Chapter Text
A world buried in pitch black. Black is all that surrounded the sleeping sage on the ground. An orange and red bird, seemingly the only thing in color other than the sleeping monkey on the ground, floated down and landed on said sleeping monkey’s chest. It stared at the monkey’s face as he slowly breathed in and out through his nose.
The bird tilted his head, examining the sage for a few seconds, before swacking very loudly, scaring the sleeping monkey half to death.
Wukong screamed, sitting up too fast and regretting it as he immediately got light-headed. He groaned as he placed his head in his hands and brought his knees up to his chest.
He stayed there for a few seconds, rubbing his eyes as he could barely keep them open, before lazily looking around at his surroundings. All he saw was black other than the orange and red bird sitting next to him.
Staring at the bird, he groaned and put his face back in his hands, his head feeling heavy in his hands.
“Not this dream again …” he mumbled to himself.
He peaked at the bird before sighing, groaning as he forced himself to stand up. He stood there for a few seconds, arms limp at his side as he stared down the darkness that surrounded him, before starting to walk in a random direction.
Wukong blinked slowly, eyelids heavy, before rubbing his eyes, knowing that there wasn’t anything he could trip on as he walked.
“Why does this keep happening…” he mumbled after a while, his arms dropping to his side.
He walked for about 2 minutes, and didn’t even flinch as a spotlight suddenly appeared out of nowhere a few feet in front of him. Wukong looked down, and under the spotlight was a chest with a golden lock.
Wukong just slowly blinked at the box, he really didn’t wanna deal with this, and rolled his eyes as he dug through his pocket and pulled out a golden key.
“Wooow wonder how this got here. ” Wukong stated sarcastically as he rolled his eyes and walked towards the spotlight.
He walked until he was staring down at the box, resisting the urge to just slam his head onto the box repeatedly until he woke himself up.
“ Wukooooong. ” a voice whispered in his ear, and he swatted it away as if it were a fly.
“wUkOoOoOoOnG oOoOoOoOoOoOoO” He mocked, rolling his eyes and waving his hands in the air.
“Now your gonna talk about destiny-”
“ Open the chest Wukooong, inside it is your destinyyyyy. ”
“ugHHHHHH.” Wukong groaned loudly as he kneeled down next to the box and slammed his head onto it, ( despite his previous attempt to not do that).
“You sound so much like her and it huuuurts.” He groaned, shivering as memories started popping up in his head.
He shook his head as he gripped the golden key in his hand tightly and quickly unlocked the lock, watching it fall down on the ground and poof away.
He opened the chest and glared at the thing inside.
It was the thing that was supposed to be a gift, but ended up being a curse. It was the thing that caused him pain, leaving him tired and with a VERY bad headache. It was the thing used to help him “behave” but ended up making him lash out even more.
It was that stupid golden fillet.
Wukong glared at the thing, not being able to forget all the tears it made him shed, all the pleas it made him cry, and most of all, it made him lose his best friend.
He groaned ( he's been doing that a lot now) and put his hands in his face, wiping away the tears starting to form in his eyes.
Wukong moved his hands up to his head, anticipating the feeling his head was about to feel.
“Get a grip Wukong,” he mumbled to himself. “This is just a dream, a dream that’s happened multiple times in a row for some reason, but a dream none the less. You know what happens next, just get it done. ”
He really didn’t feel like doing this.
He opened his eyes, dropping the key in his hand, as he slowly reached out to grab the headband.
“I’m gonna grab this thing then it’s gonna disappear and reappear on my head then-”
Wukong was cut off by a very loud bang, making Wukong instinctively close his eyes and put his hands over his ears.
“ Hooooooly crap that was loud- the heck? ” He groaned as he opened his eyes slightly, and saw a spotlight just ahead of him.
He took his hands off his head and rubbed his eyes, then tried to look again.
Wukong’s eyes narrowed in confusion, as standing in the spotlight was Pigsy, Mk’s boss and basically parent.
“ That's new…” he thought to himself before another (not as loud) band echoed throughout Wukong’s head and he closed his eyes again and bended over, groaning as his ears started ringing again.
“What the hell…” he whispered to himself as he opened one eye to see another spotlight, and standing in said spotlight was Sandy.
Wukong blinked a few times to see more clearly.
“What the hell?” He stated more loudly as his eyes kept switching between Pigsy and Sandy.
Wukong put his hands over his ears and closed his eyes, expecting another bang, but it never came.
After about a minute, Wukong slowly opened one eye, and saw another spotlight between Pigsy and Sandy, but this time standing in the spotlight was Mr. Tang.
“What the hell.” Wukong stated for the 3rd time, taking his hands off of his ears.
All 3 of them had their backs turned to Wukong, so he couldn’t see their faces. Wukong’s face however was full of confusion.
Why is this happening? Why is the dream changing now? And why are they here?!
Questions filled Wukong’s mind as he stared at the 3, completely forgetting about the headband in the chest.
He was about to call out to them, when a tightening pressure on his head caught his attention.
His breath immediately quickened as his hand shot up to his head, and his eye shot directly to the chest, expecting to find it empty.
It wasn’t.
The headband was still in there, and he didn’t feel it on his head. The pressure on his head was definitely still there.
“What?” He breathed out as he felt his hands felt all around his head, feeling for what was causing the increasing pressure. He didn’t feel anything except his own hair.
“What? Why? Huh? How?” Questions spilled out of Wukong’s mouth as he stood up, his hands desperately trying to grab something that wasn't there, the pressure on his head still increasing.
The weird thing was that the increasing pressure felt like when the headband tightened on his head, but instead of on the outside of his head it was physically squeezing his brain.
He let out a small noise of panic as his hands pulled at his hair, desperately trying to ease the increasing pressure.
He looked over to the group standing in the distance and froze when he saw that they changed.
Pigsy didn’t look like the Pigsy that Mk knew personally, he looked like the Pigsy he knew personally. Zhu Bajie, his former brother companion. Sandy didn’t look like the Sandy Mk knew personally, he now looked like the Sandy he knew personally. Sha Wujing, his other former brother companion.
And Tang didn’t look like Mk’s Tang anymore, he looked like his-
“Master?” Wukong quietly questioned, only being able to focus for 1 second before the pressure on his head took the attention away.
“Wait wait wait please- I didn’t mean- I- PLEASE!”
Wukong’s cries became desperate as the pressure on his head was getting pretty close to the golden headband. He let out a groan of pain as he fell onto his knees, his eyes squeezing shut as he bended over.
He didn’t understand. His head was swirling. He couldn’t think about anything except the pain. The pain in his head, it was somehow reminding him of the LBD except that didn’t make sense. It felt like something was in his head but at the same time it also felt like someone was trying to rip his head open and he couldn’t do anything about it cause his head just hurt .
He sucked in a sharp breath as the pressure continued to grow, not showing any sign of stopping.
He didn’t get why he was being punished. He didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t get why- his master was punishing him again and he didn’t know why. He wanted to know why but all he could focus on was the pain which seemingly was going to break him cause it hurt. It hurt so bad all he could feel was painpainpainpainpainpain-
“STOP!” He cried out, laying down on his side and curling up into a ball, his eyes squeezing out tears.
“Please stOp- stop- stop- make it stop- please- I’m sorry- I don’t know what I- I’m sorry- please master- make it stOP-”
His tail wrapped around his legs and he dug his head into his knees.
“He isn’t your master doing it. I am.”
“Eh?” Wukong groaned out, barely hearing the voice in the distance.
“You want me to stop?” The voice asked, a smug tone in his voice that Wukong missed.
“YEs pLease please! Make it stop. Please master.”
Wukong laid there for a few more seconds; honestly starting to believe that it would never end and he would stay there for the rest of his immortal life, but then a sharp pain all around his head caused him to shriek as his arms shot to his head.
Wukong felt the pressure release immediately.
Wukong breathed a sigh of relief as his body untensed and head throbbed with a headache, but not the ‘skull crushing’ kind of headache, the ones he normally got after the headband was used on him.
Wukong tried to calm down his breathing, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth like Wujing taught him in the past.
Wukong didn’t hear the footsteps running towards him, nor did he hear that someone was calling his name.
Wukong did notice the sound of a chest being slammed closed, making him jump.
Wukong’s eyes shot open and was surprised to see Tripitaka and Wujing kneeling next to him, eyes looking behind him. Wujing’s eyes were filled with concern while Tripitaka’s eyes were uncharacteristically darkened.
Wukong didn’t even bother looking for Bajie as he turned around to where the chest was, and his eyes widened at the sight in front of him.
It was him , but he looked different .
He had the same hairstyle and hair color as him, but the ends were faded into a dark red. His hair was a little longer than his as well, it being pulled into a low ponytail.
His eyes were bloodshot red, and his black pupils were slits, just like a cat’s eyes were when they were agitated.
He was wearing a red jacket with a white shirt underneath, with brown shorts and black, gold, and silver shoes. The thing that grabbed Wukong’s attention the most though were the black gloves that the guy was wearing.
Black gloves that were holding the cursed headband.
He sighed a sigh of satisfaction as he spun the headband around his finger like a hula hoop, not paying attention to the staring figures.
“Finally free…after all this time.” He said, his voice being scaringly similar to Wukong’s.
“Wtf?!” Wukong vocalized, the man’s head turned to where the 3 of them were standing, and he and Wukong made eye contact.
“Oh. Hello Wukong.” The monkey calmly greeted.
“Sorry for the excruciating pain earlier, I had to do something outside. ”
Wukong just blinked at the monkey, about to ask ‘wtf’ again but the monkey was apparently done with Wukong as he turned to Tripitaka, whose face was pulled into a grimace, a look Wukong never thought he see on his master.
“Tang Xanzang, I would like to give you my thanks for giving this to Wukong all those years ago.” The monkey stated, pointing to the headband which was still spinning around his finger.
“If I wasn’t for this thing I would have never gotten the power to manifest and grow, please I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for this thing, so I thank you again.”
The monkey paused, looking to the side before humming.
“Huh. I actually should be thanking Guanyin for this, since she was technically the one who gave him the headband in the first place. Eh, whatever.”
Wukong watched the monkey closely, his eyes narrowing and his jaw hanging ajar as he watched the monkey shrink the headband and put it in a pocket in his shorts.
“Wtf?!” Wukong blurted out, his head spinning. He wasn’t surprised when he got a glare from Tripitaka, he always got on to him about his language.
He was surprised when Tripitaka suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder and he was turned to face him, his face making Wukong stiffen up.
“Wukong. You need to wake up right now.” He said, voice uncharacteristically firm.
“What?” Wukong squeaked out, trying to ignore the slight pressure that he was now starting to feel on his forehead.
“You need to wake up!” Tripitaka said more frantically, squeezing Wukong’s shoulders.
Wake up? Why would I need to wake up I’m already- ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
“Holy shit I forgot I was dreaming!” Wukong laughed, not missing the glare he got from Tripitaka this time, but Tripitaka started shaking him.
“Wukong! This is serious! You need to wake up now .”
“Alright alright!” Wukong retorted, squirming out of Tripitaka’s hold and standing up, his headache making him almost fall back onto his butt.
“Oh you need him to wake up?” The monkey questioned.
“Oh I can do that for you, my work for today is done anyways.”
Wukong tilted his head, before something crossed his mind.
”Wait…this feels important. This isn’t some kind of- flashback- vision kind of dream, is it?” He asked Tripitaka, turning to face the monk, but realizing the monk had disappeared.
“What the-” he stuttered as he shot his head around, looking around for the monk, and noticing that Wujing was gone as well.
Wukong’s eyes landed on the monkey dude, and he narrowed his eyes again.
“Hey dude!” He called out the monkey, him raising an eyebrow in response.
“I- ok look. I have like a billion questions . Like ‘Why and how can you shrink the headband?’ , ‘why did Tripitaka look so angry at you and how the hell do you know each other?!’ , ‘ who the fuck are you and why the hell do you look like an evil version of me’ , you know; normal questions a guy would have, but instead of asking those questions I’m just gonna state my case.”
The monkey looked Wukong up and down, before smirking; planting one leg on the lid of the chest and resting his elbow on it.
“Ok then sage, state your case.”
Wukong stuttered, surprised the guy gave him permission. He was gonna talk even if he said no, but still.
“Thank you.” He said, clearing his throat and opening his mouth.
He in fact didn’t say anything with words and instead stated his case by launching himself at the monkey.
The monkey’s eyes widened a little as Wukong flew over to him, his fist reeled back ready to throw a punch, but he didn’t get to as the monkey guy glitched out of existence.
Wukong gasped as his punch hit air making him fall forward, landing face first onto the ground.
Chuckling could be heard from all around him, and that guy’s voice echoed throughout the…black void.
“Wow. I somehow knew you were going to do that, but still didn’t expect you to actually do it.”
The voice chuckled again, and Wukong scoffed as he got up off the ground, not being as amused as his wannabe clone was.
Before Wukong could retort a snappy comment back to him; the voice responded, as if he read his thoughts.
“Before you say anything, I heard your message loud and clear Wukong. ‘ Get the hell out here you wannabe copycat cause I don’t want to deal with anymore shit since I’m still recovering from the LBD, so would you kindly fuck off’, I get it.”
Wukong stood still, shocked.
“What- how did you- ”
“Buuuuut I’m sorry to say this- not really- but I will not kindly fuck off cause I have a plan I’ve been waiting to execute, and I will not miss another opportunity, so sorry not sorry.”
Wukong could tell by the guy’s tone that he was not sorry in the slightest, so Wukong just sighed and asked 3 out of the billion of questions he had earlier.
He could slightly hear someone screaming ‘wake up!’ in the back of his mind, but he chose to ignore it, looking up to the sky to address wherever the hell that clone was.
“Who are you, what’s your name, and what do you want with me?” He asked, and he heard an amused scoff come from the voice above.
“I’m surprised you don’t remember me.” He heard the guy mutter, and Wukong was about to comment on it but then the guy spoke again.
“My name is none of your concern for now, we’ll save that part for later. Just call me… your better half.”
Yeah hell no I am not calling him that, Wukong scoffed to himself.
“What I want from you… also none of your concern for now, you’ll find out soon enough.”
Great, this guy is clearly coming back then, Wukong groaned in his head, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes in annoyance.
“But who am I? Well… I’m you Wukong.”
Wukong blinked, his eyes narrowing in confusion.
“What?” He deadpanned, his fur suddenly standing on edge.
Wukong whirled around to see the monkey man standing right behind him, his face having an unreadable expression.
“I said I’m you, Wukong…”
The guy tilted his head, a smirk creeping up onto his face.
“...but better.”
Wukong plummeted.
The ground below him suddenly disappeared, and he yelped as he fell straight down, the monkey man just watching him.
He kept falling down, seemingly falling down for ages before he felt himself hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of him.
“Don’t worry Sun Wukong,” he heard the voice whisper as he felt his ears start to ring.
“We’ll be seeing each other again, I’ll make sure of that. See you soon.”
Wukong gasped as he opened his eyes, but immediately closed them due to being blinded by a bright light.
He covered his eyes with his hands as he tried to focus on anything other than the ringing in his ears.
He was definitely on solid ground, as he could feel it on his back, but… he didn’t remember falling asleep on the ground.
He 100% didn’t fall asleep on the ground, so why was he on the ground?!
As the ringing died down, he could pick up the sound of monkey chatter all around him.
Most of them were frantic, so he couldn’t understand them well, but he understood bits and clips of the chatter.
‘King!’
‘King hurt!’
‘Bleeding!’
‘King in pain!
Wukong groaned, sitting up and taking his hands off of his eyes so they cn adjust.
The monkey chatter immediately quieted when he sat up, but started up again.
‘King awake!’
‘King hurt?’
‘King ok?’
‘Head! Head bleeding!’
‘Headband!’
‘King hurt!’
Those last 3 caught Wukong's attention, and he squinted his eyes at the monkeys in front of him.
“Bleeding? My head? What are you talking about?”
‘King check head!’
‘Head bleeding!’
Wukong raised an eyebrow, before reaching his hand and running it along his forehead.
He then brought down his hand and examined it, and froze when he saw his hand drenched in red liquid.
He suddenly became aware of the liquid dripping down his face and onto his pj’s.
He let out a shaky breath as looked behind him, and saw a pool of blood where his head was laying earlier.
“What- how- how did this happen? I don't remember this happening?!” he asked frantically, and the monkeys in front of him ran off. Wukong quickly got up on his feet to follow them, ignoring the sudden dizziness he felt.
The monkeys ran until they led him to where a group of monkeys were in a circle, seemingly surrounding something.
‘King! Let King see headband!’ The monkey leading him chattered, and the group of monkeys looked up at Wukong before stepping out of the circle, revealing an object that made Wukong’s heart drop.
It was the golden headband, off his head, on the ground, with blood covering it.
It didn’t take long for Wukong to realize that it’s probably his blood, and he just stared at it in shock, unable to move.
He wanted to pick it up, examine it, then chuck it across the earth, but he couldn’t move.
One monkey realized he was stuck and picked up the headband, walked it over to Wukong and held it out for him to grab.
It took a sec for Wukong to snap out of his trance and take it, whispering a quiet ‘thank you’ to the monkey, who cooed worryingly.
Wukong lifted the headband up to his face, watching as the blood- his blood- dripped off of it and onto the ground.
Wukong was hit with a dizzy spell again as he tried to walk, but stumbled a little.
The monkeys around him shrieked nervously, but Wukong caught himself, closing his eyes and putting a hand up to calm them- and himself- down.
“I’m fine, just a little dizzy,” he lied as he started walking towards his temple, ignoring the trail of blood he was leaving as more blood dripped down his face.
Most monkeys stood where they were, watching their king nervously as he walked off, but a few monkeys walked with him, making sure he didn’t pass out or anything.
Dammit my head hurts, Wukong groaned in his head as he walked into his temple and almost fell forward again as another dizzy spell hit him, and he braced himself against the wall.
The monkeys who walked in with him watched him uneasily, honestly ready to bolt out of there and get help for their king if needed.
Wukong laid on the wall for a few more seconds, before pushing himself off and walking over to his room, the monkeys trailing behind him.
He walked into his room and went straight for his dresser, where his new phone laid.
Mei had bought Wukong a phone so he could get a hold on anyone anywhere instead of just being able to contact Mk with his astral projection thing, and Wukong was confused as hell the first few times he used it. He still is a little confused now, but he’s gotten used to calling and taking videos or photos.
He put the bloody headband down, and picked up his phone.
He wiped his bloody hand on his pj’s, not caring as they were already messed up, and swiped up on his phone to unlock it, just like Mei taught him.
He clicked on the app with the phone icon and all of his ‘contacts’ (as Mk called them) popped up.
The gang had all given him their ‘phone number’ so he could get in contact with anyone in the group at anytime.
He clicked on the contact with Mk’s picture, (Wukong requested that he took a photo of the everyone so he could assign it with the contact cause he couldn't read the contact name so it was easier for him), and hit the little phone icon to ‘voice call him’ instead of ‘facetime’ him.
He would normally facetime with Mk, but right now he didn’t look so great and he didn’t want Mk to start worrying about him. He couldn’t and he wouldn’t let Mk see him like this.
The phone started ringing, and Wukong lifted the phone up to his ear, letting himself sit down so he didn’t fall over on call.
The phone rang 2 times before the ringing stopped and Mk’s voice could be heard on the other line.
“Monkey King?”
“Hey bud! How are you doing right now?” Wukong asked, trying to keep his voice steady. He didn’t seem to do a good job cause Mk’s tone was now full of concern.
“...I’m good. Uhh… are you ok?”
No I am not good I am about to pass out! Wukong yelled in his head
“Yeah bud I’m fine! But uhhh… ok look. Can we cancel training today? I’m…tired.”
Mk was silent on the line for a few seconds, before he spoke again, his voice filled with even more concern.
“Do you mean the ‘didn’t get enough sleep’ kind of tired, the ‘Im about to pass out or faint for some serious reason’ kind of tired, or the ‘mentally/physically exhausted’ kind of tired.”
Definitely the second one! Second one! Wukong screamed in his mind.
“Definitely the first one bud,” Wukong said out loud, mentally cursing at himself for lying to the kid.
“Sorry if you were excited bud, I just didn’t get enough sleep and I haven’t been able to focus at all today so I think I just need to take a break today, is that alright?”
“Y-yeah! Of course! You can go ahead and relax today, I had other plans anyway…” Mk said, but Wukong didn’t miss the disappointed tone in his voice, making his heart clench.
“...Are you sure you’re ok? You sure you don’t want me to bring you some noodles or something? Or just be there to help you sleep?”
Wukong bit his lip as he scoffed silently to himself.
I don’t deserve this kid. He really deserves the world. He thought to himself.
“Yeah I’m sure, don’t worry about me bud, I just need some rest.”
Mk was silent for a few more seconds, before speaking in a soft but also firm tone.
“I know you’re lying Wukong.”
Wukong froze, tensing up as the kid used his real name instead of his title for the first time.
He could hear Mk sigh on the other line before speaking again, in a quieter tone this time.
“I thought you were trying to get better?” He mumbled under his breath, making Wukong’s heart clench some more.
“I…” Wukong couldn’t think of anything to say, so he just hung his head.
“Sorry- I just-”
“Monkey King.” Wukong shut up at the kid's voice. He could hear another sigh come from the line before he spoke again.
“Ok look… you don’t have to talk to me, but at least talk to someone. Please. Don’t keep things to yourself anymore, let us help you!”
Wukong was about to say something along the lines of ‘I swear I’m fine’ or something like that, but Wukong didn’t get to do that as his mind fogged up, and whole body suddenly felt really heavy. He couldn’t stop his eyes from closing or his head and arms from going limp, dropping his phone on the floor with a loud clatter.
The monkeys, who earlier were just observing the phone call from the corner, quickly ran over to their king and chirped frantically, their worry growing as they looked down at the pool of blood on his pj’s and clothes.
“Monkey King?! Are you ok?!” a worried Mk called from the phone, the monkeys looked at it and started shrieking.
When Mk didn't get any response from Monkey King, he made an anxious sound.
"Ok- ok ok Monkey King! I'm gonna get help!" Mk said, then he hung up.