A Better World?
Chapter 17- What Lies Ahead
Tigress was half way down the stairs when Shifu suddenly landed in front of her.
"Don't Tigress, let me inform Mr Ping, give yourself time to grieve", it was hard to tell whether it was an order or a request.
She ignored him so he tried again. "Don't close yourself off, both me and The Dragon Warrior tried that and it made us both bitter and miserable".
"Leave me alone Master" hissed Tigress, she was shaking, in anger or in hurt? It was hard to tell. She walked past Shifu and continued down the stairs.
Shifu sighed and changed tactic, "This isn't what Po would want for you".
She froze at the mention of Po, Tigress felt the need to cry again but she denied it, instead she turned on Shifu using her rage to make herself feel better.
"You can't possibly understand how I feel", she threw a lifeless punch at Shifu, he carefully dodged around it, she fell to the ground clumsily, her emotional state was making her clumsy and reckless.
Shifu looked down at her sadly "While I could never match your feelings towards Po, don't make the mistake of thinking that you're the only one who cared about him, we are all grieving Tigress".
Tigress sobbed in frustration "I loved him Master, now he's left me all alone", she felt Shifu hug her softly.
"I'm sorry Tigress" he said simply, "I will tell Mr Ping, at least let me spare you that pain".
Tigress nodded, it seemed selfish but telling Mr Ping would be emotionally difficult and she just couldn't face him out of guilt.
Shifu picked her up off of the ground, "What are you going to do now?".
Tigress looked at him for a moment, she walked off silently in the direction of the Peach Tree.
Shifu nodded "I see", when he was alone he finally let his guard down, he felt tears running down his face, "I'm so sorry Po".
xxxxx
When the five finished checking on the village they decided to go back up to the remains of the palace to scavenge anything that had survived.
Crane was sifting through the rubble when he spotted a strange shape in the debris, he frantically dug his way towards it and pulled it out.
It was the stone, "It must of landed here after the Po's were fighting each other".
He held it in his palm and thought hard about bringing Po back to life, it didn't work.
Crane angrily threw it on the ground, he started to leave it behind before looking back at it.
"No I can't leave it here you never know who might pick it up, I'll give it to Shifu later".
Crane suddenly had a thought "Maybe it can't bring Po back, but at least we can restore the palace", the thought was hollow, Crane would give up a thousand palaces if it meant seeing Po again.
xxxxx
Tigress sat alone underneath the tree, she was deep in thought.
"I feel numb, I wish I had never fallen in love with you Po, all it's brought me is pain and loneliness. For a moment I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with you, but you ended up spending what was left of your life with me".
She put her head in her hands, this was the worst pain she had ever felt in her life and she knew no matter how hard she trained she would never conquer it.
Po's face suddenly popped into her head, he was smiling warmly.
Instead of making her angry or upset, Tigress felt... happy, she remembered all of the love and the good memories they had shared.
"Po I hope somewhere that you can hear me, though our time together was short, too short, it was the greatest time of my life, I can't move on, you were the only person that I will ever love, I hope that you're still alive out there, maybe you were just transported somewhere and you're making your way back here now? I don't know, but I won't ever give up on you".
With this thought Tigress stood up and walked back to where the palace once stood to help her friends.
xxxxxx
In the future
A figure sat down at a table and began to write.
Dear Tigress
I know that you won't ever get this letter, but by writing it I feel like I'm close to you. I hope you can forgive me for breaking your heart by sacrificing myself, maybe that's what this place is, maybe it's the personal hell that I've been allotted for hurting you, or maybe it's a dream that I can't wake up from, or maybe I've just taken my evil counterparts place here. All I know is that it's a strange place, there's so much fear and uncertainty and people are scared of me, it's quite understandable though, I caused so much pain and suffering here.
I've met the Viper, Monkey and Mantis of this world and I've told them of Crane's sacrifice, I'm going to make things right between us all and make this place peaceful again while I find a way back.
I don't know how to get back to you, but no matter what, no matter how long it takes me , I promise you, I will find a way, we'll be together soon Tigress.
Don't ever give up hope, I know I won't.
All of my love forever, Po
The End?
And that's it the end to A Better World?, rest assured there will be a sequel.
Thanks to everyone who's been reading since the beginning of this story and I hope to see you again down the road.