She couldn't put her finger on it.

Tigress knew that the moment her eyes opened, there was something wrong.

Perhaps it had something to do the natural balance of chi that was in the room before she went to sleep. Sure, she had just recently come to grips with that part of her training as a Kung-Fu master, but it wasn't as if she didn't feel this way before. According to her immediate memory, the only other time she felt this way was when she and the other Furious Five had been with the Dragon Warrior to go to Gongmen City to take on the warlord Shen.

In fact, just thinking about that one point in time made her uneasy. If she had not pushed down the thoughts that were going through her head, maybe she wouldn't be focused on the task at hand and more on the past.

That is, of course, she could figure out what the task was in the first place. It wasn't often that the master of the tiger style would be up over something as sentimental as a feeling.

Just a few minutes before, she had been up and about, feeling the chi of most of her friends and comrades, except, from what she could best explain to herself, there was a great amount of chi missing in the room.

Everyone had their own form of breathing, which Tigress was trying to pick up on, but no one snored. Exactly where the idea of snoring, or at least the rumor of it, came from was beyond the Furious Five and herself. Heck, even though Po was the most prone to be assumed to snoring, he never did. If they had, there might have been more than one problem during their little cruise to Gongmen City.

It was as strange to them as the situation at hand.

Now that the thoughts of breathing were passing her mind, she realized that she wasn't hearing the panda's normal sleeping breathing patterns. In fact, she would even go as far to dare say that she wasn't hearing his breathing at all.

Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't just walk into someone's room, but for the second time in her immediate memory (the first being when she was trying to talk some sense into the panda about Tai-Lung) she had made an exception and peeked into the room that belonged to the Dragon Warrior.

The only thing was that the Dragon Warrior wasn't there.

She cringed at the thought of a panda being able sneak by her without her at least noticing. Then again, after Po had broke in through the floorboards a few times, it was no surprise that they had tried to reinforce it so it was more panda-friendly.

So why wasn't she able to feel his chi, then?

Tigress knew that she would have been able to feel at least that, but it was almost as if his chi had been depleted to such a slow degree in progressed time that Tigress didn't notice until it was too late.

The when and whats started to play harder and harder in her mind, but as she stood there thinking about it, the other Five had arisen from their sleep, but Viper was the first to talk.

"Tigress?" Viper asked, her voice still heavy with sleep, "What are you doing up at this hour? It's not even time for the gong."

"Not to mention that we only went to bed just a very very short time ago," Crane imputed, rather cranky on the account that his sleep was being deprived, and held no shame in not holding back his mood because of it.

"Po's not in his room," Tigress said flatly.

"You two didn't have a fight, did you?" Monkey asked in concern, his emphasis on the matter almost as if 'fight' was a word that was forbidden to be ever said.

"Not any we haven't apologized for later," Tigress remarked.

Yes, the panda and the tiger did have their fits, but they always apologized about the whole affair later, no matter who was wrong, always. It was something they had learned to do after the first few fights got really out of hand. It was incredible that they could even stand one another after some of the fights they had been through, even when they were stupid ones.

That was a relationship for you - especially one so dynamic as Po and Tigress.

"Was it something any of us might have said?" Mantis asked.

"I don't think so," Viper remarked as Tigress began walking out of the brackets, "Po's the kind of person that would say something if it was really offensive."

That was something they all knew - Po was kind of sensitive to certain things they were normally not accustom to being sensitive to. Then again, that's kind of what made their lives interesting after his already interesting introduction by (literally) falling from the sky. Now, here she was, worried sick as into why everything seemed off. Tigress had been trained to go with her gut when it came down to it, but she wasn't even sure what her gut was trying to tell her anymore.

Her silence put her friends on edge, but for a split second, as they were approaching the training hall, they didn't break the silence because it was being broken by something else...
Well, more along the lines of someone else...

And everything seemed to stop for a split second when a panda that was black, white, and scarlet red suddenly burst through the doors, breaking them as he flew through the sky and landed with a hard thud past the stairs, his friends rushing over to him as a clap of lightning went through the sky.

"Po!"

There was no movement from the panda as his friends approached him, and as a more distant clap of lightning rung in the valley, Tigress was on his right and Monkey was on his left as they lifted Po up a little to where he was sitting up and could see them clearly when his jaded eyes opened.

He looked horrible - there was just no other way to describe without going into detail, such as the gash on his belly, or the little droplets of blood leaving his mouth, telling them that he was bleeding on the inside too.

"G-Guys?..."

Great, so that meant that he was incoherent too. What the hell was the panda doing?

"Po, what's going on?" Tigress demanded, her voice firm yet gentle at the same time - a special tone she had only used with the panda.

"Y-You need to get out of here!" he pleaded, "There's-"

He couldn't even finish a sentence without a blood-curling yell reaching his lips. If he was in this much pain, then who knows who might have been responsible for it all. Po couldn't even get his breath back as the yell lead to coughing, which lead to shaking, which only amplified the pain that was already there.

"Po, calm down," Tigress sad reassuringly, "Who did this?"

"Um... Tigress," Crane remarked, "I don't think we really need to hear it from him who did it..."

Looking at Crane for a minute, she turned her head with the others to the broken doors of the training hall, taking note of the shadowy figure who was there now, but had not been there before, at least to her memory. However, her memory did serve her well as she had thought about past situations like this that made her eyes lighten up.

She didn't need to say again who it was.

"An assassin," Tigress growled.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Mantis groaned, "It seems like that ever since we beat Shen, Po's got more enemies than he does friends."

"Regardless the number," Tigress said as she got up from his side, "We're still his friends, and there's only one befitting punishment fit for scum who hurt our friends."

The other Furious Five couldn't agree more, and all took their battle stance against the assassin covered in shadows that was trying to take Po out.

It didn't really matter who it was, the case was clear - Po needed their help.

The shadow didn't seem indifferent. Perhaps it was just the cloak, but the assassin, whoever it might have been, was now well aware that not only had they been caught, but the darkness they were wearing was also going to take on another color as blades came out of each sleeve: the scarlet color that was would be made from the blood that was running through its victim's veins. After all, they were about one-sixth way there already, since it already had the blood of the famous Dragon Warrior dried up in some places and still fresh with red in others.

Tigress could smell the blood of her friend on its cloak, and she was pissed off for two reasons: one, that Po didn't say anything in the first place; and two, more importantly, she was oblivious of the assassin until after it practically had its way with Po.

The anger was in her eyes, and the assassin saw it - it would be safe to assume that someone was going to die tonight, and no one really wanted to die. It was the inevitable fate of guardians against the killers. Still, no one was going to go down without a fight, and Viper was the first to reach the assassin as everyone charged at the opposing team. In a five against one, the snake was able to reach the enemy first, but was thrown off when it thew its blade at her, revealing a chain that was connected to itself and the sword.

As Viper dodged the sword, Mantis climbed up Viper's body, on the sword and along the chain as Tigress threw a punch at the shadowy figure, which was deflected by the other sword. Before the assassin could register that there was a green bug a little too close to the face, the failed attempt to attack the face was successfully done by Mantis. For someone so small, he proved his strength by kicking the assassin far from him, and Monkey made another push by waking him off of its feet and practically into the talons of Master Crane, whom was far beyond pissed for not only the lack of sleep, but from the fact it nearly killed their friend. Without hesitation, the avian master threw the assassin even higher than it flew, backing up from it with complete certainty that for a killer, he should have a bloody death.

Even if it didn't die, that didn't matter to Crane - broken bones or dying from the fall - that fall couldn't be survived without some serious miracle.

Exactly who's side the gods were on, no one was sure, but as they backed up to let gravity do its work, they realized that while they did hear the thum, they didn't hear the cracking of bones, which was the expected sound from being thrown that high.

This was a physical being they were fighting, right? After all, since assassins kept coming in late at night, if Po didn't pull something, they were usually able to throw them in the air and be done with it before the gong.

However, as the usual sound of defeat didn't reach their ears, they weren't sure what to make of it, but no assumptions were needed as the shadow began to coil into itself, the cloak wrapping itself up in something that they knew was a little too small to be the body of the assassin.

"But... how could anyone survive something like that?" Viper asked, "That would have killed it!"

"Apparently, there's no such thing as an assassin that enjoys a good-night's rest!" Crane said, returning to a more battle stance.

Obviously not dead by this point, the Five kept their positions as the cloaked figure began to raise itself off of the ground. The fact they were tired was one thing, but the fact this thing, whatever or whoever it may be, didn't want to go down without a fight, and the fight became a little more ugly - not just from the cryptic nature of the enemy, but from the fact that it didn't want to give into the demands of the Furious Five. Both sides were pissed for their own reasons, but until there was blood on the ground, no one was going to rest.

In a funny sense, one would assume that everyone was going to rest tonight - one just wasn't going to wake up. The Furious Five could only hope that Po could hang on long enough until the assassin would receive its dues.

"Monkey," Tigress ordered, "Get Po out of here and alert the palace of what's going on - we'll take care of this."

As the swords were being drawn back into the hands of the assassin, it was silent indication that maybe it didn't want Po to go anywhere at all. Besides, as beat up as Po was, an assassin was never finished until they were sure their victim was dead.

When the master of the monkey style started to turn his attention to Po, the moving darkness had to give its whole attention to the four masters that charged at him, Tigress taking the lead with Crane by attacking it at the same time on both sides. To be expected, the swords caught their attacks, but that was the very thing that the masters were counting on the assassin to do, buying enough time for the snake master to leap at him at coil herself around the figure. What they didn't count on was the cloak to tighten itself like one would wring a towel that had too much water, making itself much smaller than the coiling viper could do without first putting herself in knots. As the snake made her way to the ground, the shadow moved its cloak away from the attacking masters and brought itself up again on the stairs, gazing at the masters with its glowing yellow eyes before making its way back into the training hall.

Although he was the smallest, Mantis was the first to reach what was left of the doors and knock them open with one mighty kick. The other masters followed behind him, their caution increasing tenfold when they realized how dark the room was, and the ominous laugh that was echoing in the silent halls.

From what they were able to gather, the laugh sounded terribly feminine.

It didn't matter - she or he, it wanted them to walk in. They knew it was a trap, but they had to catch up with their enemy, at least before anymore damage was done.

The slamming of the doors and a little light showing through the remains of it was the only hope the Furious Five had. Literally back to back with one another, there was little to aid them in the gasps and yells that came afterward. The more masters that weren't taken out prior to a gasp or yell of pain, the more the masters that were still there were put on edge.

Needless to day, that made Tigress the most on edge, for before she could register that everyone who could've had her back were no longer there, she realized she was alone in the darkness - no one but her in the pale moonlight, her eyes glowing with anticipation.

What made her heart stop was when the lights were lit to reveal her friends on the ground: Crane, Viper, and Mantis not moving as if dead. However, if Tigress had not bent down to them to check their pulse (which was only possible by the movement on their lips and rising of lungs because she couldn't feel anything in her paws), then she would have assumed that they were dead.

Another cackle echoed in the atmosphere, except Tigress was able to see the shadow this time. Getting up from her fallen friends, one look at the two swords gushing a green fluid told her one thing: that her friends (Po included) were likely poisoned. She was surprised that she didn't at least smell the poison prior to actually seeing it with her own eyes. Then again, given the experience that she had in the past with poisons, it didn't surprise her too much that she didn't smell it until now because there were poisons that couldn't be detected by smell. If her memory served her correctly about the goo that was gushing out of those blades, then it was likely she already knew what kind of poison it was.

However, even in battle stance, no one really considered that panda would come back into the scene, much less have the strength to throw himself to the shadowy figure right into the Jade Tortoise of Wisdom. In fact, the force given by the panda had such impact, that it didn't stay too long before it went into the Gauntlet of Wooden Warriors.

All of this distraction from the training materials themselves bought Tigress to actually be surprised by the fact that not only Po was conscious, but (as usual) pulled another stupid move that sent him back to the ground again.

"Po!?"

Without a second thought, she was by his side.

"Po, you idiot!" she practically growled before turning to the monkey master she had entrusted the panda to, "I thought I told you to take him into the infirmary and go get help!"

"I was!" Monkey protested, "But he's as stubborn as you sometimes!"

Leave it to the panda to be stubborn when she took her eyes off of him. Then again, even during training, the one who had the most firm stance against him was her. Go figure that it should've been her that should've went with him.

"T-The cloak..."

"What?"

Did he really just practically scare her to death to tell her that?

"The cloak..." Po choked out, stopping Tigress heart for a minute by throwing up something that looked like last night's dinner mixed with blood, a gasp too weak to be heard (but could be felt since she was holding him by this point), "T-The assassin... the cloak... witchcraft!"

So that's what Po was trying to get at... the poor bastard of an assassin was so worried about being dishonored by not bringing back the Dragon Warrior's head to his master that he practically sold himself to the devil!

At least that's what happens to anyone who commits themselves to witchcraft.

Then again, in it's own light, it was clever - word must have gotten around about how a regular assassin, even with poisons, couldn't take out the Dragon Warrior in the dead of night.

When the panda practically put his own life on the line to give Tigress this vital information, the shadow had recovered from the Gauntlet of Wooden Warriors and practically flew over the Jade Tortoise of Wisdom to meet its nemesis once again. Since Po was trying to give the information, and Tigress was so entranced in listening, the short time that Monkey was able to buy was short lived when the assassin was able to finally knock out another one of the masters.

It was down to the panda and the tiger master to take down this fiend, and all it wanted was the panda dead - if they had this much trouble already, the thoughts of honor only increased when it was imagined the Dragon Warrior's head on a platter. Heck, maybe on a gold platter to serve to his majesty, but not in the honor of the Dragon Warrior, but to prove to China who was the strongest warrior.

Glares of jade and scarlet reached the assassin, but as the one who owned the jade orbs tried to get up, the scarlet eyes growled in protest. Then again, being Po and Tigress, of course one would be stubborn for the other, and they had their own reasons for being worried - one, Tigress being worried sick for Po on the account of his injuries; and two, Po being concerned for Tigress because of his current events, worried that what had happened to him would happen to her.

"Stay down, Po," she said, "I got this."

"D-Don't..."

"Po," Tigress said in a more serious tone, "You're injured enough as it is - don't make me keep you down."

"But this guy's gone to the devil," Po remarked, "I'm not going to let you take this guy alone."

"And how do you purpose to do anything, given the fact you can't even stand?" remarked the assassin, speaking for the first time that gave a clear indication more than ever that it was a female, "By dawn, you will be dead."

Tigress, by that point, would've just lept at the assassin and tore at wherever her throat might have been. However, one grunt from the panda sent her attention whirling right back to him, Po leaning forward as another tiny stream of blood came out of his mouth. By now, there were five running down his wounded face, the fifth more fresh than the others, since at least two were brown from dry blood.

"T-Tigress, I-I've got to-"

"-You don't have to do anything," Tigress reassured him, laying him down on his back and trying to keep his wounds from taking him out, "Just... please... let me handle this..."

It was the please that seemed to force Po lose hold on reality enough to where he completely submitted himself to Tigress. Any light that was left in his eyes were gone, and Tigress could see that, and gathered that his wounds would take him if she didn't beat this witch and go get help.

All she could think about was hoping that Po would hold on - if there was anything that he was good at, it was doing just that, and she needed him to do so more than ever.

Getting up, she turned from Po to face the assassin, who had not attacked because she was that damned amused by the work she had done already, and that Tigress looked like a kitten caught in a storm more than the ferocious master that she had heard about. Even as the master of the tiger style started to form anger that could be compared with hell, the assassin couldn't help but feel a swell of joy that she was responsible for making Tigress feel so helpless, thanking her past self for giving her soul up to the devil when she did.

"I had no idea that the mighty Master Tigress even had a concept of fear," the assassin mocked, "But I think I hit a heart string there when I went after your little cuddle buddy."

"Anyone who doesn't accept that they are afraid are either already there or lying," Tigress said, returning to her battle stance, "If you were so desperate for crime, you should've stopped at just trespassing on the Jade Palace - you would've been lucky to just perform community service for that, but at most lose your feet. Taking on all of the Furious Five was an even greater mistake, but to poison my friends and cheat like this is a dishonorable form of combat, indeed...
But what do you know of honor?"

"You're right, Master Tigress," the assassin said, saying her name in a mocking manner as if she really didn't believe she was a true master in the first place, "But tell me this, what do you know of love?"

Tigress tightened up, but the assassin continued.

"Come now, you don't think I don't know? You already know I'm a 'witch' as you would like to call me, but I believe the more appropriate term is 'soothsayer'. Before I took all of you on, I used divination to find out the best way to attack you all, and I'll admit you were the hardest to find out about - with all of those barriers you keep yourself surrounded by, especially the barriers you keep between yourself and a certain someone behind you that's probably dead. To think that your weakness is so simple, and I can see you're practically shaking from the fact that the object, well, the panda, of your affections was beat to a bloody pulp because of me, and you weren't there to stop it."

"Enough," Tigress snarled, the assassin smiling as her eyes were glowing with anger, "No, I wasn't here with him when I should have, but I'm here now, and I promise that you won't hurt my panda again!"

In the burst of verbal anger, Tigress went to the assassin like a flash of lightning, throwing her hardcore fists at her that some where blocked by the two blades that were still held by the assassin. Splatters of gush were flying everywhere, but its not like Tigress couldn't feel anything in her paws anyway - it was her temporary advantage in this combat. However, another advantage started to come through and the assassin didn't see it until it was too late. Sure, it was clever to have the poison already in the blades, so one could strike and just be done with it, but what wasn't considered by the witch that used divination was the fact that it also made the blade (no matter how strong it was) hollow, depleting it of the full strength it could have had when it wasn't hollow. Much to the dismay of the assassin, she didn't see until Tigress gave her blades a punch and a hard kick to the stomach, sending her to one of the pillars that supported the building.

The fatal mistake was seen when the blades broke apart, revealing the green contents on the inside even more than before. The assassin glared, and Tigress smiled, giving an indication that it was her plan the whole time.

"Showoff," the assassin hissed.

"I'm going to give you one last warning," Tigress said, all emotion gone as she warned her plainly, "Get out of here now, or I will not hesitate to kill you."

A flash of silver shot through the darkness and reached Tigress' side just a few seconds after she made that warning, sinking itself into her flesh as Tigress doubled back, the assassin on top of her with a paw reaching for the shot of silver, which was a dagger, oozing an all too familiar substance.

"You hesitated already when you showed me mercy," the assassin said, sinking the dagger deeper and deeper into the master's side, Tigress refusing to give her what she wanted before she continued, "Do you honestly think that I sold myself to the devil because I wanted to? No, it was because this is because I'm aware that if I don't kill you, I would already be dead, now don't deny me your head for my master!"

With that, she turned the dagger inside of Tigress' body, something like a yell and a growl radiating from her lips as she grabbed the cloak and used her feet from under the assassin to kick her into the air. On the account of the force, the cloak was torn off of the assassin, revealing a snow leopard that didn't look very familiar. As Tigress got up and backed away from the snow leopard that went head first into the ground, she guessed that because this particular snow leopard wasn't familiar at all, she probably a random stranger, so the Ladies of the Shade wouldn't be at fault.

For a second, she could see the snow leopard still breathing, but horribly immobilized from the impact. Po was right about the cloak having some form of witchcraft.

Breathing in deeply, she grabbed the dagger that had been put into her only so long ago and forced it out. Yes, she knew that she would be bleeding, but she had hoped that the blood would also take the poison that was inevitable in her body. Turning her pain into anger, Tigress growled as she stood above the wounded snow leopard, taking note of the pendant around her neck that was slowly starting to fade from whatever light she had not seen until now.

Without any hesitation, Tigress lifted the dagger above her head and sent it straight into the heart of the snow leopard, all care gone from her action as her scream went in one of her ears and out of the other. Since she didn't struggle without flinching from pain, Tigress guessed that her kick must've broken something, or perhaps enough to where she would receive the least resistance.

What a relief - she was tired of this fight.

Now that she thought about it, she was tired as she backed away from the snow leopard and left her to her death. She wasn't going to be next to her to see her handiwork - the witch didn't deserve the kind of comfort that one would get by seeing someone else before they died.

What happened next seemed to relieve her, almost to be too good to be true.

From what she was able to remember, the destroyed doors of the training hall were opened, various colors entering the area and spreading out, some voices a bit familiar, and others were not as her legs gave way and collapsed on the floor. Unable to put two thoughts together, she wouldn't have been surprised if the face of Master Shifu had occurred sometime later, him giving orders to everyone else that was there as he turned his attention back to Tigress, saying something about her being alright, and something that felt really cold on the side that was stabbed to help with the poison.

Under normal circumstances, she would have been strong enough to help, but she wasn't, and it wasn't like she didn't want to give into the weakness - she just had no strength to fight against it.

There were only a few things that she even remembered thinking as her eyes closed again.

Guys...
Viper... Crane... Monkey... Mantis...
Po...
Po...