Chapter Text
Same stone.
Different monkie.
One destiny. Oh how he hates that fucking word.
“The world needs you more than it needs me bud,” and he smiles. It is bitter.
The world.
WuKong is on his cloud then, and he is forcing his body to defy the air, the power which pulses near the pillar. He tries to ignore his successor screaming.
Perhaps he ignores it too well, though. Because suddenly he is collapsing in something that he distantly knew to be agony. His throat is an animal which screams against his will. The ground is shaking, or perhaps he is just trembling.
And Xiaotian is there. Suddenly. In front of him. His mouth is etched down, runes circle and paw.
“I’m sorry…” WuKong doesn’t catch whatever the hell he says after that. But those two words are enough for him to know.
It hurts to know. To know that he will have to live on without Xiaotian, because the world needs him. But he needs him.
It’s cruel, he knows. It’s cruel for Nuwa to have made a child who would have to sacrifice himself. It is cruel of him to know that he is willing to let the rest of the world burn if it means keeping Xiaotian safe.
WuKong is screaming and crying, like a little child. Xiaotian steps forwards, and is thrown to the side. A dark blur slams into him from the side. The pain wrapping around WuKong’s head ceases.
He scrambled to his knees. Xiaotian is still on the ground, Macaque on top of him.
“What are you doing you idiot?” Macaque snarls. WuKong can’t tell who exactly he’s speaking to, but he acts. Without really thinking, which is typical of him.
Xiaotian, on the ground, covered in dust and blood, screeching, calls his name. WuKong ignores him and throws himself at the pillar.
He is spat out almost immediately.
By now, Xiaotian has thrown Macaque off of him. He pushed past WuKong and into the pillar. This time, the light swallows Xiaotian whole. And he is gone.
—
White. It is glaring at him, and it hurts.
Eventually, the white recedes. There is very little light here. But he is falling, suddenly, very, very fast.
Where is he falling?
—
WuKong sees the stones before he sees Xiaotian.
The pillar had not spat Xiaotian out as it had with him. Xiaotian had been in there too long. Long enough the WuKong to stop crying and fold over his knees on the ground. Long enough for Macaque to start crying, staring in disbelief and perhaps hatred at the pillar.
The pillar which took the one thing they both loved most from them. That selfish pillar.
But Xiaotian seems to have thrown himself from it, and the stones follow him out, too.
“Kid!”
WuKong launches himself at Xiaotian, catching his limp body.
“I got you, kid. I got you.”
The little monkie is cold, but his chest rises. His glazed eyes move to WuKong, pinching together.
“What?” Xiaotian mutters. His throat is raw. WuKong thinks he might start crying again.
“I got you, kid. Are you alright?” They have landed by this point. WuKong sets Xiaotian carefully on the ground. He begins to let go, but Xiaotian goes fully limp and nearly falls, so he readjusts his hold on him.
“Kid!” Macaque is there, now.
WuKong wants to sob with relief. He wants to pull Xiaotian close to his chest and hold him there forever.
Part of him wants to scream at Xiaotian, though. To shout at him for going into the pillar, leaving his family being.
Leaving him behind.
He knows that that would not really be fair, though.
And anyways, WuKong is feeling too conflicted to move at all. His paws tremble where they hold Xiaotian. Macaque joins the loose embrace, sliding his claws into Xiaotian’s knotted hair. He begins tk gently, perhaps absentmindedly, pull the tangled apart.
Xiaotian seems to shrink away from the touch.
Macaque, however, either does not notice or does not care.
The others are all still further away, dealing with the snake demon.
“Can you stand, kid? What hurts?” WuKong asks.
Xiaotian’s eyes are sliding between him and Macaque, his face still pinched.
“Who the hell are you?”
—
The harbinger thinks that’s a valid question. Most because, well, who the hell are these monkies?
Where the hell is he? How did he get here? Why are these monkies so… touchy?
What the hell is going on?
All very valid questions.
The monkies who are holding him up- likely the for the best, as his bones feel like water within his carcass -however, seem upset by it.
The cream-furred one with the big paws holding him up frowns at him.
“Bud, don’t joke. Not now.”
The dark-furred one with claws in his hair seemed more… angry. Which is beyond stupid. He doesn’t even know these monkies? There is no reason for them to be upset at him. If anything, he should be the ones upset at them.
“Kiddo, this isn’t a fucking joke,” he is baring is teeth, then. He’s threatening him, it’s not safe here.
He jerks away from the two bigger monkies, chirping. He crawls to the other end of the stone ledge they’re on.
Big Paws is the first to react. He reaches desperately for him, tears spilling from his eyes.
Why the hell is he crying? He inches a little further away from the two.
“Kid stop!” It’s the dark-furred monkie, this time. Looking behind him, the harbinger can see that he’s crawled too close to the edge. Any further and he might fall off.
He looks back at the two monkies. Big Paws is silently crying, now. The other monkie has calmed himself down enough. They both keep their distance. Good.
The harbinger wonders if they’re scared of him. Maybe that’s why they threatened him.
Either way, these monkies aren’t safe to be near. He needs to get away. If only his body would comply.
His bones still feel stiff and watery. His head is light and stuffed with cotton, his ears are ringing, and he is distantly aware of cuts and bruises staining his fur.
The harbinger looks down the cliff edge again. The fall is long, but perhaps not long enough to kill him on impact.
But it would likely leave him writing at the bottom, his bones shattered. It would leave him at the mercy of these two monkies, even more so than he is now.
The harbinger shuffles a little to the side. Big Paws makes a move, as if to follow him. The harbinger chirps, and Big Paws stops himself.
Okay. So that’s something.
Now what? Try to run? Wait until the monkies leave? Accept his fate?
Hell no.
There are not many options here, and none of them are good.