Series: Saiyuki and Monkey

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: PG13

Pairings: none, only a few hints scattered throughout the story

Disclaimer: None of the characters from Saiyuki or Monkey belong to me in any way, shape of form. Only Slaard, Slintha and her brother belong to me.

Note: Since it was revealed to only Sanzo and Gojyo that Tripitaka is actually female, if someone who was not privy to that revelation is directly noticing her/thinking of her, she will be referred to as a he, as they otherwise would not realise the truth and would therefore still perceive her as male.

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Distorted Mirror

Pt 15

Just outside the cave, Monkey had had the upper hand in the beginning but somehow, King Slaard had made a comeback, turning the tide of the fight around and the monkey king was now in a little trouble. Monkey was just too tired. It had been a long couple of days and even though Hakkai had healed a lot of his injuries, Monkey was still affected by them all. Just because an injury or two had been healed that didn't mean you didn't have to rest to recoup your strength and energy and if there was blood loss, not that that had been a major problem for Monkey, that needed time to recover from as well. As a result, he had been fighting silently for a while now and that was something his friends would have thought to be impossible.

As he dodged and attacked Slaard, Monkey thought to himself in frustration, 'I could defeat King Mudball easily if I could just kill him but he's the only one who knows how to get us back home.' He dodged a bolt of electrical energy that landed a little too closely for his tastes and thought perversely, 'Maybe getting home isn't worth the effort of not killing him.'

"You're getting sloppy, making mistakes." Slaard noted mockingly. "Mistakes that will get you killed."

Monkey frowned, "The only mistake I have made Glow Worm, is realizing that I can't kill you." His frown deepened into a scowl as he thought, 'I know Goku and Hakkai know not to kill the other two monsters but I hope they let their friends know.' Not long ago, Monkey had heard a lot of crashing and rumbling sounds coming from inside the nearby cave system but they had suddenly died off, leaving only the occasional sounds emanating from within. The sudden lack of noise was worrying him more than he cared to admit, even to himself. He swung his wishing staff in a wide arc, ensuring that his opponent had to jump well out the way to avoid being swept up in the momentum.

"Glow worm?" Slaard yelled in fury. "You dare to disrespect me? King Slaard? You will pay for this gross insult!"

Monkey stopped dead and yawned. Obviously! "You keep saying the same things over and over. For a king, you are incredibly boring! Tell you what," Monkey grinned cheekily, "You continue to rant for an hour or so and I'll take a nap till you finish. How does that sound, king of the pond dwellers?"

Slaard ran at Monkey screaming, not even making an effort to remain in control of his reactions. Throughout the fight and especially now that he was blinded by his fury, King Slaard's speed had picked up considerably and before anyone could have blinked an eyelid, he was pummelling away at the monkey king. Such was his blind rage that Slaard would never have noticed the trick that Monkey had pulled. The mischievous ape had used his magic in order to create a magical duplicate of himself. This one wasn't like the ones he had previously used in his other fights, this one was just standing there, taking Slaard's attacks and not retaliating in any way, shape or form. The real Monkey was standing about ten meters off to the side, leaning against a tree and grinning with immense satisfaction as he watched the free entertainment. It was a good move, Monkey thought to himself, as it gave him a chance to recoup a little of his strength.

Monkey was in the perfect position to see Sanzo walk safely out from the cave's entrance, followed closely by Tripitaka. Monkey frowned, there seemed to be something a little… different about the way Tripitaka was carrying himself, a slight shift in attitude. Monkey sighed, shrugging as he decided to worry about the problem later in the day. Hakuryu flew out next and the little white dragon was followed by Goku and Hakkai, carrying Gojyo between them. The great sage grinned and waved to them all but in the low light of early morning, only Tripitaka, who was actively searching out his surroundings noticed, returning his wave with a happy, beautiful smile.

The first thing that Goku noticed was Slaard beating up on Monkey, not realising that 'Monkey' was just a dummy. "I'm sorry Hakkai," the youth apologised, not taking his eyes off the one-sided fight playing out some one hundred meters in front of him, "I've gotta go help Monkey." Goku ran off dropping Gojyo and trusting that the healer would be able to take up the slack of their unconscious friend. As he ran, he held out his hand, summoning nyoi-bo.

"Take me on Slaard!" Goku yelled to the apparently deaf eel. Slaard continued his rage blind assault on the Monkey dummy. Goku scowled, annoyed at his opponent ignoring him the way he was and swung nyoi-bo, connecting solidly into the eel-king's side. Slaard was knocked aside but recovered quickly and his attention rapidly switched to Goku.

Slaard was beyond furious and it showed in his entire being. His eyes were aglow and he super-charged his body, ready for the attack. He began to advance on the small youkai, the twisted look on his face making Goku take a tentative half step back.

Goku swallowed and then stepped forward, standing his ground as he prepared to take on Slaard head on. Then his expression showed a look of disbelief as Slaard stopped his advance and whipped his head around to the side.

A yellow movement had caught the corner of the eel's eye in the brightening morning. He swore when he took a closer look, realising that his prisoners had somehow managed to escape. "Tripitaka! How the hell did those priests get free? What happened to my servants?" He then turned and ran straight past Goku, heading directly for where Tripitaka and the others were standing.

"Hey! Get back here!" Goku yelled indignantly at having been brushed off like he was nothing. He hated being ignored at the best of times but in a fight? That was an insult to his pride. He gave chase to his runaway opponent as did Monkey.

Monkey very quickly overtook the younger youkai, yelling as he ran, worried about his master's safety. "Oi! Oi you! King of the Fluorescent Fungus! I believe you were fighting me not a pair of helpless priests!"

Slaard stopped a couple of meters short of Tripitaka and the twitching Sanzo. He turned and glowered at Monkey. "I will kill you ape but since it seems that the so-called Great Sage, Equal of Heaven is not so great and is but a weakling, you can wait while I take care of the bigger problem, Tripitaka. He is the one who is the bigger threat. He threatens the way of life of all us monsters and you mean less than nothing in comparison, a fact which was painfully obvious during our fight just now."

Monkey laughed, "You were taken in by a dummy, idiot!"

"You're in denial!" Slaard retorted, sparks of electricity rolling up and down his body in waves.

Monkey gestured casually over his shoulder, "Look again, King Leach."

Slaard looked and his eyes widened in disbelief as he saw the Monkey dummy still standing, swaying slightly in the breeze. "Wha… that's not… how?" In his surprise, the waves of electricity suddenly ceased.

Goku, who hadn't been far behind Monkey also looked, "Huh?" he said in confusion. He hadn't noticed before either.

Monkey grinned, "Monkey is magic!"

Slaard continued to stare. After a few seconds, he turned to Sanzo and the others. "What happened to my minions? My pretty adviser Slintha and her useless brother?"

"You mean the psychotic, loony Slintha…" Gojyo mumbled weakly, opening his eyes. He tried to support some of his own weight but was as yet, unable to, much to his own disgust. He hated feeling this weak.

Sanzo looked levelly at Slaard, raising his gun in response. "They are both dead." He said flatly.

Slaard looked like he was in shock. Monkey stared in disbelief, "You killed them? We needed them to get back home!"

Sanzo's expression did not change, nor did he remove his gaze from Slaard.

Hakkai turned his face away from his friend and looked towards Monkey, "I'm sorry Monkey. There really was no choice. If we didn't kill them, we would have been the ones who were killed."

Monkey sighed, "That's okay." He looked at Slaard. "We will just have to recreate the accident that brought us here and hope that works."

Slaard laughed with a sneer, "As if I would help a servant of the Buddha, especially one allied with Tripitaka. If he brings back the scriptures from India, then all the monster races and demons will be facing the end. So you can forget it."

"Is that so, then you are no more use to us, King Mollusc." Monkey said in a hard tone.

Slaard smirked, "In that case, I'll be on my way. There are too many crusading fools here for my liking. At least if Tripitaka is stuck in this world, he can't cause problems for everyone else back in ours." He started to walk off but the circle of youkai and humans around him tightened.

"You don't seem to get it." Monkey said distantly as he inspected his fingernails. "If we have no use for you, I'll have to kill you. I can't have you returning to threaten master's life when you think you can get past us."

"Monkey!" Tripitaka snapped. "No killing! How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Master, this time, I don't care. You can use the headache sutra on me, I will still manage to kill the royal water weed. If I don't, he will just come after you again when there aren't so many of us around you to protect you." Monkey explained somewhat patiently.

"Then let him!" Tripitaka snapped angrily. "Buddhists do not kill!"

Monkey grinned, "Apparently they don't lose their temper or patience either."

Tripitaka felt as though she were about to explode but finally, Monkey's words sank in. "You are right, Monkey. You still may not kill him though."

"If I don't, then someone else will. I wont force others to do my job."

"Since when?" Pigsy's voice panted accusingly as he, Sandy and Yuu-Loong finally burst into the area. "You're always coming up with ways to trick me into doing your job for you."

"Well," Monkey said in an innocent tone, "its too easy to trick a fool. Heh! Heh!"

Sandy grinned, "He's got you there, Pigsy." He stopped a good ten meters away from everyone else and refused to come any closer as he spotted the eel within the circle of people.

While everyone was occupied with the argument and conversation, Slaard decided it might be a good time to try to make a break for it. This time however, he decided instead of trying to walk by them, he would jump over the top of them.

"Staff, grow long." Monkey said, not even turning to look. With the longer staff, the monkey king hit the eel king, knocking him down, out of the air. Slaard glared daggers at Monkey but Monkey paid no further notice.

"Then, what now?" Goku asked.

"I will kill this evil MONSTER!" Monkey yelled as he turned to face his enemy, raising his wishing staff high and preparing to jab the end of it directly into Slaard.

Slaard cowered where he lay on the ground, knowing that there was no escape, "Don't kill me!" he screamed desperately. "I'll help, I'll help you… Buddhists get home. Anything!"

Monkey halted in mid-lunge and glared down at Slaard, "How do I know you wont try to escape or kill us instead of just re-creating what happened to bring us here?"

"I wont!" Slaard promised frantically.

"Eels can't be trusted," Sandy stated sagely from back where he stood, "it's in their slimy nature."

Slaard shot a murderous glance in Sandy's direction, making the water spirit take a couple of steps backwards. "We are not slimy, you just haven't taken a good feel, kappa!"

"Who would want to feel something like an eel? If you don't get bitten, you would get zapped by the electricity. Either way, no-one in their right minds would even touch an eel."

"I would!" Pigsy grinned. "I wonder where that lovely lady eel went?"

"Your girlfriend is dead, disgusting swine." Monkey said in annoyance at how Pigsy was holding onto his lecherous delusions.

"What?" Pigsy whined, "And all we got to do was kiss…"

Almost everyone, especially Gojyo looked either disgusted or sickened at Pigsy's admission. Gojyo muttered, "That's bad enough, be thankful you did nothing more with that crazy woman or that she did nothing more to you."

"Kissing an eel is bad enough," Sandy replied, "Why would you actually want to go further? Your priorities should be with master Tripitaka, not with your hormones."

"Leave my hormones alone!" Pigsy whined again. He then turned to Tripitaka, "Master? Tell Monkey and Sandy to stop picking on me."

She just shook her head in slight amusement before turning back to face Monkey again. "Since King Slaard has agreed to help us after all, shall we go home so we can continue on our journey?"

"Heh heh! Sounds like a good idea." Monkey grabbed Slaard by his collar and roughly hauled the eel monster to his feet. "Well then King Algae, no tricks, how do we get home?"

"Release me, you uncouth monkey. Geh! Its hard to believe that one such as you is royalty." King Slaard snapped, the attitude coming back now that his life was no longer being immediately threatened. "We have to return to the place where we entered this world."

"Lets go then." Monkey pushed the protesting Slaard in the direction of the area in which they originally fell into and his friends followed.

Hakkai turned to Sanzo and the others, "Perhaps we had better go with them to see this through to the end." He suggested.

Goku grinned as he cried, "Yeah!"

Gojyo looked apologetic and said wearily, "I can barely even stand with help, let alone on my own, I'm not going to be able to keep up."

The healer smiled, "Once we are clear of the woods, Hakuryu can take us."

"Why? It's not like this was our business in the first place."

Hakkai raised his eyebrows and appeared to be amused, "Would that satisfy you, considering everything that has happened if we didn't see this through?"

Sanzo grunted in reply but otherwise didn't agree or disagree.

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A couple of hours later, everyone arrived at the location where they first met Tripitaka and her followers. Monkey and Slaard looked about the terrain and worked out where they had been positioned originally in their own world. Tripitaka, Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy and Yuu-Loong all went to get back into the places they had been in at the height of the initial attack against them.

"Now remember, if you have the intelligence to do so," Slaard sneered nastily, "I'm going to have to recreate my attack, not just the finale of it but all of it so don't get angry if it seems that I am trying to kill you instead." King Slaard turned to walk back over the hill.

"Oi! Just a moment," Monkey called while scowling at his adversary, "King Glow-in-the-Dark, you better not go back on your word. The likes of you can't kill me. I'm a stone monkey and I'm immortal, I ate the heavenly peaches. You misbehave and I will find you."

Monkey noted with satisfaction the look of angered annoyance that appeared on Slaard's face, showing that Slaard had been planning on betraying them and that he wasn't happy to have been found out. Slaard turned and stalked away, not saying a word.

Hakkai smiled broadly, "We'll be near him to make sure he keeps his word. Good luck."

Tripitaka smiled pleasantly, "Thank you all, for your help. I hope we will meet again in another life."

The two groups finished saying their goodbyes, some pleasant and heartfelt and others brusque and hurried. Tripitaka watched the retreating Sanzo-ikkou with a smile, Sanzo was stalking away, following Slaard with his gun held ready. He had been the first to leave. Goku was practically bounding after the bad-tempered monk, unwilling to leave him alone for long. Hakkai had climbed back into the jeep and was driving himself and Gojyo over to the top of the small hill.

After a few minutes Sandy spoke up, his voice almost unreadable. "That eel seems to be in position, I hope everyone else is ready, I'm not."

Then, the attack commenced.

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Slaard watched in satisfaction as the combination of his magically enhanced electrical attacks and the twirling of Monkey's magic wishing staff enabled the rip in the sky to open wide. He was painfully aware of the fact that Sanzo and his group were a mere thirty meters behind him but Slaard no longer cared. If he was also killed as a result, so be it but Tripitaka had to die. Not for himself, not for his people but for all the demons, monsters and ghosts of his world, for all of those that were merely illusions brought to life by those who most strongly denied the evils within them. With the fetching of the scriptures and the teachings of Buddha, all of his brethren would begin to disappear, becoming less numerous and possibly ceasing to exist. Tripitaka was a threat that was just too dangerous for him to allow continued life.

The eel king watched closely as the rip started to have its effect on its surrounding, beginning to pull everything towards it. He began to run to the rip even as everything loose that was near it flew into the breach. Anything that was weighted or was in someway held down inexorably began to be pulled into it. Slaard had paid attention to the distance and the effect the rip was having on everything around it and this time, was able to compensate for his previous errors in aim. He raised his hand for one last, extra attack and raised the strength of it, giving it everything he had and released the energy straight at Tripitaka, who was about to jump into the hole in the sky.

Goku and Hakkai watched in horror as they realised what was happening and began to yell a warning. Goku ran towards where Monkey and the others were as he yelled, in the hopes that someone, anyone would hear him and notice the attack before it was too late. Hakkai concentrated, calling up a ball of his ki and sending it off with the idea of using it to disrupt Slaard's assault but due to his tiredness, his ki had little, if any effect on the electrical attack. Sanzo calmly aimed and squeezed the trigger of his gun, shooting Slaard in the back of his head, killing him instantly.

Monkey turned, somehow having heard the commotion behind him and to his horror, saw the extra bolt of energy about to hit its target. He threw himself in its way, taking the brunt of it and protecting Tripitaka. Then, as Tripitaka's cries of fear for Monkey's life began to ring out, the pull from the rip suddenly surged in strength, pulling Tripitaka, Monkey, Sandy, Pigsy and Yuu-Loong from the sight of the Sanzo-ikkou forever.

Not quite the end.

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A/N:

Well, one more post to come and then this story is all done. Sorry for taking so long with the posting of this and the last couple of chapters. I've been having a little trouble getting myself to sit down with this chapter, mainly due to the fact that there were large parts of this chapter that needed heavy editing, re-writing, which was something the previous few chapters hadn't needed so much of and somehow, I just wasn't inspired to play with it…Not to mention that when I didbegin to tyope this up last tuesday,I had a short power blackout which completely destroyed my mood for it and wiped what I had typed out. Luckily I didn't lose a lot though, thanks to my paranoia of saving things often.When I originally wrote this, I had left a great deal of this chapter not written properly due to the fact that the beginning needed massive work and the ending was going to, by necessity, rely very strongly on how everyone was brought together. Still, I will not be taking so long with the final post. It's shorter and won't need as much editing as I type it up.

Thank you to those who reviewed.

sailorgemini1: Thanks

Diva Urd: (grin) In some ways I would have liked Slintha to last a little longer too, despite being one of the bad guys, I quite liked her and I think she is so far the best character I have ever come up with. Still, she wasn't meant to live. If she did, I don't think Gojyo would have been very happy… I had to let him have some kind of compensation for everything he has been going through in my various fics :-P I went through the chapter again and didn't notice any actual spelling mistakes, except for a couple that were deliberately miss-spelled to show how the character was pronouncing the word but I did notice a few small grammar errors as a result and fixed them. Thanks.

Me-Nuriko: (grins) Of course Hakkai goes to Gojyo first, unless someone is obviously in much greater need, can anyone see it any other way? I must confess that I have only seen a little of Getbackers and have no idea who Raitei is, though from the name, I can certainly guess the kind ofpower that whoever the character is has :-P (sigh) I really do need to see the rest of Getbackers. Basically Slintha was going to say something along the lines of, actually managed to defeat me. She had no real grip on reality… Of course Gojyo would defeat her, given the chance.