Legends Of Awesomeness / Kung Fu Panda

Chapter 16

Daybreak

In a forest an unknown distance from the city, an unconscious Po floats down the river, his fur singed from the blast. Po comes to a stop at a low bridge. Standing on the bridge is a familiar elderly goat who pokes Po's belly several times with her cane. 

Some time later, Po is woken by water drops falling on his head, to find himself inside the ruins of a small house, bandaged and covered with acupuncture needles. Po spots the Soothsayer sitting in front of a small fire, boiling something inside a pot. Po attempts to crawl away on his back silently, wincing as he does so. The Soothsayer raises her head slightly when one of the floorboards creak. Po freezes...then goes limp, playing dead. 

After a few seconds, Po opens his eyes to find Soothsayer right in his face. "Ah!" Po jump then groans in pain. Soothsayer silently holds out a cup of unknown liquid. "Yeah...like you're going to get me to drink daw." Po said to her making Soothsayer sticks a needle in his forehead, making his eyes bulge and his mouth pop wide open. She tosses the medicine in his mouth and yanks out the needle, making him swallow. Whatever she gave him makes him gag as she returns to the fire. "If I wanted you dead, I would have left you in that river." Soothsayer said to him. "Why save me?" Po asks her while he begins removing the needles. "So you can fulfill your destiny." Soothsayer said to him. "What are you talking about? Where am I?" Po asks her while he notices that they are among the burned remains of a small village. "What is this place?" Po asks her. "I am surprised that you remember so little...but then, you were so little when it happened." Soothsayer said to him, Po suddenly hears screaming inside his head and cries out in pain. Po crawls towards the edge of the house ruin making Soothsayer gazes at him. "Perhaps you do remember." Soothsayer said to him. "What? It's just a stupid nightmare." Po said to him. "Nightmare...or memory?" Soothsayer asks him.

Po gazes into a puddle just outside the ruin. Po's reflection changes into that of an infant panda laughing happily at his older self. Po looks up as another flashback takes over...this time, he sees a village full of pandas happily living their lives. Panda children rush by flying kites as farmers work in the fields. Po's parents wave sweetly as baby Po climbs down the stairs outside his house, clutching a tiny panda doll. Then a baby Fox run over to the panda and it tackles him to the floor playfully then the two babies play around on the ground.

Po staggers out the ruin as his memories return to him. "This was a thriving village. Young Shen was in line to rule Gongmen City...but he wanted more. I foretold that someone would stand in his way...a panda. But I never could have foretold what came next..." Soothsayer said to Po who was thinking was that Fox Jesse?

Po is struck by another vision...

It is night, and the entire village is in flames. The villages run for their lives as Shen and his wolves begin their assault. In the midst of the massacre, baby Po sits outside his hut whimpering in fear, while clutching his doll. In the flames, he spots Shen and two wolves a short distance away. Shen notices the child. "Get them all!" Shen yelled making two wolves, one of which is recognized as Boss Wolf, leap at baby Po, jaws open wide. The child's eyes widen with terror...a male panda very similar to the panda from Po's nightmare leaps in front of Baby Po, armed with a rake. With a powerful swing, he strikes Boss Wolf directly in the eye and sends him and his comrade flying backward. Then a male fox jumps in and he kicks the other wolf away from them. The wolfs fall past Shen, who stares in astonishment at the panda. "Take our son...and run away!"  Po's father yelled as female fox runs over to Po's mother and she was holding a baby fox in her arms. "Go now!" The male Fox yelled at the two. Po's mother grabs her son and flees with the mother Fox. Baby Po loses his grip on the doll, and it bounces on the ground before being buried in flaming debris...

In the present, Po reaches beneath an old piece of wood and finds his long lost toy. Po stares at it before the visions strike again...once again, he sees his mother running away from her child...he stops, the memory now too painful to remember. "Stop fighting...let it flow..." Soothsayer said to him while Po remember something.

"I don't know where I came from."  Jesse said to Po while the two were sitting by the river. "It's a memory I have lost." Jesse said to Po who looks at her. "How old were you when Master Shifu find you?" Po asks her. "I was a baby." Jesse said to him.

Po slowly relaxes...he sets downs his old toy...he looks up at the rain falling down on his head then closes his eyes...he begins performing tai chi movements...he lifts his paw to catch a single raindrop as...

The two mothers frantically runs into a forest quite like the one from Po's nightmare, all the other pandas either fleeing elsewhere or dead. In Po's mother's arms, baby Po gazes ahead as Boss Wolf, his left eye now damaged, pursues them on all fours...

Po's eyes still shut, Po moves the drop from one paw to another. It doesn't break...

Po's mother dodges Boss Wolf as he lunges and falls into the snow. "Come on." The mother Fox said to her as she helps Po's mother up and the two quickly turns and runs deeper into the forests as more wolves give chase...

Po continues to move the drop without breaking it...

Po's mother and the Fox mother gets split up by wolfs. "Larisa!" Po's mother yelled making Larisa look at her. "Go take your son to safety!" Larisa yelled before she runs away with the wolfs following her making Po's mother run. 

"I remember my mother's name, Larisa." Jesse said to Po.

Po moves the droplet between his arms slowly lowering it to the ground.

Po's mother rushes down a deep snow embankment, eluding the wolves for now. She stops in front of a cart full of vegetable crates and she places baby Po inside a crate full of radishes.

Po's eyes snap open realizing that that was Jesse's mom and that his mom place him in that crate a long time ago.

Po's mother begins to leave, just like in previous visions...only this time, when baby Po begins to cry, she seems to change her mind, taking her son's little paws into her own, comforting him. Baby Po makes a "Ma!" sound as his mother kisses him on the forehead and clutches his paws tightly. His mother gazes lovingly at her child as he giggles...and then with tears in her eyes, she moves away, rushing back up the snowy hill. As her son watches, crying, she reaches the top of the hill, waves at someone and runs out of sight. Several wolves and Shen himself take off after her, not noticing baby Po as he is left alone in the radish basket...

Po deposits the rain drop onto a small plant in the grass. Po slowly falls into a sitting position, completely gutted. Soothsayer approaches as he fights back tears. "Your story may not have such a happy beginning...but that does not make you who you are. It is the rest of your story...who you choose to be..." Soothsayer said to him making Po looks up. 

Po expression slowly changes as a new wave of memories floods over him... 

This time, he remembers his infant self tumbling out of the basket at a younger Mr. Ping's feet...

Oogway choosing him as the Dragon Warrior years later... 

His first day in the Jade Palace...

Meeting Shifu, Jesse and the Furious Five... 

Training under Shifu... 

Jesse opening up to him...

Reading the Dragon Scroll and understanding its meaning... 

Defeating Tai Lung... 

Jesse bowing to him along with the Five with Tigress smiling at him for the first time...

Him handing Jesse a Yin Yang nacklace on Christmas...

Jesse kissing him inside Gongmen Jail... 

A younger Mr. Ping gazing lovingly down at baby Po as he whimpers beneath the wok on his head... 

Mr. Ping feeding baby Po on his makeshift crib...

"So...who are you, panda?" Soothsayer asks him, Po slowly gets to his feet. His eyes narrow as he is filled with a new determination. "I am Po...and I'm gonna need a hat." Po said to her before Po set out on his journey back to the city, Soothsayer hands him a straw hat before watching him disappear into the fog.