......Four years later......

Po woke up to the sound of the gong ringing loudly throughout the entire valley and he sat up from floor with an exhausted sigh. His neck hurt from falling asleep in a weird position. The Dragon Warrior cracked out the knots and stood up to look around the room and stretch out his arms. He hadn't meant to sleep past the gong, though he was sure the Five wouldn't mind. They had made mention that they had a nice time sleeping in a little later than usual, though not by much since Po's body was acclimated to the early wake up time in the years he had been at the Jade Palace. Today would definitely be a later training day. He didn't mind it though. He needed a second to wake up.

"Po?" came Tigress voice from the Sacred Hall of Warriors.

Po smiled a little to himself. Of course Tigress would be awake to check up on him. She woke up before everyone else. As per usual.

"Coming!" Po called out with a yawn. He opened the door to his room, originally Shifu's before his recent retirement, and spotted the master lingering around the front waiting for him.

"You look tired," Tigress observed, before Po could even greet her.

"What do you mean?" Po started to protest, but immediately yawned.

"I knew it. Why are you so wiped out?"

Po opened his mouth, yawned again, and then quickly said, "I was...up all night."

"Why on earth were you up all night?"

"Oh. Uh, well, I wanted to...learn new teacher chi things so I stayed up studying cool kung Fu techniques and older lessons."

Tigress eyed him suspiciously.

"Okay. Fine. I was up re-enacting the epic battle of Golden Onyx Valley and the ten thousand bandits of the Dark Chasms."

"That sounds more realistic."

Po chuckled sheepishly and quickly changed the subject by remarking that he was hungry and could use some breakfast. Tigress smirked at him in amusement, but agreed and followed after him down the steps of the Sacred Hall of Warriors and over to the kitchen. Nobody was up yet, so it just left the two warriors in the kitchen to talk while Po made breakfast. The two soon sat down and ate and were soon joined by the Furious Five, having just woken up and being more than willing to chat for a while. Once breakfast and conversation was done, Po and the Five did some brief warmups in the training hall and some meditative training before Po made his way down to the Valley of Peace to help train some of the villagers some new chi moves. The five had started picking up on these new moves relatively quickly, especially Tigress who already had a few under her belt well before Kai showed up. (Shifu remarked that certain tiger style moves required high levels of concentration and chi, and considering Tigress' quick learning and practice, learning these things so early wasn't too surprising). However, the villagers were still learning basic kung fu alongside the chi lessons, so it took a little longer to get the hang of these moves.

Today, Po's training class involved his dad (as always), his dad (on a slow restaurant day that he could easily take an hour or two off for), two of the local kids, a baker, Mr. Mulan who ran the apple stand, and Big Fun who had been dating Mei Mei since they settled into the Valley of Peace. They were having their training class by one of the rivers since Mr. Ping had trouble concentrating when there were too many potential customers around him in the more busy areas.

"Okay, so I think you've all done well with the basics I've shown you," Po told his group of students once they had all lined up in their meeting spot. "It's time I show you some new stuff! Remember, you most likely won't get it on the first go. You'll get used to it as you work it into your own style. And for anyone who does get it on the first or second go...be nice to everyone who's still working on it."

"I'm not that bad!" Mr. Ping protested.

"I wasn't saying you dad, though if you keep bringing yourself up as an example, I can't keep any tips anonymous."

"Well we all know you're referring to me!"

"Not always."

Li nudged Mr. Ping and promised him that's it be a fine session and to just enjoy the moment. "We'll all grab some noodles to celebrate a new lesson," he suggested. "My treat."

"Works for me!" Mr. Ping agreed heartily.

Po just smiled at his dads and began to instruct them on their new move: a Red Lotus Kick. Po had learned from Shifu sometime after mastering chi that the Golden Lotus Clap, a move Po had learned sometimes after arriving at the Jade Palace, was actually a beginners chi technique that was part of a series. Altogether there were five: the golden lotus clap, the red lotus kick, the jade lotus song, the blue lotus punch, and the onyx lotus stomp. Since the golden lotus clap blinded people, Po decided to hold off on teaching that one since he wanted to work on everyone's coordination and clumsiness. The red lotus kick would launch a blast of red chi out and freeze the opponent in midair for a few moments, giving one the opportunity to escape. It required an exact kick at the right moment and with enough energy to move the chi out, which made the move difficult. 

"Are you sure this is a beginning move?" Mr. Mulan complained after about a half hour of trying to get the move right. "I feel like I'm just swiping at the air." 

"It takes a moment to get a feel for the chi in your kick, but it's definitely a beginners move," Po promised. "Unless of course Shifu switched the scrolls on me, but I doubt it. He's very organized." 

Mr. Ping narrowed his eyes towards the water, and with a big yell, leaped forward and kicked upwards, releasing a blast of red light that froze the trees across the bank waving lightly in the wind. Unfortunately, in his enthusiasm, Mr. Ping had leaped too far and fell straight into the river, splashing Po and Mr. Mulan who were in the front. When he came up for air coughing on the water, Li walked over and asked if he was okay. 

"I'm fine," Mr. Ping promised. He looked pointedly at Mr. Mulan and asked, "Still think this is a beginner move?"

"Daaaad...." Po warned. 

"I know, I know. Sorry," Mr. Ping apologized. He got out of the water and added, "Nobody in this class is going to critique you as a teacher, son." 

"I'm not critiquing him," Mr. Mulan snapped. "I'm just frustrated!" 

"Hey, it's okay!" Po said quickly, hoping to break the tension. "I wasn't great on my first day either. You'll get the hang of it. It'll just take-" 

He was interrupted by the sound of the warning gong going off in the distance: somebody had infiltrated the valley.

"I'll be right back! No one go anywhere!" Po exclaimed, and he quickly ran off towards the main streets of the valley. 

"We'll take a break and meet you at the restaurant," Mr. Ping called back. "I have to dry off anyway." 

Po waved in response and quickly ran towards the now very vivid commotion going on in the valley. It turned out that a couple of bandits had managed to break into a local bakery and were making off with all of the freshly baked goods. 

"Well this is a first," Mantis noted as Po and the five finally met up to examine the commotion. "Who robs a bakery for food?" 

"I don't know, but I'm sure we can sift for an answer when we catch them!" Monkey joked. 

"Monkey, not today please," Tigress complained. "Crane, go high and see how many there are." 

"On it." 

"We should blockade the woods to make sure they don't scatter," Po observed, and the Five agreed on this and chased after the bandits. Crane was only gone for a few minutes before ducking back down and saying that there were only six bandits and they weren't getting very far considering the number of goodies they had on them. Po expressed relief at this and told everyone to be careful with the food since they needed to deliver it back to the bakery with no spoil done to it. The Furious Five all divided and managed to intercept the bandits at the edge of the woods, and Po and Crane knocked down a few carts and boxes to keep them blocked in. The thieves didn't seem very keen on fighting, which worked in the masters' favor, but it was still weird to see bandits give up so easily. 

"Okay guys, hand over the baked goods," Viper told them nicely. "If you want them so bad, you can wait in line to buy one." 

The one bandit rolled his eyes. "Lady, you don't understand squat, do you?" 

"Hey, she's trying to be nice and give you a chance to surrender," Po said sternly. "If you're not going to be nice about it though, we can take you by force and let the local constable handle you." 

"Yeah, let's have this day go batter in your favor," Monkey laughed. 

Tigress and Crane gave him a sharp look while another bandit laughed at the joke, only to be nudged in the side by a small ladybug. "Hey it was funny!" she protested. 

"Sorry, almighty kung fu masters, but...not gonna' happen," another bandit replied, shifting a bag of buns from side to side. "We got an important job to do and there's no way you're interfering with it." 

"Who's hired you?" Tigress demanded. 

"Why don't you ask her?" came the answer, and immediately the masters found themselves engulfed by dense smoke which sent them coughing and choking to their knees. When the smoke cleared, the bakery bandits had vanished. 

"Seriously?!" Po cried. 

"Something weird is going on," Viper noted as Tigress and Mantis began looking around for any solitary trace of the bandits. "No one in the entire history of robbing or attacking the valley has ever done it to steal food."

"Uh, not true actually," Po reminded her. "Remember the rice thief a couple of years ago?" 

"Oh, right. Well, still, that was a basic commodity. These are highly valuable sweets and buns. That's not money, or valuable items to be sold at back alley market deals." 

"She has a point," Crane admitted. "We should keep our eyes open. Maybe this has been happening elsewhere." 

Po sighed and looked back towards the main valley. "I guess we should give Mr. and Mrs. Hua compensation for their stuff being stolen while we figure this out." 

"I'll go see what's in our account and then make inquiries," Crane offered, flying back to the Jade Palace. 

"Mantis and I will look around for more tracks and then let you know what we find," Tigress offered. "They may have left something behind that we may have missed." 

"I'll check with the local constable to see if there have been reports of them striking elsewhere," Viper said. "Monkey, you can come with me." 

"And I gotta' get back to my kung fu class," Po said. 

As he turned to go, Tigress called over to him, "Po, what about the masters?" 

Po turned around in confusion. "Masters?" he repeated. 

"The Masters Counsel coming to meet with you this afternoon about the economic and kung fu progression in the valley? The meeting you wouldn't stop talking about for three weeks when you heard they were coming because you wanted to ask Master Croc if he really served in the Underwater Striker Battalion?"

Po gasped in horror. "I totally forgot!" he cried. "I hope they haven't been waiting around!!!!" 

He quickly ran down the alley and through the streets of the valley passing by his kung fu class who yelled after him where he was going. Po yelled that class was done early and then made his way to the stairs of the Jade Palace where he paused to huff and catch his breath. Zeng, who had just flown down the stairs looking for him, said, "Grandmaster Po, the Masters Counsel has been here for almost an hour and they'd like to know when you're getting there." 

"I'm coming!" Po promised. "I totally spaced!" He then took a deep breath and bolted up the stairs as fast as he could, slowing down a bit when he started to run out of air again. He then picked up his speed, eventually making his way to the top of the stairs where he paused to catch his breath and then ran forward to go inside the Jade Palace. As he put his paws on the door handles to push the door open, he saw a glimpse of light flash in front of him, and he pulled back and looked around. Not seeing anything, Po moved back to the door, only for another flash of light to engulf him.

 Po suddenly found himself surrounded by the golden light he had seen in the spirit realm, and he could see peach petals start to float all around him from unseen directions. The master tried to catch his breath from the climb up the stairs, but no amount of breathing seemed to help. Off to the side, he noticed the staff bequeathed to him floating in mid-air, and Po reached out to grab it, only to feel an enormous weight put pressure on his entire body. Po kept trying to take deep breaths and breath normally, only to feel his chi move and start glowing. In a flash of light, a golden dragon began to emerge from Po's stomach and flew out beyond the petals  that floated around him. The master felt his chi draining away and he desperately reached out to grab the Dragon and pull it back in, but to no avail. He grabbed hold of the staff which had started to float away again, and tried reaching out to control his own chi, but the petals kept floating around him, blinding his vision and blocking his path. After a moment, he felt a huge weight lift from him as the dragon finally separated from his chi and immediately began to fly off into the distance. The petals cleared and began following it's trail, causing Po to chase after it in confusion, unsure of what was going on. He hopped from yin yang to yin yang until the dragon suddenly dived to the earth. Po jumped after it, feeing the wind woosh past him as he fell. The dragon then suddenly vanished into a yin yang and began to transform into a silhouette, only for blinding light to engulf the area and cause Po to shield his eyes before he could get a better look.

"Po?!"

Po woke up with a start, seeing he was surrounded by his friends and Master Shifu, as well as the masters counsel whom he was supposed to meet.

"Is he okay?! Scoot over I want to see him!" came Li's voice as he pushed through the masters with a wheeze. "Are you okay, Lotus?! Can you breathe? What hurts?"

"I'm fine," Po promised, rubbing his eyes and sitting up. "I just...."

"Just what?"

Po blinked for a moment as he thought about what he saw, and then slowly said, "I think I need to pick a new Dragon Warrior."

Sorry this chapter's a week late. I had an off week, and then I got really sick. 

Which I guess kind of explains the off week....

 But I hope everyone's enjoying the story so far!