(A.N.)When I was watching the fight scene between Tai and Shifu I wondered how it was possible that Shifu's body was harder than stone. This is how Like a Rag Doll appeared in my sick head. If you read my other stories, you will think that this story is a compilation of them. The truth is that this is the first tale written by me a few months ago. I deleted it, because it was too sad and I used many of the situations in my other stories. Now I've decided to publish this one because I still remember it very well and it doesn't let me sleep at night...

I don't own any of KFP characters or locations.

"I don't want your apology... I want my scroll!" the snow leopard snarled, lifting the red panda up high. The small master squirmed, trying to free himself from the deadly grip on his throat.

"What?.." The feline's eyes widened. The Gold Dragon's jaws were empty.

Twenty years... Almost twenty years of rigorous trainings, another twenty years of living hell in that dark, damned cave in Chorh-Gom, a battle with numerous enemies and it was all for nothing! Shifu had even named him after the great dragons, he had told him the legend of the leopard Dragon Warrior, he knew his destiny! But this treachery.. it was outrageous, it was unbelievable, how could this old fool hide his Scroll from him?!

"WHERE IS IT?!" Tai Lung yelled enraged, slamming the red panda forcefully to the marble stairs.

Shifu heard a sickening CRACK somewhere under his head and neck. He felt so strong pain that his vision dimmed, but he didn't care. It was obvious now that he would not survive the fight. Now the most important thing was to keep the feline away from the villagers and the Scroll.

"Dragon Warrior has taken the Scroll halfway across China by... now." he uttered with difficulty and Tai Lung's grip tightened around his neck.

One moment...

The feline's yellow eyes flashed ominously with burning hatred. Shifu found it impossible to lift his hands and try to defend himself, but he didn't wonder why exactly it was impossible. "You will never see that scroll, Tai Lung."

Fine.. The leopard thought.

The red panda heard a sound of claws being unsheathed.

Just one more moment and it will be over.

"Never! N-never..." he whispered. He could feel only extreme fear, sadness and grief, thinking with bitterness of his own death: torn to pieces by his own son. By the same person that was once his.. kitty. Shifu almost felt the claws cutting his skin and ripping through his flesh, leaving unbelievably burning pain in him.

"Hey!"

Some familiar voice reverberated throughout the Hall of Warriors. It was the last thing Shifu heard before everything faded to black.

The only thing he could feel was a strange blockade, as if he were a part of the marble floor beneath him. He felt like a tiny creature lying in an endlessly huge, cold hall. And it was so quiet around... This moment seemed to be infinity to the small red panda.

So, this is what I will have to bear through all eternity? Is Master Oogway suffering the same? Surely not... He was never such an overbearing idiot like I was. This is all I deserve... His thoughts were flowing through his head when he was drifting in the unpleasant darkness.

"Master!.."

The same familiar voice and fast steps resounded nearby.

Po? No, it's impossible. Shifu suddenly felt very sorry for his newest student. He had just started to like him and... this all happened. Po was too good to be here, he...

"Shifu!"

oh no...

The panda fell to his knees hastily by his master's side. Master Shifu lay on his back, with his hands still unmoving, and his head was in the middle of a large crack in the stairs leading to the Moon Pool. To Po it looked like if the red panda had fallen from the very Moon. The sight before his eyes gripped his heart, making his eyes shine with tears, no matter that he had known the red panda only for a few days. He can't be still alive. Calm down, Po. He was ready, he knew...

"Shifu, say something!" Po cried, tears in his eyes, as he lifted gently his master's head with his large paw.

Shifu finally managed to crack his eyes open with considerable effort. A soft growl escaped his mouth.

He saw some golden, black and white shapes looming before his eyes. It didn't make any sense to him. As his vision slowly cleared, he recognized Po's worried face emerging from the shapes and the same gold dragon as he had known from the ceiling in the Jade Palace.

"...Po..." he whispered weakly. "I'm sorry you had to die because of my mistakes." he confessed, overwhelmed with guilt. "I'm so sorry.."

Those words were a big load off Po's mind. Maybe not everything was lost if Shifu was still alive. "No, Master! We didn't die, I defeated Tai Lung!" the panda assured quietly with a hopeful smile. "We've defended them! The village is safe!"

"Really?.." The red panda asked, still dazed. After a short while when Po nodded, Shifu pondered over something.

Twenty years... It had been twenty years of constant fear that the Nightmare he had created would come back. And now it was over. Over. And it was such an empty feeling.. But he was too tired to think of it now. Maybe Tai Lung will find peace in death... He sighed after the last thought, but that sigh was anything but an expression of solace; something was... wrong.

"Everything will be OK, Master." Po smiled warmly through his tears. He grabbed his right paw to help him get to his feet, but Shifu's paw didn't return the grasp. "Let me help you stand up." He said and carefully pulled the red panda up off the floor, but Shifu's body didn't respond, remaining limply in his hands.

Shifu's eyes widened slightly in surprise. He remembered that he hadn't been able to defend himself against Tai's grip around his neck. "I... can't." he said unsurely, trying not to believe in what might have happened.

"I know you're exhausted Master, but a doctor should... see you.. now..." Po's smile slowly fell when he realised that the moisture beneath the red panda's neck was not his sweat but a stain of blood leaking lazily into the crack in the stairs below.

"No, that's not the point... I can't move." Shifu looked up into the panda's eyes in horror, before he could finally utter the next devastating words. "I can't feel anything."