For the first time in his life, Po was the first to their destination.
So desperate was he to reach his dying adoptive father that he actually had a week's head start. Only Tigress, Mantis, Zeng, Su and Di Tan accompanied him. There was still too much to do at the fortress, and it would be a week at the most before Xian would be well enough to make the journey himself, and so their friends had stayed behind to help out. Tigress and Mantis had volunteered to join Po, and Shifu had insisted that Zeng, Di Tan and Su come too, so that they would finally be home safe and sound.
Even so, despite Po's desperation, it was still two days before they left the fortress. Once Po and Tigress had made their way back down the mountain, they explained everything that had happened to Shifu and Eagle Jr. Then Po had to retrain Tigress once she saw Monkey. Then a medic explained to them that though Xian had lost a tremendous amount of blood, the unusual phase where his injuries began healing at an accelerated rate had saved his life, and he would make a full recovery. Then Eagle Jr. had them assure him again that the Yeti was dead. Then Po finally managed to inform them of the message Zeng had delivered, and how his father was currently on his death bed. Though more than willing to let Po leave at once, Shifu had insisted that both Po and Tigress be checked by the medic, and then rest for a few hours in their guest rooms. Po and his friends left first thing the next morning, and they were finally out of the Himalayas within the week.
To say that time flew by during the journey back to the Valley of Peace was an understatement. Though the journey took weeks, it felt like mere days had gone by before Po finally reached the end of the Thread of Hope.
The group stopped to rest, but only five minutes passed before Po leapt to his feet.
"Come on, let's keep moving!" He said.
"Po, wait a sec…"
"Mantis, my dad is dying! Don't ever tell me to wait!" Po yelled. He looked close to tears, and had been since they first began their journey home. Tigress and Mantis knew what he was thinking. Even though the message hadn't mentioned what caused his father's collapse, it had something to do with Po.
"Po, listen to me." Tigress said sternly. "Di Tan and Su don't have as much stamina as we do. They need the rest."
Po grimaced, but nodded slightly in acceptance.
"If you want, you can go ahead without us." Di Tan said. "You should be there for your father."
For the first time in weeks, Po smiled in gratitude.
"See you in a few hours." He said softly, and took off down the stone path leading into the valley.
"Should I go ahead too?" Zeng asked. "So I can let hem know he's coming."
"Go ahead." Tigress said. "And tell Su's parents that she's on her way too."
Zeng took off into the air and disappeared into the low hanging clouds.
Po ran non-stop for two hours before exhaustion finally caught up to him and he collapsed against a tree. Spent from the journey, Po finally allowed the tears to flow. In seconds his cheeks were soaked.
The panda wanted to throw up. He had never expected his mission to end like this. To save the woman he loved only to lose the father he loved, and to an ailment that no kung fu can cure. He knew that his father was getting on in years, but never had he imagined that it would happen so soon. Po clutched the tree, legs aching, lip quivering. He hiccupped and sniffed, but refused to let himself start bawling.
And then, finally he let go. Leaned over an exposed tree root and lost this morning's breakfast. Suddenly he felt better, but only by a little.
Po forced himself to get up. He had to reach his father. Though he was determined to get to the village in time, his legs were screaming, forcing him to walk the rest of the way. Then some boar bandits blocked his path and demanded his money. Po actually yelled in a rage as he pummeled them to pulp. The sky was turning a golden orange by the time he reached the village gates.
Po started running again. He barely registered the pleasant greetings and gestures of respect from passers by. He only had eyes for the sign above the archway leading into Dragon Warrior Noodles and Tofu.
"Dad." He called. "Dad! DAD! DAD!"
Please… please let him still be alive… please let the message be wrong…
"DAD!"
"Po!"
Po collided with a mass of black and white fur. A pair of strong black arms wrapped around Po, pinning his arms together in a fierce bear hug.
"Dad?"
"Oh thank the gods you're safe!" Qiang looked nearly giddy with relief.
"Dad." Po's eyes threatened to start spilling again, and he grabbed his birth father and returned the bear hug. "Oh thank god you're here." He started crying again, overwhelmed.
"Hey, it's okay, son… it's okay…" Qiang gently patted his son's head.
Over Qiang's shoulder, Po looked into the restaurant, which looked the same as when he left it. Only in place of customers, there were only three people. Ming was standing next to the kitchen door, expression somber, and Su's parents were sitting at one of the table. Her mother was wiping her little glasses with the fabric of her dress, looking giddy with relief as Zeng told her that her little girl would be home soon.
"Where is he?" Po asked softly.
"Upstairs."
"How's he doing?" Po dreaded the answer.
Qiang didn't reply. An invisible fist punched right through Po's body.
"Is he…"
"I'm sorry, Po. He's…" Qiang hesitated.
"No…" Now Po was ready to really start bawling. He was too late. His father was gone and he never got to say goodbye. "No… nonono, please no…" His legs weakened and he fell to his knees, still in Qiang's arms.
"Oh son… I'm so-"
"POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
For the second time in two months a feathery projectile slammed into Po and sent him flying to the ground, knocking him out of Qiang's arms.
"POPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPO!"
"What the bloody hell?!" Qiang yelled.
Mr. Ping was plastered against Po's large white belly, practically sobbing with happiness. Po lay flat out on the ground, hearing his father's voice and feeling his wings, and not daring to believe it.
"Oh, Po!" Mr. Ping cried. "I knew you were alive! Oh, happy day! My little panda has returned!"
Po finally lifted his head and looked down at his father. The only thing out of place about the aged goose was that his noodle bowl hat was missing.
Qiang looked flabbergasted. Ming was staring through the kitchen door where Mr. Ping had emerged. Su's parents were rooted to their seats.
"Have I gone mad with grief?" Po asked bluntly.
"Of course not, Po! Would you like me to make you some soup with extra radishes on the side?"
Po sobbed and hugged his father, never wanting to let go. It was a miracle. An absolute miracle.
"I-I thought you were dying!" He muttered.
"Dying? Me? Are you joking, I'm in my prime!" Mr. Ping laughed. "Now how about that soup?"
Po let go of his father, grinning like he had never grinned before. Mr. Ping beamed at Po and then disappeared into the kitchen, passing a friendly greeting to a stunned Ming on the way.
"B-But…" Qiang stammered. Po looked at his birth father questioningly. "He had stopped breathing when I last saw him."
Po's reply was cut off when he saw the villager doctor emerge from the building, looking both relieved and puzzled.
"Oh, doctor!" Po rushed over to the doctor. "Thank you so much for helping him! I owe you big time!"
"You don't owe me anything, Dragon Warrior." The doctor said politely. "So strange…"
"What's strange?" Po asked.
"Well, he was literally on death's door a few minutes ago." The doctor said. He rubbed his glasses, just as Su's mother had done. "In fact, just I pronounced him dead. Then all of a sudden he just sprung out of his bed, a picture of health… through no action of mine, I'm sure."
When Tigress and the others arrived at the noodle shop an hour later and to their surprise finding Mr. Ping alive and well, there was another tearful reunion. Su had rushed into her parents' arms the second she saw them, crying her little heart out and apologizing over and over for her reckless decisions. It was clear that she had been expecting severe punishment, or worse her parents falling ill from fear and stress, but since Mr. Ping had already explained everything, they merely hugged her back and assured her that everything was okay, and they weren't angry. This made her cry even more, and she didn't stop until Mr. Ping cheered her up with some secret ingredient soup.
As Su quietly sat down at the table, still looking a little misty eyed, Mantis hopped onto the surface in front of her parents.
"Hey, did you two know that your daughter's a genius?"
Su looked up from her soup. The mother and father looked at each other. Then they chuckled.
"Of course we did!" The mother said sweetly.
"Woah, why didn't you tell us?" Mantis exclaimed.
"We're really sorry. We just forgot." The father, named Pong said. "Anwu and I never really made a big deal out of it."
"And why not?!"
"Well, to be honest…" Anwu lowered her voice a little. "Su already had trouble fitting in with the other children. We were afraid that if we singled her out as special, it would make things worse. Besides, she never really liked being the center of attention. So we decided to just leave her be, so she can show how special she is her way."
Su blushed, but not from embarrassment. It was obvious how much she appreciated how her parents handled her, as Po would call it, 'awesomeness'.
Speaking of Po, the panda was at another table, spending some much needed quality time with Qiang, while Ming and Di Tan helped Mr. Ping with cooking as customers finally began filling the restaurant. Things got chaotic for a few minutes when some fans recognized the famous Di Tan, but one whiff of his own delicacies quickly soothed the crowd. Tigress and Zeng had gone to the Jade Palace to inform the inhabitants of their return, and promised to return in a couple of hours.
"And then I bodaciously shot my flaming arrow right into that jerk's shoulder and kablam!" Po had nearly finished his telling of the events of their mission. On Shifu's orders he had left out several details, namely the existence of Shambhala and Ember, but it was still a thrilling story nevertheless. "And then the cowardly villain disappeared into the wilderness!"
Qiang slapped his son on the back.
"Good job, Po! Aren't you a chip off the old block?!" He laughed heartily. "You know, I knew deep down that you wouldn't be taken down that easily. But I admit it, when we received that message, you really had me worried, but here you are, with another story to tell your kids!"
Po choked on his soup.
"D-Dad! Isn't it a little early to be talking about that? I don't even have a- message? What message?"
Qiang's grin faltered and he pulled out a crumpled scroll.
"We received a message a few weeks ago, telling us that you had died."
"What? We never sent a message!" Po grabbed the scroll and unrolled it.
"Yeah, I pretty much figured that out when I read what was on the back."
When Po finished reading the scroll, he was both confused and disgusted.
"Wow. Very uncool. But Dad, I swear we never sent a message."
"Then who on earth did?" Qiang demanded.
Po shrugged.
"I don't know."
When Shifu turned up in the Valley of Peace with Emperor Xian, Master Eagle Jr., and the rest of the Furious Five two weeks later, he admitted that he didn't know who had sent the message either.
Despite this, it was still a happy reunion. Tigress and Mantis happily greeted their fellow comrades, as Eagle Jr. carefully sat a slightly limping Xian down on a chair in the Jade Palace kitchen. Eagle Jr. was outraged when he heard about the message, and promised to conduct a small investigation into the message's origin.
Only Shifu, Xian, and Eagle. Jr. were seated around the table that evening. Everyone else, to give the elders some privacy, had gone down to the village where there were larger tables, and with Di Tan taking an early nap, Mr. Ping was the chef currently at the stove behind them.
"Rest assured, I will find whoever played this sick joke if it's the last thing I do!" Eagle Jr. was saying angrily. Xian said nothing. He sipped at a large cup of tea, tiny healed cuts partially visible on his facial fur.
"I'm more worried about how they knew that Tujiu was a traitor." Shifu said sternly. "Speaking of which, where is Colonel Sao?"
"We've dumped him in the palace dungeons. We've already sent for a professional interrogator." Eagle Jr. said.
Shifu scowled.
"Don't worry, he won't torture that little vermin." Xian said. "We know you won't tolerate such barbaric activity in the palace."
"No, I won't." Shifu said. "Xian, you've had a long journey. Why don't you get some-"
"Yoohoo!"
A pair of wings clamped over Shifu's eyes. He cried out in alarm, and his own tea went flying and soaked the table top. He spun round and aimed his staff in panic.
"P-Princess Haoxin!" He gaped in horror.
"Oh, it's so good to see you again, Master Twit-twoo!" Haoxin clapped her wings in delight. "Oh and thank goodness that you've returned safe and sound, my dear Xian! Oh my, what happened to your face?"
"A stupid mistake blew up in my face."
"Oh, dear! You poor boy."
Xian sighed.
"Again with the 'boy'?" He said, but Haoxin was once more focused on Shifu.
"Oh, Master Hoshi…"
"Why don't I introduce you to a friend?!" Shifu barked, desperate to find a distraction for the infuriating woman. He turned his head in Mr. Ping's direction. "He's at the stove! Why don't you go greet him yourself?"
"Alright, I will." Haoxin replied cheerfully, and made her way over to the goose currently cooking his noodles. While she was distracted, Shifu slid off his chair and quietly began making his way to the door. Xian and Eagle Jr. watched him, too amused to say anything. He was almost at the door when he heard the beginnings of their greeting.
"Oh, hello." Mr. Ping stepped away from the stove out of politeness. "I believe we've never been introduced."
"I am Princess Haoxin De Nushi, dear friend of Emperor Xian." Haoxin said. "You must be that darling chef Di Tan told me about!"
"Mr. Ping, owner and head chef at Dragon Warrior Noodles and Tofu!" Mr. Ping proceeded to bow at the waist, and his clean ladle accidentally brushed the side of Haoxin's wings. A small cloud of white power fell, revealing natural grey feathers.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry!" Mr. Ping quickly straightened and apologized. "I've messed up your powder coating!"
"Oh it's alright." Haoxin said kindly. "To be honest, I've always felt that it made me look older than I really am. Such a shame, I do love the color white."
"Well, I prefer a natural grey myself." Mr. Ping replied with a small smile.
Haoxin took one look at her exposed grey feathers and chuckled, a light blush on her cheeks.
"My, Di Tan never told me that you were such a charmer!" She said. "And so cute! My, I do love your hat! I wish I'd thought of that!"
"Thank you. My own son made it for me when I turned forty!"
"What did he use for the noodles, just balls of string?"
"Yes, and the chopsticks are real!" Mr. Ping beamed with pride.
"Such craftsmanship!" Haoxin replied in awe. "You certainly are a looker in that hat."
"Thank you, and you're quite the eye candy yourself. Would you like to try some noodles free of charge?" Mr. Ping gestured to the stove.
"I would love to!" Haoxin followed Mr. Ping back to the stove.
All eyes were on the two geese. Xian stared silently as Mr. Ping filled a bowl and passed it to Haoxin. Eagle Jr. stood rooted to the spot as Haoxin sipped gracefully at her spoon and smiled at the taste.
Most shocked of all was Master Shifu. He stood near the door, aghast at what had been instigated.
"Good god, what have I done?"