Chapter Text
The Hero gasped.
The Hero was laying in a patch of scorched, blackened grass, the world hazy and wrong.
He had died, he remembers it like a nightmare, warped and foggy. There was a promise, a smile, a raise of a weapon and...and then...the Hero only remembers it all ending, the world fading to darkness and then to nothing. Death was just as cold, empty and gripping as he had imagined it.
The Hero screamed.
the pain of having a body, of being alive again, jolted through him like a lightning strike, his flesh and blood suddenly making themselves very aware. He struggled to stand, it felt like thousands of hands were trying to pull him back down, he couldn't tell if this feeling was because he was weak or if the She wanted her payment, but the Hero continued moving. He dragged his feet across dirt until he felt brittle sand, did he need water? the Hero was so used to being immortal he wasn't sure, but the fear of death was just as alive as he was, so he stumbled to the ocean and looked down at the gentle sea.
That's when he saw him, the Six-Eared Macaque, looking straight back at him.
It was a normal day for The Warrior, a gentle breeze flowing through his fur, the sun shinning grandly. The temperature of flower fruit mountain was always a tad too warm for the his taste, but under the shade it was almost passable.
Well, at least it was until a kid came barreling through into the Great Sage's kingdom.
The Warrior rolled his eyes, he hated intruders. Sure, having the Great Sage's glare made dealing with them far easier than it used to be, but it was still annoying, and from the way this mortal was loudly "ooh"ing and "ahhh"ing, he had a feeling this time it was going to be downright painful.
Sighing, the Warrior lifted himself up from his wonderful shade and began to drift over into the aching sunlight, before slamming his feet to the ground. The great sage can't do that, Wukong. he chided to himself as he groaned and continued making his way to the pest on foot. "Look bud, I'm really not in the mood for this, so leave or-" The Warrior started before the mortal loudly interrupted, "MONKEY KING!?" he screeched, the Warrior stiffened at the title, trying his best not to reach up to cover his ears, he sometimes forgets mortals adore the Hero, but even he was surprised at how a fan could get this far and still be breathing.
The warrior placed a hand on his hip to regain his composure. "Yeah, the one and only." He said sarcastically, he waved a dismissive hand at the fanboy, "And since you know me, you know what happens when people trespass-" He froze, his eyes landing on...it- it couldn't be- that didn't make any sense-
The kid followed his eyes, and gasped in delight, "OH YEAH! sorry, I got so excited that you were actually here, I almost forgot-" he adjusted his hand so the staff was in between the Warrior and himself. "I found your staff! it was so strange actually, I thought I found it when this fire guy pulled it out of a mountain to free the Demon bull king but it disappeared in his hand- OH YEAH speaking of DBK, we need to stop him too! he's been-"
As the kid continued to ramble on, flailing his hands around as he did, the Warrior kept his eyes tracked onto the weapon, how did he.. "...find that?" he whispered under his breath. "What?" the Kid asked, tilting his head as he frowned, he reached a hand out to the Warrior. "Hey, are you okay-" The Warrior put his own hand up, stopping the kid in his tracks, and straightened his posture, he was the Great Sage, Wukong had no reason to be afraid of his own weapon, so he wasn't going to be. "How did you find my staff?" he smiled, praying the kid wouldn't notice how foreign the expression was to the Warrior.
The kid's eyes lit up almost instantly upon hearing the question, "Well, I was walking back to my work after being chased by that red guy I was telling you about, and it fell from the sky, it nearly hit me actually-" he said, scratching the back of his head. The Warrior blinked, "You're telling me, one of the most- my strongest weapon, a sacred weapon, just...fell from the sky?" The Kid looked down at his feet, "Well, I- I had- I know its stupid, but there was- I had thought a bird dropped it for me, like it chose me."
"..."
The Warrior began to cackle, this was- no way this kid was serious, "Hey! don't laugh!" The Kid squawked, the Warrior replied by laughing harder, "Y-you know! if you saw the bird you'd understand why I thought it did!" The Warrior wiped a tear from his face, and took a breath. "Oh please, enlighten me." he chuckled, this was gonna be good. "W-well, first of all, it was the only thing that was around! And secondly," The kid pointed to the Great Sage's clothes, "It had those exact colors, I don't know birds very well, but I had never seen anything like it before! Here wait I drew it-" he paused and upon reaching into his jacket, pulled out a red book, he began to flip through the pages before holding it up to the Warrior.
"See?" The kid said, pointing to one of the many messy drawings littered on the page.
The drawing depicted a bird flying across a clear blue sky, its wings overlapping the sun, it's colors vivid and beaming.
...But what caught the Warriors attention was the bright, intense gold irises of the bird, and the piercing red sclera that surrounded it.
The sunlit eyes the Warrior knew better than anyone.
The Warrior shook his head, a coincidence, that's all it was. He exhaled, releasing a breath he didn't realize he was holding, he turned his gaze back to the kid, forcing out a laugh. "Please, it's just a bird kid." he raised a eyebrow, "You sure the staff didn't hit you on it's way down?" he smirked as he reached out and ruffled the kid's hair roughly, the kid swatted the hand away, "Wha- YES, I'M SURE!" The Warrior put his hands up in mock surrender as he began to walk back to the peach tree that the hero had planted eons ago, hoping he could finally get back to his nap. "Sorry to break it to you kid, but not everyone is some legendary cho-..." the warrior trailed off, chosen one.
A idea began to form in the Warriors mind, what if this is exactly what the Warrior needed, what if this is his ticket to be finally left alone? The Warrior was so tired of being the Monkey King, Great Sage equal to heaven, but if there was a new king...
"Hey kid, how do you feel about being my successor?"
-----
At first, to the Warriors surprise, the kid refused his offer.
"Uhhh are you sure you want me to be your successor? It's just- don't you want someone more hero-y?" the kid had asked, to which the Warrior pointed out that he had made his way all over here on his own and was literally carrying a impossibly heavy staff, luckily this seemed to convince him.
So after the kid, who he later learned was named MK, defeated the Bull Demon Family with an ease the Warrior was not expecting, The Warrior began to train him. It started small, he had hoped that sending the kid on his own to fight demons would just unlock the other abilities that the staff held and the Warrior could go home and call it a day, but when MK came back covered in bruises and out of breath from fights he barely won a few too many times, the Warrior knew he would actually have to help this lost cause.
"Alright kid, this is getting sad." the Warrior had called out when MK came back from a partially brutal fight, MK glared at him. "Well, if someone actually trained me I wouldn't be getting so hurt!" The Warrior shrugged, "Yeah, yeah, I didn't realize how hopeless you would be on your own. Tell you what kid, tomorrow at uh-" the Warrior paused, a good mentor would probably want to start bright and early, "Four PM, we'll get started on your first real lesson." The kid's anger disappeared from his face almost instantly, "Wait- really? really, really?" the Warrior nodded, MK pumped his fists in the air, "Let's go! What're you going to teach me? is it how to somersault onto a cloud? or or the seventy-two transformations!? Or-"
the Warrior cut him off by holding his hand up, he had to do that a lot when MK starts rambling. "If I told you it would ruin the surprise right?" Truthfully, the Warrior had no clue what to start with.
"oh, right!" MK replied, nodding as if he knew the Warrior was going to say that, "Well, I better get home and rest up then! Bye Monkey King, I promise I won't be late!!" He waved as he began racing down the mountain. "Wait! Kid you forgot-" but MK was already half way towards the bottom of the slope. The Warrior sighed and looked at the staff the kid had left behind, it's brilliant red shine obscured slightly by the grass that wrapped around it. It's an item Sun Wukong should be able to lift easily,
the Warrior grimaced and turned away from the staff.
------
The Monkey King was not who MK expected him to be.
Don't get him wrong, he didn't mean it like it was a bad thing, it's just something was off about him. While MK wasn't the best when it came to the Journey to the West and often had to ask Mr. Tang to remind him which demon was which, he knew the Monkey King, and while he might just be misremembering things, he kept catching things that didn't add up.
Once, the Monkey King wanted to teach MK how to create a army of copies of himself, and while MK was able to create almost perfect copies, albeit with some exceptions, (He still apologies to Sandy, Pigsy and Mei to this day over his three rouge clones), Monkey King's copies were more like shadows, dark, inky figures that missed most of his features, and when MK asked why that was the case, he simply changed the subject.
Another time, MK and Monkey King were sparring near the city when suddenly the Monkey king recoiled and clutched his ears, stumbling backwards, MK had rushed over to his side asking him what was the matter, which made Monkey King wince further.
Lost on what to do, MK stood back quietly, fidgeting with his hands as Monkey king slowly got back onto his feet. "Sorry about that kid." He stretched as he spoke, avoiding eye contact with MK, "Not a fan of loud noises." he added, pointing a thumb towards the city, MK frowned. "I mean, same, but, um, I didn't hear anything?" MK said carefully, worried he would set off him off again, the Monkey King stopped stretching and stared at MK, an expression MK couldn't explain flickering on his face.
An uncomfortable silence fell between the two, the only sound being the rustle of the leaves around them.
Eventually, the silence was broken when Monkey King let out a snicker. "Clearly kid, you don't have enough focus," he said shaking his head at the ground, "Guess that means more meditation for you." MK Groaned loudly, "Noooo, Monkey King please anything other than meditation, It's so boring." MK begged as the Monkey King sat cross-legged on the ground and patted the dirt next to him, MK dragged his feet and flopped down beside his mentor, "Too bad kid, you definitely need to after not being able to hear that." he said closing his eyes. As the meditated, MK tried not to notice the twitches of pain that would flash on Wukong's face every few minutes. They didn't spare near the city anymore after that.
MK replayed these events in his head as he walked home, he most likely put Wukong on too high of a pedestal, that's all, and MK's memory was most likely just playing tricks on him. It was unfair of him to judge Monkey King so harshly, especially when MK could be completely wrong!
MK bit his lip as he tried to convince himself he believed that.
Sighing, MK dug into his pocket for his phone, swiping through his playlist for a song to listen to. As he did, he noticed in the corner of his eye two demons trying to steal a poor lady's purse. He grinned and cracked his knuckles, thankful for the well timed distraction, and dashed in to help.
----
Well this wasn't good.
MK thought as he wiped the sweat of his brow. The pair of demons were far stronger than he had expected, but MK tried to shake the pain off his shoulders, he would be fine, "Hey guys- how about we just call it a day?" MK tried, as he ducked under a swing from one of the demons, "Pigsy is gunna kill me if I'm late and I'm sure you two have much better things to do!" One of the Demons replied by decking MK in the face, "S-saying n-no would've worked just fine g-guy-" he sputtered, stumbling back. After he regained himself, MK knocked one of the demons away hard with a back-hand swing from his staff, and swung right to stop the other who was attempting to sneak behind him.
But the first got up far faster than he expected. MK tried to turn around to counter the demon but as soon as he turned to face him, a fist connected to his stomach. MK barely processed the pain before he went flying into a wall of a building nearby, and with a sickening crack, the wall around him crumbled under MK's body crashing into it. He gasped for air, the hit taking all the wind out of him, somewhere he heard the cold clang of his staff hitting the ground nearby.
MK blinked the tears out of his eyes as the two demons began to approach him, the horrid taste of blood stirring in his mouth. MK looked up to the stars slowly appearing in the twilight's sky, a hawk gracefully hovering overhead, overlapping the moon, he wondered if this would be the last thing he ever saw.
Mk's breathing hitched, No, this couldn't be how he loses, it couldn't be- heroes don't die, they win. MK tried to stand up again, to reach for his staff, to try and punch the demon as far away as he could, but he just stumbled backwards, wincing as the sharp cement hit his back a second time. Gripping onto the wall for support, MK looked around frantically, he never liked to depend on people, but he hoped dying would be exception.
But, he was completely alone, even the purse lady must've ran off.
He began to cry out for help, praying someone would hear, it wasn't very heroic of him, and he knew Monkey King would be disappointed, but he'd hope he'd let it slide just this once.
He let out one last plea for help as the two demons lifted their fists, "I'm sorry." he sniffed out, "I'm-" his voice cracked,
"I'm s-sorry I failed you Monkey King..."
Suddenly his vision began to fill with a blinding gold light, it was as if a piece of the sun broke off Infront of him, bright and powerful, MK reached a weak hand towards the warm glow, and as soon as he did the light swayed and slowly formed into a person- no, people don't have tails- MK's eyes began to feel heavy, his hand fell limply beside him. "Monkey...King..?"
"Kid?" the voice echoed, MK felt the entire world spin. His vision began to spot, his perception slowly beginning to slide as he began to tumble forwards. MK felt something catch him, the voice shouted something at him, but it was far too muffled for MK to understand, "M-Monkey....k-ki..ng..." MK choked out, before his mind slipped into darkness.