Po and Zhen walked back into the village where they could still see smoke trailing out from the houses. Fortunately, most of the village was spared since the masters had acted quickly, so only a handful of houses were totally demolished. And whatever was on fire was quickly put out. Po ran through the crowd and asked how everyone was doing, though he was met with a mixed response of "doing good!", "could be better...", and "My living room!!!!" The Dragon Warrior tried to find his friends, but then spotted his dad far down the river sitting and staring at the water. He sighed to himself and walked in that direction as Zhen stopped to check on her clan mates and on Monkey who she happened to bump into.

Li looked very overwhelmed and had his eyes closed shut as he tried to take deep breaths. Po put a paw on his shoulder, causing him to jump in surprise, but upon realizing it was his son, he just sighed in defeat.

"I thought I had it," he told Po. "All this chi training and kung fu stuff....helping you defend the village from bandits and troublemakers...then we get a big battle and I totally freeze up."

Po sat down and hugged him. "It's okay dad," he promised. "If it makes you feel better, I barely remember the attack and it still bothered me for a while. What Shen did was awful. No one can blame you for freaking out."

"I know. I know. I tried to put on a tough face. But...I guess I'm not as tough as I thought."

Po gave him a big bear hug. Li just squeezed him back. "You'll be okay, dad," he promised. "You'll get there."

"I don't know...."

"You will. Promise."

Po and Li were interrupted by Zhen, Mantis, and Monkey walking over to them.

"Not to add bad news to bad news," Mantis told him. "But there's a problem...."

"What happened?" Po asked worriedly.

"Crane and Viper are missing," Monkey answered. "I don't know if they're just looking around for the culprit or are helping out some villagers we can't see, but I've been looking all over the place for them and they seem to have vanished. And considering the fact that Tigress is missing....."

"Wait, Tigress is missing?" Li asked.

"Oh, yeah. Long story," Po said.

He stood up and told the three that they should scan the perimeter of the village just in case they were walking back. They could figure out Tigress when they got the mess all cleaned up.

"I have a feeling we're dealing with something bigger than an intruding shapeshifter....shifty...somebody," Po grumbled.

The masters and Zhen then started to go through the village, helping out who they could while keeping an eye on their missing friends. However, there was no sign of Crane or Viper and Po began to worry that the worst had happened to them. Being hit with a fiery ball had been what had killed Master Thundering rhino after all. After a while of searching, the masters regrouped in the center of the village to no avail. Po wasn't sure what to really do, but Zhen suggested they should retrace their steps from the stairs and try to see if they could get eye witnesses to pinpoint the last spotted place and look from there. As they started making plans, Mei Mei walked over to the group with Lei Lei right next to her.

"Po?!" she called over.

"Hey, Mei Mei," Po called over. "Everything good?"

"This little one is upset about something," Mei Mei said, gently pushing the little girl to Po. "She keeps saying she needs help."

"Help with what?" Zhen asked Lei Lei. "What's the matter?"

Lei Lei pulled on her arm and then ran over to Po and pulled on his pants. "There's a bad bad guy," she said. "Tigress is sick!"

"Sick?" Po repeated. "Sick from what?"

Lei Lei kept tugging on him and then went back to Zhen. Po told Monkey and Mantis that he'd be right back and he and Zhen proceeded to follow the small panda through the valley and through the woods. Po wasn't entirely sure where they were going, though after some time of walking, he realized that Lei Lei was leading them in the direction of Shifu's house,

"How do you know how to get here?" Po asked her in surprise.

"Tigress takes me to see Grandpa Shifu," Lei Lei explained. She then ran to the front door with Po and Zhen close behind. Before they could even knock, Shifu opened the door. He looked relieved to see them, though the lines of worry and anxiety are clearly etched on his face.

"Oh thank goodness! There you are!" he exclaimed. "We have a serious problem."

"What happened? Is it Tigress? Is she okay?!" Po asked quickly, walking inside.

"Tigress is okay...mostly...." Shifu answered. He led all towards the back of the house towards his room where Po and Zhen immediately spotted the master sitting upright on a small bed. However, she was clearly worn out and was leaned over on top of a collection of pillows and was half asleep when they came in.

"Tigress!" Po cried. "Are you okay?! What happened?! I was worried sick when we realized you were missing!"

He immediately hugged her and was given a weak squeeze back. "I'm fine," the master mumbled. "I just went to talk to Shifu and I got attacked from behind."

"Anybody we know?" Po asked.

"Tai Lung."

Po's mouth dropped in shock. Zhen was confused.

"Who?" she asked.

Lei-Lei ran onto the bed and gave Tigress a hug. "Make her feel better, please," she begged Po.

"What's going on?" Po asked, looking at Tigress and Shifu.

"Lei-Lei noticed the other day that the Tigress she met in the village was acting weird, so she came to me to ask for help and we did some investigating. Apparently Tigress had encountered Tai Lung earlier that day and was stashed in an abandoned building. She wasn't cared for very well either. She was barely conscious when we found her."

"He took my chi," Tigress tacked on weakly.

Po looked at her in surprise. "How?!" he exclaimed. "You're still here!"

"There's multiple ways to take chi," Shifu explained. "Kai's way was the whole life force. This kind of chi thievery seems to be the absorption of strength and muscle memory, the things required for kung fu."

Po frowned and pinched the bridge of his nose to take a breath. "Okay," he said. "That's a lot to take in and...well...a couple of questions: one, since when has Tai Lung been able to do that? Two, I Wuxi fingered him! How is he here?! And three, why Tigress? Isn't his whole thing to steal the Dragon Scroll?"

"Tai Lung didn't know how to do nerve strikes before being sent off to Chorh gom but learned them in the twenty years he was imprisoned locked up in a tortoise shell. So I can easily believe he's picked up a few tricks," Shifu countered sternly. "I don't know how he got out of the spirit realm, admittedly, but he did mention why he took Tigress. Sort of."

The old master glanced at Tigress who mumbled, "He said I was a thorn that needed to be taken care of so his plan doesn't get ruined. Not sure what that entails, but apparently he thinks I'm force enough to require moving out of the way."

"I mean, I guess that makes sense," Po considered. "But still...that's weird! I don't suppose you have any idea where he could be?"

"Not one clue."

"Gotcha."

Po considered this thought for a moment before saying, "Maybe there's a scroll on that....I'll look when we get back. We just dealt with an attack that felt like Lord Shen. Except I don't see him anywhere."

"And we have two masters missing," Zhen added.

Shifu sighed in fatigue. "What a day...." he muttered.

Tigress got up slowly from her bed and said she'd help. Shifu told her to stay put since she still needed to rest, but Tigress insisted that she was fine enough to walk.

"My muscles just feel really sore and fatigued," she said.

"Which is why I worry about you walking all that way," Shifu countered.

Tigress wouldn't take no for an answer however, so the former master decided that he would tag along, just to make sure she made it back to the Jade Palace. Lei-Lei of course tagged right along, holding onto Tigress' paw for a good part of the journey. Tigress surprisingly managed to walk most of the way back to the Valley, but she soon became so tired that Po offered to carry her on his back the rest of the way.

"Are you sure you can make it up the stairs?" Tigress asked skeptically.

"Tigress, I'm a panda," Po told her with a short laugh. "I don't do stairs."

He then walked over to the elevator by the Jade Palace stairs and stepped onto it, pulling the lever once Shifu, Zhen, and Lei-Lei were on board.

"I keep forgetting this is here," Shifu remarked.

Tigress laughed lightly. "You and me both," she said. Once they reached the top, she slipped off of Po's back, promising she had the energy to continue walking, and headed over in the direction of the Sacred Hall of Warriors. As they reached the stairs, the front doors swung open and Mantis and Monkey arrived.

"Hey!" Mantis called out. "We saw you go up! Is Tigress okay?"

"Working on it," Po told him. "Something weird is going on here. Tigress said Tai Lung caught her, but we have a shape shifter or somebody with a shift stone masquerading as her....and now Shen.... Something isn't adding up....how can we have three people attack at once?"

"Maybe Mrs. Jun's noticed something?" Monkey suggested. "If there's someone suspicious lurking around, or an artifact missing, she's probably noticed."

"That's actually not a bad idea. Plus we can look at some of Oogway's stuff up there to figure out how Tai Lung's gotten out of the spirit realm. If that's even possible."

"Yeah...pretty sure you can't unwuxi finger yourself," Mantis noted.

Po started up the stairs with everyone trailing behind him. Zhen was confused about who Mrs. Jun was, which reminded Po that they hadn't met yet and was excited to introduce the fox to her. Po entered the Sacred Hall of Warriors and called out to the old sheep who was busy looking at some paperwork and waved happily when she saw him. The Dragon Warrior then turned to Zhen to introduce them, only to notice the fox's look of terror that had just struck her face.

"You...." she stated quietly.