Tigress spent several hours at Bao Gu before she had to head back to the Jade Palace. (Much to Dai's disappointment). However, she promised to return again that week and left the premises. She was a bit surprised that she didn't run into Mr. Ren, but the less she saw of him, the better, so she didn't mind in the least. The master walked down the long hill and began to make her way back to to the Jade Palace, her mind wandering about in a variety of places. The main thing she was thinking about was Dai. While he was not nearly as strong as she was as a child, his violent temper could very easily make up for it. She knew that she had to have a lot of patience with him, especially considering the fact that very few people wanted to deal with him. She figured that if she could help him to see that people did care about him, he could learn to tone down his anger and eventually learn to keep himself under control as she had once learned to do. She figured that it was going to take a while though, and she made a mental note to buy another box of dominoes sometime during the week.

Tigress eventually made her way back to the Jade Palace and began climbing the stairs as the sun began to dip down towards the horizon. Her mind was still preoccupied with roaming thoughts about Dai, how she was going to to help him while training, how would she fare in terms of keeping up with her friends, and how she was going to help him deal with people who would annoy him, mostly Mr. Ren. As she began to reach the top, she let out a small sigh. There were so many things going on that she hadn't planned on and she had a bad feeling that things were only going to get crazier from there.

As she opened the doors to the Jade Palace, she was greeted by a rather loud, "Hey, Tigress!"

Startled out of her thoughts, Tigress turned her head to see Po standing a bit away from the gate waving at her. "Oh," she said unenthusiastically. "Hey, Po."

Po eyed her. "Are you okay?" he asked. "That wasn't a very happy 'hello'."

"I'm fine," Tigress assured him. She sighed. "It was just a long afternoon and I'm a bit tired, so-"

"Aha!" Po exclaimed, pointing at her. "There is something wrong! You don't get tired!"

Tigress cast him a look. "Po, not now," she said. "I have other things to worry about besides you being paranoid."

Po folded his arms across his chest and gave her a stern look. "I know you're more relaxed and all," he told her. "But even to this day, you always mediate as a way to wind down after a long day. The only time you get tired is if you've used all of your strength and energy in a fight. And I doubt you've been in a fistfight with anyone."  Po eyed her. "Unless Mr. Ren gave you trouble...."

"Thankfully no," Tigress told him.  She sighed. "Look, Po, I just want to be alone right now, okay? I'm...I have a lot of things to think about."

"Like what?"

"Nothing that should peak your interest."

"You peaked my interest the second you said you were tired."

"I'll talk to you later, Po," Tigress said, walking towards the barracks.

Po frowned, but did nothing as she walked away. He wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but he was definitely going to find out. Eventually. In the mean time though, he had to cook dinner, so he was going to have to ask her about that much later.....

Tigress walked into the barracks and over to her room with a sigh. Her thoughts pounded against her brain repeatedly, making her a bit sick constantly thinking about them. But she couldn't really think about anything else. She did try. In fact, when she finally got into her room and laid down on her bed, (she didn't really feel like composing herself at the moment), she tried to think about Mei-Mei being told off by Po as a way to help ease her mind. But of course, as it would turn out, this only made her worse. She tried emptying her mind...nothing. She tried to think about how she was going to help Dai while avoiding Mr. Ren...terrible flashbacks came to mind, followed by even more horrible memories.

Tigress growled in irritation and sat up, rubbing her forehead as she tried to calm her mind down. Okay, this is going to literally make me go insane, she thought to herself. I need a quick way to calm down that'll help push everything into a dark corner. Or maybe even a hole if that's even possible...but what?

Then it hit her. Her old reliable. The one thing that was more or less still a reliable companion for her. The training hall. That would be good for her. The master got up from her bed, pausing for a second as she considered what time it was. It was almost dinner.

Po's going to be looking for me if I don't show up, she considered. She shrugged the idea off and kept walking. Oh well. I have other things to worry about.

Po didn't spend much time preparing dinner, though that was only because he was making a rather simple recipe. All he had to do was fry up a few noodles and make a certain combination of spices to dump into the mix. Boom! A tasty dinner. It only took him about fifteen minutes to make, not including the short amount of time it took to get out bowls and chopsticks for everyone. (Plus an additional few seconds when he realized that he forgot a place setting for Mei-Ling). As he began to head back to the stove, Mei-Ling walked in with Crane and Viper right behind her.

Hey guys," Po said, lifting the pot up to pour everyone a serving of noodles. "Perfect timing!"

"We could smell dinner all the way from the main courtyard," Crane explained. "So we figured it was almost time to eat."

"Guess that means Monkey and Mantis aren't too far behind."

"Oh they should definitely be along soon," Mei-Ling assured him. "Right after Shifu's done hitting them for spying."

"Again?" Po asked in surprise, dishing out the last serving of noodles.

"Yep," Crane confirmed, standing next to Viper at the table. "They were trying to spy on you and Tigress, but then she just left and went over to the training hall, so they decided to wait for Shifu and Mei-Ling."

"You'd think they would have learned their lesson by now," Viper muttered as Po sat down.

"Wait, they said Tigress was in the training hall?" Po asked, reaching for his chopsticks. "When I talked to her earlier, she went over to the barracks."

"I guess she decided to get some practice in before dinner," Viper suggested.

Po sighed and pushed his chair away from the table. "I'll go see what she's doing," he said, standing up and walking over to the door.

"She's probably on her way over here," Crane called over.

"I just want to make sure she's okay."

The three watched Po leave before turning to look back at each other in slight confusion.

"I have a feeling something's going on that we don't know about," Mei-Ling finally said after a moment of silence.

"I feel like that's kind of been the thing with them ever since we got back home," Crane commented.

Po made his way over to the training hall, hiding behind a building briefly in order to avoid Monkey and Mantis. (He didn't feel like having another tease session about Tigress, though Shifu's presence behind them could possibly deter it). Once they passed by, he made his way over to the training hall, hearing the clear sounds of Tigress fighting coming from inside. Po cracked his knuckles and pushed the door open, immediately being greeted when a piece from the Swinging Clubs of Oblivion nearly hit him on the head. The master let out a cry of alarm and ducked, hearing the chunk whiz past his head and land with a defiant thump in the courtyard.

"Po?" came Tigress' voice.

Po stood up and looked over at Tigress who had now hopped off of the equipment and onto sturdier ground.

"What are you doing in here?" she asked him.

"Well...I...I thought you were in the barracks," Po said, trying to think of a way to get her to talk. "But they...Monkey and Mantis...said you went in here, so-"

"Is it dinnertime?" Tigress asked him flatly.

"Yes. I mean no! Um...yeah, uh...that is.... I want to talk to you before you eat dinner."

"Another day, Po. I'm not in the mood."

Tigress went over to the door, but Po quickly shut them and stood directly in front. Tigress scowled at him.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"You've been acting weird ever since you got home, and I want to know what's wrong," Po told her. "The last time you didn't tell me what was wrong, you didn't talk to me for over a day and you were completely grumpy! I don't want a repeat of that!"

"Po, get out of my way before I do something I'll regret," Tigress threatened.

"Aren't you supposed to confide with the people you like instead of fighting them?"

"Just because I like you, Po,  doesn't mean I won't hesitate to kick you out of the way. Now please move."

The master went to move Po out of the way, but Po blocked her again and got into a kung fu stance. "Tigress," he said. "I really don't want to fight you, but this seems to be the only way you and I can talk about our problems."

Tigress got into a stance as well, ready to fight her way out of the door, but then her eye caught a glimpse of the setting sun over the open roof of the training hall. She still had another way out. She glanced over at Po for a split second before saying, "You can talk to me another day," and then bolting over to the pillars that held the roof and the rest of the interior up.

"Aw come on!" Po complained, chasing after her. 

Tigress quickly made her way up to the top of the rafters, easily crossing across the hall to a low spot on the roof to hop onto. However, Po leaped onto the Jade Tortoise and spun around for a second before launching himself into the air. He didn't quite reach Tigress, but he did hit the rafter board hard enough to send her tumbling off. Caught of guard, Tigress let out a surprised yell, but was able to catch onto a beam as Po crashed to the ground almost right by the Blushing Spikes of Impending Demise.

"Whew!" Po exclaimed, catching his breath. "That was too close!"

"Are you alright?" Tigress called up from the rafters, having finally climbed back up.

Po groaned and stood up. "Yeah, I'm okay," he assured her.

Tigress sighed and walked across the rafters over to where Po was. "Maybe we should head out now?" she suggested.

Po's answer to that was leaping onto the talon rings near him and yanking on them as hard as he could. The force was enough to violently shake the top of the rafters, sending Tigress toppling over the side with a startled cry. Po winced when she hit the ground.

"Are you okay?" he called down.

Tigress shot him a look and simply began to walk over to the door.

"Hey!" Po cried, hopping down from the talons. "You're not fighting me!"

"I'm not in the mood," Tigress mumbled.

"Okay, now I really know something's bothering you! Since when don't you ever want to show me up in a fight?!"

"Po, listen very carefully," Tigress said sharply, turning to face the Dragon Warrior. "I appreciate your concern, I really do. But I don't need to talk to you about every little thought that's in my brain. Things are going out of control enough as it is; I don't need you being another part of my problem."

Po eyed her. "Out of control?" he questioned. "What are you talking about?"

"I'll be eating dinner. You can come if you're hungry," Tigress continued, ignoring him. She then walked out of the training hall and shut the doors behind her.

Po simply stood there scratching his head in complete confusion.