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Macaque stood to the back of the group in the crevice of the mountain he had once stood in centuries ago. The Monkie Kids and Wukong were loudly gathered together talking victory. There was a silence to MK that had Macaque narrowing his eyes. watching the boy as Mei was chattering endlessly to him about his gigantic kaiju form. He took note of a nod, a glance, and a tired look to his eyes. Tough. The kid's power would continue to be something Macaque would look out for.
Macaque feels a presence paying attention to him and he turns to look at Yellowtusk, who was still bound in chains to the ground. “You see it too brother?” He stares into his eyes, cogs turning in his head as he realized the truth that could burn down universes.
“That power.. cannot possibly be of Sun Wukong.”
Macaque stared at his old sworn brother with a dead, empty look in his eyes, and then walked toward the front of the group. He'll be locked up with Peng soon enough.
He continued watching the group with his arms crossed, wondering when he'd feel the right time to make a leave. He felt something brush against his arm.
“Did you see anything in there?”
Macaque turned, peering into the eyes of Sun Wukong who had left the group to talk to him alone. The room seemed to quiet and dull around him as he focused on the other monkey and only him. There was a fear in the king's eyes muddled with another emotion that Macaque can't quite place. Macaque thinks back to the last memory of the scroll, his arm reaching out to grab that last peach and snuffs it from his mind.
“What the scroll?” Macaque plays it with a smile and a leaner stance, letting his arms drop from the crossed position. “Nothing I haven't seen, your highness.”
This did not seem to get a reaction out of Sun Wukong, if anything the fear was replaced with the same emotion Macaque couldn't place from before.
Wukong scratches the back of his head nervously and says something Macaque isn't ready to hear.
“I'm sorry.”
If Macaque found an inch to care he would have noticed how Wukong looked away to the floor and scratched nervously at his arms. He's sorry about the scroll, Macaque knows that's what he's saying. It's typical of Sun Wukong to crumple all of his mistakes into one big problem so one apology is the only thing he has to say. It hasn't worked on Macaque in a long while.
“You relived the argument didn't you?” Macaque's words make the immortal monkey’s head snap up from whatever he was trying to do to distract himself from whatever he feels. Macaque smoothly chooses the next words that come out of his mouth. “You know.. I get it. What happened in there. Cornered and caged like a wild animal. You were probably so scared.” Macaque didn't like it but a malicious grin appears on his face and unresolved anger bubbles in his chest as he continues. “You probably said some things you shouldn't have, as have I, but Great Sage, answer me this.”
Macaque gets closer in Wukong's face as his former friend stood rattled with widened eyes.
“Would you still be friends with me, if I had gotten you out of that mountain?”
The king's heartbeat thumps in his ears. Macaque studied how the hairs on the king were standing on end, fluffed with a high fear scent.
“Macaque, I-”
“Zip it.”
Macaque has no time for patience, even if that peach face in front of him was filled with regret and sorrow.
“Would you have stayed, if I had gotten you out of that mountain?”
The immortal doesn't answer. And he can't answer, because Macaque knows the truth. The past Sun Wukong would have. The past Sun Wukong would have, desperately trying, clinging to a future that didn't exist, one that he didn't even realize Macaque wouldn't be in. And present Macaque doesn't bother to take a look at the present Sun Wukong's face. Feelings bubble and fester viciously in Macaque's chest, the home he's made for himself long ago, feelings of anger, desperation, and loneliness. Macaque knows the answer. Past macaque knew the answer. Both of them just needed Wukong to hear the question.
And with the deafening silence as his call, Macaque slips into the shadows, away from his old friend Sun Wukong.