Chapter Text
Flashback~~~~~~~~
“Xiaotian! Xiaotian! Where are you?!”, said a teenage Red Son, wearing a simple, red heavenly robe, as he ran through the damaged streets and looking around frantically.
When Guanyin told him that his own father was rampaging through Qi Xiaotian’s village, he teleported as he fast as he could. But when he reached the mortal realm, the village was in ruins with a mountain right beside it. He didn’t see his father, but from seeing that mountain with Sun Wukong’s staff on it in the distance answered his question. Now, he just hopes that his love was ok.
‘Please, please be ok.’, thought Red Son as ran by some ruins of a house and looking through the rubble and wreckage.
After what seemed like hours, and passing by injured villagers and more ruins, he got close to the base of the mountain. Then he saw it; a damaged red ribbon, embroidered with golden thread, fluttering with the wind in a pile of rubble.
“No… nononono!!”, shouted Red Son as he ran to the pile and started to dig through it. As he moved each fragment of stone, wood, and other debris, it was stained more and more with blood until he found his love, Qi Xiaotian.
“Please…no…”, whispered Red Son as he pushed the debris away from Xiaotian. He checked his pulse, but he knew it was too late….. Xiaotian’s eyes were closed and he wasn’t breathing. He was covered in bruises and bleeding wounds. His orange, yellow, and red robes, ripped and torn, stained with blood. And his ribbon had broken off from his hair.
“Xiaotian…”
Red Son gently took Xiaotian into his shaking arms and started to cry, with his tears running down his face and landing on his love. He continued to cry his heart out for hours, cursing his own father’s name…..
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“There you are. I was wondering when you would come back home.”
Red Son walked into the room, gripping the red and gold ribbon in his hand, with his clothes stained with blood. Not that his mother noticed, or cared.
He watched in a daze as his mother scrambled through some court documents and around the room. She looked as much of a mess as her son with her hair undone and her makeup smudged.
“With your father’s…. Imprisonment, some of our allies have started cut ties. But we will regroup and make a plan to free your father.”
“I trust you can start working on that my useless boy.”
……
“Red Son?”
She looked up from the scroll she was holding and noticed he wasn’t there.
Meanwhile, as Red Son raced out of the fortress, one thing was on his mind: he can’t be there. He can’t stay there. He couldn’t, not after losing his love. He won’t help his mother, to him, his father deserves to buried, and remain buried for what he did…….
~~~~~~~~~~~~
500 years later
“Sir, sir?”
Red Son snapped back into focus from the memory that ran through his mind. He looked up from the folder in front of him back to his secretary; a young, pink-colored demon with magenta hair and glasses and dressed in a dark red suit and skirt.
“My apologies, what were you saying?”
His secretary looked back down on her clipboard and said, “As I was saying, almost all current projects are running smoothly. The investors are pleased with our progress on them, the mayor wants to speak with you about a new project and construction he has plans for-“
As his secretary went down the list, Red Son thought back to that memory. Today was the 500th anniversary since his father’s imprisonment and Xiaotian’s death. After that day, he went back to the village and became a blacksmith. He helped the humans rebuild, and over time, he became more and more wealthy and powerful. He also soon became an inventor and discoverer in his own right with the company he built. And the city grew rapidly because of some of his inventions over the centuries.
However, every year on this day, his mind always wandered to “that” day. And every year, his mother tries to convince him to help her. (Recently for the past couple of years she has stopped.) But he doesn’t care. Even when suitors began to come by back then, his heart remained dead and buried.
“Also, your mother has left you some invitation.”
Red Son suddenly stopped his train of thought when he heard that part.
“Come again?”, asked Red Son.
His secretary handed him a purple and red envelope from under some papers on the desk.
“She left it at the front deck downstairs and said it was urgent. Do you want me to shred it like the others?”, asked the secretary as Red Son broke the seal and pulled out the letter.
“No, I will read it. Hopefully it’s nothing important-“, said Red Son when he stopped and looked wide eyed at the letter.
Then suddenly burst the letter into flames with his bare hands.
After the ashes fell on the desk, he frantically pulled open the drawers and search through them.
“Sir?”, asked the secretary nervously.
“Tell General Ironclad and the other technicians and Bull clones to prepare for Protocol: D.B.K.”, said Red Son when he finally pulled out a cell phone tablet and his car keys.
“You mean the!-“
“Yes, hopefully if I stop my mother in time, it won’t come to that. Don’t tell the other employees about this yet, I don’t want to start a panic. But if it does come to that, I will initiate the protocol as soon as possible and signal the evacuation to the bunkers from my phone.”, said Red Son as he started his fire teleportation to his vehicle.
“Right, good luck sir.”, said the secretary as she watched Red Son disappear in flames.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Red Son drove as fast as he could (within the driving safety laws) to the construction site was his father was imprisoned. He learned a couple of months that a construction crew found it while building a new subway tunnel and the project was currently pulled for now. Which means that the staff was unguarded, and probably why his mother was planning to release his father today.
He just hoped that he wasn’t too late to stop her or at least delay her.
He parked close to the entrance and teleported down the tunnel until stopping in front of the small hill with the Monkey King’s staff on top of it. But no sign of his mother-
“Well, it seems that my invitation got your attention.”
Red Son froze and turned around and faced his mother. She was dressed in her signature red dress with her hair shaped into horns while holding her weapon proudly.
“I read that you found a way to free father.”, said Red Son in a stern voice.
“Actually… that’s not entirely true.”
“…..What.”, said Red Son.
“Well, you weren’t answering any of my other invitations. So this was the only thing I could think of to get your attention.”
Red Son facepalmed, breathed in, and said, “You mean to tell me you did all of this just to GET MY ATTENTION!!!” As he shouted and his hair flamed up almost to the ceiling.
“Don’t you shout at me! I am your mother!”, shouted Princess Iron Fan.
“Well you sure are not acting like one-“
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!”
“Oh, am I supposed to say ‘your majesty’ instead?”
“How dare you speak to me in such a way! If your father were here-“
“Well he isn’t here! And he’s going to stay there! Imprisoned as he should be!”
“Why you little-!!”
“Um, excuse me?”
Red Son and Princess Iron Fan stopped their argument. Red Son could see from the look his mother made when she was the first to turn to look at the intruder, it was probably some human or mortal that got lost.
“Listen mortal it’s best for you to turn around and go back to where-“ said Red Son when he turned to look at the intruder as well but froze in shock.
The mortal in front of him was at the base of the hill where the staff stood. Looks like he walked around it to face them both while holding a delivery bag. But what made him froze with the familiar face that was staring back at him.
“Xiaotian?”, whispered Red Son.
“Uhhhh, how do you know my real name?”, asked the mortal as he started to walk backwards.
“Well whatever his name is, he is not welcomed here.”, said Iron Fan and she raised her fan.
Red Son snapped back into focus and looked back at his mother in anger, “He’s not a “threat” mother.”
The mortal continued to back away.
“You don’t know that!”
The mortal continued to back up until-
“As matter of fact-“
Crash!
They both froze and looked back at the mortal, who tripped and knocked the staff out of place and was currently (and surprisingly) holding it as the mortal then squeaked:
“Uh oh…”