My head spun as I returned to consciousness, my sight blurry and foggy. I moaned, then groaned. When did I hit my head? I couldn't remember what happened some time ago.
As I came to, I saw a small figure standing in front of me, its back turned to my face. Since I couldn't see well, I thought it was Shifu in the darkness.
"...Shifu?" I moaned again.
The figure laughed sinisterly. It was a male, but it certainly wasn't Shifu.
"Not quite." He said, turning to me. As soon as I recognized him, everything came together in my head. I then remembered fleeing from the Jade Palace, how hard I cried into the bamboo forest, and how a hooded guy approached me and then hit me when I said I wanted to disappear. After that I blacked out.
Junjie captured me.
"I see Shifu didn't bothered to recruit a new student." He said coldly.
I strained, but felt a pair of chains holding my wrists back.
"And I see you caught me for a fool, didn't you, Junjie?!" I nearly cried out.
For a moment I left him speechless as he had no idea how I knew his name, at least not from my point of view. But then he cracked a laugh.
"Your deceptive skills are weak, legend. And since you were too foolish as to deliver yourself willingly, I have, uh... let's see... a little favor to ask of you."
I growled at Junjie, refusing his favor. But he didn't care about my decisions, so he continued. One of his leopard students handed him a scroll of sorts. Another of his students released just one of the two cuffs in my wrists.
"Just open this scroll and you'll be set free. It's so simple." He said in a way that sounded so sympathetic, but deep inside I knew he was trying to deceive me.
"And what for, Junjie?" I hissed.
"I understand if you're curious, Outsider. Perhaps we could uncover the scripts of this scroll and..."
I laughed hysterically. I wasn't the Legendary Outsider, and I wasn't going to let him make a fool of me anymore. My laugh baffled him.
"I'm sorry, but you're confusing me with someone I'm not. And as for the favor, that's a no can do for you, Junjie."
The evil fox frowned so bad it scared me, his eyes glaring at me menacingly. In a heartbeat, he took my released arm and pressed onto some pressure points, causing me to deal with a HUGE amount of pain!
"Ah!" I cried. "You... you broke my arm!"
"Precisely what I thought. You should never trust a legend." Junjie turned his back to me as I winced in pain. I couldn't move my arm, it was like he broke my bones to bits!
"Shackabooee!" Yelled the heroic Dragon Warrior, performing a dramatic entrance along with four of the Furious Five. Tigress wasn't present. "Let her go, Junjie, or you'll be sorry!" Po demanded.
"Oh! The Dragon Warrior!" Junjie played innocent then. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude and capture your friend. I apologize for any inconvenience this situation has brought."
"Don't listen to him, Po!" I shouted. "He's trying to trick you!"
Junjie growled as I revealed his true colors. I flinched as his eyes looked back at me from his shoulder.
"I promise you'll regret this, Outsider." Turning back to the heroes, he called out "Attack!" and got out of the way, leaving his students to do all the work for him.
As heroes and villains collided into a brawl, Junjie released the chain off a bamboo tree and took me as if I was a dog on a leash.
"You're coming with me!" He threatened and pulled on my arm, forcing me to run.
"Help!" Jian called from afar.
"Po! He's taking her away!" Yelled Viper after knocking her opponent in the face.
The panda butt-slapped his enemy and ran for it. "I'm on it!"
Before he took off, the same leopard he fought pounced at him, but Po attacked back with an uppercut and fled off the battlefield.
Despite his weight he was capable of taking a good run to save his friend. Junjie was a few feet away from him, so he could catch up.
But suddenly, tiredness brought him down. He held onto his knees, panting hard.
"Could you at least... *pant* run a little slower? Man, I could use a lift." The word "lift" lit up a bulb in his mind. "That's it! Guys, Skyscraper of Doom!"
The rest of the team were done fighting the leopards when he said that, and rushed to give Po a helping hand. They took two bamboo sticks and built the steps as they did in their training. Monkey and Crane formed the first step while Mantis and Viper created the other on top of them. Already recovered, Po took a good run, climbed on the two steps and jumped with a boost. The boost allowed him to catch up with Junjie and Jian, a strong fist of justice ready to strike.
"Taste the power of the Invincible Fist of Justice!" He yelled.
The strong hit pushed Junjie away from Jian, releasing her but not breaking her chains. Accidentally, his blow opened the Secret Scroll of Wei Qiang, which rolled to his side.
Ignoring the pain caused by the blow, Junjie took the scroll.
"Finally, the powers of Wei Qiang are in my gra- oof!"
A flying kick knocked him to the ground, and Master Shifu and Tigress came to the scene. The scroll flew all the way to Jian's paws.
"Master Shifu! Tigress!" Po called, happy to see them both.
As he approached them, he remembered what Tigress said before.
"But, I thought..."
"You were right, Po. We all deserve a second chance." Tigress said with a slight smile, and broke Jian's chains.
"Master Shifu, my arm..."
The red panda examined her arm. Jian winced a little as it still hurt.
"Is it broken?"
"Not quite." Shifu said and pressed on some points in her arm. Jian screamed a little, but Shifu was able to restore her arm.
"What was that?" She asked. "I thought it was broken!"
"Junjie was capable of blocking the chi in your arm. It's okay now."
Jian nodded and proceeded in the one thing her true self would do in her legends.
She stood in front of Po and extended her good paw.
"I may haven't done this before, but now I want to entrust you with the Secret Scroll of Wei Qiang. I thought it didn't exist, though." She laughed, bowed her head and gave him the scroll, much to his excitement.
"Whoa!" He exclaimed, then calmed down. "Wait, what's gonna' happen next?"
"I don't know, but it'll sure grant you all the powers of Wei Qiang after reading it. Not even I know how it feels. Read it, Dragon Warrior, and the powers of Wei Qiang will be yours."
Before Po could read it, evil Junjie stood up, anger and a thirst for vengeance prominent in just the look of his eyes.
"You will pay for this, you insignificant panda! Paralyzing Strike!" Junjie yelled and fired a blue energy beam at Po.
"Po!" Tigress pushed him away, taking the blow for herself.
"Tigress, no!"
Before it could hit her, everything went slow for Jian. She could hear her heartbeat as the beam flew towards Tigress. She decided to take the blow for herself and not let anyone including Po harm themselves. She pushed Tigress out of the way just a second before the beam struck her chest and the energy erupted in a small explosion.
"Jian!" Tigress shouted.
Her body fell unconscious to the ground. The Five, Po and Shifu made a circle around her.
"Is she okay?" Po asked, highly worried.
Shifu laid an ear on her chest, and sighed in relief after hearing slow, rhythmic thumps.
"It's alright, her heart is still beating. Fortunately, the effect lasts minutes."
Tigress felt a burden in her heart. She refused to listen to Po, refused to help rescue her, and now had her laying unconscious before her feet.
Po held the scroll tightly.
"Paralyzing one of my students is not a great move, Junjie." Said Shifu.
"Enjoy your last minutes as head of the Jade Palace while you can, Shifu. Because when I'm through with you and your little legend, I shall rule this province!"
"No!" Po exclaimed and opened the scroll. "It's just you and me now, Junjie." And he started reading the scripts of it.
Before he could even finish, a gold light erupted from the scroll, nearly blinding his sight. He felt lots of tickles in his belly as the light shone brighter until eventually fading out. Po slowly lowered his arms with a blank expression, his best friends and master watching his reaction to the powerful scroll.
"This... is... AWESOME!" Po exclaimed excitedly and clapped his paws, causing a large shockwave to push Junjie back.
The fox got on his knees, severely impacted by the panda's new powers.
"What?!"
Po came in with a flying kick and struck the evil fox. He backflipped to get back on his tiny feet and countered Po's attacks one by one, but the panda proved himself powerful for him.
"Mist of Distraction!" Po chanted, and a huge mist brought visibility down to zero.
The old villain looked everywhere in order to attack, but wasn't able to see a thing.
"You can't catch me now, Junjie." Po taunted in a funny way. "Watay!" He yelled and hit him, throwing him out of the mist. Before he could get up, he was jammed down by Shifu.
"Still too slow, aren't you, Junjie?"
Po read on one of the scroll's scripts, finding an useful power to defeat Junjie.
"The Flipping Coin of Wishes?" He said, an a gold coin appeared on his paw.
Junjie laughed. "Foolish panda! You think a magic coin can stop me?!"
Po grinned. "If I wish to send you to Chorh-Gom Prison for good, then yeah." He flipped the coin, allowing its powers to build a portal that sucked Junjie in.
"NOOOO!" He yelled until everything turned white.
...
Peace reigned once again in the valley. At the barracks of the Jade Palace, Po, his master and his besties enjoyed lunch.
It was then when they heard a yawn coming from the halls. A tired Jian stretched her arms as she greeted the masters.
"Oh! Good morning, Jian." Said Po.
"Or should he say, good afternoon." Corrected Tigress.
"Did I overslept?" Jian asked with sleepy eyes.
"Junjie's paralyzing strike lasted minutes since the attack. You fell unconscious since then." Shifu explained.
Jian took a seat next to Tigress. "That Junjie guy's an annoyance! I can't believe he wanted to use me as bait so he could take over the Jade Palace."
"Luckily, that's never gonna' happen." Said Mantis.
Jian smiled. Thinking about what she told them before, she narrowed her eyes down.
"Guys, there's something I need to tell you."
Everybody stopped and listened to Jian.
"What if I told you that I'm not from this world? That I'm a person from a world out of this world and that all of you are characters in a movie?"
The masters' response was big eyes and dropped jaws. Even Master Shifu felt surprised, very surprised.
Po's reaction was different than the others.
"Whoa! Is that true? Do I look awesome?"
"Yes."
"Whoa! That must be so cool! To be part of an awesome world with awesome characters and have an adventure full of awesomeness!"
Jian giggled. "So it is, Po."
"Am I the only one skeptic about this?" Asked Tigress.
"You can't deny it, Tigress. I'm sure that even you'd look awesome as a character!"
"But you all are!" Jian laughed.
Everyone laughed as Tigress crossed her arms.
...
"Hiya!"
Jian practiced what she had been taught with a bamboo staff at the Training Hall. She was still unable to explain everyone the rest of her story, but that was until they all showed up.
"Jian." Tigress called and approached her.
"Tigress. I, uh..." Jian looked away, afraid of her.
Tigress just smiled and placed a paw on her shoulder.
"You saved us from Junjie. You deserve both my forgiveness and my respect." She tapped her fist on her paw and slightly bowed before Jian. The white tigress blushed hard, but then hugged Tigress with all her heart. Tigress's eyes grew big.
"The girl who inhabited my body will always miss you." Jian said, impressing Tigress and everyone else there.
"Wha-? Jian?" Tigress acted funny as she checked on the white feline.
"It's me! The real me! And just to let you know, this timeline never existed."
"What? Wait, that's kinda confusing." Said Po.
"Can I have the scroll back, please?"
"What?!" Po yelled with sadness. "But you just entrusted me with it!"
"No, the other girl did." Jian corrected, taking the scroll off his paws. Po wanted to cry, but tried not to.
Reading through it, Jian summoned a portal of space-time which erased everything that had happened during the other girl's stay in her body.
"Don't worry. We'll meet again soon!" Jian said and disappeared into the light.
I gasped and sat up, only to find myself back in my room, on Earth, my world.
I was no longer Jian, and I was no longer a white tigress. I was human again.
My room was nicely done as if nothing ever happened. I found my cookies and my milk next to me as well as the remote control. My TV was on, and the episode was still streaming.
"That was the BEST ADVENTURE EVER!" I shouted, jumping on my bed happily.
Paying attention to the TV, I watched what seemed to be the final scene of that episode, The Legendary Outsider. The scene displayed the white tigress walking into the mountains.
"And so, Jian, the Legendary Outsider, began a new journey to find a warrior worth trusting with the ancient Secret Scroll of Wei Qiang." Po narrated.
"Po! That legend is a myth!" Exclaimed Tigress.
I heard Po sigh. "Trust me, Tigress. She's as real as a dumpling." Then his stomach growled. "Ooh, I'm hungry. Who's uo for noodles?"
Then the episode ended and the TV went black.
A/N: It's complete! The Legendary Outsider has finally come to its conclusion!
Thanks a lot for reading and for your support, guys! But this isn't over! Soon I'll be writing an alternate version for The Legendary Outsider, but it won't take place in the Legends of Awesomeness universe. ;)
Until next time, Skadoosh!