Kung Fu Panda 4 (rewritten)

The Value of Second Chances.

They all shortly returned home to the Valley of Peace. And as planned, Zhen went back to serve her time in the Valley of Peace Prison. Po escorted her to down the stairs to the chariot that stood there with two geese guards, waiting for her.

Upon arrival, Po stopped and handed Zhen a box with a pair of chopstick tied to it.

"My dads have packed some food for your time in jail." Po offered. "They said they hoped it wouldn't be your final meal."

"Thanks, Po." Zhen smiled.

Zhen stepped inside the cage as the geese closed and locked the door. Before leaving, Po had a small talk with Zhen.

"Zhen, I wasn't kidding when I said that you've been very brave back there. But I don't understand how you did that."

"Yeah, well." Zhen briefly glanced up at the Jade Palace. "A good friend once told me that as long as the bad things keep outweighing the good things, there is no point in staying."

"She does sound like a good friend to everyone." Po smiled.

He nodded at the geese guards to let them know that it was time to depart. As the chariot slowly took off, Zhen waved at Po through the bars and shouted at him from afar.

"Po! Thank you for showing me the right path and for being my friend!"

After Zhen was taken to jail, Po climbed the stairs back up and walked to the training yard. Crane and Daiyu were playing with a 5 year old Amur leopard with grayish blue eyes. And at the top of the steps, Shifu sipped tea as he sat with an infant Chinese mountain cat swaddled in a cloth and tied with another cloth on his back.

"Uncle Po! Uncle Po!" The Amur leopard smiled as she jumped at him.

"Yina! How you doing?" Po chuckled as the cub sat on his shoulders.

"Mom just told me I have another grandpa. Grandpa Tai Lung! Grandpa Shifu said he doesn't speak much, because he's shy. He also looks at Aihan very often."

"He actually said that?" Po asked, trying to keep in his giggling.

"Yeah, but he did look kinda scary at first." Yina nodded. "Do you think he ever killed anyone?"

Po gulped as he saw Crane and Daiyu frantically yet subtlety shaking their heads with wide eyes. Po chuckled nervously as he put Yina back on the ground.

"Yeah, well, he isn't as scary once you get to know him. And he'd never hurt anyone." Po replied. "I'll be at the peach tree, meditating."

Po quickly skedaddled straight to the peach tree and settled down. Sitting crosslegged, he soon started meditating. He reflected on everything that had happened the past couple of days. They were all chaotic, unpredictable. But in the end, they were fulfilling and teachable. The new things he learned and the new people he met. Zhen.

As he kept meditating, he slowly began to understand why Zhen had been brought into his life. He rewinded it all the day they first caught her in the Hall of Warriors, how he bailed her out, their journey, their bonding time and watching her stand her ground and defeat the one person who made her the way she turned out. Po then realized nothing was an accident.

That there were no accidents.

Po soon got out of his meditation after hours, before hurrying down the hill.

A week had passed as Zhen sat in her cell, looking at the peach pit in her hand that Po had given to her, remembering his words, his lessons and was very, very thankful for it. Zhen suddenly got a visit from Po, who had come to reduce her sentence, as promised. She didn't actually think he would do it, but she was grateful anyway.

Po and Zhen were walking down the village as they chatted back and forth, mostly about what Zhen was going to do.

"What am I gonna be doing anyway? Work at your dad's noodle shop as a waitress? I only worked with food once and that didn't end so well." Zhen said.

"I think you're better suited for a job with a little more room for growth." Po replied, pointing with staff up at the mountain top. 

"The Jade Palace?" Zhen asked, raising her eyebrow at Po.

Po shifted his eyes back at Zhen with a confident grin as they went up there. While most of the Six were mildly accepting of her staying with them, Shifu, on the other hand, was very reluctant. In fact, he was highly against it, but Po tried to smooth things over as he always does, before taking Zhen to the peach tree.

"You would need to do some chores around here if you're gonna live with us, but most of it will just be training and just hanging around." Po explained to Zhen.

"Okay, yeah, yeah." Zhen nodded, sounding a little too monotone as she stared at the ground.

"Hey, you okay?" Po asked, Zhen sighed sadly.

"He's right, what about me says I'm ready for this?" She asked, her ears droopy.

"Well, as I learned from working in my dad's kitchen, sometimes the greatest dishes come from the most unlikely ingredients." Po said. "Maybe you'll turn out just as great."

"And what if I won't?" Zhen asked.

"Zhen, just remember this if you think about that again. Nothing is impossible."

Seeing Zhen now feeling better, he sat with her under the peach tree and told her all she needed to know and even meditated with her. After a while, Po peeked and chuckled when he saw Zhen had dozed off. After all, she was still a kid and still learning.