Series: Saiyuki and Monkey crossover.

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: PG or T for Gojyo's mouth.

Disclaimer: Nobody from either Saiyuki or Monkey belongs to me and I make no money from this story, only a little enjoyment.

Warnings: There is nothing more than hints for any pairings in this fic. A small amount of language.

Setting: sometime after Gensoumaden Saiyuki episode 22: Tatakai no Hate - Devastation and before episode 36: Akai Hana - Brotherhood

Originally published in 2004 on FFNet.

Distorted Mirror

Pt 1

"Just for once, would the two of you idiots, shut up and stop fighting over breakfast?" Sanzo snapped in exasperation while pulling his ever-present gun from within his robes and firing a bullet directly between the heads his two most annoying companions. The bullet missed them both by less than a centimetre, their heads were so close. Honestly, Goku and Gojyo never seemed to give it a rest. They constantly had to keep on at each other and as always, it was a fight over food. This fight, like most others, had been brought on by the red-headed kappa's desire to have some fun at Goku's expense. Though to tell the truth, Sanzo didn't much care what started the arguments, he just wanted some peace and quiet.

Goku and Gojyo gulped, sitting bolt upright while the forth member of the group, Hakkai, just smiled, a little embarrassed by it all.

Goku, after a moment, looked meekly at Sanzo, opening his mouth to offer an apology. One glance at the irritated monk's face however, convinced him not to take his initial intention any further so he looked down to his plate and started quietly eating again.

Sanzo turned back to his paper knowing Goku would not stay sedately eating for long but satisfied that he had at least shut up for the moment. Unfortunately, he didn't get a chance to start reading again because Gojyo felt differently.

After the initial shock from the near miss wore off, Gojyo didn't bother to hide his fury. He suddenly stood, pushing his chair back and slamming his palms on the table. He glared furiously at Sanzo "DAMMIT, you shitty twisted priest! You've come close to hitting us with those damn bullets before, but this time… this time you just about did hit me! I felt it fly past." Gojyo, in the middle of his, he thought justifiably righteous rant, barely even noticed the glare returned by Sanzo or the escalating twitch that was accompanying it. "Push it any damn closer and you're going to kill one of us. Sometimes, I would really love to smack that face o…" he stopped ranting as quickly as he had started when he realised that Sanzo's gun had reappeared, the cold metal of the barrel pressed up hard against his nose.

"I've told you before," Sanzo said in an unusually cold tone of voice that strongly suggested he wasn't playing around, "that if you're good, the bullet will miss, but your behaviour keeps getting worse, so the bullet comes closer." The blond priest gave a tight, twisted smile that Gojyo read as 'push me, please, just give me an excuse'.

Gojyo desperately wanted to keep pushing. He wanted to continue telling that so-called monk exactly what he thought of him but… going further was really just asking for trouble, considering the mood Sanzo seemed to be in, heck, considering any mood that pissy priest was ever in. 'Damn it!' he thought angrily while slowly sinking back into his seat 'With that trigger-happy bastard there's just no winning.' Gojyo glared at Sanzo once more before looking away to the only direction he could, his own breakfast. 'If this guy was a woman, I would think he had PMT or something!'

Sanzo held his position for a few moments longer and when satisfied, sat down again. He replaced his weapon into its usual place hidden within his robes and opened his paper again. He noticed, of course, the glare that the hanyou kappa kept sending his way after the incident but chose to ignore it, after all, Gojyo had now finally shut up as well and that was exactly what he wanted from the start. Silence, peace and a chance to enjoy the morning before the monotony of the day's travel began, which in turn, always brought about more arguments and fighting.

For a while there was blessed silence, with only the sound of the constant clatter of cutlery on plates and the general sounds of Goku eating which kept becoming louder as the small monkey boy became more confidant Sanzo was not about to snap again. It didn't last however as Gojyo just could not resist the temptation any longer. He snuck a self-indulgent little smile to his best friend Hakkai and snatched a particularly tasty looking piece of bacon from directly in front of Goku's nose, popping it into his mouth.

Hakkai lost his normal smile as he watched Gojyo's action and Goku's reaction.

"Hey!" Goku cried out indignantly "That was my bacon! I put it on my plate to save for later. Give it back!"

Gojyo grinned in satisfaction at how easily he had riled up the saru. As always though, too easily. "You guts too much as it is, losing one piece of bacon isn't going to end your world." His grin grew wider as he reached out and snatched another piece.

"Arrrggh!" Goku screamed, "Give me back my bacon, you thieving cockroach!"

"Not gonna!" Gojyo countered matter of factly and turned a rebellious look toward Sanzo. Sanzo, Gojyo thought, looked ready to explode which only made Gojyo smirk. It seemed as though this might have been the final straw but Hakkai stepped in rising to his feet.

"Now, now! Gojyo?" Eyes closed, Hakkai turned a big smile onto his friend. It wasn't Hakkai's usual smile, it was one, which to a casual observer seemed friendly and happy enough but to one who knew him well, like Gojyo, it was a warning, almost deadly in its nature. "Please don't egg Goku on this morning, there is plenty of food. Goku?" Goku looked up at Hakkai a little worried, "Please just eat your breakfast and ignore Gojyo."

"But…" Goku started to whine.

Hakkai's smile broadened, eyes still closed as he continued with his damage control and Goku backed down. Hakkai passed his plate over to Goku and said, "Why don't you finish mine, I've had enough."

"Sankyuu…" Goku mumbled, starting to dig in again.

"Sanzo?" Hakkai asked, turning in the monk's direction.

"Hmmph!" Sanzo grunted, calmer but annoyed that he had lost his chance to take his mood out on someone who so desperately deserved it. He stood up with his paper and practically slammed the chair into the table, causing drinks to slosh around in their glasses.

Gojyo, Goku and Hakkai watched as Sanzo slapped his paper underneath his arm, picked up his coffee and stalked to the front door of the inn's restaurant. He reached the door then turned to face the other three. "I will kill you if you follow me outside before we're ready to leave." Sanzo then continued out the door, sitting down in silence at a table outside.

"Well," Hakkai smiled as he sat down, "that could have gone a lot better, ne Gojyo?"

Gojyo, to his credit, did not say a word.

- . - . -

Sometime later, the Sanzo-ikkou had left the town and were driving west on the route to India. The travellers were quiet. Sanzo was still annoyed about Gojyo and Goku's little performance during breakfast and it had led to an oppressive atmosphere.

After Gojyo and Goku had finished their meal, Hakkai had spoken to them both about behaving, at least for a few hours during the upcoming drive. Gojyo noticed that Hakkai had looked directly at him for most of the lecture with that disarming smile of his. Even though the kappa had felt slightly guilty about the whole thing, he had asked defensively "What did I do?"

Hakkai had sighed in response, "Please Gojyo, just don't argue any more this morning." he replied.

The fact that the lecture was directed mostly at Gojyo was not lost on Goku and the saru had been trying, unsuccessfully, to hide a small grin throughout. Hakkai noticed and just looked at him, causing Goku's grin to abruptly vanish.

With that all settled, Gojyo and Goku watched as Hakkai paid for the morning's meal. The three of them then went outside and met up with Sanzo, who did not look entirely pleased to see them. The little white dragon Hakuryu, flew from Hakkai's shoulder and 'kyuued' excitedly as he transformed from animal to his open topped Jeep form. Everyone had then placed their small amount of belongings inside, climbed into their usual seats and then driven out of town.

That was a little over half an hour ago. Now the group was coming up to a wide ravine and it appeared that the bridge was out.

Hakkai brought Hakuryu to a full stop near where the bridge started and looked out at it. There were a few people working on it however due to the rather huge gap about half way across. One of them noticed the group pull to a stop and nudged one of his fellow workers. The man responded by glancing over to the Jeep full of people and started walking over to them.

"Yo!" The man called out with a friendly wave. "I'm sorry but as you can see, you can't cross the ravine here. We had a fierce storm last week during which the bridge got struck by lightening and caught fire. Unfortunately it's going to take us a while to rebuild this, probably another week or two at best."

Sanzo grunted in annoyance "We don't have another week or two that we can afford to waste."

The spokesman smiled understandingly "Where are you headed?"

"India!" Came the terse response.

The man blinked, "That's a long way off from here."

Sanzo just somehow managed to look more even annoyed in response so Hakkai replied.

"Yes, it is, which is why we don't have time to wait. We had planned to pass through a small city called Sesshyaa. Do you possibly know of any alternative routes?"

"Yes," came the reply "it will add another day and a half to your journey but then again, you will get there sooner than if you waited for us to finish rebuilding this bridge." He proceeded to show Hakkai the route on the map.

As it turned out, the group had to backtrack all the way back to the town in which they had spent the previous night and head off via one of the other roads out of town. All of this just continued to add to Sanzo's general bad mood making the day ahead of them an even more pleasant prospect to look forward to.

- . - . -

It was a beautiful, bright and clear morning when Monkey, Tripitaka, Sandy, Pigsy and Yuu-Loong left town. Tripitaka bowed his thanks to their host and hostess of the previous night then glared at his disciples when they didn't immediately do the same. Sandy and Yuu-Loong appeared slightly abashed and followed suit in thanking their hosts.

Not long into their journey, Pigsy started up on his usual complaints "Why do I always have to carry everything? It's always the same, day in and day out. It's not fair!" he whined, "I'm sick of it!"

Yuu-Loong gave a kind of a horsy snort of disdain in Pigsy's general direction.

"What's your problem?" Pigsy asked him in annoyance.

"That's all we ever hear from you. You should try carrying a human once in a while. A human," Yuu-Loong smiled sheepishly at Tripitaka, "even one as small as the master, weighs more than that little amount of stuff that you carry."

Pigsy glared, a little put out by Yuu-Loong's observation, "You're a horse, that's what horses do."

"A horse, who used to be a dragon!"

Pigsy sneered, "A dragon who ate the master's original horse."

Yuu-Loong snorted again "How was I supposed to know whose horse that was, a dragon's got to eat." He then turned to Tripitaka "Would you like to ride me now Master or walk a little longer?"

Before Tripitaka could reply, Pigsy got in first "That's right, try to win the argument by offering to return to a form that you can't normally speak in."

Yuu-Loong folded his arms loosely, lifting them in front of his face and blowing a raspberry in Pigsy's direction before turning back to Tripitaka to get a reply from the young Buddhist priest. He noticed just how tired and stressed that Tripitaka was looking. Then without waiting for the priest's reply, Yuu-Loong transformed into his usual form of a beautiful white horse, complete with purple reins and tassels.

Tripitaka sighed and climbed onto Yuu-Loong's back with a little help from Monkey. He smiled wanly down at his first disciple "Thank you, Monkey."

For the next few minutes, it was quiet among the group, though Pigsy would glower a little in Yuu-Loong's direction every so often. Tripitaka rode along, eyes closed, listening to the beautiful variety of songs coming from unseen birds in the area. As he listened, he finally started to relax.

Monkey, the self-titled (and heaven allowed) Great Sage, Equal of Heaven was holding onto Yuu-Loong's reigns, leading the horse and Tripitaka along. Monkey loved to participate in a good fight, the thrill and excitement of it being what drew him in but he also loved to have fun, which explained all of the parties and banquets back in his own kingdom, the Kingdom of Fruits and Flowers. He was a being of nature, born of the earth and the powers of the sun and the moon; as a result, amidst the peace and tranquillity of the early summer morning, he was in his element. Due to his very nature, the Monkey King with the irrepressible spirit had the ability to perceive his environment in a way like no one else, so on a morning like this, he was especially happy. He probably would never have admitted it, especially to Tripitaka with all his lame rules of no violence and no killing but Monkey rather liked this lifestyle. Though his friends often annoyed him, more often than not, the lazy swine being the most annoying, he wouldn't give up or trade his life and friends for anything, he would protect the priest until the end.

Sandy, unlike Pigsy and the shorter Monkey, was very different to the rest of the group. He was a fish spirit, who for a few hundred years had practised cannibalism. He wore several shrunken skulls around his neck as decoration. Since beginning to travel with Tripitaka and the others, he had stopped eating people but his personality hadn't changed much otherwise. In many ways, Sandy was a loner, he often liked to simply sit alone and philosophise. His fighting skills were above average, though it would have been surprising if they weren't, considering that he had once been the Commander of the Host of Heaven before being thrown out of Heaven and reincarnated due to accidentally smashing the sacred Jade Fish Cup. Sandy's magic on the other hand, was incredibly poor and his transformation skills were ludicrous, leaving Monkey (who had mastered a large variety of magic) to have to magically disguise him whenever it was necessary.

Pigsy was lazy, had a tendency to eat entirely too much and had a way with women. His way with women being to send them running, often screaming for help and safety, due to his lecherous nature, making lewd suggestions and being unable to keep his hands to himself. Pigsy had some skill with magic, though he didn't often use it. When he did use magic, it was usually to fool the ladies into thinking he was someone else, like their husband or lover. He did occasionally use magic when it was needed for more serious endeavours but he much preferred to fight using his muck rake weapon. Like Sandy, Pigsy had also been kicked from heaven, though for a different reason. Pigsy had been drunk and instead of protecting the Star Spirit Lady Vega, he had come onto her a little too strongly. As a result, he was consigned to a re-incarnation as a pig spirit.

After a short period, Pigsy began complaining once more. "I'm sick of carrying everything. Monkey, you never carry anything, you take a turn."

Monkey turned his head, looking directly at Pigsy with a 'you've got to be joking' look. "Lazy swine, that's your job. I lead the horse, I'm not about to start carrying your weight as well."

"How about we trade then, you carry this stuff and I'll lead the horse." Pigsy suggested whining.

"How about notSwine!"

"Why not?"

"Because you stink of pig. Why should the master have to put up with your stench? It's bad enough that even when you lag so far behind the rest of us, I can still smell you. That's also another reason, you lag behind too much, if we let you lead, we would never get to India."

"You are so rude!" Pigsy retorted, his voice sounding low and throaty on the final word. "Pigs smell nice and are friendly, unlike hairy apes!"

Monkey's face contorted in anger and he begun to move as if to take on Pigsy but Tripitaka put a stop to that.

"Be quiet!" Tripitaka snapped "Both of you. We shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves."

"But…" Pigsy tried to reply.

"Just be quiet and stop arguing." Tripitaka sounded as though he were at the end of his rope.

"Master, are you alright?" Sandy asked in concern, walking over to the young priest's side.

Tripitaka smiled tiredly down at the fish spirit "Yes, I am alright. Monkey, Pigsy?" He asked, slightly stressing the last syllable of each of their names as he always did, "I'm sorry for snapping at you both but could you please keep your arguments down. I have a headache." He added in explanation.

Pigsy didn't reply, just sulked but Monkey nodded, "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

Tripitaka smiled slightly "You would have tried insisting on staying on staying in the last town. It's only a small headache and we don't have time to waste."

Monkey frowned but it was Sandy who spoke, "You always insist on stopping to help anyone else, but you refuse to look after yourself."

"What is a little discomfort for one individual when there are so many lives that could be saved by the scriptures?"

"A lot," Pigsy muttered, "When you take it out on the rest of us."

Monkey was the only one who even half-heard what the former Marshal of the Heavenly Host had said and so he dropped back to Pigsy and asked, "What was that?"

Pigsy glared at the Monkey King, opening his mouth to reply.

KerRASH! The noise was almost deafening as the ground in front of Tripitaka and Yuu-Loong split open by something that looked a lot like a lightning bolt, only with unusual streaks of purple encasing it.

Yuu-Loong whinnied in panic as the bolt narrowly missed his head by only a few centimetres. In his uncontrolled state, he reared up, unconsciously transforming to his human form like always when panicked. Tripitaka went flying off from his back, luckily, Sandy was able to react quickly and he moved where he could catch the falling priest. As quick as Sandy was however, he wasn't quite fast enough. Tripitaka landed on top of him and the pair fell to the ground in an awkward tangle of limbs and audible grunts.

While Tripitaka was performing his aerial show, Monkey was already reaching up to his ear and pulling out the hidden magic wishing staff from where he normally stored it in a handy half matchstick size. His wishing staff grew out to a comfortable fighting length at his command and he twirled the staff a couple of times, trying to work out where the attack had originated from.

More of the strange lightning crashed down, coming too close to Sandy and Tripitaka for their comfort. Pigsy whirled around in confusion, "Where's it coming from?" he asked.

Monkey replied shortly "If I knew that, I wouldn't be just standing here. Go help the master."

Monkey slowly circled around, all his sharp senses alert, watching, listening, waiting for any clue as to where the attacks had come from, while Pigsy pulled Tripitaka off of Sandy and to his feet. Pigsy then joined Monkey, holding his muck rake in a defensive, ready position.

Sandy pulled himself to his feet, glaring at the back of Pigsy's head. Pigsy felt the glare and looked back at the fish spirit. "What?" he asked indignantly.

Before Sandy could answer, there was another strike of purple tinged lightning narrowly missing Tripitaka once more, this time only missing due to Yuu-Loong quickly pushing the Buddhist out of harm's way.

This time, Monkey placed the origin of the attack and was already running towards it. "Pigsy!" he yelled, "You protect the master!"

"Right." Pigsy called back, already standing protectively in front of the concerned priest.

Sandy raced after Monkey anxiously as Tripitaka called "Monkey, Sandy! Be careful, you two. No Killing!" Neither of the two responded in any way.

A grim smile of satisfaction crossed Monkey's face as from behind some rocks on the top of the hill they were running toward, they saw a suddenly worried monster emerge. It had noticed them coming.

Monkey watched as the monster raised its arms, pointing straight at the two and lightning flew directly at them. It fell short but only because Monkey and Sandy jumped back, out of the way. He followed the initial attack up swiftly and continuously, effectively driving back the monkey king and the fish spirit. Before they realised what happened, they quickly found themselves driven back to where Tripitaka, Pigsy and Yuu-Loong were waiting anxiously.

"Do something!" Pigsy demanded of Monkey.

"Why don't you?" Monkey retorted, twirling his magic wishing staff faster and faster in an effort to deflect the electrical attacks.

"Because I don't want to end up as crispy, fried bacon." Pigsy whined. "Besides, I'm protecting the master."

"You're trying to save your own bacon!"

"Can you please stop hamming it up and find a way to stop this monster?" Sandy asked calmly.

"I don't see you doing anything besides standing behind the hairy ape." Pigsy retorted.

"There's not much I can do," Sandy replied simply, "Electricity and water don't mix well. Still," he mused thoughtfully, "there is something that seems awfully familiar about this attack style, I've either seen something similar or heard of it before, though I can't think where." Tripitaka was the only one who noticed a fleeting look of discomfort pass through Sandy's eyes.

"Well, start remembering…" Monkey paused in his reply as the increasing speed of his spinning magic staff and the escalating electrical fury started having a strange effect on each other. To Monkey's enhanced senses, it was as though the entire area was alive with electricity, almost as if the very air they were breathing was screaming in agonising pain. Monkey looked around in concern, not understanding why he had started seeing flickers and glimmers of sparking light everywhere. Suddenly, there was a somewhat tortured, ripping sound as a huge tear in the very air itself formed. Like a vacuum, he, Tripitaka, Sandy, Pigsy and Yuu-Loong found themselves dragged into the torn fury. The electrical attacks had increased to an all-time high, then, they died. The five of them however, found themselves dragged into the tear and out of sight, all of them crying out and fighting against the pull, to no avail. Then, all was silent.

A couple of minutes passed before there was movement at the scene of Tripitaka's group's last known location. The monster that had attacked them arrived. He was tall, extremely sleek with flat, smooth black hair. He had a constant almost wet look about himself.

"Dammit!" he swore. "There is no sign of their bodies." He glared imperiously at all of the destruction that had been left in the wake of his attack and noticed that it appeared as if whatever plant life was left had been pulled in the direction of where that strange rip had been.

He swore again and thought disdainfully 'I will have to send for Slintha.' The monster then turned on his heel and strode away purposefully.

A few minutes later, the birdsong finally rang through the morning once more.

to be continued

A/N:

Sanzo is actually a monk but is often referred to as a priest, especially when the insults are flying.

The Saiyuki characters are based on watching the Japanese version of the anime and the Monkey characters are based off of the British dub of the original Japanese live action series from the late 70's – early 80's.

I realise that the vast majority of readers will know any of the Japanese words I have used, but for those that don't, here are some translations.

Hanyou – half demon

Kappa - water sprite/demon

Saru - monkey

Ne - said when expecting the listener to agree with what you just said, equivalent of right?

Ikkou - group