Through the Looking Glass: Penance: Chapter 7-A
Tai Lung: Chapter 7
Nothing had gone according to what he had hoped at all.
Tai Lung was being led forward by Po, who despite being the Dragon Warrior was not at all as aggressive as the snow leopard thought the panda would have been. However, it was the glares he recieved from the rest of the Five that were destroying him a little inside. Thankfully they rarely looked at him as they trudged along, but when they did he felt the fury of a thousand suns descending on his figure.
The looks were the least of Tai Lung's problems, however; foremost on his mind was that he was going to die. Shifu had undoubtedly stayed at the Jade Palace, so he was even denied an opportunity to apologize to his father.
Miles had opened a window for the snow leopard; the fox had gotten Tai Lung to see that there was more to the world than just fighting and being the Dragon Warrior. He also seemed to realize that Shifu could not have been very proud of him when he rampaged twenty-one years before. The kitsune had opened Tai Lung's eyes to reality.
It was too bad that Miles had disappeared from his life forever.
The only thing that made it worse was that none of the Five seemed willing to listen to the snow leopard. The journey was rather silent anyway, but this realization was like a knife being slowly inserted into his heart. It hurt so much that he was unable to vent his sadness anywhere that he was crumbling under the pressure such that even his pride was beginning to falter.
He was nestled out of his thoughts abruptly when he noticed that Po and the Five had paused, looking around in the fog. Tigress' eyes pierced the fog as she looked skyward. As soon as Tai Lung saw this, he noticed that the fog had gotten a little darker than before.
"We should stop here," said the leader of the Furious Five.
"Okay, good," said Po as he let Tai Lung down and tied a smaller length of rope to a tree. "I was gettin' tired of walkin' all this way."
"Leave it to the fat panda to say something like that," quipped Tai Lung, unable to control the acid in his voice.
"Now, now," said Viper with some kind of understanding. "There is no need to insult another person about that."
"Viper's right," replied Tigress. "But we'll talk about that later. Mantis, Crane. I want to talk with you two."
"On it!" cried the insect as both insect and bird followed the kung fu master into the forest.
This left Po, Viper, Monkey, and Tai Lung sitting in the clearing. Even then, however, Monkey wordlessly lumbered off to look for wood to fuel the fire for the night, which left Viper and Po sitting there with the once mighty snow leopard.
Wordlessly, Tai Lung's yellow eyes averted to the ground, closing them as he thought of his piteous state.
"You know, you haven't been lookin' all that good lately."
Po's voice interrupted the snow leopard's thoughts. "What the hell do you want?" asked Tai Lung bitterly.
"Well, I'm just thinkin' here," replied the panda as he began gesturing wildly with his hands. "Ever since we've caught you, you haven't been lookin' all that good. And I've got the feelin' it goes deeper than your pride."
The snow leopard sighed, shaking his head and looking to the side. "You wouldn't care," he said in a sorry attempt to be crass.
"It's your friend, isn't it?" asked Viper suddenly.
Unable to deny the Five his true feelings anymore, Tai Lung nodded. "He hates himself," replied Tai Lung softly. "I'm partly scared to death because he might have killed himself by now. And then I'm partly angry... I don't know why."
"Why he hates himself, or why you're angry?" asked Po, trying to coax the snow leopard to talk a little more.
"Why I'm angry," replied the leopard. "I don't know. Part of me wishes he had told me sooner what had happened. Part of me wishes I hadn't gotten him so riled up..."
Nodding slowly, Po seemed to understand the criminal's point. Before he could ask on the legitimacy of his claim, however, Tai Lung continued. "I don't know what it is about him that makes him hate himself so much," he said. "What happened two years ago wasn't even his own fault anyway. It's not his fault he was forced to murder a friend against his own will..."
Viper had listened to this, and slowly she nodded. "I see..." she said. "He must have blamed himself for the actions, as he was the one physically carrying them out. And I'm sure he never wanted to talk about it..."
"Not until I got him so mad he sort of just blurted it out," replied the cat softly. "I shouldn't have gotten him angry..."
"Hey, we all make mistakes sometimes," replied the panda, trying to cheer Tai Lung up. "We're not perfect, ya know."
Tai Lung would have none of that, however, instead shutting his yellow eyes tight when the panda reached that point.
"That doesn't change the fact that it's wrong, though," he said bitingly.
As he kept is eyes shut, Viper and Po glanced at each other uncertainly, the panda shrugging at this as the snake suddenly noticed Tigress returning from the wood.
"I sent Mantis and Crane to Beijing to inform the emperor of our coming," said Tigress. "With any luck, they should be there at least two full days before we arrive."
The other two kung fu fighters nodded at this. Tai Lung did not respond to this, his mind already awash in the regrets that had been piling up on him since the day before. It was to the point that he barely responded to anything the rest of the day.
The hours seemed to pass quite slowly, but then sleep slowly began to take him.
It was only then that his regrets had gotten to him.
He felt a solitary tear slide down his cheek as he felt sleep overtake him.
What he did not expect was for a thumb to rub his tear dry. Using what little energy he had left, he opened his eyes to find Po drawing his thumb away. The panda seemed to notice this, and it was then that his emerald eyes took on a quality Tai Lung had never noticed before.
The snow leopard smiled softly, another tear rolling down his cheek that the Dragon Warrior could not see. Someone had seen the return of Tai Lung's humanity.
He had failed to notice that Viper, hiding in the trees above, had also noticed the tears that Tai Lung wept silently. But he cared not; at least one person was able to see his pain. At least one person knew he was being sincere about it.
And with this knowledge, the snow leopard fell asleep, eyes closing as he leaned back against the tree he was tied to, more for the comfort and less because of the bindings keeping him there.
Tai Lung was woken up by the slightest shifting of leaves. His eyes darted open, and then he looked around the camp. Po and the three members of the Furious Five that were still in the Devil's Mouth were all sleeping soundly when Tai Lung had woken up.
This left the predatory cat confused. Had Mantis and Crane already come back? He scoffed at this notion; it took a while to get to Beijing even on wings from where he assumed they were. So it had to be something else.
His question was answered when he felt the rope connecting him to the tree wriggle around a little bit. After a small amount of this, the rope rolled off of the tree and formed a ring around it with Tai Lung's feet as the basis for this.
Before the leopard could wonder what had just happened, he suddenly felt himself get lifted, and looking to where he felt the lift come from he was utterly shocked to find that Miles was the one trying to carry him.
Tai Lung opened his mouth to protest, but before he could he noticed that Miles was lumbering around the camp, being as quiet as he could possibly be given the circumstances. The leopard decided to remain silent, and then he slowly saw the kitsune wander out of the camp. The kitsune grunted softly, and then he ran from the camp as fast as he could, leaving the Five slumbering behind him.
After they had gone past a certain point, their footsteps were no longer so loud in Tai Lung's ears. The kitsune kept moving, however, and then he looked behind him, checking to make sure nobody had followed him to that point.
Miles stopped in a small clearing and set Tai Lung down.
"Miles, what the hell were you doing?" he asked as the kitsune set his pack down. "And--?"
"Rescuing you," interrupted Miles softly as he thumbed through his pack. "That's what I was doing. You were heavy, but damn it I would've done that no matter what happened..."
The kitsune then took out a piece of twine from his pack, and looking over the leopard's body, he found the knot and stuck the twig in there inch by inch.
As he did this, Tai Lung's expression went from one of total shock to one of complete happiness. His eyes beamed in happiness as the twig eventually worked the knot loose, after which Miles quickly gestured for the cat to sit up. When he did, the ropes fell to the side, and then Tai Lung moved his arms, finding that they were able to move of their own accord. The ropes slid off him further after this, and then he stood up and the length slithered down, forming a ring around him.
Unsure of what to say to this, Tai Lung simply looked at the rope.
Miles was one step ahead of him, however, and Tai Lung was startled when he felt the kitsune jump onto his body, holding it in a tight hug. The leopard looked down at the kitsune, his body trying to hold on to his torso.
"I'm sorry," said Miles softly as he looked up at Tai Lung with sad eyes. "I shouldn't have left you in the middle of the forest like that. I'm so, so sorry... And I'm sorry too that I didn't tell you sooner about what happened..."
Tai Lung simply looked down at the kitsune before a powerful arm held the kitsune against him. He smiled brightly as he looked down at his companion.
"Hey, you rescued me," replied the snow leopard. "That's all that needs to be said."
Miles was then let down as he looked up at his travelling companion. "Thank you," added Tai Lung. "For giving me a chance. You... You've effected something different in me..."
"Not holding grudges?" asked the kitsune, remembering his rant from earlier.
"Yes," said the snow leopard. "But... how'd you get over that fit so quickly? You must have seen that fight if you were able to track me to that point..."
The kitsune simply smiled. "I got visited by Sonic and your master Oogway in a dream," he replied, taking a hold of the leopard's hand. "Well..."
"I don't think you have to say anything else," replied Tai Lung, rolling his eyes at a few memories of the old tortoise. "I think I know what happened."
The leopard patted Miles' head. "I'm glad you pulled through for me," he added. "You have no idea how worried I was about you... You scared me half to death, you know! I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if the one person who had been kind to me after all I did had died..."
The kitsune nodded, looking up at Tai Lung. "You don't know how much I appreciate that," he said. "I didn't think anybody could care... I've been alone for two years..."
Tai Lung simply knelt down, and then the two companions gave each other a hug. Miles was on the verge of tears by this point, at which Tai Lung simply patted the kitsune's back.
"It's all right," replied Tai Lung, smiling. "I'm your friend."
"I know," said Miles, smiling as well. "That makes me so happy to know that you still care..."
They broke the hug slowly, Tai Lung looking at his young friend. It was then that he saw the kitsune's smile for the first time. The cat nodded as he stood up. "Now come on, we can talk a little later. For now, we've gotta get as far away from those guys as we can!"
"But where do we go?" asked Miles.
Tai Lung nodded. "We can keep going this way," said the leopard. "I know that if we keep going up the Devil's Mouth will end right as we get to the imperial city of Beijing. We can double back from there and get out of the country quickly."
Miles' eyes widened. "Wait, so you want to leave China now?" he asked. "But I thought you were still angry?"
Tai Lung nodded. "I'm still angry, yes," he said. "But I think you're right. I thought about it a bit... and after that I realized you have a point. I can't take vengeance on my father of all people... He did nothing wrong..."
The fox shrugged. "Okay," he said. "If my friends ever take me back in, then I'm sure they'll gladly accept you as a friend."
The predatory cat nodded. "That sounds nice, yes..." he said. "Now let's go before they wake up!"
The kitsune nodded, and then he jumped onto Tai Lung's back. The two of them subsequently sped off into the distance afterwards, Miles holding on to his friend as they ran away from the Furious Five and from Po as they slept, escape imminent as they moved along.