The Ticking Contingent: The Countdown vo.2

Fearscape

A black smoke seeped into Po's lungs, choking him, radiating his whole body with an unbearable scorching heat. He kept trying to fight it, kept crawling around blindly in the dark to get some air, but there seemed to be nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. He could see light, a faint glimpse of it, but every crawl, every inch, felt like he was getting nowhere. The floor seemed to stretch on endlessly, the light mocking him as it started to disappear into the smoke. 

"Why won't you die?" he kept hearing. "Can't you even die right? DIE! Where are you going? I will destroy you!" 

Po kept choking, kept gasping, kept heaving for air. He felt the floor crumbling underneath his weight and he desperately tried to move faster. Soon the floor collapsed and he began to fall into a deep abyss, only for a bright fiery light to emerge, looking like lava. Po screamed in terror but then found himself falling onto the floor of his room. 

The master sat up in terror, his body sweating in fear and he took in deep breaths to keep himself as calm as possible. That stupid vision! Why did it have to be one that haunted his nightmares? Or was it just more of the future he was seeing? It was hard to tell. 

Po groaned and got up from his bed. He needed some fresh air. Maybe he could try meditating by the peach tree. That was always relaxing. The master soon settled on this idea and soon was walking across the grounds and up the slope to the mighty tree that stood tall and proud. Po immediately took a big breath from the blossoms and then quickly jumped back when a peach nearly fell on his head. Po picked it up from the ground and laughed lightly. "Did you know I was coming out here, universe?" he asked into the night air. Of course, he got no answer. Po just sighed and took a big bite out of the peach and sat down in front of the tree to try and relax. He could still smell the hot smoke and desperately stuck his nose in the peach to try and get it out of his memory. The Dragon Warrior stared out into the valley and watched the dark clouds move across the starry sky. He soon finished the peach and immediately hit the tree to get more to fall down. Po then stuffed several of the peaches into his mouth and kept trying to relax. This whole vision thing wasn't nearly as fun as it sounded whenever Oogway had them. Or Shifu. How on earth did they handle all the creepy stuff? The master sighed and finished off his snack and then did his best to try and meditate. However, despite his best efforts, the vision still came into his head, so there was very little concentrating he could do. As he sat back against the tree with a dejected feeling, he heard footsteps approaching the peach tree and turned his head to see Tigress. 

"I don't suppose you get visions whenever I come out here, do you?" he asked jokingly. 

Tigress smiled in amusement. "No, but I appreciate the flattery," she answered, sitting down next to him in a meditating position. 

Po's smile waned. "Do you want them?" he asked, semi-seriously. 

Tigress looked at his face and gave him a sympathetic look. "No," she told him honestly. "But I don't mind hearing them, if you need to get it off your chest." 

Po just sighed. "Today when I was doing my chi class," he explained quietly. "I got another vision. And...it was pretty scary." 

Tigress looked at him in slight surprise, but kept her composure and asked, "What did you see?"

Po didn't answer for a minute. He just closed his eyes and thought. It was still there, vivid and deranged, just as it was that afternoon. A big deep chasm...or something like that," he explained. "Glowing blasts of light...kinda' like Shen's cannons...but different. It wasn't metal. I don't know what it was. And that dragon chi I used to defeat Kai? It left. And I was stuck on the floor and got hit with a blue light...and some lady asked me why I couldn't die right." 

"Why you couldn't die right?"

"And then I had a nightmare about it. Or maybe it was another vision. I don't know. It's hard to tell since I've only had two, and both of them were in broad daylight." 

Po took a deep breath and added, "I know it shouldn't be scary, but I don't like seeing dark fortress floors and evil lights and hearing people talking about death, you know? All I can think of is....is...." He couldn't even finish the sentence and just sighed. 

"Are you going to die?" Tigress finished. 

Po sighed and pulled his knees up to his chest to rest his head on them. Tigress looked very perplexed and concerned, and she sat back against the tree next to him for a minute, thinking over the vision. Finally she said, "That's a lot to take in." 

"Yeah," Po agreed. 

Tigress looked at him. "It doesn't mean you have to die," she tried. "Maybe it means...this woman is trying to kill you, but failed. Like when you took Kai to the Spirit Realm. We all thought we had lost you then." 

"True," Po admitted. "Still doesn't feel good. I just wish I knew what was going to happen. it feels like too much of a coincidence, you know?" He sat up straighter and lamented, "First I get a vision of a new dragon warrior...still haven't figured that out by the way, and now I get a vision of losing my chi and someone telling me to die correctly! Like...that just feels like something bad is gonna' happen! And now I'm wondering when and how and by whom and is anyone going to get hurt, and-"

Tigress put a paw on his shoulder and squeezed it, causing Po to stop in slight surprise and turn to look at her. "Po, listen to me," she said firmly. "I don't know what's going to happen. But you have to trust that when the time is right, you will know. And whatever happens to you, dead or not, nobody is going to get hurt. Because that's what we're here for. We've helped you protect China before and we'll keep doing it. I promise." 

Po sighed in slight relief. 

"I know that doesn't help much, but-"

"No, it helped, trust me," Po promised. "You've always had a clear head, Ti. I trust you." The master gave her a tight hug, which Tigress returned, and then the two resumed sitting back against the peach tree. Po ate another peach, taking another long sniff before sighing more deeply. "One of these days I'll remember how to relax again," he said. "I think Shifu kinda' trained that out of me." 

Tigress smirked at him. "Well, he didn't train everything out of you, so don't worry," she told him. 

Po looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?" he asked. 

Tigress leaned over and wiped his nose. "You've got juice all over you," she noted with a hint of a laugh. 

Po chuckled sheepishly. "Good to know," he said, quickly wiping his face with the back of his paw. 

The two sat at the tree for what felt like a long time, just breathing and staring out past the horizon where the valley met the sky. Finally, Tigress said, "You should get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow." 

"Yeah. Hopefully this nicer version of Zhen stays long enough for me to get on good terms with her."

"I'm sure it will." Tigress stood up from the ground and squeezed Po's shoulder again. "Goodnight, Po," she told him. 

"Goodnight, Tigress," Po replied. He then finished up his peach before taking in another deep breath of the blossoms and then getting up to go to bed.