A/N: So I'm back. For those of you who are reading this through my author's page, Heart's Desire is still on hiatus, and will be for some time. I've gotten sick of that story, and I felt like I've been writing the same chapter over and over and over again.

If you want updates on that, read my profile page. I always put notes at the bottom of the page.

Oh. These aren't my characters. I just play with them. I don't own any incarnation of Saiyuki or any of the characters, etc.

Anyway. Read and Review, please.

Chapter 1

Seiten Taisei Son Goku

"Sanzo, is it just me, or does the air seem a little…off around here?" Hakkai asked, slowing the jeep slightly.

"No. Something isn't right here," Sanzo replied, his revolver already in his hand. The forest air was tight, giving all of them (except Goku, who was snoring obliviously in the back seat) an ominous feeling.

There was a sudden explosion up ahead, and the ground shook from the force.

"What was that?" asked the rudely awakened monkey king.

"I don't know," Hakkai replied, pressing a little harder on the accelerator.

The jeep broke through a clearing, and right into the middle of a fight between two very powerful demons.

One was large and gray—typical demon, except that the air around him was bending in strange ways, and he seemed to suddenly appear and disappear as he jumped around, attacking his shorter, longhaired opponent. Both were moving too fast for them to get a good look at them, but they were both obviously stronger than any demon they had faced so far.

"Give me the scriptures!"

"Not a chance. I promised to guard these. There's no way I'd let you put your filthy paws on them."

The grey demon shot a fireball at his green clad opponent. When the dust and smoke cleared, the first demon was in a fighting stance, but the other was nowhere to be seen; in his place was a tall, thin red rod. Suddenly the rod was receding, bringing the shorter fighter back to ground level at stomach-flipping speed.

In less time than Sanzo or any of the others could blink, the long haired one was on the ground, his staff planted firmly in the ribcage of the other demon, who vanished a

moment later.

The second demon was left with his back to the four travelers, green cape and long brown hair fluttering in the breeze. The staff in his hand receded again before disappearing.

"Hey! That's my nyoi-bo!" Goku shouted, irate. The other party members started; he was right.

The stranger turned slightly at the voice, but even from just a partial profile he was familiar.

"Who the hell are you?" Gojyo snapped. There was no way this stranger could have Goku's face. It was impossible.

He turned further, facing them.

It was Goku…yet not. He was taller. Older. He still wore the golden grown power limiter, but there were red jewels encrusted in it; a few seemed to be missing. He took a few steps toward the party, but instead of approaching them, he knelt, picking up two red stones from the dust; apparently knocked off in his fight.

The gems weren't the only changes to the power limiter. The crown itself was cracked and ragged, as though it had been beaten and broken many times.

And there were matching wrist cuffs.

Three power limiters? Hakkai thought. Three? But his crown is already the most powerful limiter created!

The second Goku dropped the jewels into a small pouch at his belt. There was another one next to it with the end of a scroll sticking out.

What's he doing with scriptures? Sanzo wondered, narrowing his eyes.

This new Goku looked up, and they could see that his apparel and hair weren't the only things about him that were different.

This Goku wasn't smiling. He wasn't whining. It was almost as though he couldn't see them at all, though he made eye contact with each of them. Those golden eyes, no longer wide and child-like, but narrowed. Blank. Devoid of any emotion at all.

"Damn," he muttered, looking away at last. "I should have made him take me back before I killed him."

"Take you back where? Who the hell are you?" Goku demanded, summoning his own nyoi-bo. "Why the fuck do you look like me?"

The newcomer looked at him steadily. "I wouldn't attack me if I were you," he said in a quiet monotone, almost too quiet to hear.

"RAAAA!" No royally pissed, Goku charged him, raising his nyoi-bo—

Then suddenly Goku was on the ground, his clone's hand at his neck, pinning him to the ground. Nyoi-bo forgotten, Goku clawed at the restraining hand, trying to release it.

"That's enough," the longhaired one said. "Do not make me hurt you."

Click.

He looked up into the barrel of the banishing gun.

"I don't know who you are," Sanzo said, "and frankly I don't give a damn. But unless you want me to shoot you, start talking."

The second Goku straightened, releasing the other. "Kyonoi brought me here to cause trouble before turning me in to the Jade Emperor," he said at last.

"So you're from heaven then?" Hakkai asked, slightly confused; this second Goku was definitely more demon than god.

"No. I'm from the future," he replied. "Five hundred years from now, to be exact."

He offered his hand to Goku, pulling the shocked boy to his feet.

"That's impossible," Gojyo said, crossing is arms over his chest. "Sanzo, just shoot him already."

"It's the truth," the stranger replied. "Kyonoi is a demon who can bend time and space. He's a bounty hunter, tracking down other demons for the Jade Emperor. Because of his power, he can skip between centuries, capturing demons that cause problems, regardless of when they lived.

"He'll probably be back—or at least him from another time." He snorted. "I wish he'd just die. I've already killed him four or five times."

"So why would he bring you here?" Hakkai asked, more to humor him than because he believed him. He would slip up eventually…then they'd find out who he really was.

He shrugged. "Hell if I know. Probably just to cause trouble, like I said."

Hakkai opened his mouth to say something more, but caught a glimpse of Sanzo out of the corner of his eye. The priest had his eyes closed, and was massaging one temple; he looked like he had the migraine of the century.

"Sanzo?"

"Whatever. Let's just go," he said, turning on his heel and heading back towards the jeep.

Still confused, the others took one last glance at copy-Goku, then reluctantly followed Sanzo.

"Would you mind if I followed you?"

"What?"

"Would you mind if I tagged along?" the longhaired Goku asked.

"We're crowded enough as is, thanks," Gojyo replied dryly.

"I can provide my own transportation. It's just that I know Kyonoi will be back, and since he knows you're here now, he'll probably attack your party at some point. I need him to get back, so the faster he finds me again, the better, and your four are demon magnets. I'll stay out of your way. And I get your clear passage west, at least until I get back to my time."

"What do you mean, 'clear passage?'"

"You know all those minor demons you're always having to stop and fight, that are really more annoying than any fun to fight?"

"We do seem to get a lot of those," said Hakkai.

"I can get rid of them before you even hit the breaks."

They stared at him, disbelieving. "Really? Prove it," Goku demanded.

The other Goku smiled slightly. The forest they were in was nestled between two mountains; one on the left, one on the right.

He extended his right arm, and flicked his index finger.

A tiny spark of chi.

Which quickly grew to massive size as it barreled toward the mountaintop, leveling trees in its path, cutting a gouge in the Earth. When it finally hit the mountain itself, it took out over half.

The little valley had suddenly become a plain with a canyon running thorough it.

"And that's with three power limiters."

Hakkai, Gojyo and Goku all stared wide-eyed at the new terrain. Sanzo, still with his eye closed and a hand to his head, said, "Whatever. I don't care what you do. Let's just go."

R&R pretty please!