The True Sixth Monkey

Chapter 2

A groan awoke Mandarin from his sleep. With a yawn he looked down at  Chiro to see that he was no longer shivering. Placing a hand on Chiro's  forehead, Mandarin let out a small sigh of relief when he felt that  Chiro's fever had lowered to a safer level.

Chiro let out another groan as he slowly returned to consciousness before trying to push himself up into a sitting position.

"Easy." Mandarin said, helping him to sit up. "You're still recovering."

"What happened?" Chiro asked, rubbing his head.

"You passed out and had an extremely high fever. The fever's gone down, but you still need to take it easy.

"Would you mind telling me how you became a member of the Hyper Force?"

Chiro gave a sigh.

"Like you showing me your memories, it might be easier if I show you mine. Can you enter people's minds like Antauri?"

Mandarin nodded as he once again placed his hands to the side of Chiro's head.

"Just focus on the memories you want me to see." Mandarin said.

Chiro nodded as he closed his eyes. Mandarin closed his eyes as  images began to fill his mind. He grew confused when he saw a young  human boy walk towards a moss covered super robot and enter it. His  confusion returned as he watched all the adventures that they went  through, fear rising when he saw what appeared to be a demented version  of him. As the memories continued he grew more and more confused, what  did this boy have to do with Chiro? Mandarin could sense that he was  reaching the end of Chiro's memories when the final one entered his  mind. He grew shocked when he saw the reincarnated Skeleton King  transform the boy into a robot monkey, the same one that was in front of  him.

When the memories ended he pulled his hands away and watched as Chiro shook his head.

"You okay?" Mandarin asked.

"Yah." Chiro answered. "I've only had that happen to me one other time and that was with Antauri."

"From your memories I could see that you saw the Hyper Force as more  than a team, but a family. Just how deep is your connection with them?"

Chiro gave a sigh as he looked to the ground.

"I didn't have the best childhood growing up and when I met the team  they not only had me join the team, but they were also the first ones to  actually make me feel like I had a home and a family."

Chiro felt a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look up at Mandarin.

"If I know the team, then they are working as hard as they can to find a way to get you out of here."

Chiro gave a small smile and a nod.

"And you're coming with when a way can be found." Chiro said.

Mandarin pulled back in shock.

"I really don't think that that is the best thing to do."

"Why?" Chiro said standing up. "Skeleton King imprisoned you here and  replace you with a fake version that betrayed the team. If they were to  know what really happened then I'm sure that they would understand."

"It's not that simple. I don't know how long I've been here and from  what I saw in your memories they seem to be quite happy the way things  are."

"But-"

"No, Chiro. They may know what really happened, but they will  probably remember my fake counterpart more than what I really did in the  past." Mandarin explained. "It's better if I just stay here."

Chiro watched as Mandarin slowly stood up and climbed onto some  branches and looked out into the jungle. Chiro sighed before walking  closer to him.

"How certain are you that all they will remember is the clone?" he asked the older member.

Mandarin looked back at him.

"I don't know when exactly you were imprisoned here," Chiro  continued, "but the things that they told me that were good were full of  respect and trust. You saw my memories of when the Skeleton King was  reincarnated, so you saw that Sparks was controlled by the evil of the  Fire of Hate. When my girlfriend, Jinmay, and I were trying to help Nova  get over the shock I told her that the Power Primate could overcome any  evil, just as Antauri had taught me. She said that that was the same  thing she had thought about you."

Mandarin was about to say something about that, but Chiro continued before he could.

"Finding out that you were imprisoned here I believe that you were  always good and when you were replaced by that clone is when all the bad  things that happened to the team in the past began. I truly believe  that the team will accept you back. They would be shocked at first, but  after that they would not hate you."

Mandarin sighed.

"You're not going to let me just stay here are you?"

Chiro shook his head.

"Fine, but if they truly do only remember the things that the clone  did then I will leave Shuggazoom and find other ways to help them and  others."

Now it was Chiro's turn to sigh.

"Is that the best I'm gonna get if you do come back with me?"

Mandarin nodded.

"I'm going to gather some food." Mandarin said, jumping down and  standing in front of Chiro. "You are going to stay here as you are still  recovering from that fever you had."

Chiro watched as Mandarin jumped out of the tree house and began to jump from branch to branch until he was out of view.

Some distance from the tree house a pair of sharp red eye watched as  Mandarin left, before looking back as Chiro walked out of view. After a  couple of seconds the eyes disappeared back into the jungle.