Founders of the Wu Xing

Sacred Scroll: Diqiu – Final Scroll

Chapter 5: Decisive Paths and Harmonized Power

Quote(s): "Understand that the right to choose your path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility." – Oprah Winfrey

"Mastering others is Strength. Mastering yourself is True Power." – Lao Tzu

A/N: The creativeness continues to grow! That's right readers, I'm still going strong and loving it, even though it's been a while and stuff. Anyways, here we are with the final scroll, right before the next one. Yep, things are gonna real from here on out, and you all, enjoy the ride.

Note: Okay guys, since this chapter is SUPER long, I know it's gonna take awhile for you all to read, and most likely, something is gonna come up and you have go somewhere and all that jazz. But don't worry; I have a solution for that. I've left Book marks for you guys to pick where you left off should you need to go somewhere and can't finish the chapter in time. Just read to the number book mark and leave, come back, and pick where you left off. Simple.

Note#2: Guys, listen, I love your reviews, and they keep me going and push me forwards to make these chapter and I thank you for that. But please, one sentenced reviews just aren't working like they use to. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you'd take your time to review and I thank you for that. But maybe you guess can leave a little more of a review, like three sentences, tell me how good I did, and offer a little positive criticism to help me out, heck even a few ideas would work too, just don't go too crazy with them XD (just kidding, go nuts)

Note#3: I plan to continue working on Spotted Lover and The Baby, coming up with ideas on how to keep it going. Feel free to share ideas.

Alright, I think that's it for the intro. Now, let's get to it readers! XD

Copyright: I do NOT own the big fluffy panda, cuz he's too awesome to own! :-3 Copyright pending demons… OH!

The later hours of the morning had finally come to the Jade Palace, and the residents of the building were awaking from their slumber, it was safe to say that the Palace servants received a full amount of sleeping from the entire night all the way to the morning. They had been notified the day prior, that the Five and Dragon Warrior would have the day off, thus, they too could relax. With the Furious Five, they were up late and most likely taking advantage of this day off, by staying in few a couple of more hours. It wasn't everyday they had the day off. As for the children in the Palace, it went without saying that they were were walking, thanks to the sunlight pouring into their rooms and landing gently and warmly on their face, telling them it was morning and it was time to awaken to the approaching day.

*In the twins' room*

Within the room, the twin panda girls were slowly but surely leaving the dreamscape and approaching the realm of conscious. Līmīng was the first of the two to wake with her sister Qīānxī following close behind. Sitting up and bathing in the light, Līmīng stretched her arms above her head and let out a grunt while some of her bones were cracking and popping back into place. She let out a long, loud yawn and looked over to her sister, seeing her do the same. The little sister reached over to her bedside table and took hold of the ruby colored lotus clip and proceeded to place her head fur in its traditional style; to right side of her head, and placing the clip there to hold it in place.

"Good morning sister," Līmīng greeted her twin once she finished.

"Mornin' sis," Qīānxī replied while doing the same thing as her sister, only placing the blue lotus clip on the crevice of her left ear. "How'd ya sleep?" she asked while placing her feet on the ground to face her younger twin, a smile on her face.

"I slept well, how about you sister?" Līmīng asked.

"Same as always, like a rock." Qīānxī replied.

"Yeah, you always do. Anyways, today is a new day. What do you want to do?" she asked, while getting up to stretch some more.

"Well, I was thinking of spending time Xiwang today since we didn't get much, not after what happened six days ago." The elder sister said. "Speaking of which, is he up yet?" she asked.

"I do not know, let me check if brother is up yet," Līmīng said while closing her eyes and began to concentrate on the target of her focus. Using her power of telepathy to find out if their brother was awake yet, to her surprise, not only was he up, but two others were awake as well.

"Well, is he?" Qīānxī asked.

"Brother is starting to wake up, but he's not the only one who is awake. Master Shifu and The Dragon Warrior are up too." Līmīng said.

"So that's three who are up huh? Well, let's wait for Xiwang to wake up fully; we didn't get a chance to get to know him better in the past six days and since Shifu gave us the day off, I say we take the chance." The older sister declared.

"that sounds like a good idea, but let's go wait outside his door for him and just walk in when he's fully awake, does that sound better?" asked Līmīng while standing up.

"Kinda creepy, but better than waiting till he's fully up, we're 'bout to go somewhere and he forgets something in the process and has to go back… yeah, let's wait outside." Qīānxī replied while getting up and out of bed, following her sister out of their room suite as soon as she was up. As soon as both of them were out of the room, they walked down to Xiwang's room which was a few doors down, but not too far. After the short walk, they were now outside of Xiwang's room, waiting for him to wake up completely.

*Inside Xiwang's room

Bookmark #1 -

The young tiger cub was raising to the sun's rays, feeling refreshed after last night where he and Tigress were in the kitchen talking about fun stuff and sharing a little bit of each other's past, what they did for fun, what their dreams were, little things like that to help deepen the bond that biological mother and son would establish from birth onwards. Successfully, it worked, but they still had a long way to go, but they made headway for the connection to grow. For Tigress, it was still sinking in that she decided to accept Xiwang as her adoptive son and for he; his foster mother, never the less, thanks to some hidden maternal traits that were showing up in her, she was glad that she accepted it. Now that Xiwang thought about it, this was the first time that he slept and awoken really well, normally he would be plagued with periodical nightmares about his tragic past and murder of his family, but with Po and Tigress with him, along with the others, those kinds of horrors seemed so far away, like they couldn't reach him anymore, for that he was glad.

The cub was now stretching, making his muscles relax and getting his nerves back up and running after a good night's sleep, he was opening his eyes, though they were squinting to keep out the sun from just pouring in and harming him, but gradually let the rays shine in until his eyes were comfortable and fully open. Once that was completed, he looked around the room to see that it was indeed the morning.

"And so begins a new day." He said while getting up and did a few more stretches for the lower half of his body, feeling that today was going to be a really good day, but for some reason, he felt different this morning, he couldn't place his paw on it but that's how he felt. Now with that out of the way, the most basic, and common thought came to his mind as did it with every other denizen of the Valley of Peace,

"What am I gonna do today?" he asked himself.

Just as he was about to start thinking, a knock from behind him caught his attention and he swiveled his to his door and answered in a relaxed, yet somewhat gruff tone of voice, which was odd.

"Who is-" he stopped in midsentence to do a cough that forced its way out of his mouth. "Who is-," he coughed again, while placing his paw on his throat, rubbing the outside and rubbed it, trying message away the soreness. "Who is it?" he asked, finally getting out the question.

"It's your sisters; Qīānxī and I, may we come in?" asked Līmīng in a polite voice.

"Oh, yeah sure, come on in its open." He replied, this time his voice was a bit squeaky.

After being given permission to enter, that what the twin panda females did, they greeted him after opening the door connecting his room to the hallway. "Morning you two." He said; his voice still squeaky and few coughs were leaving his mouth.

"Mornin' stripes." Qīānxī greeted.

"Good morning brother," Līmīng followed up, smiling sweetly at him.

"Good morning, I trust that-" he coughed a bit before continuing. "That you had a good sleep?" he asked with his squeaky voice.

"Yeah we did, thank you for asking. Brother, are you alright this morning? Your voice is a tad squeaky today." Līmīng said.

"I feel fine this morning, really good. But, my voice is acting up a bit ever since I woke up not too long ago. You think something is wrong?" He asked.

"Sounds like it. Let's go see Master Shifu, maybe he knows what's wrong with you squeaky." Qīānxī teased lightly.

"Qīānxī, be nice to brother." Līmīng admonished, protecting her brother.

"Aw, I was just teasing him, that's all. By the way, Xi, where's your sword, don't you normally keep it with you?" Qīānxī asked.

Rather than being shocked by the question, he was rather calm about now knowing that it was gone, but that didn't stop him from looking around to find it.

"Maybe Master Shifu has it. Let's go ask him." Xiwang suggested while moving over to door. Just as his sisters were following him, Līmīng stopped and turned to Po's room which was right next to Xiwang's.

"Looks like the Dragon Warrior is about to leave," she announced.

"Really, what is he thinking?" the elder sister asked the younger one.

"Hmmm, something about a decision and a scroll, but that's all I can tell. He's also going to Master Shifu about something important." Līmīng said while looking at others.

"So, he's heading where we're going… Let's follow him and see what he's going to do." The older panda cub suggested.

"We're going to spy on him… works for me, let's do it." Līmīng answered while giggling lightly.

"Me three, let's tail him." Xiwang added.

"So we're in agreement, good. Now let's go, he just left his room." Qīānxī said to the others. Not wasting another minute, they followed him, seeing a scroll in his paw, wondering what it was and what it contained inside.

After they followed him for some time, they arrived to the Hall of Warriors, seeing it glow a somewhat darkish turquoise as the sun shine on the interior. After Po took a few steps inwards, the trio of children did so also, but dived behind the nearest dragon engraved pillar and stuck their heads from either side to see what was happening. From they could gather; they saw Shifu standing at the Sacred Moon Pool, in his most recognizable position. His he had his paws behind his back, and was standing up right with his tail perfectly still.

"What do you think Shifu is doing up this early?" Xiwang asked the two girls.

"Got me, let's just keep watching." Qīānxī whispered to the two of them.

Bookmark #2-

*with Po and Shifu.

"Ah good to see you fully rested Dragon Warrior. I trust that you have made a decision?" Shifu asked, not even bothering to turn around.

"Yeah Shifu, I have my answer. I have one question though," Po said while looking at the scroll in his paw.

"And what question would that be Dragon Warrior?" Shifu asked.

"What did you mean by 'choice'? You said I have decide, what did you mean by that?" Po asked.

"I had a feeling that you would ask that question. Well, I see no point in delaying what is needed to be done. Come Po, approach where I am standing, only then, are we able to begin." Shifu said while stepping to the side and pointing to the spot where Po was to stand. No wanting to wait, Po did as he was told and took his place beside Shifu. Once he did, he placed the scroll he was holding and was now looking at it.

"Alright Shifu, I did as you said, what do I do now?" Po asked while looking at the scroll in his possession.

"Simple Dragon Warrior, we proceed to the next phase. Now, hand me the scroll," Shifu said while holding out his open paw, waiting for the item's warm touch. Po did so and placed the scroll into Shifu's hand, wondering what he would do next. After feeling the item on him, he clenched his fingers around and placed his other palm on the top of the scroll case, popping it open and slid the actual scroll out of the protective case. He placed the top back on the case and placed the empty husk on the ground in between the both of them. Now with that done, Shifu gripped both handles of the scroll and opened it slowly, making sure not to damage the contents that were inside. Once he did, Po's face was struck with surprise as opposed to Shifu's stoic facial features.

A series of explanations, information, and ancient wisdom were on the scroll as were pictures of the five elements; Fire, Water, Wood, Metal and Earth in the center, making a cross sign with the elements on each end, but what Po saw definitely through his common knowledge of the subject out the door, but only for a bit. What he saw in both the northeast and northwest, were two other characters, but he could hardly see what they said, for they were smudged almost completely, making it hard to read.

"I take it you saw the two nearly blotted out characters?" Shifu asked while still looking at the scroll.

"Yeah, I did. Why, do you know what they are?" Po asked.

"In time I will. Tell me Po, what do you know what the Wu Xing is?" Shifu asked.

"c'mon, again with the questions?" Po asked, slightly groaning. He was about to complain, but for some strange unknown, yet creepy reason, he could feel Shifu's glare on him, and he wasn't even looking at him. Swallowing any complaints he had, Po just decided to answer him. "Uh… what I meant to say was, The Wu Xing are the primordial five elements are the govern all of life right?" Po asked, feeling the stare lock off him.

"That is both correct and incorrect Panda. Yes, the five elements do found life for this land, but No, the Wu Xing are not the primordial founders of life." Said Shifu both praising and correcting Po's knowledge of the subject.

"Huh, but that's what I was taught, if the Wu Xing aren't the primordial founders of life, then what?" Po asked.

"Do you remember these two smudged characters on this scroll?" Shifu asked; his focus was still on the scroll.

"Yeah? What about them?" Po asked.

"Tell me Po, did you know of Light and Darkness?" Shifu asked.

"Light and Darkness, no not really, all I know is that during the morning it's all lighty and stuff and when the sun goes down, it gets dark, is that an okay answer?" Po asked. Shifu's ear twitched a little, but he retained his composer.

"I suppose that is a somewhat… tenable answer," Shifu replied. "But actually Po, both Light and Darkness are the primordial founders of the five elements." Shifu informed, making Po go wide-eyed.

"What? But wait, how? I thought it was only just fire, water, earth, wood and metal, you're telling me that both light and dark are the beginning? What's going on…?" Po groaned, feeling his head hurt.

"Calm down Po, I will explain it. For starters, the five elements are, as you know, the bases of life on the land, but do you know how the five main elements came to be?" Shifu asked.

Po racked his brain for an answer, but none came to mind. "I got nothin." Po replied.

"Well, allow me to try to explain it in way you can understand. I would go with Oogway's interpretation of the history, but I feel that would be a tad too… circuitous for you. Rather, I have a better apprehension for you to grasp. I shall tell you a story that my mother told me once when I was young, but, just not the story. I'll be taking parts of the story and point them out. Will that be alright with you?" Shifu asked.

"Sure, just so long as I get it, doesn't matter what form you tell it in." Po replied.

"Very well, now Po, the story I was told back from days of youth proceeds as such. Long ago, when the land was young and there was nothing to begin with. There were only three elements that were present. There was Earth, it was solid and expansive but also barren, no trace of life, at all, not even in the slightest. There was also two other elements that were present as well. There was Light: Guāng and Darkness: Hēi'ān. Those two were also present. They were the starting points of the four elements; they were the parents of Fire, Earth, Water, Metal, and Wood." Shifu said.

"Whoa, wait… their parents? Do elements even have parents?" Po questioned himself while thinking.

"Everything, be it a plant, a build, or animal, has an Origin Point, that same principle goes for The Five, Xiwang, Qīānxī, Līmīng, you and I. No one is an exception Po." Shifu stated. "Now where was I…? Ah yes, the elements. As you can see Po, this rule is something everyone knows, Light and Darkness can never be separated, no matter what. One cannot exist without the other, if that were to happen, the balance would be tipped, and destruction would be brought to the universe. But thankfully, such a thing can never happen, because Light and Darkness; like Yin and Yang, are destined to be together, throughout eternity." Shifu instructed.

"Okay, you explained how the two are connected, but what you didn't say, was how they created the five elements." Po answered.

"I was getting to that. As I mentioned earlier, Light and Darkness are meant to be together, what I am about to say next, is that the two are destined to be against one another forever and ever." Shifu added.

"They sound like an old married couple." Po replied.

"That is because they are. They have been present for eons and eons and eons. No one, not even the ancient protectors from The Hollow of Inviolable Annals knew when Light and Darkness began. All that is known is that Light and Darkness have been around that long. Now, how the elements were born. They were born from the conflict between the parents." Shifu added.

"Hold on, wait a minute, you mean to tell me that the other four elements were born from conflict from the mom and dad? That's the weirdest form of sex I've ever heard." Po replied. Shifu stumbled a bit before regain his posture while letting out a brief cough.

"Not exactly what I meant, but if that helps you understand, then by all means, use that as your starting point. Next for how the elements can be told apart with the help of the Yin and Yang. Listen closely when I tell you this Po. Here is how the four elements can be told apart. Wood and Fire are like their Father, meaning that they both are male and are brothers. they consist solely of Yang energy, but that is also distinguishable. Fire is Full Yang, making it the oldest and Wood is New Yang, meaning that it is the youngest of the five." Shifu said.

"Okay, so Fire and Wood are Yang, meaning both are male brothers, but one is older and and one is younger, okay. Got it down, what about the other three?" Po asked.

"I will answer your question on that now. Next is both Metal and Water. Like Fire and Wood, they too are siblings, but they take after their Mother. Metal and Water are both sisters, consisting solely of Yin energy but they too can be told apart. Metal is of New Yin: meaning that Metal is the youngest, and Water is of Full Yin: meaning that Water is the eldest. Did you understand all that?" Shifu asked.

"Got it all down. So from what you told me, Fire and Water are the oldest, and that Wood and Metal are the youngest. Okay, I got it, but wait where does that leave Earth?" Po asked.

"That, Po, is something only we can speculate. From what records from The Hollow have told us, the Earth Element was most likely born when Light and Darkness came into existence and when they clashed for the first time." Shifu said.

"So that would make the earth element the oldest of the five then. Okay, I get it now," Po said while looking down at Shifu.

"It pleases me that you understand it so easily Dragon Warrior, Good work." Shifu praised.

"Thanks, but there is one thing that bothers me though." Po said.

"and what would that be?" the red panda asked.

"How exactly do you know all this Shifu?" Po asked.

"All of this information can be reviewed in The Hollow of Inviolable Annals at any time. Now, shall we proceed to using this scroll?" Shifu asked.

"Let's do it!" Po exclaimed while cupping his fist, cracking a few knuckles in the process.

"Very well, let us proceed, but before that. Tell me Po, which manner of weapon are you willing to use?" Shifu asked while looking up at Po.

"Weapon huh? Well, I am Doing Dragon Style Kung Fu, so I prefer to use my fists, so enemies will know the power of my Lightning Paws of Bodacious Fury! Hwwtah!" Po exclaimed while punching the air repeatedly until coming to a stop and looked down to Shifu, who was just looking to the side and had a slight frown.

"Alright, so you choose to use your fists do you? Well, what would you do if you were not allowed to use your fists?" Shifu asked, bring Po enthusiasm to a halt.

"Hm, well, I guess I would use a sword as a backup, ya never know." Po replied.

"You choose a sword as your second choice. Hm? Po, you have shown me that in the last year you have matured… somewhat." Shifu added under his breath. "But I believe that you are responsible enough to handle the Sword of Heroes, so I will allow you to use it," Shifu said. "Think of it as a present for your commendable efforts in being a warrior as of late." Shifu said with a smile. Po looked like he was about to burst, he was given the chance to use the Sword of Heroes? And it would be in HIS possession? He couldn't believe it.

"This… is… so… AWESOME! I get to be the holder of such an artifact? Oh man, this is severely cool!" Po squealed, holding his balled fists to his chin and was bouncing a bit.

"Po, do not make me regret my decision. I am entrusting you with an important piece history, do not let me down." Shifu said while handing Po the scroll, which he took. Once he passed the scroll to Po, he proceeded to retrieve the sword, just in time to see three familiar heads dart behind the pillar, making the Grand Master smirk.

Bookmark #3-

*With Xiwang, Qīānxī, and Līmīng

"Oh crap! you think he saw us?" Xiwang asked while looking down at the two girls who were looking back at him, worry on both their faces.

"I don't know, but most likely he did, I mean he IS Master Shifu after." Qīānxī said in a pessimistic tone of voice

"If that's true, what are we going to do?" asked the little sister.

"How about you come out of hiding and give the Dragon Warrior and I a proper morning greeting, hmmm?" asked a familiar voice, making them jump.

"Told ya." Qīānxī replied.

Not wanting to keep the Master waiting, the trio, quickly hoped out from behind the pillar and quickly lined up following it up with a bow and said together in unison, "Good Morning Master!" with their heads low.

"Good morning to you three as well, I trust you slept well?" he asked, in a calm tone of voice.

"Yes Master, we did." Xiwang said, speaking on behalf of them.

"Good. I hope you three know the penalty for spying on a Master and his Student is," Shifu asked while looking at them with a no-nonsense look on his face.

"No Master, what is the punishment?" Xiwang asked, regretting what he just said.

"I'm glad you asked. the penalty for spying is 200 laps around the base of the mountain," Shifu said. Correction, NOW Xiwang was regretting why he asked that.

"We understand. When do you want us to start?" Xiwang asked.

"Well, I would say right about now," He started. He watched the children rotate till their backs were facing Shifu and were about to take off, but decided to stop them. "If you were training today, which we're not. So there is no need." He said with a chuckle, making the quickly turn back around. This time Qīānxī was the one to speak up this time.

"that wasn't funny old man, just about ready to run out of here, and let me tell you, I am not the running type." She said. Shifu chuckled at her insolence.

"Well, regardless if you are a certain type of not, that is irrelevant here. Now, let us go greet the Dragon Warrior." Shifu said while walking over to the Sword of Heroes, retrieving it and walking back to Po, who was looking at the scroll. As he approached him, Po noticed out of his peripheral vision and looked up from the parchment and looked down to Shifu, who was holding the Sword.

"The Sword of Heroes… Oh man, this is really happening," Po said while reaching for it, only to have snatched away by Shifu.

"Dragon Warrior, I believe that it is poor manners to not address your students, wouldn't you agree?" Shifu asked while looking towards the children, that were standing at the base of the steps. Po looked to where Shifu was looking, just in time to see his three pupils standing there with sheepish smiles.

"Well look whose is up and about, G'mornin you three. You all slept well?" Po asked.

"Good morning Dragon Warrior," they all said together, with the traditional fist in palm gesture. "And yes, we slept well Master." Līmīng said while smiling.

"Well, that's good to hear, what brings you here this morning?" Po asked.

"Well, you were on you're here, and we decided to follow you. You're not mad are you?" Xiwang asked.

"What, nah, I'm not mad. In fact, I'm glad you guys are here." said Po, making the three kids, look a tad shocked.

"Really, why is that?" Xiwang asked.

"Ah no reason really, I'm just glad you guys are here." Po said, making the tiger cub, lightly chuckle.

"So what are you guys doing now anyways?" Xiwang asked.

"Shifu is going have undergo some kinda trial or somethin? I dunno. Feel free to stay and watch if you want, but I don't think that the others are up yet anyways." Po said as Shifu was now beside him. He handed the scroll back to elderly red panda and waited for further instructions on what to do.

"Welp, since we're here and what not, this could make for an excellent time for a little history lesson, just ya know, after you and Shifu do whatever it was." Qīānxī said.

"That would be Master Shifu to you young lady. And yes, I would be glad to give you three a history lesson. But first, Po has some work to do. Now Po, are you ready to begin?" Shifu asked while walking over to the edge of the Sacred Moon Pool with the scroll in hand.

"Ready as I'll ever be. Bring on the Challenge, there's nothing this Dragon Warrior can't handle." Po stated confidently, while thumbing his chest, his arrogance also rising.

"We'll see how long that confidence lasts." Shifu replied while smirking to the side.

No longer delaying what needed to be done, the Grand Master knelt down and placed the open scroll onto the surface of the water and gave it a gentle push. Once he did, he rested his paws in the water and watched it float into the center, which strangely, it stopped in the center, directly under the Golden Dragon statue, just as it, the parchment began to glow a golden color same as the dragon above it, when the four looked up, they saw the dragon status' eyes were glowing white. They all could feel the warmth radiate from the ornament. Just as their focus was be solely on the object above, another bright light was shining from below, they quickly turned their attention downwards to see that Moon Pool was glowing a pale white color, just like the Moon itself. To follow it up, 13 plain colored orbs rose from the water, all the way up until they were resting around the Gold Dragon, as if waiting for something or anything in general on what to do next.

Seeing this as a perfect opportunity, Po decided to ask, what was going on.

"Um, Shifu?" Po asked his master, who still had his paws in the water.

"Yes Dragon Warrior, what is your question?" Shifu asked in a calm manner, not even phased by what was happening.

"Uh yeah, do you mind telling me, just, oh I don't know, what the heck is goin on?" Po demanded in a panicked voice.

"simple, you are going to undergo a trail for which ALL Dragon Warriors are destined for." Shifu replied in the same calm manner, which still didn't help Po's current mood or tension.

"That still doesn't explain what's going with all… This!" Po exclaimed while pointing at everything in front of him.

"Patients Dragon Warrior, it will all become clear after this final part," Shifu said while now proceeding to stand back fully, pulling his wet, but white glowing paws out of the water. "Now Po, if you could please stand back a bit," Shifu said. Po did as he was told and stood back enough to give Shifu some room to work with. As he did, he felt the familiar presence of three beings, desperately cling on to him from behind, they were confused at what was going with this scenario, and that was understandable, for Po didn't know either.

Now that Shifu had more space, he proceeded unto the next phase of the final process.

"Alright, now for the hand signs," Shifu said while rising both of his paws and held them there for a moment, at the same time, the clear orbs reacted to him. He brought both paws down to his chest level and the orbs reacted, lowing as well. With the process in motion, he did not delay for he began with the first of the thirteen hand signs.

(A/N: for the next thirteen words, I'm just gonna put the color alongside the word, to speed this along. So here we go.)

"Rat." he called out while making the hand sign, as he did, the Chinese character appeared in the clear orb, but this time, color was showing as well. The color of Gray now filled the orb, along with the black characters. With that done, he proceeded onto the next one, faster this time.

"Ox." - Blue

"Tiger." - White

"Rabbit." - Light Green

"Dragon." – Yellow

"Snake." - Green

"Horse." - Brown

"Goat." - Silver

"Monkey." – Light Brown

"Rooster." - Red

"Dog." - Gold

"Pig." - Purple

"Cat." - *Pink

(A/N: *Pink – fun fact, I learned in Minute Physics. The color pink, get this, it doesn't exist. At all. It's just leftovers of white light; also, it's what is filled in the blank space of the color spectrum, along with radio waves, micro waves, inferred, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays and so on. Since we can't see them, we replace all the granger with pink. And since the 12 Chinese Zodiacs animals normally consist of 13 animals, but only 12 are used, I figured that pink would best suit the cat. Also, you can call pink: Minus green, since it's leftovers of white light when you take out the green. Hope you you enjoyed that little fun fact. Now, back to the story.)

With that done, all thirteen orbs were filled with color, and were awaiting for the next command, Shifu turned his head to face the four, who were still in shock from what was going on in front of them, issuing a warning. "Po, Xiwang, Līmīng, Qīānxī," Shifu called out to them. They immediately turned their attention to the Grand Master, their confused faced telling him all he needed to know. "I want all of you to close your eyes, I am about to perform the Golden Lotus Clap, it is imperative that you keep your eyes closed, understand?" he asked. They didn't argue, they as they were told, and shut their eyes immediately. Once he saw that they had done was told, he proceeded onto the task. With both of his paws by his side, he moved them in fluent motion all the way around in a circle until they were spread out before by his side, seizing this opportunity, he clenched his eyes completely and brought his paws to together, emitting a sound of a dull gong being stuck and an airy wave of gold erupted from the clap. It was clearly heard by the four of them, and the orb reacted, they shot upwards and lodged themselves into the imaginary sockets that surrounded the Golden Dragon Status, as if waiting for something. Once done, Shifu opened his eyes to see that the ritual was done, and that it was now safe for the others to open their eyes.

"You can open your eyes now." Shifu announced while looking at the four who still had their eyes closed. Po was the first to open his eyes, the trio of children followed, seeing as how Po was given the alright before them. When they did, they too saw the marvel before them.

The 13 orbs were colorfully lit up, so was the Dragon Statue, as if waiting for something to happen next.

"Shifu?" Po asked, still keeping his eyes on the sight before him.

"Yes Dragon Warrior, what seems to be the problem?" Shifu asked while turning to face him, his face still stoic and composed, no trace of surprise was seeable.

"Now are you gonna tell me what the heck is going on now?" Po asked, trying not to raise his voice, even though he wanted to, but knew better not to.

"The answer is very simply Dragon Warrior, you are to undergo a trial that move you along in path to enlightenment, but to do that; you must best the Dragon Tribulation Trial that awaits you." Shifu said.

"Dragon Tribulation Trial?" Po repeated, not sure how to process what Shifu just said to him.

"That is correct Dragon Warrior, like I said before; this is a test that EVERY Dragon Warrior must go through. In the past, many previous Dragon Warriors have under gone this trail, and just as your predecessors before you, you too, must undergo this Tribulation, no exceptions or excuses." Shifu firmly said.

"gods, How do you KNOW all this stuff?" Po asked, still trying to get that concept across his head. Shifu just gave him a look that spoke for itself. "OH, right THAT place, got it." The panda said.

"Po?" asked a familiar voice, causing him to look down, seeing that Xiwang was looking up at him. "What are you going to do, is it something important?" the cub asked.

"From the look of it Xi, looks like I have to take a special test. Something that I need to do I guess." Po replied while looking back the glowing statue.

"Will you be alright?" Līmīng asked while looking at the older panda.

"I'll A-Okay! Just you watch." Po replied while stepping away from the kids to approach Shifu. "By the way Xiwang, you're voice sounds a little funny, did you eat something weird last night?" Po asked, making the cub jump a little and just shaking his head no.

"Not that I know of, I just woke up like this, and the next thing I know, my voice is all squeaky, even though it doesn't sound like that now, it's sorer, but I feel completely fine." The tiger cub replied. He could see that Po was now thinking about his condition.

"Hm, sore throat going to squeaky then back to being sore, feeling completely fine when you throat isn't. What could this mean?" Po asked himself.

"What it means Po, is that Xiwang has taken a step to adulthood." Shifu informed.

Po, still not good with understanding most terms just simply asked "meaning?" making the red panda's ear twitch lightly.

"It means that Xiwang has reached puberty Po. He is on his way to becoming an adult." Shifu explained, trying not to hit his face from the panda's lack of specific knowledge of a common subject.

"Puberty? Xiwang, how old are you?" Po asked, shocked from just finding out about this.

"I'm… I'm 13… today's my birthday, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about that." The cub replied sheepishly, his tail wrapping around his ankle.

"Is that so? Well, Happy 13th Birthday dude. Gotta make you something when I'm done, still, I had no idea you were 13, that's quite a shock." Po replied.

"Thank you." Xiwang replied quickly, not sure how to respond to that.

"Yes, I will have Po prepare you something spectacular when he is done and I will have the five run out to pick up some presents later on, but for now-" Just Shifu was going announce something else, five medium sized spheres suddenly and surprisingly, appeared from the scroll that was still floating in the pool, and just as fast as they appeared, they all shot off in the same direction leaving the Hall of Warriors to areas unknown. The five in the Hall of Warriors just looked at what happened and could offer no explanation to what just happened, mainly Shifu, once again, he wasn't surprised or even the least bit curious, which was strange on Po's part, cause right, he was desperately trying to formulate what was going on, but to no avail.

"Well, that was unusual, but no matter. Let us not waste anymore daylight, Po, are you ready to undergo the Dragon Tribulation Trail?" Shifu asked while turning his attention back to Po, whose mouth was comically opened wide, but nothing was coming out, at least not until he was spoken to.

"Well, seeing as how what just happened, I can't really say that I'm surprised anymore, but still, I'd like an explanation as to what the heck is going on." Po said. "Alright Shifu, what do I have to do now?" Po asked this time, not sure what to do now.

"Simple Dragon Warrior, you are going to active the Golden Dragon Statue." Shifu replied.

"Okay, yeah sure. That sounds simple enough to – Wait… What?" Po questioned while looking at the elderly red panda whose paws were behind his back and his attention was on the Golden Dragon above them.

"Just as said a second ago. You; Dragon Warrior, are going to active that statue above us." Shifu replied.

"Okay, it's one thing with the glowing dragon and glowy orb… thingies in the air, but now you want me, to active THAT?" Po asked while pointing towards the object, looking directly at Shifu, his eyes wide open.

"Yes, that is correct Dragon Warrior." Shifu replied calmly.

"And HOW in the name of the Gods, do you suppose I do that?" the panda asked.

"I am glad you asked. you are going to active it with your technique; The Thundering Wind Hammer." Shifu responded with a small smile.

"You want me to use that, but I thought you told me not use it, not matter what." Po said.

"Well, right now is an exception. So, please." Shifu said.

"Uh, excuse me," called out Xiwang.

"Yes little one, what is your question?" Shifu asked while turning his attention to the cub, which was now joined by the twins on each side.

"Uh, what exactly is the Thundering Wind Hammer?" Xiwang asked.

"Yeah, you caught my attention too, what is it?" Qīānxī asked eager to know what it was also.

"I, too, would like to know as well please." Līmīng asked politely.

Po wasn't one to deny a fellow mammal when they asked for something. But rather than saying, he just decided that it would be easier to show them.

"Well, since you all insisted, I'd be glad to, but rather than explaining it, I'll just show you instead. Does that work?" he asked the trio of children, who nodded their heads eagerly for a demonstration. "Alright, prepare to be stupefied, now stand back and be amazed!" Po said while going into a stance, prepping himself for the move.

"remember Po, aim for the Dragon Orb, it is in the Statue's mouth." Shifu pointed out while, while directing Po to his target.

"right, got it. Okay, here I go!" Po said while taking a few breaths to steady himself. After a moment of mental preparation, he was ready, unleashing the momentum that he been storing up, rotating his body over and over, gaining more speed while staying in that one spot, making his entire body a black white blur, with the exception of his pants in the mix. The three cubs watched in awe as they were witnessing the Dragon Warrior in action, wondering what would happen next. After a few more second of the consistent spinning, Po abruptly stopped his rotation and his entire left paw was covered pure green. The cubs could only stare in surprise at what they were seeing, for this was entirely new to them, but just when they were about to question, Po shot his arm in the trajectory that was align with the target and the energy ball left his paw and flew towards gold with a blinding speed. Once the energy made contact with orb, there was a moment where nothing happened. Seeing this as a perfect opportunity, Po turned to the cubs that were looking at him with amazement.

"Wow, Po that was Amazing!" Xiwang said while smiling widely.

"Yeah, that was so cool! How'd you do that?" asked Līmīng.

"Do you think I can do that?" Qīānxī asked, wanting to know how to do what the Dragon Warrior just did.

"Well, I don't know if I can, I mean, the Thundering Wind Hammer is one of the Seven Impossible Moves, I don't think that anybody could just up and learn it." Po said to the trio.

"Yet such a move is not impossible for one who has much dedication to learn of a skill." A powerful and commanding voice said, coming from behind them, causing fear to well up in them, aside from Shifu, who was still composed, not even showing the least bit of worry.

"Uh, Master Shifu?" said Po in a timid voice.

"Yes Dragon Warrior, what is it?" the red panda asked.

"Whose voice was that?" Po replied.

Shifu chuckled at Po's expression, for it was only natural for one to not know what was going on. "Turn around and see for yourself, Dragon Warrior." Shifu answered while gesturing Po to look behind him with an open paw. Doing at he was told, Po slowly turned his head to see where the voice came from. Once he did, he was beyond surprised by what he saw. He saw a ghostly figure of a Yellow Dragon that was now hovering above the Moon Pool, holding four colored spheres in its claws and its reflection was very clear, meaning that it was real, but that still didn't lay Po's anxiety to rest. Shifu could see that Po, as well as the children were still spooked by this. "Dragon Warrior, Children, I would like you to meet eldest of the five elements; HuangLong." Shifu introduced.

"I am pleased to make your acquaintances Xiwang, Līmīng and Qīānxī. I am especially honored to meet you Dragon Warrior; Po Xiao Ping. I have been looking forward to our meeting." HuangLong stated.

"Uhh… N-nice to meet you too…" Po answered while, chuckling nervously.

"L-l-likewise." Said Xiwang, who was ducking behind Po, as were the panda twins.

HuangLong just chuckled lightly. "I understand why you four are acting this way; it is not every day that you are given the chance to bear witness to seeing a Founder of the Wu Xing. Be not afraid, for I am the ally of every being that resides on my earth. You have nothing to worry about. And Shifu, it is good to see you again my old friend, how are things as of late? you are looking a tad older, but you still have the spark of youth in you I see." Said HuangLong, while turning his attention to the red panda who was smiling at the ethereal dragon that was hovering in front of them.

"HuangLong, I am only sixty three years old, mind you. And yes old friend it is good to see you again, but I fear that now is not the time for reminiscing, I am afraid." Shifu said.

"I understand clearly, you summoned me for one thing. Po Xiao Ping had decided to undergo the Dragon Tribulation Trial is he not?" HuangLong asked, already knowing the answer.

"That is correct. He has made his decision to undergo the trial." Shifu stated.

"Very good. And you do not need to tell me his choice of weaponry, I already know. He has chosen to use his own hands, he chooses to use his own power to handle a situation and he has chosen a sword as his sidearm has he? Very well, with all that properly arranged we can begin the trail." HuangLong said.

"Uh, excuse me Mr. Yellow Dragon sir, but, um what exactly will the trial be about?" Po asked.

"Worry not Dragon Warrior, I shall tell you once you have arrive at the starting point. Now, place yourself in the lotus position and rest the Sword of Heroes on your lap," Huang Long instructed.

"Alright," he turned back to Xiwang and smiled. "Don't worry little buddy, when I'm done we'll throw you a big birthday party and stuff, can you keep an eye on your sisters?" Po asked. The tiger cub simply nodded his answer, making it easier for Po. "Good, I'll be back before you know it." Po said while taking up the Sword of Heroes and doing as he was instructed earlier. He got into lotus position and rested the sword on his being, awaiting what to do next. "Alright, what now?" Po asked while looking at HuangLong.

"Now Dragon Warrior, I need you to close your eyes and travel to your Inner Peace for the next phase, only then can we begin your trial. But worry not; it will be a painless transition." HuangLong stated, putting Po at ease.

"Well, when you put it that way, alright. Here I go." Po said while closing his eyes, his breathing became slow and calm, his intake of breaths even, his posture perfect and his mind clear. Po was quickly attaining Inner Peace, and the Yellow Dragon could sense this.

"Amazing, only a few seconds pass and he is already transcending the plane to achieve Inner Peace," HuangLong said while looking upon the young man sitting in front of him.

"Well yes. Po has an uncanny ability to learn things so quickly that would normally take years for the average person to learn. Only a week has passed since he found his Inner Peace," Shifu stated proudly. "And at such a young age." He added, some sourness was clear in his voice and HuangLong clearly sensed it.

"Now, now Shifu. There is no need for jealously. It is a good thing that the youth of his generation are learning such things at his age; it just makes our duties much easier. I also noticed that Po has learned a variety of techniques so early in his life. Such as: The Golden Lotus clap, The Fluttering Mind-Slip, The Thundering Wind Hammer, The Mongolian Fireball, and even the Wuxi Finger Hold." HuangLong said, but Shifu had no reconciliation of Po knowing such a powerful and dangerous technique.

"Po knows the Wuxi Finger Hold? I never taught him that! So how…" Shifu pondered.

"Remember when you stated that The Dragon Warrior has an uncanny ability learn things quickly, that is a capacious part on his being. If that is true, then Po just may be able to learn The Kiss of Purification." HuangLong mused, and that immediately captured Shifu attention.

"You mean THE Kiss of Purification? Only one warrior was able to master that sacred technique and that was the Original Dragon Warrior. Do you think Po is capable of that task?" Shifu asked the dragon.

"That, I do not know, nor can I specifically say. From I know, for one to use such an arte, he must have perfect Inner Peace, and from the perspective of Dragon Warrior, the possibility is very agreeable, but only time will tell. Speaking of which, it seems that Po is completely and perfectly in tune with his Inner Peace, now I will proceed to initiating his trail. I will be back later, in the meantime, I believe that today is a certain tiger cub's birthday, is it not?" asked HuangLong with a smile, making the young male smile slightly.

"Ah yes, right. I will have The Five run out and pick up presents when they awake, until then, I will give the children a little history lesson since they had asked earlier." Shifu replied while looking at the cubs, which were now walking towards him.

"Very well then, I will see you all momentarily." HuangLong replied, while placing four orbs around Po, letting them hover and a thin line of energy was surrounding him, letting the Dragon connect a link from mind to Po's, entering the panda's mindscape.

"Now, how about that history lesson?" Shifu asked while smiling.

Bookmark #4-

*Meanwhile, in Po's mindscape*

Upon opening his eyes slowly, Po's eyes were adjusting to the light that was now pouring in, but that didn't take long. Soon, he had his full vision back, but when he did, the scenery was not what he was expecting. As he was standing up, he was also taking in what he was seeing and it was amazing, surprising and creepy all wrapped up in big package. He saw three setting of time all in one place. It was a blue morning on the left side, afternoon in the middle; the sky was clearly orange, and on the right, it was night time with the stars and moon present, but there were two divides in between. And when Po looked down, he could see that he was standing on a dirt way and the field looked of grass and plants, the color was affected by the time setting in the sky and a gentle breeze was swaying from the east, making the panda feel nice, but that still didn't pardon the fact that he wanted to know he was.

"Okay, where the heck am I now?" Po asked out.

"Dragon Warrior, I welcome you to Field of Pathways," said a familiar voice, making Po jump a little when he heard that.

"HuangLong! Geez, you scared me." Po replied while seeing the dragon take form in front of him, but on a much larger scale above him.

"Allow me to apologize Dragon Warrior, for I did not mean to frighten you; it is not every day that I am seen. But that is beside the point, you have work to do, are you ready to begin your Dragon Tribulation Trial?" the yellow dragon asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be. So, what do I gotta do?" Po asked.

"Before we can actually begin your trail, you must choose which path you will take to obtain powers." HuangLong stated.

"Wait, powers?" Po asked.

"That is correct. You are to choose which path you shall undergo, but I must warn you Dragon Warrior, the three paths before you, are not for the faint of heart. You must decide with path is correct for you, for if you choose poorly the mistake could be fatal." HuangLong warned.

"You mean I could die? Shifu never told me about that!" Po shouted, not believing what he just heard.

"He did not want to influence your decision, which is why he stayed silent." HuangLong stated.

"He still coulda warned me!" Po replied.

"That would be the same as influencing. But worry not Dragon Warrior; I will oversee your choice and what path you take and be with you the entire time." The yellow Dragon said, trying to chip off a bit of Po's anxiety.

"Well, that doesn't exactly help me, but alright, I guess that works too… Alright, so, how do I choose my path?" Po asked.

"Do you see where the path before you splits? Continue towards it until you approach the forks in the road, there; I will explain more on what to do." The yellow dragon instructed. Po did as he was told, and made his way to spot he was told to go to, when he got there, he awaited further instructions.

"Alright, I'm here, what do I do now? " Po asked while looking up at the Yellow Dragon.

"Now Dragon Warrior, before you lay three pathways for you to pick. You are to pick which path is correct for you, be it Light," HuangLong pointed out while looking to the left, as did Po. "Twilight," he was looking down the middle path. "or Darkness," he looked to the path on the right, that was leading into the night. "One of these specific paths is meant for you Dragon Warrior." The Yellow Dragon specified, making Po feel a little easier about choosing, but the choices he was given, didn't stop him from asking which path did what.

"Okay, So I have to choose which one huh? But before I do that, can you tell me which path does what?" he asked, hoping to get an answer. Much to his relief, he got one.

"Since you have asked, I will tell you. If you are to choose The Path of Ascension Via Lightwaves, your resolve which directed you to learn Kung Fu will be put to the ultimate test. However, if you choose the Light, your primordial fear of Darkness will grow. Your sanity will remain, but that ever present fear will upset your balance. If you choose the Thoroughfare Amidst The Blackness, you will face your dark side combined with all of your yang chi, dark desires and dark emotions all in one, making it a very difficult battle to overcome, but should you surpass yourself, you will never again know the restfulness that resides in the Light. Should you choose the path of Twilight, you will face both your darkside and have your resolve tested; only to gain absolute control of yourself and place you on the path to enlightenment, if you should lose; your will to fight and defend all will be lost. Now, choose your fate." HuangLong commanded.

"Huh, so if I choose the light, I'll become closer to the gods, but only to have my fears of darkness grow as well? Hmm, that being said, I choose darkness, I'll get stronger, more powerful, but I'll never peace or rest again? But wait, isn't Darkness evil? If I choose Darkness, won't I turn evil as well?" Po asked.

"Be not confused with mortal derogatoriness of the word 'Darkness' young one. That is a simple misunderstanding that you mortals have given it, simply your fear and lack of understanding. Darkness denotes that it is neither good or evil, but that it simply is, and nothing more." HuangLong informed, making Po raise an eyebrow.

"Okay, but I was told that Darkness is evil, you mean it's not?" Po asked.

"That is correct, Dragon Warrior. Darkness is not evil, but rather, action and follies fall solely to users of such, giving it the wrong outlook." HuangLong said.

"What?" Po asked; the entire concept just went over his head, leaving him confused. HuangLong just chuckled at the response.

"Allow me to say it in a way that you can understand Dragon Warrior. Say that you cross path with a man, and he is able to use the power of Darkness, but for the wrong purpose. Does this make Darkness evil?" the yellow dragon asked.

"Uh… I dunno, yes… maybe?" Po replied, not sure how to respond, making the Yellow Dragon laugh.

"No, no Dragon Warrior, it does not. It is the PERSON that is using the Darkness that is evil, not the Darkness itself. You see Dragon Warrior; it all falls to the actions of the person. That individual can be a kind soul who uses the power of Darkness, making the Darkness good as well, as opposed to a person who is evil and is using the power of Light, making the Light evil as well. In all, Light and Darkness are neither good or bad, only the individual making the choice. Now do you understand?" HuangLong asked.

"Yeah, I get it now, it all makes sense. With that piece of knowledge, I know which path I want to go down. And well, you don't need to tell me which one I want to take. I'm going for the middle path if you don't mind." Po said, causing the ethereal dragon above him to look at the panda with surprise.

"Are you fully certain that you wish to take the middle pathway? Only the Original Dragon Warrior was capable of clearing it, should you be defeated, your will to fight shall be shattered. Be honest with yourself Dragon Warrior, are you absolutely, resolutely and honestly sure you wish to take the path of your choice?" HuangLong asked, fearing for the young man before him.

"C'mon Dragon dude, I'm the Dragon Warrior, if anything, I KNOW I can handle the choice I made. Now, let's not waste any more time, I got party to set up. Let's get the show on the road." Po stated confidently, causing HuangLong to let out a hearty laugh.

"So much like him, you are. Very well, I can see that your mindset has been placed. Let us begin, take your first step on the path of your choice and we will begin trail, Dragon Warrior." HuangLong stated while smiling at the panda.

"Now that's more like it! Let's get to it." Po said while taking a step forward, bring him one step closer to his goal. He continued walking, and the other two paths vanished from sight, only the one he was on remained.

"It is good to see your resolve to control yourself is clearly evident. I am grateful that the Gods themselves have chosen you Dragon Warrior," HuangLong stopped his voice and was silent for a moment, seeing as how it would be a bit before the actual trail started, now was as a good a time as any to get this out and let the Dragon Warrior of his purpose. "Dragon Warrior, if I may, I also have something I wish to speak to you about. For the last week, you have been having nightmares, have you not?" the dragon asked. Po didn't stop walking to answer, he just kept moving, but was not about to keep quite from the question that was asked, even though it made him uncomfortable.

"Yeah I have. I rather not go into detail about it, but yeah, I've been having nightmares lately." Po replied.

"I see. You even had a dream about the Coming End, did you not?" HuangLong asked, making Po shiver.

"Yes, I did. It still scares me, even now." Po said while still marching forward. "Why, do you know something about it?" the panda asked while looking up at the yellow serpent.

"Indeed I do, in fact, my sibling and I, we are the reason for the approaching End that you have seen in your prophetic dreams." HuangLong informed, causing Po stumble a bit before coming to a halt in his tracks.

"Wait, you mean to say, YOU and your brothers and sisters are to blame, what do you mean by that?" Po asked, not believing what he just heard.

"Dragon Warrior this may be hard to hear, but you need to hear it, nonetheless. Dragon Warrior, My siblings and I… We are dying. Slowly, but surely, I know that this is difficult for you to hear, but it is the truth. We do not have a lot of time left." HuangLong pointed out, causing the panda to shudder.

"Do you know when you… y'know," Po asked, feeling that looming fear creep up in the back if his mind.

"At the most, we all have only a year left after today Dragon Warrior." HuangLong pointed out, no fear or trepidation in his voice, meaning he was dead serious.

"A-and… if you do…" Po trailed.

"Everything on earth is will become inhospitable and unable to support life. The land will become barren and every mortal being will die, but that is only the lightest of the grave situation. When it happens, Life will be unable to restart and Darkness will cover this world, but the Kind Darkness that father has for all creatures, I mean an Evil kind of Darkness will settle, for all eternity. And Gods can do nothing about it I am afraid." HuangLong added, but was surprised by Po's response.

"If," Po said simply.

"I beg your pardon?" HuangLong asked, not sure what Po meant by that.

"You mean 'IF' it happens, and don't worry, it's not gonna happen." Po said while casting the Dragon above him a reassuring grin of confidence before continuing his walking. The Yellow Dragon could only smile at the young man's enthusiasm.

"Dragon Warrior, you never fail to impress me. Your enthusiasm is very commendable, by that fact, the approaching End does not seem so certain anymore. You truly are a beckon of hope, just as the Gods have envisioned. I am no longer worried. Now, Po Xiao Ping let us begin your Dragon Tribulation Trial." HuangLong affirmed.

"You got it. But uh… how so I start?" Po asked.

"Your trail is already beginning. The scenario is already changing, to the setting of when your dark emotions first began to form. Do you remember when it began?" HuangLong asked.

Po was looking around him to see what HuangLong was talking about, and it was true. The calm field of grass and plants was changing into something else; it was becoming more and more modern, like it was changing into a… classroom! Po knew was was going on, the entire area was changing into his class of when he was just a boy, and if memory served any further, this was the class of where he and his childhood bully would spend most of the mornings when he was growing up.

It was clear that he HATED going there, but he didn't have any other choice, his father had him go there to learn some things that he couldn't teach Po. When Po was done with that place, he vowed never to come back.

"This can't be… this is my old classroom! Hey HuangLong, you said that…HuangLong?" Po called out to the dragon, but not seeing him anywhere, only walls, a roof and rows of stools. "Hey, where are you? You said you'd be with me!"

"Calm yourself Dragon Warrior; I am with you, but I am not physically there. Remember, this is YOUR trail, I am not allowed to help you. This is a trial that you must surpass on your own. You will see me again when the obstacle is completed. Do not worry, I have faith in you. Now Dragon Warrior, before you stands an accumulation of all your darkness and Yang chi, yet the being is in the form of a child is it not?" HuangLong asked. Po could clearly see that the dark version of him was indeed in the shape of a child, but that was it confused him.

"Yeah, I do, but question why? Why does my darkside look a child?" Po asked.

"Because Dragon Warrior, that room you are in, it is the starting point of your darkness, where it was sparked and grew from that day forward." The Yellow Dragon said to Po.

"It is. I know that better than anybody else… Alright, what do I have to do?" Po asked.

"You are to overcome yourself, subdue the darkness that has been bottled up, regardless of the Inner Peace that you have obtained. Now begin Dragon Warrior, I wish you luck." And with that, HuangLong went silent.

Bookmark #5-

Seeing that HuangLong wasn't going to speak this time, Po decided that it was best to continue with the trail and get it over with. Po walked over to the dark filled silhouette version of himself from his younger years. Seeing no features that could make out face, all that was there was darkness, pure empty darkness that was smoky and dropping bits and pieces of shadows from its body, but still maintaining its form, no matter how much blackness was lost.

"Uh… Hey there… me. What's up?" Po asked perkily.

"I did… my best…" started the shadow.

"Huh, whatcha say?" Po asked.

"I the best… I could. See, I got a pair of Shuang Gou. And I bought my first set of real steel Throwing Stars. My friends said that they didn't want to be seen with some fat loser. But then my dad got really mad. He said that weapons are dangerous and are not meant for Noodle folks like us. And that I was being silly for trying to imitate the Furious Five. I didn't have a choice. I was forced to throw away what I had saved up for, for a long time. And then… and then… my friends…"droned the shadow.

"Now I remembered why I disliked this place." Po muttered while looking off to the side.

"Facing one's own Darkness is always difficult, Dragon Warrior. Memories can be a double edged sword." HuangLong chipped in.

"I know that, I know that very well." Po replied.

"I… did my best. I tried to do what everyone said… even for the Five. But… none of it worked. I mean, it's so unfair! I do the best I possibly could to please them and even that isn't enough for them! I've only got one of myself! And even so, they're always trying to push me in opposite directions! But I still tried! I did my best to please them and do what they said! Because if I didn't, they'd all leave me! They told me… they didn't need someone like me!" the shadow pointed out, it's voice dripping with anger and emotion.

"I don't want to see this, why do I have go through this again?" Po stated, feeling tears start to well up in his eyes, but forced them to stay down.

"Even though you found Inner Peace, remnant emotions of your past sadness are still there Dragon Warrior, you must face them in order to be truly free of the emotional chains. Do you remember those five orbs you saw earlier, that arose from the scroll in the Moon Pool; I sent them to the Furious Five, for they are a part of your emotional chain that bound you to your dark emotions. They are seeing this as of right now, but cannot interact with you, or hear my voice, they can only watch this. You cannot see them either, it's only you here. When they awake and you are finished with your trail, they will come to you to apologize even though they already did. They must see what you are TRULY feeling to be able honestly apologize. It is painful yes, but it is needed to complete this part of your trial, now continue and do not run away from yourself." HuangLong pointed out before falling silent again. Po said nothing and continued watching.

"But… No matter how hard I tried, it was no good…" Then the shadow figure of Po started to violently tremor and an even darker aura was now surrounding him, and his paws clenched into fists. "I tried and I tried, and none of them would praise me… Not Mantis… Not Monkey... Not Crane… Not Viper… Not Tigress! None of them would praise me! None of them would accept me! NONE OF THEM WOULD LOOK AT 'ME'! I don't wanna be alone… I don't wanna be alone! I DON'T WANNA BE ALONE!" He shouted, causing the room they were in to explode, blasting away the walls, and revealing the world to them, only to have it look completely different. The sky was now black with stormy clouds above them; the luscious green grass was now dead and barren.

"What is this, where am I?" Po asked while looking around, trying to figure out where he was.

"Where do you think stupid? This is still our mind, even though it's pretty fucked up, I like It." said a familiar voice, only this time, it was full of malice and sadistic sarcasm. Po spun around to see another version of himself, only this time, it was fully visible and an exact doppelgänger of him, but Po knew all too well who it was that was before him.

"I know you, you're the dark version of me; Bad Po!" Po said while going into his battle stance.

"In the fur baby! I'm surprised you still remember me after the last nine months, I can tell from right here you've changed, grown stronger and found Inner Peace. Good Job! Even though you still have that goofy type of look on your face. So how ya been buddy?"

"I've been doing fine on my own, and a lot growing up, no thanks to you. Why am I even going on about this, you don't care." Po replied to his dark self.

"Oh c'mon, don't be like that. I mean, it takes two to grow, loosen up and chill, so we can spend some time together bro." Bad Po pointed.

"You are NOT my brother, and you never will be. Whatever, what are you even doing here anyways?" Po demanded.

"I guess your smarts are still lacking, even after nine months. If you must know, you and I are the same person you moron. We share the same face, same fur, same figure, even the same mind. The only difference between you and me, I'm your negative side. I'm the monster that haunts the dark corners of your mind, I see everything you see. Know everything you know and blah blah blah. I even know of the history of our past…" Dark Po trailed off and looked to the side, avoiding Po's gaze, like he was feeling bad for some reason, as if it was hard to talk about. "I… I even know about what happened to mom. If it were me, I would've killed the bastard with my bare paws. Make him pay for what he did." Bad Po admitted, his teeth now visible, his anger clearly shown.

"Killing Shen wouldn't have brought mother back, if anything, I'd just be stooping to his level, and I refuse to stoop that low and disgrace out mother's sacrifice as well as the other pandas' deaths." Po said, agreeing with his Dark self.

"Whatever, you're still as soft now as you were then. No matter, you're still a weakling compared to me. And I'm going to prove it by kicking your ass, but this time, I'm going full out!" Bad Po said while going into the same stance as Po. A dark aura was forming around him.

"What, what's going on with you?" Po asked in a shocked manner, surprised to see that a black outline was surrounding the darkside of him. "Y-you're glowing!"

"No shit, Captain Obvious! Since I'm the darkside of you and this is our mind, I get an automatic power boost! So great job for figuring it out, you get a cookie, don't you feel proud." Bad Po mocked, making Po grit his teeth in irritation. "And this time, there ain't gonna be any of the bullshit crap you pulled that last time we were separated. Injuring your own body just to slow me down how could hell could I be so careless? Well not this time, since we're reunited and this fight is going on in your mind, I have the advantage! So out with it me, you may have beaten me last time with pure luck. But this time…" Bad Po held his paw out, leaving it open and swarms of dark energy began to form, making a ball of energy appear in the center and hold itself together, forming to be exactly like…

"The Thundering Wind Hammer, how is that even possible?" Po exclaimed while looking in shock.

"That's right Me, whatever you learned, I learned it too! Now you cheap bastard, as I was going to ask. You think can beat me this time?" Bad Po shouted while launching the dark version of the wind hammer at Po with blinding speed. The panda's Kung Fu instincts kicked into high gear the second the orb was launched and he dodged to left, just in time before impact of the energy ball hit him. But instead of merely poofing out of existence, the moment it hit the spot where Po was, it exploded, making a dark sphere of transparency as it expand on the ground, knocking away the earth that was there and leaving a crater behind. Po landed and looked back to spot, only to see a crater in the spot where he was standing, and was glad that he dodged when he did. It looked like deflecting isn't going to do him any good in this battle.

"Damn it, this looks like it could be pretty bad. No matter, I defeated myself once, I can do it again. Let's go you fake. Get ready to feel the Thundah!" Po said while going into his battle stance, ready to face himself once more.

*Meanwhile in reality*

"Po, I'm sorry!" exclaimed a female voice, full of sorrow trying to apologize to her friend and lover, but didn't get the chance, for her dream of him and the young version of his dark self had ended. "Po, I had no idea you felt that way… I'm so, so sorry. No, that won't do, I have to say to his face and really mean it… I'm going to go look for him." Tigress said to herself while getting up from her bed, not wasting another moment to go find Po and truly make up with him. As she rose from her mat, only just now, she realized that morning had come to China once again. As she approached her door, preparing to exit her room, she could clearly hear voices outside her barracks, most likely they were coming from the hallway, and she knew exactly who was talking. Not finding any reason to stay in the confines of her personal space, she opened her door and left to the outside.

*A few minutes earlier*

"Morning you guys. Slept well?" asked Monkey, the question wasn't meant to be optimistic, but rather, sarcastic. "Cuz, I sure did… man, it was more like a nightmare."

"Yeah, you're telling me. I never felt so bad after having a dream like that; hell even nightmares aren't like that for me." Mantis chipped in.

"Usually bad dreams are meant to tell us something, something important and often a meant to teach a lesson, but that dream I had, I just don't know what to make of it." Crane added.

"I never would have thought that Po would still harbor those kinds of feelings about us… about himself." Viper said, making all of their eyes go wide with shock, surprise and realization that dawn on them. "Did… did we all just have the same dream about Po? It can't be. We all had the same dream? I didn't even see the rest of you, it was only me. How is that possible?" Viper asked her male counterparts. Just when one of them was about to explain as best they could, a door opened, directing their attention to it and they knew immediately who was coming out.

"Good morning sister, I trust you didn't have a peaceful night either?" Viper asked.

"Good morning all. And no I didn't. You guys didn't rest well either?" Tigress asked back. They shook their heads in the same manner, giving the tiger her answer. "I thought so. What were your dreams like?" she asked again.

"Why don't you tell us what your dream was about sister, I'd just like to know, and then I'll tell you about mine, is that fair?" Viper asked.

"I suppose. Well, I'll tell you. In my dream, I was standing in the same room as Po and younger, but darker version of himself. The dark part of him was filled with anger, sadness, resentment and malice towards us, I've never seen the level of loathing in Po, and he always so cheerful, jovial and happy-go-lucky. I mean, he's found Inner Peace, how is it that he still harbors that much despise for us… Back when he wanted to train here, did… did we do more than just discourage him?" Tigress asked the others, who were looking down with disgrace. They were disgusted and ashamed with their past actions to Po. But then viper spoke again.

"So, you had a bad dream about Po too huh, well that makes four of us then." Viper said while looking at Tigress, but the striped feline looked at the snake, eyebrows rose in confusion at the tree snake's reply.

"What do you mean 'too' Viper, are you trying to say that we all had the same dream or something? Don't be ridiculous, that's impossible." Tigress replied, not believing what she just heard, but the other four members still kept the same no-nonsense look on their faces, causing Tigress' resolve about the current situation to slowly dissolve. "Oh come on, you can't be serious! There's just no way!" Tigress exclaimed, a frown present on her face.

But the four still showed no expression.

"Okay, seriously, how the hell is that possible? You better not be teasing me about this, this is a serious matter!" Tigress said, her calmness thinning, yet realization taking its place.

"Tigress, do we look like we're joking about something like this? The fact that we all had the same dream about Po and his darkside, I think this is more than just coincidence if you ask me Tigress." Monkey stated, nailing the coffin on the tiger's denial.

"So… you're not making this up? We all had the same dream? What does this even mean?" Tigress asked; her frown now turned into a frown of concern along with her eyebrows matching the mouth to complete the forlorn expression she was feeling.

"Even we don't know, still creepy if you ask me." Mantis pointed out, still feeling a bit freaked out by the same experience that his teammates felt also.

"Yeah, you're telling me. Why don't we go ask Shifu, since he's the closest to being able to talk to Oogway, maybe he'll know something. I'm not getting my hopes up about this situation, but it never hurts to ask." Crane suggested, seeing the others agree.

"No point in standing around here, let's go. Oh, by the way, are the children up yet?" Tigress asked while seeing the three doors still closed.

"They probably are. Should we wake them?" Viper asked.

"No need, they were all up pretty late last night. We can let them sleep in. right now, we have some more important matters to attend to. Let's go." Tigress said while making her way to the doors leading to the outside, taking point. The others simply followed her right away.

Bookmark #6-

*Elsewhere, in the Hall of Warriors*

"And that concludes the tale of Lady Wind Song. As you can see, she was indeed a lady of virtue and kindness." Shifu finished while looking upon the lavender colored fan that resting upon its pedestal along with it weaponry brethren on other mounts.

"Oh! She sounded so amazing, mysterious and romantic all at the same time! What an amazing woman, I wished I could have heard her songs. They must've sounded so lovely." Līmīng mused while looking over the fan, her paws together and pressed gently against her chest, still letting the lesson of Lady Wind song's history replay in her young mind.

"If by 'Romantic' you mean sappy? Then yes, I agree with you. But seriously, using a fan, really? Not my type of weapon. I'd go with something that's more kick butt! Like… like uh… Those!" Qīānxī exclaimed while dashing over to a pair of ring blades that had the same design on each blade, and were parallel to its twin. "See, THESE are weapons for fighting, not some prissy fan fan crud." Qīānxī added.

"What are you talking about? Lady Wind song was an AMAZING woman, she sweet, caring, loving and by night, she was a butt-kicking, righteous defender of justice. SHE, WAS, AWESOME! And these fans aren't exactly weak as you think. They can cut stone, Stone! With just one slash. That is severely cool. Much more than you can say about some metal circles." Līmīng countered her sister while going back to admiring the fan. The more she admired it, the more easily she could smell the fragrance of cherry blossoms, which was odd, when Shifu was talking about it, he never once mentioned the smell, not him, Xiwang or her sister. She didn't question it, but something told her that there was something special about the fan.

"Bah, whatever. You go with your prissy fans sis, I'm gonna go with these babies." The elder sister pointed out while analyzing the weapons.

"In time students, in time. You will need to master the basics before you can master the advance," Shifu said while chuckling at the girls' ambition. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Xiwang was standing in front picture with his arms behind his back, his posture perfect while his striped tail was swaying from side to side. "I take it that you have taken a like to the portrait of the River of Flowers have you?" Shifu asked while walking up to cub, which drew his attention away from the painting and turned it to Shifu who was approaching him.

"Oh, yeah I am. I just surprise at what has happened to that area in the past. I'm amazed that they recovered from that. Still, I didn't know that there was a village nearby." Xiwang answered.

"Yes, I believe it was called the Village of Gentle Rain." Shifu replied.

"Really, how weird that they would name a village of the rain." The cub said responded.

"They named the village after rain, for the amount of flowers that bloom due the river that surrounds the village and provides life for the flowers and the denizens. Think of it as a metaphor for rain and much of it they receive." Shifu added.

"Rain huh? Ugh, I don't like water. It always gives me a hard time when I try to clean my fur. But speaking of rain, from what I heard, they've been getting a lot of rain lately, more-so than usual." Xiwang pointed.

"I, too, find that odd. As of late, they have been receiving rain, abnormally might I add. My greatest concern that the Village will be flooded. But I have no authority to investigate this odd phenomenon, for I have to receive permission to proceed. It can be a tad vexing from time to time, but that is our code as warriors and we always follow the code." Shifu replied.

"Code huh, I can see that. But you may want to explain that to those two." Xiwang pointed out while directing Shifu's attention to the panda twins.

"What do you me- What are two doing?" Shifu shouted while looking at the two who were now holding priceless artifacts in their paws.

"I'm sorry Master Shifu, but holding Lady Wind Song's fan… it just feels right to me for some reason I can't explain, and," she took a brief sniff. "I can smell the fragrance of cherry blossoms coming from it, can't you?" Līmīng asked while expecting it closer. As she did, it just felt like she had to something with it… like she was meant to, but not knowing the reason why.

'Smell?' Shifu thought. "You may use the fan once you master the basics behind it. And you young lady," Shifu started while turning his attention to Qīānxī.

"I just wanted to see how heavy it was, that's all," She replied while putting them back. "Gotta admit, they're heavier than I thought it thought it would be." She added.

"Because the blades were forged from actual metal. It is difficult for a child to lift such an object, because they lack to muscles to hold such items. I would appreciate the fact that you placed them back as I told you. Now let see if your sister can follow directions." Shifu stated.

"It might have to wait. It looks like she is about to do something." The elder sister pointed out towards her sister.

"What is she- What?" Shifu exclaimed at what he saw. Līmīng was fluently moving in circle motion along with the fan following and leaving behind a faint purple trail. Her body was moving fluently and calmly while at the same time making her performance look powerful and meaningful. Her eyes were half lidded, yet they showed power behind them, but it was kind of power that was used to protect others and demolish the unjust. From what Shifu saw, Līmīng had the same eyes that clearly, without a doubt resembled… "Lady wind Song. She had those exact same eyes whenever she performed her famous fan fan dance. Be it in battle or for entertainment. She is even mimicking the exact same dance pattern and she has not even met her. What in the name of the Gods is happening?" Shifu asked himself, but the answer would have to wait, what happened next would leave Shifu speechless. What Līmīng did next was that she quickly rotated her body around and launched the fan forward with her arm raised above her. The fan was spinning at a rapid pace, making it like a light purple blur and light humming sound was coming from it while spinning at astounding rate. It went a bit a ways before it returned back to her, as it did, she caught it easily and gracefully with one paw and gently placed it to her face, hiding her mouth and nose from all. "Dance of the Shadow Wind Fan? Līmīng, how do you exactly know of Lady Wind Song's signature move: Dance of the Shadow Wind Fan?" Shifu asked.

"I uh... I dunno. It just came to me really, like I already knew it without actually knowing it… Is that bad?" she asked, while placing her paws behind her back, while still holding the fan.

"No, of course. Honestly, I was greatly impressed by your performance. Just perhaps, you may be able to learn Fan style sooner than I anticipated. Good work, Līmīng. Now, why not place the fan back where it belongs, then you and I can make your very own fan. Is that alright?" Shifu asked.

"Okay!" she cheerfully replied while smiling happily, doing as she was told. While doing that, Shifu couldn't help but wonder how a cub knew something that she had never seen before. 'Odd, to do something like, she must be the… No, no, it could not be possible… could it?' Shifu questioned himself.

With Xiwang, he wasn't the least bit interested in what just happened, he was simply waiting for Po to return, but his worry didn't stop. Just he continued to think about what to do, the doors to the Hall of Warriors opened, and in walked The Furious Five, with Tigress leading. Xiwang saw his mother walk in and immediately smiled while walking towards her.

"Good morning Master." The Five said while traditionally bowing before the Master.

"Good morning students. I trust that you all slept well?" He asked while turning to face him, paws placed behind his back.

"Well, not exactly Master. It was a rough night, for all of us." Tigress stated.

"Oh dear, that does not sound like you. Would you like to talk about it?" Shifu asked. Just as Tigress was about to answer, she felt two arms wrap around her lower midsection and a muzzle press into her clothed belly. She looked down to see that Xiwang was hugging her, the sight of that right away banished the stress from early this morning.

"Good morning Mama." Xiwang greeted her while looking up to look her in the eyes. A smile was clearly on his face.

"Good morning my little snow cub," Tigress said while kneeling down to return his hug, while petting his head, making the cub purr a little. "Did you have a good sleep last night?" Tigress asked while looking at him.

"Yes Mama, I did. Thank you for asking. What about you mom, did you sleep well?" Xiwang asked.

"Well, mama had a bit a rough night. I did get some sleep, but I'm still tired." Tigress replied.

"Are you gonna be okay mom?" the cub asked.

"Yes. I'll be fine. Thank you for worrying." Tigress said while smiling at her son.

"Okay and you're welcome." The cub said before coughing a bit, and that easily caught Tigress's attention.

"Are you alright, you voice seems a little high. Are you not feeling well?" Tigress asked while resting her paw on the cub's forehead, taking his temperature.

"I'm fine mom, really." Xiwang chuckled as she petted the spot.

"Alright, alright. I'm just making sure. But that still doesn't explain why your voice is so high. Last night your voice was just fine. I don't know why it's different now." Tigress said while standing back up.

"Because Tigress, Xiwang; your son has taken his first few steps into becoming an adolescence. Congratulations." Shifu pointed out, causing the five's faces let go the expression of surprise and shock. In Tigress's case: Joy.

"Is this true Xiwang, have you finally started to develop?" Tigress asked while kneeling back down to him, making their eye levels meet.

"Yes mom. My voice finally cracked, now you all know." The cub joked while looking at the rest of them.

"Only a week and my little boy is already becoming a young man, I'm so proud." Tigress said while petting the cub head once more.

"But that is not all," Shifu added. "Today is the day of celebrating Xiwang's birth." The red panda added, causing them all to gasp in surprise.

"Today is your birthday? How wonderful! So come on, tell us! How old are you today?" Viper asked while slithering over the boy.

"I turned thirteen, officially a teenager as of now." Xiwang replied.

"How wonderful, you know, we need to throw you a birthday party. Oh there's so much to do. We need party decorations, napkins, bowls, a location, ribbons, and presents! Oh wait, what do teenage boys like for presents?" Viper asked while thinking to herself.

"For starters, no ribbons, that's something for girls, you're gonna need something more manly for the kid. As for presents, you just leave that to me, I know exactly what to get." Mantis volunteered, but Tigress immediately stepped in.

"Oh no you're not, if anything, Crane and Monkey are going to accompany you out into the Valley and make sure that you don't get any perverted ideas. I will not have my son subjected to that kind of material for AT LEAST another three years, and that's final!" Tigress growled while looking down at the bug.

"Alright, alright, no need to be hostile Tigress. Sheesh" Mantis said while holding up his claws in defense.

"Good. Glad to see you agree so quickly. Now, what else will be needed for the party?" Tigress questioned.

"Oh, Po said that he was going to bake a cake for me." Xiwang answered. Just as soon as he said that, The Five remembered what they had set out to do upon waking up. "But he's a little busy right. When he's finished, he'll make the cake." Xiwang added.

"Is that so? Well alright. But for now, Xiwang, Viper, Mantis, Crane, Monkey and I we need to talk to Shifu about something. After that, you can have your party, alright?" Tigress asked the boy.

"Yes mom. That's okay." Xiwang answered with a smile on his face.

"Good boy. Now, Master Shifu, there is something the others and I have to discus with you. Perhaps you can give us an answer." Tigress said while looking at her master who was approaching them.

"If you have a question, I will do my best to answer them. So long as you or the others do not disturb Po, for he is handling a task that requires his maximum focus." Shifu replied.

"What is he doing that is so important Master Shifu?" Viper asked.

"Well… I believe that starting from the beginning is easier than just jumping in midway." Shifu said while deciding to share of what happened, but leaving out most things that the Five did not need to know, not yet anyways.

Bookmark #7-

*Back in Po's mindscape*

Po was tossed back by the force of Bad Po's energy blasts, his large body was bouncing back against the ground a couple of times before skidding to a rough stop, leaving behind a trail of sand that part for his moving body. As Po struggled to stand, his breath was labored and heavy with tiredness. The fight between him and his dark counterpart proved truly challenging. His body was wracked with bruises; his muscles were tingling with a dull pain, his arms and torso were covered with scratches and he was bleeding from impact after impact from his dark counterpart's assault. He was bleeding from his mouth, the wounds on his body and from the corner of his left eye, which was closed while the other was opened and watching his dark self approach. He could feel his energy draining from him, bit by bit.

"Hey now, c'mon man. Where's that 'Thundah' I was promised huh? We've been fighting for a while now and I'll admit, you've gain some slight skill, but there's no spark. Why'd you lie to me? Was all that talk for show?" Bad Po taunted while casting mocking grin down to his counterpart, whose eyes were burning with hatred for him. "Hey now, no need for that kind of face. I mean, Why so serious?"

"I-I'm… I'm not done yet," Po panted while picking himself back, stumbling on the way up. "…I can… still fight…!" he declared while going back into his stance, sloppy as it was, he was able to hold it.

"'still fight'? Dude, you got your ass handed to you more times than you would stay down, I've thrown you around like sakes of rice, I know all your moves and what you're gonna do before you do it. Face it me, you got nothin' left to give, I outrank you." Bad Po taunted while folding his arms, having them cross over on another, and a cocky grin was on his face. The fact that his dark counterpart was gloating over him was more than enough to rile him up, to the point of charging in like a blind fool.

"I told…" Po placed the palms of his hands together while leaving the arms extended from his body. He felt the familiar warmth start to form in between his palms and he parted them. As he did, energy, in the form of a ball was forming the more he moved his paws away from each other, making it larger and larger until Po could no longer make it any wider. His arms were now arched with a large ball of energy in the space, was now more like a fireball waiting to be unleashed. "I'm not finished yet!" Po stated. But the dark doppelgänger was not impressed.

"The Mongolian Fireball again huh. I'm surprised you didn't go through all that bullshit just to make it. No matter, it still won't help you anyways. And I'll show why." Bad Po pointed out while doing the same thing his positive counterpart had already done, but unlike Po, the sphere was black and surrounded by black flames, looking exactly like the Mongolian Fireball, but only with darkness. "Face it me, you're going to lose here, like it or not!" Bad Po taunted while grinning arrogantly. At that point, Po had heard enough, he had grown tired of the negative comments and putdowns by his dark self.

He launched the fireball, wanting to so badly to injure himself, but sadly, it would not be as such. As soon as Po launched the fireball, so did Bad Po. A few seconds after throwing them them, they both collided, but when Po expected them both to inhale, the opposite happened with the other one. There was an intercession between the two. While's Po's fireball was inhaling, Bad Po's fireball was expanding, and neither of them were showing any signs of giving up, causing a contraction between the two that showed neither side giving up. Since this was taking place in his mind, leaving that kind of power alone would undoubtedly cause some kind of damage to him later on. He knew that defeating himself was important, but so was keeping his mind intact. Not seeing any other alternative, he would have to subdue the force. Forming another fireball and launching it at the contradiction spheres, it doubled the inhaling, weakening Bad Po's fireball. 'One more ought to do it.' Po thought as he formed and launched another fireball, tripling the sphere's power. Apparently that was enough; the force of three was enough to subdue the power, causing it to subdue and negate it, making a poof of smoke appear, meaning that it was no longer there. But just as Po realized that, he also noticed the Bad Po wasn't there either!

"Shit! Where'd he go?" Po demanded while looking to his left then to his right, trying to pin-point where his dark counterpart was hiding. "Where are you?" Po shouted while facing to the left, but still feeling on edge that something was creeping up on him, and he had no idea how to defend from it.

"Nobody over there." Whispered his dark counterpart, his voice directly in his ear, along with a mocking laugh, causing Po's eyes to go wide with realization that his other self was behind him! Just as Po turned around ready to attack, Bad Po beat him to the punch and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him off the ground with so much strength that was enough to make the panda's eyes go wide with shock while struggling to get free. "Oh man! I can't believe you feel for that. How can you be so dumb?" Bad Po asked while still holding Po up in the air.

"My sanity was at stake, I couldn't leave that there after I beat you!" Po stated while holding onto Bad Po's arm, trying to break his grip. Bad Po only sighed at his counterpart's response.

"You still think you can win? I hate to break it to ya, but I've already won. Just look at you, you're bruised and beaten, you're bleeding from multiple spots, you're running out of energy and you're about to lose. So tell me, how does to feel to lose to your better half, Hm? It must suck to know that you can't beat me, that you'll never win against me. C'mon, tell yourself, what's going through your mind huh?" Bad Po asked while still wearing a cocky grin.

"ot over yet…" Po said lowly, making Bad Po's eye raise in confusion.

"Huh, whatcha say? I couldn't hear ya admit defeat." Bad Po mocked while turning his head to hear.

"I said It's not Over Yet!" Po shouted while placing a strong grip on Bad Po's arm, making his doppelganger step back. "We're two of the same person; you should know that better than anybody. Heck, you ARE me, and you SHOULD know, that I NEVER give up, NEVER! I made a promise that I would never give up and fight to the very end! UNTILL THE VERY END! So c'mon me, It's time to play, Bring it on!" Po challenged, showing his dark self that he wouldn't back down, that he was going to keep moving on, but that didn't do much. It only served irritate him.

"You damned idiot!" Bad Po shouted while tightening his grip on Po's neck, making him causing Po to let out a sound while gripping onto Bad Po's arm, trying to get him to stop, but all that did was earn him a forceful throw to the ground, causing clouds of dust to kick up as he landed. Po was panting while looking up at his counterpart, trying to stand back up. "Picked a great time to grow a pair didn't you?" He demanded while holding his paw out, letting a black aura form around his paw, making the same kind appear around Po's already bruised neck, pick him of the ground and forcing him to levitate by his dark self's whim. "So YOU'RE gonna beat me huh? I don't think you understand how this shit works!" Bad Po brought his paw down with force, and at the same time, Po came down with the same amount of force, making him grunt in pain, but never letting out a painful cry. Bad Po did this a couple of time until Po was now bleeding again, this time, even more so. "Go ahead and groan in pain, fat lot of good it's gonna do ya, cuz I'm ending this now!" he threw Po down with another hard slam, and it caused him to bounce back a bit, while that was going on Bad Po's arms were spread and black flames were spewing upwards, vibrating highly. "I was planning on usin' this on ya when I got out again, but since you're so eager to die, I'll indulge you. Take a good look, this is where you fall!" He extended his arm and the black aura appeared once again around his paw, the same appeared back around Po's neck, only this time, Bad Po, threw his arm back and immediately Po was launched as well, flying straight towards him. Just when Po was close enough, Bad Po went into a round house upper kick, forcing Po to change trajectory and head up into the air while rotating lick crazy. Just when Po was high enough, Bad Po made the dark ring appear around his neck and when it did, he brought him back down diagonally, causing Po to hit the ground the same way, upon impact to the ground, he bounced up in the opposite direction, making him go back up just as high. Bad Po turned around and did the same process again, repeating it again and again for a few times.

"Die, die, die, die, die!" Bad Po ordered as he bounced Po around like a toy ball, increasing his damage. Upon the final slam, Po stayed on the ground, but that wouldn't last either. Bad Po, did the powerful and infamous 'Shameful Kick' making Po skid back few feet. "You okay?" Bad Po asked while letting out a sinister chuckle at his downed counterpart while walking over to him. When Bad Po approached, Po was still getting up, even after that kind of assault. "What the hell, how are you still standing after that?" Bad Po demanded.

But Po didn't answer; he walked over to his dark self, saying nothing in the process, this time causing his negative side to back up a little. "Hey, c'mon man, say something! What are you pissed that I called you weak and shit, It's only cuz it's true. You're still not strong enough yet. Don't you see it yet? With what's coming, you don't have a chance, or the Five. Don't you understand?" Bad Po pointed out.

"I understand," Po replied while stopping in his tracks.

"Really?" Bad Po asked.

"I do understand," Po said before moving quickly from his spot towards Bad Po. His dark counterpart, blinked only once and when he did, he saw that Po was now in front of him with one paw resting on his the other was extended behind and it was opened. "that you lose, right now!" Po declared while in such a swift movement, his paws began to work together. The paw on Bad Po's chest was now being poked by two Po's paw digits and in the other, it was making number signs in time to Po's finger and as this was going on, Bad Po was counting them each point that was landed on various spots of his body.

"Zero, One, Two, Three, Four, Five… Six… Seven… E-Eight… N-Nine… Nine point hits… that's it… why do I feel so weak? How? I don't understand…" On the last number, Po opened his palm and preformed a palm strike in the center, and the effects were immediate. Bad Po groaned out and felt his power siphon out while falling to his knees, feeling his energy begin to drain from his body while Po took a step back and watched his counterpart fall. It took Bad Po whatever little bit of energy he had left to hold himself up with just his paws. "Y-you just poked me nine times… how am I so weak after that… What did you DO?" Bad Po demanded, trying to get back up, only to fail and fall back down onto his front.

"He done what you can never hope to learn, even if you two are the same." HuangLong sounded off while appearing above the two males, that radiant shine was the same as ever to Po, but at the same time, it was very welcoming to him as well.

"HuangLong! It's good to see you again!" Po exclaimed while looking up at the Yellow Dragon above him.

"As am I Dragon Warrior, I am also pleased to present that you have passed the first portion of your Dragon Tribulation Trial. Congratulations on your commendable performance." HuangLong praised while smiling.

"So, you managed to beat me, good job, not many folks can face themselves. So I guess all that talk really had the walk behind it huh? Well I'll be, never would have though. Still, took me by surprise with that move you just came up with that. What the hell was that anyways?" Bad Po asked while still not finding the strength to standup completely, only kneel.

"The previous technique that the Dragon Warrior preformed on you is known as The Nine Point Siphon Palm; Another of the Seven Impossible Moves you have learned Dragon Warrior. In total, you have four of the seven. You truly are a prodigy, and only at the tender age of twenty-five, very impressive." HuangLong stated while looking down at the panda.

"I learned another Impossible Move? The Nine Point Siphon Palm huh, well, you seem to know what it does, can you tell me?" Po asked.

"Of course I will tell you. As you can see Dragon Warrior, it is called the Siphon Palm for a reason. It steals the energy of another through the Nine Points of puncturing. What you did was siphon energy from your Negative side and converted the energy to match your chi and replenish your lack of power. Some say the move is evil, but that is not the case. Since you have taken energy from your dark side, you changed to match your good chi. And how you may ask, using your chi that was gathering in your pawtips. When you pressed into his body, the invisible flow of your chi attracted his and left his body. And for the last segment when you placed your palm to him, your chi that was used to siphon his energy from him to you, became a small blast and overstimulated his flow, allowing the weak feeling to take place in him. That class of technique is very high and sophisticated, not even Grand Master Shifu can learn that. Be proud that you have learned that technique, and use it well. For even though it is powerful, it is also very dangerous if used in excess." HuangLong warned.

"for the sake of my wellbeing later, why should it be used not so much?" Po asked.

"Using The Nine Point Siphon Palm too greatly will do more harm than good Dragon Warrior. Using that technique requires energy and chi from the user; namely you Dragon Warrior. If used far too much, it will mean your death. Be wary of your usage Po Xiao Ping." HuangLong warned, making Po, gulp in fear. "Fear not; know your limits and you shall proceed finely." The dragon added.

"I'll keep that in mind. So, since I passed this part of this trail, when do we get to the next one?" Po asked.

"You can begin once you have finished here Dragon Warrior. Go on, confront yourself, and we shall begin." HuangLong stated. Po simply nodded and walked over to his dark self, who was now sitting on his hindquarters and just watching Po come near him.

"So, you learned ANOTHER Impossible technique huh me? You are full of surprises ya know that? Well, nothing more here for you to do but go on and get this over with. Well, good luck, you're gonna need it." Bad Po said while holding out his paw towards Po.

"I don't need luck to help me; I Know I can do it. No doubt about it." Po said while gripping Bad Po's paw, feeling a warmth start to form.

"Talkin' big again are ya? You really are my opposite. Well, go ahead, make use of my power, you're gonna need it for the upcoming battle. Don't go getting yourself killed, before I get the chance to fight you again." With those final parting words, Bad Po turned into a mist and enveloped Po's body, before coming completely one with him, giving him his power. 'Remember, I will always be by your side, watching you from the dark corners of your mind, guarding your dark desires.' Bad Po said, his voice was in his head. Now that Po had accepted his darkside completely, the entire black storm had subsided, clearing the skies and revitalizing the grounds, bringing back that peaceful setting once more.

"Well, that was, unexpected. Ah well. Alright HuangLong, I'm ready to face the final part of my trial, what am I gonna do next?" Po asked while looking up at the dragon.

"Eager to begin are you, very well. We shall proceed to your final part. In the final section of your Trail, your resolve will be put to the ultimate test. You will have your resolved tested by Grand Master Shifu." HuangLong stated.

"Shifu? Uh, isn't Shifu outside of my head and… you know… not in here?" Po asked. but HuangLong just chuckled at Po's answer.

"I am very much aware that, Dragon Warrior. This test is going to take place from your past. When Shifu pitted you against The Five and himself." HuangLong stated.

"Oh, not one of my finer moments if you ask me." Po lightly chuckled.

"Worry not. I believe in you. And with the skills you have acquired, I am sure that you can handle yourself, even better than the last time. Now, shall we begin?" the yellow dragon asked.

"Now or never, let's do it!" Po declared, ready to go.

"Very well, I will begin the starting point of resolution. This will be your final test, show me the endless depths of your resolve Dragon Warrior." HuangLong demanded while letting his eyes glow pure white, causing the entire area to be filled with a bright light and in reaction Po covered his face, his eyes squinting closed to block out the light. When he opened them again he could see that he standing at the exact same spot that outside of the Jade Palace, most likely the training area, and from where the sun was, he could tell that it was in the early hours of the morning.

Bookmark #8-

"So this is where my test is gonna be huh? If I'm right, this is the part where Tigress comes back down and I stare at her ass," Po said while looking up, just in time to see her land on all fours. He didn't need to know the look that was on her face, he could feel her sneer at him even though they weren't looking at one another. 'Then the debris comes down on me,' Po closed his eyes and he felt the stone rain land on him, 'A clump of stone lands on my head.' And just as he thought that, he felt the familiar plunk land on his head bounced off to the side. 'And I pick it up' Po said in his head while reaching down to pick up the piece of stone, only this time, rather than picking it up slowly and trying to hide it, he began to toss it up and down while resting the other paw on his hip, casually waiting for,

"Put. That. Down! The only souvenirs we collect here; are bloody knuckles and broken bones." Said a familiar voice, but Po didn't stop, he kept hand tossing the stone.

'There it is.' Po though while still tossing the pebble up and down, staring at Shifu of his past, he could also see that he had a slight hump. "Is that a fact, in that case," Po tossed the pebble and caught it again, only this time, as he held the stone out in front of them and his paw gripped the stone, his grip becoming tighter on the small stone until the small slab could take no more of the pressure. His paw clenched shut and stone disappeared in it; he gave an extra squeeze to break it down even further. When released his grip, the stone was there any more, rather, dust was now falling from his open paw. Shifu and The Five could only stare in awe at what he had done. He had taken on of the stone pieces that Tigress broke with both of her feet and crushed it with only one paw. "Now that that is taken care of," Po brought both of his paws together and began to clap off the dust, "Excellent." He placed his paws in the traditional fist in palm gesture, and cocked a grin. "Let's get started." Po stated.

Shifu now went from shocked to irritated, raising his boney paw and snapped his fingers. The Five knew what that meant and right away took their place on the side lines none of them argued as Viper took her place on the opposite end of the ring, facing Po, while Shifu took his place on the center sidelines with his paws behind his back.

'okay, if I remember right, Viper is going to trip me up, causing me to spin, use the tip of her tail to poke me up into the air, and the whip it again only downwards this time causing me to land on my head. Not this time, time to show them what I know about they don't know yet.' Po thought, preparing himself, going into his stance.

"Are you ready?" Viper asked, letting go a small smile, glad to give him a chance, but at the same time, feeling bad about what she was going to do to him.

"I was born ready," Po stated. With that simple phrase, she sprang into action. She whipped her tail at his ankles, attempting to trip him up, but Po was one step ahead of her. He did a no-handed cart wheel in the opposite direction while grabbing hold of her tail, pulling her along, making the tree snake follow the path of his full body turn. As he landed, he threw his arm forward and viper was slanged back to the ground, not even sure what just happened, she quickly turned back to look at the panda with wide eyes, then back to her Master and teammates with wide eyes and she too, saw that they were looking at the panda with the same kind of eyes. "Told ya I was ready." Po stated with a small smile. The tree snake had no idea how to respond to that, how to speculate what he did was even possible for his size, let alone the speed that he executed. "Shall we continue sister?" Po asked while bowing to her, with fist to palm gesture.

"Uh… I suppose, but if it's alright with Master Shifu." Viper said while looking towards her master, whose eye was twitching. "Master Shifu?" she called out, braking him from his trance.

"Uh, No, that is not needed. We shall move on to the next phase. Monkey, you are next." Shifu said while snapping his finger. 'How the Diyu, did that blubbering Panda pull that off? And with that kind of speed for his size? No matter, he got lucky, but that will only get him so far.' Shifu thought. Viper slithered off the training field and Monkey took her place, but not before walking over to the rack with Bo staffs lined up. He came back with two in paw, seeing that Po was ready to go.

"I don't know how you did it, but that was kinda impressive," Monkey complimented while tossing Po a staff, who caught it with one paw. "That too, but let's see how far you'll get with me." The primate challenged while pointing his staff towards the panda, who was wearing a deadlocked stare, but a smile coming into play. Shifu was standing on the steps leading into the Training Hall, his paws behind his back. 'Monkey is an excellent Bo staff user; there is no possible way for the Panda to make it past him.' Shifu though, only to have that kind of thinking shattered by the Panda's performance. Po was expertly twilling the staff around with on hand than to two above his head, then back to one while rotating his body. He tossed the spinning staff above him and caught it with one paw, resting it in the crevice of his arm behind him and the other, his arm extended outwards with his paw open. "Prepared to have your mind blown." Po stated while grinning. 'Hm, let see, he's going to try to psyche me out, by doing all those quick moves and where I'm most vulnerable. But's let's see how he'll react if I go first!' Po thought while launching, laying an assault strikes and swipes at the primate who equally on par with the panda. Where ever Po stuck, Monkey blocked, but it always came a second late, like he was having trouble keeping up with the Panda's speed and accuracy, but never doing exact damage to Monkey, as if he was toying with him, just to get inside of the the monkey head and trip him up, which was working.

"Huh, you're better than I thought. You just might be worthy of fighting after all." Monkey complimented while parrying Po's advances only to have Po strike back, harder than before, forcing Monkey to take some steps back while still still deflecting the attacks, staying on the defensive, not seeing a chance to go on the offensive. He, along with Shifu and The five were stunned at the performance. At first the Panda had not shown even the slightest aptitude for Kung Fu, and yet here he was, pushing back one of their best weapon's master, which didn't make sense. They all continued to watch the display go on between the two of them, the sound of two staffs clashing against one another, not even sure what to think at this point.

"Hey, this guy is actually pretty good. I mean heck, he even beat Viper on his first try. And now he's going toe to toe with Monkey, using the same weapon as him, AND pushing him back. Hm, he just might be what I'm lookin for in a sparring partner. What do you guys think?" Mantis asked while looking at the others.

"What is there to say, I mean just look at him, he's actually besting Monkey in a Bo Staff match, usually we have a hard time against him, but this guy, out of nowhere, is just overpowering him." Crane admitted while adjusting his hat and continued to watch the match.

"He even caught me by surprise by grabbing my tail when I was trying to attack. Usually you all go on the defensive when that happens, but not this guy. Wish I fought him a little longer. What about you Tigress, what do you think of him?" Viper asked the feline, but all she got was a growl for an answer.

"He has a high stroke of luck, I'll give him that, but as far as I'm concerned, He has no skills." Tigress replied while continuing to watch the fight. Even though she wouldn't admit it, she could see that he had some SLIGHT skill, but that was all that could see and nothing more.

*With Po and Monkey.

Monkey had to pull back a bit and catch his breath, for this was first time that he needed a breather against an opponent, especially one with caliber like this guy.

"Ha, I take back what I said earlier. You're actually good, had no idea you push me this far into a corner. You're not an ordinary guy are you?" Monkey asked while crouching down, taking this chance to catch his breath.

"Nope, I'm nothing like you've ever seen, and trust me Master Monkey, I'm full of surprises." Po replied while smiling, causing Monkey to chuckle in response.

"I guessed I pegged you wrong. You're actually a good guy and I had fun sparring with you, but I'm going to win this match. Hm, we should keep a score marker, that cool with you?" Monkey asked while going back into his stance.

"I'm down with that. Speaking of which, fighting with you, it's an awesome experience, even though it's only been one day." Po added.

"I know right? Usually when I'm fight with the others, it's like it's only work and stuff, but with you, it's a whole different feeling, why is that?" Monkey asked the panda before him.

"Does it matter? I am SO gonna kick your ass!" Po challenged, making the others eyes go wide, not from the foul language that left his lips, but the fact that challenged and claimed that he was going to win, but rather than being irritated by that, the primate only chuckled.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," Monkey replied while waving one finger. "I'm gonna kick YOUR ass."

"Oho, it's on now!" Po responded while grinning widely, while going back into his stance. "Hit me with your best shot!" Po demanded while still wearing that cocky grin. 'Damn, starting to wear down, better wrap this up.' he thought while waiting for his cue to finish this.

"You want my best do you? Alright, you asked for it!" with that, he sprang forward to Po with a leap, allowing his body to be above Po's a good few feet.

'Most likely, he's wearing down too, and he hopes to end it in this one last attack, guess I better meet him all way then.' Po thought while releasing his guard and lowering the Bo Staff till the tip was touching the ground and directing his attention skyward, seeing Monkey begin to descend, the staff above his head, preparing to strike.

"An overhead blow huh? Sorry, but that's not gonna happen." Po said while waiting for the right moment when Monkey was close enough.

*With the others*

"He lowered his guard, has he lost it?" Crane asked in a surprised manner.

"He's got skills, but not brains sadly," Mantis added.

"An overhead attack? At the rate he's going, Monkey plans on breaking something. Shouldn't we stop him?" Viper asked, fearing for the panda's life and safety.

"It was nice to barely know him, Oh well." Tigress replied coldly, not caring what would happen to him.

"This is gonna be close," Mantis spoke up, seeing the primate close in.

*Back with Po and Monkey*

"He's close enough, here we go," Po said while raising one paw slowly while keeping his eyes on the primate, waiting for his cue.

"It was a good fight, but with this last hit, I'm gonna win!" the primate declared while going into a quadruple forward spin, building up the momentum and power that he needed to finish the job. Coming out of the final spin, Monkey used that power he had been saving and forcefully brought down the staff towards Po's arm.

'Here I go!' Po prepared just as Monkey was no more than few meters from Po. Right when Monkey's hit was about to connect, Po quickly raised his free paw to the staff and caught it bare, causing vibrations to ripple in his arm a bit, but Po felt nothing from the blow, if anything, it only served to boost his ego, but with the others, they couldn't believe what they just saw. They're eyes were wide open from shock, only Crane's beak fell open from the stupefaction. Not one of them could say a word. Heck, even Tigress was stunned at what she just saw.

"He caught it, with his bare paw? And he's not writhing on the ground in pain? Who… What IS he?" Tigress asked, but not getting a response. It pretty much went without saying that Shifu was indeed stunned at the performance that had just occurred, most likely his eye was twitching.

Po grinned at the stunned primate who was now back on the ground while still holding the staff with both hands. He couldn't believe what had just happened. 'How… How did you do that? You paw should be broken from that.' Monkey pointed out.

"Like I said," Po started while his grip on the staff started to tighten; he kept it up until an audible splintering sound was heard. It got louder and louder, until it finally gave way and snapped from its former place and no resting in Po's paw. "I'm full of surprise." The panda stated while letting the piece of bamboo fall from his paws. "Po: 1, Monkey: 0" the panda grinned. Monkey didn't know how to respond to that, so he too smiled and laughed lightly at his defeat, even though it was an enjoyable one, it only fueled his fire to beat the Panda.

"Yeah, whatever, good match by the way, but I WILL beat you one of these days, just you watch!" Monkey challenged while grinning widely.

"I look forward to it, but for now, I need a breather." Po said while letting the staff he was holding fall to the ground.

"Same here. Normally, I can go all day without breaking a sweat, but you Panda, you're something else. I had fun." Monkey said while turning to face Shifu, who was still in shock. "Master Shifu, I yield. I'm running out of stamina to continue. May I take a break?" Monkey asked while bowing,

Shifu quickly snapped out of his trance, and let go another cough while placing both paws behind his back. "Yes, you are permitted. In the meantime, we shall be taking the sparring matches inside to the training hall. Come along." Shifu instructed while leading way after opening the door to the inside. On his way in, his thoughts began to pour back in. 'How, how did he defeat Monkey? Viper, that had to be luck, but the way he handled himself against Monkey so easily, and the fact that he caught and broke his staff with just on paw. Perhaps Oogway was right in his choice… No! That's impossible! That has to be a mistake; there is no possible way for a panda to be that skilled. So he specializes on the ground does he, well let's see how he does against the air.' Shifu devised.

On the way in, Po had finally caught his breath and was ready to against the next Master, and he had a pretty good idea who it was going to be.

"Alright Panda, listen and listen well. You're next match is going take place upon The Jade Tortoise of Wisdom, and Crane shall be your opponent for this match." Shifu directed, making the bird groan and bug complain.

"If I have to, I guess." Crane replied while taking to the skies and perched himself onto the Tortious, waiting for his match.

"Aw c'mon! No fair, I wanna fight him!" Mantis pouted while hopping onto Monkey's shoulder.

"Patients Mantis, you will have your chance after Crane," Shifu said calmly, but that didn't appeal to Mantis, he just let out huff dislike. "Now Panda, do you need assistance to get on the Jade Tortoise?" Shifu asked.

"No thanks, I got it taken care of." Po said while turning abouface to the red panda and directed his attention to a wooden beam.

"And how exactly do you tend to 'take care' of it?" Shifu asked, wanting to see this.

"Like this," with that, Po took off with a running start towards the wooden beam that had be looking at. As he approached, he leapt, getting a good jumping height, which was about halfway up the beam. Upon contact, he managed to pivot his body around and leapt again towards the edge of the Jade Tortious and landed perfectly, even though it caused it to wobble back and forth. "Ta-dah!" Po cheered while smiling towards the red panda, which only said nothing but only sighed in frustration.

"Well, I guess that is taken care of. Now, take your stances," Shifu instructed, causing the two to prepare. "And begin!" he ordered. With that, both fighters went at each other with their best. They were all surprised that the panda was holding his own while at the same time, managing to keep his balance on the moving object at the same time. Even though Crane clearly had the advantage, Po was doing perfectly fine while keeping up with the bird, which somewhat shocked him. Normally, he was expecting the bear to have some difficulty with this level of performance since he was still new here, but that quickly went out the window as his fight with the panda was going on, he was even being pushed back a little, just like monkey.

Bookmark #9-

*On the side lines*

"So tell us Monkey, what was it like to spar with the panda?" asked Viper, her attention now directed toward the monkey.

"Yeah man, give us the details." Mantis added eager to know as well. Tigress kept to herself with her arms folded and continued to watch the fight sparring between the bear and the bird, trying to find some kind of weakness to use against him when her turn was available.

"Well, there's not much to say, but it was definitely a different experience then when I'm fighting you guys on a daily basis." Monkey answered. "It's more along the lines of something that you have experience for yourself." He added.

"Even though, my match against him was short, I can understand a little from what Monkey was talking about." Viper pointed out.

"AWW, now I REALLY wanna fight him!" Mantis whined, his interest now peaked fully and tension running on high.

"Calm down brother, like Master Shifu said, you'll get your turn. What about you Tigress, Tigress?" Viper asked again while looking at the feline, as did the others. What they saw on her face was clearly shock. "Tigress what happened?" the tree snake asked again.

"He… He just beat Crane!" Tigress replied while pointing towards the panda. The others turned their attention to the bear who was standing on the edge of the Jade Tortoise and was looking down into the center. At the same time, Crane was nowhere to be seen. But he was clearly bending down at the knees while extending a paw and talking to the bird.

"Hey, are you alright Master Crane? I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hit you so hard." Po said while trying to help the stunned bird out of the pit.

"He already defeated Crane, but it's only been a few minutes since the match started, how can he be so fast, the fastest one here is Mantis, second fastest is Viper. Just who is he?" Monkey asked the others, but getting no answer.

"Maybe he really is the Dragon Warrior. Just like Oogway said." Viper stated, now convinced that he was the real deal.

"Preposterous! He's not Dragon Warrior and he never will be." Tigress growled out while clenching her fists

"But Tigress, you saw what he can do, he already defeated two of us already. My chance was to short, but still look at what he has done. If that doesn't say Dragon Warrior, then I don't what does." Viper pointed out.

"I still didn't get my chance to fight him. Just you wait; I'll prove that he's not the Dragon Warrior." Tigress replied.

"Get in line sister, I'M fighting him next." Mantis confirmed; his anxiousness was almost uncontainable. "Oh man, I can hardly wait…" Mantis added.

While that was going on and Po helped Crane out, they all were just in time to see grit his teeth and snap his fingers, gaining their attention. "We are taking this back outside!" he stated while forcing the doors open and walked out, he was clearly angry that his plan was not working. 'So far he's beaten three of my five students. How is this even correct? No matter, like my master said; if you want something done right, do it yourself. Still, I did promise Mantis his chance. Hmm, with his diminutive size, he could clearly overpower the panda's sight and defeat him. Yes, Mantis just may be the perfect opponent to win against the panda.' Shifu thought while chuckling to himself.

"Looks like we're going back outside." Monkey said while he and the others followed behind.

Once outside, All but Po and Mantis took their place in the corner of the ring, wanting to see how this would turn out, especially Tigress.

"If the Panda can beat Mantis, which I highly doubt he can, I'll show him just how wrong his decision was on staying here." Tigress said lowly, but it was easily caught be the red panda.

"Tigress, we simply want him gone, not out of commission." Shifu replied to her, even though the idea was very tempting. "I do not wish to have his father's indignation wrought upon my head. You will refrain from using excessive force. Is that clear?" Shifu asked. Tigress growled at the restraints that were placed upon her, but abided by them.

"Yes Master." she replied, still growling lowly.

*With Po and Mantis*

"So ready to go?" Po asked while going into his familiar stance and looking down at the bug.

"You kidding? I was ready the moment you beat monkey in a Bo staff match. Man, just kind of opponent, who I know about, are you?" Asked Mantis, eager to fight this guy.

"Like I said to Master Monkey earlier today. I'm like nothing you've ever seen." Po replied while smiling and going into his stance.

"Looks like I'm gonna find out then huh?" Mantis asked.

"You bet!" Po grinned. Eager to face the insect. Back then, he couldn't beat Mantis because his speed and his blind-spots. But this time, even though it was a trail in his memory, things were going to be different, that was for sure.

"Begin!" Shifu shouted, instructing the orders for the two begin. With that single command, Mantis quickly and silent ducked out of Po's line of sight, hoping to gain the upper hand… or thingy in this case. But he was sorely mistaken. Po was looking around, trying to find the bug master, his eyes darting back and forth, scanning the area, but never moving his head; he knew that that would give away his inattentiveness to Mantis, and that would leave him wide open. So he did the next best thing, he waited for his chance to come. From Mantis's position, he could already tell the Panda had lost him, but he wasn't looking around for him, which was odd, but that didn't bother him, he saw this as a perfect chance to lay on some serious damage. Quickly and quietly, he moved to the Panda's left and leapt with his legs extended, ready to land a quick, but that chance was denied, what didn't see was Po's darting back and forth looking for him, and when his vision caught a glimpse of the darting green heading towards him, Po moved his head back and out of the line of the bug's attack, which caused him to fly by Po's face, with a grin plastered. Mantis was confused but Po quickly used this chance to attack. By using only his paw finger and thumb, he flicked the bug away from him, and watched Mantis bounce a bit upon coming in contact with the ground, which he easily recovered from.

"Did… did you just flick me?" he asked, surprised that was knocked away so easily.

"That I did." Po answered while still smiling.

"Not bad, not bad at all. But I'm far from done with you." Mantis replied before darting out of Po's vision once again. But Po was ready for him anyways.

'he's going for my chin," Po said while pulling his back, causing Mantis to miss again, making that the second time, before somehow maneuvering in mid-air and once again evade the Panda's eyes. 'And he's going to try to hit me from the back in a few seconds.' Po quickly ducked forward, just in time to evade Mantis' hit, but Po didn't stop there. He pivoted his body forward all the way, until his feet left the ground, going into a full somersault, but Po didn't stop there, when he was halfway spun, he used the heel of his left leg and managed to kick the bug away from him again and landed perfectly back on his feet in time to see Mantis land back on the ground. The bug quickly bounced back and was on his feet once more.

"Seems that you're more perceptive then I thought." He said while smiling.

"Told you I'm nothing you've ever seen." Po replied with a smile of his own.

"I can see that, but I'm just getting started!" Mantis said while once again dodging Po's sight, but Po was already ahead of him.

'He's gonna go for my right foot this time' Po thought getting ready, when Po was expecting that, he didn't expect Mantis to trip him up, rather than going for the right, he went for the left. He got a grip on him and used his strength, he managed to lift Po and land him on his side, causing the Panda to let out a grunt of pain, but that didn't stop him. He picked him up, despite his weight, and twirled him like a stick. Even though Po was caught off guard, he quickly fixed that problem. Using his free foot, he mustered all his strength and placed his foot on the ground and used to the other to through up Mantis, about up to his chest, but Po kept going, he brought both of his paws together in a clap like fashion, encasing the bug, but not hard enough to crush, only to slightly maim, leaving Mantis disoriented at what just happened. Po opened his paws again while tossing Mantis slightly higher into the air. When he came back down at just the right moment, Po placed both open paws together and forced them to Mantis' body. The force knocked the bug away from him and once again back to ground, this time, near the others, who were watching with a stunned expression.

"How… how did you do that?" Mantis asked while trying to pick himself up.

"Like I said, I know what I'm doing." Po said with a smile. "You wanna keep going?" he asked.

"You bet I do. I'm gonna beat, even if it takes all day!" Mantis replied while charging after the bear, he was fired up.

*One morning and noon later*

It was now the afternoon and the sky had changed from blue to orange and the match between Mantis and Po had finally ended, with Mantis collapsing onto the ground. He had never felt so exhausted from simply sparring with his teammates, but the Panda however, that was another story.

"Okay, okay. I give up, you win." Mantis said while letting go pants of tiredness, he was clearly out of steam from fighting this guy. It's just like what Monkey said, fighting with this guy, it was a whole different experience. "Geez, Monkey wasn't kidding. That match with you, wow… just wow. But damn, I'm beat. Never have I been this tired after sparring with the others, but you. That does not apply." Mantis added while walking over to Monkey, hoping onto his shoulder.

"Glad you enjoyed the match." Po said with a smile. "It was an awesome experience for me too." He added.

"Yeah, I look forward to fighting with you again soon," Mantis replied. "Monkey you were right. It's like nothing I've ever done before." Mantis said to the primate.

"I told you it would be cool." Monkey responded, soon the two were talking amongst themselves.

With Po, he turned his attention to Shifu, who was looking at him with wide eyes. "I'm ready for the next match Master. Shall we begin?" Po asked while placing his fist to his palm, causing the red panda to stiffen and expose his clenched teeth. This only provoked Shifu's anger even further, to point where he had no choice but to settle this himself.

"I've been taking it easy on you, Panda. But no more. Your next opponent will be me." He said with a sadistic smirk.

"All right! Yeah, let's go!" Po replied, causing the others to look at him with wide eyes, like he had a death wish of some kind. "I've been waiting for this," Po started while moving his head from side to side, cracking it loudly without it killing him. "No more snarky comments behind my back, like you've been doing all day. Let's do it." Po challenged.

'He's a goner' The Five thought simultaneously.

Shifu was surprised by the Panda's bold challenged, but his his face remained while stepping into the ring.

"Step forth." Shifu commanded.

'Alright here we go. This is the part where Shifu spins me around like ball before slamming me to the ground and holds me by my ear and twists my paw too,' Po thought while stepping forward. There was a moment of nothing happening with him and Shifu just standing there. 'He's waiting for me to let my guard down.' Po thought, but with Shifu, he could tell that Po was waiting for something to happen between them, exposing his guard, which Shifu took advantage of. He took hold of Po's paw and begun to spin Po around like a batter of dough that was going to be made for noodles, but Po knew what going to happen next.

"The path to victory is to find your opponent's weakness," Shifu started, aiming to force Po to the ground, and expose his blind spots, but Po had other ideas. Just as Shifu was about to bring him down, Po cleverly used the moment that he had quickly gain and stopped Shifu's tactic by using his weight and forced himself back to the ground, landing on his feet, gripping Shifu's boney paws and forced HIM to fold his arms behind his back, making sure not to use too much power. But with that, Shifu was surprised the Panda was able to stop him, and bound him as well.

"And make him suffer for it, right?" Po asked while looking down at the Red Panda, shocking him and The Five, by knowing what he was going to say. Shifu quickly shook off his stupor and retaliated in kind. He quickly broke out of the hold and prepared responded to the Panda's move.

'He's going to flip me.' Po thought. And just as he thought, Shifu did. Using his strength, he lifted the Panda over head while also adding "to take his strength and use it against him…" Shifu said while bringing Po down, but Po was again ahead of the Red Panda. He landed on his feet, showing that he was not going to go down that easily. But he could feel that Shifu still had him by the paw.

'He's going for the Rapid Upward Kick.' Po prepared. Shifu spun him around once and leapt up to his chin and used both of his tiny feet to rapidly kick him in attempts to disorient him, but Po was quick, he used both of his paws and placed them in front his chin, blocking the assault. He did a few more times and grabbed his foot and spun around with him fully until he threw Shifu away from him. "Until he finally falls…" Po followed up. Shifu was shocked at what was happening, a Panda was keeping up with him and pushing back? How can this be logical? It just didn't make sense! It didn't!

"Or quits." Shifu ended while standing back up and moved a bit until he was just a few centimeters away.

"But a real warrior never quits." Po replied. "Don't worry, Master I will never quit!" Po confirmed. Steel was in his voice as the words left his lips. Shifu's eyes once again went wide, but this time with shock, his lips parted and a silent snarl left his mouth.

'And this is the part where I get tossed and kick out of the Palace, not this time.' Po thought. Just when the thought ended, Shifu grabbed onto his paw and once again used all his strength lift Po up and used it again to toss him up in the air. 'Alright here we go!' Po thought while coming back down, he changed the way his body was falling for what he planned to do. Just when he was about to be low enough, Shifu got a running start and went into a flying kick, which made contact with Po's stomach, causing him to fly towards the door leading out to the Jade Palace Arena. Just as Po was about to burst out the door, he quickly grabbed hold of the door handles and held on tightly, just in time too. Although the door opened, and Po's body was out, his grip on the door handles never ceased. He used the force from Shifu's attack as momentum to sling himself back in to the Jade Palace training yard, after he did, the doors closed with very audible slam while he let go and did five reverse somersaults and landed on his feet once more, arms extended and paws open. "Sorry, but I'm staying." Po declared, seeing the surprise on their faces, especially Shifu. None of them knew what what to say after seeing the display he had just did, but the red panda was not pleased it only served to agitate him even more.

"Why," he said lowly "Why won't you quit? Why do you resist?" Shifu demanded, his anger and annoyance were very clear, his paws were clenched tightly. Po lowered his arms to his side and his fists clenched, to the point where they all could hear the bones crack.

"I told you already. I never give up, NEVER. You can beat until I'm black, blue and Red in the face, I still won't quit. You can break every bone in my body and I still won't surrender. You can even call me every demeaning name you can think of, but even that won't make me back down. Listen and listen well. I don't quit when things look bad, I don't cower in intimidation from others, not even you. Mark these words and know my resolve: I Won't Be Stopped, Not here and NOT NOW!" Po shouted at them, his green eyes on fire and making it clear that he was not going to back down, simply because they didn't approve of him or Oogway's choice.

With those words, they all had given up on trying to make the Panda leave. For he'd proven himself with others aside from Tigress, that he was dead serious on staying. Even Tigress gave up on her chance to fight him and make him leave. Still that didn't mean she wasn't going to give him a hard time since he was staying here. But with Shifu, he had nothing left to scare off the Panda. No underhanded tactics, no schemes, no humiliating comments, nothing. This Panda had proven that no matter what Shifu did, he could not get the Panda to quit. He wasn't happy about it, but what more could he do? If he tried to fight him again, he would only be defeated again. Shifu let out a sigh while simply turned his back and began to walk forward, back into the main building with his paws behind his back.

"Fine, do whatever you wish, but DO NOT expect us to go easy on you during your sessions, you will work just as hard as The Five, if not, harder should you irritate me. Students, we are done for the day, wash up and prepare for dinner." Shifu ordered while leaving them.

"Yes Master." They all said while bowing to their departing Master. Once he was gone. The Five, aside from Tigress, approached Po with back pats and encouragement.

"Hey Panda, great job. I've never seen Shifu back down from an argument. But that was definitely a first. But wait, don't you have a name?" Monkey asked.

"Po. Po Xiao Ping." Po answered while grinning.

"Po Xiao Ping… wait, your last name is Ping, don't you have the same last name as Mr. Ping; owner the noodle restaurant?" Mantis asked.

"That's right, I do. He's my dad." Po stated proudly.

"Whoa, so your dad owns a restaurant huh? Think you can hook me up?" Mantis asked.

"Sorry, no freebies Mantis, but I think I can score you a really good discount for your meals." Po replied.

"Count me in." Monkey chipped in.

"Me three." Crane added as well.

"A meal at your father's place sounds lovely Po." Viper said sweetly. When they were getting to know Po better, the Panda could clearly hear Tigress growl in annoyance. Not from the fact that he was making friends, but the fact that they had accepted him as the Dragon Warrior, when before, they didn't before. At that point, Po had enough of that bullshit attitude of hers.

"Tigress," Po called out to her.

"That's MASTER Tigress to you, and what do you want?" she asked in a rude manner.

"Growling at me just because I was chosen to be Dragon Warrior and not you isn't going to change things, your best bet is to just let go and move on." Po replied, not in arrogance but rather with firm compassion and pity for her. But apparently, she didn't see it that way.

"What the hell do you know about how I feel? You fell in front of me, if that wouldn't have happened, none of this mess would be continuing, and who the hell do you think you are talking to me that way?" She growled out while unsheathing her claws.

"I'm the Dragon Warrior, that's who. And just because I was given this title, that doesn't make me better than the rest you guys. If anything, that just means I'm equal footing. Second of all, Even though I was chosen, it was not my decision." Po countered, making Tigress arch her eyebrow.

"What does that even? Since you're the 'Dragon Warrior' it's the greatest honor, and it's your duty to be the hero of the people." Tigress stated, her claws retracting back into her paw, but her anger still the same. At this point, Po walked away from the ones that were surrounding him and passed Tigress, only to stop a few feet away from them all, his back still turned.

"The Dragon Warrior? Hero of the people! I'm sick of all these duties chaining me down! I never asked for this responsibility or this title! Everything's decided for me! From how I live, to where I die! I'm so sick of it! To the diyu with it all!" Po declared while clenching his fists. At this point, Tigress's anger was dying down, and the others were looking at him with wide eyes, listening to every word that was being spoken.

"What do you mean?" Tigress asked simply.

"It's only been one day, and you're already giving me a hard time when I've done nothing wrong. I just wanted the chance to impress you and show you what I can do. But instead, I get second degree burns by you, just because I'm a Panda. So what, just because I'm this way that automatically gives you the right to mock and demean me because I can't change who I am? Well guess what Tigress, I am who I am, and there is nothing that can do to change that. You should know better than anyone what it's like to be different, to stand out from the rest and be ridiculed for it!" Po shouted while turning his head to the tiger that had her mouth open and a surprised look was clearly there. She had no rebuttal to return, how could she? The Panda was absolutely right. She did know how it felt to be different from the rest and want to impress someone dearly and was willing to go through anything to do it. She was slowly starting to understand him, which was odd. "But whatever, it doesn't matter what you think of me. I'm perfectly comfortable and content with who I am and what I look like and that's that. You don't like it? Take it up with the Universe." Po said, finally standing up to the tiger who just continued to look at him with wide eyes as were the others. But then he turned sheepish again. "Sorry, for saying those things, I was kinda in the moment." Po chuckled while rubbing the back of his head.

"Hey no problem, everyone has a right to feel what they feel, even it means pointing out the obvious. It's also a good thing to stand up for what you believe in. and just to add, you're the only one, besides Shifu, to stand up to Tigress and live." Mantis joked.

"I guess I can mark that as another victory." Po smiled.

"And how, now, let's get get cleaned off, and ready for dinner, I'm starving!" Mantis added.

"Leave that to me. I'll make you guys something awesome!" Po replied while grinning. The others agreed with that decision and decided to depart from the area to go freshen up and remove all the sweat they worked up. Patting Po on the back as they made their way inside, only he and Tigress were left. There were no words that could describe what they were feeling. Just when Po was about to say something, Tigress made her way past him and proceeded up the first step leading to the training hall, but stopped, confusing the Panda. Just when Po was about to try and say something to her, Tigress beat him to that by saying a simple phrase, which clearly surprised him.

"S-sorry for the way I treated you, won't happen again." Even though there was reluctance, she meant every word. As she quickly walked off, Po was still behind and smiling.

"I forgive you guys, especially you Tigress." Po said finally, feeling that kind of negativity vanish while closing his eyes, causing darkness to envelope his vision momentarily.

Bookmark #10-

When he opened his eyes, he could clearly see that he was back in the same field that he had started in, and saw a familiar Yellow Dragon above him, smiling.

"Welcome back Dragon Warrior and Congratulations! You have successfully completed your Dragon Tribulation Trial. Well done Dragon Warrior, very well done." Huang Long praised, greatly impressed by the young man's efforts and success.

"It's good to be back, especially after my trial. And thanks for that. Glad you were with me the entire time." Po said to HuangLong, a smile was on his face.

"Dragon Warrior, I am always with you, as I am with everyone in all of China. My element is Earth, even though I cannot be seen, I am always present. Remember that Dragon Warrior. Also, Now that your trial is over, it is now time to bestow you your powers that will be needed. Step forward Dragon Warrior." HuangLong ordered.

Po did as he was told and approached the spot he was told to stand in, waiting for further instructions. "Okay, I'm here, what now?" Po asked.

"What you need to do next, is to close your eyes for this next segment, you will be feeling some slight discomfort in the process." HuangLong pointed out, causing the panda to shiver a little.

"Not sure I like that idea. Oh well, can't be avoided," Po started while closing his eyes. "Do what you gotta do." He added.

"Glad to see that you understand, yet show no hesitation to do what it necessary. Now Dragon Warrior, extend both of your arms towards me, both of them parallel from pawtips to forearm." HuangLong instructed. Po once again did as he was told and waited for the next part. "Remember Dragon Warrior, this next part will sting, but it will not last for long. Bare it and you will have your powers." HuangLong said, his eyes beginning to glow, even though Po couldn't see it.

"It's now or never. Let's do it." Po replied. Just as fast as that last word left his mouth, an intense burning sensation was coursing through Po's body, mainly his arms. This pain was like nothing he had ever felt before, it felt worse than being hit by Shen's cannonball, it felt like his arms were on fire and they were slowly consuming it, normally he's open his eyes to see what was happening, but he kept his eyes closed. Because he was told to, and the fact this pain was making him keep them closed as well. He felt the burning now traveling up the rest of his arm. It was quick just like HuangLong said, but the pain was now starting to take its toll on Po. Just when the panda thought he was going to pass out, the pain just suddenly vanished after stopping just below the hem of his shoulder. There was no lingering sting, no after pain, no sensitivity, nothing. That's all he felt. Po opened one eyelid to what was going on, but what he saw when he looked at his arms just left him speechless and his mouth wide opened.

"I take it, you are impressed with your reward, yes?" the Yellow Dragon asked while smiling.

"Wow, this is… and these are… HuangLong, what did you do to me?" Po asked while looking at the Dragon above him.

"Simple Dragon Warrior, I have embedded the back of you paws with a Legendary and Sacred ore that I have spent eons crafting deep within my land. Dragon Warrior; Po Xiao Ping, I entrust you with The Anointed Paragons of Yin and Yang. I place my trust in you to keep these gems safe." HuangLong said to the Panda who was still looking at his arms.

"You mean two simple gems did this to my arms?" Po asked while expecting them. He could clearly see that figure of Dragons was engraved into his arms. On the left, a white dragon could be seen, clearly standing out from his black fur. The head was planted on the back of his palm, and it wrapped him, going all the way up to his shoulder. When he looked up its face, he could see that the Dragon had a kind face on it, whereas the other was just like the white one, only which it wasn't. It was black, which could easily be told, thanks to the white outline around it. And on its face, it looked ferocious and stern, but not evil, more along the lines of protective with a hard face. Po snapped out of his surprise, thanks to a question that surfaced. "HuangLong, how did this happen? Why are my arms like this?" Po asked.

"These gems are not ordinary Dragon Warrior, they are crystalized gems that have been forged from the numerous conflict between my Mother and my Father, there were many of these crystal fragments, I have gathered them all and brought them into myself, letting them nurture over the thousands of millennia, all for this one moment. But for is beside the point. This is the effect of the gems that I had placed in the back of your paws. They are now the source of your powers should you proceed into battle, and will be needed for upcoming fight before you." HuangLong added.

"So, these are my powers in visible form huh…" Po placed his arms down and let out a breath that he had been holding in, until a grin grew on his face. "That… Is… AWESOME! This is so cool; these are my powers now, sweet, so c'mon tell me, how do they work?" Po asked eagerly.

"I respect your enthusiasm, but they do not work in your mind Dragon Warrior, you must be in the physically realm for them to work. Worry, not, I will tell you how to use them. Should you wish to see what the Darkness has hidden, snap your left fingers to see in the light what is hidden by the Dark, Should you wish to see what the light is blinding, use the Darkness on your right to see what can only be seen when the Light is blotted out. Understand?" HuangLong asked.

"Ok, I get it. So wait, if these marks appeared on my arms in my mind? Does it mean that they appeared on my arms in the real world?" Po asked. HuangLong nodded his answer, making it easier on Po. "So, there's a good chance the others have already seen them. Alright, guess I have some explaining to do." Po said.

"Worry not Dragon Warrior; I have already taken care of that. Before your Trial was in the midst of beginning, meaning while you were facing yourself, I left your mind and informed Shifu of what would happen after you completed your Trial. To keep suspicion from arising, I had him use an extensive amount of thin wraps to cover the marks, from paw to shoulder on both arms, so there is no need to worry. That aside Dragon Warrior, there is another matter which I need to discuss with you." HuangLong declared.

"I don't like where this is goin, but okay, what do you need to talk about?" Po asked.

"How to prevent the coming End and what is needed to do so." The Yellow Dragon stated, but that didn't faze Po, rather, it made him turn serious.

"I understand. What do we need to do?" Po asked.

"Good to see that you understand the situation Dragon Warrior. What is needed to be done is that the Wu Xing must be revitalized in order to keep the world's balance in flow." HuangLong said.

"How do I do that?" Po asked; wanting to know what had to be done.

"Do you remember those orbs that rose from the scroll and escaped out of the Hall of Warriors? If you do, know that I casted them out and to The Five, they will coincide with their natural elements, the elements of their personality." HuangLong admitted.

"I think I can put two and two together. Let's see. Viper's natural element is Water, Monkey's is Lightning, Mantis's is Metal, Crane's is Wind, and Tigress," Po chuckled out, for he could tell even if he didn't know it. "Fire, which suites her perfectly, the fiery temper gives it away quite easily." Po finished. "But wait, if that's their natural element, what about the elements you gave them? Are they gonna like, match up with their own?" Po asked.

"You will understand when you take them with you on your journey." HuangLong pointed out.

"Wait, I have to go on trip? Well, I guess I did see that coming and whatnot. But wait, what about Xiwang, Qīānxī, Līmīng and Shifu, what about them" Po asked.

"Lay your worries to rest. They are to go with you, for they also play a vital role in this as well." HuangLong pointed out.

"Okay, that's one thing down, but what about the Valley? All of us, just can't leave, what if the Valley comes under attack?" Po asked again.

"Again Dragon Warrior, Leave the Valley to me. Using my Power, I will keep it safe from harm; I give my word as founder of the Wu Xing. No harm will come to your home." The Yellow Dragon swore.

"Even if you do, didn't you say that you and your brothers and sister are dying, won't that cause your powers to dwindle, speeding up your… passing?" Po asked in worry.

"Even though using Chi to guard your home, does consume my power, I am the eldest of the five. I have been present since the beginning. My reach is infinite. It doesn't matter where; I will be able to interact with that specific part. Protecting your Valley is very simple for me to do; I will be able to last for at least three years. You have nothing to worry about." HuangLong pointed, putting Po at ease.

"Well, all right HuangLong, I trust you. Now, what this about me and everyone going on a journey, exactly where are we journeying to?" Po asked.

"Dragon Warrior, you, The Five, Xiwang, The Panda twins and Shifu are to travel to the origin point and allotment where the day ends and when the day begins anew. Po Xiao Ping, you are to travel to The Abandoned City of Dead; Xiūxí de línghún bèi yíwàng de wángguó (The Forsaken Kingdom of Resting Souls). That is where you must go, for it is the starting point of journey." HuangLong pointed out, he could see the Panda's eyes go wide at what he just said. "I believe that you know of the area Dragon Warrior?" HuangLong asked.

"Do I know it, HuangLong, EVERYBODY knows about that city. We do our very BEST to steer clear of that place. They say, once you enter the city, you never return. You're spirited away, plus there is a history behind it. The kingdom was involved in an ancient conflict that led the citizens all being slaughtered. All the people that had been set to protect the city still guard it hoping to actually alleviate themselves of their failure. In order to put the people of the city in their place, they were rallied into the city square where all the young and newborn were burned alive. So yeah, not exactly my idea of a place to visit, but seeing as how things are standing now, I have no choice. I'll go, as will the rest. Ugh, I can tell this isn't going to be pleasant." Po groaned out.

"I know all too well of the tragedy that occurred there and I apologize for this Dragon Warrior, but you and your friends are the only ones I can rely on for this task. Believe me, if I could find another way, I would have done so, but sadly, I cannot, the Gods created you for this purpose, but that does not mean you cannot have fun throughout your life. Again, I thank you with the utmost gratitude." HuangLong thanked.

"Hey gotta do something to keep all of life from disappearing. So yeah, I'll do it. Hm, A destiny that I been planned for by the Gods huh? Gotta admit, that's pretty cool." Po said while stretching.

"Indeed. Now shall I return you your body and the real world?" HuangLong asked.

"Yep, got a party to get started. Let's go." Po said while grinning. The Yellow Dragon smiled and let his eyes glow white, at the same time, Po was engulfed in a white aura, before blinking out of Field of Pathways. Once Po was gone, a serious look was now on his face.

"Forgive me Dragon Warrior, but it is far too early for you to have knowledge about that tiger cub or the twins' origin point. You and your mind are not ready for that, not yet. But you will be. Soon." HuangLong said before fading out as well.

Bookmark #11-

*Back in the real world*

"So we are all in agreement? If so, you are all to run out and gather party supplies. Understand?" asked Shifu, The Five nodded in affirmation, knowing what was needed to be done. "Good, now listen once more! Po will stay behind to make the cake for Xiwang. Qīānxī and Līmīng will assist Viper with the decorations. Monkey, Crane and Mantis, you are to run and retrieve what will be needed for the party down in the town. You have your objectives, now go!" Shifu ordered. As commanded, they, aside from Xiwang, Līmīng and Qīānxī, the three males bolted out of the Hall of Warriors and down into the town, to get what was needed.

"Come along dears, we have some things to get done." Viper said while slithering away as the twins followed her, leaving Shifu, Tigress and Xiwang behind, for they had agreed to stay behind and wait for Po, each of them having their own reasons. Xiwang was waiting for Po, because of the cake he's promise to make, Shifu was waiting so Po could tell him about the trial and Tigress was waiting, just for a chance to tell Po how sorry she was for treating him in the past. As they were just standing there, they saw a familiar twitch from Po, first it was his arms, it looked like they were stretching out, trying to get the blood moving and flowing after being in a position for so long. He used one of his wrapped paw to push himself off the ground, standing up stretching his arms back out while letting go a grunt of relief, glad to be back in his body again. He twisted his from side to side, hearing crack as he did so but after that last one, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Man, does that feel so much better," Po said aloud. Suddenly a thought or a previous promise came back to his mind in an instant. "Oh that's right. The cake, I promised Xiwang I'd make his cake when I was done. I just hope we have the ingredients to do so. Better get started." Po said to himself while turning around, just about to head towards the kitchen, only to see three familiar beings before him at the base of the steps, looking at him with three different expressions.

"Master Shifu, I'm done with my objective. Xiwang, I told you I'd be back like I promised. And Tigress, good morning sweetheart." Po ended with a smile, causing the tiger to let out a small gasp, but making her smile as well.

"Good morning Po." Tigress said simply, feeling her cheeks grow warm.

"Dragon Warrior, it seems that you have passed. Congratulations." Shifu praised.

"Thank you Master Shifu." Po replied while bowing traditionally.

"So Po, did you take care of what needed to be taken care of?" Xiwang asked, his tail moving from side to side.

"That's right little buddy. Everything went better than expected." Po said as he walked down the steps and placed his paw on the cub's head, giving it a gentle shake, making the boy chuckle, a happy face was present on him. When Po lifted his hand and looked over at Tigress who was simply keeping her paws behind her back, but she was looking at Po. He could tell that she had something to say.

"Tigress, is there something that you," Po started to say, but cut him off, by doing something that Shifu was not expecting. She threw herself at him and wrapped her arms his neck, not enough to choke him, but for him to feel the warmth of her body. He was being embraced lovingly by the tiger female, her muzzle resting against the crook of his neck, the same way how she hugged him back in Gongmen City. Po could easily tell it was the same, but given their current standing in the relationship, it was slightly more intimate. "Tigress, you alright?" Po asked, feeling wetness on him.

"I'm sorry Po, I'm so sorry for the way I treated you a year ago. I-I was so, foolish and headstrong back then, looking back on it now, I realize how wrong I was for treating you the way I did. I'm truly sorry Po, I really am. If you wish to hate the same way I did to you back then, then it's only fair that you do so. I mean you have every right to and,"

"Tigress," Po said, stopping her from going on.

"Y-yes Po?" she asked, a faint sniffle was heard by only him.

"It's okay, that was a long time ago, I'm over now, I really am," Po said gently while bring his paws to rest on her back. "Also Tigress, I forgive you." He added, making the feline, let out a soft gasp.

"Y-you forgive me, even after all I did to you?" she asked, finding it hard to believe what he just said.

"Of course. I love you too much to hate you Tigress, honestly." Po replied while pulling her back so she could see him grin widely. The tiger female blushed deeply, but smiled gladly and placed a quick kiss on his lips, not caring if Shifu was watching that. She pulled back and smiled once more.

"I love you too Po." she replied feeling glad she got that out after hiding it, feeling a warm sensation spread throughout her chest, like a warm, comforting flame. As they continued to look into each other's eyes, a familiar cough snapped them out of the moment, seeing that Shifu had been watching the entire time.

"Is that so? Tell me Dragon Warrior, you have fallen for my daughter? And Vice versa Tigress?" Shifu asked; the tone in his tone was calm and collected.

"Yes Master." They both replied firmly.

"In that case, you both have my blessing. I look forward to attending your wedding day, whenever it may be." Shifu chuckled. Tigress was smiling and Po let out a silent relief that Shifu agreed so easily. That or he was testing his devotion to Tigress. "Now Tigress, I believe that Xiwang is in need of some new birthday clothes. Why not run out to the town and pick out some clothes for him to wear tonight." Shifu suggested. Tigress nodded and wiped her eyes of the tears.

"Of course. I'll do that. Come along Xiwang, let's go see what we can pick out for you." Tigress offered.

"Okay mom." Xiwang replied. As the two started to depart, Xiwang turned back to Po and waved at him. "See you later Dad!" he called out before leaving. Po's eyes went wide in surprise, but he only smiled after that.

"Alright, be good. Look after your mother out there." Po called back. With that, they were out of his sight, leaving both him and Shifu there in the Hall of Warriors.

"Now that we are alone. Tell me Po, did HuangLong relay you any vital information for you to heed by?" Shifu asked.

"Do you want the long and dragging on version, or do you want the short and straight -to-the- point version?" Po asked.

"The short version if you please." Shifu replied.

"Okay. Long story short, the elements themselves are slowly but surely dying. And it is up to you, me, The five, Xiwang, Qīānxī and Līmīng to return them back to their former state. How do we that you ask, simple. We leave the Valley of Peace and we all travel to The Abandoned City of Dead; Xiūxí de línghún bèi yíwàng de wángguó in order to get started. He also said that he would watch over the Valley in our absences. There, any questions?" Po asked. Shifu was about to say something but Po beat him to it. "Yes, Shifu, exactly what I said, the Wu Xing are dying, and we have to fix it. And yes, we have to travel to The Abandoned City of Dead for the starting point, regardless of what the Capital thinks." Po answered. Shifu quickly agreed, even though he wanted to ask a question of why.

"Alright Dragon Warrior. I will take your word for the situation before us. When shall we leave?" Shifu asked.

"Early tomorrow morning, before the break of the dawn, when the rest of the Valley is asleep. That should give us enough time to get out before they notices us leave." Po said.

"Fair enough, I will pass this information to the Palace staff before we all head off to bed for the evening. Hard to believe that all this is happening, but you heard this directly from HuangLong himself. So it must be true. Very well, now all that is left is to enjoy Xiwang's birthday. And it if memory serves right, you promised to make a cake, remember?" Shifu asked while chuckling.

"That I did, would you like to help?" Po asked.

"I will pass Dragon Warrior. Cooking is more your forte. I look forward to see it tonight. For now I plan on meditating until that time. If you will excuse me." Shifu said while walking up to the edge of the Moon Pool and taking a seat, going into Lotus position.

"Oh yeah, sure. Alright then Shifu. See you later." Po replied while leaving the area. After his footsteps were gone from the area, Shifu let out a breath.

"So, the elements are dying are they? I still find that hard to believe, but then again, minimal proof has begun to show itself. I can feel it, even though meditation, that something is clearly wrong with the land. And that sword of Xiwang's, how can such an object, crafted from a pure heart, become so twisted with evil and malice… Clearly there is too much to think about for now. On the trip, I will give it more thought. But for now, Inner Peace." Shifu stated while going into the recesses of his mind and began to seek enlightenment while in the quite hall.

Founders of the Wu Xing

Chapter 5/ Final scroll: Decisive Paths and Harmonized Power – Chapter End

A/N: And it is finally DONE. My goodness, it's been while since I felt that good finishing chapter. Those long nights, totally worth it. Well folks, that's it for this chapter. S. Scroll of Earth is completed and S. Scroll of Wind begins next chapter. So the adventure begins next time, and shit starts to get real. Get ready you guys.

Well, not much to say anything else, but to review :)

See ya next time.

S. S… out.