~~~ Trust him~~~~

A familiar voice spoke above her, "Tigress! Are you alright?"

She let out a Suppressed cough before getting back up on her legs. "I'm fine, Viper," she said, "Don't worry about me."

With a sound of great rush, master Shifu emerge from the bushes. Tigress turned her head towards the commotion .

His eyes caught hers and she quickly turned away feeling nothing but guilt. It would be because she was responsible for Po's injury. Adding to that embarrassment, it was only because of Shifu's coming within time that the two of them made it with little and in Po' case vital injuries.

Viper then turned to her, a grave look in her eye, "I was so worried we all heard Po scream. What happened back there?"

She grit her teeth before facing her. "The bandits managed to stab him from his back and front." She said, her voice flat. Viper made an audible gasp but she continued, " The attacks were vital but not enough to kill though. It was obvious they wanted to capture him."

The snake pursed her lips, looking down in thought." Why? I wonder"

"They almost got away, too, but… Luckily Shifu was there in time," she looked away before whispering, "I couldn't save Po, viper…"

"What? Tigress, that's not true. If you weren't there—"

"—I was there," she cut her off before marching towards the others leaving Viper to watch her with wishful eyes as she went away.

Tigress walked to the cart Po was lying in and pecked over the edge to look at him. She placed her hands on the sideboard and watched the rise and fall of his chest wrapped in bandages with his deep breaths. It was enough for her because he was there, he was alive. "Po…" she whispered with relief.

She should've been alert from the start. This wouldn't have happened if she never let her guard down. If she did, she would have defended him faster and none of this would have happened. He would have gotten away unharmed. She was so far from the oath she had made to herself to protect him without the limit of the cost that it pained her.

She couldn't even protect him by herself. She wasn't strong enough to protect him on her own, and because of her weakness he was hurt in the process. Because of her, he got hurt. Tigress felt the blood in her body boil. Her legs were shaking not with fear, but with anger. Not long ago, she had believed that she was stronger than all of them. Now, her strength wasn't enough, her best wasn't good enough. Once again, she wasn't strong enough. Once again, Po was in harm's way and she couldn't stop it.

Once again and As always, she had failed.

"Tigress."

Coming out from her trance, she noticed that the sideboard was almost about to break. She didn't even know how her hold got so hard. she took a deep breath before losing her grip.

Shifu had an unreadable look in his eye. He saw a tear descend on her cheeks before Tigress turned away wiping them. Shifu sighed, he knew better then anyone, maybe except Po, what was going on in her mind.

"None of this is your fault."

Shifu could feel her gaze without even bothering to look, he knew her too well after all, she was his daughter one way or another

Tigress averted her eyes to the ground then to the cart. Her arms were heavy and her cloths were stained by dry blood and dirt. Her eyes weren't bright as they usually were, they were dull and in pain. He felt a string of pain watching her daughter as he started to talk,"You have to let things go. Sometimes the odds leave us helpless"

She narrowed her eyes but made no sound. The two walked in silence with the cart being pushed behind them. Shifu cleared his throat before his lips parted and his voice was heard.

"Tigress you can't mangle with faith. You might be powerful. But life always and will forever find a way to overpower you. For starters, you were two and they were thirty. They had weapons, sword, knife, cannon balls while you had none. They had a plan, while the two of you were returning from a long mission and were tired. The odds were never in your favor from the start. If the rest of us, weren't on a mission nearby and hadn't heard him scream you two, frankly speaking would've been goners."

Tigress stared the ground." I've faced worse." She mused.

"And he hadn't." Shifu replied.

Tigress expression softened as she let his words sink in. She looked towards the sun, whispering."No, but I should've have protected him."

Shifu sighed. It was at times like these he truly got to see how naive she was. There was still a lot she had to learn. she wanted to protect Po more then anything and anyone. He didn't know why though. However, that never stopped him from guessing. Maybe, after what happened at the harbor but then again, she had always been protective over him.

The more he thought about it, the more wild assumptions his mind presented. In the end, his mind concluded that she was attached to him. Very attached to him after all what Po did for her, Shifu was right to at least expect this. It truly was delighting and bothersome over how close the two had gotten to each other over the time period. From his experience, Shifu knew that it was only a matter of time before one of them starts to see the other more then just a friend.

He shock his head. He already had enough problems at hand. "I know you want to protect him." But that doesn't mean you can stop everything and anything from hurting him." He said." Po's the dragon warrior. Considering this, he is bound to be in harms way anytime soon. You can't always be there with him. But you can always trust him."

This made Tigress's eyes change. The life filtered back in and With a whisper, she said, "Trust...him? I trust him...more then,...anything."

"You do but not with his life. Trust him with his life. After all, emotion are what makes him strong." Shifu stated

The grandmaster just watched as her eyes went blank, lost in thoughts before she nodded and went ahead.

His electric blue eyes widened a little as he could've sworn that there was a slight hint of approval on her lips. He sighted in relief, knowing that his words didn't go in vain, that they had hit just too close to home.

I don't know what I was thinking but had this idea so.. Anyway, I hope I didn't made anyone oc. Please, please, please review! It means so much to everyone!