Chapter Text
??? POV
I let out a guttural snarl of agony as I punched my way out of my crystal prison that had locked me away for who know how long, blood oozing as shards sliced into my skin and fur, painting it a dark red color.
As soon as I had managed to free myself, I began to fall toward the ground at an alarming speed but summoned my cloud (that I made look like a magic carpet) and broke the fall. Landing within a spot that wasn’t covered in crystal shard spikes, I panted heavily as I took stock of the self-inflicted injuries I had just put upon myself and grimaced in pain and disgust as I started healing almost immediately. Feeling my everything basically stitch itself up had always been nerve-wracking and creepy, but especially now after waking up was discombobulating.
To distract myself, I took a deep breath and focused on what I had already “witnessed” within my prison. Despite me being alive inside that damned thing and unable to move, I was still able to “see” the past and present events that had already occurred without me. I was infuriated by the fact of the matter that those damned curses had never been lifted, but I was quite satisfied with the fact that the Jade Emperor had been killed. ‘Maybe that’s the reason why I was released...Nah, I already know why I’m out here now! That kid is powerful, I highly doubt he knows how strong he really is…Wukong, you are not that great of a teacher, you’re more of a caregiver than anything else. As for Macaque, he’s more of the mentor type, but even he has his issues with doing so. Well, no matter how they both teach the kid, they won’t be able to teach him how to deal with cold hard facts and face them headfirst- that’s gonna be my job!’
I opened my eyes and realized that my body had healed while I had meditated, so I stood up carefully and stretched with a grimace as my whole body protested. “Goodness gracious, being trapped and staying in one place for fucking centuries has not done me any favors…I really hate the bastards who did that to me! Ehm, they’ll get what’s coming to them soon enough…”
I grinned maliciously just thinking about what I was gonna do in retaliation and summoned my magic carpet cloud. As I hopped on, I cackled into the atmosphere, “Oh boy! This is gonna be good! Can’t wait to see their faces when they realize how badly they’ve screwed themselves over! Ready or not, here comes your worst nightmare, Celestial Realm! I hope you’re prepared for the consequences of your actions, or not! That will just make this so much easier for me! Ha ha ha!”
_ _ _Meanwhile…_ _ _
MK groaned to himself as he got closer to Flower Fruit Mountain, where he had found out that after the battle with that Nine-Headed Snake Demon, apparently Monkey King and the Six-Eared Macaque had come to a truce of some kind. One that allowed Macaque to stay in his dojo on FFM, if the black monkey didn’t try to bother the ginger one. Well, not too much anyway, as both his mentors concluded that since they were both teaching him, it made sense to live near one another. Well…it was MK’s idea in the first place! ‘They agreed just because I asked them to do so…What will it take for them to get over their rivalry already?!’
If MK had to be honest with himself, he wasn’t too thrilled about being taught how to control his monkey form, as he was terrified of it. Every time he went into his monkey form, he would lose himself in his fear and lose control of his powers! It scared him to no end, yet Monkey King was so adamant on him learning about it, he just couldn’t say no…At least the silver lining was that Macaque didn’t seem too keen on teaching him about that form. No, instead, the black demon monkey wanted more to focus on teaching him how to do more complicated things with his staff, which was kind of odd. What else could the staff possibly do that he didn’t know about?
As he touched down and hopped off his own cloud of transport, he could hear happy monkey noises in the distance. The successor grinned and picked up the pace. He was always happy to see the four little monkey cubs that had gotten attached to him ever since the “scroll incident adventure”, as they were almost always so excited to see him there.
“Hi guys! Having fun over here?” MK laughed as the four cubs jumped on him in their excitement to see him. He barely heard both his mentors’ arrival over their chatters and chirps but saw them both approach him with a grin (Wukong) and a smirk (Macaque). “Hi, Monkey King! Hi, Macaque! What’s going on?”
“You tell us, bud! You didn’t tell us you were coming over today!” Wukong pouted, crossing his arms. Macaque rolled his eyes at the king but nodded. “Hate to agree with the Great Sage over here, but he’s unfortunately right. You normally give either of us a heads up, sooo…what’s wrong, kiddo?”
“Oh, nothing’s wrong!” MK waved his hands frantically in response, sweating nervously. ‘Crap, crap, crap! I can’t ask Macaque my questions, now that Monkey King is here with him! What do I do, what do I do?!’
_
As the kid started flailing about nervously, Macaque huffed a bit at the obvious lie. “Apparently something is, if you’re being that bad at lying about it. Spill it out, misery kid!”
“Ok, ok, ok! I was gonna ask you, Macaque, a question about something that was brought up just recently at Pigsy’s by Mei…but it’s kind of…personal?” MK shrugged his shoulders helplessly.
Macaque was inwardly confused at that but didn’t show it. “How personal are we talking about here?” Then, it clicked. “Does it not involve Wukong? If that’s the case, then get lost, Great Sage, we need to have a talk!” The black monkey waved mockingly at Wukong, who gasped in fake outrage. “Excuse me? What kind of question could be so important that doesn’t involve me?!”
MK fake coughed a bit at that, which turned both monkey’s attention to him. “Well, I guess it’s not that big of a question…plus, you might actually know something, now that I think about it!”
“Well, then ask away, I guess. But don’t expect me to answer if I don’t want to, ok?” Macaque sat down in front of Wukong’s successor, and the king followed suit, his ginger tail twitching in confusion and curiosity.
“Well, I gotta start at the beginning! Basically, Tang was reading something to us, and afterwards, Mei started laughing. When I asked her what she was laughing about, she told me that you laughed at a meme that Bai He sent you and said that the meme made you think of someone who would have liked it! We didn’t really believe her, but what she said next made us all kind of…curious, I guess? And shocked, don’t forget shocked! Mei thinks that this mysterious “someone” is…well…”
MK rubbed the back of his neck and just bit the bullet, while Monkey King had grabbed a peach and was eating it out of nowhere. “…ehhhh…she thinks you were referring to...a past…lover?”
Wukong choked on his peach and pounded his chest while Macaque’s jaw dropped in shock.
‘A past…lover?!’
_ _ _
Both monkeys had no idea that the time, but as they both thought that same question, something was approaching Flower Fruit Mountain, and who it was would bring questions and revelations to the surface that neither demon would see coming…