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The strides of his feet were large, controlled, and mechanical.
In his hands a tray of food and water, shaking rhythmically along with the steps, as he walks along the stone walls, the only sound around the clack, clack, clack of his shoes.
This is something he does every day, every afternoon, and every night.
At the very end of the hall, to the two doors. He takes the key, and opens it with a creak.
The figure in the dark room didn't move nor flinch, even as he closed the door shut with a thud. He would think she'd have died, if not for the slow rise and fall of her shoulders, indicating she was still breathing. The only light came from the barred window just out of reach, the early morning sun bringing enough visibility he could see where he was going.
"I thought you all would learn to just let me die already." Her voice was hoarse, barely a whisper.
He doesn't speak.
She doesn't look at him.
He walked forwards, placing the food and water onto the floor in front of her, and looked towards the remains of her dinner.
It looked untouched.
He looked back at her.
"What does it matter, I'm better off dead than ending up like you. Used to kill so many innocents every day..." She sounds old, despite looking so young. Her frame had grown thinner each day until her bones peeked out from underneath the skin, the black hair that he thinks had a slightly green tint to them draping along her shoulders down to the floor in clumps of uncombed tangles, as burns raced along her pale skin in large patches, from her arms to her legs, from her face to her shoulders peeking out under the robe she wore.
She had the eyes of someone who had given up a very long time ago.
Her gaze slowly climbed upwards to look him in the eyes. Her sunken dark eyes carried with them a glare so fierce it felt like a fire hot enough to engulf the sun.
"Why do I even bother? You can't hear me anyways." The girl only murmured, crouching further into the corner. "You never did."
The words go unheard.
The food goes uneaten.
He carries out a spoiled plate full of food.
The cell doors lock with two clicks.
Lady Bone Demon will ask him to punish her again, as she always did when the girl became rebellious again, refusing to eat the food his master so graciously gave her.
He thinks it feels wrong to do so.
But it never matters what he thinks, what he wants, what he needs. He is simply a weapon for his master's use. So he thinks, and thinks, even when his body does and does according to her will.
He walks into her chambers, watching her groom her hair with a comb in front of a white carved. Mayor stands beside her, staring at him with that smile that never disappears.
Her physical form needs maintenance too, he supposed. Though it was not the form he saw often.
He kneels respectfully, making as little sound as he could.
"Ah, you're back." She says expectantly, side eyeing him from her view on the mirror. "And what of the dragon girl?"
She's suffering, he says. He wants to say. You're killing her. She's skin and bones and she smells of death.
Is what he doesn't say.
He simply raises the tray higher, showing her the plate full of food from last night's meal. Or what was supposed to be last night's meal. It looked barely edible now, with a distinct foul smell emanating from it.
Lady Bone Demon only sighs, though she didn't look concerned in the slightest.
"She still has her uses, no matter the troubles of keeping her around. I'll let someone else handle her, though. I have a different task for you."
This scares him, because he always holds back with the girl. He hurts her as little as possible, only as much as it takes to get her to listen again.
Mayor never gives her that luxury.
The creation besides her seems to grin even wider, making his skin crawl, and his stomach squeeze at the inevitable.
But he doesn't say anything, even as he feels as though he can barely breathe.
Lady Bone Demon's presence is so big, it feels suffocating, even when she does not look at him, barely acknowledging his existence.
"I want you to destroy a nearby village, my champion."
Why?
He asks.
He doesn't ask.
He nods.
He doesn't want to nod.
"You'll know when you get there." She says, as if she had just read his mind.
He takes the compass Mayor throws at him with unnerving accuracy. He's done it so many times that he lost count. It's shaking impatiently, like it wants him to get to where the Lady wants him to be already.
He stays there kneeling, having learnt already that he never ever does anything without her permission.
He would be dead from her a hundred times over, if he wasn't immortal.
After a minute of watching her hum under her breath and finish brushing her hair, she places the comb down onto the table, and she looks back at him and smiles. Her smile is wretched, abominable, showing too many teeth. Her eyes glow blue with a menacing glare that hurts his eyes, and she looks pleased that he hasn't moved, breathed, until she said so.
"You may go now."
He stands up, and he goes, as she commands.
“No- please- I- I'll give you anything- Just spare me!"
A scream rang out, a deafening screech so loud in the empty air, before turning into a wet gurgle, choking and bloody.
The last villager has been killed.
The compass finally stops thrashing.
The whole village was decimated in seconds, only rubble and bodies remain in the wreck. He stares at his bloodied hands in silence, the rest of his coat covered as well by red from numerous creatures he had no name for. A nearby stream would wash most of it off.
No stream could ever truly wash it off. It would stain his hands dark until his immortal body finally ceased to be.
His question hadn't been answered, not fully.
Why?
Was it because they'd spoken of rebelling and taking down his master?
Was it because they'd put up resistance against her ever growing invasion of land, spikes growing unnaturally sharp across the valleys and sand?
Was it because she simply felt like it?
He didn't know. He didn't ask, either way.
Dead men tell no tales.
Leaving the smoking rubble of the once lively village, he listened closely for any sound of water, or a babbling brook, or the crashing of water falls.
The sound of burble appears to be at his right.
His ear flickers at the sound, and he walks along the path going up into the mountainside, following the ever increasing sound of rushing water.
He stumbles upon it soon enough. It's remote, just a ways off the village, a stream flowing coming from the top of the mountain. It's good enough.
He sits down, and cleans himself off, watching the red leave his body and join the stream going downwards. He scrubs until his arms become a shade lighter, until his fur looks brown again.
About to make his leave, something catches his eye; hidden beyond a row of trees and shrubs, a little cottage with a farm growing beside it. The house looks empty. Lived in, but empty, like whoever had been there had rushed out in a hurry.
What had happened? Perhaps they heard the commotion from just downstream and ran for the hills.
Or, more foolishly, went to see what was happening.
Either way, it wasn’t his concern what foolish mortals chose to do with their fleeting lives.
Suddenly, he hears a creaking noise. Immediately, he is on high alert.
"Pap?" Something is speaking. Something is making noise.
Listen closer. Inside the house. Just behind the door. The door knob is turning and stopping midway, again and again like whatever's inside is trying desperately to open to no avail. Until it finally succeeds, the door knob turns fully, and the wooden door slowly opens.
He readies his claws at the creaking. If anything were to attack, he'd be ready.
And yet, it was nothing of the sort.
A small child stands there, tip toeing to even reach the door handle. Brown curly hair falling almost to his eyes, wide and red with a gold sheen, and staring at him with a cautious type of curiosity.
Something stirs inside him.
The toddler stares back, and he is starting to become afraid. But something is different. The child feels different. It's familiar.
The forbidden word: familiar. It echoes in his brain and it sends shock of pain, pain, stop the pain through every inch of his body until he is on his knees. He can't think, he can't even move, and he doesn't know what is going on anymore—
Maybe he is screaming. Maybe he is crying. Maybe he is begging the pain to stop until there is nothing left of himself to feel it.
He feels his brain tottering backwards into nothingness to just forget that this pain ever existed— to forget the flash of faces he doesn't want to remember.
Faces of betrayal.
Faces of fear.
Faces of anger, and;
And—
The toddler had stumbled over to him, both small hands softly holding his face and staring at him with a concerned look.
When he looks up, eyes wide, the toddler, startled, starts to giggle, a bubbly laugh so light he feels the pain start to float away.
A face of hope, and determination.
Hey, bud. A voice that sounds like his is ringing in his head, when he sees the child.
The thought slips into his head, like a leaf swaying downwards, until it flutters down onto the surface, and floats in the middle of a vast calm lake, sending ripples across the entire body of water.
Hey, bud, his brain says.
Hey, bud, his brain holds onto tightly — so very tightly he thinks it might burst like a balloon — so that it does not fly away and disappear.
Was it the name of the little creature barely able to stand before him?
The name of the little creature that had smiled at him, after everyone else had screamed at the sight of him, with anger, and hate, and fear in their voices.
As he strikes them down.
Would his Master ask him to strike Bud down?
Was the lone thought that haunted him.
His opinions were invalid. He would kill if needed. He would torture and cut and maim at the Lady Bone Demon's behest. Man, woman, demon, god — there was no difference. They all were simply in his master's way.
Even the child in front of him, who has let go of his face, and plays with the flicking of his tail.
He lets him do as he pleases.
He will do as the Lady requests.
But that didn’t mean she had to know about the little child.
He comes back, and his fellow servant takes the compass from him, his smile reaching from ear to ear. Mayor looked eerily satisfied, patting the other on the shoulder, and disappearing out of view.
The Lady Bone Demon is nowhere to be seen.
He takes the tray full of food without another word, and begins the walk he's done a thousand times. His footprints feel as though they have been ingrained into the concrete, a path he walks every day, one he never strays from.
The door opens without any resistance.
He knows it isn't because someone forgot to lock it.
He should already be used to this. The stench of iron and smoke that floods his senses when he opens it.
There was the girl, bloody and broken. She was slumped onto the floor like a fallen ragdoll, new burn marks littering her skin, splotchy and charred over the old ones. Her arm was twisted in an angle that looked wrong, like it would've cracked before it could ever reach that far.
She looked like she was barely breathing. She looked like she was at death's door, ready to just disappear into it.
The bowl he'd set for her that day was empty. He didn't want to know how Mayor managed to make her eat every last bit of rice.
He placed the food down, and grabbed the empty crockery before making his way to the kitchen. Plucking some of his hair, he blew clones into existence. They didn't need to be told what to do, even as they sneered at him disapprovingly. One of them shook its head and sighed, grabbing the nearby bucket and mop. Another grabbed a wet towel and another bucket, and a change of clothes.
They didn't make any sounds of protest. Maybe it was because they knew perfectly well they could do nothing but follow the original's wishes, even if they didn't want to.
He didn't want to have to clean up after a violent man's work either. He didn't want to see the girl bloodied and dazed and have to clean her blood off the walls of her room.
But here they were anyway.
As they made their way back to the room, they went to work. One began mopping the dried blood, and another scrubbed at the dark burn marks all over the floor and walls.
Maybe once upon a time it would've been a shameful display for someone like him.
If that was the case, it was a once upon a time he doesn't remember.
He pulled the girl into a sitting position in the corner as carefully as he could and took the bucket from the clone. Squeezing the towel dry, he began to slowly wipe away, as gently as he could. Dabbing sluggishly, making sure to not rub or graze any new open wounds to avoid waking her up. She deserved the rest.
She could clean herself up, but he doesn't think he's seen her willingly move in a long time, aside from the numerous escape attempts she made the first year of her imprisonment. Most of her scars had been from that. Eventually, she had given up, ever since that meeting with the Lady.
After that point, she had stopped taking care of herself. Stopped caring about anything, really.
Maybe death really would've been kinder, he thinks as he glances at the bruises and cuts and that arm sticking out.
He needed to pop in place. It would definitely wake her up, though, so he saves it for last.
And so he continues to tend to her wounds, the only sound the methodological scrubbing and sloshing sounds of the mop near them.
He had a dream that night. Of fire, and bone, and the smile of a demon who won.
"I'll save you both. You and Mei. I'll save you, Monkey King, I promise."
Says the nameless boy in front of him, with blood pouring from his wounds, with eyes that are glazed over, and with the last of his dying breaths. Even as he holds the boy by the throat, his blood drips onto his arm, down to his clothes. Even as he is slowly putting out the golden flames flickering like the last embers of a dying fire that might have shone brilliantly like the sun, once.
"Even if it takes the next life to do it."
He thinks he hears the screams of a broken girl, as the body he holds slumps over. He thinks he hears friends- family, calling out his name, as the life leaves the boy.
He thinks he hears the laughter of a monster whose destiny has been realized.
He thinks his hands burn with the blood of someone he loved. Or maybe it's the fire that explodes besides them, engulfing him in its embrace.
He awakes with tears in his eyes, and his heart racing,— the burns in his body ache as though it was only seconds before that he had sustained them — with the name of the dead right on the tip of his tongue.
He is rushing, air rushing past him, trees and scenery a blur, jumping across the fields in massive leaps.
He didn’t ask permission to leave.
He shouldn't have to-
But he should have-
But he shouldn't have to-
She would have never let him go-
His mind is a cacophony of chaos.
This only started when the kid came into his life. What was once a calm lake was now a raging ocean, threatening to throw him overboard. And yet, the child was the only way to keep his mind steady, to keep focus on that one thing keeping him moving instead of breaking down from the discord.
He wants this child safe and it is all he can think about.
When he arrives at the building, he quickly makes his way into the house, uncaring if he attracts any attention. He had left the child here having had to report back and check in on the girl, locking the door so that he would have no way to stumble into the forest and into danger. He would still have to be here, didn't he?
Golden eyes scan the area for signs of life.
He sees the frame of the toddler, a yellow aura glowing around him, sitting hunched in the corner of a room.
The child is crying, he realizes, as his ears pick up the faint sound of sniffling and whimpering.
He runs over, trying the door. It opens without any resistance.
The child looks up, hopeful, like he's expecting someone. When he sees a good look at him, his hopes get crushed, and he is in tears again, loudly bawling into his hands, shaking his head harshly and pulling back from him.
Why? Why is he crying? He's not in danger, he has no injuries.
And yet he cries and cries and cries.
He does the only thing he can think of doing, and holds the child as gently as he could, enveloping him in a reassuring hug, and rocking back and forth, trying to comfort him.
Slowly, the weeping quieted once more into hushed sobs, and he feels the child dig further into his arms. He feels warm. It's a different kind of warm from the gore of fresh kills. It feels… it feels…
The child’s breaths tickle his arm, and he realizes that Bud had fallen asleep in his arms.
He can’t stay here.
He will die here, all alone, if he doesn’t do anything.
There’s only one place he can think of where the child will be safe.
“Wha-” The girl straightens, looking surprised. Why wouldn’t she be? He’s just broken his set routine he’s followed to a T for years.
He glares at her to keep quiet.
His shirt squirms, and her eyes widen at whatever was happening before her eyes.
Bud pops out with a giggle, looking around in awe. When he sees the girl, he titters, putting his hands to his mouth as he tries to be quiet and waves at her.
She stared at him, unmoving, unblinking, unbreathing.
He takes him out from under his shirt, and places him squarely onto the floor, and the first thing he does is clumsily walk over to the girl, trying to keep his footing. He reaches out, making grabby hands, as though he wants her to pick him up.
And the girl does something he hasn’t ever seen her do.
She cries.
One drop, and two. The tears began to roll freely like a dam breaking, and her face scrunched up, her entire body starting to shake with sobs.
The toddler, as empathetic as ever, quickly runs over, almost tripping on his own two feet, and babbles unintelligibly at her, holding her face with two hands. It was an act of comfort, he realizes, one he’d do when he saw someone in pain.
She pulls the child close and hugs him tightly. Her tears ran down her cheek, leaving dark marks of circles onto the clothes he wore.
“I’m sorry- I should’ve stayed with you. I could’ve protected you-” Her voice is shaky and wet, as she cradles the three-year-old closer. “I’m sorry for leaving you.”
“But I’m here now.” She kisses him on the forehead between the messy curls of his hair. “I’m here.”
She looks up at him, her eyes shiny with tears. She doesn’t look with the anger he’s familiarized himself with, eyes blazing despite the pale, sickly frame it hides behind.
Instead, she stares at him with gratitude.
Thank you, her eyes say.
He looks away. He doesn’t want to say anything to ruin it. He doesn’t think he can say anything at all.
Was this really a good idea?
He brings in the food. Every day, every afternoon, every night.
Except things are different.
He brings food for two people now.
The girl had started eating again, and had started to look more and more healthier by the day. She looked happier too, playing with the child in a squeaky tone and speaking with him often. Her voice, once a ghastly croak, had become audible and clear over the past few days.
So he brings them more food, as much as he can.
But he doesn't tell the Lady that. He knows she feeds on pain and fear, and he knows she will take all the joy and hope they had, and he knows that joy and hope was the child he's grown to become protective of.
And he knows what his master will ask of him, if she finds out.
He lets himself sit in the empty room that was their new living space. He found it harder and harder to separate from them, even though he could barely stand being in the same room as the girl before.
Today was one of the slow days he’s becoming accustomed to. His master dreams of burning the world up until nothing remains. But until then, the moon still rises, and the quiet still remains.
The girl is staring at him.
"Do you… did you know his parents? Before you…" She cut herself off. She did this when the child was awake, playing with the empty cup like it's an airplane, flying it around and making noises. She refused to talk about what the Lady ordered him to do.
He doesn't know.
It must be apparent in his face, because she looks away with a snort, looking repulsed, but says nothing of it.
"Nevermind. I need stuff for him, and you're the only one who can freely get in and out of here. Clothes, toys, baby bottles, whatever. Maybe you could grab all his stuff from where… where you found him? If there's anything left that isn't torn to pieces or something." It's an obvious jab at him, but he knows she’s being serious.
He stares back at her.
She still doesn't meet his eyes.
He wants to nod.
Maybe he can nod.
Yes I'll get them, and maybe I'll free you too while I'm at it, is what he wants to say.
But he can't say that.
And he knows he can’t do that.
So he does what he can: he nods slowly, blowing a clone into existence to guard the room, and leaves.
Here he was once more, perhaps for the last time.
He's slow this time, cautious. Making sure to grab all the essentials, everything a kid needs.
He passes pictures framed along the walls of Bud and what he assumes are his parents. It starts to collect dust in the unbothered halls of the house. He takes a closer look at one, turning to face it.
He knows those faces, he realizes.
A woman's ivory black hair tickles the child's face, making him giggle in the picture.
He remembers that hair, on a woman trying to help another out of a rubble, before the ceiling of the building atop them tumbles over, crushing both of them.
They didn't even have time to scream.
A man sits behind them, with striking red eyes and a grin that shows all his teeth. His hand is around his wife's waist, pulling her close.
He remembers that man's eyes when he tried to protect a group of villagers from him — a group of small children. He held a plank of wood, trying to block his view of them.
Man, woman, demon, god, child. All he has struck down mercilessly.
And slay he did.
They had looked like a very happy family.
Had.
A sick feeling of dread washes over him, leaning over and using a nearby table before he fell over. They were at the village, then. They’d run over to help. They’d left their child, thinking that they’d return before long, thinking he’d be safe there instead of with them.
"You're a demon."
A voice, as familiar as it is detestable, says in his head. It's a voice that has taunted him time and time again. Of his mistakes, of his shortcomings. A voice embodying the criticism of his entire being.
And that voice was right. It was always right.
He grabs at his hair like doing so would somehow stop that despicable laughter from ringing in his head, he shakes and hits until he feels blood start to drip down his fingers.
The feeling is all too familiar.
He wants to vomit until nothing comes out ever again. He wants to close his eyes and never wake up again. The guilt eats at him like maggots writhing inside him, hundreds going through meat until it breaks skin. To reveal what he really was — an empty husk of what once was.
Focus focus focus.
He lets these thoughts drift away from him. He doesn’t want to remember them. They’re painful, hurting him, burning him with each new memory they bring.
Clothes. Toys. Everything he needs.
And he leaves.
But he hesitates, stopping in his tracks, before he decides to take the pictures with him.
…
He stands at the door.
The question of how secure this hiding place really was still lingers in his mind. Mayor never visited if he wasn't ordered to by Lady Bone Demon, and the clone would be there to guard at all times. But an anxious feeling kept gnawing at his psyche, constantly whispering that there was still a chance of his master finding out. She’ll find out, she always does. Its traitorous tongue spreads doubt in his mind. Just tell her now, the punishment will be less severe.
He grabs hold of the door handle. He decides that he will cross that bridge when he gets there.
"-Mei."
He freezes. Mei?
"My name's Mei, Mei remember?"
Mei. The girl's name is Mei.
"I'll save you both. You and Mei."
He shakes his head, trying to get that dream out of his head. But it felt too real.
Was it really a dream?
"M… Me…" A smaller voice is trying to vocalize.
"Yes, Meeeeiiiiii."
"Mami!" The child giggles, even as his caretaker groans.
"Mami Mami, I miss Mami…" Bud continues, and his voice becomes softer. "Where Mami?"
He decides now is a good time to come inside. Immediately, Mei is on guard, pulling the child to her back, but relaxes when she realizes who it was that had entered.
"Pap!" The toddler squeals, a huge smile on his face and runs over to give his legs a hug.
"Well, look who decided to actually drop by. Had a fun trip?" She jokes. She is smiling, and joking with him. A small knot in the massive yarn of nerves in his stomach loosens at the thought.
He drops the bag down the floor with a thud, before kneeling down to open the zipper.
It's full of toys, and clothes, and everything he could take from the lonely house near the stream. A flicker of a grimace twists his face, before he smooths it back to neutral, slowly unpacking the things, before getting to the picture.
The knot tightens again.
The child gasps in delight and points at the pictures with an urgency, wanting both of them to see it like he was seeing it.
“Mami! Pap!!” He’s slapping it down, before deciding to take it into his hands and waddling over back to Mei.
He hands it over to her, repeating those two words over and over again. As though any second now she'll get what he was trying to tell her, and she nods, before looking down at it.
Her smile drops.
She looks at his face, seeking out any sort of truth from him.
He wants to think his face remains blank, like he’s hiding everything from her.
But they both knew the truth. His face may have looked the same to anyone else. But not to her. They had been together in this place for as long as he could remember. He knew she could tell that he was starting to crack — his actions becoming more and more sporadic, uncontrolled. Irrational. And she knew that his face had flinched.
His eyes looked away. His eyebrows furrowed. His mouth twitched.
Regret.
It was all over his face, and then it was gone. Still, she had read him just as well in that split second.
“Your Mama and Papa are on vacation right now, okay? So they told us to take care of you for now."
"Wahabout me… Wanna go on vacation!" He pouts, crossing his arms.
"It's a- a grown up vacation! You'll be bored there! That's why your parents decided to leave you with fun Auntie Mei!" She exclaimed, before tickling him relentlessly as he laughed and screamed, trying to get away from her endless assault.
He doesn't belong here, he thinks.
Everything feels too lighthearted, and he is a weapon, and weapons should feel nothing.
Weapons take the lives of whoever wields it, taking blood, cutting flesh, until he breaks.
He's not broken, not yet.
So he leaves, knowing another task is waiting for him.
“You’re a demon.”
The one who looks like him hissed, black fur scorched and caked in blood. There’s a noise the monkey makes between a chuckle and a wheeze, even as he kicks him hard, sending him sprawling across the field before coming to a stop onto his back. He groaned in pain and slowly tried to sit back up, only getting halfway as he winced, using one hand to hold him up and another to cup the part where his ribs were.
He was the only one left. Everyone else had fled, or died.
“Traitors deserve to be punished heavily, don’t you think, champion?” His Lady says beside him, staring down at the half dead demon with disdain.
“Who’s the traitor? I’m inclined to believe its the one who murdered his student in cold blood.” The monkey spit out a wad of blood, sneering at both of them. “His blood is on your hands and here you are playing lap dog. How the mighty have fallen, eh, Wukong?”
“A hypocrite has no right to speak those words.” Lady Bone Demon pointed out with a hiss, anger starting to rise at the mere sight of the one who has defied her thrice. “Have you not betrayed those who thought they could trust you?”
“Never said I wasn’t one. But I thought you were stronger than that, he’d given me hope that you were. I told him he was naive. Foolish to trust someone like you.” His eyes stared at something beyond the two. At a body not too far, red pooling below him. His anger drops. Only a melancholic look was left in his eyes. “For once, I wished I was wrong.”
“Silence! Cut this traitorous rat’s tongue, champion. And make his death slow and painful.”
And he did. The screams of pain echoed in his mind long after the deed was done.
___________________
He’s starting to unravel.
He’s always hated his job, but that never stopped him.
Until now.
Demons stare back with the taunts of violet eyes, eyes that he knows, he knows so, so well. That he had known, so well. He knew those eyes before they had hardened into hateful glares. He knows, because his heart is aching for days long passed. He knows because every time he kills, he sees those same eyes, and guilt splits his heart into two.
Every woman’s horrified face looks like the mother of the child, twisted and broken, her black hair the only thing peeking out under rubble.
Every man’s rage fuelled screams stumbles him backwards, reminding him of defiant red eyes, of red eyes that Bud had too. Has.
He has red eyes.
Has has has has has.
He was a weapon, but he knew he was breaking.
___________________
He returns, and he knows something is wrong immediately.
Lady Bone Demon is staring at him, facing him. Her legs are crossed, her hands on her lap. She looks like she's studying his every move, every twitch of a muscle, every breath he took.
And Mayor is gone. Mayor is gone.
Where was he-
“Ah, you’ve arrived. I… trust that you’ve done as asked?”
He nods sluggishly. He feels his breath quickening, air getting harder to take in. Time feels as though it's grinding to a halt, his heart racing, his head pounding. He is kneeling, but he wants to stand so badly.
He wants to run, and check on them. He wants to make sure they’re okay.
“Your mind seems to be somewhere else entirely, champion.
Shall we visit where it’s gone to?”
Chills spread through his entire body, cold sweat dribbling down his face.
They had been found out. It's all over.
Her true form reveals itself, sharp teeth bared, blue as sharp as a knife feels like it's been plunged into his head. His head feels like it's gonna split open. He can’t help the screech that escapes him, clawing at his head, trying to make it stop stop stop-
She walks past him, and he follows, panting heavily, his legs wobbling as he does. The migraine still throbs, like gongs are constantly banging in his head, but he has to keep going. He needs to- he needs to see them, even through the haze of pain.
Should’ve told her-
Shut up.
-could’ve prevented all of this-
SHUT UP!!!
They reach the door, and he is afraid, hearing the loud crying and the yelling.
She opens it, and the worst case scenario is unfolding before his very eyes.
"What a lovely reunion we have here, don't we?"
Mayor is on top of the girl, pushing her to the ground, holding her arms behind her back. Her face is one of fury as an unending stream of curses pours out her mouth like venom, even as her face is being mashed into the ground, and her blood is starting to stain the floor of the room.
And the child is crying, and he’s screaming, and he’s hitting Mayor to no avail, his weak hands can’t do anything, he’s powerless, but he’s still trying, he’s still scratching and pushing.
The Lady acts.
He acts faster.
He runs over, taking the child in his hands before cold pale hands can grab tiny arms. He holds him steady, even as the child keeps screaming, kicking to try and get free, pointing at Mei.
As he holds him tightly, hugging him, leaning him away from the demon, putting all of himself in between them.
"So it seems you are a traitor after all. Just like your brethren, foul beasts that lack so much loyalty that it disgusts me. Perhaps all of you really are just mindless animals." She hums, looking disappointed, yet eerily calm. Like the calm before a storm.
"But because you've served me so well all these years, I'll give you another chance." She says, smiling that grin that he couldn't look away from. That he feels sick to his stomach looking at, but one he can’t stop staring at.
"Give me the child, champion, and maybe we can overlook this transgression."
"Don't you dare Monkey King!! I'll never forgive you if you do, never ever- NEVER!!!" Mei is screaming, struggling against the strong hold Mayor has over her. Sparks of the Samadhi fire start flickering into existence, before she is pushed further into the ground, her head connecting with the concrete with a sickening thud.
"Silence, foolish girl. We wouldn't want your powers to go out of control again and hurt our little successor here, do we? Or I suppose he's no longer one, is he?"
She giggles. It's pure evil, an unholy laugh straight out of hell.
It's at this point that he is certain that the unfortunate girl that had been forced to host the demon is gone. She had been gone for a long time. It was only Lady Bone Demon that remained.
"Come, champion. You know your destiny as well as I do." She holds a hand out, expectant.
Her eyes glow a bright blue, and his mind fogs. It feels like being inside water — muting everything, and everyone. Quiet. He's dragged further and further down, with no hope to ever even swim back up.
"Give him to me."
She commands.
He takes a step.
Nothing is getting through, his whole body feels numb, moving without thought. It's hard to hear the girl's begging. It's hard to hear the child's sobbing, thrashing in his grip.
It's hard to even think.
Another step.
Lady Bone Demon smiles, her entire presence the only thing left.
Bud is shaking. He is shaking like a leaf in the middle of a storm, afraid as he tucks his face into his chest, trying to bury further further until he is fully hidden, refusing to look at the woman across from them. But he can't stop himself from taking another step.
Fingers graze the child's back, and it's all over—
A wave of silence fills the entire room.
Something happened.
Something had suddenly begun pulsing.
The child starts to glow, a dull yellow slowly getting brighter and brighter by the second.
The gold rays warm him, like the sun shining down on him on a clear day. He's pulled back up, further and further, and-
And he blinks, and everything snaps back into focus. He can't help the tears that start forming in his eyes because the world makes sense again, and everything- everything makes sense, again.
"What the‐!"
She is cut off by a huge surge of golden light, surrounding the monkey and the boy, resonating together and sparkling brightly. She is knocked back, shielding her eyes from the sheer intensity of it. Their presence was more commanding than her influence could ever be.
"Impossible! How- how dare you attack me, champion-"
"I am Sun Wukong!" He yells out, even when his throat feels like lead, even when his voice feels like it's failing him. It's returned — he's returned. And he refuses to be slient any longer. "And you will force me to do your bidding no longer, you wretched demon!"
Mayor is off Mei and in front of her in seconds, trying to shield her from the oncoming blow.
His golden eyes connect with Mei’s wide green eyes, a gold shine gleaming in them too.
She nods, knowing what he wanted, and she trusts him.
She screams out, with all the fear, pain, rage that she’s collected over the years of torture and hell she was forced to live through. For every broken bone, for every open wound, for every scratch and tear and burns her body has sustained. She throws it all back, tenfold.
The familiar red fire burns brightly around her, already setting fire to everything.
And he takes all that energy, thinking, knowing, it won’t hurt them. She won’t hurt them. And he takes it, the fire starting to spin, letting it eat at the aura, letting it merge and grow until it is a bright orange. A flame that burns brighter than the sun, one that could light up the darkest corners of hell, and he could feel it want more, and more, an insatiable hunger.
And he hurls it at them, blasting them both backwards, making a hole into the heart of the mech.
The mech absorbed everything. The fire wanted to eat.
The two collided, and the whole thing shook on its foundation. The place grew hotter and hotter, as the flame ate away, and the mech kept absorbing it. It was a ticking time bomb, waiting to detonate.
It begins to shake, losing balance and falling, and he takes Mei and leaps out of the collapsing building, leaving the two to suffer the flames that they so desperately wanted.
___________________
As he leaps across the buildings and spikes encased in bone, trying to get as far away as possible, he thinks now is a time as good as any.
“Mei?” His voice is barely a whisper. She makes a humming noise, listening. It's a pleasant sound. “I’m… I’m so sorry. You and MK, and..."
And Macaque. Macaque, Macaque, Macaque, he can't believe he had forgotten for so long.
"I…”
The words are lost to him, and he can’t think of anything left to say.
The monkey waits for her response, the air whipping around them the only sound that remains, as the mech gets farther and farther away.
“I... I can’t say when I can forgive you. I can't even say that I can ever forgive you.” She says softly, and he nods. It's what he expected.
“But… We’re okay, Monkey King. We’re free, and we’re still here. We’re alive.”
“And MK trusted you to the very end, even when you really didn’t deserve it. Now, you have all the time in the world to make it up to him.”
Never before had he thought of a statement that rang any truer. And tears were never his thing, but he thinks he can feel his eyes watering right about now.
The roar of an explosion fills the air, as the smoke billows across the field, a harsh wind passing through him. The land is engulfed in flames, burning through bone and metal, glowing a brilliant red.
A fitting end for a cold, manipulative monster.
“Listen, if she survived that, I’m literally quitting. She’s gotta have some sort of plot armor or something.” She chuckles at her own joke. It's a relieving sound.
He thinks he wants to hear it more often.
…
As he holds MK in his hands and Mei walks beside them, he thinks. The child is giggling as the girl makes faces to amuse him, trying to keep his mind off what had happened.
His mind and body, finally his own again.
Sun Wukong was free.
Mei was free.
He saved them, like he promised.
Never even doubted you, bud. He looks at the child with a smile as he shrieks again with laughter as Mei pops up to surprise him.
He didn't know where they'd go, or what they'd do now, but he knew that even if he would always just be a weapon, he'd be the weapon to protect them, instead.