Author's Notes:

In this AU, I'm retaining Red Son's narrative in Journey to the West of being Red Boy and Shancai. After his father's imprisonment, Shancai gave up his celestial status to be with his mother. In his new life, PIF named him Red Son.

Some JTTW facts that are not in LMK but are incorporated here:

- In Journey to the West, DBK married the Jade-Face Princess and abandoned PIF. The Jade-Face Princess wanted a husband to protect and look after her.

- Also Red Boy cultivated the Samadhi fire at a young age for 300 years. He wasn't born with it.

- When Red Son was Red Boy, he was forcibly taken by Bodhisattva Guanyin (aka Goddess of Mercy) to be her disciple due to endangering others, in which he started a new life as Shancai.

Chapter 1: You Can't Hold Down the Wind

After the dispute for her Banana Leaf Fan, the Celestial court let Princess Iron Fan and her husband go.

The army that accompanied them back had returned them home.

And yet, PIF felt like she was at a crossroads.

She had been waiting for her husband in their palace in the Flaming Mountains. Even when she was furious that he married another woman (without her consent as his first wife) and hadn't come back for almost two years now. Their son was still kidnapped, and he had the gall to-!

But then the Monkey King had shown up, asking for a teensy-tiny little favor: borrow her all-powerful Banana Leaf Fan.

Her husband may not be faithful to her, but she was still to him. So she had told the monkey no.

Then, a lot of things happened. Fights and deceptions had ensued. It ended with the entire Celestial army meddling, where she no longer had a choice but to surrender her weapon in exchange for her husband's life.

Now, here they were.

"We are home," her husband's voice rumbled, breaking her from her thoughts.

She glanced up at him. When she had been recovering from Wukong's beatings, her "husband" finally arrived, concerned and gently helping her up. Then, she had given him her weapon for safekeeping.

She didn't know how to kill a demon immortalized in more ways than one, but PIF planned to throttle Wukong for that.

But at that time, she had been hopeful. Happy. "DBK" had come back to her.

However, when the real DBK returned, he was only furious that Wukong had impersonated him.

Her Banana Leaf Fan felt strangely heavier in the strap she wore across her back. Would she still be a principal wife? Was he here to divorce her? Or was he here to have two principal wives?

PIF paused. What did she even want?

"Princess?" he asked when she didn't respond.

Which one? she waspishly thought.

A small servant demon hurried to them from the road. He was scorched and ragged. She paid him no mind, hearing his crying news in a distant kind of way.

"Jade-Face is dead," DBK simply said. "Everyone in her palace was killed by Zhu Bajie and the Celestial soldiers while pursuing me."

PIF felt something rise up her throat like bile. She wondered if he thought that was supposed to make up for something. Claiming a dead princess' riches, maybe.

Her teeth gritted down a wince when her stomach ached with an internal kind of pain from Wukong beating her inside her stomach.

Was this really worth it?

She felt like she was at a crossroads.

In another life, she chose him and closed her heart from everything else.

But in this universe, Princess Iron Fan chose herself.

"What're you doing?" her husband asked when she turned back and began to leave.

"I need to think," was all she could say. She couldn't even look at her husband, knowing he had spent almost two years in some younger woman's lavish palace.

If she weren't starting to feel numb, she would've noticed him frown in confusion.

Their son wasn't going anywhere. Aside from receiving a message from that infuriating Bodhisattva, enough scrying spells had shown her that Guanyin knew whenever PIF would try to spy on her island. She and her husband were powerful warriors. But they were not omniscient.

By the time Bodhisattva was done with my son, PIF bitterly thought, I'd probably no longer recognize him.

"Where?" her husband asked as she floated up in the beginnings of wind teleportation. He made to hold her ankle to stop her, but he stopped himself. Good. PIF didn't know what she would do if he had touched her.

She finally looked at him. One of the three Obediences a woman must follow in all the stages of her life is to obey her husband submissively. But even the sage that founded it didn't say anything that she should do so to the point of her detriment.

PIF felt iron cast around her heart, knowing she'd rather be petrified into bone than let him see her break.

"I'd rather you don't know," she said before her magic spirited her away.

"If you are the strongest, no one can touch you," Father and Mother had taught him by word and deed.

Red Boy had taken that to heart. Samadhi fire was made from pure concentration. Pure will. His Rakshasi master had praised him for achieving in 8 demon years what others could only cultivate at the late stages of their lifetimes.

And so, Father, the Demon Bull King, had appointed him boy lord of the Fiery Mountains to guard their territory and rule over the land.

Red Boy was no fool. He knew many would look down on him because of his youth. So, he had to be louder and crueler than the most ancient tyrant if he wanted to be taken seriously.

After all, he was untouchable now.

So what if there were foolish travelers that crossed his mountains? Tripitaka will help him and Father achieve immortality by eating his flesh.

So what if the Celestial lapdog of a monkey demon claimed to be Father's sworn brother? Father never introduced the monkey to him or Mother.

So what if he had released his Samadhi fire? Let the mountain deities know who had this land in an iron grip.

Then, the Bodhisattva came. So what? What was she going to do?

He was untouchable in the centuries he ruled this land, and nothing would change that.

Then, Red Boy sat down on her lotus throne.

Pain erupted as the lotus throne closed itself into a hundred Deveraja swords. A scream tore out of his throat as every cell in his body healed and wounded and healed and wounded around holy metal-

Red Son woke up with a scream. He flailed into sitting, gasping as his eyes took in the darkness.

A dream. It was just a dream.

He looked around. The fireproofing charm on his bed had almost expired. There were scorch marks on the carved headboard and silk pillow where his hair had flamed up defensively.

Damage taken into account, he curled up to hug his knees, ignoring his sweat-soaked sleep shirt.

Why did he have that dream? He and Master Guanyin had already talked about that long before he had even left her island.

Consequences, his mind whispered.

Red Son cursed his own brain. Then he stopped. I cannot help how I feel, he reminded himself, but-

You can decide what to do with it, Master Guanyin reminded him from his memories.

He took a deep breath, ignoring the guilt at the thought of his Master. He was nervous. That was normal.

Red Son glanced at the corner of his room where his Power Gauntlet lay.

Before he left his life as Shancai, Bodhisattva Guanyin had told him when Father would be released from his mountainous prison.

But she didn't tell him how.

"Everything is already pre-ordained," Bodhisattva Guanyin had said with a mysterious smile. Then, with a flick of her hand, the rings on his neck, wrists, and ankles scattered in light beams in different directions.

When he returned to his mother, he discovered a talent in metal forging and machinery. Through it, he had seen a possibility. With technology and magic, he could harness the Monkey staff's energy to lift it off the mountain and set Father free.

And after centuries of setbacks and progress, that possibility was now a reality.

Red Son sighed and walked over to his Power Gauntlet. Carefully, he fitted it into his hand and slowly flexed it.

Maybe he wouldn't be punished for getting his Father out of his prison. Maybe there was more than one reason Master Guanyin let him be with his mother once again.

After all, tomorrow was the date that Master said his Father would be freed.

He clenched his gauntlet into a fist, feeling its power hum.

"Maybe this is pre-ordained," he whispered to himself.

But then again, maybe there was a reason Master Guanyin hadn't talked to him since he had left her island.

Author's Notes:

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), a man can remarry with the consent of his first wife.

In JTTW, even if PIF allowed DBK to have a second wife or concubine, she didn't seem happy about it at all. If I will speculate, she didn't give true consent based on her circumstances as a wife who can't just leave and lose everything. Or maybe she did consent but didn't expect DBK to abandon her after to enjoy himself with a prettier and richer wife.