Lotus backed away slowly, unsure of what to make of the creature before her. It was black with white patches, and it had bright yellow eyes with faint white freckles around its nose. It was really big, so much bigger than her.

But somehow, she wasn't afraid—she didn't know why, but she felt that she could trust him. She remembered her parents' rule of no talking to strangers, but she felt like she knew this dragon.

Looking behind her, she could see that the school was no longer in sight and no one else was around, not even the students and teachers.

She was completely alone with the strange creature in front of her. She'd never seen anything like it before in real life, but her daddy had told her bedtime stories and had shown her pictures of...dragons? Was it really a dragon?

"Hello..." she said slowly, curiosity getting the better of her. She took a step forward and jumped when the dragon growled and took a step back just as quick. Lotus noticed that it had something strange around its neck, and it didn't look very comfortable. The creature looked hurt, and she didn't like it when others were hurt. "I'm Lotus," she introduced herself shyly. After her incident with Cheng the fox and his burned cheek, she was hesitant to try and take off the weird thing around its neck for fear that she would burn him, too.

But she remembered a part of her daddy's stories about dragons, and how they were able to breathe fire; maybe she wouldn't hurt him, after all. So she continued inching forward anyway, reluctantly reaching her arm out so she could rest it on the dragon's nose. Before she could get any closer, he snorted and she jerked back a bit when he growled, clearly a sign that he was warning her to stay away.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she tried to reassure him. Her attempt was unsuccessful as the dragon growled even louder, pawing at the ground in a charging manner. Still, Lotus wasn't afraid. She wanted to know why she felt the way she did—like she knew him. She also wanted to get that ugly thing off of his neck because it looked very painful. "I just want to help."

The dragon snorted again, his expression steely and hard as he stared her down.

She was only less than an inch away when suddenly out of nowhere, a roar shook the trees around them and a golden blur jumped in between her and the dragon before she could finally rest her hand on his nose.

"Daddy?" she questioned, eyes big and round. She'd known the story of her father the Dragon Warrior, and how he had the power to switch from a panda to a dragon—but she had never seen him transform until now...

And it scared her.

xxxx

Po's heart stopped.

He stared.

His eyes grew wider than they had ever been before as recognition zapped through him like a lightning strike. This dragon wasn't one of the two that Longwei had used to kidnap his son all those years ago.

No, because it was...

Chao?

He knew it was Chao, it had to be. How many other black and white dragons were there that had yellow eyes like Tigress?

It was his baby boy, but he wasn't exactly a baby anymore—he was too big. Po guessed that dragons grew faster than normal cubs, but he was also a normal cub, wasn't he? He'd thought that Chao's powers would have come in late unlike Lotus, but he'd thought wrong—Chao must have transformed a long time ago, and had gotten stuck in his second form.

Po had to do a double take as he took in the sight before him. The first thing he noticed was that Chao had an assortment of different scars that littered his body, which churned his stomach. The second thing was that he had something wrapped around his neck—the same type of cuff that had held Tai Lung—the eight-point acupressure cuffs, and what Shen's army of wolves had used to make him and the Five surrender.

The more you move, the tighter it gets, Po thought to himself in horror. What did Longwei do to you, Chao?

He was standing still, staring back at him with a dark gaze and bared teeth like he was expecting Po to jump right at him.

I don't want to fight, Po said, sending his words to Chao's mind.

Chao only continued to stand in place, staring back at him with no indication that he'd heard his father speak.

It was then that Po realized Chao couldn't understand him.

He couldn't transfer his thoughts! He could remember going out every night to try sending a telepathic link to his missing son but no matter how hard he'd tried, he could never get a response; it seemed now that Chao had lost all form of communication mentally and verbally, if Po was right. He hoped that he wasn't.

The dragon growled once more, struggling against the painful cuff around his neck when he made just one simple move and it squeezed. Chao screeched, shaking his head and rubbing it along the ground to try and remove the cuff—but every move he made only made the pain worse, and by that time it was practically choking him.

Let me help you, Po said even though he knew that Chao most likely couldn't understand a word he was saying. I can take it off.

Chao rumbled in a whine. Then he bent down into a take-off position that Po knew well; he was going to fly away!

Chao, wait! Come back! Po screamed as his son took to the sky faster than he could think.

He didn't listen. Looking behind him, he could see that Tigress had finally caught up and was cradling Lotus protectively in her arms like she wasn't about to let her go anytime soon.

"Go," she told him, pointing in the direction that Chao had gone, her eyes fearful and wide yet bright at the thought that they had seen their son, that he was actually alive.

Po bent down in his own take-off position, leaping into the sky. He zoomed after Chao quick as he could—but Chao was even faster. It was hard to keep up, but Po was determined not to let him out of his sight.

Chao, please, Po tried to communicate again. The dragon ahead didn't listen, only picking up speed.

It seemed that Po had followed him for miles before Chao finally started slowing down at last. Looking around him, Po realized that they weren't anywhere near the Valley of Peace; it wasn't anywhere that he had searched all that time ago. There was a big mountain ahead, and Chao suddenly shot in its direction faster than an arrow, assuming that he would lose the other dragon following him.

Po halted and lingered in mid-air, watching in shock when Chao dove right into the mountain's top—an open entrance—a volcano.

He debated following Chao inside the mountain for a moment, then turned back. He turned back no matter how loud his heart was screaming at him to follow, to get to his little boy that he hadn't seen for so long and bring him home. But he knew that he had to return to the Jade Palace. He couldn't just follow a dragon headfirst into a volcano; who knew what was in there?

But he knew where Chao was now. He knew where his son had been all these years, and now that he knew, he could go back after telling Tigress and getting help.

xxxx

The crib had been replaced with a bed that was perfect for her size, and she was starting to fall asleep already.

"That was your brother, Lotus," Tigress explained to her daughter as they recounted the day's events together. Tigress was on her knees, ready to tuck her in with Po sitting beside her.

"...My brother?" Lotus asked, tilting her head to the side. "The one you always told me about?" No wonder he had seemed so familiar!

Tigress nodded, a faint smile crossing her expression. They'd found him. They'd finally found him! "Yes. He was taken from us a long time ago."

"By a stranger?" the little girl asked nervously.

Tigress nodded again.

"But he was a dragon," Lotus said, wrinkling her nose in confusion. "Like daddy." She glanced at Po, and he was shocked to find that she looked afraid of him.

"I would never hurt you," Po comforted. "I just had to protect you."

"You'll turn into a dragon too one day," Tigress let her know. She knew that it probably wasn't a good idea to tell her daughter this after such an exciting day, but she had to know sooner or later...and sooner was better, especially now that she had seen her father change. What better time was there?

Lotus snuggled deeper under her blankets. "What do you mean, mommy?" she whispered fearfully. "I don't want to be a dragon."

"Honey, when you hit Cheng today...did it burn his face?"

Lotus yelped in surprise that her parents knew about that incident, hiding herself ever deeper under the blankets. Tigress, however, gently reached under and pulled her out so they could see her face.

"Is that why it burned him? Because I really am a dragon?" she asked in a whisper, her little body shivering.

Po and Tigress glanced at each other, then back to Lotus. She needed to know the truth, and she needed to know now.

"Yes," Po said, more firmly than he wanted.

"Lotus, why did you hit him?" Tigress asked. She just couldn't believe that on the first day of school, their daughter had hit another student.

She paused, trying to blink back tears. She didn't want to tell her parents why she'd hit Cheng! "...He called me a mixed breed," she finally answered so quietly that they almost didn't hear.

"I know he hurt your feelings, but violence is never the answer," Tigress said.

"I know, mommy. I'm really sorry! I'll never do it again!" she sobbed, tears streaming down her face. She was just as tired as them as the day had gone from hitting Cheng to finding Chao, and they knew that she had to get some rest soon.

Her next question surprised them both. "Daddy, what am I? I don't know if I'm a tiger or a panda...or a dragon...or all of them at once?"

Po thought. He'd asked himself the same question once, before finally proclaiming to Kai in the Spirit Realm that he was the Dragon Warrior. "Well, you can be whatever you want to be, sweetheart. I don't know about you, but a Pragon sounds pretty cool."

Lotus giggled as Po ruffled the fur on her head. He smiled.

"Goodnight, little Lotus."

"Goodnight, daddy," she whispered back.

Po made his way towards Tigress. She was already in their own bed, staring up at the ceiling with an expression that he hadn't seen in a long while: determination.

"I can't believe we finally found him," she said quietly as Po hugged her close.

Po smiled. His heart sang, though the image of his son beaten and tortured wouldn't leave his mind. They'd found their son, but he was bruised and battered. He was stuck as a dragon just like Po had once been all that time ago. He came to the conclusion that since Longwei had seen him transform upon his arrival to the Jade Palace, that was when he had figured out that Chao must have the same ability, and so he had forced his son to change and remain in his dragon form.

Longwei had tortured him. That's how he had gotten the other two dragons to listen to his commands. But why hadn't they had the dreaded cuffs on back then?

We're going to save you, Chao, Po promised.

For the first time in six years since Chao had been kidnapped, they had hope.