A Better World?
Chapter 14- The Sacrifice Play
Five minutes before Po and Tigress show up to confront The Dragon Warrior.
Shifu's ears pricked up, "I can hear him, Crane he's here".
Crane's face fell, "Well I guess this is it" he thought sadly.
"So what's the plan?" asked Crane while standing up to the bars so he could see Shifu.
"I'll let you out so you can get away, you don't need to fight him you've done enough I'll take it from here" Shifu said sternly, he stood up and let Crane out of his cell.
"But Master Shifu, you can't beat him by yourself, let me help I don't care if it kills me, I'm of the only ones in my world who still believes in the sanctity of life and I need to teach Po that", Crane said sadly, he walked out of the cell and shut the door behind him.
Shifu glared at him "Didn't you just try and kill our Po because you were afraid of his future as far as I'm concerned you're just as bad as him , now leave you've done enough".
Crane looked down shamefully, "He's right, I've done more bad then good here".
Crane walked out of the dungeon sorrowfully, behind him he could hear Shifu sit back down and start to meditate.
xxxxx
Crane walked slowly out of the palace and down the Thousand Steps, every footfall was melancholic.
"I'm a monster, I've left all of my friends to fight a monster that a world I'm part of created, and I tried to kill Po".
Crane stopped in his tracks, "Maybe I can't beat Po, maybe this is the last fight I'll ever know. But all I know for sure is that my Tigress would never forgive me if I didn't even try to help".
Crane turned and looked back up at the Palace, "Hang on everyone, now I'm coming for you Dragon Warrior".
With a laugh full of happiness or hysteria? it was hard to tell, Crane took a run up and launched himself in the air and flew as fast as he could back to the Palace.
xxxxx
The Present
"Ok this is bad" thought Po as he picked himself up of the ground.
Po had spent most of the fight trying to survive, he could barely get a hit in, his counterpart was just too much.
Tigress was still making sure whether Master Shifu was ok.
Po faced down his older self, "Y'know you're a jerk, you murder innocents, slander the name of the love of my life and now you're making me look bad in front of her". After he had finished his little rant Po wiped his mouth with his right hand and pulled it away to see blood on it.
"Owww, I guess I was too busy getting beaten up to notice my mouths cut" Po thought.
The Dragon Warrior narrowed his eyes in annoyance "Does your obnoxious machine come with an off switch?" he asked irritably.
"It does" said Po while shifting into a fighting stance "But it doesn't work".
He threw a punch on the scarred side of The Dragon Warrior's face, it connected and saliva flew out of his mouth.
The Dragon Warrior stumbled back "So you are actually able to think smartly, that was a clever move staying in my blind spot".
"I had one heck of a teacher" said Po triumphantly.
"So did I" replied Po, "Ok this is getting annoying, time to finish this quickly".
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his Scared Blood Stone, he smirked evilly at Po.
"You know what this is don't you?" he said. He focused his chi through it and the hallway began to light up in a blood red color.
Po's eyes widened in fear and realization, he turned towards Tigress, "GRAB SHIFU AND GET OUT OF HERE!" he yelled in panic.
Tigress looked up and could hardly see for the light, "WHAT ABOUT YOU?" she yelled back, she picked Shifu up.
Po turned back towards the enemy "I'LL BE FINE, I'LL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU".
Tigress nodded and began to ascend the stairs to get outside, she ran through the Hall of Heroes and outside.
xxxxx
As she got outside she bumped into the rest of the Five, "What are you all doing here?" she asked.
"We've come to back you and Po up" said Monkey proudly.
"You're a bit late" Tigress noted dryly.
Suddenly the ground began to shake violently, they all moved away from the Palace and towards the stairs.
They all turned to look at the Palace, Tigress was panicking about Po, "I hope he's alright, he was really struggling against himself, I should of helped him, I let him down again" she thought solemnly.
She was snapped out of her thoughts by an intense red light coming out of the Palace, the Five shielded their eyes from it, they could hear what sounded like an explosion, when the light dimmed and they moved their hands away from their faces they gasped at the sight before them.
The Palace had been completely leveled and there was no sign of either Po.
Tigress put Shifu down, ran over to the debris and began to frantically pull rubble away to search for Po.
"Po!, please don't leave me" Tigress said softly her voice reeking of heartbreak.
"Looking for this?" she whirled around to see the sight of Crane carrying a badly injured but still alive Po.
Tigress ran over to him, took Po off of him and laid him gently on the ground.
She started to stroke Po's cheek softly. "Don't ever scare me like that again you big idiot".
Po chuckled but stopped sharply "Owww, it's hurt to laugh".
Crane walked over to them "I found him in the rubble about twenty feet from here, I didn't see The Dragon Warrior anywhere, he sighed in happiness, "It's finally over".
"I wouldn't be so sure", Crane's face fell.
He turned to see a completely unharmed Dragon Warrior smirking evilly at him.
"So Crane I finally found you, time to die" he started to walk menacingly over to them.
Tigress leapt to Crane's defense, Crane gasped in surprise but put his wing on Tigress's shoulder,
She turned and looked at him, he shook his head "No Tigress, this is my fight, I've already done enough damage to you all, protect Po", Crane moved around her, "I'll take care of him", he gestured towards the Dragon Warrior.
Tigress hesitated but moved out of the way, she heard the five approaching.
"PO!" Viper shouted, they all gathered round Po's barely conscious form.
"Is he ok?" asked the younger Crane.
Tigress nodded "He's injured but he should be fine".
She glared at The Dragon Warrior, her sympathy for him had completely disappeared "That Po however won't be".
Her anger disappeared when she looked back at her Po, "We need to get him and Shifu some medical attention, help me lift him".
xxxxx
Crane and Po stared each other down, "So, how did you survive unscathed?" asked Crane.
Po laughed evilly "Oh it's quite simple really, I brought the palace down on top of us both but I created a shield using the stone, the younger me wasn't so lucky and had the full weight of the palace fall on top of him".
Crane narrowed his eyes at Po's cruelty "So I see being around the Tigress and Shifu of this time hasn't changed you, you're still a jerk".
Po snorted "I may be a jerk, but at least I'm an alive je-".
Crane jumped at him suddenly catching him completely off guard, he landed a kick in Po's face.
Po slid across the ground, debris cut his arm, "I'm lucky, that could have cut an artery, so Crane really isn't messing about, he's out for blood, by forcing him into this no matter the outcome I've won today".
"Get up" Crane said sternly.
Po stood up "I'm impressed Crane, you've actually grown a back bone for once".
Crane ignored him and tried to peck him with his beak, Po dodged it and landed a vicious punch to Crane's stomach.
Crane doubled over struggling to breath, "He just broke two of my ribs, I need to distract him".
"What's the matter Po?, too scared to use the stone on me?, afraid you might lose control?".
Po laughed "No, I've waited for this moment for years, so I'm going to savor and enjoy it by beating you to death with my bare hands. Ha I just made a pun".
Crane looked around and spotted the Sword of Heroes, he began to slowly edge his way towards it.
Crane started to distract Po, "Po it's not too late, we can back to our world together and try to rebuild it, it doesn't have to end with one of us dying".
Crane quickly glanced at the sword, Po saw him look in that direction.
He turned and saw the sword sticking out of the ground, "Ha, Crane you sly dog, you were edging your way over to this, to catch me off guard weren't you".
Crane's face fell, "No, I've lost, he's going to kill me".
Po walked over to the sword and pulled it out of the ground "I don't know where my sword went during the palace collapsing, but I'll be happy to take this one".
Crane tried to move but his injury stopped him, he gasped sharply in pain.
"After I kill you, I'm going to find my stone, it should be in this rubble somewhere".
Crane scowled at him "I thought you sai-".
Po kicked Crane on his back and put the tip of the sword on his stomach.
"No I used it but that fool knocked it out of my hand during the commotion however the short answer is". Po put his face close to Crane's "I lied" Po hissed.
"Goodbye Master Crane, you were my greatest nemesis and it was an honor to battle, no sorry that was someone else I barely ever gave you a second thought", Po laughed evilly.
Po thrust the blade into Crane's stomach.
xxxxx
Tigress placed Po gently on the floor, she sat next to him and watched him breath softly.
They were in the training hall, it was the only safe place within walking difference that she could bring him.
The others were taking care of Shifu, out of the two Po had the worst injuries.
Tigress looked around to make sure they were alone, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and started to talk to Po.
"Po, I know you can't hear me, but I just wanted to say how much you mean to me, if we win this, I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I'm not talking about marriage, as you know that's forbidden by the rules of the Sacred Onynx, I just mean if we were together for the rest of time, then I could die happy".
She opened them to see Po's smiling face looking back at her.
"Gee Tigress, you don't have to wait until I'm unconscious to tell me these things, but for what it's worth, the feelings mutual", Po tried to get up.
Tigress rushed to his side and helped him, when he was up they kissed.
When they pulled back, they looked into each others eyes.
Suddenly the door opened.
They both whirled around expecting to see Po, but they saw a very weak and injured Crane clutching his bloody stomach.
"Hey guys", he said weakly, he started to make his way over to them, he made two steps before collapsing on his back.
"CRANE!", Po ran over to him and slid next to him.
Tigress sighed "His injuries are too great, this is the end for him".
She walked over to him and kneeled on his other side.
Po lifted Crane's head up, "How?".
Crane coughed "I went to fight The Dragon Warrior...it didn't go so well".
Po looked away angrily, "This is my fault I should of finished him off when I fought him".
Crane looked into Po's eyes "I'm sorry for trying to kill you, I see now that you're nothing like him, you're a true hero, you can win".
He turned to Tigress "I'm sorry Tigress, I couldn't protect Po, I'm sorry I let him go down this path, and I'm sorry I couldn't stop him".
Tigress was confused "What are you talking about?".
Crane chuckled "Sorry you're the closet I can get to my Tigress so I said it to you".
Tigress nodded understandably.
Crane breathed peacefully and closed his eyes.
Within thirty seconds the Master of the Crane Style breathed no more.