Chapter Seven: Delirium

The wind was dancing playfully with the majestic golden robe that adorned the Dragon Warrior. The only thing the countless horde of enemies around him could see beneath his rice hat was his confident smirk as they edged closer, weapons drawn. Po knew almost instantly that it was a dream, but that was fine with him, as this was the best kind of dream: the one where you can control what happens. He was in a marshy wetland of some kind, and there were pagodas and stilt villages on the horizon. The sky was an almost blinding heroic gold; he'd been here many times before.

"Enemies of justice! I can smell your fear! It smells like…" He paused to sniff the air. "Overcooked dumplings! Such villainy - prepare to feel the thunder!"

Po knew what was coming and didn't even bother taking a defensive stance; at the last moment as the multitude of fiends descended on him, he unleashed a wave of golden energy that threw them back. Moving faster than light, he started defeating his foes one by one in "extremely bodacious" fashion, using punches and kicks that defied the properties of the real world. When his strikes collided, his adversaries flew back a ridiculously exaggerated distance, and they exploded into clouds of rainbow dust.

This is pretty amazing… but what could make it better? Invisibility, that's what!

All of the sudden, Po became invisible to the villains, and he started to knock them down in the most hilarious fashions imaginable.

Now how about a sword made of the sun's energy? That would be awesome!

Po reappeared, and such a weapon immediately materialized out of thin air in his right fist.

Yeah! Just like that!

When he swung the weapon, it would spawn a conflagration in the form of a burning phoenix; the blazing avians would grab his enemies in their ethereal talons and fly them into the golden sun above.

The Sword of Heroes can't even touch this thing! Best. Dream. Ever.

Thus commenced an increasingly convoluted and ridiculous sequence of fantastical pseudo-Kung Fu magic fighting that went on for what felt like months in Po's dreamscape. Most of what was going on was complete and utter bullshit, with no basis in any real martial arts - the likes of which would make his master face-palm, no doubt. The bear master was unconcerned with this, though; these dreams of himself as an invincible legend of Kung Fu had always been great, but they were better by ten-fold now that there was a little pinch of reality to it all. At some point a number of legendary martial arts masters joined the panda, the Furious Five among them.

While fighting together against a never-ending tide of villainy, Po suddenly noticed Tigress standing still a short distance away, apparently unfazed by the army of scorpions and wolves all around them; the wind that blew across the battlefield seemed to unsettle a dark mist that seeped from her black stripes. This, coupled with the fact that she wasn't fighting, confused the panda. She started to walk towards the Dragon Warrior, as if she wanted to say something to him. He stopped fighting too, just to hear what she was trying to say to him over the chaos of the fight; as soon as he had done this, Po noticed that none of the incoming blows seemed to actually connect with him, like he wasn't even there. Her presence had invaded the dream like drops of blood spreading through water, and was now causing the landscape to destabilize.

"You have something of mine."

The hell?

The epic music that had been playing in his dream from the outset came to a halt at once.

Her presence had caused countless fissures to materialize in the dreamscape surrounding them, and the ground around the entire battlefield started to fall away to a darkness he couldn't see below. Everything he had previously exercised so much control over was now gone, save for the small platform of existence he and the tiger now inhabited.

As she started walking toward him somewhat menacingly, he backed away until he ran out of ground beneath him. Tigress raised a paw to his chest with a malicious smile on her maw, her pupils since narrowing into vicious slits; there was a blackness starting to bleed in from the edges of her large feline eyes.

"Goodbye, Po." she said in a threatening voice he no longer recognized. Po looked down at the orange paw now pinning him precariously close to the edge of the abyss. The darkness that seeped from the black bands on her forearm crept up and around his torso.

"Wh- what?"

The eyes of the tiger suddenly became desolate, solid black orbs; she gave him a powerful shove that sent him falling into the darkness of a never-ending vertiginous torture. He felt cold as he fell, surrounded by the repeating image of one thing.

Endless flights of stairs.

"No - anything but stairs!"

Tigress found herself in a familiar situation. It was the Thread of Hope all over again; it was just her and Tai Lung facing each other down. The Valley of Peace was at her back, and she was the last obstacle keeping him from entering it. The arrogant snow leopard had just asked the whereabouts of the Dragon Warrior.

"How do you know you're not looking at her?"

But he didn't respond the way she had expected… or remembered rather; the fact that she was wearing her golden tunic and not her red vest should have been the first clue that things weren't going to be the same.

"Please. You wish me to believe Oogway would choose you?" He let out a menacing chuckle as he leaned comfortably on the ropes of the bridge. "I can tell you, from personal experience of course, he does not choose monsters like us."

The way he said that word… but he couldn't possibly know what it means to me, could he? No! I'm nothing like him!

Defiant, she lunged at him, only to find her attack countered perfectly. In another instant, she was pinned against the side of the rope bridge by the muscular spotted feline.

"I see you've learned nothing from last time!" Tai Lung growled sadistically.

Last time? What the hell is that supposed to mean!?

The dumbstruck tiger never got the chance to comprehend what this statement was implying; the leopard tossed her upward, roaring as he performed a perfect rising spin-kick that shot her off of the bridge and careening into the mists below. She fell and fell, and the wings of Crane never came to her rescue. The clouds below her eventually opened to a cold stone floor that she crashed into with tremendous velocity.

She was dazed from the fall at first, but quickly came-to and realized she was in a cold dark room. The only light was from a single blade of moonlight that crept through a small opening in the wall. The reinforced iron door and countless claw marks in the walls left no space for doubt: it was her room from the Bao Gu Orphanage. She hated the thought of this place enough, let alone the sight of it; she had tried her entire adult life to erase its memory.

A voice started to speak from the blackness around her; it was reminiscent of her own - indifferent and distant, but it's timbre heavier and more cold.

"Monster. That's what they call us. That's what they have always called us. Because... that's what we are."

"Who… what are you?" she questioned hesitantly as the room was suddenly illuminated by two large yellow orbs emanating from the corner.

"Don't be a fool, Tigress." The form moved closer, so she could make out its features. It was a huge, twisted, monstrous tiger with canine teeth the size of daggers running the length of its muzzle. It flashed a vile grin, the despicable feline horror inching closer.

"I am you… and you, are me."

"No! You truly are a monster!" She backed away from the beast, her arms held up defensively. The feral before her shook its head as it began to speak.

"There was a time when you accepted the truth of what we are, but you've diluted yourself into this fantastical notion that you are some 'noble warrior.' Ha! You only fight because battle is how you unleash the beast within, under the guise of something society deems… more acceptable. Tell me, could you truly see yourself in any other profession the way we are? The gods gave us our rage, our strength, and our claws for a reason. We are built for killing; we are built for death!"

She wanted to rebuke this demon so badly, but she felt ensnared by its rapid accusations, so she remained locked in uncomfortable silence.

"Don't you see? We are not like the rest of the weaklings around us. They have always shunned you, and yet you have let yourself become their slave; you defend those who have done nothing but spew venom on you your whole life!" The creature was slowly pacing around her, its pointed ears twitching with pent up rage. "If only you could hear what they say about you, even now!"

"I defend them because they cannot defend themselves! It's the honorable thing to do!"

"Do you even listen to yourself?" The demon, now thoroughly indignant, was starting to produce a froth at the mouth that dripped to the floor below. "Who defended us when we were nothing but a caged animal no-one wanted? Where was the honor you speak of then? For years we rotted in here because of their weakness!"

"But Shifu changed things! He made it right… showed me my true path." The room somehow seemed to be getting even darker.

"The only thing that little rat ever showed you was how to hate yourself for what you are! If he taught you so well, changed you so much, then why is it that everyone around you fears you and no-one loves you?"

Tigress' eyes affixed with the demon's, and two amber fires collided with a cataclysmic brilliance to rival the sun.

"You lie."

"Do I? I can tell you who definitely didn't love you: your parents; they didn't even care for you enough to raise you!" The smaller tiger shriveled at these words. "Besides, you don't know what that word even means, do you? How pathetic!"

"No! I will not listen to this! I am nothing like you!" Tigress was now huddled to the ground, trying vainly to cover her ears.

"Why not? Am I speaking too much truth for you, little kitten?"

Tigress forgot her fear at once. She hated that insult. Hated it. A fierce growl escaped her throat as she bared her teeth at the beast, even uncharacteristically letting her claws fly out from her digits. As the growl became a mighty roar, the demon only wore a wider grin, its eyes narrowing victoriously.

It spoke its next words in a calm breathy tone, but with no less rancor; they were not yelled, they were not growled, but they cut immeasurably deeper than any words Tigress had heard before.

"There she is. There's the monster."

Tigress knew the saber-toothed fiend had her cornered, and lowered her gaze, dejected. Her claws retracted slowly.

"You want to know the best thing Tai Lung ever did? Hmm?" Its pacing had resumed once more, but Tigress did not raise her head or move at all to challenge. "When he burned the Valley of Peace to the ground. On that one day he drove more fear into the hearts of those pathetic fools than you have in your whole life. He fulfilled his purpose; he did what comes to us naturally when we are wronged and cheated. He put them in their place as lesser beings."

"Enough, I will hear no more of your depraved filth!" She was upset, but not enraged, and the beast knew at once she meant to fight.

"By all means, then! Try and kill me! How easily you forget we are the same!"

Tigress didn't waste time in the fight. She immediately dodged the vicious slashing attacks of the feral and leapt on its back. It tried desperately to claw her off, but she locked her arms around the beast's neck and wouldn't let up in the slightest.

"Fighting me is pointless you fool! We are-"

Tigress had cut the demon off by expertly snapping its massive neck in a single brutal jerk; she rode the now lifeless corpse to the ground and climbed victoriously off its back, feeling as if she had just cleansed herself of a great evil. Her pride was swallowed by dread when she looked back.

On the ground before her there was a body, but not the one she had expected.

The barren, glassy eyes were illuminated by a slit of moonlight that crept through the opening in the wall; it was a small tiger cub, one that had evidently been killed in the same manner Tigress had just dispatched the demon. The look that was now permanently fixed into her features wasn't one of rage or torment, but of utter hopelessness and despair. The sight of it made Tigress drop to her knees once more, as it was all just too much for her dazed mind to take in. She ran her paw over the cub's facial stripes that were a perfect mirror of her own; the true demon was something she could never hope to expel or run away from: it really had been a part of herself. Beneath all the numerous layers of hardcore training and mental conditioning, a part of Tigress would always be that little girl who felt robbed and cheated by life itself. So infernal was her misery, the tiger didn't even react as the floor below her dropped out, leaving her in an interminable freefall into the black expanse below. It was nothing but weightlessness as she fell, her ears flapping against the rush of air... cold, night air.

All of existence became darkness; time itself became indefinite.

Falling.

Author's Notes:

- This chapter's a little trippy and stupid, but then again, I guess that was the whole point

- I tried to write the first part of Po's dream as idiotic as possible; imagine whatever "epic" background music for this scene that best suits you

- It should seem at least vaguely (or not so vaguely) similar to all the crazy stuff that happens in Po's opening dream sequence

- These visions are half-dream, half-"bad trip," and Po and Tigress may be semi-conscious for some of this

- It is not a coincidence that they both end in falling (it will all make sense later... maybe)

- Tigress' dream utilizes a familiar trope to emphasize how different she is compared to Po: unlike him, her greatest enemy might just reside within herself

- I thought it would be perfect for her vision to start with Tai Lung, since he embodies everything that she hates (and hates about herself as it turns out)

- Until the end of Po's dream, these visions are pretty much polar opposites; Po has made peace with his inner demons, Tigress has only been suppressing them (his vision is entirely nonsensical until Tigress' nightmare actually "bleeds" into his)

- I'm really conflicted over this chapter; when I first wrote it, I was unusually proud of it, but when I started editing I wasn't so sure anymore...

- If you've been wondering why I don't usually respond to reviews in these notes sections (which are getting pretty long; sorry), it's because I answer them via PM (always open to inquiries/plot suggestions)

- This story is getting much better viewership than I expected for my very first go at this; to all my readers and reviewers: Thank You!