Kung Fu Panda: Rule of Two

Prologue

The night was rainy and almost completely black. No light to be seen besides the dim streetlights running throughout the Valley of Peace. A duo of cloaked and hooded tigers walked through the dimly-lit streets: one black, and one orange. They were married.

Each tiger held in their hands a small tiger cub. They were twins, brother and sister, and couldn't be more than 6 months old. They walked through the streets until they came to the building they had set out to reach: the Bao Gu Orphanage.

They walked up to the very front step and paused for a moment, completely soaked in water from the heavy rain.

"Are you sure about this?" The female tiger asked.

"We are sure," the male tiger began, "they have a much better chance here than they ever would with us."

The female tiger remained silent and looked down at the small child she held in her arms.

"Hey," he began again as he nudged her chin up to look at her, "we are doing this for them."

She stayed silent, but nodded her head.

They stood on the top step and looked down at their children in their arms one last time.

"Are you ready?" The father asked.

She paused.

"Can we at least name them?" The mother asked.

He hesitated.

"Okay."

After a few moments to think, she set the small cub wrapped in the blanket in the basket underneath the porch overhang and spoke: "Kato."

The father proceeded to put the twin girl in the basket next to him and spoke: "Tigress."

The mother and father took a step back to look at their children one last time before departing, never to come back. While sadness was in their hearts, no tears were shed that night. This needed to be done, at least, that's how they justified it.

An hour or so later, the sun began to rise and one of the workers at the orphanage opened the door to check for new arrivals and saw the two tiger cubs.

She picked them both up and read the note that was left with them: "Tigress and Kato."

She turned around and walked back into the building. The cubs were both still sound asleep, having no idea their lives were about to change forever.

***

As the years went on, the other children at the orphanage welcomed Tigress with open arms, and she fit right in. It wouldn't be the same for Kato. The other children were almost afraid of him. His hardcore attitude, his claws, and his hairpin-trigger temper didn't quite fit in with the other children, especially with his sister.

Tigress knew that Kato would never hurt anyone, but the children never even gave him a chance to prove himself to them.

As time went on and Kato and Tigress shared their sixth birthday together, Kato didn't celebrate. He looked himself in the mirror and wondered why everybody was so afraid of him.

"Am I really a monster?" He asked himself quietly.

"No, you're not." Tigress said as she walked into his room behind him, shut the door, and sat on one of the beds.

"You're not supposed to be in the boys' room, Tigress," he started.

"Relax, Kato. You're my brother. And you're not a monster. You can't let what those kids say get to your head." She replied.