The Tales of the Dragon Warrior

Don't Shoot the Messenger

After the incident at the door, Jade had managed to bring Tai-lung into the barracks and set him up in his old room, which had been left surprisingly untouched in the five years he had been gone. And dusty, but that was a problem for the servants to deal with. Jade leaned against Tai-lung's doorway as he got his bed arranged the way he liked it.

"You sure you don't need anything? Like an extra blanket or something?", Jade asked. Tai-lung chuckled and shook his head.

"No Jade, I'm fine. Thank you for asking, though.", he answered. Jade nodded with a small smile.

"Alright, just checking. I don't want you to be uncomfortable on your first night back home.", she said. Tai-lung nodded as he crawled into bed and shut his eyes. Jade's smiled at his still form.

"Goodnight.", she whispered quietly, before starting to close the door. But Tai-lung's voice interrupted her.

"Thanks again, by the way.", he said. Jade stopped closing the door and blinked at him in confusion.

"For what?", she questioned, not sure about what exactly he was thanking her for. Tai-lung opened his bright yellow eyes and smiled at her.

"For bringing me home.", he answered, and Jade felt her heart warm at his thankfulness. She was so glad she had managed to change things from the path they took in the movie.

"You're welcome.", she told him, and then she slowly and quietly closed the door. Once the door was closed, she turned around to face the Furious Five, who had been stalking her since she got back. She frowned at their scowling faces.

"Okay, you can freak out now.", she told them. Tianyu was the first to speak.

"Why the hell is he here?!", the green haired man asked in a whisper-yell. Jade glared at him.

"Because I didn't think he deserved to die, because I didn't want to kill him, and because Laofu explicitly asked me to let him live.", Jade answered, and everyone looked at Laofu, who didn't even flinch under their gazes.

"What? He's my brother. What was I supposed to do? Let him die?", the orange haired man defended with crossed arms. Hou narrowed his eyes at him.

"No, but you could have at least told us that before we went after him!", the black eyed man exclaimed. Laofu glared at him.

"Oh yeah, because that would have gone over so well! 'Hey guys, let's go fight Tai-lung, but can we not hurt him too badly because I still care about him despite pretending to hate him for years?' Yeah, ecause you all would totally understand that!", Laofu whisper-yelled. Baihe gave him a disappointed look.

"No, but we would have at least tried to understand you and respect your wishes. We've worked with you too long to do anything else Laofu, you know that.", Baihe scolded. Guan nodded in agreement, and Jade sighed tiredly.

"Well regardless of all of that, Tai-lung is here to stay. Chorh-gom prison is being converted into a normal prison, and there's an official edict putting him in the Jade Palace's custody for his 'rehabilitation'. He's going to resume his post as a kung fu master here to 'work off his debt to society'.", Jade explained, using the words Shifu had used to describe the situation. The Five looked at her in disbelief.

"You can't be serious!", Hou exclaimed. Jade nodded and looked at him with annoyed, narrowed eyes.

"Oh I'm dead serious. Tai-lung wants to change for the better and let his hatred go, and who am I to deny him that? He's here because he wants to come home, be with his family and become a force for good like he was in the past. And he's not going anywhere any time soon, so get used to it.", Jade told them, and though most of the Five still looked very apprehensive, they didn't protest her words. Laofu was the only one to voice any further concerns.