Contains Spoilers for the end of Mortal Kombat X.

Also has a single, but notable, canon-divergence for the sake of the plot of this story to work. Said divergence should be immediately obvious in the opening part.

It had been an eventful day for Cassie Cage and Jacqui Briggs, as the two Special Forces females walked side by side into the female locker rooms back at their local H.Q. While they both exhibited a certain degree of fatigue in their body language and the manner at which they walked, both wore a satisfied smile upon their faces and their eyes sparkled with a sense of a job well done. Throwing their gear down on some nearby benches they both stretched and smiled at each other broadly.

"It's good to be back," Jacqui noted contentedly, her arms stretched at full-length vertically.

"Yeah," Cassie agreed casually as she began to unclip the belts from her clothing. "Especially when our efforts mean there's a home to come back to."

"Well Kotal Kahn is going to have to do a lot better than that weak ass attempt if he wants to beat us," Jacqui noted confidently.

"You make it sound like that was a breeze," Cassie noted, half jokingly and half questioning Jacqui's claim.

"It was. I mean, compared to what we've had to deal with before. I don't know why he even bothered this time."

"Maybe he's just trying to keep the pressure on?" Cassie wondered. She placed one boot upon a bench and began to unfasten it.

"He'd be better off actually building up his forces before throwing those pathetic fuckers at us," Jacqui scoffed. "If he wants to whittle us down he's going about it the wrong way. We're just carving through his men instead like this."

"I just wish he'd stop this shit!" Cassie said, emphasizing the last word as she pulled the boot off. She switched feet to start removing the other. "We were so close to finally brokering peace and not having to deal with those Outworld assholes for the first time in for-fucking-ever, and then it all got screwed up!"

"I've got to admire you for being willing to have peace after what happened to your dad," Jacqui said. "If that happened to me, I'd want the whole lot of them wiped out."

"Kahn didn't kill dad!" Cassie growled back with a scowl. She took a deep breath and calmed herself. "That queen bee bitch did."

"Sorry Cassie," Jacqui said. "I didn't mean to open old wounds." Jacqui paused. "Maybe next time you'll get to finish her off."

"Trust me, I will," Cassie said determinedly. "She won't have Shinnok to save her yellow ass next time we meet."

"Here's hoping," Jacqui said with a shake of her head. "These dicks seem to keep finding ways to come back when we think they're gone for good."

"As annoying as that is, at least it gives me hope for some of the others Quan Chi enslaved," Cassie sighed.

"I guess there is that," Jacqui said, trying to sound hopeful. "It's been a while since we've seen Raiden though. It's a good thing we've been able to deal with these incursions without him."

"Easily, according to you," Cassie joked. She turned away from Jacqui and began to remove her tactical combat bodysuit. "The way you spoke it's like you didn't break a sweat."

Cassie heard a chuckle from behind her and then sensed Jacqui was a lot closer. The dark-skinned woman pressed up behind Cassie, her head over the young Sergeant's right shoulder while her fingers joined Cassie's as the edge of the jumpsuit to help peel it from Cassie's shoulder.

"I see you did though," Jacqui whispered suggestively in Cassie's ear. "You look so hot when you're all sweaty."

Cassie let out a light moan as Jacqui leaned closer and ran her tongue up from Cassie's jaw line and up the side of her cheek to her brow. "Mmmmmmmmmmm..." Jacqui emitted with hungry satisfaction at the completion of the act.

"I've always been told I have excellent taste," Cassie retorted, reaching back with one arm to stroke and cradle Jacqui's head. Her bodysuit continued to slide down her body exposing her bare arms and a tight tank-top that clung to her curves. Jacqui chuckled again.

"I might have not worked up a sweat, but I've definitely worked up an appetite," Jacqui noted before kissing Cassie's bared shoulder.

"Sounds good," Cassie responded, turning to look at Jacqui. "I'm rather hungry too."

Cassie encouraged Jacqui to look up with a gentle, but firm, pressure under the chin until they faced each other. She then closed the distance and their lips locked, then tongues and saliva writhed together like wrestling snakes. After a good few seconds of this their mouths eventually parted with a slurp, two strands of saliva snapping into oblivion.

"So I see," Jacqui said flirtatiously. "What are we going to do about this... mutual hunger?"

"Wherever we choose to go, I suggest eating out," Cassie fired back, the last two words of her sentence dripping with carnal lust.

Cassie turned around completely into Jacqui, pressing up against the other woman until she forced her back against a wall behind. Their lips mashed together again, more emphatically and hungrier than before. Cassie began to pull at Jacqui's clothing to get it off both roughly and quickly, interrupting their kissing for brief moments as an article of clothing had to pass between them or she had to reach out of kissing range. Similarly Jacqui doubled her efforts in getting the rest of Cassie's clothing removed, her hands roaming over her lover's pale, sweaty skin now and then between attempts.

"I'm still sweaty though," Cassie breathed between passionate making out. "I should really clean up."

"I should help you," Jacqui hissed back. "Make sure I help you clean every nook and cranny."

"I can think of one you could definitely help me with," Cassie answered back with a lascivious smirk and a naughty twinkle in her blue eyes.

"Let me guess..." Jacqui said, her heavy-lidded brown eyes meeting said naughty twinkle. "Could it be between... these?"

Jacqui grasped Cassie's breasts in her palms and squeezed them firmly. Cassie laughed, flicking her eyebrows upward briefly as she stared back.

"Nope. Try lower," the Sergeant said before biting her lower lip slightly.

"It can't be this one," Jacqui teased, circling her finger around Cassie's exposed navel. Cassie shivered a bit from the sensation.

"Try again," the blonde suggested playfully.

"Ahhhhhh... I know," Jacqui said, giving Cassie her most provocative glance and running her tongue over her upper lip. "You must be talking about..."

Jacqui trailed off as her eyes and one hand looked down. A dark-skinned hand pressed palm-first against a pale-skinned stomach and began to slide downwards. Jacqui's eyes flicked back up to meet Cassie's where they stared right into the blonde woman's very soul. Jacqui winked before finishing her sentence.

"This."

Cassie moaned loudly a split second later as she felt a pair of fingers slide within her slippery folds. It didn't last long though as instead of throwing her head back in pleasure she instead found herself jolting forward and upright in sudden surprise and shock. Cassie Cage was left sweaty and panting, but the pleasure that had just started to build was replaced by realization and disappointment. She was not in the locker room in the capable hands of Jacqueline Briggs but instead sitting upright in a bed, in her own quarters and very much alone. Cassie frowned in the darkness, then thumped the bed angrily on either side of her thighs with both fists. This had not been the first time that Cassie's fantasies had come crashing down over the past few days. In fact, she had had dreams like this for several months now. It was starting to get to her, much like losing her father had been a recurring nightmare in the wake of it actually happening.

Part of Cassie realized that she should have at least been somewhat pleased with the outcome of the events from just over half a year ago now. While she had lost her father to D'Vorah, she had saved Earthrealm from Shinnok, Quan Chi and the forces of Outworld during the whole ordeal. In the case of Shinnok, she'd defeated him herself and learned she possessed some of her father's special abilities in the process. Earth had been safe from invasion ever since as far as she could tell, as despite what her dreams would tell her they were not getting invaded by small groups of Kotal Kahn's forces now and then. In the grand scheme of things the enemies she had to deal with had been rather simple affairs lately. They had not achieved peace with Outworld in the way they had originally intended to by any means, but for now it was at least peaceful.

But during the events that led to it all it felt like Cassie had not only lost a father, but also something else. Jacqui and her were no more than friends really, but Cassie had developed feelings for her over the course of their time together. It had even been a major reason why Cassie had wanted Jacqui to be in Special Forces and part of her team: she wanted to get closer to the woman she'd fallen for. But somewhere along the way instead of reciprocating any feelings Jacqui had become closer to their teammate Takeda Takahashi. So much so that the two were pretty much an item now, and had been for many months. Cassie got on with her job and didn't let it interfere with the group dynamic or the missions, but it broke her heart whenever she saw them together during downtime. And lately it had been getting worse, and so had Cassie's dreams.

Would it have been any different if Cassie had actually told Jacqui how she felt before it could happen? Probably not. Jacqui probably simply wasn't into women and just saw Cassie as her friend and superior. But that didn't stop Cassie from wondering if things would have been different if she had made the first move instead of just trying to get closer to the Briggs woman and hoping that either Jacqui would bring up an attraction to her or something would just happen naturally between them along the way. In either case, it was too late now. All she could do was hope and scratch her own itch now and then with illusions and fantasies of what would now never be. Cassie sighed and figured she may as well just do that now in fact.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Wide-eyed with disbelief, Cassie stared at the alarm clock beside her bed that buzzed annoyingly as large red digits red 06:00 while her own digits stopped only an inch short from their intended goal. "You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Cassie uttered, slamming her head back down into the pillow and staring up at the ceiling as if some deity resided there that would hear her despair. No answer came. Cassie grunted and slammed her hand down upon the clock, silencing it. It was time to get up and get dressed for morning training. There was not much time to rest in Special Forces, especially for Cassandra Cage.