Disclaimer: Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go! and all characters and events related to them are not mine; they are property of Jetix Animation Concepts and Ciro Nieli.


In Response to Chapter Eight's Reviews

Emerald Shapeshifter 777: Well, Chiro probably would have done it if he was still a teenager. Sorry to say there won't be a replica of Antauri in here. And yeah, Mandarin did just become good, but they don't know that…yet.

OrangeChima: Yes, poor Monkey Team…

Storm Of Sparks: Thanks! And here it is!

4Evermonkeyfan: (shrug) Suspense. It's a sport. Just like fishing. Give them some slack, then reel them in. But if you take another look at Chapter One, you'll find that Jiro's mother looked a lot like Jinmay but wasn't Jinmay and that she died when Jiro was just a newborn. But yeah, that would have been weird.


Chapter Nine

"Don't you dare 'hello' us, Mandarin!" Nova growled, her fists ready. "I'm going to tear you into a hundred pieces and flatten each piece!"

"No, let me at him!" snarled Sprx, pointing a magnet directly at him. "I owe it to the team! I'll cook him five different ways!"

"Enough," Antauri told them both. "It is pointless for us to fight here with the ultimate battle still coming."

Mandarin slowly glanced at the Silver Monkey, somewhat surprised to hear Antauri's voice.

"There's something different about you…" Otto told the Orange Monkey.

"Yeah," Sprx sarcastically answered him. "Tried to give himself his old look so we would listen to him like lost sheep!"

"That is not what he meant, Sprx," Gibson replied.

"Please…" Mandarin began, so softly was his voice that the others believed he was afraid to even speak to them. "Please, I know that it has been far too long since you heard me speak and trusted me enough to listen. And since that time, both I and that wretched clone of mine have done great evils upon you. I am unable to ask you to forgive what my clone has done, and I am unworthy to ask you to forgive what I have done."

"Forgive?" Nova growled. "You insult us, Mandarin!"

Mandarin looked at her, a hurt expression in his eyes. "Nova, my heart is heavy with regret and shame. You had done nothing to me that deserved how I treated you in the training room, and I deserved to be treated infinitely more than what you gave me."

Nova blinked in surprise and stared at Mandarin. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Sprx stepped in front of Nova, jealously defending her. "Get away from her, Mandarin!" he growled. "Don't talk to her!"

Truly pained, the Orange Monkey looked into his eyes. "Sprx…about the last time we raced—" He hesitated, noticing the confused and skeptical expression on Sprx's face. "You remember. Down the stair rails in Father's laboratory."

"Oh, yeah…" Sprx replied, still keeping his guard up. "That was a real long time ago…"

"Indeed, but no amount of time can heal an open wound. You had won that race. I simply…could not believe that I would lose in a fair competition. My pride was hurt, and I retaliated."

"What is to persuade us whether you truly care or you are merely feigning?" Gibson asked with a frown.

The first response to that question surprised them all. Mandarin removed his right glove and placed it on the floor. The Monkeys had expected to see his sharp claws underneath that glove, so they had a great shock to see a paw just like their own. But that did not prepare them for when he placed his hand underneath his armor and brought out a plant.

"Can you identify this, Gibson?" Mandarin quietly asked.

Although wary, Gibson took a few steps closer so he could see the plant easier. And after only one second of looking at it, he answered, "Yes, that is vitalus longevus[/i, a rare herb that grows only once every five years and only in jungle terrain."

"Correct. When you accidentally stumbled into Father's storeroom and fascinated yourself with his chemicals, I disobeyed Father's order and ran into the room to pull you out. I then obeyed him when he told me to find this herb and bring it to him. The broth boiled from it healed you. I both obeyed and disobeyed Father to save your life, because I cared about you and all of you."

Otto's eyes widened slightly. "I remember that…" he whispered in awe. "I remember being scared when you ran in there."

Mandarin glanced over at him and gave a small smile. "Oh, Otto… We were best friends. At least, you were mine; I don't know how you felt. Father did say that we always had an enchanting way of getting each other into trouble. But he also said…that the way we stuck together to get each other out of trouble again was equally enchanting."

Otto slowly nodded.

The Orange Monkey then slowly looked at the last one. "Antauri, you being the Silver Monkey now, I cannot taint your mind to my advantage the way I once did against all of you. And you can sense if I am or not tainting theirs now. So when you tell them, they know you speak the truth. Am I tainting their minds?"

For a long time, Antauri said nothing. The whole time that Mandarin was speaking, he was carefully probing the former leader to find any seeds of deception within him, any moment when Mandarin would plant evils underneath the surface of the seemingly good speech. This was an unnerving time for all of them, for Antauri was the one whose heart and whose trust was broken the most from Mandarin's betrayal.

"No, you are not," Antauri finally said.

Mandarin then looked at them all. "I am not here to take advantage of any of you, or to fight you, or to be your enemy. I am not trying to excuse myself for the evils I did against you, for they are many and great. I am simply sorry that I did them. Since I cannot ask you to forgive me, is there a chance no matter how small that you can believe me? And since I am unworthy to be called your brother, is there a chance no matter how small that I am worthy to be called your friend?"

If Antauri's silence was unnerving to all of them, the silence from the Monkey Team was even more so to Mandarin. It seemed as if his greatest fear was coming true. He had believed that it always too much to hope for.

He sighed and hung his head, ready for any one of them to lunge forward and remove it from his body. His eyes faced the floor, giving an unending stare to that which was neither blinding white nor shadowing black but a pale gray.

Then, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He cringed slightly, wondering if Nova was going to tear his head right off. But he looked up and looked not into Nova's face but Otto's. The two pairs of black eyes looked deep into each other.

Otto then placed Mandarin's chin in between two of his fingers, as if to hold Mandarin's head still while he looked at his face. Mandarin now feared that Otto would choke him for betraying his friendship with them.

But then, Otto smiled. "I know what's different about you now," he said with a certain kind of calm joy in his voice. "It's your eyes. They're white now. I guess they were red for so long that I just didn't notice it at first."

Mandarin said nothing, wondering what Otto was going to do.

The Green Monkey's move shocked them all, but no one as much as Mandarin. Otto removed his hand from Mandarin's chin and swiftly wrapped his arms around Mandarin's upper chest. The Orange Monkey screeched softly in surprise at the embrace. And although Otto did his best to keep it quiet, they all could hear him gently sobbing.

"I know this will sound weird to everyone, but I have to say it," Otto wept. "I missed you, Mandarin!"

Mandarin blinked in shock, but he gave a small smile and – very slowly and very gently to show the others that he was no threat to them – returned the hug. "Are you…crying, Otto?" he softly asked. "Please, don't weep. You were never one to complain, even when you had good cause."

"All the same, I did miss you…the real you," Otto replied. He removed the hug but kept his hands on Mandarin's shoulders. He then looked into Mandarin's eyes again. "Antauri was right about you, after all. You thought it was too late for everyone, but it wasn't too late for you. So, in your own words, Mandarin…welcome back to the family."

The rest of the Monkey Team stood still. Otto was always the most trusting, but some of them wondered if he had gone completely out of his mind.

And Mandarin was even more shocked than they. "Otto, I said that I'm—"

"Unworthy, I know," Otto interrupted. "But even if you don't deserve forgiveness, I'm going to give it to you anyway. Isn't that what families do?"

"Call me insane if you so desire, team," Gibson began after a long pause, "but Otto is correct. If we do not forgive him even when he does not ask for it, we validate ourselves no better than Skeleton King."

Sprx lowered his magnets and transformed them back into his hands. "If you're insane, Gibson, then I must be delirious," he said with a small but teasing smile.

"But what happened, Mandarin?" Nova asked. "The last time we had an encounter with you, it was the incident with Chiro's clones. And after that, it was your own clone."

Mandarin grimaced. "Yes…and for the record, other than memories and voice, there was nothing about that clone that resembles me. He was made of pure evil, while I still had some goodness left in me. But worry no longer about that clone, for he is no more. The purest Power Primate wiped him from existence.

"As for what happened after you recovered Chiro at the clone factory and escaped with him, here is my account:"

x x x x x x x x x

Mandarin grumbled lightly as he examined the damage done to the cloning room in the lab. Among the debris was the destroyed eye scanner that Skeleton King had lent him and the pool of formless ooze where the spout leaked from Chiro's attack. And of course most of the computers and the data stored in them were damaged beyond recovery, and almost everything else was in a state of disrepair.

But all of this turned out to be the least of his worries when a door opened behind him. He gasped and turned around. In came two of the Hyper-Formless he used to command. The pair was walking on either side of a holographic projector displaying Skeleton King, making contact from some distant planet.

Immediately, Mandarin began to defend himself. "Er, my lord, I was just about to repair—"

"Silence!" the horrifying voice came through the speaker in the projector. The image of Skeleton King's staff came down on the floor. And although the staff itself never touched the lab floor, the floor it did touch gave a terrible echo in response to being slammed down. "The lab has been destroyed. Chiro's genetic scan wasted! There will be no more clones."

Mandarin had hung his head in shame during Skeleton King's speech. But now, at this moment of dread, he knew what was coming. Sakko had told him of it once, and now it was beginning to happen again. And the only reason why Sakko was alive to tell him about it was because Mandarin himself spoke on his behalf; no one else knew how to disassemble Jinmay's head from her body when the Citadel of Bone found her flying through space in her search for her origins.

But now, there was no one to speak for him. He looked up at the projected image of his master's face. "If-if you will permit me one more chance, my master, I promise you—"

Again, Skeleton King interrupted him. "No more promises, Mandarin. No more chances. You are being replaced!"

Mandarin was about to appeal to him when a third figure entered the room. At first, Mandarin had not noticed him because he was so small. But when they did lock eyes, Mandarin couldn't believe his. Standing next to the door with nothing but evil glee in his red eyes was another Formless clone, looking very much like one of the thousands of minions. But the head, adorned with what seemed like a helmet of bone, was his own head!

Mandarin could look at his clone for only a few seconds before Skeleton King's image pointed a bony finger at him and said, this time to the Hyper-Formless, "Take him away."

Obeying immediately, each of the two slaves walked right up to Mandarin and took one of his bulky arms.

"No!" he screamed, even wept, as they dragged him down the hallway. "NO!"

In his desperation to save his skin, Mandarin began struggling in the grip of the Hyper-Formless. He managed to wriggle one arm free and use his free hand to punch in the Hyper-Formless' gut. Surprised that he got loose and defeated him, that one dissolved instantly.

Fighting against the second was more difficult since it was alerted to the first's defeat, but Mandarin wasn't giving up. He snarled and activated the energy beam that served as his tail. He wrapped it around his opponent's waist and squeezed as hard as he could with it while at the same time pulling on its arms. Soon, it too was defeated.

Mandarin stood still for several minutes. His anger was not appeased, and the red in his pupils became intense like fire. He snarled and went back to the cloning room in the laboratory. Neither his new clone nor the image projector showing Skeleton King was there.

"So, he abandons me for a lost cause despite my loyalty to him," he grumbled as he picked up a needle-like device that was still attached to an active computer. He stabbed it into his upper arm quite painfully and pressed a few buttons. In seconds, he could feel his poisoned strength leaving him, and he could see the equipment in front of him seemingly growing larger.

When it was done, he looked at his reflection in a broken sheet of metal. He was back to his old and physically crippled form that he had when he first met Chiro. Actually, he looked worse than he did when he met Chiro; the bandages which had wrapped his grotesque wounds were gone, and because his skin had stretched in his monstrous form, most of those wounds had reopened. With another pained growl, he removed the needle and found fresh bandages with which to wrap those wounds.

"Then so be it," he snarled. "I do not need his charity. I will prove my worth to him. If my Chiro clones failed me, surely that wretched clone of me Skeleton King possesses will fail him. I will make myself scarce until I find Chiro on my own, pay back every torment he bestowed on me for replacing and surpassing me, and make him prey to my vengeance."

x x x x x x x x x

"And only up until recently, I remained that way," Mandarin finished.

Antauri gave a light chuckle and joined with Otto in being close to Mandarin. "I sense no deception in you. My prayers for you are finally answered. The Power Primate overcame the evil within you, just as I sensed it would."

Nova blushed. She knew that Antauri was talking to her specifically because she knew (though Mandarin didn't) that she had lost her faith in the Power Primate healing Mandarin's corrupted soul; she had made that clear to Chiro and Jinmay when the Super Robot was on its way to Arcane Isle not long before the final battle.

Mandarin's mouth twisted in the way it would when one is so happy to the point of tears yet is too proud to show the tears. "And I thought the mercy and kindness Chiro gave me was too great to bear."

"Chiro?" Otto gasped.

"Oh, fear not, Otto," he quickly assured him. "Chiro and I have reconciled our differences. We are friends and as brothers now."

"You've seen Chiro?" Gibson asked.

Mandarin nodded. "In fact, it was he who encouraged me to follow through with my plan after I suggested it. I had not even the smallest measurement of confidence that you would believe my sincere words, but to that he said this: 'You underestimate the Monkey Team yet again, Mandarin. I forgave you, even though all I ever knew of you was misery, cruelty, and evil. But they knew what you were like when you were anything but those things. If you can be truthful when you show them that you are now as you were before and they still do not believe you, only then can you condemn your faith in them.' So I did as he told me."

Antauri hummed in thought. "That sounds more like the wisdom I would give."

Mandarin smiled and almost laughed, but he had to remain serious. "Not only did he say that, but he is also here on Catherie Takara. Come now, my friends. I may be proud, but you cannot believe I am foolhardy to come rescue you single-handedly, can you?"

"Rescue us?" Sprx repeated, laughing. "Great job, Mandarin. You got caught, too."

Unlike what the insulted expression they all expected from Mandarin, he smiled in reply. "Yes, I did get captured as well, didn't I?"

Silence followed for several seconds.

"You let them catch you?" Nova asked.

Mandarin nodded. "By letting them drag me through their doors, I had them show me the escape route."

A laugh almost escaped Antauri. "I thought that your anger against the robot was a little bit overdone. You should work on your pretense a little more often, Mandarin; you never could act scorned."

The Orange Monkey scoffed. "Your vote of confidence is overwhelming, Antauri," he muttered sarcastically, though he did chuckle lightly. "But enough talk about me; there will be plenty of time for that later. What is this about an ultimate battle? Father's ghost briefed me on the background of the situation, but I believe I should be updated on its severity."

Within a space of fifteen minutes (omitting the interruptions that Otto, Gibson, and Sprx threw in), the five of them were able to recount their circumstances and their battles.

"Brainiac, eh?" Mandarin asked after he heard everything. He then chuckled and looked at Gibson. "You must be insulted."

"Actually, I take it as a compliment," the scientist answered. "After all, Sprx can no longer refer to me by that unkindly nickname."

Sprx grinned. "Well, I can still call you Dr. Brain-Strain."

"Well, if only I had known that you were injured, I would have snuck some small emergency supplies with me," Mandarin continued. "As it is, we will have to wait until our ally meets with us and we escape to the Super Robot."

"I thought all of our allies died," Otto pointed out.

"Not all of them. This one is our newest and quite unaware of the severity of our destiny. However, he had much potential, and his development progress has exceeded my expectations. I'm afraid that is all I can tell you of him for now."

"Then, what is your plan?" Antauri asked.

Mandarin smiled, showing his usual cunning. "We are going to play, as Chiro would say, 'the oldest trick in the book, fellahs'."

The Monkeys blinked and smiled, all of them knowing that would be the kind of thing Chiro would say.