A/N: This my second official fanfic, and it is mostly going to be a 'what if?' Story. It is completely unrelated to my first fanfic called "Dark-Bright". Instead, this story will tell the tale of a-...Oh who am I kidding, I'm probably just going to spoil the story...So just read to find out…

Enjoy!

Disclaimer for this Chapter and all the rest: I do not own Kung Fu Panda

Altered Path: Recuperation

Written by: Ace_Risk

Prologue

The Bamboo forests were peaceful, as the bamboo stalks moved lightly in the wind, their leaves blew along with the light breeze. It was late afternoon in China, this was confirmed by the position of the sun in the sky, and on a pathway through the forests, two individuals walked along the dirt path carrying bundles of bamboo wood in each each of their arms. "Well that was a productive day..." One individual stated. This individual had a broad and strong build, they wore a white traditional Chinese vest along with a pair of traditional Chinese black slacks. His name was Lotus Shan, and he was a male Giant Panda with jade green eyes and a surprisingly athletic build, alongside him was his best friend and life partner Hanzo. Hanzo was also a male Giant Panda and shared a similar build to lotus albeit with slightly more weight in his gut. Though for a Panda, Hanzo looked remarkably fit. As he the two walked along the dirt pathway, Hanzo replied to his friend "that's for sure, this will be more than enough bamboo wood for the rest of the week..." Lotus nodded at this statement by his friend and the two kept walking through the forest path towards their village, neither said a word until Lotus looked up at the pathway and he said "you know Hanzo...Someday I will leave this place..." Hanzo looked over at his best friend with a slight chuckle as he said "where will you go? This life is all we've ever known. You've learned the ways of Kung Fu and you have a life as a Bamboo harvester, what else is there in the world that you could ever want?" This was all true, Lotus had learned the principles and disciplines of Kung Fu from an old tortoise named Oogway who had visited his village when he was younger, and once Oogway had left the village he had continued his training on his own. But as he listened to his friend, he realized that Hanzo was right, what was there out in the world to offer him? "I don't know Hanzo, I guess you have a point. Besides where would I go without you?" Lotus said as he looked to his side at his friend with a smile. "Exactly Lotus, we're brothers remember?" Though Hanzo said this, Lotus and him weren't actually brothers, but they were such close friends that they sometimes they referred to each other as such. Lotus smiled and nodded as he said holding his free right hand out "to the end?" The two often said this to each other, and Hanzo nodded and replied "to the end." They then grabbed each other by the wrist. (kind of like Daniels and Zussman from COD WW2) This was their custom handshake which they only ever used with one another, and it always helped to strengthen their bond together. As they let go of one another, they headed back on the way to their village carrying the bundles of bamboo wood with them.

After nearly 10 minutes of traveling back towards the village, they had almost arrived. "I hope Li gives me some free time later, it's been a tiring day for me..." Hanzo said as they were now getting quite close to the village. Lotus chuckled as he said "you just want some time so that you flirt with Mei Mei again..." At this Hanzo blushed and he deflected "wha-What!? I don't know what your talking about..." Lotus laughed again and he replied "oh calm down Hanzo, I won't tell anyone else. Plus I'm sure my Dad will give you some time off." "Thanks Lotus, but can I just ask how you knew about me having a crush on Mei Mei?" Lotus still smiled but looked back at the path as he answered his friend's question "the way you look at her mostly, but also the fact that you once talked about her in your sleep..." "Okay Lotus I get it...Just stop..." Hanzo replied as his fave had turned a light shade of red. At this, Lotus chuckled as he knew that he had embarrassed his friend. But as the two Pandas were approaching their village, Lotus stopped and began to smell something in the air. "Do you smell that?" He asked his friend who stopped along with him. "Yeah...It smells like...Burning?" Hanzo replied as he too smelled what his friend was talking about. "It's coming from the village, but I don't remember anyone saying anything about a bonfire..." But just as Lotus said this, the two saw at least several smoke stacks rising up to the sky, which were quickly followed by another 6. But just then, the two heard a loud howling sound in the distance followed by many loud screams and shouts. "Oh no..." Lotus said as he dropped the bundles of bamboo he had in his left arm to the ground. He then tensed up and said to Hanzo still looking at the rapidly rising black smoke stacks "we have to get back to the village now...Right now..." Hanzo nodded and said "common!" Then the two dropped their bundles of bamboo wood and rushed over to their village where they heard all the commotion.

But when they arrived at the village gates to the Panda village, Lotus was horrified as he saw burning buildings along with a massive pack of armed Gray Wolves carrying torches and weapons. "No..." Lotus said as he watched the Wolves throwing the torches at the buildings setting them on fire. But just as he saw the horrifying scene unfold before him, he then noticed a wolf holding a screaming Panda Cub by the head with one hand, and then the wolf plunged a sword right through the Cub's neck. Lotus closed his eyes before this happened but knew that it had happened as the screams from the cub had been silenced. Then Po said to his life partner "Hanzo, I need you to search the village for survivors and bring them to the cover of the bamboo forest!" Hanzo nodded at this and went to leave but before he went he asked "and you?" Lotus had a face of determination as he said "I'm going to distract the Wolves while you search for survivors! Now go!" At this, the two Pandas split up and Hanzo went to the west side of the village while Lotus faced the wolves head on. Lotus then stormed toward the pack of canines and he angrily yelled at the wolves who were at the center of the village "COME HERE YOU COWARDS!" As he said this, he saw the heads of the wolves turn towards him and a one eyed Wolf said to his comrades "There's another one! Get him boys!" As the leader said this, the wolves charged Lotus, he counted about 15 of them. But as they approached him Lotus got into a defensive Kung Fu stance and he quickly disarmed 5 wolves and managed to hit their pressure points which knocked them out cold. The other wolves then stopped closely to him and each took more precaution as they had seen what he had just done. The one eyed wolf watched the whole scene and he shouted at his men "Finish him! Not a single Panda in this village lives!" Lotus growled after hearing this, now he unsheathed his claws and got into an offensive Kung Fu stance, and then in the blink of an eye he charged the nearest wolf and began to block attacks made by the wolves as well as knock them out one by one. Before he knew it, he had taken out all 15 wolves which only left the one eyed boss wolf. The boss now stepped back slightly in fear from the Panda who had just taken out all of his men, but Lotus rushed and caught him by the neck yelling into the one eyed wolf's face "WHY!?" At this the one eyed wolf clutched Lotus' strong arm trying to pry it off of his neck, but it was no use as the Panda was far to strong. But then the wolf began to laugh evilly as it said "your kind will die...Lord Shen will wipe all the Pandas off the face of the earth!" Lotus now looked beyond angry as he yelled again "WHAT!? WHO'S LORD SHEN!? TALK!" The one eyed wolf laughed again as it said "you will never defeat us Panda, you and your kind will die..." Lotus was now furious as the wolf was completely ignoring his question. So in his rage, he tightened his grip on the wolf and smashed him against the ground making him yelp in pain. But once the wolf recovered it mocked him as it said "you know we'll walk again..." By this, the wolf was referring to himself and his comrades. Lotus then released the Wolf's neck and got up, looking down upon the one eyed wolf, he said "you'll walk...WITH A LIMP!" And then Lotus stomped on the wolf's leg so hard that it cracked the wolfs shin and the bone stuck out of the flesh wound. The wolf screamed in pain but was suddenly silenced as Lotus punched him in the side of the head which knocked the canine out. But as he looked upon the motionless body of the one eyed wolf, he noticed that there was a symbol on the canine's shoulder guard, it was a red eye-lie picture with red curved lines representing eyelashes.

But having silenced his enemy, Lotus looked around at the burning buildings and noticed that the house of his parents was also on fire. "Mom...Dad..." He said to himself as he ran off to the house. Once he had arrived at the house, he saw no remains of anyone, not his mother nor his father, he then began to tear up and he knelt down saying to himself "no..." But before he could continue looking for his parents, he heard a yell of pain coming from outside the village, it was Hanzo. He then got off the ground and immediately rushed over to where he had heard his friend. As he ran through the charred remains of the village he began to feel something he had never felt before, fear. He was afraid that something had happened to his life partner. After he reached the spot where he had heard the sound come from, he was beside the bamboo forest at the edge of the village. "HANZO!?" Lotus yelled out as he looked around for his friend. But he heard no reply, he could only notice a bunch of arrows on the ground and a trail of blood. Hearing no reply, he followed the trail of blood which led deeper into the forest, this was not a good sign as he had earlier told Hanzo to lead any survivors he found into this very spot to hide. "HANZO!?" Lotus yelled again trying to get a reply from his friend. But again he heard no such reply, but before he could call again, he heard a faint sound "Lotus..." Lotus heard someone call to him quietly and he immediately recognized who it was, "Hanzo!?" He then heard the faint noise speack again "Lotus...Here..." Lotus then looked down and saw a clutter of bamboo stalks and leaves in a pile, but under the pile lay the body of a Panda. Lotus then removed the clutter of leaves and branches and noticed that his friend lay on the ground clutching his chest with his paws. "I'm okay Lotus...I'm okay..." Hanzo said almost like he sounded as if he was in pain. Lotus was relived to see his friend was alive, but when he went to moved his friend's paws off of his chest, he noticed that Hanzo had been clutching his chest for a reason. His chest had been pierced by an arrow which had punctured his lung and it was quickly filling up with blood. "No...Hanzo...No..." "There were -'Cough!'- No survivors Lotus..." Hanzo said as he looked into Lotus' eyes. "I'm -'Cough!'- Sorry Lotus..." But Lotus wasn't concerned about this, as he looked down upon his friend who was quickly dying he could feel nothing else but the deepest dread. Lotus grabbed Hanzo's wrist and was about to say something when he heard Hanzo say "Go Lotus, you always wanted to leave this place..." Lotus then began to tear up as he replied "not without you! You have to live!" But before he could do anything else, Hanzo took his other paw and placed it on Lotus' chest, "I'll always be with you Brother...To...The...End..." But as Hanzo said this, the life left in him began to fade and his hand slid down Lotus' chest leaving a bloodstained paw mark in the Panda's white vest. Lotus then replied "to the end..." As he clutched his friend's wrist. And as he said this, Hanzo had a small smile which quickly faded as his eyes closed and his head fell back. He was dead.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Lotus roared in pain as he had just lost his life partner and brother in front of him. And as he now cried looking down upon his dead friend, he heard a loud howl in the distance at the village, the Wolves had caught onto him and were now headed his way. He heard this, and so he quickly put Hanzo's paws over top of the Panda's chest, lying him down on the floor and allowing him to rest in peace… And then, he ran. Never looking back, Lotus just ran on all fours, away from his village, away from his family, and away from his deceased brother… With nothing but the feeling of dread and angst…

A/N: I plan to keep writing both this story and my other ongoing story, "Mischievous". However, the updates on each will be slightly slower as I will be working on two stories instead of just one. However I will still try to upload a chapter of either story at least once every 3 days, so stay tuned for the upcoming chapters! If you like this story and want me to continue it, follow, favorite and give me a review to let me know what your feelings on the story are.

Thanks

-Ace_Risk