Ok, so let's get the elephant in the room out of the way: what took me so long to update?

Well, there are several reasons. The biggest one was the massive debate with myself on whether or not to make an immediate cure for Po. For those who don't know, leukemia is a cancer that affects your bone marrow and results in high amounts of white blood cells, which can created bleeding, bruising and energy problems. It can also increase risks of infections, so even a cold can put a person with leukemia in the hospital. A great example of a story of a person with leukemia is one of my all-time favorite books, Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick for those who want to learn more about it. That book is also one of the things that inspired this story. I admit, I'm using quite a few facts about cancer from the book because all the research was confusing me. Po won't go through the exact same scenarios as the character Jeffrey did, but his diagnosis will be similar.

But back to the main problem I had. There is no immediate cure for leukemia other than years of treatment. Considering this story is fiction though, I began to wonder if I should make this a story about a quest to retrieve a cure for Po, or should I make it more realistic and focus more on Po's struggle physically and mentally as well as focusing on his friends' struggles with coping as well. I eventually decided to take the more realistic approach because I was able to think of more things I could do with it and so I wouldn't rip off the episode of LOA where Tigress had river fever.

Another problem I had was when I rechecked my facts and discovered leukemia was more common in children than in adults. Usually if it occurs in adults, then it's more likely because of something abnormal with a person's chromosomes (sorry to get all technical, but I did my best to make it easier to understand.) In order to fix that problem, I'm going to have this disease affect Po in the same way that it would be for a child. I know that's kind of weird, but it grew complicated for me to figure out another way around it.

The other reasons were just the usual things like other stories getting in the way and life in general had pulled me away from writing for a while. I mean, up until now, I haven't updated a single story in over 3 MONTHS! Plus, I didn't expect this story to get as much publicity as it did! I was pretty impressed!

So I apologize for the delay, as well as the overwhelming amounts of information, and I hope you guys can understand and forgive me. Also I haven't written for Kung Fu Panda for a while so the characters might possibly be a bit OOC. I apologize for that as well. This is the long awaited second chapter!

-Tigress' POV-

This couldn't be real.

This was a lie.

This. Could not. Be true.

Was this guy seriously telling us that Po- the happiest, funniest, and most care free of us all; the only guy I had ever loved- had LEUKEMIA? The guy who was constantly helping US feel better when WE were down had CANCER? This HAD to be some kind of cruel, sick joke! It just HAD to be!

Now I knew a lot of things about Kung Fu. I knew more fighting stances, moves and techniques than I could count, I had known how turn myself hardcore, how to win at fights, and even knew when to know when you had been defeated. There were also a few injuries I knew how to treat. I knew how to treat a couple of limbs like arms and legs. Small cuts and bruises were pretty easy to do as well. However, I was no doctor. I knew little to nothing on some diseases and leukemia was one of them. All I really knew about it was it was a type of cancer. I also knew one of the worst facts you could know about it.

There was no immediate cure.

The only way that truth could have been worse was if the hospital suddenly brought out a giant parade with balloons and banners all reading those same words that were now trying to hammer their way into my brain. The one thought that kept trying to overrun that though was the one I wanted to hear so much more.

None of this was real.

I kept trying to tell myself this was all a crazy dream. In a few minutes everything was going to fade away. Or better yet, something even crazier was just about to happen for no reason whatsoever like in some dreams. One of us would realize that we forgot to wear pants, or maybe we would all start falling from space, and nobody would question what happened to the hospital or the valley. Heck, I would even have been happy if a clown suddenly came in and sprayed us all with water! Then I would wake up to the sound of the gong, greet Master Shifu and the others, and smile when I saw that Po was up and about. Then I would grab him later and tell him about my crazy dream. At that moment, I could even hear his laughter and the words I knew he would say: Well, you know me Tigress. It would take more than leukemia to keep me down! I wouldn't doubt it for a second. Instead I would smile and give him a peck on the cheek, knowing nothing in the world could take him from me.

But nothing started fading away. No one realized they had forgotten their pants, we didn't start falling from space, and no clowns came out and sprayed us with water. I was awake and my boyfriend still had cancer.

We all jumped when we heard Shifu speak. He probably knew more about medical problems than any of us did, though that may not have been saying much. "What is the severity of his condition?" he asked.

I could feel chill sent down my spine even more to hear fear in Shifu's voice. Next to Po, Shifu was the thing that held all of us together. To see not only that one of them was possibly DYING and the other was- in any way, shape or form- AFRAID only increased the reality of the situation.

Po

had

cancer.

I could tell the doctor hated telling us this as much as we hated hearing it. "Well, we had to do several tests and they've confirmed that he has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL. It's the most common type of leukemia and it causes his body to produce white blood cells too rapidly. The blasts- or deformed cells- aren't working so they won't compete with the good blood cells for survival. This means that, if not treated, this disease is one hundred percent fatal." The doctor's hands tightening slightly around his clipboard at the mention of the last words confirmed the truthfulness in his words.

If I hadn't been even the least bit scared before; I definitely was now. The words there was no immediate cure had stopped hammering themselves into my brain. Now they had been replaced with the swirling tornado of everything the doctor had just said. My head was beginning to ache.

For once in those few minutes I snuck a look at my other friends. Viper's eyes were full of sorrow- she truly considered Po her brother just as much as she did Monkey, Crane and Mantis, -Mantis, for once, said nothing sarcastic or ironic about the situation- in fact, he looked as if he was a mute person, as well as shocked out of his wits, -Monkey's fingers were twitching slightly which only happened when he was genuinely scared, and Crane was looking down with despair. The last time I had seen that look on his face was when Shen had captured all of us and we had thought Po was dead. My hands tightened when I thought back to that day. Believe me; that was the LAST thing that needed to be on my mind right now.

"His cancer hasn't spread to other systems so far, which is a good thing. The tests have also confirmed that he is at a "moderate risk" case right now. This…" His grip tightened on his clipboard again. "This means that his chances of survival are just over fifty percent, but not by much."

My hands began to shake. I took another look at my friends. Viper had begun to cry a bit, Mantis looked like speaking was forbidden, Monkey's fingers looked like they were swatting at an angry hornet, and Crane's legs had begun to shake, though his face remained hopeless. I wondered for a brief second if my face was showing at all how scared I felt.

I was surprised Shifu could still remember to speak. "What are his treatment options?" he asked. The sense of fear in his voice was definitely still there.

The doctor nodded, as if suddenly remembering that he was indeed a doctor and treating patients is what he did. "His best bet right now is chemotherapy, which involves using chemical substances."

Shifu nodded. "Whatever it takes to help him. When will you start?"

"As soon as possible." The doctor replied. "Should we notify anyone else of his condition?"

"His father, Mr. Ping." Shifu simply answered. The doctor nodded once more.

"I need to go get some things ready for Po. If you need anything else, my name is Dr. Jiang." He then scurried away. I almost expected Mantis to ask; what's your name if we don't need anything?

But as the whole group looked at each other, we all knew this wasn't the time for jokes. We all sat down in the same seats we had taken previously. I immediately knew we had a long road ahead of all of us. We had had long roads ahead of us before, but this time there was a giant difference.

Kung Fu wasn't going to solve this problem.

I rested my head on my knees and- without anyone knowing- finally let a few tears slip.

I'm sorry if this chapter sucked. I just needed one to explain the situation better.

To be continued