Beauty in the Beast

Chapter 2: Reunion

As Mileena sat in the waiting chamber of the Idlewyld Manse, her mind raced with possible scenarios of how this would play out. She hoped furiously that she would be able to find some way to make peace with her sister. Her only wish was that she could form some kind of bond with the only person that she could consider family. She mulled over the animosity that existed between her and Kitana. She tried to figure some kind of way to explain how for so many years, her mind was not her own.

"How bold of you to ever come back here," said a voice in the distance. Mileena's eye instantly trained on the door to the chamber. There stood her "sister", the genetic template from which she was crafted. Kitana, having now taken her rightful place as empress of the realm of Edenia, entered the room, albeit with extreme caution. "When my guard captain explained to me what was going on and described our visitor, I could hardly believe you would actually be here." Kitana stopped after taking but a few steps into the room. From behind her stormed in a troupe of guardsmen, all wielding crossbows at the ready.

Mileena, not at all surprised by Kitana's welcome, looked the Empress right in the eye. Kitana noticed right away there was a certain, intangible difference in her eyes. Gone was the wild, murderous glow that used to fill them. "Kitana…" she said as she stood to approach. "Please, listen."

Immediately, Kitana threw up a hand. "Hold where you stand!" she commanded. "Lest you wish to taste the wrath of ten crossbows simultaneously." Without being told to do so, here entourage all raised their weapons with Mileena in their sights.

Understanding fully the weight of her predicament, Mileena froze in place and put her hands out in front of her to show she meant no harm. "Please, I beg of you! Hear me out, sister!"

Kitana's marksmen were all flabbergasted to hear Mileena say that. "Never call me that!" Kitana spat. She was very visibly perturbed at being called 'sister' by her clone. "Guard your tongue, wretch, or I'll have it forcibly removed from that foul hole in your face."

Not to be deterred, Mileena continued. "Please, Empress. Allow me to speak. I ask only that you listen and acknowledge what I say."

Nearly faster than Mileena could register what had happened, Kitana drew one of her bladed fans and threw it so it was impaled in the floor right at Mileena's feet. "Of what import could anything coming from you possibly hold?!"

Mileena could almost taste the deeply seeded mistrust and disdain that Kitana was exuding in waves. What she did next both shocked and confused everyone in the room. Mileena turned on her heels and dropped to her knees with both hands above her head. With ten crossbow marksmen and an infinitely angry Empress at her back in this submissive position, she was completely defenseless. "Kitana… Please… I come bearing no ill will. Allow me to say my piece."

Weary of what her clone might have had planned but aware of how advantageous the situation had become, Kitana relented. "Fine. You have my ear."

"Thank you, si… Empress." Mileena felt a weight lift from her chest. Moving only to drop her hands to her sides, Mileena spoke again. "I wanted to make contact with you as you are the only person I have any connection to."

"Know this, demon. I will NOT accept that there is any connection between us!"

"You wound me…" Genuinely hurt by that statement, Mileena's head drooped. "Shao Kahn created me as your copy to be his daughter in your stead when you rose against him." She reached a hand to her mask as she went on. "Were it not for my… unfortunate visage… I would have been your mirror image."

"Get to your point, wretch," Kitana quipped, venom oozing from her words. "You are not telling me anything I did not already know."

"Yes. Of course. My point is that I have come to prove that change has happened upon me."

Kitana huffed, skeptical of this statement, and crossed her arms. "Change you say? What kind of change? And just what exactly makes you think I would entertain the thought of believing such a thing?"

Inwardly, Mileena smiled. She knew this was her opportunity. "The proof lies all around you!" she said, arms spread out for emphasis.

An eye brow shot upward on Kitana. "How so?"

Sensing her chance, Mileena said, "The realm of Edenia! Surely you've noticed how as time passed after fath… Shao Kahn's demise, that all that was twisted to his liking had turned back to its former state."

Her words hit Kitana like stone. Her face, though Mileena could not see it, showed obvious signs of contemplation on the thoughts that were just provoked. "Inclusive of… you," Kitana said in a low voice.

Unable to hold back the sudden surge of excitement, Mileena said, "Yes! Even me!"

Although Kitana could certainly not deny the metamorphosis she saw that had gradually taken place throughout Edenia, she was still skeptical and suspicious of Mileena. "How am I to just outright accept that you are any different from the stone cold killer you were only months ago?"

Mileena's eyes widened. Stricken again by panic, she felt the little bit of victory she had thought she was achieving was slipping away. She searched through her mind and memories for something that could her. Then it came to her. She stood suddenly, causing the marksmen all to jump a bit, but she did not turn around.

"Kitana! You have known me since my birth, yes? And you have known what I have been like."

The Empress rolled her eyes. "Yes, unfortunately, I can say have had the displeasure of having known you that long."

"Then you should remember how I have always been, yes? I believe at one point, you described me to the specter of Queen Sindel as 'a heartless, uncouth beast with the mind of a child that lives only for the death she deals and the pleasures she wants'". Simultaneously as she spoke, Mileena also held entire conversation with the frantic movements of her hands. This put the guards and Kitana on edge, but no one said anything of it. "Would the Mileena of then with such an infantile mind be here before you now speaking rationally? Would the old Mileena have so willingly put herself in danger by appearing so openly? Would the old Mileena ever surrender herself to any authority that was not Shao Kahn?"

Kitana's eyes widened this time. Again, Mileena's words carried logic that she could not deny or ignore. After a moment to let it sink in, the Empress spoke. "I understand that you may be different without Kahn's influence, but you have still not said why you are here," she said in a firm, stately voice.

The excited movements of Mileena's hands stopped. The excitement in her seemed to drain out almost instantly and her head dropped. Her entire being seemed to be possessed by a strong sense of melancholy. Eyes firmly planted on her feet, she said, "Kitana… I came to see if I could have a chance at something I never had before…" To the startling surprise of everyone present, Mileena suddenly and quickly spun around to face the Empress. When she looked up into her eyes, Kitana spotted something that absolutely threw her for a loop. A tear.

A single tear threatened Mileena's eye. It won its short battle for freedom and rolled the short distance from her eye to her mask. "I came here… for you. I came here… for family."

Kitana could do nothing. She was absolutely locked in place, speechless, and had no idea how to respond to what was laid before her.