After gently covering the unconscious demoness in her room, Macaque gently swept a strand of blonde hair from her hair. His fingers lightly trailing over her temple and down her jaw fondly. Taking in the sight of her exhausted form, Macaque couldn't help the bubbling rage at the mental drain of his lover. His golden eyes sharpening into slits at the sight of frost marks on her delicate skin.
His eyes then drifted over to the fidgeting simian that stood in the doorway. Strutting straight towards the almost panicking young adult, Macaque grabbed the boy by the collar of his uniform and dragged him out of the room with a guttural growl that resounded from his throat, "Come with me, boy."
MK out of instinct held onto his unyielding wrists and felt his legs stumble over one another as he was forced to be dragged along, "W-Wait..! I can explain—!" He choked out in a ramble of words.
Macaque let out a humorless chuckle, "Oh, your gonna explain." He stopped in a room that looked almost like weapons room, "And your gonna explain it to me, loud and clear.. What the hell happened to my bonded mate...!" He bared his canines as he threw the kid to the ground.
MK quickly collected himself as he looked back with a pale expression.
"Otherwise, you aren't gonna be having a good time... And I'll take this matter into my own hands." Macaque was too furious in this moment to hold up his glamor anymore, so here he was staring down a young simian with all six ears perked up attentively, while his scars were on display for the apprentice to gawk at.
MK tried to scramble away but he felt arms wrapped around him in a locked grip. He turned to the sides with a new set of panic to see multiple shadow clones pinning him down.
The usual mischievous grins that would sport they're go lucky faces, was wiped clean. They looked almost as furious as their master.
"Now..." Macaque kneeled down with a blank face as he tilted MK's chin up with the end of his spiked staff. "Explain, why don't ya'."
MK took a swallow of his nerves as his eyes flickered back and forth to reforge his dismantled thoughts, "There... I-I was trying to learn by myself again because Monkey said I needed to shrink myself and I accidentally fell down a sink..."
Macaque frowned confused, "Wait. You fell down a sink??"
MK looked down, not meeting the older simian's gaze, "Y-yeah..." Far too embarrassed to meet his eyes.
Macaque waved him off, "Carry on." He sat down with crossed arms, while crisscrossed.
MK closed his eyes to think back, "I managed to somehow end up down in the Spider Queen's lair due to the plumbing system and managed to escape her due to shrinking myself again..."
Macaque slowly began tapping his tail on the ground due to his losing patience. All he figured out from this kid was that Wukong was barely keeping tabs on his successor and the kid was being an idiot again, managing to survive on pure luck alone.
MK's tail started to fidget back and forth, most likely a anxiety habit he developed unconsciously, "While finding a sewer tunnel, I.." he trailed off in his own sentence, now realizing how dumb he was to not realize the oddity of the small girl in a place like that, "I-I met a girl..."
Macaque perked up at this, "A girl? In Spider Queen's lair?" His tapping freezing in the air suspended.
MK nodded with an almost terrified expression, "I thought she was in need of rescuing so I tried helping her... Oh how stupid I was to believe that.." He hung his head with an almost wide horrified expression, "S-She tricked me... That demon... She's possessing an innocent little girl as a disguise..!" MK snapped his head up at Macaque at a terrible realization, "A-And I think Jinhua had a bond with the little girl—!"
Macaque felt his fur bristle at the mere statement, his fingers curled into a fist as he slammed it into the ground in frustration.
MK jumped back a bit with a startled squeak. His eyes wide as they stared at the small crater under his knuckles.
Macaque stared the simian in the eye and breathed out lowly, "What did that parasite do to my beloved...?"
MK shook his head as he tried to form his thoughts, "I-I... The demon was in my head... She.. She put these voices a-and she kept disappearing and reappearing out of my vision like a glitch on a screen." MK's mind spiraled as he tried to think back what Jinhua was doing with the Lady Bone Demon, "That demon... She whispered something to Jinhua that somehow pissed her off and then the next thing I know..." He trailed off not wanting to say. Not really believing his own eyes anymore.
Macaque gritted his teeth, "Speak, MK—!" He seethed out, far from controlling his patience.
MK stared down at the ground, his hands clamming down on the staff in a nervous erratic motion, "Jinhua.. S-She.. She fell to her knees. The screams... I-I can't—!" He whimpered out tearfully, finishing almost shamefully, "I t-tried to reach her... I really really did.. But the demon...!"
Macaque had gone silent. The empty noise in the air made MK shook with nerves, fearful for his life at this exact moment.
A hand was then placed on the boy's head.
Feeling a small surprised gasp leave him, MK glanced up hurriedly to see Macaque smile sadly down at him. His eyes no longer fueled with anger, but just a solemn understanding, "It's okay, kid. You tried your best." The shadows that held him down descended into the ground after sending the boy a small chirp in farewell.
With that comment, MK couldn't help but feel hurt instead of feeling reassured. He did try his best, but it didn't help anyone when he needed to most.
And now his first friend and mother figure lay in bed due to him not being able to be strong enough to defend her.
What was he training for, if he couldn't help a person in need, sitting right in front of him—?
MK felt his lips form a thin line as he thought over his choices. His eyes then landed on the dark furred simian warrior. He watched as the warrior waved his hand and his purple staff disappeared into thin air.
With a nod of courage to hype himself up, he looked up at the simian, "Hey... Uh.. C-Can you—!" He was cut off as a splitting headache started to force the boy back to his knees. He let out an agonized groan as he held his head in his hands in hopes of soothing it.
Macaque rushed over with his hands hovering over his head in concern, "Yo, MK..! You good kid—?"
MK squinted his eyes weakly as the the voices returned again, "T-The whispers...!"
'Don't try anything, child—!'
'You can't do anything...!'
'Why don't you just give up—!?'
Macaque frowned as he quickly thought of a solution. He swiftly turned around and snapped his fingers to form a small purple vortex in the wall.
Reaching in, Macaque pulled on a collar and yanked the person through, "Sorry for disturbing your time with Mei but I'll be taking you for a moment."
He pulled his son into the room and watched as Mei rushed through the portal out of breathe before the purple vortex closed and vanished.
Ren looked around in confusion as he sensed an odd disturbance in the air, "What's wrong?" He looked up at his Pa' confused.
Macaque frowned with furrowed brows to show the groaning simian behind him on his knees, "A very mind draining demon had run into MK and Jinhua..."
Ren and Mei both froze and paled as they rushed over to MK first to see the problem.
Ren hurriedly ripped his hands off his head and placed his palms on his temples, "Just focus on Mei for me, MK. Everything is going to be okay..."
Mei took hold of MK's paws and gave them a small squeeze to distract him from the pain. MK whined softly, "It hurts..." He leaned on Mei's shoulder for support.
Ren grimaced at the words as he focused on his task.
Macaque stiffened as his ears perked up suddenly, they all turned towards Jinhua's room, "Ren, stay here and keep helping Mk. I'll go check on your Ma'."
Ren felt his nerves grow cold at the mention of her. He nodded worriedly and turned back to the disoriented simian at hand. Shifting his palms to the center of his throbbing forehead, Ren closed his eyes.
Opening his eyes to see a large messy art museum. Paintings scattered around on the floor as Ren saw multiple paint splatters smeared across the ground.
Walking down the hall that was filled with memories, Ren felt his eyes trail to the pictures of MK going through school and doodling in his sketchbook to pass the time. His hair a mess as his eyes held dark circles underneath.
Ren frowned and trailed his fingers on the memory of MK tearing up, almost in misery and dismay.
Ren continued onward, seeing new memories of his interactions with all his friends and his training sessions with Wukong.
Ren couldn't help but scowl at the sight of the Monkey King. He turned away to see a few more memories of him hanging out with his family at the restaurant.
Ren then caught a glance at a doorway that had a sign right above it.
'Memory down the Jinhua lane.'
Ren snickered at the strange name, but dislike it either. He smiled as he walked straight him.
And then right before him stood almost rows of golden framed memories. The hall was a drastic change than the messy halls as he couldn't find a speck of dust on the marble tiles on the floor and walls.
Looking straight up at the ceiling, it was a memorizing memorial of Jinhua created out of colorful glass shards. Each reflecting a small detail of the demoness to make it seem like she was a savior from the heavens that stepped down and gave light upon his dark world. The color lights shines down through the ceiling casting away almost all the darkness in the room.
Almost.
Glancing to the end of the hall stood a darkened golden framed memory. At the edges of the memory was ice frosting over coldly.
Ren stepped closer and felt his warmth almost get sucked away from him.
Reaching out, he touched the memory and dissolved right into a batch of liquid paint.
His body formed back from the swirling mass of paint as he stood right in the memory observing, "Now where is that demon..."
Watching the scene play out, his eyes widened at the sight of Jinhua fall to her knees and let out a blood-curdling scream from her lips. The sizzling that left her skin came from the frost marks that burned her from the sheer cold.
Ren rushed over out of instinct to try and comfort her but he just phased through with a startled grimace at the stomach wrenching reminder that this was just an event that already happened.
A small whisper blew past his ears as he whipped around to see a small girl.
But Ren knew exactly who this wench was, "You..." He raised a finger at the giggling little girl, her eyes no longer holding it's humane gloss. It was the look of something holding familiarity.
Something twisted.
A man came to Ren's mind that made the small demon child clench his fists.
The Demon Fox King.
As soon as he came to a realization, he immediately conjured up a layered stack of magic circles at the palm of his hand. His Chi energy blasted forward almost decimating the entire memory in the process if he didn't hold a secondary layer of protection on the scenery.
As he released a small ragged intake of air, Ren noticed a skull lay awake on the crisp ground at his feet.
'Be careful what you trend upon, child. For you are a chess piece just waiting to be claimed—'
With a sudden gasp for air, Ren lurched forward and gagged up his insides. Mei leaped forward and held him up with her strength as she started to pat his back out of comfort. Her face drawn in worry, "Are you okay...? Do you need anything?"
Laying on the floor peacefully was MK as he finally gained the time to rest up before being confronted again by questions from his brotherhood.
Ren felt his eyes sting with tears as he glanced up at Mei with a terrified expression, "Mei..." He whimpered softly, leaning into her touch, almost scared to let go, "I-I.. I'm scared..."
Mei dragged him into a hug, resting his head on her chest as she brushed her fingers through his curls, "I'm here... No one is gonna harm you or anyone for that matter..." She placed her chin on Ren's head, "I swear."
Ren buried himself into her protective embrace, feeling safe once again from that damned demon, "Thank you." They're tails both intertwining to seek comfort in one another.