A/N: Thanks to izzie01789, firefly, Midnight Shadow Girl, HPdarman229 and Kim for taking the time to review, and to the people who'd given this favorites and reads.

Disclaimer: Don't own MK.

Chapter III

Lush landscape decorated with spectacularly artistic and exquisite monuments dotted nearly every river-bank they so commonly came across. People adorning their native clothes bumbled about to their own errands, looking completely peaceful and, coincidentally, child-free. The sky was a gorgeous blue, painted with bulbous and serene clouds that formed all sorts of ridiculous shapes. Amongst such beauty and harmony, there was no doubt that the two figures, coated in black ash and bent to such an extent that they failed to resemble any shape the human body could make, looked horribly out of place and alien. A few natives often gave them pitiful looks or pointed fingers at them while wearing disgusted scowls.

A few gentle-hearted fellows would occasionally walk up to them and hand them a couple of coins. Scorpion would say nothing out of shame, letting the children make the noise instead. Sektor, though, had taken a slightly extraordinary initiative and fired a rocket at a stranger who was just fishing his pocket for some change. People threw up their hands in the air and ran screaming in any plausible direction while blood and bits from the unfortunate soul showered upon the two warriors and their babies.

"Please behave..." Scorpion's plea escaped as a whimper as he pulled out the dismembered finger Smoke tried to put in his toothless mouth.

If they had to update their list of phobias, Sektor and Scorpion would have butted down Shao Kahn from the top to the second bullet, placing 'Super-powered Adult-babies' where the vacancy would arise. They were tremendously lucky that the latter had the brilliant idea of giving away the children to the only MILF they knew to exist: Queen Sindel. Yes, the standard mother-figure with sizes women her age crave to have was the only person who would perform the kind act of taking the children off their hands and giving them a healthier home. She was their safe haven, their angel in disguise, waiting for them at her extravagant palace in the heart of Edenia.

Words are too humble to describe the sheer joy both males experienced when they finally arrived at the gates of the beautiful castle. Flags swayed brilliantly in the breeze, birds chirped away while they sat perched upon the tower-tops, the sound of horses neighing and clopping their hooves emanated from behind the stone wall. It was as if the whole of Edenia was welcoming Ninja and the Cyborg, calling them to nestle within the warmth of her bosom like they were her own children. The very feeling assured the two that all their grievances would finally end.

"Are you... crying?" Sektor demanded, adjusting the slipping Quan Chi in his cradling grasp. The other man had his back towards him, his head raised to take a gander at the towering building, his eyes absorbing the tranquillity that was here now and they would soon have. It was a while before Scorpion decided to turn around and face the robot, his eyes indeed moist. Sektor assumed that the Shirai Ryu would promptly deny the existence of his tears and say something like Reptile snuck up on him while he was invisible and spat in his eyes. But he was mistaken.

Scorpion sighed, his eyes creased around the corners to hint at the content smile hiding behind his mask.

"Y-...yes..." came the soft answer. Sektor stared on at the other man, both unaware that Smoke had finally popped the stranger's finger into his mouth. After a long pause that was brimmed with the chatter of birds, the snorting of horses and the giggles of babies, the Android nodded his head in mutual understanding before continuing with his partner towards the main doors.

BOOM!

Sektor retracted the second missile when he realised that the first one was successful in blasting a hole through the door. Scorpion was too lost in his dreams to complain, but another had promptly fulfilled that role.

"The door knobs are for using, dick..." a scantily clad female in light pink spat at the odd group. Ketchup wasted no time in deploying the second missile after all, which took half of the female into the sky and exploded. The remaining half of the body stood still for several seconds, its waist on fire, before walking away. Sektor began an immediate evaluation of the incident but decided to leave it at that when he realised that Scorpion had already went inside.

The hall was magnificent and much more striking than the already intricate passages of the Lin Kuei temple. The path was several meters in width with stone columns lining either side. Massive tarps decorated with elaborate gold embroidery hung from the ceiling, their gloriousness being enhanced by the gleam from the crystal chandeliers that chimed softly in the breeze. Scorpion had already been roped in by the breathtaking splendour of nearly everything Edenia had to offer, but Ketchup still nursed his doubts. Being part machine, he was not easily fooled by the blinding beauty of the palace and instead kept his focus on much more sinister matters that were otherwise nearly invisible to the other man.

For instance; if this was a palace, then where were all the servants?

"Scorpion, I'm thinking this is a bad idea..." the Robot quickly stated when the former placed a hand on the door to what they believed was the throne room. Scorpion turned his head towards his companion, his brow raised in bewilderment.

"'Bad idea'?" he repeated the words, surprise lacing his tone. "Do not be so foolish, Lin Kuei Machine! This is our only hope!"

"Its a processor-feeling man!" Sektor cried, here, processor referring to the gut he once had. "There's something really nasty about this place!"

But it was a warning too late. As the doors swung open with a creak, Scorpion's body froze over and his heart promptly shut down when he saw what exactly it was that the inviting Edenian breeze and sun had worked so deviously hard to disguise it from him.

"Myah!" Kung Lao cooed as he crawled over to the Ninja, followed by Kano, Nightwolf and Mileena. The remaining babies were much too busy in their own activities to pay attention to the two men standing at the entryway, one of which was on the brink of having a nervous breakdown. Rattles, stuffed toys, pacifiers, empty milk bottles and blankets surrounded the plump children that giggled as they played. In one corner was a massive pile of dirty diapers rotting away from under which crawled out a wailing Sonya. The empty throne that sat in the far end of the room was the centre of attraction to Kitana, who tried to chew through the leg of the stone chair despite the absence of her teeth.

"Sektor..." the Shirai Ryu addressed the Robot calmly, turning towards the other and handing Noob, Smoke and Sub Zero to him. Ketchup had just placed the babies in his arms down on the ground and had now looked up, seeing the children being offered to him by his partner.

He took the three before Scorpion collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Feeling any better?"

That was the first thing he heard Kahn say to him when he woke up. Such kindness in that ruthless man's voice was an oddity, but still pleasant, something which the Spectre found comforting as he was helped up by Sektor. It took him a moment to rub out the drowsiness from his normally blank eyes, but after he did, he managed to see the Emperor for what he truly was.

Or more precisely, what he was reduced to.

The huge man was unshaven, stains of baby formula all over his cape and underwear. His helmet sat a funny way on his head, revealing the glint of Kahn's teeth from underneath. Unfortunately, there was a black gap where one tooth was supposed to be. His eyes were shot with red, skin bagging under them. The flesh of his shoulder had gone red from the teeth mark imbedded in it. Scorpion, apologizing to the Emperor of Outworld for suddenly yelping, assumed that the bite-mark may have come from either Mileena or Baraka.

"Oh, it's alright, Noob," Kahn waved the apology away, not realising that his misconception had hurt the Spectre's pride. Ketchup had taken the initiative to explain to the third member that Scorpion was merely covered in ash. But it was a step taken too late. The Ninja was already suffering from a major inferiority complex, owing to Sub Zero's lavish lifestyle, and whatever remained of his resolve was further smeared by Kahn's misunderstanding.

Thinking not too much about wasting more time, the Emperor ushered his ragged guests into the throne room amongst the babies, quickly picking up a wailing Liu Kang in his arms.

Kahn had thought of relaying his side of his sad tale to the new comers

And it was a sad tale indeed.

After a heartbreaking separation between the two, Kahn travelled all the way over to Edenia to convince his Queen to come back. There were some unpleasant words exchanged in between, but the gist of the incident was that the Emperor was unsuccessful. In her stubborn rage, Sindel stormed out of the palace, an incident that occurred nearly two weeks ago, leaving Kahn to wait for his short-tempered wife's return. It had been yesterday that the servants of the palace informed him of a visitor. Somewhat hoping that it would be messenger on behalf of Sindel, Shao Kahn had promptly called the guest in.

Imagine his disappointment when the visitor turned out to be the Thunder God. It was only because of Sindel's ties to the heroic immortal that Kahn remained on speaking terms with his nemesis. What came next was unexpected. Without so much as a proper explanation, Raiden dumped twenty-four children on his head and vanished sans a single trace.

"What am I supposed to do anyway? I mean, look at him!" he cried, holding up Liu Kang for the other two to see. "He gave me LIU KANG!"

"And who the hell are these guys anyway!" the Emperor demanded, pointing with his thumb towards Kratos and Freddy Krueger. Sektor simply shrugged while Scorpion jumped up, startled when Sonya tried to eat his shoes.

Suddenly, the throne upon which the burly Ruler of Outworld graced his buttocks upon tilted and toppled over to the left with the man still in it. Shocked, all the two ninja could do was stare appalled as Kahn lifted himself from the rubble that was once his throne. He looked over to Kitana, a piece of the stone from which the seat was made from in her hands. She looked over at him with eyebrows stitched together and then continued to nibble at the rock.

"That's unhealthy..." Sektor pointed out to the blue Princess.

"Oh that is all that she would eat..." Kahn murmured in defeat before walking over to his adoptive child and picking her up in his arms. He yelped, dropping the moody child to the floor to nurse the hand she bit. "And apparently... human flesh..."

"But... wasn't Mileena the one with tendencies like that?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that, weren't people part of Mileena's diet?"

"Please! Mileena is the sweetest angel I've been lucky enough to take care of! She'll take her milk and will never fuss over it. Its Kitana that's the problem child."

"That... does not compute... in any sense possible..."

During the time the adults spent talking, baby Kitana took a break from nibbling the quickly disappearing stone and cast a glance over at her sister. Mileena, too, caught her sibling looking at her but immediately began to whimper with fear when the blue-garbed child smiled a heinous grin her way.

"Even Skarlet gives me a better time. The palace servants all quit because Kitana would bite their fingers off."

The three fell short of words and became silent, hearing only the giggling/wailing/burbing/snoring of babies.

This was going to be all that they would hear from now on. They would live, pray, see, hear, breathe and eat 'BABIES'. Well, not eat them exactly, given that either Baraka or Kitana didn't eat them first.

This was one predicament that Sektor was not going to bear through. After a meal that took a hundred times longer to cook than to throw away, Kahn offered his new 'help' abode within the castle until the solution could be found. This solution, no matter how elusive was all the hope they apparently had, according to the Edenian Nightmare. He had stated that he could only cross his fingers that Raiden was out somewhere, working to find a damn cure. The idea Ketchup had, though, would not exactly eradicate their infant-problem but would lessen their burdens.

The Cyborg decided that tomorrow morning, after a good-night's recharging while Scorpion and Kahn would stir from their sleep to quiet down the restless babies, he would find the only person capable of nurturing the kids.

Sindel.

Their Safe Haven.

Outer Haven.

LA-LI-LU-LE-LO! LA-LI-LU-LE-LO! LA-LI-LU-LE-LO!

"What?" Sektor murmured, immediately scanning his hard-drive with the sudden intrusion of those non-existent Japanese vowels.

Sindel yawned shamelessly, kicking her feet up on the coffee table and taking a sip of her martini. And old track of the Carpenters played on record in the far corner of the room while the Queen had specifically placed her chair to give her a view of the looming stars. The sky was ever beautiful, the stars twinkling flirtatiously as if blowing kisses to each other. The moon was out of the picture, leaving nothing but the little fire-flies to light up the night sky. The winds refused to blow, leaving her scented candles to burn intensely, although silently.

She sighed this time, leaning out to place the martini on the coffee table before leaning back into the chair again. She had spent hours applying all that make-up and then slipped into one of her most exquisite evening-gowns. In theory, she was ready for everything that would happen that night, despite knowing that nothing would stir.

She tilted her head till it snuggled into her left shoulder.

She needed excitement.

She needed a man.