Just like Po had predicted, Xing's parents were worried about him, and they were glad for seeing their son again. After leaving the bunny with his family, Po made his way back to the kitchen, with his cleaver on his mechanical hand and not looking or talking to anyone else. Actually, the panda seemed eager to get away from people as fast as possible, with the quickness with which he rushed back to the kitchen with a stony expression on his scarred face.
Soon, the bovine who he had left in charge of the kitchen was back to waiting on the tables along with the others, while everyone talked about how they had, for the first time in two years, caught a glimpse of Po.
"And he came out of the kitchen to help someone." One of the people on the restaurant said, "Do you think that..."
"Let's... not get our hopes too high." Said another one, "I mean, it was a member of his staff. That doesn't mean he will... you know?"
"I wish he did." Said a third one, and they all agreed with this.
"You know this is your partially your fault, don't you, Zhong?" Said one of the people.
"My fault?"
"Yeah! You were the one who kept saying that he was a disgrace, remember?!"
"You said it too! I just agreed with you!"
"Why would you!? You know I only ever say stupid things!"
"All of us have fault." The first one to talk said, getting the attention of the other two. "We are all to blame, and I think all of us know that. Every single one of us."
They said nothing, and they only lowered their heads, as they all knew their friend was right. Even Xing knew, as he was sitting on his table with his family, and he had been hearing to the conversation the people on the table near his' were having.
It was their fault. They were all to blame for Po having become like that.
Xing himself was to blame.
All because he listened to those stories and believed what they said about Po. All because he let himself be taken by them and ended up joining everyone as they were hurting the person who they all only had reasons to admire.
He was as much to blame as all of them.
No... he was even more to blame than all of them. Xing knew it, and he would always know.
This made Xing continue to look down as he ate his food without any joy. His parents, seeing him like that, were not able to be happy too. So, they all ate silently, with the only one who didn't understand why being little Lu Li, who only knew that everyone was sad for some reason...
Xing was really regretting having asking to come there. Why did he even bother trying to come? He already knew how it was going to end. He already knew that Po would blow him off and just keep with his anger. He had for the past five years, no matter how many times Xing or anyone else told him how sorry they were for how they acted, and for not believing in him.
After how we treated him, he has the right to be angry... Xing thought to himself as he and his family finished eating and were going on their way back to their house. On their way out of the restaurant, they passed by an iguana, who looked like he was about to enter the restaurant, when one of the waiters rushed to him and, as gently as possible, explained to him the establishment's rules regarding reptiles.
Xing's sadness persisted for the rest of the day, as he studied and read from his collection of comic books. The one he was reading was one depicting the adventures of the Dragon Warrior. Xing looked at the drawings, and saw how so many of them depicted a Po much different from the one he saw on the restaurant. A smiling Po. A Po he had last saw over five years ago, and that, with each passing year, he grew more and more sure he would never see again.
Dinner was as silent as lunch, and Xing finished eating and excused himself. He walked outside, and he looked at the distance.
He could see Po's restaurant from his home on the top of a hill. He could see how some lights were still burning from some lanterns, indicating that the place was still open for business in the dinner hours. A lot of people went there for dinner, as the place was very popular thanks to the delicious food and the welcoming staff.
And Po surely was still on the kitchen, hiding himself like a bat from sunlight, as he didn't wanted to see or talk to anyone.
Not with the villagers. Not with those who once were his friends.
The only ones who he had any kind of interaction with nowadays were his staff. Po didn't bother to try and talk to anyone else. He was too angry to see anyone.
He wanted nothing more with any of them, as he had made abundantly clear.
It's all my fault... Xing thought to himself, before he went back home. He just wanted to lay on his bed. On his way to his bedroom, he passed by Lu Li's, where his mother was putting his little sister to sleep, and he could hear through the ajar door:
"Mama, why was everyone sad today?"
Xing stopped, and he listened.
"Was it because of that mean panda?"
Xing tensed as he heard that.
"Lu Li, that one was Po." Xing could hear his mother say, "And he is not mean."
"Yes, he is!" Lu Li said, "He was angry and he made everyone sad! And he speaks bad words! He is mean!"
Xing tensed. His little furry hands clenched into small fists. He could feel the anguish growing on him.
"Lu Li, you really should not judge others without knowing things." Xing heard his mother say in a serious voice. Then, after a brief silence, he heard her voice again:
"You see, Po was not always like that." She was gentle as she said those words. "Years ago, before you were born, Po was nice. In fact, he was the nicest, bravest, and happiest panda most people have ever met. Not only that, but he was a kung fu master, a hero to the Valley of Peace and all of China."
"He was known as 'The Dragon Warrior'." She completed, and Xing continued to listen. He didn't wanted to. He knew that story didn't had a happy ending. However, he could not move from where he was.
"He was a great hero who did many good things." His mother continued, "And we all loved and admired him. Not only he was strong and brave, and protected us from all kinds of dangers, but he was kind to everyone, and he always had a smile on his face, and was always making other people smile."
"He was?" Lu Li asked, and Xing could only imagine that his little sister was in awe to think that the same panda she saw earlier could have been like their mother was describing. "But why is he not like that anymore?"
There was a brief silence, before Xing heard his mother say:
"Because of what we did to him."
Xing could hear his mother sigh again. It was certainly painful for her to tell this story, just as much as it was for Xing to listen.
"A little over five years ago, Po went on a mission to help a distant village." She continued to narrate, "He was supposed to capture some criminals who stole a bunch of treasures from the village... but, things went wrong. The village was burned. No one got hurt, because everyone fled, but the houses and stores of the village were all destroyed. People lost their homes and their livelihood."
She paused for a moment, before she continued.
"People were shocked by this having happened. However, they were even more shocked because they saw the one who had done it. It was Po."
"Po had burned the village alongside the criminals." Xing's mother said, and the thirteen-years-old bunny feel his heart clenching as he heard that. "Not only that but, on his way back to the Valley of Peace, he also attacked a temple and destroyed it's most precious treasures, destroyed an orphanage, and even attacked innocent people with no provocation at all. They asked him why he was doing those things, and he said: because I can."
Xing was looking down as he heard those things.
"So he really is mean!" Lu Li's voice came in.
"No, he is not! He never was!" His mother said with an exasperated voice, and she paused once more before continuing. "Po was not the one who did those things. I was someone pretending to be him."
"You see, there was this evil person. A sorceress. We don't know her real name, but we all know her as 'The Chameleon'. She had the power to use her magic to change how she looked and pretend to be someone else. She could be an elephant, a crocodile, a hawk, a fish... and a panda."
"She used her magic to change her appearance so she could look just like Po." She continued, "She pretended to be Po, and did all of those horrible things so Po would get the blame. She did it so we would all be angry at Po... and she succeeded."
Xing felt a heavy weight on his heart, as he remembered it. He could remember very clearly when he heard those stories for the first time. The stories of how Po was a horrible person who did horrible things, and that all the time he had just been pretending to be good, when in fact he was evil, and that he was finally "showing his true colors".
Xing had not believed it at first. He refused to believe that the same panda who had been so kind to him could be a bad person. But, as people continued to tell him over and over of the bad things Po had supposedly done, both the other children and the adults, Xing saw himself believing them more and more.
Eventually, he too thought that Po was a bad person.
And he, like everyone else, hated him.
"Why did the Charm-lion wanted everyone to be mad at Mr. Po?" Lu Li asked, as innocently as a five-years-old would.
"Because she wanted the Staff of Wisdom." Her mother told her, "It was a magic staff Po received from Oogway when he went to the Spirit Realm, and that had the power to channel and amplify the user's chi. That staff was Po's, and Chameleon wanted it to become more powerful and take over China. But she could not steal if from Po, so she changed her tactic."
"By pretending to be Po, she could make everyone turn against him. Including the Emperor." She exaplined, "The Emperor loved Po as dearly as everyone else in China. But, because of Chameleon's lies and deceptions, he turned on Po as well. He used an ancient law that allowed him to remove the title of any kung fu master to remove Po's Dragon Warrior title, and then, when Chameleon continued to practice evil acts using Po's identity, he dispatched the Forbidden Company after Po. They are a group of Komodo dragons who execute the most important missions for the Emperor, and he gave them the mission to arrest Po and bring him under custody. They succeeded."
"Po was taken to the Forbidden City caged and in chains. He remained in prison for three months before they finally decided to let him go, as they had 'served justice' on him." She said, and her voice was very sad. "Chameleon had gotten the Staff of Wisdom at this point, and Po came back home. But, we still thought that he had done those evil things, so we were all still angry at him. We... we were all mean to him..."
Xing knew what his mother meant.
He knew it too well.
"There he is!" Said one of the children. He was pointing at a panda wearing a cloak over his body, hiding his whole form, but he was so big that it was easy for everyone to recognize him.
As soon as they did, they all started calling him names, telling him to go away from the Valley forever and throwing rocks at him.
Among them, was no other than Xing, who had long been convinced that everything they said about Po was true, and that he was the worst person China had ever seen. Not a hero, but a complete jerk. A criminal who deserved every bit of a bad thing that could happen to him.
That was why Xing picked the biggest, heavies pebble he could find, and threw at the panda as hard as he could.
"Go away, fatso!"
The panda rose his head right when the rock was coming his way, and it hit him square at the nose.
Xing would only learn it two years later that pandas, like all bears, had very sensitive noses, and that hitting them caused them great pain.
The panda cried out in pain as he toppled over and landed with his face on a fence.
For a few seconds, he stayed on his knees, groaning and shivering as his whole body shook, and the children continued to throw pebbles at him and call him names.
However, they all stopped when the cloak fell off the panda's shoulders, revealing a back covered in deep, nasty scars.
It was as if the panda had been flogged mercilessly.
However, that was not the more terrifying thing. As Po turned around, he was covering his face with his hands... no. There were no hands. Only a pair of stumps where his hands had once been, as they had been cut right at the wrists.
And there was the blood.
Po lowered his stumps, and they all saw his face, covered in blood as a long gash had formed over his eye as he landed on a metal tip on the fence. Po looked at all of them with an expression that none of them had ever seen on the panda's face.
An expression of pure hatred.
Then he growled. He didn't scream. He let out a long, guttural, feral growl of a furious bear.
It was the most terrifying sound Xing ever heard on his entire life.
"We continued to be mean to Po, and that... that changed him." The mother continued to say, "That made Po change from the happy person he was. He stopped smiling. He stopped helping other people. He stopped being kind. He... he became a person none of us knew anymore."
"But why?" Lu Li asked, and her mother than said, certainly looking at her:
"How would you feel if all of your friends started being mean to him because of something you didn't do? How would you feel if everyone blamed you for a bad thing that happened that was not your fault, and we started being mean to you no matter how much you tried to say it was not your fault? How would you feel if even me, your dad and your brother started being mean to you and call you a bad person when you never did anything wrong?"
Lu Li didn't answer. She remained as silent as Xing, and she certainly had her head down, just like Xing.
"We did found out the truth, eventually." Their mother continued, "When the Chameleon started attacking villages, we found out everything about her plot. We found out how she pretended to be Po and framed him for all of her crimes all so she could get the staff. She now had its power, and she would use it to conquer all of China. Maybe even all of Asia. Even the other kung fu masters could to nothing to stop her."
"There was only one person on the whole world who could stop her. Only one person who could keep her from achieving what she wanted." She said, "The real owner of the Staff of Wisdom. The Dragon Warrior, Master Ping Xiao Po."
"We all went to him. The Emperor himself stood before Po, restoring his title and saying that he had the duty of stopping the Chameleon and saving China." She said, "But... Po refused."
"He refused to have his title back, and he refused to save China. He was mad at all of us. He was mad at us for having turned on him after everything he did for us." She said, "He told us all that it was not his problem, and that he would never get involved again. He just refused to help. Even when the masters of the Jade Palace, his friends, came to him to ask him to help, even when all of us apologized to him for all we did, even when the Emperor himself got on his knees before him and begged for his forgiveness, Po refused to help."
"He no longer wanted to be out hero." She concluded, and Xing remembered that day clearly.
He had been there, after all.
"Please!" Someone said, a pig, as he was on his hands and knees before the panda, his forehead touching the ground. "Please, help us! I am sorry for everything I did! I am sorry for saying to people that you wrecked my store! I did it because I wanted compensation money from the insurance! I am so sorry!"
"I am sorry for refusing to give you food!" A sheep said, as he groveled before the panda just like the pig "I am sorry for throwing your money on your face and telling you to go eat garbage! I am so sorry!"
"Please, I am sorry for putting those posters!"
"I am sorry for trashing your dad's restaurant!"
"I am sorry for throwing rotten tomatoes at you!"
"Please, forgive us!"
"You are the only one who can save us!"
"Please, Po!"
The panda only stood there, looking at each one of them. In the past, anyone who looked at his face would see kind green eyes looking back at them, and they would be caring as he heard their pleas and would gladly help them.
However, as all of them looked at him, all they could see now on his only green eye was hatred and contempt.
"Will all of you just stop fucking whining?" Po growled, looking at all of them. "This is so annoying! Leave me the fuck alone!"
And he turned around to leave, while everyone continued to plead to him. Pleading for his help.
It was Xing, who was among them all, who rushed forward and walked right into the panda's path, making Po stop on his tracks and look at him.
"Po, please!" Xing said, "Please, you have to help!"
"Oh, do I?" The panda asked, "Hmm, let me think of it... Do I have to help the people who threw garbage at me and tried to run me off of my own home? I don't think so! Fuck of, brat!"
Po said, as he walked around him, getting ready to leave. However, Xing was not giving up.
"Po! She got my parents!" He said, "Please, you have to save them!"
"Not my fucking problem." Po said bitterly, as he continued to walk. "Figure out a solution yourself."
Xing was in despair.
"Po, they need a hero!"
"Then they definitely don't need me." Po said, "I am not a hero, after all. You and those little shithead friends of yours said that to me, remember? I am just a stupid, useless panda. No way I can help your parents."
The irony was dripping in Po's voice. Each word caused Xing more and more despair. The idea of losing his parents, with his mother still being pregnant with his future brother or sister.
"Po!" Xing said, looking at the panda, his eyes welling up with tears as the bear continued to walk away. "Why are you being like this?! You are not like that! You are kind, and you are a hero who helps those in need!"
Po only continued to walk away.
"Why are you being so mean!?"
Upon hearing this, Po stopped dead on his tracks. For a long moment, he just stood there, before he said, with a dangerously low voice:
"Mean...?"
His body tensed.
"Are you calling me mean?" Po asked, and then, he turned to look at Xing.
"Oh, so I am mean for not wanting to help the people who treated me like garbage!?" Po yelled, and this caused Xing, and everyone else, to retreat, as they saw the hatred on the panda's face.
"Oh, yes! I am the mean one! I am the criminal! The villain! All because I am not on the mood to help all of you pieces of shit who all turned on me after everything I did for you! After all the times I risked my ass to save your worthless necks!" Po snapped at them.
"Because I don't want to give any help to you after you vandalized my dad's restaurant!" Po said, "Because you all threw rotten fruits at me while those fucking lizards took me away on that cage, and then you did it again after I came back!"
"Oh, yes! I am the bad guy for refusing to help the people who threw insults at me whenever I came by, and who didn't allow me to have a roof over my head when I literally had no one else to go after those fuckers of the Jade Palace kicked me out! I am the villain for not wanting to give any help to the people who refused to give me the time of day when I had literally nothing to my name, and that kicked me when I tried begging for money and food! I had to go to the Red-Light Village and whore myself all so those disgusting lowlifes would buy me some old bread so I wouldn't starve!"
With each sentence, Po got louder and more aggressive. Everyone was backing away in fear, as they were seeing that panda, who they all always knew to be so kind and so gentle, looking like a demon ready to tear them all apart, even thought he no longer had hands.
"I lost everything!" Po yelled at them. "I lost my title! I lost my friends! I lost my house! I lost my fucking hands!" He showed the stumps on his arms, he was trembling now. "I lost my dad..."
His voice cracked a little as he said those last words, and he was looking down. Everyone looked at him, before the panda looked back at them, his eyes filled with resentment.
"And not a single one of you, my so-called loving fans…" Po said, saying those words with the utmost contempt. "... ever did anything to help me or to support me. Not even a single kind word. In fact, every single one of you, you FUCKING pieces of shit, went out of your way to make me feel even worse!"
His voice had recovered the volume, causing everyone to back away. Including Xing, to whom Po was now glaring.
"And you have the nerve to say I am the mean one!?" Po demanded. "I am mean for not wanting to waste my time helping people who claim to love me and then turn their backs on me!? I am the mean one for not wanting to put my ass on the line for the people who have told me to my face that I am worthless and scum!? For the people who kicked me while I was down and turned on me when I was at my lowest point!?" There was blood dripping from his face. His nose was bleeding profusely as he screamed at the small bunny, who shrunk under his rage.
"You say I am the mean one, when you TOOK MY FUCKING EYE!?" Po roared at Xing, "YOU LITTLE...!"
Xing stepped back. Po had his arm raised, and he looked ready to deliver a punch. He could no longer have a hand to form a fist, but Xing had seen, with his own eyes, that the stump on his arm cold still deliver a strong enough blow to shatter a stone wall.
For a long moment, everyone held their breath, as the panda held his arm in attacking position as he glared at the bunny.
However, Po didn't attack him. His whole body was trembling, and it was clear that the panda was only barely able to hold back his fury. Instead, that punching motion turning into a sweeping one, as the panda used his arm to wipe the blood coming out of his nose, all the while he glared at the bunny with the one good eye he had left.
"That kind and heroic panda is DEAD!" Po said, as he recomposed himself. "You murdered him!"
With that, Po didn't said another word as he turned around and left. No one tried to stop him. Not only because they were scared by this last display of anger that the panda showed, but because they were all ashamed.
Even Xing could not bring himself to say anything, as Po walked away without looking back...
Why couldn't he say anything? Why couldn't he have said anything at that very moment?
Why couldn't he just say he was sorry? He should have started saying that! Everyone else was apologizing too!
"So... Po didn't stop the Charm-lion?" Xing heard his little sister asking.
"He did." Their mother said, "Po was angry at us, but he eventually decided to be a hero for us one last time. And it was all thanks to your brother."
Xing looked down.
"Po led the Furious Five and many other masters in an attack on Chameleon. They freed her prisoners, which included me and your father. And you too, because at the time you were still growing inside my tummy. He then faced Chameleon himself, and he defeated her. But... he was hurt after this, and many of us thought he was not going to make it..."
"We were all so worried with him..." She said, "We all remembered everything he did for us, all the times he risked himself for us, all the times he saved all of us without asking for nothing in return... that was when he truly realized how unfair and cruel we were to him."
"When the physicians said that Po was going to live, we were all so relieved and happy." She said, "We wanted to celebrate. We wanted to have a party to celebrate what Po did for us. A party for him."
She then sighed.
"But... Po was not interested in any party." She said, her voice heavy with grief. "Po was still angry at us. He was still angry at everything we did to him. At how we treated him. He didn't wanted to have any party. He didn't wanted to be a hero anymore."
"He ended the party right when it started." She said, "He then broke and burned the Staff of Wisdom, and he said to everyone he was renouncing kung fu forever. He wanted nothing more to do with it... or with us."
"I am done with all this shit!" Po screamed, silencing the people trying to talk to him. "I am done with all this fucking shit!"
"But, Po..." Viper said, as she slithered closer to him, only for Po to snap.
"DON'T FUCKING COME NEAR ME, YOU SCALY WORM!"
She recoiled instantly as she heard him yell at her like that, as if he had physically hit her. Po glared at her with the most absolute hatred, before he said:
"I am done..." He said, "I am done with all of that worthless shit of being a hero. I am done risking my life for people who will turn on me on the first chance."
"Po, we didn't wanted to!" Someone on the crowd said, "We thought you had committed crimes! The Chameleon tricked us!"
"Oh, yeah!?" Po said, "Did she made you all treat me the way you all did!? Did she made you throw rocks and rotten fruits at me!? Did she made you treat me like the worst scum in the planet!? Did she made you all leave me homeless and mock me at every single time you saw me!? She made you all put me down even more when I was at rock bottom!? No! She didn't! That was all you! Every single one of you chose to treat me like that!"
They all flinched, and not a single one of them could think of an answer to this. Not the villagers. Not the masters of the Jade Palace. Not even the Emperor himself, who stood in there with his guard.
They knew that nothing they said would be a good enough justification.
"I..." Po said, his voice cracking on the slightest way, before it became cold and hard once again. "I always thought that people were good. I always believed that people were honestly good deep inside. That they are caring and loving. But this whole shitshow showed me that they are not. People are stupid and cruel. And they don't care for anything or anyone other than themselves..."
Po sighed.
"Believing people are nice and kind above all else... that's so childish. I can't believe I continued having faith in that for so long. But I am done now."
He looked at everyone.
"I am done being a warrior. I am done going around playing hero." He said, his face a stony mask. "It is time to grow up and leave those stupid things behind."
"Please..." someone said, "Dragon Warrior..."
"Don't call me that!" Po snapped, silencing that one person. "Don't call me that, ever again..."
He then pointed. With one of his stumps, he pointed at the grave that was placed on the hill. The grave that he placed there.
"I am Ping Xiao Po." He said, "The Dragon Warrior... is dead."
With this, Po left and walked back into the village, while everyone watched him leave. Among them, a young bunny walked forward.
"Po!" Xing said, calling for the panda who was walking away. "I'm sorry!"
But the panda didn't turn to look at him. He didn't stop. He didn't even slow down his step. He only continued walking, leaving all of them behind.
As well as the hero he once was...
"Mommy?" Lu Li asked, Xing blinked, and realized that he was crying. His mother probably was as well, for next her voice came slightly strained.
"I-I'm fine, darling." She said, "Is just... it is hard for me to remember this... I was very mean to Po too, and I regret it."
There was a brief silence.
"Did you apologize to Mr. Po?" Lu Li asked, "For being mean to him?"
Xing could hear his mother sigh.
"Yes, I did, darling. Many times. Everyone did."
"Then he shouldn't be mad anymore." Lu Li said, "If you all apologized then it should be fine."
There was a brief silence, and then their mother spoke again:
"Lu Li, remember that shiny shell that you had and that you loved? And that Ao Mao broke? Remember how you were so mad at her that you didn't spoke to her for two days, even when she apologized for breaking the shell?"
"... yes." Lu Li said. Then, their mother spoke.
"Sometimes, when someone hurts you too much, apologizing is not enough. Apologizing is important, it is to show that you are really sorry for what you did, and that you feel bad. But, sometimes, when you have done something really bad, only apologizing is not enough. Especially for the person who you have hurt."
"Po... he has lost a lot. He hurt a lot... and we all only continued to hurt him." She said, "He never did anything wrong. He never did anything to deserve it. All he ever did was help us and be kind to us and... and we were all so mean to him... I think anyone would be as mad as him if they had gone through the same thing..."
More silence followed those words. Then Lu Li spoke:
"Will Mr. Po be mad forever?"
Xing flinched at this. That was a possibility that crossed his mind many times.
"I don't know, darling." Their mother said, "Some say that he will, and that he has the right to. But, I do hope that one day he will forgive us. That one day he will come around. We all hope. That is why we always try to talk to Po. We try to show him that we are sorry, and that we want him to forgive us. Even the Emperor. Every year since Po defeated Chameleon, he makes a great party to celebrate kung fu and all masters of China, and he always invites Po... he never goes, but the Emperor continues to invite him, hoping that one day he will be willing to answer and to come, so maybe he will finally smile again."
Xing heard his mother sigh.
"Po used to smile all the time, but now he never smiles anymore." She said, "In all honesty, I think many of us would accept if Po never forgave us for what we did to him. I don't think we deserve to be forgiven after how we treated him. We just want to see Po smile again."
Yes.
They all wanted that.
They all wanted to see that same kind, sweet smile on his face. That same smile that Po always gave, no matter how bad things were. No matter how bad his day was, or what kind of difficulties Po was facing, he was always able to smile as if nothing bad was happening.
However, that smile was gone from his features. Not a single trace of it was left behind.
No one has seen anything close to smile in Po's face in five years.
Xing lowered his head and, as he heard his mother wishing Lu Li goodnight, proceeded to his own bedroom. He walked past the table full of books, scrolls and comic books and walked to his bed, where he laid his head on the pillow.
By the nightstand, was a single object, which Xing picked up and held to the light of the candle.
It was a panda-shaped doll.
The same one that Po gave to him and signed when they first met. The ink was slightly faded, but the words "NEVER GIVE UP, TO XING FROM PO" were still visible... just as the cracks.
Xing had broken the doll after hearing the stories of the things Po "did". He was being stupid. He went through a lot of work to fix it up, get the arms back in place and patch the whole thing up. The head had been the hardest to fix, but Xing did a very good job on it. Perhaps it was the effort he made into fixing the doll that made him so good with his little furry hands.
However, even with all the effort he made into fixing the doll up, and how much of a good work he had done restoring the thing, it was still possible to see the cracks. It was still possible to tell that the doll had been broken.
Just like Po's heart.
Once more, Xing's eyes grew moist, and he held the doll close to his chest, and he repeated the same words he did for many years, hoping that this time they would reach his hero's broken heart.
"I'm sorry..."
Xing was walking down the street, and he had his head low. He had a scroll under his arm, with his homework in it, and he was just walking to go back home when...
"You!"
Xing stopped and turned around, seeing a bunch of kids coming his way, all of them looking angry.
"It's all your fault!" The pig leading them said, and all of the other kids agreed. Xing, however, was confused, until they started speaking:
"It is all your fault Po is like that now!" The pig said, "He is like that because you hurt his eye!"
"Yeah, it is our fault!"
"He is always sad now!"
"You broke Po!"
"You hurt him!"
They all were yelling at him, that the reason that Po was like that now was all because Xing had hurt Po by throwing that pebble on him and making him lose sight on one of his eyes. Xing could only back away as they all yelled at him.
"B-but you all were throwing rocks at him too!" Xing finally said back.
"Shut up!" Said the pig, as he threw something at Xing. The bunny cried out as the pebble hit him in the forehead, sending him to the ground. Many more pebbles followed that one.
"It is all because you hurt Po!"
"It is your fault he doesn't wants to be a hero anymore!"
They continued to yell at him as they threw pebbles his way. All the seven-years-old bunny could do was curl into a ball and cover his head with his arms to protect himself from the pebbles, which only kept coming, as well as the insults of the other children, which were sounding more and more like the kinds of things Po usually said nowadays.
"Go to hell, you fucking piece of shit!" Said the pig, his voice sounding exactly like Po's, as he threw the rock. It flew through the air, in direction to Xing's head...
And it was grabbed midflight by a hand covered in green scales.
After this, no more stones came. Xing, however, continued curled into a ball, sobbing softly, until he heard a kind, elderly voice talking to him.
"It's okay, Xing. They are gone now."
Xing slowly opened his eyes, and looked up. He was, once more, a thirteen-years-old bunny, and he was looking up at a turtle, who looked at him with a gentle, but sad, expression. Xing knew who he was, for he had seem his face in many paintings and drawings.
"Master Oogway...?" Xing said, looking at him, and then looking around.
He was no longer at the village. Instead, he was in a clearing in the center of a bamboo forest. Both the grass and the bamboo were golden, and the water on the pond nearby was pure and crystalline.
Xing had already been there before.
In a dream he had five years ago.
He looked at the turtle.
"I am dreaming?" He asked, and Oogway looked at him for a few moments, before he nodded.
"Sorry for interrupting your dreams. I usually don't do this." Oogway said, "But... I really needed to talk to you."
Yes, Xing read about it. Elevated spirits of the Spirit Realm could communicate with others when they were in a deep state of consciousness achieved during meditation or, more often than that, during sleep, as they appeared on their dreams.
And this was the second time someone from the Spirit Realm contact him to talk. And on the last time...
"Is it about Po?" Xing asked, and Oogway looked at him, before he said:
"Yes, it is about Po... and about all of China."
Oogway then looked away, asking Xing to come with him. They both walked to the pond, and they both looked at the pond, which showed their reflections, and Oogway then reaching forward, touching the surface of the water with his long, black nails, causing the water to change.
"A darkness is coming." Oogway said, as the water shifted, showing an image of a dark sky. "A storm that has been brewing for years is on its way, and it will be a storm that can destroy all of China. Life as you know can end forever."
The water shifted, showing images of destroyed villages and cities. Of burning fields. Of the Jade Palace, completely demolished. Of the Emperor's palace, on the very same conditions, and Xing could see something moving in front of it... a great dark form.
"Something must be done." Oogway said, "China needs a champion to fight for it and defeat this great evil."
He turned to look at Xing.
"It needs a Dragon Warrior."
As he said it, Xing looked at Oogway, the fear that was brewing on him was suddenly replaced by a spark of hope.
"You mean... Po?" He asked, "Po will become a hero again? He will be the one to save us!? It has to be him, right!? He IS the Dragon Warrior!"
Oogway looked back at Xing with a sad expression before, much to Xing's disappointment, he shook his head.
"The Emperor never could take away Po's Dragon Warrior status." Oogway said, "This is not a title given by himself or a predecessor, nor by the Kung Fu Council. It was the universe that bestowed this honor upon Po, and even the Emperor could not take away something granted by the Universe. No law, old or new, would ever give him enough authority to do so."
"But... the title could be itself rejected by the person who held it." Oogway continued, and the pool shifted once again, this time showing a scene that Xing had already seem before.
"When Po destroyed the Staff of Wisdom and willingly renounced kung fu, he returned the title to the universe." Oogway said, "And, in doing so, he truly stopped being the Dragon Warrior. Now, this path is closed to him."
There was a moment of silence, before Xing spoke:
"So... Po will really never be the Dragon Warrior again?"
"Sadly, no." Oogway said, "The universe has already selected a new Dragon Warrior."
He then turned to look at Xing.
"And Po will be the one to train them."
Xing's eyes rose once more. He looked at Oogway in surprise.
"The next Dragon Warrior is skilled and gifted. As much as Po himself." Oogway said, "But they still lack the necessary ability. They have a lot to learn so they can be ready to be the hero China needs. They need someone to teach them. And this someone will be Po."
Xing looked at Oogway.
"Why... are you telling me this?" Xing finally asked, and Oogway said:
"When you wake up, you need to go to the village and look for the next Dragon Warrior."
Once more, the pool changed, showing now a new image.
"Look for the animal who possesses this mark on their body." Oogway said, as he gestured to the image at the pool, which looked like the head of a Chinese dragon holding a sphere on it's mouth. "This is the person who will be Po's student. They are the one Po will train."
"But... Po says he wants nothing to do with kung fu anymore." Xing said, "He says it all the time. He gets angry if someone even asks him to show them a few moves."
Xing then looked down.
"He is not the same panda he once was..."
"Oh, really?" Oogway asked. "Is that why he was ready to go and save that lizard from the ruffians who threatened him? Or why he gave him and his son all the coins he had on him by seeing them worried about their livelihood?"
Xing stopped and thought about it.
Oogway... was right. Po was ready to fight to save someone! He was ready to be a hero again! And he gave them the money even though he hated reptiles now!
"The Po you knew is not dead." Oogway said, "No matter how much a person hurts, or how much time passes, the way a person is inside does no change. The kindness and righteousness of Po's soul are still there, deep into his heart."
"Five years ago..." Oogway continued, as Xing looked at him. "Po's heart was wounded. It was wounded more than it ever was before. Po suffered more than he ever thought he could suffer. He didn't want to suffer anymore, so he created a shell around his heart, to protect it from all harm. But, by encasing his heart in this protective layer of stone, Po has made it that it would not be able to heal from the wounds it already suffered. To this day, the wounds on his heart have not yet scarred."
Xing looked at him. And Oogway looked his way.
"The new Dragon Warrior can break through the stone encasing Po's heart." He said, "They will be able to reach out to Po's heart. It will be a painful experience to Po. It will cause all of his old wounds to open and might even create new ones. However, once the stone has been broken apart, and his heart is laid bare, it will finally be able to heal."
Xing looked at him, taking in all that Oogway just told him.
He then said:
"At the end of it, Po will finally be able to smile again."
Xing took in everything that Oogway just told him.
It was a lot to take.
However, the last dream he had was the one that allowed him to convince Po to save China from the Chameleon.
The very promise of Po smiling again was enough to convince Xing.
"What do I have to do?" The bunny said, looking at Oogway.
"Just make sure Po and his future student's paths cross." Oogway said, as he showed to Xing what he had on his hand. The pebble he kept from hitting his head, and it had the same mark as the water had shown. He placed it on Xing's hand. "Fate will take care of the rest."
Before Xing could say anything in return, he heard a distant voice calling for him. The next thing he knew was that he was felt as if he was falling.
Xing got up in a startle, blinking as he looked around, and saw himself on his own bedroom, with his mother knocking on the door and telling him that breakfast was ready.
Was... was it just a dream? Xing thought, as he yawned and rubbed his eyes. That was when he noticed something on his hand.
A pebble.
A pebble with the drawing of a dragon's head holding an orb on the mouth.
The pebble Oogway gave him.
That was when Xing knew that it had been more than just a dream.
And that he had a mission.
So, here is the second chapter.
So, I want to make one thing clear to everyone. This story was inspired by the plot of "The Dragon Knight".
I didn't like The Dragon Knight when I first heard of it. Not because I have a problem with the series spin-offs or anything, but because of the plot that would put everything in motion.
The idea of Po having his reputation ruined and then being hated and shunned by everyone in China just didn't sit well with me. Call it empathy, but I don't like the idea of a person suffering unfair treatment.
I even saw a few scenes of the first episode, and it was enough to discourage me from watching the rest of the series, even though I did "technically" watch a few of the episodes of the last season, and I know well how the story ends.
I also appropriated a few elements from TDK, like the Emperor removing Po's title and the Forbidden Company. However, I made my own spin into it. My spin is that Po reacts in away that, according to me, is more appropriate to how he was treated.
After all, it is not normal to feel outraged and angry when someone treats you unfairly? When you are mistreated when you did nothing wrong and when what happened was not really your fault? Wouldn't YOU be angry if all the people who claimed to love you could so easily turn on you?
Having the people of China turn on Po so easily after everything he did for them just did not sit well with me, and I think that Po had all the reasons to be angry and to resent everyone who was unfair to him, especially that little shit of a hamster. This is the result of an unjustified mistreatment that he suffered, and that honestly wounded him. Maybe the Po we see on the movies and series would not act like that, but the Po on this story would, as he is only human (or panda) and he gets hurt, he gets upset, he suffers, he gets angry, and he holds a grudge.
Also, I find it particularly fitting that a person who committed an injustice with another to realize that they made a mistake and that they ask for forgiveness only to be blown off by the person they hurt. After all, you don't decide when the person who you hurt will forgive you. They decided when and IF you will be forgiven.
So, I guess that's it. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.