Kung Fu really was about the broken bones and bruised limbs, after every day of training, Po felt his body ache from new places, places he had never known could hurt. Despite these injuries, Po loved every moment of it. He woke up early in the mornings, and although he never got to the door at the same time as the Five, his waking time improved every day. Po and the five had breakfast, after which they headed to training, the Five trained separately and Po trained on his own with Master Shifu. He often sat under a tree somewhere where he could see the others training, reading scrolls, dreaming that soon he would be able to train with his idols, but for now, seeing them train so closely was enough.

In the past few weeks, he had formed a rather close relationship with most of the members of the five. He felt as if he finally had the courage to call them his friends. The five were not at all what he had imagined when he had been a random noodle maker's son in the village just making up his own head-canons about these heros, no, he had now learned who the five really were, and the more he learned about them, the more awesome he thought they were.

He would never have believed that Kung Fu warriors could have such a great sense of humor and thirst for mischief as Monkey had. He was funny and full of tricks and pranks, but he was also nice and brotherly. His attitude towards his teammates and Po was something that Po would imagine having an older brother would feel like, he would tease and poke fun of you but do it in the nicest way possible, never meaning anything bad with his jokes. Po had noticed that Monkey often used his humor to defuse a tense situation, and used it to help others open up.

Crane had surprised Po with his knowledge of the strangest subjects, who would have known that a Kung Fu Master could have such a vast knowledge of the world's geometry and different cultures as if he had traveled the whole world, but in truth Crane was just very big reader of books and scroll. The Avian was mostly quiet and reserved, never trying to attract attention or lead any conversation, but if you managed to get under his particular 'feathers', he was extremely open and talkative, and could talk to you for hours about the Himalayan mountains and what kind of plants can be found growing there.

Mantis was a mystery to Po, as the panda never quite understood the insect. The green bug was very open to talking about the great adventures of his youth, but these stories always changed, and the more Mantis talked, the less Po understood things. The panda wasn't even sure how old Mantis was, sometimes he had the feeling that he was someone who was still young and mischievous, but at the other times it seemed to him that Mantis was deep in his mid-life crisis, and sometimes it seemed to him that Mantis and Master Shifu should hold tea nights together as old people usually do. One thing was always clear from Mantis' stories though, and that was his love for acupuncture and all kinds of sharp weapons, and the fact that he had once dreamed of becoming a doctor, but after a couple of not-so-good cases he had decided in favor of Fung Fu.

Viper was like everyone's mother, she was so kind and friendly, constantly asking how others were doing and if they needed help with anything. She seemed to have this seventh sense with which she could detect any bad emotion from her companions, and immediately she was there by their side to talk to them about it. Po had noticed many times how Viper was running after one or another member of the five, mostly it was Tigress who got Viper's attention, Po never knew why.

And then there was Tigress...the last words the Tiger had said to Po was when she had shown respect to the panda in front of her team and the valley, the last time he heard her say words directed at him was almost two weeks ago now. She always seemed tense and closed up, never smiling or showing any emotion on her face. If Po had to give someone a description of a hardcore powerful warrior he would give them a description of Tigress, as in his eyes she was the very meaning of being a warrior: strong, brave and completely unmoving on an emotional level. Just by looking at her, you could see that she radiated professionalism and experience. She was a leader and as far as Po had heard from others, she was a damn good one at that. But yes, all these things were things that Po had learned from a distance, just by being in the same place as the tiger master, and Po was extremely honored to be near such a Kung Fu legend, whether she talked to him and accepted his existence or not.

After each day of training, Po, Monkey, Crane, Mantis and Viper spent time in the kitchen joking and playing cards, some nights Po was lucky enough to hear stories from one or all of the Masters. Today was just one of those nights. Po listened with fanboyish interest, eyes shining as Viper told him about the first bandit she ever defeated.

"That's one of the most awesome things I've ever heard," the panda said after the snake had finished her story.

"You say that every time we tell you something," the snake said smiling.

"Yeah, because all these stories are awesome! You cannot imagine how difficult it is to find good, reliable and true information about you. You guys are legends, but none of the scrolls that are available to fans tell about your backstories, who you are, what your hobbies are outside of Kung Fu! I'm in fanboy heaven right now!"

"There's a reason our stories aren't being told," Crane replied, "Enemies could use them against us,"

Viper nodded and replied explaining this to Po in more detail, "Yeah, like if someone knew about our families or even our real names and who we were before we became Kung Fu warriors, our opponents could use them badly against us,"

"Wait, real names?" Po looked at the four warriors in front of him with eyes many times larger than the bean buns waiting to be eaten on the panda's plate.

Monkey gave the panda a funny look before asking in a voice full of humor, "You really thought our mothers after we were born were like, 'Oh my sweet beautiful baby, I'm gonna name you Monkey,'?"

"To be honest I never thought about that," Po admitted before his eyes lit up again and his face filled with excitement, "Oh, OH should I think of a secret identity for myself? I could be the amazing..."

"I think you're already late," Mantis interjected before Po could take this idea too far," By now, probably all of China knows your name and what size pants you wear,"

"Oh,"

"Don't worry Po, not everyone needs a secret name," Viper tried to cheer him up," Shifu for example doesn't have one,"

"Yeah, because Master Redpanda doesn't sound very threatening, doesn't match his facade, you know," said Monkey," But yeah, Viper is right, you don't need a secret name, you're already The Dragon Warrior, if you want you can just use that,"

"It's still completely unbelievable to me," the panda said," Me, the Dragon Warrior? Part of me still thinks this is all one big food coma and you're all figments of my imagination,"

"You're not the only one," Mantis said, but quickly added when he realized how wrong that might sound for the panda, "I mean, we were all convinced that Tigress would get the title. We all thought that we were just on that tournament so that when Tigress' big moment comes we can be there next to her to support her,"

"It must have been a real shock to you all,"

"It was," Viper said," But...maybe it was something that was meant to happen and I'm not talking about the fate thing at the moment, but..." but her voice trailed off as if she had suddenly decided that she shouldn't continue speaking.

"But what?" Po asked softly, hoping Viper would finish her thought.

"Tigress wouldn't have been able to defeat Tai-Lung," Crane finished for Viper.

"What? Are we talking about the same Master?"

"Crane's right, Po," Viper whispered, now sounding very worried about where this conversation was going, "That…the reason for that is not for the four of us to say,"

After these words, Po realized that the matter was closed now, and it would be disrespectful to dwell on it. But still, Po couldn't get a single thought out of his head, suddenly it seemed very clear to him why Tigress kept her distance.

"She hates me,"

"No, she doesn't hate you," Monkey said this time.

"I took the title away from her,"

Viper shook her head, placing the tip of her tail on the panda's shoulder, "It wasn't her destiny, and she knows and respects that,"

"I feel like I'm doing something wrong. I feel bad, like I'm taking her place away from her,"

"You aren't..."

"But why am I sitting here with you now and not her? She clearly doesn't feel comfortable being here when I'm here."

Several sighs echoed in the room as the four masters exchanged glances as if they were trying to think of what to say and how much to say.

Finally Viper spoke again, "Tigress is a complicated person, but believe us when we say she has no negative emotions towards you. Yes, she did at first, but after what you did for Shifu and the entire Valley, she respects you, she is accepted you as the Dragon Warrior," the snake sighed and closed her eyes for a moment as if what she was about to say was difficult for her," We can't tell you much, it wouldn't be fair to Tigress, but know that she hasn't had an easy life. She has been training Kung Fu since she was very young, she became our leader when she was only fifteen, she became a master when she was sixteen, she has had to be a fighter from such a young age. And despite all this she never..." Viper stopped herself again, Po could have sworn he saw tears in her eyes, "Sorry, I've said too much already,"

"What Viper is trying to say is that Tigress's behavior is absolutely not your fault," Crane said, "Nor is it hers. She…she wasn't always like this,"

"Yeah, believe it or not, there was a time when she used to hang out with us," Mantis spoke up, jumping on the panda's shoulder," She used to smile and laugh,"

"She even helped me pull pranks, rarely but still," Monkey added, smiling as if an old and good memory came back to him, "She was quite a different person a few years ago,"

"What happened?" Po asked, curiosity eating away at him.

"Shifu," Mantis mumbled out, instantly earning a few very warning looks from his teammates.

"Mantis!" Viper hissed.

"We all know that's the truth,"

"Wait, what did Shifu do?" the panda asked again.

"N-nothing," Viper replied, "Time to go to bed," she slid out of her chair, her teammates doing the same a second later.

Po tried to stop them, he got up from his chair and turned to the departing warriors, "Wait, what did you mean by that?"

"Nothing Po," Viper's soft voice sounded again, she turned her gaze back to the panda and gave him an apologetic smile," We can't say more, we already crossed the line. It's not our place to tell you anything, it's Tigress's personal matter and we've already broken her trust too much. We can't do this to our sister, her trust is to valuable to us," she turned her gaze back to the door, and headed to leave again, "Good night, Po,"

"Good night," the others said as well before they all left the kitchen, leaving the confused panda standing there by himself.

—

A failure...

That's what she was.

A disappointment...

To her master, to her fa...no...just her master

A mistake...

She kept doing them, and slowly she began to think that she was one of them. Just a mistake.

She wasn't sure by now how many hours she had been in the forest, how many trees he had broken.

Ironwood...legends say that only the sharpest axes can break it, that only tools created by the best smiths can break the royal trunk of this tree.

Her paws could break them…

She was a weapon, sharp and strong but still...not enough...

Pride didn't touch her when she cut down the next royal tree with her bare paws, pride didn't find its way into her soul when she brought her team home from a dangerous mission, she didn't feel pride in saving lives, risking her life, almost dying for others. All she felt were the bitter fruits of failure.

She could smell blood, her own blood, but she couldn't feel it flowing down her hands nor she couldn't feel all the injuries covering them.

'Sloppy, very sloppy, it looks like you're trying to get killed,' his voice echoed in her head, 'Watch your position, Tigress! Is this how I trained you?' That voice was stuck in her head, 'What are you doing? That's not proper form!,' no matter how hard she tried, that voice never went away,' You need to be faster, Tigress! You don't want anyone to get hurt, do you? If you fight like that in a battle, they will!' that voice was all she sometimes heard, 'You disappoint me,'

She was always a disappointment, she was never enough.

Funny...Tai-Lung wasn't here, hadn't been here for years, but his shadow still buried her. She was never bigger than that shadow. He wasn't here, but still she couldn't get rid of his presence here. Tai-Lung was always here...Shifu always saw him...even when he was looking at her instead. It wasn't the innocent cup version of him that Shifu saw either, no, it was the version he feared, the version that killed innocents and attacked his own family, and because of that, everything that had been his son he now saw in his daughter. His demons were everything Shifu saw in her.

The hopeful part of her said that this wasn't true, but the logical part of her was was louder,

'Why should Master be proud of you and love you if you're such a failure? You couldn't even protect him...'

This memory was marked in her mind as if done so by an hot iron. She had him, she was so close to stopping Tai-Lung. Despite the fact that her entire team had fallen, she had fought on, fought with all her might, and she had him. One move and the monster that had ruined her life would have been gone forever, she wouldn't even have to spill his blood, just throwing him over the edge of the abyss would have been enough...but she couldn't. She couldn't kill him.

That one second of hesitation had cost her everything…

She was a failure.

Why can't I be enough?

Sometimes she thought she hated Shifu, hated him for what he had turned her into. But whenever that thought came to her mind, she realized that it was not the truth. She could never hate him. Instead, she hated herself.

Oh, how quickly old habits come back.

She thought she was over it. She had believed that she would never see those trees again, that her blood would never cover the bark of those trees again. She had been avoiding it for a year, for a year she had felt like her life was back in control, for a year she had felt like the amount of disappointment and pain in her life was bearable. Things change fast...

This had been her chance, her last chance, to prove to Shifu that she wasn't Tai-Lung, that she was worth something. Worthy of his pride. Worth at least a little bit of his love.

She knew now that she wasn't.

She had been so close to fulfilling Shifu's dream. To heal the wounds that Tai-Lung had left there. So close to possibly fixing what had happened to them. Get back what once was.

This distance had turned out to be an abyss...

She felt dizzy. One of several signs that told her she should stop for the night , the first of those signs she couldn't ignore.

Tomorrow is a new day, and tomorrow night is a new night...her paws will have stopped bleeding by then, she can start all over again.

Maybe someday she will be enough.