The competition Po and Tigress would have to face for victory was getting smaller and smaller by the minute. Including the obvious alliance of Po and Tigress, there were six left. From the twenty-six* who entered this hell ... only six were still alive. Many more than intended had been killed off in the volcanic eruption. Generally, they were already dying through one method or another already. Starvation, dehydration, life-threatening wounds.. could've been anything. Or maybe they just tripped... oh, and too slow, you lose.

Somehow, Master Yao (a Blackbuck, if you weren't informed) was still alive. Shifu had greatly admired him, telling his students he was 'the greatest Kung Fu mind this world had ever known'. Maybe his intelligence had kept him from picking the wrong berries to eat, or gave him an idea where water would lie. Tigress envied him slightly, though she still had the physical advantage over him. Besides, unless he was up in the mountains, he was stuck here with possibly many others.

Master Wolf still lived, as did Master Dog. Most likely, they had formed a pack. Dogs found it extremely easy to hunt and kill, it was in their nature as much as they denied the urge. Killing others might've been slightly easier for them if they chose to go by instinct. The only reason Tigress had chosen not to go near them was her immense power of will; like the way she killed the nerves in her hand, she had destroyed any urge to kill and replaced it with the satisfaction of defending China and non-lethal Kung Fu.

Once in a while, she almost felt the urge return. Strangely, never with Po, nor in these games. She had standards.

So, that made five alive, the sixth... Pondering on the thought, Master Tigress got up from where she had been lying and nudged her friend, Po, awake. They needed to get moving, to get away from everyone else. Po could never kill anyone deliberately (it had never been his fault about Shen) and Tigress wasn't going to make him, nor was she going to make him watch his idol cold-bloodedly kill anyone. She would, if the need came, but she wanted to get away so it was an unlikely probablity.

"Dad, five more minutes! I'm having a dream where I'm in the furious five and it's so cool and I'm the dragon warrior. Everyone is like awesome, and I'm dating Master Tigress and it's aweome because I've, like, loved her my whole life..." An awkward silence fell. As nosy as it was, and wierd to find out about someone's crush on you, Tigress gave a vague impression of Mr Ping's squawky voice and asked:

"So, what do you think of Master Tigress, Po?" If it wasn't so deadly serious, and also quite a deadly atmosphere, you would've seen people laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

"She's an angel. She's so beautiful. She's funny, and has these wonderful golden eyes that glimmer and shine in the moonlight. She's got a heart of gold. Once, she kissed me. It was the best moment of my life. I don't think she loves me, and I don't think she actually knows how much I love her... Alright, noodles then, Dad..."

Uh.. wow. That had not been what she'd expected Po's description of her to be. She felt terrible now, faking all this love act. Somehow, she needed to prove to her child-like best friend she loved him. When he was safely out of here, she coukd tell him it was fake, and have time and space to mend his feelings. But for now, she needed to keep him at his best, so he could fight better. Even if it meant lying to your best-friend. An awful thing, yes, but if Tigress was to do one thing right in her life she was going to make sure her friend, Po Ping, got out of this arena alive. Even if it was the last thing she would do.

"Po?" She was about to kick him hard, but then thought of a better way to wake him up that would set her plan in motion. Kneeling down beside him, she took a deep breath before leaning in and kissing Po, straight on the lips.

Safe to say, his eyes shot open and went wide at what he was waking up to.

"Uh, Tigress, are you alright?"

"Fine." She looked at him as if it was the most normal thing in the universe, for them to wake up like that, and grinned before finishing, "Come on, we need to get moving. Hopefully away from everyone so we won't get caught in a fight."

"Okay... in a few minutes." Po sat back down and took an almighty yawn. Seeing her chance once more, Tigress kissed him deeply, taking his arms and pulling him up, up, up until he was standing, before dropping away.

"No. We leave now, Po." She smirked at his dumbfound face, before striding off, knowing he would soon follow.

They were a mere half-hour from their previous resting spot when a cannon went off. Tigress was still contemplating who was left in the games, along with all her other thoughts, whne it happened. Briskly, she span round to see they weren't being followed, and Po was just as alive as she was. She signalled for him to be silent, as she knelt to the floor and listened for footsteps, whilst looking for anything out of the ordinary to prove anyone had been nearby. Even with her extreme listening and looking skills, she couldn't find anything out of the ordinary where they were. Probably someone had died of starvation, or dehydration. Come to think of it, she wasn't too far from that sort of fate herself, nor was Po. Could Kunku possibly send in something, anything to ease the starvation and the dehydration? Any water they had previosly had was lost throug the volcano run, which had also brought the pair to a horrible state of dehydration. A strong mind kept them both walking; who's it was is a debatable matter.

"Greetings, remaining contestants!" A voice suddenly came booming overhead, from everywhere. "Congratulations of lasting to the final five, isn't it fab-u-lous?" One look at Po proved Tigress's suspicions; it was creepy-camp-cloaked-person-who-we-don't-actually-know-the-name-of. "Anyway, onto business. Promptly, you will be sent a silver parachute each, containing a voice message pre-recorded from your mentors. How lovely! After that, there will be a set of directions, depending on where you are and who you're with, which will take you from wherever you are to the meeting place! Yes, contesting warriors, we are holding a meeting for the remaining warriors. You do not hve to attend; however, think hard before refusing. There will be a wealth of food for those lucky enough to turn up, along with prized liquids. You must be there by tomorrow's dawn to pick up any goods, as they will be gone by evening. Remember, at this meeting, killing is allowed! Good luck!" The voice died. Evereything was back to silence.

"Tigress, we're not going. It's a trap. Seriously, please don't go. You'll only get yourself killed..."

"Whoever said I was going? I'm not stupid, they want to lure us together for a fight. Chances are at least one, if not two or more will die. Meaning we'll have less to kill. C'mon, Po, who do you take me for?" Truth was, Tigress actually was very tempted by the offer. If only she could make Po stay so she could hoard some liquids, possibly some food. Besides, she could kill off some competition, and make winning easier for Po. The only thing was there was no way her friend, the almighty dragon warrior, would let her fall for the possible trap. It was almost like Shifu, when he would never let her have any social life, leading to her attitude towards fun, friends and all that.

Ha ha, how ironic.

"Promise you won't, Tigress."

"I promise." She didn't even falter. It was only afterwards, whilst Po was attempting to tell the time by the sun's position, that she realised this was the second time she was decieving Po.

Tigress forgot all these thoughts as suddenly a saviour came. In the form of a small, glimmering silver metal parachute.

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