The Countdown

Reunited

The masters reached the Valley of Peace around nightfall, their wounds beginning to heal and their sore spots beginning to fade. After defeating Lord Shen and then walking all the way home, they were all exhausted, so Shifu made sure that everyone went right to bed. He also instructed that everyone was to take a week off from training to tend to their injuries, (especially Tigress), and rest from the battle. More than happy to do just that, the masters stumbled up the Jade Palace stairs, walked over to the barracks, and went straight to bed. Shifu headed up to the Sacred Hall of Warriors where his room was tucked in the back, making every effort to sleep. The masters closed their eyes and rested comfortably on their beds, drifting off into dreamland.

Except they didn't actually go to sleep.

Monkey, who was the first one to hit the hay, had started falling asleep, only to roll over on a burn mark and wake up in terror, remembering the burn from the cannon as it came hurdling at the group on the boats. Mantis kept hearing creaks from the wind blowing against the barracks, opening his eyes just to make sure that the building wasn't falling over. Crane's head drifted onto a bad part of his wing while he tried to fall asleep, resulting with him snapping his eyes open, only to remember that there wasn't a cannonball about to go flying through the window. Viper started having brief images of Po rolling into the open floor of the tower, her body curling up tightly as she tried to subconsciously catch him. Tigress wasn't sleeping simply for the reason that her broken ribs kept causing her a lot of pain. An hour passed by. Then two. Then three. When almost four hours has gone by, everyone slowly started to finally go back to bed. However, this sleep didn't last long as Po, who had been tossing and turning in an effort to find a cozy sleep spot, accidentally rolled over and let out a loud cry of alarm, looking around to see that he wasn't in Shen's tower. This woke up the others who immediately dashed to his aid. (Everyone except Tigress who took longer because she had to be careful getting up so as to avoid hurting her chest). Needless to say, with such sleep patterns, no one slept almost the whole night.

The next morning, a group of exhausted masters were once again starting to drift off. Some heavy creaking from the floorboards snapped them to attention, but they all groaned when they realized that it was Po walking out of the barracks.
"Po," Monkey groaned from behind his door. "Go back to bed."
"Sorry, guys," the dragon warrior apologized. "But I need to do something, like, now."
The master quickly squeaked his way out of the barracks, allowing his friends to go back to bed. He then started to head towards his dad's noodle shop, carrying around the small panda doll he had found a day earlier, and trying to avoid the large amount of people wandering around so as to make it a surprise. As Po reached the restaurant, he noticed that there was a big box of radishes outside, waiting to be taken inside. Po smiled and went to go pick it ip, heading to the front of the noodle shop. As he started to walk in, he saw his dad conversing with a pig mom and her son. No one else was there which surprised Po a bit.
"I don't know!" Mr. Ping was wailing. "Okay?! I don't know! Maybe never! But I worry, okay, that's my job. I'm his dad! I mean, at least I was his dad."
The old goose laid across the table, his voice dropping a few decibels. "Why did he have to go and save China?" he asked. "I mean, I know why, but...why? He's just...one...little...panda."
Po now felt really bad for leaving his dad with no assurance before departing, but walked into the entrance, causing the young pig to let out an excited gasp and point towards Po. Mr, Ping, noticing the direction he was pointing in, also gasped happily, running over to his son and hugging him tightly, relieved that he had made it back. He then released Po and said, "Well, how did it go? Did you save China?"
"I sure did," Po answered with a smile.
"I knew you would," Mr. Ping told him with a nervous smile. "I even had new flyers made." He picked up a flyer from a nearby table, reading, "My son saved China; you too can save. Buy one dumpling, get one free!"
Po kneeled down to his dad's level, stating, "Hey, that's a pretty good deal."
"Would you like to try one?"
"Maybe later," he answered gently. "There's something I need to tell you."
Mr. Ping gulped.
"While I was away," Po told his dad. "I found the village where I was born. I found out how I ended up in that radish basket."
"You did?" Mr. Ping asked worriedly.
"I know who I am."
"You do?"
Po felt his eyes water, a small smile creeping across his face. "I'm your son," he said.
Mr. Ping, happy and relieved, engulfed his son in a hug, the two happy to be together again.
"I love you, dad" Po said.
"I love you too, son." Mr. Ping replied, happy tears flowing out of his eyes. After a second, he noticed the two radish boxes behind that Po had put down behind him, exclaiming, "Ah! Delicious, fat radishes!" He scrambled down to pick up a box, continuing with, "You must be hungry, though. Let me make you some soup."
"What are you talking about," Po said. "I'll cook."
"It's the least I can do," Mr. Ping said. "You saved China."
"No, it's the least I can do; you raised me," Po replied, patting the excited pig child on the head.
"Po..."
"Dad."
"Po."
"Tell you what," Po suggested. "How about we both cook...together."
"Together..." Mr. Ping repeated, considering the idea. He then said, "No, I'll cook."
Po smiled and followed him inside, setting the radish basket down on the floor near some of the other supplies that were laying around.

"So, tell me," Mr. Ping said, cutting up some vegetables to stick into the pot. "How did you end up in that basket?"

"Well, long story short," Po answered, putting a pot of water over the fire. "The guy who was trying to take over China, Lord Shen, he heard about thirty years ago that a panda would be his undoing. So, he decided to change his destiny by killing off the pandas, which included my parents."

"Oh, son," Mr. Ping said sadly, stopping his chopping to face him. "I-I'm so sorry."

"It's ok," Po promised. "I may not have known them very well, but what I do remember is that they loved me. I remember that my birth dad fought off the village and my mom put me in the radish basket and then lead the wolves away so that I could live."

A sad and quiet moment hung over the kitchen as Po reflected on the memories.
Mr. Ping sniffled, trying to hold back some tears. "That's very sweet," he said. "Well, atleast now you know that they gave you up for a good reason." With a smile, he added, "I did think that it was strange that you were in a radish basket of all places. There had to have been a good reason for that."

Po smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he admitted. "I wish that I knew more about them, but at least I got the best dad anyone could ask for."

Mr. Ping's eyes watered happily and he hugged Po again, the two happy to be back together again. And for the rest of the day, the two spent their time cooking together, catching up on the time that they've been apart and feeling as if nothing about their relationship had ever been disrupted.