Chapter 30

"Tigress... Tigress... wake up..." A voice broke through the nothingness, as Tigress felt her eyes blink themselves awake. She knew she should be jumping to combat, ready to fight, but her body was in a drowsy spell. As she looked up, she was in a room that closely resembled the Jade Palace "hospital" - having been there many times to treat the other warriors. When Viper split her tail on a spike once, and they'd- the mention of her dead friend's name let an involuntary shiver run through her body. Don't think about that, Tigress. There was nothing you could've done to save her.

Gradually regaining her conciousness, she looked around the hospital room, from the bed on which she lay. On her left, there was just more empty beds. On her right... She looked up into the eyes of Nynso.

"Thank God you're alive." And then he was holding her tight to his chest, and she was still confused, because what is going on, why am I not dead, what has happened?

"Where are we?" She pushed away from him slowly, as she slid off the bed and tested her footing. It was a little shaky at first, but after walking up and down the hospital room's length she regained her balance.

"This is the place they call base 39. It's one of the most high-tech places on earth."

"Earth?"

"That's what we call the world now, Tigress. You have a lot to catch up on."

"What? Why?"

Nynso sighed, looking down at his feet, as she came to a halt in front of him, glaring with her amber eyes.

"What's going on, Nynso? Please, can you explain to me, because I am really confused about everything!" She yelled at him, punching the wall nearby in frustration.

"That's gonna hurt."

"I'm too damaged to feel that."

"I guess that's what I should've expected."

"Explain."

Taking a huge intake of breath, Nynso began, "Tigress, where you live, China, is a very small part of the world. Before, you have only ever experienced civil wars - wars within yourself, within your borders. Do you ever hear of anyone leaving China and returning? Do you? No, you don't. Do you want to know why, Tigress?" He left no time to respond, before following on with, "It's because you are all trapped in a bubble, Tigress. China is stuck in a time bubble - when the rest of the world has moved on, you have not. The world has never disturbed you before, because you have never disturbed us. You have lost all contact. You are behind us all. You can't even comprehend modern technology, hell, even our old technology would be insane to you. You have been split from the rest of the world, had your eyes covered, and only now is China starting to see. You've been invaded from elsewhere, they're trying to take over the world and you are a target. Because your country alone cannot stand against anyone. You will be overthrown, alone."

"How is that even possible? How can we not have seen the rest of the world? What even is the rest of the world?" Tigress felt herself sitting back down in utter shock at the words she was hearing. The impossibilities that were being brought to light.

"Look at this." Nynso clicked, and suddenly the wall seemed to fold back onto itself, revealing a picture that moved again and again.

"This is video. This is part of what we use every day - really, it's old news to use. This is live, Tigress, it's happening right now in China. Look." All she could see, everywhere, was the sickening sight of soldiers marching through China, through her hometown, wrecking everywhere, rounding up people, shooting and killing...

"I have to save them. I have to save them!" She pushed forwards, her paw against the screen. "Take me back! Take me back!" She screamed at the screen, watching helplessly as a child was taken from it's mother, a protestor shot in the head. All faces she recognized, from the occasional passing on the street. All people it was her life's duty to protect. Dying. And she could do nothing but watch in horror.

"I can't. I'm so sorry, but I can't."

"YOU HAVE TO!" Hysterical, she pounded against the wall, running to the exit, Nynso chasing her. The moment she stepped out of the hospital room, bells were suddenly heard all around. Alarm bells. Before Tigress could even get half way down the corridor, she felt a sudden stabbing pain in her neck, and then...

The next time she awoke, she found there were metal restraints on her arms and legs, too strong for her to break even when in a fully able state. Vaguely, she could feel what she could only describe as 'drowsiness bottlified' travelling around her body. Looking up, Nynso was still there, looking down at her.

"Awake again, huh?" She attempted to reply, but it all came out garbled, so she nodded.

"They were able to save a few. I don't know how many, maybe fifteen or sixteen thousand. It's a lot really, I guess. But nothing compared to what we lost. Some were taken by their army, to join their colony, or grow to be soldiers, or fight for them now. Others were just killed. There was nothing anyone could have done to stop it - they were an overwhelming force. You did well, Tigress. The Games were a good enough distraction to make sure we could save a few. And you've brought something that very few can bring to circumstances like these - hope. You've brought people hope, a strong weapon that can be utilised to bring down even the largest of armies."

"What? How? I didn't do anything." She couldn't even bring herself to mention the overwhelming guilt she felt, over the fact that the innocent blood she'd sworn to protect had been shed and she had not even been able to try to protect them.

"You've become a beacon of hope. Your fire, the image of your pheonix, has lit up the spark in so many. We may have few, but we will have fighters - fighters of the pheonix."

"That's stupid. So stupid."

"But it's a goal, Tigress. It's something we can work for. A target to achieve. Because of you fighting against the games, they will fight in this war. For their freedom. For their people, who have been stolen."

"I don't want to be involved in this. I don't want them to look to me. I can't save them. Not anymore. I can fight, but how can a fist do anything against gunpowder and metal?" She was shaking her head, feeling a sense of both frustration and upset. She couldn't help them.

"More than you think." But it was this new voice that properly got Tigress to attempt to sit up and look around, because oh my god-

Viper, with bandages all over her form and looking slightly worse for the wear but alive, slithered up to her. "Hello sister."

"Oh my god. You should be dead. I'm hallucinating. You died, Viper. You died, right in front of me. YOU DIED." By the end she was screaming, but Viper's half smile didn't falter.

"Nearly died. I was picked up as the poison that would kill me slowed my pulse until it was unreadable. When I was picked up, I was given an antidote. I survived, just about. I knew I was going to be sacrificing my life, I just didn't plan on getting a second one. Seems like I got lucky." The small smile brought to their faces had an overwhelming sense of guilt sewn into them both, a feeling of being unforgivable because they both knew, really, they did nothing and people lost their lives because of that.

"I love you sister. Don't ever leave me like that again, okay?"

"Okay."

"What about the others?" There's a horrible silence, where both Nynso and Viper can't make eye contact with her, and Tigress is about to start talking again when Nynso responds.

"Mantis, Crane and Monkey weren't quite so lucky. They died, knowing what would be happening. They gave up their lives to make sure you were able to follow through on this, you would lead the rebellion in this war, against the invasion of China."

Tigress felt utterly sick. Her childhood friends had given up their lives only for Tigress to be unable to save anyone, unable to do anything except watch from hospital as the people they had sworn to protect were slaughtered mercilessly. "What about Po? Didn't he win their games? What happened to him?"

This time, the guilt was so strong you could taste it. Tigress knew there was something huge they were keeping from her, so she pressed on, "Where is he? Is he even still alive? What happened to Po?"

"As far as we know, he's still alive, and there's efforts being made to find him. It could take years, though."

"What? Why?"

"Tigress... They got to Po first."

In that instant, everything shattered before Tigress. Everything she'd worked so hard to achieve broke before her eyes. She'd lost, and in the process had lost not only her best friend but someone who she was slowly falling in love with. And now, it seemed hopeless. Like she could never find him again.

"We promise we're trying to find him, Tigress." Viper spoke up, and she could hardly find the energy to turn her head to face her. For what felt like the first time in forever, despite it only being a few weeks, she felt tears falling from her eyes. He was gone, and-

"We've come up with a deal for you. You can join on the search for Po, and on the search mission when it eventually happens into enemy base, if you are the mascot for our rebellion. Inspire them, so they can fight for us, fight for Po, fight for our freedom. Can you do that, Tigress?"

"How likely is it that we'll find Po alive?"

"Within the next five years? Sixty percent."

It wasn't much, but it was enough.

"I'm in."

THE END

A/N: good morning/afternoon/evening, ladies and gentlemen! And here is, after two years (I am so fucking sorry you don't even understand there are legitimately good reasons I was forced to put off writing this I am so so so so sorry), the final chapter of The Kung Fu Games! I really, really enjoyed writing this, and I hope you can tell. It was written throughout 2012, and now it's 2014 WATTHECRAP I am dreadfully sorry, again. I don't really want to go into reasons as such but real life took over and 2013 was a shitty year of change and horror and a lot of crap. 2014 seems to be a lot better, thankfully!

Now, before I sign off, I'd like to make a few HUGE thank yous. To anyone who has ever, at any point, read this story - you cannot comprehend how much I appreciate and love it. To anyone who has reviewed it - here, have a piece of my heart, you stole it a long while ago. Especially big thank yous (and sorry-s) go to: Pheonix King, im Richtofen kool 115, numbah435spiritsong and starrynight77 - people who I still remember now reviewed frequently and really, really meant a lot to me. (And that person who sent me a PM about my writing and it was really thoughtful and I really didn't think about it enugh because I was a bit of an idiot, sorry.). There will be a sequel to this, when the dinosaurs return to earth or some time around then - and I am trying to take it away from being a Hunger Games crossover into a more different, war story. How sucessful will this be? I don't have a fucking clue. But yay, return to fanfiction! See you soon, with however the sequel turns out - and please leave a review! Thank you and goodbye! *tops hat and flies out of the window*