1 chapter to go...
~~~~
They've been training for three days together now. Every waking moment was spent in the birthplace of kung fu, though they both didn't mind that. It was the most serene place to train and rest in.
But even then, there was something that Lotus still couldn't stand the first two nights of training. He did everything Master Shifu asked. He meditated, went through very uncomfortable conversations about his entire life, fought against the iron wood trees that would hang about the mountains until his knuckles bled, read through all of the scrolls in one sitting. Twice just to make sure he comprehended everything (which amazed Shifu).
"Not even Tai Lung read through all of these this fast..." The red panda murmured one time, making the tired panda roll his eyes.
"Please don't compare me to your other students, Shifu," Lotus sighed, "I just already read a lot back in my village. The material of these scrolls may be hefty but reading them all was like childsplay."
And yet, with all this knowledge, all of this energy that he would give away to train and take in with wisdom (at least with what he could consume in a matter of a few days), it still was never enough.
He still couldn't make that damn flower bloom with his chi.
On the third night, after trying all his might to make his palms glow brighter than the days before, he groaned and plopped on the ground. "I can't do this!" He buried his exhausted face in his paws.
Shifu shook his head, "Chi doesn't come when you force it. It takes a lot of patience, as life itself requires patience."
"I don't have time for patience!" Lotus' red and baggy eyes whipped towards the tiny master, "Tai Lung could come anyday now and I'm nowhere near ready to defeat him, let alone be the valley's Dragon Warrior!"
Master Shifu's ears dipped a little as he looked upon his student with sympathy, "You are ready to defeat him. But... it seems you're not ready to defeat your own inner demons. You have so much weighing you down—"
Lotus gave the master a deadpanned look, making him roll his eyes in reply.
"—Mentally, that you can't possibly find the inner peace to lift you and your surroundings up from it's hidden roots."
"Inner peace?" The panda's expression formed into one of curiosity.
"It's... a hard lesson to learn. Possibly the hardest lesson to learn considering you don't face magic, techniques or foes to understand it... but you must face yourself." He looked to the ground solemnly.
Lotus frustratingly rested his face on his left fist while his left leg kept his arm up, "So you're saying my daddy and mommy issues that keeps messing with my identity is why I can't make my paws glow?"
Shifu sighed, "Speaking simply... yeah."
The big bear huffed while gazing at the flower, "Figures." He absent-mindedly flicked the flower with his right pinkie, before he and Shifu were caught off guard by the sudden golden aroma that invaded the flower.
It made an immediate wave of light, the impact causing Shifu and Lotus to freak out and be pushed back by it. They glanced at each other with wide eyes before glancing at the once closed-in flower... finding themselves in disbelief once they realised that same flower finally blossomed into a bright gold daffodil.
They looked back at each other, still incredulous about what they just witnessed.
Lotus rubbed his eyes to make sure his crappy sleep schedule wasn't making him see things while Shifu's jaw started to slack.
"D-did I just..." The panda started, "Did my pinkie just do THAT!?"
"I-it seems..." Shifu grasped his head lightly. "We're actually closer to accomplishing this than I thought..."
After a moment of silence, Lotus looked at his hand and felt a flame of inspiration spark in his mind. "... I think I just figured out how to do the Wuxi Finger Hold."
"Please don't test that!" Shifu unexpectedly pleaded.
~~~~
The poor bird panted as he weakly carried all his unconscious friends from his talons. He was brought out of his paralysis by Tai Lung only to be threatened to fly as fast as he could to the Jade Palace to give the warning to Master Shifu. He never flew faster, and hasn't stopped once through these past three days.
Crane tried his best not to cry. He needed his vision clear to see ahead but felt like he was literally carrying the biggest form of dishonour back to his valley.
His comrades... his family... defeated. The teachings of their master were lost at that moment. They all failed. He failed.
It was a very long flight to think through everything. All the things he himself could have done to ensure Tai Lung's downfall.
Before he knew it, he was finally back home, flying up the steps, his strength now truly faltering as the thought to finally rest his wings made him start to slack. But Crane pushed through the best he could, until he flew up over the courtyard to see a familiar red panda and panda bear walking through it.
He knew from the sight of Shifu's ear twitching that he heard the bird's arrival. Shifu and Lotus were finally walking back to the Jade Palace's training hall to further their most recent discovery. It should have been a moment of hope for him.
But as soon as he turned his head, that hope quickly deteriorated as he gazed up in horror at his student, Crane, carrying the rest of the Furious Five.
Lotus looked confused, before turning himself and gasping at the sight.
The defeated warriors finally collapsed to the grounds of the courtyard, four out of five of them completely frozen.
"Guys? TIGRESS!?" The bear instantly ran to the paralysed tiger's side, lifting her head on his lap as he tried to look for signs of life. "No, no, no! Is she—are they dead!? Oh, thank gods, I feel breathing! Are they asleep?"
"They're not unconscious in anyway, panda," Shifu commented softly, still mortified at the sight as he walked up to the panting avian. "They're... paralysed."
"I-I'm sorry, Master Shifu—we were..." Crane gasped for air, "We were no match for his nerve attack."
The red panda then walked over to Mantis, feeling his tiny chest for nerve points. "He has gotten stronger.." He mumbled, before hitting a few nerve strikes to awaken the insect.
Lotus' wide eyes looked over at Shifu, "W-wait, Tai Lung!? Stronger!?!"
The red panda didn't say anything as he limped over to Monkey and struck him awake with the same technique. The simian suddenly woke up in a panic, "HE'S TOO FAST!"
Through the awaking mania, Monkey instinctively threw a punch that was way too close to Shifu, though he was able to instantly dodge it. Monkey cringed at himself for what he almost did, "Sorry, Master..."
Shifu simply nodded in sympathetic acknowledgement and teetered over to Lotus and Tigress, taking a mental note of how the panda was gently holding her head.
Being extra delicate with his nerve strikes, he finally awakens the tiger, making her gasp in the big panda's arms.
Not registering the matter of her position, she instantly looks at her master with deep regret in her eyes, "I thought... we could stop him.."
Master Shifu just shook his head while walking towards Viper, "He could have killed you."
Mantis groaned as he finally managed to find the strength to walk. "Why didn't he?" He asked.
The tiny master's eyes grew angry as he spoke—not towards his students or the question, but at the reminder of Tai Lung's true darkness, "So that you could come back here and strike fear into our hearts! But it won't. Work." He emphasised while twisting Viper's body to life, her hissing in relief as she found her muscle again.
"I mean, uh, it might...?" Lotus smiled nervously, helping Tigress up by wrapping her arm across his shoulders and holding her side... again. She smiled tiredly at the panda as he stumbled through his words, defeated yet content that she got to see him again.
"I'm... pretty scared." The panda gulped. Shifu eyed the ursine and feline amidst Lotus' stammering and smirked.
"You know you can defeat him, panda."
"HA! Are you kidding? With what—a few months of training and a magical pinkie!? These guys are five fully trained masters and they couldn't do it! Imagine what will happen to one me!" Lotus exclaimed, unaware of the odd look his feline friend gave him.
"'Magical pinkie'?" She mumbled.
"I'll tell you later." Lotus whispered back.
Master Shifu piped up again regardless, "But you will have the one thing no one else does..." He smiled pridefully.
Lotus suddenly felt all eyes on him as it started to dawn on him what was about to happen. He shrunk in on himself. "Are you... sure?"
Shifu only turned and started to walk off from his students. "To the Hall of Heroes, everyone. Quickly!"
With limps and no complaints, the rest of the five started following suit behind their master, with Tigress and Lotus still in each other's arms and glancing at each other. The bear gulped nervously when looking at the feline while she smiled in her own form of pride.
"Don't look at me like that, Ti," Lotus averted his eyes, blushing as he started to walk her with the others, "You know I'm not ready for this."
"We can't be too sure just yet. Besides, that's... not why I'm smiling." She turned forward whilst grasping her sore side, still in a daze of her own.
"Then what's the reason?" Lotus grinned back, though shyly. He didn't necessarily mention that he... didn't like the look she was giving him, but it made his stomach turn and heart thump in a way it shouldn't be in a time of high stakes like this.
Tigress simply shook her head, "Nothing... just... remembering that I was an idiot on that mission, that's all."
"You weren't an idiot! You were totally awesome and brave to go on that mission! You couldn't have possibly known Tai Lung was gonna paralyse you!" The innocent ursine stated, unaware of the bickering glances between Tigress and Viper and what his tiger friend truly meant by 'idiot'.
She sighed to herself, finally leaning onto her panda and letting her mouth speak before her thoughts, "... I truly missed you, you know.."
Lotus' eyes bugged open and his cheeks flushed, yet the tiger unknowingly continued. "Not a moment has passed where I haven't thought of you..."
Looking at the ground embarrassed, Lotus chuckled, his face on blatant fire at this point, "I-I think that fight drained you out more than you thought, heh... you're talking all loopy."
"Maybe I'm just loopy for you.." Tigress scoffed playfully, before her eyes widened and she quickly shook her head to come to her senses, "I... apologise. That was highly inappropriate of me, I don't—"
"Tigress," The panda interrupted, making Tigress finally turn towards him, her striped face now flushed with it's own red hue as her tail nervously twitched behind her. But despite her worries, he just smiled gently at her. "...I missed you too."
Taking a small breath of relief, they walked in silent contentment along with the rest of the Jade Palace warriors.
~~~~
With the golden dragon holding the notorious scroll above all their heads, Lotus twiddled with his stubby fingers in nervousness. He looked down at the tiny master beside him and spoke softly, "Do you really believe... I'm ready?"
"I do," Shifu turned towards the big panda bear and uttered the name all his students thought they would never hear, "... Lotus."
The panda was clearly taken aback by this, before his racing thoughts were stopped by a comforting voice from behind the two.
"We all do."
Lotus turned his head and saw the now limping Tigress standing by herself and smiling softly with a small nod, further proving the point of her statement. He smiled back at her, while Monkey and Viper cunningly smirked at the deadpanned Mantis and eye-twitching Crane. They were going to lose some good money after this.
Meanwhile, the two pandas' attentions were already brought back to the scroll as Shifu walked over to the memorial Oogway staff, grasped it with the utmost gentleness and stood forth in front of the Moon Pool.
Swiftly and elegantly, Shifu started swaying the staff around, sending his palm forth and a simple exhale out to get the peach petals on the pool moving up.
'Again with the flowers..' Lotus thought in intimidation, gazing at how precise Shifu managed to move them up high in a tornado formation up to the golden dragon. Finally, a stray petal flew the highest above the others and merely grazed the scroll, managing to send it falling off the statue's mouth.
Shifu winded the staff back and mentally planned for the perfect moment, before swiftly launching it forward to catch the scroll in a perfectly vertical position, letting the staff dip just a little in the pool to make a singular ripple effect.
All his students watched in awe as his ear twitched in satisfaction before he finally held the delicate scroll in his tiny paws. He turned to Lotus and showed it off in all of it's glory to him. "Behold... the Dragon Scroll."
With paws shaking, the panda grasped the scroll and attempted to open it... and attempted it again... and again... and again.
"Oh you gotta be—this thing is impossible—MMMMM!" He struggled, trying to yank it open and even attempt to open it with his teeth before Shifu simply rolled his eyes and gestured to have it back. Lotus pouted and handed the scroll back to have him, before he grew exasperated that the scroll managed to open with ease.
He turned to Tigress with a baffled expression, "Damn, who knew inanimate objects could be biased, too.." He murmured, making her roll her eyes with a smirk of amusement on her face.
"Thanks, Shifu," Lotus bowed before clearing his throat. "Okay, here goes everything..."
Bit by bit, cringing as he did, he slowly pulled the scroll open, terrified to see what kind of power awaited inside for him. Everyone gazed on intently, agonizingly at the edges of their figurative seats.
At last, the whole scroll was revealed, a beautiful golden light reflected onto the panda and he exclaimed in terror, still anticipating what secrets were to be revealed in front of him.
Only to have... nothing happen.
Finally, with his blood pressure starting to simmer down and his scared labored breaths turned into deep breaths, Lotus finally got a good look at the scroll, his eyes wide but his mind completely shattered when he realised...
"It's blank."
Shifu felt his eyes narrow at the panda, trying to compute what he just said, "... What?"
"The scroll's blank." Lotus felt an eye twitch before rubbing the bridge of his nose in annoyance, "You traumatised your two kids over a blank scroll, unbelievable—"
"How dare you joke about such treason!?" Shifu spat back.
"YOU WANNA SEE FOR YOURSELF!?" Lotus tried showed the blank page to the red panda, but he instantly looked away.
"NO! I am forbidden to look upon...!" Lacking to finish his statement, he yanks the scroll out of the bear's hands and flicked through it. He reopened the scroll again and again, hoping for a message to appear, or a sign, anything! But nothing appeared.
The panda, horridly so, was... right. Everything he built his students up for, was all for nothing but a scroll that was... "Blank." He mumbled, numbly passed the scroll back to the cynical Lotus.
Shifu felt his ears pin down, devastated with himself. "I don't..." He looked back at the Furious Five in shame, "I don't understand..."
Tigress looked at the rest of her team, who glanced at each other in more fear than ever. Then she looked at the her panda friend, who surprisingly looked... horrified. At what exactly, she wouldn't know just yet. Suddenly, he stormed out of the halls of the palace, muttering something to himself about ''crazy old turtles' and 'crazy dumb chi', further distressing her.
Seeing everyone in a mental slump, she took it upon herself to ask for a plan of action. "So... how can we stop Tai Lung?"
"We can't," Crane commented gravely. "He'll just destroy everything. And... everyone."
"No," Regaining control, Shifu turned to his five students, "Evacuate the valley! You must protect the villagers from Tai Lung's rage."
"What about you, Master?" Tigress asked, her more complacent nature coming back to help get his orders across. This was the first time in a while that Shifu made an order that made the most sense to her.
"I will fight him... I can hold him off long enough for everyone to escape." Shifu announced, looking down solemnly. Tigress jerked her head back at this. "What!? Master, he'll kill you!"
The red panda smiled sadly at his tiger daughter, "Then I will finally have paid for my mistake."
Her ears pinned down when he said this, a childish urge of wanting to tear up threatening her eyes. She blinked them away quickly to hear her master's last message.
"Listen to me, all of you," His tone was soft and comforting, almost as tender as Tigress remembered when she was just a cub. "It is time for you to continue your journey... without me. I am.. very proud to have been your master all this time." With a shaky smile, he pumped his fists together and bowed, his students sadly following suit with their own bows.
Quickly, Tigress turned to head out, her eyes narrow and her fists clenched as she needed to handle one more thing before they carried out this plan. She turned towards Crane and pointed at him, "Alert the villagers to evacuate immediately. I want everyone packing and moving out as soon as we all get down there."
"On it." Crane nodded and flew out into the valley. Tigress then turned to her other members, "Mantis and Monkey, grab as many lanterns as you can find in the palace and meet us at the bottom, make sure they are already lit."
"We're on the job," The simian gave a thumbs up as he and the bug ran to the other direction.
Viper, concerned for her sister's sudden shift in behaviour, slithered up next to her, "Tigress, are you okay—"
"LOTUS!" Tigress shouted, halting the already moving panda who was down the steps. But this yell wasn't in a tone the both of them were familiar with. The feline was... angry.
The panda stopped in his tracks, the scroll still clenched furiously in his paws. Tigress wasted no time stomping towards the bear, her side still grasped as it was in great pain.
"What on earth was that!? How could you just storm off like that during a time of need!?" She rightfully stated, making Lotus furrow his brows and turn directly to the feline.
"You saw what happened back there! The scroll is blank, the whole Dragon Warrior thing was a fluke! Face it, I was picked by accident."
"It doesn't matter what's blank or what was an accident! You wanted to train to be a warrior of kung fu regardless, and warriors don't just cower away in fear, they think of solutions! I thought I taught you exactly that." The feline angrily poked the ursine's pecks. "What happened to 'true warriors never quit', huh?"
Shockingly, he swiped the tiger's paw away, "Don't act like you believe in me now! I'm no kung fu warrior like you, okay!? I'm not a chi protector like my mother! I'm not a ruler like my dad—maybe we were all wrong! Maybe Oogway was wrong for choosing me! Maybe you and Shifu were wrong for believing in me! Maybe I was wrong for thinking I could be more than what I was! Maybe—maybe..." Lotus shut his eyes tight. "Maybe I should have never left the Panda Village with you."
Tigress' eyes widened, feeling her heart ache at that last statement. Then, after flicking her tail against the ground and grinding her fists, her eyes turned into a familiar cold and hardcore glare. "Well... if you truly think that we were—that this was all a mistake, then you can head back to the village for all I care." She walked passed the panda, purposefully bumping his shoulder with her own, "But I have other creatures to look out for and a duty to serve."
Lotus felt a painful lump in his throat as his eyes glazed over in tears. Viper simply slithered past him, hissing to him in sympathy. "I'm sorry, Lotus." Before heading down the stairs with the feline.
The Furious Five all met up at the bottom of the stairs, Tigress now holding a lantern of her own as her eyes scanned the villagers leaving their homes vastly.
"Everyone's already on the move," Crane announced.
"Good, now we have to get them out safely." Tigress thought over a quick plan while Monkey was already out in the crowd trying to help a piglet find her mom. Suddenly, she turned to the serpent next to her, "Viper, gather the Southern farmers. Mantis, the North. Crane, light the way." She handed off her lantern to the bird, encouraging him to fly forward.
Lotus watched from a distance, still on the steps but purposefully moving down slower than before. He felt horrible for what he did. He knew he shouldn't have backed out then, but he just felt so... defeated.
Ever since he left the security of the Panda Village, Lotus has been faced with nothing but ridicule, uncertainty and empty hopes. Everything he worked and trained for all felt like it added to nothing in the end, all because of some stupid scroll.
Maybe the uncertain threats and disappointment from the outside world was what his father was trying to keep him from. He looked down in shame after watching Tigress head down to help a family of bunnies.
He hated the notion that his father could be right, but that was unfortunately the only conclusion he could get at the moment.
Stupid scroll... stupid panda.
He finally joined the crowds of the valley and headed to the one place he found solace in, hearing rotten remarks from villagers as he passed by. "Look, it's our 'Dragon Warrior'." He heard a familiar white and brown spotted pig mutter.
He sunk his head low as he entered the now completely emptied out Ping's Noodle Shop. Lotus spotted the bird who ran the place pack all his things onto a noodle cart with a heavy melancholy.
After taking some time to build up the courage, he meekly spoke, "Hey, Mr. Ping..."
The goose turned to the panda, and though Lotus expected him to show a scowl, he only showed a relieved smile. "Ah, my favorite waiter. I was hoping I would see you before we—my dear boy, are you alright?"
Overwhelmed with emotions, Lotus broke down to his knees, sobbing and letting his tears pour down his cheeks. "N-no... no I'm not alright, Mr. Ping."
Feeling a maternal urge, the goose chef dropped his packing immediately and waddled towards the panda, "Now, now, Lotus, you tell old Ping all about it." He rubbed the bear's back comfortingly.
"I-I failed, Mr. Ping... I let everyone down... I-I feel like such a coward but I just—I-I don't know what to do..." He face palmed himself, trying to hide the tears. "All this for a destiny I didn't even want..."
Mr. Ping, caught with words in his throat, hesitated, only wanting to comfort the bear more than anything. "Well... if you ever want another destiny, you could... always be a permanent waiter working under me! My doors are always open for you, dear boy."
Finally, Lotus smiled, showing his teary face to Mr. Ping. "Thank you for the offer... you've been so nice to me since the moment you met me. I just..." He scoffed at himself. "I just wish I can pick a destiny I want, you know?"
"Don't we all," Mr. Ping smiled playfully. "But the secret no one knows is... we can."
"Can we?" Lotus asked, doubtfully. " Can we really just... make ourselves special?"
Taken aback for a moment, Mr. Ping thought carefully over the choices he was gonna make next. After nodding to himself, he turned back to the panda, "Lotus, I'm going to tell you something that is considered top secret information. Something that you can not share with anyone else, for to know this information is a high honour."
Sniffing and wiping his tears away, Lotus quizzically arched an eyebrow up at the bird, "Okay..?"
The chef only smiled gleefully, "... The secret ingredient to my Secret Ingredient Soup."
The panda's eyes widened, "What!? B-but I thought you said that only those who descended from noodle folk can know the secret!"
Mr. Ping shrugged, "Consider yourself an honourary member of noodle folk! Now are you ready to hear it, or not?"
"I—yes! Of course! But what does this have to do with—"
"Shhh, just listen," Mr. Ping gestured for the panda to come closer, "Now the secret ingredient is..."
Lotus leaned in further, eager to hear what special sauce or spice Mr. Ping was about to say.
"... Nothing."
The bear's whole face morphed into one of confusion, "Wha-huh?"
"You heard me! Nothing! There is no secret ingredient!" The loony goose stated joyfully.
"So wait, it's just plain old noodle soup? You don't make some secret spice combination or something?" Lotus was genuinely at a loss for thought, which only made Ping chuckle.
"Don't need to! To 'make' something special, as you said, you just have to believe it's special."
Suddenly, gears started slowly shifting in Lotus' head. His ears perk up and he pulls out the scroll still in his grasp to look deep into it's golden reflection.
His eyes finally widened, taking in Mr. Ping's words deeply and looking up towards the palace stairs. It all clicked together in his head.
"... There is no secret ingredient."
~~a/n; get ready yall, in exactly a week, I'll be releasing the final chapter of Lotus. December 9, 2024! mark your dates people (LMAO JKJK)! have a great day/night, remember to live, laugh, love, and until next time... Yarart out! ;D~~