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Chapter Text

"Happy Birthday MK!" Everyone cheered and clapped for him.

"Aw stop you guys! You're making me blush!" MK said happily. Today it was MK's birthday and he thought he would invite all of his friends he knew to his party at Pigsy's. He even invited his mentor the Monkey King, along with Macaque and Nezha. He honestly thinks Macaque has changed so he decided why not invite him. He wanted to invite Nezha because he just wanted to get to know him better so why not invite him too! MK was sitting at the counter, waiting for his food to be done.

"Here you go kiddo. Freshly cooked noodles for your birthday!" Pigsy said with delight.

"Thanks Pigsy, you're too kind!" MK said and started to eat his noodles.

"Hey Monkey Man!" Mei said and nudged her friend a bit. "Guess what I got you for your birthday!" Mei hands him a box wrapped in wrapping paper.

"Um, a box?"

"Just open it silly!"

MK tears off the wrapping paper and tears the box opening, revealing it to be a new game. "Wow awesome! Thanks Mei!" MK thanked her, smiling widely.

"Oh hey MK!" Tang calls out to him "I got you some new Monkey King comics for your birthday!" Tang sets down a pile of comics in front of MK.

"And I managed to get you some plushies little man!" Sandy chimes in, setting down some plushies in front of MK.

"Thanks you guys! You are the luckiest friends I could ever ask for!"

Wukong's heart melts at the sight of MK being happy. He then clears his throat and calls out, "Hey Bud!"

MK turns his head towards Monkey King.

"I've got you a little something too!" Wukong reveals him a new pair set of clothes. "These can be wore especially for training!"

MK gasps at the sight. "Really? Wow, these are awesome!" MK takes the pair of clothes and admires the designs and colors the clothes have. "Thanks Monkey King! I love them!" MK hugs his mentor as a gift for thanks.

"You're welcome kid," Wukong says and hugs him back and then breaks up the embrace.

"So hey um kid," Macaque interrupts. "I didn't really know what to get you so . . ." Macaque takes out some money and hands it over to MK. "I just thought of money so you can just buy whatever you want."

"This is really nice of you, thanks Macaque!" MK thanked him.

It actually made Macaque feel good inside.

MK turns towards Nezha and walks over to him. "So how are you doing today Nezha?" MK asked him.

Nezha was daydreaming a little and blinks at realization that MK was talking to him. He turns to look at him. "Um I'm fine kid thanks. Also happy birthday," Nezha responded. "I also did get you a little something," Nezha added and takes out what looks like a small pin that has a lotus flower on it. "I didn't really know what else to get you because I don't know what else you like so-" Nezha was then interrupted by MK's embrace.

"Its perfect. Thanks Nezha!" MK smiles. "This pin will remind me of you!" MK puts it on his shirt.

Nezha smiles back at him back. "No problem child."

MK clears his throat and says, "Alright now who's ready for some party games!?" MK asked everybody. Everybody cheered in response in saying yes, but MK heard something that was coming from outside that gave his attention. It sounds like the sound of crumbling walls?

"What's that sound?" Mei asked.

"I don't know, but I'll find out," MK said and pulls his staff out of his ear and steps outside, the others following behind him. He looks around the area, but he doesn't see anybody causing this chaos. He then looks up to see a mysterious creature hovering, shooting a beam from what it looks like their horn, and then sees a ghostly figure going into their body, making it bigger. The creature had a dark purple horn with dark purple skin and black wavy hair. It also wore a black dress, with a dark purple cape fluttering behind it. 'Is that a soul?' MK wondered.

The creature looks around for more people for their souls and then looks behind them, seeing MK and his friends. It then shoots a beam towards MK and the others.

"WATCH OUT!" Wukong yells and the others quickly moved away, except for Pigsy, Tang, and Sandy who didn't move away in time. They were hit by the beam and fell unconsciousness, with their souls being taken out of their bodies and pulled into the creatures body.

"NO!" MK cries out.

The creature then grew bigger and stronger, more powerful. It then gives off an evil laugh. "Now feed, feed me your souls! For I am a soul eating demon!" The demon says, shooting another beam towards them. The others quickly dodged the beam.

"Oh you're so gonna pay for that!" MK snapped at the demon.

"Right behind you!" Mei said with determination, taking out her dragon blade. Her and MK both leaped into the air, aiming straight towards the soul eating demon.

"Here comes Monkie . . ."

"KIDS WAIT!" Wukong calls out to him and Mei, but it was too late. The demon shot a beam at MK and Mei, them falling into unconsciousness, their souls taken from their bodies and into the demon's body. The demon then grew even more bigger than before. "No . . ." Wukong whispers softly.

"Kneel, Kneel before your great and powerful demon ruler of this land!" The demon says.

"I'd say we have no choice but to leave. We can't face it right now." Macaque says and opens up his shadow portal. "Come on!" Macaque calls out to Wukong and Nezha and jumps into his shadow portal.

"Macaque is right Wukong," Nezha turns to face Wukong. "We can't fight the demon right now."

"But MK . . . his friends . . ."

"I'm sorry Wukong . . ." Nezha grabs onto Wukong's tail and throws him into the shadow portal to escape. Nezha jumping into the shadow portal after him. 'I'm sorry child,' then the portal disappeared.

Before the others left, the demon sensed great power among Wukong, Macaque, and Nezha. If the demon took all three of their souls, they would become even more powerful than before. 'Keep on running you three, I'll find you. Soon, your souls will be mine!'

Chapter Text

Wukong couldn't see anything around him. He had his eyes opened, but it was just pitched black all around him. He tried looking around, but it was just black everywhere he looks. He then sees a figure coming into view. Walking towards him was MK himself. "MK, bud?" Wukong takes a step forward towards him. "Is that really you?" MK had his head down, not even bothering to look at Wukong. He then turned around and starts walking away from him. "Kid Wait! I'm sorry!" Wukong tried to grab onto his arm, but MK then dissolves out of thin air. Wukong then fell to his knees, tears starting to form in his eyes. "Kid no . . . please come back," Wukong whispers softly to himself. He then bursts into crying. He tried to stop his tears, but they just don't stop. Wukong then screams out loud, "KID, YOU CAN'T BE GONE! PLEASE COME BACK! PLEASE-"

~~~

"WUKONG!"

Wukong's eyes shot open. 'Huh, was it all just a dream?' Wukong shielded his eyes from the sunlight shining down on him. He sits up from his position and looks around. 'Where am I? What happened? Is this a dream too?' There were trees around him and he was sitting on the ground to what seems like a path to somewhere. He guesses that he was in a forest right now.

"Sorry Wukong, I think I may have knocked you unconscious when throwing you into the shadow portal like that," Nezha interrupted Wukong from his thoughts.

"Well no time standing around now, that demon is probably after us right now," Macaque says to Nezha and Wukong.

Nezha helps Wukong onto his feet. "Right let's get a move on," Nezha agreed. Him and Macaque started walking, but Wukong didn't even budge.

"It's all my fault . . ."

Nezha and Macaque turned to Wukong.

"What?" Macaque asked him.

"All of this, is my fault," he responded quietly.

"Why would any of this be your fault?" Nezha asked him. "We never expected any of this to happened. All we expected is to celebrate MK's birthday today."

"I should have protected MK. I should have protected his friends, but I failed." Wukong was on the urge to crying.

Macaque just let's out a sigh and walks towards Wukong. "Hey, look at me," he said quietly and lifted Wukong's head up a little to make contact with him, tears filling in Wukong's eyes. "We may have not been able to protect MK and his friends, but we're still able to save him, his friends, and the world. That soulless demon can't stop us as long as we stand together. Right?" He wipes a tear coming down from Wukong's cheek.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, but . . ." Wukong felt tears coming down from his face. "What if we fail? If we fail . . . to save . . . and protect."

Nezha walks over to Wukong to look him in the eyes. "I'll promise you Wukong, we will not fail this mission. As long as we stand together," he said quietly and then wraps his arms around Wukong, giving him a hug. Macaque joins in the embrace as well. Wukong couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out crying into their shoulders, hiccups leaving him. He holds onto them tightly, never wanting to let go.

All of them stood in silence, only the sound of Wukong's sobs and hiccups being heard. Neither of them bothered to move. Nezha lets go of the embrace and broke the silence, "You know guys it's getting pretty late, we should find somewhere to stay for the night."

Macaque and Wukong nod in agreement. Macaque letting go of Wukong from the embrace.

Wukong wipes away his tears and then thought of an idea. "Hey I have an idea, follow me," he told the others and walked off the path to go deeper into the forest. The others followed right behind him. Wukong then found an area they could use to stay for the night, the area being nice with the green grass and trees. He pulls out some of his hairs and made some tents, pillows, blankets, and other stuff they may need for tonight. "I know this isn't much you guys, but this should last until morning."

"This is perfect Wukong," Nezha said to him and smiled. "Besides, the trees keeps us hidden a little so if the demon were looking for us, they wouldn't be able to spot us that easily." Nezha added on.

"Plus, making everything the color green so it blends in with the environment around us. Gotta say Wukong, it's a pretty good idea." Macaque complimented him.

"Gee uh thanks Macaque." Wukong lets out a yawn. "Anyways I'm heading off to bed. Feel free to use a pillow and blanket I provided you guys and pick whatever tent you guys want." Wukong's picks up a pillow and blanket he made and chose one of his tents he created, getting settled in for the night. Macaque and Nezha did the same. Once he heard the others go into their tents and settled in for the night, Wukong comes out of his tent and walks away from their area to find some place to be alone.

Nezha woke up in the middle of the night. He assumes it's around like one or two in the morning. He comes out of his tent and decides to check up on the others, mostly Wukong though. He peeks in Macaque's tent and sees him sleeping peaceful, wrapped up in a blanket. He looks like he's comfortable. Nezha nods and closes his tent so he could go check on Wukong next. He's honestly surprised that Macaque can actually sleep with the nature sounds going on in the night, with his sensitive hearing and all. Nezha reached to Wukong's tent and peeked it open a little, but he didn't see Wukong at all. He closes his tent and looks around. 'That fool probably wandered off somewhere,' Nezha thought. He looks towards where Wukong might have gone, but he couldn't tell. He then sees footprints on the grass that lead to somewhere. Nezha decides to follow the footprints in hopes they are Wukong's and see where he has wandered off to.

Wukong wandered to where he had come across a lake and decided to sit by it, staring at it with his own reflection. The lake glistened in the bright moonlight, sparkled pure blue which comforted Wukong. He just stares at it thinking, 'What was their plan? How are they going to stop that demon? What was their strategy?' His head just hurts from thinking about it, until he heard rustling from bushes coming from behind him that interrupted his thoughts. He looks behind him and sees a figure emerged from the bushes, it was Nezha.

"Nezha?" Wukong asked with confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here to find you," Nezha responded and sat down next to Wukong, also staring at his own reflection in the beautiful lake. "So, why did you wander off?"

Wukong looks away from Nezha and stares down at the lake, hugging his knees together. "I just wanted to be alone," he responded softly.

"I see, so why do you want to be alone exactly?"

"I just needed to find somewhere quiet and peaceful where I can think. Like how we are going to defeat that demon or something."

Nezha just hums and nods. "You probably shouldn't be worrying about that right now. It's important for you to get enough sleep. We'll worry about this when we're all together. Alright?"

Wukong stand up slowly and just nods in response.

"Ok follow me, I know our way back." Nezha started walking towards where he came from, Wukong followed close behind him. They both walked side by side together, neither of them saying a word. Nezha just hopes that tomorrow Wukong can take on this journey ahead of them.

Chapter Text

It was bright and early in the morning the next day, the sun is shining bright, the sounds of birds chirping in the air. Macaque woke up from his ears perking up at those sounds of nature and decided he would get up. He stretches out his arms and yawns as he sits up. He uncovers himself from the blanket and peeks outside of his tent. He sees that Nezha is already awake and seems to be holding, some fruit? He looks around to see if Wukong was there. It seems that he wasn't awake right now. Macaque steps out of his tent and walks over to Nezha to say hi. "Hey Nezha." Macaque said, sitting down on a near by log near Nezha.

Nezha turns his head to face Macaque. "Oh hey Macaque good morning."

"Um, what are you doing with these?" Macaque asked and pointed to the fruit he was holding.

"Since I woke up a little early, I decided to collect some fruit so we can eat a little something before going. I know this isn't really breakfast but it's at least some snack to hold us over for now. Feel eat to eat some of this fruit." Nezha sets the fruit down on the tree stump.

"Thanks Nezha, much appreciated." Macaque picks up a mango fruit and took a small bite out of it. The mango was fresh so it tasted good. He asked Nezha something else while still eating his fruit. "Hey where's Wukong?"

"Probably still sleeping in his tent. He did have a rough night so it figures."

Macaque just frowns and turns towards Wukong's tent.

"If you want, you can go wake him up." Nezha said and started to walk into the forest. "Meanwhile, I'll look for something we can use to take the fruit on the journey with us," he added and walked deeper into forest until he was out of sight.

Macaque finished the last bit of his mango and stood up. He walks slowly and quietly towards Wukong's tent and peeked inside his tent. He was wrapped up in the blanket and was snoring quietly in his sleep. Macaque just rolls his eyes and tapped him a little. "Wukong wake up, it's morning already."

"Hm . . ." Wukong rubbed his eyes a little and blinked a few times to look up at Macaque. He jumped a little in shock when realizing who was in front of him "MA-MACAQUE-"

"Hush Wukong! Now hurry up and get ready. We're leaving soon," he said and walked out of Wukong's tent.

Wukong just blinks and sits up taking the blanket off of him. Once he was ready, he walked out of his tent. He sees Macaque getting stuff together and also sees some fruit on the tree stump. There was peaches in there! He rushed up to the fruit and grabbed a peach. He started eating the fruit slowly, tasting all of that good stuff in the fruit and then continued eating it. "These peaches are real good!" Wukong exclaimed and continued eating his peach.

"You should thank Nezha for the fruit," Macaque said. "He's the one who picked them out for us to eat."

"Hey, where is Nezha anyways?"

"Over here."

Macaque and Wukong turned to where the voice came from. Nezha came back from his little trip he took in the forest, holding of what appears to be a worn out sack.

"Sorry, this is all I could find. This should last us for a little bit though." Nezha said as he scoops up the fruit to put them in the sack and throws the sack over his shoulder to carry it.

"Nezha, I could of just . . . never mind." Wukong with the snap of his fingers let all of the stuff he created with the pieces of his hair disappear.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Are we going or not?" Macaque asked as he started walking backwards towards the dirt path.

"Uh yeah, yeah let's go." Wukong said as he started to follow Macaque, Nezha following right behind him. "Also, could you stop that backwards walking, it's weird!"

Macaque just smirks at him and then turned around to walk forward. "Aw why not Wukong. Does it bother you?"

Wukong just huffs in response. "Ugh, whatever!"

"Would you two just quit it already!" Nezha snapped at them as he pushed them lightly out of the way so he could walk in front of them.

"Man, what a prince that acts all childish all the time," Macaque whispered to himself.

"I heard that!" Nezha yelled as he turned his head towards Macaque, giving him a glare.

"Macaque don't be so hard on him," Wukong said to him as they kept on walking.

"Ok Wukong, fine!" Macaque said as he raises his hands up in defeat and then puts them behind his back.

Wukong just groans in response as they continued walking in silence, of what there is to come beyond this journey.

They have been walking for about two hours or so and things started to heat up between the three of them.

"Ugh! Can't we just take a break for one second already! My legs are killing me!" Wukong complained as he slowly kept walking.

"Not a chance Wukong! Don't you realize! The longer we stay in one spot, the faster the demon can catch up to us!" Macaque exclaimed.

Wukong puts his hand up to his chin to think of some other way to help his legs. He then got a bright idea. "You know what! I could just summon my cloud and-"

"NO WUKONG!" Nezha yelled as he interrupted him. "Flying in the sky on your cloud can make it easier for the demon to see us! DON'T YOU SEE!"

"But I wasn't going to do . . . ugh!" Wukong groans while still walking slowly.

"Jeez, what made you lose your temper lotus prince," Macaque sarcastically said.

That did it. Nezha stopped walking and jerked his head towards Macaque, giving him the coldest death glare. "Me, losing my TEMPER!" Nezha growled and stomped over towards Macaque, looking at him deadly in the eyes and just points at him, dropping the fruit sack. "You don't even know what 'losing your temper' really means!" 

"Oh I do too! You're literally showing an example of what 'losing your temper' looks like right now! This clearly shows it!"

Nezha and Macaque continued on arguing while Wukong just stands off to the side and watches them. He just sighs in disbelief as he looks around at his surroundings. 'What can I use to help my legs,' he thought as he looks through some bushes that are not too far off the path. In the corner of his eye, he sees a pretty looking gemstone, glistening in the sunlight. The color looked like it was a maroon type of color. Wukong gently picks up the gemstone as he watches it sparkle so beautifully. He walks out of the bushes, still holding the gemstone in the palm of his hands to see the others still arguing. Wukong clears his throat and decides to say something stupid. "Oh wow! Look at this pretty gemstone I found!"

Nezha and Macaque stopped arguing and jerked their heads towards Wukong. They see him holding a beautiful looking gemstone. Nezha thought it actually looked pretty, but Macaque was really the one to take interest in it. He walked over towards Wukong and puts his arm over his shoulder "My-my Wukong, that's some fine gem you got there!" Macaque grins at him. "You know, this gem could really be a nice touch to my dojo so, if you don't mind . . ." He tries to grab the gemstone from Wukong, but Wukong jerks it away from him quickly.

"Nuh-uh, I found this gem first so I get to keep it!" Wukong hissed at him.

"Oh please! You're probably just going to put it with the rest of the junk you have!" Macaque argued as he tugs on the gemstone with Wukong tugging it back.

Wukong let's out a gasp. "THIS GEM IS NOT JUNK!" 

"YOU'RE GOING TO TREAT IT LIKE IT'S JUNK THOUGH!" Macaque growled at him.

"AM NOT!"

"OH SURE JUST-" Macaque was interrupted when a burst of red light came from the gemstone and shot up into the sky. The light then splitted up into two and came crashing down towards Macaque and Wukong, hitting them both in their heads, knocking them back and then they fell unconscious.

"Oh great! Just great!" Nezha mumbled as he walk over to Wukong and knelt down to shake him awake, but he wasn't waking up. He walks over to Macaque to shake him awake. He wasn't waking up either. 'Great, what am I suppose to do now? Maybe just carry them to our next destination?' Just then he heard someone groaning like they're waking up. It sounded like it was Wukong's voice. He turned towards where Wukong was laying, but he wasn't the one waking up. He looks at Macaque who seems to be waking up, but he sounded like Wukong. Did they switch voices or something? When Macaque was fully awake, he started to talk.

"Man all I told Macaque is that I found that gem first, and what! Now he wants it!"

'Oh no, could it be? They switched bodies,' Nezha thought to himself.

When Wukong (in Macaque's body) decided to sit up, he looked around at his surroundings. Every seems fine after that incident. Nezha seems to be fine and Macaque, wait! He looks towards the other being laying unconscious on the ground. That was his body! He then looks at his hands. These weren't his hands! Now he realized what just happened. He was in Macaque's body. 

"Ugh my head! What happened?" Macaque groans as he sits up holding his head. The first thing he sees was his own body sitting up. If he wasn't in his own body, then whose body was he in? He looks down at the hands he has. They were Wukong's hands! 

"Great! Now look what you've done!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) said as he stomps over to Macaque (in Wukong's body). "We switched bodies because of you!"

"Because of me!?" Macaque (in Wukong's body) exclaimed. "You're the one that found the gem and caused this mess!" He stands up to face Wukong (in Macaque's body). He was very upset with him. 

"Oh I'm sorry! I didn't know you would be so interested in a gemstone and would want to take it from me!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) sarcastically said. 

"WELL YOU'RE THE ONE TO TALK! CONSIDERING THAT YOU WERE GOING TO THROW THAT GEM OUT ANYWAYS!" 

"WHO SAID I WAS GOING TO-"

"ENOUGH!" Nezha yelled pulling his spear out and puts it between the two of them to separate them. "Look, I get that you guys are upset right now. I would be too if I was in this situation." Nezha lowers his spear. "But fighting and arguing isn't the answer to this problem." He added on and looks up at the sky. "Now after that light burst into the sky, the demon probably knows where we're at and is probably onto us. We need to get going." Nezha says as he picks up the gemstone and sack of fruit and started to get a move on. The others followed behind him. "Nobody touch this stone while I'm holding it. It could result into bigger problems."

"So Nezha, where are we heading?" Wukong (in Macaque's body) asked with concern.

"Far away from this place." Nezha answers as he grips onto the gemstone tightly. "We're going to keep on moving, until we find a library . . ."

Chapter Text

"Why do we need to find a library at a time like this?!" Macaque (in Wukong's body) exclaimed as they continued walking on the path. "We have bigger problems to deal with right now like seriously! Like the me and Wukong body switch situation and-"

"I'm hoping to find a library nearby and find a book about this gemstone, to see if we can switch you guys back with the gemstone somehow! Does that answer your question Macaque?!" Nezha turns his head away from Macaque (in Wukong's body) and continues walking forward. Macaque (in Wukong's body) just gives him a glare.

"Hey, I see a city up ahead!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) exclaimed as he pointed towards the city in front of them.

"Indeed it is. We should head over there now. They should have a library." Nezha replied as he put the gemstone in with the sack of fruit and him and the others went ahead into the city.

After an hour or so, the three of them arrived in the city. There was a sign by the entrance to the city that read:

Welcome to Royal Village City

'Ok, weird name,' Nezha thought to himself. They entered the city to see lots of tall buildings. On top of that, they also had some nice beautiful parks for everyone to enjoy themselves. There was also some food and shop places here too, with people enjoying themselves having fun in the city. They continued walking until Nezha spotted a map directory of the city. They stopped for a minute to take a look at it.

"Wow, they honestly have a lot of stuff here huh," Macaque (in Wukong's body) said out loud.

"Ok cool, but we need to find a library on this map," Nezha mentioned.

"O-M-G!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) said excitedly, pushing Nezha to the side and pointed something on the map. "They have a huge mall here! We should totally go there! I bet they have amazing delicious food! Oh and a arcade!"

"Not gonna lie, Wukong here be speaking facts," Macaque (in Wukong's body) agreeing with him. "It would be the perfect place to just relax and have fun."

"Well we don't have time to relax and have fun!" Nezha argued while looking through the map directory more briefly. "Found the library." Nezha pointed to the library on the map. "Says here we continue walking down Princeton Street and then make a right on Knight Coach Boulevard, then the library should be at the end of the street of the city, with the forest behind it. Ok now let's get a move on."

"Wait! Can't we please go to the mall first!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) pleaded, his palms put together in a pleading pose, giving Nezha the baby doll eyes.

"No!" Nezha snapped at him while they started walking towards the library. "Don't you realize we don't have time to take breaks! Don't you realize the world is in danger right now! Don't you wanna switch back already and be in your own body again!" Nezha stopped for a minute, letting out a deep angered that filled inside of him. "Same old Wukong . . ." Nezha turns his head and walked over to him to yell in his face, "YOU JUST ONLY CARE ABOUT YOURSELF DO YOU! YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THE LIVES BEING AT RISK RIGHT NOW! WUKONG YOU FOOL, YOU ARE JUST BEING CARELESS OF OTHERS!"

Wukong's (in Macaque's body) eyes widened, letting out a small gasp, a lump forming in this throat. His lips turning into a frown with Nezha's words repeating in his head. He felt tears forming in his eyes and tried to wipe them away. Why would Nezha say something like this to him? He could get carried away now and then, but not to the point where he stops caring for others, he's changed right?

'Oh great Wukong, now you're gonna get my eyes all puffy,' Macaque (in Wukong's body) thought to himself.

Nezha still had his brows furrowed, glaring at Wukong (in Macaque's body), until his eyes widened at the realization of what he just said to Wukong's (in Macaque's body) face, his face forming into a frown. Why would he say something like this to Wukong? Of course he cares about others, like MK and his friends, he's changed. Sure he makes mistakes now and then, but he learns from those mistakes, right? He probably wanted to wash his stress away by having the time to relax and have fun during this journey into saving the world! It must have been horrifying for him to see the people he cares about most getting hurt. What has made him into saying mean stuff to his friends like that? Was the thought of seeing MK and the others get hurt getting to him, making him angry? Was that why he felt worry and anger inside of him and he just wanted it let it all out on others? Nezha just sighs and tries to make eye contact with Wukong (in Macaque's body) and gives him a apologetic look. "Wu-Wukong I'm . . . sorry. I shouldn't have said all that mean stuff to you. Can you please forgive me?"

"Don't worry Nezha, I forgive you. I know it's just tough for you right. You probably just wanted to let all those feelings out. I know you just want to save the world already, and so do I."

Nezha gives him a smile. "Well I'll tell you what, we can go to the mall after we're done with the library. Does that sound like a deal to you?"

His ears perked up at the sound of that, his tail swishing happily. "Yes Nezha, that sounds like a deal!" He cheered happily.

"Well, what are we waiting for!" Macaque (in Wukong's body) called out to them as he was already at the end of the sidewalk about to turn right on Knight Coach Boulevard. 

Nezha and Wukong (in Macaque's body) caught up to him to continue walking to the library.

A few minutes latter, they arrived at the library. The library looked nice, it was pretty big and tall and there was stairs that lead up to the front doors. The three of them walked up the steps and entered the library. Inside the library, there were a bunch of aisles filled with books. There were also some tables and chairs that people sat at in the center of the library to read books or to do whatever they need to do quietly.

"Ok just follow my lead you guys, and don't do anything stupid either," Nezha whispered to the others.

"WOW, THIS PLACE IS HUGE!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) shouted. Nezha quickly covered his mouth before he could say anything else, people glaring at the three of them for disturbing their peace.

"Wukong you idiot, you supposed to be quiet in a library," Nezha whispered as he uncovered his mouth.

"Sorry."

"Hey Nezha, how do you even know library rules anyway?" Macaque (in Wukong's body) asked him.

"Well, you could say I've been in a library before, or . . ." Nezha pointed behind him where the front doors were and posted on the doors were the rules for the library. "You could of easily read the rules for the library over there," he added on.

"Oh well that figures," Wukong (in Macaque's body) mumbled.

"Now let's not do any other stupid things." Nezha said as he walked up to the lady at the front desk, but Macaque (in Wukong's body) stopped him from doing so.

"Now-now lotus prince, let me do the talking," he said as he walked up to the desk and leaned on it. He cleared his throat to get the lady's attention. The lady looked up from her computer screen and then fixed her glasses.

"Can I help you?"

"Pardon me but I was wondering if you know where we can find books about gemstones, or ancient gemstones to be exact."

The lady looked back at her computer screen and then answered, "Third aisle on your right."

"Thanks, much appreciated!" Macaque (in Wukong's body) thanked the lady and headed over to where she said the gemstone books would be. The others followed behind him.

"That was the crappiest way to ask someone for help," Nezha said.

"Well it still got the job done, didn't it," Macaque (in Wukong's body) sneered at him. Once they walked over to the aisle, Wukong (in Macaque's body) just wanted to cry.

"How are we supposed to find a book about this single gemstone we have, in a place like this?!" He exclaimed.

"We're just going to have to look though every book until we find the book we're looking for, and remember . . ." Nezha pulls out the gemstone from the sack of fruit he had strapped behind his back. "This is what the gemstone looks like so find a book that has this gemstone in it. Now let's start searching." Nezha put the gemstone back in the sack and started picking out some books and looked through some of the pages to see if the gemstone was in any of them. Macaque (in Wukong's body) also did the same.

"There's no way that we're doing this! There must be an easier way!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) said as he kept on complaining about it, picking out a few books at a time and went through the pages in them.

"Well unless you want to be stuck in my body for the rest of your life, be my guest," Macaque (in Wukong's body) said.

"Ugh, whatever," Wukong (in Macaque's body) mumbled as he continued looking through books.

"Yes I found it!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) exclaimed as he raised the book up. After what seemed like hours, they finally found it. The others stopped what they were doing and looked at what he was holding. That was for sure the right book. He went over to one of the tables to set down the book. Nezha put another book on the table also. "Um Nezha, I think we found what we're looking for . . ."

"I know, I was looking through this book and it said something about this ancient artifact that could maybe in fact help us defeat that demon."

"Ok well anyways!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) turned to the page the gemstone they had was on and cleared his throat before he began reading. "This gemstone is-"

"Out of the way Wukong! I'll read it!" Macaque (in Wukong's body) shoved the other off to the side so he can read the book instead.

"Hey what gives! Why do you need to read it out loud?!"

"Because I have the better voice here," Macaque (in Wukong's body) smirked at the other. Nezha just sighs and shakes his head in disappointment. Wukong (in Macaque's body) just gives him a glare in response.

Macaque (in Wukong's body) cleared his throat as he began to read. "This gemstone is not just any other ordinary gemstone, it's a stone that has the power to reverse bodies of people who come in contact with it. Then blah-blah-blah in order to reverse this effect, you must wait for a day after using it. Then have the people who had their bodies switch touch the stone again to have them back into their own bodies."

"A DAY!?"

"Calm down Wukong," Nezha says to him. "It's already been half a day since you guys used the gemstone. The time should come tomorrow morning. Anyways, let's look at this book." Nezha pulls the book he picked out closer to him so he could read it. "Long ago, there were these three ancient gods, and these gods were very powerful. Unfortunately, these gods were hunted down by demons who try to feed on their power. The gods felt they had no choice but to get rid of their power, so they combined all of their power and sealed it away into a very special ring, hiding the ring away where no human or demon could find it. Legend says that whoever wears this ring around their neck will have the power among the three gods. This power can only be used ONCE to destroy any living being OR any powerful demon for good, probably including us immortals as well. The people predict that the ring is hidden inside this temple, so they drew a map to where this temple is located." Nezha pointed to the map in the book where the temple is located. "It's not that far from us, we should head over there after we're done here, see if we can get our hands on it."

"So if we do get our hands on it, who will be wearing the ring?" Macaque (in Wukong's body) asked.

"I think Nezha should wear it."

"What, why me?" Nezha gives Wukong (in Macaque's body) a confused look.

"Because you're a leader Nezha. Out of all of us, you're more responsible, using all that power and use it against the soul eating demon, none of us could never."

"No Wukong . . . I can't." Nezha said, backing away from the two of them.

"W-what, why not?"

"Because . . ." Nezha turned away from the two of them, his right hand forming into a fist. "What if . . . I failed. Failed to use the power of the ring. Failed to the point where I let everyone down, the world down. Like how I failed to protect the map from you."

Wukong's (in Macaque's body) face turned into a frown. He walks up to Nezha and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Nezha, you're not a failure. Believe me you're getting better and stronger each-"

"NO I'M NOT WUKONG!" Nezha shouted, pushing his hand off his shoulder. People around them started staring between the two of them. "I'm never gonna get better . . . I'm never gonna get stronger! Believe me Sun Wukong, it's not going to work out! Either you or Macaque should wear the ring if we get it, not me! You guys are way better than me! For me I'm just . . . useless!" Nezha felt his eyes are feeling watery. They were tears forming in his eyes. "Excuse me, but I need to be alone for a little bit . . ." Nezha summoned his fire wheels and raced out of the library.

"Nezha wait!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) calls out to him, but he already disappeared out of sight.

"What's with the child getting all emotional?"

"MACAQUE! I mean yeah sure he's been emotional pretty much through out this entire journey, but it seems that he has a lot on his mind right now. I think . . . he's afraid that if he's the one that actually uses the ring, he might . . . loose control of that power or the power might control him. I think he's afraid of hurting those around him, failing everyone. So let him be alone for a little bit. Let him decide on what he wants to do . . ."

Nezha went behind the library where the forest was and decided to lean back against a nearby tree as he was lost in his own thoughts. 'There is no way I should be using the power of the ring. I just gonna fail everyone. Like what if I accidentally used the power on Wukong or Macaque instead on the demon? That will just make me a bad person. Man I'm just so . . . useless! I don't even have the courage to even try to use the ring even if we get it! I just . . . I just can't!' Nezha felt a tear dripping down on his cheek and slowly wiped it away. More tears began to stream down slowly on his face. He tried to stop the tears from falling, but they wouldn't stop. Nezha then started sobbing quietly, sitting down against the tree and buried his face between his knees. 'I should of just had my soul taken back there. I don't deserve to be in this world anymore. I'm just a failure to everyone, always hurting those close to me.' Nezha realized that he still had the sack of fruit he was carrying, along with the gemstone he put in there behind his back. Maybe eating a little something will help him calm down a bit. He was getting a bit hungry after all. He took the sack off from his back and opened it to get a piece of fruit. He decided to pull out an apple and started to eat it slowly. After he finished eating the apple, he put the sack on behind his back, but it still wasn't enough to calm him down. He starts to sob again and buried his face again between his knees. What was he supposed to be doing now?

"What's wrong child? Are you lost?"

Nezha looked up and quickly wiped his tears away and saw two people standing in front of him. They looked like they were knights or something, both of them had swords too, along with the armor they wore. "No I'm not lost," he responded. "Who are you guys anyway?" Nezha made sure to keep a low profile. These knights looked like they are going to play tricks on him.

The knights looked at each other and then started laughing. "Oh sweet child, we're knights from the royal castle and we were given a task to find someone, someone like you."

Nezha quickly stood up and pulled his spear out, directly pointing it to the two knights. "Me, what for?!" Nezha demanded.

"Come with us and you'll find out," the other knight said.

"I'm not interested in tagging along with you fools!"

"Then you give us no choice . . ." One of the knights had a hand full of dust and blew it in Nezha's face.

Nezha fell backwards and dropped his spear. He gasped as he started coughing and tried to move the dust away from his face, but it was no use. After the dust finally cleared, his eyes began to feel heavy. Nezha's vision started to blur, and then he only saw darkness. He was falling into unconsciousness as he eventually blacked out.

Chapter Text

Nezha was face to face with the demon who was stealing souls from everyone it comes across. It was time to defeat the demon once and for all. Nezha has the ring in his hands and he puts it around his neck to receive the power of the ring. Nezha took his stance and pointed the palm of his hand towards the demon and lets out a beam of light at the demon to destroy it once and for all. The demon gives off a evil grin and quickly moves off to the side to reveal Wukong and Macaque who were behind the demon the whole time. Nezha gasped as he realized what was about to hit them. He tries to stop the beam of light from hitting them, but he couldn't. Wukong and Macaque tried to quickly dodge the beam of light, but they couldn't in time as the beam of light hit them and they dissolved in thin air, destroying them once and for all. Nezha was just traumatized at what he just did.  

"Wow, some lack of communication you guys got there!" The demon let's out a evil laugh, knowing that there is no other way into destroying it now.

Nezha fell to his knees, trembling in fear as to what he just did, his hands on his head to try to keep his thoughts steady. 'No, it can't be, I destroyed them, they're gone. I should of warned them that I was going to use the power at that moment at the demon, they would have knew to move if I had just told them before hand. The demon was right, I lacked in communication. This is all my fault, I knew I shouldn't have been entrusted with the power of the ring. They can't be gone. No . . . no-'

~~~

"NOOO!" Nezha screamed as he quickly sat up from his position. When he calmed down a bit he looks around. He appears to be in a bedroom of some sort. There's some really nice furniture in the room and a really nice chandelier above him sparkling beautiful, kinda of what a rich person would own. He looks to see what he was laying on and he seems to be laying on a bed. He wasn't going to lie, the bed was really comfy and looked nice. At the same time, he wants to know how he got here. 'Where am I and how did I get here?' Nezha thought to himself. The opening of the bedroom door interrupted his thoughts and there appeared a man who appears to be a king, a girl that appears to be a princess, and two knights. It looked like the two knights Nezha had come across with.

"Young man, are you alright?" The King asked him. The King was wearing a nice blue mantle for his looks and he had short dark brown hair with a dark brown beard. He had dark brown eyes and was also wearing a nice golden crown on top of his head.

"Yeah . . . yeah I'm fine," Nezha responded as he rubbed his head. He was still figuring out about these people who just came in the room. He then realized that he still had that sack he was wearing behind his back. He probably laid on it while he was unconscious, the fruit was probably squished up in there by now. Hopefully the gemstone is alright. He looked to the side of the bed and his spear was laying there right next to him. Nezha picked up his spear slowly and slowly got off the bed. He pointed his spear towards the others to prevent them from getting any closer to him. "Who are you people and why did those knights bring me here?" Nezha asked as he demanded for a answer.

"My apologies for not introducing ourselves," The King said. "My name is Edward, the King of the Dynasty Myth Kingdom (weird name I know) and this is my daughter Zarita."

"Hiya, nice to meet you!" Zarita smiled as she gave Nezha a small little wave while hiding behind her dad. Zarita is the same age as Nezha and was wearing a nice purple dress and she had brown soft silky hair. She had dark blue eyes and was wearing a small little sliver tiara.  

"You still didn't answer the second part of my question." Nezha hissed.

"So sorry to ask this young man before answering the second part of your question but, what is your name?" Edward asked him.

Nezha slowly lowered his spear and looked away from the others. "My name . . . is Nezha."

"Well nice to meet you Nezha! So the reason I asked my knights to find someone like you is I needed to ask that person a favor."

"Really? All that trouble just for a simple favor to ask of me? Maybe next time tell your knights not to put people to sleep and kidnap them." Nezha glared at the knights who were standing behind their King. The knights laughed nervously as to what they did to Nezha.

"Is that what happened young man? I'm sorry you had to go through all of that. No wonder you were unconscious when my knights brought you up to my castle. I thought they would actually bring someone that agreed to follow my knights. To be honest I thought you were someone who needed help, so I thought the knights were so kind enough to bring you here for treatment." Edward said as he closed his eyes and rubbed his chin. "But apparently my knights told me that you did agree to follow them and it was just that you fainted right after that." Edward gave the knights a glare. The knights shook in fear, knowing that they were in trouble.

Nezha put his spear by his side with a hand on his hip. "Well sorry to burst your bubble your majesty but your knights decided to lie to you when they actually decided to put me to sleep so they could take me to you, even though I didn't agree to follow them!"

"But-but your highness, we felt like we had no other choice!" One of the knights said. "Nezha here is like the only perfect person for your-"

"SILENCE!" The King demanded. The knights quickly stayed quiet. "Well my apologies for my knights rude actions Nezha. How can we make it up to you?" Edward asked him.

"You could join us for dinner Nezha!" Zarita suggested.

"Brilliant idea honey!" Edward agreed with his daughter.

Nezha just hums to himself. "Well thank you for the hospitality, but I really must be going," Nezha said as he started walking towards the door to head out. The knights blocked the door so he couldn't leave. Nezha became furious and wanted to push them out of the way, but he knew he shouldn't.

"Sorry Nezha but you can't leave just yet!" Zarita said. "Can't you just stay a little bit longer? We haven't even told you the favor we wanted to ask of you!"

Nezha just groans as he rolls his eyes. "Fine . . ."

"Splendid!" Zarita cheered as she grabbed Nezha's arm and runs to where the dinning area is.

"Hey! Get your filthy hands off of me and slow down!" Nezha yelled, but Zarita wasn't listening as she continued running towards the dinning area. 'Man how annoying can this girl get?' Nezha thought to himself. 

Edward watched as the two of them were heading over to where the dinning area was. 'I hope that they get along pretty well.'

"Can't we just at least check on him Macaque. What if something happened to him? It's been a while and he never came back."

"Trust me Wukong, that fearless child is just fine," Macaque (in Wukong's body) reassured. "Just give him a little more alone time."

Wukong (in Macaque's body) wasn't buying it though. He decides to just sit at the table with a boredom gesture as he watched Macaque (in Wukong's body) put the books away back on their shelves. 'Maybe I can sneak out and check on Nezha while he is putting the books away,' he thought to himself. He slowly got up from his chair and looked at Macaque (in Wukong's body) to make sure he wasn't looking his way. He quickly walked to the front door and exited out the library. 'I'm pretty sure he went behind here.' He went to the back of the library and found a forest right behind it. Wukong (in Macaque's body) walked into the forest, but he didn't spot Nezha anywhere. "Nezha! Nezha where are you!" He called out to him, but no response whatsoever. He then spotted a tree and he assumed Nezha was here as he spotted footprints on the ground, but he also saw another two pair of footprints. Something must have happened to him. He then heard footsteps that were getting closer to him as he turned around to only see Macaque (in Wukong's body).

"Wukong you idiot, I told you to leave the child alone."

"Sorry but I couldn't help it. I was getting worried about him, and apparently something happened to him." He pointed to the footprints that were on the ground which were Nezha's and two others.

Macaque (in Wukong's body) examined the footprints as he just nods his head. "You sure that he didn't just wander off somewhere else?"

"I'm sure of it and look!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) pointed to the deep print on the ground. "That print is like the size of a body! I'm pretty sure Nezha fell unconscious or something and those people with those other footprints took him away!"

"Alright-alright I get it! You're worried about Nezha and I can see why. I guess I can say that you're right about something happening to him."

"Yeah you see! I'm never wrong!"

Macaque (in Wukong's body) just scoffs as he looks to where the footprints might be leading to. "Do you even know where these footprints even lead to?"

Wukong (in Macaque's body) hums as he was thinking. "One way to find out!" He looked at the footprints and started to follow them to see where they lead to, Macaque (in Wukong's body) following behind him. He then looks up to see the footprints leading to a path. At the end of the path, he sees a big castle at the top of a hill. "You know . . . I think Nezha might be up there!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) exclaimed as he pointed to the castle at the top of the hill.

"Well Wukong you might be right. So let's head over there now." Macaque (in Wukong's body) said as he started walking to the castle. He turns back to see Wukong (in Macaque's body) wasn't following him. "What's wrong Wukong?"

"Oh I don't know but, isn't there a faster way to get to the castle? I don't want to walk up that steep hill!"

"Do you know how to use my shadow portal?"

Wukong (in Macaque's body) thought about it and slowly shook his head no.

"Well then that just sucks. I don't even know how to summon your cloud and use it sooo . . . looks like we're taking the long way so come on!" Macaque (in Wukong's body) said as he continued walking to the castle up ahead.

Wukong (in Macaque's body) just groans in frustration as he caught up with him to walk up towards the castle up the hill.

When Nezha arrived at the dinning area with Zarita still holding his arm, he actually thought it looked pretty nice and it was pretty big. Maybe a little bit too big for his taste.

"Come on Nezha, you're sitting next to me!" Zarita said as she pulled Nezha to one of the seats and sat him down. Then Zarita took a seat next to him.

Nezha decided to lean on his hand out of boredom as he waited for the King to arrive. 'Right after this, I am leaving immediately!'

Edward has finally arrived and took a seat across from Nezha and Zarita at the table. The waitresses brought some silverware for each of them and also served them each a glass of water. The waitresses served them each a plate of spaghetti with a side of garlic mashed potatoes. 

"Enjoy your meal!" The waitresses said as they walked away from the table.

Nezha wasn't too sure if he should be eating their food. Come to think of it, he really wasn't that hungry, he could wait, but he was kind of thirsty. He looked up at the others who appeared to be eating their spaghetti and drinking their water ok. Maybe there's nothing harmful in the food and water?

"So tell me Nezha, what are you doing here in a place like this?" Edward asked him as he continued eating his meal.

Nezha closes his eyes as he crossed his arms. "Well, you could say I'm on a journey right now, trying to save the world at the moment." Nezha responded. "You might just tell me this favor now so I could be on my way," he said as he took a sip of water from his glass.

Edward cleared his throat as he began to speak. "Well you see Nezha, me and my daughter had come to an agreement that things are really messed up right now. Ever since my wife has passed away, things have been hard on us. So our favor is if you could stay with us for a while, or maybe forever, I was hoping that you could . . . help us with our royal duties . . . and become like a part of our family."

Nezha just spat out his drink.

"EXCUSE ME! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?" Nezha snarled. He is definitely not helping out with this favor at all, his temper getting the best of him.

"Hey! You spat in my face!" Zarita complained and giggled a bit.

Nezha turned towards Zarita and realized that he spat the water in her face. "Oh, sorry about that Zarita," Nezha apologized to her.

"That's ok Nezha, you were just surprised that's all," she said as she grabbed some napkins on the table and cleaned her face.

"So Nezha, are you willing to do this favor?" Edward asked.

Nezha stood up from his chair and pushed it in. "Well sorry your majesty, but I don't accept to help you with your favor. Anyways I really need to be leaving now." Nezha said as he was trying to exit the castle, but the knights blocked him again to prevent him from leaving. Nezha grew even more furious at the attempt of blocking him to prevent him from leaving. He just laughs a little as to what he was about to do. "Fine then, if you want to play it that way . . ." Nezha growled as he summoned his fire wheels and took out his spear. "Then no more mister NICE GUY!" Nezha charged at the two knights and knocked them both down with his spear, making them unconscious.

"GUARDS!"

More knights appeared in front of Nezha to try and stop them. Nezha used the speed from his fire wheels and quickly charged at three of the knights and knocked all of them down with the swift of his spear. When Nezha tried charging again at more of the knights in front of him, one of the knights decided to stick his foot out in front of him. Nezha didn't see that coming and accidentally tripped on the knight's foot and fell face first, dropping his spear and the sack of fruit with the gemstone in it. When Nezha stood back up, one of the knights behind him grabbed a hold of his wrists to prevent from moving to cause anymore damage. Nezha tried to break free from their grasp, but it was not use. He tried reaching his foot out to pull his spear closer to him, but that was no use also. One of the knights picked up his spear and sack of fruit with the gemstone in it. Nezha just sighs because for him, there was no use in struggling to break free.

"I must say young man, I am pretty disappointed by your actions," Edward said as he approaches Nezha. "I'd say we have to put you in a timeout and think about what you've done. We'll hold onto your weapons and belongings for the time being. Guards, take him to the dungeon."

'Dungeon!?' The knights did as they were told and took Nezha to the dungeon. Nezha tried struggling in their grasp again. "Get your filthy hands off of me or else-!"

"Or else what child? You seem powerless now, there's nothing you can do!" One of the knights said. All the knights started laughing at his attempt.

Nezha sighs as he hung his head low. Once they made it to the dungeon, the knights tossed him in the dungeon and locked him up. "Hey watch it!"

"Oh we're sorry child! Did we hurt you?" One of the knights snickered at him.

Nezha got angry at the knight for saying that as he clenched his fists in anger.

"Anyways me and this knight will guard him. You guys can go back with the King." The other knight said. They did as they were told and went back with their King while the other two knights kept an eye on Nezha to make sure he doesn't escape.

Nezha let's out an angry sigh as he kicked a rock and sat on the floor and turned to face the wall with his arms crossed. 'Great! What am I supposed to do now? Who knows how long I'll be in this dungeon. Aside from that, I got my spear and the sack of fruit with the gemstone in it taken away. Guess I'll just wait and lay low for the time being . . .'

"Finally! After walking that . . . steep hill . . . we finally . . . made it!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) said as he was huffing and puffing from out of breath.

"Yeah I kind of agree with you Wukong, this hill was pretty steep to be walking on. My legs are staring to feel sore now."

"Wait, are you meaning to tell me that . . . YOU MADE MY LEGS FEEL SORE AFTER-"

"Shush Wukong!" Macaque (in Wukong's body) whispered as he covered the other's mouth and pointed to where the knights were guarding at the castle front doors. He pulled Wukong (in Macaque's body) behind a nearby bush so they wouldn't be spotted. "Okay Wukong, I'm going to say we need a plan to get past those knights."

"Agreed, and I think I just might have a plan . . ."

Macaque (in Wukong's body) was listening in on what his plan was.

"Since we both know we can't use each other's powers, we can easily take them down with basic combat. I'm pretty sure they can't fight very well with all that armor they have, but it might be hard knocking them out with their armor protecting them."

Macaques (in Wukong's body) hums as he was thinking about it. "You know Wukong . . . your plan is so stupid that it might actually work. We just need to punch them hard enough that they'll be knocked out for good."

The both of them nodded at each other in agreement and emerged out of their hiding bush and walked up to the knights. The knights noticed immediately of their approached and pulled out their swords and pointed them at Wukong (in Macaque's body) and Macaque (in Wukong's body).

"Stop right there!" One of the knights barked. "What's your reason for visiting the castle?!"

Macaque (in Wukong's body) steps forward to answer their question. "Dunno, you could say we're here to see the King perhaps."

"Well sorry no entry allowed!" The other knight barked.

"Well in that case . . ." Macaque (in Wukong's body) cracked his knuckles in preparation for what he was about to do. "Take THIS!" Him and Wukong (in Macaque's body) punched each of the knights and they both got knocked out.

"Gotta say, this worked better than I anticipated," Wukong (in Macaque's body) said as he lightly kicked one of the knights to see if they were waking up. "And plus, I think I might have another idea . . ." He pointed to the unconscious knights on the floor.

Macaque (in Wukong's body) smirks as to what he was referring to.

Nezha kept on pacing back and forth in his dungeon cell as he kept on saying things to himself. "I just wanted to leave . . .TO LEAVE! And they wouldn't let me! And he seriously want ME to stay IN THIS CASTLE, POSSIBLY FOREVER, to do some stupid ROYAL DUTIES?! Like COME ON! WHAT KIND OF PERSON ASKS STUFF LIKE THAT TO DO THEIR BUSY WORK-!"

"ZIP IT! YOU'RE MAKING MY EARS HURT!" One of the knights barked. After the knight said that, two more knights came into the dungeon room.

"The King demanded to see you guys at once. We'll take it from here." One of the knights said.

"Roger that!" The knight said and handed keys to the knight that just came in. "Keep these keys for the dungeon cell just in case." The knight said and the two knights walked out of the dungeon room.

The two knights who just came in stared at Nezha. Nezha staring at them back. "Seriously! What do you guys want from me?!"

The knights nodded at each other and slowly took off their helmets, revealing them to be Wukong (in Macaque's body) and Macaque (in Wukong's body).

"Wukong and Macaque?"

"In the flesh!" Wukong (in Macaque's body) said as he took off the knight armor he was wearing, Macaque (in Wukong's body) doing the same.

Nezha was too stunned to speak. "B-but, how did you . . ."

"Well, you could say Wukong here figured out where you were," Macaque (in Wukong's body) praised as he wrapped his arm over Wukong's (in Macaque's body) shoulder. "Anyways where is that gemstone you had. I would really like to switch back now."

Nezha nervously scratched the back of his head. "Well, you could say I did had it, but . . . one of the knights took my spear and the sack with the gemstone in it . . ."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME-"

"Hey-hey! Let's just all calm down and chill out and go find Nezha's spear and the gemstone." Wukong (in Macaque's body) said as he used the keys to the dungeon cell to unlocked Nezha's cell and let him free. 

"I think I know where they might be," Nezha said as he ran up the stairs from the basement of the dungeon. The others quickly followed him. They continued running through the halls of the castle without being spotted until Nezha found the room he was looking for. 'Bingo!' Nezha entered the room and found his spear and the sack on the bed. Nezha picked up his spear and Macaque (in Wukong's body) snatched the sack off the bed.

"Finally! We can be in our own bodies again!" Macaque (in Wukong's body) said as he looked through the sack and pulled out the gemstone.

"Yes finally, and the good thing is that nobody stopped-"

"THERE HE IS! SEIZE HIM AND THE OTHERS!"

The others turned to see that the King and a few knights were at the room door ready to seize them.

"You shouldn't have spoken too soon Wukong!" Macaque (in Wukong's body) said.

"GUYS! HURRY UP AND SWITCH BACK ALREADY!" Nezha yelled at them.

They both nodded and put both of their hands on the gemstone at the same time. A burst of light filled up the room and everyone shielded their eyes. Once the light dimmed down a bit, Wukong and Macaque felt themselves back in their own bodies.

"FINALLY! IT FEELS GREAT TO BE BACK IN MY OWN BODY!" Macaque cheered as he opened up his shadow portal. "Now let's hurry up and get out of here," Macaque said as he jumped into his shadow portal to escape. Wukong and Nezha quickly followed right behind him and soon the shadow portal closed.

Edward clenched his fists as to what had just happened. "You fools!" He turned towards his knights. "You let them get away!"

Chapter Text

After traveling through the shadow portal, Wukong, Macaque, and Nezha found themselves in another forest. The forest didn't looked nearly as nice as the other forest they went to though. This forest they see had trees and grass that looked pretty dead.

"Man, what happened to this forest?" Macaque asked.

"Don't know, but we need to get a move on and find that ring, before it's too late," Nezha responded as he started to walk through the forest. The others followed quickly behind him.

"You know . . . I'd say we start talking about the positives and stop talking about the negatives," Wukong suggested.

"Oh, like we escaped from this 'king' and the daughter that he wanted me to stay with them forever and do some busy work there," Nezha sarcastically said.

"He wanted you to WHAT!?" Wukong and Macaque said in unison.

"I . . . never mind." Nezha shook that thought away as he kept walking through the forest.

"So tell me lotus prince, what happened at the king's castle?" Macaque asked Nezha.

Nezha stopped walking and thought for a minute and then continued on walking. "Well, you could say that some of their knights put me to sleep and kidnapped me," Nezha said. "They brought me to his castle, I guess for this favor the King wanted to ask upon me," Nezha added. "That favor was to stay with them for a while, possibly forever to help with their royal duties. And as you already know, I have duties to perform back up at the Celestial Realm already. Then when I tried to leave, or should I say when I tried to force myself to leave because they didn't let me, they put me in their dungeon for a timeout." Nezha and the others came across a field of tall grass. Nezha went first into the field of tall grass as it was pretty hard to walk through. The others followed right behind him.

"So Nezha, were they . . . actually serious about that favor they were asking if you?" Wukong asked Nezha.

"Yes . . ." Nezha responded. "Apparently, it was to help them with the royal family and their duties, so that way things wouldn't be hard on them."

"Oh I see," Wukong said. "Anyways! Let's brush that off aside and think about other positives!"

"Like what Wukong? Switching back into our own bodies again?" Macaque asked. "Speaking of which," Macaque turns to Wukong. "Why does my body feel so sore after we switched back! Wukong, did you do something to my body while we were switched that's making me feel sore?!"

Wukong expression turned into a frown and then into a smirk. "Uh . . . maybe? I mean like . . . I didn't really do anything while being in your body that would make you feel sore. Right?"

Macaque thought about it for a minute and just sighs. "I guess you're right. I pretty sure you didn't do anything reckless while we were in each others bodies."

"RECKLESS!? ARE YOU SERIOUSLY CALLING ME RECKLESS RIGHT NOW?!" Wukong yelled at Macaque.

"As a matter of fact . . . MAYBE I AM!" Macaque yelled back.

"OH YOU'RE SO GOING GET IT!"

"ENOUGH!" Nezha snapped at the two of them. Wukong and Macaque quickly became silent. Nezha just sighs. "Seriously you guys, take this journey seriously. I know you guys don't get along very well, but do it for the world? For Mk . . . and his friends?" Nezha turns to look at the others. They both just started at Nezha and slowly nodded their heads in response. Nezha sighs in relief. "Well then . . . that's good."

"Very good indeed . . ."

The three of them looked at each other. None of them said that at all. They all felt a strong gust of wind. They looked up to see where the voice and wind was coming from, and there it was, the demon who was collecting souls of everyone they past by.

"You . . ." Wukong growled at the demon.

"Well very nice to see you again you three," the demon said.

"What do you want with us!" Macaque hissed.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" The demon smirks at the three of them. "I'm here for your souls of course."

"We will NOT be giving you our souls!" Nezha yelled at the demon.

"Well then . . . if that's how you want to play it . . ." the demon puts their hands behind their back, ready to take action. "Then I'll have to take your souls by FORCE!" The demon shoots a very fast bright beam of light from her horn towards the others.

Wukong quickly dodges it, until he realized . . . "WATCH OUT YOU GUYS!" Wukong calls out to the others. The others tried to quickly dodge the beam, but they tripped and didn't dodge it in time.

Nezha and Macaque got struck by the beam of light. Macaque says a few words before passing out, "Save . . . the world . . . Wukong . . . alright . . ."

"MACAQUE NO! NEZHA!" Wukong cries out to them.

Nezha and Macaque's souls got taken out of their bodies and pulled in the demon's body. After collecting the souls, the demon grew double in size, with all of that power she gathered among the two souls.

Wukong runs to Macaque's side. "MACAQUE, YOU CAN'T BE GONE AGAIN! PLEASE WAKE UP!" Wukong shakes his body to see if he would wake up, but no life or movement was there. He rushes to Nezha's side. "NEZHA, YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP, PLEASE!" Wukong pleaded as he shook him, but no life was found. Wukong looks up to see the demon hovering above him. The demon picks up Nezha and Macaque. "HEY! PUT THEM DOWN!"

"You know Wukong, your friends are pretty powerful I must say. They really powered me up," the demon said.

"GIVE THEM THEIR SOULS BACK!" Wukong yelled.

"If you really want their souls back . . . let's make a deal then. If you give me your soul, I will give them their souls back. If not, you will never see your friends alive again, sound fair? And by the way, my name is Mara if you haven't caught that already." She let's out an evil laugh.

Wukong didn't like this, he didn't like this. The thought of not seeing them again makes him feel hurt. He felt sadness inside of him, but also anger. Sad that he sees the people he cared so much about not alive. Angry about the demon stealing souls of so many innocent people. He feels that he has one job to do, to kill the demon here and now on the spot for revenge. Wukong clenched his fists in anger.

"Time is ticking Wukong. What's it going to be?"

Wukong didn't hear a word of what the demon said as he felt darkness taking over him. Felt only darkness inside of him, he couldn't control who he was anymore. He didn't care what happened to anybody or his surroundings, as long as the demon is gone for sure. Wukong's eyes started to turn white, his body only surrounded in dark power. Black was all you can see from Wukong, he became very dark. "You . . ." Wukong clenches his fists and teeth as his bared fangs showed. "YOU MONSTER!" Wukong roared as he launched himself towards the demon and punched her in the stomach.

Mara let's out a yelp as she dropped Nezha and Macaque's bodies and spat out their souls, her size shrinking back to the way it was before. Nezha and Macaque's souls went back into their own bodies, but Wukong doesn't noticed as he is only focused on killing the demon than focusing on anything else. Nezha and Macaque groan as they got up from where they were laying.

"W-what happened?" Nezha asked as he looks at Macaque. They both looked at each other.

"I guess . . . we had our souls taken . . ." Macaque responded. He looks around for Wukong. "Hey, where is Wukong anyways?"

Nezha looks around also as he spotted Wukong fighting the demon. "There he is." Nezha pointed to where Wukong was. "But I have a feeling that something is off. Why are Wukong's eyes white and why does he look very dark?"

"I don't know, but I know that it can't be good. Let's stop him before he gets too reckless," Macaque said as he summoned his shadow staff and joins the fight to stop Wukong.

Nezha does the same as he summoned his spear and joins as well. Nezha tries to call out to Wukong before making any moves, "Wukong! Stop this madness right now! It's no use in defeating the demon right now!" Wukong ignored Nezha's words as he kept fighting the demon, anger still filled inside of him. Mara kept on dodging each of his attacks.

"Wukong! Listen to yourself!" Macaque summoned his shadow clones as they tried to pin Wukong down, but Wukong easily brushed them off as he was more focused on killing the demon.

"YOU IDIOT! STOP THIS BEHAVIOR AT ONCE!" Nezha launched his ribbons at Wukong as they wrapped around him.

Wukong tries to break free from the ribbons, but it was no use. Mara sees this as this was her best time to leave. Wukong kept on struggling as he growls at the demon leaving.

Nezha and Macaque kneel by Wukong's side, but he kept on growling as he was still struggling in the ribbons.

Nezha shakes Wukong a little to try and get sense into him. "Wukong! Get it together already! Revenge isn't always the answer!" Nezha shouted at him, but Wukong was listening.

"Wukong, don't let the darkness take control of you!" Macaque said. "Become the light inside of you! Come on Wukong, fight it! Just know that your friends . . . are SAFE Wukong! YOUR FRIENDS ARE SAFE!"

That made Wukong snap out of it. His eyes turning back to normal and the dark power surrounding him fading away. Wukong blinks at the realization as he looks at Macaque and Nezha. He still kept growling under his breath. "I had her . . . I HAD HER!"

Nezha untangles Wukong out of his ribbons. "I know you had the demon where you wanted Wukong, but you were just loosing control. Getting revenge isn't the answer."

"I could have STOPPED her! I could have SAVED THE WORLD, but YOU GUYS stopped me from doing so!"

"Wukong, you were loosing control because the darkness was taking control of you," Macaque said. "If we didn't stop you, things could have gotten worse."

"I don't CARE if the darkness took control of me! As long as it was going to get the JOB done!" Wukong argued.

"Wukong! Think about what you could of done! You could of hurt us from your reckless actions! You could of destroyed everything around you! You wouldn't even listen to us! You were more focused on killing the demon!" Nezha said.

"Fine, if you guys don't want to help me get rid of this demon, then I will do it, BY MYSELF!" Wukong summoned his cloud as he took off in the air.

"WUKONG WAIT!" Macaque called out to him, but Wukong was already out of sight.

"Come on Macaque! We need to follow Wukong! He can't do this alone!" Nezha said.

"Agree," Macaque said as him and Nezha try to catch up with Wukong.

Wukong was zooming in the air on his cloud as he was lost in his thoughts. He let's out a huff as he said to himself, "I can easily do stuff by myself. Who needs friends anyways . . ."

Chapter Text

Wukong continues to zoom through the air on his cloud as he thinks to himself, 'Yeah, who needs friends anyways, but . . .' Wukong slows down a little bit to think it over. 'Is this really the best idea? Doing stuff on my own like I tried doing with the Lady Bone Demon? And then it just ends up in a disaster?' He decided to land his cloud and walk on foot in the forest. Wukong looks up at the sky, it's getting pretty late. Right now would be the time to take a break and rest up for the next day. Wukong decides to climb up a nearby tree and sits on the highest branch he could find. He stares at the sunset ahead of him with half lidded eyes as he had a flashback of what he said to the others:

*Flashback*

"I could have STOPPED her! I could have SAVED THE WORLD, but YOU GUYS stopped me from doing so!"

"Wukong, you were loosing control because the darkness was taking control of you," Macaque said. "If we didn't stop you, things could have gotten worse."

"I don't CARE if the darkness took control of me! As long as it was going to get the JOB done!" Wukong argued.

"Wukong! Think about what you could of done! You could of hurt us from your reckless actions! You could of destroyed everything around you! You wouldn't even listen to us! You were more focused on killing the demon!" Nezha said.

"Fine, if you guys don't want to help me get rid of this demon, then I will do it, BY MYSELF!"

-

"Maybe I was doing a bit too much," Wukong mumbles to himself. They were just trying to stop him from loosing control. What's the harm in that? If they didn't, then what would have happened? What would be the result in his destruction and chaos? He should be thankful they pulled himself together before things gotten worse. He should be lucky to have companions like them who care about him. So, why get angry at them for doing the right instead of the wrong?

Wukong clenched his right fist and shook that thought away. 'It's better off if I'm alone for a little bit. I can't be with the others right now.' Wukong decides to close and rest his eyes as he drifts off to sleep.

It's been a few hours since Wukong ran off. Nezha and Macaque had found no traces of Wukong as it was getting late, the sun was starting to set. They couldn't catch up to Wukong very well, he was just too fast on his cloud.

"Maybe we should just call it a day Nezha?" Macaque suggested.

"No, we need to find Wukong before it's too late," Nezha said.

Macaque nods in response. "You know, I have a feeling you could of just used your fire wheels and flew after him. Right?"

Nezha thought about it for a minute. He does have a point. "I mean . . . I didn't really think about that. He flew off pretty quickly to be honest, and I would have left you behind."

"You know I would have been fine for a minute," Macaque said. "As long as you managed to bring Wukong back and . . . find your way back over here. No harm would be done. Yeah?"

"I guess . . ." Nezha shook his head. "Anyways, let's split up. He went towards that way over the forest. Wukong probably stopped to rest for the night, so it should be a bit easier to find him, aside from it being dark." Nezha said. "Macaque, you go look over at the right side of the forest and I'll look over at the left side. Sound good to you Macaque?"

"Yeah that's perfectly fine," Macaque replied. "But uh . . .  where should we meet up?"

"We'll meet up at this tree in the morning. If none of us bring Wukong back, then we'll figure something else out."

"Ok, sounds like a plan." They nodded at each other and went their separate ways to go find Wukong.

Macaque has been searching for Wukong top and bottom for hours already, the moon and stars in the sky shining bright already. It was really late now, but he can't give up. He continues to look in bushes and trees or wherever he could be resting or hiding for the night, but no luck.

"Wukong!" Macaque calls out. "Wukong! Where are you?!"

"Wukong!"

Wukong's ears twitched at the call of his name as he slowly opened his eyes. Realization came to him when he realized that someone is looking for him. 'Oh no, it must be Nezha or Macaque! I can't let them find me right now! I should probably move to a different spot, and fast!' Wukong slowly sits up from his position on the branch and slowly climbs down from the tree he was on. Wukong walks deeper into the forest, father away from whoever was calling for him.

Macaque's ears picked up the sound of footsteps moving father away from him. "You think you can run away from me Wukong?" Macaque said to himself as he walks closer to the sound of footsteps and see a figure up ahead of him coming into view. He hides behind a nearby bush and Macaque realized that is was Wukong. "Got you now Wukong . . ." He emerges from his hiding place as he tries to creep up on Wukong quietly, without being heard. As he was about to reach Wukong, he stepped on a stick and snapped it.

That caught Wukong's attention as he quickly turned around to see who was behind him, it was Macaque. "Ma-Macaque?"

"Oh heyyy Wukong! How you've been?"

"W-what are you doing here?" Wukong asked him.

"Well duh, I'm here to take you back with us so we could continue our journey." Macaque said.

Wukong takes a step back from Macaque. "No . . . Macaque, I want to be left . . . alone."

"And why would you want to be left alone?" Macaque asked as he took a step forward.

"Because I just do Macaque! I want to be left alone!" Wukong cried out as he started to run away from Macaque.

"Oh no you don't Wukong!" Macaque tackles him on the ground to prevent him from run away, pinning Wukong's arms on the ground. "Don't you see Wukong! Being alone isn't going to solve anything! Believe me I know!"

Wukong kicked Macaque off of him so he could move. He summoned his cloud and zoomed into the sky, farther away from Macaque.

"No Wukong wait! Ugh! Not again!"

Wukong zoomed through the sky until he found the tallest tree he could find. He sat on one of the branches, hopefully Macaque can't find him. Wukong hugged his knees to his chest as he looks up at the night sky. "Maybe that was a bad idea to run away from Macaque like that . . ."

"Indeed it was." Macaque was hanging upside down from a tree branch above Wukong. "You're not going to loose me that easily!"

Wukong stumbles a little bit at the surprise and almost fell off the branch. "MA-MACAQUE, HOW DID YOU-"

Macaque clears his throat, "Uh, shadow portal duh."

"Well then how did you know where I was to be able to teleport to me then, huh?" Wukong gives him a questionable look.

"I mean, I just watched you fly off to point where you landed in this tree so here I am." Macaque hangs right side up and sits next to Wukong on the branch.

"Oh . . . ok then. It was that obvious huh?" Wukong hugs his knees tighter and buried his head in them, not even bothering to look at Macaque.

Macaque slowly puts a hand on Wukong's back as he gently rubs it in circular motions, trying to comfort him. "So, why do you want to be alone exactly?"

Wukong didn't budge or answered.

"Come on Wukong, you can talk to me, you can tell me anything. Was it because of what happened back there?"

Wukong nods his head, his head still buried in his knees.

"Wukong, look at me . . ." Macaque lifts Wukong head up a little for him to look at him, he had tears forming in his eyes. "Oh come on Wukong, don't cry. Everybody makes mistakes."

"Not like the mistakes I made though . . ."

"Ok, so?" Macaque tries to find the right words to say. "Trust me Wukong, you have a-"

"I'm sorry . . ."

"Wha-" Macaque tried asking Wukong, but Wukong cuts him off by hugging him. "Wukong, why are you-"

"I'm sorry . . . for the way I acted back there!" Wukong cries out. "I'm sorry for yelling at you guys! I'm sorry for leaving you guys! I'm sorry . . . about the past! When we were-" Wukong starts crying in Macaque's shoulder. They sit like that for a few minutes, only Wukong's sniffles being heard.

Macaque was the one to start speaking, "Hey, what's past is past. We can't change anything about it, but we could change what the future holds. Either something good or something bad, we'll never know."

Wukong nods in response, still sniffling after crying. His eyes start to feel heavy as he closes them.

"Woah hey, what are you doing?" Macaque asked him as he realized Wukong was closing his eyes.

Wukong just smiles. "Sleeping . . ."

"And uh, we are just going to . . . stay like this?"

Wukong hums in response.

Macaque just sighs as he should probably just drift off to sleep also. He will make sure him and Wukong meet up with Nezha tomorrow morning, hopefully Nezha is doing alright though.

Chapter Text

The sun started to rise in the sky, it was bright and early in the morning. A new day so new adventures await. Wukong was the first to wake up before Macaque and he realized he was sleeping on Macaque's lap the whole time. He slowly sat up, careful not to wake up Macaque, but it seems he already did.

Macaque slowly opened and rubbed his eyes as he yawned and stretched. He looked down to see Wukong awake, laying against his lap. "Hey Wukong. Did you have a good sleep?" Macaque asked him.

Wukong thought about it, the events of last night. The talk that they shared together, and eventually of him falling asleep. "I guess so . . . yeah," he responded.

"That's good, but we can't be laying here any longer. We have to go meet up with Nezha," Macaque said.

Wukong sat up from Macaque's lap. "Where are we meeting up with him though?" Wukong asked as they climbed down the tree.

"We're meeting up at a tree that should be easily recognizable. Me and Nezha split up up last night so that we would have a easier chance of finding you. Looks like I was the lucky one who found you." Macaque said as they continued to climb down the tree and landed on solid ground to, walking to their meeting place.

"You're sure Nezha will be able to find the meeting place though Macaque?"

"Pft! Of course that child will be able to find our meeting place! He's a smart kid, he'll know his way around!" Macaque said, stopping at their destination. "He should be here any minute now."

"Look! I think that's Nezha!" Wukong said, pointing to the direction of someone approaching them. It was indeed Nezha, but to Wukong and Macaque, he didn't look so good.

Nezha had some tree branches and leaves stuck on his clothes and hair. He looked soaking wet, and he had bags under his eyes. "Oh hey, I see you found . . . Wukong," Nezha croaked out.

"I did indeed, but uh . . . you aren't looking too good," Macaque said. "Did something happened to you? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, it looked like you went through some sort of swamp or something," Wukong agreed. "You sure you're ok?"

"Wh-what? Oh yeah, don't worry! I'm . . . fine," Nezha reassured.

"I'm not convinced that you're fine," Macaque said, approaching Nezha to take a better look at him.

"I'm fine . . . end of story," Nezha said. "Don't worry about me . . . getting cleaned up. I think I found the . . . temple. It's this way so let's . . . get a . . . move on." Nezha started to walk to where the temple was located. The others followed behind him.

Macaque pulled Wukong's arm to bring him closer to him to whisper something to him, "Is it just me or does Nezha sound like he's out of breath or something? Like he's having trouble breathing."

"Come to think of it, you're right," Wukong whispered back. "It's like he is sick or something . . . or I don't know."

"Alright, leave this to me," Macaque said. "Hey Nezha!" Macaque called out to him.

Nezha turns around to look at him. "Yes?"

"You uh . . . wanna take a break and I don't know . . . check out your mental state right now? It looks like you could really need it."

"Why? Are you saying that I'm having problems that I can't take care of myself?!" Nezha said, sounding offended. He then started coughing after saying his words.

"Uh, yeah I mean look at you," Wukong said. "And the fact of how you sound." He went up to Nezha to put a hand on Nezha's forehead. He was warming up. "Nezha, I think you have a fever. I think you're getting sick."

"What?!" Nezha started coughing again, his nose getting the sniffles. "That's . . . impossible. I can't get . . . sick," Nezha croaked, his breathing getting heavy.

"Welp!" Macaque clapped his hands together. "Sometimes the impossible is possible," he teased.

Nezha glares at him as he collapsed to the floor, his breath becoming more heavily. He wasn't alright!

"Ok yeah, you're taking a break Nezha," Wukong said, using a piece of his hair to summon a tent for Nezha to rest in.

"But-but-"

"No 'buts' Nezha," Macaque said. "Now come on mister 'I can take care of myself man' and get in the tent.

Nezha did as he was told and went inside the tent. Wukong also summoned a sleeping bag in the tent for Nezha to rest in. Nezha got into the sleeping bag to get himself comfortable. The others followed after him.

Macaque checked on Nezha's fever, it was getting worse.

Nezha started coughing and sneezing, breathing heavily as he did.

"Ok so how exactly are we supposed to get Nezha better?" Macaque asked.

"I may have an idea." Wukong took another piece of his hair and summoned a small cloth. "I'll find a nearby lake or river to soak this in to help Nezha's fever a little bit, while you go look for a plant that I know of that is around here and could cure Nezha's sickness."

"Why do I have to look for a plant though?" Macaque asked, a little annoyed. "Why can't I look after Nezha while you go find that plant? And are you positive that this plant you speak of is nearby?"

Wukong just sighs. "Ok to be honest Macaque, I don't exactly trust you being here alone with Nezha," Wukong quickly said. "And I'm positive this plant is nearby. Now go find a cave that should be nearby with a crystal like texture. Inside it should have a red looking plant. Find it and bring it back here as soon as possible, while I look after Nezha. Are we clear?" Wukong growled at his last word.

"Alright fine!" Macaque put his hands up in defeat. "I'll go look for that plant while you look after Nezha . . ." Macaque summoned his shadow portal beneath him to go find that plant and disappeared out of sight.

Wukong looks back at Nezha, his breathing being not so good, while he's resting. "Don't worry Nezha," Wukong assured him. "You're going to be fine," he said, walking out of the tent to go find a nearby lake or river to soak the cloth in.

Meanwhile, Macaque teleported himself to a random part of the forest to find that plant for Nezha. He started to get a move on to find that cave before it's too late.

"This should be a piece of cake!" Macaque said to himself. "Like just find this crystal texture like cave and this red looking plant, bring it back to Nezha, and it'll all be good! This should be easy. Right?"

Macaque rubbed his chin in thought. 'What if I don't find this cave? What if there was no plant in the cave, and Wukong lied to me? What if I don't make it back in time? What if Nezha . . .' Macaque caught a glimpse of something moving in a bush in front of him that interrupted his thoughts. He summoned his staff in case he needed to defend himself. When something emerged from the bush, Macaque was shocked.

It looked like a small little fox cub that emerged from the bush. It had blondish orange fur with bright blue eyes. The young fox cub looked up at Macaque with baby doll eyes.

"Hey little one," Macaque said softly, kneeling down in front of the young fox cub. "What are you doing out here all alone? Are you lost?" Macaque looks around. "Where are your parents?" he asked.

The young fox's ears dropped as it started to whimper.

Macaque just frowns, the thought of this poor little fox being alone. Macaque then thought of an idea. "I know what we could do," Macaque said, petting the young fox cub. "You could come with me, just until we find your parents. Or if your parents are not around looking for you anymore, well . . . you could come home with me. I think the dojo would be a nice place for you. Does that sound good?" Macaque reach his hand out for the young fox cub to climb onto.

The young fox cub debated whether or not to go with Macaque. But soon enough, the young fox cub climbed onto Macaque's hand.

Macaque puts the fox cub on his right shoulder.

The fox cub wags it's tail happily as it licks Macaque face and nuzzles against him.

"PFT OKAY-OKAY STOP! IT TICKLES!" Macaque laughs as he scratches the fox's chin. "Well aren't you an adorable little thing."

The fox wags it's tail some more.

"Anyways no time for chit-chat, we need to get a move on," Macaque said as he started walking again to where he was heading. "While looking for this plant, how about I think of a name for you?" Macaque looks at the young fox cub by his side. He looks at the blonde orange fur the fox cub has. It reminds him of Wukong. "Well . . . how about I name you Peaches?"

The fox cub let's out little barks in response.

"I'll take that as a yes." Macaque continues walking until he looks ahead to see a cave with crystal looking texture in sight. "Welp, it looks like we found the cave," Macaque said. "Guess it was nearby after all."

Macaque walks inside the cave with Peaches by his side. Inside the cave was a bunch of pretty looking crystals. The crystals really bright up the cave. "I must say, these are fine looking crystals. Wouldn't you say Peaches?"

Peaches let's out a bark.

"This plant has to be at the end of the cave if it isn't here," Macaque said as he continued walking.

After he said that, they reached the end of the cave. Ahead was the red plant Wukong was talking about, sitting on a tiny hill, with the sunlight shining down on it.

"Bingo!" Macaque walked up to the plant and picked it out of the ground.

Peaches let's out a howl.

"Heh, this is a victory, isn't it?" Macaque smiles at Peaches. "Okay, now let's get back to Nezha." Macaque was about to summon his shadow portal before he realized something. What if Peaches doesn't make it through the shadow portal ok? "You know what Peaches, let's walk back on foot. Better to be safe than sorry. Hopefully I'll find my way back ok," Macaque said as he continues to walk back with Peaches still on his shoulder.

After a few hours, Macaque and Peaches finally made it back. "Hey Wukong," Macaque whispered, approaching the tent where Wukong and Nezha were.

Wukong turns to look behind him. "Oh hey Macaque you're back, that's a relief. Oh and you found the plant."

"This better work Wukong, or else you don't know what I'll do to you," Macaque growls, handing the plant to Wukong.

"Pft! Trust me Macaque, it'll work. Already have the stuff ready to make the cure. Just a bowl filled with water, add the plant, and it'll all be good," he said, taking apart small pieces of the plant and adding them to the bowl of water. "I see that you also found a new friend on the way."

"Yeah, found this fox cub alone in the forest. Thought it could use some help in finding it's parents," Macaque responded.

"Makes sense," Wukong said, mixing up the bowl of water with pieces of the plant in it. "So, what did you name it?"

"Well it's name is . . . is . . ." Macaque stopped for a moment. 'Man, this is going to be real embarrassing.' Macaque just sighs and shrugs it off. "It's . . . Peaches." After he said that, he slightly blushed red in embarrassment.

"Did you name the fox cub that because it reminded you of someone?" Wukong asked him.

"NO!" Macaque quickly denies it.

Wukong raises a brow at him in suspicion.

"Well what I mean is I-I found peaches on the way and-and the fox cub's fur reminded me the color of pea-peaches," Macaque quickly lied.

"You know, you could of brought me some peaches if you found some," Wukong joked as he finished mixing the cure.

Macaque just huffs as he crosses his arms. "Like I'll ever do that for you."

"Relax, I'm just joking," Wukong reassured. "Now let's give this to Nezha." Wukong carefully carries the bowl and walks over to Nezha's side. He kneels down and places the bowl up to Nezha's lips to let him take a sip of the cure. Nezha slowly swallows the cure.

Wukong and Macaque just wait and hope that Nezha is cured. A few minutes after taking the cure, Nezha slowly wakes up. He groans as he sits up.

"Nezha, thank goodness you're feeling better," Wukong said.

Nezha just looks around to see where he was. "Was it seriously that bad?"

Wukong and Macaque nodded in response.

"Guess it was huh." Nezha stood up and walked out of the tent. He just stares up at the clear sky.

Wukong walks up to Nezha and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Look Nezha I-"

"I get it Sun Wukong!" Nezha interrupted, moving Wukong's hand off his shoulder. "What I said about me being able to do things on my own? That's . . . not true. I understand now that everyone needs help from time to time. So . . . thank you."

"For what?"

Nezha just shrugs as he half-smiles at Wukong. "For saving my life."

"You know, don't just thank me," Wukong said. "Thank Macaque for getting that plant for the cure."

"Yeah Lotus Prince. Aren't you going to thank me too?" Macaque asked Nezha.

Nezha just looks up at the fox cub that was sitting on Macaque's shoulder. He walks up to it and decides to pet it. "Well aren't you a adorable little thing~" Nezha cooed as he laughed a little bit.

"Wow Nezha, I never knew you could show emotions like that," Wukong teased.

Nezha just gasps as he blushed in embarrassment. He just looks away and crosses his arms as he lets out a huff. "Shut up. It's cute ok."

Macaque giggles a bit at the scene. "Anyways, you guys wanna hit the road or what!" Macaque calls out to the others. He already started walking a bit.

"Yeah, let's get going." Wukong agreed as he snapped his fingers to let all the stuff he created from his hair disappear.

"So which way is the temple Nezha?" Macaque asked.

"We continue down this way and it should be there," Nezha answered. "But be prepared for what we're going against . . ."

Chapter Text

The trio have finally continued their journey into finding that temple, get that ring, and use it to destroy the demon and save the world.

"Look Nezha, I'm going to be completely honest with you. What if the ring isn't in the temple we're heading to right now? What if someone already took the ring? What would we do then?" Macaque asked him.

Nezha thought about it as they continued walking. What if the ring wasn't actually there? What if he was leading them to the wrong temple? What would they do then if they didn't find the ring? What would be their plan then? He just has to hope for the best. He just wants this journey to be over already. "We'll worry about that later," Nezha answered. "And look," Nezha pointed out. "The temple is just on top of that hill."

"You mean THAT hill!?" Wukong exclaimed, not even wanting to go up that hill. It was really steep.

"Yes Wukong, we're going up THAT hill," Macaque responded. "Isn't that right Peaches?" He looks up to his fox friend sitting on his shoulder.

Peaches barks in response.

"Ugh! This is outrageous!" Wukong then spotted something that caught his eye. A bright red crystal that was sitting on the side of the path. There were also many more red crystals continuing on the path and up the hill where the temple is. "Oh this looks pretty~" Wukong said as he was about to touch it.

"Come on Wukong, not this again!" Nezha said. "Remember the last time you spotted something pretty and it ended up in a . . . WUKONG YOU BETTER NOT TOUCH THAT!"

"What?!" Wukong called out, but he has already touched the crystal. Once he touched the crystal, it shined a very bright red light. The crystal charged up a lot of energy, and then released it all out, knocking all of them back and landing hard on the ground.

"Ugh, seriously Wukong," Nezha groaned as he stood up. "This is EXACTLY why I told you NOT to touch that crystal," he yelled at Wukong.

"Sorry, my bad," he apologized as he stood up. "But hey! I don't think it did anything to us," Wukong said as he just shrugs his shoulders.

Macaque looks around to see that Peaches fell pretty hard too. "Peaches!" He approaches the young fox. "Are you alright?" he asked while picking up Peaches and placing him back on his shoulder.

Peaches let's out a bark saying that he's alright.

"If Wukong here is just going to be a whiner about walking up that hill, I'll just teleport us to the top. It may be risky for Peaches, but if it means we don't have to walk up that steep hill, then I'm down," Macaque said as he stood up to summon his shadow portal. But as he did, it kept on flickering and then disappeared.

"Macaque! What did you do?!" Wukong yelled. "Come on man, I DON'T wanna be walking up that steep hill to get to the temple!"

"I-I don't know what happened." He tried to summon his shadow portal again, but no luck.

"Oh well! Guess I'll just use my cloud to float up there while you guys are stuck walking up that steep hill!" Wukong summons his cloud as he sits comfortably on it. But seconds later, it just disappeared out of thin air and Wukong landed flat on his face. "But-but, what happened to my cloud?!" Wukong cried out.

Nezha just furrowed his brows in annoyance. "Well, our last option for avoiding walking up that hill is using my fire wheels I guess. While you guys hold onto me." Nezha summoned his fire wheels, but then they disappeared after that. He tried stomping his foot to see if that would work for summoning his fire wheels again, but no luck. Nezha just clenches his fists in anger. "Sun Wukong . . ." Nezha growled and pointed a finger towards Wukong. "This is YOUR fault!"

"MY FAULT!?"

"To be honest Wukong, I might have to agree with Nezha," Macaque said, putting an arm around Wukong's shoulder. "I mean, you were the one who touched a crystal that apparently had some type of energy in it. That crystal probably has something to do with us loosing our powers. And who knows how long until we get our powers back . . . or if we ever will.

"At least I have my spear," Nezha said, trying to lighten up the mood. "Probably not much help because I can't use any powers from it, but it could be useful for some situations we may come across. As long as I don't loose it because I may not be able to summon it back."

"You mean . . . we're actually walking up that hill?"

"Yes Wukong, we're walking up that hill, whether you like it or not," Macaque said as he scratched the fox cub's chin.

The trio then started to walk up the hill. So far it was going well for them.

"You know, this isn't actually as bad!" Wukong exclaimed. "Soon enough, we'll make it there in no time!"

"We're NOT going to . . . make it!" Wukong cried, gasping for air. "Like, I'm sweating over here . . . like I ran . . . a lot of miles right now, and that I'm . . . out of . . . breath!"

"I . . . just realized . . . WE'RE NOT EVEN HALF WAY THERE!" Macaque yelled, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "LIKE IT'S BEEN . . . AT LEAST . . . OVER AN HOUR!"

"Ok at this point, we're . . . climbing up a whole . . . MOUNTAIN!" Nezha said out of breath, while using his staff to help walk up the hill and wiping the sweat off his forehead too.

"We'll duh," Wukong said. "THIS HILL IS LIKE . . . THE SIZE . . . OF A . . . MOUNTAIN!"

"You know Nezha, it's never . . . too late . . . to turn . . . back! Like seriously, being around . . . these . . . red crystals . . . make me feel . . . WEAK!" Macaque looks over to Peaches by his side who was panting and needing like he needs water. Who knows if Peaches will make it.

"No, we . . . have to . . . keep going," Nezha said. 'Ok to be honest, I really do want to turn back.'

"Nezha-"

'But at the same time, what if it's actually worth it walking up this steep hill just to get that ring, and use it to defeat the demon?'

"Hey Nezha-"

'I mean like come on! The world is at stake right now! But what if the ring we're seeking for isn't actually in this temple? What if the ring is at a different temple?! WHAT IF THE RING DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST?! WHAT IF THIS WAS JUST ALL A MADE UP STORY?! WHAT IF-'

"HEY NEZHA, I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Wukong yelled at him.

Nezha jumped at the sound of Wukong's voice.

"Are you alright bud? Were you like daydreaming or something?" he asked Nezha.

Nezha clenched his teeth and fists, gripping onto his staff tightly. "Call me bud ONE more time, or else . . . you're so gonna get it!" Nezha points a finger directly at Wukong. "I am NOT your buddy OR bud, and don't forget!" he growled.

"Ok-ok! Sorry to upset you bud-" Wukong quickly covered his mouth before he could even continue. 'Oh no, I'm screwed . . .'

Nezha jerks around and grabs Wukong by the neck. "LOOK I DON'T KNOW WHERE THE WORD 'BUD' IS COMING FROM, BUT I'M LETTING YOU KNOW ONCE AGAIN . . . I AM NOT YOUR BUD! 

"But . . . Nezha . . ." Wukong croaked out.

'That child has serious anger issues,' Macaque thought to himself. But he knows that he couldn't just watch the scene and do nothing, Wukong being choked to death. Macaque decides to make his move. He pushes Nezha very hard to the ground, hopefully that made him snap out of it. "QUIT IT NEZHA!" he yelled.

Nezha blinks as to realize what he had just done. 'What did I just do? Did I seriously just tried and choke Wukong to death, just because of the word 'bud'?' He now feels guilty of himself. Nezha just hugs his knees together. "I'm sorry . . ." he mumbled as he buried his head. "I don't know what came over me . . ."

The two monkeys just frown. Wukong decides to walk up to Nezha and comfort him. He taps him on the shoulder to get his attention. Nezha looks up a Wukong. "Look Nezha, I didn't mean to call you bud. I probably kept on calling you bud is because I kept on thinking about Mk," he explained. "I would always be calling him bud. He was more than just a successor to me, he was my friend. I guess I just miss him right now a lot since he's not here with us."

Nezha stands up and puts a hand on Wukong's shoulder. "Don't worry Wukong, we're going to get Mk and his friends back, I promise," he said as he smiled.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but we should probably get going. It's almost sundown," Macaque said. "Aw, look who's asleep." he said as he looks over to Peaches, curled up on his shoulder.

Nezha takes a deep breath. "Alright, let's get a move on."

It was now nighttime, the moon shining brightly in the sky. The trio had finally made it to the top of the hill.

"WE FINALLY MADE IT!" Wukong cheered, but then he hears some weird sounds that were nearby. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Nezha asked as he looked around. Him and the others then see two foxes right in front of them. They looked a bit similar to Peaches, but bigger.

Macaque looks at Peaches and then back at the foxes. "Do you think . . ."

"I think so," Nezha said. "I think they're Peaches parents."

The foxes look at the three of them. When they saw Peaches on Macaque's shoulder, they started to bark happily, wagging their tails as they did. Peaches ears twitched at the sound of the barks. Peaches slowly opens his eyes and sees his parents right in front of him. He then starts to bark happily, wagging his tail also. 

"So this is how you got lost," Macaque said softly. "You couldn't walk back up here on your own." Macaque picks up Peaches off his shoulder and sets him on the ground.

Peaches started to run towards his parents, but he stops to look back at Macaque.

"Don't worry about me kiddo, just don't get lost again."

Peaches slowly turns around at Macaque and then runs up to him and pounces on him, tackling him on the ground. Peaches wags his tail happily and starts to lick Macaque's face.

"OK-OK STOP! I'LL MISS YOU TOO!" Macaque laughs.

Wukong and Nezha smile at the scene.

Peaches gets off Macaque and runs over to his parents to go say hi. His parents were so happy that Peaches finally returned to them. The three foxes walk away in the distance, their son finally home. The trio wave goodbye to the young fox cub.

"Bye-bye little one!" Wukong calls out. He then hears sniffling and looks next to him to see that it was Macaque. He was sniffling and had tears forming in his eyes as he was waving goodbye. "Macaque, are you crying?"

"What! No!" Macaque said, wiping away his tears.

Wukong raises a brow at him.

"Alright fine! I'm crying ok!" he admitted. "I'm just going to miss that guy!"

"We're all going to miss him Macaque," Nezha said. "At least he's finally home. Now come on, let's go inside the temple and find that ring."

The three of them walked inside the temple and see that inside the temple was pretty dark. On the other hand, there were the same red crystals that they saw earlier that lighted up the temple a little bit.

"Ok I'm not gonna to lie, it's still pretty dark in here. Even with all of the red crystals shining in here," Macaque said.

"Forget about the lighting. I feel like crystals are making me feel . . . weak," Nezha spoke out. "Just like you said."

"But look!" Wukong pointed towards where there was light. "There's light up ahead!" He said as he started running towards the light.

"Wukong wait!" Nezha called out to him as he and Macaque ran after him.

Wukong looks behind him while still running towards the light. "Pft! Don't worry Nezha! When there's light, there is always a way . . . AAH!"

"Wukong?!" Nezha reached to where the light was, and apparently there was a cliff and Wukong probably fell. He looks down to see a river stream and Wukong was in it.

"YOU GUYS HELP! I CAN'T SWIM!" Wukong shrieked.

Nezha just shakes his head in disappointed as he said to himself, "Wukong you idiot, this is EXACTLY why I told you to-"

Macaque then accidentally runs into Nezha, pushing Nezha and himself off the cliff also.

Nezha just glares at Macaque as he crosses his arms. "Watch it Macaque!" he yelled while falling.

"Sorry man," he apologized as he and Nezha landed in the water. Macaque rose up to the surface as he was gasping for air. "Nezha! Wukong! Where are you?!" he calls out while looking around for them.

Nezha then rose up to the surface from behind also gasping for air. "I'm over here!" he called. Nezha looks around for Wukong. "Where is Wukong?" he asked Macaque. "Have you seen him anywhere?"

Macaque shakes his head. "No, haven't seen him . . . WAIT!" He points to something up ahead of him, and it was something underwater. "That has to be Wukong!" He turns to look at Nezha.

Nezha just blinks twice at him. "Well . . . WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! GO GET HIM! YOU'RE CLOSER TO HIM THAN ME!" he yelled.

Macaque just rolls his eyes. "Ugh fine," he said as he dove underwater to go get Wukong. Macaque caught up to him and puts Wukong's arm over his shoulder and swam up to the surface, gasping for air. "Wukong, are you alright?" he asked Wukong.

Wukong coughs up some water, also gasping for air. "Yeah I'm fine, thanks," he said. "And I guess I was kind of being dramatic back there, I forgot water doesn't really do much to me," Wukong said as he laughs nervously.

Macaque rolls his eyes in annoyance. "Well duh, cause you're immortal..."

Then Wukong looks up ahead and starts to panic. "WA-WATER-"

"What Wukong, is something wrong?" Nezha asked him.

"WATERFALL!" he screamed.

"CAN THIS DAY GET ANY WORSE!" Macaque yelled.

Nezha looks around to hopefully find a solution to this. He sees a rock near the waterfall that he may be able to reach to. Nezha still had his staff with him and takes it out. He swims up ahead of Macaque and Wukong to reach for the rock, before they fall.

"Nezha, what are you doing?!" Macaque said.

Nezha puts his staff in the rock, hoping it would be strong enough to hold them. He then reaches out his other hand. "Grab onto my hand!" Nezha yelled.

Macaque swims over to where Nezha was and grabs onto his hand, with Wukong still by his side. The staff then started to slip. "NEZHA, I DON'T THINK THAT'S GONNA HOLD!"

Nezha looks up at his staff with a fearful look on his face. "I can't . . ." The staff completely slid off the rock, leaving the three immortals falling down the waterfall.

Macaque was the first to wake up as he coughed out some water. He stood up as he looked around to see that he was still in the temple, but at least he was on dry land. He also sees Wukong and Nezha unconscious after falling down the waterfall. "You guys ok?" he tried asking them to see if they would hear.

Wukong and Nezha both started coughing as they stood up. "Yeah, we're good," Nezha responded. He then turns to glare at Wukong. "But if it wasn't for WUKONG being reckless, we wouldn't be in this situation!"

"Well sorry, when I saw light, I thought it was a way out."

"Why would we want to get out of here when we haven't even found the ring yet!" Nezha yelled, but he then realized that something was missing. "Oh no, where's my staff?!" Nezha cried as he tried to look for it. "That was like the only defensive thing I had, since I don't have any powers right now! Maybe I could try to summon it again?" He tried doing so, but it didn't work. Nezha realizes that it was quiet, too quiet. He turns around to where Wukong and Macaque were standing, but they were no longer there. "Macaque, Wukong! Where are you guys?!" he called out.

"Right here child."

Nezha turns around to see that it was the demon, the demon that kept on stealing souls that goes by the name Mara. He sees that Mara had Wukong and Macaque in her grasp.

"Well hello there! My name is Mara." she said.

Nezha growls under his breath. "Let them go!"

"You know, I was going to steal the souls among the three of you, but since apparently none of you guys have powers anymore, y'all probably can't power me up. So might as well destroy all three of you, so that you guys can't spoil my plans." Mara then tries to crush Wukong and Macaque under her grasp.

"NEZHA DO SOMETHING!" they both croaked out.

"No please! Don't hurt them!" Nezha cried. He then started to panic. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't just fight her by hand. He would need his powers to be able to fight her. He tried to think of something, and finally got an idea.

Wukong and Macaque were starting to lose their breath.

"STOP MARA! LET'S MAKE A DEAL!"

Mara stopped crushing Wukong and Macaque and raised an eyebrow. "A deal? What kind of deal do you offer child?"

Nezha crosses his arms. "If you let both of them go, I'll come with you. I'll do whatever you please without spoiling your plans. Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do it."

"WHAT!?" Wukong and Macaque yelled.

Mara thought about it for a minute. Having one among the three of them was something, but having the chance to kill two of them right now is better. But Mara did have a plan up her sleeve that would be perfect for Nezha to help her with. She'll just do the deal. "Alright child, you got yourself a deal." she said as she dropped Wukong and Macaque. "Now come along child, a deals a deal."

Nezha walks up to the demon and as he passes by Wukong he whispers, "Get that ring and stop her, before it's too late."

Mara gives off an evil smile and uses her psychic powers to lift Nezha up and was getting ready to teleport away. "It was nice meeting you guys again. Until next time!" she laughs.

Wukong and Macaque look up at Nezha.

Nezha stares at them and closes his eyes as he had tears forming in his eyes. 'Good luck . . ' Then Nezha and the demon disappeared.

"NO NEZHA!" Wukong cried out as he had tears forming in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Wukong," Macaque said quietly. "He did it to protect us."

Wukong then bursts into tears and slams his fist on the ground in anger and sadness. "NO, WE WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT NEZHA! I WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT MK, HIS FRIENDS, EVERYONE! I HAD YET FAILED TO PROTECT . . . ONCE AGAIN!"

Chapter Text

MK had invited Nezha over at Pigsy's Noodles for him and MK's friends to just hangout. Nezha agreed that he would come over to Pigsy's Noodles. He decided not to wear his normal outfit but a regular outfit instead to blend in. Once Nezha arrived at Pigsy's Noodles, he just stares at the building. 'Maybe this was a bad idea,' he thought to himself. 'I mean, I haven't really socialized with quite a few people in a while.' Nezha just shakes that thought away as he just went for it. He knocks on the door and waits for someone to welcome him.

Sooner or later, MK opened the door. "Hey Nezha!" MK greeted him. "Glad you could make it!"

Nezha smiles at the boy. "Well it was really nice of you to invite me here child."

"Think nothing of it!" MK waved it off.

"Alright! Looks like flower boy did show up after all!" Mei cheered as she approached Nezha and MK. "Now come on!" Mei said as she grabs Nezha's arm. "We're going to have noodles, play games, watch movies, and much more!" she said as she sat Nezha down at the table, and sat herself down.

MK also sat down at the table too, along with Tang and Sandy. "So tell me Nezha, how have things been with you lately?" MK asked Nezha. "Since you don't have to guard that map anymore?"

Nezha thought about it. "Well, it's been quiet lately, and I don't know. Just life going on at the moment?"

"Third Lotus Prince Nezha!" Tang squealed. "You got to show me how you use your staff, your fire wheels, and-and your fighting skills, and-!"

"How about later?" Nezha suggested.

"Alright-alright, later," Tang said, a little disappointed.

"Noodles are ready!" Pigsy said as he passed out bowls of noodles to everyone at the table, including himself as he seated himself at the table.

"After we're done eating our noodles, I'll make tea for all of us!" Sandy said.

"That sounds great big guy," Pigsy said. He then noticed Nezha wasn't eating his noodles. "Are you doing alright kiddo?" Pigsy asked Nezha. "Are the noodles not that great to you?"

Nezha looks up from his bowl of noodles. "No-no, the noodles are fine!" he stated. "It's just that . . . I never really got to hangout with people in a while," he said. "And hanging out with all of you guys is nice. It makes me feel good inside," he added. "I guess you could say, I've been kind of . . . lonely. Especially when I was guarding the map. I never really had people over, or go to other places to hangout with others. And . . . I guess I just like having company."

MK started to sniffle as he had tears running down his cheeks. "That was like the most beautiful thing I ever heard," he cried as he hugs the third Lotus Prince. "Don't worry Nezha, we're glad to have you as a friend," MK said.

Everybody else also joins in the embrace. Nezha had tears forming in his eyes as he let's them run down his cheeks. 'I'm lucky to have good friends . . .'

~~~

Nezha woke up, pain running through his body. He blinks a few times to blur out his vision, until everything came clear. 'Was it all just a dream? I guess it was. I kinda wish . . . I can go back to that dream. Have that feeling . . . that nice feeling.' Nezha felt some wetness on his face. He decides to reach his face and touch it, it felt like dried wet tears. 'Have I been crying in my sleep? Or was that . . . from before?'  He then notices something wrapped around both of his wrists as he stood up. Nezha looks around and found out that they were chains, black chains. They're wrapped around Nezha's ankles as well.

Nezha tries to break free from the chains, but no luck. He then looks around some more. He was also trapped in a black cage that was hanging from above, above some lava, purple lava as a matter of fact. He sees the soul eating demon Mara looking at some monitors, computers or whatever it was. There were also many different electronics and machines surrounding this place.

Nezha felt that something was off though. He felt that his throat was a bit scratchy and that it was choking him a little. Nezha looks down by his neck and there was what looked like a ring that was wrapped around his neck. It looked EXACTLY like the ring they were trying to search for, but it was purple instead. "What is this-"

"Rise and shine sleepy head!" Mara said as she turned to look up at Nezha.

"The deal was that I was supposed to do whatever you want, not imprison me!" Nezha yelled.

"But this is part of the deal though," she said calmly. "You're doing what I want you to be doing right now, which is being in those chains and in the cage, just for me. Which you did say that you'll do anything I want, even if that means imprison you."

Nezha growls under his breath. "Then what is this thing on my neck!" he demanded.

Mara just hums at the saying. "It's a pretty ring that I found in that temple you were in. Just made some modifications to it, it looks better now."

Nezha processed what she was trying to say, until it hit him. 'She got to the ring before us! But how? How did she know there was a powerful artifact in the temple I was just in? And now the ring is on me. But I don't want this ring on me! Not yet! I am not prepared! I am not ready to use the power of the ring! What if . . . she tells me to use the power of the ring against my . . . friends.' Nezha just shakes his head. "How did you find that ring before us?! How did you even know about it?!"

"Well, you could say that I saw the three of you walking up that hill to get to that temple," Mara said. "So I decided to go check it out myself, by teleporting inside of the temple. And there it was, a beautiful ring sitting on top of a statue. But then I decided, 'maybe I should wait in this temple to see if the three immortals show up, so I can snatch their souls once they get here.' And yeah, here we are now," she explained.

Nezha couldn't believe it. The whole time, she saw them walking up that hill to get to the temple, and decided that she would beat us to it. And the fact that he told Wukong to go find that ring and stop her, when the ring is right here. This really made him feel guilty. How were Wukong and Macaque going to stop her now?

"No hard feelings Nezha," Mara said as she took out to what seems to be a remote.

"Well you better not hurt the people I've been traveling with!" Nezha yelled.

"Aw don't worry sweet Nezha, I'm not going to hurt your friends . . ." Mara said, an evil grin appearing on her face as she points the remote at Nezha.

Nezha felt a panic attack rising in his chest as to what the demon was about to do.

"YOU ARE!" She pushed the button on the remote and the ring Nezha had on his neck started to shine a bright purple.

Nezha started to scream in pain as it flows through his body, his eyes beginning to turn into a purple color. Nezha tried to gain control of himself, but it was no use. "NO . . . NO! YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!" he cried as he tries to get the ring off his neck.

"Oh, but I already have," she said as she let's out an evil laugh.

Nezha's vision started to blur as his vision began to fade into black, his mind becoming blank as he collapsed.

Mara smiles at the unconscious Nezha. "Well then . . . my champion, destroy these people you call 'friends' using the power of the ring!" she commanded.

Nezha still did not moved, until he finally stood up and bows down towards Mara. "Whatever you say . . ." Nezha looks up at Mara with purple lifeless eyes as an evil smile forms on his face. "My master . . ."

Chapter Text

"We have to go after him! We have to go find Nezha! Macaque, we have to think of something-!"

"There's no time Wukong," Macaque interrupted him. "We have to find that ring and stop that demon before it's too late, and hopefully save Nezha too." Macaque kneels down and puts a hand on Wukong's shoulder. "That's what Nezha would have wanted us to do. Right?"

Wukong wipes his tears away and nods his head in response. He knows for a fact that Macaque is right. Nezha wouldn't want them to just stand around, trying to figure out how to save him. He would want them to save the world, before it's too late. Nezha told Wukong before he left with the demon to find that ring and use it to destroy the demon, once and for all, and save the world. So that's what they are going to do!

"Alright," Wukong said as he stood up, with a determined look on his face. "Let's go."

"Go where?" Macaque asked. "There is literally three different paths up ahead, so how do we know which path to take?"

Wukong closes his eyes as he thinks. Which path would they take? Once he opened his eyes, he points towards the path on the left. "This way," Wukong said, walking towards the path on the left as Macaque followed him.

"And how can you be so sure?"

"I'm just going with my gut," Wukong answered. "Whatever my guts tell me, I'll follow them."

"This could have been so much easier if we had our powers back," Macaque mumbled.

"Hey cheer up," Wukong said. "As long as we get rid of that demon for good, we should be-" Wukong tripped on a rope that looked like a trap. Right above him came a stone round boulder crashing down on him.

Macaque acted as fast as he could and pulled Wukong back up to his feet, moving him out of the way of being crushed on.

"Thank-"

"Shut up and run!" Macaque yelled as he ran off, leaving Wukong behind.

Wukong looks back behind him to see what Macaque was talking about, and it was about the stone round boulder rolling towards them. "OK-OK I'M RUNNING!" he yelled as he started running to get away from the rolling boulder. Wukong caught up to Macaque, the boulder still closing in on them. He sees up ahead a wall sliding down from above that was about to close on them. "We're not going to make it!" Wukong cried.

"Oh yes we will . . ." Macaque said as he started to run faster, Wukong doing the same. He grabbed Wukong by the arm and slid him under the wall door, to the other side. Macaque then slides under the wall door, before it closed right behind him. Once the wall door closed, they heard a loud thump coming from the big boulder that crashed into the wall door. "Are you alright?" Macaque asked Wukong as he stood up, brushing the dust and dirt off his clothes.

"Yeah . . . yeah I'm fine," he responded as he stood up. "What is this place?" Wukong asked as he looks around.

Macaque does the same. He sees nothing more but red lights coming from the crystals they saw earlier, and what seems like a hallway towards another room up ahead. "Come on, follow me."

Wukong follows Macaque as they walked through the hallway, and into another room.

In this room were rock pillars, which looks like you can hop on one another to prevent you from falling down for who knows how long. On the other side was something that neither of the monkeys couldn't really tell what it was.

"I'm pretty sure the ring has to be on the other side," Macaque said. "So how exactly are we suppose to get to the other side?"

"Pft! That's easy! We just hop on these rock pillars to the other side!"

"Wukong, I don't think those are-!"

Wukong hops onto one of the rock pillars, and nothing happened. "See, what did I tell you! There's nothing-!" But then the rock pillar Wukong was on started crumble. He panicked as he jumped back to where he started, right next to Macaque. The rock pillar completely crumbled and fell down.

"What I was trying to tell you is that some of those rock pillars don't look SAFE!"

"Ok-ok, I'm sorry. I guess I just wasn't thinking before acting," Wukong apologized.

Macaque looks at the rock pillars as he squints his eyes, trying to seeing which ones were safe and which ones aren't. "Ok, I think I got it."

"Are you sure about that?" Wukong asked him.

"I'm just going with my gut, just like you said," Macaque said as he smirks at Wukong.

Wukong just sighs in response.

"Just follow my lead. One more thing is that none of us can be on the same pillar at once. Both of us being on the same pillar can most likely cause the pillar to crumble because of our weight. When I jump onto the next pillar, you follow. You got that?"

"Are you saying that I'm too heavy?!"

"Hmm . . . maybe." Macaque hops onto a rock pillar and waits to see if it's going to crumble, but nothing happened, so he's going to assume that it's safe. Macaque jumps onto the next pillar as Wukong followed. He waits again to see if it's going to start crumbling, again nothing happened. After going across a few more rock pillars, Macaque made it to the other side, followed by Wukong.

"Finally made it!" Wukong said in relief.

"It didn't take us that long to get to this side you know," Macaque said, walking up to the stone rostrum structure like that they see ahead of them, with a beam of light shining down on it.

"The ring has to be on there!" Wukong said, rushing up to the stone rostrum. "And now may I present you . . . THE RINGGG . . . oh . . ."

"What-what! Is something wrong Wukong?" Macaque asked, walking up to the stone rostrum to see nothing but a print of the ring where it used to sit. "Wukong, I think . . . somebody already took it . . ."

"Oh great, just great! What are we supposed to do now?!"

Just then, the room they were in started to shake. Some of the rock pillars crumbled and pieces of the temple started to fall apart. The ceiling was what started to crumble the most. Pieces of it started to fall, and then a big hole formed in the ceiling, with something crashing down upon the monkeys, or rather someone. Once the dust cleared to reveal what or who it was, the monkeys were shocked to see that it was actually Nezha.

"Nezha? Is that you?" Wukong asked.

"Yes, it is indeed me Wukong," Nezha responded as he approaches Wukong and Macaque. "I managed to escape that horrible demon~"

Macaque furrowed his brows in suspicion. Something wasn't right about Nezha. Like first of all, what was that thing he was wearing around his neck? Why were his eyes the color purple? How did he have his staff back? Pretty sure he lost his powers and couldn't summon it till then, so why is that?

Wukong starts to approach Nezha slowly. "We were so worried about you-!"

Macaque stops Wukong from going any further.

"What's the big deal Macaque!"

"That is NOT Nezha . . . not anymore."

"What to do mean?" Wukong asked him, a little bit irritated.

Macaque pulls Wukong closer into a little group huddle, so that only he can hear. "Are you blind Wukong? Don't you see any changes on Nezha. Anything at all that makes you think that he isn't himself," he whispers.

Wukong looks back at Nezha. Come to think of it, he did see a couple of changes on Nezha. Like the purple eyes, the thing around his neck that wasn't there before, and the fact that he got his staff back. Pretty sure he lost his powers, so there was no way he was able to summon his staff again, right?

"Oh come on Macaque, don't you trust me~" Nezha said in a hurtful tone, continuing to approach Wukong and Macaque.

Macaque breaks up the group huddle. "Oh I trust Nezha alright!" Macaque said, getting into a fighting stance. "Who I don't trust though . . . is someone like you right now. So back off!"

Nezha backs up a little, his hands in a defensive manner. "Alright fine! Whatever you say!" he said as a evil smile forms on his face.

"And I say I want answers from you!" Wukong yelled, charging at Nezha.

"WUKONG DON'T-!"

Wukong tries to land a punch on Nezha, but he caught it instead. Wukong's punch really didn't do anything, considering that he lost his powers. He tries to break free from Nezha's grasp, but it was too strong.

"Man, I thought you can do better than that. Well I guess since you lost your powers, you're kind of weak now huh," Nezha said, letting go of Wukong's fist and pushed him to the ground to irritate Wukong a bit. He crosses his arms and leaves off a smirk. "I mean, I guess since you wanna fight . . ." Nezha summoned his fire wheels, gripping onto his staff tighter, purple lotus petals swirling around him. "Then let's fight!" He throws his staff towards Wukong and Macaque.

They both quickly dodged it before it could even strike them. Nezha then made his staff transform in those purple lotus petals which sharpened and aimed them at Wukong and Macaque. Once again, they quickly dodged the attack. Since neither of them had their powers back, they couldn't really do much to fight back.

Macaque then noticed something, the thing on Nezha's neck. He looks at the stone rostrum structure like thing and then looks back at Nezha. Could it be? "This all makes sense now!"

"Uh literally nothing makes sense right now!" Wukong said, dodging more of the lotus petals.

"The thing on Nezha's neck . . . is the ring we were trying to get!"

"So you're saying that Nezha took the ring?"

"I highly doubt that. I think the demon took the ring already while she was here, and then probably put it on Nezha while he was unconscious, or something," Macaque explained, dodging more of the lotus petals. "Sounds like the ring has other capable things as well that we don't know about, aside from that one power that can only be used once."

"Like what?"

"Noticed how Nezha got his powers back? Maybe the ring has something to do with it."

"Ok, but how is Nezha being controlled?" Wukong asked.

"Well, if you remember back at the library where we looked at the book about the ring, the picture of the ring was yellow. I'm going to assume that Mara did some changes on the ring, like changing the color and maybe some type of thing in the ring that let's her control Nezha."

"Well then, I guess that makes-"

Nezha wraps around Wukong and Macaque with his ribbons and throws them against the temple walls. They both felt pain running through their bodies as they fell to the ground. They tried to get up, but considering how weak they feel they couldn't, especially with all those red crystals in the room wasn't helping.

"Well that was fun while it lasted!" Nezha said, approaching Wukong and Macaque, while adjusting the ring on his neck and the rings he had on his wrists that he always had. "You know, my task was to destroy the both of you with the power of the ring, but . . . " Nezha grips onto both of the monkeys shirts, pulling them closer to him, and let's off an evil grin as he laughs. "I think my master would like to witness this moment too . . ."

Chapter Text

Macaque slowly opens his eyes as to find out where he was at. He groans as he looks around, nothing but black and darkness. He was hovering in one place which seems like to him that there was no gravity or something. It seems like he appears to be in some sort of void. Macaque looks around some more to try and find Wukong. "Wukong!" Macaque calls out. "Wukong where are you?!"

"I'm right here now stop yelling at me."

Macaque turns around behind him to see Wukong right there. "Ok but like where did you come from?"

"I don't know, same goes for you," Wukong said as he looks around. "Where, are we?"

"Not sure," Macaque said. "Last that I remembered was us being captured . . . by Nezha. That's when I started to black out, but I remember him saying something about taking us to his master, which I'm pretty sure it's the soul eating demon to destroy us."

"Ok that's great, but we need to find a way out of here! Save the world and save-!"

"Wukong . . ." Macaque interrupts him and turns Wukong around to face the opposite way of him to see something else floating in the void in the distance, or someone. Wukong gasps to see that it was Nezha. He seemed to be his normal self, no purple ring around his neck at all, but pink light shining around him. Nezha was in a meditating position and he looked like he was trying to concentrate very hard.

"Nezha!" Wukong called out to him. "Nezha can you hear me!"

Nezha didn't budge one bit, still in his meditating position, his eyes still closed.

Wukong tries to swim in midair to get to Nezha, but that didn't work.

Macaques grabs Wukong's arm to stop him. "Look, I'll throw you over to Nezha to get closer to him. See if you can get his attention alright?"

Wukong nods in agreement.

Macaque spins Wukong around by the arm and throws him over towards Nezha.

Wukong got closer to Nezha, as he stopped himself before accidentally bumping into him. Wukong takes another look at Nezha and takes a deep breath. He slowly reaches his hand out and gently grabs Nezha by the arm to get his attention. 

Nezha's eyes shot open and gasped like he had a nightmare or something. When he saw that it was just Wukong, he calmed down a bit. "Wu-Wukong?"

"Nezha!" Wukong went in and hugged Nezha tightly. "I'm sooo glad you're alright!"

Nezha smiled a bit and then his smile turned into a frown. "Ok I get, now . . . let go of me."

Wukong did as he was told.

"Hey kid, you doing alright?" Macaque asked Nezha, appearing right next to Wukong.

Nezha looks away from the both of them. "I . . . guess so, but at the same time . . . not really . . ."

"Nezha, do you know where we are?" Wukong asked him. "Are you not possessed anymore."

"Well, to answer your first question Wukong, you could say that both of you are like . . . inside my head right now. And to answer the second question . . . no, I'm still possessed. I'm basically just the spirit in my mind at the moment, just not exactly myself from the outside."

"What do you mean by that?" Macaque asked Nezha.

Nezha crosses his arms and closes his eyes, with his legs still crossed. "Well, I've been trying to meditate, and see if I could break out of Mara's control, but . . ." Nezha just shakes his head and furrowed his brows. "It's no use. So I tried to contact the both of you, which it worked, just to say a few things, or if any of you guys want to say anything to me."

"Nezha, is there something that controls the ring that makes it control you?" Wukong asked.

Nezha thought about it for a minute. "Well, last I remember she pointed this remote at me and pressed a button on it, then the ring started to glow and I felt I was being controlled."

"Well then it's settled," Macaque said. "We get that remote, destroy it, and-"

"You won't be able to," Nezha interrupted Macaque. "Considering the fact that neither of you guys probably don't have your powers still." Nezha hung his head low. "And that . . . that . . . seeing from what I was doing being possessed, I . . . I . . . put you guys in chains and . . . locked you guys up in a cage," he mumbled the last sentence. "Just like what happened to me."

"So are you saying that when we wake up, like from this dream or something, we're going to see ourselves locked up in a cage, and put into chains?" Wukong asked.

"Yes, except this isn't a dream. I will some point loose connection to the both of you, and that's when you guys wake up to reality. Anyways, what I've been meaning to tell the both of you is stop Mara, before it's too late. And if I or any of you can't break my possession, just . . . just . . . " Nezha looks up at the both of them, tears forming in his eyes. "Destroy me . . ."

"WHAT!?"

"I don't think the ri-ring on my neck ca-can be removed, unless I u-use the power of the ring fir-first, that power targeted on the bo-both of you," Nezha hiccuped through his words, tears rolling down his face. "Just stop Ma-Mara and end this nigh-nightmare and de-destroy me if you must."

"Hey Nezha, it's okay, we'll figure out a way to stop Mara, and save you," Wukong reassured. "I know that most of the time we're pretty much rivals, but you're also our friend Nezha."

Nezha smiles as he chuckles a little bit. "Yeah, sure." Just then the pink light around Nezha started to get brighter and bigger, pushing Wukong and Macaque away from him as the monkeys shielded their eyes. "Looks like our time has been cut short. Good luck to the both of you . . ."

"Don't worry Nezha, we'll save the world, and save you," Macaque promised.

~~~

Macaque slowly opened his eyes, groaning in pain. He looks around to see that he was indeed in a cage and was put into chains. 'Nezha was right about this, being in chains, put into a cage, and that we're above . . . purple lava?' Macaque thought to himself as he looks down to see purple lava. He notices Wukong in chains still not awake yet as he crawls over to Wukong to shake him awake. "Wukong, wake up."

Wukong groans as he opens his eyes. "Was it actually real or . . . was it actually a dream."

"Well-well-well," said a voice from the shadows. Appearing from the shadows was Nezha, who was still possessed, walking around the cage Wukong and Macaque were in. "I see that your friend has contacted the both of you for . . . whatever he has to say. And man your friend is really trying to break free from this possession, I can feel it."

"Ok yeah it was real and not a dream."

"So . . ." Nezha grins. "Ready for your downfall?"

Both monkeys gulped as they knew what was going to happen.

"They most certainly are!" Said another voice from the shadows. Then appeared Mara, standing beside Nezha. "I must say my champion, you're doing certainly well with this task. Now hurry up and finish it, so we could starting collecting more souls. And plus . . . I would love to see this myself," she said as she crosses her arms, forming an evil smile on her face, and had the remote used to control Nezha in her hand.

"As you wish master," Nezha responded. He pointed the palm of his hand at Wukong and Macaque as he started to charge up the power of the ring.

"Please tell me we have our powers back?" Wukong whispers to Macaque.

"To be honest, I feel like I have my powers back, but these chains are like containing my powers from being used," he whispers back.

"Well the only option here, is to say something to Nezha that would make him snap out of it." Wukong clears his throat and begins to speak, "Nezha, you have to stop this! This isn't you!"

"You really think saying stuff to me is going to bring your friend back!" Nezha growls, the power of the ring still charging up.

"I don't think . . . I KNOW! I just going to say this! YOU'RE A FRIEND NEZHA! And plus, you don't hurt others . . . YOU SAVE OTHERS!"

"Friend . . ." Nezha lowered his arm, his eyes flickering back to normal. "Guys . . ."

"Quick Nezha! Use the power of the ring on Mara!" Macaque yelled.

Nezha slowly turns towards Mara, but pain started rushing through his head. He held onto his head, trying to fight back from being controlled again, but he couldn't. Nezha's eyes began to flicker back to purple again. He clenches his teeth in anger as he turns around to look back at Wukong and Macaque. "I will NOT let your PATHETIC FRIEND BE IN CONTROL AGAIN!" Nezha yelled, raising his arm back at Wukong and Macaque with the charged up power of the ring. "Now . . . SAY GOODBYE!"

"WAIT! I have something else to say!" Wukong said.

"Make it quick! I don't got all day!"

"That thing Mara has in her hand!" Wukong smirks. "She was going to use that to destroy you after you destroyed us!"

"Wukong, you really think he's going to-"

"WHAT!?" Nezha jerks his head towards Mara.

"Never mind, I guess he did fell for it," Macaque said.

"What, no! That fool is LYING! Don't listen to him!" Mara argued as she backs away from Nezha.

"Well, just to play it safe . . ." Nezha approaches Mara and snatched the remote out of her hands. "I'M DESTROYING THIS THING!" Nezha throws the remote into the purple lava. The remote then melted into the lava.

"NOOO!" Mara yelled.

Nezha collapsed to the floor and held onto his head, his eyes turning back to normal. He then looks up to see Mara right in front of him. Nezha slowly raises his arm that had the power of the ring at Mara.

"NO! YOU CAN'T DESTROY ME LIKE THIS!" Mara said. "Now come on child, give me a second chance."

Nezha just chuckles at the saying. "There's no second chances in my book," he said. Once the power of the ring was done charging up, he let's out the beam of light, and let's it hit Mara.

"NOOO!" Mara screamed, as she disintegrated after the beam of light hits her. Once she disintegrated, Nezha fell unconscious, souls that Mara collected going back to their bodies.

"Nezha did it!" Macaque said, the chains both on him and Wukong disappearing.

"And my powers are back!" Wukong cheered. "You know, our powers probably started coming back after being away from those red crystals."

"Hmm . . . maybe. Now come on," Macaque said, summoning his shadow portal to get out of the cage as he went through it.

Wukong also went through his portal. They landed right next to Nezha from above.

"Kid, are you alright?" Macaque asked Nezha, putting Nezha's arm around his shoulder to help him stand up.

Nezha coughs and clears his throat as he nods his head. "Yeah . . . I'm fine, don't worry." Then the ring on Nezha's neck started to crumble into pieces and fell to the floor.

"Look!" Wukong points to all the souls going back to where they came from.

"Dang that's a lot of souls," Macaque said.

"And they're all going back to where they came from, including . . . OH MY GOSH, MK!" Wukong said, summoning his cloud and raced back to the city as soon as possible.

"I think we have a better way of getting back," Macaque said, summoning his shadow portal.

Nezha nods in agreement as they both went through the shadow portal.

Back in the city, the citizens cheered that they got their souls back.

Mei groans as she stands up and looks around. "What happened? How long was I out for?" She then spotted Pigsy, Tang, and Sandy. "OH MY GOODNESS, GUYS!" Mei said as she rushes towards the three of them and gives them a big hug. "YOU'RE ALL OKAY!"

"Of course we are Mei!" Sandy said, giving all three of them a big hug.

"SANDY, I CAN'T BREATH!" Tang yelled.

MK stood up, his back aching a bit. He looks around and smiles at the sight of his friends, they were all okay.

Then a shadow portal opens up, revealing it to be Macaque and Nezha.

"Macaque? Nezha?"

"KID!"

MK looks up to see the Monkey King on his cloud, rushing over towards MK. He jumps off his cloud and lands on the ground, rushing at MK to give him a big hug. "Monkey King?!"

"I'm so sorry bud!" Wukong said. "I should have protected you and your friends from that demon, and-!"

"It's ok Monkey King," MK said, letting go of the embrace. "As long that you saved everyone right?"

Wukong smiles, but shook his head. "Actually . . ." Wukong turns to looks at Nezha. "Nezha deserves all the credit."

Nezha blinks as he smiled. "You know, I don't deserve all the credit. Wukong helped me break free from the demon's control."

"Wait Nezha! Were you possessed?!" MK asked him.

Nezha smile turned into a frown. "Sadly yes, and I'm probably going to have terrible nightmares of it too."

"Hey! Shouldn't I get credit for doing something!?" Macaque said as he pouts. Everyone just laughs.

"You know bud," Wukong said. "Since it's been like over a week-"

"OVER A WEEK!?"

"Calm down kid, I was going to say that since we didn't finish celebrating your birthday ever since the incident happened, how about we finish celebrating it today? Even though your birthday has already passed."

"That sounds like a great idea Mr. King!" Mei agreed as she hugs her friend MK on the side. "Now let's continue celebrating MK's birthday!" she announced.