None of the geese who were there that morning ever mentioned the young tigress in the expensive, blood-stained dress, nor the crying infant wrapped up in the Grandmaster's robe, but when seven years passed and a tiger child was brought to the Palace they each guessed who she was, and wondered what had happened to her mother.

Oogway had known her the moment he read the missive from Bao Gu, pleading for the Palace's help with a tigress with uncontrollable strength. He sent Shifu to assess the situation, and was both gladdened and disheartened with what his friend told him upon his return.

Wherever the girl's mother had been heading, she had not made it; the baby was found outside the doors of the Valley's orphanage in the middle of the night when a tremendous knocking had alerted one of the caretakers there. There was no sign of her mother.

Her luminescent eyes had frightened the workers, but there had been no real problems until the girl's temper started to develop and her strength began to show. The matron, concerned for the safety of the children and staff, put the girl in a reinforced room behind a metal door and heavy lock; Shifu had found the room in an incredible state of disrepair, strewn with broken furniture and shattered toys. The child within was sullen and heartworn, angry at those who called her a monster but believing the same herself.

Shifu was astonished at the strength the girl displayed, nearly the equal to his own. He had given the girl a wooden domino, only for it to break the moment she grasped it; they practiced forms outside in the courtyard and she had punched straight through a stone wall by accident. Oogway bid him to train her, and listened to lackluster reports every night. After two and a half months passed Shifu began to get discouraged at the girl's lack of progress in controlling both her strength and her temper; Oogway almost stepped in, but at the three-month mark he began to hear of improvements, until finally Shifu told him of her success in the task he had set for her – to complete a pattern of dominoes without breaking or tipping a single one.

Oogway could see in him his desire to keep training the girl, and suggested that the Palace adopt her. His student was reluctant, torn between wanting to bring her back but not wanting to ruin her chances of possibly finding another family, and so they waited until the next adoption day. Shifu went well after the doors were closed, and late into the night Oogway heard the patter of soft footsteps accompanying Shifu's. He was introduced to the young girl early the next morning.

She looked well, he thought. Sturdier than most children, and already as tall as her new teacher; she would undoubtedly outgrow even her mother. She wasn't shy to meet him; on the contrary, she looked eager to make a new friend.

Oogway watched her curiously during her first few training sessions. She didn't have the talent that Tai Lung seemed born with, but worked hard – very hard – to be as good as Shifu expected her to be. Oogway sensed that that would become a problem in later years. Over the course of several days he saw much that encouraged his opinion that she would never be completely normal – but she made it work. Her abnormal strength, melded with her passion and almost single-minded determination, hinted at the glowing warrior he knew she would become.

Overall, the girl – uncreatively named Tigress, though Oogway knew he wasn't one to talk – seemed like a bright, energetic child, eager to help and happy to have found her home. Within days he had grown immensely fond of her, as he had Tai Lung. There was the potential for darkness to grow within her, but Oogway hoped that a happy life living and training at the Palace would curtail that.

Of course, it couldn't last.

The next week, his grandson tore apart the village below in a fit of rage and shame, killing over a dozen people and earning a lifelong imprisonment in a lonely fortress. The entire Palace was in mourning for weeks over the betrayal of its former son and the loss of its honored villagers, and Shifu withdrew into himself. It took many days for Oogway to convince him to keep teaching, and when he did he was harder, harsher, and more of a perfectionist than ever before. Tigress halfway killed herself trying to meet his impossible standards, and Oogway interrupted training for lunch or meditation whenever he felt that the poor girl couldn't take anymore.

A year passed and Tigress began to grow frustrated and angry to the point of being volatile; Oogway found her one evening crying and punching at rocks. He showed her how to hit an inanimate object in a way that both built pain tolerance and provided an outlet for her feelings without immediately crippling her, and she began to punch the ironwood trees that grew behind the Palace, the pain in her hands lessening the pain in her heart. It wasn't an ideal solution, but simply telling Shifu to lighten up would not work in the long run, so Oogway tried to provide the child with what she would need to both mentally and physically survive her master's harsh training regimen.

Over the years her naturally playful personality was beaten down and her self-esteem issues began to grow again, until she denied her own nature completely in an effort to become like Shifu; surely, if she were just like him, he would finally approve of her? She despaired at the smallest mistakes (and Shifu never failed to point them out) and whenever she deviated from his training to follow what felt more natural to her she was berated and chided for messing up her form. Many nights Oogway would climb to the ironwood grove or the peach tree and talk to her, as best he could keeping her heart from bleeding out and her eyes from searching the edges of the cliff.

When she was fifteen she was joined in training by four other students, none of whom were prepared to fight in the style Shifu insisted upon. He grudgingly agreed that having a style suited to an individual's own talents and strengths was better than forcing them to fit the mold he had created, and so Tigress was allowed more creativity, more opportunities to explore her own nature, and – most importantly – four friends. But Shifu's training was as harsh as ever, and Tigress grew colder and more withdrawn, her optimistic and playful temperament beaten down by the severe demeanor that she believed a kung fu master – like Shifu – should possess.

She became the perfect warrior: hard, dedicated, and skilled beyond the majority of her peers. Her unnatural strength aided her in her missions and lent her a reputation as a fearsome and nigh unbeatable warrior. Oogway continued to watch her progress out of the corner of his eye, but grew more relaxed about it as the years passed, until Tigress was twenty-two and realized that her strength wasn't just incredible – it was impossible.

Upon returning from a mission in the west, she had disappeared from the group before even arriving at the Palace, and Oogway heard from the others that she was upset about something. He had a feeling that she would be with the ironwood trees rather than on the peach tree hill, and so made the climb through the winding mountains behind the Palace grounds, after a brief stop in the Palace storeroom.

He took his time to let her cool off (and it was a steep climb), but when he found her he realized that he had been wrong; she had not gone to the grove to release her anger, but to question her strength. She paced slowly in front of a line of fallen trees – trees that had, he could see, been knocked down within the past hour. Some of them had holes punched clean through.

Tigress spotted him and bowed, stiffly and quickly; he watched as she moved toward him and stopped with a jerk, clenching and unclenching her fists. She seemed unwilling to begin speaking and Oogway decided a little prompting was necessary.

"How was your mission, young Tigress?"

Tigress took a deep breath and looked him square in the eye.

"I met another tiger," she said. "In Zhenshang."

Oh.

She had always known that she was different – how could she not? The only predator in the orphanage, the only tiger in the Valley, immensely strong and physically capable of more than most adults - she was a class all of her own, and she had known this since she was a little girl locked behind a metal door for her differences.

The geese around the Palace talked, she had learned. To be honest, until the others showed up there hadn't been much to talk about; light the candles, listen to Master Shifu berate Tigress, clean, do laundry, order repairs for whatever Shifu was demolishing, fix dinner…Crane and the others had added interest again to Palace life, and the geese who worked there chattered more than ever. Tigress rarely paid attention to it unless it involved Shifu, but she sometimes noticed a small group of cleaners talking about her, always the same ones. Their comments on her strength, her shining eyes, her endurance…they were nothing unusual – but what she found when she came across another tiger in her travels brought all of them back to her mind.

She had always known that she was different – but exactly how much had never been made clear. People often commented on her strength, whispered about it to their friends, watched her from the corners of their eyes; she had thought that it was because of fear - because of what the last large, strong feline had done to the Valley. It was not an unfounded assumption, given what had happened to her at the orphanage. Fear was a mantle that had shrouded Tigress her whole life, and would continue on forever.

But it had not been until she met the other tiger in the mountains in the west that she truly understood.

She had never seen another tiger before; from what she understood, they were usually a rather solitary people, spending their lives alone or with a few choice individuals, separated in their own small communities away from villages and cities. The tiger she met had been in his early thirties, a wandering stonemason in search of work. He had politely introduced himself, inquired about her position as a kung fu master, and they chatted briefly before he asked why her eyes glowed. She had been so surprised at meeting another of her species that she hadn't even realized his didn't.

His eyes were a rich honey-gold, but they did not glow, as she knew hers did.

She didn't have an answer for him. He asked about her strength, too, having witnessed the end of the fight with that month's rampaging warlord. Tigress had always figured that her strength was part of being a tiger. It was jarring to find out that she wasn't just unusual for a member of the Valley; she was unusual for a member of her species. Upon her doubt he proved it to her by lifting two bags of grain from a nearby stall, the most he could manage. She knew without trying that she could lift the entire cart.

Nobody spoke about it on the way home until Tigress had angrily questioned Crane, the first friend she'd ever made. He was frank about his amazement of her strength. She had never noticed. Had he hidden it well, or simply not cared? He told her that he valued their friendship regardless. The others had expressed the same sentiment, and Tigress's heart had lightened considerably until Mantis offhandedly mentioned a bit of gossip he had overheard: something about Oogway and her mother. She had run ahead after that, stopping in the ironwood grove just short of the Palace, wanting both of hit something and hide her strength as much as possible.

Six trees had fallen to her temper before the Grandmaster showed up, as she knew he would. She had measured each punch: just enough to knock it down; just enough to put a hole through; just enough to splinter the trunk. The Grandmaster looked upon the trees with mild curiosity before his eyes settled on her own. He wasn't nervous; he never was. His continuously serene demeanor had always assured her before, but now she found it enraging. Even his calm at her meeting another tiger felt maddening. Didn't he ever get upset?

"And what did you discover, Tigress," he asked her. She clenched her fists and began to pace again, her anger turning into a burning energy.

"You lied to me."

"I did not."
"You kept things from me."
"I did."
"Why?"

When she turned around, he had taken a seat on one of the fallen trees, staff laying across his knees.

"Would it have helped you to know?" he asked frankly. "You have much uncertainty in your life now. I did not wish to burden you with more; you were not ready."
I'm ready now, she almost snarled, but held it back; Oogway always had his reasons for everything, and he had not led anyone wrong yet. If he said she wasn't ready, she wasn't ready, no matter her feelings about it.

Tigress felt her anger slowly dwindle, until it left her worn and exhausted, standing in the middle of a damaged grove with shaking paws. She walked over and took a seat next to him; her body suddenly reminded her that she had been on the road for two days with little food and even less rest.

Oogway drew a claw through the folds of his robe and handed her an apricot; she snorted and took it, turning it over and over in her paws. He always had made sure that she ate.

"I knew…"

She fiddled with the apricot, testing how rough she could handle it without puncturing the skin. She made a few more aborted attempts to speak, and then swallowed shakily.

"Please tell me what happened," she whispered. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Oogway nod. He hmmm'd contemplatively and she forced her body to stop tensing. This was Oogway, she told herself. It couldn't be that horrible.

"Just before dawn," Oogway said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "Almost twenty years ago, a young tigress came to the Palace. Her body was failing, and her child was half-dead."

Tigress's breath froze in her lungs. Her mother…

"There was nothing that I could do for her but ease her pain," Oogway continued, his voice soft. "She had been attacked, and was ill besides. She had come in hope that you would be healed."
He sighed deeply, and Tigress felt his eyes on her face. Her heart was pounding faster than it had when she'd destroyed half the ironwood grove.

"But you were already too far gone. In that moment I had a vision of the warrior you were to become, and I ventured into the next world to retrieve you," he said quietly. "You are not completely of this realm, but part of the Spirit World as well. Your strength and endurance come from that."

Tigress didn't realize her paws were shaking until she felt Oogway's claws gently cover them. He so rarely touched anyone that the surprise knocked her out of her own shock. She cleared her throat and asked shakily:

"My mother…?"
Oogway's claws tightened around her fingers before he let go and slowly shook his head.

"She would not stay," he said. "She had somewhere to take you, but I believe she felt her passing before she could make it, and left you at Bao Gu."

Tigress's whole body shivered, and she stood, suddenly angry.

"Why couldn't you save her," she hissed at Oogway's face. "You said I was nearly dead, and you still saved me. Why didn't you…why couldn't…"

She was too angry to allow the tears to fall, and she turned away, clenching her fists at her sides as she tried to calm herself. Behind her soft footfalls echoed in the quiet grove, and a gentle but unyielding touch at her shoulder made her turn around.

"Whomever had injured her left metal in her chest, and her illness built fluid in her lungs."
"But if you brought me back from the dead, Master, why couldn't-"
"Healing your body took hours, young Tigress, and bringing you back to this world was not without its consequences."

Oogway held up one hand and Tigress felt her blood run cold at the tremors that shook it. He'd always had those shakes, she'd thought, always had one eye that couldn't focus as well, always seemed like his head was too heavy for his neck. Had it not been always…?

"It was not her destiny to be saved, as you had been. The Universe chose you. I had to respect that."

You should too hung unspoken, loud in the quiet grove and approaching night. Tigress, for the first time in many years, noticed the glow of her eyes illuminating the fur on her nose. She clenched her fists as tight as she could, and knew she could crush rocks if she wanted to.

"What do I do," she whispered. Oogway smiled fondly.

"What makes you think you have to do anything," he said. Tigress held up her paws, agitatedly pacing back and forth in front of him.

"You said I'm some sort of spirit creature, aren't I? Chosen by the Universe? Surely there must be something I'm meant to be doing-"
"Is what you are doing now not worthwhile? Saving villages; stopping bandits; defeating warlords – is this not enough?"
"Any Master can do that," Tigress said. "Most Masters do. What could the Universe have possibly have wanted me for?"

Tigress suddenly stiffened, her face a picture of incredulity. Oogway was suddenly violently reminded of her mother as a cold determination narrowed her eyes. He watched her slowly look back toward the Palace, and knew then that she was thinking of that blasted Dragon Scroll.

Oogway felt his heart plummet into his stomach.

Oh no, he thought glumly. Not again.

A/N: I think that Oogway tries – tries being the operative word here – to not interfere as much as he could. As we saw in the shorts and movies, he's easily the most powerful person in China, unbeatable in both kung fu techniques and whatever magic mumbo jumbo he does. But he always gets other people to do the saving, he always has other people fix things, and I think it's because he's so powerful. He could do everything, but then where would everybody else be? Waiting for him to fix it? If he had taken down Boar in Secrets of the Scroll, Tigress would never have found her awesomeness. If he had defeated the Wu Sisters then Ox, Croc, and Rhino would never have become badasses. He interfered with Tai Lung because Shifu tried and failed, but he knew he couldn't do it again – everything would be messed up. So he lets things play out as they should, with only a minimum of tinkering. That's why I think he didn't stop Shifu from being such a dick. Tigress had to overcome her obstacles herself.

So, this is a bit of an AU. Tigress is more supernatural-y in here than she is in canon. Remember that she's also a little younger in this chapter.

Oogway is totally that wonderful grandparent who always insists on feeding everyone.

I think Tigress is a little closer to Crane than the others, which makes sense given that he was the first one she met. He actually has the most interaction with her out of the rest of the Five: They sparred briefly on the Jade Tortoise when Shifu was showing Po the Training Hall; he spoke first after she said 'One would think that Master Oogway would choose someone who actually knew kung fu', whereas Monkey actually looked a little frightened; he reminded her that they weren't supposed to talk about Tai Lung; she picks him up when his wing was injured in Gongmen, and then he asks if maybe she can't watch him be killed?; he attacks her first after he was Jombified, when Kai attacked the Palace.