What was the Reason?


A/N: This idea came from a dear friend of mine. Hope you enjoy.

Po looked through another scroll on the shelf. The dust flew into the air, clogging his lungs as he coughed. After a few sneezes, he read through the scroll. The dynasty of Knives, a famous warring dynasty, not one he was interested in. The panda frowned, muttering a grunt under his breath as he returned the scroll. Po stood back from the whole shelf. He didn't know where to find the scroll.

If the scroll existed.

He scratched his fuzzy head and placed his hands on his girthy hips, giving a heavy sigh.

"There's got to be something," Po murmured.

"What?"

Po turned around and saw Tigress and Master Shifu walk into the green hexagonal room. "What are you looking for, Po?" Master Shifu asked.

"Uhh... it's kind of a... weird thing. I was hoping not to ask you guys for help," Po sighed.

Shifu and Tigress looked at each other. A concern between the both of them silently expressed itself with frowns and narrowed furrowed eyes.

"Why?"

"It's... it's about Kai."

"What about him?"

"I'm trying to figure out if there's anything about him. Oogway didn't leave much. As usual," Po grumbled with an eye roll. "But I just want to figure out who he is."

"Why?" Tigress asked.

"It's just... don't you think Kai's a bit... weird?" Po asked.

"What do you mean?" Shifu asked.

"I mean... he doesn't make sense as a villain," Po said. Tigress and Shifu glanced at each other. "Hear me out. Why did Tai Lung go bad?"

"Because he thought he deserved what he had been working for a long time," Tigress responded, "And when he was told otherwise, he didn't react the way he should've." Po looked at Tigress then at Shifu. Even though he had inner peace, Shifu's sad stare on the floor never went away when Tai Lung was mentioned.

"And what about Shen?" Po asked. "Why did he go bad?"

"Because he was trying to stop a destiny that he ended up sealing. In both cases, neither of them were justified by their means to their ends," Shifu explained.

"Right. Tai Lung went bad because getting told no for all your hard work sucks. Shen was afraid of his destiny and ended up running right into it. Both of them had an end they wanted, but both of them didn't turn from the wrong way they tried to get it. They felt like they were doing the right thing in their own heads. In a way, their ends were fine. The way they did it was wrong."

"So?" Tigress asked Po.

"So Kai goes from a noble warring veteran of China who carries Oogway to safety to a crazy chitty-chat yak trying to destroy the world foooorrrr?" Po ended with a raise of his eyebrows, but the two could understand what he meant.

It was strange. In Tai Lung's and Shen's cases, it made perfect sense that they would react the way they did, but what they did wasn't justified. Tigress sighed to herself as Shifu thoughtfully stroked his beard. Tai Lung was more sympathetic, at least that's what Tigress thought. Shen felt eviler, purely evil. Someone that went wrong and wouldn't see the error of his ways. Prideful and unchangeing.

But Kai.

"That is odd," Shifu mentioned.

"Right?!" Po replied. "There's got to be something about Kai that explains the whole 'take over things'."

"Maybe it was because they were warriors."

"Hm?" Shifu and Po hummed.

"Master Oogway and Kai were both warriors and in charge of a vast army. It might be that in Kai's mind, he found another weapon to protect China," Tigress explained. "If there was something that we could use against all the bandits in the world, wouldn't we use it?"

"But why would Kai then use it against the people who healed his beloved comrade?" Shifu wondered. That was a part of the puzzle they couldn't figure out.

"See!" Po exclaimed, "This whole thing doesn't make sense. Why did Kai go bad?"

Tigress stood still before shrugging. "Does it matter?"

"It does to me."

"Why?"

"Because if we can figure out why he went wrong, we can learn how to prevent other Kais," Po explained. "I mean, with Tai Lung we learned not to get people's expectations up. With Shen, we learned that your ends have to justify your means."

"I'm pretty sure we could apply the same issue to Tai Lung," Tigress added.

"But what about Kai?" Po said, turning back to the shelves. "That's why I'm trying to figure out if there's more information about this guy. But I just can't find it."

Shifu stroked his beard. "It would probably be in Master Oogway's private study but-"

"What?!" Po slid to his knees and grinned from ear to ear in front of Shifu. "You're telling me there's a private study Oogway used to stay in! Awesome! I have to see it!"

"Absolutely not." Shifu sternly banged his staff onto the jade floor. "Po, as much as your quest for knowledge is admirable, we can't simply disrupt the sacred rooms of Master Oogway."

"Why not?"

"Because it's his room. Legend says that you can still feel his wise presence there among his scrolls."

"His presence?" Po repeated. Suddenly, he shot to his feet and ran out of the hallway. "Come with me!" Tigress and Shifu glanced at each other before following the panda. Down a series of red doors, they finally came to two large golden circular doors with Master Oogway's image engraved in gold. "Ha! There we are."

"Po! We're not supposed to go in there."

"I know, which is why Master Oogway is going to let us in," Po smiled. The panda immediately sat down and closed his eyes. Tigress could only stare at her master with the same quiet confusion that she held on her own face.

Po never moved. Shifu impatiently tapped his foot on the ground as his eyebrow furrowed. "What is he doing?"

Before Tigress could say anything, the doors in front opened with a gust of wind shooting from inside. A bright light showed from inside as Po got up with a smile. "Thanks Oogway."

"What happened, Po?" Tigress asked.

"I asked Master Oogway if he could open the door. Since being in his room is such a big deal," Po said.

"You... you can speak with Master Oogway that easily?" Shifu stammered. "How?"

"Uhhhh lucky?" Po smiled nervously. Shifu's jaw was still on the floor while Tigress crossed her arms and glared. "What?"

"It's highly unlikely that you simply know this through lucky guessing," She replied.

Po sighed, "Okay, okay, I was fiddling around with some of the Kung Fu scrolls and one of them was talking about how to get in contact with people in the Spirit Realm."

"How long have you known how to do this?"

"It was a mistake the first time," Po said with hands up. Tigress rolled her eyes with a sigh. The three peered inside the room. Dust flakes cloud the air as Tigress took a lantern from nearby and lit the candles around. The room held only a few things. A bed, a desk, a chest, and a shelf of scrolls. Po immediately went to the chest situated next to the desk, tinkering with the lock. "Hey, Tigress, I need your help."

"What makes you think-"

"I'm pretty sure those things on the shelf are Kung Fu scrolls. And if I was trying to hide something personal, I would put it in a chest like this."

Tigress tilted her head. "What do you have that's personal?"

"Tigress, that's not the point," Po hastily said. "Just help me with the chest." Tigress knelt down to the chest. It had a lock, but the tiger's claws were just small enough to pick through the mechanism and unlock it. Po opened it and immediately grabbed the first thing he saw that looked readable.

"What about the rest of the stuff in here?" Tigress asked.

"That's stuff for another time," Po said. He unfurled the scroll, gazing through the words on it. "Hmmm. Yadda yadda yadda, key to enlightenment. Ah! Here it is. He talks about Kai."

Kai. My friend. My brother. Why? Why did you fall? Why did you let pride get to your heart? Why did you go down this path? What was the reason? What was the reason? Did the pandas wrong you in some way? What end did you see in taking away from others?

All these questions that I'll never get to hear answers from. Maybe I don't need to hear answers. In my mind, I try to find answers to Kai's desire to steal chi from others. Was he greedy and I never saw it? Was he trying to save China with this new technique to use as a weapon? Why? Why did he do this?

And yet, I have no answer. I don't believe there will ever be an answer. In our fight, he said that I betrayed him. I don't believe I betrayed Kai. But who I fought wasn't Kai. The noble warrior that I fought wasn't Kai.

Was the technique itself corrupting? Another question that I will never have the answer to.

Maybe there are no answers. Maybe to give them answers is to give Kai a justified reason for his crimes.

And there is none.

"Whoa," Po murmured. "He took it hard."

"Kai was his dearest friend," Shifu said, "It makes sense that he was wrestling with a reason for a while."

"What did he mean by giving Kai a justified reason for his crimes?" Tigress asked.

Po scratched the back of his head, staring at the ceiling for a moment. "I guess it makes sense. Tai Lung and Shen tried to go for what was right in the wrong way. If it was something like that, then Kai would be more... I don't know... normal?"

"Normal?" Tigress echoed.

"I don't know, when I fought Shen and Tai Lung, it felt like I could personally see myself as them. Working all your life for something only to have it snatched away? Trying to make your parents proud only for them to banish you? That hits home harder than, 'I destroyed a bunch of people for power.'"

"People want power to excel themselves. It's the reason why pride is so dangerous," Shifu added. Po rolled the scroll back up and placed it back in the chest. The three of them left the chamber and closed the door behind them. A magical shining glow surrounded the door. Po went for the door but found it closed shut.

"Well, that's that," Po sighed.

"We still don't know why Kai did what he did. Was all of this because of... power he already had?" Tigress asked.

Po shrugged. "I guess... trying to find a reason for evil is like trying to figure out why weeds get in a garden. You don't know how they got there or why they're there. There's no reason for them to be there. You just have to pull them up."

Tigress nodded. "Maybe Master Oogway's wisdom was correct. We shouldn't try to give evil reason to exist."

"Whether it is pursuing the right thing in the wrong way," Shifu added. "Or getting power because of pride, evil is still evil. It always has and always will be."

"Yeah," Po sighed as they walked down the corridor and back to the Hall of Heroes. "It would be nice to figure out what caused him to do all of this, thought."

Tigress rested her hand on Po's shoulder. "Maybe things are best left unanswered. They distract us from enjoying the moment."

"Yeah," Po smiled. "Yeah."

The End

A/N: What do you think? What do you think is the reason why Kai went bad?