Part 7
A Second Chance
"Daddy!"
That word echoed within the depths of my mind as I regained consciousness. My eyes opened for the very first time, indiscernible for me to tell how long it had been since I had last been awake. While I was still not one-hundred percent sure if I was still alive, the fact that all this damn pain was present in my body pointed to me in fact being so. Everything felt tight out of the left side of my chest up to my arm. The tight pressing of bandaging against my chest constricted my breathing a bit, but it was a minor con to deal with compared to the alternative of dealing any possible wounds reopening.
Turning my head to my left, I was able to see the room I was now in. Posters hung everywhere on the inner thick paper walls of the Furious Five and Shifu. Due to the ornate designs of the outer walls and the finely crafted tile floors, it was easy to deduce that I was still in the Jade Palace grounds. Another sleeping mat was on the opposite side of the room from me. In it there was a huge ball of fluff curled up and in the midst of a deep slumber. He was unrecognizable.
"Yu." I thought to myself. A smile formed across my face. That kid was devoted to his loved ones.
"How long has it been? It must have been at least a day since I passed out. What happened to Pung's son and his band of thieves? Did they escape? I hardly remember up to the point of my son crying out my name when..." My brain stopped in the middle of its musing. I felt my bandages on the side of my chest confirming my thoughts. "He stabbed me in the chest."
As much difficulty I had breathing from the pressure in my chest, I could tell that it most likely wasn't a punctured a lung. It wasn't too shallow or fast and I could take deep breaths.
"Yu," I called to him with a weak voice, desiring to hold him, but still too weak to really even sit up without receiving help. His ears perked up and he started moving about a little bit, turning over on his bed to where I could his front side, still fast asleep.
Watching him in his sleep, a whole new sense of relief washed over me. He was sleeping peacefully like any healthy kid would.
"He is okay. My son is okay." I thought, closing my eyes and deciding to rest some more.
Not even five minutes later, a loud thud echoed across the room from the sliding door to the room being abruptly opened. My eyes shot open and I looked over to the entrance of the room to see Mafa standing in the doorway next to Tigress, their expressions both filled with surprise at seeing me awake.
"Zhong. You're finally awake," Tigress said with a bit of relief in her voice. Mafa nodded, simply reaffirming what she said.
The two approached me and they sat down next to my sleeping mat. I had a lot a questions and decided that it would be a great time in wasting no effort to fill in the blanks in between when I had lost consciousness previously and when I had woken up just now. Mafa opened his mouth to say something.
"Before you say anything," I said, beating him before he said anything. "Tell me how long its been. I want to know what happened while I was unconscious."
Tigress crossed her arms, returning back to her normal stoic self. Mafa sighed a little bit.
"I was going to ask you how you were feeling, but as it always this way is with you, I'll cut right to the chase," he stated. "It's been about two weeks since you last woke up. As far as we could tell, you went into a coma. From the prognosis that Mantis and every other doctor gave, it was part in fact due to the stab wound you had received from Leo. The doctor found that you had a lot of internal bleeding at first and then some swelling, but that you had not been severely injured in any vital organs."
I sighed, rather relieved from the news. Feeling a bit of sudden sharp pain in my shoulder, I put my hand other paw up to it over the wound, and held it. Mafa took notice and gave me a firm look.
"You were lucky to survive. If it hadn't been for Mantis's medical prowess, you would have probably bled out, but he was able to stop the external bleeding from the knife wound and prevent the later part of the poison from spreading through your body."
"Well ain't that just swell," I commented, the sincerity oh so apparent in my voice.
Mafa groaned in annoyance and Tigress's left eye started twitching a bit as I could see her tensing up in anger. I didn't care. They hadn't thought about the fact that I was still a hardened war criminal who would still spend the rest of his life in prison. My son would be left to the hands of the Furious Five and Shifu to decide on what to do next.
"You know," Tigress finally spoke up for the first time, "Normally I wouldn't be the one to point this out, but we just saved your life, so you could be a little more thankful."
The frown on Mafa's face showed his agreement with her. For the first time in what history that I would have never thought would happen, I was thanking the Furious Five for saving my life. Never would I have thought that I might end up on their side at least a little bit.
"Alright, alright," I said, "Tigress. Thank you and your friends for my life. If it wasn't for your efforts along with the rest of the five, I would very well not be here to see another day and to see my son." Looking back at my son, an outcry of emotions sprang forth from inside and I felt myself truly begin to start tearing up. It was spontaneous in its occurrence as the realization that my son was safe again and that I was able to be near him again. That's all that mattered to me. "You saved my life and even my son's. I owe you an awful lot of debt to be repaid."
It shocked me the amount of outward tears that I showed to both Mafa and Tigress. Who would've thought that I, a hardened and ruthless ex-war criminal would be willing to show my vulnerability to both a former lower ranking subordinate of mine and someone who used to be a bitter enemy to me.
"Thank you..." I said once again, wiping away the salty water from my face and looking away.
Tigress softened up in her demeanor and I saw her give me ever rare smile. There was a first time for everything.
"Oh hey. You're awake." Mafa said, catching both of our attention. In his bed right next to mine, Yu was fidgeting about in the sheets, slowly waking up.
"Yeah… you, dad, and Tigress woke me up. Could you keep it down?" he complained.
We all looked at each other for a moment in quiet. Laughter filled the air at his obliviousness.
"Ok. I have to ask. What's so funny? Why are you all laughing at me?" he asked.
"After all that has happened you are still lazy as always," I said, followed by a smug laugh.
"I am not!" he defensively said, with his paw still rubbing the drowsiness out of his eyes. Looking directly at me and finally realizing who it was, his began to cry and rushed up toward me and dropped to his knees.
"Daddy!" he cried, crawling up to the uninjured side of my body and nuzzled up against my shoulder. No explanation needed to be given for him. I was alright and that's all that mattered to him.
"I love you Daddy," he muttered. I smiled a bit and put my arm over his back patting him.
"I love you too, my son," I answered back.
"I'm glad to see that you two are together and well. Whatever happens from this point forward assuming you continue being a responsible citizen, I along with the rest of the Furious Five and Master Shifu will speak upon your defense. It is clear as day that you two share a strong bond that can't be broken and that you are the best fit parent to raise Yu as his foster-father," Tigress said, her words sincere.
While stroking my son's fur on the back of his head, I looked up to her and smiled.
"Thank you. It means a lot to me," I said back.
"Tigress, I need you to come lead escort Master Storming Ox and Master Croc to see Zhong," the voice of Shifu echoed throughout the room coming from the main hallway.
"What?" the feline said, caught off guard by this.
"What are those two doing here?" Mafa asked, just as confused as I was. Anxiety set in and I found myself clutching Yu firmly in my arm.
"Master Croc and Master Storming Ox are coming here!" Yu squealed for joy. It surprised me at how he even knew of them enough to idolize them. True, the martial arts masters of China were widely known and revered as heroes by the majority of its citizens, but out in the ranges of the Tavon Bogd mountains, not many people traveled through there.
"I can't wait to meet them!" He was reeling with excitement.
Mafa sighed and looked at me. He knew exactly what I was thinking.
"Yu. I understand your enthusiasm, but they aren't here just to visit," I explained, calming him down. He looked at me, suddenly worried.
"What happens here will decide from here on it whether you will be able to stay with me or be placed under the care of someone else," I finished.
No single detailed the amount despair that both I felt at telling him and that I saw in his eyes.
"Ok," he is all he said. His entire demeanor took a complete down spike toward rock bottom. Understanding his pain all too well, I comforted him to the best of my abilities. Looking at Mafa, I sighed. As much as I hated to have to do this and as hard it was to do it, I knew there was no way to avoid it.
"Son. There are a few things I need to tell that I neglected to mention after I first adopted you," I said.
Turning his head down into my shoulder and not even glancing back at me, he asked with his voice muffled by my fur, "What did you do that makes that makes them want to take me away from you? Why do they want to take you to prison?" he asked.
"For every wrong doing I have ever committed. Whenever I promised you that I never would have killed anyone like those bad ole tigers, it was a lie. I used to be just like them. I pillaged. I stole! I murdered!" I cried.
It was inevitable. A few tears were now coming out of my eyes. I couldn't hold them back from my son. I had hidden everything from him in a hopes that he wouldn't find out the truth about me. What spurred it? A combination of not wanting the hero that your son had built you up to be tarnished to the point of him possibly even hating me and a selfish want of not having to face people that I have so wronged? Regardless, it was all out in the open and I had no idea if Yu would even want anything to do with me after this revelation. Part of me didn't blame him. He had every right to want nothing to do with me. Yu remained quiet as I told him everything that I had done as a servant of Shen and leader of long dead wolf pack. From the events of ravaging of Po's village to the most recent events two years ago, I spared no detail. Yu looked up at me immediately after I finished, still trying to come to terms with the massive explosion of a revelation that had just detonated in his face.
"I almost want to say I hate you,"Yu said, his voice hiding a low but very repressed anger behind it. "but… you loved me as much my mom and dad did. I know you've committed horrible acts Zhong, but if you could do all this. Then who's to say that you haven't changed for the better? You took on the role as my father without a second thought and I owe you my life to that. I love you dad. It will take a while for me to get over it completely, but you are the best daddy I could ever ask for and nothing will ever change that fact."
The soft touch of Yu's face burying underneath my neck and his arms hugging me came as a surprise. I welcomed it and a smile formed across my face as we cuddled. In a strange situation of role reversal, once again, my son was comforting me instead of it being vice versa.
"You really are a good kid. Do you know that?" I said, rubbing his back. Yu chuckled.
"Hey, they're here." he said, noticing that Mafa and Tigress had left and that two other individuals had entered.
"How long have you two been here?" I asked.
"Long enough," Master Storming Ox answered in short, his husky build and broad horns intimidating me to the point I felt my heart skip a beat. A light chuckle escaped him as he I guess he noticed my discomfort by his overbearing presence.
"Don't worry Zhong. We aren't here on violent terms. I mean at least I think we aren't. Are we?" Croc asked his subordinate.
"No. We aren't supposed to be at least according to the message that was sent to us by Master Shifu informing us of everything that happened," Ox said, "Now. Do you know why we are here Zhong?"
"Well, it has been a very long time since we've seen each other," I said, feelings of apprehension regarding my status as my son's guardian overtaking me. "Are you both here to speak with me about facing charges for everything that happened involving Lord Shen?"
Ox stroked his chin and nodded. He was deep in thought as if he didn't know what his next move was going to be. He looked at Croc and he nodded at back at him.
"Yes that is essentially right," Croc answered. "We were originally going to travel here with an official order of an entire life sentence for you in Chorh-Gom prison and defer care of your son over to us."
If it was physically possible at this point, I swear could both feel my son's heart and my own heart concurrently sinking.
"But!" my son chimed in, impatient in waiting for them to continue. "What next?"
The Ox looked at Yu and began to explain. "After seeing to the degree of how close you are in relationship to with son, reading about the heroic acts of saving all the lives you did, your honest repentance, and clearly demonstrated capabilities of reforming into a better person, you have genuinely convinced us that are not the same person that you were two years ago. Croc, Shifu, two other masters, and I discussed this in great detail and with much split decisions on our final verdict for you."
"This is it. Now I find out how long I will be imprisoned." I thought, pulling my son closer to me arms, terrified this would some of the last time I'd have to see him.
"Zhong Yu. Should you continue pursuing your path towards redemption, you are pardoned from serving any time in Chor-Gohm prison."
"What, are you serious?" I asked, completely surprised. "Even after everything I've done?"
Ox looked at me, stern in his demeanor as always.
"Well if you want to you could always serve that prison sentence if you want to? It's up to you," Croc teased.
Yu growled a little bit, not taking too kindly to the joke.
"Yu. Calm down," I warned him, giving him a flick on the nose. He yelped a bit and gave me a dark glare. "You know why I did that. Now stop it."
"Tough crowd," Croc said, scratching the back of his head.
"Anyways, Zhong, there is a catch to this," Ox said, stroking his longer fur on his chin that extended down into a goatee. "It's only fair that you help repay your debt in some way."
"And… what might it be?" I questioned him.
"We figured since you were once such an experienced thief and leader, that you'd be able to help us sniff out Pung and his band of thugs," Ox explained. "After the incidents of them threatening the lives of all the citizens of the Valley of Peace, the Furious Five, and even the Dragon Warrior himself, they have become some of the most wanted criminals in all of China. And by you assisting in helping us track them down and capturing them, you'd be doing a great service by saving even more lives. Following that, we'd like you to remain in Gongmen City and help serve as one of the chief protectors of the city. So what do you say? Will you take up path of redemption and fulfill the role as one of China's protectors by both bringing the band of thieves lead by Pung to justice and working after that to protect Gongmen City?"
All of this was an awful lot to take in and I found it hard to believe. One of China's leaders and martial arts masters, Storming Ox, was offering me, a hardened war criminal a chance to serve as one of this country's lead protectors. Looking down at my son, my pride and joy that was now what kept me carrying on in this world, I had no self-doubt about what my answer to this offer was. I would be making China a safer place for my son, so it came as no surprise as to what my answer was. Sitting up and placing a hand on my son's shoulder, I answered them.
"It would be my honor to help serve and protect. For the sake of my son and for the sake of innocents, I swear to spend my life serving and protecting those within the borders of Gongmen City," I stated, doing the closest I could to a bow, given my injuries.
"Very good, so its settled. You will come to live with us in Gongmen City as you begin your own path to fixing your mistakes," Ox said. He looked down to my son who was all but too excited at this news. "And joined by your son.
I looked up at him. "Well no shit he would be coming with me," I thought, almost saying it out loud, but remembering that these two were doing me a huge favor by this.
"Of course. I wouldn't go anywhere with him," I answered.
Which then another thought crossed my mind. It had completely dropped from my mind a few moments ago only to resurface.
"What about Mafa? Has he decided on where he will be heading from here on out?" I questioned him. Croc opened his mouth to answer, but stopped as we heard the thump from the sliding door to the room closing.
"I decided that I will be parting ways with you for now and stay here at the temple and spend some quality time with Tigress. From there on I will join you two in Gongmen City serving alongside you Zhong," he clarified.
We both smiled at each other, the feelings mutual about us eventually working together as brothers.
"I look forward to seeing you there then," Yu said.
Mafa approached Yu and he knelt down in front of him the two meeting each other. "And I look forward to seeing as well. Then afterwards I can fulfill my other promise," he chuckled.
I raised an eyebrow at this and Mafa cut me a sly grin. Yu was confused.
"What promise are you talking about?" the pup asked him.
"A proper night of where you can sleep the night with me, good ole Uncle Silver." he said followed by a chuckle. "And you can get all the cuddles that you want."
Mafa's eyes lit up and he smiled at that sounding bit of news.
"Uncle Silver?" I questioned him. The white wolf looked at me and winked. It was clear to me that these two were more alike than I had realized.
"Alright then." I answered, folding my arms.
"I'll see you around then. I need to tend to Tigress. She wants to discuss with me about something private. So I'll catch you four on the way out of town. Good luck to you Zhong and behave yourself Yu." Mafa said, leaving in a hurry.
It was pretty easy to tell why he was acting that way. In the two weeks I was out, the two had started seeing each other again.
Leaving just us in the room again, Yu was left with a chance to now ask the martial arts masters any kind of question he wanted to. He finally had them in the same room with no other matters getting in the way of his desires to come down on them with thousands of different questions.
"So…. Master Storming Ox? Will we be living in the same building as you and Master Croc?" Yu asked, now standing in front of him.
The older master nodded stating, "Yes. You, Zhong, and eventually Mafa when he finally comes over will each be given your own rooms in the same hallway as mine and Croc's. And just to save the trouble, call me Ox and him Croc for short."
Yu smiled at this knowledge and I watched as he continued on to his next in his long line of questions that were sure to come.
"Would you be able to teach me Kung Fu, Croc? I've always wanted to learn how to fight."
"My bet is that he says yes just so can get the kid off of his back," the thought rang in the back of my mind as I watched.
Much to my surprise, he seemed genuinely excited at the possibility of being able to teach my son how to perform Kung Fu.
Fifteen questions later, I decided that he had asked enough.
"Alright Yu, I think it's time that you let Ox and Croc go. You two probably have some business to take care of don't you?" I asked them, hoping that this would get Yu off of their backs. Even they show to be bothered by this, I still felt it best to give them some space.
"Nah. Don't worry about it. Kids do this to us all the time back in Gongmen City. You learn to enjoy it." Ox, out of all the people here to say that , stated.
"But you do have a point, you can ask us some more questions later on Yu. I think we best go report to Master Shifu and let him know," Croc said.
The oxen turned to him and nodded, both heading over to the exit of the room.
"Wait!" Yu called the two before they even touch the handle to push the sliding door open.
They both stopped and turned back toward us and I watched silently in confusion. I could tell that something was on his mind that was making him nervous. For what reason, I couldn't tell to save the lives of the entire Valley of Peace all over again.
"Yes child? What is it?" Ox asked him.
Yu gulped and he looked at his feet noticeably sheepish in his demeanor. Croc took note of this and he stepped forward up to the child and knelt down on one knee, bringing himself to Yu's level. Ox followed his league and now both of them were right next to me looking down at my son who still was leaning up against me as I sat down. I nudged my son onward to say whatever it was he needed to say.
Swallowing hard, he looked up at them both.
"N- n- n- now that we will be living together, would it be alright if I called you Uncle Ox and Uncle Croc. Like if we were to part of the same family?" he asked.
Croc and Ox both remained silent. I could only watch as I had no idea what to think. On one hand I understood where Yu was coming from. He had been orphaned recently and he just wanted to have a complete family again. On the other hand, he had only just met these two kungfu legends, didn't know them personally, and yet already wanted to call them both his uncles as if they had known him for years since he had been a pup.
Staring at them, they shocked me even more. Smiling, the both of them nodded answering yes. Yu smiled and he instantly rocketed into Ox's furry chest, hugging him tightly. Being caught offgaurd, he nearly fell on his butt at the impact of a small wolf pup colliding full body into his chest.
Holding him up, he laughed a bit and hugged him back. "Welcome to the family," Ox said, a low laugh escaping him as apparently even he had fallen prey to my son's affections and couldn't help but to reciprocate with the same thing. It astounded me how well Yu was able to worm his way into even the most stoic and stubborn of individuals. This kid had an innocent heart and perhaps it was that foil that brought about this change within me.
I watched as Yu jumped into Croc's arms and he held him closely. "I've never had a nephew before," the reptile said, ruffling my son's fur on his head. He cuddled up in his arm. This caused me to laugh and I gave Yu a small look. He stuck his tongue out at me in defiance.
"You little traitor," I teased, "I thought I was your favorite."
"Pfft..." he scoffed, "Yeah right. Mafa is my favorite. Sure you may be my old man, but you forget that there are others in the family besides just you."
This was news to me. The only people I had ever considered close enough to be considered family in my lifetime was my long dead wolf pack and Mafa, but then I realized something. A door that I rarely, if ever opened had just been blown off of its hinges. Looking up at both Ox and Croc, while also thinking about Tigress and the rest of the Furious Five, the people who I had saved that had once been considered my enemies were now my allies. And who was to say they couldn't eventually end up becoming people that I came to call as friends or maybe even family.
"Family," I repeated that one word to myself under my breath looking down.
"Yes?" Ox asked. "What about it?"
All eyes stared at me as I had mentioned it. Looking straight up at them, with a genuine smile that I had only shown a handful number of times in my life, I said, "It feels damn good to finally have one to belong to."
Authors Final Words: And would you look at that. I finally finished it. It's been a long road that I have traveled these past four years working on this story and I must say it feels damn good to have completed it. To the people that have reviewed this story and have responded in messages to me, thank you. I couldn't have done it with out your support. For the longest time, I felt like this story would end up remaining unfinished like, but because of the amazing feedback I have received from the such awesome people including but not limited too, TheCoolKat, GrayZeppelin, and Animation Universe 2005. You guys have been helping in my motivation to help me finish it.
A couple things I want to say about the ending. You guys might hate me for this. In the original ending for this fanfic, I had planned on killing off Zhong with both his last breath being him telling his son that he loved him, but I feel like this turn of events works out better not only for the fact that it was a happier ending, but mainly due in part to the fact that hardened war criminal was offered a chance to spend his life protecting the people and training to become a better person, instead of spending the rest of life locked up in Chor-Gohm prison. Plus, I got to sneak a little bit of extra emotion at the end in Ox and Croc becoming family with Yu. I know a couple of people will think that Master Storming Ox and Master Croc may be out a little out of character, but given the circumstances, I'd say that Zhong has more than earned his chance to be seen as a better person.
In closing though (Yeah I am horrible at writing these author's notes), just thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart. This has become one of my favorite stories that I have ever had the chance to write. I love Kung Fu Panda and almost all of its characters. It was fun being able to use them in my own story.
Peace out.
-Luke Todd