A/N: Nearing the end! Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive and appreciative of this story!
Quote of the chapter:
"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."
-Bruce Lee
Chapter 17
Backup
"I wont let that happen Akuma." Po said as he stood firm in front of his friends and mate, in an attempt to protect them from harm. "Po, you're in no condition to fight..." Tigress said as she tried to get up from the ground. Hao who had been watching the whole spectacle ran up to Po and hugged the Panda's leg "are they going to kill us Po?" The White Tiger Cub asked in fear. Po didn't want to admit it, but Tigress was right, he was in no condition to fight the horde of enemies in front of him. "Not while I can do something to stop it Hao..." Po responded to the Cub while kneeling down to look Hao in the eyes. He then looked around him and saw the incapacitated other masters lying on the floor "what have I done..." Po said to himself as he wondered how much damage he had done while he had been possessed by the Komodo Dragon. He then looked back at the Komodo Dragon and began to growl angrily once again. But Akuma stood where he was looking at the weakened Dragon Warrior as he said "Surrender and I promise that you will die quickly." Po just thought to himself 'I can't take them all on, I'm to weak, the only thing I can do is delay them the best I can.'
So Po got into his defensive stance and said "Hao, stay with Tigress, this is my fight." Hao nodded and he ran back over to Tigress who struggled to get to her paws and knees as she was very exhausted. Po now faced the Komodo Dragon and his army. Upon starring down the Lizard, Po noticed something, a group of Peach Petals now flowed in the wind in a rhythmic pattern. Watching the Peach petals flow into the sky far away, he also noticed that the sky had cleared and the weather was now quite calm. But then he turned his attention back to the Komodo Dragon and he said "okay Akuma, bring it on." Akuma smiled evilly and said "your funeral Dragon Warrior."
Meanwhile in a separate dimension
"What do you mean 'The Panda didn't tell you how to leave the spirit realm'?" Tai Lung said frustratingly as he stood beside the Red Panda. "I mean he never told me how to exit this dimension. All I remember him telling me was that I should bring a staff with me..." Shifu replied as he pondered ideas on how to leave the spirit realm. "Father! We're wasting time! What if they're in trouble!" Tai Lung impatiently said. "Quiet Son, let me think..." Shifu replied trying to concentrate. "If you're done thinking, I believe the Panda used his staff to draw a Yin & Yang in the golden river to leave the Spirit Realm." The Snow Leopard responded as he showed his father the golden river of Chi, and showed him the motion that the Panda had made to leave the spirit realm. "Oh, of course...Well why didn't you say so from the start?" Shifu replied trying to deflect the blame as he approached the golden river. Tai Lung rolled his eyes from his Father's stubborn attitude, and he got down and put his paw on Shifu's shoulder as the Red Panda draw the symbol into the golden river. Just before the two passed to the other dimension, Tai Lung looked back at Master who was smiling while watching the whole thing and said "Thank you for everything Master Oogway." And just before the two left, Oogway nodded and responded "you're welcome, Master Tai Lung..."
The two then vanished into the golden lake as Master Oogway watched and thought to himself 'I'm glad those two finally bonded once again...' He then went back to his branch on the peach tree in the center of his island and began to meditate peacefully again.
Back in the mortal realm
Po stood firm holding his ground and getting ready to face the army of mercenaries in front of him. "Po, do you have any sense at all? You're in no condition to fight these guys..." Tigress tried to argue with the Panda who looked ready to challenge the army of about 100 armed animals. "I have to Tigress, I won't let you all die if I can to something to prevent it." Po replied factually as he stepped forward closer to the horde. But what most of them didn't realize was that Po was stalling to recover some stamina and strength. However Akuma got impatient and ordered his men "I've heard enough, kill him, kill them all! And then China will be ours!"
The Mercenaries then charged Po in small groups as they unsheathed their weapons, but they didn't realize that the Panda would put up quite a fight. As they approached him, he disarmed many of the thugs and knocked down nearly 10 of the attackers, however Po soon realized that he would quickly be overwhelmed and so he started to back up to give himself more room to fight them. But when he retreated even more, he realized that he had nearly run out of room, he and the mercenaries had nearly reached his weak and unconscious friends. The thugs would soon reach the others and when that would happen, everything would be lost, so Po fought with everything he had, taking on nearly 15 thugs and mercenaries at once and holding his own. But he quickly realized how fruitless this was, he was hopelessly outnumbered and he was rapidly tiring out. But just as he began to fatigue, he noticed a group of peach petals once again flowing through the air right above him, but this time there were a lot more of them and they began to gather in a circle about 10 feet above all the warriors. And then a bright golden light began to shine in the center of the circle, all the warriors stopped fighting and feasted their eyes on the spectacle. Then the petals began to swirl around and around in a cone shape, and then in the golden light at the center of the golden light, two figures appeared, one of which looked like a large feling while the other looked like a smaller rodent that held a wooden staff. Everyone in the area was now watching the event unfold and Po thought to himself 'That isn't who I think it is, is it?.' And when the petals began to stay still, the two figures dropped to the floor right in front of Po and also in front of all the mercenaries. It was none other than Master Shifu accompanied by Tai Lung. Akuma and his thugs looked completely dumbfounded as they watched the entire thing unfold and now saw two new figures in the mix. But before Akuma could say anything, Po said to the two "It certainly took you two long enough..." Shifu then turned around and said "Yes, I apologize for our...delay. I heard what happened to you, are you okay?" Po nodded and replied "I am, thanks to Tigress..." He said as he pointed over to the female Tiger who was being helped up by Hao and struggled to get to her feet. Shifu then gasped as he saw all the other masters who were knocked down and couldn't get up. Tai Lung then spoke up "Shifu, why don't you attend to the others while the Dragon Warrior and I clean up the trash?" As the Leopard said this, a grin began to form on his face. The Leopard then looked at Po and said "can you fight?" Po nodded and they both looked at Shifu who then answered "That's a good idea, but are you sure you can take them all on?" He asked his son and the Panda. Both of the warriors nodded and directed their attention to the horde of enemies who all of a sudden looked a bit more nervous.
Over next to Tigress, her son quickly realized who it was that was talking to Po "It's Shifu! And...and Tai Lung?" He had never seen the Leopard in person as he had only seen Tai Lung's action figure before, and he expected him to look a little more intimidating, however the Leopard seemed to be quite passive and not at all what he expected. But nonetheless, he was glad that Shifu and Tai Lung had come to help.
Po and Tai Lung then got into their fighting stances and prepared to fight the near 100 enemies in front of them. Shifu all the while, went over to tend to the unconscious and weakened masters. Tai Lung then said to himself with a smile "this is going to be fun..." And as he cracked his knuckles and his neck, he could hear the mercenaries backing up from fear, Po on the other hand was waiting patiently, not using any excess stamina until when he would really need it. Tai Lung then spoke again once he was ready, "Ill take the right?" Po just nodded at this and replied "and I'll take the left." They then prepared themselves getting closer to the horde of enemies. "I admire your confidence my Leopard friend, however you cannot hope to survive against my entire army..." Akuma said as he was displeased by the Leopard's confidence. Tai Lung just smiled at this and said "well, we shall see about that..."
The two warriors then nodded to each other and charged the horde of enemies, almost mowing through the armed thugs as if they were slicing butter. As Akuma watched his men getting beaten by the two warriors, he began to have second thoughts about his plans as he thought 'how can those two just take down my men so easily!? I thought the Panda had been exhausted...' Watching the two getting closer he then began to feel something he hadn't felt in a long time, fear. After several minutes of continuous fighting, Po and Tai Lung had defeated nearly 50 of the 100 or so thugs, and were now getting very close to the anxious Komodo Dragon. But then as Po was fighting, he noticed that Akuma began to flee the scene and was headed through the gates towards the Hall of Heroes. As Po watched the Komodo Dragon getting away Tai Lung noticed this as the two were fighting back to back and he said "Go! I'll take these guys!" Po looked back at the Leopard and asked "are you sure-" "Go!" The Leopard interrupted him. Po just nodded and ran up to the approaching horde of enemies and jumped right over them all with grace, landing just behind the last of the mercenaries. He then continued in hot pursuit of the Lizard, running on all fours to increase his speed. Po had never originally ran on all four legs, but observing figures like Tigress, Tai Lung and many others, he noticed how much faster it was. As he quickly followed the Lizard up to the Hall of Heroes he thought to himself 'hurry Po, if Akuma gets away, he will just come back even stronger than before...'
Po arrived at the Hall of Heroes, however there was no sign of the Komodo Dragon anywhere. Po stayed on guard, this room had many possible places to hide, the jade pillars being some, along with the many ornamental and antique Kung Fu artifacts. He then got back on his hind legs and raised his arms to prepare for a possible ambush, he had trained to be ready for events such as these and so he kept his guard up, his eyes moving to different places around the room scanning where the Lizard could possibly be. But when he had nearly gotten to the Moon Pool at the end of the hallway, he heard an echoey voice call out "I must say Dragon Warrior, it was a noble act to save the Tiger, but also foolish..." Po then became angered as he said "and what you you know about being noble, 'Demon'?" After Po said this he heard an evil laugh echo through the room and then Akuma spoke again "so you understand where I come from then?" Po then looked around to try to pinpoint the origin of the voice, but it was useless with how much the voice echoed through the room. So he responded "I know that you are a murderer, a tyrant and also a coward." Po replied to Akuma insulting the Lizard. Akuma didn't take offense from this, he knew exactly who he was and he embraced this about himself. "Tyrant? I like the sound of that..." He replied to the Panda as he unsheathed one of his Kunai knives that he still had. Po then readied himself even more as he was expecting Akuma to make a move due to the Lizard's tone of voice. Akuma who had been attached to the ceiling just above the Panda waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike, and he figured now that the Panda's back was turned to his direction he would make a move. So he stealthily dropped to the ground making almost no noise. The Komodo Dragon then held his Kunai in his right hand and readied to throw it directly at the back of the Panda's head. He then threw the knife right at it's target, however in the blink of an eye the Panda reacted and moved his head out of the way and swiftly caught the knife with his left hand almost effortlessly. Akuma was shocked at the Panda's extraordinarily fast reflexes, 'how did he do that!? Not even Gui Jin or Wuan Li (Akuma's late master's in Japan) could pull that off!? Just who is he!?' The Lizard angrily thought to himself.
"Clang! Clang!"
A sound of metal was heard echoing through the hall of heroes as Po dropped the throwing knife to the ground. Po just turned around and faced the bewildered Komodo Dragon with a less than happy expression on his face, almost like he was not interested in fighting the reptilian. He then said "that may have worked where you come from, but it won't work on me. Now give up Akuma..." Akuma then smiled evilly and changed the subject "so you put your trust in that overconfident Leopard? You really believe he'll be able to protect your friends?" Akuma said this with an evil laugh at the end. Po wasn't amused by this and he responded "although Tai Lung and I haven't always agreed on everything in the past, I do trust him to protect the others, no, I 'believe' in him." "So his name is Tai Lung? No matter, that overconfident Leopard will share the same fate as your friends, he will be six feet under..." The Komodo Dragon responded trying to get under the Panda's skin. But Po did not react to this, instead he replied "No. Enough blood has been spilled on your account. No more..." Po then began to approach the Komodo Dragon who seemed to be quite timid at the moment. Akuma then responded "you'll have to defeat me first 'Dragon Warrior'." Po didn't reply, and instead he waited for the Lizard to make the first move. Akuma then lunged to attack Po and he began to swipe his claws at Po trying to cut the Panda's flesh as his claws were quite lethal. But none of his strikes hit their target, Po was nimbly dodging every swipe and not making any attempt to fight back. So Akuma kept up the attack while also plotting a different strategy, he had one last knife and it was literally a trick up his sleeve. As he kept attacking the Panda, he quickly revealed the hidden knife from his sleeve, grabbed it and tried to stab Po in the chest with the knife, however he was unsuccessful as Po blocked the attack grabbing Akuma's wrist and twisting it making a cracking sound and earning the Panda a groan of pain from the Lizard. "Yield! Or I will break the other arm too." Po said as he grabbed Akuma's other wrist and getting ready to twist on the arm. Akuma struggled through the pain as he still held the knife in his right hand but was unable to stab the Panda with it was he couldn't move his wrist, but then he got another idea and he said "You forget Dragon Warrior...THAT I HAVE A TAIL!" Akuma yelled as he dropped the blade from his right hand and caught it with his tail and then stabbed the Panda in the lower left leg.
The Panda lost his grip on the Lizard as he yelped out in pain, clearly not expecting the move from the reptilian. Akuma laughed at this and got ready to attack the Panda while he was in pain but before he could, he was hit by a powerful kick right to his waist from the Panda's right foot (not the injured one) and was sent flying into the wall. Po having been frustrated by the Lizard's persistence pulled out the throwing knife out of his left leg and threw it at Akuma's shoulder who had hit a wall after the Panda had kicked him. The knife barely grazed Akuma's shoulder and neck and loged itself into Akuma's red robe and pierced through the wall behind him, effectively attaching him to the wall. Po then limped over to the Komodo Dragon, clutching his knee and trying to stop the bleeding. Po then stood right in front of Akuma, he didn't say anything to the reptilian, he just starred at the tyrant with an unamused expression. "Go ahead, finish me Dragon Warrior..." Akuma said in pity knowing that he had been defeated.
"No."
The word 'No' echoed through the hall of heroes as the Panda now stood before his defeated enemy. Po then continued "I said 'no more blood will be spilled today', and I meant it when I said that." Akuma just listened to the Panda speak, in a way he had wanted for the Panda to finish him off, he had been defeated and was now almost helpless, he had wanted to die to avoid living with the shame of losing to the Panda. So he replied "hundreds die each day Panda, you will never be able to stop that..." Po just looked away and said "maybe not, but not everyone must die in vain, such as Bao Ni or the countless innocents that you killed in raiding those villages..." Akuma then noticed that the Panda wasn't paying attention to him and so he used his right hand which hadn't been broken and pulled the knife out of the wall and his robe and attempted to take his own life. But before he could stab himself, the knife was stopped just before he plunged it into his heard.
"The living aren't done with you yet..." (reference to Captain America Civil War) Po said as he held Akuma's arm in place, not letting the Lizard get what he wanted and preventing the Komodo Dragon from committing suicide. Po then brought the Lizard's arms behind his back and put on a pair of acupuncture cuffs that were on display in one of the cases in the hall of heroes. And then he escorted the Lizard out of the Palace and back out into the tournament arena.
Back at the Arena, Tai Lung had just defeated the last of the thugs and had worked up quite a sweat, however the poorly trained mercenaries had been no match for the highly trained Kung Fu Master. This hadn't been the first time that Tai Lung had taken on a large number of opponents at once, when he had escaped the prison in the cold mountains, he had taken on an entire army of Rhino prison guards and defeated all of them. But as he now stood tall after having defeated the last of the thugs he looked over to the other Kung Fu Masters who had bee completely unharmed and he sighed in relief, it had been a long time since he had protected anyone but he wouldn't lie, he had missed it. He saw that the other members of what Shifu called 'the Furious Five' were just getting up now and beyond them, he saw Master Tigree now getting up from the ground with Shifu helping her to her feet. And then he heard footsteps coming down from the Palace where Po had chased after that Komodo Dragon. It was Po, but he was escorting the Komodo Dragon who was now restrained in a pair of acupuncture handcuffs. "well done Dragon Warrior." Tai Lung respectfully said to the Panda who had now come down the stairs standing near the others with the Komodo Dragon having been apprehended. "You didn't do so bad yourself 'Master Tai Lung'." Po replied in a respectful but joking way. Master Shifu then walked over to the two and said "congratulations you two, thanks to you the valley, no, China is safe once again." Tai Lung and Po both bowed to the elder Red Panda and Po replied "Thank you Shifu, however we still need to get Akuma and the rest of his thugs to prison..." Shifu just smiled at the Panda and replied "do not worry Po, I will take Akuma to the nearby village and have him sent to Chor Gohm prison, along with the rest of his followers. But right now, I believe you have someone to talk to..." Shifu said as he looked behind trying to lea Po's eyes to where he was looking. When Po looked over, he saw Tigress who was struggling to stand along with the young White Tiger Cub beside her. Po then nodded and began to go towards them before he was stopped by Tai Lung who said "you know I am still going to want that rematch right?" Po just chuckled as he said "You'll get it, I give you my word. Now if you'll excuse me..." Po then walked past the Leopard and almost ran toward the female Tiger, he held his arms open and embraced Tigress in a tight hug. Tigress then wrapped her arms around the Panda leaning her head on his shoulders as the Panda lifted her off the ground. Po couldn't stop smiling right now, the whole ordeal he had been through was now over and he could once again live his life in peace. He then began to cry tears of joy as he still held Tigress in a warm and passionate hug, "I'm so glad you're alright!" Po said in joy as he still cried out of happiness. Tigress then also began to tear for the same reason and she replied "I'm so glad you came back!"
A/N: Chapter 17 done! This one took me a little while longer to write then I had hoped for due to a couple of complications. But here it is! Feel free to Favorite, Follow and also
Review!