a/n: The italics are Tigress's thoughts
Chapter 29
A golden light broke the bleakness of the grey rock. Dawn was arriving. Curled up, breathing almost silently, Tigress stared at the pinky-orange sky. She wondered if there would be anything like this again. She wondered how Po was, before remembering he would still be knocked out cold. He'd be awake by the evening, and she would've returned by then.
"Now, get up Tigress. Now, listen to the directions Tigress. Now, prepare yourself, Tigress." Her brain was slightly more functional after liquid, but still everything was slighlty dazed. If only she could curl up here forever... but no, there was work to be done. Pushing herself up, she rearranged her rucksack and played the directions. Arming herself, Tigress scrambled out of the crater and found a suspcisious circle of stone. Suspecting it to be the 'meeting place', she kneeled down, waiting for the other arrivals. As they came, no-one dared enter the ring of rock, only eyeing each other. Master Yao was obviously near-death - there was a large cut across his forehead, where blood still occasionally trickled out of. His fur was matted, and a dried-up brown. His eyes were glazed over, and he stood awkwardly, chaging his stance. He didn't seem to have a weapon - he was helpless. Tigress wished she could've pitied him enough to let him live, but whilst Po was still alive he was her top priority. He was staring at her, and she flashbacked to Shifu telling her about him in her childhood. Seeing all the grand, mighty paintings of the warrior reduced to this... She noticed him nod his head, just enough so she could see, at her, before pointing at his heart, then indicating the dog and wolf on the opposite side of the circle to him. Master Yao held his hand out towards them and shook his head. Realising what he wanted, Tigress nodded, before releasing an arrow at his heart.
Master Yao smiled, then crumpled over.
BANG!
Master Yao was dead.
It was Tigress against the seemingly allied Masters Wolf and Dog. Four left.
The odds weren't in her favour. But were they ever?
Do it for Po.
She dared not make the first move - that was one of the first teachings she had recieved from Master Shifu. From out of the ground appeared three bottles of water, five loaves of bread, and two fish. That seemed to be all there was. It would, technically, feed four, but everyone was hungry and in reality would only provide for two starved weaklings.
Tick, tock. Time was ticking away as they froze, waiting for the ignition to light the battle fire.
A cool breeze rushed through the hairs of her fur, rippling them like a stone dropped onto a lake. Then, all there was to feel was the sensation of flying, gliding through the air, and smashing down hard onto the floor. There was never any real food. It must've been explosives, to get some fights going. To drill fear into the hearts of everyone, to not disobey, because this is what happens if you don't obey us, with the army that will come to kill you, your loved ones, your children...
Urgh. World... spinning... Po...
The tension, so thick it could've been carved with a knife, shattered like glass. The hounds were racing to her, teeth bared, with strange, purple claws attatched to their paws, clipped to their nails.
... Huh?
It was probably her seeing differently, or maybe she was slightly concussed, but were their paws dripping? It didn't matter. Luckily, she had kept a firm grip on her bow, so, though it was unstrung, and her knife was nowhere to be seen, she still had a slight advantage. She gave herself four arrows before she had to run. Stringing the bow, she aimed for an eye.
Release.
Flying, flying, flying. Through the air, watch it go.
The arrow impaled itself through an ear, eliciting a cry of immense pain from somewhere. Attempting to silence her guilty conscience, she restrung the bow and aimed for another eye.
Release.
A powerful gush of air threw it off course. It landed nowhere near them.
Restring.
Release.
This time, Tigress got lucky. It hit an eye, causing the owner to howl in hurt, then aim for her even faster.
Harder.
Stronger.
What she had to, neeeded to be, was better than what she had to beat.
A fourth arrow, and she ran. It skid across a thigh, opening a previously established wound, but didn't do much else. On the move, she attempted to grab another arrow, but her paws were to preoccupied with forcing herself forward. There was no time lef-
"ARGH!" Claws managed to rake themselves down her back, before she shot off again. When a big enough distance was made to give her time to shoot but make almost 100% sure she would hit her target, she strung her bow, and slowly stepped backwards. As the wolf (she realised it was him as he came closer) reared up, ready for the finishing blow, she shot him in the heart.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
However, when he had fell, his claws had once more caught, this time more deeply on her shoulder. Surrounded in a pool of mingled blood, Tigress began to sprint on. It was at that point she started to feel woozy - not in the way bloodloss makes you, though - and sick.
Ah. Poison. She cursed under her breath, making sure she kept breathing. Hopefully, she'd stay awake. Time had flew past, though, and she needed to kill Master Dog before she was decapitated. Otherwise, there was still the likelihood that Po was found, and killed. Po wouldn't be able to kill one of his idols, not by a long shot. In a weird, twisted way, Tigress was helping Po by killing others. Might as well go all out with the shooting. Stringing a bow, she repeatedly shot at his heart, eyes, knees, anywhere.
One shot. Caught the shoulder.
Two, three shots. They fly away, not going anywhere near the target.
Fourth shot. In the stomach. He doubles over.
A knife in Tigress's shoulder, suddenly. She can see drops of that mysterious purple liquid, that she suspects is poison, oozing off the knife. It is then that she shoots a last shot, in the heart. Master Dog had gone static, doubled over, clutching at his stomach as his life seeped out of him. There was a BANG, and he was dead.
It was either poison or a sleep drug, but it felt more like dying. Previous experiences had taught her such. There was another BANG.
Wait. That didn't make sense. Everyone who had died had had their cannon... And she was still alive, right?
Po.
Po was dead.
All Tigress could do was scream to the sky. Scream and curse everything. Hadn't she done everything, EVERYTHING in her power to keep him alive?
Tigress thought she probably came off as a sad, obsessed lover who would kill for the person she loved. She probably came off as a selfish fool. She wasn't so upset because they were 'lovers'. She wasn't upset because of this rebellion. She was upset, because she had just lost her best friend.
Well, fine. If there was one thing left for her to do, she could leave them with no victor. That would be her act of rebellion. Leave nothing left as an example. Defy the status quo, prove to them they didn't, and never would own her.
It would be a small victory, but a satisfying one. Not for her - she would be dead. Putting her paw to her neck, as she had been trained so many years ago, she found where her pulse would be.
Where it should be.
All that was there was silence.
She had no pulse.
Technically, she was dead.
As the realisation came to light, she crumpled to the floor unconcious.
"Is she 'dead' yet?" An orange-brown turtle, larger than Oogway was but obviously younger, turned his face to Kunku, who was obviously deep in thought, before replying
"Yes. Her cannon just went. I'll be sending in the chains at the same time as the Empire will, but I have planned groups of soldiers ready to destroy empire chains on my command."
"Good. I predict the Empire will be focused on her dramatic conclusion at the moment. I'd give them a minute before they send in the chains to take her body away."
"Thank you for your invaluable insight, Kunku. We are all prepared. Now, I must go and see my men to check to operation goes smoothly."
"Okay. Will we be able to pick up Po?"
"Not yet. We have trustworthy inside knowlege of where he will be kept, and we have it bugged. However, we cannot guarantee we will pick him up today."
"Fine, fine, we have the tiger. She'll come round to our reasoning. We will need to get him, too, eventually. But for now it is a minor inconvenience."
"Will that be all?"
"Yes. Oh, and, good luck, Pang."
"Thank you, sir." Even in the dire circumstances, Kunku couldn't help but grin at the engraved pheonix on Pang's shell, that you would only see under the right conditions and if you knew exactly where to look. That's how they'd founded the rebellion - you couldn't just use anyone, you needed the right person in the right condition to set alight the spark to burn all the cruelty and injustice. Learning to trust Pang, and even finding him in the first place, was done in a very similar way.
Generally, Pang didn't speak unless he needed. Today had been an exception, but no-one gave him any blame. After all, he was masterminding this operation, to pull the Tigress away from the Empire's grasp.
Kunku was jerked from his thoughts by the commanding, yet strategic (appropriate for his job as head strategiser) voice of Pang, ordering the leaders, who in turn ordered the foot soldiers on what acts to carry out. It was one of the few times Pang was in his element, strategising battles. A loud, roaring voice was heard, probably from General Inzika, who owned possibly the loudest voice in China.
"ALRIGHT MEN! THE CHAINS WILL BE RELEASED IN 3... 2... 1!"
To any ordinary onlooker, you would first see a chain fall down, swiftly followed by another. The second would fall almost as an afterthought. Master Tigress's lifeless body lay between the two. Both would draw towards her, at around the same pace. Then, one would suddenly shake violently. That chain that had been shaking started to glow a red-orange colour (unbeknownst to many, someone from the empire had managed to actually melt their claws off trying to fix the rebellion's operation). Next, the red-hot chain would act like a magnet repulsed by Tigress, and zoom off in the opposite direction. After that, it gracefully dropped to the ground, in a pile of metal. The other chain scooped up Master Tigress, and then, unless you were in the Arena, you wouldn't see what happened next because the Emperor had been forced not to show Tigress being lifted up into somewhere that the Empire didn't command. Instead, you would just see white. What happened next all was a blur of events: anyone with the slightest bit of useful imagery intelligence was either killed (if they disagreed) or sworn to secrecy by the emperor and the threat of an invading army, and the deaths of any loved ones. They were then forced to work on a (hopefully) true to life animation of Master Tigress being taken away, dead, from the Arena by the Empire. Meanwhilst, the actual Master Tigress was unconcious, having the drug that convinced everyone of her death being sucked out of her, and a painstakingly long healing process (by her standards, anyway) was begun. Doctors fretted over her condition, Nynso sat by her side waiting for her awakening, and Kunku, along with people of high importance to the rebellion's cause, was in yet another meeting, possibly planning for years ahead, possibly planning for next week, but no-one knew and no-one told. In the midst of all this, the victor, who had been left in the Arena until he awoke for no chain could take him out of the cave he lay in, was a panda called Po who grew up in a noodle shop, with a father who Po knew to be slowly fading away, Po who, one day, would become the Dragon Warrior no matter what anyone said.
a/n: Sorry for no update. Life has been busy. I expect the next chapter shall be the last, but I plan on a sequel, which will possibly be up around Autumn/Winter depending on how busy I am. But I hope you have all enjoyed, and, as always, this author would LOVE your reviews! -Blinkandyoullmissit