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Macaque has never trained Mk, except for when they met, but he never cared to get closer to the kid than necessary. Like when he used him to get Wukong’s power. But due to all the recent events, like the three near-end-of the world experiences, Mk tried to include Macaque in the group as much as he could.
So now that Macaque has, once again, saved Wukong and helped stop Xiangliu, Mk thought it was only right that he helped train Wukong’s successor for real.
So he presented this idea to his actual mentor, and of course Wukong was hesitant at first, he couldn’t completely trust the shadow monkey yet. Though Macaque had been acting as a sort of spy for him ever since the Azure incident, so he agreed to joint sessions where Macaque would sit in and help out.
So now, the other simian had to agree.
—
Macaque rested against the twisted tree, while a few of the other mountain’s inhabitants, the cubs, slept on top of him. The slight breeze and the sound of waves toppling over each other calmed him.
Macaque had his eyes closed but was well aware of the kid attempting to sneak up behind him.
“Macaque!” Mk shouted, jumping out from behind the tree.
Macaque barely reacted, simply cracking open his good eye and side-eyeing him. Mk hesitated, Macaque cocked an eyebrow, and Mk continued.
“So... uhm, since all the end-of-the world stuff, I want to be ready for whatever’s next. Sooo~ I was hoping maybe you and Monkey King can train me??”
Macaque closed his eye again and shrugged. “You sure good ol’ monkey king is okay with that.”
“Actually, yea! He wants both of you to work together on it.”
“Hmm, alright, I could spare an hour or two.” Macaque answered, getting up to his feet.
Mk smiled, relief seemed to wash over him. “It’s tomorrow at noon,” Mk summoned a nimbus cloud, “see ya’ there!” He hopped up onto the cloud and flew away.
Macaque reached down to pet one of the monkeys. Why'd he agree to that? He still can’t properly use his magic without that… thing corrupting it. Then again, he doesn’t need his magic to train Mk, his strength and agility should be enough, and even if not, he can’t pass up the opportunity to mess with Wukong.
So he was stuck in this either way.
—
At around noon, Macaque stepped up to the flat area of the mountain. This is where he normally heard them train. Mk sat there, swinging his staff around as Wukong watched, sitting on his tail.
Wukong turned his head toward Macaque. “Look who finally decided to show up,” Wukong announced, standing up.
Mk turned his attention towards Macaque. “Well, you know me, gotta make some sorta entrance.” Macaque shrugged.
“Ok, ok, so I was thinking, what if-“ Mk excitedly started.
“Hold up, kiddo,” Wukong interrupted. "I have a plan. Now that we've got two magic monkeys training you, I think it’s time you got a tough lesson in agility.”
Macaque leaned back against a rock in the shade of a tree. “Oh, Great Sage, what is this ‘tough’ lesson?” Macaque mocked.
Wukong glared back at him before continuing. “Us and our clones play a little hide-and-seek tag. Mk hides, we seek.”
“And if I lose?” Mk asked.
“I’ll throw you into a pit of spiders.” Macaque smirked.
Sweat formed on Mk’s face as he turned around quickly. “Time to go hide!” He shouted as his staff launched him into the air.
“No! Kid-“ Wukong reached out, but he was already gone. Wukong turned back to Macaque, who was still smiling smugly. “Was that necessary?”
"He's gotta have some motivation,” Macaque replied.
“That’s not motivation.”
“Maybe not to you, it worked training the cubs back in the day.”
“Which I didn’t approve of either.”
“Still worked.”
“You’re only here 'cause Mk wants you here, I would have preferred you stayed a mysterious squatter.”
“Eh, it gets boring.” Macaque shrugged and stood up. “We should probably go find the kid now, huh?” He walked toward the edge of the cliff.
“You gonna summon your clones?”
“Don’t need ‘em.” He hopped off the side and landed on a tree. Wukong peaked over the edge and turned back around. Suddenly, golden silhouettes jumped out and dispersed among the mountains.
Macaque sighed and listened around the mountain, ignoring the chirping cubs and swaying branches. There he heard it—the kid running up the path to the top of the mountain. Macaque thought about it for a second. Wasn’t he not supposed to go up there? Wasn’t his…
Macaque’s eyes widened, and he instinctively fell into a shadow portal and emerged in front of Mk. The portal's purple hue turned scarlet. Mk stopped. Macaque stepped toward him, but black ribbons grabbed at his legs, chilling his body.
Macaque yelped in surprise and tripped over them. Mk instinctively grabbed Macaques wrists, pulling him away from the shadows that tried to pull him back.
Macaque tried to kick at them to no avail. “What is that?” Mk huffed out, struggling against the strength opposing him.
“I-I don’t know.” Macaque replied, struggling against the cold. Suddenly, a golden clone hopped out from behind a corner and wrapped its arms around Mk’s waist, pulling him back.
The clone planted it’s feet in the ground leaning back with all it’s strength while Mk held on to Macaque, not daring to let go. With the added force, the ribbons trembled then snapped and retreated back into the shadows. The clone disappeared, and Mk slumped down to his knees.
Macaque sat up and looked at where the ribbons had fallen back to. He looked at his hand, it was trembling. He brought his hand to his chest and gripped his hanfu. His heartbeat had sped up.
Mk let out the breath he’d been holding in and looked over at Macaque, who was slightly hunched over. “Hey,” Mk reached out a hand, “are you okay?”
Macaque straightened and turned a little towards Mk, not enough to see his face. “Yeah, don’t worry, kid.”
Mk brought his hand back and slowly stood up. “So does this mean I lost?” He twiddled his thumbs anxiously as Macaque stood up as well.
“I think the lesson’s on pause.”
Suddenly, Wukong emerged from the side of the path and stepped in front of Mk. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Wukong asked, scanning the boy for any injuries.
“I’m fine but…” He looked past Wukong to Macaque. Wukong glanced over his shoulder at the ebony monkey, who was turned away from them.
Wukong hesitated. “What was that?”
“I don’t know,” Macaque muttered in response.
“It looked like-“
“I know what it looked like. I’m handling it.” Macaque growled.
Wukong grimaced. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Are you sur-“
“I said I’m fine!” Macaque shouted, turning his head halfway, to see Wukong.
Wukong’s eyes widened, and his breath slightly hitched at the terror in the dark simians eyes. He looked down at Macaque’s hands. “You’re shaking.”
Macaque turned back. “Just-… leave be for a bit, okay?” Macaque began up the rest of the path, “Sorry, kid.”
Wukong turned back to Mk. “You heard him, let’s just go.”
“But we can’t leave him now! Whatever that was, it clearly scared him.” Mk interjected, pointing at the shadow monkey swiftly walking away.
“Kid, you know you’re not supposed to be up here anyway. And I think whatever’s going on, Macaque can deal with it.”
“What’s even up there anyway?” Wukong opened his mouth, but Mk continued before the Great Sage could make an excuse. “And before you change the subject, you said no more big secrets, remember?”
“It’s not a ‘big secret’ it’s private. And it’s got nothing to do with you, so let’s go back down and do a different lesson, got it? Good. Let’s go.” He grabbed Mk with his tail and hopped onto a nimbus cloud. Mk squirmed in his grasp, but Wukong’s grip was strong as they flew back down to the training ground.
—
Macaque ignored the discourse behind him. Making his way up to the top of the mountain. He wasn’t totally sure if what he thought was up here was actually there, he had a hunch, but his memory of this place is blurry.
He noticed the lack of inhabitants, no one came up here. But then again, it was the highest point of the mountain, why would they?
He rounded another corner and crouched under a rock, and then there it was, just like he thought. His grave. His shallow, lonely grave. The cherry on top was the shitty tombstone that stood at the end of the disturbed dirt.
I guess when you’re resurrected, the ground where you were buried is never the same.
He sighed and walked up to the stone, he could just barely make out the words.
“Here lies Liu Er Mihou
Six-eared Macaque
a brother, a warrior, and a friend”
He sat down on the disturbed ground and rested his back against the stone. The air was crisp, full of fruit and flowers, with the sound of the waterfall drumming in the background. Wildflowers grew in the crevices of the rock and lined the sides of the peak.
Macaque looked up at the sky. What was he gonna do? He knew it was the chaos—the chaos that was coming for them all. Something was horribly wrong, but it was too early to do anything about it, and once it comes, it’ll be too late.
Macaque noticed footsteps in the distance, heading towards him. He turned his head a little to the side. Wukong locked eyes with him.
Macaque sighed and looked back at the sky.
“Macaque-“
“You know what it is, Wukong, it’s the chaos.” Macaque answered before Wukong could finish.
Wukong walked over to Macaque. “Yea, but you only got it because... because you had to free us from Xiangliu.”
“I made my choice, I have to live with whatever consequence I get for it.”
“You shouldn’t have to, you helped us!”
“Just the way the world works,” Macaque shrugged. “I don’t know what’s coming next, but I have a feeling I’m gonna be involved more than I would like to be.”
Wukong sat down at Macaque’s side. He looked down, trying not to make eye contact with the shadow monkey. “I know I haven’t said this much, but... thank you.”
“Yea, no problem.” They sat in silence for a moment, Macaque glanced at Wukong every so often. The king was nervously pulling out grass. “Have you ever been up here?”
Wukong’s gaze snapped up to Macaque. “What?”
“When was the last time you were up here?”
“I-… after I buried you.”
Macaque sighed again and rolled his eyes. “Shoulda known. Maybe if you came up here, you would’ve seen the fact that I was, I dunno, resurrected.” Macaque locked eyes with the king.
“I would’ve but-“ Wukong twiddled his thumbs and looked down, not wanting to finish.
Macaque looked away from Wukong. “Whatever, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.”
It was silent again. Wukong began again. “So your magic is out of commission?”
“Pretty much,” Macaque said, looking back at his hand. “I absorbed too much at once, besides, this magic is way too unstable to control normally.”
Wukong grimaced. “I’m sorry, Mac-“
“Nah, it was my choice.” Macaque smiled. "Wow, us talking without yelling and bickering? Things really have gotten better.”
“Who woulda guessed?” Wukong chuckled a little before leaning back, sprawling out across the grass.
Macaque closed his eyes.
“Missed ya peaches.”