"Let's begin." She speaks fast, with purpose, and within that moment her stance has spread across the floor and the palms of her hands have lunged toward him, slicing the air with a whizzing ring. Po had to take a moment before his mind had caught up to the fact the sparring had begun, but his body was already moving. It was at the point where all he knew how to do was to have faith, and then some part of his being just knew the rest.

He brushed her attacks away, he jumped from any fists and he stopped her kicks the best he could. Her eyes sparked and trickled to a silent glow, her body stopping as she came to a standing position and took his arm with a fierce grip, forcing it to the level of his eye. Po blinked, lips sucking in as her eyes burned bright with a tight glare.

"This is your hand. Use it sometime." She spoke, watching her friend as his mind crackled and creaked with thought.

"I am-" His words were cut off as she slapped her free hand over his mouth, sharp eyes standing steady and breathing easy.

"No. You were avoiding me, not fighting me. Defense is good Po," She stopped, sighed, and let her grip relax as Po could finally relax his wrist, "But it will get you killed in a real fight." He swallowed tight as she took a breath in and let his wrist go, offering a small smile as she pat his cheek and turned back into her stance, her eyes narrowing as an orange glow radiated from them. He stumbled back into what he knew kept him alive and took in a deep breath, trying not to think too hard about this. He needed offense. He cracked his neck and stood in position; he had this. If offense was a kid, Po would belike, his dad. If offense was a piece of fish, he would have smoked it. If offense was Po and Po was a beautiful woman, he would have insulted it. He knew offense. He was the Dragon Warrior and he knew how to do offense.

Tigress opened her mouth, and Po knew he had this.

"Again!"

Po cried out in pain as the sharp needle pierced his skin, body tensing as Mantis scurried along Po's giant body and pulled it out as quickly as it went in. The panda looked over to the tiny bug and it shrugged with a half-hearted smile.

"Uh, sorry." He jumped off Po's body and grabbed more of his needles, staring with intensity at the panda diagram. Po thought he heard a whisper about having studied this, but most of all it sounded like was pain. Mantis looked back with a sharp frown, "Maybe you're some kinda, mutated… dragon panda." Po matched his frown as Mantis hopped back on board, steps tickling on his back as the tiny legs ran to a stop and jammed another needle in. Po flinched, but that was about all there was to the severity of his damage.

"Well, uh, Tai Lungs little stabby attacks only tickled," Po spoke, cringing as another needle was jabbed under his flesh.

"Ha! Really? Maybe that's why I can't do this right." Mantis had stabbed once more and Po bit at his tongue, trying not to cry out. Mantis gave out an agitated grumble as the panda sympathized with the notation of frustration, "Because I really just cannot do this right." Jumping off once more, Mantis took his place by the sheet of paper, looking from it to Po as his eyes just radiated concentration. He was not even distracted as Viper slipped in, Crane following suit.

"Hey Mantis," Crane greeted, the bug casting his friend a quick glance as a common courtesy.

"Hey Crane." He whipped out looking back to his paper. Crane looked at Viper who tilted her head and smiled, laughter ringing in her heart.

"Don't mind him," She spoke, slithering across the wood to a position in front of Po before curling up into an odd seating position, "He's been going on for days about how he's going to get this to work on you," She delivered to the panda in a mock whisper, tail patting against his foot in a weird kind of comfort.

"And I will," Mantis broke through before Crane could make a sound, "Once I figure out what's wrong with this diagram."

"Yeah, good luck with that," The tall bird mumbled, sitting to the side of Viper as Mantis cast an insulted glance, "I just feel bad for the big guy over here." Po shrugged, regretting it almost instantly as the shower of needles in his back began to ring pain and soul crushing agony throughout his body.

"It's," He stopped to compose himself, bones settling back into peace, "Not so bad. I mean, Mantis will get it right. Eventually. I'm sure of it." Mantis flinched, but Po wasn't quite sure if it was because he was listening or if he has stabbed himself with his own needles. Crane had made a coughing laugh that brought Po's attention back to the bird, Viper keeping her gaze on him as well.

"I wasn't talking about Mantis's obsession with needles," Okay, Po knew that time that flinch was because Mantis was listening, "I was talking about, you know, your sparring sessions with Tigress. She is brutalizing you out there." His face scrunched up.

"Well, I guess the Dragon Warrior can't always be perfect." Po muttered, interlacing his fingers, "'Cause, you know, I'm not like you guys." His eyes fell to Viper who was looking at the door, her tail curling around her body as she slithered over, snaking the door open to reveal the darkened hallway. She peeped her head out and began to speak, but Po couldn't make out a word she said. A second voice gave a quick response and she slipped back, slipping the door shut before returning to her previous seat. "Uh…"

"Po, you know, if you're having troubles keeping up with Tigress, you could always train with someone else," The snake spoke with her head bobbing up as her mouth curled into a smile, "Maybe it might be easier fighting against someone with a different style."

"Yeah man, you don't always have to train with Tigress," Mantis finally piped in with a hand full of sharp metal in his scythes, walking over to Po and standing on his shoulder, "Any one of us would be more than happy to fight with you. I mean, she even freaks me out sometimes."

"She does have a way with words." Crane said under his breath, both Mantis and Viper suppressing a laugh as Po smiled with his friends, trying not to join in their subtle joshing with the currently absent Tiger master.

"Aw you guys," He yelped as another needle was jammed into his spine, "You're making me feel all special an' stuff." Po stumbled out, trying not to let his eyes water up as pain shot up to his skull. Mantis popped up on his head and patted it softly.

"Hey, don't even mention it buddy." Viper sighed, picking up the diagram and holding it up to the eye level up Mantis who muttered a soft word of thanks. She nodded in acknowledgement, then turned her attention to Po's face as he slouched back in response.

"But really, Po, if you just aren't meshing with Tigress as a sparring partner, maybe you should…" She paused, head taking a quick look at the floor beneath her before taking her vision back to his, "Reconsider, from time to time."

"Pfffft, whaat?" Po puttered, waving the notion away with his paw, "Me and Tigress totally mesh. We're like, so meshy that, like, puzzle pieces look at us and go all, 'oh man, why can't we be like those two?' because, like, compared to us, they like, are losers when it comes to meshing. Just the loseriest because we, um. You know. We, uh, totally mesh." He crossed his fingers and began to twiddle his thumbs, Vipers gaze growing more accusing as he struggled to look at anywhere but her face. Her green and accusing face. "Yeah."

"Po, come on," Crane started, forcing the panda's attention to himself, "It won't do you any good to keep training with someone when you aren't even getting to train." Po pouted his lower lip when he heard the low snort of Mantis, sticking another needle in his flesh that stung just a little worse than the rest.

"Pft, if he wants some excuse to spend alone time with Tigress, I saw we let him." He glowered at the diagram before scuttling lower down Po's back, "It's his funeral." Po flinched with indignity, trying, and failing, to twist his vision to face the sarcastic bug.

"Now wait just a minute- that hardly seems like a fair accusation. I spend tons of alone time with Tigress, sparring or not." Po mentally slapped himself when he heard Mantis' laugh, "I mean, I spend a ton of alone time with all of you guys, and that like, includes Tigress."

"Especially Tigress." Mantis probed.

"It's a package deal!" Po scurried for a response, voice louder than he had ever wanted it to be. Mantis just kept with his laughing as he stuck another needle in and Po made a gasping squeak, trying his hardest to send his best panda glare to the bug he could not see. Viper had done a fine job at glaring to Mantis, and whipped her tail against the side of his head. He yelped as she slithered to the tiny warrior's side.

"Now that's quite enough Mantis- you know just as well as us all," She waved to Crane who slouched back into the wood, "that Po is close to all of us, and we are all close to him. You shouldn't tease him just because he's uncomfortable with change."

"Well it's not that," Po clenched at his knees, eyes falling to the floor as his muscles tensed and relaxed rhythmically, "Not… exactly." Crane raised a brow and shifted in his seat.

"Then what is it?" Po tensed and stood his body at attention as he struggled for an answer.

"Well, I dunno, it's just I guess I don't really want to fight." Po felt with a chill the sudden questions that had slipped into the mind of his three friends, and he bit his tongue for a reasonable response that they could not investigate.

"But you're going to have to." He thoughts were cut with a fear as all four of the previous people looked up and saw a lone Tigress in the door way, her presence not only a shock, but a petrifying terror to all who was there. Po felt no doubt that she had heard what all they had said, or at least a good last part of it. Crane had opened his mouth to question her presence, but she lifted her paw and took a step back. "Come, Po. We need to speak."

Po blinked, looking over to Viper who gave him a truly apologetic look, then to Crane who shrugged and sat in further silence. He frowned in thought, then tried his best to smile, "Yeah uh, sure, no… problem." His body groaned in pain as he stretched out his legs, forgetting that he had a sea of needles pounded into his back. She gave a small nod, a small smile then walked out into the darkness of the empty hallway. As she walked she heard a small sound, and then a loud shout of glee by Mantis. She turned her neck and waited, watching as Po stumbled out several minutes later. He strutted up to her with a deep frown as he adjusted his pants, eyes glaring at the entrance to the lit room.

She crossed her arms behind her back, waiting for when he turned back to face her, "Are you… quite done yet?" He twitched as he recognized her voice and realized it was a voice that was very much talking to him.

"Yeah! Yes, okay, I am so ready. Like, you would not believe how freakin' ready I," She held her palm over his mouth, his words cutting out in an interest.

"Po." She cut in,

"Yeah?" He mumbled through her hand.

"Focus." He nodded and she pulled away, both making the unknown trek in silence, except for the soft crackle of their steps in the glistening dark.

She had taken her time to make her steps calm. He had taken his time to hold his tongue. They had been without talking for so long, his mouth began to tingle, though he felt blessed that the tension between his shoulders was gone. His fingers tapped against each other, uncertainty in his blood as he looked around him. It was where he always went for his daily sparring sessions with Tigress. And never before had he been so nervous to be standing there. His head came to a spinning halt when it stepped into the path of Tigress' outraised paw.

He took a step back, stumbling over the air under his feet. He looked up, eyes blurring as he tried to focus in on her figure. The moonlight was bright, but her body was a shrewd cloud of darkness. He swallowed tight, as he slipped his arms under his pits, eyes watching her figure as it twisted to face him, the glow from her eyes burning and cutting through the dark, piercing his blood and scorching it deep. They cut into slits as the space between the two of them grew larger, as Po stepped away without realizing.

"So, uh," He stopped the silence, watching as her fists clench and unclench in the pitch black shroud of the night, her shadow that stretched far across the training grounds mirroring every slight twitch and every small movement. "What did you… wanna…" He saw her glare grow sharper the more he spoke, and Po felt sudden irritation sweep through the soles of his feet, "Aw come on, if this is about us talking about you it wasn't even like it was anything ba-"

And then within that instant, her shadow had cut across his, and he was forced by every screaming muscle in his body to jump out of the way of flaming ball of orange and white, slicing the air in a scorching haze. Tigress stopped low on her feet, paws digging into the cool marble as her head snapped to the off kilter panda. He gazed in a daze, his mind alone and confused. But he felt it in his muscles, the fur on his neck standing sharp as the skin beneath it steadied, feet finding balance as the earth began to spin beneath him.

And with some sort of snap, she struck, and he deflected. There was a twist and a click and he watched as a foot came rushing toward him, his mind never getting that he was moving and she was striking. Never once able to keep up with how her fists were flying and his arms were dancing, the dust on the floor tripping around their feet as the world watched with its breath held still as they moved together, each attack with as much purpose as each block, the air bursting as skin connected with one another.

And all he could see, all he could think of was the fire of her eyes, circling his world. And with one strike by the sheathed claws of her hand, he felt his body twist and grab the skin of her wrist. She fell still as he caught his breath, eyes shining clearer than ever that night, heart pounding throughout the bones running through his body. "Woah-ho-ho!" He shouted, loosening his grip as she slipped away, his body bounding back, trying to seem not as on edge as his heart was screaming, "What was that about?"

She growled deep in her throat, arms tensing as her eyes narrowed into something he feared would cut him if he took any step closer to that blazing glare, "Look, I don't know what this is about, but if you have some kind of issue with me you could always just-" He yelped as she took a step forward and slapped his armed and readied fists to his side.

"Your form is sloppy," She churned as her hands came together, and shoved the palms of them into the center of his gut, the aftershock forcing his stance off balance as he stumbled back and failed to steady himself, "You have no focus," She crouched low and swept her leg across his legs knocking the stunned panda onto his back, "You are holding back," She slammed her paw on his neck and raised the other in the air, "Why?" She demanded, grip tightening further as he squirmed under her hold, hands gripping at her own.

"I'm not!" He squeaked, trying not to feel fear under the ferocious hold of his own friend.

"Then why won't you strike?" She shouted, her hold faltering as she raised her other hand higher into the air, cutting through the light of the moon as the fire in her stare flickered, his eyes torn wide open as he struggled for a response. As time passed, her glare opened and lit up as her grip pushed harder on his throat, "Well?"

"I can't!" He yelled, letting his arms fall flat on the ground, closing his eyes tight as hers grew wide, reflecting the size of the sun. She let her hold fall loose, though she let her hand linger somewhere where his heart lay, feeling the pounding slow as he clenched his eyes tighter.

"…What do you mean?" She spoke with a weak whisper, watching with careful appreciation as his eyes cracked open to look at her, checking for any sign of the same rage that had graced her features before he let his entire body relax.

"I… can't attack you." He muttered, head tilting to the side as she released her contact with him fully, letting herself sit on her thighs.

"Why?" She spoke with a gentle force, eyes slipping into an inquisitive squint. He sighed, sitting up on his elbows as he looked to her face, eyes wearing a burden she had not seen since a time that had long since passed.

"Because… because I'm noodles!" He whined as he gave himself a final push up, crossing his legs as he sat across from the darkened feline. She raised a single brow as he sighed, as though there was a great weight rolling off his shoulders and onto the floor beside him.

"You're… noodles." She drawled, hands curling into her knees.

"Yeah—I mean… like, I'm not supposed to hurt people. I was cooked to feed people, you know?"

"So you were meant to be… eaten." Tigress frowned, hands uncurling as he flinched at what she said.

"Wha? No, I mean… I can't…" He paused, Po lowering his head as his eyes darted across the marble, some part of him praying that the correct way to say this would be engraved there, under his nose. Tigress watched his silence with a disheartened stare. She took in a deep breath, watching as his eyes stayed low, invisible from where she sat. And with that breath she took a stand and walked over to his body, kneeling in front of him, staring as he stayed in thought.

"Po." He bit at his lip, letting his shoulders rise and fall with one last breath.

"When I defeated Shen, I saved China… I saved Kung Fu. And I know it was supposed to be my greatest victory, and I know it was something to celebrate, but," He sighed, looking up at the eyes that now only burned with sympathy and concern, heart falling deep within his chest, "I let someone die, Tigress. And then I was like, 'ok I guess he's dead no big deal' and then everyone else is like, 'yay you let so many innocents lose their lives' and—"

"Po." Tigress cut off, hand resting on her shoulder as she took a sharp hold of his gaze, "You did a good thing. Shen's death was unavoidable, and I think everyone would agree they would rather have you alive then that… peacock." Po frowned and touched her hand, sliding it off as he sighed.

"…I could have saved him. I could have acted faster, or… better. I could have, like, saved him. Could have made him good and stuff. Could have made him happy, could have given him something that could have changed him."

"Po, he was a monster who would have killed more than just you if you had not acted like you had. There was no changing him, there was no saving him. And if you had tried-" She stopped as Po clenched his eyes, the words she said cutting deep into him. He frowned with the memory of metal coming crashing around him, the life of a lord who was once great being crushed. The sound of fireworks booming as he stood in the night air, feeling peace, harmony, and the suffocating pain of guilt.

And there he was now, feeling that same dull ache as his dear friend lingered near his body, a foreign feeling bubbling in his gut as he dug deep into his mind, feeling that same rush of survival as he looked over every opportunity he had to save that monster. The monster he had let die.

"…I watched someone die…" He clenched his fists, teeth brushing against each other, "And then I felt good about it, Tigress. I felt good about killing someone, and I'm scared that… that I'm going to become him… and I just can't handle that because I don't want to hurt anyone, and I just thought that… maybe I could be all defense and no offense so that I never have to… hurt anyone." She frowned and set both her hands on his shoulder as she slipped onto her knees, eyes burrowing into his bowed head.

"Po. Listen to me." He stole a struggling look at her face that frowned, a complete air of authority surrounding her serious face, and the same air that forced his head down once more in a dull ache, "You are not like Shen. You will never be like Shen. You did not kill a single being in cold blood, but saved a thousand others with the bet of your own life. You are the Dragon Warrior and you have brought peace upon this land, and peace to us- your family. You need to understand this, Po, because there are innocent people out there who will lose their lives if you do not come to terms with the fact that life will be taken… and it will be taken by your own hand. And you need to come to terms with the fact that you will always feel this guilt." Tigress took a hand and touched Po's cheek, bringing his vision to hers as she granted him a sincere smile, "But you must also come to terms that you do not have to suffer it by yourself." His heart grew light with the way she spoke, eyes widening and lips curling into a smile. And in moment she had seen his happiness, he had already wrapped his arms around her waist and strung her in to a tight hug, burying his head into her shoulder as he mumbled a muffled thank you.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into the hug as she whispered a sweet "You're welcome", breath fogging up against the air, floating off into the stars as the chill finally cut through her the thickness of her fur and wrapped around her flesh.

"But," She started, speaking into the back of his head, "I said nothing more than anyone else in this valley would have said." Po pulled away and rubbed at his eyes, blinking away the darkness as he shuffled a few inches back on his knees.

"Yeah, but the fact that you said it," He smiled, arms rested at his side, "Well, that just makes it awesome." Tigress laughed, rubbing a hand over her face. She leaned back and a still hush came over the two of them for a moment, both breathing in and out with a matching rhythm, hearts forgetting that they were alive for just a moment. And she felt a sharp chill before she got to her feet and held a hand above him. Tigress watched with a comforted smile as Po took it with a grin, radiating with the same energy that she only just realized had been absent for so long, and she felt a pinch of guilt when she came to the understanding of why. When lifted to his feet, she took a step back, placing her right fist into the palm of her left hand.

"Goodnight, Dragon Warrior." She spoke, giving him a deep bow.

"Goodnight," He replied, mimicking her same movements, "buddy." He added, delivering a soft punch to her shoulders. She chuckled under her breath as she pat his shoulder, turning on her heels and walking back to her palace. He watched her every step until she had faded into blackness, only then walking the opposite path to return to his quarters and, hopefully, rest. His nose twitched in satisfaction at the idea of maybe, maybe, having some time to sleep in that morning since Master Shifu was not there this week.

"Oh, and Po, one last thing!" He heard her voice in the far off abyss, head twisting to see two flames glinting off in the distance, "Meet me here tomorrow before the morning gong- we will be going for a little jog to the Pool of Tears!"

There was a loud groan several feet away from her, and the master Tigress walked off with a satisfied smirk and a swish in her step.

For all my bellyaching I do when I write, I figured I at least owed it to myself to post a story I wrote eight pages for. I always feel a dose of nervousness when I post any of my own fanfictions, especially for something I haven't written that much for. This story is a perfect example of that awkward period I have when trying to get comfortable writing with characters. But I loved both these movies so much, I can't help but want to write for it.

Just to note, there are things in this story that were not meant to ever be fully explained, so don't worry too much about it.