Tigress felt very weak and tired and she couldn't help but feel repulsed and sickened by the monster who was holding her. However, she did manage to glance up at the beautiful dark and golden temple before her. Kai was explaining to Po that it had once belonged to a counsel of kung fu masters who called themselves the Phoenix Order, though they were eventually all killed by Kai when he attacked the village with his pendent. He had wanted the kung fu skills of a Master Laohu, whom Tigress assumed was most likely a tiger just based off of the name, but he had given Kai a big old lecture and Kai had decided it would be more fun to murder him.

"There were also rumors of a child," Kai tacked on as he went on about the demise of the masters. "But it wasn't anywhere in the area so I had to forgo that pleasure...."

"You...monster...." Tigress snarled. She assumed the Phoenix Order parents must either have been away with the baby or had seen Kai coming and hidden the child somewhere safe. Whoever they were, they must have been very wise and tough people.

"Oh come now, don't be like that," Kai told her. "A helpless baby abandoned or sent away by their parents wouldn't live long anyway."

Tigress just glared at him and told him simply that she had been perfectly fine. Po, who had also been abandoned by his mother, gave an equal angry look back, though maybe it had been for her sake. She wasn't sure where on earth these people were getting the idea that children without parents were doomed to a life of failure! First Yijiro, then Mei-Mei, and now Kai! Was there some kind of notice she had missed?

Kai, embarrassed by his little blunder, led Po and Tigress inside of the large temple where they could see the remnants of the attack years ago. The mess made Tigress feel even more sick, especially since those same hooves who had shed blood were now cradling her as if she was their personal pet. Fortunately she was soon tossed gently to the floor, (she didn't even realize it was possible to put that kind of sentence together), and she welcomed a long hug and squeeze from Po, though it had to be interrupted so that he could fight Kai and stop him from wreaking havoc on people once more.

"Okay, so...I always do this and every time, it turns into a fight," Po said, standing at attention. "But I'll still say it anyway.... You don't have to take over China. What do you even get out of it?!"

"Power," Kai replied, the pendent glowing once more. "Glory, strength, and respect."

Of course that's what you want, Tigress thought. She wanted to stand up and kick the bull's butt herself but she barely had the strength to keep her head lifted let alone fend off an imposing criminal with enhanced chi and kung fu. She wondered how weak he would be once they got the pendent off, but those thoughts were interrupted with Kai lunging at Po and engaging him in combat. Tigress just watched him carefully, looking to see if she needed to help keep him focused. Po was a wild card. Sometimes he could be unbeatable and serious in battle, and sometimes he was a total goof. In a weird way, she kind of liked that about him.

A scream got her attention and she tried to stand up, but to no avail. She could hear commotion outside and it didn't take long to figure out that Kai had no intention of keeping his promise. He wanted Po's chi, even if he had to cheat in order to get it. And that's exactly what he was doing. Before the master could even call out to Po to keep him focused, he was on the ground at Kai's mercy, and Kai had thrust a green light into Po's abdomen to take his chi all for himself. Tigress screamed at him and went to stand up again, but crashed to the floor and immediately knocked out the wolf bandit she had been focused on.

Tigress immediately blocked another attack from one of the wolves behind her as the factory around them creaked and moaned. She could tell just by the sounds that it wasn't stable even in the slightest. She had wanted to double check the entire perimeter before intruding on Fang, but Po had such a serious look on his face, one she almost never saw if she ever had before, that she couldn't really say no. So she let everyone follow the Dragon Warrior, against her own better judgment, but hey...who was she to interrupt an actually focused Po?

Why couldn't he be that focused all the time?

She kicked the wolf in front of her, dodging beneath a nasty strike from his weapon, and then catching his arm and upper-kicking him across the room. She turned to face off against her next opponent, only to hear the sound of creaking and the ripping of wood, which was just as quickly accompanied by Po's scream to run!!!!! The wolves and the rest of the Furious Five had started to run out of the way of a large cauldron that was coming down from the ceiling and destroying the scantily built second floor. However, Tigress was distracted by the very slow moving Po who was soon accosted by the cauldron and started sinking beneath the crumbling floor. Sensing the impending doom, Tigress ran over to him, just barely managing to grab his arm as the floor finally went out beneath him.

"Um," he told her nervously, glancing down at the water far beneath them. "Is this a bad time to apologize for being the worst planner in the history of kung fu?"

"I'll go over quick battle strategies with you later, Po," Tigress told him. "For now, I need to get you up to safety."

She tried to pull Po up, but she had to do it carefully since she could tell that the wooden beam, the only thing holding them up, was slowly starting to fall apart. This wasn't going to be an easy task. As she started getting a better grip and began to strategize their way back onto more stable ground (if you could even call a rickety fake platform slowly falling apart as "stable"), Po suddenly said: "Tigress, when I say 'now', I want you to let go of me."

The master looked at him in shock. She wasn't about to let him go! He'd fall to his death! And she had seen him die before! Twice! Well, sort of, but she had still thought that in the moment it had happened. Po looked a little anxious when she refused to comply, and kept reassuring her that everything would be just fine and that he had a good plan this time.

"But-!"

"I'll be alright! I promise!"

Tigress was not willing to let him drop, but when he said "Now!", she felt compelled to let go, watching him fall down towards the water just as a blinding light came from next to her and cut her off from where Po was standing.

The shockwave knocked her back violently and Tigress found herself landing hard on her back, her head smacking the wooden platform and nearly making her fall unconscious. She laid there for a minute as the factory fell silent except for the conveyor belts and Shen's victorious cackle. All she could feel was horror rising up in her stomach. She eventually glanced up at the spot where Po was, but all that was left was scorched wood.

Po was gone.

She had failed to save him.

She had failed.

She failed.

Tigress felt tears start to well up and she did her best to fight them. She got to her feet, stumbling a bit when her head started to throb in pain from her injury, and made her way to the platform to look at where Po had been hit. All that remained of him was a panda-sized hole in the far end of the factory's wall. She wanted to get closer, but all she could do was just collapse to her knees in shock and horror. She felt pain, an unrelenting stabbing pain in her heart. And the pain got worse as she heard the familiar click of metal walking towards her, louder and louder, until they stopped right behind her. Tigress could feel anger bubbling within her, but it wasn't enough motivation to turn around and strike him. She could tell shock had completely taken over.

Well, she had never lost anyone before.....

"I suppose it would be easy to just strike you right here," Lord Shen said. "But that would be too easy." She could hear the board creak beneath them and then suddenly felt him leaning next to her, lowering his voice and saying in her ear with a gleeful tone, "I want to watch you squirm....."

A flash of Po's look of terror and his cry of alarm flashed through her mind, and the master furiously spun around to attack Lord Shen. However, the peacock had taken notice of Tigress' weakened state and easily avoided her strike and knocked her to the ground with a swoop of his tail and pinned her by the throat with her foot before she could even react. She could feel panic rise up within her and tried not to let it show, but to no avail. She could tell every emotion within her was giving her away. Shen gleefully grinned and squeezed her throat a bit, watching her trying to catch her breath and move him off. After a moment, he gave a wheezing cackle and said, "At last...the world is MINE!!!"

He then threw Tigress off of the platform to one beneath the scaffolding where she was immediately snatched up by some of the wolves who yanked her arms behind her to prevent her from attacking them. Tigress tried to look for her friends, but all she could see was a swarm of wolves moving from down below. She could hear the rattle of chains from above and she glanced back over at Shen to see what he was doing, only to feel an icy chill run through her body when she saw him staring her down from off in the distance. And then without warning there was a heavy weight that came crashing down on the back of her head and she found herself sprawled on the marbled floor of the Sacred Hall of Warriors.

The master tried to get up, her arms wobbling beneath her from the extreme fight she had with Fenghuang. Po was starting to be enticed by all the various moves that the old rebel master was offering to teach him. She supposed it wasn't a surprise considering how giddy he got with kung fu. But she had never thought of Po as being bad. He was a little too goofy to be a bad person. But of course, she had seen a dark side of him before when he had gotten into the Mirror of Yin and Yang. He had the capability, and considering how much his kung fu had improved within the past year and a half, he certainly had the physical ability to be an evil criminal. She glanced over and saw Shifu still sprawled against the pillars on the opposite end of the Sacred Hall of Warriors. Po was distracted; if they could quickly grab their master and retreat, they could get rest their strength and come up with a better plan to take Fenghuang down. Then of course they'd have to deal with Po...unless he of course decided to bide his time.

Tigress kept getting caught on this thought. They all had been during the week. The very idea made her paranoid and she wasn't about to get the cloth pulled over her eyes like Shifu had when Tai Lung betrayed the Jade Palace. But on the other hand...Po only went dark because of a mystical kung fu object that split him into good and evil halves. He was too ridiculously silly and naïve and...well, fun to pull something that gruesome and dark off on his own.

Was he?

As Tigress finally got enough strength back to sit up, Po had turned his attention to Master Shifu and quickly approached him and pulled out a long dagger. Tigress felt her heart skip a beat in shock. She wouldn't have been surprised if it just stopped right then and there. A flash of memories from the past and a flash of horrifying thoughts went through her head as she tried to think of what to do to stop Po, but in just as much of a flash the knife had gone into Shifu's heart. Po pulled it out with a terrifying grin of triumph and Shifu rolled over on his side in agony. Tigress immediately got up and bounded over to her master's side to see if there was anything she could do, though she couldn't imagine what. Her friends weren't far behind her and each were quick to cluster around Shifu with her as Fenghuang started boasting to Po about what plans they would do. Tigress glanced up in fury at him, unsure of what even to say to such a monster, but she didn't have much time to react as Tai Lung punched her backwards into the stone pillars which used to hold up the rope bridge at the Thread of Hope.

Tigress felt an agonizing pain go through her stomach as she looked up helplessly at her friends. Monkey was already paralyzed on the ground, and Viper was just being grabbed and paralyzed just as the tiger master looked over in her direction. She was trying to do her best and fight Tai Lung, but though she was physically holding up, she was quickly learning that Tai Lung had mastered tricks well beyond her own training. She knew about chi; it had been one of the lessons that Shifu had taught them when going over acupuncture. She just didn't realize they could be used as fighting techniques. Tai Lung dropped Viper onto the ground and kicked her just a few feet away from him before turning around to roundhouse kick Crane in the face. Crane skidded across the ground with a yelp of pain, stopping just before he reached the edge of the precipice that they were on. Tigress looked over at him in terror before quickly refocusing her attention on the rogue master in front of her.

"Well now, little one," Tai Lung chided, casually folding his arms across his chest with a smirk. "It's just you and me then. Tigress, right? Never understood that naming logic, but Shifu said it was a trend for a while with the new boom of kids, so I guess I should roll with that."

Tigress growled at him.

"Let's not be rude to our elders now. Of course if you still want to challenge me, I'm all for it. Please do. I'll show you who's the superior master in the entire history of kung fu."

"Traitor!" Tigress snapped, lunging at him. She was a lot slower with her stomach injury, but she made sure to keep a close eye on Tai Lung' movements so that she could keep herself away from anymore strikes. All the memories of Shifu's distance, the days where he sat quietly and played the flute, the panic attacks, the restless nights, the good days, the bad days, the days so bad she was the one comforting him....it all came flowing through her mind and gave her the adrenaline rush she needed to keep up her forms, her attacks, her power, her strength. She ducked, she hit, she scratched across the face, she kicked. However, she could only keep it up for so long, and Tai Lung eventually managed to swipe under her legs and immediately kick her back into the pillar that once held up the bridge across the Devil's Mouth. Tigress felt a headache form and she struggled back to her feet, feeling her legs wobble as she did so.

"I commend you on your strength, I really do," Tai Lung complimented, an arrogant grin starting to form on his face. "Any normal fool crossing your path I can imagine would be in serious trouble. But we're talking about the ultimate sign of power, and let's face it little one: you certainly don't compare to me."

"Says the man locked in prison for 20 years because he couldn't beat Oogway," Tigress snarled. "Besides, you don't know anything about me. You're in no position to make judgments!"

Tai Lung's grin morphed into a confused expression. For a few seconds, all the looks of an arrogant and murderous criminal were gone, and in its place was the look of a man who looked both lost and concerned. "You don't remember?" he asked. Seeing the blank expression on Tigress' face, he added in equal surprise and slight disbelief, "Shifu never told you?"

Tigress tried standing up and fought the pain in her stomach. "Never told me what?" she asked.

Before Tai Lung could answer, he was blind-sided into one of the pillars that guarded the entrance towards the Valley of Peace. Both he and Tigress had completely forgotten about Mantis, though this wasn't surprising given the master's miniscule size. This of course worked excellent in Mantis' favor, but unfortunately for him Tai Lung was able to quickly catch on to what was happening and soon had the bug paralyzed on the ground as well. He then turned back to Tigress, his brief look of sympathy and, dare she say sanity, gone.

"No matter," he told the master, walking over to her. "I'll get that Dragon Scroll and I'll prove to you once and for all what kind of warrior I am." Tigress tried to punch him as he reached her, but Tai Lung easily caught her arm and yanked it above her head. "Then we'll have plenty more time to talk and catch up...sis."

In a lightning fast move, Tai Lung struck Tigress in the abdomen and the master collapsed to the ground in agony, clutching her injury from her mystery attacker.

The injury, of course, made Tigress more frustrated than upset since she had been trying her best to prove to this stupid new teammate of hers that she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself on the battlefield. Why did Shifu think she needed an accomplice in kung fu anyway? Didn't he think she was capable on her own?! Evidently not....

She heard footsteps approach her from behind and the sounds of a sword swinging in the air, but they were interrupted by another force before being knocked violently to the ground and far away from her.

"Good catch, Master Crane!" Shifu called out. Tigress turned her head to see her master approaching from off in the distance. She wanted to growl in frustration, but it came out as a groan of pain.

Stupid teammate....

"You look bad," Crane noted, bending down and looking at Tigress' injury. "We need to get you back to the base and get a doctor."

"No...." Tigress muttered. "Just...give me a second."

"Give you a second?! You can't fight with a stab wound! We need to-"

"Touch me, and I'll break your wing!"

"Master Tigress," Shifu scolded, finally reaching the two. "Master Crane is right. You need medical attention."

Tigress didn't say anything, but the look on her face had clearly told Shifu she wasn't interested in retreating.

"Let me see," he said, bending down and feeling along Tigress' side. A shot of pain went through Tigress' whole body and she gritted her teeth to not let any sounds betray her. After a moment, Shifu gently squeezed her shoulder and said, "It's not the worst I've seen, but if we don't get this wound set immediately, it will be the worst."

"I can't leave the battlefield," Tigress insisted wearily. "You need help keeping those boars at bay."

"Master Crane and I will handle the boar bandits," Shifu promised her. "Give me your arm and I'll help you back to a healing center."

"I don't need a healing center!" Tigress snapped angrily. "I need to protect this village! That's what I'm trained to do!!!"

She put a paw steadily on the ground, and bracing herself for the pain, managed to get herself to her feet and face the elemental course in front of her. She had done pretty well for her first time in this student-master competition and though she wouldn't say it out loud, she was very proud of herself. No slip ups, no out of balance moves, and all perfect strikes as she had learned from Shifu. She had hoped he would have said something about it, but he had been very quiet for the entire trip. She didn't push. This was the first time he had been back since Tai Lung's rebellion according to the Grandmaster Counsel, so maybe he was still trying to adjust. Tigress figured she'd just give him time and maybe he'd come around. Tai Lung was always a sore subject, so the less spoken of the better.

In front of Master Tigress was a series of large rocks, ready to crumble at the slightest touch, a large gap separating the rocks and the fire rings with occasional gusts of air between them, and a large pool which would require careful aquatic acrobatics to get through its obstacle course. She wasn't too concerned though. She and Shifu had gone through the training course multiple times when they had first arrived, and training was as sweet to Tigress as candy was to a baby. So needless to say practice was no issue on her side. So she simply took a deep breath to brace herself, noted where everything was, and quickly began.

The rocks immediately cracked and fell apart beneath her feet, but Tigress was quick to take advantage of the debris around her and propel herself upwards. The laws of physics could be very confusing, but when applied right could give a kung fu master a set of aerial skills that anyone would envy. Shifu had always seemed surprised that she had gotten the grasp on these moves so quickly and Tigress quite frankly loved seeing those brief looks on his face. It gave her the feeling that she was doing something well, something anyone could be proud of. The rocks were soon behind her and Tigress was soon using an occasional gust of air and an updraft to get herself across the large gap and high onto the platform where the fire rings were. They rolled, they spat, and they even enlarged the flames and had smoke billowing in her face, yet the young master was undeterred. She moved low to the ground to avoid coughing and choking on the smoke and listened carefully for the crackle of the flames to determine where she should go to avoid getting hit.

At some point, a fire ring came out of nowhere and Tigress quickly jumped from the platform and used her arms to swing her around and about into the air. When another ring came down from the ceiling, one Tigress had never seen before, not even in practice, she quickly unsheathed her claws and used them to quickly grab hold of the ring and swing her down to the safety of the platform. Her quick speed saved her from catching on fire and only burned her just a bit, and soon she was heading down the edge of the thinning platform to perform her aerial dive into the water. As she started to cartwheel however, she felt a sudden and rather violent tug on her foot, forcing her out of her form and causing her to trip and fall off of the platform. She tried to maneuver herself around so that she could try and recover, but before she could even collect herself, she felt her head and her body slam against something hard and metallic and she soon found herself hurtling towards the water with a searing pain in her head. She heard Master Shifu scream her name before she crashed into the water, the world around her dissolving into a black blur. Water seeped into her throat, her head swam, and Tigress could feel an agonizing pain go through her leg, forcing a scream out of her as she crashed to the floor of the training arena.

Shifu sighed and glanced down at the floor and asked her to get up, but upon seeing the little girl clutching her leg in very visible pain, he quickly shut off the machine of the Seven Swinging Clubs of Oblivion and jumped down to the ground floor to check on her.

"Tigress, are you alright?! What hurts?!" he asked quickly.

Tigress gritted her teeth, and through the pain, told him it was her leg.

"Mr. Ren...used to grab my arm...real hard," she recounted through barely stifled sobs as Shifu took a closer look at her. "But it never...hurt this bad!"

Shifu gently tugged a little on Tigress' leg, causing her to cry out in more pain. He sighed. "I think I need to get a doctor," he noted, more to himself. He got up and told Tigress to wait there so that he could get someone to take a look at her. Tigress insisted that she could get up, but quickly collapsed back to the floor in pain.

"You can wait there until I get a doctor, Tigress," Shifu said sternly. "I think that leg is broken and I don't want you walking on it."

He left the training arena, closing the doors behind him. Tigress could feel a small pit rising in her stomach as she looked around at the big empty training hall. She tried to look on the bright side, that being that at least it was well-lit, but the quiet brought her right back to her old home and the eight year old suddenly found herself bursting into tears. She tried to control herself, but the waterworks wouldn't stop, and she soon curled up into a little ball on the floor when she became too physically exhausted to sit up. She was crying so hard that she didn't even realize when Shifu suddenly came back into the training hall to check on her, having heard her cries and opting to instead send a palace servant to get the doctor instead of going himself. She was only alerted to this when she felt someone putting a paw on her back.

"Tigress, what's wrong?" Shifu asked, with a confused look on his face mixed with obvious concern.

Tigress just sniffled, a little embarrassed at having been caught crying over nothing, and lamely said she was just mad at being too slow and hurting herself. Shifu eyed her. "Tigress," he said gently. "It's not your fault you got hurt. Injuries are a normal part of training. You're going to keep getting hurt until you get better. Until then, I am going to help you adjust your body the way it needs to be adjusted and help you care for yourself the way it needs to be cared for until you're ready to take on even better things. So don't fret so much over that."

Tigress sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Really?" she asked.

"Yes. You'll be fine as long as you take care of your injurie and keep practicing. And perhaps when you've gotten a little bigger and have lived here longer, the Jade Palace won't seem so scary all on your own?"

Tigress turned beet red and said nothing further. Shifu reached out a paw to her. "Come on. Let me help you up, little one."

Tigress looked at him. "Won't I hurt your hip?" she asked nervously, eyeing Shifu's slightly elevated foot.

"Not if we balance out each other's steps," Shifu promised. "Let's just get up to the platform so you can get some water and rest against the wall and not on the floor."

Tigress wiped her eyes and nodded before letting Shifu help her to her good foot and limping to the sides of the training hall. They soon reached the backwalls of the training hall where Tigress slumped against the jade pillars, not willing to look Master Oogway in the eyes. She was embarrassed for being caught somewhere she was told never to go and she braced herself for another long lecture or screaming fit.

"Now, now, no need to be so frightened," Oogway promised, walking around the pillar and bending down to her level. "I don't bite." He smiled. "I don't have teeth."

Tigress couldn't help but laugh, especially as Oogway gave her a big goofy grin to accompany his joke. Oogway wiped a few tears away from her cheeks and sat down in a meditative position next to her. "Shifu's had another mood, I see," he said, a bit sadly this time. "I'm sorry, for your sake. This should be a time of excitement for you, not sorrow."

"I just wish I knew what I was doing wrong," Tigress muttered with a sniffle. "He was really patient and nice when I was at Bao Gu...and now he's always cranky and angry."

Oogway chuckled, but only briefly. They were quiet for a moment before Oogway finally said, "Shifu did not tell you about Master Tai Lung, did he?" he guessed.

Tigress looked at him in confusion. "Master Tai Lung?" she repeated.

"I thought so. He was Shifu's student before you arrived, and I'm afraid Shifu is still wounded and agitated over what happened."

"Did he die?" Tigress asked quietly.

"No...." Silence. "He was imprisoned for betraying the Jade Palace."

Tigress was shocked by this revelation. What kind of whacko would betray the Jade Palace?! She liked Shifu! And Grandmaster Oogway seemed so nice! Who would want to go behind their backs and do something awful?! Seeing the look on her face, Oogway explained the story in more detail, telling the little girl how Shifu had found Tai Lung as a baby, had raised him as his own, had drilled him in the art of kung fu, had loved him as his own son. Tai Lung had quickly risen to the rank of master and had spent nearly twenty years protecting the valley and other villages and provinces outside of it. However, Master Tai Lung had always wanted the Dragon Scroll. It was the mark of the ultimate master, the bearer of peace and harmony. It contained the greatest power ever known to kung fu and he was determined to have it. However, when Grandmaster Oogway had said that the Dragon Warrior was not yet revealed and would not be revealed for sometime, (when, he didn't know. The universe would say), Master Tai Lung took his anger out on the Valley of Peace. The destruction was so bad that when Shifu had brought Tigress back to the Jade Palace, they had taken the scenic back route to avoid giving her mental scars from the leftover damage. It was mostly finished, but Master Tai Lung hadn't stopped with the village. He broke into the Sacred Hall of Warriors to take the scroll himself. Shifu tried to stop him, but couldn't bring himself to do it and got a broken hip as a result. So Oogway was the one who dealt the final blow. The once revered warrior was then stripped of his title of master and banished to the depths of Chorh Gom prison where he still remained.

Tigress felt very saddened by the story and felt very bad for Shifu. There he was trying to put on a brace face and teach her while his son...adopted son...her brother...had just betrayed everyone.

No, not brother. No one who acted like that deserved to be called a brother!

"Is...is that what a monster is really like?" she asked quietly.

Grandmaster Oogway sighed. "Yes, I would say so," he agreed. "As sad as it is." He gave Tigress a pat on her shoulder. "I will talk to Shifu," he assured her. "I do not make allowances for his vicious moods, but I say this to assure you that you have never been the cause of his tempers. This tragedy I fear is still raw for him. So...while he tries to recover...I believe we should give him a little space."

"I thought I told you to never talk about that!" came Shifu's angry scowl from the front of the Sacred Hall of Warriors.

"You did, old friend, I know," Oogway said, getting up and helping little Tigress to her feet. "But remember that I never agreed to it. The child needed to know who you were really upset with."

Shifu looked at Tigress with a very perplexed expression. It shifted from surprised, to angry, and then to upset and defeated. Against all better judgment, Tigress decided to run over and give her master a big hug, which took Shifu completely by surprise. She suddenly found herself shoved into the kitchen chair by a young goat which got knocked over and skidded across the floor.

"That's my chair," the boy told Tigress irritably. "Go get a different one."

Tigress resisted the urge to cry out in pain and got to her feet. "Your name's not written on it," she said flatly. "And I was sitting there first, Zhen."

"So what? I like this chair and I'm gonna' sit here whenever I want to, not some stupid weirdo with creepy fangs!"

"They're not fangs; that just how my teeth look!" Tigress snapped. "At least I don't have creepy horns growing out of my head!"

"Mr. Ren, she's making fun of me!" Zhen screamed loudly as the rest of the kids quietly scrambled to their chairs to avoid the grumpy pig.

"Hey, no fair! You started it, jerk face!"

"Yeah, well that's what you get for sitting in my chair!"

"What did you do now you monstrous little brat?!" Mr. Ren demanded, storming into the dining room.

Tigress went pale as waves of terror engulfed her. "Nothing," she protested weakly.

"Oh really? You didn't call anyone names?"

"I...he...he pushed me!"

"So you're lying and you're making excuses?! Unacceptable!" Mr. Ren slapped Tigress so hard that she fell to the floor, nearly hitting another chair on the way down. "Maybe that'll teach you!" he screamed at the little girl.

"Ren, what are you doing in there?!" Mrs. Ire called from down the hallway.

"I'm teaching the little beast a lesson about being a bully!"

"I didn't do anything!" Tigress protested. "Zhen's the one being mean!"

"She stowe my chair and made fun of me," Zhen whined, quivering his bottom lip. "And she huwt my feewings....."

Tigress felt a rush of boiling anger surge through her. That arrogant, smug little face. Always lying, always getting away scot-free with whatever crimes he came up with..... Cute didn't work on her. She wasn't afraid of the cute.

"I'LL SHOW YOU HURT FEELINGS!!!!" she screamed, and before anyone could react she had picked up the chair next to her, held it high over her head, and swung it down hard in Zheng's direction. Zheng screamed as he went flying backwards into the dining room wall, as did the other kids witnessing the carnage. At first Tigress didn't really care. She was very proud of herself. But as Mr. Ren ran over to inspect the damage and Mrs. Ire and Mr. Quan came rushing in to inspect the damage, it soon became abundantly clear that Zhen was seriously hurt, and once Tigress realized this, she began to panic.

"Did I kill him?!" she screamed.

"A little late for that now, you monster!" Mr. Ren yelled.

"I'll get the doctor!" Mrs. Ire cried, running out of the room. A couple of the other kids followed after her, not wanting to be in the same room as the aggressive Tigress.

Tigress was too shell-shocked to do anything else and she looked over at Zhen just to make sure he was still breathing. He was conscious, but his jaw looked crooked and he definitely had a few bones out of place.

"I didn't mean it!" Tigress protested. "I'm sorry!"

"Oh, you're going to be!" Mr. Ren snapped. He marched over to Tigress and grabbed her roughly by the arm and dragged her out of the dining room and down the hallway, away from the crying and moaning Zheng.

"I'm sorry!" Tigress screamed. "I'm sorry I'm sorry! I didn't want to hurt him!!!!"

"I'm so sorry...."

Tigress found herself in a dark cave, much different from the bright sunshine and outdoor mountain air she had grown up with. The tall trees were replaced with dark caves, and instead of being tucked into her crib with her favorite star mobile, she was being gently rocked in her mother's arms, tightly swaddled to keep out the cold air around her. Her mother had been singing her a little song, but had found herself unable to continue on and kept apologizing. Then went back to humming and singing when Tigress started to squirm. Her parents could tell she knew something was not quite right, but they did their best to keep her calm, just as any parent would do. And eventually Tigress became comfortable and just snuggled up against her mother's chest, listening to her heartbeat.

Iris was very pretty; at least that's what Tigress thought. She had more narrow stripes than Tigress and somewhat darker fur, though no one could see it well in the darkness of the cavern. Her eyes were a light purple which glowed in the dark as a calming beacon which made Tigress sleepy and cozy, hence why she had decided to snuggle up in her mother's arms. But what baby Tigress did not know, and would reflect on much later as she grew, was how concerned and empathetic her mother was, not to mention how much she put on herself.

"We should have insisted more," she was saying more to herself. "Protested. Taken some of the artifacts with us. Warned the villagers. Let the villagers take her with them! Something else. Anything else!"

"The Order's already decided," Laohu reminded her. "And told the villagers the plan. There wasn't anything we could have done. Everyone thinks we can stop Kai."

"Fools," Iris grumbled, her voice starting to shake with fury. "Morons. Arrogant traitors to the code!"

"Shh....." Laohu whispered, gently taking Tigress from his wife. "You'll wake her up."

Iris growled and vehemently got up from her spot against the wall and walked to the front of the cave. Tigress was startled to hear loud cracking and shaking from her mother punching multiple boulders to pieces as well as putting holes in the walls of the cave where she could. Laohu didn't do anything; he just rocked Tigress in best to the punches until she had settled down again and stopped squirming.

"I...am not...going through this...AGAIN!!!!!!" Iris screamed loudly. "I...swore...I'd use...kung fu...to protect...others...and put...the world...to right!!! BUT NO!!!! I can't have...anything nice...because I'm...a...walking...CURSE!!!!!!"

She continued on alternating between incoherently screaming and punching the wall, keeping Tigress wide awake. However, Tigress was used to people yelling and breaking things since her father let her sit in on kung fu lessons, so it didn't bug her in the slightest. Eventually Iris calmed down and sank to the floor of the cave where she could be heard sniffling and trying to keep back tears. Laohu got up and sat next to her and gave her a gentle hug.

"Everything will be fine. I promise," he assured her. If everything goes right, she'll be back in our arms. And if not, she'll be well-taken care of in our absence."

"I didn't want this for her...." Iris whimpered. "I know the pain...the degradation...the loneliness....... I just didn't think everything could go so wrong...."

"Everything will work out, Iris. Truly. Don't stress. Kai just wants to collect the artifacts, remember? We'll prepare for him to come and we'll get through this together. Just as we always do. Just like we're doing now. Protecting one's we love. That's our job as both masters and parents."

Iris mumbled out an "I know..."

"And you're not a curse...."

"I know......"

"This whole mess is only the fault of a warlord being a selfish madman and...some people who I won't name being unreasonably stubborn." He coughed and said in a low voice, "Tardan..."

Iris laughed lightly but then heavily sighed. "All I wanted was to keep everyone safe," she told her husband. "I feel like a hypocrite lying to these people about how we'll handle Kai. A failure. A monster!"

Laohu squeezed her hard and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Iris, you will never be any of those things," he promised. "And you never have been." He passed the very sleepy but slightly squirmy Tigress to her mother. "We've both promised to protect people," he reminded her again. "And with the circumstances we have and the people on the counsel, as much as we respect them, their idea of stopping Kai is to inspire hope without taking precautions. That's their choice. But you and I, we can at least rest easy knowing one person will definitely be safe. And look at that cute little face...."

He stroked Tigress cheek, causing her to smile and snuggle up into her mother's chest.

"Who could resist this little cutie?" he added. "Even if we can't come back for her, someone's going to take good care of her. Just as she deserves. Isn't that right, little nimbus?"

Tigress could tell he was really trying to stay optimistic about the situation, but there was a twinge of sadness in his voice. They knew the danger was real. They knew there was a high possibility they would never see each other again. And though Tigress didn't know it at the time, they never would. Iris held Tigress close and gave her a kiss on her head.

"No...you're right," she said weakly. "I may have failed everyone else, but I haven't failed as a mother. Not to Tigress." She put her head on her daughter's body and whispered, "Just know I love you. I'll always love you, no matter what happens." Another kiss on her head. "Don't you think anything otherwise."

Laohu gave Iris a kiss. "And I'll always love you," he promised. "Sickness, health, the good, the bad, trials and troubles, till death do we part."

Iris leaned into his chest. "I love you too..." she said quietly.

Tigress could feel them relaxing and she herself soon began to drift off to sleep, shielded from the cold mountain air by her parents bodies. Soon however, the cold air was replaced by a cold dampness that seemed to seep through the master's bones and she soon found herself choking and coughing on water until she suddenly awoke to a bright clearing.

"Oh thank goodness!" came Scorpion's voice from next to her. "Are you alright, dear?!"

Tigress felt a fiery twinge rise up in her throat and she coughed again to clear it out. She could only nod to indicate that she would be alright. From next to her, she heard Mr. Ping's voice call out to Po who was laying unconscious just a few feet away. Scorpion immediately dashed over to help while Tigress attempted to sit up and move closer to Po, as well as get a better look at where they were. However, a shot of agonizing pain went through her shoulder and the master found herself gasping from the shockwave of pain before passing out again.