated it and clipped it.
"Sorry," he apologized, "routine maintenance. Who were you talking about?"
"The Wu sisters – do you know of them?" Shifu repeated the earlier question.
Lokahviing frowned, thought for a moment, then answered, "Trio of feline sisters, extremely arrogant, psychotic, have an extremely annoying laugh?"
Tigress frowned and crossed her arms. "You know them?"
"Not personally," Lokahviing sighed as he sat back down. "Had a run-in with them some months ago, north-west of here. Russia. Nearly killed me, they did. Emergency transport at the last second saved me."
"What were they doing in Russia?" Tigress asked.
"Fuck if I know – all I remember from that incident was they were with a lot of rodents... mercenaries, by the looks of them... Hm... now that I think back on that incident..." Lokahviing mused.
"What is it?" Shifu queried. "What did you see?"
"A lot of military hardware – not the most advanced stuff I'd ever seen; cannons, catapults, things of that nature. They even had a lot of pitch and flammable chemicals," Lokahviing explained. "If I had to guess, I would surmise that they were going after a big target, and they intended to burn it to the ground."
Tigress and Shifu exchanged worried glances. Diverting the topic, Tigress asked, "Lokahviing... can your computer translate... foreign languages?"
Lokahviing raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, why-" he was cut short by a sudden shiver in his spine, evidenced by how he shuddered. "Whatever you need to translate, feel free to use my computer." He rose from his seat and headed toward the exit as his eyes shifted color to red.
"Where are you going?" Shifu asked.
"There's been a disturbance in the Force," Lokahviing said. "And I must seek it out." Lokahviing wordlessly left Tigress and Shifu alone.
"Intriguing," Shifu mumbled. "I had no idea he had a prior encounter with the Wu sisters. Why'd you ask him about his computer's translation capabilities?"
"Something I have to know," Tigress responded, heading upstairs and into the master bedroom, sitting down at the computer terminal. She tapped the computer, and it lit up with characters and letters she was familiar with. She navigated the sub-menus and found the translation suite. She opted for vocal language recognition, and then spoke: "Zu'u los yol, zu'u los nahkriin, zu'u los dinok." The translation software worked momentarily to translate what Tigress spoke as Shifu walked in, and when it finished, Tigress' face turned to shock.
"Tigress!" Song called out as she ran to the doorway.
Tigress' head whipped over to look at Song as she queried, "What?"
"Trouble!" was all Song said. Tigress looked at the translation one last time, and then ran outside with Song. Shifu approached the computer, looked at the translation, and immediately understood.
"I am fire; I am vengeance; I am death."
Tigress ran down the steps into the valley as fast as her feet could move, and toward an area where the villagers were gathering. She pushed her way through and saw what they were gathered around, murmuring in fear – Lokahviing stood, angry, before another person, a human, by the looks of him. "I told you to stay away," Lokahviing hissed in that dragon voice. "I told you never again to come before me. And yet, here you are."
"You know why-" the human started.
"Did you not listen?!" Lokahviing screamed, his voice echoing in the air. "I told you what would happen if you came before me again! I warned you! And you still came!"
"This can't go on, K-" the human started again, this time being cut short by Lokahviing making a grabbing gesture with his hand, and the human began to choke. Lokahviing lifted his hand up, and the human was lifted several feet in the air, hanging suspended by his throat.
"I let you live, and all you had to do was stay away! Why, Devon? Why did you come back?!" Lokahviing demanded.
"You... know why," Devon coughed. "You... can't escape... justice... come-"
"I told you that incident was not my doing!" Lokahviing exclaimed. "I told you I had nothing to do with that massacre! I saw what happened that night! I brought to justice the one responsible!"
"Murder... is still murder... you killed... the only one... who could have... exonerated... you," Devon gurgled out. Lokahviing shifted his hand, and threw the human into a wall.
"I will not be taken into custody for a crime I did not commit!" Lokahviing yelled. "I gave you the evidence you needed to clear my name! And what did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
Devon, no longer being choked, coughed and responded, "I handed that evidence to my direct superior."
"Exactly!" Lokahviing exclaimed. "You gave my freedom to a man you knew beforehand was corrupt and incompetent! I told you if you handed that information to him, it would just disappear, along with me!"
"And I told you my hands were tied," Devon countered. "I couldn't go over his head! You knew what he was like – had I gone against him, I would have disappeared, as well! I have a family to look after!"
"Bullshit!" Lokahviing screamed. "You're only looking after yourself! Why else would you be here, doing a corrupt chief's dirty work?!"
"If what you say is true, you will have no problem proving it in the Justice System," Devon said. "Please, don't make this difficult – I don't want to cause any more of a scene than I already have."
Lokahviing drew one of his lightsabers, activating it with a snap-hiss! "I will not face a justice system that is rigged by a corrupt bureaucrat," Lokahviing hissed. "I was subjected to conditions like that before. I will not be subject to it again!" Lokahviing advanced on Devon, who appeared unarmed. Tigress couldn't let this happen.
"Lokahviing, stop!" she shouted. Lokahviing stopped dead in his tracks, looking over his shoulder at Tigress.
"Is that what you're calling yourself, now?" Devon asked. "Lokahviing? No wonder you escaped us for so long."
"Do not taunt him, whoever the fuck you are!" Tigress sneered. "I don't know what crime you charge him with, but you have no right to come before him accusing him of anything! He has done nothing wrong!"
"Tell that to the hundred-fifty people that died in a industrial colony far from here," Devon stated.
"Didn't you hear him?" Tigress countered. "He had nothing to do with it, and he took down the one responsible; he even handed you the evidence that would have cleared his name – if anything, justice, or lack of, lies with you for handling the evidence irresponsibly and giving it to someone you were warned not to hand it over to!"
"He had no evidence of Chief Boris' corruption," Devon responded.
"It was in the file, dip-shit!" Lokahviing snarled. "It was why I told you not to give it to that fat fuck!"
"Enough, Lokahviing!" Tigress exclaimed. "And you, mister Devon... did you even read the evidence Lokahviing handed you?"
Devon paused for a long moment, then answered, "No. I was under orders to hand any and all evidence to the chief."
"Then you just said it yourself – you admitted your error," Tigress said. "Were it not for your error in judgment..."
"... I would not be here, facing a man who wants me dead for a hunt that has lasted three years," Devon finished. "The last time we met, he nearly killed me. I don't know why he spared me, but he warned me that the next time I came after him... he would finish what he started." He sighed, then continued, "I had a friend on the colony K... Lokahviing... was accused of massacring. For a while, I honored your mercy... but my friend's ghost would not let me rest. Lokahviing, you of all people would know what that's like; I had to end this. Put it to rest. If you are so certain you are innocent, you will have no issue proving it again. Do you have any copies of the evidence you gathered?"
Lokahviing growled and hissed, and Tigress repeated the question: "Do you have any copies of the evidence that proves your innocence?"
Lokahviing remained silent, until his eyes shifted to Tigress, still bearing the malevolent red glow. "Drive J, sub-folder Alpha Three, compressed file Delta-One," he finally said.
Tigress looked back at Devon. "If we give you the file again, can we trust you to review it carefully and hand it to the right people?"
Devon nodded. "You have my word, I will honor this deal."
Tigress looked back at Lokahviing. "Lokahviing, can you get the file?" she asked.
Lokahviing paused still, but eventually extinguished his lightsaber and began to turn toward the Jade Palace. It was completely surprising and unexpected, especially to Tigress, when he suddenly lunged, seized Tigress by her throat, and slammed her against a wall.
"If you ever again interfere in my affairs, I will, I promise you, do you far worse than I would have done Devon. Do I make myself abundantly clear?" he hissed. The villagers murmured in shock and fear, seeing Lokahviing so hostile and holding one of the Furious Fighters by her throat as though he would tear it out.
"Would you really do that to me, Lokahviing? After all we've been through together? All the stories? The pain? The agony? After I've held you as you cried from the torment? Would you really murder me for keeping you from doing something you'd regret?" Tigress asked.
Tigress' words hit home, and Lokahviing's eyes shifted color, returning to that sapphire-blue. His grip loosened, then his hand retracted from her throat, shaking, and he quickly turned away as tears formed in his eyes. "I know you're angry, Lokahviing, but-" Tigress started. Lokahviing abruptly walked away from her. Tigress ran to catch up, but Lokahviing spoke in Dovah, using his Thu'um and catapulting himself into the air, shifting to dragon form mid-trajectory and taking to the sky. Tigress would have run after him, but was stopped by Song.
"Let him go, Tigress... he needs to cool down," she told Tigress.
"And if he decides to leave?" Tigress asked.
"He won't," Shifu assured her as he arrived on the scene. "He has grown attached to us – we're the closest thing to family has. He lost his family once; I doubt he'll do anything that would make it happen twice."
"For now, we have to get the evidence that proves his innocence," Song suggested. Tigress didn't voice a response, but she went back up to the Jade Palace, retrieved the file Lokahviing spoke of, and left it to Song to deliver it to Devon while she pondered in her room what happened today. She felt what happened in the valley would have repercussions, true, but her biggest concern was Lokahviing. He'd nearly been provoked into murder. He was ready to kill her, she could see it in his eyes. But what she said... the response it garnered... she came to realize she was having an influence on him. It could be a good thing and a bad thing. She could get through to him when others couldn't. It was then that she realized something – because of what happened in the valley, many villagers would begin to question whether Lokahviing should stay in the Jade Palace. That could be what compelled Lokahviing to stand alone before the fury of the Wu sisters' army.
Her vision was unfolding.
"You see the pieces falling into place, Tigress," Oogway's voice said in her head. "You cannot stop what is coming."
"Lokahviing... is important to me, Master," Tigress protested. "I can't let him face this alone."
"You must," Oogway said. "It has already begun. You will have to let him go."
"I can't," Tigress said, her heart aching. "He deserves better."
"That he does... but even you will not be able to stop him," Oogway told her. "Don't fight this. As I told Shifu, many meet their destiny on the path they take to avoid it."
Tears welled up in Tigress' eyes. "So he will stand alone against an army, just to prove his loyalty," she surmised.
"It was his destiny. Past the pain, past the sins and torment, he was meant to come here and find peace," Oogway affirmed.
"Will he die?" Tigress asked.
"Difficult to say," Oogway replied. "As he would quote, 'Always in motion is the future.' All I can tell you is that, soon, his fate will be in your hands, and you will have to make a decision that will affect and define you both. Your destiny... is tied to his."
Oogway's voice left Tigress' consciousness, and Tigress felt that some hours had passed. She looked up, and Song walked in her room. "It's done," Song reported.
"Lokahviing?" Tigress asked.
"Cleared of all charges," Song answered. "As for where he is... he's at the pool of sacred tears."
"Has he asked to see me?" Tigress queried.
"Unknown," Song replied. "The others heard about what happened; they won't go near him."
"And Shifu?" Tigress asked.
"He thinks it a good idea if you talk to him," Song told her. "He seems to be of the belief that at present, you're the only one who can."
Tigress nodded, then left her room. "Be careful," Song said.
"I will," Tigress responded. She walked, alone, up the path, to the pool of sacred tears, where Lokahviing stood, in normal form, absolutely still. For a good five minutes, no words were said. Tigress eventually broke the silence.
"Lokahviing, I know how you must feel, right now."
"I wish to be alone," Lokahviing croaked.
"You and I both know that's not true," Tigress countered. "If you wanted to be alone, you would have left us a long time ago, returned to the life of a wanderer. You say you want solitude, but your heart says differently."
"And how do you know what my heart says?" Lokahviing asked.
"Because mine says the same thing," Tigress answered. "We're one and the same, you and I."
Lokahviing sniffled before continuing, "I nearly went dark again. I would have killed Devon. Would have killed you. And I'm so sorry – I shouldn't have lashed out at you. You did not deserve it."
Tigress walked behind Lokahviing and wrapped her arms around him. "Even I lose control from time to time, say things I don't mean," she told him. "It's only normal. You were under a lot of stress. I don't condone what you said, but I understand why you said it. I've been down that road myself, remember?"
"I threatened to kill you, and yet you're holding me like crying kin," Lokahviing said softly, his voice shaking. Tigress gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.
"Because I care, Lokahviing," she assured him. "I know you. I know what it's like to be you. I know what rage and anger feels like."
"You and I both know it's more than that," Lokahviing told her. Tigress chuckled softly, purring in his ear.
"I've grown rather attached to you, Lokahviing," she told him. "You're a good person, tormented by a long, harsh past. I believe you can be at peace here, and that you deserve better than what you were forced to endure." She gently squeezed him, holding him close. "If nothing else, please believe I want you here, with me, more than ever."
"Leaving was never my intention," Lokahviing stated. "But the pain..."
"The pain will pass," Tigress whispered to him. "Mine did. Even the pain of denial I felt eventually passed, and I came to be a close friend of Po's. I still am. No darkness lasts forever. I may not be able to see things like you, but I see that your dawn is fast approaching."
Lokahviing turned to face Tigress, and Tigress pulled him into a warm hug, holding him there in her embrace. It was in each other's arms that Tigress had another thought. "Devon knows your real name, doesn't he?"
"I'm surprised he never spoke it," Lokahviing responded.
"I won't ask you to speak it now – after what you recently went through, it would seem... wrong of me, somehow," Tigress said.
"I, uh... hate to interrupt," came Po's voice, "But dinner's nearly ready, and I thought, after what happened, you two would be up for a hot meal."
Tigress and Lokahviing reluctantly released each other, and followed Po back to the Jade Palace. But this experience, and the accompanying revelation, had shaken Tigress. The vision was unfolding before her, and she would soon decide Lokahviing's fate, three centuries in the making...
(Apologies for the delay. Had a few things that... cropped up.)