Chapter 3: A New Perspective
Felt like updating today ;D. I've been using this couple of days to come up with ideas and how to make the story flow and so far it's meeh. But that won't stop me from updating and making you guys happy :D

Alora was resting in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She felt like crying but, couldn't let the tears flow. It's been a year since she last saw her family. She wondered every second if they were working hard to look for her or…if they just gave up already. She had a horrible pit in her stomach that her parents had given up already. But her sister Hazel, she was a fighter and never gave up on things, but still. She just couldn't shake this horrible feeling that they had somehow given up already.

Sighing, Alora turned to her side and stared out the window. She saw Kitana and Jade sparring and it made her smile a bit. Even though her training with Jade was over, she still had to practice every once in a while to keep up with her skills. She practiced about 4 times a week, targeting practice dummy's and beating the wood out of them with the staffs. Looking at her clock, she saw the time and gasped. She was supposed to meet Reptile in Shang Tsungs Gardens 5 minutes ago.

"Oh crap." She muttered.

Beginning Of Year

She scrambled out of bed, switching to her sweatpants and tank top. She slipped on her shoes and ran out the door. She was trying to put her auburn hair up in a ponytail when her scrunchie snapped on her.

"Are you kidding me?" she groaned.

Ignoring her hair situation, she pumped her legs faster almost passing the archway to the garden. She skidded and jumbled back, stopping to a halt when she noticed no one there.

Raising an eyebrow, she looked around not seeing Reptile. Suddenly a thought came to her.

"Ohh I get it, he's hiding from me and I have to find him." She gave a small smirk and looked around.

"Alright Reptile! Where ever you are I'm gonna find you!" Alora yelled proudly.

"Hmm let's see." She said quietly.

Scanning the area, she didn't see Reptile, obviously. Sighing she walked around a bit before coming up to a tree. She circled around it before coming back and putting a hand on it.

"Hm." She said.

Closing her eyes, she focused on the roots and branches of it. Scrunching her eyes a bit, she moved her hand across the trunk, moving the branches and trying to hear any type of discomfort.
After about 2 minutes of silence, she opened her eyes and sighed. She turned around and jumped back a bit when she saw Reptile standing there, with his arms crossed.

"Holy crap Reptile! Don't do that!" she snapped.

"Then you should not be late!" Reptile retorted.

He turned around and started walking towards the middle and turned back, crossing his arms.

"Well? Are you going to come here or what?" He snapped.

Alora made a face and rolled her eyes, walking towards him. She was about 2 feet away when he suddenly turned invisible.

Shocked, she stopped in place and looked around.

"If you are to learn how to blend with your surroundings, then you must first learn how to detect me." she heard Reptile say.

On impulse, she turned around and threw a hook catching nothing but air. Taking a deep breath, she stood still and waited a bit. She freaked out when she felt a breath on her neck. Spinning around she kicked up and hit nothing again.

"How am I supposed to detect you if you make no noise?" She yelled.

"Use your surroundings!" Reptile yelled back.

"Use your surroundings." She mocked.

Looking around, her blue and green eyes landed on a tree. Biting her lip, she closed her eyes and stuck her hand out.

Reptile watched in curiosity at what Alora was doing. He was so intrigued that he didn't notice the branch that was behind him. He heard the branch but it was too late. It wrapped around him and levitated him the air.

Smiling to herself, she walked over to Reptile and smirked up at him.

"Like that?" she said.

Reptile groaned and spit acid on the branch causing him to fall to the ground. He landed on his feet but noticed Alora holding a hand to her head.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Y-yea..just a sharp pain in my head. It's going away though." She replied.

"How did you find me?" Reptile asked.

"I-I don't know, it was like I could 'see' from the branches view or something."

Reptile narrowed his eyes but sighed.

"Alright let's go again."

Mid-Year

"Concentrate! You can do it!" Reptile yelled from his hiding spot.

"Ah, I-I can't! The pain in my head is too much!" Alora yelled back.

The pain was immense. She had her hands clutched to the sides of her head and was about to go on her knees. One minute she was controlling a vine to find Reptile, next she was clutching her head.

"Reptile please! It..it hurts too much!" she screamed.

Reptile jumped down from his spot and walked to Alora. He grabbed her head in his hands and his eyes went a little wide when he noticed that her eyes had turned black.

"Just don't think about it. Ignore it!" he said calmly.

Aloras hands were in fists, but she slowly released her hands and bit the inside of her lip.

After a few minutes, the pain completely subsided and Alora was back on her feet again.

"I..I don't know what happened. It was like…I felt the pain when-"

"It is over now, let's get back to work." Reptile said.

Alora nodded and let out a deep breath.

"Alright, I'm ready."

By the time she turned to face Reptile, he was gone already.

"Psh, cheater, getting a head start." She mumbled.

She sat on the ground and placed her hands on both sides of her. She knew that Reptile was hiding on the ground somewhere, so she had to use the tree roots to find her mentor.

She found a root and started snaking it out of the ground, moving her hand across the gravel floor. She uprooted it so that it could move easily, but not enough to make noise or to be seen. She was sliding her hand across the floor when she felt something blocked the path. Knitting her eyebrows she tried to move the root around it, but it still wouldn't go through. Starting to get a little irritated, she gave up her control on the root and moved to a different one. It was about to come out of the ground when something stomped on it.

Hissing through her teeth, she quickly regained her concentration. She realized what Reptile was doing.

He was trying to sabotage her concentration so she wouldn't find him. Gritting her teeth, she suddenly uprooted a root and made it move frantically, she heard Reptile stumble back a bit. She used this opportunity to get another root and wrap it around his midsection. She yanked him towards her and released him.

He grunted when he hit the floor and rubbed his arm.

"I see you caught on to my idea Alora." He said.

"Hm, trying to cheat so haha." She smiled.

Reptile jerked his eyebrows and crossed his arms.

"Alright now we're going to work on something else now. Now we are actually going to work on you." He replied.

Alora raised her eyebrow and stood up.

"Work on me?"

"Yes, now we are going to work on your invisibility." Reptile replied.

Alora felt her heart racing with excitement.

"Finally! Yes!" she squealed.

Reptile raised his eyebrow and stared at her.

"I-I mean. That'll be good sir." She said, trying not to smile.

"Alright, you have 15 seconds to run and hide. After 15 seconds I'll come and find you. Try to use your surroundings to blend in."

Alora nodded and looked around.

"Go!"

She sprinted off towards some trees and started climbing up. When she got to a thick branch, she pressed her back against the trunk and tried to quiet her breathing. She laid her head back and closed her eyes. Her 15 seconds were surely up by now. She didn't realize she was holding her breath and let it out quietly. When she heard nothing, she tried turning her head back to see if Reptile was still there. Obviously he wasn't. Quickly turning her head back she noticed a bit of a blurry image in front of her. Leaning in a bit closer she narrowed her eyes and tried to make it out.

She let out a scream when Reptile suddenly appeared, causing her to fall out of the branch. She started falling when something or someone grabbed her foot. Hanging upside down, she tilted her head up to see Reptile holding on to her foot with one hand and looking a little disappointed.

She gave a weak smile and let her head drop, looking back at the ground.

He pulled her up and she put her back against the trunk again.

"You were doing fine, till you made all that rustling climbing up the tree." He smirked.

"Hahaha, you're so funny." Alora rolled her eyes but smiled a little.

"When I said use your surroundings I meant literally use your surroundings Alora. The vines, roots, branches, bushes, whatever you can manipulate."

"Ok..ok let me try again." She looked at Reptile who nodded.

"15 seconds…..go."

Alora ran till she got to a rock wall that had a lot of vines and shrubs around it. Pressing herself against it, she used her hands to make the vines move in front of her and the shrubs to cover her legs. She looked up and saw some huge branches full of leaves. She lowered the a little bit to make shading to cover her body. She made a little space to look out for Reptile. Keeping perfectly still and trying not to breath, she calmed down a bit. She closed her eyes for a bit when she heard a crack

. She opened her eyes and saw Reptile cursing silently to himself, probably noting that he just gave away that he was near. Seeing how close he was, she moved a large leaf over her head so the shade could cover her face. Reptile was looking around when he looked at her direction.

Freezing, she started to panic a bit, when Reptile started getting a little closer. Out of a panic she quickly moved a root towards Reptile and made him trip.

"Multi-tasking I see! Great! Keep it up!" he yelled out.

Trying to keep silent and still, she gave herself a mental cheer.

All was well till she had to sneeze.

"Oh shit. No! Not now not now!" she screamed mentally.

She tried wriggling her nose to get it stop but it was right at the edge.

When it came, she held her sneeze in and hoped she didn't make a lot of noise.

When she opened her eyes she saw Reptile right in front of her with a small smirk on his face.

"Almost didn't see you, thank god for that sneeze." He mocked.

Alora couldn't hold it in anymore. She quickly loosened the vines and shrubs and let loose her sneezes.

"Ugghh! Crap I was doing so well!" she yelled.

"I'm impressed. Not only did you blend in well, you also used the roots to keep me from finding you. That's an important part for an assassin, when you are about to be caught, make a distraction to lure the predator away." Reptile said raising his chin slightly.

"Okay, I understand. I'll try to use that more next time."

"Good, let's take a break then get back to work."

Final Year

"Hm. Where are you?"

Reptile was actually having trouble trying to locate Alora. He had been searching for about a good 3 minutes and couldn't find her. He was starting to think that she cheated and left. But she couldn't have because this was her final test.

A root suddenly came out and thwacked him on his leg. He jerked back and looked towards the direction of the root. Alora had learned to make her distractions the opposite of where she was hiding so Reptile could not just follow back to her location.

Alora was hiding high up in tree, knees to her chest, branches circled around her ankles to keep her from falling, leaves covering her body and face. It was good hiding spot, but was it good enough to hide for another 2 minutes?

She noticed Reptile starting to head towards her direction so she raised her hand slightly and used some thorns on a rose bush to fly near his feet. Reptile looked toward his left and sneered.

1 minute left.

Alora hoped and hoped that Reptile wouldn't find her. If she succeeded, she would have successfully passed her exam, and get to move on to her next skill.
45 seconds

Reptile was starting to turn around and head the other direction.

30 seconds

"C'mon c'mon, please…hurry up." Alora silently begged.

20 seconds

Reptile was about to get out of her view when he heard something. Alora heard it too. A fish jumped out of the water near the tree Alora was in and was attracting Reptiles attention.

"No, go away fish!"

15 seconds.

"Please go away."

Reptile was walking towards her direction.

10 seconds.

He was getting closer to the tree.

5

He scanned the tree and his eyes passed her.

4

3

2

He scanned back down but it was too late.

1

Time was up and Aloras heart pounded with excitement. She passed her exam.

"Alright Alora! Reveal yourself!" Reptile yelled.

She smiled and moved the leaves out of her face, then moved the branches from her ankles.

She jumped down from the branch and ran up to Reptile.

"Sooooo?"

He stayed silent for a while and gave a small smile.

"You passed."

"Ahhh!" Alora screamed.

She raised her fist in the air, but quickly regained herself.

"Ahem um..thank you Reptile." She bowed.

Reptile returned the bow and smiled again.

1 Hour Later

Alora was with Jade and Kitana celebrating her victory while also discussing her next skill to learn, which was with Kitana.

Reptile walked to Shao Kahn's room, he had some news to tell him.

When he reached his throne room, Shao Kahn was on his throne talking to some guards when he noticed Reptile.

"Reptile, how was it?"

"Very well emperor, she passed."

"Good, she will make a great assassin."

"I bring some news of her sir."

Shao Kahn raised his eyebrow and leaned forward a bit.

"While we were training in the beginning, I noticed that she got some pains in her head when I killed one of the roots she was controlling." Reptile stated.

"And?"

"It seems that when she takes control of something, it is like it becomes a part of her, a piece of her mind. Like an extra limb and she can 'see' from it." Reptile said.

"Hmm, this is interesting." Shao Kahn said.

"Also, it seems that when I 'hurt' the root, it seemed to hurt her also. She got some pains in her head. Which is why I taught her to switch plants quickly whenever an enemy is near and there is a risk of her getting hurt."

"Hm, this girl gets more interesting every day. I'm glad we chose her instead."

Sorry if there are any mistakes, it's currently 3:11 AM and I started writing like at 2-something -.- oh god I am sleepy. I hope this is satisfying for my absence. Next chapter is with Kitana c: