Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The king stood across the room, watching his mate coo at the sleeping cub in their arms. A few mother monkeys joined them as they too, looked at the new member with growing interest.

It had been a girl, he was told by one of them. With golden fur like his, but a bright red mark and two pairs of ears on the sides of her face. Similar to her Bàba.

"Wukong," The king stiffened when he heard the shadow monkey speak quietly. He heard his lover chuckle when the two met eyes. The other smiled warmly. "Come here, she won't bite you."

"It's not that, Míhoú," Wukong looked back at the child in Macaque's arms. "I'm just . . . scared."

"Of our child?" The shadow monkey raised an eyebrow playfully and stared at his mate.

"Of hurting our child." His tail swished behind him harshly, showing his agitation. He would do anything to hold his cub, his little princess. But he knew his hands were soaked in the blood of past enemies, and he didn't want those hands to show his daughter what kind of monster he was.

Macaque's eyes softened at the realization. "I see," He looked down at their child, who seemed to be waking up from her nap. "I've hurt just as many people as you have, maybe even worse." Their daughter sneezed and blinked at her Bàba. Macaque chuckled. "But when it comes to fragile things, you are always careful with them. So I have no worries about you holding her." He glanced at Wukong. "Now come here. I think she's curious to see who her other father is."

Hesitantly, Wukong agreed and slowly walked to the bed. The monkeys watching the cub noticed his arrival and leapt off the bed, giving the parents more room to watch their princess with ease. It seemed to relax their king enough, knowing it would just be the three of them.

Wukong sat beside Macaque and took a proper look at his daughter. Two golden eyes stared back at him with growing curiosity, before they were shut tight by another sneeze. Wukong chuckled and hesitantly placed his thumb on her cheek and rubbed it. It felt soft, softer than he expected her fur to be. Must be another thing she got from the shadow monkey. The king slowly moved her hand to her stomach and tickled her, watching as giggles started to erupt from her at the feeling.

"See?" Macaque whispered, glancing at his lover before turning his attention back to the girl in his arms. "There is nothing to fear."

Wukong's heart swelled when their daughter tried to grab his hand, and felt her strong grip keep his finger there. "I guess you were right," He looked at Macaque. "What do we call her?"

Macaque continued to stare at their cub as she curled her tail around his wrist. ". . . Jīnzi."

"Jīnzi?" Wukong raised an eyebrow, confused. "Why that name?"

"Because of all the treasures we have, peaches," Macaque leaned forward and kissed their daughter's head, who giggled again. "She's our most precious one."

~~~~~

“Hey, no- ah!” Wukong groaned as Jīnzi kept trying to climb her father. “It’s just grooming, why can’t you stay?”

Jīnzi didn’t look at him and chirped up at the tree behind them, where Macaque was climbing for fruit. The shadow monkey looked down at his cub and smiled. “Hello, dear.”

Wukong turned Jīnzi around and placed her back on his lap and continued to try grooming her head. “I swear, if I wasn’t here she would be stuck with you all the time! Ah-” The king sighed as she turned her head and started grabbing his hands.

“Well, maybe that just means I’m her favorite.” Macaque chuckled and plucked another apricot. He placed the fruit in his basket and began to climb down.

Wukong’s jaw dropped as he watched his mate come down the tree. “How dare you! My daughter could never see you as her favorite! I’m her dad!” He released his hands from his daughter and crossed his arms. He stuck his nose up and huffed haughtily.

Jīnzi pouted once she no longer had something to hold, but chirped happily once she saw her Bàba come near. Macaque picked her up from her father’s lap and placed his daughter on his own. “She says differently, don’t you dear?” He rubbed his nose with her, earning the shadow monkey giggles from the princess.

Wukong sputtered and growled. He turned his back on the two. “Fine! Then I’ll just leave the mountain, so she’s with you all the time! No need for her lousy father to be around, huh?”

“No you won’t, peaches,” Macaque looked at his mate and noticed how upset the other monkey was. He frowned and looked at the daughter, who was watching her father too.

The shadow monkey smiled and placed Jīnzi on Wukong’s head. The girl, unsure of what to do, began to crawl around and picked up any bugs she found on his head, making quick work of them as she stuffed them in her mouth to eat. Macaque laughed. “Look, she’s even grooming you as an apology!”

The king tried his best to keep his angry facade, even when he felt his daughter play with his fur. But he gave up and beamed at his cub and gently took her off his head. “Thank you, my princess.” He kissed all around her face, chuckling when he felt hands push his face away, and angry chirping filling his ears.

“Hey, where’s my kiss?” Macaque moved to sit beside his king and leaned his face in.

Wukong smirked. “Is the shadow jealous? Of our own cub no less.”

Macaque rolled his eyes. “Oh shut it. You act like you weren’t behaving like a cub yourself a few minutes ago.” The king kissed his lover to keep the shadow from talking anymore.

The shadow monkey smiled and leaned closer to his mate, almost forgetting their daughter for a moment.

Almost.

A chirp brought Macaque back to his senses to see their daughter climbing up a very thin branch. “Jīnzi no! Get down from there right now-!”

~~~~~

“Do you have to go?” Macaque whispered as he watched his mate wear his armor again. “The celestial realm doesn’t need to be dealt with all the time, peaches.” He never saw why it was so important to fight the celestial realm all the time. Sure, the Monkey King’s actions there weren’t exactly kind to them, but even they managed to get over it after a few decades.

Wukong glanced at his lover and smiled softly. “It won’t be long, I promise.”

Macaque huffed and turned his head away from him. “Bullshit, you won’t come back until another century, like every other time.” He ignored the feeling of his side of the bed dip, and the feeling of a warm hand running down his back lovingly.

“Hey,” Wukong whispered and tried to see his lover’s face behind the pillow. The shadow monkey held onto the bed and kept his face hidden, however. “Liù, come on. Please don’t make this hard for me.” The king tried again. “Please, let me see you.”

He yelped when he was pushed back on the bed, with his lover holding his hands down as the shadow monkey straddled him. Wukong could see tears threatening to break from Macaque’s face, a snarl etched on his face. “Why can’t you say no? Just once, forget about your pride and reputation, and for once think about your mountain! Think about your subjects!” He yelled. The grip on the king's hands tightened. Macaque took a shuddering breath before continuing. “About us. About Jīnzi . . .”

“Míhoú, I can’t-” Wukong began, before Macaque yelled again.

“Why the fuck not?!” The shadow monkey didn’t bother hiding the tears that fell this time. “Why can’t you forget about that damn realm?! You’ve gotten a title worthy of your strength and power, you’ve gained immortality seven times, what more could you want from that place?!”

“Buddha is coming!” Wukong yelled back.

Macaque froze at the mention of the deity and stared at his lover’s face with horror. The grip on the king’s hands was removed immediately. “What . . . ?”

"He is coming here,” Wukong repeated. He slowly sat up and held Macaque while the other fell to his lap. “I do not want him to hurt any of you, especially our cub, so I have to leave and go somewhere where he can’t hurt you for my actions.”

Wukong wiped Macaque’s tear-stained face and smiled sadly. “I promise, no matter what, I will return as soon as possible.” He bared his teeth and grinned a feral smile. “Even if it means I have to kill him myself to see you again.”

Macaque chuckled at that and shook his head. “You truly are a crazy monkey, you know that?”

“Only for you.” Wukong nuzzled into his mate’s shoulder and chirped happily at the strong smell of plums and apricots filling his nose.

A smaller chirp caused the two to notice their cub standing by the door, a curious look on her face. Jīnzi chirped again and ran to the bed, taking up the challenge to get up on the mattress and sit with her parents.

Macaque smiled and picked her up, and placed their daughter in his lap. “Jīnzi,” He spoke softly. The girl looked up at her Bàba curiously. The shadow monkey took a deep breath before continuing. “Your dad has to go somewhere, so we won’t be able to see him for a while. Do you want to say goodbye to him?”

Jīnzi turned to look at Wukong before chirping angrily. Wukong pursed his lips as he listened to her cries.

stay-want-happy-family

“Jīnzi,” The king picked his princess up and rubbed his nose with hers, earning him a huff from his cub. “I promised your Bàba this too, I will come back as soon as I promise. And when I do, the three of us can do whatever you want the whole day. What do you think?”

Jīnzi grinned and chirped excitedly. Both of her parents chuckled at her joy of getting a day to play with her parents. Wasting no time in planning whatsoever, she wiggled herself out of her father’s grasp and ran off.

“She’s so happy all the time,” Macaque laughed shortly and wiped the remaining tears off his face. “Just like you.”

Wukong went back to nuzzling against his mate, and cooed when he felt the shadow monkey do the same. “I’ve never broken a promise to you, and I never will.” He mumbled. The king felt arms wrap around him and he smiled sadly. “I have to go now, Míhoú.”

“I trust you won’t break it, peaches,” Macaque said as he hesitated on letting his lover go just yet. “But if you do, I swear on the Jade Emperor I’ll drag your body back to this mountain if I have to.”

Wukong sat up and looked at Macaque’s face for a second, a wide smile stuck on his face. He laughed and nodded. “I’ll be sure to remember that!”

“You better. I’m not one to leave something unfinished.”

By the time the sun had risen to the peak of the sky, Wukong had given his farewells to all his subjects and one final goodbye to his family before jumping on his somersault cloud and flew off.

Macaque watched him fly off and held onto their daughter as she chirped for her father to come back. He looked at her and smiled. “Don’t worry, dear. He’ll come back soon. He always does.”

Oh how the shadow monkey wished his king never left them after that day.

Chapter Text

“Jīnzi, I need you to hide okay? Don’t come out until I say so.”

“Don’t you dare hurt her, you monster!”

“Why did you hurt my master!? Answer me!”

“I told you I wasn’t going to break my promise if you broke yours!”

“Go home, M̶̗̦̻̜̅̓̋̽̇̂ͅí̶̜̺͎̰̞̺̦̞͐̒̾̈́̇̂̉h̵̛̗̎͂͂̌ǒ̷̘̺̗̤̳̦͖̯͆͒͋̀̀ứ̶̧̢̯͉̮͓̹̻̰̐̈̀̂͛͊͂ͅ, please. I . . . I can’t return home yet.”

“I can’t go back . . . He’ll kill me if sees me again-!”

”Bàba? Why didn’t you stop him?”

Macaque gasped, jolting up from his slumber. He gripped onto his shirt as the shadow monkey tried to calm his raging heart. He took slow and shuddering deep breaths, until he was sure he couldn’t hear his ragged breathing mix with his heartbeat.

Even after centuries, the memories of his past continued to bother him. Macaque rubbed his eyes and groaned, he was sure there were bags under there at this point. He contemplated going back to sleep, but decided against it once he recalled the past few moments.

Carefully, but quickly, Macaque shuffled out of his makeshift fort and stretched in freedom, letting his glamours fall for a moment. It felt odd to have his ears out again, having kept them hidden for long. The ambience of wind and soft cluttering of machinery put his mind to ease, and he almost wanted to stay where he was. Albeit the wind seemed to bring a phantom sting to the scar on his face every time it flew his way.

“Ah, I see you’re awake, Macaque,” A loud voice boomed across the room, scaring the shadow monkey. Hiding his features behind his glamor, he looked up to see the blue guardian stare at him with curiosity. “Would you like something to eat? My brother attempted to use that recipe you found a while ago, it turned out well.”

“Oh? Well, I don’t see why not.” He followed the giant and looked around the library. If that was he could call it. The knowledge that flowed here was constantly updated, replaced, or removed all the time. Macaque tried keeping up with it, but once the digital world entered the cloud, he gave up and stuck to his own pace.

He wasn’t sure how he found this place when he was running, but he was glad the guardians were kind enough to let him stay and hide from him. At least until he was strong enough to face his mistakes again. The shadow monkey was thankful they never questioned him about his reasons for hiding, nor did they force him to leave at some point.

Though Macaque doubted he’d ever leave such a wonderful place only to face death’s door to begin with.

The sound of new messages echoed throughout the building, moving faster than they normally would. Macaque’s ears flicked as he tried to catch snippets of videos that appeared and disappeared in the world of digital knowledge.

“OMG it’s him-!”

“No way, I thought he was just a story-!”

“Is that his servant-?”

“Does that mean the Monkey King’s-”

“Where is Monkey King-?”

“Wow I never thought the princess looked-”

Small snippets, but enough to let him know a big event had occurred in the mortal realm once again. No doubt the Great Sage had played a part in this, seeing how many people were talking about him like they used to in the past.

“Qīng,” The shadow monkey glanced at the guardian before him in confusion. “What’s going on?”

The blue-haired giant glanced at the other and pursed his lips into a thin line. Both guardians knew of his fears and were careful around such subjects. “It may not be something you’d wish to hear about, Macaque.”

Macaque smiled softly. “. . . If you say so.” He ignored the odd stare and kept making his way to the center of the temple- was it a temple either? Macaque needed to give this place a better name than ‘cloud’ - and approached the other guardian.

Perhaps changing the conversation would be better, it always seemed to work for the guardians. “Good morning, Hóngsè. How is the broth recipe I found?”

The red giant looked up from the steaming pot in front of him and beamed to see the shadow monkey. “Good morning, Macaque!” Hóngsè picked up a ladle and scooped a portion of the meal from the steaming pot in front of him, before pouring it in a bowl and giving it to the little monkey. “It tastes as well as you thought it would! Though I did have to add a bit more mushrooms to help with the flavor.”

“Thank you,” Macaque mumbled as he sat down, before taking a sip of the red guardian’s broth. He hummed in delight. “You’re right, they do help.” He took a few more sips before his ear twitched at the noise again.

“Wait, who’s that-?”

“OH MY GOD IS THAT MONKEY KING-?!”

“SHIT DBK’S HERE-!”

“My boss isn’t gonna believe why I got late this time-”

“Is that a kid-?”

“He’s got the staff! Yo that’s so cool-!”

Macaque raised an eyebrow in confusion and glanced at the two giants. “What’s going on down there?” He knew the blue guardian would keep his mouth shut for a short while before he cracked, and the red giant was quick to honesty when asked for it. A minor flaw from both that came in very handy sometimes.

Like right now.

“Everyone seems to be talking about something important. Even you two know about it. Is it a bad rumor about me?” The shadow monkey knew neither of his found brothers would allow such a horrible thing to occur, and he knew that they knew the situation wasn’t related to him in any way. But it was enough for them to come clean.

“Heavens no!” Qīng exclaimed as he frantically flailed in arms in denial. “No such mortal would ever say such a thing to you! You know that!”

“Why would you think of such a horrible thought?!” Hóngsè panicked and arose from where he sat. “You are much too kind for that! The mortals are talking about the return of the Demon Bull King, as well as the mortal who could-”

“Hóngsè!” The blue giant slapped his hand over his brother’s mouth and shook his head furiously. “He doesn’t need to know that right now.” He hissed and slowly removed his hand. Oh, keeping secrets. That was new.

“Oh, I forgot,” The red guardian turned to the shadow monkey and frowned. “That’s all, really. The mortal bit wasn’t as important as I thought it was.”

“It’s okay,” Macaque smiled and sipped some more of the broth. “Thank you for telling me, at least.” He’ll have to use a device to understand the situation better, but at least the shadow monkey had a lead. Not to mention he needed to visit the Bull family afterwards now that DBK had returned.

Or not, he was too much of a coward to visit them when he was locked away 500 years ago. The chance of them welcoming him to their home just as they used to seemed unlikely seeing how they may still believe he had attachments to him, the one who caused this. Perhaps when things mellowed out he might go.

“Of course! It’s what brothers do, no?” Qīng smiled before grabbing a portion of his own meal, Hóngsè following close behind.

Macaque nodded and finished his meal quickly. “By the way,” Both guardians looked at the monkey, curious to hear what he had to say. “Which section held the sewing section? I wish to try a new hobby again, and my memory isn’t too good.” Another lie, but one they took with ease.

“Oh, that would be far back in the ‘Arts and Crafts’ section, to the left of here!” The red giant smiled and went back to his meal.

“Thank you,” Macaque placed his bowl down and got up. “I’ll see you soon, you two.” He turned and hurriedly made his way to the Arts and Crafts section. Well, almost. The Crafts section was conveniently placed beside the digital section, where he could see all that was hidden from him.
Making sure neither guardian noticed him, Macaque ran inside the digital and quickly skimmed through the images.

“No . . . not that one . . . ah, here we are.” The shadow monkey pressed on a video that showed DBK glaring at the golden sky where . . . a mortal stood before him. Macaque raised an eyebrow in confusion. Was he a mortal? No human could fly - not without machinery that is- and they never produced such a light from them.

“What is that-?” Macaque paused the video and zoomed in on the mortal, trying to see the object in his hand. “Is that- a stick? No, wait-” His eyes widened once he realized what the boy was holding.

A simple mortal, who seemed no older than at least twenty years, was carrying the golden staff of the Monkey king with such ease.

It wasn’t the fact that the staff could be held by such a young boy that scared him. No, it was the way the boy carried himself. It was exactly how he used to carry himself, at least before the incident.

He carried himself just like W̸̡̭͚̥͓͖̗̳̿̋̈̍́̅̈̀̕͜͝ͅu̷̢̧͙̼͚̗̜̓̐̒́k̷̨̭̥̽̌͋͑̊̓͐̀̑͝ȯ̶̳̺͎̮̤̞̤̚n̴̢͉͉̞͎̝̼̠͒̆ͅg̴̱̺̙̬̜͙̖̈́̀̅̄̿̐͌͛̐͝ͅͅ would.

Macaque looked at the caption of the video, and his hands started shaking.

”Monkey’s King’s successor? Young boy saves city from DBK attack!”

Successor.

Macaque dropped the video, not caring if it shattered or broke.

“He has a successor . . .” Macaque whispered. He backed away from the video. “He has a successor . . . h-he . . . did he find me?” His eyes frantically looked across all the images and videos surrounding him, flashes of golden fur and red eyes watching his every move. Keeping him in place.

“No no no-” Macaque didn’t think as he ran out of the section and ignored everything around him. The sounds all around him blurred into an awful tune, humming to his sorrow and fear. “He can’t- h-he can’t have found me-” He could hear someone laughing cruelly behind him; or was that crying? He didn’t want to hear it nevertheless.

Macaque didn’t bother being careful the moment he saw his makeshift fort and jumped inside. He grabbed his blanket immediately and wrapped it around his head. He shut his eyes tightly and prayed to Guiyang to keep him safe. “Please don’t let him find me. Please, please . . .” He couldn’t even tell he was crying at that point, barely noticing the cold stings against his cheeks from the wind hitting the fallen tears as he shuddered at the thought of seeing a familiar sage standing before him again.

The shadow monkey was eventually found by his brothers, and they made sure to care for him until he calmed down. But the idea of another Wukong wouldn’t leave his mind for a long time.

Chapter Text

“You're doing better kiddo! Much better,” Wukong smirked at Mk, who looked close to falling flat on his face. “You might wanna start watching your opponent’s movements rather than just smacking the staff everywhere. But we can work on that next time!”

Mk gasped for air and beamed at his master. “You think so-?!” He raised his hands in the air for joy, only to fall backwards from exhaustion. He heard the golden monkey laugh from where he sat in the tree while he groaned. He forced his head to look at the Great Sage despite the feeling. “Am I really getting better?”

“Of course you are!” Wukong jumped off his branch and walked to his successor. “Way better than how you used to be, at least.” He grabbed the human by his hoodie and pulled him up using his tail. “I’d say a break is an order for the rest of the day, yeah?”

“Wha- no!” Mk stumbled a bit trying to gain his balance before facing Wukong again. He grabbed his staff from the ground and got into a fighting stance. “I can keep going a bit longer!”

“I like the attitude, but your body is saying otherwise,” Wukong lowered the staff from his face and walked back to his peach tree. “If you want to stay here longer, you can explore the mountain. Just stay away from the plum trees, okay?” He climbed the tree and pulled on one of the ripe fruits. “I don’t want to keep you here and have that pig come here to yell at me for keeping his best worker from him.”

“Wait- you mean it?” Mk grinned widely, and any exhaustion he might have had was gone in an instant. “Can I really explore the mountain?”

“I wouldn’t have mentioned it if i didn’t allow it,” Wukong took a bite out of his peach and leaned back on the tree. “Just promise to leave the plum trees alone, okay? They’re really important to me.”

“I promise!” The young boy didn’t stay still after that, and ran out the waterfall while jumping and hollering in joy. “I get to see the rest of the mountain!”

Wukong chuckled and smiled sadly where his successor was once standing. “Oh, Liùěr, if only you could be here . . .” His smile faded at the thought of his late lover, and looked at the peach in his hands. The king sighed and hugged himself. “I miss you . . .”

The monkeys nearby watched their king and chittered amongst themselves, unsure what to do for their ruler. It was hard to make him feel better in the past after he returned to the mountain for good once he found neither his child nor his mate there waiting for him. They were relieved to see him full of joy once the human came to him, but the monkeys noticed not even that was helping their king move on.

Wukong sat up and jumped off the tree, catching the attention of the monkeys again. “I’ll go visit them again.” He looked at his subjects and glared at them suddenly, scaring them. “Don’t follow me, understand?”

They all chittered in quick agreement, before running off and keeping their distance from the king. Best to leave him before he took his anger and sorrow on someone.

~~~~~

“Woah, there’s so many fruits here!” Mk laughed and walked through the forest, looking up to see some of the monkeys there. “You guys must never go hungry here, huh?” They chirped at him and ran off through the branches, sometimes coming back with different fruits to give to the young successor.

He took them with a smile on his face, and ate a few as he continued his trip through the mountain. He noticed a small cave entrance and was curious to see what lived in there. As he got near, however, all the monkeys began to screech and tug at his clothes.

“What is it?” Mk looked at the creatures, confused. Was there an awful beast in there? If so, then he should take care of it. That’s what the Monkey King would do, right? “Don’t worry you guys, it’ll be fine. It’s me after all!” He gently pried himself from their hands and continued his way to the entrance.

This didn’t seem to calm the monkeys, now even more terrified than before. They tried to tell him, warn him of the danger that lurked in there. If only their King’s successor knew their language, or understood their actions.

Once the boy reached the entrance of the cave, they all ran from the area. It would be bad to go anywhere near the place for now. Hopefully the human would understand why they tried to stop him before he got into too much trouble by the sage.

The moment Mk stepped into the cave, he was greeted by a cold breeze, contrasting the warm air that surrounded the mountain. He shivered, but kept going deeper into the cave. As he continued, he noticed how the area was filled with pink blossom trees, giving the cold place a sweet scent.

“You should not be here . . .” A voice echoed through the cave, startling Mk. “The king does not want visitors, leave.” Mk looked around the area, stopping to notice a shadowy figure hiding behind one of the trees. Its eyes glowed a purple hue as they glared at him.

“Hello?” Carefully, the boy pulled out his staff and slowly crept up to the shadow. “Um, are you the one who’s scaring the monkeys?”

“Leave now.” It growled, the shadows around it growing bigger as it spread around the grove. “Leave before you regret, human.”

“Regret? What do you mean?” Mk lowered his staff and kept coming closer to the figure. “Who are you exactly?”

“LEAVE!” The figure morphed into a monstrous beast that towered over both Mk and the nearby trees. Its eyes changed into slits, and it revealed a horrendous mouth that screeched loudly at the human. It raised its claws and slashed at the ground in front of Mk as a final warning to him.

Mk yelped once he saw it transform and took its advice this time. Clutching his staff on the way, he ran out of the cave and down the mountain, not looking back once. Whatever it was, it was there for a reason. Besides, if it was here, then the Monkey king could handle it instead of Mk. Afterall, it was his mountain, right?

Maybe he can ask about the shadow next time. Mk plunged the staff into the ground before shooting up to the sky. For now he needed to get off the mountain.

~~~~~

“Hey you two, I’m back . . .” Wukong smiled at a plum blossom tree with small carvings before him. He glanced at the small grave beside it and clenched the half-eaten peach in his hand. Wukong sat down and rolled the fruit in his hands.

He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he had seen his child and mate’s faces, and regretted not staying back before his mountain was attacked, not realizing he lost so much more than he thought.

“I’ve uh, I’ve got some news! Great news!” Wukong smiled nervously. “I met a human who can hold my staff! And who could beat DBK easily too!” He smiled at the memory watching Mk and looked at the plum blossom tree beside the grave.

“I’ve decided to make him my successor. I know it might be uh- a bad decision, but he didn’t seem to have any regrets.” Wukong’s tail started to thump against the ground happily as he continued. “Oh! You should’ve seen him when he fought against Red son! He was so confident in himself, even without all of my powers he handled him perfectly-!”

He cut himself off when he heard a loud voice echo through the area. “LEAVE!” Wukong looked behind him to see a shadowy figure near one of the entrances to the plum trees. He placed the peach down and got up, looking back at his family one more time.

“I’ll be back soon,” Wukong knew they’ve heard that many times now, and he wasn’t sure how many times he went against those words. “I think someone got in.”

He jumped on his somersault cloud and flew to the noise, watching in the distance as the shadow beast slowly shrunk into a smaller figure. Once he was close enough, he jumped off and landed beside the being. It looked at him with wide eyes, before it squinted at him in such a way that almost looked like glaring to the King.

“Is everything okay, Savage?” Wukong raised an eyebrow, confused. He wasn’t how, but the only thing that was left behind from his mate was one of his shadow clones. Normally they disappeared when killed in battle or asked to, but this one stayed despite its creator long gone. He distinctly remembered this one had a twin shadow, but maybe that one died protecting the mountain. “You seem mad.”

Savage huffed and disappeared, probably to hide in one of the plum trees again. Even the clone didn’t seem interested in staying close to him. He understood why, but the cold interaction between the clone didn’t make him feel any better for his actions. Wukong sighed and walked back to the grave, sitting closer to the slab instead of the tree this time.

He smiled nervously at the stone, ignoring the name engraved on it. “It’s almost your birthday, Jīnzi. Is there anything special you want?” The Great Sage heard nothing but the quiet chatter of monkeys outside the cave, but he pretended to hear her voice. “Right, you just want me to stay and um, play all day with you right? Like I promised?”

Wukong chuckled as tears began to slip out of his face. He wiped them quickly, as if someone was watching him. Wukong took a deep breath, before bursting into sad laughter. “Look at me,” He felt more tears fall, and didn’t wipe them this time. “Crying like a child even after so long. I bet you find that funny, Míhoú.” He glanced at the plum blossom tree, barely reading the name carved on it with his blurry vision. He sniffled and laughed some more.

The sound of chattering got louder, and Wukong assumed the monkeys outside were fighting again. He wiped his face again and stood up. “I uh-” He cleared his throat. “I gotta go now. I’ll come back tomorrow, okay?”

The king smiled at the two graves, before turning around and headed out of the cave to see what the problem was. He didn’t notice the Savage appear behind him, nor did he notice the sad look he gave to the Great Sage.

Chapter Text

Macaque sighed as he watched the city from the cloud. He had slightly gotten used to hearing about Monkey King and his successor in the building, but even after the event with DBK had died down on the internet, the people still talked about the boy and how he was a “hero” to the people.

He wonders how often he heard that word for W̸̡̭͚̥͓͖̗̳̿̋̈̍́̅̈̀̕͜͝ͅu̷̢̧͙̼͚̗̜̓̐̒́k̷̨̭̥̽̌͋͑̊̓͐̀̑͝ȯ̶̳̺͎̮̤̞̤̚n̴̢͉͉̞͎̝̼̠͒̆ͅg̴̱̺̙̬̜͙̖̈́̀̅̄̿̐͌͛̐͝ͅͅ when he went on that blasted journey.

“Macaque.” A voice boomed behind the shadow monkey, causing him to flinch and snap out of his thoughts. He turned around to see Qīng watching him with careful eyes. Almost as if he’d shatter if the giant moved or spoke wrongly.

As if he’d break like he did before.

“Yes? Is . . . something wrong?” Macaque forced himself to listen into the cloud again, picking up snippets of conversations about a missing girl. Interesting, it changed this time. “Did Hóngsè need my help with finding a book again?” He got up, but paused when he noticed the blue guardian shake his head.

“No, it’s nothing of the sort,” Qīng moved to sit beside the shadow monkey. “I simply came here to check on you, since it’s been a few weeks when you found out . . .” Macaque looked away from the other, turning back to the city below them. Qīng cleared his throat and tried to change the topic. “Um, I was thinking, why don’t we visit the city? Like how we used to.”

Macaque smiled at the idea, but shook his head. “Someone has to watch over the cloud. If both of you go, then who will protect it from intruders?”

Qīng went quiet after that, and silence remained between them for a while. It was only when Hóngsè bursted out of the building did the shadow monkey get an answer. “I’ll stay! You two are free to go and visit the city!” The red giant bellowed, a big grin on his face.

“Hóngsè-!” Qīng hissed at his brother and glanced at Macaque, who had covered his ears at the sudden arrival.

The shadow monkey glanced at the red giant after the ringing in his ears stopped. “When were you listening to our conversation?”

“When Qīng left to look for you,” The guardian beamed at Macaque. “You two can go visit the city. I’ve noticed how curious you’ve become of the world, it would be best if you saw how much has changed.”

“A-are you sure?” Macaque’s eyes widened, and his tail began to thump slowly with joy. To see the modern world almost seemed . . . surreal to him. He smiled at both of the brothers and nodded. “Okay, I’ll go. But are you sure you’ll be fine all alone?”

“Of course!” Hóngsè chuckled. “I wouldn’t have volunteered to stay if I wasn’t okay with it.”

Macaque’s grin widened at that, and he ran off inside. “I’ll go get changed!”

Both guardians smiled at the change of attitude, almost missing the sudden increase of posts regarding a familiar boy holding people hostage in an arcade.

~~~~~

“What the hell is going on?!” Pigsy yelled at Mk, who was trying to clean up the mess of hairs on the ground after he removed the fat clone.

He just wanted a break from everything, that’s all. Mk was tired of having to give orders for Pigsy, paint with Sandy, play with Mei, and manage to get enough rest to do it all over again everyday. He thought if he made more of himself things would be easier for him.

He wasn’t expecting his own clones would gain personalities out of it.

“How many of your clones did you make?!” Tang looked at Mk, glancing at the bald spot that had suddenly appeared on the boy's head. “I know I said you could use that tip to help you when you need it, but isn’t this a bit too far?”

“I- uh, um, well-” Mk stuttered, embarrassed he let this happen. “I- . . . I just wanted to be there for everyone.” He muttered, and looked down in shame. “I didn’t think it would be this bad. Sorry.”

Pigsy sighed and pinched the bridge of his eyebrows. “For Buddha’s sake . . .” He mumbled, before looking at Mk again. “If you wanted a day off, you could’ve asked, and I would’ve given one to you.”

He watched as his only worker kept staring at his feet and he sighed again. “Look- just get rid of all your clones, and I’ll let you have the weekend off, okay?”

Mk looked up at Pigsy with shock, before a wide grin appeared on his face. “On it!” He dashed out of the shop after that, feeling more determined to get this task finished quickly.

Tang watched the boy run off before glancing at the pig demon. “By the way, have you seen Sandy or Mei today? They’ve been awfully distant these days.”

Pigsy scoffed and went to wash the leftover dishes. “Even those two need some alone time I suppose. Why does it matter? I’m pretty sure they’re fine.”

Neither of them knew that he was wrong, but it didn’t seem to matter to either person at the moment.

~~~~~

Macaque shivered at the sudden feeling of wind against his skin as he and Qīng stepped out of the shadow portal. He held his jacket tighter and looked around. “It’s so strange . . .” He mumbled.

The blue giant chuckled as he watched the crowds of people shuffling through the streets. “Perhaps, but that may be so since you never visited the world after centuries.” He tugged at his collar. “Though, their clothing style has certainly changed drastically.”

Macaque glanced at Qīng, glancing at his human disguise. His blue hair faded into a deep chocolate brown, and his uniform was swapped with what the shadow monkey could assume as “modern fashion”. His hair had been clasped in a man bun, which seemed new to him. “I think you’ll fit in fine with it.”

The guardian smiled at the compliment and looked at the smaller being. His markings and black hair disappeared to reveal white hair tied back in a ponytail, contrasting the olive skin that brought out his amber eyes. If memory held, then he was sure that the cloak Macaque wore was an old gift after performing a shadow play during the- what was it, the 18th, 19th century? “I can only hope you’ll blend in with me.”

Macaque laughed and shook his head. “And you mention this after we’ve come here?” He placed his hand on his heart and pretended to look dejected at his brother. “I’m a bit hurt.”

“Ah, wait, no, that-that’s not what I meant-!” Qīng panicked and flailed his arms in worry.

Macaque laughed at his innocence and shook his head. “I know, I know. Don’t worry, Qīng.” The shadow monkey looked back at the crowd and sighed. “Well, let’s see what this world has to offer us today.” The blue giant nodded and followed the small simian across the city.

Least to say, Macaque started to favor the city over the cloud. Maybe the noise was a bit much, but he couldn’t stop looking.

Everything was so different from what he saw in videos and photos. He thought after watching the world change through its knowledge, it wouldn’t seem so strange to him. He dragged the disguised guardian to almost every shop he saw, from simple thrift shops - Qīng had to remind him of their limited spending's - to coffee shops - Macaque was definitely going to learn how to make those when he returned to the cloud.

“Qīng! Qīng, look!” The shadow monkey tugged on the blue giant’s arm, eyes sparkling with joy and interest yet again. “They’re showing videos on bigger screens! Bigger than those tablets and phones!”

Qīng smiled at the other’s pure adoration and wonder. “Those are called televisions, or TV, if I’m correct,” He explained. “They’ll show longer videos than the ones we see, called movies. Sometimes they even show live recordings, depending on what channel you want to look at.”

Macaque pressed his face against the glass panel and continued to watch the different screens. Even though each one was showing the same channel, he couldn’t help but look at them all in amazement. “So this is the extent of the human’s ability to evolve.” He looked at the taller being and beamed. “It's so much more fascinating seeing it up close!”

The guardian laughed and nodded. “I’m glad you like it, Macaque,” He pointed at a small shop that - if Macaque squinted his eyes enough to avoid catching the sun in his eyes - read Pet Shop. “We can go visit there next before going to eat some food for lunch.”

The shadow monkey raised an eyebrow, and scrunched his nose. “What is a ‘pet shop’?” He glanced at his found brother, who kept his calm smile.

“You’ll see.”

~~~~~

The clone laughed to himself as he smeared paint all over his face. “Yes, yes! The art is seeping into my pores, filling my very soul!” He laughed some more, almost looking crazy to the world if anyone saw him.

Sandy couldn’t help but worry at the sight of his friend, unsure of how things got like this. One minute he was painting a new coat of paint on his boat, the next he was hanging from a rope while paint remained splattered everywhere.

The clone looked at the water demon and grinned wider, almost scaring him. “It just needs one, more, coat.” He raised his brush and brought it close to Sandy’s face.

Sandy simply turned away and closed his eyes, and hoped things would be fine.

“Missed a spot!” A familiar voice yelled.

The clone stopped in his actions, and looked around, now panicked. “What?! Where-?!” He gasped as light surrounded him, before he turned into nothing but a pile of hair, similar to the fat clone, but with less hair.

“Sandy! Are you ok?” Mk helped bring the water demon down gently and freed him from his rope. God he needed to try better. He should have asked Monkey king for this. Why didn’t he?

Oh. Right, creepy shadow at the mountain.

“He didn’t hurt you, right?” He asked worriedly, quickly checking his big friend all over in case.

“I’m fine, bud,” Sandy smiled and patted his head. “You saved me before he could do anything. I didn’t know you could make clones now! Is that another skill from Monkey king?”

“Yeah! I uh, still gotta work out some bits for cloning and all.” Mk sheepishly admitted, and beamed. “Oh! Right, gotta go find the others. I think I sent one to Mei too-” Mei! Oh gods what did his clone do to her? Hopefully she wasn’t suffering too much.

They were no doubt at the arcade. What harm could possibly come there, Mei losing to his clone in Monkey Mech?

“I gotta go now, I’ll come help you paint another time Sandy!” Mk jumped off the roof and ran through the streets.

Sandy waved as he picked up Mo. Somehow the cat managed to bypass the art attack, and nuzzled into his owner’s beard, purring at the familiar feeling.

Mk kept running to find the arcade, he accidentally bumped into a stranger head on when making a turn. He fell back after hitting heads with them, and groaned at the feeling.

“Are you both alright?” A voice spoke between the two, reminding the successor that someone else was hurt too. He sat up and looked at the other, slightly scared he might have caused serious damage.

A young man, who’s hood fell off as he too sat up, groaned and shook his head to regain his vision. He had long white hair tied back into a ponytail, with olive skin shining against the sun, contrasting the bright red and black cloak he wore. In his hands seemed to be a small animal, a kitten. Odd, but Mk didn’t question it.

He got up and helped the stranger as well. “I’m so sorry! I was in a rush, and I didn’t notice you there.” He noticed how the stranger seemed to freeze once the two met eyes, but he shook it off and let go of them. “Again, I’m very sorry! I have to go now, see you soon!”

Macaque watched as the boy ran off, still shocked. So that was Wukong’s successor . . .

He seemed nice. For now.

He didn’t seem to realize who he was, so that was good.

“Macaque, are you alright?” Qīng pulled him out of his trance as the blue giant placed a hand on his shoulder. He nodded slowly, still processing what had happened. “And what about Xīng?” The guardian asked.

Macaque looked down in his hands, and smiled softly at the kitten who mewled and looked back at him with her big eyes. “She’s okay,” He mumbled, and patted her head. She bit his hand and held onto him in return, making him laugh.

They had just bought her after visiting the pet shop. It took a lot of convincing, but Macaque managed to persuade Qīng to buy her and take her as their ‘pet’ - he wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but he didn’t care if it meant she got to be his.

A sniffle got his attention right after.

“Macaque?” The shadow monkey looked around before dropping his glamor and revealed his glowing ears. He winced at the sudden increase of noise, but he managed to tune it all out as he continued to listen for that sniffle.

“Is everything okay, brother? You seem agitated.” Qīng whispered, knowing how painful it could get for the simian if he spoke normally so loudly.

He looked around as his ears twitched. His eyes landed on a small alley not too far away, just at the end of the street.

A girl was crying though the sounds of the bustling city. And no one was helping her.

The shadow monkey stood up abruptly and put up his glamor and disguise again, scaring the guardian for a bit. He quickly placed the kitten inside his cloak, and the guardian didn’t even get a word in this time as he watched the monkey demon quickly disperse into the crowd. He immediately followed him to keep him safe.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, but got no response in return. He kept following, sometimes stopping the shadow monkey from walking on the road during a green light, and panicked when he lost sight of him for a second.

When they reached an alleyway - Qīng was definitely giving Macaque a lecture for this - did he realize why the other acted like so. His eyes softened at the sight of the girl curled in herself as she wept. She didn’t notice them, nor did it seem like she wanted to be noticed either.

Macaque frowned and slowly approached the child, like one would with a wild animal. She looked up at him once he was only a few steps close to her. She looked terrified, which worsened the ache in his heart as he began to notice the bruises on her face.

“It’s okay,” He whispered, and slowly raised his hand in defense. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“Don’t take me back to them!” She screamed, pushing herself against the wall. “I- I don’t wanna go back, please!” Tears seemed to pour out faster, which scared both celestial beings.

What had she gone through?

A quiet meow alerted the three, and the kitten the two beings bought crawled out of Macaque’s cloak pocket. The kitten stared at the girl with curious eyes before making her way and rubbed against her leg.

The girl smiled a bit and rubbed the feline’s head, smiling more when she heard her mewl and purr in delight.

Macaque beamed at the sight. “She seems to like you a lot.”

“It’s a ‘she’?” The girl gently picked the kitten up and laughed a bit when it started to lick her face clean of tears.

Macaque nodded and continued watching their interaction. He found it so adorable, and he accidently spoke before thinking. “Do you want to stay with us for a while?” He slapped his mouth after realizing what he said, noting the surprised looks on both the child and Qīng.

“I-um,” She looked down at the kitten, who was pawing at her shirt and rolling about in her lap. “. . . can I really?”

The guardian’s eyes widened at the possible agreement. He turned around and pinched the bridge of his eyebrows. Gods, I didn’t even think he would try to adopt a child, and on the first day after seeing the city, he thought. It was going to be a pain to get the basic living materials for her if she does come with them, but not impossible so to say.

He glanced at the two as Macaque managed to successfully persuade the girl to join them. At least that confirmed it - they were going to be very busy after this.

“Qīng,” Macaque gave his hand to the girl and held onto her as he held his hand to the giant. “Shall we go? I bet Hóngsè is wondering where we are and when we’ll be back.”

The guardian sighed and smiled. He nodded and grabbed his hand. So long as Macaque was happy, then they could try to take care of it.

Macaque smiled at them both before the three - four with the kitten - fell through a shadow portal.

Mk stared at where they were, his mouth wide open. He didn’t notice someone creeping up behind as he yelled in shock. “WHAT THE FU-!”

“Gotcha!” The real Mk smacked his staff against the clone’s head, a proud smirk on his face once he saw a pile of hair fall down. He put his weapon away and looked around, confused.

“I wonder what he saw.” Mk scratched his head, before he realized what he was doing. “Right! Mei! Forgot again.” He ran out and kept making his way to the arcade, forgetting about that shortly after.

Chapter Text

Pigsy hummed to himself as he opened the window and door to his shop. He pulled out his trusty pot and grabbed a few vegetables before starting his morning work. The quiet sounds of birds chirping and voices of passerby’s seemed to be the only noise the chef heard as he continued setting up his area.

It didn’t take long before sunlight started to flood the little restaurant as the pig demon started to make noodles for upcoming orders. He barely acknowledged Tang’s presence as the scholar entered the shop and sat in his usual place. “‘Is a bit early for you, ain’t it, Tang?”

Tang adjusted his glasses and smiled smugly. “It’s never too early to visit an old friend,” He pulled out the same book he always carried with him. “Can I have some more soup in mine today-?”

“Oh no you don’t!” Pigsy slammed his spoon back into the pot and glared at the scholar. “You’re gonna help send these orders to my customers today!” He grinned, scaring the other. “As a way of paying for all your meals.”

“B-but I thought Mk does that?” Tang nervously smiled and leaned back. He only saw that look when Pigsy was at a limit.

“He’s got a day off.” Pigsy’s grin widened, before he backed away and threw a helmet at him. “Now get going! We don’t have all day!”

Tang yelped and caught the helmet, before grumbling about nonsense as he sulked his way to the cart. Pigsy smirked in triumph and went back to making noodles for the day.

Half an hour later, he heard the sound of his worker panicking at the time. He ignored the muffled sounds of glass shattering and garbage being thrown about in the alleyway after that, and barely spared a glance at Mk when he bursted into the establishment.

“Morning, Pigsy!” He huffed, his lungs out of breath. “Got any orders for me?”

The chef snorted. “No,” He continued to work. “I said I’d give you the weekend off, so you can go do what you want today.”

“But- who’s gonna deliver the noodles?”

Pigsy pointed his ladle at the counter, where the scholar normally sat. “Tang volunteered, as a way to ‘repay’ for all the meals he’s had.” He turned back to the stove and continued working. “Now go, I ain’t gonna give you days off all the time. Use ‘em wisely.”

Mk smiled and ran behind the counter. He hugged the pig demon for a second before he ran out of the shop, laughing as he heard his boss yell at him. “Thanks, Pigsy!”

Pigsy sighed and rolled his eyes. “That kid . . .” He smiled. “What else could you expect from someone as nice as him.” He glanced at the clock before pouring out a bowl of noodles into a box and sealing it for another order.

~~~~~

“Can you read this book to me today, Mr. Macaque?” The small girl kept jumping in joy and excitement as she showed the shadow monkey yet another novel that piqued her interest. The guardians and Macaque found this was a good way for her to connect with them, not to mention they found her curiosity adorable.

It also seemed like a good way to distract her from whatever past she seemed to have too, so that was a bonus.

Macaque gently placed his hands on her shoulders and smiled warmly at her. “Okay, Bai he, let me see the book first.” He accepted the book that was thrusted at him and glanced at the title. He raised an eyebrow, and his smile faltered. “. . . ‘State of Silence?’” He glanced at the girl, whose eyes were shining with wonder. “A-are you sure? This isn’t exactly a pretty book . . .”

Bai he nodded. “I read the summary, and it sounds awesome! I wanna know what happens to Ender! Please?” She pouted and clasped her hands together, before pulling out her powerful puppy eyes.

Macaque immediately looked anywhere but the girl, dread starting to fill his gut. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to read the story to her so to stay, it was just that this story was . . . for older audiences. He didn’t want to introduce the child to the idea of war and gore after seeing how she was before.

“Please, Mr. Macaque? Just this once?” Bai he whined again, and the shadow monkey was close to caving in to the child.

“Bai,” Hóngsè appeared, sparing the other from disaster. Xīng was crawling all over the guardians head, and mewled at the sight of Macaque. “I think Macaque is trying to explain that this story can be a bit too confusing for you, since it uses adult terminology that you haven’t learned yet. Not to mention, didn’t you plan on visiting the city with him today?” He took Xīng off his head and gave it to the shadow monkey. “You should get ready now, we’ll be leaving soon.”

Bai gasped and started jumping again. “Really?! Okay, I’ll be back!” She ran off to the makeshift fort where she resided with Macaque.

Macaque let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in, and smiled at the red giant. “Thank you.” He chuckled when he felt his kitten rub her head under his chin, before she climbed onto his shoulder and played with the fur on his neck.

Hóngsè smiled and patted his head. “You should learn to say no too, you know,” He looked up at the sound of a happy squeal making its way towards the two. “I understand it may seem like a hard task against Bai he, but even cute kids need limits too.”

“I know,” Macaque sighed, and smiled when Bai he appeared in her “fancy” attire - she was used to wearing dirty and old clothes all the time - holding his cloak. “It’s just- . . . she reminds me of someone I used to know.” She ran up to Macaque and handed him his human attire. “Thank you, Bai.”

Bai he smiled and giggled when the shadow monkey ruffled her hair. “So can we go now?”

“Of course.” He put on his cloak, and placed a glamor on his body. He laughed when he saw their kitten hiss at the sudden disappearance of fur, and jumped onto Bai he’s shoulder. “She’s still scared.”

The girl scratched Xīng’s chin and watched as Macaque’s hair faded from a deep obsidian black to a pale snow white. “So where are we going today?”

Macaque tapped his chin as the two walked out of the building. “Hmm, I don’t know. Do you have any ideas?” He glanced at the child beside him, a playful smile on his face.

Bai he furrowed her eyebrows, deep in thought. “Um . . . oh! I know!” She smiled widely and looked at Macaque. “What if we visit Mr. Sandy?”

“Mr. Who now?” The shadow monkey exchanged his face with confusion. Who was that? She never mentioned a “Sandy” before . . . perhaps he was a nice person, seeing how happy she looked. Maybe.

“Mr. Sandy! He’s a big blue guy who’s got a lot of cats, and he gives me cookies every time I visit him!”

“Ah . . . Um, h-he sounds nice . . . ?” Macaque tried to ignore the red flags that flew off in his head. They took as many tests as they could with her to know she was clean of any nasty substances. So the cookies were probably fine.

Probably.

“So can we go visit him? Please?” Bai he pulled out her puppy eyes again, but this time she held Xīng in her hands, who joined the girl with the cute look.

Macaque sighed as he shook his head. He squeezed her cheek and smiled. “You are such a gremlin.” She only whined and moved away from him in return. The shadow monkey held onto her hand and opened a shadow portal in front of them. “Remember, don’t let go of my hand even after we’ve left the shadow portal, okay?”

Bai he grinned and nodded excitedly. “Okay!”

He chuckled. Just like her . . . He tightened his grip on Bai he and walked through the portal.

~~~~~

“Wha- Oh come on!” Mk groaned as he stopped walking. “And you didn’t even invite me, Mei?”

“I know, it was short notice. And besides, you never told me you had a day off!” Mei pointed her finger at the successor through the phone. “You can’t blame me for the whole thing.”

Mk sighed. “You’re right, I’m sorry,” He scratched the back of his head, guilt slowly flooding his mind. “But this is your house! I’ve been begging you to take me there for ages!” Mk whined loudly, catching the attention of others as they passed by.

“I know, I’m sorry. But, think of it like ‘it’s for the best’, or something like that.” Mei tried to reassure her best friend. “Besides, my house is too boring. You wouldn’t be able to find anything cool to do there, especially since my parents are strict too.”

“I guess you’re right,” Mk nodded and frowned. “But then what am I gonna do for the day? I can’t spend my day alone!”

Mei thought about it before she smiled. “Why not spend the day with Sandy? Y’know, as a way to make up with the whole clone fiasco?” She gave him a thumbs up. “I’m sure the big guy’s been wanting to hang around with you for a while now!”

Mk’s eyes widened as he recalled the clone situation. “You’re right! I don’t think I even apologized for that day!” He glanced at Mei and nodded. “I’ll call you back soon, Mei. Have fun!” He hung up and ran off to the port.

Mei sighed in relief and put her phone away. “He’s a cool dude.” She heard the sound of crashing somewhere in her house, which confused her. Her parents were still on their way home, they wouldn’t be back for another 30 minutes. “Maybe they got here early.” She got up from where she sat and went to find the source of the noise.

~~~~~

“Um, one small french vanilla coffee and . . . What did you want again, Bai?” The human- demon looked at the small girl beside him, who stared at the treats behind the display case with awe. “Bai? What do you want from here?”

“Cupcake!” She started jumping up and down and pointed at a small baked good covered in heavy icing, a small and disfigured smile planted on top of it. “Cupcake! Cupcake!”

Macaque gave an uneasy smile as he watched her so energized. He took a deep breath and remembered his brother's words. Even she needs limits.“Um, ah, m-maybe you can pick a different snack to eat?” He glanced at the display case and pointed at a small donut. “How about that one instead? It’s got some filling in it too.”

Bai he looked at the other treat and pouted a bit, before nodding. “Okay . . .” She grabbed Macaque’s hand and tried to hide inside his cloak. “Can we get it next time?” She whispered to him as the shadow monkey paid using the guardian’s money. “Please?”

Macaque smiled at her and tapped her nose. “Sure, but we need to ask Qīng first if we do, okay?” She nodded, and beamed when he gave her her donut. She made quick work of the bag and stuffed the sweet treat in her mouth. Macaque only chuckled at her innocence and took his coffee.

The two walked out of the cafe with their desired goods. Xīng, who was hiding in Macaque’s hood, poked her head out and mewled at the girl before she jumped onto her shoulder. The shadow monkey smiled at them and continued walking. Bai he tugged at Macaque’s cloak and pointed to where the ocean seemed to greet the city. “Can we go visit Mr. Sandy now? Please?”

Macaque sighed, suspicion and fear slowly churning in his gut in an unfamiliar pattern. “Sure. But only for an hour, two at most. Remember, we’re also here to restock on our food supply, okay? It’s not all for fun.”

He tried to hide the wince as she squealed and started running to the port. Their kitten yelped and held onto the girl as she ran. “Ah- Bai he! What did we talk about sticking together after we left the cloud?!” He ran after her, his heart spiking up every time she hid from his sight every now and then. It was worse enough he was forcing his magic to hide his features and keep his scarred eye to work, he couldn’t afford to use any more to make any clones to stop her.

Mk yawned as he walked through the streets, taking his time to get to Sandy’s boat. “Should I get him an apology gift? Nah, I don’t think he really needs anything . . . Oh! What about getting him cat food-”

He couldn’t finish that sentence when he felt someone crash into him.

Luckily, neither of them had fallen like before, and Mk noticed it was a small girl this time. She shook her head and looked up at him, her confusion soon changing to fear. She backed away and hugged a small kitten - didn’t that feline look familiar? - as she looked around.

“Um, are you okay-?” Mk took a step forward before another figure appeared.

“Bai he!” Macaque caught up to the child and hugged her tightly. “Oh thank the heavens you’re okay.” He grabbed her cheeks and looked all over her face. He noticed Xīng was still with her and sighed. “What have I told you about getting lost?”

“I’m sorry,” Bai he looked down at her feet and hugged the kitten tighter. “I just wanted to go see Mr. Sandy . . .”

“I know, but this is the city. It’s big, loud, and full of people. You can’t run off wherever you want to here, you could get hurt.” He pushed a few strands of hair out of her face. “Promise me you won’t make that mistake again, okay?” Bai he nodded, and Macaque hugged her tightly. He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, and sunk into her warmth. “You’re grounded for a few days now.”

“Okay . . .”

“Um,” Both of them looked at Mk, who only seemed to grow more embarrassed once they turned their attention to him. He looked at the figure in the cloak, and his eyes widened in realization as the figure’s hood had fallen off at some point. “You’re the guy I bumped into the other day!” He pointed at the other. “That’s the same cloak you wore before!”

Macaque froze as Mk pointed at him and babbled for a bit.

He found him.

After three days of peace, he found him.

Either the kid was tracking him down, or the gods were trying to get a kick out of him. He was scared shitless, nevertheless.

“I’m so sorry about what happened before! I was in a rush and couldn’t properly help you before. Um, oh! Maybe I could help you with something right now! Do you-” Mk continued to ramble on, not noticing how Macaque slowly stood up and pushed Bai he behind him.

“I’m good, thanks,” He mumbled. Bai he gripped on his sleeve and looked at him with confusion. “I don’t really mind what happened that day. I do, however, have to go now, so I’ll see you soon.” He pulled his hood up and let himself get tugged to the port by the child beside him.

“Oh um, okay.” He shrugged and went back to walking to the docks. The three - four if he counted the feline - walked together in the same direction for a while, and it didn’t take long for an awkward atmosphere to surround them. Mk was tempted to strike a conversation with the other again, but seeing how they seemed to avoid it before he decided to not to.

Macaque was doing his best to keep his attention on Bai he and Xīng while the boy continued to follow them. He bit the inside of his cheek and thought about how to get rid of the successor and make it to this “Sandy” person as soon as possible.

Bai he started singing a tune at some point, and the shadow monkey’s gaze seemed to soften seeing how happy and carefree she looked despite how someone so dangerous walked beside them. She glanced at him and beamed widely. “Do you think Mr. Sandy will give Xīng something to eat? Since he’s got so many cats on his boat?”

Mk perked up at the name, something Macaque noticed immediately. “You know Sandy?” The boy asked, eyes widening in astonishment.

Bai he finally noticed him and nodded eagerly. “Mhm! He always gives me cookies whenever I visit him, and he lets me play with his cats all the time! They’re so fluffy!” Macaque pursed his lips as she continued to ramble on, afraid of meeting this “Sandy” person now that this boy seemed to know them too.

“I know, right?! And they’re all so friendly! The first time I met them I fell into a pile of those cute guys and almost fell asleep because they were so soft!” Mk’s eyes sparkled as he started to speak his mind about the water demon. The shadow monkey glanced at him curiously, at least he seemed happy to talk again.

The two humans chatted with each other about him, and by the time they reached the docks, Macaque was rubbing his head. He groaned as they were now talking about what the best thing to eat.

“Cupcakes!” Bai he yelled.

“Noodles!” Mk argued back.

“Cupcakes!”

“Noodles!”

“Cupcakes!”

“Noodles!”

“Cupcakes!”

“Noo-”

“Enough!” Macaque yelled, and covered his ears. He grit his teeth and glared at the two, barely noticing the look of fear etched on Bai he’s face when he raised his voice. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. When he felt a little bit calmer, he opened his eyes again and looked at them once more.

“I’m glad you two are getting along,” He started, and lowered his hands from his ears. “But I’m starting to get a headache from all this talking. So let’s just go find this ‘Sandy’ now, okay?”

The two nodded quickly, and Bai he seemed to walk a bit farther from the shadow monkey. Mk fiddled with his thumbs and turned his attention to the water beside them, watching the water crash into itself while it sparkled against the sun.

Maybe it would have been better if I visited Monkey King today, Mk thought as the awkward silence took over once more.

Chapter Text

Once the group reached the boat, Mk ran up to a door and knocked on it. Macaque pursed his lips while they waited, still feeling uneasy meeting a stranger so soon. He glanced at Bai he and noticed how she seemed to stand closer to the boy than to him. He found it odd, but didn’t question it too much. Mk continued to knock on the door, and when Macaque started to think it was pointless the door opened.

Sandy wasn’t exactly planning on seeing anybody today, after he made sure to clear the weekend off to take a break from his side job. He felt Mo jump on his shoulder and let the cat sit there as he opened the door. He smiled as he faced Mk and Bai he, glad to see familiar faces. “Hey there, you two!” He patted the girl’s head, who giggled. “It’s been a while, Bai he. Have you been eating well?”

“Mhm!” She nodded.

“Um, you don’t mind if we hang out with you for a while Sandy?” Mk asked, and scratched the back of his head. “I had a day off today, and Mei isn’t around today. And these two were planning on coming here too! So, is it fine?”

Sandy laughed and nodded. “Of course! I don’t mind spending time with you guys! I don’t have anything to do today either, so it works out.”

As they spoke, Macaque stared at the water demon. He felt his breath shorten, and his feet felt stuck to the ground. His hands trembled despite how hard he gripped his cloak. He wanted to look away from him, scream, run, anything.

But his body wouldn’t work.

Macaque knew why he felt like this. Even though it had been centuries, he recognized the face. He recognized how those eyes moved, how big that beard was, how strong he looked with those muscles.

“Wùjìng,” He whispered. His grip tightened on the cloak, almost ripping the custom fabric. “It’s Wùjìng.”

Sandy noticed him standing behind the two humans and smiled. “Oh, hello there! Are you with them?”

The shadow monkey felt his body turn to stone as eyes turned to him. Despite the cool wind that blew across the docks, his fur seemed to dampen as sweat started appearing. He frantically looked at all their faces, their voices seeming to dim out the more he looked.

Pain bloomed across his chest, and it never felt so hard to breathe. He stumbled back a few steps, and instead started to grip onto the part of his cloak on his chest. He needed to leave, now. They found him, he found him.

A surge of heat seemed to run through his head, and Macaque never experienced such a dizzying moment. He held his head in agony, whimpering at the pain. No, he can’t stay here. He needed to leave. They’ll hurt him, they’ll call him here-

Everything went black for the shadow monkey.

~~~~~

When he regained his consciousness, Macaque felt oddly at peace. Sweet lavender seemed to encase the room, it’s soft scent relaxing his tense muscles.

Slowly, yet carefully, he sat up and realized he was laying on a bed. A blanket was placed over him, and Macaque wrapped it around himself to keep himself warm.

A quiet mewl to his left caught his attention, and he looked down to see a few cats laying nearby him. Most of them were huddled around a small kitten as it slept. He got closer to the group of felines and realized it was his own kitten. Macaque was tempted to pick Xīng up and keep her in his arms, but decided against it after seeing how calm and peaceful she looked. Though it did seem odd he could only see her from his left side.

Macaque stiffened as he went over that thought again.

He could only see her from his left side.

The shadow monkey felt his stomach drop when he heard voices nearby with incredible clarity. All of them were familiar ones too. He wasn’t supposed to hear past what was in his room.

Not unless his magic wore off.

Macaque turned to his right to see his own face staring back at him, where his scar was on full display. His lip trembled as he continued to stare at his milky eye, the scar dragging over his right side like a rake against soft dirt. The scar across his nose, and against his jaw on his left side only made him feel worse. He stared at his dirty off-white fur, the color long faded with time and uncare as splotches of black fur appeared from nowhere. His vision blurred for a bit, tears clouding his eyes for a moment.

He wasn’t sure when he got off the bed, or when the mirror shattered under his fist.

Macaque then realized that his cloak wasn’t on him anymore. He looked around the room and spotted his cloak sitting on the chair in the corner. He left the broken mirror and ran to his cloak, and hugged it tightly once it was in his grasp once more. Macaque immediately placed the cloak over him and started applying glamor to all the necessary areas. His ears, his fur, his tail, anything that the shadow monkey needed to hide from humans. He added a bit more magic into his right eye before he was sure he could see from it just as well as his left.

Macaque sighed in relief and hugged himself as he slowly sat back down on the bed. The shadow monkey covered his face with his hands and groaned. “I should go . . .” He mumbled, and dug his palms further into his eyes.

A quiet mewl brought his attention, and Macaque realized the cats had moved towards him, one of them holding Xīng in their mouth. They gently placed the kitten on his lap before sitting beside him. Macaque smiled at the sight of his pet and carefully traced his fingers over her fur. The sound of purrs erupted from the group of felines around him as they cuddled the shadow monkey. Macaque didn’t try to fight it and relaxed into their touch.

A knock caused him to stiffen again, and the cats noticed this as they began to huddle closer to him. Macaque gripped to the bedsheet as he watched the door knob turn, and the door opened.

“Mr. Macquack?” Sandy poked his head from the other side of the door, with Mo climbing his head to see the other guest. “Are you alright? I heard something crash.” He looked down at the shadow monkey, before sparing a glance at the broken mirror pieces.

Macaque’s breath hitched as he stared at the water demon. Sandy noticed this immediately and stayed hidden behind the door. “I won’t come in if you don’t want me to.”

Macaque gripped the bedsheets and bit his trembling lip. He took a few deep breaths, before slowly shaking his head. “N-no, you can come in,” He mumbled. “This is your home, is it not?”

Sandy pursed his lips as he watched the shadow monkey before slowly entering. He stood by the door and let Mo jump off of him to greet the kitten on Macaque’s lap. Macaque flinched when it came down, but did nothing else as the odd cat got closer. He glanced at the water demon, who took his time to sit on the other side of the bed to keep Macaque calm.

“Mr. Macquack,” Sandy slowly began. “Are you alright? Would you like to-”

“No thank you,” Macaque shook his head and got off the map. “I think I’ve bothered you long enough to ask for more hospitality.” He hugged Xῑng while being careful not to hold her too tightly. “Is Bai he still here?”

Sandy frowned, but nodded and stood up as well. “She’s with the cats right now. And Mk.” He watched as Macaque opened the door fully and swifted through the halls quickly and followed after him. He knew that with six ears, Sandy had nothing to worry about, but with how the shadow monkey acted before, he had to be sure no more surprises would appear.

Macaque listened to where his child was, barely stopping when he reached two hallways. Hearing her faint laughter mixed with his successor’s own, he pushed open the door. Macaque paused though, when he saw Bai he and Mk covered in cats, each one holding a cup of . . . tea?

Bai he looked up from her drink and grinned. “Uncle! You’re awake!” She put the cup down and slowly shook off the cats on her. She carefully made her way over, before jumping onto Macaque happily. The shadow monkey yelped, and tried to hold her while keeping Xῑng safe. “You passed out suddenly, I got scared.”

Macaque sighed, and nuzzled into her hair. “I’m sorry,” He mumbled. Macaque gently placed the kitten down and hugged her properly. “I’m okay now.”

“I didn’t let him see,” Bai he whispered. “Mk doesn’t know what you look like. I couldn’t stop Mr. Sandy from seeing though.”

“That’s fine,” Macaque pulled away and caressed her face. He smiled softly. “You did your best, and I’m glad you hid what I looked like from Mk.”

“Mr. Macaque-!” The shadow monkey looked up from the girl to the boy, who had gotten himself free moments ago. “Are you okay?! I saw you fall and Sandy didn’t want me to see you-”

“I’m alright, don’t worry Mk.” He couldn’t help but chuckle at the boy’s worriness. It almost reminded him of how Jīnzi acted when she was younger. He frowned at the memory, the memory of his daughter’s last moments still fresh in his mind.

Macaque shook his head and smiled again. “I think it’s time Bai he and I went home now, I promised her parents I’d keep her ‘til lunch.”

“Wha- awe,” Mk pouted and scratched his chin. “Can I hang out with you guys next time we meet then?”

The shadow monkey stiffened at that, and raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Why would you want to do that?” He waved one of his hands dismissively. “I’m not saying you can’t, but we’re not very social with others.”

Mk beamed. “Well, I think you guys are cool! And anyone who’s cool enough for me is enough to be my friend!” He made a funny pose, and Macaque snorted. “That's why I think the Monkey king and I are amazing friends!”

The shadow monkey’s smile faltered at that, and he pretended not to hear that last bit. Just to keep the boy in front of him happy. “I see,” Helooked down at Bai he, who had Xīng in her arms, and his smile widened. “Perhaps I can give you my number, and you and Bai he can make plans whenever you want to.”

Mk gasped. “Really?!” He started rummaging through his pockets, desperate to find his phone. When he found it, pulled it out, only to fight gravity and time to grab his phone again. “Ah! No no no no no-!”

Bai he laughed, and Macaque chuckled at the notion. He shook his head once the phone was finally given to him. The shadow monkey kept his grin as he quickly put his number in, before returning the phone and heading out with Bai he’s help.

“Just remember,” Macaque spoke up. “We can’t visit on Wednesdays or Fridays, okay?”

“Mhm!” Mk nodded and waved at the two as they walked off the ship. “I hope to see you guys soon!” He yelled, a fat grin stuck on his face.

The successor turned around to see Sandy behind him, watching the man and girl head back home. He noticed how a pensive look was etched on the water demon's face. “You okay Sandy?”

Sandy blinked and looked down at the boy. He smiled and nodded. “Of course, don’t worry about it bud! Just thinking . . .”

He looked back to where the two were, and saw nothing but strangers walking about the port. He sighed and headed back inside. “Do you wanna paint a small image with me? Or do you think it’s too soon?”

“Oh, um-“ Mk felt his phone start to buzz, and glanced down at the screen. “Mei!” He walked out of the room and waved at Sandy. “I think I’ll leave too. Sorry I can’t stay any longer. I’ll see you soon, Sandy!” He picked up the phone and ran off.

Sandy only smiled and chuckled. “Have a good day off!” He waved at the boy, before closing his door and going back to his simple routine.

“Hey Mei, what’s up?” He asked as he ran through the streets. “Did you come back?”

“Mk! You’ll never believe what happened today!” Mei jumped around the noodle shop, a proud and excited look on her face. “I got a sword!”

Chapter Text

Macaque sighed and smiled as Bai he ran off into her school yard, a large smile on her face. After hopping about across the city to find a good school for her, they finally found one near the pet store where Xῑng was found. The shadow monkey glanced at the store again and hummed in thought. It had been a few weeks since the kitten had joined the little crazy family, and so far she seemed to be really interested in the pillows Macaque kept for himself.

“Maybe I can get some toys for her . . .” He mumbled as he continued to stare. He remembered Qīng telling him something about how she needs toys instead of whatever she found at the library.

“Brother!” A booming voice interrupted his thoughts, and Macaque turned to see the red guardian running towards him. “There you are!” He had removed his usual uniform to a simple checkered collared shirt and khaki shorts. His bright red hair faded away into a dull ginger, much different from his twin.

Macaque smiled. “Hóngsè, you took your time.” He looked up at the taller being and chuckled seeing a few sprinkles sitting in his beard. “I see you liked the cafe the others went to before. You’ve got a few sprinkles in your-” The shadow monkey pointed to his chin to help the red guardian.

Hóngsè followed his brother’s movements and shook off the sweet bits once he found them. He glanced at the store where Macaque was looking, and smiled. “Did you want to go in? I have my wallet today!”

Macaque nodded and looked back at the shop. “Qīng has been asking for some time now so Xīng can leave his books alone, so we might as well.” He grabbed Hóngsè’s hand and walked towards the shop. “By the way, Bai he mentioned-”

“Oh, Mr. Macquack!” A familiar voice stopped the duo, and Macaque pursed his lips with fear. “I didn’t think you’d still be here!”

Hóngsè looked around to see a large water demon approach them, waving happily while a blue cat sat on their shoulders. He raised an eyebrow at them, but waved back awkwardly. The red guardian glanced at Macaque and noticed how anxious he seemed.

“Are you alright? Should we ignore him?” He whispered to the shadow monkey. Macaque only shook his head and forced himself to look at Sandy.

He gave a shaky smile as the water demon approached them. “Hello there, Mr. Sandy. H-how have you been?”

Sandy smiled widely. “I’ve been good, thanks! How about you?” Mo jumped off his shoulder and went to rub against Macaque’s legs. Unlike the big demon, Macaque felt much more comfortable with the cat. He crouched down and pet the blue feline, and gave it a small smile.

“Fine, thank you.” He mumbled. The shadow monkey stood up and looked at the red guardian. “Um, this is my older brother! Hóngsè! Hóngsè, this is Sandy.” Macaque smiled a bit and watched the two giants greet each other happily.

“You’re a new friend of Macaque’s?” Hóngsè smiled and shook Sandy’s hand. “I’m glad to see he’s meeting new people. He usually never talks to others.”

Macaque tapped the other’s arm before grabbing it and nudging his head towards the pet shop. “It’s nice meeting you again, but ah, we’re quite busy today, so perhaps I’ll see you another time?” He didn’t bother waiting for a response and entered the little shop.

Sandy watched with wide eyes, before shrugging and picking up Mo. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. That big guy’ll take care of him just fine. Now, to Pigsys!”

Macaque let go of the red guardian once he heard the bell ring for the shop, and ran over to look at the little fish swimming about in the aquariums. Hóngsè smiled at his brother’s curiosity and innocence and scanned through the isles instead, glancing over the different products reserved for felines and dogs.

The shadow monkey scanned over each tank, and smiled at the different species that existed in each one. He noticed a small pair of turtles swimming about in their tank, and leaned towards the glass. He watched as one of the turtles swam to the surface for air, and let itself float over the tank. Macaque raised an eyebrow, confused. Was it not supposed to stay near the other for company, since they were the only ones in the glass containment?

Macaque shrugged, taking it up as natural behavior to survive. He turned his attention towards the other turtle, and grew even more puzzled when he watched it poke its head inside a small hole of a decoration piece in the tank. It stayed like that for a few seconds, before it joined its partner to the surface. The shadow monkey leaned closer to the glass, and squinted his eyes to see what the turtle was looking at.

He gasped softly and jerked back when he found it.

Slightly hidden behind the entrance of the decorated home, was a small, broken egg. The shell had a soft creme color, with the structure itself caving in on itself like paper. Immediately, the shadow monkey looked around the tank to see where the child could be. But the longer he looked, he started to feel a sinking feeling in his gut.

Why couldn’t he see the child?

“It died.” A voice spoke beside him. Macaque stiffened.

They were close.

Far too close.

Macaque jumped away from the stranger. He pulled his arms up in defense and looked at the newcomer with hesitance.

His breath hitched when he saw a human figure standing before him in a suit, with pale white skin and gray hair decorating his head in an odd, sharp style. If Macaque looked carefully in the bright blue lights, he could’ve seen the small white line that drove across the side of his hair, or how the figure’s eyes seemed to shine a bit.

“Five days ago,” They spoke again. “A reckless teenager bumped into their tank and broke the water. “Poor cub died right under its shoe.”

A chill ran down Macaque’s spine as he continued staring at the stranger. When did he appear? A mountain of thoughts started to flow in his mind, and he could barely hear his breath quicken as he watched that smile grow a little bigger with each second.

I know them-

Who are they?-

They mentioned cub-

Why would they say cub?-

Why are they smiling at me?-

Gods who are they-

Why are they getting closer-

Don’t come closer-

He didn’t notice how the figure got closer, and a hand reached out towards the shadow monkey.

“Liùěr Míhóu,” The voice spoke. “I’ve finally found you.”

Without thinking, Macaque growled and grabbed the hand in front of him, before falling down a black void.

Hóngsè looked back at where Macaque was, and froze. He dropped the toys he picked out for Xīng and looked around the shop for where the shadow monkey could have gone.

“Oh dear,” The guardian whispered as he ran past the kittens. “Where could he have gone!?” Hóngsè panicked when he glanced at the reptile section, and the little monkey wasn’t there. “Gods, please don’t let anything bad happen to him.”

~~~~~

“This is so boring!” Mk groaned and fell down onto the cold floor. He looked at the monkey king, who was lazing about on his cloud. “Why do I have to clear out a wall for you again? This isn’t training!”

“It is!” Wukong stuffed his face with another peach chip and pointed at his successor. “You just don’t see it yet!” He fell back onto his cloud and sighed in content. “Now remember! Swing, and thrust!”

Mk groaned and looked up at the open ceiling. “. . . Hey, Monkey king?” He lifted his head to see the golden monkey. “Who is the shadowy figure in that cave?”

Wukong stiffened and slowly turned to his successor. “. . . what?”

“That shadowy figure in the cave!” Mk sat up and faced his mentor. “It was hiding behind one of the trees with flowers.”

Wukong sat up, his half empty bag of chips now forgotten. “. . . the. Shadowy figure.”

Mk raised an eyebrow, confused. “Um, yeah? They told me to leave, and how ‘the king doesn’t like visitors’ and how I’d ‘regret it’. I thought you knew about them, since it’s your mountain.”

“You went into the cave?” Wukong got off his cloud. “Where the plum trees were?” His smile had long been diminished. He felt his left hand twitch, an old reflex when he wanted to summon something.

Something like a staff.

“Maybe . . . ?” Mk slowly stood up and took a few steps back. “Um, Monkey king-?”

“I told you to stay away from those trees.” Wukong got closer, and raised his left hand as it curled into a fist. “Didn’t I say that?”

The monkeys nearby noticed their king’s angered face, and chirped in fear. They knew he found out of what the boy did, and they knew what he would face. The older monkeys ran down from the tree and towards the two.

“Monkey King?” Mk felt his back hit the wall he was working on a while ago. He felt his hands go clammy, and his heart started thundering against his chest loudly. If his skin started to pale, neither being seemed to notice. “What are you doing?”

Wukong didn’t say anything, and just kept coming closer, his once joyful eyes now filled with silent rage. “Monkey king?”

Wukong wasn’t sure when he raised his fist, or when the monkeys appeared in front of him.

Chapter Text

Loud chattering and chirps filled Wukong’s ears as he froze and stared at his successor in shock. He looked down to see all of his subjects pushing him back from the boy, all of them pleading for the king to forgive the child.

“What-?” Wukong lowered his hand, before stiffening immediately looking at it.

His hand was clenched into a tight fist, raised high in the air and ready to come down. The king turned back to Mk, and his eyes widened when he saw the fear struck on his successor’s face.

Oh shit.

“I-” Wukong backed up and lowered his hand. Mk seemed to relax a bit, although he still seemed tense. The golden monkey jumped onto his somersault cloud and turned his back towards the boy. His shoulders were hunched, and he was quiet for a while. “...Training’s over. I’ll see you later, bud.” He mumbled. Without waiting for a response, he flew out of there. Where, he wasn’t sure yet, but right now he needed to keep his distance from Mk.

Or anyone, for a while.

Mk blinked, and realized his mentor left. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, and fell down. He looked at his hands, and frowned when he noticed they were still shaking. The monkeys around him surrounded the boy and cooed, none of it making sense to Mk.

“Why did he . . . ?” Mk whispered, still confused and terrified what happened to force the Monkey king to act like that. “Are those trees really important?”

Suddenly his phone rang, scaring the primates away. Mk fumbled for his phone and glanced at the name on the screen. Mei. He picked up the phone and stood up carefully.

“H-hey Mei!” Mk smiled nervously and tried to sound cheerful. “What’s going on?”

“Mk, you have to get here quick!” Mei screamed through the phone and showed her panicked face through the screen. “We’ve got some weird demon attacking the city!” She shifted the phone to show a shadowy figure standing over a large building, similar to the one that Mk saw before in the cave. He grabbed his staff and plunged it into the ground. “It’s already gotten rid of Pigsy! And it wasn’t even paying attention to him!”

Mk shot up to the sky. “I’m on my way! Make sure no one else gets caught by that thing!” He hung up and pursed his lips. If this was the same monster, maybe it might have an answer for Wukong’s behavior.

~~~~~

Macaque growled as he threw the finely-dressed stranger through his portal to the roof of a random building. He summoned his staff and pointed at the man. “Who are you? Why the hell do you know my name?”

The man simply stood up and dusted himself off. He fixed his suit and showed the shadow monkey the same, disturbed smile. “My name has been long forgotten, sorry. But you can call me Jǐngwèi.” His grin widened. “I was told by my lady that many knew me by that name.”

Macaque’s eyes widened, and he growled louder. “So you’re that old guard . . .” He could feel his magic swirl in his body, ready to thrash about the moment a hit was blown. “I thought you died because of your traitorous actions. How are you still alive?”

Jǐngwèi chuckled and walked towards Macaque. “That doesn’t matter right now. I suppose we’re fighting now, yes?” He stopped walking and closed his eyes while keeping his smile.

Macaque froze when the man disappeared in front of him, and felt his presence behind him.

“Might I ask, how did you survive that day?” Jǐngwèi looked down at the shadow monkey.

Macaque didn’t answer. He swiped his staff at the man and watched as the former guard flew across the city. His hands were shaking, but that wasn’t important. He dropped the glamor on his ears and listened where the thrall had fallen. Once he got a location, he formed a shadow portal and fell through it.

Macaque loomed over the man and pointed his staff at him. “I’ll ask again. How are you still alive?” He grit his teeth. “I was told you died after your master was caught and sealed away.”

The thrall only laughed, his grin never once leaving his face. “There were rumors that Erlang visited the mountain.” He watched as the shadow monkey froze at those words. “Tell me, were they true?”

Macaque tightened his grip against his staff as his hands trembled at those words. He could start to hear a faint buzz grow in his ears, growing louder with every second. His vision blurred for a second, and the magic he hid quietly in his body burst like a bubble. The shadow monkey didn’t notice as Jǐngwèi dodged random attacks while laughing.

“My my, did I touch something sensitive?” He stared at Macaque while running past a stray scarf blade that the monster behind the shadow monkey threw. “Or is it you forgot what happened that day?”

The shadow monkey could barely hear him. Even with his six-ears, all he could hear was this awful buzzing noise, grating his ears as if it were static. Old memories seemed to flash against his eyes.

Burning trees across the mountain.

Blood trailing across the once beautiful grass - whose blood was it? Why was there so much-?

Garbled voices, screams for a name - what name? Who was missing-?

A body covered in silver armor, barely breathing with her wounds and the smokey air surrounding her - was it a her? What happened? Why didn’t he save her-?

You did this

You did this

You did this

You did this-

Macaque dropped his staff and fell to his knees. A nauseating pain seared through his stomach and the buzzing rang in his ears like a siren. He couldn’t even hear his own sharp, quick breathing at that point.

Why was it so hard to breathe?

His hands were clammy with sweat, and his body felt oddly cold. Something warm was falling down his cheeks, but the shadow monkey couldn’t tell what. His head was pounding like a drum, filling his head with its thunderous pain.

Like how he pounded his head into the ground centuries ago.

The thrall noticed how erratic the monster’s attacks became as its creator became more dissociated to his surrounding world. He smiled and decided to bite a bit more. “Did you ever tell Wukong it was your fault she died that day?”

Wukong.

Macaque covered his ears and screamed.

The monster only growled and grabbed the thrall, its eyes narrowed in pure rage.

Jǐngwèi only laughed as the scarf around his body tighten. “My lady was right! You truly are the-”

He didn’t finish as the shadow monster threw the man across the city. It looked down to see Macaque crying and cooed, rubbing its large head against the monkey’s back. It did Macaque no good, as tears kept slipping out, along with messy and jumbled nonsense that slipped out of his mouth.

He didn’t notice the human figure standing before him. He didn’t notice them coming closer. He didn’t notice them sitting in front of him until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Macaque snapped his eyes up, and gasped.

“. . . Macaque?” Mk whispered.

Chapter Text

It took Mk a while, but eventually he reached the familiar city. He passed by the noodle shop and found Pigsy laying in a crater. He was breathing, so the boy assumed he wasn’t too roughed up by the time.

“Mk!” Mei grabbed Mk and pointed at the large monster behind a few buildings. “We need you to stop it! I’ve tried, but that thing seemed really pissed off after Pigsy’s attack and almost threw me into a building!”

The successor gripped onto his staff. “I got this. Everyone’s out, right?”

“Mhm!”

He took a deep breath. “Okay.” He jumped up and pointed his staff at the monster. “Here comes Mon-”

He didn’t finish when the monster grabbed his staff and threw him down onto the roof nearby.

Mk groaned, and slowly sat up. “Hopefully that doesn’t leave a mark,” He mumbled. He looked up and froze as he stared at a demon crying in front of him.

For some reason, this demon reminded him of Wukong for some reason. They had black fur that shined in the faint afternoon light, with tan skin. They had three pairs of colorful ears on the sides of his face. His eyes widened when he saw them wearing a black cloak with red clouds at the edges.

Mk only knew a person who wore that kind of cloak, and this wasn’t a person.

Slowly, and carefully, he approached them. He saw how the monster above the body seemed to be protecting the demon, like a mother. It cooed loudly, softing bumping its head against the other’s back while they cried into their hands. It noticed them, and growled lowly.

Mk froze, and glanced at the staff in his hand. Maybe he looked like a threat with it. He kept his eyes on the monster while he put the staff in his ear and slowly walked towards the two again. This time the monster seemed a bit more relaxed, and went back to caring for the other.

Mk sat down in front of the shadow monkey and hesitantly placed his hand on the other's shoulder. He stiffened when he saw them flinch, and looked at him with their tear-stained face. Mk barely caught their gasp as he forced himself to speak.

“. . . Macaque?” He whispered. “Are . . . Are you Mr. Macaque?”

Macaque only stared at the successor with a lost expression. “. . . Mk?” He mumbled. “What are you doing here?”

Mk was about to speak, before he noticed the monster above them seemed to shrink. “Uh-” he blinked a few times as he watched the shadow beast morphed into what looked like a child. The small shadow figure glanced at him before running to Macaque and sitting in the shadow monkey’s lap.

Macaque looked down and raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Rumble,” He smiled sadly and hugged what was once his little brother. “What are you doing out? You hate coming out in the mornings.”

Mk stared at the shadow clone before yelling. “That was a child this whole time?!”

Macaque flinched at the noise and looked at Mk. He hugged Rumble closer and pursed his lips. “You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing here? Don’t you have work right now?”

Mk shook his head. “You first! When were you going to tell me you were a demon?!” To the boy, it almost felt like he was being cheated by everyone. First his mentor, now his new friend. “Does Bai he know about this? Is she one too?” Mk curled his hand into a fist. “Just- . . . who exactly are you?”

Macaque’s face dropped when he realized his human glamor had fallen. His hands went up to his head, feeling his natural fluffy fur and lotus-like ears instead of his usual silky white hair and only one pair of round ears. No doubt the boy could see the red mark on his face, and his scars too. His eyes-widened, and his breathing started to shake again.

Is he going to fight him?

Is he going to tell W̸̡̭͚̥͓͖̗̳̿̋̈̍́̅̈̀̕͜͝ͅu̷̢̧͙̼͚̗̜̓̐̒́k̷̨̭̥̽̌͋͑̊̓͐̀̑͝ȯ̶̳̺͎̮̤̞̤̚n̴̢͉͉̞͎̝̼̠͒̆ͅg̴̱̺̙̬̜͙̖̈́̀̅̄̿̐͌͛̐͝ͅͅ again?

Are they going to kill him-?

Rumble seemed to notice, and hugged him tightly. He cooed at his older brother, and faced him. “It’s ok!” He spoke up. “No monster! No bad man! It’s ok!” It seemed to work, as the shadow monkey started to relax. He still felt scared, but the feeling seemed to dim the longer he stared at the clone.

Mk watched their interaction and realized he acted irrationally. He frowned and looked down in shame. “Sorry,” He mumbled. He unclenched his fists and fiddled with his shirt instead. “I was just upset with how today’s been. Are you okay?”

Macaque sighed, and forced himself to look at the successor. He thought about what the other said; was he okay? Of course not, he was shaking at almost everything around him. “. . . I don’t know.” He murmured. The shadow monkey almost felt like laughing at himself; and he thought the city was better than the cloud. Almost everything here either reminded him of the Great Sage, or his past.

He should never have come down to begin with.

Mk nodded and looked in the direction where his friends were. “Um, do you want some time to change?” He pointed to himself. “Your features and all. I think Mei might get curious and try to come up here. I can buy you some time until then, if that helps?”

Right, Mk was different. He wasn’t him. If Macaque could remember that, maybe the boy knowing might not be so bad. Maybe.

Macaque let go of Rumble and stood up. He swiped his hand over his face and ears, releasing his breath when he felt his old glamor reappear. He brushed his hair back, as his black fur molded into long, white hair. He looked down at Rumble. “Do you want to stay?”

Rumble shook his head and fell through a shadow portal. Macaque smiled softly at the place where his clone was, before facing Mk again. “You can go, I need to find my brother.”

The boy raised an eyebrow, and pointed at the ground beside the shadow monkey. “Didn’t he just leave-?”

Macaque shook his head. “My other brother. I was forced to leave him at the pet shop so-” He paused, and his ears twitched under his disguise. He chuckled, and faced Mk. “Nevermind, I found him.” He created a portal behind himself. “Promise one thing, boy. Keep this-” The shadow monkey pointed to his face. “-between us. Don’t tell anyone about this, okay? Bai he and Sandy know about this, and they’ve promised not to tell anyone either.”

Mk raised an eyebrow in confusion, before nodding. “Okay. Yeah, I don’t see why not. Just, will you come back?” He could hear his friend screaming his name faintly down below in the streets. “If you’re just as nice as you were before I saw your true form, then I’d like to hang out with you and Bai he still.”

Macaque raised his eyebrows in surprise, before smiling a bit. “. . . We’re back in the city on Sunday.” He turned around and faced his portal. “Bai he and I will be at the park at 2. Don’t be late.” With that said, the shadow monkey then walked through the portal, leaving Mk alone once more.

“MK!” Mei screamed and jumped on the successor, throwing them both to the ground. Mk yelped, and groaned when he felt the concrete floor hit his face. “Oh shoot- are you okay?!” She got off his back and picked his face up. “What took you so long? We thought something happened after you defeated the monster!” She looked behind her, where Tang and Sandy were running up to the duo. “He’s fine! I think.”

Mk smiled and laughed. “Yeah I’m fine!” He sat up and looked at his friends. “I just felt like hanging out up here for a while, you know?” He raised his hands up. “I mean, the city looks so cool from here!”

Tang sighed and fixed his glasses. “Well, we should check if you’re okay. We did see you fall like Pigsy earlier. We gotta make sure you both are okay.”

Mk nodded, and let his friends help him up. He laughed when Sandy gave him a piggyback ride down the flight of stairs.

“Oh! I forgot to tell you Mk!” Sandy beamed. “I met Mr. Macaque today! He was with his brother, and they were at the pet shop you and I normally go to for my cats. He seemed much calmer this time!”

“Really? That’s way better!” Mk grinned. At least the demon wasn’t lying, so maybe the boy could trust him?

“Um, who are we talking about again?” Mei turned to look at the two, confused.

Mk’s smile never left his face. “Just a friend.”

~~~~~

Macaque slipped through the portal and sighed. He looked around the alleyway he landed in, before peeking his head out in the streets. There, just at the end of the road, was his brother Hóngsè looking around for him. He noticed a gray bag in the other’s hand with a familiar dog symbol on it, and smiled.

Making sure his glamor was still on, the shadow monkey stepped out of the alleyway. “Hóngsè!” Macaque yelled, and ran towards the red guardian. The demon chuckled when he saw the giant turn to him in surprise, before bursting into a sprint towards him as well.

“Macaque!” Hóngsè picked up the smaller being and hugged them tightly. “Oh my heavens, I was so worried!” Macaque only laughed, and hugged him tightly. “I thought that bad monkey did something to you while I was looking at the cat toys!” He cried and buried his head into the shadow monkey’s shoulder, not caring if it got wet at the moment. “Oh Macaque!”

“Easy, old friend,” Macaque tried to rub circles against the other’s back through their hug. “I’m safe now. They didn’t catch me. No one did.”

“You promise?”

“I swear it.”

Hóngsè sniffled and let go of Macaque. He wiped his eyes and nodded. “Okay.”

Macaque stood in front of the giant and gently took the bag from him. “Thank you for getting the stuff for Xīng.” He glanced inside, and his smile widened. “This should keep both her and Qīng happy for a bit.” The shadow monkey closed the bag and looked up at Hóngsè. “Do you want to go to the cafe again?”

The red guardian's smile returned immediately. “Really?”

Macaque giggled and nodded. Even though he was much older than the shadow monkey, it never ceased to amaze him how often the brothers would act like children. “I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I didn’t want to.”

Hóngsè cheered. “Let’s go then!” He grabbed Macaque’s hand and ran to the coffee shop.

Macaque could only laugh at the guardian's innocence, and followed him.

He didn’t notice a pair of blue eyes watching him from afar in silence, nor did he see the former guard stand behind him with a crazed, bloody smile.

“The lady will be pleased to hear this one, no, Champion?” He said to the other. The Champion only glanced back at the not-mayor with disinterest, before turning and walking into the alleyway. A portal was already opened behind a dumpster, where the thrall had come from before.

Jǐngwèi narrowed his eyes, and hummed. “You’re truly no fun.” He followed the demon into the portal, and disappeared from the city, now planning their next move.

Chapter Text

Macaque was inside Mk’s room, unsure of what to do in there as Bai he watched the tv with Mei. He was initially hiding in there as the girls watched the tv downstairs in the shop.

“Once a year, this city becomes more than a city…” Macaque’s ears flicked as he heard the television, and glanced at the boy as Mk put on his usual red headband. Macaque raised an eyebrow as he watched Mk then stick his hand in the closet and pull out a dirty, but familiar white collared shirt. “Once a year, these streets become more than streets…”

“Mk, why do you always wear that shirt?” Macaque asked as the boy then grabbed the staff and put it in his ear. “Do you ever wash it?”

“This year… the winner will become immortal!” The tv said, and Macaque watched as Mk ran down the stairs and gasped at the tv with the two girls, ignoring his question. Macaque sighed, and reapplied his human disguise as he walked down and stood behind the children.

It had been like this for a few days now, after spending weeks of ‘therapy’ with Sandy - he wasn’t sure what therapy was, but talking to Sandy seemed nice after a while - Macaque had grown a bit braver and learned to meet and somewhat get along with most of Mk’s friends. Bai he wouldn’t stop asking Macaque to visit the big guy whenever they were in the city, so Macaque had no choice but to accept the little girl's wishes. Eventually, he learned that in fact no one from the journey in the past ever lived to see the present day, save for him. Even the old master was nothing more than a freeloader in a noodle shop now.

That didn’t mean he was ready to face the reincarnated monk, just that he didn’t need to worry about him anymore.

“A peach of immortality!” Mk said in awe as he stared at the screen.

Bai he looked up at Macaque and hugged him immediately, giggling. Macaque smiled and hugged her back. “I doubt that’s an actual peach Mk-” He began.

“A peach of what now-?” Pigsy appeared behind Macaque and looked at Mei and Mk confused.

Mk and Mei looked at Pigsy as if the chef was born yesterday. They both crowded in front of Pigsy and started yelling, making Macaque flinch at the sudden noise.

“How dare you say that-?!”

“How could you say that-?!”

“Have you never heard of-?!”

“I thought you at least knew-!”

“That’s just ridiculous-!!”

Macaque groaned and covered their mouths. “Enough already! It’s fine if he doesn’t know, at least one of us isn’t so enamored in this peach nonsense.” He sighed as neither one stopped moving their mouths behind his hands. “How either of you have the spirit to have an argument over a myth is incredible.”

Luckily, like everyday when Mk wasn’t working, the scholar was out giving orders to customers as “payment.” Which meant Macaque had to take his part and explain the tale of a powerful stone fruit to the pig demon.

Yeah, no that was too long. He looked at Pigsy.

“To summarize, Sun Wukong once went to the celestial realm because he was assigned as a protector of the peach gardens, which grew peaches with the ability to provide immortality if one were to take so much as a bite. Wukong, after not being invited to a banquet with the gods and goddesses, decided to get drunk on their royal wine, and then go and eat Laozi’s pills of immortality and the very same peaches of immortality he was meant to protect. Because of this he became 7-8 times immortal, and was almost unstoppable against Heaven’s army.” Macaque then let go of the mortal’s mouths and shook his head.

Mei and Mk gasped loudly as they tried to regain their footing for a second. Macaque crossed his arms and frowned. “The peaches may be true if Wukong is indeed your mentor, but I doubt someone like him would let such a powerful fruit fall into the hands of a mortal, let alone let them showcase it in a race-”

“So you admit it’s real!” Mk yelled out suddenly, interrupting Macaque’s words, and making him wince in pain at the sound again. “Which means they’re is a good chance whoever wins gets to be immortal!”

“Oh yeah!” Mei cheered, and Macaque thought he went deaf for a moment from her sudden shout. “And I’m so gonna win it!”

Was no one listening to what Macaque was saying?

“What? No way! I’m gonna win it!” Mk argued.

Macaque rolled his eyes, and sat down at the bar. He smiled as Bai he ran up and sat beside him with their kitten. Xīng mewled, and played with the girls’ hands. He accepted the fresh bowl of cooked sweet potatoes and fruit pieces that Pigsy gave them, and started to eat the potatoes. Bai he gasped, and ate her melon cubes happily with a fork. Macaque chuckled at the sight, and patted her head gently. What a sweet girl…

Macaque stiffened when he heard the door open, and he saw Sandy walk into the room. relaxed a bit, and sighed in relief. He looked down at his tray and continued to eat his potatoes, occasionally throwing salt on them once in a while to give it some extra flavor.

This day was much more lively than it normally was, and Macaque needed to get used to it slowly, just like Sandy told him.

~~~~~

“Mother! Father! I bring news!” Redson yelled out as he ran to his parents, excitement brimming on his face as if it was his birthday.

“Yes dear?” Princess Iron fan looked away from the bull clones to her son, only glancing at her husband once as she did. The Demon Bull king didn’t bother to look away from the machines, his mind preoccupied already with the desire to seek out this new power. Despite the lack of interest on her face, Princess Iron fan was curious to see what had her son excited.

“In the city, they’re holding an annual race, and this time whoever wins will earn a peach of immortality! Which means, whoever wins this race will live forever!” Redson’s smirk was wide, and it seemed like his ego was flaring up again- as if Princess Iron fan’s son could actually win a race for a special stone fruit.

The princess sighed, and instead looked towards her nails to make sure they were fine. She already had them redone after their fight with the ‘Monkie Kid’, and she was not in the mood to get them fixed again. Whatever her son had to say surely wasn’t as important as she thought it was.

“Ugh, are you two even listening?!” Redson growled, and balled up his fists in anger. This was important to the fire demon, and yet neither of his parents were listening.

“Uh, something about peaches?” Princess Iron fan said, almost bored. She turned to her son and started to walk slowly towards him. “Look, your schemes are quaint, but I’ve never much cared about stone fruit. That was always the monkey’s thing.”

“Uh- but-” Redson stammered, almost baffled. Did his mother truly not understand the importance of it all? “The peaches are powerful-!”

“Like the weather station was powerful?” The princess glowered at her son, her voice dangerously calm. “Why don’t you just run along, hm? Go back to your lab and maybe make a few new inventions.” She said, and turned to go to her husband. “Can’t you see mommy and daddy have important business with an ancient power source?”

What was once a small crack in their lair was now a pit full of bull clones digging through the tough stone, slowly uncovering the mysterious coffin that held the power the Demon Bull king was desperate to have. His eyes glowed a bright blue hue as his gaze remained on the very coffin, and once in a while the sparks that appeared with every bang between metal and rock would cast a small shadow on the king’s form, making him look far more menacing than normal.

Redson seethed, before stomping his foot down. “Fine!” He yelled.

One word, and yet that was enough to snap Redson’s father’s gaze away from the pit to his family. The Demon Bull king turned to his wife and son, suddenly curious about what they were conversing about.

“You two stay here in your hole, digging up your ‘mysterious power source’,” Redson drawled out, now furious. “I am going to win the race.” He huffed and turned to walk away, too mad to even look at his parents again. “And when I get that peach, I’m not SHARING!”

The Demon Bull king looked almost equally mad, and Princess Iron fan’s mood hadn’t changed from boredom as they watched their son stomp away to join the race. “Foolish boy,” The Bull king said, and huffed. “If I were to race I would crush him!”

“It would be wrong of us to shatter our son’s ambitions..that’s far too cruel.” Princess Iron fan said, and glanced at her nails once more, before smirking and turning to her husband. “Even for demons.”

The couple laughed as a new plan formed in their minds, one that would surely make their day a bit more thrilling.

Macaque’s ears twitched under his glamor, and he looked up suddenly, his face wide in shock. “We forgot the catnip again!”

Chapter Text

Macaque and Bai he were walking outside again, heading to the pet store once more. Macaque had bid the group farewell, and reminded both Mk and Mei to be careful. Though, something in the back of his head said they’d ignore it anyways.

The two then continued their day walking around the city, looking for the pet store that seemed to summon the little strange family back every time for something new. Bai he held Xīng in her arms while holding onto Macaque’s hand, her eyes wide with awe and curiosity with every turn they took. It made the shadow monkey’s heart swell and clench at the same time. The girl was only 11- was it 12? He hadn’t gotten her age yet- but she acted as though she was but a toddler seeing the city for the first time they went out.

It almost made Macaque want to find her parents and tear them from the head to their legs with slow and careful cuts to give them just enough agonizing torture that their daughter must have suffered from.

He wasn’t actually expecting to see one of them, though.

“Papa!” Bai he suddenly yelled, making Macaque look at her in surprise. He looked up in the direction where her eyes were staring, and his jaw dropped.

“Jīnzi, I need you to hide okay? Don’t come out until I say so.”

“Liùěr Míhóu, move aside.”

There, standing outside a small bookstore, was a tall man with fair skin. He had a small scar on his forehead, and a pair of clubmasters on his face. The top half of his hair was done up in a bun, and the bottom half was let loose down his shoulders, a purple streak shining through his hair as well. The man looked up when he heard Bai he’s voice, and his eyes widened. “..Bai he?”

“Don’t you dare hurt her, you monster!”

“This is the will of the Jade Emperor, and you will not forestall this any longer.”

Bai he beamed and was about to go run to the man, but the hand that held Macaque’s was gripped tightly, and she couldn’t leave his grip. Bai he looked up at Macaque, confused. “Mr. Macaque..?”

The man then looked up at Macaque, and he froze.

Macaque’s eyes were narrowed with rage, the natural golden hue in his irises now a hardened amber as he glared at the man. Had they not been in public, and had Bai he not called this damnation of a being her father, there was no telling how fast Macaque would tear his limbs off of him.

“Bàba, it hurts…”

“Liùěr Míhóu.” The man said softly, still in surprise of who was holding his daughter’s hand.

“Bàba, make it stop, please…”

“Erlang Shen.” Macaque spat out with abhorrence.

Well wasn’t this becoming a good day.

~~~~~

“This is huge!” Mk said as Mei finished cleaning up her bike. “Those other racers won’t stand a chance!” He said, grinning widely.

“Right!” Mei said as she stood up proudly. “I know the track like the back of my hand- the back alleys, the front alleys, the sideways alleys-” Mei said excitedly, posing every time she mentioned ‘alley’. “All the alleys! I was made for this!” She thrusted her fist into the air and grinned as she stood on her bike, already imagining the trophy in her hands.

“Yep,” Mk said as he smoothed down his hair. “I’m totally gonna win this thing.”

Mei huffed and crossed her arms, before looking away. “As if! I bet you haven’t been training with how often Pigsy has you working everyday!”

“Yeah, as a delivery boy!” Mk said, his cheerful aura returning to him once more as always. “I’m always driving through the city and outside the place serving customers! I’m like- training all day and earning money for it if you think about it! A total win-win situation for me!”

Tang came outside for a second, and knew what was going to happen next. He frowned as the children leaned on each of his shoulders, and he seemed annoyed at their antics entirely. All he wanted to do was wish Mei good luck, and now he was stuck having to fix a quarrel between them. And he just came back from delivering noodles for Pigsy!

“Hey, Tang, who do you think is the better driver here? Mei, or me?” Mk said smugly, thinking the scholar would pick him. It was only when Mk decided to look down at the scholar’s hand did he see the small hand-made flag for Mei, ultimately speaking the answer for Tang. Mk gasped and looked at Tang as though he had been stabbed.

“I’m just gonna go-” Tang said, and ran off as Mei stood proudly in place while Mk huffed and flailed his arms around like a child.

“Ugh! Fine! But I still prove that I can win this race!” Mk yelled.

“Oh yeah? Then you’re on!” Mei said and grinned. “I’ll be expecting an apology when I get that peach!”

“Right back at you!” Mk said, and smirked.

And thus, the two ran off to prepare for the race.

~~~~~

It was uncomfortable.

So, so uncomfortable.

Sitting there at a small table outside of Bai he’s favorite café, a plate in front of everyone, and coffee cups at the side for adults while Bai he got her own small box of strawberry milk. Macaque and Erlang’s plates were empty, but the girl had both a cupcake covered in an odious amount of frosting - Macaque made sure to remember that when they brush their teeth tonight - and a cream filled donut with chocolate glaze on it.

The streets were mostly empty in the area, mostly because of the race that was starting soon. Which meant the god had plenty of time to explain everything to the demon. Something Macaque wouldn’t let Erlang escape from until he got the answers to everything.

Starting with the first and foremost important question.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Macaque seethed, his eyes never leaving the others. “Last I saw, you had left my home after destroying all that I loved with your stupid mutt back to the heavens to celebrate your heinous actions.” He curled his hands slightly, but it seemed his anger was strong enough to make Macaque scratch the glass table and leave marks.

Erlang pursed his lips and looked away. He looked at his daughter, who seemed happy to let the kitten drink some of her milk. “...I don’t know what I did that day when I came to flower fruit mountain-”

“Bullshit!” Macaque yelled suddenly, and slammed the table. Miraculously, the table didn’t shatter- instead, a nasty crack was left behind, the biggest one reaching the god. Bai he froze and looked up at Macaque suddenly, and pressed herself against her chair in fear. Xīng jumped at the sudden motion and jumped into Bai he’s arms. Erlang seemed to flinch, before narrowing his eyes in annoyance and…confusion?

“You were there! You came to the mountain in your armor, demanding to see my daughter! You set the forests on fire, and killed my best friend and advisor Rin Rin! My marshals and generals! You killed so many of my people! You took Jīnzi from me!” Macaque’s vision blurred with tears, and seemed to flicker red too. “You destroyed everything I was that day! And you dare - you have the absolute gall to say you don’t remember-!”

“Because I don’t!” Erlang shouted suddenly, silencing Macaque. He glared at the shadow demon, before noticing Bai he’s sudden shift and form, how she curled into herself and kept her eyes wide with fear, and he sighed. He relaxed in his seat and smiled at Bai he. “I’m sorry, dear, I didn’t mean to yell. I’m sure your friend here didn’t mean to either…” He spoke softer now, almost whispering.

Bai he only looked down and nodded. That was when Macaque realized what happened, and he felt his own eyes widen. He just scared Bai he. Again. Macaque’s body went slack, and he moved to slowly sit back on his seat. He held his head and leaned against the cracked table, trying to calm himself. It was difficult to keep the tears from falling again. It was hard to control his body entirely when the murderer of his people was sitting before him acting as though the lives he took were so meaningless he had the audacity to act as though he never remembered committing such a crime in front of him.

Erlang looked at Macaque, and frowned again, before continuing what he was talking about. “...That day, when I ‘visited’ flower fruit mountain, whatever I did there, I didn’t remember a second of it until I was forced to my knees before my uncle, covered in the blood of who knows anymore.” He picked up his cup of coffee, and simply stared at it. “I was told that I had brought shame to the celestial realm, that I ruined everything the gods were planning.”

Macaque snorted and looked at Erlang. And oh, if those eyes could kill. “And how does a mighty god like you not remember the crimes he committed in the mortal realm? Surely the Jade Emperor wouldn’t be so kind to his kin and make him forget his sins to keep his realm ‘pure’?” He drawled out.

Erlang sighed, and shook his head. “No, but it seemed that not even Lao Tzu knew why I couldn’t recall such gruesome events. So, instead of waiting for someone who could, the Jade Emperor decided to give me a punishment he deemed worthy of my crimes; to live amongst the mortals as an immortal, but without my celestial powers and gifts, so that I may learn from my actions, and maybe, if I showed that I was worthy of the title ‘God’, I would be returned to my former glory.”

Erlang chuckled mirthlessly and shrugged his shoulders. He then closed his eyes and sipped his coffee. “Though I suppose that last bit was made to give me false hope, else we would have never met under such circumstances.”

Macaque gripped the strands of hair that hung on the sides of his head, and took a shuddering deep breath. It wasn’t working. “So you’ve been around for what? 500 years? 600? And you just act like you’re fine with everything that happened.” He spoke with gritted teeth. “What, did you plan on the release of the Demon Bull King? My return to the city? Or maybe those were all just coincidences and your real plan was with the exiled guard Jǐngwèi now that he’s back-”

“Jǐngwèi?” Erlang looked at Macaque confused. Concern flashed in his eyes, and he put his coffee down. “What are you talking about? He died.”

“Funny joke.” Macaque growled through his fangs. “I saw him a few days ago. He attacked me first and even mentioned you knowing it would throw me off-!”

A loud ringing echoed through the city, and Macaque immediately covered his ears in pain. He cried out at the sudden sharp pain that filled his head, and he looked up with his ears still covered to see where that awful sound came from. His eyes widened as he saw two familiar demons on a screen in the distance, with microphones on their heads chatting loudly and happily. Blue and orange. Yin and Jin, his cousins.

Erlang stood up worriedly as he saw how Macaque reacted, and looked in the same direction. He frowned, and sighed. “It seems they’re back at making trouble for the people again.” He rubbed his forehead and mumbled something under his breath.

But Macaque didn’t catch that, because after a few seconds the screen changed to show all the racers. Macaque saw Mei and Mk in their vehicles, and he relaxed a bit, before he stiffened again. Because at the back was a very familiar couple that Macaque had known for centuries before he left them.

”Brother, please, let us help you-”

”If you so much as come another step towards me I will so much as make you regret ever coming to this mountain again, Bull!”

”Míhoú, please calm down, I understand you’re upset but-”

”Ha! Upset?! I lost everything! And where were you and your husband while I suffered?! NOWHERE! And you think I’d listen to you now?!”

“Huh, so now they participate in racing.” Erlang said softly as he too, saw the Demon Bull King and Princess Iron Fan in a car lined up in the race. He glanced at Macaque, and noticed how the other went quiet. The former god raised an eyebrow, before glancing at Bai he to make sure she was okay. She only seemed interested in the kitten, so Erlang assumed that was a good sign.

A sudden gust of wind blew in the god’s direction, and when he looked up, Macaque was gone. Erlang looked around, confused as to where he disappeared. “This can’t be good.” He mumbled to himself as the race began in the city.

Chapter Text

After that day on the mountain, Wukong never asked for Mk to come back. He never visited the boy either in disguise, too scared that he might act out and lash out on the child like before. Wukong hugged his knees, and leaned against the large tree. “Míhóu…what should I do?” He looked up to the tree, silently watching the plum blossoms fall from the branch and float down onto the king’s palm.

Such a small little flower in his hands… Wukong enclosed his hand around it, and crushed it, clenching his teeth as he did. “…I should apologize to him. I’ll give him our mountain’s best fruits as a gift, and I’ll get on my knees too if that doesn’t work!” He said and stood up in confidence, before he leaned against the tree and slid back down, defeat swelling in his heart once more.

“Who am I kidding? Giving him stuff and saying sorry won’t be enough.” Wukong groaned and buried his face in his hands. “Gods, why did I act like that? I’m his mentor, but I acted like a monster to him.” He remembered the look in the boy’s eyes- pure horror, stuck in place with shaking eyes that seemed to beg for escape from the anger Wukong seemed to grow inside when he raised his fist.

A flutter of air blew against his hair, and the Great Sage looked up to see a familiar wispy figure sitting in one of the branches of the great tree. Wukong’s eyes softened, and he looked away to the other trees, and he let out a defeated sigh. “Have you come to whisper how this was all my fault again…?” He mumbled under his breath, too tired for an argument with his dead sister-in-law.

“You look awful enough, I doubt my words would make the view below any worse.” Savage answered nonchalantly, raising her eyebrows when she heard him snort in agreement. She sighed, and looked at her niece’s grave, past memories flickering in her mind of the girl she helped raise with her brother. How this new child reminded Savage of her, even if it was a human child. That boy, Mk, was the only one who managed to excite Wukong, to make him jump around in joy and talk to his kin once more, to make the Great Sage curious of life, curious of the world, curious of society- everything Wukong once did in his past when Macaque and his child were still on the mountain.

Savage also knew how protective Wukong was of this corner of the mountain- it was the only place he ever let himself crumble, the only place where he wasn’t a king, nor a Great Sage, nor a mentor. But a husband, and a father. A monkey who wanted nothing more than peace and comfort for his child and mate who he could not protect properly despite his promise to hide them from harm.

“The longer you dwell on this thought, the longer you leave the boy in his own self-doubt, do you know that?” Savage spoke up after a comfortable amount of silence.

“I know.” Wukong murmured out.

“You’re doing the same thing you do whenever you make a mistake that truly hurts someone.” Savage continued. “You sit in your corner and wait for the other person to come seek you out to forgive you.”

“I know.” Wukong said, a bit louder.

“This isn’t like before this time, Wukong.” Savage looked down and frowned at him. “That boy won’t come here to check on you like he did.”

“I know-” Wukong repeated through gritted teeth, his hands curling into fists.

“That boy was scared of you, he thinks you hate him right now. He won’t think about whether or not you’re okay. He’s not Míhóu-”

“I know, dammit!” Wukong yelled, and stood up. He glared at Savage and seethed. “I know he’s not Míhóu! I know he’s scared of me! I know he’s not coming back unless I go to him! Will you shut up already?!” He yelled at her, and for a second his eyes flickered from gold to red.

“If you know, then why are you still here sitting on your ass as if you think he’ll come for you?” Savage retorted. She jumped down and faced the Great Sage properly. “You want to fix this? Stop asking Míhóu for help. He’s not here, and he’s not gonna do shit for you while he’s in the underworld.” She jabbed her smoky finger against his chest, watching him flinch at the harsh reminder they lived in.

“What you do is what’s important.” She moved away and crossed her arms. “Now, are you going to keep sitting in this garden dawdling your thumbs waiting for a miracle to come, or are you going to go to the city, and apologize to him properly?”

Wukong opened his mouth, before closing it and biting the inside of his cheek. “...I’ll be back.” He said, and turned to leave the garden.

Savage sighed and moved to put her hands on her hips. She stood in place as she watched the king transform into a bird and fly off, before looking at the tree behind her, her smoky eyes never leaving the name carved in the old bark. “...I can hear your heartbeat in the city often, near the child he mentors. I know you still walk in this realm, so why do you stay away from this land?” Savage mumbled quietly as she stared a bit longer, before looking at the entrance of the cave, where Wukong had flown off just now. “...What happened when you left that made you fear the place you nearly died to protect?”

The shadow stood there in silence for a few seconds, before slinking into the darkness to lay in one of the other trees in the garden, not expecting an answer as the plum blossoms fell.

Amidst the soft noises of the monkeys outside the cave playing around, and the rustling of leaves and petals flowing through the cave, a crack formed on the gravestone, right over the name of the deceased princess.

~~~~~

Macaque never liked the sound of ringing in his ears. With three pairs of them too, it only amplified the sound, and oftentimes he felt like his head was going to burst.

Now, he couldn’t even hear it as he stumbled through the streets of the city, pushing past folks who were too focused on the race to notice his fractured disguise. His vision swayed, making everything move slower as he only ran faster away from the crowds.

Somewhere in his swirling vision, Macaque saw a small corner no one seemed to be, and staggered over there instantly. The moment he touched his fingers against the brick walls of the secluded area, the shadow monkey threw himself against it, practically gripping it as he tried to put his thoughts in order.

Since when did the Bull king and the princess visit the city after the fight? Did they know he was here? Did he know he was here? Macaque slid down the concrete wall and held himself as he tried to calm down, but only seemed to get worse by the second.

That familiar pang of pain exploded through his chest, and he felt like he was being choked by a force he couldn’t see. He tried to claw at his neck, desperate for air as the noise of the crowd seemed to mix between silence and eruption. He felt their eyes turn to him, staring at him with derision, not one soul looking away from his pathetic state. He coughed out, gasping for air as warm liquid fell down his face and dampened his hands. His head was pounding, and it felt like his heart was in his mind, thumping loudly in his ears, like a drum that sang for an execution-

His execution.

“Stop-” Macaque begged to no one, his voice hoarse and hushed under the people’s cheers. A harsh gush of wind blew against his side, and against his better judgment, he looked out of the alleyway to see why.

His face paled at the sight of purple and red whizzing by.

Macaque couldn’t tell anymore if what he was fiction or reality, but all he could think about was that they were here, which meant they would see him, which meant that he could see him.

Then, before the shadow monkey could make any rash decisions, a large blob of blue appeared before him, and he grew scareder. The blob seemed to be talking to him, and for a moment, Macaque decided to try and listen to it, in the hopes he could be freed from this madness.

He lowered his hands and looked at the blob as sounds slowly morphed into words. “...see, Mr….okay?...to me…be alright…” Macaque’s breathing started to slow gradually, and his body didn’t feel like it was shaking anymore.

Finally he could see who was in front of him- Sandy. He stared at the water demon curiously, but still felt scared. Sandy seemed to notice this, and put Mo in front of the shadow monkey. The feline didn’t seem to hesitate, and scampered over to rub against Macaque’s legs, purring happily.

Macaque blinked a bit, and stared at Mo, before slowly raising his hand and petting the cat, which in turn made Mo purr louder. Feeling encouraged by such a small act, the shadow monkey picked up the cat, and held him in his arms. Macaque sniffled, before hugging it gently, like a mother would hold a baby to get it burp or sleep.

“...Mr. Macquack…” Sandy said softly. “Do you like to sing songs, by chance?”

Macaque nodded, and looked at his lap, his vision still finicky and his chest still in pain. The thumping in his head seemed to die down a bit, but it was still pounding quite loudly.

Sandy nodded in return, and leaned against the wall. “...do you feel brave enough to sing a song right now? To help you focus?”

Macaque nodded after a minute of pondering, and closed his eyes. He curled his knees close to his chest, and sang in a shaky tune as he hugged Mo still. “What a beautiful jasmine flower…what a beautiful jasmine flower…” He sang softly, taking a deep, shuddering breath before continuing as his senses slowly returned, and he could hear the people yelling out there, as well as the feline’s heartbeat in his arms. “Fragrant and beautiful, stem full of buds…fragrant and white, everyone praises…”

Sandy seemed to relax, and nodded along to the song. In truth, he had only just left Pigsy’s shop once he got his fill, and had initially planned to try out that one pottery store just past the arcade for some lessons. But, he heard a choked voice seem to rasp out in the alleyway before him, and he froze. He looked inside, and he grew worried when he saw Macaque sitting on the floor, in tears and disassociated from reality as his neck grew red from clawing at it so recklessly.

Now, having finally calmed down the shadow monkey, Sandy felt a bit better. He looked at Macaque, and frowned sadly at him. Perhaps another therapy session was due for today.

~~~~~

The race, to say the least, was but a hop and a skip close to being no different than a shitshow for Mk.

What had started as a simple plan to beat Mei in an annual race suddenly turned into an actual fight to the finish line against Redson and his parents, along with handling the chaos Yin and Jin seemed to both bring to the match. He never thought the idea of immortality would bring back the bull family so soon- though, thinking about it now, it probably made sense considering they were always looking for ways to beat Mk.

“Out of my way, noodle boy!” Redson yelled out as he sped up behind Mk, close to hitting Pigsy’s truck. Currently they were trying to get past the biggest obstacle of the race- the mountain. While Mk and Mei both took the same path with Redson to go around it, the Bull king and his wife seemed to believe going through it was easier.

The idea would have been laughable if it wasn’t for the fact that they had the technology to drill right through the gigantic rock. Almost made Mk wonder why the hell Redson didn’t try that when he was diggin’ up daddy from the grave.

“Never!” Mk yelled back, determined to win this race. Mei seemed to ignore their banter and sped up, zipping past the two immediately. Desperate to take the winning spot himself, Redson also sped up, and slipped right past the boy just as quickly, leaving Mk out on the road alone.

“Hey! No fair!” Mk said, and looked upset. He then huffed and revved up the engine of the truck, before pressing on the gas once more. “Here comes monkie kid-!”

The truck never moved so slow for Mk.

The boy groaned, and smacked his head against the steering wheel. “Oh yeah, ‘I’ll prove I can win this race!’ Who am I kidding? It’s not like I’m monkey king who can-” Mk froze, and gasped in excitement. “I have the monkey king’s powers!” He dug into his ear and pulled out the staff, grinning as it reformed into its proper shape.

He started up the truck again and this time dug the staff into the dirt. Once it was in place, Mk commanded the staff to grow in length, and he blasted himself into the air. “I’m the greatest racer ever!” He cheered as he flew closer to the other two racers.

Meanwhile, Mei was having a blast, enjoying the race to her fullest now that she had finally gained the lead, with her opponents long behind her. She laughed and sped through the shortcuts of the streets with extreme vigor, her smile never leaving her face as the thrill seemed to push her forward.

Of course, such sweet moments of joy could only last before Yin’s announcement over the speakers reached her ears, and she only had seconds to see her best friend fall right onto her motorcycle. Least to say, neither she nor Mk were able to continue on their vehicles.

Redson eventually reached up to them, and chose to stick it in their faces by giving them some smoke and then dashing off to the finish line, cackling to himself along the lines of ‘peasants.’

The moment both Mk and Mei were out of the rubble, Mei grew furious. “What were you thinking, Mk?! You destroyed my bike and Pigsy’s truck! What is wrong with you?!” She yelled at him, and stomped over to Mk. Mk in return grew scared and backed up immediately, not liking the familiar feeling that came with it in return.

“I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Mk said, and looked away. He pursed his lips in guilt and rubbed his neck nervously. “I-...I just wanted to win this race really badly for the peach, I didn’t mean for…all of this to happen.” Mk gestured to the mess that was once their vehicles behind Mei, before putting his hands in his jacket pockets and looking down in shame.

Mei’s anger seemed to die down, and she sighed. “Yeah, well,” She walked up to him and punched his shoulder playfully. “Don’t be so dumb next time, yeah?” She said, and smiled comfortably at him, easing Mk’s worries a bit.

Mk grinned, before frowning upon the realization that Redson was still in the race. “I can’t believe I screwed our chances in winning an immortal peach to Redson.” He said, and crossed his arms.

Mei looked behind them at the rubble, before glancing back at Mk with a mischievous smile crawling back on her face. “You do have monkey king powers.”

Mk looked at her confused, before his eyes widened in realization at what she was implying. “Oh! Yeah!” He grinned, and the two quickly began their return plan.

Chapter Text

“Redson’s in the lead now, he might just win it with the end so close!” Jin commented, and Yin nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, seeing how all the other contenders seem to be out of this race, it looks like Redson is going to win!” The brothers nodded, and Yin grabbed a nearby soda cup to drink as he and his brother watched the lights of the end track beam and signal to everyone that a racer was expected to reach it.

Redson laughed as he sped up, a manic grin on his face. Everyone was just as he desired- there were no peasants in his way to the finish line, and his parents were far behind by now. He would finally get that peach of immortality, and once he did, he would-

A large bang was heard, and a ripple of air gushed past Redson. He yelped as his vehicle bounced, before looking back dumbfounded. “Huh?”

A flurry of dust was descending the mountain, at a speed that was downright terrifying for even the twins to witness. “What the- oh!” Jin said as he stood up in awe and amazement. “Looks like Mei and Mk are back in the race!”

Mk and Mei were both screaming as one arm each hugged the other, and their other arms controlling the vehicle to go faster. Despite their speed, they were still lacking in catching up to the fire-wielding demon, so naturally they pressed the gas pedal in the hopes their speed would be enough to even graze the other contender.

It in fact, did not just graze the contender. Instead, it totaled both Redson’s car, as well as Mk and Mei’s.

Luckily, with the staff, Mk quickly repaired the car again, and even ended up adding Redson into their car, which pissed him off. Mk and Mei returned to their panicked screams,and even tried to shove each other in the cramped space to avoid getting burned. With no one at the controls, the car went flying, and all three fighters managed to pass the finish line without breaking the vehicle again.

“It is all over!” Jin yelled as Yin shot up from his seat and looked down in amazement. “Mei, Mk, and Redson have all won the race!”

Tang and Pigsy cheered from the shop, hugging each other tightly as they watched from the television their closest companions win the annual race with Redson.

Mei and Mk stumbled out of the car, and Redson simply jumped out fuming. He held the peach in his hands, before narrowing his eyes as both the noodle boy and dragon girl squished him between them to raise the peach high in the air. Fireworks went off as pictures and videos were taken of this year’s winners.

“Ugh! You insufferable idiots!” Redson yelled as his hair burst into a colorful array of flames. “This peach was meant to be mine!” He said, and glared at the two heroes.

Mk stood in surprise, before scrunching up his face and snatching the peach out of Redson’s hand. “Oh yeah? Well too bad!” He said, and hugged the golden peach. “You can’t have it anyways!” He said, and chomped on it hard. He froze, and felt his teeth shatter from the bite alone. “Ah, ow, ow. I don’t think it's ripe yet…” He said weakly, and rubbed his jaw in pain.

“Um, guys? It’s just a trophy.” Mei said as she took the golden peach and held it in her hands. Both men froze, and looked up at her in shock. “You don’t really get a peach of immortality-”

“What?!” Mk said as he and Redson both looked at her in surprise. “Buh-buh- but the poster says-!”

“It’s says right there on the poster!” Redson exclaimed as he and Mk both held up matching posters of the race. Both of them looked at each other in confusion, for once finding something similar between them that neither understood for a second.

Mei snorted, before she fell down and began to laugh wildly. “I-It says you get immortality by having your picture projected on the great wall!” She said, and pointed above her. As she said, a projection of the three was shown on the wall, with Redson looking furious, Mei laughing wildly, and Mk in a freeze-frame moment of regretting ever taking a bite of the trophy.

“Oh, so the- the peach…is a metaphor? O-kay.” Mk said as he looked more and more defeated upon every word he said.

Redson looked at the image in horror, before he grit his teeth, and his hair blew up in flames once more. “I-I knew that! You think you’re so smart, huh?! You- argh!” He yelled out in fury, before freezing when he heard everyone cheering for them all, including him. He looked up at the spectators, before huffing and looking away in annoyance. Maybe sticking around for the attention would be worth it, even if he couldn’t get the peach he wanted…

Mk joined Mei in the pictures, and even dragged Redson to pose with them. He only stood with his arms crossed glaring at either Mk or the cameraman. Through the cheers and laughter, one voice seemed to yell out louder than the rest for Mk.

“Kid! Kid, hey!” Mk looked around curiously, and his eyes widened when he saw his mentor standing in the crowd.

If there was one thing Wukong was willing to confess when it came to mimicry magic, it was that he could not for the life of him put on glamours easily. They were always so fragile, and the ability to concentrate for so long to just form a glamour over his eyes was painful enough.

A whole body glamour was basically asking Wukong to get an aneurysm.

So, instead, he chose to use his hair to make some modern styled clothes and put on a pair of sunglasses before rushing off to the city. He heard the kid was doing a race for a peach of sorts- he admired the determination, he wouldn’t deny that- so he quickly grabbed whatever peaches were on sale and fresh and put them into a basket of his own.

The next challenge was getting to the front of the crowd without revealing himself. That was much easier to do though, since everyone was kind enough to move when Wukong gently moved through the cluster of humans, and gently excused and apologized to them. Once he reached the front, all he needed to do now was wait for Mk to reach the finish line.

He wasn’t expecting to see the dragon ponytail girl and Redson join his student too at the end, but hey- the more the merrier!

He smiled at Mk’s immediate action to bite the trophy, before laughing when he realized it wasn’t an actual immortal peach. It was obvious though- Wukong wasn’t stupid enough to let mortals ever get a taste of that special stone fruit, come on.

After a few minutes, he decided now or never to get Mk’s attention. “Kid! Kid, hey!” He yelled out, and waved the boy’s gaze to him. He gave a sad smile when the boy looked surprised, and a bit scared of his appearance, but that was to be expected.

Mk gave the trophy to Mei as she was busy getting ready to give out autographs, and ran up to the simian. “Monkey king?” Mk asked, still not believing that this weird looking guy was actually his teacher. “Is that you?”

“You betcha! Hahaha…” Wukong said, and scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Um, I got you fruit! Peaches! Since uh, you were hoping for a peach at the end of the race, yeah..?” The great sage used his tail to pull up the basket of fresh and plump peaches in front of Mk. “Trust me, they taste way better than your trophy, heh...”

Wukong smiled awkwardly, before clearing his throat and looking to the ground. “…look, kid. I-I’m not good with apologies, never really learned how to, you could say. But-…well, what I’m trying to say is-“ Wukong groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. Macaque was always better at things like this. “…I’m sorry. For…for what happened back there. I didn’t mean to lose control like that, and I’m glad my children stopped anything terrible from happening.”

Mk stood there in shock, and after a minute of silence Wukong was starting to get nervous, especially with everyone’s eyes on him. “Uh…kid? You- you there, heh?” He smiled awkwardly, and waved a hand over the boy’s face, before yelping as Mk tackled him to the ground in a hug. Wukong laid there, eyes wide in bewilderment, before glancing at his student. “You okay?” He asked, genuinely confused as he hesitated to return the hug.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Mk said quietly, and beamed. He got up immediately and pulled up Wukong on the way. “I’m glad you came back.”

“What? Me? Psh, come on-” Wukong snorted and ruffled the boy’s hair hard. He smiled when he heard Mk groan and shove his hand off. “I’m the Monkey King himself! ‘Course I’d come back. Besides, I can’t abandon my student so soon, now can I?” He chuckled.

Mk laughed as well, and hugged Wukong again, glad to have his mentor back. “I wish Macaque was here too, I bet you two would get along really well!” He said, and distantly wondered where the shadow monkey was right now. He and Bai he got their catnip by now, right?

“Who?” Wukong asked as he waved at Mei as she ran up to grab a peach as well. She gave one to Redson, who only looked infuriated by the act alone, and only seemed to boil when Mei forced the peach into his mouth. Wukong glanced at them, before focusing back on his kid, chalking up their behavior to be “modern kid fun” or whatever most mortals did these days.

“Oh, he’s a friend.” Mk said, and took a peach out of his own peach. “He’s got a cat and a niece that Mei and I see at the noodle shop!”

“Huh, he seems like a decent guy.” Wukong said, and smiled. “Maybe I’ll come and visit the shop to see him.” He said, before sniffing his mentor for a bit. “...why do you smell like sweet potatoes?”

~~~

“Here we are.” Sandy said as he placed a tea set in front of the low table in front of Macaque, who looked exhausted. He had a weighted blanket on his shoulders, and about a dozen cats snuggled up around him. He had dropped his glamors, leaving only the ones on his ears. “It’s valerian root tea, it helps with stress and nervousness.” The blue demon said as he sat across the shadow monkey and poured himself a cup of tea.

Macaque kept his gaze on the tea, his mind blank after what happened to him. He took a whiff of the warm drink, and nodded stiffly to Sandy’s words. He didn’t respond to the feeling of the small feline bodies rubbing against him, and slowly raised his hand to scratch his neck. The bandages there felt stuffy, and he needed to itch.

“Ah, Mr. Macaque-” Sandy said, pausing Macaque’s endeavor. “I would rather you leave it alone for now. Your scratches are still fresh, it’s best you don’t touch them right now.” He said, before going to his oven and pulling out a fresh batch of cookies. He put them on a plate and placed them beside the shadow monkey, and then finally sat down. “These are chocolate chip cookies, be careful, they’re hot.”

Macaque lowered his hand, and instead shifted his gaze to the cookies. He hesitantly picked one up, and began to nibble on the warm treat, his shoulders slumping a bit in ease. “...thank you.” He rasped out, and took a sip of his tea.

Sandy nodded. He sipped his own tea, and smiled at any of the cats that nuzzled up against him. He looked to Macaque, and furrowed his brows in concern. “...Do you feel ready to talk about it?” He asked in a hushed tone while rubbing a cat’s back.

Macaque shook his head, and took another sip. He glanced at the wall near the end of the city when he saw it light up, and smiled a bit when he saw Mk and Mei along with Redson all in the picture. “...they won.” He said. “Good for them…”

Sandy noticed this, and beamed at the kid’s victory. He glanced at the smaller being, and thought about whether to keep up the topic or help Macaque focus on something else for now. “...do you want to make a gift for them, Mr. Macaque? I’m sure they’d love it if they got something from you.” Sandy suggested, opting for the latter for now. He wouldn’t push Macaque, and would give him time to open up.

Macaque’s eyes seemed to finally light up, and he nodded at that. “O-okay…” He said softly. Sandy seemed to beam at that, and got up to go get some crafts materials, leaving Macaque alone again.

Macaque looked back at his cup, and caressed the edge of his cup. He hummed softly, and smiled a bit at the cats that rubbed against him. Perhaps some craftwork would be nice after everything that happened today. He raised his cup to his lips and took a small sip, before sighing in relief as his nerves seemed to finally relax from the warm drink. “This does taste nice…perhaps I should ask him for more teabags-” He said, when he froze suddenly.

A disturbing chill brushed against his bag, and he felt a chilling whisper brush past his ears. “Freedom…”

The sound of a cup clinking and tea spilling onto the table was heard next, and the cats scattered immediately. The warm drink spread out across the table, soaking into the wood, but Macaque couldn’t care less about it at the moment. He stood up, and immediately looked out the windows, unsure of what he heard was just his imagination, or truly an old soul making a return.

He grit his teeth, and dropped his glamors, his ears focused on hearing the noise again. He could hear Sandy in the other room picking up papers and tools, he could hear Mk and Mei talking about something he couldn’t focus on, he could hear a voice he barely recognized through the cheers, he could hear Bai he talking about her time with the shadow monkey and guardians to Erlang. He narrowed his eyes, and focused on the sounds around him more, before he heard it.

Whispers. Incomprehensible, but they were whispers. He clenched his fists, and looked back at the table, the tea well soaked into the maple wood and leaving it stained and slightly damaged now.

“Alright, Mr. Macaque, I’ve got-” Sandy froze when he saw the living room empty. He noticed the teacups had been put on the counters, and the weighted blanket had been folded neatly on the couch with a letter attached to it.

‘Emergency at home. Sorry for the mess on the table, I will buy you a new one.
Macaque.'

Sandy furrowed his brows, and looked at the table. He realized the wood was soaked, and sighed softly. He put the craft tools down and crossed his arms. “It’s not the table I’m worried about right now, Mr. Macaque…” He mumbled, before he heard his cuckoo clock go off, meaning it was feeding time. “Alright everyone, let’s go eat!” He said, and smiled when he was given a chorus of mews and meows in return.

Chapter Text

After that day, Mk and Mei had a new contact in their phones- Redson. Redson was forced to have his phone blow up with messages and spam calls from them at every waking moment. He went as far as making himself a new phone at some point to carry instead of never having peace, but they managed to blow that one up with even more messages.

Mk chuckled as Redson sent a message in their group chat to stop bothering him, and knew that Mei would only double down, and so would he. He looked up, and saw Tang gorging down on a bowl of noodles again while Pigsy leisurely cooked, the store opening later for today as the pig prepared takeout meals.

Mei was- as expected- cackling as she began to spam the chat with pictures of her posing, fueling the fire. Sandy was off doing pottery classes, and Macaque…

Mk looked at the usual seat Macaque sat at when Tang wasn’t here. It was the closest to the door, opposite of the bookworm. Oftentimes he had his kitten in front of him, or a plate of steamed sweet potatoes to eat, but in the past few weeks he’s never entered the shop. Mk never felt his presence near him, not even when he was visiting Sandy.

He recalled the blue demon telling him that the shadow monkey had disappeared after he went to get some crafts for him to do. Bai he also seemed to not come to visit afterwards either, and Mk was worried if something had happened to him. Macaque would have told him if there were a change of plans, right?

A gust of wind passed into the shop, and everyone looked up as they saw a somewhat stout looking fellow by the door, his eyes wide with what may have been in hopes of good intention, but made him look like he longer functioned properly. His hair was faded into a dark gray, with a striking line of icy blue going right through it. He smiled brightly and waved at the group, before stepping inside.

“Hello everyone! I’m this city’s mayor, do you happen to know where I can find the ‘monkie kid?’” He asked, his tone a bit too chipper for Pigsy’s liking. “I’ve come to give him a reward!”

Mk shot up at that. A reward?

~~~
The sound of iron clanging against stone echoed in the pit, and with every crack that came out of it, the whispers grew stronger. The bull family stood by the edge as they watched the machines toil away without hindrance, and finally, one clone managed to strike the weak spot.

The ground below erupted, sending the robots all around the workshop, and revealing the entrance of the coffin. The princess and Redson stood in front of it in awe, blue smoky whispers reaching out to both souls before retreating, the tomb keeping whatever creature existed inside completely trapped.

The Bull king stepped forward, and grinned devilishly. “Finally, the power can be mine…” He drawled, and reached his hand out to the lock. A sharp zap went through the king’s body, forcing him to jolt back and away from the coffin in anger and surprise. The Bull king noticed the sigil across its lock, and he grew infuriated. “Another obstacle in my path to greatness?! Another struggle I must face to reach my destiny!” He bellowed, and used all his might to smash the sigil, but it only created a larger explosion and pushed the family away from the tomb. The whispers continued, acting almost as if it were mocking the demon for not being able to break open the box.

“Patience, my dear-” Princess Iron fan began, before looking at her husband in surprise when he turned to her, his voice still loud with anger.

“I’ve been patient for too long! I need this power now, before that ape returns and forces me back down a mountain!”

The princess frowned at the sight of the king’s anger pushed towards her, but chose to look past it and try her hand at the sigil. Upon seeing it once more, she grit her teeth in frustration. “...the power that contains this tomb is one I can not break so easily.” She said. “Without an artifact of equal strength, we can’t open it.”

Redson looked at the entrance to the tomb, and smirked. “But we can!” He said, and pulled up one of his many holographic screens. He scanned the center of it, and revealed a keyhole, along with several different locations of its recent existence. “All we need is a key,” He said, before grinning as a familiar location popped up on the screen. “And look what I found.”

~~~

The “mayor” raised a master key in the air, and grinned to the small group in the shop. He stood in front of a pedestal- lord knows wherever he found that in such a short time- and began his speech, with Mk standing beside him. “As mayor, I give the monkie kid the key to our fair city!” He said, and gave the boy the master key.

Mk took it, and felt a sudden chill go through his spine. He looked at it, and tilted his head in confusion, promptly ignoring the skull shape on the end of it. “Um, what does it do, exactly?” He asked.

“Oh, you’ll love this,” The “mayor” said, and leaned forward in excitement. “It had the power to open anything!” He said.

“Ooh, anything?” Mei asked as she jumped and leaned over the pedestal in excitement. “Like a pet shop full of puppies?”

The “mayor” smiled awkwardly at that, before it widened and he looked excited. “Yes, to the door to a lion’s cage, or an orphan’s piggy bank, or a prisoned mystic power source-” He said, his voice becoming deep and guttural with every word. The “mayor” then shook his head and beamed again. “Or whatever you want!” He chuckled, and leaned on his pedestal in a relaxed position.

“Today, you can do no wrong. You have my permission, cause I’m the mayor!” He cackled, before puffing into a cloud of blue smoke.

“Huh. I’m starting to think he’s maybe not the mayor.” Mei said as she tilted her head.

Mk looked at the key in awe, and beamed. “A key that can open anything…and a day where we can do no wrong…” Mk and Mei beamed and looked at each other with excitement.

Pigsy raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question it too much before returning to work. “Just don’t use it irresponsibly.” He muttered.

“We won’t!” They said, and ran out the shop in excitement.

They in fact, did use it irresponsibly. From unlocking new cheat codes to use in video games, to opening trucks with puppies inside, to buying out whatever they wanted in stores to renting out places for themselves to use in the moment. Within hours, they gained a multitude of (mostly useless) items, feeling rich with the master key in their hands.

As they were bringing back their stash of goods back to Mk’s apartment, Mk looked at the key curiously, and placed it beside his head out of wonder. He gasped as he felt his mind expand, and for a moment his mind drifted off somewhere he wasn’t sure he ever knew was there. He blinked, and returned back to the mortal realm, before looking at Mei. “Hey Mei! I just realized-”

A sudden explosion cut him off, and both Mei and Mk flew off the railings and onto the pavement grounds as Mk’s room went ablaze. A familiar tuft of red hair stepped out, and the being grinned.

“Noodle boy!” Redson yelled. “Finally, I’ve been waiting here for ages!”

“Wha-what are you doing here?!” Mei asked as she saw the fire demon standing at the ledge.

Mk jumped up as well, and pointed at Redson in anger. “You better not have touched my stuff!”

Redson rolled his eyes and scoffed at that. “Hilarious. Your room is so… depressing. I’d almost feel pity for stealing from it at all.” He said, and looked away boredly, before smiling and pointing to the master key. “But, I’ll need that key.” He said, and didn’t bother to wait for a response as he summoned his magic, and pulled the key to his hands before either Mei or Mk could take it. He chuckled, and burst into a gust of flames once it was in his hands.

“So long, noodle boy!” He cackled, and flew off to his family’s lair, leaving Mk and Mei in the dust.

“Ah- he stole the key!” Mk said, and grew worried, before looking stumped. “But why?”

Mei narrowed her eyes, and crossed her arms in concern. “A key that can open any door is dangerous. We’ll need to be on our guard at all times.”

~~~

Macaque stood by the porch rail as he watched Bai he play around in the field, exploring the garden the former god had built on his land. Qīng stood by her, and explained to her the names of the fruits and vegetables she found with smiles on his face. Macaque had taken his time to get used to the idea that Erlang was related to Bai he, much less that he himself was no longer a god, but a farmer. How ironic yet so suitable for such a man like him.

Once it was confirmed that Bai he was indeed Erlang’s kin, she was kept with him, but Macaque made sure to visit often with one of his brother’s beside him to ensure the child was safe. He kept up his human disguise still, not wanting anyone he didn’t want finding him like how Mk or Erlang had before.

Currently, Macaque glanced at Erlang, who sat across from him, the man’s gaze never wavering past his daughter, with a cup of jiuniang in his hand. Two other matching cups of the wine were placed on the basket table, no doubt meant for the shadow monkey and guardian, but Macaque had no interest in tasting anything the old immortal had to offer.

“...something is coming.” Macaque spoke lowly as he watched Bai he giggle and chase a butterfly with the otherwise stoic guardian. “Something ancient that was meant to stay dormant.”

Erlang paused in his sip of the rice wine, and glanced at Macaque, surprised at the other to finally choosing to acknowledge him. He lowered his cup, and raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

Macaque glanced at the man, and lowered the glamours on his ears. “There are whispers that hold unsavory desires. They were once small, but have grown bigger now.” He said, before turning once he heard a small ‘oof!’ and found Qīng in the dirt, and a butterfly flying off.

Erlang narrowed his eyes at the news, and turned to see his daughter laughing and helping the guardian up. “...I see,” He said, and put his cup down on the table. “...I suppose it's best to leave Bai he in your care then.” He mumbled, and furrowed his brows in frustration.

Macaque raised an eyebrow at that, but nodded. “If you believe it to be the best choice here.”

Erlang sighed, and rubbed his face. “I assume the gods aren’t doing anything in this matter either…” He mumbled, before leaning back in his seat. “...I will wait until you and the guardians have deemed this city safe then.” He said and looked up to the sky. “Do inform me when you do, just in case Bai he’s mother returns.”

Macaque nodded, and looked out to the fields. “I’ll take her home with us by the end of today then.” Right, her mother. As of right now, the mother was in jail after showing negligence to Bai he, and child protective services had finally stopped visiting Erlang’s home, which meant that if she left now, no one would question it.

It was quite surprising that Erlang wasn’t the one who had caused his daughter’s trauma, but the mother. Macaque recalled the gist of what kind of woman she had been- got knocked up from a one night stand and baby-trapped Erlang before divorcing him for money and abused the child in her care. The fact that Bai he had escaped at all from her was a miracle, and being taken care of by the demon and guardians was like a blessing.

Erlang picked up his cup, and sighed again. He looked into the ceramic, his reflection small in the drink. “...is it her?”

Macaque stiffened, and gripped the railing for a second. He grit his teeth, and glanced at Erlang. The former god flinched at the hatred and fear that swirled in the demon’s eyes, and his brows furrowed in concern.

“It better not fucking be.” Macaque mumbled.

~~~

The Demon Bull king stood in front of the coffin with the key, determination in his eyes. The key shifted its form and flew out of the king’s hand, sliding into the lock with ease and breaking the sigil upon it.

The lock broke apart in seconds, and the doors opened to reveal a casket inside. Redson dared to walk inside, and his brows furrowed in both confusion and anger. “...bones? I-it’s just- bones?!” He exclaimed as a faint whisper echoed through the liar.

”Freedom…”

The princess seemed unimpressed, and looked up curiously. She gasped as she saw the pillars that bound the tomb now floating in the sky. Heaps of blue smoke flew throughout the lair, slipping itself into any robots that were left there still. The largest one seemed to fly into the king, who began to laugh louder with every second. His eyes no longer held the familiar yellow that the princess or Redson were used to seeing- this time, it was an icy blue that held a piercing gaze. “At last, the world will be fixed by my hand! Hahaha!”