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I was originally planning on making the chapters much larger, but if I were to do that, I'd update once every two or three months. And that would suck. ^-^! So, I present my first chapter of A King Reborn. A few warnings: this is an AU fic that contains spoilers, graphic violence, and quite possible references to sex in later chapters. I'll up the rating once I get to that point. If homosexual relationships are not your bag, you won't like this fic. Don't worry, though; I'll put a warning up before any chapters.

This story splits off from the Gensomaden storyline before Homura tries to make his new world order. I haven't got the manga or the anime to support this, and I can't find any friggen INFO, so I don't know where exactly. Just... somewhere before Reload. Although events that occurred in the Gaiden timeline will be similar, much of it will be different, and based far more on the original Monkey King legends.

Rating: PG-13 for now.

Standard Disclaimer: They aren't mine, much as I wish they were. I'm not making money off this, so don't bother sueing me. I haven't got a job, anyways.

Summary: The only thing that stands between the Sanzo-ikkou and their goal is the Himalaya Mountains - and a tragic event on Mt. Gogyo that may or may not ruin their chances to save the world. All former lines of good and bad are smudged and faded; just who the hell are the bad guys now?

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A King Reborn

Prologue: Setting the Stage

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**
Italics – thoughts
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~six months after the War God Homura raided Houtou Castle and reclaimed the Seiten-kyomen~

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The return to Houtou Castle could have been better.

There was something undeniably pleasurable about being the one human that demons truly feared, and yet were not allowed to destroy. Part of that fear was because of Her Ladyship Kyoshu and her eagerness to be rid of anything she disliked – such an interesting mix of the childish and mature, really – and the demon that killed a pet scientist would most definitely be a thing disliked.

The other part, however, was a matter of presence; the lack of fear, the quiet arrogance, the – admittedly – pure creepiness. He was under no illusions that the greater part of his protection came from fear of Gyokumen Kyoshu, but the part that mattered – that kept away the demons that could actually do damage – was the fear of him. There came a guilty bit of pleasure – despite his attempt at a lack of attachment - at having the so-called 'superior' demons scuttle out of his way and struggle to stay out of his shadow.

So, had Houtou Castle been occupied, the reaction to his return would have been a nice way to end his week. The scamper of ants going through their routine, only to suddenly have a foot come crashing down onto their carefully constructed path. But the ants were gone, brushed away by an uncaring hand, and now there was nothing left in their wake but the empty silence of a tomb.

The gods had come and gone and weren't coming back again; Nii Jyeni knew this like he knew the beat of his heart against his ribcage. The brief interruption had certainly been an irritant – giving the Seiten scripture back up hadn't been his cup of tea either, at least not where Gyokumen Kyoshu had been concerned – but there was a ray of sunshine behind every cloud, as it were. He hadn't spent his time away from Gyumaoh's grave idle.

And after all, a watched pot never boils.

Nii pushed the iron-studded door with just his fingertips; they opened smoothly, even after months of neglect. Through the crack he could see the blood red carpet of the throne room, garishly bright against the cold granite floor. Anything else was swiftly swallowed by darkness, the lantern his companion carried too weak to illuminate more than a few feet. He pushed the door again, opening the entrance the rest of the way. To his left lay the charred remains of a torch; it obviously hadn't been replaced in some time. Even gods wouldn't let their candles burn into nothingness without having a replacement on hand.

"You've been away for so long," he murmured, breaking the grasp that silence had cast on them since they had left for the castle. He didn't miss the way his companion jerked in surprise. Nii smiled slightly.

"It... has been some time," the other man admitted after a moment. He made no effort to step into the hall.

The doctor's smile widened, and he moved through the door and out of the barrier of light without hesitation. It took a moment before the lantern's feeble bubble caught back up with him. "A pity there's no one here to welcome you... home."

"I'll live with it." Even when their feet left the carpet for the granite, it sounded as though there was only one set of footsteps.

Noisy boy, Nii thought absently.

"I hope things are as you remember them. So difficult, to be away for so long and return... only to find nothing is where you left it." Nii didn't need the light to know where he was going; he moved unerringly down the long hall, past the steps where Gyumaoh's dusty throne lay, through another set of doors and over to the ancient service elevators. "A single day is manageable, even a week or a month. A year, and they wonder if you'll return." He pressed a button, heard the sudden hum of gears and chains twisting into action. He had known the gods wouldn't shut down the generators. "Ten years, and they've forgotten your face. More – "

"Enough!" the other man snapped. Honestly – he had such little patience. "I'm well aware of the time that's passed, no thanks to you. And once I've seen Gyumaoh I'll make my decision, rest assured."

The elevator arrived with a subdued chime, the double doors sliding open with a hiss and a rattle. "Of course," Nii demurred, and entered the steel cage. The lantern followed behind him.

Aside from the whirr of machinery, the descent into the darkest levels of Houtou Castle was silent. Steel bars appeared and vanished just outside the lantern's light, support beams that guided them on their not-quite-vertical journey. Past those brief glimpses of metal there was nothing, only the eternal black of the lower basement. The glass and tin box with its feeble flame couldn't even begin to penetrate what surrounded them.

The elevator settled itself noisily on the bottom of the shaft, the gates retracting themselves automatically. Nii stepped forward and slid his hand along the wall to his left; almost immediately he felt the switches beneath his fingertips. One by one, long panels of fluorescent lights hummed into life as he flipped them upwards, chasing away the shadows. He felt, more than saw, his companion raise a hand to shade his eyes from the sudden brilliance.

Nii dropped a hand to his shirt pocket, removing a pack of cigarettes. He shook one out, put it between his lips, replaced the packet. "Not like you remember, is he?"

The other man finally stepped out of the elevator, lowering his hand. Now that he was back into decent lighting his pupils had contracted, revealing the brilliant brass gleam of his irises. He said nothing, staring mutely forward with all the awe of a man first meeting god.

The doctor smiled, playing with the cigarette between his teeth, turning his eyes to the far wall. He had seen the sight so many times that it no longer phased him: the tangle of pipes and machinery, the grand bulk of Gyumaoh's partially transformed, ultimately empty body, the plate strapped to his chest with the ancient symbol of balance painted upon it. Gyumaoh's dusty corpse no longer fascinated him (if it ever had to begin with), but the vapid awe of others was still amusing.

"You can revive him?" the other man asked finally, turning his cat-like, demonic eyes to Nii. His voice was hoarse with the kind of longing the doctor only heard when Kougaiji spoke of his mother. Gyokumen, certainly, never spoke of her lord this way.

Nii tipped his cigarette upward, smiling around it. "Of course," he said. "I revived you, didn't I?"

Fine black brows furrowed at him. Anger, a display of frustration; it was good that this man was finally showing signs of emotion. It was so much more difficult to deal with someone unattached to the situation. He should know. "You said my case was different," came the sharp reply.

"Oh yes," Nii replied blithely, stepping further into the room. "Far different. You, my fine friend, were merely killed. Your Lord Gyumaoh, on the other hand, had the component portions of his soul sealed into separate oblivions. Messy process, bringing them all back, one at a time..."

"But you can do it." His companion took a step forward, probably having forgotten the lantern dangling useless in his hand. That single step sounded like a gunshot in the relative silence. "When you have the Tenchi Kaigen."

"Just one, actually. The Maten-kyomen. I've gotten what I require from the others." Nii glanced back over his shoulder. "You do know which one is the Infernal Land sutra, don't you, Kinme Hebi?"

The comment earned him a snarl and the wicked gleam of bared fangs. "Yes, I know!"

"Oh, good. Then I'm certain Gyokumen will be happy to have you in her service. She's becoming... impatient... with Lord Kougaiji's progress."

"Kougaiji is a child."

Ah, too much time had passed. So many changes to adapt to. Would his newest experiment be capable of surmounting the obstacles death had put in his way? Nii stepped away from the elevator, towards the doors on the far side of the vast room, behind which lay his laboratories – and, conveniently, the lighter he had left behind so many months ago. "I'm sure you'll be surprised by the little boy when you see him."

"And now?"

Nii never paused. "Now you'll go find Lady Kyoshu," he replied. "You would know the warren under here better than I. Pay your respects. Prostrate yourself. Do whatever it is you do with the concubine of your lord."

Hebi was not so easily thwarted; he made no effort at hiding his displeasure at being dragged so far and then abandoned just when he was coming to grips with his new world. Nii could feel it in the way his ki suddenly enveloped the room, mingling with the corruption of the Minus Wave and hundreds of years of demonic occupation.

This was a good thing. It was about damn time the fool started acting his part. Nii Jyeni was not a baby-sitter, and he was tired of waiting for the other man to get up to speed. But this was good; this was what he had planned to happen by bringing him back to his old home base. Gyokumen would doubtless be pleased, had her pleasure been his core aim in life.

"And you?" Hebi hissed. Something scraped in the background, like nails over stiff silk.

The doctor turned outside the threshold of his offices, tucking his hands into the pockets of his lab coat. The canvas bad slung over one shoulder shifted, the contents clinking hollowly together. "Why, I'm going to get to work on your brothers. Even if you don't need their help to retrieve the scriptures, I'm certain Gyumaoh will be happy to have all six of you back together agai - "

"Seven." Light reflected off eyes like brass as they narrowed. Nii imagined – no, knew his saw – shadows coiling behind the other man like lazy serpents.

A smile touched Nii's lips, fainter than the others. "Of course. Seven is a lucky number, isn't it?"

Kinme Hebi glared at him a long, sullen moment before turning away, the tail of his long braid swaying behind him. "I'll find Gyokumen Kyoshu, as you say, and bring you the scripture. However – " a baleful stare was directed over one slender shoulder – "if I should find you unable to resurrect our lord Gyumaoh, I will be forced to kill you."

"Best get in line, then," Nii replied absently.

He only waited long enough for the elevator doors to close and for the cage and its sole occupant to resume their long trek back to the surface before turning away. Past the door lay the hallway that interconnected the warren of barracks-turned-labs, and though the lights were turned off he traversed them easily. Just a ghost; ghosts didn't need light anymore than they needed feet.

Nii did, however, turn on the lights to his own little lab before entering. All was as he had left it: tubes and beakers and delicate spirals of glass stacked dustily on one wall; overflowing ashtrays and empty cartons of cigarettes littering the spaces between stained monitors, keyboards, and haphazard coils of wiring. One green light blinked steady like a heart beat on a heavy square of plastic and circuitry, one of many CPUs he had arranged in this room.

Sitting on the patched swivel chair with a folded paper between its arms was a battered, stuffed rabbit.

"Hello, pretty," he murmured, letting the bag slide off his shoulder, bending sideways to set it lightly on the floor. The contents clanked and slid against one another. It only required one more step to reach the chair, and he plucked the paper out of the rabbit's loose grasp. He moved to cradle the toy tenderly in the crook of one arm.

The paper was not addressed, nor was it signed; there was no need to follow such courtesies, and the author of this letter knew that. Nii Jyeni knew who had left the note, just like he knew the gods had left weeks ago, like he knew that Gyokumen was still hiding within the bowels of the fortress Gyumaoh built. The author knew he knew that, too. Signatures were just a waste of time when the author's name had been firmly imprinted into the very ink and fibers of the paper he held in his hand.

Nii read it once, then tossed it lazily to one side. He imagined he'd get around to burning it later. For now, however, he needed to check on the progress of his boiling pot – he sat down and pressed the button underneath the flashing green light. One screen flickered slowly to life, revealing a gray background struck through with a horizontal black stripe.

Overlaid was a warning window:

DNA DECODING COMPLETE
CONTINUE? Y/N

On top of the monitor lay a lighter, the see-through kind that revealed how much fluid remained. Nii picked it up, lit his cigarette; inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly through his nose. He hit one button on the much used and abused keyboard before him.

YES

The smoke from his cigarette curled lazily overhead, backlit by the green glow of the remaining computers, turning on one by one as the mother computer put its program into motion. He smiled.

"Home sweet home, eh, precious?"

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A/N: I make no claim to understand the Japanese language; I just kinda throw it together and hope it means what I think it does. So, for the record: 'kin' = golden; 'me' = eye; 'hebi' = snake. Hopefully gluing it all together like that really works. ^-^!

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