Make You Do Right

"I'm never going back," Po grumbled. The tiger glared, though her sympathetic frown held to her face.

"Po, you can't do that."

"Why not?"

"It's not the right thing to do."

"The right thing to do is to respect their decision, right?" Po remarked. Tigress glared at her comrade silently. "Exactly. Since I can't force them to like me, I shouldn't be forced to save them."

Tigress quirked her eyebrow up as the panda munched on more food in front of her. She was glad that Mr. Ping's shop was relatively empty. She didn't want others to endure the rage of an angry upset panda. Tigress sighed again, "Nevertheless, you should-"

"Why not, Tigress?" Po sighed loudly. "Why should I defend them?"

"One aggressively pacifist village doesn't mean you can just choose who is worthy of saving or not."

"No. That's not what I meant and you know it. I have to respect people's decisions, don't I?" Po grumbled. "You just don't like it when I want to. Tigress, the Hung-Tu Villagers CHOSE not to let me protect them. And they don't like me. They don't like my Kung fu, they don't like me protecting them, they don't like anything about me."

"You're not doing this to be liked, Po," Tigress reminded him.

"I know, but why should I have to save people who obviously don't want me to save them? And with their 'leader' protecting them through 'non-violent methods', they must be in goooood hands."

"Okay, then if there was a way to stop villains without violence, what would you do?"

"I would do the non-violent way."

"Not by what you're saying, Po."

"Oh don't start that 'no violence' thing with me. I already got that from the villagers," Po grumbled. Tigress, crossing her arms, sighed and softened her face. She rested her hand on Po's hand, stopping him from taking another bite. She offered a small smile.

Po sighed, putting the last almond cookie out of his mouth. "Alright, you're right. Some... part of me is just upset that they don't like me. But still. It just... I'm not doing this to be approved off, but..."

"It helps?" Tigress guessed. Po gave another sigh. "I understand what you mean. You can't help everyone. And not everyone is going to appreciate your help."

"So why should I be forced to help them?"

"It's the right thing to do?"

"Is it the best thing to do?" Po pointed out. "I mean, what if they're right? What if they can figure out their bandit problem through non-violent means? I don't want to be seen as a guy that loves fighting."

"But you do."

"You know what I mean, Tigress," Po huffed. Tigress gave a small smile. "It's just... where's the line between giving people freedom of choice and doing what needs to be done?"

Tigress widened her eyes. The question puzzled her. Po was right. What was the line? She thought about her previous battles and fights. She had been in Po's shoes before. Most times, she learned to quiet the feelings of frustration, anger, and rage when it came to saving people she didn't like or outright despised. And she saved them because she couldn't imagine Shifu approving of leaving anyone to their fate.

But leaving people to their fate was sometimes a form of showing dignity. Shielding people from the choices of their consequences all of the time only emboldened people. They didn't learn. If the Hung-Tu villagers didn't want to be protected by Po, why should he force his presence down their throats?

"You... you may be right, Po," Tigress slowly said.

"Really?"

"Maybe... I don't know."

Just then, a messenger came in, crying about another attack on Hung-Tu. Reluctantly, Po rushed over to the village with Tigress in tow. The village, a clearing walled off by forests, burned as ravage wolf bandits sacked the town. Screams and shouts wailed around as the wolves laughed from their pillage. "Take everything!"

"You think you can take my fists to your face?" Po called out. He clobbered one wolf in the face and kicked another in the gut. Tigress, grabbing buckets and baskets of sand and water, quickly tried to douse the fires while beating down the crooks. Two wolves charged at Po. The panda's belly bumped the two to the ground while he sat on them. Soon, the villains were defeated and the two managed to get the village stabilized. Po helped up an old goat lady from the ground. "Are you okay?"

"Get off of me. I don't need your help," the woman groused. "We were perfectly fine before you came and brought more violence to our village."

"But I-"

"We told you before. Our leader will protect us without any violence," The goat lady said as a crowd of angry villagers came to Po.

Po crossed his arms with a scowl. "And where is your leader?" The villagers looked around, but couldn't find their leader anywhere.

"It is weird that we haven't found this leader of yours. What does he look like?" Tigress asked.

"A wolf," Said the lady.

Po facepalmed and groaned, "And you don't think the fact that you guys got ransacked by wolf bandits is strange?"

"They're mutually exclusive. We trust our leader to protect us, even when things are bad. And he doesn't use violence."

Po braced his face and smiled, though Tigress felt uneasy with that smile. "You know what? I'll be the bigger bear here. You don't want my help? Fine. I won't bother you or protect you. I will... respect your decision."

"Po, I don't think-"

"Tigress, if you can't force people to be good, why should you force them to listen? That's just as bad as what Shen, Tai Lung, and Kai did. Take things by force," Po said, walking away. Tigress sighed and walked away with Po.

"Yeah, we don't need your Kung Fu!" Shouted a young child, throwing a small pebble at Po's head. Instead of being angry, Tigress saw Po's eyes tear up as he walked away.

She knew why. That child's life may be one of the casualties of the villagers' stubborn ignorance. He didn't want people suffering, but there was nothing he could do. All the power in the world didn't matter if the people he wanted to protect, didn't want his protection.

Two months went by until news of another village being attacked by bandits came. The Furious Five and Po took a while to beat back the attack, sending the bandits off. The sheer number of them almost exhausted the team. After the battle, the villagers thanked Po and the others profusely. "Thank you so much. We don't know what we could've done without you."

"Are the bandits normally this bad?" Tigress panted from exhaustion.

"No," said the goat villager, "Things weren't this bad until the Hung-Tu village was overrun with bandits. They're coming from there."

"Are you sure?"

"My aunt is the matriarch there, I haven't heard from her in months," the villager said. Po and Tigress looked at each other. "Is... something wrong?"

"We were... prevented from protecting the village from the matriarch at Hung-Tu because of their leader," Tigress explained.

The villager's eyes grew wide. "A wolf leader?!"

"Y-yes."

"We had the same person come here! We knew he was suspicious, but we listened to him for a trial run, until the bandits attacked! He's bad news! You've got to stop him before they completely destroy Hung-Tu."

"If it's not already destroyed," Monkey murmured.

Po grimaced and knelt down to the goat's height, "We can't force people to choose the right thing."

"But you can still DO the right thing," The villager remarked. "Not everyone is going to follow one person!"

"You'd be surprised," Tigress murmured.

Po sighed, "We'll go back to Hung-Tu and see what's been going on. It might be too late though."

"I know that my aunt can be stubborn, but don't let her stubbornness close you off from helping people," said the villager.

Po groaned, frustrated, "I can't force people to want my help. What can you do when you can't do nothing, but there's nothing you can do?"

The goat was quiet for a moment and returned with a firm smile. "Then you do what you can."*

The panda sighed and nodded. They left the rescued village and headed west where Hung-Tu laid in ruins. No houses stood above Tigress's head. Everything stone, wood, and dirt was covered in black soot while a wind noisily howled through the village. Each step inward made Po's heart sink to his feet. As he approached the end of the village, he collapsed to his knees.

"Po?"

"I... I did everything I could, Tigress," Po mumbled, covering his eyes with his soot-soiled hands. "I did everything I could."

"I know," Tigress wrapped her arms around him, kneeling next to him. "I know."

"Who's there!" Shouted a voice. The Furious Five and Po jumped into attack formation. From the crevices of the forest, dirty, weary faces approached them with pitchforks and sticks. "I'm warning you! Don't come any closer."

"Wait, I know that voice," Po walked closer to the forest's edge where he saw a young bunny's face. "You were the kid that threw the rock at me."

The young bunny immediately recognized the panda and fell to his face. The rest of the rag-tag team of animals did the same. "Dragon Warrior, we're... we're so so sorry for what we did to you."

"You're the Hung-Tu villagers. What happened here?" Tigress asked.

"The Dragon Warrior was right. Our 'leader' was nothing but a big liar. They burned the village and... killed our family and friends. And the old goat lady." The bunny's body shivered as he told the story. "I'm... we're all sorry, Dragon Warrior. You did nothing but help us and we hurt you." The boy began to cry while the other villagers bowed their heads.

Po knelt down and tightly wrapped the boy in his big arms. The bunny's eyes grew wide. "What, what are you do-"

"I'm...I'm so sorry," Po whimpered.

"But... we said bad things about you. We called you names. Wh-Why are you sorry? Why aren't you angry?"

"I was angry at first, but I never held it against you. I was sad because I couldn't convince you to do the right thing. I had to leave you, not because I wanted to, but because you wanted me to. I never wanted you to get hurt."

The boy's eyes watered as he latched onto the panda. Po lifted him up into his arms, smiling widely. "Come on, let's go. There's nothing left for you here."

The villagers of Hung-Tu traveled east to where the previous village was hit. An enormous effort was made to route out the bandits that had caused the destruction of Hung-Tu. For several days, Po was bringing bandits into the jail left and right.

And no one questioned his use of Kung Fu to get the job done.

"As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live." Ezekiel 33:11

The end

A/N: Try my best to keep things neutral, but I felt like this verse fit very well.

*A/N: Yes that line is from the Boondocks.