A/N before we begin...
Ah, if there's one character that I've always found to be overlooked in Kung Fu Panda, it has to be Master Oogway! This dude has a thousand years of life experience to his name and yet it's rarely expanded upon within Kung Fu Panda. I know this is for the sake of keeping all of the movies a tolerable length and all, but the amount of time he's lived as well as the implied fact that he was the "Founder of Kung Fu" got my creative juices flowing as to what I could do with Master Oogway and his history!
Now, I know this is probably a fanfiction that literally no one asked for but I'm here in the hopes that I can answer that question of mine through the process of writing fanfiction and that you could join me for the ride! What was Oogway's legacy really like? Who was he before he became the Grandmaster of the Jade Palace and ascended to the Spirit Realm? Who knows! But I'm hoping to piece together a rough backstory for Oogway with some good old fanfiction and fanon!
Obligatory reminder before you read this: There's a chance that Oogway doesn't sound natural at times during this fic and as much as I'm aiming to capture his eventual character growth pre-Kung Fu Panda and present him as wiser once we get to the end of this journey, the dude has like fifteen minutes of screentime maximum and only speaks in metaphors. I'm obviously going to relax the way he writes everything inside of these scrolls of his for the sake of my sanity as well as making Oogway sound a tad more mentally stable!
As always, everything canonically related to Kung Fu Panda belongs to DreamWorks, whilst any characters I invent on this journey of Oogway's belong to me. There might be a few spelling and phrasing errors here and there but hey, this is fanfiction about Master Oogway's mysterious past, I think I can cut myself some slack! Okay, that's enough rambling, allow me to present to you...
Chapter 0 - Forbidden Wisdom
A sun-soaked evening gracefully fell upon the bustling Valley of Peace. The warriors of the Jade Palace filled their day with training following the celebrations of the highly anticipated 500th Peace Ceremony, aimed at commemorating the prestige of Grandmaster Oogway as well as the conclusion of China's dark ages of endless conflict as well as petty wars that often resulted in millions of unnecessary casualties. As children played in the valley square and villagers sang their tonal tunes whilst playing their instruments with glee, an atmosphere of mischief brewed like a torrential storm in the Training Hall.
Once again, it seemed as if Zhen had surrendered to her mischievous urges and disappeared into the shadows of treachery. As much as the Furious Five, Shifu and the Valley of Peace's newly promoted Spiritual Leader enjoyed training the next Dragon Warrior, they all grumbled in unison upon realising that some traditions can't be eroded with ease; especially traditions that devolved into mischief and carnage.
"This feels like we're babysitting the pandas at Panda Village again, except this time the children somehow managed to behave more than Zhen did!" Tigress exclaimed in frustration as she kicked one of the heads of the training dummies across the room, shattering it into splinters before huffing with agitation coursing through her veins.
"With a well disciplined warrior comes a warrior with a thirst for trouble," Shifu wisely quipped whilst his eyes darted between Tigress and Po. "Tai Lung was a warrior with a thirst for trouble, Po is a warrior who possesses discipline and Zhen, well… I'm going to confess, she's a work in progress."
"Is that your nice way of saying that she's a warrior with a thirst for trouble?" Monkey quipped with a stray chuckle escaping through his snickers.
"As if you weren't!" Viper humbled Monkey with her input as his snickering snapped into silence.
"Zhen is many things. Like us all, she has good habits and bad habits. Once you manage to keep her attention focused on something, she will refuse to lock eyes with anything else until she grows bored or until she's told not to focus on that task any more. It is clear that today, training, especially following the festivities in the Valley of Peace, didn't manage to capture her attention enough and she has gone to find something of interest to do with her time," Shifu then snapped his fingers, instantly prompting all of the warriors in the Training Hall to line up in front of him. "As much as this may burden you all, I now must task you with finding her before she breaks the Urn of Whispering Warriors for the third time this week. Monkey and Mantis, you're in charge of searching the Hall of Heroes. Viper and Crane, search the courtyard, the dormitory and the kitchen. Finally, Tigress and Po, search the Library of Wisdom as well as the accompanying dungeon to see if Zhen has turned a new leaf and has decided to poke her nose in one of the many scrolls at her disposal. Good luck!"
"Pff, Zhen reading a book? That'll happen when the stars align and pigs fly!" Crane remarked before Viper slithered up his body until she was loosely wrapped around him and he took off for his destination.
"Twenty gold coins says that we find her stuck inside of another suit of armour!" Mantis declared as he raised a bet for the rest of the group to entertain. "Twenty five says she soaked her fur in the Sacred Pool of Wisdom!" The insect's Simian counterpart soon followed.
"Thirty says that she got stuck in the dungeon." Tigress, who usually doesn't entertain these sorts of bets, decided it would be a fun idea to join along. "What? Hey, don't you dare laugh! I have faith in her!"
"You? Having faith in anyone? Wow, parenthood and adopting Lei Lei really made you go soft, Tigress-" Mantis was swiftly interrupted when Po banged down his jade staff as its golden glow briefly pulsed across the staff and throughout the room.
"Forty gold coins says that she found something interesting to read. Another five says that you two alongside Viper and Crane will find us entertaining Zhen by reading a scroll to her." Monkey and Mantis simply giggled like children as they mumbled terms such as "Have fun losing your coins!" and "You two have really lost it this time!" as they vacated the Training Hall in a fit of laughter and left Po alongside Tigress eager to hunt down Zhen in the Library of Wisdom.
"Don't worry about them, Tigress. Jokes on them, they're probably going to owe us a lot of gold!" Po was hopeful that Zhen would be found in the library, although even Tigress levelled with him by stating that this hope was bleak at best. "Zhen isn't Lei Lei, Po. Lei Lei is being taught new things every day, whilst with Zhen..? Well, we're trying to teach her new traditions that go against her usual criminal escapades! I have faith in our parenthood skills, but trying to raise an adult that acts like a child into the world of Kung Fu? I doubt we're going to find her in the library and I'm willing to bet that she's stuffing her face with Monkey's cookies as we speak!"
"Oh, so you're willing to bet?" Po teased as Tigress playfully nudged him before she grabbed his hand and locked their paws together. "It's a figure of speech. We can't keep robbing Monkey and Mantis forever." Henceforth, Tigress and Po soon made their way to the Library of Wisdom, catching a glimpse of Crane alongside Viper scouring the courtyard all before they made their way at their seemingly vacated destination.
From the outside, it seemed as if the Library of Wisdom hadn't been touched since its grand restoration following Kai's inconvenient plan to exact revenge against Grandmaster Oogway. The lock bolting the refurbished white and jade doors were shut and hadn't been tampered with in any way. Tigress and Po looked upon one another with uncertainty filling their eyes as well as the stench of regret stuffing their noses as they acknowledged they may have just humiliated themselves with a bet.
Yet, before pessimism could grip them both, Po reached into the pocket of his patched up pants and pulled out a key to unlock the doors standing before him. Both warriors entered and saw no immediate signs of activity on the inside, either. Somehow, despite it being a mere year since the Library of Wisdom was rebuilt and lacking any serious form of activity, there was already enough dust in the air to make both Tigress and Po's eyes sting as Po grabbed a lantern and lit it up.
"Zhen? Hello? Are you finally studying after putting it off for weeks?" Po called out, only to hear his voice echo and reverberate several times before silence fell upon him. "Zhen? If you're in here, just know we're proud of you for studying but also mad at you for running off during our training session!" Tigress was less encouraging when it came to her attempts to summon Zhen.
"Hey, be nice to her! I know you were a little rough around the edges when we met for the first time, especially when I landed in front of you and stole your Dragon Warrior thunder and all, but she just needs a little more time and patience! And this is coming from someone who would've appreciated that when I first landed here in a ball of fire!" Po whispered to Tigress as they both advanced through the hallways stacked with shelves reaching at least a hundred feet high, stacked with scrolls and wisdom Oogway had penned from throughout the years. "Hey! At least you didn't brush off the advice I gave you and even apologised when you didn't have to! Zhen only apologises when she's in trouble or when she's done something so dumb that she can't even excuse herself! I'm surprised you even picked her as your successor!"
"Didn't you say this same thing to Shifu when I landed in front of Oogway and was picked to be his successor? Give her a chance and trust the process, Tiggi! Like you gave me a chance!" Po replied as he kept his voice quiet, all the while Tigress snarled in response to the nickname Po chose for her. "Please, don't call me Tiggi. I'm okay with us going on dates together but we're not at the nickname stage yet!" Tigress mildly blushed in embarrassment, although that blush evaporated the moment she saw the entrance to the Dungeon of Wisdom was wide open and the "Do Not Enter" sign was smashed in half.
"Uh oh!" Both of them mumbled in unison. "That isn't good!" Both of their pupils went from dilated to pin-pricked as panic instantly set in, the pair of them sprinted down the steps before Po and Tigress tripped over a missing step as it sent them hurtling through the air. "AAAAAAAH!" They yelled as they assumed they were about to fall into the jaws of the dungeon, only to be greeted by the sight of several lanterns as well as the distinct sound of someone rifling through scrolls.
"Yeesh, you two really need to learn how to stay quiet in a library!" Zhen's trademark raspy voice found its way through the echoes and into their ears as they picked themselves up, only to catch the sight of Zhen suspended on a ladder as half of her body rested on a shelf filled with piles upon piles of scrolls. "You two wanna guess what I found?"
"No, I want to know why you're down here instead of-" Po grabbed Tigress' muzzle and clamped it shut. "I've never been down here before, Zhen, and you're not supposed to be down here, either! This is a place rumoured to be filled with Oogway's personal thoughts, stories and history!" Tigress eventually managed to pry Po's paw off her muzzle before she took a deep breath.
"Yep! Oh, whoopsies! I'm not supposed to be down here? Well, when you put a huge "Do Not Enter" sign outside of a door located in a library, of course I'm gonna investigate! It's common sense!" Zhen then withdrew from the shelf whilst tossing more jade-sealed scrolls into a loosely made pile on the floor. "It's suspicious to have a place like this in a palace that's meant to be so "clean" - I wonder what sort of secrets that Oogway has to hide!"
"Zhen. These secrets are NOT for our eyes to behold. These are extremely private, personal, even intimate secrets belonging to our late Grandmaster Oogway. To look through them… Well, it would be violating our oath as Kung Fu masters!"
"Yeah… And dating a panda as a feline whilst being "warriors of discipline" isn't a violation of all of these made-up rules that you warriors have." Zhen casually rolled her eyes before planting herself down onto the floor, prepared to read into one of Oogway's scrolls before Tigress snatched it away. "Hey! I was going to read that! Don't you want me to read something for once?"
"Yes, something that's productive to read instead of sacred secrets!" Tigress argued back as she tossed the scroll to Po.
"Awh, I thought you'd be proud of me! Besides, I know you have to be a little curious, surely?" Tigress shook her head, but Zhen's foxy gaze fixated upon Po, who scrutinised the scroll heavily before he noticed both Tigress' and Zhen's stares. "Don't you wanna know who the guy that supposedly had this big fancy palace built for him five hundred years ago happens to actually be?"
"What? Can you word that better?" Tigress impatiently inquired.
"You know who Oogway is on the outside, right? This super wise guardian of Kung Fu who's seen as a bit of a prophet. I wanna know who the real Oogway is! We all have imperfections and stories to tell, we aren't perfect from birth! Come on! I think this would be fun and we might learn something!" Zhen then attempted to sweeten the deal. "I'll actually be reading something… And I know you've wanted me to read something for weeks now!"
"That doesn't change the fact that we're violating Oogway's privacy!" Tigress unleashed her anger with a gentle snarl, although that snarl faded into history as Po gave her a familiar, curious and mildly pouty look. "Oh, no. No, no, no! You're not seriously considering this, are you?"
"Listen, I've talked to Oogway myself in the Spirit Realm! I think he'll be okay with it. Besides, he clearly wrote these for a reason! Maybe he doesn't want his stories to be his own forever! Wouldn't it be nice to honour him by taking a look at some of these stories and admiring who Oogway actually was?"
"See, Po gets it!" Zhen encouraged Tigress, who released a defeated exhale in response to both of their childish attitudes.
"Fine, but we're starting from the very beginning… And absolutely no one should know about this, got it?" Both Zhen and Po nodded like they were eager children that were about to be encapsulated by a bedtime story.
"Okay! I got out the scrolls! Let's start reading!" As Zhen eagerly peeled open the scroll, the room instantly filled with a wise, calming and serene energy; almost as if Oogway's presence was captured within the calligraphy penned on the scroll itself as Zhen unravelled the first of many stories that would inevitably be told about General Oogway and his adventures through China.
...Read on if your curiosity has been piqued!
