Kai didn't regret hurting the stupid little cub. He didn't regret it even as he was suddenly slammed to the ground by a massive dragon ten times bigger than him.
The little brat deserved it!
Po caught the spirit warrior in his claws before he could try to make a move to run or fight back, dragging him backwards towards the Jade Palace entrance across the floor...
Until they were finally face-to-face with Po's old enemy.
Stairs.
Instead of simply hurling Kai across the steps much like Shifu had done to him, Po took hold of the yak in his mouth, hanging him right over the edge...
Where a gigantic drop awaited.
"What are you going to do, big guy? Drop me?" Kai questioned as he was left hanging from the dragon's mouth, his feet dangling.
"I'm so scared!" He mocked. Before the dragon could actually follow through with his plan, Kai concentrated. He concentrated hard to tell the beast to put him back down gently on the ground. He didn't want to deal with this right now—he was immortal. A 'mere' drop such as this wouldn't harm a hair on his head. Sure, it might hurt, but it wouldn't kill him.
It took a few moments for him to realize that the dragon wasn't paying attention to him. He either wasn't paying attention, not listening...or his powers...
Kai stared down at his hooves in total confusion.
Why wasn't his Chi working?
He glanced back up at Po. The dragon grinned at him from between his hold on Kai, and his eyes flashed from green to a dark kind of gold that matched the lighter coloring of his shiny scales.
No...how?
Kai growled in response, continuing to try and make the Dragon Warrior's powers work on his command. He tried to take control of the dragon holding him hostage, but nothing was working!
Po only continued to grin through his hold on Kai, finally giving the spirit warrior a small nod in response to his question.
Kai screamed as he fell, feeling the world rushing and spinning around him.
Po knew he still had time while Kai was falling from the Jade Palace steps. It was a long way down, after all. He returned to his fathers and the group of pandas before him. They stared in awe at the huge dragon that they had helped to heal, and Li and Mr. Ping slowly approached as Po bent down to give Bao a gentle nudge to see if he was alright.
The little cub smiled and nodded as if to answer Po's question, and he gave his snout a gentle pat. Po smiled in return, relieved that Bao appeared to be okay—a bit shaken up, but otherwise okay. The others marveled at the major size difference between him and Po and how the cub trusted him that he wouldn't be crushed.
He turned back to his fathers and like Bao, they wrapped their arms and wings around his head in a tender motion. Po smiled again and closed his eyes in content, happy to be back together after such a painful ordeal.
But it still wasn't over.
Po opened his eyes and to his fathers' shock, they were...a dark gold instead of green? A sense of sudden realization overcame them. Po's Chi had been gone. Kai had stolen it from him when the panda accidentally 'gave' it to him in the Spirit Realm. But along with their help when he had been shot with the arrow...the arrow made of his Chi...
Kai had made a big mistake, just like Po had made a big mistake when he'd 'given' Kai his Chi.
The True Dragon Warrior was back, and he still had a job to finish.
"No...I'm not letting you go back out there!" Li suddenly shouted. Mr. Ping jumped in shock at the outburst. "He shot you with an arrow! I'm not letting anything like that happen again!"
Po blinked and looked ahead out to the palace entrance where Kai was sure to still be falling. A pulling sensation was tugging at him again, but it wasn't the same as when Kai had tried to take control of his mind. It was that itching feeling that he had to do something, that something needed to be done; it wouldn't go away until he finished what he was meant to do.
His Chi had returned.
But it wasn't over yet.
"I can't lose you again..." Li almost said in a whine. First it was Lord Shen that had taken his son and wife away from him. Then it was Kai when the Beast of Vengeance had made his way to their village, and Po sending himself to the Spirit Realm in order to protect his friends and family. Then his son had gotten shot and almost killed by an arrow fired by the very same villain that had tried to take over their village and everyone's Chi along with it.
Po blinked once more and nuzzled Li in a comforting motion. You won't lose me, dad. I promise. But I have to do this. It's my job, remember?
"The secret ingredient is...nothing." Mr. Ping decided to interrupt in an attempt to help calm Li's nerves.
"Huh?" Li asked, bewildered as the goose came closer to the two. The pandas surrounding them stayed quiet, listening along with the Furious Five and Master Shifu.
"My secret ingredient is...nothing!" Mr. Ping repeated, lifting his wings in tune with the revelation.
Li glanced at Po. He only stared back with a slightly amused expression drawn on his face as he watched his father's reaction. After all his cooking lessons from the bird, Li was finally getting the answer. So Mr. Ping's secret ingredient was actually...nothing? Was this some sort of joke?
"I know you're worried," Mr. Ping said calmly, placing a wing on Li's shoulder. "I am, too. We all are...but we have to let him finish this on his own."
Li hadn't been expecting that at all. But it was starting to become a little clearer. The secret ingredient is...you.
"Uh, Po, I think he's still falling," Tigress said from her spot nearby.
Li stared at Mr. Ping, sighing before he approached his son with Oogway's repaired staff in hand. "I know you can do this," he said softly, never breaking eye contact. "So go get 'em...Dragon Warrior." He bowed, holding out the staff for his son to take.
Po lowered his head in response before taking hold of the staff gently as he possibly could in his mouth, being careful not to snap it in half again; it was way too simple with the powerful jaws that he now possessed.
Li and Mr. Ping watched, astonished, as Po turned and ran out of the palace. They followed as quickly as they could with the other pandas and Master Shifu behind along with the Five, and stared on in horror as Po jumped off of the edge of the stairs.
"W—where'd he go?" Li asked in mild panic. He knew he had to try and not be worried, but his son had just thrown himself off of the dreaded palace steps!
Some in the group nearly fell over and had to back up when a rush of wind raced past them and a large shape made its way up towards the sky.
Kai was screaming in rage as he was carried off higher and higher.
Po was thinking how amazingly, utterly AWESOME it was that he...he actually, really and truly...could FLY!
He didn't even have wings and he was FLYING!
He spun in circles, dropping Kai and then catching him...just to get on the spirit warrior's nerves.
Kai only screamed louder, trying to get something back that he had lost and what Po would never lose again.
The Dragon Warrior decided that enough was enough when Kai attempted to free himself from the strong grip in his claws to no avail.
Time to end this.
His staff grew brighter with a glowing white light.
And brighter...
Until finally—
The group from below watched, amazed and terrified, as a blinding white light exploded and the yak and dragon both vanished into thin air.