Work Text:
No...
MK looked around as dread formed a pit in his stomach.
Not here. Not again.
He recognized the damp cave he was in. How could he forget?
He was standing in Spider Queen's lair, his face reflected off of the Trigram Furnace's cyan mirror (how was he stupid enough to forget to return it).
If I'm here, then that means-
The air became frigid, as if the cavern had turned into a morgue.
MK's blood froze with the change. He wanted to shut his eyes closed, since he knew what was next, but his body disobeyed him.
Instead, he slowly, painfully, turned his gaze towards her.
The "poor" girl he tried to help, gave him a wicked smile, showing her true form of a pale, skeleton-like woman in a brief flash.
No no no no... She's gone. She shouldn't be here-
"I, am the Lady Bone Demon."
Her words echoed through his mind, becoming louder, and louder, and louder.
MK gripped his head in anguish, screeching as he could do nothing to protect himself.
His vision went blue; his perception of reality twisted and glitched out. Every time it glitched, that thing would get closer and closer.
"MK, I apologize. But I need to take that staff."
No no no nonono-
MK bolted for the nearby staff, and made his desperate attempt to escape. But just after grabbing it, the pain got worse, and worse.
He tried to block everything out, anything to make it stop.
"Calm yourself. It's pointless to deny me."
That's enough.
With a swing of the staff, MK found himself face to face with the Lady Bone Demon.
The pain became dull enough that he could speak. So he did, in a hurt voice.
"I helped you. I thought you were-"
"A helpless girl?" the demon interrupted.
"Oh yes, my disguises have fooled many. This body in particular is quite useful, for now."
MK's grip on the staff tightened. He couldn't bear the thought of the host, who's being controlled by that monster, getting hurt.
"I'm not gonna let you win." he spoke with a newfound determination. "I'll tell Monkey King-"
The aching had returned, and was amplified a million times over. MK shrieked, and fell to his knees.
The demon chuckled with a disturbing humor.
"Monkey King? Do you really think he doesn't already know all about me? Curious that he is not with you now, is it not?"
Her words were like daggers; each one piercing through MK's heart as the pain became more and more agonizing.
"I see. You have begun to suspect what he already knows: that he made the wrong choice. Picked the wrong successor."
A force, as strong as a train, shoved him forward to the ground.
MK collapsed with a grunt. The pain had tired him out; he didn't have the strength to get up.
"You're right you know. "It's scary being alone!" the demon mockingly said.
"I do pity you."
Suddenly, MK felt an icy noose wrap around his neck, as the Lady Bone Demon picked him up through the ground. He gasped as the noose tightened, the image of the skeletal demon burning into his mind.
"Just a piece in a game you cannot possibly comprehend."
He couldn't breathe. His windpipe had been frozen shut. His vision was darkening.
Please make it stop, for the love of the celestial gods please make it stop!
-
Everything went black. The pressure around his neck was no more, but his skin was frostbitten where her hand was.
Mk opened his eyes. His staff trapped him against a boulder. He tried to pry it off, but it was a lot heavier then he remembered.
He stopped when he heard an all-too-familiar cackle.
"Oh no! Can't you hold the magic staff anymore?"
The Monkie Kid looked up.
Macaque.
What is he doing here?
"Well, you know what that means. There really isn't anything special about you."
The monkey lunged towards him at full speed, slamming the staff into MK's chest even more. The latter let out a terrified yelp, his heart jumped up to his throat.
Macaque leaned in.
"You're just some kid with a heavy stick."
Stop it stop it stop it!
MK's closed his eyes shut yet again.
He's changed now! He wouldn't hurt me again!
-
There was a flash, and the weight of the staff vanished. MK opened his eyes. Macaque was still there, only this time, he was holding his fist, slowly crushing it with his overpowering strength. That was when MK knew they were at the Shadow Play.
"So why so glum? I noticed that lately, you've been looking a little down!"
Macaque twisted MK's arm downward, nearly snapping it from the sheer force.
MK let out an agonized scream, as the room was suddenly plunged into darkness.
Next thing MK knew, he was being kicked in the face by Tang. The impact nearly popped his jaw.
"Oh did you just realize they were missing? Classic hero maneuver."
Next, Mei lifted him from behind, and slammed him into the floor. Pigsy, Tang and Mei all pinned him down.
"Maybe it's just me, but these guys don't look too happy about being left in the shadow of the great Monkie Kid."
Stop. Stop making them do this.
"Enough." said MK.
He pushed off his friends in a burst of golden energy.
I just need to hit the lamp, and it'll all be over.
He summoned the staff, aimed it at the lamp in Macaque's hand, and elongated it. Just as it was about to shatter the glass-
-
The scene was envelopped in a flash of blue. The staff, still in MK's grasp, suddenly became heavy, and started to fall.
"What? No! I can't lift the staff!"
MK looked up to where the staff was pointing at.
Lady Bone Demon.
Before he could react to her presence, he heard something happening to the staff.
He worriedly stared at the source of the noise; stone climbed along the pole, clambering closer and closer to him.
"Please stop!" he cried in desperation.
The demon smiled cruelly as the rocks reached his hands.
"No! Don't do this!" MK begged, the stone now scaling his arms.
"Do not lament your fate child, you can rest knowing you served your purpose. Destiny has found you."
MK could do nothing but cry, as visions of events, past and future (to this moment) flooded his mind: Spider Queen and Nezha warning him "Boy, run!"/"Boy, get back!" just before their demise, getting thrown off a cliff by a possessed Monkey King, Mei's brief smile as she gets encased in ice...
And it's all my fault for not being good enough.
At that thought, MK gave up, and the stone sealed him away in eternal darkness.
-
MK woke with a start at 5:00AM. He was panting heavily, and he realized he must have stopped breathing while dreaming.
The kid pulled his knees to chest, and sobbed into them.
"I'm not good enough." he choked out.
"If I was, so many people wouldn't be hurt now... Spider Queen and her minions would still be alive."
MK knows the she was evil and only wanted power, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't feel guilty about her death.
"Mei wouldn't have been captured, and Monkey King wouldn't have been possessed... If I was any good at all, that demon would have never escaped in the first place!"
"It's my fault that stupid key fell into Red Son's hands!" he grabbed his pillow.
"Urgh! Why- am- I- this- pathetic!?" each word was accompanied by a punch to the aforementioned object.
He broke out into more sobs.
"Look at me: the "great" Monkie Kid crying in his room all alone like the stupid kid he is! Can't keep it together the moment he's alone!"
"Just like when his parents left him!"
MK stopped himself, and he realized it was true. That's the reason why he was scared every time Monkey King, or anyone, left him. He was terrified at the thought that they would never return, just like his parents. Because his parents already knew that he was a just a useless successor.
He didn't say another word for the rest of the evening, opting to just crying himself to sleep until 9:00AM for work.
But he was scared to sleep again, as his dreams would just remind him of how much of a failure he was.
Even in sleep I can't escape my pain.