A Son Of Two Dad's

The Plan

"...Then let's make a plan." Surprisingly it was Red Son that had spoken, everyone at the table turning to look at him. His head was down, staring at his hands as he clenched them into fists and looked up. 

"There has to be something we've overlooked, some way to make this easier. I'm good at getting information! If we try hard enough, there has to be something we can come up with that will work."

Like Mei, there was that tone of determination in his voice, that drive to keep going, an optimistic view of the world that Macaque was sure was exclusive to just children. Which, compared to Macaque, Red Son and Mei were but still. 

He couldn't tell if it was a good thing or if they were just both nieve. 

"Yes! I knew there was a reason we kept you around." Mei cheered, beaming a bright smile at the demon who gasped in offense. 

"Kept me around? How dare you! I'll have you know that you should be extremely grateful for my presence! In fact, you should be bowing at my feet for the effort I'm putting into helping you save your friend." 

"He's your friend too." Mei counted back in a sing-song tone and Red Son glaired harder at her though she didn't look intimidated in the least. Watching the two squabble Macaque could almost be glad that he hadn't been there when MK was growing up. Just imagining the frustration he'd get from listening to things like this all day made him want to groan.

"He is not!" Red Son huffed back, and at that, almost everyone else in the room shared looks at the obvious lie. Unluckily for them, Red Son noticed and his face flushed a deep red as his hair caught on fire.

"HE ISN'T!" He was shouting now and Macaque decided not to snigger like he wanted to if only because he was sure the kid would literally explode if he did.

"Instead of arguing, shouldn't we be actually thinking of a plan then?" Macaque decided to finally speak when the squabbling became less amusing and more annoying, causing Red Son to be distracted from Mei's taunts. 

"Yes well since you and Sun Wukong know our enemy the best, you should figure out a way to get her to leave Monkey boy's body. Then we can trap her in something, I'm sure there's an artifact that can do that easily." Red Son said and Macaque glanced over at Wukong who was staring down at the table. 

"How are we supposed to get her to leave MK though?" Mei asked, concern bleeding into her tone and Wukong finally spoke, his expression dark and serious. 

"He took MK because she wanted to get to me. If we-" 

"Nope." Macaque immediately interrupted, feeling annoyance burn through him. He knew exactly where Wukong was going with this, 

"You're not doing some stupid self-sacrificial thing, you idiot." He told the other who snapped his head up to look at Macaque in frustration. 

"Well it's me she's after, isn't it? If I-" 

"If you what? If you give yourself to her? She doesn't just want you, moron, she wants to hurt you. Do you know what she'll do to MK once he's no longer useful as a bargaining chip? Once he's no longer the only thing stopping you from fighting her?" Macaque asked, voice blunt and for a second he thought that perhaps this was a conversation that should have been had alone and not in front of an audience but it was too late now so he went on, brutal with his sharp tone but he needed to get this through to Wukong, needed him not to do something reckless. 

"She'll kill him. She'll kill him because she knows that watching him die will hurt you more than anything else. So stop trying to do this by yourself." Now finished, Macaque could hear the way everyone else was deadly silent, the atmosphere heavy and awkward as Wukong stared at him, eyes wide. 

No one interrupted or spoke even as Wukong opened his mouth and then closed it again, clearly not sure what to say. Macaque couldn't really begin to imagine what he was thinking so he just waited until eventually, Wukong looked away, glancing down at his hands and squeezing his eyes shut for a second. When he looked back up, it was obvious that he'd come to his own conclusion and Macaque was just glad that he'd actually listened to him for once. He didn't need Wukong getting himself or MK hurt. 

"Fine. Fine. Let's plan then."

After a short pause, Mei began talking, her voice starting off relatively hesitant and quiet and then gaining volume as she went. 

"If we can't figure out a way to get her to leave of her own will, is there a way we can force her out?" She asked, tilting her head to the side in thought and Red Son nodded, the tense atmosphere disappearing completely. 

"That's a good idea! I can look up some relics that might help, I'm sure I remember seeing some items that do something along those lines." He mumbled to himself, looking around for something, probably his phone so he could get started when Macaque had a thought.

"What about that gourd those demons used to trap MK that time?" He asked out loud, looking over to Wukong. 

"You know the one you tried to steal forever ago?" He added afterward as a side jab and Wukong scowled back at him, clearly embarrassed as Macaque laughed.

"Okay but we destroyed it, remember?" Wukong countered back, frustration clear in his tone and Macaque shook his head, amazed at how forgetful Wukong was.

"We did but there are two of them. You'd think the guy that tried to steal both of them would remember that a little better than me." He teased, smirking to himself as Wukong crossed his arms, his tail swinging about behind him quickly. 

"It was a long time ago, okay? It just slipped my mind." He defended and it was almost cute how he was pouting in his chair, flustered at his own forgetfulness. 

"That's a brilliant idea. If she answers to her name then with any luck it'll just trap her inside, kicking her out of the monkey body and trapping her at the same time." Red Son spoke and it sounded like he was mostly just talking to himself but next to him Mei smiled and nodded. 

"That's a great idea!" 

"What if she manages to escape it, though?" Tang asked worriedly and Macaque had to blink twice, almost having forgotten that he was there for a minute. To be fair, everyone else had mostly just listened as Wukong and Macaque argued so it had been easy to not notice them when he'd been facing Wukong and Red Son most of the time.

"We still have the tomb we found her in." DBK offered, tone decidedly neutral. Honestly, Macaque wondered why he was even helping at all. 

"She was trapped there. We- you could put the gourd in there so that even if she does escape she'll still be trapped." That was a good idea and it seemed everyone else thought so because they looked relieved. 

"Great! We actually have a plan now!" Mei cheered, looking delighted and it sunk in just then how real this was, how close they were to getting MK back and with their plan, it wouldn't even be that hard with any luck. They actually had a plan now. 

Red Son nodded, now on his phone, eyes scanning the screen as he mumbled out, 

"Now all we need to do is find the second gourd." 

And that- well that was probably going to be less easy.

(It was so hot today! I hate how I have no appetite at all when it's hot, I've basically been living off coffee and two apples today and I'm still tired. I managed to write this though, but it's also really late so once again I apologize if there's any spelling mistakes (which there probably are, let's be real here) and I hope you all had a good day!)