~~A/N; this title is inspired by the song "Brother" by Madds Buckley... it's supposed to be a fan song for another series called My Hero Academia buuut I just felt like it matched too well with Tigress and Tai Lung! (they're so Todoroki and Dabi core)~~
2 chapters to go...
It had been four days since the five noble warriors parted on their forbidden journey to defeat Tai Lung. Tigress, thankfully, already prepared for the hefty journey by packing a small travel bag after her confrontation with Shifu and strategically split the food rations between her comrades and friends. She didn't leave much for herself, naturally. And now, the five were all curled up by the firelight, sleeping the night away and preparing for their inevitable fight that will occur very soon, with Tigress still up and watching over them all.
She scanned her surroundings before eyeing the fire in front of her, her legs bent against her chest. She sighed to herself, her chin placed on her kneecaps. She felt a little childish sitting like this, and was grateful the others weren't awake, but she couldn't help but feel her back ache a little knowing it wasn't pressed against a familiar fluffy surface...
She placed one of her paws on the ground beside her, feeling the grass and hoping to once again feel the familiar touch of her student and friend's paw. She finally crunched the grass flakes in between her fingers and then groaned to herself.
She felt like a fool! Why does she miss him so much? Here she was planning to fight her villain-y older brother after not seeing him for twenty years and she was still thinking about Lotus!
She dropped her knees and buried her face in her paws. "I am such an idiot..."
"What about an idiot...?" Tigress' ear twitched as she glanced beside her, watching her serpent comrade yawn and stretch awake.
The feline took a deep breath, "It's nothing. Go back to sleep, Viper."
"Aren't you gonna sleep anytime soon?" Viper wiped her eyes.
"I'm... mentally bracing myself. For Tai Lung. I don't need sleep."
Viper shook her head but smiled to herself, "You always were the stubborn one..." She slithered over to her striped sister, "Apparently even towards Shifu."
Tigress jumped a bit at the name but saved face by sitting up straight, "What are you talking about?"
"Sneaking out to fight Tai Lung, actively talking back to him, sticking up for... Lotus?" Viper raised an eyelid to study the tiger's next move.
"Shifu had no right to handle Lotus the way he did," Tigress bit back, "His job is to be our teacher and guide. We all felt like we lost when we didn't get the title of Dragon Warrior, yet Master Shifu still acted the most immature out of us all."
Viper had to nod at that, but was shocked when Tigress continued, "...And I still don't forgive you all for how you talked about him either."
The snake sighed, "... You're right. I'm sorry for the things I've said. The boys still need to apologize themselves but I'll be the first to do so."
"I don't need you to apologize to me, I need you to apologize to Lotus."
Viper grinned sheepishly. "You're... really protective over him, aren't you?"
"Of course I am," Tigress stated matter of factly, "He's... a dear friend of mine. And I made a promise to his father that I would protect him, always."
The snake's grin turned into a smirk, "... You hesitated."
"What?"
"When calling Lotus a dear friend," She repeated. "You hesitated."
The feline cleared her throat, "And what about it?"
"You never hesitate."
Tigress sharply gazed at Viper, "What are you implying?"
"Nothing, just that you definitely feel like an idiot for missing him."
The tiger's eyes widened as blood starting rushing to her cheeks, "How did you know I—I don't—this is a very inappropriate conversation at a very inappropriate time, Master Viper!"
The snaked raised up an eyebrow at her comrade in bemusement, "Cut the serious-talk, Tigress. I know we've... never been close... but I have known you for ten years now. I knew you from back when you were 'smiley Tigress'. And I have never seen you look at anyone the way you look at Lotus. I've never seen you talk about anyone the way you talk about him, either. And I know you're thinking about him, now. You would only call yourself an idiot if you were thinking with your emotions... a trait you picked up from when Shifu would berate you for that.."
After feeling her whole face boil over in red, Tigress finally groaned and quickly laid down on her side, her back towards the snake, making said snake confused.
"What are you doing?"
"Going to sleep."
Viper smirked again, "I thought you were 'mentally bracing yourself' for Tai Lung~" She teased.
"My mental state is braced enough. Goodnight."
Viper looked into the fire, still smirking as she did, "Why do I get the feeling you just don't want to answer my inevitable question that you like Lotus?"
Tigress deadpanned to herself. "I don't particularly like you at the moment."
She could hear the cheeky serpent giggle in amusement and felt herself roll her eyes in annoyance. This was not the time to talk about such aridiculoustopic, the battle that was to determine all of their collective worth as warriors was just ahead of the five of them. Tigress shouldn't be thinking of such silly things.
No matter how much that stupid beating thing in her chest ached for such silly things.
The moment dawn hit, the five warriors were on the move yet again. They ran for what felt like hours, considering by the time they reached the rickety bridges in the infamous landmark known as the Thread of Hope, it was already midday.
Tigress' eyes narrowed at the distant sight of the pillars that welcomed animals to the bridges, her mind much more focused on the task at hand than last night.
After racing up the steps that led to their destination, Tigress cut ahead and gave a paw-gesture to halt the rest of her team whilst she waited at the foot of the first bridge. Her ears flicked as she waited patiently for anything to happen.
Her team was confused as to why she made them stop but sure enough, before they could question anything...he appeared.
After twenty years, her eyes burning with the same flames she witnessed the night she saw her 'big brother' get taken away, she gazed in fury at the evil-smirking Tai Lung.
He snarled tauntingly. Tigress snarled back to challenge him, readying herself. At last, Tai Lung roared and started running on the bridge, making the five's heartbeat race.
"CUT IT!" Tigress ordered, and Viper acted immediately by slicing the first rope holding the bridge with her tail. Monkey followed suit, then Crane and Mantis before the tiger master settled it all by cutting the last rope and sending the bridge down right as Tai Lung pounced up on top of them.
Tigress glared up at him, hoping he would miss the ground and fall with the bridge. When he roared and showed no mercy when coming down, her glare faltered into slight fear as she realised he could make it. "HIYA!" Thinking fast, she jumped up and kicked Tai Lung straight in the chin. Flipping back, she soon realised that there was a chance she, too, could fall with him and the bridge.
But she couldn't care less. She just wanted Tai Lunggone.
Eyes wide, Monkey moved first, "HOLD IT!" He announced, holding a piece of rope and pulled it up with the team following suit. Eventually the bridge was held up once more, leaving Tigress and Tai Lung to land some-what safely on it's rickety surface.
Tai Lung had to flip back on the bridge to find his footing, while Tigress landed already in a defense position right in front of him. Amusingly looking at the tiger, he leaned slyly on the bridge's rope, asking one simple question.
"Where's the Dragon Warrior?"
Tigress heavied her glare, her instinct to protect Lotus' name overcoming her. She had to think of something to distract the criminal in front of her. "How do you know you're not looking at her?" She asked, referring to herself.
But the leopard howled in laughter, clearly not believing her. "You think I'm a fool? I know you're not the Dragon Warrior—none of you are!" His sick smile turned in a deep frown towards his opponents, "I heard how he fell out of the sky in a ball of fire. That he's a warrior unlike anything the world has ever seen!" He jumped down from the ropes he was strutting on to purposefully make Tigress' defense move falter, which made her only growl under her breath.
Unfortunately, her anger ceased when she heard Monkey mumble the name "Lotus?" in confusion towards his teammates, making Tigress look back with wide eyes and a deep frown. Her anger boiled again towards the simian this time, who unintentionally just blew their cover.
She couldn't focus on him for too long as she heard the sick snow leopard speak again. "So that is his name... Lotus." His horrid smile crept back to him as he repeated the name. And Tigress couldn't explain it, but something about having this crook utter her panda's name just sent her completely over the edge.
"Finally... a worthy opponent! Our battle would be legendary!" Tai Lung raised his fist in the air, already feeling the weight of victory, which sent the tiger into a craze.
Her eyes turned to slits as she roared towards him. "Over my dead BODY!" She immediately punched his face, catching him momentarily off guard as she tried to go for another punch. Finding his focus, Tai Lung blocked the second hit, throwing punches of his own. As they kept on deflecting each other's hits, Tigress flipped and wrapped her legs around Tai Lung's head, throwing him off the bridge with that move.
At the last second, Tai Lung grabbed onto one of the rope railings and made the bridge turn over vertically, making the five struggle with holding the ropes and doing their best to pull it back. Tigress firmly held onto the wooden planks as she watched Tai Lung fling himself back up into the clouds. The tiger squinted her eyes with the sun beaming in them, trying to find her foe before he landed down. Once she saw the snow leopard pounce back down, she flipped the bridge upside-down and started dangling from it, preparing for Tai Lung to bust through the wooden planks. Once he did, He used his legs to grasp onto the remaining planks and hung himself upside down within the new hole he created, throwing vigorous punches where Tigress could only deflect with her hanging feet.
Finally, when she threw her first offensive kick towards him, he grabbed it and threw her up, using her head to break other wooden planks and trying to throwheroff this time.
But Tigress thought of a dirty trick to stay on. She normally wouldn't use this technique on other respectable enemies, but Tai Lung was no respectable enemy. She unsheathed her claws and dug them right through his fur and into his flesh, making him yell in agony. Clinging onto his arm and finding her place back on the bridge, she finished what she started before and threw another offensive kick right to Tai Lung's face. She hung back onto the bridge and threw a few more weak hits, some that landed, and some that he managed to whisk away. Monkey and Viper, noticing Tigress starting to throw hits in vain, grew worried and gestured Crane to give them his rope.
"We got this! Help her!" The simian declared, to which Crane followed through with no hesitation.
Meanwhile, Tigress was already losing strength with her hits and became victim to Tai Lung's relentless throws and attacks. At last, Tai Lung kicked her up, making her head break through another part of the bridge as she used her worn arms to limp onto the planks behind her. She didn't even have time to catch her breath before Tai Lung flung up through the wood and sent a powerful kick to her chest, sending her across the bridge with her back ripping through them. the top rope railing was torn in half as she was sent off, giving Tai Lung advantage to twirl the remaining ropes around to wrap it around her neck.
She gagged as her air circulation was cut, but the leopard didn't have the reigns for long as Master Viper swooped in front of Tai Lung and made a slick strike to his face with her tail. He flung off, causing the rope to let go of Tigress' neck, but in turn sent her falling down into the abyss.
This was probably the fifth time in this encounter she believed she was going to die before she was swooped up in the last second by reliable Master Crane.
The bird hung his neck down and glanced worriedly at his teammate, "Tigress, are you alright!?"
"Not the time to worry, Crane! Just get me back down there—" She stopped herself, noticing Monkey and Viper throwing their first hit together at Tai Lung before he started clawing towards them on all fours.
Suddenly, she got an idea and looked at the lonesome bug holding all the bridge's ropes together. "MANTIS!"
Seemingly reading her mind, Master Mantis tossed up the two ropes and swung them back down, the impact of this motion managing to hit Tai Lung in the face and throw him off his game.
As Tigress landed with Monkey and Viper with Crane flying by their side, she called out out to them, "NOW!" alerting them to all attack together.
Monkey was the first to hit, using all his four hands to send a punch directly into Tai Lung's chest, and being the first to send him back.
Viper was next, sliding slickly off Monkey's arm to whip the snow leopard across the face.
Crane then cleverly used his beak to cut another rope from the bridge in half and used that rope to tie the aggressive feline in it, trapping him in there.
And finally, jumping off Crane's back, Tigress used her notorious double open-palmed strike to send Tai Lung off the edge, cutting the final rope to separate him from her team.
With only one rope left standing, Mantis flung it back and made sure his comrades landed beside him at safety.
They watched as the other side of the bridge fell down into the foggy abyss, all of them panting in exhaustion and relief.
Monkey, Viper and Mantis chuckled softly to themselves while Crane smiled weakly at them, thankful they were all okay.
Tigress couldn't smile though. She couldn't even take her eyes away from the fallen half of the bridge.
She wanted to feel that same relief as well but... knowing her brother, the victory just felt... too easy.
He wouldn't have let them win like that.
And oh, how she hated how right she was about that. Her eyes narrowed as the fallen bridge started to move. On it's own.
It flung around the mountain it laid bare against, and it was at this moment her eyes widened as she knew what was coming. But it was already too late.
Something flung from the bridge into the air, it was faster than the speed of light but Tigress didn't have to guess who it was.
The team all looked at the rare fear she had in her eyes in concern.
"Tigre—" Before Viper could finish the last syllable, a large thud came from behind the five of them, making them all turn fast and unprepared.
"Shifu taught you well..." The snow leopard announced from the smokey landing he created. Before they could even blink, he threw some kind of hit towards Monkey, making him glow blue briefly before knocking him to the floor, paralysed.
The other four gasped and huddled closer, Tigress' ears pinning down as she instantly recognised this move.
"Nerve attack..." She whispered.
Glaring at the rest of the team, Tai Lung held his stance. "... But he didn't teach you everything."
Tigress tried to move forward but the snow leopard just gripped her qipao and threw her against one of the pillars, cracking her back bone as she had to watch all of her comrades—her siblings in arms—fall paralysed under Tai Lung's technique. Finally, his burning golden eyes landed back on her, walking menacingly towards her as his frown became unreadable.
"... You've grown." He pointed out, emotionlessly.
Tigress growled and clenched her claws into a fist. "Fuck you."
Tai Lung smirked in amusement, "Still a pitiful child who never accomplished anything, though. And what a waste, heh. I heard you were supposed to be my replacement."
He was trying to get under her skin, she knew it. So, not letting it phase her, she weakly smirked back, "Better to be the do-over than the first screw-up."
The snow leopard growled, "You know you said something interesting earlier... about me attacking your precious Dragon Warrior 'over your dead body'? I hope you're one to keep your word because I am more than willing to test that." His sick smile spread on his face as he grabbed the fur on the tiger's head to pull her up.
She growled back, showing no fear in her eyes for such a threat. Tai Lung only hummed, taunting her with his secretive decisions. "Hmm... nah. I'll send you back alive. I'll send you back to Shifu leaving you to know that you only lived because I let you."
Tigress' fury disappeared as the crushing feeling of disappointment set in. Tai Lung slammed her head down against the ground and stood over her, letting her instinctively curl in on herself in shame.
The male feline only scoffed. "Pathetic."
That was all she heard before everything went dark...