The Way Back
Chapter 3- What We Become
Po woke up suddenly, he laid still for a moment before sitting up with a groan.
He clutched his head, he'd had the nightmare again, the same nightmare he's been having since he'd got here two years ago.
Everything he did in the nightmare was the same, even his reactions never changed, it was like he was stuck in a loop.
A bright flash burned it's way through the shrubbery, Po fell to the ground with a grunt, "It worked finally! Now I can see Tigress and Dad again after all this time".
He ran through the forest to try and find the valley.. He stumbled upon it after a good twenty minutes.
It didn't look any different, but Po felt a coldness in the air. He went to his father's restaurant first to check up on him.
When he walked under the arch he glanced at one of the posters on the wall which visually documented some bargain, but Po couldn't read the writing it was all jumbled up, he dismissed it and continued.
He opened the door to the restaurant and poked his head in, he frowned when he heard crying from upstairs.
"Dad? Are you Ok?" Po called out...no response, he made his way upstairs cautiously.
He pushed the door to his dad's room open slowly, what he saw inside shocked him.
Mr Ping was certainly in the room, he was sitting on the bed crying to himself, what shocked Po however was the terrible shape that he was in.
He had lost a lot of weight and looked like he hadn't slept in days, his eyes were bloodshot and red from the crying and clearly hadn't been looking after himself properly.
"Dad...no" said Po sadly, he reached out to comfort him but his hand just passed through him like he wasn't even there.
Mr Ping also hadn't responded to Po's words either, "So you can't see or hear me then?" asked Po out loud.
Mr Ping managed to get words out between his sobs "W-why did you have to go Po?You've left me all alone".
Po sighed "I can't believe how selfish I am, I've left all the people I love Dad. Tig-".
Po gasped, after hearing Dad's cries he'd totally forgotten about finding Tigress, he looked at Mr Ping one more time before heading off to the palace to see if he could find his love.
He quickly reached the base of the Thousand Steps and started to leap them two at a time, when he reached the top he observed that he wasn't tired at all.
Po went to the Training Hall first, he knew that if Tigress was hurting then that was where she would go to try and work it off.
The doors opened with a loud creak and he went inside, Crane and Viper were sparring on the Jade Turtle Shell of Wisdom but apart from that the hall was deserted.
He looked at them softly for a moment before going to the Sacred Peach Tree, he knew after spending a night here with Tigress oh so long ago that they both used that location to try and relax.
He got to the top of the path and saw her looking out into the distance, she had her back turned to him, even with her back turned to him Po could almost feel the emotions radiating off of her.
Po walked towards her, put his arm around her waist and tried to embrace her to no avail, his hand merely slipped through her just like it did with his father, he desperately longed for her touch, the feel of her soft fur against his , the feeling of her being so close yet so far away was maddening.
"I'm so sorry Tigress, I can see that you're in pain and it's my fault, but like I promised I will find a way back to you just give me more time, I don't know if I'm getting glimpses into our world or if this just a nightmare but it's driving me insane".
Po snapped out of his daydream and wiped his forehead which was coated in sweat from his nightmare.
Po stole a glance out of the window in his room, it was still nighttime without a star in the sky, Po estimated that he hadn't even had an hours sleep.
Po thought about his nightmare for a moment before going to his desk and resuming his attempts to make a new stone.
Unbeknownst to Po however the remaining masters had noticed his lack of sleep and were talking about it in the kitchen.
"In ninety-six hours he's had about three hours sleep, that just isn't enough" said Mantis, shortly after Po's arrival he had demanded that Mantis be released.
Po looked down at Viper and Monkey, they shifted uncomfortably at his gaze which Po noticed distastefully, they had obviously become used to being The Dragon Warrior's drones.
Viper had explained everything quickly quickly to Monkey who was still having a hard time believing that the Po he had known for years was now gone.
"Actually if it makes you feel better Monkey, I don't know what happened to him, he could still be on my world wreaking havoc" said Po sarcastically, he knew it sounded harsh but he couldn't forget that they had let innocent people die just to stay on Po's good side.
"Where is Mantis? Your Crane said he is still alive in this world" asked Po almost accusingly.
Monkey was still silently taking everything in so Viper spoke up for the both of them, "You asked us t-, well our Po asked to put him a cell in the dungeon, presumably he was going to put him down at some point later on".
Po thought for a moment "Bring him up here, we need to get things back to normal".
From that day things had slowly been moving back to "normal" between the three master, although Po occasionally saw Mantis throwing dirty looks at the pair who had betrayed him.
"He's just trying to get back to his world Mantis, besides this place isn't his mess to clean up...it's ours we could've stopped it at any time and we didn't, now me and Viper have to live with that" said Monkey.
Mantis scowled at him "We? Me and Crane did everything we could've it's your fault and it's also your fault that Crane's dead as well".
Viper broke up their fight quickly "This isn't about us it's about Po, we need to do everything we can to help him get back to his world, now instead of arguing pointlessly let's work together to find a solution".
Mantis nodded cautiously, Monkey nodded as well.
"Hey I have an idea" said Monkey enthusiastically, "Do you remember the Soothsayer from Gongmen?".
Viper nodded "Yeah what about her?".
"We could go and ask her for advice, she may already know the answer".
Mantis smirked "If this works you might actually redeem yourself a bit".
xxxxx
2 Weeks after Po's "Death".
Shifu was sat meditating by the Sacred Peach Tree looking for an answer, he gazed up into the early morning sky for comfort, he reflected on the past two weeks for a moment looking for a way out of their situation.
The funeral had been very emotional, every member of the Furious Five had made a eulogy bar Tigress, she had just sat in her seat and stared into space, she didn't cry once.
Tigress spent her days throwing herself into Kung Fu, she woke up, trained all day and then went to sleep again, she had hardly eaten anything and she hadn't said a word to anyone.
"She is sticking to this routine because in some way this is her way of being closer to Po, it reminds her of the routine we had when Po was here with us" Shifu thought.
She always slept in Po's room because of his scent being all over it, whenever someone mentioned Po she would leave the room or if they were training she would leave and train by herself for the rest of the day.
Shifu invited Mr Ping up to the palace one day to talk to Tigress, he thought that maybe sharing the pain of loss with someone who knew exactly what she was going through would help.
When she saw Mr Ping it just reminded her of Po, she left and didn't return until everyone was asleep, Mr Ping stayed and talked to Shifu and the Five about Po and his life, funny anecdotes etc.
Shifu and the Five had naturally become very worried for her, although Shifu had said to the Five to give Tigress her space for a while even he didn't think she would get this bad.
The Five often tried to communicate with her but were just greeted with silence, she treated Crane the worst she didn't even acknowledge him when she sparred against him...she may as well have been beating up one of the wooden dummies...if there were any left she would have, it was almost like she blamed him for Po's death on some small level.
"Maybe she's angry because if Crane hadn't never come back to this point then Po would never of had to fight himself".
"Po if you're out please come back, we need you...she needs you now more then ever" Shifu thought desperately to himself, the sun had risen and the gong was about to ring, he sighed and made his way back to the barracks to begin another day of routine.