This is a companion fic of No Mortal Kombat. I've had this typed for a long while, but i've just not felt like uploading it. You don't need to read my No Mortal Kombat to understand this one, but it's set in the same time period.

Fade Away

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The ground was wet with blood. The ground was so coated in it that in spots there was a pool where the ground couldn't hold any more liquid. In the blood pool laid intestines and limbs. A demons head, screaming a battle cry, lay apart from his body; blood coming out of his mouth and covering half of his face. The demons torso was apart from his legs and was so mangled that you could barely tell what they were. But this demon wasn't the only one here; there were about fifteen demons all mutilated just as bad as the first one. In the middle of all the bodies was a heart, still beating. Scorpion picked it up and crushed it, the blood flowing off his black gloves, pooling at his feet. The ninja flicked his wrist the loose blood left his hand. With that simple gesture he sat down at the base of a tree.

Dead is the only way to describe the tree. There were no leaves, no color, and most of all no sign of life anywhere. It was the only tree left in all of Earthrealm. Scorpion had claimed the tree as his own.

Through all the years he had stayed neutral; there was only one thing he cared about: Sub-Zero. Even though he was neutral he didn't think it was right, everything the demons were doing.

As he sat at the tree he looked out at the land, overlooking all the limbs from the demons he killed. The land was barren, for all the humans had either been slaughtered or hidden in the underground resistance. He had never seen so many people being killed. Never had he seen so many people's homes burn. The air was always polluted with burning flesh. It was almost better in the Neather Realm than here. Many times Scorpion wondered what had happened; his theory was that Raiden had finally given up on them.

Scorpion didn't particularly like or dislike the Thunder God, but he always thought that protection the humans was worthless. Even so, he didn't know how much Raiden protected them. With Raiden gone it was only a matter of time before the underground resistance would fail. There would be no more humans. At this he felt a tug on his heart. One of Shirai Ryu's greatest warriors feeling bad for humans? Actually it wasn't too far of a stretch. Every time he saw a village burning or even the smoke from a fire, he saw what had happened to his village. He could hear the screams of the villagers burning to death. But most of all he saw the man responsible for it all: Sub-Zero. He felt relief when he had finally killed the man that had murdered his clan, but Sub-Zero's brother, Kuai Liang, wasn't relieved in the least. Kuai Liang took up his brother's code name and sought out the one who had killed his brother. May times Sub-Zero and Scorpion fought, and each time they were unable to kill each other. After Kuai Liang became Sub-Zero, the first time Scorpion saw him, the ninja felt all the hatred he felt for Kuai Liang's older brother.

Scorpion's fists clenched as he thought about their last encounter. His eyes closed and the scenery seemed to come around him. They had stumbled upon each other in the Living Forest. He remembered it as though it had only been the day before.

The moment that the Shirai Ryu and the Lin Kuei saw each other the battle started. Sub-Zero threw an ice ball at Scorpion. The ninja dodged the ice and threw his spear at the Lin Kuei. Sub-Zero pulled his sword out, hitting his spear, knocking it away. He quickly dropped his ice sword to create an ice ball. He threw it at Scorpion, the ninja barely having time to react tried to dodge the ice, but failed. The ice hit him dead center in the chest freezing him for a moment. This enraged the ninja, he knew that at any moment the Lin Kuei could attack him, but he didn't.

The moment the ice thawed he released his anger on Sub-Zero, creating his Demon Fire under him. The fire first was very small, but soon the flames were licking his waist. Scorpion could smell Sub-Zero's burning flesh, could hear his screams and for a moment felt satisfied. For this small moment Sub-Zero knew what it was like, know the pain that his family and clan had once known. But it was over all too soon. Though the smell of burning flesh was still in the air, Sub-Zero's screams had stopped and the fire had resided. Thinking fast Scorpion teleported behind him, turning to punch him, but his fist finding nothing but ice.

Scorpion snarled as the ice clone of Sub-Zero broke. He had been hoping to be able to keep on the offensive. Sub-Zero came up behind Scorpion, throwing a punch. The ninja spun around catching the Lin Kuei's fist; then dropped to the ground putting his left leg in front of Sub-Zero's and his right leg behind his opponents. Once there he brought his left leg back and right forward, taking Sub-Zero down. Sub-Zero stood quickly, not expecting that, slid, creating a trail of ice.

Scorpion teleported behind Sub-Zero again, punching him as hard as he could in the jaw. He felt Sub-Zeros jaw crush under his fist and Sub-Zero fell to the ground. Scorpion stepped as hard as he could on his chest, his bones crushing under the ninja's foot. Scorpion was sure that a few of his foes ribs broke. He let Sub-Zero get up, seeing his opponent unable to fight, barely able to stand; he took the chance he had been waiting for, for a life time. Scorpion pulled out the shorter of the two swords on his back. Without hesitation he sliced Sub-Zero's waist, and then his head quickly before his body had time to fall. With him barely standing and his torso and head only resting on his legs Scorpion kicked his chest. Sub-Zero's body separated blood falling from his body parts. Before his head fell to the ground Scorpion sliced it in half. By the time Sub-Zero's two halved heads hit the ground his legs had landed mere feet away from them and his torso a greater distance away. As he stood in the small pool of blood he heard the age old voice of Shao Kahn.

Fatality.

It had taken him several moments to realize that Shao Kahn's voice was only in his head. Many times he had been a komatant and many times he had won. Too many.

With Sub-Zero's death he thought he would find relief, but none came. Only with years of searching did he find that Quan Chi had been the one to destroy his clan. With that he had set off to destroy Quan Chi. He found him and succeeded, but once again he found no relief.

As he sat at the base of the tree thinking of all this Raidens voice came into his mind.

There is another way.

Years ago, before Sub-Zero's younger brother took his code name, Raiden had told Scorpion that. He was going to listen, but Quan Chi had interfered, and Scorpion had waited so long to avenge his clan.

As he sat under the dead tree he couldn't help but wish that he had listened to the Thunder God. As he sat under that lifeless tree he looked out at the dead land.

This is how he would be forever.

He would never die.

Never get old.

With nothing to look forward to all he could hope for is to fade away into nothing.