The Emperor and his finally finally arrived the following day, which relieved Po since it meant that soon Ming would be leaving the area and they would just have to worry about Ella. Since he no longer trained at the Jade Palace, he wasn't required to participate in the elaborate training presentation Shifu had, nor escort the emperor and his family around the grounds. He and his dating group were required to greet the imperial family on their arrival since it would be considered rude to ignore or avoid an imperial guest. Shifu did make sure to put everyone in the correct order of rank, with himself in the front and Superintendent Woo and Ming just behind him, the Five just behind Shifu but also slightly behind Woo, Ella and her guard right besides them which she found infuriating since she wanted to be in the front, and Po and his group at the back where they could be seen but not feel obligated to speak.

"Your majesty," Shifu greeted.

The Emperor, who was a very tall gazelle and was dressed in a very nice shade of gold and red, thanked everyone for their hospitality and said how much he looked forward to the event. He then presented the Empress, who was even taller, and their four children: a young lady just as tall as her parents, a boy with a clear birthmark of a moon on his neck, a tiny prince who everyone was surprised to learn was actually sixteen, and the youngest of the bunch who was ten and clearly feeling much better since he wouldn't stop trying to climb onto his father's back.

"This is one thing about parenthood they don't tell you," the Emperor laughed. "You need to learn to become a sturdy playground."

Po laughed but quickly covered his mouth to avoid drawing too much attention to himself.

"It's nice to see you as well, Master Po," the Empress greeted with a smile and a chuckle at Po's expense. "We were surprised when we were informed you were no longer in the position of Dragon Warrior, but I'm glad you're enjoying your new assignment."

She then turned to Tigress and added, "He made a fine choice in selecting you as the new Dragon Warrior," she complimented. "Though I must say when Grandmaster Shifu wrote to us about it I wasn't much surprised. Your display of leadership and skill is very well-known throughout the southern province and it's a pleasure to know China's future is well-secure here in the valley of peace."

Tigress blushed at the compliment and bowed in an attempt to hide it.

"Your excellencies are most welcome to the Jade Palace," Shifu told them with another bow. "I know we do have a schedule to keep though and I'd hate to delay..."

"Naturally of course," the emperor agreed.

Since the imperial family was quite hungry, Shifu escorted them to the sacred hall of warriors where an elaborate meal was set up for them, Superintendent Woo and Ming, and the masters to enjoy. Ella also came up, though this was only because Shifu had explained her situation to the emperor and the emperor decided to treat her as a special guest. When they had left, Po let out a sigh of relief for some peace and quiet and he and his group made their way to the kitchen for their own lunch, which was much simpler than the elaborate one set up by Shifu. After lunch, they headed over to the barracks to play a few rounds of checkers and chat, and some of the group decided to bring out some personal items they had brought from home. Most of the girls had pictures of their loved ones, so Po got to finally get a good look at some faces he had only heard of during their conversations. Tai Lin's family portrait was in her locket as was expected, but it was considerably outdated since Tai Lin looked about four in the picture. Destiny, who had been secretly hoping that her "Tai Lung is a relative" theory was correct was disappointed to see nothing but unfamiliar and friendly faces, but her disappointment soon melted away as she started commenting on how gorgeous and nice Tai Lin's parents looked.

As Po started to talk about how his dad had given him some family photos to remember everyone by, a knock sounded on his door and one of the palace servants opened the door.

"Master Po," he greeted. "Sorry to interrupt, but the emperor and his family have formally requested your presence in the training hall."

"Me?!" Po exclaimed in surprise. "But...I'm not part of the Jade Palace masters anymore! Or even the Dragon Warrior!"

"The emperor requested a sparring match between yourself and Master Tigress, since she is the new Dragon Warrior and he would like to see how your styles compared."

Still surprised, all Po could manage to say was "Oh."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea!" Ordai exclaimed excitedly. "And of course we don't want to disappoint the emperor, Po! Go show them the power of the Dragon Warrior!"

"Ordai..." Leopard warned.

"We can wait a few minutes," Ordai said, not even acknowledging the annoyed stares. She then kissed Po on the cheek for good luck and shoved him out the door of his room telling him to go kick Tigress' butt. This made Po very uncomfortable as the palace servant escorted him across the grounds and to the training hall. He knew that Tigress was very understanding and reasonable when it came to the confusion of them swapping roles and doing other things, but he was a bit worried that this request would make her feel inferior to him. Especially with Shifu's earlier slip up when he thought Tai Lung had returned to the valley. He tried to keep himself calm and say that it was just a match to test both of their skills and even recalled how Tigress used to kick him around constantly in the training hall despite getting much better. However, he was still a bundle of nerves when he finally reached the training grounds and was greeted by Master Shifu and the emperor.

"I apologize if we disturbed you, Master Po," the emperor said as Po bowed. "But we were very curious to see how different the styles of yourself and Master Tigress were. After all, the two of you are the only ones in the history of kung fu to ever have that title and I thought, Why let such an opportunity go to waste?"

"Oh, it's no problem, your majesty," Po promised. "I...I was a little surprised though, I guess."

"I was excited when mom and dad told me there was finally a Dragon Warrior!" the eldest princess said. "I used to listen to all the stories about the prophecy when I was little and now there's two epic warriors!"

"I prefer Po," the second oldest child remarked, though his sister gave him a sharp nudge in the side which caused him to yelp in pain and complain to his dad.

"Not now you two," the Emperor scolded. "Be respectful. We're in the company of masters."

"Sorry, baba," the two apologized.

"I have told the Emperor that you've had some training with the Hearts of Yin and Yang," Master Shifu explained to Po. "And thought you're not nearly as experienced as the Five, he would like to see how you do in combat with one of those weapons. The Dragon Warrior gets first pick as the most senior master, and she's decided to go with the Flaming Staff, as you can clearly see."

Po swallowed nervously. "Well...uh...it's good I'm better with the fan then," he said.

Tigress stood in the center of the arena with the fire staff in hand, waiting for Po's arrival and for the start of the match. She didn't seem too nervous or irritated which should have been a comfort, Po supposed, but he was worried about what might happen if he beat her. In front of Shifu it wasn't much of a problem. But this was the Emperor. And there was already mild bickering from the kids about who the better role model should be....

As he walked to grab the fan and face his friend, Po went back and forth over whether he should give his all or just try and hold back a little bit and let Tigress win just in case he happened to beat her. He just wasn't sure. Tigress used to get upset whenever he beat her, but that was back when he was new and she was used to being the 24/7 dominant person in the Jade Palace. He was a tough cookie and he was well aware of that, but Tigress was also more focused and more tactical than he was. So more often than not they dominated the training hall 50/50. Working together they were unstoppable! But against each other there could be some back and forth between who was better than who from one move to the next. Shifu began the match and Po immediately ducked out of the way of Tigress' swing, which she had learned to do from the ground up in a sweeping motion to give her more momentum for a more effective swing and a stronger hit. Po really wanted to avoid this, especially now that the weapon was much heavier than it was the first time they had used it. When Tigress came charging again, he took hold of the ribbons at the bottom and swung them at just the right angle to magnetize them to the fire staff and give him more time to think. Tigress stopped in surprise at this move, but quickly flashed Po to blind him and then quickly worked to detach the weapons while the panda was distracted. Before Po was aware of what was happening, the fan had been ripped out of his paws and Tigress quickly tied the ribbons to her wrist before swinging the staff in his face and knocking him across the grounds. All the spectators on the sidelines winced and "oohed" in sympathy for Po's injury as the panda tried to quickly collect himself.

Po saw Tigress coming out of the corner of his eyes and rolled out of the way to avoid another blow to the face. He now had no weapon, so he didn't have any means of defending himself. Of course, Tigress didn't really know how to use the fan, (though she'd never outwardly admit to it), so he knew she at least wouldn't use both weapons against him. He thought about grabbing the fan from her wrist, but then thought maybe that was too risky of a move. He started sprinting away as fast as he could as the master started following him quickly around the grounds looking for another weak point to get him. He then thought that maybe this was a better idea any way since it let Tigress have the high ground. But he knew how to beat her without weapons. He had done that before. Heck, Lord Shen brought out a weapon meant to destroy masters and he had been able to beat that. A simple staff was child's play! Or at least under certain circumstances. he couldn't really inner peace block a staff. Plus that was more of a one time thing, not to mention the fact that he had more time to think about how to focus his mind to stop the attack.

Po saw the staff swing at him again out of the corner of his eye, and this time he swung around and kicked up, causing Tigress to accidentally hit one of the buttons on the side and blinding her for a moment. Po quickly took the flaming staff where she had dropped it and held it up in self-defense. Now they had their worst halves in each other's paws.

Well...maybe this is for the best? At least now we're fighting on an even playing field.

Tigress rubbed her eyes and glanced at the fan she had attached to her paws. She untied the ribbons and held the fan awkwardly in her paws and started to circle Po. She carefully watched Po before beginning to swing the fan around rapidly in circles and the master realized she was trying to copy his moves from the previous times he used it.

Oh....no. She's totally going to kick my butt.

Po quickly glanced down at the fire staff, feeling the weight a bit  and mentally calculating how he was going to block the incoming attack, and then lit the staff on fire in preparation. He felt nervous and judging from the look on Tigress' face, she probably knew he was nervous. The Dragon Warrior ran towards him and leaped high into the air, swinging the fan around continuously, before moving into a phoenix dip kick form which naturally caused Po to run for it. The master came flying down at the ground and struck her heel as hard as she could into the hard ground, forcing part of it to come loose and fly in Po's direction. The panda knew he couldn't dodge it and, thinking about another weapon they had stashed away somewhere in the Jade Palace, desperately separated the two halves of the staff and swung the iron middle in the direction of the rocks. The combined weight and force of the staff hitting the rock cause Po to slide to the ground with a hard Thwack, but also caused the rocks to split into pieces and fly back over to Tigress and knock her to the ground as well in a moment of surprise. However, she recovered quickly, coughed to clear the dust out of her throat, and came back towards Po.

Po debated on whether or not he wanted to keep fighting with the staff and decided as Tigress drew close to him to just leave it on the ground and use more evasive maneuvers. However, as he rolled out of the way, his thoughts came back and chastised him for not trying to practice with the staff. As Tigress picked her favorite new weapon back up and started reengaging Po in fighting, the panda couldn't help but go back and forth in his head about just letting her win. He didn't like getting his butt kicked since it hurt a lot, but the emperor was sitting right there and Tigress was the new Dragon Warrior. Wouldn't it be a bad reflection if she lost? What if they thought she wasn't worthy of being Dragon Warrior? He knew she was, but what if people got the wrong impression because she couldn't beat the old one in a fight?

While Po was thinking all of this, Tigress took advantage of the distraction and forced her friend into a headlock with the fire staff. Po panicked and tried to move it off, only to be startled when Tigress leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "Lesson 44." The panda steadied his feet as the memory came back into his head, the lesson slowly was revisited, and the nerves steadied themselves to give him enough strength to push down on the ground and fling Tigress over his shoulder and onto the ground in front of him. He had this. It was going to be fine. Tigress got back to her feet and charged him, but this time Po charged her just as hard, and before she could light the fan, he grabbed both her wrists and belly bumped her into the far wall of the arena, swiping the fan she still had loosely carried in her other paw.

Now they were evenly matched again.

The two carried on with their fighting for a few more minutes, now with Po giving as much energy and focus as he could manage. However, despite all his best efforts, Tigress wound up claiming the victory by pulling out a sneak maneuver that involved her pulling the staff apart while Po wasn't looking and throwing it at him. Expecting something heavier, Po fumbled, dropped, grabbed at, and flipped the staff into the air and tripped over his own two feet, dropping the fan and landing face first in the dirt. Tigress then quickly grabbed the staff and pinned Po to the ground, grabbing the fan from next to him before he could try any other kind of retaliation.

"Excellent job, Dragon Warrior," Shifu congratulated from the sidelines as the emperor and his family clapped in excitement.  "Those were both very quick and very smooth recoveries."

"Thank you, master," Tigress replied with a smile.

"Master Po, you did well too," Shifu offered. "You learn fast, but you really need to work on your focus."

"I know master. Shifu," Po said, getting to his feet and wiping some of the dirt off his mouth. "It's a work in progress."

"Glad to hear it. Thank you two very much for an invigorating match."

"Yes indeed!" the Emperor added with a big smile. "You two are so well matched and skilled I couldn't tell who was going to win."

"Well, in all fairness, that staff is hard to work with," Po admitted. "The fan's easier for me and Tigress kept stealing it."

Tigress smirked.

"Don't worry, Master Po," the Empress told him with a reassuring look. "The Yin Yang Hearts take a while to get the hang of. It took me years to finally figure the fan out."

All the masters turned to look at her, as did Ming, Ella, and Superintendent Woo. "You know how to do kung fu?!" Ella exclaimed. "I thought princesses weren't allowed to touch armory or weapons of mass destruction!"

"In some kingdoms, Miss Remur, yes, but my family was from a small exposed and practicing the Ying Yang Hearts was a family tradition."

"Mama taught us how use them," the royal princess told Ella matter-of-factly. "My great-grandmother gave them to the Jade Palace when she first ascended the throne as a sign of peace  and as a way for old Grandmaster Oogway to strengthen the unity of his students. But since she wanted to pass on the skills to future generations, Oogway and Grandmaster Shifu have lent the Hearts back to us for a while until we've all mastered them."

Shifu suddenly looked very uncomfortable but he acknowledged this as fact and explained that this was the primary reason why he had waited so long to start training the Furious Five on these weapons.

"Not, of course, that there is much need to strengthen your teamwork since you all do splendidly," he tacked on quickly. "But being able to battle a weak side is an important skill as a kung fu master, and since Prince Wei has just finished and Yuan is too young to train, I'd like to have you master them now while you have the opportunity."

"Well we appreciate it," Tigress told the royal family, taking over for Shifu before he got too flustered. "It's certainly been interesting to dust off and learn new battle tactics."

"It's of no consequence!" the Empress told her enthusiastically. She subtly glanced back at Shifu, and upon seeing that something had struck a nerve, thanked Po and Tigress for their wonderful demonstration and asked Shifu if it was possible for the royal children to return the favor by demonstrating what they had learned in the ways of kung fu. Glad to switch subjects, Shifu agreed and Po bowed goodbye and left to head back to his group.