Episode One: Mother of Mine, Part Two

The sun had barely peaked over the distant mountains. Mist creeped across the Valley in a serene manner. Not many people were awake, but those who were enjoyed the sights this morning brought.

Vixey was still sleeping soundly, sprawled across her bed with her blanket partially covering her. She still had a little while before she needed to wake up and leave her room.

But then she suddenly sat upright, fully awake. She looked to be in a state of terror as her ears twitched. Then she jumped out of bed and donned her kimono.

"I think she's here," she whimpered to herself.

She leapt out of her room and bolted down the hall. She was about to throw the outer doors open when one door's handle swung out of her grasp. Shifu was mildly startled to see her there, though the fox nearly had a heart attack and just managed to keep from tripping and falling over backwards.

"I'm surprised to see you up so early," the red panda told her.

"She's here!" Vixey told him, almost failing to keep her voice down. "I could hear her! Or sense her... or..."

Shifu rolled his eyes and walked past his student, peeved.

"Don't be late for training," he told her.

Vixey almost started flailing, unable to grasp the fact that Shifu had just dismissed her problem. Then she ran to the peach tree to have a look at the giant staircase. No one was climbing it. She let out a prolonged, uncomfortable sigh as she slumped to the ground, feeling like she just dissolved into a pile of jelly.

Shifu walked to his usual spot in the hall and instinctively counted down the seconds until the morning gong would sound. He felt annoyed at Vixey for over-exaggerating her problems. Constantly.

Three... two... one...

His ear twitched just before the gong sounded.

"Good morning, Master," each member of the current Five said, simultaneously standing in front of their doors.

Then Monkey noticed Vixey was absent and her door was ajar.

"Late-night escape?" he joked.

Po, Mantis, and Crane snickered while Viper looked worriedly at the fox's empty spot.

"She's... preparing... for her mother's arrival," Shifu told them sternly. "Report to the Training Hall. And don't go too easy on her. We all should be ready for unpleasant arrivals at all times, and this is no different."

The Five walked past him, but he waited, as he usually did these past months.

"So says the man who hid in a closet from his ex-girlfriend," came a slightly teasing voice.

Shifu turned immediately to glare at his sister.

"How did you hear about that?" he growled.

Tian simply rolled her eyes, dismissing the question.

"Tigress is still sleeping," she started. "I gave her a sleeping draught last night. She's becoming more restless as time goes on."

She caught a slightly more depressed change in her brother.

"Why don't we try to let her walk?" he asked, somewhat pleadingly.

Now Tian seemed to copy Shifu's change in mood.

"We can't," she told him. "The poison's damage makes the wound very fragile. And she wouldn't be able to stand up if she tried."

They both fell silent. Then Shifu turned to leave.

"I sense a solution will appear soon," he said.

"I do, too," Tian answered back. "The only problem is that it's tantalizingly out of reach."

The Five were joking to each other as they walked into the Training Hall, but stopped abruptly. Vixey was standing off to the side, looking very disheveled in appearance.

"Forget to brush this morning?" Monkey teased.

Vixey didn't seem to answer, slightly unnerving the others. Mantis leapt onto her shoulder.

"Earth to Vixey," he started, poking the side of her head. "Anyone in th-!"

She shrieked and flailed, falling flat on her back before hastily climbing to her feet. Mantis was suddenly on Crane's hat, though everyone else was also startled and had leapt back a little.

"Forget about a late escape," Crane started. "Looks like she's been sleepwalking."

"Vixey, are you okay?" Viper asked.

"I am so sorry," Vixey told them, rubbing her eyes and trying to fix her appearance. "You know I'm not usually like this!"

She suddenly stiffened up and watched the door as if she heard something. Po looked at where she was looking, and turned back to face her.

"No one's there," he said. "Now, come on! Let's get training!"

He and the rest of the Five ran for the equipment, and after a moment, Vixey hesitantly followed, too.

Throughout the day, Vixey's mood seemed to be lightening up. It was almost looking like her mother wasn't coming at all! She seemed to have forgotten her worries by the time morning training ended.

She was almost skipping toward the Training Hall after lunch when she froze and let out a huge, dramatic gasp. She'd just heard the gong ring for a visitor.

She ran for the peach tree and got there in time to see Shifu greeting a fox in the arena, gesturing toward the rest of the Jade Palace. She fled for the barracks.

"Oh, my gosh, no!" she whimpered, rushing to Tigress's room.

When she got there, her abrupt appearance startled everyone in the room, almost making Po drop the dishes he was picking up.

"She's here!" Vixey told them desperately. "She's coming up the stairs right now!"

The others looked very dismissively at her, and Tigress was even annoyed.

"Chances are, you're just making this look worse than it will be," she told the fox.

Vixey just stood there, giving her an absolutely ridiculous, exaggerated are-you-kidding-me look. Tigress merely gave an uncomfortable sigh.

"Just make sure she doesn't come in my room," she said.

Vixey took her paws off the doorway in surrender and shook her head.

"I'm not making any promises," she told her. "I'll do what I can."

Po waddled past her with the dishes. He appeared to be muttering to himself, but remained silent, knowing better than to be saying anything of the sort with any level of volume around the fox. But she still gave him a hostile look as he walked past.

Then she jumped and whirled around as she heard the barracks door open, and she could hear a very familiar voice coming from that direction. She started running toward it, but only made it a few steps.

"Vixey!" Aijia started as soon as she was within view, throwing her arms wide open.

Vixey, however, was too startled to be able to stop in time. She'd slowed down, but was soon caught in her mother's grasp.

"M-OTH-er!" she started, barely able to keep the air from escaping her lungs. "It's n-nice to s-see you..."

Aijia set her on her feet and walked right past.

"Now where is..." she began, walking down the hall. "Ah! The wounded friend!"

Tian, looking a little irritated, was about to take a defensive stance, but Vixey beat her to it, suddenly sliding right to the doorway and blocking her mother from entering.

"No!" she cried. "I've been given specific orders to not let you in! Tigress needs to rest, so why don't we show you the Chrysanthemum Suite?"

"Oh, I just want to talk," Aijia reasoned.

"Then you can talk from the hallway," Tian gruffly said before turning to tend to an exasperated Tigress.

"Are you sure you don't need any help in there?" Aijia continued.

Once again, Vixey beat Tian to the punch.

"She's a Master Healer!" the fox pled. "She doesn't need help!"

"Everyone needs help, Vixey," Aijia told her.

"Then why did you even ask in the first place?" Shifu muttered under his breath.

By all means, he'd have left already, but he wasn't going to just abandon Tigress here and now. He'd already gotten very annoyed at Aijia as he led her from the arena to the barracks. She just wouldn't stop talking...

Vixey stomped her foot.

"Mother!" she growled. "You just got here! We should give you a tour of the grounds, and even introduce you to the other warriors here! I'm sure they'd even have a problem you could miraculously solve!"

She couldn't help it. The sarcasm just popped out.

"Well," Aijia started, "I was just born to help!"

Vixey saw an opportunity and immediately took it. She spun her briefly surprised mother around and pushed her toward the kitchen.

"Then let's go help other people!" she snapped.

Shifu walked up to Tigress's door as the two foxes disappeared. He looked inside the room at the two women inside. Tian sighed in relief, but Tigress groaned and fell upon her bed.

"Is it over yet?" she complained.

Tian, still irked, walked toward her brother.

"You stay here," she said. "I have a feeling that woman is about to cause trouble, and I won't allow it!"

Shifu stepped aside to let her through and then went in to sit with Tigress.

"... and Crane and Viper and Monkey," Vixey said.

She felt grateful for her friends for sitting through this. But she knew they didn't really have much of a choice. This would happen sooner or later.

"What lovely friends!" Aijia started. "Now... which one is..."

"Isn't it obvious?!" Vixey hissed.

Monkey and Mantis chuckled a little at her frustration. Crane and Viper didn't, the former remembering his own troubles with his own mother. He wouldn't be living that down anytime soon... And Po was just trying to pretend he couldn't hear anything while he was scrubbing dishes. This was painful enough as is.

"Oh, of course," Aijia said dismissively at her own blunder before turning to the others. "Vixey's told me all about all of you. All the adventures... and misadventures, if I can recall. I almost brought a list; can you believe that?"

Vixey was cringing severely and the others looked very worried toward her. Po was grinding his teeth as he scrubbed furiously at a wok.

"We'll have none of that."

Vixey whirled around, very grateful to see Tian walking toward them. If anyone could put her mother in place, it was her. And she was still looking rather upset.

"Blackmail isn't any way to... help... people," she continued.

"Oh, you've come out of the room now!" Aijia started. "Does that mean you're done?"

"No!" Tian snapped. "If you dare step into my patient's room for any reason, even to deliver tea, I will send you to your room in a body cast!"

The area turned deathly silent and cold. Vixey would've felt proud, except she was too terrified of the little healer to acknowledge it.

"Oooookay..." Aijia began, turning toward the other warriors. "Oh! Do you need help with those dishes?"

Po jumped when he realized he'd been addressed.

"N-no," he said. "I... I think I... got it. Thanks."

He scrubbed at a plate, trying to look busy.

"Oh, would you look at the... sun," Mantis started. "We're kinda, sorta late for our training session! We should get going!"

Monkey, Crane, and Viper quickly got up and moved quickly past the foxes and red panda as Po hurried to dry his arms off to join them. When he was finally on his way, he saw only Tian at the doorway, glaring in the direction the others went, ear twitching.

"This isn't going to go down too well, is it?" he asked as he scampered into the hall.

"Not at all," Tian growled. "If she doesn't put a leash on herself, she could wind up seriously harming herself. And it won't be an accident."

The added comment stabbed fear into Po's heart, making him want to escape. But he stopped himself. He wasn't the reason behind Tian's frustrations, so he didn't have much to fear. For the most part.

They caught up to the others just before the door outside, and Po inched past the foxes. He hadn't caught much of what Aijia was going on about, but Vixey was obviously flustered and the Five looked uncomfortable. They stopped just as Crane was about to open the door.

"Oh, and if you need it," Aijia added, somewhat whispering to Monkey, "I have the perfect salve for that rash of yours."

Monkey flinched horribly, looked flustered, and glared furiously at Vixey. Then she jumped.

"Wait, what?" she started, then turning to her mother. "What?!" Then she turned to Monkey again. "WHAT?! I didn't even know you have a rash!" She turned to her mother again. "How did you know he had a rash?!"

Po, Crane, and Mantis all inched away from Monkey while Viper seemed a little worried.

"MOTHER!" Vixey almost shrieked.

Aijia looked a little surprised, and then leaned closer to Tian.

"I thought that was common knowledge," she whispered.

"Well, it is now," the healer growled, "and it isn't contagious! Stop it, all of you!"

The rest of the Five immediately froze, taking on solemn faces. Monkey, however, grumpily turned to leave, and as he was approaching the door, he scratched at his side, which, now everyone noticed, looked a bit red through his fur. But then he immediately stopped after hearing the scuffing noise from Tian's sandals as she suddenly turned to glare at him upon hearing his scratching. Then he made a quick exit.

Not wanting to make the situation worse, the rest of the Five hurried awkwardly out the door.

Vixey stood there, frozen in mingled embarrassment and rage. Then she latched onto her mother's wrist and pulled her, hard, toward the door.

"Chrysanthemum Suite," she snapped. "Now."

"Vixey, I need to apologize to him!" Aijia started as she was dragged outside.

"You've done enough!"

Shifu cautiously left Tigress's room and carefully approached his sister, who seemed to be at a boiling point. He looked to be experiencing a jumble of negative emotions at the same time.

"Now I see why Vixey wanted her to stay away," he said simply.

"Would we be allowed to ban her from the barracks?" Tigress called from her room.

The red pandas, flustered, turned back to Tigress's room.

Vixey counted her lucky stars that she'd kept her mom away from everyone during the daylight hours. When she couldn't keep her inside the Chrysanthemum Suite anymore, she suggested they go down to the Valley for some sightseeing.

But she was sure her ears would fall off from all her mother's talking. She talked about what was a good deal, and where the best rice was, and this and that. Honestly, she may have only caught about ten percent of what all was said. And most of it was actually about the other students at the Jade Palace. So Vixey nearly talked her voice away about all the rules - real and ones she made on the spot, specifically for her mother - that needed to be followed.

Now, they walked up the staircase as daylight was rapidly vanishing, and Vixey was still only half-listening. Then she couldn't handle it anymore.

"What's your problem?!" she shrieked as she suddenly whirled around to face her mother.

Aijia almost slipped, but caught herself.

"What do you mean?" she asked, troubled.

"All you do is talk and not solve anything!" her daughter continued. "You just make everything worse!"

"That isn't true," Aijia told her, becoming more defensive. "I'm trying to help!"

"That's helping?" Vixey continued. "You honestly think you're helping us? What d'you think happened with Monkey?! Now you've made everyone believe I tell you absolutely everything that I see and hear! Even things that need to stay secret!"

"My tongue just got ahead of me again," Aijia said firmly. "It happens from time to time, and I'm trying to restrain myself."

"That always happens!" Vixey snapped. "You always make things worse! I've seen zero restraint from you! Are you trying to make my life harder? It was hard enough to make friends outside the workplace while I was a detective because what I did always seemed to get out! Now I'm starting to wonder how it got out!"

"Are you blaming me?" Aijia growled. "You never told me how you completed cases! I always learned from bystanders, and believe me, I still don't approve of a few things you had a habit of doing!"

"Well, I'm not doing them anymore!" Vixey retorted. "I'm not required to go out and get information through whatever means I can! I'm supposed to be saving the public and protecting my friends!"

"That's great," Aijia started, "except you won't let me help -!"

"NO!" Vixey barked. "Stop helping me! I don't need your help! I never needed your help! Not even before Dad -!"

They both stopped instantly. Aijia looked at her daughter with betrayal, and Vixey had furious tears in her eyes. Aijia struggled to find words.

"Just... stop!" Vixey shouted. "Leave my friends alone!"

Then she turned and fled to the Jade Palace.

Vixey went to bed hoping that would be the end of it. Maybe her mom would listen this time, but maybe she wouldn't. But it broke her heart to argue with her like that, and felt guilty she hadn't apologized. Unless her mom left early in the morning out of rage, which wasn't like her, she'd still have time to apologize for her conduct. Then the fighting would be over.

She couldn't be more wrong.

Just before sunrise, Vixey woke with ears twitching. She looked across the room at Tigress, relieved to see she was still sleeping soundly. Behind her, through the wall, she could hear someone sneaking around. She got up from her mat and snuck over to the door, opening it soundlessly.

Both foxes were startled, but more Aijia than Vixey. The elder of the two had been about to very lightly knock on the door.

"What are you doing?" Vixey hissed quietly.

"I just wanted to check if you were both all right," Aijia whispered. "Maybe you needed help?"

"No!" Vixey told her, struggling to remain quiet. "I don't need help! And don't you remember what Tian said yesterday?"

"Well, I wasn't going to go in," Aijia reasoned.

Then they both tensed up, Vixey's left and Aijia's right ears twitching, and they turned to see Shifu standing at the end of the hall, looking very cross.

"Good morning, Master," Vixey weakly said.

Aijia straightened up, dusted herself off, and bowed to Shifu.

"I half-expected you to sleep late," the red panda growled.

"Oh, I never sleep late," Aijia said, standing upright. "I stopped after I got pregnant."

Vixey cringed and almost silently groaned.

Behind her, Tigress opened her eyes. She'd been awake the very moment Vixey stood up to open the door and caught the entire exchange. She didn't say anything so Vixey wouldn't have more to deal with, but she felt rather frustrated at the mother and daughter.

Vixey's day seemed to keep getting worse as she jumped in and berated her mother every time the latter tried helping one of her flustered friends. Eventually, Aijia stopped helping, but only because she and Vixey were fighting all the time.

This went on for days until finally, Tigress had enough. The two were just shouting and screaming at each other just outside her bedroom door.

"Vixey! Aijia!" she shouted. "Stop!"

The foxes didn't seem to hear her. Tigress looked at her pillow, but thought against throwing it. If she did, she'd only get one chance at hitting one of them, and her door was partially blocking her aim. She came to a solution and threw back her covers, swinging her legs to the side of the bed. She paused, preparing in case she would be greeted with pain, and then stood up.

It wasn't pain that troubled her. It was actually the lack of pain that led to panic. She instantly regretted standing up as she felt her legs wobble. She fell forward, landing in a CRASH!

The foxes immediately turned to see the wounded tiger lying flat on the floor, looking as panicked as she did.

"Tigress!" they cried, rushing to her.

Tigress looked quite shaken as they picked her up and set her on her knees. Aijia set about checking her all over for injury. Vixey was alarmed that she wasn't swatting her away.

"Tigress?" she started. "Are you okay? What were you thinking? You haven't walked in months! Your legs are too weak right now!"

Tigress didn't seem to be listening. She touched her wounded side, causing Vixey to grab that arm and tug it away.

"Are you hurt?" she asked. "Are you...!"

She stopped, her eyes on Tigress's paw. She saw why she was so frightened. There was fresh blood on Tigress's fingers.

Vixey let out a sharp yelp, and was out the door in a flash.

Tian looked very cross.

"She wants to see you," she told Vixey as she walked into the hallway.

Vixey ran to Tigress's bedside.

"So it wasn't a relapse," she started, "your cut just reopened. You should really be more -!"

"You didn't hear me," Tigress said, refusing to look at her friend.

Vixey was startled.

"Wh... what?"

"You didn't hear me!" Tigress hissed, suddenly glaring at the fox. "You need to stop arguing with your mother and find out what went wrong!"

Vixey looked at her, bewildered.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"She won't be here forever, Vixey!" Tigress chided. "You may get a thousand friends that come or go, but you only have one mother!"

Vixey looked stung. She couldn't find the words or even the thoughts to respond.

"Find out what went wrong between you and your mother and fix it," Tigress said sharply, "before you lose her forever."

Vixey stared at her friend in startled realization, and then hung her head. Just outside the door, out of view, Aijia looked to be in the same mood as her daughter. Tigress's words carried the entire, stinging truth.

Vixey jerked awake. She wiped away the drool dripping from her chin, suddenly realizing she hadn't had the blanket draped over her when she'd nodded off. Her scrolls were still spread across the floor, but her candle looked like it had been snuffed hours ago.

Whoever brought the blanket and snuffed the candle must have walked with extreme, precise caution. Only one person came to mind.

"Mom," Vixey whispered.

She sat there for a minute before setting the blanket aside. In only the moonlight, she rolled up her scrolls and put them in her nearby basket.

She was about to sit down and reach for the blanket again, but something seemed very off. Something didn't sound right. Ears twitching, she scanned her surroundings. She traced the sound to Tigress.

Stepping carefully to not wake her, she snuck over to her bedside. She knew immediately something was wrong. She looked troubled in her sleep and her breathing was heavy. Worried, Vixey touched the back of her hand to Tigress's forehead.

"Oh no," Vixey breathed.

Part 3 tomorrow!