CHAPTER ONE: The Realm of Dragons
The rain fell amidst the trees hitting hard and fast against their bark as the darkness of twilight deepened. Here in the shadows of these ancient living trees the sorcerer walked alone. He knew what he was looking for and despite the legendary nature of it he had every confidence that he would find it. He stopped for a moment beneath the branches of a gnarled ancient tree and removed from his satchel a piece of animal hide. Ink lines and shapes were stained onto this hide in ancient times long before the rise of the Emperor Shao Khan, in an age long ago forgotten. This cryptic map was one of few relics that had survived Khan's maddening desire to wipe out all those rulers and histories which had come before him.
The Living Forest hadn't always been as alive as it was now. The trees were said to be possessed, imbued with the spirits of the forests former inhabitants, the Atonians. All that was left of that ancient civilization were scattered artifacts and legends passed orally from Outworlder to Outworlder. The sorcerer, however, believed that the legends were true and that the Atonians had left behind far more than anyone had suspected.
Following the vague direction of the map and charting his steps well despite the rain and biting cold wind, the dark robed sorcerer pressed onward. The trees, their twisted bark hauntingly reminiscent of angry faces caused the wind to whisper with the words of forsaken spirits trapped in the densely packed magical energies of the eldest forest in all of Outworld. As the sorcerer trudged through the growing muck and gloom he found himself keenly aware of other whispers and shadows that seemed less than tree-like.
Soon the first signs of civilization greeted him and at last his hours of exploration and weeks of research did not seem wasted. A stonewall towering some thirty feet into the night sky and just slightly peaking above the shortest trees told of ancient civilization. Each stone was massive, likely weighing several tons and the area seemed strewn with ruinous rocks no doubt fallen off the wall reducing it from it's original impressive height. The sorcerer rolled his map and set it away safely in his satchel, from here on the wall would be his guide.
Sonya gestured for her fire team to remain in position and drew her pistol. Withholding her breath for fear of being detected she quietly reached into a pouch on her belt removing her suppressor before slowly screwing it onto the end of her weapon. The enemy were close, she could hear their shouting and the shuffling of feet far too nearby for her tastes. Crouching in the shadows she waited for the moment to strike watching as the shadows of two guards with AK-47s approached from the corridor beside the one she was in. Her fire team fell into defensive positions with their rifles lifted, two faced the rear while the other two -one standing, one kneeling- were facing her.
The first guard passed by without noticing a thing, the second however caught sight of her and her team. Sonya put a bullet in his throat and his skull before he could scream out a warning. She had the other guard in her sights before the first guard's corpse could even hit the ground. Down they both went hard onto the dirt of the underground tunnel. Signaling for the others to move up slowly Sonya shuffled out into the tunnel checking her corners before trying to identify the two men. She nodded to her team as they approached.
"Lin Kuei," she whispered to them, "I knew some of these bastards hadn't gone back to Outworld."
"Aren't the Lin Kuei our allies?" one of the soldiers asked, "I thought they turned against Shao Khan after the death of the original Sub-Zero."
"Allies or not Private Barnes they are not supposed to be here," Sonya replied loading her weapon, "All Outworlders were ordered to go back to their homeworld."
"So what are they doing here?" Erikson, another soldier, asked.
"Excavation by the looks of it," Sonya answered, "But why the hell a bunch of ninjas cryomancers would be doing archeology on Earth is anyone's guess and it's what we're going to find out... allies or not."
The city was as magnificent now as it must have been in ancient times long before Outworlders lived in fear of their own ruler. The sorcerer's feet tread over stones tens of thousands of years old if not older which had been placed along the streets by a people forgotten by history. Stone buildings of impressive size and shape lined the streets including several pyramids a shape not often seen amidst the architecture of Outworld, one far more common on Realms such as Earth. To the sorcerer this made perfect sense as the Atonians were said to travel from Realm to Realm spreading civilization and knowledge of the arcane to those who had not yet discovered it. The ambassadors to these new Realms were, as legend held, seen as gods by the inhabitants of other worlds.
At last the sorcerer came to the building he was looking for, itself built atop a massive pyramid. The stairs seemed to ascend forever but with a flick of his fingers and a booming incantation that seemed to penetrate even the roar of the thunder and the howl of the wind the sorcerer materialized at the top of the pyramid. Suddenly the shadows seemed to swarm around him and he felt the cold steel of a sword-tip against his spine as two other warriors moved to intercept him from the front.
"I have no time for games you-"
"Bite your tongue sorcerer," the warrior at his rear demanded emphasizing his point with a prod of his sword, "I assure you my blade is sharp."
"I wouldn't bet on it," the sorcerer chuckled, "It hasn't been used in thousands of years."
"Who are you to trespass here?" asked a seemingly ancient voice seemed to boom out nowhere.
"I am Quan Chi, chief sorcerer to the Emperor of this Realm. I am the right hand of Shao Khan!"
"We are the protectors of this City," the blades-man behind him revealed, "You shall not-"
Quan Chi leaped into action turning into a quick spin and unsheathing his boardsword. In one motion he readied his blade and spun it on his would-be captor. The sword would have eviscerated the city guard had he been an ordinary guard of flesh and blood, instead the blade passed through an ethereal mass of black smoke. Quan Chi spun back the other way taking out his second sword to swipe at the other two guards who, just as the first, were solid one moment and immaterial the next.
"I should have sensed your true nature from the moment I felt your presence," the elderly voice boomed with a crack of thunder, "Deceitful, wicked, power-hungry, murderous, treasonous, venomous."
The sorcerer deftly dodged a blade that would have spilled his intestines had it hit him, even with his quick maneuvering a thin line of blood was drawn across his pale white abdomen. With a sudden burst of anger he summoned a jade orb of destructive magic and sent it hurtling not toward where the warrior was but toward where it's black mass of smoke was rematerializing. The guard tried to dodge but even as it converted back into it's incorporeal form the magic-burst hit it dead on sending a shockwave of painful energy roiling throughout it like a bolt of lightning. It collapsed into a pile of ash.
"And what of your true nature," Quan Chi belted out avoiding another swipe of a sword, "Forsaken souls trapped here, for what, what are you protecting?"
"You will never find out sorcerer! You will die atop this pyramid!"
Quan Chi stabbed out one of his blades into the air and cried out to the heavens watching a swirling gray-green mist surround his sword. Down it chopped passing quickly through the materialized body of one of the guards and casting arcs of green lightning up and down the spirit-soldier's body causing it to die somewhere in the transition from man to mist. The last soldier rolled across the stones grabbing his fallen comrade's weapon and thrusting the blade forward. Quan Chi blocked both attacks and the frenzy of blind often defenseless attacks that followed sending the sound of ringing steel echoing throughout the Living Forest. The sorcerer began to realize that though the guard would never tire he most certainly would and he summoned a bolt of green lightning. To the sorcerer's surprise the guard dematerialized and sunk into the stone below emerging from below to grab at his ankles.
"Clever!" Quan Chi remarked with a laugh teleporting himself out of danger, "Perhaps you will even earn a place at my side in the Nether-Realm!"
The ghostly guard rose from the stone hissing like a demon and seized upon the sorcerer. Quan Chi felt the spirit writhing it's way into him fighting for dominance of his soul and control of his limbs causing him to convulse painfully. A few moments later Quan Chi grinned wide and wicked atop the pyramid as the energy of that now trapped soul coursed through him and arrived at the jade-jewel gem on his black ring. The ring had been a gift from Shang Tsung, a representation of their alliance, before his friend had been killed in Mortal Kombat by Earth's champion, Liu Kang. Shang Tsung was not gone of course, not fully, for that was the purpose of the ring, his essence, his soul, was tied to it. So long as the ring remained intact the Elder Gods could not take Tsung's soul for its righteous punishment.
With the soldier's dispatched Quan Chi removed his hood revealing his pale tattooed flesh and feeling the icy cold rain against his skin. He could hear the forest crying out, the souls trapped in those trees desperately wishing they could join the battle and stop him from learning the secret of the world they'd left behind. He snickered and laughed as he tried to push aside the great stone door to the building atop the pyramid. It was ornately carved and upon having tactile contact he could tell it had a magical lock. Studying the runes on the door he found himself at a loss and not at all in the mood to spend the months it would take him to learn the proper magical incantations to open so ancient and hearty a magical barrier. He closed his eyes and the ring on his finger began to glow bright green and then transition into white. Soon enough the sorcerer's eyes popped open and he pressed his hands to the door once more repeating the words that would open the lock.
The door slid with ease and the darkness beyond it was soon lit by magical torch-light which flickered to life along the walls and revealed the sorcerer what he had only dreamed of. The legendary Library of Aton, with scrolls, parchments and books stacked and stored on shelves as far as the eye could see. As he moved into the building however he could feel the presence of something other than himself and was not at all startled when an aged figure with a white beard nearly down to the floor was conjured before him.
"How can this be?" The elderly avatar inquired, now his voice had lost all of it's booming authority and seemed sorrowful.
"Your guard was of some assistance," Quan Chi replied with a grin staring down at his ring, "Lucky I decided to capture him instead of dispelling his soul and reducing him to ashes."
"You should not be here," the spirit scolded, "No one should, neither those with good or evil intent were ever meant to have the knowledge stored here."
"Then why store it?" Quan Chi asked with a puzzled expression beginning to walk down one of the seemingly endless aisles with books shelved and scrolls scattered in disarray at his feet, "Tell me spirit, what did your Masters know of moving from Realm to Realm unhindered?"
"Please, I am merely a guardian," the old man's soul pleaded.
"The guardians are already dead," Quan Chi said with assurance in his tone, "And their souls are passed from this plane thanks to me... you are a librarian, not a guard."
"Please, leave this place, I beg you!"
"I would prefer not to have to harm you," Quan Chi growled, "But you leave me no choice."
"NO!"
Quan Chi sucked in a deep breath and brought his hands together, a bright light formed at the center of his cupped hands growing and forcing his hands farther apart as it became a glowing sphere of boiling green energy with throbbing arcs of electricity swimming through it like serpents. Quan Chi then formed ropes of energy, tendrils to which the green ball was tethered. He threw the sphere then as the librarian tried in vain to dematerialize or at least get out of the way. The bolts of bright energy stung like fangs and dug into the spirit dragging him across the room and sapping the energy from his incorporeal form until at last Quan Chi sucked his life-force into his jade-jeweled ring.
"Resist as long as you can," Quan Chi said sinking into the librarian's consciousness now contained within his ring, "I will have all the secrets your soul can spill of this place, sooner or later."
Sonya Blade entered the burial chamber with a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. They were concealed well enough, hidden in the shadows behind some boulders far above the active dig site below. Beneath her she could make out the figures of a dozen or so workers and the Lin Kuei warriors that were supervising them. Above it all however was the well known Lin Kuei soldier known Cyrax. Cyrax, unlike most of the Lin Kuei, had committed fully to the mad experiments his superiors were performing, experiments into the art of cybernetics and bionics that left Cyrax more machine than man. To her knowledge however Cyrax had defected to the side of Earth shortly after the realization that the true Sub-Zero had been replaced by one of Shao Khan's own lieutenants. What were he and the Lin Kuei still doing here on Earth, what were they doing digging in the Chinese wilderness no less?
"These are our roots brothers," she heard Cyrax calling as he leaped down from his perch to join the others, "The Lin Kuei originated not in Outworld but on Earth. Our order ,
was one of few privileged enough to know the secrets of how to move between the Realms, we were called by the gods of old, the Atonians, to Outworld, after our own dynasty betrayed us."
"This is some crazy shit," Barnes whispered, "Who the hell are the Atonians?"
"I'm not familiar with the name," Sonya said shaking her head.
"Now Shao Khan has betrayed us by placing an imposter in Sub-Zero's place in order to get us to conquer Earth. He is not worthy of our loyalty," Cyrax continued with his speech, "and he is not only unworthy of the throne he holds on Earth but of the one he holds in Outworld as well. When we find the portal buried here we will travel to Outworld my brothers and we will end his reign once and for all."
"He seems loyal enough Sonya," Barnes argued, "Sonya? Sonya?"
"Shut the fu-" Sonya started to command but before she could finish a spear-like chunk of ice passed over her head and buried itself into the cavern wall.
"Where the hell did that come from?" Barnes asked.
"Don't move," a female voice demanded and the fire team turned in unison to see a tall sexy female figure with piercing ice-colored eyes standing over them. Her hands seemed frozen over with a shimmering sheet of ice and at her side sat deadly enchanted Outworldian steel daggers.
"Frost," Sonya denoted holding up her hands in surrender and dropping her pistol.
Quan Chi was losing more than his patience, he felt he was losing his mind. The soul of the librarian was more powerful and far more resistant to the persuasion of the ring than he had anticipated. As he combed through the library thoughts flooded his mind, thoughts that were not his own, memories that had no connection to his life and emotions that were entirely out of place, even out of character. It was if the librarian had treated those other souls in the ring as an army to be organized against the mind of the sorcerer and despite his best efforts to regain control the mob of souls Quan Chi and Shang Tsung had trapped within the ring could not be placated.
Only blind anger and determination kept the sorcerer focused enough to continue his search for the secrets of the Atonians. That anger however was proving a double-edged sword as in his rage he was pushing down shelves, tearing scrolls that contained nothing of interest to pieces and stumbling over blocks of stone and piles of books in a frustrated frenzy. Here amidst the scrolls was the secret to allowing Shao Khan's armies back into Earth-Realm but more than that, the secret to the conquest of all the realms, realms unnumbered and perhaps even unguarded.
Driven nearly made the sorcerer nearly knocked a torch into the nearest shelves as he stumbled through row after row of tomes and volumes. The history of every dynasty of Outworld stretching back long before Shao Khan was here, even some of it extended to before the Atonians when Outworld was populated by unthinking reptilian beasts similar to those that had once lived on prehistoric Earth and those that still stalked the darker corners of the Nether-Realm and the densely packed unexplored jungles of Edenia.
He found himself barely able to think, and soon began pawing about with his hands trying to sense which tomes had any connection to magic. This led him to tomes about necromancy and cryomancy and pyromancy but there was nothing about interdimensional travel to be found here. In a fit of rage Quan Chi pushed the shelf over and fell to the ground clutching his skull and trying desperately to get control.
With titanic effort the sorcerer channeled the librarian's soul out of the ring struggling to keep it from overwhelming his own essence and spat it out from his very soul causing it to appear in a spiritually-amniotic green liquid. The librarian shook himself off but before the spirit could even regain his bearings Quan Chi was on him riddling the poor soul's body with dark green lightning and cackling as the rebellious librarian screamed in agony.
"One way or another my friend you will tell me the location of what I seek," Quan Chi laughed.
"You could spend centuries and never find the illumination you seek!" The librarian spat, "It was not meant for men of this Realm!"
"Stubborn bastard," Quan Chi remarked relenting his lightning attacks for a moment. In an epiphany of swirling thoughts the sorcerer ran backward locating the torch he had all but knocked loose earlier. As he'd suspected the torches were not at all lit by real fire but were a strangely ambient magic that simply created light. He loosened the torch-head with a smirk before pulling it downward and out and watching as part of the wall slid away revealing a set of stone stairs leading down.
"No! I will not let you!" The librarian shouted sprinting faster than any living thing could ever move but even at that speed the goodly spirit could not defeat the speed of light. An arc of green lightning caught it by the throat and with a few magic words and a little extra application of energy the librarian fell to the stone floor as ashes.
"Now we will see what knowledge no one should possess," Quan Chi said aloud with a smirk of supreme superiority on his pale face.
"They killed at least two of our clan," Frost informed her superior, Cyrax, as she presented the captive Sonya and her Fire Team of four, "There team were carrying enough explosives to collapse this cavern and kill every one of us. I suspect sabotage"
"Is this true?" Cyrax inquired in his ominous mechanical voice.
"Partly," Sonya admitted watching Cyrax's hand fall instinctively to his pulse-sword, "we killed two of your men, but we were here on a scout mission, not sabotage."
"Scouts? Then why did you kill two of my men?"
"Because they saw us, and they would not have hesitated to kill us," Sonya answered, "You know your clan are formidable Cyrax, you also know that Outworlder's are not allowed here on Earth. You were ordered back to Outworld, you disobeyed to dig here."
"You are wrong," Frost shouted back-slapping her icy hand across Sonya's face.
"Enough!" Cyrax demanded noting the expression on Sonya's face and way she held her body that told him she could break her bindings anytime she chose and was choosing to stay a captive for the time being.
"But sir, they are lying, what about the explosives!"
"C-4 is standard shit for our whole squad, every fire-team gets a chunk," Barnes answered.
"No one addressed you!"
"You did address me bitch, when you decided to strike my commanding officer!"
Frost snapped then diving toward Barnes and outstretching her hand and summoning out a spike of ice that stabbed into his abdomen. Sonya was moving then and within the blink of an eye was out of her bindings. She swept out Frost's legs before the ice-witch saw what was happening. Frost fell backward but caught herself on a torrent of ice and pushed herself up with its power shifting her shoulders and torso to avoid the punches Sonya had swinging her way. Out came Frost's long elegant legs kicking Sonya in the chest before pushing her away. Frost readied her ice and Sonya pulled a hidden pistol from her boot.
"STOP!" Cyrax cried in an artificially amplified voice that shook the stones over their heads.
"Sir?" Frost asked watching as Sonya dropped her weapon and nodded in Cyrax's direction.
"We are not in Earth Realm by choice Miss Blade," Cyrax explained as Frost at last dropped her arms idly to her sides and wandered off mumbling angrily to herself.
"You alright Barnes?" Sonya called to the injured soldier.
"Hurts like hell!"
"It barely broke the skin," Erikson reported contradicting Barnes as he inspected the fairly minor wound, "didn't even pierce the layer of fat."
"Fuck you pal," Barnes protested with a half-smile half-grimace getting to his feet with Erikson's help, "I'll be fine Sonya."
"You were saying?" Sonya said turning to Cyrax and gesturing for him to continue.
"After Earth won the tournament your government demanded that we return home. Our clan wanted nothing more than to comply," Cyrax continued waving his guards to leave the room as well, "But as part of the rules of the tournament the Elder Gods eventually placed a seal on the border between our two Realms to prevent Shao Khan from breaking the rules and coming to Earth Realm with an army. That seal closed before we could leave Earth Realm."
"This is fascinating and all," Barnes grumbled, "But what the hell does it have to do with ancient Lin Kuei ruins being beneath a Chinese Pyramid?"
"Barnes," Sonya scolded but Cyrax waved away her anger.
"Over the last eighteen months we have searched for a way back to Outworld, a way around the seal the Elder Gods have in place. That search led us to the discovery that the Lin Kuei were of Earth. We believe that they buried a portal here, a magical gate that might be exempt from the rules of the Elder Gods. So you see Miss Blade, we are on the same team."
"I believe you," Sonya nodded, "But you're still here illegally, I can only keep this place a secret for so long before Jax will come busting through these walls with every soldier at his disposal."
"I appreciate your discretion Miss Blade," Cyrax said, "and I hope to be long gone before Mister Briggs gets wind of what we're doing. When we have taken Outworld back from Shao Khan perhaps we will be free to return on better terms with your world."
"I hope so," Sonya said shaking Cyrax's cold robotic hand before departing with her more or less intact fire team in tow.
"You're letting them go?" Frost asked returning to Cyrax's side with her pride more than a little damaged as she watched Sonya vanish into the shadows of a distant tunnel, "They killed members of our clan, remember what Sub-Zero said to us when we were but children in the eyes of Lin Kuei! Clan is everything!"
"Making an enemy of Sonya is not at all wise for our clan," Cyrax argued, "You would do well to view our Master's words with a little more, perspective."
"Sir! Sir! Master Cyrax!" an excited worker cried rushing up to the cyborg and quickly dropping to one knee, "I'm sorry to interrupt but-"
"Out with it!" Frost demanded impatiently.
"I believe we've found it! I believe we've found the portal!"
Quan Chi turned around and looked up the stairs behind him. He sent a small probing light shimmering up those stairs watching it climb for what seemed like an eternity before the dot became infinitesimally small and then, finally, could no longer be sustained magically at such distance. Shaking his head in disbelief and believing himself more than a mile beneath the pyramid Quan Chi continued on down bottomless the stone stairs until his eyes came to a relieving and seemingly impossible site, the bottom.
He stepped from the stairs wiping the sweat from his brow and scanning the room for somewhere to sit. Despite being in top physical condition even the sorcerer, after his thirteen mile hike into the wilderness, his battle atop the pyramid, and his journey down the labyrinthine stairs, he was nearly exhausted. Before his eyes could focus upon any ancient stone benches however the books caught his attention first. Placed upon pedestals and glowing with an otherworldly light that seemed so out-of-place this far down he was drawn to them with an unyielding temptation.
At last he had found it, the Library of Aton, the knowledge of those would-be gods who has mastered traveling between the realms. He ran his fingers over the cover of the first book finding it utterly immaculate without even a thin layer of dust after eons of sitting here in this stone chamber. The cover was emblazoned with a raised dragon-like symbol that accented the intriguing title.
"The Book of the Dragonborn," Quan Chi read aloud into the empty room, "What secrets do you hold for me?"
The other titles seemed equally promising, "Ruminations on the Elder Scrolls," and finally Quan Chi found one that seemed written in the ancient tongue of the Atonians, a language long dead, but he knew of one lost-soul still in his possession that might shed some light on what lie within this tome, with a wicked smirk the sorcerer began to read "The Elder Realms – Of Portals and Gods, chapter one – Nirn, Realm of Dragons."