Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A legacy is a powerful thing. It is a footprint, a guide, a way to conduct oneself in the present, judging by the actions of the people who came before. But with great power, of course, comes great hardship.

Tai Lung’s legacy was larger than life, and the footprint he left on the Valley of Peace was too great to quantify. The footprint he left on the heart of his father, Shifu, was even greater. As the self-proclaimed “rightful Dragon Warrior” rotted in Chorh-Gom Prison, his old teacher sought out a new student—a replacement for Tai Lung’s tainted legacy. A cover for his guilt.

And then she appeared… Tigress. An orphan girl, unclaimed, and unloved. She was the perfect student. She was strong. She was dutiful. But a wildness hid beneath her studious exterior. Something like Tai Lung lived inside of her, an animal, caged for now. Shifu made sure of it.

But even as the young Tigress trained and worked her hardest to please her master, Shifu could never again open his heart to another. And the girl vowed to never become the thing Shifu feared she would become. But vows are all too easily broken.

🐉🐉🐉

There was no love here in this palace. Tigress stared down at the splinters in her hands. She’d destroyed another training apparatus, reduced it to dust in her grasp. She wanted to cry, but Shifu wouldn’t allow that. She sensed Master Oogway watching from his usual spot on the steps, and she refused to meet the old tortoise’s gaze. He always told her to be herself, and eventually Shifu would come around. But every time she gave into her instincts, she found herself here—chastised, berated, and feeling so, so small.

“If you do not learn to control yourself, you will never be a great master,” Shifu scolded.

“Yes… Master…” Tigress swallowed her rising anger. She knew she was a disappointment, she felt it with all of her soul. “I apologize. I got carried away.”

“And that’s just how it starts,” Shifu continued. “We do not need another Tai Lung on our hands!”

“Shifu.” That was Oogway. Somehow, he’d made his way down the steps and positioned himself behind his old student. As always, he was smiling calmly, but his voice was not pleased. “That is quite enough. Young Tigress must be very tired.”

“No.” Shifu’s stare remained trained on his charge. “You are to train until you get it right. All night if you have to.”

“But the apparatus,” Tigress started.

“Use your imagination.” With that, Shifu turned away sharply. He shook his head as he walked off, like he was chasing off bad memories.

Tigress assumed her form, imagining the wooden training dummy as she had been told. Before she could begin, however, Oogway held his staff out in front of her, grabbing the young warrior’s attention. He licked his lips, then spoke, “He is afraid.”

“He shouldn’t be afraid of me.” Tigress balled her hands into her fists at her side. It was an attempt to stop herself from shaking, but she still did anyway. Her anger, embarrassment, and anxiety were almost too much to contain.

“He is not afraid of you,” Oogway said. “He is afraid that your power will be too much. He is afraid that he will fail you, as he failed Tai Lung.”

“Pardon me, Master, if I don’t believe you.”

“It’s not about believing me,” Oogway added sagely. “What truly matters is that you believe in yourself.”

“What’s there to believe in?” Tigress mumbled. She turned so that she was facing away from Oogway and threw a punch at her invisible training dummy. “I can’t even practice my forms right.”

Oogway gazed at her sadly, and Tigress fidgeted underneath his pity. After a moment, she turned her back to him. She knew it was rude, but she couldn’t stand this scrutiny anymore. Oogway looked at her too deeply, too close. He could probably sense all of the things she was feeling, all of the resentment that had been growing for her adoptive father. She didn’t want anyone to be aware of that shame.

“I see that you are lost, child,” Oogway finally spoke. His footsteps receded but before he disappeared, he offered one last sentiment, “I hope that you are found, before it is too late.”

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Tigress stared out the window. She wasn’t looking at anything in particular, just through the blackness. Her night vision gave her a glimpse at the valley, draped in quiet darkness.

Below, the town was still pulling itself together after today’s bandit attack. Shifu had trusted her enough to agree to let her help, but when it came down to it, Tigress wasn’t able to do anything right. She’d destroyed a poor goose’s noddle cart. A bunny was in the hospital because she couldn’t stop one of the criminals from trampling through his sitting room.

Now, she was locked away again, in the palace. A monster, all over again. Shifu didn’t say as much, but the expression on his face as he cleaned up her mess was enough to bring back bad memories. She remembered the thick, terrible walls of her cell back at the orphanage. She remembered how cold and lonely it was. Tigress’s heart felt hollow. She thought she’d escaped this impenetrable otherness, but it had only chased her to another, more opulent home. It didn’t matter if the walls were made of precious stone, or if she had access to the best training techniques in all of China. Tigress was forever, always, and irreversibly alone.

She really was just another Tai Lung, waiting to happen.

That thought sent a shiver down her spine. Tigress’s fur stood on end, and she stared more meaningfully into the night. Of course, she couldn’t see Chorh-Gom Prison from here, but she could imagine it, sitting on that frigid mountaintop, miles away. She could imagine its sole occupant.

Maybe Tai Lung would have the answers she needed. If Shifu didn’t want her, maybe, just maybe… Tai Lung would.

🐉🐉🐉

“I am Master Shifu’s disciple,” Tigress introduced herself respectfully. Her hands came together in a bow. “He sent me here to see the prisoner.” Lying was not a skill that came naturally to her, but it was easy enough to stretch the truth while her eyes were trained on the ground.

The two rhino guards stared down at her skeptically, only the sound of the raging blizzard filling the silence between them. Eventually, one spoke, “We received no word of your visit.”

“I’m sure he meant to send a letter,” Tigress fibbed. She remained in her bow. Hopefully, it would appear as a sign of deep respect and flatter the guards enough to get her through the door.

“Without a formal message, we can’t let you in,” the other rhino said.

Tigress bit her lip, thinking. Eventually, she straightened to standing and glared between the two guards. “If you want to explain to Master Shifu and Master Oogway why I was turned away, be my guest. I’m on an important mission, and it requires that I speak to Tai Lung.”

The guards shared another, quick glance. Then, one shrugged. “Fine. Just this once.” Tigress couldn’t tell if he was scared of having to face her masters, or if he just wanted to get her out of his proverbial hair. He added, darkly, “But I guarantee there won’t be much talking.”

Tigress wasn’t sure what the guard meant. That is, until he lead her down to where Tai Lung was being held. Looking at the snow leopard made Tigress cringe. His body was bent unnaturally, forced into a permanent kneeling position. His arms were stretched outward using chains, and a turtle shell filled with pins, likely filled with paralyzing poison, kept the warrior immobile, suspended in a half-dead stupor.

“Can he... See me?”

“Not sure.” The rhino guard who led Tigress downstairs shrugged indifferently. “He should be able to hear. But I wouldn’t worry about it. The little kitty’s harmless.”

Tigress bristled at that nickname. It was so disrespectful and childish, and although Tai Lung laid waste to the valley, he was a great master. He deserved even an ounce of basic respect. “I’m not worried.”

“Suit yourself.” The rhino stepped back a few feet, presumably to give Tigress some room. “Go ahead and have your chat. As you can see, he really isn’t much of a conversationalist.”

Tigress turned her back to the guard and looked down at Tai Lung. She gasped. Before, his eyes had been shut, as if he was sleeping, but now his lids were open a crack. The gold of his dim, foggy eyes reflected the light from the rhino’s torch. He wasn’t able to move much at all, as the guard said, but his eyes drifted up slowly to focus on Tigress. He considered her carefully, silent, for he really could not speak.

“Tai Lung,” Tigress addressed him. She wasn’t sure whether it was proper to bow, so instead she sat on the floor in front of him cross-legged. Her palms rested on her knees. The could hear cross bows above their heads, springing taught as they prepared for the worst-case scenario. “I have come to learn from your story,” she continued, swallowing.

Naturally, Tigress had expected to be filled with fear upon seeing the state of this man. She was hoping that the sight of him would scare the wildness out of her. Instead, that animal inside began to roil around like a pot of boiling water. She could see far too much of herself in Tai Lung. She could sympathize with how he might have felt, living his life scrutinized by Shifu, only to be cast aside, as if he was nothing.

The student hadn't realized, but she was letting out a low, almost imperceptible growl.

Tai Lung’s eyes were unreadable, but he seemed curious. Maybe a little pleased.

“Does it hurt?” Tigress asked. “Being stuck here.”

He rolled his eyes in response. Tigress wasn’t sure how to take that. She assumed it was a yes. She couldn’t understand how it could be anything but extremely uncomfortable. Her righteous anger grew.

“Do you never let him free?” Tigress turned slightly, addressing the guard who’d escorted her here.

“Free?” The rhino scoffed. “He would take any chance to escape.”

“So he’s been locked up like this for all this time?” Tigress did the math in her head. It had been many, many years since Tai Lung was imprisoned. She hadn’t even been born. She wasn’t exactly certain of the timeline, but that meant he’d been kneeling on this cold, hard floor for well over 16 years.

“It’s better that way too.”

More anger. Tigress wanted to push it down.

“Also, you said you were Tigress, right? Shifu’s new favorite?” The rhino grinned a crooked grin and looked her up and down. “Heard about how you destroyed half of the valley. Thought you were supposed to protect people from bandits, not make a bigger mess for everyone else to deal with.”

Tigress had been walking on a tightrope. Her balance was precarious, and her patience was thin. In all her years at the palace, and before that, her years as a monster, she maintained this balance. She maintained it because it was what was necessary. As long as she was well-behaved, she was tolerated. A monster who tried not to destroy was better than a monster who hurt people on purpose, so that was the life she lived. She was shunned, but at least people weren’t inclined to exile her entirely.

In this moment, Tigress felt the tightrope snap. She came hurtling to the ground, and when she landed, she was filled with blind rage. “Are you going to lock me up too?” She bared her teeth and brandished her claws. “Will you punish me for my mistake?”

The rhino took another step back until he was standing between her and the elevator. “Calm down, kid,” he ordered.

“Why? Are you scared of me?” Tigress asked, moving closer. “Are you scared of Tigress the monster?”

“Step back!” The rhino aimed his spear at her chest. He was shivering.

When Tigress looked down at the sharp, metal spearhead, she shocked herself by laughing. This was absurd to her. A prison guard was threatening to stab her. She was Shifu’s student, and yet this rhino, after just a few sour sentences, was ready to run her through.

The rhino advanced, offput by her amusement. Tigress side-stepped out of the way, and the guard’s momentum sent him wobbling forward. Tigress kicked him in the back to tip him over, and sure enough, the rhino slid a few feet forward, face first in the dirt. She picked up the spear and tested its weight in her hand.

Tigress’s ears pricked up at the sound of the crossbows being loaded up above. Then, a single arrow game down at her. She leapt out of the way just as it burrowed itself in the ground, right where she’d been standing.

A growl escaped Tigress’s throat. She knew that more arrows were about to follow, and she was in trouble. There was no talking her way out of this one, not when the guards had already decided she was a threat. She’d just gotten angry. She didn’t expect to be shot at. If Shifu had lost his temper in the same way, everyone would have written him off as an angry old man, no matter that he was much stronger than Tigress. That train of thought only made Tigress that much angrier.

She needed out. That’s when she saw Tai Lung in the corner of her eye. He was still staring at her.

Tigress wouldn’t be able to escape this on her own. She knew that. But Tai Lung was skilled, perhaps more skilled than any student from the Jade Palace had ever been. So, fueled by anger and fear, Tigress ran to Tai Lung. 

There was a lock mechanism on the shell. She could probably crack it with enough time. Just then, more arrows began raining down. Tigress had no cover, so she dodged as best she could, until she reached the guard who she’d knocked out earlier. She stripped off his armor and held it above her head. It was a sufficient umbrella, and it caught the arrows as they came at her. With one arm, she held up her defense, and with the other, she picked up one of the arrows and broke off its point. She shoved the shaft of the arrow into the lock mechanism and clicked it around until, finally, the pins in the top of the shell moved. They hissed as they rose outward, and Tai Lung let out a deep, shivering breath.

“I never thought one of Shifu’s students would come to free me,” Tai Lung croaked. His voice was unused, and it sounded like he could cough up a lung of dust at any moment.

The weight of what Tigress had just done hit her like a ton of bricks. But then she heard the ballistae loading. Things were about to get much worse. The guards were already cranking the elevator back up to the top of the prison, so the two of them were trapped down here.

Tigress cringed as a giant ballista bolt shot down at them, but then a loud clang of metal made her open her eyes. Tai Lung had used the bolt to cut his chain. She heard a guard mutter, “Oops,” from above. And Tai Lung used the same bolt as leverage to break the other chain off of his other arm.

As Tigress was staring, another bolt came at her, and she responded instinctively, twisting her body out of the way, and kicking with her full force to send the massive arrow in the other direction. It embedded itself into the wall.

Tai Lung smiled darkly. “Good thinking.”

More bolts came down, and Tai Lung kicked each one into the wall, on purpose, until he created his own personal ladder. He started climbing, and Tigress followed. Balancing on he wooden shafts was a little precarious, but she got the hang of it after a moment.

Eventually, they reached the elevator and hopped on. But as they did, an arrow came out of nowhere and buried itself in Tai Lung’s leg. He let out a pained roar and fell to one knee.

Tigress felt the blood drain from her face. She’d trained for so long, but she was inexperienced in combat. That incident with the bandits was her first ever real mission, and she messed it up. Now, she was frozen. Her ticket out of here was hurt, and now she would be locked up right next to him without actually having learned a single thing.

“What are you waiting for, girl?” Tai Lung hissed. “Stop them from cutting us down!”

Tigress’s pupils dilated into slits, and she looked up sharply. She saw a rhino holding up an ax, poised to cut the chain that was holding them aloft. She didn’t have to think to act. She grabbed the chain and climbed rapidly, her paws holding tightly onto the metal links. She reached the top, right as the rhino was about to swing, and kicked him directly in the face with both feet. The rhino went flying backwards and dropped his ax with a heavy clang.

Another rhino, the one guarding the crank, turned to her and leveled his crossbow in her direction. She grabbed the weapon by the body and forced it upward so that the rhino could only shoot at the high, rocky ceiling. She yanked the crossbow out of his hands and swept his legs out from under him. He fell hard, crashing against the wooden railing next to the crank, and fell down to the cell below. He screamed all the way down, and if Tigress hadn’t been in such an aggravated state, she would have cringed at the sound of him hitting the stone below.

Quickly, she began cranking the elevator instead, and soon Tai Lung exited at the top of the shaft. She hooked her arm under his and made a break for the exit. When they reached the bridge between the entrance of the cell and the front doors, the two warriors were met with an army of rhinos.

They were trapped. Again.

That’s when Tigress noticed the head of security. He was holding a detonator. Before she could react, he set it off, and the bridge crumbled beneath their feet. Instead of falling, however, Tigress surged forward, using the debris to jump across the growing divide. It was difficult with Tai Lung in tow, and she was nearly about to fall, but at the last moment, she threw him the rest of the way across and grabbed hold of the ledge leftover from the explosion. Though he was injured, Tigress could hear Tai Lung ripping through the guards. There was a lot of screaming and rhinos falling from the sides.

Just as Tigress thought she was going to fall, Tai Lung’s arm appeared above her. He hoisted her up and Tigress gasped at the carnage. They weren’t all gone, go course, but a good chunk of rhinos in front of them were injured or tossed into the abyss below. The head of security was still standing, and he lobbed another explosive in their direction.

Tigress launched herself forward and caught the explosive and quickly tossed it back in the other direction. A couple of the rhinos screamed and began to run, but the explosion hit them hard. It blew open the doors to the prison, and the path was suddenly clear.

Tai Lung limped outside, and Tigress followed. She noticed a guard already halfway down the mountain, running for his life. She started to pursue him, but Tai Lung grabbed her shoulder to stop her. “Let him go,” he instructed. “He will go tell Shifu that I am free, and that you broke me out.”

Tigress swallowed. “I didn’t mean to do it,” she said. It sounded pathetic, even to herself. “It was an accident.”

Tai Lung sighed with self-satisfaction and rolled his shoulders out. “What does that crazy old turtle say?” he mused. “Ah... Right... There are no accidents.”

🐉🐉🐉

With Tai Lung’s injury, the journey through the mountains was a rough one. Eventually, Tigress found a place to rest. It was a cold, wet cave, carved out of the side of a mountain. Of course, it was a different mountain than the one with Chorh-Gom Prison.

The cave looked down on a lovely little village, which was the first village at the edge of the mountain range. Tigress helped Tai Lung in and settled him down on the ground. She was smart enough to have grabbed some basic supplies from the palace before leaving, so she plunged into her pack and removed her fire-starting kit. She set everything up and soon they had a small fire going. It warmed their little corner of the cave, and Tigress sat in front of it for a moment, just thinking. She actually broke the most dangerous person in all of China out of prison. How had the day gone so wrong? She wondered if Shifu had noticed her absence. She wondered how long it would take him to receive the news of her treachery.

Eventually, she drifted over to Tai Lung and began treating his leg with her first aid supplies.

“You’ve been trained well…” Tai Lung’s voice cut through the cold, humid air. He straightened his posture against the cave wall. “But you could be so much more. Shifu has turned you into a joke.”

“A joke?” Tigress finished cleaning the wound and tightened the bandage before standing slowly. She stared down at the injured snow leopard sitting in front of her. Condensation dripped off of a stalactite in a fat drop and fell into the fire. It sizzled and popped, and Tigress kept staring. “I’ve trained my whole life. I’ve punched trees until my knuckles bled!”

Tai Lung held up a paw, a placating gesture that only made Tigress’s anger boil. “That does not make you strong, small one.”

“I am strong!” Tigress protested, her words gritting out through clenched teeth. Her hand curled into a fist at her side. “I am not small!” She threw a punch, at nothing and no one, and her fist burst through a stalagmite. It shattered with her anger, crumbling to dust at her feet.

Tai Lung laughed, a low chuckle rolling from his throat. It crept across the ground and filled the crevices of the cave. “There’s your strength. Your true strength.”

“What is?” Tigress retracted her fist into her chest, clutching it close with her other hand. She’d always been destructive by accident, by complete unfortunate chance. But her most recent rash of anger almost felt intentional. Her skin was still tingling from the sudden surge of indignant power back in the prison, and Tigress was scared. Not because of the feeling, but because it felt good to be called strong. It felt good to break something, just because she could.

“Your anger,” Tai Lung said. His unsettling yellow eyes seemed to gleam in the darkness, reflecting what little moonlight could snake in through the mouth of the cave. “It is deep, painful. Use it.”

“But Shifu taught me to be gentle,” Tigress protested. “Or… He tried to. I shouldn’t use my anger-”

“Shifu took everything from me,” Tai Lung growled. He was near yelling, but somehow, he still seemed calm. “Don’t let him do the same to you. So tell me… Where does your anger come from?”

Tigress was silent. She sat down on the cold floor of the cave again, considering the dark claws which tapered to a sharp point at the end of each of her fingers.

“No one ever wanted me,” she said quietly. She’d never acknowledged it aloud before, but Tigress knew enough about herself to understand her own feelings. “My parents left me at an orphanage, and everyone was too scared to come near me. They… Locked me in a room… Called me a monster.”

Something was strangely soft in Tai Lung’s expression when Tigress glanced up. She caught a tear on her paw and looked back down. “Who does that to a little girl...? When Shifu came, I thought things would be different. He saw something in me, but…”

“But…” Tai Lung interjected. His face was hard again, mouth pulled into a deep frown. “You were never enough for him.”

Tigress hesitated but nodded. “More like I was always too much.”

“Too much of the wrong thing,” Tai Lung agreed. “Since the world gave you that anger, I think it’s better that you use it. Don’t you?”

“I don’t know how,” Tigress said cautiously. She rubbed her arm underneath her cloak. The idea of letting herself fall into that swirling pit of anger festering inside her was terrifying. But then again, Tai Lung had been pushed away by Shifu too. If anyone could help Tigress understand her place in the world, it was him. And besides... If people already expected her to destroy, if that was all she was good at, then maybe that was her true calling.

Tigress remembered what Oogway said to her those weeks ago. She was lost, and she’d only felt more lost since coming to the Jade Palace as a young girl. Maybe she was lost because she was spending her time playing a hero. There was no hero here. This moment of clarity felt like a punch to the gut, but it also filled Tigress with a peculiar sort of peace. She was sick to her stomach, but she felt a little better now, accepting who she really was. Finally.

She sat up straighter, looking straight at Tai Lung, unwavering beneath the golden coals he had for eyes. “Would you teach me? I’d be honored to learn from you, Master.”

“Master?” Tai Lung’s voice came out in a low, amused purr. His eyebrow lifted slightly, and to Tigress’s relief, he didn’t appear immediately displease by the suggestion. “I am no kung fu master.”

“But you could be,” Tigress said. “You are as powerful as Shifu, if not more so. What reason do you have not to call yourself a master?”

Now, Tai Lung was grinning. “I do like you, small one.”

Tigress realized that she was smiling too, although it felt diminutive and strange on her untrained face.

“I will admit, though, you threw a wrench in my plans,” Tai Lung mused. “I was waiting for the perfect moment to escape that prison, so that I could go back to the Valley of Peace and claim my rightful spot as Dragon Warrior.”

“You still can, Master,” Tigress said. “I will help you.”

“No.”

“No?”

“It will be much better for our cause if you take the title for yourself.”

Tigress blinked a few times, certain that she had heard wrong. When she realized that she hadn’t, she sat forward. “Me, Master?”

“You.” Tai Lung cackled, but then winced as he jostled his injured leg. Although he was in pain, and they were camping out in a freezing cave on the side of a cliff, he looked overjoyed. “It will be devastating. Tai Lung, teaching one of Shifu’s other failed disciples. When you take the scroll… That shall cause him the greatest pain.”

Tigress hesitated again, a shock of fear slipping through her nervous system. There was still a chance to leave. If she took him on now, injured and prone, she could easily return him to the prison. She could apologize for her behavior, and Shifu would probably do his best to keep the whole situation under wraps to avoid any embarrassment. She could go back to the Jade Palace and pretend as if nothing had ever happened. Did she really want to hurt the one man who ever came close to being her father?

But the image of Shifu’s stern, disappointed expression, and his anger, followed close behind her doubt. She imagined the years she spent wasting her life on stiff, unnatural forms, and she imagined the years that she would continue to waste. That future left a gaping hole in her chest the size of China. Tigress pinned her lips together, grim, and nodded. “I would be honored, Master.”

Chapter Text

Sometimes, Po still couldn’t believe that he was actually the Dragon Warrior. You’d think that after a few years, and after saving the world more than a couple times, that he would be used to it. But no. Every day he woke up in the Jade Palace, and every day he realized that he was literally living with his biggest heroes, the Furious Four, and that his life was pretty much perfect. He was grateful for that—he would always be grateful for that.

This morning was the same as ever. He strolled into the kitchen and scooped some porridge out of the pot on the stove into a bowl. Monkey was already sitting at the table, and Po’s best friend greeted him with a wave.

“I’d be careful of the porridge this morning,” he cautioned. His tone was humorous, but the warning was real. He looked around dramatically, like he was afraid someone would be listening in. “Crane made it.”

“I’m sure it’s good,” Po said optimistically. But when he went to stir some sesame oil into the porridge, the spoon got stuck, like the food was made of concrete.

“See?”

“Well, food is food.” Po shrugged. He took a bite. And luckily, it tasted fine. Although, that could have just been Po’s typical “I like all food” attitude. He ate heartily, and Monkey just shook his head, laughing.

“You’re too nice, Po.”

“Au contraire.” Po pointed his spoon at Monkey. “There is no such thing as too nice.”

“Really?” Mantis was suddenly in the doorway. He hopped up on the table and scuttled over to Po. His eyes were lowered, skeptical and amused. “You tried to make friends with a crocodile bandit, just last week.”

“He seemed cool!” Po argued. “I’m not too nice. I just give people the benefit of the doubt.”

“Trust me, Po,” Mantis said. “Sometimes people are just bad.”

Po didn’t believe that. He couldn’t believe that. Sure, none of the villains he’d ever faced had a good side. Tai Lung was egotistical and terrifying, Lord Shen was treacherous and vindictive, and Kai was vengeful and insanely powerful. None of those guys had even an ounce of good left in them. But Po was pretty sure that, at some point, they’d been normal dudes with normal dreams. Stuff happened along the way that made them like that, and Po always wondered what could have happened if he’d become the Dragon Warrior in a different time, before their lives went sideways.

Nobody was born a villain, so who was to say that you couldn’t reform a villain either? Po was trying to figure out a way to express this out loud, without coming off as childish like people often accused him of being, but he was interrupted by Viper.

“Master Shifu wants to see us in the courtyard,” she said quickly. There was concern written all across her face, and it was almost enough to make Po forget his breakfast. (Almost.)

He gulped down the rest of the porridge and stood. “What’s up?”

“I don’t know,” Viper admitted. “But it seemed urgent. He looked very worried.”

“How worried are we talking?” Po pressed. “Like, someone used up his favorite incense worried, or the end of the valley worried.”

Viper seemed to toss both possibilities around in her head a few times. “The second one?”

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“You all must be wondering why I called you out here today,” the Grand Master Shifu spoke sagely, hands folded behind his back. He was pacing back and forth in front of his five former students, now masters themselves. Even though he wasn’t in charge of their training anymore, the Furious Four, and the Dragon Warrior, regarded him with respect.

“Do we get to kick someone’s butt?” Po asked eagerly. He pulled a pose. “Fight a bad guy? Protect the valley?”

Admittedly, things had been quiet since Kai’s defeat at the Secret Panda Village, and Po was itching to get back out there and take down some baddies. There had been a few bandits here and there, a couple of no-good thieves, but nothing important enough to stimulate the panda’s excitable senses.

Shifu sighed wearily, closing his eyes like he was searching for his inner peace. After a moment, his lids slid open again. “It might indeed involve ‘butt kicking,’ but try not to get ahead of yourself, panda.”

“Ooooh!” Po started rambling, as he often did when he got excited about something. He was, inevitably, getting very ahead of himself. “Is it a villain? Someone bad? What’s their name? When do we leave?”

“Po, please!” Master Shifu scolded. Once the panda was quiet again (or as quiet as he could be), Shifu continued his pacing, although he moved much slower this time. He was thinking deeply, and the five warriors in front of him watched with suspended breath. Eventually, Shifu spoke, “Tigress has reemerged. She’s making her way to the valley as we speak.”

Suddenly all of the wind fell out of Po’s sails. He deflated a bit, shifting into himself anxiously. “Tigress? Like... The Tigress who was trained by Tai Lung? Who single-handedly destroyed two villages near the foot of the Chorh-Gom Mountains after Tai Lung died? That Tigress?”

Shifu nodded grimly. He wouldn’t look Po in the eye.

“But she’s long gone,” Po argued, chuckling softly. He really hoped that this was a joke. “She was captured by Master Thundering Rhino himself.”

“Yeah…” Crane interjected meekly. “I thought she was locked up in some prison, deep underneath Gongmen City.”

“You’re exactly right.” Shifu sighed. “She was.”

“She got out?” Monkey gulped.

“Indeed.” Shifu stopped pacing and cast his gaze out toward the valley below. Down there, people were going about their daily lives. Everyone standing in the courtyard could see them, shopping and laughing, totally unaware that all of their lives were in danger. “It happened only a few days ago. The instability of the city after our encounter with Lord Shen last year, and the loss of Master Thundering Rhino, has greatly weakened Gongmen.”

“But surely Master Croc and Master Storming Ox would have been on their guard,” Viper suggested. “How could they have let this happen?”

“I do not blame the masters,” Shifu said. “They are still mourning the death of their closest friend, and the near destruction of their beloved city. Tigress is to blame completely. She exploited the infrastructural weaknesses of the prison and used them to escape.”

“Were there any casualties?” Crane asked.

“Many.”

Po was trying to seem calm, but inside he was screaming. It was taking every ounce of his energy not to freak out. He was the Dragon Warrior. He could handle this. Except Tigress was 10/10 scary. She was everything Tai Lung was, but more cunning. She didn’t have her master’s pride as a weakness. She was levelheaded, ruthless, and downright brutal. And now, she was on her way to the valley. And naturally, Shifu wanted his pupils to take care of it.

“She is bad news…” Mantis mumbled. He shivered and tried to warm himself with his hooks. “How does someone get like that?”

“That is one reason why I brought you here.” Shifu took in a deep breath. Slowly, he faced his students. “Tigress is this way… Because of me.”

🐉🐉🐉

Po could understand why Shifu kept his connection to Tigress a secret all these years. Every single person in China knew that Tai Lung had been a failed pupil, but if the masses knew that Tigress was the product of the same flawed teachings, people might start questioning Shifu’s credibility as a grand master.

Of course, Po didn’t think that at all. Judging by the way Shifu recounted the tale of Tigress, he was deeply ashamed of his behavior. If given the opportunity, Po knew that Shifu would go back and change things. It was too bad that time travel wasn’t possible, but it was the thought that counted, right?

While he felt bad for Shifu, Po also noticed a strange ache growing in his chest. He pitied her—Tigress. She must have been suffering in the Jade Palace for years. And then, after she’d found herself another master (albeit a questionable one because, oh you know, Tai Lung), he left her too, in the end. A cruel sort of poetry. That had to sting.

Besides his sympathy for Tigress’s situation, Po also felt a hint of… Shame. Was he feeling guilty because he was the one who killed Tai Lung? It seemed ridiculous, but by doing that, Po unintentionally doomed Tigress to a lifetime of loneliness. He couldn’t help but feel bad about it, even if killing Tai Lung had been the only way to stop his wrath.

“So… What’s the plan?” Monkey asked, interrupting Po’s unusually deep moment of thought. His eyes turned to the panda, and everyone else’s gazes followed.

“Me?” Po sat back in his chair and swallowed. “I thought maybe, this time… Someone else would come up with a plan?”

“But you’re our leader,” Mantis reminded him. “So lead, Po.”

“You took care of Tai Lung before,” Viper said kindly. “How did you handle that? What plan did you have then?”

“That’s just the thing,” Po groaned. He put his head down on the table and folded his arms on top. He spoke, muffled, “I didn’t have a plan back then. I just ran to the palace to defend Shifu. I knew I had to do something, but I didn’t really think about it before I got there.”

“You were winging it?” Mantis sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know why I’m surprised. That’s sort of your whole thing.”

“And it works!” Po let out another groan. “Usually.”

“Well, we really need a plan now,” Crane added. “According to Shifu, she’s tearing through every master who tries to stop her. We have to figure this out, or we’ll end up dead.”

Viper nodded. She scratched her chin with the tip of her tail. “I know that intercepting Tai Lung before he reached the valley didn’t work, but what if we did that with Tigress? It might give us an opportunity to understand her fighting style better.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Monkey said. “None of us has ever fought her. Catching her by surprise might be smart.”

“Or it’ll get us killed and we’ll be leaving the valley undefended,” Crane mumbled. “You know, like what almost happened before.”

“Maybe this calls for a little sneaky sneaking,” Po suggested suddenly. He didn’t know where the idea came from. He thought he was way too scared to come up with anything, but here he was. Maybe he was a better plan-maker than he gave himself credit for.

“Sneaking?” Mantis scratched the back of his tiny head with the edge of his claw. “What are you talking about? She’s drawing a straight line through China, right toward us. There’s no time for sneaking.”

“Maybe there could be,” Po said. “Didn’t Shifu say she was moving surprisingly slow?”

According to the debrief, Tigress had been stopping along the way to stay in inns, sometimes for days at a time. Many townsfolk were sending correspondence to the Jade Palace in panic, but it didn’t seem like Tigress was interested in blazing a trail of destruction. The only people who found themselves on the receiving end of her fist were the masters who had been sent to stop her. Besides that, she seemed oddly peaceful. And she was taking her time. It was almost scarier that way—her slow, unbothered meandering—but Po could recognize a tactical advantage when he saw one.

“I guess,” Viper considered. “It did sound like she isn’t in much of a rush... I wonder why?”

“Who cares about why?” Po answered, not unkindly. He could feel his plan, itching at the back of his skull. “We can mosey on over to whichever town she’s staying in, pretend to be normal travelers-”

“You want to get close to her?” Crane asked, catching on. He stared at the panda like he was absolutely insane. Maybe he was. “I’m sorry, Po, but she would definitely know who we were. A crane, a snake, a monkey, a praying mantis, and a panda all roll into town at the same time? She’d figure it out in a second.”

"And it sounds like the start of a very bad joke," Monkey added, mumbling under his breath.

“Okay, then only one of us goes,” Po offered.

“Absolutely not!” Mantis argued. He made an X with his hooks. “She’s too powerful. In a different time, she would have been the Dragon Warrior. Were you not listening to Shifu?”

“If she doesn’t know we’re her enemies, she won’t touch us,” Po reminded him. “It’s not really her style to attack a random traveler.”

“Okay, fair,” Crane reasoned. “I guess it’s the best plan we’ve got. And it seems the least likely to get one of us killed... At least for right now...” He added that last bit in a near-whisper, but Po decided to ignore it.

“Now who wants to go?” Po’s question was met with resounding silence. Honestly, he couldn’t blame his friends for being hesitant. Tigress was no joke, and even though the members of the Furious Four were super talented and bodacious, even they had their limits.

“You know what?” Po broke the silence. “I’ll do it. Take one for the team.”

“Are you sure?” Viper’s tongue flicked anxiously, and she searched Po’s face with her large, gentle eyes. “This is big task.”

“It works out perfectly,” Po insisted. “Right now, tons of pandas are leaving the secret village to experience the world. I could just say I’m a new nomad and I don’t know anything about anything.”

“Po, half the time you really don’t know anything about anything,” Mantis jabbed.

“Exactly!” Po decided to take the insult as a compliment instead. “It’s the perfect cover.”

Crane let out a long breath. “If you’re sure… I guess we should get you prepped for the journey.”

Po glanced around at each of his friend’s faces. They all looked so grim and glum, and Po wished that he could do something to make them feel better. But with this massive threat looming over their heads, the panda knew that only one thing would make everyone feel better—he had to figure out Tigress’s plans and stop her before she reached the Valley of Peace. Easy peasy. All in a day’s work for the Dragon Warrior.

🐉🐉🐉

According to reports, Tigress was staying in a tiny little town known as Hua Village. The population was sparse, and there wasn’t a kung fu master posted there for Tigress to fight. She’d been there for three days. Now, Po was here too, rush-transported via Crane.

As Po walked into town, he tried his best to look casual. The hardest part was not fiddling  with his clothes. He wasn’t exactly comfortable. His loose-fitting pants, fur-lined cloak, and straw hat made him look like his dad (the panda one), and Po was starting to miss the freedom of his signature burlap pants. But his usual look was just too iconic. He had to look like every other big, fat panda, or else it would be very, very obvious that he was actually the big, fat panda.

Po looked around, taking in the sights and sounds. A few bunnies scurried past him, clutching shopping baskets of food, bundles of laundry, and other various items. None of them seemed interested in him, but they were all side-eyeing the same tea shop, giving the building a wide berth. That was probably a good place to start searching for his target.

Po strolled up to the shop and ducked inside, moving the curtain which hung over the door aside with his forearm. Inside was abandoned, save for the shopkeeper sitting at a counter at the back of the restaurant, a single waiter, and one, lonesome customer.

Tigress. It had to be. Her orange fur, decorated with intricate black stripes, was unmistakable. Po recognized her in an instant, even if he'd never actually seen her in real life. Her paintings didn’t do her justice.

Po swallowed, gathered his courage, and made his way over. “Hate to assume stuff, but are you also a traveler?”

Tigress looked up slowly. When her eyes met Po’s, he felt a chill run down his spine. Eventually, she answered, “What business do you have with me?”

“It gets pretty lonely on the road. Just wanted to chat with someone,” he said. “No one around her seems interested in talking, so I thought a fellow outsider might.”

The tiger only scowled. “What is your name, panda? If you’re going to interrupt my peace, you might as well tell me.”

Oh no. A name. Po completely forgot to come up with a name. Tigress was just staring at him, her expression completely unreadable. Po hoped that it was curiosity, and not anger, that was tugging the edges of her mouth into a scowl.

“Bo," he said the first name that came to mind. While Po was a little oblivious sometimes, he realized that making his fake name virtually the same as his real name was super dumb. It was too late now though. Po was Bo, and Bo was Po, and he just hoped that it wouldn’t be too obvious.

Tigress didn’t immediately react. When she did, it didn’t seem hostile. Po considered that a win. “Well, Bo. I hate to disappoint you, but I travel alone.”

“Oh, really?” Po took off his straw hat and held it in front of his stomach, using both hands. “Doesn’t that get a little, I don’t know, boring? Super lonely?”

“Do you not know who I am?” She paused. When Po didn't respond, she continued, “I am Tigress.”

Po shook his head, feigning stupidity. “Nope. Sort of grew up in a hidden village in the middle of the mountains. I don’t know much about anything. You know, other than dumplings… And… Bamboo.”

Turns out, it was a little awkward to pretend like he’d grown up with the other pandas. Po really only visited the Panda Village that one time (when he was busy preparing to fight a crazy undead dude), and he wasn’t super familiar with the customs there. Luckily, no one else was either, so it was fine. Unless Tigress was somehow a master of panda culture, but that seemed very unlikely.

“You should be advised that I am not the type of person to become friends with,” Tigress warned coldly. She gripped her teacup and stared down at the pale brown liquid swirling inside. Steam came off of the tea in warm clouds. “Continue your travels, and forget you ever saw me.”

“Mind me asking where you’re headed?”

Tigress gave him a look. She was definitely mad.

Po took a small step back. “Whoa there. Didn’t mean to be nosy.”

“Well, you are.” Tigress rolled her eyes. She took a long sip of her tea. “But if you must know, I am headed to the Valley of Peace.”

“Nice place,” Po said casually. “I visited there once. The Dragon Warrior invited all us pandas to come and stay for a while.”

Tigress’s ears pricked up and her posture suddenly became rock-rigid. “You know the Dragon Warrior?” she asked. Her voice lowered to a dangerous tone, and Po gulped down the fear rising in his throat.

He slid into the chair on the other side of the table and raised his hand to the waiter. As casually as possible, he ordered himself some tea as well. When it came, he’d managed to formulate his lie. “Oh, yeah, totally,” he said. “We used to be chums.”

“Used to be?” Tigress narrowed her eyes. Up close, she was severely beautiful. Sort of like the Legendary Sword of Heroes. Ethereal, powerful, and elegant, but also incredibly dangerous and sharp.

“Don’t wanna bore you with my story,” Po said casually. “You wouldn’t be interested.”

“I am interested,” Tigress corrected. She sat forward in her seat a little. “Please, continue.”

“Well, when that Dragon Warrior guy came to our village, I thought it was really sweet, you know?” Po pushed his tea aside, like this story was far too interesting to distract himself with drinking. “He’s pretty awesome. Might be the coolest guy in all of China, maybe even the whole world.”

Tigress lifted her brow and Po cleared his throat. He continued, “Anyway, that’s what I thought at least. He’s all ‘into kung fu’ and he has no time for anything else. That righteous act makes me wanna hurl.” Po was just saying all of the things he thought a villain would say. If anyone else said this about him, he’d probably spend the entire day trying to change their mind. Talking about himself like this almost made the panda want to laugh.

But Tigress seemed to be believing it. “I am sorry about your friend.”

“Eh, it’s fine.” Po waved his hand indifferently. “Now, I’m just a simple nomad. It’s better not to have friends like that. Less baggage to carry when I skedaddle.”

“I agree,” Tigress said. Her expression was guarded, but Po could sense a warmth behind her eyes.

A villain sympathizing with someone. Now that was interesting.

Po had faced a lot of enemies, but none of them cared about the feelings of others. Tai Lung wanted to be the Dragon Warrior so bad, that he ended up leaving his own student behind to pursue his pipe dream. Lord Shen murdered an entire village, just because he thought it would help him covet more power. And Kai was ready to dismantle the boundaries between life and death, and throw off the delicate balance of the universe, just to make a point. Tigress, while Po hadn’t known her for long, was different.

“By the way, what’re your plans in the valley?” Po asked. He wanted to do this carefully, or else he risked Tigress figuring out his angle. He had to get information, without making it obvious that he was trying to get information. Talk about a delicate balance.

Tigress’s eyes narrowed again. She seemed to size “Bo” up, taking in his posture and his expression. Eventually, her own expression relaxed. “A family reunion, of sorts,” she said, tone dark and low. “I’m long overdue for a visit with the man I once considered father.”

🐉🐉🐉

“So she is trying to get to Shifu,” Crane said. While the Furious Four agreed to stay behind, someone had to be around for backup, and it just so happened that Crane could fly. He could get Po out of there quickly if he needed to. However, they couldn’t risk being seen together, so they’d set up camp in the forest at the edge of town, and Crane was supposed to just stay there, waiting for Po to need him.

Po sat down heavily in front of the fire with a sigh. “I guess we sort of assumed that already.”

“Did she say anything about the Dragon Warrior?”

Po removed his straw hat and set it off to the side. “She definitely isn’t my biggest fan. She didn’t say it, but I’d bet she really is after my title. It’s like Tai Lung all over again.”

“Except she’s taking her time.” Crane shivered and looked up toward the night sky. Only bits and pieces of it were peeking through the trees, but the moon was large and beautiful tonight. A good night for camping. “Do you think she’s doing it on purpose?”

“Doing what?”

“Going slow,” Crane said. “It feels like she’s trying to psyche us out.”

“I…” Po shrugged. “I don’t know.” Po couldn’t think of a reason for her to be taking so much time to get to the palace. Honestly, she would have been able to make the journey in a couple of days. Instead, she was stopping in tea shops and engaging in long, albeit reluctant, conversations with strangers. Could it all just be a game of cat and mouse?

Po wasn’t sure.

“Well, whatever her reasons, I guess it’s good we’re out here.” Crane rose from the fire and walked over to his tent. Before going inside, he turned back to glance at Po. “And you’re okay, right?”

“Me?” Po pointed at himself and then laughed. It wasn’t a super convincing laugh, but it’s all he had in him. “I'm okay. More than okay. Why wouldn't I be okay?”

“No reason…” Crane took a few more steps toward the tent, eyes still on Po. “Just… I know Shifu’s story about her was sad. But she’s still a criminal, you know? She’s done bad things.”

“Of course I know that,” Po insisted. “That’s why we’re out here, right? To stop her.”

“Right…” Crane looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t. Instead, he disappeared into the darkness of the tent.

Once Po was alone, he slumped and gazed thoughtfully into the fire. He wished that those orange flames could give him all of the answers that he needed.

It was true, Shifu’s story really was weighing heavily on his shoulders. Tigress had once been just like him, but Shifu was able to move past his reservations and accept an inexperienced panda as the Dragon Warrior. If the grand master had figured it out a few years earlier, would Tigress have been the Dragon Warrior instead?

Po stared down at his hands. A horrible, guilty feeling crept over him. He had what Tigress wanted, and now it was his job to punish her for wanting it back. None of this felt right.

Chapter Text

That panda was still there. Tigress thought that when she left Hua Village, he’d leave her alone. Instead, Bo just started following her. He’d been there since the morning, not saying a thing, but still there. She could feel his presence and hear occasional footfalls as he stumbled on the dirt road leading out of the village.

She spun around suddenly to stare at him, her motion sharp and quick. He was trailing along like a stupid, clueless puppy, hoping for scraps. When she looked at him, she instantly regretted it. He seemed to take it as an invitation to start talking to her.

“So…” Bo adjusted his pack casually. The panda carried himself with an almost infuriating ease. “How long have you been on the road?”

“A few weeks,” Tigress answered reluctantly. She began walking once more.

“Where you coming from?”

Tigress whirled around again and offered him a cold, deep glare. This panda was a bit too interested in who she was. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to accuse him of anything. “What makes you think I want to talk to you?”

“Well, you keep talking back, so…”

Tigress paused. She pulled her lips together into a grim frown. He was right. Why was she allowing this to happen? She could just ignore him, but for some reason, she couldn’t stop herself from responding to his endless lines of questioning. Still, he was extraordinarily annoying.

They walked in silence for a few more steps. A twig snapped in the brush to the side of the road. Tigress stopped in her tracks, pupils narrowing into focused slits. She held out an arm to warn Bo, and the panda bumped into her before coming to a stop.

“What’s going on?” he asked, looking around at everything in their immediate vicinity. “Why’d we stop?”

“Be quiet,” she ordered.

Bo listened.

Tigress’s ears twitched, listening hard for anything amiss. Birds were chirping, as to be expected and a gentle wind rustled the leaves on a nearby tree.

Then, all of a sudden, there was a gorilla bandit running at them. He’d emerged from the bushes, a sword clutched in one, massive mitt. He was hollering something about money, but Tigress was too focused on defending herself to notice.

But before she could engage, the gorilla was on his butt. When Tigress looked to see what had happened, she saw Bo standing at her side, his fists poised and his leg extended in perfect form. He’d stopped the bandit with one, highly skilled kick.

“You okay?” Bo lowered his leg slowly, eyes still trained on their assailant.

Tigress’s eyes were trained on Bo. “I’m fine.”

“Good. That guy really came out of nowhere.”

Almost as if in response, the bandit rose up again, spitting out a mouthful of blood (and a single tooth). He let out a mighty scream and rushed at the panda again. Usually, Tigress would jump in to defend someone helpless and innocent, but it didn’t seem like Bo was as helpless as she might have believed. Pandas weren’t known for their combat prowess (although little was known in general), but he fought with the ferocity of one hundred men.

His style was unusual, to be sure, but effective. He was adept at using his weight to his advantage, and the foundation of his kung fu was strong. The bandit didn’t stand a chance. He spun in an aimless circle as Bo danced around him, taking him down, one swift move at a time. With one, final full-body assault, the gorilla flew back into the dirt and clonked his head soundly on a rock. He passed out again. This time, it would probably take much longer for him to get up.

“I never got the point of being a bandit,” Po said jovially as he readjusted his bag and hat. He talked like he hadn’t just beaten a man to a pulp with his bare hands. “You just wait in the trees until, what? Someone comes by and-”

“How do you know these moves?” Tigress interrupted.

Bo seemed taken aback. He faltered for a second, trying to find his words. Then, he smiled a little bit.

“The Dragon Warrior,” he explained. “He taught me. Well, he taught the Panda Village so that we wouldn’t all get, you know, killed by Kai. You didn’t know that?”

“Is it common knowledge?”

“I mean… When the Dragon Warrior saves his entire race from being wiped out, news tends to travel, you know?”

“Apparently not in prison.”

Bo’s smile twitched downward, and he let out a soft, awkward chuckle. “Right…” After a moment, he cleared his throat. “So, you were in prison.”

“I…” Tigress had forgotten that, apparently, Bo didn’t know who she was. How could he judge her for not knowing something when he so obviously had been living under a rock? Though, she supposed if he grew up in a hidden village in the mountains, he likely wouldn’t have had a chance to learn about her and her reputation. Eventually, Tigress continued, “Yes. I was recently… liberated.”

“Congrats,” Bo said. It seemed sincere, and his smile was staggering. All of this kindness, coming out of one person. It was hard for Tigress to comprehend, and that much harder for her to handle.

“I lost over three years of my life in that place,” Tigress grumbled. “What is there to congratulate.” She stared down at the still-unconscious bandit at her feet. She felt a flare of anger and kicked him soundly in the stomach. It made her feel a little better, although she was aware of how dishonorable it was. She hadn’t fought with honor in a very long time. Not since she destroyed two innocent villages in a rage. Tai Lung’s teachings made her strong, but she still felt empty.

“Well… I’m sorry about that too. That sucks.” Bo discreetly led her away from the gorilla. Likely, he didn’t want her to kick him again. She allowed herself to be distracted.

“Yes.” Tigress nodded stiffly. “It does suck.”

🐉🐉🐉

“My dad used to make this all the time.” Bo was leaning over a steaming pot of noodle soup, suspended over his campfire. Tigress had tried to set up camp by herself—in a tree, away from danger, and ready to pounce at any time.

But Bo, predictably, insisted that she at least join him for dinner. He’d come prepared, with all sorts of spices and vegetables packed away in his bag. Tigress wondered if he had anything else in there. All she could see was the food. But she wasn’t complaining. The soup did smell amazing, and even she couldn’t deny that.

“I told you that I am fine.” Even as she said it, her stomach protested with a low growl. Tigress crossed her arms over her hanfu.

“Okay, you say that. But when was the last time you had a real meal?” Bo stared up at her with his smiling, green eyes. He was daring her to protest.

Tigress sighed to announce her annoyance but didn’t argue again. He was good. Somehow, he could tell that she hadn’t eaten anything substantial since her escape. She’d been living off of scraps and tea which was all she could afford on a prisoner’s salary (that being all that she was able to steal from the guards at the jail before she made her escape).

She sat quietly until Bo handed her a bowl of the soup. The bowl was scorching hot and would have burned anyone else, but Tigress held it like it was cool to the touch. She blew a few times before taking a sip, and she almost choked on the flavor.

It was good. Extraordinarily good, in fact. Prison food was vile, but even before that, Tigress hadn’t had very many good meals. Shifu wasn’t much of a cook, and neither was she. And she and Tai Lung lived in a cave for years before he died and she went on her rampage. Needless to say, neither of them had time to cook decent meals.

Tigress never knew that food could taste like this—that it could do more than just fill someone up. This noodle soup tasted like joy, and Tigress hadn’t realized that she still knew what that felt like. Had she ever felt anything like this? Maybe once. When Shifu first took her home. But that happiness faded far too quickly. Tigress frowned down at the soup.

She didn’t say any of this, of course. Instead, she calmly ate, and offered Bo a small, acceptable compliment. “This is a fine meal,” she said.

“Aww, thanks,” Bo answered, grinning. He scooped himself a bowl as well and settled down on the ground across the fire from her. He sighed contentedly and took a long, slow sip. “Though, you should taste my dad’s soup. It’s probably the best soup in the whole world.”

Tigress imagined what his dad might look like. Probably tall, like him. Probably big. As she imagined this panda, she felt a shock of jealousy shoot through her. She curled her fingers against her bowl. The topic of fathers was a bit touchy.

“He owns this totally awesome noodle restaurant,” Bo explained. “I used to be the actual worst at cooking, but then Dad taught me almost everything he knows.”

Tigress scratched on the bowl, leaving a small gouge along the side. “I envy you,” she said suddenly. It surprised her, what she said. She didn’t mean to, but what she had been thinking just slipped out.

Bo looked at her for a moment and tilted his head. “Why?”

“Hm…” Tigress set her bowl down and drew her knees up to her chest. She glared into the fire, watching the way the flames danced around in their dizzying bouquet. She thought about not answering, but she had a feeling that Bo would tease everything out of her anyway. “I haven’t had much luck when it comes to fathers.”

“Oh…” Bo finished off his own soup and put the bowl off to the side. Hesitantly, he scooted a little closer, around the fire, so that he was sitting next to, as opposed to across from, her. “Wanna talk about it.”

“No.”

“Okay.”

They sat in silence. The crickets were loud tonight, and they filled the air with their music. Fireflies drifted in the air lazily, and one landed softly on the rim of Tigress’s bowl. She watched it flash on and off, glowing in a careful pattern with the hope of finding a mate.

“It’s not the same,” Bo started again, “but things haven’t always been so easy for me either. In the parent department.” His tone was shockingly tender, and it made Tigress look up at him.

The panda was staring into the fire like she had been, thinking. She hadn’t noticed before, but there was pain in his face. She could tell that, at one point, he’d been deeply trouble, but that he’d recently found peace. Inner peace… It was written all over his expression. Still, there was a story there. She didn’t have to ask for it—he gave it willingly.

“Have you heard about the raid on the panda village?” Bo asked. “Led by Lord Shen?”

“Of course.” She’d been imprisoned in Gongmen City when Shen himself had forcibly taken over. The crazy peacock even found her down in the dungeons underneath the palace in hopes of recruiting her for his cause. She didn’t like him. Tigress was aware that it was hypocritical of her, but she didn’t like how he bragged over destroying innocent lives—he spoke about his conquest over the pandas as if it was a badge of honor. When she refused to destroy kung fu with him, he left her to rot. Still, she partially had him to thank for her escape.

“My mother died that night,” Bo said quietly. “And I got separated from my dad.”

“But you said-”

“My birth father,” Bo clarified. “The noodle dad is my adoptive dad.”

“Your birth dad didn’t go to the Secret Village with you?”

Bo paused, like he was stumped for a second. Tigress hadn’t felt suspicious of him for a while now, but that hesitation struck her as strange.

“He got lost along the way,” Bo added. “Took him a while to find me again.”

That sounded enough like the truth. Tigress decided to file her suspicion away for now. After all, this Bo was still a talented fighter. Perhaps he could aid her the next time she encountered a master sent to stop her from reaching her destination.

“Finding out that I was adopted was rough. Super confusing.”

“I can imagine,” Tigress said.

“Eventually, I figured it out.”

“How?”

“How what?”

Tigress let out an exasperated sigh. “How did you come to terms with it all? How can you be here, smiling, after all of that?”

Bo smiled down at her. “An old goat once told me, ‘Your story may not have such a happy beginning but that does not make you who you are, it is the rest of it—who you choose to be.’”

Tigress considered this for a moment. When she didn’t answer, Bo leaned in a little and nudged her with his elbow. “So, who do you choose to be?”

“I…” Tigress shook her head grimly. “I’m not sure.”

Who was Tigress? Without the labels? Underneath it all. When she wasn’t Shifu’s failure of a student. When she wasn’t Tai Lung’s weapon. When she wasn’t the criminal who burned down villages in a blind rage. When she wasn’t the monster. Maybe that was what she was, when you boiled her down to her most basic parts—just a monster.

“You don’t have to know right now,” Bo said suddenly. He was so patient, and so sickeningly nice. It made Tigress feel awful and fuzzy inside. “Nobody can tell you what you should be, you know? That’s the whole point. You’ve gotta choose it. But I’ll stick around while you figure it out.”

“Stick around?” Tigress almost laughed. “Nobody has ever stuck around for me before.”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

Tigress felt herself smiling, despite herself. It was so unpracticed that it almost hurt. But at the same time, being able to smile was a gift she never expected. Bo was something special. Maybe she could do with keeping him around for a while.

Chapter Text

“You’re telling her way too much about yourself, Po,” Crane’s admonishment was quiet, but stern. “She’s going to find you out.”

“I have to get her to open up to me somehow,” Po argued. Sure, mentioning his family history was a little bit risky, but he couldn’t stop himself. Tigress just looked so sad. She didn’t even have one dad, and he had two. Actually, she maybe sort of had three (Po wasn’t sure if she considered Shifu or Tai Lung fathers?), but she lost every single one of them, one way or another.

For some reason, Po wanted to comfort her. She was a “bad guy,” but Tigress didn’t really feel like a bad person. She was carrying a lot on her shoulders, and even though she was supposed to be the villain in this story, Po could relate to her. Even though he said that it was for the mission, Po knew that it was a lie. And he was starting to feel bad about lying to her too.

This undercover thing was a lot harder than he thought.

Po and Crane were talking at the edge of a rice field, under the guise of asking for directions to the nearest inn. Crane was undercover too, dressed up as a humble farmer. It was effective. Without his hat, Crane didn’t look anything like the fierce warrior that Po knew he was. And with that rake clutched in his foot, he just looked so mundane. It was kind of awesome.

Tigress was standing farther down the road, staring out at the rolling, water-logged rice paddies. She wasn’t listening. 

Crane stole a glance over at Tigress and shivered all the way from the tip of his beak to his feet. “Have you learned anything useful, at least?”

Po hesitated. He thought about explaining that he didn’t think she was so bad. That she seemed lonely and sad, and that she didn’t seem at all interested in hurting random people. She didn’t even seem that excited about the idea of meeting with Shifu again. That was probably why she was taking so long. She really was different from what the stories said, and Po wondered if she would willingly come to the Jade Palace, peacefully, to talk things over.

But that was just silly. Instead, Po said, “Apparently, Shen tried to recruit her.”

“When he took back the city?”

“Yep.” Po shrugged.

“Huh...” Crane considered it for a moment. He passed his rake from one foot to the other. “I’m surprised she didn’t join him.”

“Apparently, she wasn’t down with him, you know, murdering a bunch of pandas, destroying innocent people’s lives, and trying to destroy kung fu.”

“I don't see what that has to do with her making her way to the Jade Palace, though.”

“I was actually thinking about that,” Po started. “Maybe we could figure something else out? Like maybe she would be willing to have a chat instead of... destroying us? What do you call that? A parley?”

Crane let out a long sigh, shaking his head. “I knew you going undercover was a bad idea.”

Before Po could ask what Crane meant by that, or even get offended, Tigress called to him. Her voice rose impatiently, “We are losing daylight, Bo!”

“Bo?” Crane scrutinized Po with his eyes narrowed. “Really?”

“It’s not a bad name.”

“You’re basically asking to get caught.”

“I’ll be fine,” Po insisted. He backed away from the field and offered Crane a congenial thumbs up. “Thanks for the ‘directions,’ gentle farmer. I will be on my way.”

“You do that.” Crane turned away, shaking his head again. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. He began dragging his rake uselessly around in the rice patty water.

Po ran to catch up with Tigress, who had already begun walking away. When he slowed down at her side, he panted for a few seconds before catching his breath. “Thanks for waiting for me.”

“You spoke with the farmer for quite a while.” It was hard to tell if she was suspicious, or just observing a fact.

“I’m just a friendly sort of guy.” Po shrugged, trying to seem cool and casual.

“I see.”

🐉🐉🐉

A long silence stretched out between them as they walked. Each time their conversations faltered, Po noticed that the moments of silence were becoming less and less awkward. This time, he was almost comfortable with it.

The air smelled of wet earth, and the soft sound of lapping water wafted off of the rice patties to either side. The sun was bright, but the air wasn’t hot, and Po lowered his hat to feel the light warm his scalp. Although Po disliked walking, the scenery almost made the physical labor worth it.

Eventually, Tigress spoke up again, “Are you never worried that opening up to strangers might have negative consequences?”

“Negative consequences?” Po lifted his brows. “What do you mean?”

“Strangers might be your enemies,” Tigress said. “You may provide them with a tactical advantage.”

Po shrugged. “Not everyone is out to get me.”

“It’s better to be safe than sorry, panda.”

“Maybe...” Po grinned easily. “But I like to think of strangers as friends I just don’t know yet. If I end up being wrong, I have my real friends to help me take care of it, right?”

“Are you often wrong?” Tigress’s lips quirked up into what looked a whole lot like a dubious little smile.

“All the time,” Po said proudly. “But it usually works out for me.” He noticed Tigress staring at him intensely, eyes narrowed sharply. “What?”

“The more I get to know you,” she began, “the less I seem to understand.”

Just then, someone came flying out of nowhere, blades spinning. Tigress just barely managed to evade the attacker’s foot. She side-stepped and redirected the closest blade into the ground with one hand. She looked down at the assailant. It was a Gobi bear, brandishing two large axes.

“Oh my gosh,” Po squealed. He couldn’t stop himself. “Master Bear!” They’d already met, but it was still exciting to see such an amazing warrior in person.

The bear hesitated, looking Po up and down curiously. Po realized how confusing this must be—the Dragon Warrior walking around with Tigress the prison-escapee, dressed in someone else’s clothes. Po was behind Tigress, out of her line of sight, so he held a finger to his lips and silently shushed him.

Master Bear raised his eyebrow but took the hint. He stormed Tigress again, axes raised, and Po intercepted him with his leg, swopping it around and hooking him in the torso to push him away in the other direction. As he slid past, Po whispered frantically, “I’m really sorry about this.”

“I command you to stop, Tigress,” Master Bear ordered, pointing the tip of his ax in her direction. He ax moved to point at Po next. “And I command you to stop attacking me, ‘random citizen.’”

“No can do,” Po said, trying to sound like he wasn’t freaking out over going toe-to-toe with Master Bear. “This here is my friend, and I won’t go down without a fight.”

“Enough of this.” Tigress was by Master Bear’s side in a flash. She struck him in the ribs with a double palm strike and he flew sideways, blown away by her unbelievable strength. “I advise you to stay down.”

But the master did not stay down. He hoisted himself up using his axes and shook his massive head as he faced the tiger and her companion. His eyes shifted between the two of them, and then he barreled forward, slow at first, but gaining momentum quickly. Tigress jumped, seeming to float off of the ground, and gracefully backflipped over him. She kicked backwards with her foot and sent the bear sprawling into the dirt face first.

Before he could get his footing again, Tigress’s heel came down on the back of his head, knocking him out cold. She looked ready to strike again, but Po stopped her by placing a hand on her elbow. “Let’s move,” he said. “Master Bear hardly moves solo. I wouldn’t be surprised if Master Chicken was right behind him.”

“Good point, Bo.” Tigress relaxed before shrugging him off of her elbow. “Let’s go.”

🐉🐉🐉

Luckily, the two travel companions stumbled upon an inn right before the horizon swallowed the sun. As the pair got settled in their rooms, little pin pricks of light poked through the sky. Po looked up at the stars from his window, thinking.

Today, he’d totally helped kick Master Bears butt. It was pretty cool, but he also hoped that Master Shifu would be willing to help him explain later. After everything was over and done with, of course.

Although, Po wasn’t entirely sure how this mission was going to end. He’d suggested a spy operation on a whim. He wanted to get closer to Tigress, and he had. But now that he’d been around her for a while, he wasn’t sure if there were really any evil master plans to uncover. She was just… Taking a really long walk home to fight her dad and also him (except she didn’t know it was him she wanted to fight).

Po noticed movement outside of his window, just in the corner of his eye. When he glanced over, he saw Tigress. She was bathed in the silver light of the moon. He couldn’t exactly tell what she was doing, but she could apparently feel his gaze on her. She turned around, and her orange eyes glowed up at him through the dark.

She beckoned him down with a wave of her hand, and Po swallowed a hard lump in his throat. He turned away from the window and took the stairs to the lobby, then to the yard out back.

Tigress was waiting for him at the edge of a bamboo forest which backed up neatly to the property. Po could tell that this whole place used to be overrun by vegetation, but that the owners of the inn beat it back when they erected their building here. The darkness seemed particularly heavy between the bamboo trunks, and especially around Tigress.

“Am I truly to believe that you only recently learned kung fu?” she asked, suddenly.

Po froze, hands rubbing anxiously into his belly. “What do you mean?”

“The Dragon Warrior discovered your village only last year, did he not?”

Po nodded stiffly.

“You claim to have learned from him, yet you fight with the skills of a master,” Tigress said, eyebrows furrowed. She turned to him, suddenly seeming much larger than Po, although she had always been a couple inches shorter.

“I’m a fast learner.” Po tried to make it sound like a humble brag, and he supposed that it wasn’t actually a lie. In reality, he’d only been doing kung fu for a few years. Shifu never let him forget how quickly he picked up new skills. It bothered the old master, deeply, although he still adored Po.

The panda found inner peace in a few days, when most masters spent years just trying to find the right place to meditate about it. He mastered chi in a matter of weeks. And as for the majority of his kung fu skills, he picked them up after only a handful of formal lessons. He bested the most powerful kung fu warriors in history, with barely three years under his belt.

Tigress searched his face before letting out a frustrated sigh. “Right.”

“Is that what you wanted me out here for?” Po asked. He pointed his thumb back toward the building. “Because if that’s all, I smelled dinner cooking-”

“Spar with me.” It wasn’t so much a request as it was a demand.

“Are you sure?” Po looked Tigress up and down as he instinctually began to shake out his joints. He hopped from foot to foot, reluctantly preparing for some sort of fight. “I don’t know if that’s a very good idea.”

“If you are worried about hurting me, I assure you that it won’t happen.”

“What?” Po laughed loudly and clarified, “No, actually. I’m more worried that you’ll hurt me.”

Tigress smirked at him. “That may be more likely of an outcome.” She tucked one hand behind her back and stood sideways, her other hand extended toward Po in a readied stance.

“Oh, goodie.” Po smiled back, despite the fear mounting in his stomach. It was a friendly sparring session, but sparring with Tigress seemed like he was just asking her to break every bone in his body. He shifted into a stance as well.

Tigress sprung at him first, running on all fours. Po’s smile faded as he evaded her with a small yelp. He ducked underneath her as she jumped and came up on the other side on his knees, panting. She was fast. A lot faster than him.

“Not bad, panda.” Tigress didn’t give him a chance to stand up. She aimed a kick at his head (strong, but obviously playful because it was nowhere near the strength of the way she kicked Master Bear earlier), and Po blocked the assault with his forearm.

The power of the kick sent a shockwave through his entire body, but he got over the stinging pain and grabbed Tigress’s ankle with his free hand.

He tried to use her leg as leverage to topple her to the ground, but she bent her knee to her chest and drew him closer. Their faces were moments apart and Tigress gave Po a smug smile. “Am I really supposed to believe that you’ve been doing this for a year?”

“Well…” Po belly gonged her away and let go of her leg. “If I’m being honest, I may have been doing it longer than that.”

Tigress stabilized elegantly, sliding backwards in the grass. “Is that so?” She managed to get Po’s arm and took him down to the ground. She loomed over him, foot pressed into his chest.

Po caught his breath as he looked up at her. Tigress was resplendent in the cool light of nighttime, and Po suddenly realized that this undercover thing really was a very, very bad idea. He liked her. Like… A crush?

Po tried not to let that realization show on his face.

He smiled. “Pandas have always been masters of chi. It’s part of kung fu, you know?”

“So you were interested in reconnecting with your people’s history?”

Po’s smile stiffened a little. He was lying. Everything between them was a lie. Was it even right to have feelings for her, if everything she knew about him was fake? It felt wrong. And not to mention that she was Tigress. The Dragon Warrior having feelings for a bad guy? Shifu would probably have a heart attack.

“Yeah…” He tapped out on her leg and Tigress let him go. He grunted as he sat up and stared into a patch of dark green grass. “You could say that.”

Tigress sat down next to him, legs extended forward and crossed at the ankles. “I never thought that I would enjoy having a friend.”

Po’s heart skipped a beat. He glanced at her sideways and forced his smile again. “I’m your friend?”

“I haven’t had many,” she admitted. “But I’d like to think so.”

“Well… Thanks.” Po was genuinely flattered. But it still felt bad. She’d find out who he was eventually, and when she did, would she still think of him as a friend? Or would he only make things worse? She wasn’t a villain now, not really, but finding out her first friend was just a spy? That might break her completely.

Chapter Text

The panda’s leisurely pace was welcome. This whole time, Tigress had been trying to find lame excuses to justify her snails-speed descent on the Jade Palace. Now, she was traveling with a guy who was perfectly capable of moving quickly but seemed to prefer taking his sweet time.

They stopped for camp every night and sat down for every meal. In this moment, he was stopping to wash some of his dishes, and his clothes.

Tigress looked at the river they’d found. It was more of a brook, and it burbled through a sparse section of a mossy forest. The emerald green ground was dim in the shaded light, but the area was anything but dull. The water smelled cool, and the rocks underneath the slow-moving current were shimmery wet. The brook was probably deeper than it looked.

Tigress settled down carefully on a slippery, algae-coated rock to rest.

Bo took off his backpack and opened it up. He started digging inside with one arm and taking out whatever pots and pans he deemed dirty enough to wash. When he started extracting his clothes, he glanced at Tigress. “Anything you want to wash while we’re here?”

“I was in prison,” Tigress said blandly. She gestured toward her hanfu shirt and pants. “What I am wearing is what I was arrested in.”

“So...” Bo kneeled down in front of the stream and started scrubbing a pair of pants on a rock. “You’ve been wearing that same outfit for how long?”

She glared at him. “I did not have much of an option.”

“Here.” Bo dug into his bag and pulled out a shirt and pants. “They’ll be big, but the pants have a drawstring.”

Tigress scowled with mild disgust. “I’m not wearing your dirty clothes.”

“These ones aren’t dirty,” he insisted. “This way, you can have clean stuff later. Or do you want to keep walking around smelling like a prison cell?”

“Hm.” Tigress thought for another moment but then snatched the clothes out of Bo’s hands. She trudged behind a nearby tree to change.

“It’s okay to let people help you out,” Bo called after her.

She grunted irritably and drew his large shirt on over her head. The garment seemed strangely new for a traveler, as if it had never been worn at all. The same went for the pants. She sniffed the outfit once but decided that she was being unnecessarily cautious and stopped.

“Everyone who has ever helped me has betrayed me,” she said blandly, fiddling with the loose collar of the shirt. She had to tie it in a knot around her waist to make it fit. She picked up the pants next and considered them with narrowed eyes. She had doubts that these would stay on, even with the drawstring. At least there was a tail hole already.

“That doesn’t mean everyone you meet will be bad.”

Tigress emerged from behind the tree, makeshift outfit hanging loosely off of her lean frame. “I prefer not to take my chances.”

“That sounds pretty boring to me.” Bo was scrubbing his pots between pants. “And lonely.”

She tossed her balled up clothes at him and he caught them in one hand without looking. His instincts and reflexes were great. Strange panda.

Tigress sat next to him on the same rock from before, but this time she let her foot dangle in the water.

“Being alone is the only way to stay safe in this world,” Tigress said.

“I don’t know about that.” Bo dunked her clothes in the stream and rung them out carefully in his hands. He got to work on washing. “My friends always get me out of tight spots. If I didn’t have them, I’d probably be dead 100 times over by now.”

“Do you often get yourself into danger?” Tigress lifted an eyebrow. “Is the Panda Village that hazardous?”

“More like…” He seemed to think for a moment. “More like I always find ways to get myself into trouble. Or it finds me. Honestly, I can’t tell. Sometimes, it feels like every crazy thing in the universe is drawn to me.”

“It sounds like you of all people should be wary of danger.” Tigress couldn’t help but chuckle. This panda was so optimistic, he seemed almost fake. Like he was some perfectly happy-go-lucky fairytale character.

“I avoid it when I can.” Bo laughed too. He took a break from washing for a moment to look back up at her. He placed a wet hand on the rock, right by her thigh. “But my friends have been there for me. You just have to find the right people.”

“You’re lucky, panda.” Tigress sighed. She smiled sadly. She hated the feeling, so she frowned instead and furrowed her brows. “You’ve always had someone. A father… Friends.”

“Well…” Bo tapped the rock thoughtfully. He looked past Tigress, smile fading a bit. “My friends didn’t always care about me. It took a lot to get them to trust me. Actually, it took a lot for them to even like me.”

“They thought I was useless,” he continued after a pause. “They even wanted to get rid of me. And they tried too. So you could say that they were pretty mean at first.”

Tigress was shocked. “And you still had the patience to stay?” He had the stamina to stick around people who actively disliked him. Long enough for them to become his close friends. Tigress couldn’t imagine enduring that sort of treatment. In fact, she couldn’t endure it. It was why she left.

“I just showed them that I was okay being me,” Bo said. He shrugged, smiling a self-satisfied smile that made Tigress feel strangely warm inside. “I brought something to the table, and what they all saw as flaws were actually my greatest strengths.”

“Huh…” Tigress pulled one knee up and rested her chin on top. “Although, you are a big, fluffy panda. Your ‘flaws’ are rather… cuddly.”

“Well, your ‘flaws’ are pretty cool,” Bo retaliated jokingly. He returned to the laundry with a grin. “Whoever told you otherwise must have been pre-tty dumb.”

Tigress laughed at that. And not a small chuckle either. She laughed with her whole body. That was never something she’d had the privilege of doing before, and it felt good, like opening the blinds on 100 years of darkness. She slid off of her rock and got down on the ground next to Bo. She took a shirt from his hands and started helping him with the washing. As she did, their shoulders bumped, over and over. Tigress didn’t mind the physical contact.

“I’m almost sad that this journey is nearing its end,” Tigress said after a moment.

Bo paused next to her. “Yeah…” He slowly looked over.

“What?” Tigress asked, staring at him.

“Nothing.” Bo fidgeted with a loose thread on the pants he was washing. “Just hoping that you have a good visit with your… dad.”

“I see…” There was something else bothering him, but she decided not to push. After all, they needed to finish up their laundry and make camp for the night. There was only one more day of travel to go before they reached the Valley of Peace, and Tigress needed all of the rest she could get before facing her fate.

For one more night, just one more, Tigress could enjoy this time with Bo. And after that, she got to keep him as a memory. That wasn’t so bad, really.

🐉🐉🐉

Tigress could see the Jade Palace now. It sat on its mountaintop, staring down at the valley, smug and glittering green in the morning sun. A rock fell into her belly. She was here. There was no more stalling.

Bo let out a long, comfortable sigh at her side. He looked around the town with a calm familiarity that made Tigress a little anxious. Of course he knew the place. He said himself that he’d visited the Dragon Warrior here before, but there was something about Bo’s body language that seemed… Off. As if he’d returned home from a long journey, instead of arriving at a destination.

Tigress couldn’t explain it, but her suspicions about the panda slowly creeped back. This time, she actively ignored it. She didn’t want to question him. After all, she’d claimed him as a friend, and she didn’t want to ruin that by being paranoid.

She was feeling anxious now, in general, looking over her shoulder at every sound. No doubt Shifu had received word of her escape. He was probably receiving updates on her every move. His so-called Furious Four, and the Dragon Warrior, were going to be waiting for her. The question was, when would they make their move?

She thought about telling Bo to expect some trouble, but before she could say anything, a goose came out of a nearby shop and beamed at Bo. As he waddled over, Bo’s eyes widened. Quickly, the panda put a hand on Tigress’s shoulder and lead her in the opposite direction.

“What are you doing?” Tigress demanded. She dug her heels in and stopped their retreat.

“That guy is, um… He really doesn’t like me, yeah,” Bo said. It didn’t sound very convincing. “Last time I was here, he hit me with a pan and-”

“You’re lying,” Tigress observed. She could feel his sweaty hands pressing into her back, and the way his gaze shifted around anxiously. “Who is he really?”

“Look,” Bo started. “There’s something I should-”

“Po!” The goose was suddenly in front of them. “What do you think you’re doing? Running from-”

Suddenly, Bo scooped the goose up and gently pinched his beak closed with two fingers. “Told you he doesn’t like me too much.”

“He called you Po.” Tigress watched the bird squirm in the panda’s arms. He was still speaking somehow, mumbling unintelligibly through his closed mouth.

“Whaaaat?” ‘Bo’ laughed nervously. He made a little raspberry sound with his mouth as he shook his head. “No he didn’t. You just heard wrong. It’s a really similar name-”

The goose got his mouth free and continued his tirade, “How could you do this to your own father? I thought I raised you better than that.”

“Father?” Tigress took a step back. She looked the panda up and down, taking him in with new eyes. It was always possible that the goose was simply delusional, but all of her suspicions about her traveling companion were right there, sitting behind a thin veil that she’d simply been ignoring.

His story about where he came from was vague and inconsistent, his kung fu prowess was unexplainable, and he was invested in her life for some unknown reason. Why would some stranger care about Tigress’s journey? Upon reflection, Tigress knew that she had been very, very stupid.

“I want the truth,” she demanded. “Is this man truly your father?”

The panda sighed. He slowly set the goose down and nodded. “He is… I think I mentioned my, uh, adoptive dad?”

“You said he was a panda.”

“That was a lie…” he admitted. “And my name is really-”

“Po!” another voice interrupted. A crane descended from the sky, landing between Tigress and “Po” in the street. The goose let out a yelp, finally done talking, and dove back into his store. It was a noodle shop, Tigress noticed. At least that part hadn’t been a lie. Although, Tigress wasn’t sure if it mattered what parts of her former “friend’s” stories were real or not.

The new bird, the crane, was wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and he looked awfully familiar. Tigress glared at Po. “The farmer.”

But she could tell now that he wasn’t a farmer at all. She’d seen paintings of the Furious Four before. Tai Lung made sure she was well-informed on all of the members, so she could tell that this was Crane. He and the farmer were one in the same, and Po had been talking to him—talking long and hard about something. Probably about her, she realized.

Tigress was sick to her stomach.

The rest of the four followed. Monkey, Mantis, and Viper. And when Tigress looked at Po, she knew the answer to the next question she asked—she just needed to hear him say it himself. “Who are you?”

“I am…” Po hung his head. “I’m the Dragon Warrior.”

Tigress couldn’t stop herself. She let out a blood-curdling roar and launched herself at Po. She was blind with rage. All of her precision, and her careful planning was gone. Instead, she was a wild animal, hurt and wronged. The only other time she’d felt this way was after Tai Lung’s death, back when she earned her title of monster.

Before she could reach Po, the crane intercepted her, but she swatted him away like a fly. She was strong like this, but her focus was singular. She was too distracted to notice her old master materialize behind her.

Shifu reached for her, to take her down with a nerve move, but she felt his fingertips brush her fur before he could. She dodged just in time, and continued to do so, moving backwards and away from every jab he aimed at her.

“Tigress, you don’t have to do this,” Po called from the side.

“Do not speak to me, liar,” he growled.

“Shifu,” Po switched tactics, but Shifu wasn’t listening either. Still, he tried again, “I think we can just talk stuff out! She’s not who we-”

“Tigress,” the master spoke, pointedly annoying the optimistic pleas of the panda, “come peacefully, and I will not send you back to Gongmen City.”

“Do you have a cell picked out in the palace for me?” she retaliated. She deflected his next jab and met his wrists in the middle with her own. She disengaged, flipping backwards to stand on top of a nearby veggie cart. “I’d rather die than be stuck in that building again.”

She flipped off of the cart and descended on Shifu. He moved out of the way in time, just as she landed on the cobblestones. Her attack left a crater in the street and the shockwave radiated outwards in a jagged circle. This strength was nearly supernatural, and terrified citizens watched from their windows and doorways, shivering.

Tigress could sense the other masters preparing to join the fray, but Shifu stopped them before he could with a strict order. “This is my fight,” he said. “I will take care of this.”

“Will you?” Tigress asked, incensed. Her emotions were growing larger and larger by the minute. She’d never allowed herself to feel like this before. Now it wasn’t like three years ago, like when Tai Lung Died. Back then, it was just anger. In this moment, her insides were a whirl of fear, grief, and fury, all rolled together into one, horrible mass. “Am I just another thing for you to take care of?”

Shifu was frustratingly silent. Tigress kept talking, “Is that what Tai Lung was too? Just another mistake for you to wipe away?”

When she didn’t get an answer still, she grew even more angry. She picked Shifu up by the collar, catching him by surprise, and squeezed her hand around his neck. She held him in the air, staring up at him. Her breath was coming out in thick, tired puffs. With the old man in her grip, finally, she realized that she didn’t know what to do from here.

She could kill him, but then that would only make it so that she could never live her life again. Even if she escaped from here afterwards, she would be hunted. And if no one ever found her, she would have to live with the memory of her master’s eyes staring at her as she took his life with her bare hands. Despite herself, she even thought about Po. He lied to her, but she couldn’t kill Shifu… Not in front of him.

Her life was just chapter after chapter of betrayal. Of abandonment and loss. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to take what was hers.

Slowly, her fist loosened, and Tigress dropped Shifu to the ground. As he gasped for air, she sank to her knees and held her wrists out toward her old master. She was tired of fighting. She was tired of running. She thought that, maybe, coming here and proving herself to Shifu, somehow, would fill some hole in her heart, but she was wrong.

Tigress felt emptier than ever, and she just wanted it all to stop.

🐉🐉🐉

The dungeon underneath the Jade Palace was not often seen by those other than prisoners, and even then, they rarely ever used the cells. That might have explained why the place seemed so cold and lifeless.

Tigress went willingly, and she didn’t fight when Shifu took off her cuffs either. She just sat in her locked cell, balled up in the corner. This was always her ideal position in prison—from when she was a child in the orphanage, to now. It helped to feel small, because then it was like she was too insignificant to be seen.

It was nice not being seen. For once in her life, Tigress was ready to rot away in the darkness. She should have just stayed in prison. Maybe she should have just stayed in her orphanage. Maybe then, she would have gotten used to the ache in her chest, instead of finding herself a glimmer of false hope, and then losing it all at once. This always happened, and Tigress was mad at herself for thinking she deserved anything more.

As she lay curled on the cold floor, she could feel Shifu’s eyes on her still. She had her back to him, and she didn’t have the energy to roll over to meet his gaze.

“Why did you surrender?” he asked finally. His tone was accusatory, but also extremely confused.

“Why are you complaining?” Tigress retaliated. She was speaking quietly, but the echo of the dungeon projected her voice into a normal speaking volume. “You should be grateful that I’m making this easy for you.”

“What game are you playing?” Shifu pressed. “If you think that you can take down the palace from the inside, I assure you-”

“I just want to sleep,” Tigress said. She screwed her eyes shut. “I know this is a life sentence. So please, leave me in peace.”

Shifu said nothing else. She heard his footprints retreat slowly and uncertainly. When he was gone, Tigress stayed in the same position, but she let out a long, slow breath. She belonged in a cell. There was relief in that realization, and Tigress fell asleep, eerily calm.

Chapter Text

There was something off-putting about the Jade Palace having a dungeon. It didn’t feel very harmonious, and it definitely didn’t feel like Oogway’s thing. Not to mention, it appeared strikingly newer than the other facilities in the building.  Po couldn’t help but wonder if the dungeon was added later, a contribution from another master. Thinking about it too hard made Po uncomfortable.

Technically, Shifu hadn’t given him permission to be down here. Po was pretty sure that his master could tell that he had a soft spot for their prisoner, so he had forbidden anyone, especially Po, from going to visit her. But Po was never the best at following the rules, and he didn’t see anything wrong with just sneaking down for a quick hello.

There weren’t many cells, so it was easy to find Tigress’s. He tiptoed over and stood in front of the bars, peering inside. Tigress was sitting cross-legged at the back of the cell, eyes closed, and hands folded in her lap in meditation. There weren’t any windows, so the drab cell was illuminated only by a single, bland torch, fastened to the wall outside of the cell. The torch was barely burning thanks to the damp, underground air, so Po gently blew on the flame until it grew a little stronger.

“What are you doing down here?” Tigress’s smooth voice cut through the darkness.

Po jumped, nearly knocking the torch out of its wall mount. Once he’d caught his breath, he stepped out of the light to move closer to the bars. “I just wanted to check on you.”

“Why?” Tigress glared up at him, eyes flashing like embers. “You’re the reason I’m in here.”

“Maybe not the entire reason,” Po tried. “But... Yeah. You’re right. Still, I wanted to see if you were okay.”

Tigress got up, slowly, and made her way across the cell. Her face became clearer with each step. She didn’t look too beaten up from the fight. “I’m where I belong.”

Po didn’t know what to say to that. He’d seen her illuminated by a fire, smiling and enjoying a good meal. He’d sparred with her under the shine of the moon and spoken quietly underneath the sound of wind-blown bamboo. He’d shared long stretches of silence with her on the road, smelling the warm air. He’d sat with her in tea shops, watched her laugh (rarely, but wonderfully), memorized her tiny smiles. She’d called him “friend.” How could someone like that, full of vibrant life and burning-hot purpose, belong in a place like this?

She was a phoenix trapped in a cage. It wasn’t right, and it wasn’t fair. Po wanted to say all of this, to gush about how wonderful her existence really was, but Tigress spoke before he could. “I know what I am,” she said quietly. Her hand curled around the bars of her cell. Although her voice was soft, it wasn’t weak. She wasn’t capable of weakness, no matter how vulnerable or broken down she was.

Po stepped forward. He gripped the bar too, above Tigress’s hand. “What?”

Tigress looked up into his eyes, searching the space behind his pupils. She was strong, but she was defeated. She looked like she was ready to stop fighting. “My story doesn’t have a happy beginning, and I don’t think it has a very happy ending either. I’m meant to be alone.”

“No,” Po argued. “No. Don’t say that. It’s who you choose-”

“Who I choose to be!” Tigress snapped, her throat rolling out a growl. Instantly, her voice softened again, “I know.” Her head fell forward and rested softly against the bars. “You have the privilege to choose. You have people who love you, and who would forgive you despite everything. I don’t have that luxury. No one loves me… Not anymore.”

“That’s not true.” Po couldn’t let this go. He wouldn’t. She was wrong. She was so stupidly wrong that it almost made him want to laugh. He held the bar on the other side of her head and leaned in until their faces were close. “I love you!”

Tigress reared back, like she’d been burned by hot coals. “Ridiculous.”

“Why is that so ridiculous?” Po asked. He didn’t move away. He hadn’t expected to say something like that, but it just sort of slipped out. He knew it was true, though, and he had never been one to run away from his feelings.

“Would you like me to list the reasons?”

“Maybe?” Po challenged. In reality, he could actually use an itemized list. It would help him defend his point. Right now, her reaction was a little confusing, because he could have sworn that maybe they both sort of liked each other… Just a little.

He did make her laugh, like a lot. And she didn’t mind being close to him. But then again, he could have just been reading everything all wrong? Po knew he wasn’t the best when it came to understanding social situations.

“Fine.” Tigress let go of the bars completely and paced backwards into her cell. She leaned back against the wall and let herself slide to the floor; arms crossed. “This relationship started off as a lie. You are the Dragon Warrior, the man I despise most in the world. It is because of you that I am locked up here, instead of earning back what is rightfully mine. Need I go on?”

“No,” Po said. “You need not. But I do have a question for you.”

“What?” she hissed.

“Did you even want to be the Dragon Warrior?” he asked. “At all? Was that scroll ever actually important to you? Because I don’t think it was. I think that was Tai Lung’s dream. And I guarantee that he would have used you to get it for himself in the end.”

“You don’t know that,” Tigress argued.

“Don’t I?” Po retaliated. He didn’t get angry often, but this whole conversation really, really sucked. “He came here, alone. Without you. To fight me. The moment he had an opportunity to take what he wanted, he left you behind. Why do you think he did that?”

No answer. Tigress sat with her mouth screwed shut.

“Why?” Po demanded.

“Because I wasn’t good enough!” Tigress shouted. She exploded to her feet and was suddenly at the bars again, hands reaching through to hold Po by the shoulders. Up close, Po could see that she was crying now. They were hot, fat, angry tears. Her teeth were bared. Eventually, the anger faded, and she was crying different tears. They were silent but driven by the deepest of heartbreak. Her grip on Po loosened, but she didn’t stop holding him.

“No,” Po said softly. He chanced a hug through the bars. She didn’t hit him, or move away, so he squeezed her as best he could with the cell between the two of them. “You were good enough. Tai Lung knew that.”

“If he had, he wouldn’t have left me behind,” Tigress countered bitterly.

“Tai Lung was only ever in it for one thing.” Po pulled away and looked down at her. “He was in it for himself. He just said all the things you wanted to hear. I can’t blame you for believing in his empty promises. But he was a bad dude. And what he did to you was also really, really… not good.”

Tigress dried her eyes with the heel of her palm and sighed. “How can you possibly still believe in me?”

“Because I’ve seen what you can do,” Po said. “If you’d been the one to come take me on for the scroll, you’d have won.”

Tigress couldn’t bring herself to smile, but things between them seemed less tense now. Although, there was that love confession still hanging between them. Po couldn’t believe he’d said that out loud. Everyone he knew would freak if he admitted his feelings. He’d never had a crush in his life, and here he was with one on the most wanted woman in all of China.

Eventually, Po spoke, “And I am sorry.”

“About?” Tigress looked up at him.

“For lying about who I was.” Po met her gaze. “I’m sure that doesn’t make me an easy person to trust. But I promise that from now on, it’s gonna be all Po. 100%, unedited, real.”

“Well…” Tigress sighed. She slipped her hand between the bars and found his. She squeezed gently. Or, at least as gently as she could manage. Po still winced at her grip strength. “If you had told me who you were, I probably would have attacked you.”

Po swallowed a lump in his throat. He couldn’t tell if it was because of the handholding or the image of her absolutely beating him into a pulp. Either way, he squeezed her hand in return.

“And I meant what I said about sticking around,” he added. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be alone. So I hope you can stop thinking that, maybe. Whatever you choose, we’ll make sure the world accepts it, okay?”

“And if I choose to go back to a life of crime?” Tigress half-joked.

“Then I guess I’ll dust off my old alias and hit the road.”

Tigress finally did smile, and it was affectionate and warm. “You are a ridiculous panda.”

“I know.” Po chuckled. “I get that a lot.”

Even with the bars, they were so close. And Tigress was always full of surprises—one step ahead of everyone else. She leaned as far forward as she could, hooking the back of Po’s neck with one hand, and their noses smooshed together softly as she kissed him.

Po almost pulled back, thinking about what would happen if anyone saw them like this. He pushed the thought out of his mind. He wasn’t letting this go. He wasn’t letting her go. She wanted to change, and he wanted to be there with her every step of the way. And if she reciprocated the embarrassing, confusing feelings that he’d been having, then Po wasn’t about to put up a fight.

Chapter Text

Tigress came to expect visits from Po. No one else came by.

She spent most of her days training her mind and her body. Push-ups, meditation. She wasn’t planning to escape this time, but she wasn’t going to let herself become complacent and lazy. For once, however, she was allowing herself a rest.

Her eyes were closed, and she was reclining calmly on her cot. It was uncomfortable in the cell (cold, wet, and dark), but having Po on her side made it a lot easier to cope with it all. And she was used to living in less-than-optimal situations.

Suddenly, footsteps echoed from down the hall. Tigress’s ears pricked up at the sound. They didn’t belong to Po: they were far too small. Tigress opened her eyes, but stayed where she was. She knew it was Shifu before he even spoke.

“I advise you to leave Po alone.” Shifu’s voice was measured and calm.

“You discovered his visits?” Tigress mused.

“Indeed.” Shifu frowned. “And this is your only warning.”

“I didn’t ask him to visit me.” She swung her legs off of her cot and sat on the edge, arms folded over her lap. “Maybe you should keep a better eye on him.”

“Tigress...” Shifu sighed. He didn’t sound angry, but rather sad and tired.

Tigress stared at him. The old man had changed since she last saw him. He seemed less tortured. More patient. Tigress felt a small twinge of resentment pricking at her stomach.

“You don’t have to worry about your precious Dragon Warrior,” Tigress said finally. She stood from her cot and strolled over to the bars of her cell. She sat down on her knees so that she was at Shifu’s eye level. “He is too good to follow my path.”

Just thinking about the panda made Tigress almost smile. She was deeply fond of him. She did kiss him after all. These feelings were something much stronger than just neutral affection. Thinking of Po, between his semi-frequent visits, kept her warm and hopeful. She hadn’t felt hope in a very long time, and she had never known a person who elevated her mood like Po did, just by existing. Tigress was baffled by this, truly. He had lied to her and been sent to capture her. But his apology resonated inside of her like a gong, and she believed him when he said he loved her. He might have lied, but he wasn’t a liar.

Shifu’s eyes grew wide as he gazed at her. He stepped back, gripping Master Oogway’s staff in both hands. “You love him.” He spoke as if the world was shattering at his feet, and as if he was about to shatter along with it.

Tigress frowned and turned her head to the side, staring at the dark stone of her cell wall. “Love… What is love, really?” she asked, rhetorically. “I know I care for Po. But once, you cared for me too. Yet, you did not love me.”

“That is not-”

“I’m tired of empty promises,” Tigress interrupted. “If you do not mean it, do not tell me what I say is false.”

“I do mean what I say,” Shifu argued, stubbornly. “I did love you, although I did not show it. The same as I loved Tai Lung.”

“Yet you failed us both.” Tigress had always accused herself of failing Shifu, never the other way around. But now, admitting her old master’s mistakes, she felt a surge of satisfaction hit her in a calm, cool wave. After a moment, she asked, “If you loved me, why did you drive me away?”

“I was…” Shifu searched for his words, eyes flicking down to stare at the ground. “I was scared.”

“Yes, I understand that.”

“Not of you,” Shifu clarified. “Although I understand why you might have thought that. I saw great power in you. I thought that I could change things, make you the person I thought Tai Lung should have been, if only it hadn’t all gone so wrong.”

Tigress slowly reached up to hold the iron bars in front of her. She listened with bated breath, unsure of what to do. Shifu was admitting that he’d hurt her. Would she accept it? Would she ignore his shame?

He continued, “But you were more similar to him than I ever could have imagined. The only way I thought to prevent your fates from becoming one in the same was to force you to be more like me. I feared that my teachings were flawed, so I focused on control, in hopes that you would maintain the delicate balance within your soul.” There was a long pause, and a painful sigh escaped Shifu’s lips. His hand rose to rub the space between his eyes and ears.

“Evidently, my teachings were still flawed. I should have treated you with kindness and patience, instead of treating you like a criminal waiting to happen. I thought I could take you away from the people who called you a monster, but I’m sure I only reinforced it.”

He paused for a very long moment. “I am sorry.”

Tigress had been holding her breath, and she let it out in a long, low hiss. She could hardly find space for her lungs in her chest, and her heart thumped painfully against her ribcage. She wasn’t sure if she could forgive her old master just yet, but something was different. Different about the way he though. About the way he carried himself in the world.

“It was Po, wasn’t it?” She could see it written across his face, like with the panda before. He had achieved inner peace, somehow.

Shifu looked up slowly, confused.

“The Shifu I knew would never have apologized to me,” she said. “He never would have even admitted his faults.”

“You would be correct.” He exhaled a quiet, affectionate chuckle. “That panda… He has a way of making people see the best in themselves, even if he doesn’t always recognize his own greatness. He made me realize that heroes can come in all shapes and sizes. My way is not always the way.”

“I only wish Tai Lung could have seen this too. Seen how you’ve changed.”

Shifu’s faint smile faded, eyebrows creasing in the middle. “He did…”

Tigress blinked. “What do you mean? He was destroyed by the Dragon Warrior.”

“Before that, I fought him as well.” Shifu shook his head sharply, backing away like he was afraid. Bad memories. “He nearly killed me. As I lay there by the Moon Pool, I realized that he already had become everything I told him to be. I realized how cruel I had been.”

“What did you do then?”

“I told him I was proud.” Shifu’s eyes grew wet. “And that I was sorry for what I had done.”

“He didn’t care…” Tigress said. “Did he?”

He nodded grimly. “I do not blame him.”

Tigress held her hands in her lap and thought. She thought about Tai Lung and how he had left her. She thought about how he had a chance to let go of his grudge and choose a new path. She thought about how she sealed her own fate when she went on her rampage in the mountains.

The news of Tai Lung’s death at the hands of the Dragon Warrior reached her three days after it happened. She was shopping for food, having come down the mountain for her monthly supplies run. She overheard a duck reveling in Tai Lung’s defeat, and she grew so angry that she nearly broke the little bird’s neck. Her rage persisted, and by the time she realized what she had done, she had already laid two communities to waste. Her anger only surged again when people came to take her away to prison. She fought until she had to be subdued with acupressure cuffs, and she stayed extremely angry for the next three years, her chi constantly blocked. It wasn’t until she escaped that this anger subsided. But by that point, she was already on the way to Shifu.

She was glad that she’d been distracted by Po.

“I know the things that you have done,” Shifu interjected, as if he saw all of her memories rushing through her head. She peered up at him. “But if the panda has imparted a change in you as well, I’m sure we can all learn to forgive.”

“Of the people who I have hurt?” Tigress asked dubiously. “Will they forgive me too?”

“I cannot speak for others,” Shifu continued. “But I can speak for myself. It is about time I made good on my promise to you. I adopted you, and you are my daughter. I will give you whatever life you want.”

Tigress swallowed once, then twice. Her mouth was so dry. It would take a while, and a lot of healing, but this joy she felt… It was real. And in the future that she saw for herself now, there was no room anymore for Tigress the monster. There was only room for her—Tigress the survivor, Tigress the fighter, Tigress the loved.

Chapter Text

Po and the Four were training outside for once (sparring drills; Po paired with Monkey, Viper with Crane, and Mantis taking his turn as informal referee), to enjoy the recent shift to nice, spring weather. But Po’s attentions were not focused on the peach blossoms, or the golden warm sunshine. His mind was stuck in that cold, lifeless dungeon underneath the palace. Tigress was missing this. Po loved Monkey like a brother, but he could have been sparring with her, like back at the inn. He could have been looking at these blossoms with her. Instead, he was up here… And she wasn’t.

Readjusting to the Jade Palace hadn’t been so tough. It’s not as if Po had been gone that long, but still… It was weird not having Tigress to talk to.

He knew he shouldn’t miss her. This had been the plan all along, but after that conversation, and that kiss, Po could barely focus on anything at all. Did it really matter that they both like-liked each other, when Tigress was stuck in jail for who knows how long? Would he ever be able to hold her hand without a set of bars between them?

With all of these thoughts swirling in his black and white head, Po was in total autopilot mode. Monkey was the first to notice his distractibility, and used it to his advantage. He swept his tail underneath Po’s legs, and the panda fell, groaning, onto his back.

“Monkey wins that one,” Mantis announced.

Po sighed. “Yep. Good one.” He was trying to sound cheerful, but his voice came out quiet and melancholy.

“Okay, what is going on with you?” Monkey asked as he helped Po to his feet. He leaned forward on his knuckles and peered uncertainly up at his friend. “You would usually never let me get you with that move.”

“I’m fine,” Po tried. He definitely didn’t feel fine. “I think I’m still sore from walking for so long.”

“I told you to wait longer before training again,” Viper said kindly. She’d soundly beaten crane and slithered over to the pump on the other side of the courtyard to get a cool drink of water. “It’s only been a couple weeks, and you deserve a rest for your good work.”

Good work. What good work? Putting the person he’d sort of grown to love in jail? It was killing him.

Po just shrugged as he dusted off his pants. “I’ve dealt with worse.”

Just then, the doors to the courtyard creaked open. Shifu walked in first, his walking stick tapping softly against the hard ground. Po peered up at him. He must have wrapped up his visit with Tigress. Po couldn’t help but wonder what they talked about down there. Did he yell at her? Did she yell at him? Their relationship was tense, so Po had been a little worried when Shifu announced that he was finally going to go see her.

As Po wondered, another person walked in after him. A much taller person, with many more stripes.

“Tigress?” Po squinted over at the entrance. There was no way that what he was seeing was what he was actually seeing. Shifu, walking side by side with Tigress, unshackled.

When Tigress nodded in his direction, that’s when Po realized that his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. She was actually there, walking free. The panda didn’t think. He was way too excited to stop himself.

He abandoned Monkey, who was asking him about sparring again, and ignored his indignant, “What gives?” He scrambled over to Tigress, tripping over his feet. He paused in front of her and looked her up and down. She was okay. And she was smiling (just a little).

Sure, they were supposed to be enemies. Sure, he hadn’t told the Four about his feelings (not like he ever had the opportunity). But in that moment, it didn’t matter what the reality was “supposed” to be. There was just Tigress, and Po’s joy at seeing her out of that cell again.

So, he hugged her. Tightly. He lifted her up off the ground a few inches, bringing her as close as she would let him.

There came a soft gasp from the other side of the courtyard and Po glanced toward the Furious Four. They were staring, eyes wide in shock, mouths hanging open in baffled confusion. Po glanced at Shifu next and found that he was just slowly shaking his head. He didn’t look mad. In fact, he was smiling… Sort of.

Po put Tigress down sheepishly. “Sorry,” he mumbled to her. He braced himself for her reaction.

Instead of scolding him, or hitting him, or even just glaring in his general direction, Tigress wrapped Po in a hug as well. She couldn’t quite get her arms around him, but she put up a valiant effort. She lifted him too and then spun him around. She actually laughed, and everyone else in the courtyard’s jaws practically burrowed into the floor.

“What’s going on?” Po asked, laughing too.

“We had a long-overdue conversation,” Shifu explained. “We came to an agreement.”

Tigress stepped away from Po, reassuming her normal, stoic expression. “I will repent for my crimes by serving as a warrior of the Valley.”

“What?” Mantis interjected from the side.

Everyone turned to look at him, with varying levels of wariness and trepidation.

“Mantis…” Viper started to mumble, but the little bug cut her off with a swift swish of his claw.

“No. How do we know we can trust her?” he demanded. “We all know what she’s capable of. What do we do if she turns on us again?”

“Yeah,” Crane added carefully. “This feels like a big risk. Maybe we should consider… Safer options?”

Po hated it, but they were right. None of them had any reason to trust Tigress. They didn’t know her like he did, and apparently like Shifu did. Po was glad that his master at least saw what she saw, presumably, but the Four only knew Tigress based on her powerful, dark legacy. She wanted to start a new chapter, and Po wanted to support that. But if the Furious Four couldn’t get on board with it, then she would never be able to make up for all of the stuff she needed to make up for.

“Listen…” Po stepped forward. “I spent a lot of time with Tigress, and she’s not bad. She was hurt, and that doesn’t make the things she did better, but I think she does deserve a chance to make it right.”

“So you’re willing to risk us all,” Monkey started, brow furrowed, “for her?”

Everyone was staring at him now. Po didn’t know what to say. Letting Tigress defend the Valley with them wasn’t a risk. But, of course, to the others it felt like one. The tiger was an unhinged wildcard. To them, she was one slip-up away from laying waste to the entire countryside.

“You guys know you can trust me,” Po said. He looked at each of his friends, holding careful eye contact with all of them. “So trust me when I say that Tigress won’t hurt anyone.”

🐉🐉🐉

The barracks were filled with the sounds of sleep and soft breeze. Po tried to lull himself to sleep too, closing his eyes and settling into his bed, but he always ended up opening them again. He simply couldn’t make himself drift off. He couldn’t stop thinking about Tigress. That seemed to be a common trend lately, but now he was wondering how she was adjusting to the palace.

She hadn’t been here for years, and Po was sure that the place didn’t hold very many good memories. A shameful, quiet part of him also wondered if maybe the Four had been right. Maybe she would decide that she didn’t want this life after all and turn on them. Could he blame her? After the way they treated her earlier?

Luckily, this thought was easy enough to push away. Po felt like he trusted himself enough to believe that Tigress wasn’t their enemy, and that she would never be their enemy again.

Suddenly, Po noticed a silhouette standing in front of the entrance to his room. He sat up on his bed and narrowed his eyes to peer past the veil of quiet darkness.

“Tigress?” he asked tentatively once he finally made out her shape.

“May I enter?” she asked, voice small so as to not disturb the others in their own rooms.

“Yeah…” Po scooted to the edge of his bed as she entered.

He looked up at her, waiting for her to speak. When she didn’t, he decided to break the conversation open himself.

“What are you doing here so late?” he asked in a whisper. He’d never been very good at whispering, and he heard Monkey grumble sleepily from the next room over.

Tigress slid the door closed behind her and sat down cross-legged next to Po’s low bed. “My body and mind have not adjusted to the unfamiliar surroundings.”

These rooms must have been completely new to her. According to Po’s extensive knowledge, they were built after the Furious Four were scouted, to act as a student’s barracks. Tigress must have had her own room before, in the palace.

“Trouble sleeping?” Po translated for her.

She nodded.

Po had an idea of what she was really here to talk about. The Four had reluctantly conceded to Shifu’s and Tigress’s agreement. However, their begrudging acceptance hadn’t made anything less tense. Po could have cut the bad vibes with a knife and served it up like tofu on a platter.

Before he could say anything else, Tigress surprised him again by resting her head back on his thin mattress. Her yellow eyes practically glowed as she stared at the ceiling, two smoldering points in the bluish night.

“Can you be homesick for a place that you never had?” she breathed.

“Sure,” Po said softly.

She glanced at him sideways.

“I mean… Why not?” He joined her on the floor, sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him, instead of cross legged. “Before I even knew about the Panda Village, I always felt sick for something.”

“And how did you stop feeling sick?”

“I learned about where I came from.” Po paused before smiling sadly. “But I guess that won’t work for you.”

Tigress shook her head. “I don’t even know my parents’ names.”

“Shifu never told you?”

“No one knows,” Tigress explained. She sighed through her nose. “I’ve always been searching for home, but it’s always been taken from me. I feel like I’ve survived in most places, rather than lived.”

“We can make this your home,” Po assured her.

Tigress clearly didn’t believe him. She frowned deeply and raised a skeptical brow. “The others would beg to differ.”

“I’m sure you’re tired of proving yourself,” Po said, “but just show them that they’re wrong. Like you did for me.”

“They still think of me as a monster.”

“And once they get to know you, they won’t think that anymore.”

“How do you know?” Tigress pressed. “How are you able to say such things with certainty?”

“Because I believe in happy endings,” Po said. “And I know the guys. They’ll come around. It won’t be easy, but you’re not doing this alone anymore.”

Tigress paused. Eventually, a smile broke across her face. “Yes… I keep forgetting that.”

“Even if it takes another ten years for the Four to trust you like I trust you, I’ll be there,” Po assured her. “And Shifu too. You changed his mind. You can change anyone’s.”

“I’m fairly certain that it was you who changed Shifu’s mind,” Tigress mused.

“Maybe about me, but he made up his mind about you all on his own.” Po grinned.

“And when the others do accept me as you claim they will?” Tigress continued. “Is there room for an extra warrior? After all, their name specifies that there is only four.”

“We’ll make room.” Po thought for a second. “It’ll just have to change a little. How does the Furious Five sound?”

Tigress chuckled quietly. “It sounds like you’re promising me the moon.”

“Well…” Po shrugged. He was feeling sheepish again, but he made himself look Tigress in the eyes. “Maybe you deserve the moon.”

Tigress met his gaze readily and set her hand over his. “In that case, the Furious Five sounds perfect.”