"If you want to take a hit you gotta have a firmer stance! You're just gonna get knocked over that way!" Monkey King states matter-of-factly as Chen holds his arms up to bar the great sages kick. The defence works, but not without sending the young man flying backwards.

Chen falls on his back and is left winded, coughing and gasping for air. The Monkey King lands before him, holding out a hand for Chen to take. "You're doing great! But maybe we should give you a break, hm?" he suggests with a smile.
The young man begrudgingly agrees, taking Monkey King's hand and letting him help him to his feet. MK watches from the side, his staff in hand. It was now his turn to train, while Chen took a break.

As the young man walks pass, MK leans towards him. "Hey Chen, are you alright?" He asks, raising a brow. The older boy waves him off absentmindedly. "Yeah yeah, I'm fine." He mumbles, not even glancing up or looking in the boys direction.
MK pauses, mouth open as if he was about to ask something else but he quickly shuts it, instead walking over to Monkey King.

Chen walks over to a boulder, making sure he gave the duo enough space to spar. Their training sessions got a LOT more intense than Chen's, and if he were being honest he was feeling a little jealous. MK got to use his powers, yet Chen couldn't even activate his own on command. And it annoyed him.

But now that was going to change.

Chen sits down on a boulder, as MK and Monkey King begin their spar. It starts off with a few simple strikes, before quickly escalating to the duo having to leave the little cove and train on the mountains.
As they go out of sight, Chen readjusts the bandages on his arms, getting lost in thought.

Today is the day. He'll no longer be weak. He'll become better, stronger, and more powerful. He'll be able to not only protect himself but his friends too...

A scream cuts through his thoughts, and Chen quickly looks up to see MK falling to the ground, having been struck down by the great sage. He crashes to the ground, causing a huge gust of wind and dust to fly up. Chen quickly covers his eyes, and when the dust clears he looks down to see MK laying in a centre of a small crater. "Ya good, MK?"
The young man lifts up a hand, giving Chen a thumbs up. "Never... better..." he coughs.

Monkey King lands on the ground with a grin, teleporting over to MK. "Better. Way, way better! You're totally getting the hang of this, bud!" he praises, picking up Mk and spinning him around before placing him back down on his feet. Chen raises a brow at the obvious favouritism, but doesn't say anything.

"Aw, really?" MK asks, beaming up at his idol. The Monkey King nods, standing up straight. "I mean, it does make sense. You are getting trained by me! Now, we just gotta work on your focus!" he explains.
"Yeah, I am the best at focus- WHAT DO YOU MEAN "WORK ON MY FOCUS"?!" MK shrieks, realising what the great sage had said.

As the young man tries to argue with the Monkey King about his "ridiculous" statement, Chen's phone vibrates, telling him he has a new message. He pulls out his phone, checking the text. It's from Pigsy.

Pigsy: "Where are you? I need you and MK back now!"

Chen looks up to check MK and Monkey King, seeing that the great sage was currently giving the young man some "insightful" lesson about focus. He doesn't pay attention to what the monkey is saying, however, and looks back to the screen.

Chen: "Finishing training. Will be there soon."

With that he pockets his phone, getting to his feet and stretching. He winces as a particularly bad bruise on his arm acts up, but he ignores it. It'll be gone sooner or later anyway. Since he was a demon and all.

He still had to get used to that news.

"Hey, monkey brain! Pops wants us back at the shop." he states, walking over to MK and Monkey King. At that, MK checks his own phone realising that there were a couple of messages from Pigsy for him too. "Oh! Right! Right! Right!" he chuckles, bringing out his staff once more. "See you later, Monkey King!" he calls out, heading toward the exit, Chen right behind him.

Monkey King looks at them, a little surprised as he pauses his eating, his hand still in the peach chip bag. "Uh, I actually wanted to-"

Before the sage could even finish his sentence, MK grabs Chens arm, dragging him out of the cove. Chen braces himself as MK slams his staff into the ground, but he still let out a scream as the boy launches the two of them into the air, heading back to the city.

That was another thing he had to get used to; getting randomly launched into the air like that.

—

"Hey, uh, MK. You mind explaining to me why I have TWO HUNDRED ORDERS OF NOODLES THAT HAVEN'T BEEN DELIVERED YET?!"

Chen peers his head around the kitchen doorway at the yell, only to be met with the sight of several undelivered noodles sitting on the counter. Not again...

MK chuckles nervously, grabbing Tang who had been innocently eating his (stolen) noodles on a nearby stool. "I thought Mr. Tang was gonna do it?" He says sheepishly, much to Pigsy's irritation. The pig man starts to rant about how distraction was MK's greatest weakness, and when he turns to the boy once more he finds MK playing on his phone, not listening to a word he says.

Chen rolls his eyes at his brothers behaviour, and finishing up the order he was doing, he gets ready to help MK deliver the undelivered noodles. This was gonna take longer than he wanted to, and at this rate he'll be late for his first lesson with Jade.

When he exits the kitchen, the young man is met with the sight of MK begging to keep his job.

Well that had escalated quickly.

Without saying a word he takes a few bags of noodles, heading out of the shop to his tuk-tuk. He could still hear Pigsy scolding MK as he left.

—

For the next few hours, Chen zipped through the city streets delivering noodles, trying to stay on time while MK did only gods knows what. Hopefully actually doing his job without getting distracted.

He lets out a sigh as he stepped out of his tuk-tuk for his last delivery, bag of noodles in hand as he stepped up to the front door of an old dojo. He knocked on the door, checking his phone to make sure he got the right address.

The door opens a crack, and for a split second Chen catches sight of dark hair and golden eyes. He didn't get a good look before the door slams shut again.

The young man is blinks, surprised. "Um... hello? Pigsy's Noodles. I have your order." He calls out, before double checking his phone. He got the right address- why weren't they taking their order?

As he waits, there's voices talking on the other side of the door, of what Chen could only assume to be an older male and a young kid. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but the older male didn't sound too happy.

Chen knocks again.

This time the scolding stops, and the door opens again. In the doorway stood the same man who had opened the door seconds ago. Chen couldn't place it, but he swore he looked different than before. Maybe it was the lighting, but he thought the man had a red marking across his eyes earlier...

The man gives Chen a smile. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise my son had ordered noodles. Your arrival took me by surprise." He says apologetically, glancing over his shoulder at someone inside. A child's voice chuckles awkwardly. "Sorry..."
Chen smiles as well. "No worries, sir. Here are your noodles." He says in his best customer service voice, handing the noodles to the man.

The man thanks him, taking the bag before closing the door. Chen stands there for a moment, before shaking his head, heading back to his tuk-tuk and driving off.

Finally, he could go train with Jade.

—

Chen parks his tuk-tuk outside the spot he and Jade had agreed to meet; an old dojo that conveniently wasn't too far from Pigsy's Noodles. He climbs out of the small vehicle, looking up at the old building. The door was partly open, indicating Jade was already inside.

He steps inside, being met by the smell of dust and mold. Chen's nose scrunches in disgust, surprised that this place hadn't been demolished already.

Taking a quick glance around the old and trashed dojo, he spots Jade sitting on a placemat on the ground, legs crossed and eyes closed. Their hands rested on his knees, scaled tail wrapped tightly around him. They made no motion to show he heard Chen enter.

"Hey, Jade? I'm here. Are you even awake?" Chen asks, as he steps further into the room, being careful where he trod. Surprisingly, there was one area that was clear of broken glass and old wooden beams, showing that someone had tried to clean up a bit.

Jade opens his eyes, turning his head to see Chen. "Oh- hey, kiddo. Didn't hear you come in." He chuckles awkwardly, standing up. They too look around at the trashed place. "Yeah, I did try to clean up a bit. Only got as far as this, though. I've been busy..." he trails off, scratching his neck.

Chen hums in response. "I'm guessing we're cleaning before we start today?" He questions. At that, Jade quickly shakes his head. "Oh no, I'll clean the dojo. Our deal is you're here to train! Remember?"

Chen raises a brow, before letting out a sigh and crossing his arms. "Then tell me where we're supposed to train?"

Jade looks around again, trying to spot a clear space large enough to train, but found none. "We, uh..."

"You're not good at planning ahead, are you?" Chen points out, finding the broom that Jade had obviously used to clear the space before hand. The snake demon doesn't answer, which confirmed Chens statement.

Chen gets to work, sweeping broken glass and kicking away the broken wooden beams that were in his way. After a few seconds he turns back to Jade, only to find that the demon hadn't moved and was staring at him. "You gonna help, or...?"

"Huh? O-oh, yeah. I'll uh, be right back..." Jade mumbles, disappearing through a door that lead deeper into the dojo. He returns a few minutes later with another broom. There must be an old cleaning supply closet, Chen figured.

The two get to work, clearing the small space enough for a training session. With the two of them and Chens instructions, it didn't take them long.

The young man wipes his brow, his jacket tied around his waist as he looks around the now a bit cleaner- but still trashed- place. "There, now we can start the training session."

Jade nods, having snapped out of his little trance. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright! Uh, first things first- let's see what I'm dealing with, shall we?" The snake demon smiles awkwardly, walking over to an old training dummy. "Have you been able to gain any control of your powers at all this week?" He asks.

Chen follows him, shaking his head. "Nope, same as before. It only works when I'm in a high stress situation."

Jade nods in understanding. "Mhm, I see. Well, I don't really want to put you in a high stress situation right now, but I DO have an idea-" with that he pushes the dummy to the centre of the room. "I want you to imagine this as something you hate- something that gets your blood boiling- and hit it with everything you've got. I just want to see what I'm working with."

Chen glances at the dummy, then to Jade, unamused. "I'm not doing that." He declares, finding the idea stupid. Jade sighs. "You only have to do this once, okay? I haven't seen your powers fully yet, so I don't know what I'm dealing with."

The young man grumbles to himself, before turning back to the dummy. He imagines the face of his ex friend from the Golden Kitsune club on the dummy, and starts to throw punches.
He continues this for a while, and when he sees that it's not working, he starts to get frustrated. He changes the image to the members of the demon bull family, which did seem to work for a while, since he found it to be quite satisfying throwing the punches.

Jade watches from the sidelines, hand on his chin as he watches for any of the telltale signs of the power he'd seen that day in the warehouse. But there was no green lighting, no nothing. "This doesn't seem to be working as well as I thought..." he mumbles, before clearing his throat to speak to Chen. "Okay, uh, can you think of anything else? What makes you really angry and upset? What scares you the most?"

Chen pauses, thinking. He stares at the dummy, as his mind wanders to all the times he's activated his powers so far. Almost all of those times, his friends had been in danger. When he felt weak, powerless...

"You're just a scared and weak little demon."

The strangers words filled his thoughts, making his blood boil. He wasn't weak. And he was going to prove it.

Jade observes Chen carefully, brows furrowed together as he spots a familiar green glow surrounding the young man.

Without even realising it Chen had swung a punch toward the dummy, the image of the identical stranger in his minds eye. The mocking smile plastered on Chens own face still fresh in his mind.

His fist made contact with the dummy, and Jade had to side step out of the way as the dummy was sent flying into a wall, startling the snake demon.
It hits the wall hard enough for it to crack and the two tense up as the old building shakes at the sudden impact. But it held strong, managing not to fall on top of the two demons.

Jade chuckles, breaking the silence. "Okay! That was... intense. Remind me not to get on your bad side." Jade chuckles. Chen doesn't say anything for a moment, staring at the dummy. "Yeah..."

Jade nods, going over to inspect the dummy. "From that punch alone you managed to cause a lot of damage. You have a lot of pent up power that needs to be let out, but without proper training that's near impossible. I think right now, we need to have a calmer mindset for you to connect to your powers fully." he explains, looking back to Chen. "We can't have you keep relying on your anger and stress to bring out your powers, since it'll be unhealthy for your mental health in the long run."

Chen blinks. "You... are much more informal than Monkey King."

Jade chuckles, standing up straight as he turns to face Chen. "Well, last I checked Sun Wukong wasn't the greatest at sharing information. It's a wonder he's a mentor to two promising students in the first place." He points out.

Chen nods, mulling over the snake demons words.

"Alright! So I've decided for today that we're going to try and connect with your powers. Here, take a seat." Jade sits down on the mat, gesturing for Chen to sit down too by patting the spot opposite him. The young man does so, sitting down.

"So, do you know what I was doing earlier?" Jade asks, crossing his legs as his tail sways casually beside him. Chen raises a questioning brow. "Uh... sleeping?"

"Ha! Nah, not at all. I was meditating. It helps clear my mind and be calm." Jade explains. "We're gonna try to meditate today. We need to have a clear mind when we want to use our powers. Here, close your eyes and do what I'm doing-"

Chen does as told, although it felt weird doing absolutely nothing. He fidgets a bit.

"You have to stay completely still. Let your mind go blank for a few minutes, and let yourself relax..."

Chen tries, copying the snake demons position. This felt too weird for the young man.

"Let the sounds of the city fade away, and focus... and think of a place that makes you calm."

The young man sighs in frustration. This was harder than he thought.

Jade peeks an eye open, seeing Chen's face all scrunched up in concentration. He couldn't help but smile at the sight. "Don't try so hard. Let your muscles relax, and take deep, slow breaths. We're in no rush, kiddo."

The snake demon watches as Chen's breathing slowed, finally relaxing. He keeps talking.
"We'll try this again. Try to think of your favourite place. Somewhere quiet, somewhere you enjoy being..."

Chen's eyes were closed, and Jade could see that it was working since he'd stopped fidgeting.
"Do you feel that energy flowing through your veins? That's your power. Let it flow through you. Embrace it, let it take form..."

The snake demon watches Chen carefully. They soon spot what they were looking for. A green glow starts to surround Chen, and Jade could see a faint outline of horns forming on the young man's head through the green energy.

Suddenly, Chen is snapped out of his trance, the green energy quickly dissipating. Jade watches him, confused for a moment. What happened?

—

"Hey, bud! Buddy, are you there?"

The Monkey Kings voice calls out to Chen, causing the young man to snap out of his meditation session. He looks around, surprised. "Monkey King?"

"Heya bud!"

Chen looks up, seeing the Monkey King standing right in front of him. He was glowing, waving at Chen. "Oh, good! My astral projection does still work!"

Chen stares at Monkey King in shock. "Wait what- how are you here?" He asks, confused. Monkey King grins. "Good question! I'm actually not! Only you can see me!"

"So... like some sort of telepathy?" Chen asks, to which the sage gives him fingers guns. "Exactly! Now- Wait a minute- were you training?" The monkey asks suspiciously, tail flicking back and forth.

Chen falls silent, remembering he was in his training attire. He leans over slightly to look at Jade, who happened to be sitting behind the Monkey King astral projection.

The snake demons face was pale, realising that Chen was somehow talking to the great sage. He quickly shakes their head, sweating profusely as they make a zipping motion on his lips, signalling for Chen to not give away his presence.

Chen turns back to the Monkey King. "No. Just forgot to change after our training session this morning."

The Monkey King nods. "Ah, alright! Now, I just came by to tell you that I wanted to talk to you about something. Can you come by my Shame Temple this afternoon? Oh, and can you bring my correct order too? Thanks bud, byyye!" With that, the sage disappears, leaving Chen confused on what just happened.

There's silence in the dojo, until Jade clears his throat. "So, uh, the Monkey King? What did he want?" He asks awkwardly. Chen sighs, getting to his feet. "He wants to talk. But honestly I think he just mostly wanted me to deliver an incorrect order." He states, looking out the window to see the sun was setting. "I guess I better go before it gets too late."

"Oh- alright!" Jade gets to his feet. "Anyway, you did great for your first lesson! From now on I want you to meditate for, let's see... maybe an hour? Try to connect with your power more. It should be easier to use each time you connect with it."

Chen nods, giving Jade a lazy salute. "Will do, then." He states. "Same time tomorrow?"

Getting the snake demons confirmation, the young man leaves the old dojo, getting into his tuk-tuk.

Jade watches him leave, surprised Chen did meditation so well on his first try. Perhaps the river demon had something to do with it?

Shrugging, Jade turns back to the dojo, heading back inside.

—

After taking a detour back to Pigsy's Noodles to get Monkey Kings correct order, Chen was on his way to the sage's Shame Temple, following the directions on his GPS. The trip took longer than he expected, but he was able to get there before the sun had fully set.

He looks up at the temple gates, knocking three times. A few seconds later it was opened by the monkey man himself, looking down at him with a smile. "Hey, you made it! Did you bring my order?" He asks. Before Chen could answer Monkey King reaches out and takes the bag in his hand, looking inside. "Ah! Thanks bud! MK got my order mixed up. Come on in!" The sage steps aside, walking further into the courtyard. Chen follows, feeling a bit awkward since MK wasn't there to fill in the silence. Now that he thought about it, he and Monkey King had never been alone together...

The monkey in question didn't seem bothered, sitting down on the steps and motioning Chen to sit down next to him. "Here! I added something for you too." He says, pulling out a container of noodles for Chen.

"Uh... thanks?" Chen sits down as Monkey King starts eating his own noodles. "So... you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah! How've you been, recently?" He asks casually, to which Chen becomes confused. "What do you mean ' how have I been'?"

"You know, how is everything recently? You been hanging out with MK after work? Haven't been burning yourself out?" He carried on, trying to start a conversation.

"You called me out here... for a chat?" Chen asks, getting a bit annoyed. Monkey King pauses, seeing Chen's expression. "Well... yeah. I wanted to talk to you because I've noticed you've been... quiet, these last few sessions. Is something going on, bud?"

Chen scowls, not wanting to talk about what's been going on with Monkey King. He barely knew the guy, after all. "It's nothing." He states matter of factly, getting to his feet.

Monkey King follows his lead. "Alright, well, have you at least talked to MK?" He asks, tilting his head in concern. When Chen doesn't respond, he sighs.

"Look, bud. If you won't talk to me, could you at least talk to MK? He's getting worried about you, ya know. He told me something happened last week."

Chen stops, glancing back at Monkey King. "Then he can talk to me." He states, a hint of anger in his tone. The sage stares at him. "Bud, there's no need for you to get hostile." He says calmly. The young man scowls at him a moment, before taking a breath to calm himself down. "Right, sorry..."

Monkey King sighs, looking away as he scratches his neck awkwardly. "Okay. Look, Chen. I know we don't talk much other than training. But if you're going through something, you should at least talk about it to MK, alright bud?" He says, walking closer to Chen. "The kid's worried about you. He's your brother and he cares about you a lot."

The monkey places a hand on hiss back gently, surprising Chen's as he gives him a light pat. Looking back at the great sage, he found the Monkey King smiling back at him.
The young man sighs. "Alright. I'll... think about that." He mumbles. "I gotta go, anyway. See you later, Monkey King."

The Monkey King nods, letting Chen walk away. He took notice that Chen hadn't even eaten the food he'd ordered, but he decided not to say anything about it, only hoping that Chen would think about what he said. He'd been way too quiet recently, and more frustrated than normal.

He didn't know what had happened to Chen, but he hoped he'd at least talk to someone.

—

(Later that night...)

Chen lay on his bed, Shu sleeping on his stomach as he stared up at the ceiling. The cat purrs loudly as the young man absentmindedly pet her, his thoughts elsewhere.

Events from the last few weeks played on loop inside his head, reminding him of all the things he'd wished he never found out from that stupid calabash. He would've preferred to live life blissfully unaware than know that he was the son of his enemy, the Demon Bull King.

He thought over his doppelgängers words as well, and even though he hated it, he started to wonder how his life would've been if he hadn't been supposedly kidnapped.

His mind was a blur of thoughts, emotions and "what ifs".

His phone buzzing snapped him out of his thoughts, and Chen reaches out and grabs his phone, holding it to his face.
It was a message from MK. The boy just asking where he went and what he's doing now.

Chen types out a simple reply, explaining he had to take an order to Monkey King. He was about to put his phone back down, when he remembered what Monkey King said.

The young man grumbles to himself, feeling stupid for what he's about to do.

Chen: hey mk, can I talk to you for a minute?

He sends the message, then waits. MK types back quickly, much to Chen's surprise.

Monkey Brain: sure! What's up?

Chen sighs, before typing out his response, telling MK of the events the week prior, and almost telling him everything that had happened.

Almost. He left out a few details that MK didn't need to worry about.

And thus, he spent the rest of his night talking it out with MK, surprised to find that he felt a little better.

—

A/N: God damn when I started this fic I didn't know how much Chen and (past) Monkey King have in common?

Also what I'm trying to show here is Jade struggles to think for themself. He's always had someone telling him what to do before.

I didn't know how to end this chapter lol