AN: I definitely do need to start making the chapters longer, or this thing may never end! As it is, I think it's going to have to be broken into two parts to make sense without being HUGELY long. Heh heh... she says as she uploads chapter 13...
RenkonNairu: Tai Lung's ordeal is a sort of parallel for what's happening back at the Jade Palace at this point. As his life is a disorderly, conflicted shambles, such is happening with the main characters. His ultimate fate though, looks like it's going to have to over-arch into a second volume at this point.
Kelev: We have a very similar take on Tai, I think. Shifu and Tao's battles are definitely fun to write.
jla2snoopy: Tai Lung's just as confused as you are. Hopefully it'll start to become clear in this chapter. As for Tao and Shifu, sometimes things have to get worse before they can become better.
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Chapter 13: What Disrupts Harmony
Eyes of piercing ice bored into Tai Lung's own, and he forced himself not to back down or look away. Instead of the warm fires of the gaze he'd known since he was a toddler, spotting his reflection for the first time in the shining inlay of the Jade Palace's floors, these eyes held nothing but the biting hatred of the coldest frozen wastelands. His fur appeared to smoulder with inner fire, the leopard's spots seeming like glowing coals.
"I'm not afraid of you.." Tai Lung swore once more, raising his hand to deliver another strike to his opponent.
The other Tai Lung didn't speak, he merely smirked in response, displaying broken, jagged teeth.
That was the thing that really set the leopard's fury to the boiling point. This other him, this other... Tai Lung, he didn't speak. He would smirk, chuckle, or even laugh, but he never actually spoke. It made attempts at figuring out exactly what he was meant to be doing incredibly frustrating.
"Are we supposed to battle to the death? Are we meant to form an alliance? WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO!?" he finally roared, flipping through the air in an arc and slamming his fists roughly into the other leopard, sending him skidding over the rough, inconsistant ground.
The smouldering shape curled into a ball, rolling up a craggy bank of dark cloud, and launched itself back at him. For a moment, Tai Lung was transfixed by those eyes again. There was nothing in them. Nothing but vicious, deadly joy in fighting. No purpose, no meaning, nothing but combat.
He let himself fall away from the apparition, turning the motion into a smooth dodge and using his agile feline balance to leap back away from the other cat. More than ever, he found himself shaken by his adversary. This creature wasn't getting tired, it wasn't even evaluating him for weaknesses. There was no art to its' combat at all.
This beast was nothing but merciless icy fury, and destructive blazing rage.
Tai Lung's mental guard fell abruptly, and he let his movement come to a standstill. "I am... only fighting myself.." he whispered, remembering Oogway's words. This horrible creature was himself. The self that had seized control when he had been training, the self that desired the dragon scroll, the self that wanted the Valley of Peace in flames.
The self that... wanted... to kill...
He didn't see the fist coming, or the elbow, or either of the feet. He did feel it when they launched him roughly into the air, beat him up into the sky, and then blasted him back into the ground, though. He felt that abundantly.
He staggered back to his feet, wiping his mouth. His shoulder ached fiercely, a souvenier of his lapse in attention that he hoped he'd be around to bemoan later. The shock of realization had rattled the massive cat to his core. Was this how he appeared to his master? To the villagers?
Grimly, he set his stance. This monster could not be allowed to win.
"I AM TAI LUNG!" he snarled defiantly, baring his claws and narrowing his blazing eyes. "I will not allow you to exist, you are but a mockery of myself!" The other Tai Lung began to chuckle, and rushed the snow leopard.
The gray cat surged forward, grabbing the cackling fiery imposter, and slamming his head into the other's face. "You are not me! You are NOT ME!"
The two combatants grappled, and stumbled over the cloudy ground. Flashes of light, similar to lightening, played through the surface beneath them. The imposter cat dug his claws into Tai Lung's shoulders, locking him into a powerful hold before grabbing him by the throat. The clouds parted beneath them, and the snow leopard found himself dangling over a bottomless drop. The icy eyes of the other leopard were boring into his own like a relentless knife, and the acrid smell of smoke filled the apprentice master's nostrils.
"I thought you'd realized it by now.." the smouldering leopard whispered. "I am part of you. You can't destroy yourself and survive, fool."
Tai Lung's eyes widened in disbelief as he was held over the edge of the Astral Plane. He grabbed futilely at his captor's arms, but his claws seemed to slide right through without gaining purchase.
Everything was growing dark, fuzzy, and indistinct. The sounds of his tormentors laughter and the rolling thunder seemed to be coming from far, far away, almost as if he were waking up from a dream. But this was no dream, was it? Or would he wake up back in his room at the barracks, a small frightened cub who'd had a nightmare? No, there was too much pain, too much pain and he couldn't breathe, and the worst thing about it all was that
"..it's all my fault.." he managed to whisper, before everything went black.
--
All conversation at the Jade Palace had become strained in the past few weeks, Monkey reflected, as he placed a few decoy cookies in the bright blue jar on the top shelf of the pantry. The agile primate swung cautiously across the room, and listened for a few moments before prying off a piece of wood panelling that covered a small cavity in the wall surface over the door. He retrieved a dark-colored jar from within and allowed himself a victorious grin.
The golden yunnan didn't know for certain who was stealing his cookies, but he'd been forced to find a new hiding place for them. The culprit was still a mystery to him. Master Shifu was the only one he could think of who definitely knew where the OLD hiding place was.. but the red panda had never shown any inclination towards sweets before.
The obvious culprit would have been Po.. if there was any conceivable way that the giant panda could have reached them. The Dragon Warrior often had a face full of debris from some snack, but managing to get ten feet off of the ground to reach an awkward nook in a shelf?
Regardless of whatever Po had done to Tai Lung, it was just not believable. The panda himself admitted that he'd defeated the muscular snow leopard via the mysterious Wuxi finger hold, and had done most of his share of the destruction in the village via falling, setting off fireworks and just plain letting Tai Lung rebound off of him.
Monkey had seen a good number of Po's 'panda style' moves during the past month of training, and he felt confident that leaping around like a posessed flea was simply not in the panda's skillset or physical ability.
So.. who then?
He replaced the jar, and tapped the loose board back into place carefully. Whoever it was, they were obviously a master of not only kung fu, but subterfuge. They were using Po as a distraction, trusting that the chubby bear would be the one blamed for the theivery. But who in the Furious Five could be so... sneaky?
Viper? No.. she had too much giddy flair not to be tormenting him with seemingly innocent comments and daring him to find proof of her guilt. As Master Shifu had observed in the past, Lian lacked subtlety.
Mantis, then? Wei's great strength would make it no difficult job to leap up to the top shelf, but could the tiny master really eat an entire jar full of cookies in less than an hour when he couldn't even manage a half bowl of Po's addictively delicious soup at dinner?
No.. Mantis was out, then.
Tigress? He leapt cautiously down from his perch to consider that thought. She certainly had the high-jumping ability in spades.. Perhaps not.. she hated almonds with a passion that verged on a psychological disorder.
So... Crane, then? He liked sweets. His powerful wings meant he would have no problem reaching the blue jar. And perhaps he could even hide the evidence under his hat if he were caught in the pantry without good reason? But no.. that was crazy! Soft-spoken, can't-we-all-just-get-along An? A cookie thief?
It would be the perfect cover, Chen had to admit. But he couldn't just walk up to his fellow master and accuse him of anything. Things were tense enough as it was, which brought him back to the thought that he had started his cookie baiting with.
All conversation in the Jade Palace was strained.
The Furious Five had taken to patronizing Po's father's restaurant as much as possible at mealtimes, just to have some extra space between them and the two so-called 'adults' of the Palace. Master Shifu was a firecracker, and Lady Tao-hua was a flame, and any time they were remotely close together the feeling that something was about to explode hung expectantly in the air.
Po had returned from a training expedition to the sacred grounds of Wu Dan mountain with Master Shifu only a week before, looking shaken and out of sorts. Master Shifu had insisted on the retreat to gain some of his fragile inner peace back, but apparently the journey had been anything but settling. Their master refused to speak of it, but Po had told them in a nervous whisper about the Pool of Sacred Tears, turned black and ominous. All the lush grass had appeared dead, and the ground had cracked beneath their feet.
Master Shifu often said that the sacred mountains held the very stitches of the bonds of heaven and earth together. The Furious Five had sent out for their own expedition days previously, with Crane and Mantis rushing to the site. The water, they assured Po, was a little murky but clearing up. The vegetation was stunted, but growing. It was mightily tempting to chalk the whole thing up to nerves and weather.
The weather had seemed fine, though. Everyone's nerves, on the other hand...
Mantis, trained warrior that he was, startled openly as Monkey returned into the training room by diving stealthily through the open door.
"Gah! Geez man, don't do that!"
The two faced off, pretending to spar.
"How's the old battle-axe?" A feint and a jab.
"Same as the old slave-driver." A dodge and a swipe.
"What are they doing?" A sweep of a staff to block, and with a twirl the motion followed through naturally as a blow.
"The same thing they were doing when you left! She's just sitting up there watching, and he's over there glaring at her!" The blow was caught by the small green insect, and the staff nearly pulled from its weiders' grip. "Shifu's so distracted fuming at her, he didn't even notice you were gone!"
Monkey somersaulted backwards, putting some room in between his adversary and himself. "Oh, that IS serious. Anyone else notice that?"
The mantis snorted. "Only everyone."
Chen glanced quickly around the room, noting how each of the other masters- whether training alone or against a partner- kept glancing up at Master Shifu. Master Shifu, for that matter, couldn't seem to stop shooting evil glares at the tanuki who was watching the training with vague disinterest. "How long have they been like that?" he risked asking.
His partner shrugged. "What time is it? The thing I don't get is, of all the stuff she could be doing, why this? I'd just like to ask her-"
"WHY are you in HERE, Lady Tao-hua?"
Mantis yelped as his voice suddenly seemed to take on the tones of an enraged red panda, and he hastily covered his mouth in surprise.
Above them, Tao-hua's eyes never left Shifu's. They engaged, for a few anxious moments, in a staring contest that left the air absolutely electric. Finally, the tanuki looked away. "I was only watching, Shifu."
"Watching? Watching?" the red panda seemed incensed by the notion. "What in the world could possibly give you cause to be watching their training? What is it that you've decided that I'm doing wrong now?"
The raccoon dog straightened, her bronze eyes flashing in indignation. "I'm certain that I have no idea what you mean, Master Shifu!"
Shifu stormed up the steps to the raised platform that the lady stood on. The wood beneath his feet creaked as though it were having to bear the weight of the small creature's tremendous anger. "No more games, Tao-hua! I've grown tired of them! Ever since you've arrived, you've delighted in picking apart everything that I have done."
"We have put off repairing the palace, we have rebuilt most of the city, we have plowed fields and carried water, and STILL it never seems to be enough for you! My students need their training. The villagers must be allowed to do some things for themselves, and everyone's clothing is quite adequate. So WHAT, Lady Tao-hua, WHAT is it that you have found fault with now?"
The tanuki flinched back from the accusation guiltily, breaking eye contact and easing away from the infuriated kung fu master. Seeing victory within sight, Shifu advanced.
"Nothing to say? No guilt-bringing wry observations? I must say that I'm disappointed."
At that, Tao raised her face and glared back at him, and Shifu found himself wishing that he could take it all- or at least part of it back. The dark markings beneath her eyes were damp with tears, and she was biting her lower lip to keep it from trembling.
"No Shifu," she whispered hoarsely. "I'm the one who's disappointed. You'll never know... how disappointed I am." She drew an uneven breath and pulled out her battered laquered fan, concealing her face behind it as though it were a shield as she ducked through the door leading back into the palace quickly.
Shifu stared after her in shock for a moment. He could feel the stares of his students on his back. Their confusion, shock, and disapproval was radiating off of them so powerfully they'd probably glow in the dark. He was their master, though. He could not betray any weakness in front of them, could not seek or justify their approval. Rather than turn to face them, he rushed after the unpredictable Tao.
Even as he left, his sensitive hearing picked up an odd, nonsensical comment on the whole situation from his newest student. He'd deal with that later. Just now, he was intent on finding out what that bizarre, unpredictable woman was doing.