Standing there, decked out in another glorious costume, waiting to be called onstage for a public interview, Tigress thought back to her last reaction to publicity, after being nearly burnt alive:

"Oh man, that was AWESOME!" Po's favourite phrase

"Bet my almond cookies you were the best of us all!" Monkey's favourite cookies

"If only my ribbons could swirl around to mkae me look as if I was alight..." Viper's treasured ribbons

"Ya' looked hot, shockingly!" Mantis' joke (that earned his a hard swipe on the head)

"If only I could capture that in a drawing..." Crane's absentminded thoughts on art...

They were all praise from her friends hearts'... her friends who she was meant to kill, the next day. Tigress knew, technically, her senses would allow for it. Her mind, however, couldn't possibly make her follow through with the dreadful act. Killing an enemy, yes, that was allowed for, but killing your closest friends? Tigress knew she would kill herself a million times over to protect them. Walking up to the centre stage, to be presented to all of China through a special mirroring system, she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as she greeted the presenter. It was all obviously fake, her smile, everything.

"So, your fiery entrance?"

"It was... fantastic, wasn't it? As is this dress, don't you agree?" Straining her voice to sound nice and happy-go-lucky and free, so no-one would suspect anything was wrong, Tigress gestured down to her clothing.

It was as if flames were licking at her feet, then rising to an inferno around her body, before letting ash fall from the top, and as she span, the flames flickered wildly, desperately trying to reach for her. It was magnificent.

"Sure it is. Spin for us, why don't you, let everyone see the flames burning, as I had the privilige to watch earlier?" Wanting to act as peaceful as possible, Tigress span round and watched the audience's excitement as she span and span and span and the world span and span and span with her... "Careful, you'll get dizzy at this rate!" The presenter, who Tigress really hadn't payed any attention to so far whatsoever, held her arm as she lowered herself to the seat. Mildly dizzy, her senses weren't quite as sharp as normal, which disturbed her, so she spent the rest of the interview giving quiet either a quiet 'yes' or 'no' to answer his questions.

"So, many people have been sending in a question we simple have to ask: what is your relation with Po Ping, the dragon warrior?" Brought out of her solemn trance, Tigress studied the odd-looking blue squirrel and blinked in suprise.

"He is... my friend."

"Oh ho ho, don't think you're getting away that easily, miss!" The odd animal presenter, who had already interviewed all the other parcipitators bar herself and Po, gave a loud chuckle, as the audience were chanting for more. Not wanting anyone to gget hurt due to her foolishness, she chose her words carefully:

"Po Ping is a friend of mine. We have a very close, very non-romantic relationship. That's all, really. As he would say, best buddies..." She gave her first true grin of the night, imagining them doing something completely idiotic, her slapping him, him still doing it and dragging her in as well, both of them getting told off by Master Shifu, then running off as she told him off and he'd say something along the lines of 'we're the coolest best-buddies ever, right Tigress?' and she'd just stop whatever she'd been lecturing him upon and nodd, then they'd go to their seperate rooms and do whatever next. Wash, rinse, repeat.

"That's a shame... anyway, it looks like your time is up. Thank you very much, Master Tigress! Now, introducing our last interviewee, a warrior said to be the strongest of them all, who can survive with only meditation, who it takes less than a week to master a technique it takes others most of their life to begin to learn... ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the DRAGON WARRIOR PO!" As Tigress left, Po came onstage, only to be greeted by a mass of screaming fans. He just yelled back to them things like

"YEAH YOU'RE ALL AWESOME TOO!" and "YOU'RE ALL GREAT!" At least 30 people fainted at the sight of him. Once he finally settled into the interviewee chair, the freakish squirrel whom Tigress finally learnt was called Cladius, began. As soon as the words came into motion, it was obvious they were a fantastic double act. Comic timing, the same humour, bad jokes, give-and-take, they had it all. The audience were obviously in stitches, as Cladius came to a final question:

"So, Po, what is your relationship with the beautiful Master Tigress?"

"Tigress?" He looked mildly confused and slightly thoughtful, before beginning, "Nothing much, really..."

"Oh, don't give us that rubbish, she said you had a 'very close relationship'. What's your definition of that?" That little squirrel was really starting to infuriate Tigress...

"Well... can you all keep a secret?" Not waiting for a response, Po continued, "I think she's like, awesome, since like I've been about 5. I... I think..."

"Well, spill, we all desperately need to know!" God, Tigress was so close to rushing onstage and punching the living heck out of that presenter...

"I've had... a crush on her since I was about 10, and if there's one thing I know, it's... it's that I love her. I love Tigress." Shock. That's all the numb Tigress thought she felt. Burying her face in her dress so no-one could see it as a sign of weakness, the audible gasps barely touched her, as she listened for Cladius' reaction.

"Wow... That was a real shocker, wasn't it? Wouldn't you love to bring her back up onstage?" The screams of approval from the audience were brought down by the additional, "Sadly, rules of these interviews state once the time is up, you can't bring them back. And, on that note, it's the end of your interview. Thank you, Po Ping, and we hope to see all of you again soon! Thank you, and goodnight!" Still in shock, Tigress barely noticed the lights go out, and was dragged, blankly, back to her room, thrown onto bed with a huffed 'goodnight' as she lay, staring into the darkness.

A/N: LOVE SHOCKER!c...Yes, I know, no update, sorry! Also, sorry if time switches were hard to understand last chapter, I only noticed after it had been published... Anyway, skip ahead of time, simply because it will be boring, I came to interviews. I gave a brief overview of the rest of the chariot-flames at the start, but it's pretty similar to in The Hunger Games. MOVIE IS OUT ON FRIDAY! :DDDD YAY! So excited, and sorry for no updates, been rehearsing for an (excellent) school drama competition every day. Anyway, PLEASE REVIEW, and g'night!