35 days and counting....

Kai began to stand up to face Po, only for the panda to strike him across the ridge and into the side of the mountain.

"First you attack my friends and the people I help, then you destroy the only home I've known, then you come here and try to destroy the home my kind have settled in, and now you're going to hurt Tigress just so that I'll be your lackey?!"

Kai laughed, his pendent beginning to glow. "That's your reason for attacking me?" he asked with a cackle. "Just to get revenge for hurting your girlfriend and your family?"

"I'm not getting revenge," Po answered flatly, his eyes narrowed on Kai's pendent. "I'm stopping you so that you don't hurt anyone else, including people I never knew! Like the Phoenix Order! And other people I'm sure you've harmed along the way!"

The panda proceeded to charge at Kai, but the bull let out blasts of green energy from his hands in an effort to knock him back. Because the ledge wasn't very spacious and left little room to dodge, it didn't take Po long to get knocked down. Kai laughed and proceeded to create an even bigger energy ball and threw it at the Dragon Warrior. Po tried to dash out of the way, but he got his with the enormous blast of energy which resulted with him getting flung across the mountain passes and onto a grassy ledge far into the mountains. Po hit his head hard on the ground and let out a gasp as the air got knocked out of him. He weakly began to stand up only to hear a loud  thud directly behind him.

"Growing weary, are we?" Kai mocked, whipping his swords out threateningly.

"Nope," Po lied. "Just warming up...."

"Well then, that was the poorest warm-up I've ever seen!"

The bull laughed and tossed the swords at Po who dodged and rolled out of the way. The ledge was very thin however and the only way down was a very rocky not to mention dangerous climb. This of course left Po very little options as well as very few places to go to avoid getting sliced by the villain.

"Would you you stay still?!" Kai bellowed, whipping the chains about in an effort to either slice or trap the Dragon Warrior.

"And become a mind-controlled slave who conquers China?!" Po exclaimed. "I don't think so, buddy!"

"Oh, come now, it wouldn't be that bad. Just think about it as this: you'll still have a job, you'll be fighting alongside the greatest warriors of all time, and you and Tigress still get to intermingle."

Po eyed him. "What are you talking about?" he asked suspiciously, dodging a near decapitation.

"I have her chi; I could easily make her into a Jade Warrior and then you two could fight side by side. Isn't that something you've always wanted?"

One of the swords managed to clip Po in the arm, resulting with him letting out a cry of pain. Kai took advantage of this and wrapped the chained sword around the Dragon Warrior, yanking him over and knocking him onto the ground. Po groaned and looked up at the bull, and angry expression plastered on his face.

"I wanted to fight alongside her when I was younger," he finally answered. "But now that I already am, I have other dreams in mind. And the one I'm thinking about doesn't involve you at any point in time!"

Kai responded by picking the panda up and smashing him against the side of the mountain. With a laugh, a green glow emerged in his hands and Kai proceeded to grab Po by the shoulders and thrust the light into his abdomen. Po let out a cry of anguish as he felt a searing pain ride through him.

"How very precious, Dragon Warrior," Kai mocked. "But in case you haven't noticed, I am completely unstoppable! Unless you want to kill me, which I know you won't, you'll fall under my control soon and then all of China will be mine! Right alongside my plum blossom."

For a moment, Po felt completely helpless. He felt nothing but tormenting pain rising throughout his entire body as well as a feeling of dread. For the moment, Po felt that he was going to fail everyone. The pain was so bad that he thought he was going to pass out which would most likely result with Kai winning. For a moment, Kai had the upper hand.

But then Po saw the pendent hanging unguarded around the bull's neck.

Before he even had time to think, Po pushed passed the pain and grabbed the pendent around Kai's neck. Kai barely had any time to react before the Dragon Warrior yanked it off and smashed it into the side of the mountain. A sudden and massive explosion of green light erupted and Po felt himself collapse onto the ground and his pain dissolve away immediately, and he kept his eyes tightly shut to protect himself from the gushing light. Violent winds began to whip around as various shots of lights flew out of the pendent and to an unknown destination that Po could not see. After a while, the winds finally died down and the bright light faded, Po peeked his head up, not seeing Kai anywhere. The panda wasn't sure if he had fallen of the cliff or had climbed down during the commotion, but the fact remained that he wasn't there. Po groaned and stood up, glancing down at the pendent shards that laid scattered on the ground.

At least he doesn't have the pendent anymore, he thought. Now he can't control the masters he stole the chi from.

It suddenly dawned onto Po that since Kai no longer had the pendent, that most likely meant that the masters, as well as his friends, were no longer mind controlled statues. It also meant that Kai was helpless, meaning that he had won.

Did...did I really win? He didn't take my chi? I'm not dreaming, right?! I actually won?! I stopped Kai?!

Po sat there in a daze, unsure of what exactly to do with it. He did have to find Kai and see what happened to him. Then he had to decide what to do with the pendent shards. (Just to make sure somebody couldn't just put them back together). If it no longer gave Kai powers, then-

Wait! Po thought to himself in alarm as he thought about what he had to do next. Tigress!!!!

If the pendent didn't give Kai the chi of others, that meant that Tigress' chi had been returned to her. Once the thought crossed the master's mind, he quickly moved to climb down the cliff in search of his friend. He was no longer focused on finding Kai; his main thoughts were double-checking to see if Tigress was alright.....

Back down in the panda village, the masters were back to trying to defend themselves after having a brief five minute break. They had rested themselves enough to have a brief upper-hand in the fight, but with so many of the villagers not familiar with kung fu minus their brief week of intense training, the group soon found themselves once again struggling to hold their own. Mr. Ping and Li, who were the only ones who knew the Chow-Wa-Punch-Kick, found the move pretty much worthless as the Jade Statues were able to deflect the blast with the Jade Armor that coated them. This made the mind-controlled masters nearly impossible to defeat or knock out. Viper and Monkey did their best to try and at least round the masters into a particular area in order to avoid having them scattered all over the place taking out villagers one by one. However, even this task proved to be somewhat difficult since the mind-controlled masters were easily able to break past the barrier of villagers trying to keep them in one spot. Just as things began to look bleak though, a bright flash of light erupted from one of the mountaintops far away from the village which caught everyone off guard. A strong wind, even stronger than the one that came from the Wuxi Finger Blast eight years earlier, consumed the entire village and green lights flew all over the place, hitting each and every single Jade Warrior under Kai's control. Kai's cry of alarm could be faintly heard over the roar of the wind, but no one paid much attention as the warriors all froze and slowly began to transform back to who they were before going under Kai's control.

The bright light and wind soon died down and Kai's entire army, weak from having their chi drained and returned, collapsed on the ground with a gasp for air. Mei-Mei, the first to recover from the events, cautiously crept over to one of the masters, Master Chicken, and said, "Are you...okay?"

Master Chicken groaned. "I'll...be...fine...." he choked out weakly. "First...tell...me...wh...where...that...vill...ain...is...."

The rest of the villagers, alongside Viper and Monkey, breathed out sighs of relief when they saw everyone back to normal, even if they were so weak they could barely move.

"My...sto...mach...." another master choked out, this one a teenage panther with two swords strapped to his belt.

"I know a lot of you probably have a score to settle with Kai," Monkey announced to the weakened former army. "But we'll take care of him. We need to get you guy to an infirmary."

"We'll take care of that," Mei-Mei promised. "We can even extend some extra houses to house everyone."

"That's a good idea. Everyone help someone up and Mei-Mei, please lead us to the infirmary."

The pandas moved to pick up a master as Li and Mr. Ping began to walk off.

"Where are you two going?" one of the villagers asked them.

"We're finding Kai and freezing him in his tracks," Li announced flatly.

"Literally," Mr. Ping added. "Come on, Li! Lets go Chow-Wa-Punch-Kick this guy!"

"Right behind you."

While Mr. Ping and Li went to go take care of the bull who threatened the village, Po made his way down the side of the mountain and back onto the pass that would take him back up to the temple where Tigress was. The Dragon Warrior ran as fast as he could up the winding trail, a bit out of breath from the fight that he was just engaged in. After a few minutes, Po finally made his way all the way up the mountain to where the temple resided, stopping just short of  the door to catch his breath. After taking a minute, the panda finally dashed inside, finding Tigress struggling to sit up.

"TIGRESS!!!!" Po exclaimed, running over to her.

Tigress looked at him, a relieved expression on her face. She hardly had any time to react before Po reached her an engulfed her in a hug.

"You're okay!" Po cried.

"Po...can't...breathe...." Tigress told him weakly, wincing from the strength of the hug.

Po quickly released his grip a bit, chuckling a bit sheepishly and adding, "Sorry. I'm just glad Kai still doesn't have your chi."

Tigress smiled at him. "Same...." she told him. "When...I saw...you uncon...unconcious...I thought...."

"All is lost?"

"Well,...that too. But I...also thought...I'd never get...to talk to you...again."    Tigress weakly squeezed him and added, "I keep...forgetting...you have a...knack of...surviving...the impossible."

"Yeah, but you also had a point too," the panda told her gently. "I was so focused on stopping Kai that I fell for some of the easiest traps he had. And you know me: sometimes stuff that just happens can influence the way I react."

"Like you almost...getting killed...when Fang tried to...destroy the Dragon...Grotto?" Tigress pointed out.

"Actually, that was more for him almost killing you and Shifu, but yeah. Like that."

The two masters fell silent as they sat in the middle of the temple, hugging each other, none of them willing to let go of the other. Minutes passed by. Then an hour. Then two hours. Neither of them noticed however. For the two warriors having nearly lost someone they cared about, time seemed to go by too slowly. After what felt like forever, Po cleared his throat and said, "Um...Tigress?"

The master, having moved to rest her head in the crook of her friend's neck, merely said, "Yes?"

"I want to tell you something, but I'm kind of afraid you might beat me up for it."

"Po, I can barely move my arms. Beating you up is out of the question. Which is a shame because I want to slap you for scaring me earlier."

The Dragon Warrior laughed nervously. "I'll...expect that later, then," he remarked. He cleared his throat and finally said, "So...I just wanted to say that...I know that it's been kind of annoying with everyone being on our back about us being together and we're not...but the truth is that I actually really like you, but you and I kind of just got in the friendship zone and...I was a little afraid you would get mad at me for saying that and slap me or something."

Tigress moved back a little bit so that she could look Po in the face. She didn't have much of an expression on her face minus one of fatigue, which was to be expected. This made Po a bit nervous however since he didn't know how she was taking it.

"Are you saying that you love me?" Tigress asked slowly.

The Dragon Warrior nodded. "I..." he stammered, still slightly holding the master. "Was that obvious at all, by chance?"

"It kind of was when you kissed me," Tigress admitted.

Po turned a light shade of red. "Yeah, I guess that figures," he said. "I didn't mean to kiss you without permission or anything. I just...you know...just in case?"

"Yeah, and again, I'll slap you later for scaring me like that."

The two sat in silence for a second, Po unsure of how Tigress felt on the matter. "So..." he finally said. "Are you...mad that I like you? Or...."

Tigress smiled and let out a light chuckle. "Of course not," she assured him gently. "I...was actually going to say something similar before you're dad showed up."

A look of shock crossed Po's face. "Wait...you love me too?" he asked in surprise.

"Yes. I meant to tell you before, but your dads kept interrupting us."

The Dragon Warrior let the news sink in, a happy smile forming. "I think this just topped the 'awesomest stuff to happen to me' list!" he exclaimed.

Tigress chuckled. "You have a list like that?" she asked in amusement.

"In my head...."

The master smiled. "Would a redo of that kiss top that?" she questioned.

Po looked at her with an even happier expression on his face. "Um, yes!" he exclaimed.

"Good."

Tigress leaned for and gave Po a gentle kiss on the lips, leaning into his chest and wrapping her arms around him in a gentle hug. The Dragon Warrior felt his eyes flutter shut in pure bliss and he brought the master even closer to him and gently squeezed her. He could feel that she was still a bit weak from the fight with Kai and the drainage of her chi, but at the moment, he just cared that she was right there and not practically dead from Kai stealing her kung fu skills and her chi along with it. When the kiss was eventually broken, the two warriors merely sat there in an embrace as they tried to drown out how they both nearly lost the other. And there they stayed for a long time. Just the two of them. No interruptions. No impending dangers. No hurt feelings or tension. Just the two warriors quietly and happily  holding the other, almost as if bound together by fate......