Po found himself falling for what felt like forever, hoping with all his might that he had dropped at the right time. The cauldron then suddenly flew in front of him and the Dragon Warrior reached out to quickly grab it, managing to latch onto the side and ride it down towards the bottom of the factory. When he reached the water many feet down below, he let go of the cauldron and plunged into it, resurfacing after a second where he began to continue the chase. The first floor of the factory was only lit by two torches, making it hard for him to see where Fang was, but Po managed to spot the hole that Fang was exiting out of and quickly swam over. It took a brief moment since Fang was already a few feet out of the factory and the waters were rushing, but Po finally reached the boat where he grabbed a hold of it and tried to tug it to the bank of the river. Fang, noticing that the boat was jerking around, snapped his head around towards Po and glared at him.

"What are you doing on my boat?!" he demanded.

"Bringing you to justice," Po answered, struggling to hold on against the violent waters.

"Get off of my raft!" the wolf yelled. He tried to step on Po's fingers and knock him into the river, but Po quickly moved around the boat which resulted with Fang stomping on the edge and nearly toppling them over. The near topple, however, did assist Po with getting onto the boat as the end of the boat propelled him in the air where he flipped onto it. The Dragon Warrior then stood up, wobbling a bit as the raft kept getting tossed around in the waves. Fang laughed at him. "This'll be easy," he commented.

"Ease up on the laughs there, wolfy," Po responded, trying to keep his balance. "I may not  be used to standing on this boat as well as you, but I can still kick your butt."

"Ha!" Fang chortled. "Good luck with that one!"

Po cracked his neck and got into a semi-stable fighting position. "Bring it," he challenged.

While Fang and Po began their boat battle, Tigress was struggling to get out of the factory in order to help Po in any way. The rest of the floorboards were remaining in perfect condition, but with half of the floor gone and a lot of the supports broken by the pots, the rest of the structure would most likely fall apart soon. After seeing Po grab a hold of the cauldron and safely ride it down to the bottom, the master let out a sigh of relief and began to climb back up the broken scaffolding. She reached the top of the broken floor where she was confronted by a wolf with a pair of nunchucks. Tigress quickly flipped up and kicked him square into the wall upon which she grabbed the weapon he dropped and continued to aid with the fight. All five of the wolves were quickly apprehended in a matter of moments but this left a challenge for the masters as they now had to drag the wolves out of the factory and over to Chorh-Gom as well as help Po. (Which had been Tigress' idea). The rest of the Five figured that Po could handle Fang himself, but the master refused to give ground.

"There's a reason why these waters are called screeching," she reminded her friends. "They're dangerous. If something happens to Po while they're fighting on the boat, we won't be able to help if we're half way to Chorh-Gom prison!"

"Po's done this kind of stuff before," Monkey assured her. "He'll be perfectly fine. Fang's probably already defeated at this point."

Tigress sighed. "I know Po can handle himself," she acknowledged. "It's just...I feel like something isn't right."

Mantis opened his mouth to make a joke, only to be interrupted by Viper who asked, "You mean like the fact that this floor looks like it's about to fall through the floor?"

The masters looked at her in surprise. "What?" Tigress questioned, but was soon interrupted by the floor violently shaking as a structure collapsed due to the extra weight on it. Viper, who had been looking over the edge, nearly fell off and down into the waters below, but Mantis quickly grabbed her and held onto the edge of the platform to keep her from meeting her demise. Crane then dashed over to pull them both up and set them down on the collapsing platform.

"Everyone out!" Tigress ordered. "Grab the wolves and make your way out of this factory. I'll see if I can spy some rope on the way down!"

The masters did as they were told, each one grabbing a wolf and running down the collapsing stairs as fast as they could. Tigress noticed some rope towards the top of the scaffolding were Fang had grabbed the lever and made her way over there in order to get it.

Crane, who noticed her staying behind, walked back over to the door and called over, "Tigress, what are you doing?!"

"Give me a second!" she called back, struggling to keep the wolf slung across her shoulder.  She then proceeded to dodge the falling poles up ahead and quickly leaped over newly formed gaps in the floor, making her way to the rope. She felt the ground began to go out from underneath her and she proceeded to aim the rope for a pole that seemed to be sturdily stuck to the wall. She looped the rope around the pole just as the floorboards gave out and plummeted down to the water, forcing Tigress and the wolf she carried to swing across the room and over towards the door. By the time she reached the door, the entire floor had gone out and forced Crane back a few feet from the door. Tigress landed inside the door frame and yanked the rope off the pole as an unstable piece of the floor from above knocked the poled free.

"Nice one," Crane told her as they began to escape  the crumbling factory.

"Thanks."

The stairs began to fall apart as the unstable platform began to collapse, pieces of the support beams tumbling onto them and making them collapse. Tigress nearly fell down to the bottom, but Crane, who was also holding onto the wolf, helped her up a few times before they safely reached the bottom. As the support beams were falling towards them however, the masters had decided to bolt outside to avoid potential head injuries. Once by the bank, they set to the task of tying the wolves up and listened to the inside completely falling apart.

"For someone so interested in revenge," Mantis piped up as they tied the wolves by a tree. "Building another platform in the path of an operational track wasn't well thought out."

"No kidding," Crane seconded.

Tigress looked at the factory closely, seeing the opening in the side where water was steadily flowing out. She hadn't noticed that part of the building was wrapped around  that patch of water and figured that had been where Po and Fang had left upon sailing down there in the cauldrons. The master looked around for any sign of Po, but seeing none, thought of the worst case scenario and dashed down the river to look for them.

"Tigress!" Viper called after her. "Wait for us!"

Tigress ignored her however and continued down the side of the bank to look for Po.

Fang and Po were locked in a tense fight as they both struggled to stay on the boat and out of the fast-moving water. Po had a bit more trouble with staying balanced on the boat than Fang, but he was able to hold his ground and avoid the various blows coming at him. Fang took advantage of Po's instability and rocked the raft around a few times in order to get him to fly off. This didn't quite work however as the master used his weight to counteract the boat's jumpiness which wound up moving Fang around more than it threw him around.

"I would have thought you would have sunk the boat yourself already," the young wolf commented nastily.

"Looks can be deceiving," Po answered simply. He went to kick Fang in the face only for him to dodge the attack and nearly send the Dragon Warrior flying off of the boat.

"As I've noticed," Fang remarked. He took out a blade and snarled, "How you even survived Shen's attack is beyond me! Look at you! You're as helpless as a baby!"

Po got some ground on the raft and stared Fang down. "Oh, really?" he questioned in slight irritation.

Fang charged at him with the blade in hand, but Po grabbed a small log that was floating by and used it to block the attack. He then belly bumped the wolf into the side of the boat and went over to throw more punches at him. Fang used his claws to  keep himself on the raft and upper-kicked the panda in the jaw, sending him flying onto his back. He then lunged on top of him, Po grabbing his wrists so that he didn't get slashed across the face or even stabbed. The boat began to violently rock back and forth, knocking Fang off of Po and almost sending the Dragon Warrior over the edge, but he clung to the side of the raft in order to stay on.

"Okay, chubby," Fang said with a growl. "You're not half bad."

"Thanks," Po called over, managing to get to his feet again to face his opponent. "Same goes to you."

"I thank you for the flattery, but only one of us is going to walk out victorious in this deal and that's going to be me!"

At that moment, the raft reach a torrent of rapids and dipped down into the maze of sharp rocks, throwing both of the fighters off balance. Fang slipped and his his head on a rock while Po toppled forward towards him and held onto the side as tight as he could, catching the now unconscious teen before he disappeared into the water. The raft hit more of the rocks and began to crush the boat to pieces which forced Po into the water where he struggled to keep both him and Fang above water. The Dragon Warrior tried to swim to the side of the bank in order to get to dry land, but the bank began to slope upward and the current in the water kept him away from the shore which did him no good. After a few minutes of struggling, a loud watery roar came from behind Po and he  turned his head to catch a glimpse of an enormous waterfall that loomed just a few feet behind him. The master panicked and tried frantically to swim away but to no avail. He soon found himself falling over the edge, free-falling towards the bottom for a moment before he attempted to find a niche in the wall. Po ran his paw alongside the stones behind the gushing water, miraculously grabbing hold of a stone and coming to a halt. He held onto it as hard as he could manage, but he could still feel himself begin to slip since the water pressure was forcing him down. (And holding onto it with one hand and with 105 pounds of dead weight in the other wasn't helping him either).

"GUYS!" Po screamed up to the top of the falls, hoping someone would hear his cries for help. "TIGRESS?! MONKEY?! CRANE?! ANYBODY?! HEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!"

Almost immediately, he heard, "PO?!"

The Dragon Warrior glanced up and spotted Tigress looking down at him with a panicky expression on her face. "Tigress!" he exclaimed. "Help me! I'm slipping!"

"Just hang on!" Tigress shouted down. "I can't get you by myself!"

"Please hurry!!!!!"

The tiger master went to turn around in order to find her friends, (specifically Crane), but was happily greeted by them as they had somehow managed to follow her down to the falls.

"You found Po?" Viper asked her.

"He's stuck on the waterfall," Tigress explained worriedly. "And I don't know how much lon-"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" came Po's voice as he slipped and went plunging down the falls.

"Crane! Quick!" Tigress ordered.

"Way ahead of you!" Crane answered as he dived down the falls to grab Po.

The Dragon Warrior was holding onto Fang as tight as he could, feeling his life flashing in front of his eyes. "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPP!" he screamed. The bottom of the falls came into view quickly, but Po was saved from this possible demise when Crane grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up to safety. The masters took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down from nearly becoming nothing but spilled panda guts. Crane dropped him on dry land where he put the unconscious Fang down and began to kiss the ground. "Dry land!" he panted. "Sweet grass, how much I missed you!"

He went to sit up only to be engulfed in a tight hug from Tigress.

"You're alive!" she exclaimed happily.

"Yeah, fortunately," Po panted. "Thanks, Crane."

"Thank Tigress," Crane corrected. "She found you first."

"Good point."

Tigress squeezed Po before quickly releasing him and standing up to get Fang. "Lets get him with his little friends and get out of here," she told everyone.

"Awesome," Po heaved, getting to his feet shakily. "Then I'm going home to rest. I think I've had enough near-death experiences for one day."

Monkey snickered. "I don't know who was more scared of you dying," he commented slyly. "You or Tigress."

The tiger master gave him a look which shut him up immediately. The warriors then began to move back to where the other wolves were tied up, Po lingering behind to put a paw on Tigress' shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You seem tense."

"You could have explained that you were going to drop onto the cauldron," Tigress admitted to him. "You had me worried that you had a death wish."

Po smiled at her and playfully rolled his eyes. "I'm fine," he promised. "I'll try not to scare you more often if that's what you're getting at. But I didn't really had time to explain every detail of my plan. It was kind of a split second decision."

"I know. It's just...the idea of you dying...because of something I did or didn't do...still really bothers me."

Po gently squeezed her shoulder. "I don't want you to worry about that," he told her gently. "Nothing you do could ever hurt me. And even if something does happen to me, it's never going to be your fault.  You do the best you can to protect everyone, including me, so don't ever think that something bad is your own fault."

Tigress smiled at him, a wave of butterflies attacking her stomach and turning her cheeks a hot shade of red. Because it was dark though, Po couldn't see it which made Tigress grateful.

"Thanks, Po," she told him, turning her attention up ahead to her friends. "Have I ever mentioned that you're too nice to me?"

Po grinned. "Too nice to you?" he repeated. "Never!"

After finally getting the wolves to Chorh-Gom, (and Tigress knocking Fang out for calling Po a lazy marshmallow), the masters returned to the Jade Palace for dinner. When they arrived, they were intercepted at the gate by Master Shifu who was glad to hear that they were all perfectly fine from the ordeal.

"I trust Fang wasn't too difficult to take on?" he asked.

"Well, he did destroy a  lot of the factory," Po answered. "And we almost got killed falling down that big waterfall, but other than that...yeah, he was a piece of cake."

"Fell down a waterfall?" Shifu repeated.

"Yep. Fortunately, Crane caught me before I fell on the rocks on the bottom."

"I would recommend not telling your father about that, Dragon Warrior," the grandmaster advised. "He came here earlier to talk to you and he sounded concerned when I said  you were on a mission."

"I think he's been a little more concerned since we had to fight Shen," Po told him. "But he's fine." He eyed his master and added, "What did he stop by for?"

"He wants you to join him and Scorpion for dinner again," Shifu replied.

Po groaned. "Great," he grumbled.

"Looks like I'm making dinner again," Viper said, slithering over to the kitchen.

Monkey's stomach growled. "Good," he told her. "Because I'm starving."

The Dragon Warrior glanced towards the door. "In that case," he said. "I'll see you guys later."

"Have fun!" Mantis called after him, following Monkey and Viper into the kitchen.

"I'll be meditating," Tigress announced. "Someone get me when it's time to eat."

The masters all dispersed, everyone except Tigress and Po heading to the kitchen. Tigress walked over to the barracks so that she could meditate in her room, wanting to be left alone for a while and knowing that the training hall would be the first place that her friends would go to look for her. When she reached her room, she sat in the middle of the floor and began to concentrate, wanting to clear her mind. She was still undergoing the bizarre symptoms and she couldn't figure out for the life of her what was wrong. The master had never had this problem before, (minus an occasional blush and happy rush she had around Yijiro), and she didn't know what to make of it.

At least I'm not doing the time-stopping thing constantly, she thought to herself. But I'd like to know what my problem is! Especially now that I keep getting these stupid stomach knots! It's like I've entered the zone of the unintelligent or something!

Tigress kept thinking about the problem. Some of the symptoms were leveling out, meaning that they weren't nearly as bad as before, but she still got them. Some of them were driving her up the wall because she couldn't stop them, (like her cheeks constantly getting red and the queasy stomach knots). Again, she reflected back to the conversation she had with Shifu, confused as to why he wouldn't tell her what was wrong. Yes, she still got the bizarre symptoms. Yes, she was getting new ones. Yes, they normally occurred whenever Po was in proximity to her.

Why only Po? she thought to herself. Whenever I used to hug him or talk to him or even just hang out, I never had this problem. Now all of a sudden, five seconds talking to him makes my stomach knot up. Or I just suddenly lock eyes with him and I have to force myself to look the other way. I mean, he does have nice eyes; I couldn't help myself. And he's sweet...and he understands me and has been talking me through all my problems. I mean, why wouldn't I want to hang out with him? Although my cheeks getting hot and flustered wasn't necessary. But then again, he didn't have to sit with me and talk about my nightmare, or try to get me to lighten up...and it did feel weird to be seen playing around with him in the kitchen....And it's nice to know that he's still alive and not dead...because of me....But we're good friends. I've never felt drawn to his eyes or felt comforted and warm by him hugging me...but his eyes are so...inviting....And it was nice to sit by him and feel loved-"

And then it finally hit her.

Love?! she thought to herself in slight alarm. Oh no. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no!!!! Po is my friend! There is no possible way that I've fallen for him! Not now! We just became...well, I wouldn't call it best friends, but we're close friends. Friends care for each other! Friends are kind to each other. Friends don't make everything awkward by falling in love. No way! This...this isn't happening! We are friends. FRIENDS! No force on earth is going to change that! I don't understand what's wrong with me! I mean...if I have to prove it to myself that we're simply friends I will, but I can't fall in love with Po! I mean, lets face it...that would ruin everything we've put into this friendship! It's taken so long to build up that bond, I'm not going to break it by being just another hopeless romantic! Never!!!!!

"Tigress?" came Viper's voice. "Tigress are you in here?"

"Huh?" Tigress asked stupidly. "Oh, yes! I'm in here! I'm in my room!"

"Dinner's ready!"

"Thank you, Viper."

Tigress stood up and began to walk out of her room to the kitchen, trying to calm herself down. She knew she was going to have to prove to herself that she wasn't in love with Po in order to keep their friendship alive and she would do anything she could to make it happen.