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ninja-knox-ur-sox-off · 7 months

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Day 2: Fire/Ice

Prompt list

Pt. 2 of The Empire of Samadhi AU

Pt. 1 | Pt.2 (you are here) | Pt. 3

(This is day 2 of the Monkie Destiny Challenge Prompt Month October 2023)

Wordcount: 4k (this one got away from me a little)

Summary: Red Son is the son of an old empire, Mei is the daughter of a new one. Red Son, consumed by fire, was put into an induced stasis sleep to stop the world from burning until his family can find a way to safely remove the fire. They find a way but he never wakes up. Hundreds of years later he awakes to discover his power resides within another as she stares at him with wide eyes on fire.

Red Son and Mei set off on a journey to separate the Fire from its current vessel. They travel through the desolate wasteland that was once both their homes. In the ashes, Fire meets Ice once again.

They started towards the fire at dawn.

Red Son attempted to think his own thoughts, but it was difficult to do with The Dragon King of the West’s descendant’s incessant chattering in his ear.

300 years.

He had been trapped, slumbering without end for 300 years. He was in turmoil. Of course he was in turmoil, why wouldn’t he be? He had been trapped, his Father’s Empire was gone, replaced by the Empire of the West Sea, a part of which had been practically vaporized by fire--his fire that someone else was wielding as their own.

I will return for you, his father had said.

Liar, Red Son wanted to snarl.

They took his fire and they left him buried underground in a tomb of their making. They were likely dead.

And this descendant of the Dragon of the West.. Wouldn’t. Stop. Talking.

“Would you shut up for five minutes,” he finally snapped at her.

She beamed at him. “Nope!” Then off she went, chattering again like she was determined to talk him into insanity.

“I can’t wait to melt the flesh from your bones,” he snarled.

“Sure, sure,” said Mei lightly. “When do you think we’ll get to your fancy temple?”

“If you’ve given me the right information, we should be there within a week,” Red Son told her. If he had his fire he could be there in no less than two days, but this idiot had no idea how to wield it and he wasn’t about to give her an idea on how lest she get attached.

“Sounds good, Mr. The Demon.”

“Your highness would suit me just fine.”

“HA!” said Mei. “No.” She then changed the subject back to some nonsense Red Son wouldn’t admit to not understanding.

If Red Son could, he would have burned her hair off.

He dragged his hand down his face with a long sound, something between a groan and a sigh. Maybe both at once. He watched her as she walked, then glanced at the fire in the distance.

The Demon of Samadhi…

He wouldn’t deny it had a certain ring to it. A title accurate to his greatness and power. He supposed the Emperor of Samdhi would have suited him better, but he could adjust that later. Later, when he dominated the current empire. It was in shambles due to the fires anyway, it wouldn’t be too difficult to take over once he retrieved his fire from its current vessel. And he would create an Empire far greater than Father and Mother ever managed.

“Hey, Mr. Grumpy Face,” Mei said, tearing him out of his thoughts abruptly.

“What?” he snapped.

“Fire can be blue right?”

“Of course it can,” he snorted. “My fire is blue when its at its hottest-”

“Ohhh okay cool,” Mei said, interrupting him and ignoring his explanation completely to his annoyance. She was staring at something. “Good to know then.”

“What are you looking at?” he seethed, coming up beside her, following her gaze until his eyes fell on what had caught her attention.

There was a line of blue in the distance. It… seemed to be moving, but not as was common with a forest fire. Red Son may have been thrust into a new world, but it was not so new that he could not recognize fire when he saw it. And this was not fire.

And it was getting bigger.

“Dragon girl,” he said. “That is not fire.”

“Oh,” said Mei. “I didn’t think it was.” Her voice was more tense than before.

Red Son turned his head to her. The rings hovering above her head had lit up, deep red flames flickering dangerously with each breath she took. He glanced down to see her hands clenched at her sides.

“A friend of yours?” Red Son asked, dryly.

Steam came from her eyes, startling him a bit.

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

He blinked. Then scoffed. “Pull yourself together then. If we’re to battle whatever that thing is, you will have to handle it until I’m able to retrieve my fire.”

“But-” Mei started.

“But nothing,” Red Son snapped, folding his arms. “You have my fire. You will fight.”

“I-I can’t,” Mei said, looking down at her hands, her voice small. “I don’t… I can’t.”

“Of course you can’t,” Red Son scoffed. “Did you think it would be easy to control my fire, that I spent nearly twenty years of my life creating? You don’t need to control it. Just aim it in the direction of your opponent and my fire will do the rest.”

“N-no,” Mei choked out. “You don’t understand, I can't.”

Red Son rolled his eyes. “And why is that, peasant?”

“It’s Mk.”

“Who in this blasted world is Mk-?”

Ice exploded in front of them.

The sheer force of impact from it blasted them backwards a good twenty feet. The second impact that came from Red Son’s landing on his back knocked the breath out of him and left him with the taste of ash in his mouth when it kicked up a large amount of it. He coughed and pushed himself to sit up, glancing back at what had hit them.

Mei sat just a few feet ahead looking up at someone.

“You idiot!” Red Son coughed. “Destroy them already!”

“Oh my, Xiǎojiāo,” came a sickly sweet voice that sent chills down Red Son’s spine. “You seem to have made another friend.”

It took him a moment to see where the voice was coming from. An older woman. Not old but not exactly young either. She was ghostly pale with white hair. She had an ageless sort of appearance and her eyes were what had him on edge. They were empty pools of cold black.

“Dragon girl, just kill these fools already,” he spat, brushing himself off as he stood up. “We have places to be.”

Mei didn’t respond so he glanced her way and found she had not moved from her seat amongst the ash and dirt and was still staring up at the person looming over her. The fire on the rings grew larger, reflecting the anguish of their current vessel, but they did not touch the figure.

“What is wrong with you?” Red Son snapped.

“Oh, what a funny one you are,” the white lady giggled. It was annoying. “You must be new. I do wonder how you managed to survive so close to the fire.”

Red Son scoffed. “Fire does not scare me, Witch.”

Her smile sharpened. “My words… always wasted on you mere mortals. Is that any way to address the savior of this new land?”

Red Son threw back his head and laughed. It was a shrieking cackle he’d practiced in front of the mirror when he was young and in front of his enemies when he was older. It was carefully crafted until it grated on their spines and sent hot and cold flashes through them until they sweat.

“You?” he snorted. “New? Witch, this land is old. Older than her and older than you. You are no savior. You are no ruler. I will be the ruler of this pathetic world, and you are nothing but ashes under my feet.”

“Such arrogance… How unfortunate you did not die with the rest of them.”

“Dragon girl, if you could please incinerate this witch-”

He realized Mei still wasn’t paying him any attention. For the first time he bothered to get a good look at what had her on her knees.

Blue eyes were the first thing he noticed. Fully blue. From the whites of this young man's eyes to his pupils they were engulfed in a glowing, empty blue. His head was tilted down at Mei, but it was clear he was seeing nothing. His clothes were in dull blues and whites, perfectly pressed, a mix between what looked like the armor of a warrior and the clothes of a servant. He looked startlingly pristine, like a life-sized doll, he would have looked nearly perfect were it not for the burns stretching across his skin.

Steam rose from Mei’s eyes as she kneeled at his feet.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Red Son pinched the bridge of his nose. Of course he was stuck with someone who felt bad for burning people. Of course his fire’s vessel was going to be absolutely useless.

“Dragon Girl!” he snapped loudly.

She jolted and glanced at him. Her expression as anguished as the fire above her had warned him of.

“Pull yourself together,” he hissed. “If you want to stop this fire you’ve created you'll burn this woman to ashes so we can move on before the rest of your precious empire is burned to the ground.”

“I can’t,” she said again, brokenly repeating herself. “He’s my friend.”

Red Son scoffed. “Not anymore it seems.”

“Oh you foolish boy,” the white lady said. “You do not know these children at all.”

“Call me boy again and I will kill you myself.”

“I can’t,” Mei choked again. “He’s my best friend-”

Red Son groaned. “You and your sentimentality.” He stormed over to her. Mei did nothing to resist as he grabbed her arm and dragged her to her feet, his fire licking across his arm harmlessly. “If you’re going to be this useless in fighting, how do you expect to win?”

Mei shook her head. She wouldn’t look at him so he grabbed her face and forcefully turned it to him.

“Hey-” she choked and he ignored her.

Quiet and hushed so the woman wouldn’t hear him, he spoke. “If you want to free your friend you will burn him.”

Mei gaped at him. “Killing him is not freeing-!”

“You’re not listening,” Red Son hissed, tightening his grip. “Mine is the fire of Samadhi. It requires focus and calm to wield, it is cleansing. If you control it properly you can burn her out of him. Do you understand?”

Mei’s eyes were wide. “You mean…I can save him?”

Red Son released her face with a scoff. He folded his arms across his chest. “If you want to call it that.”

Mei didn’t seem to hear him at all, talking to herself more than him now. “I can save him.”

“Yes, yes-”

She grabbed his face with both her hands, cutting him off and startling him. His cheeks were squished and he flailed, unable to escape her crushing grip.

“How do I do it?”

Red Son choked. “Let go of me you peasant-”

“How do I do it?” she said again, fire flickering in her eyes, something dangerous and almost rageful, an insanity he recognized all too well seeing in reflections before mirrors melted before him.

“That’s enough of that,” the white lady said, sounding bored.

The young man lunged.

Red Son had only had a moment to choke out a warning.

Mei, with reflexes that rivaled his own, shoved him by his face into the ground and threw herself out of the way.

Once again, he was greeted with the taste of ash and dust on his tongue.

“Kill him,” Red Son heard the white lady say as he coughed. His head shot up in time to see empty blue eyes and a fist headed straight for him.

Red Son sunk his hand into the dusty ashy ground, gripping any non-melted pebbles and dirt and ash he could and threw it with all his might into the young man's eyes and rolled out of the way.

The young man landed where Red Son had been a moment before, with his arm over his eyes. No pained sound escaped him, but it was clear the sensation of ash and dirt in his eyes was unpleasant.

“Careful!” Mei cried out at him, a flicker of fury in her voice. “You’ll hurt him!”

Red Son spluttered. “He’s the one trying to kill me-”

“Just tell me how to save him!” Mei yelled at him, flames covering her until she was completely engulfed.

“Just grab him!” Red Son yelled back.

“I’ll burn him!”

“That’s the point!”

He sidestepped a punch that the young man blindly threw at him. He wasn’t exactly slow, and Red Son was no longer exactly fast, but he at least had the upper hand due to temporarily blinding his opponent. He grabbed his wrist tightly before throwing him at the white lady who was standing just above them upon her throne of ice. Her eyes widened in alarm and she moved out of the way, so fast Red Son nearly didn’t see it.

Mei’s friend crashed into the ice.

“CAREFUL,” Mei roared.

“SHUT UP,” Red Son roared back.

It was clear the white lady didn’t want Red Son to tell Mei how to free her friend from her grasp. If Mei wasn’t holding back like a fool for her friend, the witch would have been incinerated by now and she knew it. The lady wasn’t giving Red Son any openings to explain the effort and focus required for such a task of burning away possession.

He growled in annoyance. There was one thing she couldn’t stop. But he wasn't sure it would work. Still, he lunged to grab Mei’s wrist.

The moment their skin made contact the ice and ashes around them vanished.

Red Son sat on the floor, his legs crossed and his fingers intertwined, shoulders relaxed and posture straight. His breathing was steady and he could feel his fire rising and falling with it. It burned through every part of his flames flickering across his skin.

It found the curses left on him by those he had destroyed, whispered in their last breaths of life, promises of hauntings and revenge, and wishes of a restless existence pushed upon him before he’d silenced them for good.

His fire burned away influences from the last few weeks, the souls of those that he destroyed that were still clinging to him were wiped from his skin and banished from their haunting into the underworld.

The curses floated away like embers and ashes.

A little bit of himself burned away with them.

He opened his eyes.

Mei gasped, tearing her arm away from him again.

“What was that?” She demanded.

“Don’t ask stupid questions,” Red Son snapped. “You should know what to do now, so burn them.”

Mei glanced down at her hands.

Red Son glanced at where her friend was pulling himself up from the ice.

“What have you done?” the white lady demanded.

“Nothing,” Red Son grinned, baring his teeth at her. “I simply gave a quick lesson.”

He could feel when Mei inhaled next to him. His fire reacting and growing brighter. Red Son could feel it steady.

“Kill him,” the white lady ordered Mei’s friend, her voice tinged with more urgency than before.

Red Son simply stood, arms folded smugly, watching Mei’s friend grow closer in his charge.

Mei moved in front of him just before he reached him, intercepting her friend and wrapping her arms and her flames around him.

The screaming started.

It was a familiar sound to Red Son, but likely not to the current vessel of his fire.

“Keep it together, Dragon Girl!” Red Son shouted at her through the noise of the crackling flames that engulfed the entire area.

The white lady and the young man screamed in a chorus of agony.

Red Son could feel Mei’s determination faltering, the flames flickering and threatening to dig into her friend's flesh on their own.

“I am not your coach, Dragon Girl,” Red Son yelled. “Either do it or don’t, you fool! Pick one!”

“Shut up!” Mei shouted back.

“Don’t speak to me like that-”

He felt when something clicked into place. It was enough to startle him into silence.

Mei exhaled.

The fire around her flickered. Her eyes were squeezed shut with concentration. The fire was loud and roaring.

Red Son watched in surprise as it flickered from red to green.

“How-”

There was an explosion of light and flame. The white lady was blasted backwards. Red Son shielded his eyes, the green flame feeling different than the red, unfamiliar. Not his.

What was she doing to his fire?

The flames died down. Slowly they lashed and fluttered until they faded and the only fire left was over Mei’s head on the rings. His fire’s prison.

Mei held her now limp friend in her arms. She slowly sunk to her knees and hugged him to her chest, hunched over him and gripping tightly.

“Did-did it work?” she choked out.

Red Son approached with a scoff. “Of course it did. It's my fire.” He grit his teeth a bit for a moment. Then he glanced up to see that the white woman and the ice that had once surrounded them was nowhere to be found. Evaporated by the fire likely. He didn't bother wondering who she was or how she was associated with his fire's vessel. It was none of his concern. Satisfied they wouldn’t be seeing her again, he turned back to Mei who remained hunched over her friend.

“Dramatic,” he sneered. “Embracing him wasn’t necessary, you know. It would have worked just as well if you’d just stepped on his head.”

Mei gave him an annoyed, almost threatening look, hugging her friend's head to her chest. “If you touch him I’ll-”

“Why would I want to touch that,” Red Son snorted. “Your little friend is nothing to me. I only care about retrieving my fire.”

“Right,” Mei said. She glanced down at her friend. Her face softened. Red Son hadn’t realized it could do that. “I’ve got you, Mk. You’re okay.”

Red Son rolled his eyes. “Let’s get moving. We don’t have time to stand around.”

‘But Mk-”

“What are you too weak to carry him? He looks like he weighs less than a child.”

“If he’s hurt I don’t want to move him,” Mei snapped at him.

“The only thing that’s likely hurting him is how tightly you’re holding him right now. You’re practically crushing the insect.”

That at least made her lighten her grip on the poor unconscious fool.

“He’s not an insect,” Mei scowled. “He’s my friend.”

“Right, sure,” Red Son snorted. “Whatever you say. Why don’t you pick up your friend so we can get a move on?”

Mei glanced down at Mk. She was quiet for a moment.

Red Son tapped his foot impatiently.

“I don’t want to hurt him,” she finally said, her voice quiet.

Red Son growled. He didn’t have time for this. “Fine then,” he said. “I’ll meet you at the temple. You can stay here and mope and cry and embrace your pathetic friend. I am not carrying him just because you’re too weak to control my fire.”

Mei looked at him.

Red Son folded his arms across his chest. “No.”

A slow, almost frightening smile spread across her face.

Red Son would sooner cut off his own hand than let anyone find out about this.

Mei’s friend was drooling on his shoulder. His face was partially squished against Red Son’s and his arms were limp over his shoulders. Red Son’s arms were under his thighs to keep him from slipping off his back, and Mei was prancing ahead happily, weightless and without a freezing human backpack snoring in her ear.

“I hate you,” said Red Son. “I hate you so much. I’m going to burn you both until not even your ashes exist in this world.”

Mei completely ignored him, humming to herself as she skipped forward, swinging her arms. The rings hovered above her, a dangerous heavy air around them in contrast to her light playful gait.

“I could drop him,” Red Son threatened. “I could throw him into a ditch.”

“You won’t,” Mei said lightly, not even bothering to look back at him.

Red Son seethed for the rest of the walk.

He did drop Mk when the sun started to set and his legs were strained and shaking. He released him and let him crumple to the ground unceremoniously before announcing they would stop there for the night. As it turned out, 300 years of inactivity had done a number on his physique, even with the spells freezing him in time. Something that likely would not have been a problem if he still had his fire.

Mei bounded back to them, far too chipper for someone who’d had a heavy depressed air only a few hours prior.

There wasn’t much to set up for a camp. There was nothing to burn, nothing to put up, only ash and dirt to lay in for softness and heavy smoke above them as a cover.

“He’s cold,” Mei said, after Red Son had sat down with a long groan.

“Of course he’s cold,” Red Son scoffed. “He was surrounded by ice. Not to mention being possessed. Don’t you know how anything works?”

Mei ignored him in favor of pulling her friend close and wrapping her arms around him so he was half sitting on her lap, apparently assigning herself a designated blanket.

“Can you hold him tonight?” Mei asked.

Red Son choked. If he still had his fire his hair would have been alight instantly. “No! Why on earth would I-?”

“I want to make sure he stays warm.”

“So you hold him,” Red Son snapped. Outrage made him seeth. The very idea--

“I don’t want to accidentally burn him while I’m asleep,” Mei confessed quietly. She brushed some tangled hair out of her friends’ face in what Red Son could only think to describe as a tender manner. “Nightmares ‘n stuff.”

Her actions were soft and gentle and it felt like something that should have been happening in private rather than in front of someone else.

Red Son turned his head away with a disgusted sound. “Why don’t you keep your affection private. I didn’t know he was your betrothed.”

Mei was startled. “What?” She shook her head furiously, as though shaking something out of her ears. “What? Gross? No? We’re not- Mk’s my best friend, we’re not courting.”

Red Son glanced back at her, skeptically.

“We’re not,” she said firmly, almost aggressively, hugging Mk close as if to protect him from Red Son’s observation.

“Right,” Red Son said, sarcastically. “Silly me. Of course you’re not. That’s why you’re practically kissing him.”

“Dude,” Mei said. “Stop. You’re being gross.”

“You’re being gross. Save your embracing and touching for when you’re in private, or better yet for when you’re in the afterlife where I can’t see it after I incinerate you both.”

“I’m just holding him, dude,” Mei scowled. “There’s nothing wrong with holding your friends.”

“Is this etiquette now?” Red Son scoffed. “You are all disgusting.”

Mei blinked. Then she laughed. “Ohhh, got it. You’re a grandpa.”

Red Son bristled. “What?”

“You’re a grandpa,” Mei repeated. “Old school, back-in-my-day, public displays of affection aren’t proper, neither are displays of affection between close friends, family or anyone at all in general.”

Red Son, for some reason, felt his face heat up. “You,” Red Son said, “don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure, old man,” Mei snickered. She snuggled, pulling Mk even closer and resting her chin on top of his head. Making eye contact with him, she pressed her nose into her friend's hair.

It was an intimate action, it was inappropriate.

Red Son’s face exploded with heat and he stood up. “What is wrong with you-”

“Relax,” Mei laughed. She hugged Mk, shaking with laughter hard enough that tears started to creep from her eyes. “Please, I’m just messing with you. Man. You’re funny aren’t you? Big ol’ scary Demon of Samadhi, afraid of a little affection.”

“I am not afraid,” Red Son hissed. “You- you--ugh! Whatever.” He stormed off a good distance away before sitting down with his back turned to the lunatic he was stuck with until he could get his fire back.

Mei giggled on and off for a while. He could hear her shift now and again, making his ears burn for some reason when he was provided with the visual of her adjusting Mk, making sure he was comfortable and warm in her arms.

It was disgusting.

“Are you sure you don’t want to hold him-”

“SHUT UP!”

Mei laughed.

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#KNOX WRITES (me)#Monkie Kid the Empire of Samadhi AU #LEGO Monkie Kid #Monkie Kid #Monkie Kid Mei #Monkie Kid Red Son #Monkie Destiny Challenge (2023)#WE STRAIGHT CHILIN GENTS #YES I MAY HAVE GONE OVERBOARD WITH THE WORDCOUNT ON THIS ONE #IT WOULD HAVE BEEN LONGER BUT I DECIDED TO SAVE IT FOR THE NEXT PROMPT #I AM CLEARLY INSANE #Monkie Kid Mk #Monkie Kid Lady Bone Demon

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