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Macaque had lied, when he said the shadow lantern was gone.
When the Lady Bone Demon had caught him, she had made a specific note of needing the lantern.
And, well, Macaque wouldn't let that happen.
So he'd shattered it, again, and during the Lady Bone Demon's momentary shock, he'd taken the opportunity to gather the broken pieces and run.
One of her minions had cut him with the cursed knife while he was running away.
That didn't matter now though, his injuries had been healed, and the Lady Bone Demon had yet to make another move. For now, sitting on the roof of the noodle shop, he was safe.
He starred down at the shattered pieces of the lantern in his hands.
With a sigh, he carefully extended his magic, putting the pieces back together again, reforming the lantern. He held it gently in his hands as he looked around the roof.
Now where was he gonna hide this-
"Macaque, I brought plums!"
Macaque startled upon hearing MK's voice, he'd been so distracted focusing on putting the lantern back together, he hadn't even heard the other climb up the ladder to the roof.
The.....lantern....
Which he told MK was gone....
In a rush to avoid MK seeing the lantern, Macaque did the first thing he thought of.
He shoved the lantern into himself, letting it mix into his own magic. Not the smartest way of storing it, it was a highly magical item, who knows how it would act while in direct contact with his magic, but it was the first thing he could think of, and this was only a temporary measure, so it should be fine.
....Probably.
"Hey bud, what's up?" Macaque asked, turning around to face MK, who was setting a small bowl of plums on the ground. "...What are the plums for?"
"You said that if I brought you some plums, you'd tell me about the time Monkey King walked into a tree." MK said, "And I fully expect you to keep your end of the bargain."
"Yeah, yeah, okay." Macaque said, grabbing the bowl of plums. "Well you see, what happened was-"
-
"That had to be the stupidest shit you've ever pulled, Wukong." Macaque said, breathing heavily as he leaned against a tree. Wukong for his part, just smirked.
"I didn't see you try to stop me." He said, laughing as Macaque glared at him.
"I did try to stop you. Multiple times. But you didn't listen." He said, "You really need to stop picking a fight with every random person you meet."
"You're no fun at all." Wukong said, yawning as he stretched. Macaque rolled his eyes.
"Whatever." He said, "Anyways, we should probably head back to the cave, get some rest-"
"I'm not tired." Wukong said.
"You literally yawned a few seconds ago."
"Doesn't mean I'm tired. Besides, there's still more stuff to do." Wukong said, turning and walking off further into the mountain's forest, Macaque trailing behind him. As they walked, Macaque noticed Wukong start slouching, little by little. He didn't say anything though, knowing that Wukong would only deny it if asked.
It would be better just to watch and deal with the consequences when they came.
And oh boy, did the consequences come: in the form of Wukong turning a corner and immediately walking directly into a tree. The tree snapped in half, falling to the ground, with Wukong tumbling down after it. There was a loud thump, as dust and leaves were sent flying into the air. A few nearby birds called out in concern.
"Timber." Macaque said, a smirk on his face, walking over and crouching down beside where Wukong now lay on his back with a dazed expression on his face. "So. Not tired, huh?"
"Shut up." Wukong hissed, sitting up, pulling dirt and leaves out of his fur as he did so. "The tree just. Got in my way, that's all-"
"You're expecting me to believe that a tree got up and put itself in your path?" Macaque asked, "Wukong. I'm not stupid. Let's just hurry up and go back to the cave to rest already."
"I'm fine." Wukong said, moving to stand up, but wobbling a little, tipping backwards again-
Macaque caught him, keeping him from having another close encounter with the ground.
-
"I ended up having to carry him all the way back up the mountain." Macaque said, making little images with his shadows in order to give MK a better visual of what happened. "He ended up sleeping for like, 3 days. Took him still being tired when he woke up again for me to realize he'd gotten cursed. Wasn't hard to break it afterwards, but boy did Wukong protest the whole time. Practically had to tie him to his bed."
MK scribbled in his sketch book, and Macaque, out of curiosity, moved closer, looking over MK's shoulder to see a sketch of what Macaque had just described.
"....You're drawing this?" He asked. MK nodded.
"Yeah! I've got a lifetime goal of illustrating all of Monkey King's adventures!" MK said, pausing his sketching to show Macaque a quick flip through of the rest of the book. "...You got any other stories?"
"Lots." Macaque said, leaning back. "But you're gonna have to bring more plums if you want more stories. I'm not just gonna hand this info out for free."
"Of course, of course." MK said, standing up and walking back over to the ladder, mumbling to himself as he climbed back down. "I'm going to have to permanently add plums to my shopping list...."
Macaque stayed where he was, waiting patiently until he couldn't hear MK anymore, before letting out a relieved sigh.
That had been close.... No matter what, he couldn't let the others know that he still had the lantern. Revealing that would probably cause the others to push him away, they wouldn't trust him anymore, and he really couldn't have that. Hanging around them was the most advantageous position for him to be in right now, and he wasn't about to give it up any time soon.
...He still needed a place to hide it permanently, keeping it inside of himself probably wouldn't be a good idea in the long term. With that thought in mind, he mentally reached inwards with his magic, shadows starting to surround him as he prepared to take the lantern out-
"Hey, Macaque!"
Macaque startled again, the shadows that had condensed around him vanishing as though they'd been popped like party balloons as he whirled around to see-
Mei, who giggled at his shocked expression, holding up her phone and taking a quick picture of him before pocketing it.
"Would you two stop doing that?" Macaque asked, sighing as Mei circled around him.
"Hey, it's not my fault you didn't hear me coming." Mei said, giggling at the expression on Macaque's face. "Seriously, with all those ears you have it's a wonder you didn't-"
"What do you want." Macaque growled, "You wouldn't be here if you didn't want something."
"Wouldn't I?"
That. Wasn't a question Macaque felt that he could answer. He honestly couldn't think of a reason why any of MK's friends would want to be around him, but they hadn't really been pushing him away either....
Mei seemed a little concerned with how he'd suddenly gone silent though, so it was probably best to quickly change the subject.
"Ah, anyways, I have some stuff to do, so I don't really have time for you." Macaque said, walking past Mei and over to the edge of the rooftop. Distantly, he noted a weird tingling sensation come over him, but he ignored it, figuring it wasn't important.
"Oh, now that's a lie." Mei said, a smirk on her face. "You never do anything other than lounge around up here."
"Do not." Macaque said, crossing his arms. "I do plenty, you just haven't noticed."
"Oh yeah? Like what?"
Macaque pondered for a moment on how best to answer-
And that was when his foot started sinking into the shadow underneath of him.
Outwardly, Macaque remained perfectly calm, not letting Mei in on the fact that anything was amiss.
Inwardly, he panicked.
That was definitely not supposed to be happening, why was it happening it shouldn't be happening why was he l o s i n g c o n t r o l-
He was snapped out of his panic when he heard the sound of an engine starting up behind him. Subtly looking over his shoulder, he could see MK, ready to drive off, probably to deliver some noodles.
Macaque made his decision in a split second.
Turning and pulling his foot out of the shadow it'd been sinking into, Macaque jumped off the roof. Ignoring Mei's shout of "Hey, wait!", he slipped into the shadow of the tuk tuk, just before MK started to drive away.
-
Macaque hung out in the shadow of the tuk tuk for about 15 minutes before he actually bothered to wonder where exactly MK was going.
MK slowed down a bit as he turned a corner, and Macaque figured it was as good a time as any to ask.
Carefully, he materialized on the back of the tuk tuk, then, after making sure there wasn't anything around for MK to accidentally hit should he swerve, asked;
"Where are you going?"
MK's foot slammed on the brakes, the tires screeching and Macaque almost falling off from the sudden inertia. As soon as they were still, MK whirled around, staring at Macaque, shocked.
"How long have you been there?" He asked, and the expression on his face genuinely made Macaque laugh.
"Oh, not very long." Macaque said, "I was riding along in the shadow for the most part."
"...You can do that?" MK asked, "You probably save like, so much money when traveling then-"
"Bold of you to assume that I have any money at all." Macaque said, "Anyways, you didn't answer the question. Where are you going?"
"Why do you want to know?" MK asked, crossing his arms. "And why are you here anyways? Usually you just stay on the roof, what changed?"
"Nothing! What, can't I just want to go for a ride once in a while?" Macaque said-
And his hand started sinking into the shadow beside him. Swiftly, he pulled it out, rubbing it to get rid of the remaining tingles. MK watched this happen with a look of suspicion.
"...Uh-huh, sure, like I believe that." He said, tone as dry as the desert. "And anyways, I don't think you'd want to-"
And then he paused, looking as though he'd just been hit with some kind of realization.
"Actually-" MK started, "I think it would be good if you came with me."
He turned back around, taking his foot off the break and turning back onto the road, speeding up a little.
"You still haven't told me where we're going." Macaque said.
"Oh, you'll soon find out."
Macaque had a feeling he wasn't going to like this.
-
He was right. He hated this.
Staring up at a temple that quite obviously belonged to Sun Wukong, Macaque regretted every decision he had made in his life that had led up to this moment.
He regretted it even more when the monkey himself opened the front gate.
"Ah, there you are kid!" Wukong said, "I was beginning to think you'd never show up!"
"I'm only 2 minutes late..." MK muttered, and Macaque couldn't help but laugh a bit at that.
Sun Wukong was not, exactly, known for being very patient after all.
"Oh, I see you brought... an audience." Wukong said, finally noticing that Macaque was, in fact, also there.
"Audience? Please, if anything I'm the lead actor." Macaque said.
"Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that." MK said, and Macaque would've hit him where it not for the warning glance Wukong gave him.
-
Macaque ended up being dragged to MK's training sessions with Wukong, again and again. Some days it was because MK himself forcibly brought him along, and on other days it was because Macaque was simply avoiding Mei. (He denied the accusation that he was avoiding her when asked...and then almost tripped as his foot sank deeper into the shadows. Luckily he'd managed to blame it on a stray tree root, but he wasn't sure how long he could keep it up...)
Over the course of said days, Macaque had tried multiple times to find a better place to hide the lantern than within his own magic. (He'd long since figured out that the lantern was reacting whenever he lied, thus messing with his own magic. He had no idea why it was doing this, but the why didn't really matter so long as he could find a way to stop it.) But of course, since karma was apparently out to get him, he was interrupted by someone every single time, forcing him to keep the lantern within himself, lest the others find out about it.
Honestly though, he was shocked that Wukong hadn't noticed, considering his golden vision and all, he should've been able to see the fact that the lantern's magic was contained within Macaque.
(Macaque had nearly panicked when, on day 2 of him following MK to his training, Wukong had leaned close to him with a contemplative look on his face.
"...Why are you so close to me?" Macaque had asked, and huh, how long had that slit been in Wukong's eyebrow? Had it been there for a while and Macaque had just never noticed or-
"I'm checking to see how much of the glamor you're wearing." Was Wukong's response, as he studied him. "You're still recovering, you probably shouldn't be using magic to cover all of it."
So....Wukong was concerned about him. Macaque couldn't really imagine why, but still-
"You didn't need to get so close to me- can't you obviously see I'm wearing it?" Macaque had asked, gesturing at his own face. Wukong, surprisingly, winced at that, finally backing up a bit.
"Well, I guess you seem fine." He'd muttered, turning away, "Don't know why I was even worried."
And Macaque should've been relieved, but for some reason-
For some reason he felt like something was wrong.)
-
Macaque relaxed in the shade of a tree, watching Wukong train MK. It was almost soothing to watch the mentor and student trade hits as they sparred.
But of course, being relaxed didn't mean that Macaque didn't notice things.
Like how Wukong was a full 2 seconds slower in blocking MK's attacks than he'd been when Macaque had stolen MK's powers. Which wasn't really something that would normally raise concern- he probably just wasn't being as serious as he would be when encountering an actual threat, but.
Something about it was making the alarm bells that had been constantly ringing in Macaque's head louder. (Something he, obviously, didn't appreciate. Loud sounds, even mental ones, weren't very pleasant for him).
Macaque, of course, was never one to miss an opportunity to call Wukong out.
Which was why it was so surprising when MK beat him to the punch.
"Monkey King, are you okay?" MK asked, and Macaque sat up straighter, paying more attention, because oh, he wanted to hear this.
"Of course bud! Why do you ask?" Wukong said, and despite the fact that his back was to Macaque, the shadow monkey just knew that the other was lying.
"Well I don't know, you've just- seemed off, is all." MK said, shifting back and forth as he seemed to contemplate what to say. "Like, a little slower maybe? And I haven't seen you use your cloud in days, which is kinda weird, since you normally seem to use it-"
Wukong stiffened, and it was at this point that Macaque got genuinely curious, deciding that he had to see what kind of expression the other monkey was making right now. So, he slipped down into the shadows of the tree, and reappeared out of MK's shadow, startling the both of them as he slung an arm around MK's shoulder.
"Kid's right y'know." Macaque said, putting on a smirk as he looked at the other. "Even I've noticed, and I've barely even been paying attention."
That was a lie, and he barely kept himself from wincing as he felt the tingle of magic flow through his body.
Only for nothing to seemingly happen. That was...mildly concerning, he'd felt the flow of magic, so something had definitely occurred, he just couldn't tell what.
...Well, whatever. If he couldn't notice it then it probably wasn't important.
Macaque refocused back in on the subject at hand, studying Wukong's expression. Nothing he hadn't expected, the usual nervous smile and look in his eyes that indicated he was lying where all there.
Or, well, most of it was expected.
The slight twinge of fear was new.
"I'm telling you, there's nothing wrong!" Wukong said, taking a slight step back. "I'm fine, really!"
Both MK and Macaque rolled their eyes in sync.
"If you're so fine, then explain to me why you keep waiting until MK is almost right in front of you before blocking him?" Macaque asked, MK nodding along as he spoke. "Seriously, it's like you can't see it unless it's close-"
Both Macaque and MK froze, coming to the same conclusion at the same time. Wukong, seeing the expressions on their faces, scratched his cheek nervously, avoiding their gaze.
"Oh my heavens." MK said, "You need glasses."
"I do not-"
-
Tang had been having a peaceful day at the noodle shop.
Having, being the key word.
Because suddenly, said peaceful day was interrupted as Macaque appeared out of nowhere beside him. Tang barely kept himself from startling out of his stool. (He'd started to grow used to the shadow monkey's sudden appearances, but that didn't really make them any less startling).
Macaque, for a moment, looked confused as to where he was, looking around in surprise, before taking notice of Tang and schooling his features into something unreadable.
"Oh." He said, "Uh. Hello?"
"Hello to you too, Macaque?" Tang said, a little confused, before finally taking notes of one important fact.
Macaque's eyes were fully purple.
"...Ah." Tang said, "Not Macaque."
"Hm, smart man." 'Macaque' said, leaning back, "Nope, I'm not the original. Just a shadow clone, that's all I am."
"Why are you here? Is there trouble?" Tang asked, worry seeping into his voice. The clone just shrugged.
"Dunno." 'Macaque' said, "One minute, I didn't exist, the next, I'm here."
"How can you just not know?" Tang asked, blinking in disbelief.
"He probably created me on accident." 'Macaque' said, almost as casually as though he was reading out a morning newspaper.
"That can happen??"
"Well, not normally, but in certain cases-" The clone started, then paused, eyes narrowing. "Well, actually, if that's the case, he probably doesn't know I exist right now..."
"Shouldn't you... tell him?" Tang asked, and watched as the clone contemplated it.
"Well I mean, not telling him would be kind of funny." He said, before shaking himself out of it. "No- no, you're right, I should probably tell him."
The clone proceeded to go completely silent, and Tang watched him with thinly veiled concern. After about 2 minutes of silence, with the clone making increasingly dramatic facial expressions, Tang decided to comment again.
"...Are you actually contacting him right now?" He asked, and the clone broke out of whatever state he was in to glance at him.
"Hm? Oh- yeah." He said, "Mental connection, y'know?"
"Then how come MK doesn't ever-"
"Cause he doesn't know it exists."
-
Of course. Of course the lantern had made a clone.
That certainly explained why there hadn't been any obvious reaction after the magic tingle.
Although, it was weird that the clone had ended up in the noodle shop. Why on Earth would it have formed there?
(In all honesty, it was probably because, once again, Macaque felt safe there. But he never planned to admit that fact, not even to himself, so he slid that thought back into the deepest part of his mind.)
As it was now though, Macaque sat back under the tree, head in hands, mentally communicating with the clone as MK and Wukong continued to argue about whether or not the Monkey King needed glasses.
"C'mon!" MK said, stomping his foot on the ground, "Just admit that you're nearsighted already! It's obvious!"
"I don't need glasses!" Wukong said, hopping backwards as MK tried to tackle him. "I can see just fine!"
This statement was contradicted, as MK suddenly moved backwards, distancing himself from his mentor. Macaque could see Wukong squint, something he wouldn't normally do-
And then MK moved forwards, with a speed Macaque honestly hadn't seen him use before (and wasn't that funny, that somehow this argument was actually causing MK's speed to improve) and managed to tackle Wukong to the ground.
A roll of parchment fell out of one of Wukong's pockets.
"Oh?" Macaque said, standing up, temporarily blocking his shadow clone's messages out of his mind (it was fine anyways, it seemed to have gotten distracted), he walked over, picking up the roll of parchment. "What's this?"
"Wh-Hey!" Wukong said, looking up from his position of being pinned to the ground by MK, squinting his eyes as he focused on Macaque. "Don't- give that back!"
"Well now, if you're so pressed over it then I kinda have to look, right?" Macaque said, slowly unrolling the scroll despite Wukong's protests. MK, surprisingly, kept Wukong pinned, watching with curiosity as Macaque looked over the parchment's contents. "....Huh."
"What is it?" MK asked, and Macaque turned, holding out the unrolled parchment so that MK could see it. Wukong, at this point, stopped struggling, simply laying on the ground face down.
"Tell me, Wukong, why exactly do you need a map?" Macaque asked, crouching down in front of the other. "You planning on going on vacation again or something?"
"You're going to leave me again?" MK asked, and maybe Macaque was just hearing things (rather unlikely....) but there was almost a note of panic in MK's voice.
Wukong must've picked up on the panic too, as he quickly jumped into reassurance.
"Woah, hey, I'm not- I'm not vacationing any time soon." He said, attempting to shift around a little, before sighing. "...Could you get off me now, please?"
MK scrambled to get off his mentor, Wukong slowly sitting up and stretching a little. Macaque rolled his eyes at the display, shaking the map a little to draw their attention back to it.
"Hey, I'm not letting you off that easily." He said, "Explain the map. Now."
Wukong sighed again, avoiding both Macaque and MK's eyes.
"...Fine, so maybe I.....wasn't exactly on vacation...." Wukong muttered, "I was...searching for something. A weapon."
"...To fight the Lady Bone Demon, right?" MK asked, and Wukong looked at him in shock.
"How'd you-"
"Maybe leaving your successor alone when there's a powerful demon on the loose isn't the best decision, Wukong." Macaque said, rolling up the map and putting into his own pocket, before lightly rubbing his arm, a few specific... memories running through his mind. "Seriously, be glad she still hasn't gotten everything she needs."
"What do you know about what she-" MK started, then cut himself off, looking at Macaque as though he'd been given the answer to everything. "She's the one who hurt you."
Macaque didn't respond, turning around and walking away.
"Hey wait- where are you-" Wukong started-
"I'm going back to my spot under the tree." Macaque said, "You two can sort through whatever your 'vacation' was about on your own."
-
"...Huh." The shadow clone muttered, eyes closed as he seemingly listened in on whatever was happening to the real Macaque. "That's.....interesting."
"What is?" Tang asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
"Nothing really important." The clone said- and started melting slightly. Tang looked on in confusion as the clone suddenly panicked, stumbling over his words. "Wait- no I mean- it, it is important, but not really something I should be the one to tell you about?"
The melting stopped, the shadow clone returning to normal as he let out a sigh of relief.
"Does that....usually happen?" Tang asked.
"No." The clone answered, but didn't elaborate. Tang figured he'd just have to ask the real Macaque about it later. "...Anyways, do you think you could help the real me out with something?"
"Depends on what said something is." Tang said, crossing his arms.
"It's nothing bad, I promise." The shadow clone said, chuckling. "But, would you happen to know where I could buy a pair of glasses?"
-
"This is dumb. I look stupid."
"Aw come on Monkey King, I think you look cool!" Mei said, MK nodding along with her. "The glasses suit you just fine!"
Wukong sighed, sitting in the noodle shop with his arms crossed, leaning on the counter.
"What's with the sudden need for glasses anyways?" Pigsy asked, sliding a bowl of peach slices over to the monkey. Subtly, he also handed a bowl of plums over to Macaque, who was sitting slightly off to the side in the shadows.
Wukong stiffened, pausing for a moment before opening his mouth to answer-
"And don't lie to me." Pigsy added, and Wukong slouched a little.
(Macaque had to admit, it was kinda fun to watch the Monkey King basically get reprimanded like a child.
The only reason he didn't comment on it was that he was sure that if he did, he'd get the exact same treatment.)
There was a moment of silence, before Wukong groaned, laying his head down on the table, and muttering something that was too quiet for the others to hear, but nearly made Macaque choke on the plum he'd been chewing on.
"What?!" He said, in pure shock, "You- you're losing your powers?!"
Almost instantly, there was pandemonium.
"What do you mean you're losing your powers!" MK practically screeched, "That can happen?!"
"I don't know, but it's the only explanation I've got!" Wukong said, throwing his hands up into the air. "I can't use my golden vision or my cloud anymore- and I don't know why!"
"How, exactly, does this relate back to you suddenly needing glasses?" Pigsy asked, completely ignoring how the others where in varying states of a mental breakdown.
"I- I usually just use my golden vision to make up for it." Wukong said, "Like, magic contacts, you know?"
"...And now you can't do that anymore." Tang said, "Because you can't use your golden vision."
"......Yeah." Wukong sighed.
"Is there...anything we can do to help?" Sandy tentatively asked.
"Well, I was planning on going out and finding.... something." Wukong said, turning to look at Macaque. "Speaking of which, you promised you'd give me the map back once I got glasses, and I'm wearing them now so-"
Macaque tsk'd, pulling the map out of his pocket and tossing it over to the other monkey, who caught it and placed it upon the counter.
"It's not like I can go and get it now though." Wukong said, the others staring over him to look down at the map. "Since I can't use my cloud anymore..."
"I have an airship." Sandy said, and Wukong turned to look at him in confusion. "We could use that, to travel there."
"What- no. No. Absolutely not." Wukong said, jumping up onto the counter (ignoring Pigsy disapproving glare), and staring down at the others. "In case you don't remember, you guys have something called mortality. I'm not going to just bring you guys with me-"
"Like you have much of a choice." A new voice said, and Macaque barely kept himself from startling as he suddenly noticed Red Son beside him.
"How long have you been there-" Macaque hissed, but was ultimately ignored.
"You coming too, Red Boy?" Mei asked, despite Wukong's faint protests that nobody was coming with him, thank you very much-
"I have nothing better to do." Red Son said, shrugging. "My parents went on vacation a little while ago, I've just been hanging around since then."
"So, we're all going?" MK asked, glancing over at Macaque, who, realizing he was being stared at, sighed, standing up and stepping closer to them, in the light.
"Fine, whatever." He said, "If you guys want me to go, I'll come, but I'm not happy about it."
The others stared at him, with a mixture of confusion and shock.
"....What?" Macaque asked, already dreading the answer. MK slowly pointed behind him.
"Has your shadow always moved like that?" He asked, and Macaque didn't even bother to look, instead immediately slamming his back against the wall to cover it as he threw a glamor over his own shadow. He wasn't sure what it had been doing that the others saw, but he absolutely refused to let it be seen any longer.
"...Whatever it was you saw, forget about it." He said, and while most of the others simply shrugged, accepting it as just him being weird, looking away-
The look in Mei and Wukong's eyes did not promise good things.
-
The first day on the ship, everyone was mainly focused on settling in, making sure all their stuff was where it needed to be, choosing rooms, so on and so forth.
And so, for the most part, Macaque was free from whatever Wukong and Mei were planning.
The second day on the ship, however.
The second day on the ship made Macaque wish the airship had a plank so he could jump off of it.
It had started small.
"Hey, Macaque?" Mei asked, grabbing his attention before practically shoving her phone into his face. "What do you think about this?"
Macaque could barely register the image in front of his face, but eventually parsed it out to be a picture of- a kitten??
"I hate it." He said, instinctively, and almost immediately started sinking into the shadow beneath him. Mei, being so close to him, immediately noticed, confusion flashing on her face for a brief second, before a smirk took over.
"If you say so." She said, and backed off, turning away as Macaque hurriedly pulled his feet out of the shadows before he could sink any further.
Some part of him hoped that would be the end of it.
As soon as he ran into Wukong though, he instantly knew that this wasn't over by a long shot.
"Macaque." Wukong said, leaning against the wall, and Macaque instantly noticed that his glasses were missing.
"You owe Tang 5 cents." Macaque hissed, it was well known that Tang had made the Monkey King promise to pay him whenever the monkey was caught not wearing his glasses. Macaque, of course, didn't really care, but he was looking for some way to distract Wukong from whatever he was planning to do to him.
"I'll pay him later." Wukong shrugged, and Macaque mentally cursed. "So. How'd you sleep last night?"
Macaque wasn't going to be led into the trap this obviously was.
"How did you sleep last night?" He shot back.
"I didn't." Wukong said, perfectly honest. "I did see you walking around for a bit though, so I'm curious as to whether or not you slept. You need it more than I do, remember?"
That.... was true. Macaque did need to sleep more than Wukong did, but-
"I slept just fine." Macaque lied, sighing as he felt the glamor over his ears fade away. Wukong crossed his arms, a concerned look on his face, but Macaque ignored it, choosing instead to walk into a nearby shadow to teleport to another location on the ship, throwing his glamor back on as he did so.
(He, in truth, was in the same boat as Wukong, both literally and figuratively. He hadn't slept at all, instead laying awake all night, worrying.
Wukong was losing his powers. MK was not nearly close enough to being ready. The others, outside of Red Son, might have some powers or abilities, but they are no where near close enough to being capable of beating the Lady Bone Demon.
He'd have to rely on the unknowns of this weapon Wukong was seeking out.
Macaque didn't like relying on unknowns.)
He emerged in the ships engine room-
And very nearly fell right on top of Red Son.
"Watch where you're going!" Red Son huffed, dodging out of the way and angrily brushing non existent dirt off of his jacket. "Seriously, what is with you guys and trying to knock me to the ground?"
"Maybe you just look very squishable." Macaque muttered, not really intending on giving Red Son a proper response. He actually didn't want to interact with anyone right now, especially not Red Son, so he turned, moving to leave the engine room-
"Not so fast." Red Son said, stopping Macaque in his tracks by grabbing hold of the back of his scarf. "I've got some questions for you."
Hm. That didn't bode well.
"What makes you think that I have any answers?" Macaque asked, only to be met by a deadpan look that promised-
That promised fire if he didn't co-operate.
If there was a list of things Macaque strictly didn't want, fire would be number one, at the top of the list.
"...What do you want to know?" He asked, slumping a little in defeat.
"Why you stayed." Red Son said, elaborating when Macaque only looked at him in confusion. "Your wound healed. You were perfectly free to go. And yet.... you stayed. Like you were....trying to protect something."
"Uh, yeah, myself, obviously." Macaque said, shrugging. "Hanging out around the Monkey King and his successor is the safest place to be after-"
"That's not it." Red Son said, and Macaque froze. "Sure, staying around them while you're weak makes sense, you'd need someone to protect you. But after you've recovered? Once you're strong again? Sure, I can understand you getting attached, but always staying around them is a little strange."
There was a glint, in Red Son's eye, and Macaque suddenly remembered a moment, yesterday, where Mei had dragged the fire demon off to the side to have a little conversation. He'd thought nothing about it at the time, but now-
"You say that you're protecting yourself....But at this point, somehow, you're mostly protecting them, aren't you?" Red Son asked, "Whatever it is you're hiding, you're hiding it to protect both yourself and them."
Macaque didn't answer, instead staring at the floor.
Whatever Mei and Wukong had been planning, Red Son was in on it.
And he was very clearly not as interested in taking a subtle approach.
"Your powers have been on the fritz lately." Red Son said, almost like it was an afterthought to his whole theory. "Don't think that we haven't noticed. It's different from Wukong though, in that you're not losing your powers, if anything, it's like they're getting stronger, almost as though they're being drawn from a different source-"
Macaque didn't want to stay here any longer.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." He lied, and didn't resist as his powers fluctuated in response, letting himself completely fall into the shadow behind him.
-
He ended up falling out of a shadow on the ceiling.
Luckily, it was in his own room, so no-one else was there to witness it.
Didn't mean it didn't hurt though.
"...That's gonna bruise later...." He muttered to himself as he slowly pushed himself off the floor and stood up.
For a moment, he just stood there, slightly dazed.
And then he started pacing.
This was not good, the others were onto him, he wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer.
Not to mention the lantern, it's influence on his abilities was getting stronger the longer he left it inside himself. There was literally no telling how far it's influence would go.
(He'd already started noticing some strands of his fur turning purple. It wasn't anything that couldn't easily be covered up by a glamor, but the fact it was happening at all was incredibly concerning.)
He had to find another place to hide it. But where-
And suddenly, Macaque was struck by an idea. A rather bad idea, honestly, there was sure to be consequences from this, but it was the only idea he had right now.
-
The ship's clock struck 4 am.
Macaque slipped into MK's room, holding the faintly glowing lantern.
For a moment, he stood there, beside MK's bed, letting the lantern hover over top of him, thinking.
Maybe......maybe he shouldn't do this. He could probably find another way, something more reasonable than a hastily made, sleep deprived, decision. After all, the lantern had proven that it came with side effects, who knows how it'd affect MK?
Well. If he's actually being honest, he was hoping that the Monkey King Magic MK had would effectively cancel out the lanterns effects.
...He had no way of proving that it could do that though.
After a few more minutes of standing there, mentally debating, Macaque finally came to the decision that, yeah, this wasn't a good idea, he should just go back to his room and try to sleep for the few remaining hours of the night, come up with a better plan tomorrow-
A loud sound clanged from the engine room, and Macaque startled, barely keeping himself from squeaking as the sudden noise surprised him, squeezing his hands on instinct-
And snapping the lantern in half, the bottom piece falling and merging into MK's magic.
For a moment, Macaque just stood there in shock.
Then MK curled up, letting out a small noise of pain as little golden and purple sparks started shooting across his body, and Macaque panicked, reaching into MK's magic and hurriedly pulling out the other half of the lantern, shoving both pieces back into himself as MK started to stir.
By the time MK was sitting up, blinking his eyes open, rubbing his arms and looking around the room in confusion, Macaque was gone.
-
The next day, Wukong practically broke down Macaque's door, MK in tow.
"Mine explaining to me why there are traces of shadow magic all over MK?" He asked, before pausing as he registered the scene in front of him.
Macaque was curled up under his blankets, a pillow over his head effectively hiding him from view. The only part of the other monkey that Wukong could actually see was his tail, which was dangling over the side.
This wasn't really that weird, Wukong fully remembered that the other monkey was in no way a morning person.
...It was slightly more weird due to the fact that it was lunchtime.
"Is he...okay?" MK asked, leaning over his mentor's shoulder.
"You tell me." Wukong said, "You're the one with the golden vision right now."
Macaque's tail, which had been swinging idly, froze, and suddenly there was a mad scramble as he tried to pull all the blankets off of himself and sit up at the same time. Essentially, he ended up rather tangled, and was far too late to stop MK from using his golden vision.
-
At first there was nothing MK hadn't already expected. The bags under the eyes, the mussed up fur, the six ears and the scar. These were all things he knew that he'd find.
The purple streaks in Macaque's fur was surprising.
But not nearly as surprising as the lantern that lay intermingled with Macaque's own magic.
"What do you see, kid?" Wukong asked, and MK watched as Macaque sat up straighter, finally managing to pull the blankets off of himself.
"Nothing! He sees nothing! Right, bud?" Macaque asked, a panicked twinge in his voice, and-
MK could see the lantern flare, the magic traversing Macaque's entire body, before condensing around his arm.
Which proceeded to sink into the shadow on the bed.
"...Well." MK started, staring as Macaque pulled his hand out of the shadow and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "That's not something you see every day."
-
"So I was right then?" Red Son asked, "He's been storing the lantern within himself?"
"How'd you even know about the lantern..." Macaque muttered, from where he sat at the kitchen table, leaning back with his arms crossed. His glamor had been taken down, allowing everyone to see the purple streaks in his fur.
The lantern sat on the table in front of him.
"I have my sources." Red Son said, looking overly proud of himself. Macaque huffed, looking away.
"I thought you said the lantern was destroyed?" Mei said, using a spoon to lightly poke the lantern, almost as though it would grow legs and run away.
"Yeah, like, I saw you break it-" MK started, and then was stopped mid sentence as Macaque raised his fist, before harshly crushing the lantern, breaking it into pieces. A few of the others jumped. "What did you do that for-"
Macaque simply raised his hand, letting his magic call out, and letting the pieces slide back into their proper place. By the end of it, the lantern looked as good as new, as though it'd never been broken. MK watched the display with wide eyes.
"I did break the lantern." Macaque said, "It's just not that hard to fix."
"Regardless-" Wukong started, grabbing the lantern out of Macaque's hand, the lantern switching from it's usual purple to a soft golden glow as he did so. "You seriously should've told us that you have this. It would've saved you so much trouble."
"Would you have trusted me, if you knew I still had it?" Macaque asked, only to be met with silence. "...Yeah. Thought so."
There was a moment of silence as Macaque sat there, looking down, not meeting anyone's eyes. Then Sandy softly placed his hand on Macaque's shoulder.
"It's not that we wouldn't have trusted you." He said, gently. "We would've just taken a bit longer to come around, is all."
"Uh-huh, sure, keep telling yourself that." Macaque said, still looking at the floor, and thus missing the entirely silent conversation everyone else shared.
They all agreed they probably weren't going to get very far with this issue any time soon, by the look of things. (That didn't mean they wouldn't bring it up later, though.)
"If you thought we wouldn't trust you if we knew you had the lantern, then why didn't you just, I don't know, throw it away?" MK asked, and Macaque sighed, slouching down in his chair.
"...Lady Bone Demon wanted it." He muttered, and everyone immediately stood up ramrod straight.
"What?" Wukong hissed, staring down at the lantern in his hands as though he was seeing it in a new light. "Why- what could she possibly want with-"
"Don't know, didn't stick around long enough to find out." Macaque said, shrugging. MK and Red Son both looked horrified.
"That's how you got injured." MK muttered, "She must've captured you because she wanted the lantern...."
"The Lady Bone Demon has a cursed blade..." Red Son said, under his breath, only Macaque hearing him.
"Yeah yeah, I got captured, I got injured, whatever, it's all over with now." Macaque said, waving a hand around as though he wasn't making light of something horrifying. "Anyways, anyone else got any bright ideas on where to hide the lantern?"
"....Was that a pun." Wukong asked, "Seriously. You reveal that the Lady Bone Demon is after both you and the lantern and then you swap topics with a pun?"
"You got a problem with that?" Macaque asked, a smirk on his face. There was a moment of tense silence as the two of them stared at each other.
Wukong set the lantern back down on the table.
And then tackled Macaque out of his chair and onto the floor. Macaque let out a startled yelp as they went down, before quickly switching to clawing at the other as Wukong easily pinned him to the ground-
And then suddenly Wukong's grip weakened, and Macaque easily reversed their positions, pinning Wukong to the floor. For a moment the Monkey King looked confused, before a look of nervous realization appeared on his face.
"Uh- guys?" He said, nervously giggling as Macaque and the others stared at him in confusion. "Um. I think I just lost my super strength?"