Chapter Text
It was dark, 1 maybe 2 in the morning, Wukong wasn’t sure. He had been awake for what felt like days and may have been, how long had he been possessed? He wasn’t sure. Everything hurt, he couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep and his mind was too on edge to allow him to mediate. His cottage seemed quieter then he remembered and darker, the shadows seemed to spread out covering everything in an inky blackness so thick not even he could see what may lurk in the darkness. Wukong wrapped a blanket tighter around him and rolled over again, trying to find some way to get comfortable but every movement sent out a fresh wave of pain. The Great Sage wasn’t a stranger to pain, in fact he had gotten good at hiding when he hurt so he didn’t worry any of his companions but in years past he had been able to recover. He could still feel the biting cold that split open his back and flowed through his veins, infecting him with the White Bone Spirit’s evil energy, trapping him in his own mind and no matter how hard he fought against it he never seemed to be able to win. The scenes of what he did, the hurt he caused still played in his mind but not just from his possession.
Don't you realize you're hurting the people who care about you the most?
Mei’s words still stung, she was right. He had been so caught up in trying to keep everyone safe that he ended up hurting them, he had been so worried about the White Bone Spirit that he had caused so many other problems and left them for MK to pick up. With a soft sigh he sat up, it was obvious that he wasn’t going to get to sleep tonight. Before he could stand he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, jumping to his feet he bristled, waiting for an attack for something to leap out of the darkness but it didn’t come. Still on edge he tried to reason the movement away, and while it worked to calm his nerves he figured he probably wasn’t going to be able to fully relax now.
“Wukong!” A familiar and unexpected voice came from behind him, the Monkey King spun around to face the shadow monkey. Macaque was standing just in front of one of the many dark shadows, he looked nerves and his tail kept twitching slightly
“What are you doing here?” Wukong hissed, not in the mood to listen to Macaque berate him “I thought you had gone somewhere to “scheme” or was that to borning?”
“I need your help” Macaque said, taking a step back as if he expected to be attacked and was ready to escape. Wukong, still on edge, crossed his arms
“Really?” Wukong asked “Did you think I would fall for that?” It was clear from how the other monkey was standing that he was in pain, probably more so then the Great Sage, so it would have been foolish for Macaque to try to pick a fight.
“I’m not trying to trick you, I need your help” Macaque sounded almost like he was pleading, his eyes betraying his nervousness. Wukong rolled his eyes
“Fine” He said in a near growl
“I found two cubs” Macaque started to explained
“Found?” Wukong cut him off before he could say more “Or did you steal them, I seem to remember you do have an interest in stealing things for your own gain, though I didn’t expect you to stoop this low” Macaque glanced down
“No, I really did find them. They were on the mountain I took MK to that one time” Macaque said slowly, choosing his words carefully
“The time you stole his powers and tried to kill him?” Wukong prompted with a slight snarl threatening to show itself, Macaque nodded. Wukong glared at the shadow monkey, if it was true that he found the cubs there then he couldn’t have stolen them, the monkey troops stayed away from that mountain and even the wandering loners avoided it. “Show them to me” Wukong demanded, now he doubted that they even existed.
“Wukong, I’m telling the truth, I found them there” Macaque said, a shadow portal opening next to him, two tiny cubs tumbled out. They looked around confused, seeing Macaque they clumsily crawled over to him. Wukong watched them, they weren’t illusions, he could tell that much but they also didn’t look like normal monkey cubs. The bolder of the two was a golden yellow, even in the darkness the cub seemed to give off a slight glow, the cub had dark blue eyes, similar to his eye color before he had gotten his golden eyes. The other cub was a pale gray, the cub clung to the golden cub, glancing at him with large brown eyes. Wukong’s breath caught in his chest, the cub had six ears, glancing at the golden cub, he noticed the cub had four ears, though they weren’t as large as the gray cub’s ears and didn’t seem to be multi-colored.
“They’re celestials?” Wukong asked, almost not believing it. He had thought that only him and Macaque were celestial primates, he recalled that there were more kinds of celestial primates but he had never seen them and these two cubs didn’t seem to be them, though he wasn’t sure about the golden cub the gray cub was clearly a six eared macaque.
“I think so” Macaque nodded “That’s why I need your help, I’m not sure what to do with them” Wukong stepped forwards, though his attention stayed on the cubs he noticed that Macaque stiffened slightly
“It’s odd they are so young” Wukong commented, mostly to himself “I’m not sure if I can help you with them, I have to train MK and cubs this young need someone to look after them all day” He wasn’t even sure where to begin, he had raised orphaned cubs before but they hadn’t been monkeys with any kind of spiritual powers. Wukong started to crouch down when a sudden and sharp pain shot from his chest, he stumbled, and fell to one knee despite his best efforts at hiding the pain.
“Wukong?” Macaque questioned
“I’m fine” Wukong replied, trying to stand but every movement sent new pain through his torso. With a clenched jaw he managed to get back to his feet “See, fine” He managed to say through teeth clenched so tight they were close to breaking. Wukong felt something trickle from the side of his mouth, taking a shaking hand, he wiped it away. Even in the darkness the blood stood out on his fingers. By now each breath seemed to add to the pain, Wukong felt his head start to spin, he refused to acknowledge it.
“Maybe you should sit down” Macaque said, he sounded genuinely concerned
“I said I was fine” Wukong said “It’s nothing” Even as he spoke he could feel more blood run down his chin, it bubbled up his throat, making him cough. He took a step forwards, not meaning to, but he had been plagued with muscle twitches since being possessed. The single step sent a ripple of overwhelming pain through his body. Wukong faltered again, he tried to catch himself like before but the pain was too much, his head slammed into the hard flood.
“Peaches!” he heard Macaque call out, he just caught sight of the shadow monkey running over before the darkness and pain consumed him.