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Chapter Text

“ Alright , you win ”

The reincarnation of the Golden Cicada surrendered , tears in his eyes , seeing Mei , the young girl he had seen as his own honorary daughter , getting hurt by the powered up simian. He didn't even know what he had to do, I mean! How many people in the current modern age can say they know how to summon a world ending flame of destruction??? Not him certainly!

He didn't know how to do this , but as soon as he opened the scroll , something called for him , yearning for him to release something inside of him , to reconnect , he has felt this way around the rings for a while now  . Everything he would stare down at his journal and write down the exploits of his companions and look up at the ring. He could see himself.

Surrounded by flame , his clothes charring , screaming out in pain , his own pained empty eyes , expression covered by the black and red fire

Before he blinked and the vision was gone . He thought it was a coincidence , that maybe this adventure had gotten to his head.

It was not a coincidence. He thought as his hands automatically reached out , like he had done this before centuries ago.

( because he did , a voice would whisper in his ear , appearing in synch with the Golden Cicada on his page , beckoning him to reach out , to connect , to summon)

His palms glowed golden as did his eyes ( he could do that?? , let's save that thought for later when they are not in the middle of a life threatening situation.)

Symbols and runes in circles appeared beneath them , on top of the strangely familiar summoning circle for the true fire of Samadhi, each ring starting bursting into the red flame he had seen.

The first one sprouted in flame . He closed his eyes , a tug in his chest beckoning him to reach out and touch the destructive flame . The visions flash across his eyes , the same visions he had when he first held the ring , him , kneeling down , surrounded by red flame and three different balls of flame behind it , one red , one cyan , one green.

The second one caught on fire . another tug in his chest , he grunted as he resisted the urge to reach out and touch the possibly most likely world destructive flame . Images danced across his mind , like a sick tango of flame and destruction . His own two empty eyes staring back at him , but it was different , he wasn't just surrounded by the fire , he was the fire , he realised as he watched his own hair flicker above his head.

“G-guys somethings wrong I-” Tang managed to sutter out before

The third and last ring burst into fire  , Macaque dropping Mei with a loud thump on the ground, just as he heard a loud and menacing

“ YES ”

And another

“ STOP ”

He saw Sun Wukong , The monkey king himself , reaching out to him , his eyes burning with determination , but not as much as the burn he felt across his body right after.

The scroll immediately disintegrated in his very palms , his body burns burns burns

He was blind he can't see anything , just a wall of flame and destruction . It burned so much that he started to feel cold in a way , his body numbing itself , but not enough , he could still feel pain pain pain .

Voices , he could hear voices calling out to him . whispers in the circle of fire surrounding him , blocking the sound outside , he covered his ears to silence them to get a moment of peace

He screamed , as loud as his voice can strain itself , he screamed and screamed but he didn't know what he was screaming for , he just knew that this hurts and he wanted out

Then he stopped , the Flame subsiding , but still burning him , he noticed his feet already lifted off the air , his head tilted up . He looked down onto his hands and found his scarf , his ring he shared with his beloved , was slowly charring and melting away. He curled into himself and held it close to his chest , hoping he could save it for a little longer.

He looked down on himself , flame , destruction , just like in the visions he saw , there wasn't Tang anymore , it was just the Samadhi fire.

Chapter Text

“Mister Tang!”

“Tangy!”

“TANG”

The chef's voice strained out loud far above the others as he ran towards the freeloader , his freeloader. Somehow , with the power of sheer will and possibly love , he smashed himself out of the blue icicles trapping him and Sandy . All the voices around him muffled as his legs carried him into the fire , like it already knew what to do before the command systems even reached it.

Circles of Flame protruded out of its mother sphere , knocking even the ‘great’ Sun Wukong on his feet , but his own legs kept moving despite the strong knock of wind and heat coming their way.

He didnt care he was going to get burned to death , he didnt care he was going to disintegrate as soon as he stepped into the flames .

All he knew was that his Tang was in there , and he was going to get him out to matter what. He couldn't hear the voices around him calling out his beloved’s name or yelling for him to stop running or wukong saying something he didn't care about , he couldn't feel the flames tickling his snout as he rushed in . The burn in his heart lit more fiercely than any flame could dream to replicate.

His trance was stopped when a pink half-transparent lotus shaped dome surrounded him , preventing him from his (suicide)mission of going furthur.

“LISTEN HERE LOTUS PRINCE , LET ME GO , TANG’S IN THERE I GOTTA-”

“I'm not letting you rush in there pig , you will die. You know how powerful the Samadhi Fire is-” Nezha pointed his pointed staff at him , keeping the dome up

“I DON'T CARE , ALL I KNOW IS THAT MY TANG IS IN THERE AND I'M NOT HELPING HIM-”

He helplessly banged against the dome as he heard his son and honorary daughter panicking in the background, he wanted to comfort them , but he could barely comfort himself

“KID! are you-”

“MISTER TANG?”

“TANGY!”

“MISTER TANG?? DON'T WORRY I'M COMING FOR YA , SOMEONE GET ME SOME WATER , MEI AREN'T YOU A WATER DRAGON?? CAN'T YOU LIKE , SUMMON WATER??”

“I MEAN I CAN TRY??”

“THEN QUICKL-”

As Mei lifted up her jade blade to attempt to use her water dragon powers , they were rudely interrupted when Monkey King pushed them behind him so they don't get any closer to the fire

“Mere water cannot extinguish the Samadhi Fire.”

The Lotus Prince said in a grave tone as everyone's heads turned (even Pigsy’s briefly), looking at the reincarnated monk , consumed in flames . he lifted his staff and sharp petals destroyed the remaining crystals entrapping Sandy who landed with an ‘oof’

“Nothing can , The fire will destroy this man and burn everything in its path-”

“HUH?”

Yelled Tang , before the others could butt in . Tang…he was alive.

“WHAT??” said the big blue man right after

“YEAH WHAT??” said the teenage duo in sync with each other

“WHADDAYA MEAN DESTROY, LOTUS PRINCE?” Shouted the worried husband glancing back and forth between the Prince and His Prince , i mean , he wasn't a scholar like Tang but it was fire , there has to be a way-

“YOU , YOU RUINED EVERYTHING”

The monkey king dashed towards Macaque , who , now realising he didn't have the powers of the Bone Demon by his side, decided his best attempt of survival was to flee , but he failed as he was forcibly pulled out of his newly summoned shadow portal by a very angry Sun Wukong

“I didn't do this-” the monkey attempted to defend himself

“WELL YOU WEREN'T NOT INVOLVED”

“STOP”

A voice boomed from the sphere of fire , they looked up to see the scholar looking back at them , his usually brown eyes now burned white.

“I-it was me-”

A stressed hand ran through his burning scalp as he recalled

“I- mean , yeah ,Macaque forced me to do it and I'm definitely having regrets on the whole thing , but , I don't know how , I don't know why. I just felt like I had to , i-it was calling for me like it was-”

Destiny cannot be outdone Sun Wukong

The warning echoed silently within the his thoughts before the Great Sage’s grip relaxes and he drops Macaque with a growl and-

“I hate to interrupt but-” the successor began , unfortunately his associates was not so polite 

‘CAN SOMEONE TELL US WHAT IS GOING ON WITH TANG ??” said the big blue man , unable to maintain his silence 

“ CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH TANG???”

“CAN SOMEONE TELL US WHAT IS WRONG WITH TANGY???”

They all said in sync as Pigsy gestured wildly along with Mei as the Orb of fire containing it's host continuously burned , a layer of heat veiling the group. A small ‘ language’ from the peacemaker goes unnoticed.

The Great Sage sighed 

“I may have made a mistake while containing the Samadhi Fire”