A/N: I couldn't stand leaving the last chapter on a cliffhanger so I finished this one a quickly as I could! Hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kung Fu Panda

Chapter 9

For the Greater Good

"Okay...Just let him go..." Po said kneeling on the ground surrendering to the Komodo Dragon. Tigress was stunned at the Panda's choice to surrender to the Komodo Dragon "What! No! Po you can't!" She tried to argue with Po's decision. Po ignored Tigress' pleas "Just please, don't harm him." Tigress was almost offended by the Panda's decision to give up so easily "What are you doing Po!? How can you just give up to this 'Monster'!" She tried to argue as she got into her fighting stance to intervene in the situation. Po then got up and stopped her. "Tigress, I have to do this, if I don't submit, he might hurt or worse kill the children." Po said trying to calm down the unruly female Tiger beside him. "But...You can't go! You can't leave us...You can't leave me!" She said to him emotionally grabbing his shoulder from behind and shedding tears. Po then turned around and stood looking his girlfriend in the eyes "Tigress...Promise me." He said wiping the tears of her cheeks. He then continued "Promise me, that you will look after the valley for me." She then began to almost cry as she emotionally said "No! We need you...I need you! You can't leave!" Po then smiled weakly as he said "Don't worry, I will return...After all, how else am I supposed to get this back from you?" He said as he removed his Golden Dragon Cloak and placed it around her neck. "No!" She said as she hugged him tightly, to which he hugged her back and said "it's okay, everything will be alright dear." This comforted her a little, but only a little. "Promise me you'll return...For my sake." She said emotionally. "I promise." Po said with an understanding nod. She then pressed her lips against his, and they leaned into a passionate kiss, neither wanted this moment to end. When they broke apart for air, Po said "please Tigress, promise me that you wont come looking for me. For now, the valley needs you and the five. I promise I will return when the time comes." She nodded, not taking her eyes off him. He then let go of her while still staring at her and held out his arms behind his back where several of the Gorilla mercenaries cuffed his arms with strong iron chains and shackles.

The Komodo Dragon then grinned as he said "what a noble act Dragon Warrior, you truly do live up to your reputation." Po just turned to the reptilian and starred emotionless into the cold blooded creature's face and said "now, release the cub." Akuma then took his kunai away from Hao's neck and he sheathed his knife. "Absolutely, I am a man of my word after all." And then he released the terrified cub who ran to the Dragon Warrior for comfort. "Po! Why is he doing this!? And where is he taking you!?" The frightened cub hugged the bound Panda tightly, Po kneeled on one knee bent his head down to provide comfort to the scarred cub. "Hao, you must promise to me that you will stay strong while I am gone. Always remember to believe in yourself, 'anything that you believe you can do, you can do'(That's a Bob Ross quote)." Hao kept hugging his teacher, however in this moment, he wanted to believe that Po was really his father. Hao cried as he said "this is all my fault! I should have stayed in my room and none of this would ever happened!" Po then stepped back and looked Hao in the eyes and responded "Hao, I don't want you to ever blame yourself for any of this, this is no ones fault. Do you hear me?" The cub just continued to cry, so Po once again comforted the cub unfortunately not being able to wrap his arms around the Cub to provide extra comfort. "Tigress will take care of you, you must trust her as you have trusted me, she will continue to train you until I return." Po looked over to an emotional Tigress and nodded to which she winced but also nodded. "Now go, you will be safe with her." The cub then backed away from Po and nodded and said "Okay Po, I'll do my best." Hao then ran over to Tigress and hugged her leg. Po called out to Tigress "Tigress, when the other's come, tell them 'I did this for the greater good'. And also, tell them to believe." Tigress shed tears as she emotionally said "I love you!" Po then called back "I know." (That's a cliché from Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back)

Po then turned back to Akuma as the reptile had spoken "I hate to ruin this emotional moment Dragon Warrior, but I'm afraid your time is up." Po was then escorted by the same two Gorillas over to what seemed to be a prison cart, they then put him inside the cage on the cart which was made of strong iron bars. Tigress just watched in horror as she saw how roughly the two Gorillas were handling her Panda and she growled in anger. As they put Po in the large cage, Akuma made his way over to the cage and said "Believe me when I say that this isn't personal Dragon Warrior." Po just starred right at Akuma with an unamused expression without saying a word. Akuma then grinned and called back the mercenaries that were not knocked out. One of the Rhinos then said "but master! What about the injured?" Akuma seemed irritated by this and he snapped back "what about them!?" The Rhino then responded "Shouldn't we help them and take them with us?" Akuma then became angered for some reason as he said and an angry and evil tone "maybe, one of these days you'll realize my friend that only the strong survive!" He then slashed the Rhinos neck using his claws and said to the now bleeding Rhino "And the weak perish!" Akuma then kicked Rhinos head to the side making a gruesome "crack" after the Rhinos neck was broken.

During this, Tigress had covered the young Tiger cub's eyes to prevent him from seeing such violence. She was still very emotional from the situation, the thought of losing her love right after they had gone out on their first date was too much for her to bear, and she once again began to cry. Akuma then walked up to Tigress and Hao and said to the little Tiger cub "I thank you for your hospitality young one." Tigress just growled and angrily starred down the Komodo Dragon. "Such ferocity and bravery, no wonder the you and the Dragon Warrior were so close." Akuma taunted. Tigress then threatened "I swear if you do anything to him, I will kill you." Akuma then laughed evilly as he sarcastically said "I would have it no other way, my stripped friend." Tigress just stood her ground and kept starring down the reptilian.

"Well, our work here is done, now I'm afraid we must be off." Akuma said as he walked back to the cart where Po was imprisoned. Akuma and his men then began to walk out of the orphanage and off into the distance. Tigress just watched as her love was taken away from her and was being taken god knows where. Even though she was not injured in any way, this was probably the most pain she had ever felt, other than the time when she believed that Po had been killed by Shen's cannon in the warehouse. She hardly even noticed that Hao was still hugging her leg and was crying as well "Master Tigress, is Po going to be okay?" The cub said with tears in his eyes. Tigress just looked down at the cub and shook her head "I don't know." She said with very little hope in her voice, she wished she could give the cub the answer to his question, however in this moment she didn't really know what to believe. Finding the strength she still had, she knelt down and looked the cub in the eyes "all I know is that he doesn't often go back on his word. He will come back." The cub just "I'm so sorry Master Tigress! This is all my fault! I shou-" He ranted before he was interrupted by Tigress who picked up and hugged the cub "Po asked you not to blame yourself for this Hao, I don't want to hear you blame yourself either." She said trying to cradle the sad cub as best as she could, this was another thing that Tigress had very little experience in. While she held the cub in her arms, she looked down at the ground and noticed something that she hadn't earlier. Po's jade green staff was still lying on the floor of the Orphanage from when he intentionally dropped it earlier. She then released the cub and picked up the staff. It was surprisingly light and nimble, and it was coated in Po's scent.

Just then she heard several voices call out "Tigress!? Po!?" It was Viper and Crane, they were hurrying toward the Orphanage. Tigress looked back to the entrance of the Orphanage and witnessed Viper and Crane rush into the building shortly followed by the rest of the furious five. "Tigress! Zeng told us the Orphanage was under attack! Is everything alr-Wait...Where's Po?" Viper said sounding very worried. Tigress just closed her eyes in grief and said "The Orphanage is fine Viper, but Po...Po is gone..." The others gasped "wait, what!?" They almost all said in unison. "A large Komodo Dragon with an army of Gorilla and Rhino mercenaries invaded the Orphanage and took some of the children hostage. We took out many of his men, but he threatened to kill the children if Po didn't surrender. So he did, and now they're taking him away." Tigress emotionally said. They all gasped "well what are we waiting for! We have to save the big guy!" Mantis said affirmatively to his friends. To which the other members of the five nodded and began to leave until they were stopped by Tigress who said "No." This made all of the others stare at the female Tiger in shock. "What!? But we have too! He's our friend! And he's your-" Tigress just looked away as she interrupted her friends and said "No, our duty is to protect the valley, not to rescue Po. Before he got taken away, he told me to not rescue him or go looking for him. I suggest that we all trust his judgment and believe." The others couldn't believe what they were hearing, Tigress was prohibiting them from going to save Po, normally they would always help their friends and would never abandon anyone. "But he's your boyfriend." Said Monkey who could not understand the Tiger's reasoning behind her words. "It doesn't matter Monkey, Po demanded that we not look for him and I intend to honor his request, I suggest that the rest of you do the same." The five began to have gloomy looks on their faces, Po was very close to each of them, and accepting his absence would be very difficult for them. They all respected Po's wishes however and decided to honor his request. "So what do we do then?" Crane said with an obvious amount of sadness in his voice. Tigress then opened her eyes and looked at them and said "we do our duties for now, and protect the village until he returns which he most certainly will."

Just then, the caretaker of the Orphanage Mrs Yu reentered the doors and said "Oh thank goodness those monsters are gone! Thank you Masters!" She said in a relieved manner, however she then noticed that someone was missing. "Wait...Where's the Dragon Warrior?" She said worriedly. Tigress spoke for the team as she said "the children of the Orphanage are safe because of him Mrs Yu, he surrendered to the mercenaries in order to secure the lives of the children." Mrs Yu was taken back by the words of the Master of the Tiger style of Kung Fu. "He is truly gone?" The sheep said slightly emotionally. "He is." Tigress said with a hint of grief in her voice. "Then I and the Orphans are forever indebted to his noble sacrifice. He truly is a Hero of China." The Sheep said and then continued "Is there any way we can repay you masters" Tigress then signaled to her friends to remove the still unconscious bodies of the knocked out mercenaries from the building, then she asked "Is there anything you can tell us about the Komodo Dragon?" Mrs Yu then recalled her conversation with the reptilian, "Absolutely, he came to the Orphanage with a large Gorilla by his side and they asked about where the Dragon Warrior was, I had no idea they had any malicious intent. Hao was with me when the Komodo Dragon came here, and the Komodo Dragon asked him many questions." The Sheep said. Hao then walked up beside Tigress and looked up at her saying "Yeah he asked me a lot of things like how I knew Po, and where I got the action figure of you and where Po was! I feel terrible for answering everything!" Yigress just looked down at Hao and knelt down and put an arm on the little cub's shoulder. "It's okay Hao, you didn't know what he was going to do." This made the cub feel better, and he said "Thank you Master Tigress." She nodded and just asked "Hao, is there anything else you can tell me about that 'Monster'?" The cub responded "Yeah, he said he wanted to see how strong Po was, and he said he wasn't from around here. And also he said his name was Akuma or something..." At this Tigress gasped and said "Oh no..." Hao didn't understand what Tigress was on about. "Is everything okay Master Tigress?" Tigress just looked down at the cub and said "Hao, Akuma translates to Demon or Devil from Japanese..."

She then remembered something Po had said to himself before they had fought the mercenaries 'No...It can't be...Hes the one from my nightmares...' She hadn't been focused on it when they were fighting but now she realized how important this was. 'Po must have been having premonitions! That explains why he was so unruly at the Palace, and why he was acting so differently!' She thought to herself. Hao then spoke up in a nervous tone "That's bad, isn't it?" Tigress just smiled at the Cub's rapid mood swings and replied "well, Po has defeated Demons before, so not necessarily." Mrs Yu then interrupted "that's right! Years ago, the Dragon Warrior saved the valley from a Demon named Ke Pa!" Tigress then finished "Exactly, so there is nothing to worry about, I trust that Po knows what he is doing." Hao then sighed in relief as he said "Well that's good, I think I will return to my room if I'm not needed anymore." The cub said with a hint of guilt in his voice. Tigress then remembered what Po had said before he had been taken away 'Tigress will take care of you, you must trust her as you have trusted me, she will continue to train you until I return.' She then thought of an idea that would lift the cub's spirits so she spoke privately to Mrs Yu the caretaker.

Hao was sitting on the bed in his now slightly dark room reflecting on what had happened that day, his room was always quite dark as there was only one window but now that the sun was setting it was becoming near black in his room. Just then, he heard someone step to the entrance of his room and heard someone say "Hao, I would like to ask you something." It was Master Tigress, so he replied "Sure thing Master Tigress, what can I do?" Tigress smiled as she said "I want to ask if you'd be interested in coming back with me and the other members of the Furious Five to the Jade Palace." Hao couldn't believe what he was hearing "Wait for real! You want me to come and live at the Jade Palace with you and all the other Kung Fu Masters!" He excitedly responded. Tigress just chuckled at the Cub's enthusiasm and said "Of course, I promised to Po that I would take care of you, and I intend to do just that." Hao then got out of his bed and excitedly began to run around cheering "Yay! I'm going to the Jade Palace!" Tigress just watched the cub in satisfaction and said "then let's be on our way." The cub than ran out of the room and to the entrance to the Orphanage where he waved goodbye to Mrs Yu who watched happily from the center of the building. "He will be much happier with you than being here." Mrs Yu said to Tigress who was catching up to the enthusiastic cub. "Thank you Mrs Yu." Tigress said as she bowed to her former caretaker. Then the two feline's left through the door to meet up with the rest of the Furious Five. "Who's the kid?" Mantis said once the two had met up with the others. "Everyone, this is Hao Liang, he will be staying with us at the jade Palace until Po returns. Hao, meet Masters Viper, Crane, Monkey, and Mantis." Tigress said introducing both parties. "Pleased to meet you Hao!" The rest of the five replied. Hao felt very welcomed by this and he excitedly said "You're all Kung Fu Masters too!? That is so awesome!" They all smiled then began on their way back to the Palace.

A/N: Done! I know some sad faces during the beginning of the chapter. But now things are beginning to look up. Remember guys, I need feedback on how you feel the story is going so please make sure to leave a review. Also if you enjoy the story, favorite or follow the story to stay informed on future chapters! But most importantly

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