Chapter 4

The Monk and the Murderer

Chiro and Jinmay walked hand in hand as they trailed through the city lights. Everything was lit up like festive earth Christmas trees, it awed both the heroes in the endless beauty.

"Chiro, it almost looks like the stars are right here in reach." She extended a hand to emphasize the feeling to her boyfriend.

"True, it is beautiful," he whispered while nuzzling her nose into her pink hair. "But you are the real light in my eye."

Smiling at his smooth words, Jinmay breathed a warm breath into Chiro's bangs before planting a soft kiss. Hands intertwining, both young adults got lost into each other's eyes, wondering where the other has been their entire life.

"If you had one wish, Chiro, what would it be?"

"Hm… since you're already here with me, then…" He looked up in the midnight sky. "I wish everyone, first our teammates, could feel what we are feeling this very moment."

"Yes, no more lies," she whispered into his ear.

Chiro slithered his arm tighter around her waist, "No more secrets. Just truth."

"So, healing can open the door for happiness."

Both adults smiled as they turned their eyes away from each other and went back to studying the sea of mystical neon lights before them. Both unaware the power of this wish as the words floated through the air, meeting the ear of something immensely power. His ear absorbing their unintentional request, then turning his eye on the nearest couple, a wave of his hand commanded the laws of life to turn.

The change began.

~With Antauri & Vex~

Both monkeys lying on their sides while being swallowed up by the large comforter, Antauri's pleasured gasps were the only sounds to be heard. His helmet glimmered on the floor, right next to the darker cracked head gear of his now lover. Though his fully mechanical body could generate no breath, he still felt the urge to breathe, so he opened his mouth and mimed the once-organic gesture.

Vex, however, laid lifelessly by him, her eyes continued to glow a matching green as Antauri emptied all his information and data into her mind. His soul was still desperately trying to find her own, fear began to emerge within the second in command's mind. Even going as far as to read her mind, he couldn't even manage that. Just like before… it was as if she was somehow immune to his spiritual powers, but how could that be? The lessons of the Veron Mystics were above all lessons created by those in the land of the living—even if these readings were corrupt, Antauri still couldn't disown them… these laws, lessons, everything he dedicated his life to—it was too much a part of him.

How was this female able to be immune to his powers? Such a concept deeply scared him as he kept his eye trained on her face. Observing the purple orb that served as her 'brain,' just… how? His questions were becoming endless!

"What do you feel…" Vex suddenly whispered, at last showing a small sign of life.

Antauri almost leapt out of his circuity, she was talking, what was holding her back? He had to know, fast!

"What… you mean?"

She glanced down to his body, running two large talons over his shiny chest, fascinating with that spot as she rubbed the spot. Antauri studied her for a moment till the question hit him. Leaning in closer, he pressed his lips against into her's, sensing the drunken stupor clouding her mind.

"Open your mind, just a little, for me…"

At last, Vex partially listened as she allowed her mind to completely accept his mind.

~Dream State/Spiritual Realm~

Vex walked through the strange realm she suddenly woke up, golden wheat rippled all around her with gorgeous green mountains and clear babbling brooks crackling near her. Flowers of all different kinds decorated the feet of the massive trees that graciously lent the former assassin a spot in their cooling shade. Even the skies were a think hue of polished gold and white, so majestic and beautiful… it looked beyond anything she could fathom.

Looking into a puddle her paw splashed in, the gruesome scarred mug that only she possessed glared back. The black and white colors of long mangled fur created from eons of battles showed the monkey that, even in this strange spiritual realm, she was still a formless.

Hurt tried to climb its way into existence, but just like before, her mind's ice cloud would swoop in and numb her. Further preventing her from any sense of relief one would expect to have when releasing all that was bottled up.

"Vexahlia?"

Slowly turning around, the one-eyed survivor spotted a robotic monkey she had never seen before. His fur was dark, not as black as her current form, but still darker then the other Hyperforce monkeys. The strange male's eyes were a deep yellowish lime green, his metallic parts were also a matching grey to Chiro's family. Hands folded into his crisscrossed lap, he hovered in midair in a lotus form. Those eyes stayed on her, then it hit Vex.

"Sterling."

Antauri smiled as he reached out and barricaded her in a tight yearning embrace. His body trembled to at last feel the messy softness of her thick dense coat. A small tear drizzled down his cheek as he gnashed his teeth again.

"I've so badly wanted to feel your body against mine. My real body, something I wanted you to see. For real. Now, at last, you can," he hoarsely whispered while smashing a desperate kiss to his mouth before he threw his face back into her mane.

She didn't know how to respond, she looked to his real form as he smothered himself into her dense white coat. Sighing, she wrapped her arms around him and tried to sooth the male with a rocking motion.

"I never needed to see you."

Antauri froze, pulling back to look at her, eyes wide with question and concern. Vex gifted him with a small soft smile.

"Because you are real… regardless of form."

Chocking a moment, Antauri squeezed her once last time before straightening up. Revealing his transparent form, informing Vex this was indeed the wise monkey's soul.

"It's still a closure I needed," he ran his hand through her mane, his gaze burning into her face as if he was trying to melt it off with invisible laser vision.

"What?"

"In my robotic body, though I am thankful for it's ability to keep me tethered to the living world that let's me further exist with my loved ones. Unfortunately, I feel numb, unable to taste, eat, or drink anything I once enjoyed. No longer can I feel the wind on my face… or the sun's warming rays. What pains me most… is a missing heart beat to remind me I'm really alive."

"But you need not a heart to be alive."

Antauri nodded, face getting serious as he closed in on her, but his limbs stayed stuck to his center. This closed off body language alerted the larger female as she stepped back but halted when the smaller primate grabbed her shoulder with one hand and ran his free one over her fluffy chest.

"But you possess no heartbeat, yet I sense one within." Bringing his hands to rest on her cheeks, he looked right into her dead expression.

"I've revealed my pains to you, from my former master's treacherous betrayal to my sacrifice and rebirthing as a complete machine. I've given you my body, my mind, and now my soul. Never have I exposed myself to the bare bones… Now… I need you to show me."

Vex's mundane look didn't even flinch, exhaling through her nose as she pulled away from his ghostly hands.

"Your eyes already see me."

"No," he spoke firmly, reaching for her again. "I have never done such a thing, because I have never felt such a powerful yearning for someone like you. My body now belongs to you… I ask you return the extension."

Vex tightened her eyes, keeping her head away from him as a shadow overlapped her face. Muscles tightening, her metallic pieces started to rattle with the painful shivers that wracked the agonizing ooze that forever froze to her skin like a coat of liquid nitrogen. Antauri was no longer requesting… now he was demanding this as if she was just a subordinate. While the male was always the dominant one between them, she couldn't let him get his way.

She had to protect him.

"I never demanded your body."

"But you did not refuse it, we lie now in each other's arms, engaging in an act once forbidden by my order. This is the furthest I have ever strayed from my teachings. Why won't you accept me completely?"

"You know not of who I am."

Tightening his fist, the wise monkey had enough. Moving forward, he got eye to eye with her, with her attention strained on him, he whispered.

"Please, do not leave me here alone in this realm, I… needyou…"

Freezing at the confession, her blank face started to crack. Mouth open, she strained to speak, her formless body strained as Antauri got closer. She pulled away from him as she stumbled and leant against the nearing tree of Antauri's realm. Digging her claws painfully into her helmet, she lowered herself till knees were pressed into her chest. Whole body was shacking, like every ounce of bone and muscle was crushed beneath trampling bison. The pain was to much, like it always was, but now that she was cornered…

She couldn't fight it anymore.

Antauri watched with a heavy heart, it pained him deeply to see her like this, but the deepness of her mask was so steep it even masked her from his soul. Till small cracks of purple light broke from her back like a hermit crab breaking its shell. With a miniscule sized tear dripping from her sealed eye, Vex at last let go of her iron restrains and let it all fall in one go.

Antauris' soul was suddenly swept from his own inner landscape and sucked into a dark void. Shock hit him as he looked around him, trying to find his scarred lover, but it was as if she just vanished. Till a purple hand touched him, guiding him to turn around. The male froze at the sight before him.

A long-haired metal grey monkey with a fog colored poncho-shaped mane stood before him. A patch charcoal rings looped around her eyes. Deep amethyst eyes with glowing pupils bore into Antauri, only bearing one long scratch on her cheek and belly. This monkey looked a good bit younger then Vex, but the shape of her fur, eye color, and robotic design also looked like his lover—but how could it be? This monkey wear clearly not Vex, as she bore no massive scars nor was her fur or mane as long as his beloved.

Then reality hit as Antauri gasped, eyes growing to the size of dinner plates as he inched his hand up to cup her cheek.

"V-Vex…?"

The monkey stared at him, her expression not hiding behind any stone mask, all her emotions were seen right in her eyes. There was a sense of sadness as her beautiful glanced down to his feet. A fresh wave of pain hit Antauri, causing him toe crumble to the ground grasping his helmet as Vex began to download herself into him.

Vex was looking at him, but she refused to touch him, like he would be tainted if she did. He reached out to her, but she kept back, eyes lowering even further.

"Two generations ago, I… was made, along with my male companion. Dubbed the beginning of the Prototypes."

The larger female glanced into the black void, revealing her memories so Antauri could see everything.

"Project to ensure the design models were stable, the goals were personal. Protect others, was what the Alchemist instructed. It was only us two, we went out and split ways to locate inner enhancements. Wisp, my male companion, was wild, free, and strong. He was my courage, to which I was his common sense. I was hesitant, driven to never fail others. But… soon discovered, I was not strong. Cowardly, spineless, useless… every failed fight. Every mocking word my brain would forever remember… Trying to remain humble nor quit… kept going, till I was whittled down to… nothing."

Antauri gasped in pain as the image of a tall, board shouldered, man invaded his space. Long raven hair and skillfully cut facial hair, upon first glance, he looked very clean and cut. The closer Antauri inspected the image, the scarier the image became, the man's bright eyes turning to a black as dark as tar. Scars cutting around his face as his hair lengthened and became matted. Every sign of life vanished from the man as quick as a finger snap.

Vex's sad whisper followed the image for Antauri to hear her narration.

"In one moment's, weakness, obsession doubled with isolation created a starvation for improvement. Despising who I was, I believed my mind's lies, and accepted his guidance. Everything changed that day."

Antauri witnessed the image of Vex's hands being chained to her neck. Fear was present in her eyes, but submission was stronger as she refused to fight back, allowing the morbid human to drag her into the basement of a strange underground facility that seemed to have been abounded for hundreds of years.

The monk looked around, searching for his lover, terrified of the sudden lifeless place that stood completely foreign to his own inner peace and teachings. This was not right, unnatural, nothing about this place was correct. What was going to happen, he did not know, till Vex's narrations found him again.

"Two decades, my eyes forgot what sunlight was. Blaring red lights, the masked ones shined on me while pressing needles into me. I knew not what the price for my desire would be, but later only did I see… after my release, it costed me greatly."

Vex emerged before Antauri's spooked position, her once lively purple eyes turned into a dense foggy black. Only purple veins etched around her eyes' rims were visible. A cold vapor spewing off her form, an aura that almost froze Antauri's very fingers for just being within a few feet of her.

"The purchase for the service… was my soul."

She turned her head away from Antauri, gesturing to the images that quickly swapped to the next scene. From the rising intensity, the male could sense it was coming to an end.

"I finally found victory, battles becoming more gruesome and yet I still prevailed. Yet I felt no satisfaction, nothing, like all I once thought was me just vanished. Sometimes I forgot I was tangible. Remaining numb to my crimes, kill after kill, only slaying the worst. But the agony was no more. A numbing freedom to feel nothing. It was… breathless, till I was hit with a new event."

Antauri then saw the young laughing faces of Chiro's parents. The monkey gasped, attempting to reach out to the mother first, clearly seeing her kinship to the Alchemist. He noted the stylish white monkey with green eyes caring for her as a father would. Then he observed the human that bore an uncanny resemblance to Captain Shuggazoom, the way Vex's younger self hovered over him, something like only a mother would.

"I fell in love with the young lad. We became a family, welcoming the young pup into the world. The shock of my numbness finally hit, as the more I loved these people… t-the more… my skewered soul tried to remember regret. I realized what I have become, the horror I created of my own free will."

Vex turned away from Antauri as the imagery of every murder she had committed get absorbed into his mind. The horrific screams for mercy nearly deafened him as the wise monkey covered his ears, something like a serrated blade of cold steel plunged into his heart, twisting it till it was torn to ribbons.

"A—ack, what is this… horror?" Antauri cried out, holding onto his stomach while curling up on the ground, feeling gallons of tears pour from his optics. "P—please, make it stop…!" He covered his ears, the bloody screams of many victims filling every corner of his inner self till it killed any strand of hope he had left.

Vex pressed a numb paw to her jaw, rubbing it as if she was oblivious to the monk's pain.

"The nuisance you endure now is my internal punishment."

"Y—you feel this pain? Y…you hear these screams every day?" Antauri tried to stop the tears, trying to straighten his posture, to appear to strong. But the pain of his enflamed muscles heated up till the point his tendons felt as if they were growing to break in unison. "H—how can you be so numb? Why have you kept such an awful thing from us, from me!?"

Antauri doubled over, nearly smothering his snout to his feet in a tighter ball to stop the turmoiling war. "How can life not show you mercy?"

"I had no mercy for life, so it shall bear none for me." Vex breathed in, blinking her eyes to halt the data.

At last, the pain tearing Antauri apart at the seams vanished, allowing the monkey to gasp for a deep cleansing breath. He sprawled out, breathing heavy with gallons of sweat pooling beneath him. No energy left, he looked up to his lover, golden eyes filled with so much horror and grief that no words could describe the bleeding hole now made in his heart from receiving the truth of how the former assassin felt on a day to day basis.

"How could… you…" he breathed out, struggling to sit up, only to tumble back down. "You keep… such an… awful thing… from the others? F—from… me?"

Turning around, Vex opened her claws for the black monkey to see.

"Because I deserve to be trapped." Inhaling a hesitant sigh, she rubbed the line of her helmet's brow, trying to think of how to handle the simian now. Glancing down to him, she pressed her hand to her chest, feeling the fast heart beat that pounded within.

"Love for friends, my son, then my murder and forced resurrection to entrapment of a Formless within my own body. It is a corner I mind not sitting in… a punishment I gladly welcome…"

"But why? I… don't understand."

"Because it hurts me, dear one. I can feel it. Because it means… I have changed."

Within a flash, Antauri was ripped away from Vex. A small tear fell from her face as Skeleton King's ooze surrounded her, clamping down on her. Antauri gasped and yodeled her name till a wave of silver metal crashed into him.

All went black.

~Awakening/In Present Day~

Antauri shot awake, his fully robotic body refusing to follow his will's command as a low battery beeped out its protest. Trying to force himself to move, the silver monkey gnashed his teeth in frustration, realizing the only item he could move was his head. His body laid in the bed with the covers pulled up to his neck, the pristine cover of his brain still lying on the floor next to him.

The clock read 6:30 AM, had they really remained in this spot for nearly eight hours? His eyes darted up to the fan slowly spinning, a sense of heaviness hit as he realized Vex was nowhere in sight.

Trying to repress his panic, he craned his head upwards to scan the room for his missing mate. But the memory of what was witnessed burned fresh within his mind, reality struck him. Vex had opened her door, allowing both to download their beings into each other. The process his Master and superiors forbidden him to do was now complete.

The strayed monk was now forever bound to former murderer.

"You understand now why I refused you days before this moment…" Vex said allowed, grabbing Antauri's attention like a lightning bolt. She sat on the edge of the bed, her helmet firmly strapped back into place.

Antauri now was able to recognize the scarred appearance of the formless monkey he had unintentionally fallen in love with. He tried to raise his limp arm to grab her wrist, just wanting to touch her, but his low battery was running on emergency power that was nearly drained.

Vex seemed to sense his struggles, but still she refused to make eye contact.

"Truly, I believed you to be smarter then this. Boggled by typical emotions, you attempt a soul tie with someone you knew nothing about."

The silver monkey growled, his stern eyes boring into the back of her helmet as if he was mentally ordering her to turn around and face him. She sensed this, but still she did not turn around.

"Now you see my plagues. Relationships require healthy benefactors, which I am not." Pressing a paw into her face, she shook her head and inched her eye back to look at the stern faced male.

"I… didn't want you to feel what I rightly deserve to endure."

Antauri still said nothing, this annoying the old monkey as she sighed and turned her body around to face the robotic monkey.

"What say you?"

"Please, quit your talking and return to my arms."

Halting, the formless monkey was not expecting to hear that as she raised a troubled brow. Even her blank face showed a visible stretch of surprise. Antauri looked down to his immobile form in frustration before speaking out to the monkey again.

"Even through the pain of my master's betrayal, there was something I taught myself. A personal reserve if you will."

"Da… and that is?" She crossed her arms, curiosity peeked at this sudden turn of events.

"I've been taught that evil can always hide behind a smile. But, after a while, I came to realize that… even though rarer… a light can exist within even the deepest of darkness."

Frozen to her spot at the male's speech on morality, she casted her gaze down to her claws. Looking back up to him, she pressed a paw to her forehead.

"But I am a life robber."

"No, you were… Not anymore. Now please, I want you to remain here with me as I recharge. I do not wish to be alone."

Breathing in, the dark monkey slid up by his side and repositioned the paralyzed robot till his front was buried into her own. The former assassin shook her head as Antauri's eyes finally started to power down.

"We are now mated for life." He whispered till his eyes finally shut down to begin his recharge.

Vex's eye shot open as she sat up, looking down to the deactivated monkey.

"Pause, pause. We are betrothed?" She uttered in alarm to the deactivated monkey. Sighing, she laid back down, intending to keep her word to remain by his side till he charged up enough to walk on his own.

"First joint now of intimacy, now you reveal we've been… married? Heh, well played. Monk of the Power Primate."

A/N: Hey, sorry for long chapter! Hope you like it, I know I updated this pretty quick, just have to write when the inspiration hits, ya know?

Anyway, story is about to wrap up. Stay tuned for the last chapter, peace out!