Chapter Text
Red Son was not easy to talk to by any means, and emotionally, it was downright impossible.
There were many words you could use to describe him. Arrogant, villainous, maybe even downright evil. These assessments weren't wrong, years of villainy wouldn't exactly turn someone into a sweetheart. Some remember how he came to be like this, some don’t, and most weren’t alive to begin with. It doesn’t change the facts, so who cares?
“A demon child floated in the air, engulfed in a ball of their flames, infinitely baking, scorching flames. Piercing chortles rang throughout the mountaintop, screams of pain, screeches of childish thrill, shouts of sorrow. Monkie King, Nezha, The Demon Bull King, Ao Lie and his posse surrounded the boy, shouting insults at one another as they ripped the power out of his body.”
That story was told hundreds of times, through generations of mortals lucky enough to have an ancestor who witnessed the historic event from afar in their pathetic human villages—a phenomenon, a marvel of the natural world, maybe a sign from the Buddha themselves. In the Demon Bull Family, it was more of a…how would one put this? Well...perhaps it was more of an uncomfortable subject matter. A taboo event that his parents would move away from at the slightest hint too much of its acknowledgement. That was to say, it was certainly an awkward conversation.
Red Son guessed that’s why he knew so little about it. Sure, he remembered the feelings, the pure thrill of being consumed by the Samadhi Fire, the very essence it seeping out of his pores, but he also knew how having to read every book written by Shakespeare felt, and it didn’t bring him any closer to being a poet. Now, you’d think this would concern Red Son, make him question his origins, but it never really crossed his mind, to be honest.
Maybe he’d pondered a few times, once or twice, but Red Son had more important things to think about at the time, like freeing his father from imprisonment. Honestly, until the Lady Bone Demon fiasco, the Samadhi Fire hadn’t crossed his mind in several years, which was fine by him. He technically wasn’t associated with it anymore. Beyond the fact that he had to teach the Dragon Girl how to control it to save the universe, it was as stuck in the past as a broken teddy bear.
Red Son was tinkering in his room, an amalgamation of hammers, screwdrivers, metal plates and gold shifting back and forth between his oil-coated hands. The 5th anniversary of his father's freedom was soon approaching, and although Red Son wasn’t sure if his father would want to be reminded of it, he thought it wise to make a celebration gift, just in case he inquired about the occasion. At the very least, he could keep it till his father's birthday if it was unwanted.
Despite his concentration, he wanted nothing more than to walk to his room and pass out. It may not even be mid-evening, but his adverse sleep schedule made that irrelevant. The particular gift was a large, heavy, shiny golden chain. Large may be an understatement. The Demon Bull King was around 6 times Red Son’s size, making the chain of 24k pure gold a mammoth task in both size and weight. The weight would be nothing to his father, however.
As a child, he would sit atop his father's shoulder, feeling not dissimilar to a fly crawling on his back. The king would talk about his plans whilst he worked, showing the toddler blueprints, maps, and random books from the family library, and telling him stories about how he defeated his enemies in battles young and old.
“This one,” DBK explained with distaste, “This one, betrayed all of the demon kind, for the sake of some mortal! Then dared to try and attack our kingdom! Such a loving soul, so wrong for our kind.”
The Demon Bull King looked down at his son, Red Son cocking his head in confusion.
“Mortals are not something to love, Red Son. They have caring souls, and it makes them weak. It's like a disease.”
Red Son never really understood the reasoning, but as any child would, he just absorbed whatever he was told like a dry burning sponge. Mortals, especially humans, are weak, loving beings that shouldn't be cherished. They need to be kept in control, like teaching an unruly puppy before they start to bite. It made sense to be fair. As a demon, his lifespan vastly exceeded that of any mortal that could or had ever existed, so the few humans Red Son had ever met at that point were going to have long passed by the time he reached even a basic level of adolescence.
“But Dad-da, “ Red Son over-pronounced, “Are we not mortal? Demons die?”
His father sighed. It would be many years until he learned his manners to his elders. “Father, Red Son. Demon royalty does not call their fathers ‘dada’. It is a peasant's term.” DBK huffed, “But to answer your question, technically, yes. However, we are far better. Demons live long lives, assuming they aren't crushed under our power, of course. We can live for millennia, but humans barely live a century. Most die before they reach half that.”
The Bull King picked Red Son off of his shoulder by the golden collar around his neck and held him in the palm of his hand.
“You mustn't go close to one. There are some rules beyond your comprehension, my boy, but you will learn them when you are older.”
Of course, this conversation happened around 400 years beforehand, so the statistics on human mortality were probably true at the time. Nowadays, humans living to a century are a lot more ordinary, if not a bit uncommon. Even though this particular memory had been far lost to time, the lesson remained solid. Non-demons are nothing more than puppets or pets.
Until his father's imprisonment.
His father, the indestructible beast that Red Son had seen him to be, had been trapped under a mountain by some non-demonic, celestial, monkey. He hadn't learned the details about it at the time. It's not something someone, especially his nursemaid, would have explained in depth to a child. How their father was functionally dead, with no body to retrieve.
His mother was no better than the servants in that regard, somewhat worse. She had spent the next few centuries crying, screaming and generally looking like a depressed mess. She remained the same as Red Son grew (if somewhat colder) as he learned how to build, and as he eventually built the gauntlet that freed his father. He would never want to go back to those times, those centuries of grief.
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Red Son continued to trifle with the metal links and hoops, not even a quarter finished with his father's chain. Every link was big enough to fit his arm through, and as much as he adored his father, his pained spine was starting to wish he had just built him a new oven. Red Son’s alarm blared from a small holographic screen beside his workstation, indicating it was time for dinner. It was only another tradition that had become so important in the household and he enjoyed every second of it. Hanging up his apron, washing his hands, and setting off to dinner, Red Son stared up at the golden framed artworks that were hung up on almost every wall.
He pushed the great doors to their great dining hall ajar and sat at his usual place at the table, next to his father and opposite his mother, who was currently laughing maniacly at something Red Son hadn't heard.
“Those mortals will bend to our wills!” The King looked down at his food, finally noticing Red Son’s appearance out of the corner of his eye. “Ah, Red Son. We have a big plan to have those mortals finally under our control!”
“Yes,” Princess Iron Fan interjected, “We plan to take over Megopolis again, take the Monkie Kid into our possession, and use that power to take over as much of the Earth as we can.”
Red Son smirked. They hadn't attempted a takeover since the battle at the weather station, and he had missed the thrill of it all. The adrenaline of having every mortal in your vicinity pleading for mercy at his family's hand was exhilarating and made his flame grow only brighter.
“Of course, you’ll have a part to play. You need to find a way to cause a total city-wide power outage, one district at a time. We also need to make sure any generators and signal masts don’t work, causing as much panic as possible. Shut off the emergency phone lines, that sort of thing.” Princess Iron Fan smirked as she continued. “At night, when the city is dark, we will attack. They won’t be able to call for backup, and we can take them, and that Monkie Kid, by surprise.”
She spat out that last part with disgust, like the mention of Wukong’s successor was a hair in her mouth. Red Son could relate. Until the Lady Bone Demon incident, the Monkie Kid’s little squad felt like a group of rats, nothing but a bunch of disgusting nuisances. Not that he thought much better of them afterwards, but he had learnt to suffer through their antics, for the sake of the world he supposed. His family's world. His father seemed to share the same hatred as his mother, grumbling at the sound of his name.
“That insufferable child… just as smug as his mentor. If I get my hands on that weird little human-monkey-thing, I swear I’ll-”
“Not at the table, darling.” Iron Fan reached over to her husband and placed her hand on his.
”You can destroy him later.”
Domestic moments like this made Red Son pleasantly sick, like eating too much chocolate on Lunar New Year. After centuries of it just being him and his mother, it felt odd and foreign to see his mother looking so docile and loving at anyone, and he couldn’t figure out how he felt about it. Even so, he’d wanted this for decades and wouldn’t give it up for anything.
“So, Red Son, we will need you to figure out how to accomplish such a feat. You have a week. When the plan is put into action, we will need it to be a new moon, so it is as dark as possible. I suppose that you won’t be a problem, correct?”
“No, Mother, that will not be a problem. I will have multiple fully fleshed plans within the week.”
“I expect you will. I would do anything to have that ‘Monkie Kid’ in our grasp. Imagine what we could get Wukong to do to get his successor back!” Princess Iron Fan laughed wickedly, her husband joining her.
“If we ever did give him back! Imagine, that simian bending to our will before he realized that kid was dead already!” The dining room was soon flooded with evil laughter, the idea of their evil revolution too amazing not to at least chuckle about. Sure, their villainous ways seemed cliché, but really, if it got the job done it wouldn't matter.
The bull clones came to take the empty plates away, and everyone returned to their rooms and evening duties. Red Son continued to tinker with the large golden rings of his father's chain. He heated his hands to methodically bend the metal into place, ring after ring. It would probably take a few days to perfect, but he had weeks, so he wasn't worried. His ponytail sparked every time he stretched and bent the metal, the extreme strength it took was making him more and more tired by the minute. His glasses steamed up as beads of sweat formed on his forehead (Red Son still doesn’t know how sweating happens in a fire demon, he should probably look into that).
He set down one of the massive rings with a huff and wiped his face with a cloth he kept on his workbench, washed his hands at the sink in his work bathroom and headed to his chambers. It was pretty much midnight, basically midday for Red Son, but he was exhausted. Bull Clones surveyed the castle, as they do constantly, the clanging metal of their legs filling the castle. He should probably make them quieter. Now in his lounging robe, he lay in his king-size bed, preparing for a peaceful slumber as he always did.
Unfortunately, his bedtime routine was cut short by the sound of a loud crash through the window of his room.
Red Son shot a fireball in the direction of the sound, jumping out of bed and pouncing at the figure who was now lying on the floor.
“WHOA-WHOA-WHOA! Calm down dude, it’s just me!”
Oh, for Guanyin’s sake.
He could remember that horrendous, screeching voice anywhere. The Monkie Kid himself was on the floor, surrounded by broken glass from his shattered balcony door, seemingly having thrown himself at it full force, and needless to say, Red Son was not happy.
“What are you doing here?!” Red pushed him towards the now-broken window with his foot, trying to shove him out as quickly as possible. “Oh yeah! Mei and I were wondering if you want to go to an arcade place with us. It’s got an anti-gravity thing and-”
Okay, now Red Son was beyond incredibly confused.
“Hang out?”
“Yeah! Ya know, because we’re kinda friends now and-”
“What?!” Red Son was taken aback by the noodle boy’s stupid level of forwardness. “What makes you think that?”
The ability to act like this to a powerful enemy such as him was nauseatingly naïve, even for him,
“Well, after the Lady Bone Demon thing, I just thought-”
Red Son had to stop him right there. As far as he was concerned, they were still mortal enemies. During the Spider Queen and Lady Bone Demon, they were still enemies, with a similar goal and the same enemy, but enemies nonetheless. Sure, he acted friendly, but when you’re stuck together for weeks on end there wasn’t much room for open hostility. He looked the noodle boy up and down, searching for any kind of deceit or trickery, but found none.
“Well, you’ve obviously thought wrong, you imbecile! Our families are mortal enemies, and you have absolutely no reason in your insolent brain to presume otherwise! Now, you will either leave the castle, most importantly leave MY ROOM, or I will inform my Bull Clones and my parents of your presence and have them blow your mortal body to bits.”
MK started looking a bit nervous, twiddling his thumbs as he stammered. Fighting the Demon Bull Family again seemed a bit out of his comfort zone so late at night, and in Red Son’s eyes, it certainly should be. They were the strongest family on the planet in his opinion, so they should be feared by every mortal that stumbles across them. That would probably explain why he was averting the demon's threatening gaze so adamantly and had started inching closer to the window.
“You have 5 seconds.”
“I mean- this was Mei’s idea, not mine- so really it’s not really my fault-” MK stuttered, only a few feet away from the window, a loud alarm suddenly blaring throughout the palace, spooking the both of them.
Fuck. Red Son had forgotten about the window sensors. Honestly, he didn’t rant his parents to get involved, but considering the blaring siren, it wasn’t like they wouldn’t have noticed. So, he shuffled out of the door and he heard it lock automatically behind him. He could hear the Noodle Boy sputtering behind him as he walked away searching for his parents.
The long corridors flashed red until the alarm was turned off, which happened shortly before he reached his parent's quarters. He had to use his fingerprint to enter, interrupting what seemed to be a private meeting of theirs, and his parent's attention was immediately on him.
His parents, being as rich and powerful as they were, had their very own section of the vast castle, just as Red Son had his. Centuries ago, he could have imagined that there may have been servant quarters too, but now that the Bull Clones seemed to be the only other bodies wandering the castle it wasn't needed.
Honestly, Red Son was 60% sure a large chunk of his area used to be the servant quarters, considering the copious amounts of underground tunnels and rooms that, when they first moved in a few months ago, were full of century-old clothes and aeon-old wine (that his father still drank). Even still, he took up a large area of the castle, but his parent's quarters were gigantic, taking up about 40 per cent of the castle to his 15.
Not only that, but they were luxurious. Satin curtains draped from the high ceiling to the floor on every window, and a purple rug with his family's sigil engraved on every open floor. There seemed to be an overabundance of painting, creating a Troxler effect in his eyes. Golden chandeliers hung from the roof, shining a glow on his parents who were sitting around a short ebony coffee table, disgruntledly taking a sip from a bottle of wine.
“Red Son, have the perimeters been breached?” Princess Iron Fan arose from her red velvet armchair, glaring expectantly at Red Son.
“Yes, Mother, the-”
“Has the issue been dealt with?” She cut him off, catching Red Son off guard.
“Uh, no, Mother.” He paused.
“Um, the intruder is currently trapped in my chambers.” Princess Iron Fan raised her eyebrow at her son.
“In your chambers?” She scoffed. “Well, what in the heavens are they doing there? And why haven't you dealt with it?”
Red Son exhaled sharply, the thought of having to explain this to his parents painfully embarrassing. “Unfortunately, Mother, the intruder who crashed through my window, appears to be the Noodle Boy, Sun Wukong's successor.” His mother raised a judgemental eyebrow at him and walked up to her son.
“I see. However, that still does not answer my question. Why haven’t you dealt with it?”
“He has beaten us in battle before he was trained, but he has been trained by Wukong now. It would be unwise to fight him alone and unarmed.” He pushed his glasses up his nose as he sighed. “It also seems that the boy is attempting to come in peace. He even requested that we 'hang out' at one of his filthy mortal establishments.”
His father stood up from his crocodile leather armchair, the floor creaking as he laughed incredulously.
"Come in peace? After everything he and his mentor did to us, he dares to try and embarrass us like this, in our domain?" His father's giant fists slammed down on the table, sending cups of wine flying into the air before miraculously landing back down on the table. Iron Fan held her hand up to shush her husband and to successfully ensure full attention.
"Now, darling." She turned towards her husband. "We may be missing a major opportunity here."
"What do you mean, mother?"
She laughed maniacally and held Red Son's face in one of her hands. His mother almost seemed to have been created with the ability to make some motherly gestures into unnerving, unsettling moments. Her palm rested gracefully under his chin like a cold pillow on a summer day, but her fingers seemed to wrap around his cheek like a large spider, biting into his flesh. Her eyes looked at him with so much thought, like she was about to send a worthy soldier into battle.
"If the boy comes in peace, that means he comes in innocence. It seems during the events of the Spider lady and... her... the Monkie Kid has grown to trust you."
"Yes, mother, that much is obvious. But what does that leave us to do?"
She gripped his face harder for a second, shushing him up so she could continue.
"As I was saying, it means he trusts you. The child doesn't attack first, his morals get in the way too much for this to be a direct attack. This means that we have an opportunity to gather intel from inside their cadre."
Red Son felt puzzled. He was perfectly aware that the noodle boy was a complete idiot, and getting information out of them wouldn't necessarily be too hard, but that still didn't give them a plan.
"Red Son, you are going to accompany the boy to whatever establishments he chooses, and gather intel for our invasion."
You could have heard a pin drop. It seems his father wasn't clued into the plan either, because he shared a similar look of confused disbelief that Red Son had.
"What?!" His hair flamed up in anger. He had better things to do than to hang out with some oaf. "No offence, Mother-"
"I expect there wouldn't be, but you're doing this regardless. This could be beyond helpful for our next takeover. Do you want that?"
His father cut her off, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Every move around his mother was gentle. He supposed his father was scared of hurting her, despite how powerful she truly was. His father would hold him with the same level of tenderness when he was younger.
"Darling, our son is not a social boy." Okay, 'lil rude. "How shall we expect him to be able to successfully keep up a false friendship for several weeks or, heaven forbid, months?"
Princess Iron Fan placed a hand over her husbands.
"The Monkey King's boy is not a smart child, even the most pitiful display will be enough to convince him. Red Son may be poorly socialised but he is far from incompetent, my love."
The Demon Bull King seemed to think for a moment before nodding, plopping himself back down into his armchair.
"You're right." The large demon turned towards his son. "You are to do as your mother says. Now run along and go do what the boy asks."
Red Son sputtered for a moment, before storming out of the room in a huff. He could not believe that his parents would send him on such a frivolous mission, so unworthy of his time. Did they not know how many duties he had to perform? The number of projects he had to complete? Much less telling him to start when he was about to go to bed. His eyes were still droopy when he returned to his room, feeling defeated at his parents will.
He had no idea what he was supposed to say. Does he just walk in acting all happy? No, no that would be obvious that something was up.
He took a deep breath and pushed open the door. MK was standing awkwardly in the middle of his room like he was scared to touch anything. He obviously couldn't have been that scared before he came in, considering that a large pile of Red Son's books were now splayed out across the floor. MK chuckled nervously when he saw Red Son had returned.
"Heh, um, I knocked a few of your books over."
At this point, Red Son had to use every ounce of energy in his body to not set the entire room on fire there and then. He turned back around into the corridor, clicked the door shut, and proceeded to blow up a good half of the corridor. Of course, the fortress was almost entirely fireproof, so no damage was done except for Red Son's hair now being messier than it was before. He took a deep breath and stepped back into the room. The two looked at each other in silence before Red Son started.
"Where is it you were attempting to drag me?" Red Son asked, using a spare hair tie in his nightgown pocket to tie his hair back up.
"Oh! Uh, an Anti-Gravity Arcade! There's a DDR machine and stuff. It's pretty cool, you wanna come?"
Red Son seethed beneath his breath.
"Yes."
MK seemed kind of shocked, his eyes shining in excitement.
"Wait, really?"
"Yes." Red Son forced on the best acting performance he could. "I would be, ahem, delighted, to go to an arcade with you."
Truthfully, Red Son had not much of a clue what an arcade actually was, but this answer greatly seemed to please the noodle delivery boy, his face beaming with that annoying excitement as he grabbed the prince's sleeve.
"Wow? Ok! Mei's waiting outside, so we should get going!"
Red Son yanked his arm away incredulously before MK could drag him to wherever Mei was parked, presumably somewhere below the balcony. Heaven knows how MK was expecting them to get down there from his chambers, let alone how he got up here in the first place.
"Certainly not in my nightgown. I may be going with you to whatever peasant rabble you insist on dragging me, but I refuse to go wearing this."
MK looked the other up and down, seemingly taking in his sleep attire for the first time since arriving.
"Oh, uh, yeah, good point. Should I face the wall or...?" MK asked turning around to face the wall.
Red Son could feel his patience dissipating with every syllable that left MK's mouth, his hair sparking with whatever emotions he was trying to conceal. If he truly had to fulfil his parents' request, he at the very least had to do it well, and if that meant having to act all happy-go-lucky, then so be it.
"What? No?! You wait out here."
He closed the door and curtains, leaving his room empty once again. Red Son rifled through his large mahogany wardrobe, angrily throwing half his outfits to the side as he tried to figure out what to wear.
Red Son didn't want to grace the noodle boy with anything close to fancy, but wandering the streets in common work clothes was beneath someone of his class. In the end, he settled on the red cloak he usually wore. Maybe wearing the outfit he usually wore when fighting would be enough to scare him off, leaving him to be able to return to bed and actually get some sleep, he wished to himself.
He half-hazardly brushed out his hair, pinned it up into his normal ponytail and stepped outside onto the stone balcony.
"Alright, let's be off then."