Disclaimer: I own nothing of Kim Possible or RWBY.
Daffodil
By: Imyoshi
Located somewhere in Mantle, Team JNPR search the area for a missing party of Huntsmen-in-Training. Due to the normally harsh, cold conditions of the area, searches would be next to impossible, but even the harshest of places experience a brief period of heat. And the current heat allows for the snow to melt off the forest trees and plants, making exploring a possibility. A possibility they must exploit before winter reclaims the land.
According to recent map data, a lot of Mantle is left unexplored. With the weather conditions and the Grimm lurking nearby, exploration became a luxury. So under any other circumstances, Team JNPR might take some time to go exploring, but the missing Huntsmen take priority over their mission. Their professor does expect them to find them, dead or alive. Bodies must be recovered at all costs. Which led to the current problem at hand, since little of the land has been mapped properly; Team JNPR weren't prepared to be dealing with an onslaught of monkeys that came from the forest.
"Nora... we're supposed to be pushing the monkeys back, not give them more food!" Jaune sighed, finding Nora's cuddling of the monkey a liability to the mission.
All Nora sees is cruelty in Jaune's eyes. "How can I say no to a face like this? Look at it! It's so cute!"
Jaune sighed harder. "Pyrrha, can you—?"
Jaune finds Pyrrha playing with a baby monkey, cooing to the little guy practically. When her eyes meet his, she says the only thing possible in a situation like this. "I'm weak."
If that's not the understatement of the year, Jaune would eat his shoes. Pyrrha's spoiling the little guy more. And it's not just one. Nope! There's dozens of them flocking to her. It's almost like they're drawn specifically to her, which is completely insane in its own right. It must just be his eyes playing tricks on him.
Taking a moment to relax, Jaune doesn't notice the way the monkeys are practically worshiping Pyrrha. Even more so, he doesn't notice when one of them reaches for Crocea Mors until the simian is already running away with the blade, drawing the others attention.
"Hey! That monkey stole my sword! Get back here!" Jaune's instantly on the chase, dashing after the quick monkey with sudden energy. Just imagining the loss of his ancestor's blade is enough to make his blood boil. "You're not getting away, you damn dirty monkey!"
Jaune runs into the unmapped woods, hot on the monkey's trail. Running after their leader, the remaining members of Team JNPR are perfectly surprised at how fast Jaune is while he's carrying around that armor of his. He's got a shocking amount of stamina when it suits him. Where was this power during combat class? Don't ask them.
The chase lasts for a while, proving to move deeper and deeper into the forest. The rest of Team JNPR are scared that their leader's going to get lost into the chase, but the trees slowly begin to thin out, exposing more sky than bark. And then the chase comes to a complete halt when the trees give away, revealing a bridge at the end of some clearing exposed mountain setting. And to finish it off, there's a lone bridge perched in the area, hanging over a valley that's clearly not mapped in. Wherever they were, it's definitely not someplace that's been explored in a while. Even the air has a different taste to it.
The wooden bridge itself is old, beyond old. The planks creating the walkway seem blistered and broken, their advance age showing. The rope is none the better, yet, somehow as if magic itself played a role itself, the bridge held against the hard wind picking up, a testament to its strength and durability, even more so with the monkey thief running clear across it, forgoing all thoughts of danger and peril. And that's more than enough for the Arc to run after it, throwing caution to the harsh wind as his feet carried him across the teetering bridge.
Pyrrha throws her arm out, desperate for her leader's safety. "Jaune! Be careful!"
He doesn't act as if he's heard her, ignorant to it all. The monkey with his ancestor's sword is far more important than safety. Just because it's a couple hundred feet drop, doesn't mean he's going to take it slow and steady. He can't. He won't! Crocea Mors needs him!
Back at the front of the bridge, Ren's looking past Jaune's running frame, eyes completely focused on the trees and vegetation at the end of the bridge, growing on the side of the mountain. They're growing on something that's varying in size and width. What they're growing on is a mystery itself. Perhaps some buildings of some sort? He can't very well see past the leaves and green, and he's not the only one glaring at it.
Pyrrha's noticed it as well. "Is there... is there something there?"
Nora spots it to, using her palm as a makeshift binocular. She's leaning on Ren's back, using his body as a support beam as well. Ren doesn't seem to notice, eyes focused solely on the hidden structures beneath the vegetation. More importantly, he's focused on the way his leader seems to get lost within the forest, still chasing that monkey who stole his sword.
"C'mon," Ren frowned, trusting the bridge after seeing his Fearless Leader run across it. "We better got help Jaune before he hurts himself. Who knows if there's Grimm inside there."
That might've been the wrong thing to save because Pyrrha's pushing them faster across the bridge, acting just as fearless as their leader. It doesn't take them long to cross the bridge, and the walk inside the mini-forest is a small one. Before any of them know what's going on, they come across a structure hidden with vines wrapping around it. It's an arc opening of some sorts, cracked and broken in various places.
"Jaune must be in there. There's nowhere else to go." Pyrrha said, eyeing the abandon structure with worry.
Ren stepped forward, emotions stretched. "And what exactly is there?"
Stepping into the ruins of what looks like to be a long-lost architecture compound, Team JNPR—minus Jaune—walk into the deathly hushed ruins, ghostly void of all sound, except for the passing wind. Each step inside echoes louder than the last, and Nora breaks the unnerving silence first, grin large and noticeable with her hands thrown wide up into the air.
"Oh! I bet Professor Oobleck would get a kick out of this place!"
"Dr." Ren corrected out of habit, glaring at every inch of the broken down compound. Trees have broken through parts of the concrete flooring, and Mother Nature's wrath only extends further down. "And judging by how far the vegetation's taken over, no one's visited this place in years."
Not only have that, but the buildings around them showed clear signs of advance age, cracks and tears within the concrete from erosion. There are walls that have fallen over, rubble litters the floor, and the silence speaks of no life. Whatever inhabited this place has long since been forgotten to the sands of time. For all they know, the history behind this site holds valuable information about mankind before the Grimm. But such thoughts are wasted on them. They're not historians.
Concerned for her leader, but with natural curiosity grabbing her attention, Pyrrha bit her lip as her eyes roamed over the ancient architecture. "I wonder who lived here before. It's all so strange. I've never seen buildings like these before. Such a fascinating design for something so old and primitive."
Ren stopped and picked up a rusted metal kunai from off the floor, eyes strong. "Whoever they had been... there's no trace of them now. They're gone. They were probably some ancient society."
Pyrrha hummed along, knowing her fair share of history. "This area is unexplored. The maps are useless out here in this part of Remnant. There's bound to be something left to discover."
"And we found one!" Nora cheered, acting prideful or their discovery. "I bet Professor Oobleck will give us extra credit for sure! Oh! I can't wait to see his face when we tell him! I'm going to record it on my scroll! And then I'm going to name this place Nora City!"
"Dr." Pyrrha corrected this time. Off in the distance she can hear some sounds bouncing off the worn down walls. "And do you hear that? It sounds like..."
Nora dashed forward, following the sound of the noise. "It sounds like Jaune!"
The remainder of Team JNPR runs after Nora, traveling deeper into the unknown compound, never once noticing the pairs of eyes spying on them from atop the trees and hidden rooms. They make no sound as they follow them, using nearby vines to swing their way across. No movement is wasted. Not a sound is made. They're silent in their art. Masters in their own right by every shape and form imaginable, and finally, finally the time has come to see their master once more. They've waited years for this, nurturing offspring one after another to guard the secret compound—to guard Yamanouchi.
To guard the Mystical Monkey Master!
Watching from above the trees, the hidden creatures await for the human's companions to reach their other. And when they do, they find their leader cornering the poor monkey, arms stretched out with a malice type of grin they've never seen on him before. The poor thing doesn't know where to go, helpless to Jaune's rare might.
"Now I got you, you dirty monkey!"
Then, before he could lunge forward and pin the monkey down, Pyrrha's stepping forward with a calm smile. Without even uttering a word, she uses her semblance to pull the weapon out of the monkey's hands, effectively robbing Jaune of any reason to enact his revenge. Call her weakness for the balls of fur and mischief. Even the Invincible Girl has her weaknesses.
Watching the monkey take his moment of confusion to turn tail and run, Jaune plucked Crocea Mors out of Pyrrha's hand, not relinquishing his glare. "It would've been nice if you'd done that sooner."
Pyrrha had the nerve to look guilty. "I'm sorry, I just thought of it now."
Sheathing Crocea Mors, Jaune sighed tiredly and looked over his shoulder, confusion taking hold. "So... where are we? Some secret ninja school or something?"
Ren shrugged, "That's as good as a guess as any. It was just sort of here."
Jaune turned, noting every nook and cranny of the broken down compound. Archways were scattered around the area they were in, some fallen, some not. Stone blocks were used as a sense of floor, they're relatively unaffected by time. And the buildings around them had open holes; dust collected on some of the tiles, spider webs appeared in every corner, and a haunting chill existed within them all.
Feeling his instincts taking over, Jaune suddenly had a funny feeling that they were being watched. He couldn't see anybody or anything else around his team to conclude such a thought, but the hairs on the back of neck disagree with his eyes, and that's far more than enough for him to turn back the way they came.
Jaune does just that, only to bump his foot into an odd shaped box resting near his leg, embedded deeply into the weathered concrete with visible cracks protruding everywhere. Apparently through the entire chase, he missed the creepy looking, brown box with a strange picture of a hand bending his legs and arms in a weird sort of fashion by the foot of his legs. Before he can even wonder what's inside, Nora's already beating him to the punch, acting all excited for the historical discovery.
"Oh! You found a box! Open it! Open it! Maybe there's gold inside or a new hat!"
Jaune and Pyrrha wait for Ren to burst Nora's bubble, but he doesn't. To be perfectly fair, there could very well be a hat inside, as crazy and downright silly as that sounds. How he's supposed to know? He's not some crazy, humble hat fairy. He's a Lie. Which kind of proves to be an oxymoron at its finest, but Ren's not looking both ways. And no one's going to call him out on it. Definitely not Jaune or Pyrrha, who are just as both equally curious as Nora and him to find out what's in the box. So no, he's not going to burst Nora's bubble.
Reaching for the cover, Jaune knelt down and tried to pry open the box, failing to produce enough strength in order to do so. No matter how much elbow grease he put into it, the damn thing wouldn't budge an inch. Then Nora goes in for the kill, trying her hardest to help her leader push off the lid, only to fall short in the strength department as well. Funny, since the thing looked to only be a few pounds at the most. For Monty's sake! They could see the lid slightly adjourned already! And that was before they started throwing their weight at it.
Ren didn't bother to add his own futile contribution, knowing he'll only embarrass himself. It's actually Pyrrha who moves forward and throws her arms out towards the box when both Nora and Jaune finally give up.
Pushing the metal lid off with her semblance, Pyrrha peeks in first, instantly throwing her body back the moment her eyes had landed on the contents inside. Part of her face is turning white from the sight hidden within, and her team's concerned beyond reason. The girl even swears they could hear the way her heart's beating rapidly in her chest.
Interested, Ren moves past both Jaune and Nora and takes a gander, and quickly realizes why Pyrrha reacted the way she did.
It's not a chest for treasure or hidden artifacts or any of that trivial nonsense.
It's a coffin.
One by one the rest of Team JNPR takes a peek inside, carefully holding their breath to not breathe in the lingering spirit.
Inside are the remains of some forgotten soul. The poor soul itself is dressed in grey cargo pants with a tight-sleeve, black shirt that probably had fit firmly before, with gloves worn over the boney hands and a brown belt tugged aimlessly around its hipbones. It's holding some strange, tri-hilted sword on the centered of their chest, appearing prepared for battle with a straight sleeping posture. The bones themselves are cracked in various places, some even appear to be entirely broken underneath the clothes, but none of the team plans to test out that theory. There's even an odd monkey styled crowned rested on top of its skull, clashing terribly with the bone's white-grey coloring compared to its chocolate color. Not to mention a green medallion resting right underneath the sword with the same strange symbol of a man bending his body parts in a monkey pose.
Nora's uncharacteristically quiet. Ren's glaring hard at the boney remains. And Jaune doesn't know whether he's going to throw up or turn ghost white like his partner. A deep quietness falls over Team JNPR, with every part of the trouble silence haunting and disturbing. No words can be said. Nothing can be conveyed. Every part of their souls feels unwelcomed and alone in the long-forgotten burial site. Anything that could be possibly done is naught, and they each take a small moment to look between each other, cold in the inside.
Jaune takes a moment to let his heart slow down, finding the courage his team needs, Fearless Leader and all. "We should... we should probably leave."
Pyrrha's all for the plan, "That sounds like a good idea."
Of course, not all good ideas turn into fruition. For a lone monkey blocks their path the second they turn to leave, amused and eyes focused on Pyrrha Nikos—the Invincible Girl. Its brown fur blends into the background and the little monkey sounds it makes tug at the girls' heartstrings. And before they could do anything about it, a second jumps down from some hidden spot in the nearby trees, followed by a third and fourth and so on and so forth, until the area's full of monkeys of all shapes and sizes. All intrigued by their presence, and all welcoming nevertheless.
Nora's beside herself! "Look at all the monkeys! Oh! I just want to snuggle them all!"
Jaune, on the other hand, is starting to develop a slight phobia for them. So many questions are running through his mind, alongside Ren and Pyrrha. Like, where did they come from? How did they sneak up on them? And weren't monkeys supposed to be a loud bunch? What's with all the silence? Monkeys were supposed to be loud and rowdy, not all quiet and mysterious like little ninjas. Life didn't work out that way!
It just didn't!
Reaching for their weapons—minus Nora—the group grow weary with ever increasing amount of monkeys appearing before them. It doesn't help with their silence adding to the overall creepiness of the forgotten compound, already making the area haunting by the minute. Then gorillas begin to join the monkeys, mixing the two separate breeds together in a clash of power and speed. Of course they're quiet as well, and the three are slowly backing together with Nora, noticing they're slowly being surrounded by primates.
Then all of monkey hell breaks loose when the smallest of the monkeys, the one that stole Jaune's sword, lifted up its palms and began doing a small dance. Nothing special, except it makes Nora awe even more, but slowly the dance takes a repetitive rhythm that is so easy that a child could do it. And like the good old saying goes, all the other monkeys and apes begin to copy the same exact dance, looking far more professional than any ballet class ever could.
It would be impressive if it wasn't so downright sick and wrong. The old wise tale of monkey see, monkey do never looked so true. And suffice to say, Jaune and Ren appear alarmed to all the dancing going around them. Then the monkeys start making monkey sounds, sounding oddly repetitive as dance in a circle around them, chanting ooh eeh ah aah ting tang walla walla bing bang, over and over again. Very soon the desolate compound is filled with monkey music that's upbeat and very unnatural. And damn does Jaune miss the silence. Oh how Jaune misses the silence! Never again will he question the good faith he once had. Silent monkeys, nature's gift!
Lost amidst the dancing, Nora steps back at looks to her leader. "What are they doing?"
Jaune has to scratch his head for a moment, lost to it all. "I think... they're dancing? The monkeys are dancing and singing around us? This is just plain weird. I... I don't know what to do next."
"Not us," Pyrrha corrected, pointing towards the coffin of the dead person. Her heart's racing. "Him! They're dancing around him."
Upon closer inspection, the team finds Pyrrha's observation a hundred percent true. The monkeys and apes are dancing around the tomb, passing them by as they danced around in a large circle with noises filling the forest. In a way they ignore their presence, but not entirely. Then things hit a nine-point-nine on the weirdness scale when Nora spots a special type of monkey and ape dancing in the mix.
"Look!" Nora shouts, pointing at the culprit of her alarm.
Not only were they surrounded by monkeys and gorillas of all species, but Grimm variations as well. From the gorilla strength of Beringels to the small and agile bodies of Macaques and all their monkey glory! They were surrounded with no exit in sight. And to make things ten times stranger, the Grimm were dancing along as well, forgetting the humans altogether. Like their presence meant nothing to humanity's consumers. Nope! Nothing!
"They don't look like they care to attack us." Ren noted.
Jaune takes no chances, bringing up Crocea Mors close to his chest. "Doesn't matter! Keep your guard up! Who knows how tough those Grimm are!"
Ignoring the humans, the monkeys and apes continue to dance along, beating their arms to their chest to their heart's content. Finally! The Impossible Girl has return! Her soul has returned to restore their king's life and honor back. It may look like she's forgotten her past life, but between the monkeys and apes, the mystical power residing within them all can sense the soul resurrected. Hence the reason the little monkey stole the other human's tool. How else did the monkeys plan to lead to their chosen one's resting place?
Such tactics needed to be done or else all would be wasted.
Nearing the end of their song, Team JNPR remained vigilant, waiting for any of the Grimm to make a move, not bust a move. They never do. Not for a long while at least. Then, before any of them can react, an ape dancing behind Pyrrha pushes her towards the coffin where three new monkey Grimm jump down from the trees to meet her.
The Grimm stand before the grave, each appearing to hide part of their body from the rest of the world. One covered its eyes, another covered its mouth, and the third covered its ears. They all show advanced age, covered in bone plating from practically head to toe. No hostility could be sensed from them as they towered over Pyrrha's startled frame, remaining quiet and calm compared to all the rowdy monkey and apes around them. And before her team could come to her rescue, a new monkey floats down from the trees, wearing a purple gi. Without needing to ask, the group knows this monkey possessed intelligence far greater than the rest.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune screams out, dashing forward, but he's cut off by the strange cloth wearing monkey grabbing a silk of Pyrrha's hair.
The monkey holds a single strand of blood colored hair, inspecting the texture with precise hands. "This will do nicely. Though it pains me to aid the fool, it's better than letting our cultural heritage die. The monkeys must roam the Earth once more. The dawn of our king's return is upon us."
Ren can't believe his ears. "Did that monkey... just talk?"
Pretending the humans didn't exist; the mystical monkey backed away from Pyrrha and dropped her single lock of hair into the grave. Then the talking monkey pulled out a book hidden in its sleeve, locking the ancient text squarely between its fingers.
"Now to read from the Ancient Text and use the power of the Phantom Monkeys to revive our king!" Throwing a snarl back, the monkey lost a bit of its vigor when glaring at Pyrrha. "I thank you, human. Yono the Destroyer is pleased! With your help, we can now bring back our king."
Pyrrha can't help but ask. "W-Why? What did I do?"
Yono huffed, opening up the Ancient Text where a torrent of blood-red monkey spirits roamed out, "You are the reincarnation of that foolish cheerleader. I don't expect you to understand what I am saying; just know this, only your soul could guide our master's soul back. And for that, Yono won't turn you into stone... again."
"Stone?" Nora asked, voice cutting deep into the air while all the monkeys still sang and danced. "You can't turn people into stone! That's impossible!"
To prove a point, Yono zapped Nora with his laser eyes, immediately turning the Valkyrie into a stone statue. None of the humans can react to the sudden development on time; Yono's already changing her back with a second blast of its eyes. It's only when she falls flat on her knees do any of her teammates react and move accordingly to the sudden development with a steel resolve, but Yono's not paying them any mind anymore, intently focused on using the power of the Phantom Monkeys.
Too bad humans are such nuisances. Now Ren's on the defensive, standing protectively around Nora's weakened frame with a fire burning brightly in his chest. "How did you do that?"
The Phantom Monkeys take priority over Yono the Destroyer's time, so he doesn't indulge Ren's question. But none of them make any move to leave, so eventually the talking monkey answers with a one worded answer that solves all the mysteries of life and death.
"Magic."
Losing their vigor for a quick second, Team JNPR quickly reclaims it, standing even fiercer than ever before. Whatever crazy ritual they've stumbled upon is not something they want to trend lightly, but they don't hold any of the cards.
"Stop talking crazy!" Jaune roared, holding his shield up from Yono's sideways glare. "There's no such thing as magic. Now what the hell's going on?"
Yono the Destroyer actually turns around to glare at Jaune, floating up to improve his height. His voice cuts through all the monkey sounds surrounding them. "You fool! Magic exists all around us. To think anything else is the mind of a weak and misguided fool. For banana sake, I'm a talking monkey! What more proof do you need?"
Pyrrha throw Jaune a careless shrug. "To be fair, Jaune, he's got you there."
Glad the concept has been said, Yono waved them off angrily. "Now! Leave me! I have much work to do!" Turning his back to them, Yono threw his hands into the air. "Hear me, Phantom Monkeys! Obey my commands and follow the Red String of Fate back to the Monkey Master! Restore his flesh! Breathe life into his lungs! Give him life once more! The path is now open! Use it now!"
All the monkeys and apes begin to chant louder, singing that same monkey song while they danced. The three ancient Grimm peer over to the coffin and hover over it, hiding pieces of their conscious from the Monkey Master's body. Slowly, they begin to dissolve, mixing into the tomb with the Phantom Monkeys crashing down into the tomb.
"Can some please explain to me what's going on?" Jaune yelled at the top of his lungs, not believing anything his eyes are seeing. None of his team is for that matter. "Hello! Did you hear me?"
Finishing the monkey ritual, the magical simian shut the Ancient Text closed, waiting for the process to finish. Yono guessed he had time to indulge them, however limited that may be. Humans were always such a power driven, curiosity seeking, and troubling species. Only they could war with each other for petty reasons and still call it honor. It's pathetic to Yono the Destroyer's eyes.
"I commend your bravery; most humans would've already run off. Yet, you are still here. Most intriguing and most foolish," Yono grinned. He hovered forward, glowing a sickly pale-yellow color for all to see. "But I will fulfill your wish. So listen and be quiet! I'm only going to say this once and no more. Long ago, there existed a Monkey King and his fair maiden. They controlled the ultimate power and were world renowned. The Monkey King was the strongest. But time has passed, and the tale's all been forgotten. Only we monkeys remember our king. Except now, the soul of the maiden has returned."
Pyrrha blinked when Yono pointed directly at her. "Me?"
"Word." Yono laughed. "Your soul has returned, and with the power of the Phantom Monkeys and your red hair, we can find and pull back the king's soul back to his body. Though the Red String no longer connects you to his heel, as it once did, it still is enough to pull his soul back." Looking off to the distant valley, Yono smiled. "We've been waiting a long time for this moment."
Pyrrha blinked again. "I... I don't understand. Me? How could my soul have returned? I? I?"
The destroyer turned to see a clueless blond standing right beside the reincarnation. A cool, soft moment passes them by and Yono looks away. Truly, her original soul—or the one he met, anyway—is no longer the same. She's found a new fool now, one just an incompetent as the last. Which means the fool will eventually grow to be strong, but that's neither here nor there.
No matter how far she runs or hides, she can't hide from Destiny. The Red String ties them together. It wraps around their ankles, holding her Fate in place. It may not be personally connected to the chosen one anymore, but magic always finds a way, it always does. As long as the monkeys believe in it, as long as they dance and chant his name, the Mystical Monkey Master can find his way back home. They've waited too long to give up now.
Nothing's impossible!
"You will."
Beneath everyone's feet a glow begins to emerge, radiant and strong with a deep blue contrast. It surrounds the tomb of the Monkey Master, appearing as the symbol of the monkey clan. Monkey magic escapes into the air, condensing quickly into the open tomb. A loud shaking takes place around the compound, breaking down the already weathered down buildings. None of the primates seem to notice, chanting their little monkey song without reserve. Then it all comes to life in one glorious moment.
A gloved hand awakens from the coffin and the monkeys and apes jump up for joy, singing even louder than ever before, even Yono's throwing in a smirk of his own into the mix. They're throwing their hands into the air and Team JNPR stand there with horror spreading across their face. A sword comes out next with a second hand following behind and next a cough. Then a body is sitting up, wearing the monkey artifacts proudly for all to see. It's a man—no! His body is more closely aged to their group, maybe appearing a year younger if anything. But one thing is for certain, the dude's alive and moving, and he's wearing the same exact clothes as the skeleton inside.
"This can't be happening..." Jaune gasped, reaching for Crocea Mors. "That guy was dead minutes ago! Magic's not real! It isn't real! Especially not monkey magic!"
Yono remained diligent. "Keep telling yourself that, nonbeliever. I'm sure it will come true."
With one last, powerful yell, the surrounding monkeys screeched into the air, finishing the ritual forever lost to mankind. A powerful magic escapes the entire forgotten forest, dancing around the newly awakened Monkey King. Every pore of his body gets assaulted with newly renewed monkey magic, fueling the freshly born cells in his body to move once more.
Using the sword to push the edge of his crown up, the restored Monkey King peered over to Yono the Destroyer with a sluggish expression. His frown is mismatched and disoriented. The figure lacks understanding, wondering to kingdom come where's he's at. All of his bones feel like they're working against him, like he's been sleeping for two-thousand years and he's suffering from a major case of muscle stiffness.
When his eyes finally register the monkey standing outside the box he was resting in, he can't fight the curiosity etching itself across his tone. "Yono the Destroyer? What the heck are you doing here? Last time I saw you... you turned Sensei into a stone statue. Wait a minute?" Casting a glance over his shoulder, the king finally stood up from his coffin, eyes narrowing instantly. "What am I doing here? Where am I? What have you done to Yamanouchi?!"
Yono scoffed, grudge long gone. "I've done nothing to this pathetic school. Time is the only one responsible for what you see around you, Ron Stoppable. What you see here is the future. Everything you've ever known has come to pass."
"... Come again?"
Yono sighed. "You've been dead for two-thousand years. Everyone and everything you knew before no longer exists."
Taking a moment to read between the lines, Ron lightly gasped, holding back a torrent of emotions. To be fair, he seemed to be taking it pretty well, at least for someone in his shoes. His heart did have a mini-heart attack, but the vigorous magic running rampant inside him doesn't allow for the disease to strike. Not to say it can help his overall mood, because it can't. Not even close. And before long, Ron taking two steps back, losing his ability to balance himself with each weaken step until he's falling back.
A gorilla Grimm grabs Ron by the back of his mission shirt, hoisting him back on his feet before he can lose his balance. Ron instantly falls back into the Grimm's arm, using it as a support beam to hold himself up. He looks up towards the massive behemoth towering over him, grinning at the ape lending him a helping hand. There's no fear in the sidekick's eyes. He's come to love all animals.
"Thanks, big guy! I don't think I have the strength to walk." Peering down back to Yono, Ron glared. "You're not pulling my chain... are you?"
Yono threw his hands out, voice low and sympathetic. "Just look around you, chosen one. There's nothing left. There's no chain to pull."
Ron doesn't want to believe it. Doesn't want to believe the broken towers represent age. Doesn't want to believe the weeds tell of desertion. Doesn't want to believe any of it! So why? Why can't he find the strength to deny such a lie? Why does it hurt to be alive? Why can't he remember his own death? There are voids in his memory that are scattered and it hurts. Hurts in ways he never thought possible. Honestly, things would've been ten times simpler if he remained dead.
Pulling himself off the strange boney-gorilla, Ron staggered forward, using the Lotus Blade as a cane to move. The stiffness has yet to abandon his muscles, but the whole sitch makes him forgot about the burning feeling spreading across his entire body. He needed more answers! He had greater questions! Nothing is making sense to him. And Yono is the only person Ron can even remotely rely on.
"How did this... how did this all happen? What about Sensei? What about Yori? What about Kim? What about the ninjas! This place was sick in ninjas!" All of Ron's questions get overshadowed by the newest one that passes by his sight of range! And he's grabbing said question, shaking it with unequal distress. "Gah! And where did this tail come from?! I have a monkey tail! Why do I have a monkey tail?"
Floating open to level with the Monkey Master, Yono grabbed Ron's attention with a quick cough. "The Amulet of the Monkey King has fused itself with your soul. Fear not, the magic has weakened over the millenniums. A tail is the last of the remaining power."
Taking a very deep breath, Ron painstakingly dropped his new tail, did a quick glare at the Lotus Blade held in his other hand and the monkey crown falling over half his face. He grabbed the crown and shook it in front of Yono, totally lost.
"Why do I have all this stuff?
"You were buried with it."
Blinking, Ron glared suddenly, remembering once more. "Hey! That's right! Tell me what happened! Why was I dead? How did I die? Did someone kill me? What happened to Yamanouchi! I'm freaking out here!—arg!" Ron fell down onto one knee, feeling the air in his lungs burning his whole body. He's having trouble breathing. "What's with the air? It tastes so stale."
"Ah! Yes," Yono remarked, helping Ron up by grabbing his arm. "The air's changed over the years. You'll come to find it a bit more toxic, but your Mystical Monkey Powers should take care of that in a moment." Ron's breathing heavily now, but his toxic glare demands answers. "Even I do not know how you died. When the monkeys reawakened me, a lot of time had passed. This school was already in ruins and creatures of darkness reigned over the land. I do not to know what became of your friends, nor the ninjas that once scourged these lands. Humanity has changed while you were gone."
Ron pulled his arm free from Yono, feeling the air lose its toxicity slowly. The monkeys and apes around him show concern. They're all different, especially those boney black ones, but still monkeys nevertheless. As the Monkey Master he still ruled over them, it's just the power to control monkeys never really appealed to him back then, so he never profited off their loyalty. Now, however, that might be a different case altogether. Times have changed.
He needs answers more than anything.
"Why did you bring me back? What good am I now? What use could you possibly have from a guy like me?"
Yono frowned. "Monkey kind needs you, chosen one. Humanity's own existence is being threatened. Our very survival is resting on your shoulders."
Vague as always. Ron wondered why magically people always had to be so cryptic when they were talking. What's so hard about being direct? He's also wondering why world-saving problems always seemed to fall onto his shoulders. Couldn't this be someone else's problem? Someone who was already alive? Didn't he save the world enough when he was alive?
Knowing he's beaten and walking away would go against everything he's once followed, Ron threw his head back, remembering all the times Yori etched the meaning of honor into his soul. Honestly, what choice did he have? Apparently the world needs a hero and Kim isn't here to help anymore. A bond of honor holds him down, and Yono knows that.
Ron sat down on his tomb, waving a single hand in the hair in a circular motion. "Then start making with the learning! I want to know everything that's happened while I was pushing up daisies."
Yono bowed. "Very well, I'll teach you about the world around us."
Ron glared. "I'm not following the path of the Yono."
"Ha!" Yono laughed, "As if I would expect you to. Your heart's not even dark enough for such temptations. Such a waste of powerful monkey magic."
Ignoring Yono's attack on his pride, Ron sighed, wondering how the heck he got himself into this sitch. For Naco's sake! He was supposed to be dead. Maggot food! Sure, he can't recall how he died, but it's only though Mystical Monkey Magic that Ron can believe he's truly alive again. And he doesn't know whether to be overjoyed or annoyed. Right now, however, he's mostly annoyed. Everything about this sitch tanks!
Looking around, all Ron sees is a mass of monkeys and apes of various sizes hanging around the old, public, secret-ninja school. It's a disheartening and joyous sight at the same time. On one hand, he's long come to terms with his monkey brethren, on the other, this was the place he met Yori and Sensei. A lot of the memories here were good ones. And to see the ninja compound in such disarray breaks his soul in two. Things really must've changed in the time he's been dead.
Turning around, his eyes widen when he spots Team JNPR standing there, in obvious array of shock. They're as still as statues, eyes completely locked onto his form. Ron actually finds their attention unnerving. At least the simians smiled for him, these four did no such thing. It's almost like they've seen a ghost or some zombie rise out of the grave or something along those lines.
Waving awkwardly, Ron scratched the side of his neck with the hilt of the Lotus Blade, "Uh? Hi?"
Between the four of them, it's Nora who screams the loudest. She's also the first to react, throwing Magnhild's weight in every direction possible at the not-zombie. Zombies to her were one of her biggest nightmares, next to a world without pancakes. And her eyes show unrestrained fury and fear, dedicated to eradicating the zombie before her. Ron, on the other side of her misguided onslaught, dodges with the grace of a monkey, yelling out to her to stop. It seems even in Death, his skills haven't eroded.
Ron barely dodges the fifth blow before Yono zaps Nora with his monkey magic once more, turning the Valkyrie into a stone statue a second time that day. Her expression is sealed into the marble, forever casting her final moments for all to see. It's enough to make Ron sigh and throw his arms out.
"Hey!" Ron cried, "Again with the turning people into stone, shtick? You gotta stop doing that! It's bad for our image. What do you think people are going to say when they know we can turn them into stone?" Ron yawned, smiling anyways. "But I got to say, it did solve the problem. Crazy girl was trying to kill me. And I've been alive for only five minutes."
"Hey!"
Turning around, Ron answered the call from whomever it was, appearing dazed and uninterested at the group that attacked him. "You don't gotta yell. I'm stand ten feet away from you."
Jaune gripped Crocea Mors tightly, feeling fear begin to dig deep into him. The way this supposed Monkey King shrugged off Nora turning into stone irked him. Almost like it's not the weirdest thing he's ever witnessed. This Ron guy even had the nerve to rest on Nora's stone body to stand.
"Turn our friend back to normal!" Jaune ordered with Ren and Pyrrha standing right beside him.
Seeing his fair share of threats over the years, Ron looked at the stone statue, pointing curiously at the petrified girl with a passive expression. "Is she going to start freaking out again? I really prefer if she didn't. A high blood pressure is bad for the body."
This time it's Pyrrha who walks up and puts her weapons away. So far violence has proven vastly ineffective. "Can you please turn our friend back to normal?"
Ron's eyes widen a smidge when he recognized the crimson hair and forest green eyes. The appearance is slightly off, but there's no mistake about it, she looks like Kim Possible. So with a slight nod, Yono followed Ron's orders and returned Nora back to her old self. The girl in question doesn't even get a chance to get her bearings before Ron pushed Nora back to her group, still slightly peeved for when she attacked him.
No longer wanting to talk to them, Ron turned back to Yono, trying to fit pieces together. "Alright, so run this by me again. Why do I have to fix the world? Why me? Couldn't you get someone else to do it? Someone, oh, I don't know, from this time?"
Yono shrugged, floating all mystified. "You're the Monkey Master. It is your job to keep balance in the world."
"I don't remember signing up for that."
"It comes with having the Mystical Monkey Powers."
"Convenient!" Ron argued, slumping down onto the floor. The Lotus Blade turns into a glove and grabs his shoulder, patting the poor sidekick on the back. "Thanks buddy. I needed that." Getting up, he dusted himself off. "Alright, give me the four-one-one. What's the world like now?"
Standing ten feet away from them, Team JNPR didn't know what to say or do. Pyrrha's eternally confused and Jaune's speechless now that Nora's back. Speaking of Nora, Ren's holding her protectively, away from Ron and the floating, talking monkey. Neither of the two troublemakers seemed to be paying them any mind.
"Okay..." Jaune finally said after a few minutes of silence. "Here's the plan. We go back. We get some food. We get some sleep. And pretend none of this ever happened in the morning. Those are leader's orders."
No one fought him on it, perfectly willingly to forget the whole mess ever happened. Especially since the floating monkey has the power to turn people into stone. They might even go for some alcoholic beverages. Anything to sweep the mess around the rug, but a scream from Ron pulls them away from their plan.
"What!" Ron slaps a hand over his eyes, waving the other in clear denial. "Wait a minute! Hold the phone! They're having wars with each other while they have monsters to worry about?" Yono nodded, glummer than usual. "Wow! Humanity's gotten really dumb! They're going to drive themselves to extinction! And for nothing!"
Yono huffed. "Blame humanity. The world may have changed, but humanity's stupidity has not. Humans have always been a fickle bunch. Your kind loves to kill each other for the most pointless of things."
He couldn't help but compare Yono statement to everything he's witnessed in his years as a sidekick. "What else is new?" Shaking his head, he put his foot down. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but we'll have to take over." Ron clicked his teeth together. "Having everyone running around like headless chickens, isn't going to solve any problems! I mean there used to be like six-billion humans and now we're down to a few hundred-million! Something's gotta be done!"
Suddenly, Jaune's not too keen on leaving. The way the zombie said that left a bad taste in his mouth. Jaune put his own foot down, sword ready. "And how did you think of that plan? Where did that come from?"
Surprised that those four were still here, Ron scoffed. The need of many outweighed the need of the few. Something both Global Justice and Yamanouchi taught him. "Well... apparently you guys screwed up! You're having wars we each other when there's monsters to worry about! Monsters, I might add, that are attracted to bad stuff! Do you not see the problem, because I've only been alive for about ten minutes and it's as clear as day to me!"
Ren added his own two cents to the argument. "You're going to trust that monkey? His name is Yono the Destroyer! What part of that sounds like a good plan?"
It's a weak argument, they both know that. "Yono the Destroyed brought me back to life. I'm not sure if I like that or not yet—but she tried to kill me. And she's on your team. As far as I can tell, this only proves his point! You know, unless what Yono is saying is untrue." Ron paused, leaning towards Team JNPR. "Is what he's saying true or not? Tell me that it is all lie! Just say it and I won't believe him."
They can't answer. They know the history of Remnant—or at least they thought they did—and the wars did in fact happen. Ron can see the answer in their eyes, the hesitation and depressing mood only solidifies what Yono the Destroyer said. Which doesn't make the sidekick feel any better, actually worse for that matter, but it only reinforces his next course of action.
Humphing at their silence, Ron turned to Yono, extending a hand out. "Whoever is in charge has to be dethroned. We need to take over. It's drastic, I know, but at this rate the human race won't last much longer. Someone needs to take charge. I would prefer KP, but she's not here anymore."
"Hold it!" Pyrrha yelled, stopping Ron in his tracks. Whatever confusion she had is all gone. The words Ron said echo far too loudly in her ear for such trivial nonsense. "Where are you going?"
Ron appeared lost, eyes slightly wide, "To save the world. Don't worry; I've got experience with this type of junk. Give me a day, a week's tops."
"At the cost of taking over?" Pyrrha fumed.
Ron pretended her fierce eyes looked nothing like Kim's. Still, "I didn't stutter, did I? English hasn't always been my strongest subject. I prefer marinating."
Ren moved forward, getting what Pyrrha's implying. "You're going to take over to save humanity by toppling over the current world government."
Tch, "Oh sure! When you say it like that, it sounds all bad." The four move forward, appearing slightly hostile. After everything they've witnessed, they're not just going to let Ron walk away without some answers, only problem, Ron has a world to save. "Look! I'm just trying to help! Whatever you guys have been doing for the past thousand years has obviously not been working. But I have experience with dealing with these types of problems. Trust me, I'm an expert. I'll take over in no time."
Team JNPR glared.
It wouldn't be such a powerful threat, but that Yono monkey has the power to turn people into stone and who knows what else? Never mind the Monkey King! Ron Stoppable's power must be in another league altogether for the monkeys to call him their king, especially the Grimm and that floating one. Even the sword clutched in his hand looked threatening.
Jaune moved forward, fear gone. "Yea, well, you and what army?"
Ron looked like he didn't know whether to roll his eyes or slap the guy. A simple snap of his fingers brings the entire horde of monkeys and gorillas to his side with Yono floating beside him. Did they already forget he was the Monkey Master? That title isn't for show. Monkeys really do follow him. And he knows the playbook for Good vs. Evil like the back of his hand. And they're currently in overtime with humanity on the line. Four teenagers in way over their heads is the last thing he needs to worry about.
"Don't you know anything? You're never supposed to ask someone that question. No wonder you guys are losing the fight."
Author Notes: Not evil Ron Stoppable, but conflicted Ron Stoppable. One who sees the world falling apart and has no time to be dealing with wannabe heroes.