Shao Kahn got up from his throne in a hurry for a spy was in his midst. He walked out the doorway while demanding that the intruder show themselves, "If you wish to avoid a painful death you will show yourself!"

His senses were entirely focused now, whoever this spy was they could not hope to escape him. Soon he heard a something from behind. He swiftly turned around to see Jade trying to sneak away. Though stealthy, even the greatest of trained assassins couldn't sneak away from Shao Kahn.

"Going somewhere," he asked with a look of both a surprised yet slightly smug face. The Edenian warrior was left speechless, knowing full well that Shao Kahn would not hold back. He continued on in her silence, "It took you long enough to figure out something was wrong." He slowly approached her with an insincere smile, "Perhaps we can talk this out, you and I."

She glared at him, standing her ground, "Who am I really?! You've lied about Edenia so much, how can I trust what you've said about me?" The corrupt king continued to approach her with his hand out, "Just let me explain…"

She then attempted to attack him with her staff, yet Shao Kahn countered with the hilt of his hammer. He then struck her beneath the chin with his fist, throwing her into the air. He caught her while staring her down, "I could make you disappear and nobody would notice. I could blame Kotal Kahn or the Netherrealm's forces. Nobody would doubt me." She tried to speak up yet Shao Kahn's brutal attack left her in no condition to.

He was about to finish her until he found himself stopped just before his hammer smashed her skull in. He attempted to force himself yet it was no use. His hammer vanished as he growled, "Again the Elder Gods interfere in my matters! Everything will be ruined if she tells everybody what happened. Doubt within my ranks will rise…I must find a way to silence her."

To his delight, he didn't need to do anything. She passed out from exhaustion. It was a temporary solution no doubt, but it was enough.

He wasn't entirely off the hook as the commotion alerted Ermac, who soon entered the hall. He saw Jade's body on the floor and then turned to Shao Kahn, "What happened?!"

Shao Kahn placed his hand upon the construct's shoulder, "Earthrealm assassins came to try and kill me. Jade her threw herself into battle to protect me, yet was not strong enough."

Ermac's eye twitched at that, "Where are they?!"

Shao Kahn gave a fake sigh, "They ran away when they saw me stomping in, they were too frightened to do anything against me."

"Yet they attack Jade with no hesitation?!"

"Raiden has become lost," Shao Kahn replied, "he will do anything to achieve his goals. It's all sad, really."

"We…we need to get revenge…we kill them," Ermac muttered near silently as his hands turned to fists and green energy surrounded them. Shao Kahn nodded at his creation, "We will, we will. If not, they will take so much more from us. I will make them pay, we will make them pay!"

"They will know true suffering," Ermac said as the green aura surrounding him grew stronger, "we will not stand for this." Shao Kahn grinned, Ermac actually believed everything he said, "We will strike soon. Our infantry is growing stronger every day, they will stand no chance."

Ermac picked Jade up in his arms as the aura died down, "We will take her to our chamber for safe keeping. We will try to revive her."

"Are you sure you wish to do that," Shao Kahn nervously asked, "She'd be safe enough in the throne room." Ermac walked away silently, leaving Shao Kahn with a bit of anxiety. If she's revived, she will tell Ermac what happened without hesitation.

"I must find a way to split those two apart," Shao Kahn thought to himself, "I'm sure an idea will come to me soon…"

Ermac carried Jade into his chambers and laid her on the ground. He looked at her bloody battered body with a hint of sadness. Green aura surrounded his hands as he placed them on her. His efforts to heal were unsuccessful as she still remained passed out.

He sighed in frustration yet his efforts were not entirely in vain as he heard her voice calling out to him. He looked around the room, seeing nothing but still hearing her, "Jade…?"

Back in Earthrealm, Sub-Zero and Kitana made it back to the Lin Kuei's main hideout deep within Arctika. The hideout was a massive stone fortress located within the mountains of tundra. What Sub-Zero saw was horrible. The corpses of the Lin Kuei were littered across the ground with burn marks all over. Their blood stained the snowy ground.

He kneeled to one of their corpses, looking around, "This isn't the work of the Tengu…it can't be. Their methods are much different. As far as I know, none of them use fire of any kind. Wu Lae and I have a truce too…"

Kitana was stunned by what she was seeing it almost reminded her of what may've happened to the Edenian armies. Sub-Zero got back up and motioned for her to follow him. They walked into the fortress without a hitch, nobody stopped them. Whoever this invader was, they did not have much of an army backing them…which could be seen as worse than if they did.

Sub-Zero then made it to what was once his main quarters, seeing someone sitting where he once did. He could not make out much since this lone usurper was sitting within the shadows.

"You are not the Grand Master," Sub-Zero plainly said to the invader, "give me back my clan!" The invader laughed with a mechanical voice, "I am the true inheritor of the clan. It's my birthright."

Kuai recognized this voice instantly, "Sektor?!" Kitana turned to him with a confused look, "Who?"

"Long story," Kuai answered.

The usurper stepped out, revealing it was a cyborg ninja but it didn't look like Sektor. Rather it had a gray exoskeleton that more resembled Cyrax's in its design. The cyborg nodded, "In a way, I am Sektor. But I prefer not to go by that name as I've long since abandoned it along with my human nature. You can call me Triborg now."

Liang was left with just one question, "How did you come back?!"

"You can thank the Special Forces for that. They brought me back in my glorious new form, yet they couldn't see what I could. The both of us thought differently."

"I'll have words with Jax and Sonya about this later," Kuai said, almost disappointed that they even tried anything with the cyborg initiative, "what matters now is that I finish what I started." He readied his stance.

Triborg got up from the Grand Master's seat, "When I'm done with you, the Lin Kuei will finally be wiped from the face of the Earth!" His chest opened up, firing missiles right at him. Sub-Zero avoided each one with precision yet was taken aback by Triborg teleporting and then uppercutting him. What shocked him even more was when the cyborg ninja froze him! Triborg knocked him out of the ice soon after.

Kuai looked at Triborg with surprise, "How…how did you do that?!" Triborg chortled, "I have every ability documented within the Lin Kuei's cybernetic archives. That includes yours." Kuai flipped over Triborg and froze him, "I will not be defeated by some pale imitation!" Triborg broke out of the ice easily and lobbed bombs at Liang, "I am no pale imitation, I'm the superior one!"

Kitana's spirit levitated the bombs back at Triborg before they even hit Sub-Zero. They barely affected the now enraged robot. Liang threw a punch right at the android's face to which he barely flinched. He grabbed Sub-Zero's fist and twisted it. Triborg took great delight in Sub-Zero's suffering.

"You were always the pale imitation of Bi-Han anyhow," the sadistic robot added to only further throw salt in the wound. Liang held in his cries of pain but could only hold it in for so long. He finally screeched out in pain as he heard a snap in his wrist. Triborg then tossed him away like a ragdoll.

Kuai tried to get back up yet Triborg stomped on his chest, leaving him incapacitated. He finally took the Grand Master's medallion for himself, "The Lin Kuei is no more. From now on, there is only the Tekunin."

Kitana came in from behind with her fans yet it was a moot move as he shot the fans out of her ethereal hands. He was unsure of how he could fight her seeing as she was a spirit which could not be harmed.

Both of them came to a standstill, knowing that neither could take each other down. Triborg was the first to throw out an offer, "Tell you what if you leave me be I can tell you more about Raiden's intentions."

"I don't think so," she denied, "but I'll make a deal with you. If you hand me Sub-Zero I will leave with no hesitation." Triborg shook his head, "I'm afraid I can't comply. I want Sub-Zero to be the first in my recyberization process! It'd so fitting wouldn't it?"

It was now clear the two had reached an impasse. The room went silent for a solid minute until Triborg felt something grab him by the ankle. It was the incapacitated Sub-Zero still holding on to dear life! He froze him to the floor and flipped over him. Using this as an opportunity, Kitana grabbed her fans and threw them right into Triborg's chest. Triborg pulled them out, oil pouring out from the holes. Sub-Zero then smashed his skull in with an ice mallet. The automaton merely responded by growling as he vanished in a smoky wind, seemingly retreating.

Sub-Zero gave a sigh of relief until he felt an attack incoming from behind. He ducked beneath it, looking around to see who was behind him. He saw nothing. His invisible opponent bashed his foot against Sub-Zero's neck. Sub-Zero nearly went down yet pulled himself back up with the nearby wall. Kitana slashed both fans hoping to hit the transparent Triborg yet it didn't connect. Liang created an ice clone, throwing it at the invisible force.

It was a direct hit! Triborg exited out of the cloaking and was floored by the clone. The machination was quick to shatter the clone to pieces before taking to the air. He saw nothing as both the princess and former Grand Master had vanished without a trace.

Triborg slammed into the ground, angered by his loss. He punched the nearest wall, leaving a dent in its place. He then looked at the Dragon Medallion he stole from Sub-Zero with delight, "It wasn't an entirely pointless venture I suppose."

His arm opened up, revealing an empty compartment. He placed the medallion inside as ice froze over the arm, "I can feel it making me stronger…so much stronger."

He then activated a communicator on his wrist, contacting his employer. His boss was none other than the wicked god of thunder, Raiden.

"Did you dispose of that meddlesome duo?"

"Negative," Triborg reported, "the Tekunin need a raise of supplies, I'm afraid. Only then will I be able to kickstart the recyberization initiative. If you want an army, you must pay for it."

"Very well," Raiden answered, "I will have weapons, money, and whatever else you require delivered to you." Triborg laughed, "Just take them from the Special Forces, I already know they have exactly what we need."

The thunder god very much approved of this idea, "Who are they to stop me? I will have my zombies take everything they have. Feel free to help if you want."

"I took enough supplies upon leaving them to build a decent amount of cyborgs as is. I'll just have to use the remains of the Lin Kuei when I run out of necessary parts."

"Contact me when you have your cyborgs complete, Raiden out."

Triborg saluted his commander's hologram as he turned off the communicator. Afterwards he marched out of the Grand Master's chamber, "Let's get to work…"

Out in the Tundra of Arctika Sub-Zero and Kitana made it out, Sub-Zero having barely escaped with his life. While he marched out in the knee high snow he couldn't help but look back at the temple he had once called his own.

"It must hurt to lose everything. I know what that's like," Kitana said, hoping to console the punished leader. Sub-Zero looked to her with weak eyes, "It was all I had left. My clan was like my family and now…they're all gone."

"It's not all you have," Kitana replied with a warm smile beneath her mask. Her calming demeanor did little to help Liang, "I failed them, Kitana. My time in the Netherrealm was too long…if I had just been there then maybe I could have saved them."

The former princess sympathized greatly with Sub-Zero's struggle, "If I had been there, I could've saved my people too. You yourself have shown me you can't dwell on the past."

"It's different this time! What on Earth were the Special Forces thinking when they brought back any part of the cyber initiative," Kuai asked with tears forming in his eyes, "I just…I don't know. I don't know where to go from here. It was my plan to recruit the Special Forces and the Lin Kuei to help us. But now the Lin Kuei is dead and I can't trust the Special Forces, not after this."

"They're our only hope. We can't go to anybody else besides them."

Kuai looked away from her, "Go to them if you want. I refuse to seek their help. Maybe the Shirai Ryu can help us."

Kitana grew frustrated with him at this point, "If the Lin Kuei are gone, then surely this Triborg has left no other rival clans."

"Not so," a familiar voice called out. Both of their attention turned to the voice, seeing Sub-Zero's student Frost. She made her way to the both of them, "There's still a small sector of Lin Kuei left here in the mountains."

Sub-Zero was relieved by this, "Some still survived?"

"Not many, but it's a start. The Lin Kuei will never die!"

Kuai's sad face turned to a grin in an instant, "No it won't!" She turned to Kitana's spirit soon after, "I wouldn't listen to her Grand Master, you're right. We can't work with the ones who betrayed us, in fact I say we need to exact revenge upon them!"

"Revenge is unneeded," Kuai said while placing his arm on Frost's small shoulder, "she's right, in times like this we can't hold a grudge." Frost's brow furrowed in anger, "What?! But they took everything from us! We can't just let it be!"

"I will talk to Sonya and Jax about it."

He turned to Kitana, "We should probably get going before Triborg tracks us down."

She nodded, "Probably."

Frost looked to the both of them, "Should I gather what's left of the Lin Kuei?"

"Yes. It's not safe for them here. It's best we move elsewhere. We must go see the Special Forces."

As Kuai Liang prepared to retake his fortress, deep within the Netherrealm mines his former brother Noob Saibot was inspecting the mines below the Netherrealm's surface. He was excited to add the next miner in his operation. That miner was the man who murdered him, Hanzo Hasashi.

The delight Noob felt when torturing his killer was visible even when masked beneath his mask. Before he got to work the specter had just one question, "What are we mining for anyway?"

Noob shrugged, "I'm going to be honest you aren't mining for anything. The Netherrealm has no real valuable minerals of any kind. You're just mining because it's the best kind of torture we have what with our best torturer having been killed. I'm going to miss Drahmin…"

The wraith soon pulled out a whip and cracked it against the Shirai Ryu, "Well?! Get to work!"

Scorpion grabbed the nearest pickaxe and started mining. Even as he worked Noob couldn't help but whip his murderer repeatedly, each time he did he felt a form of schadenfreude. Hanzo's suffering felt like the perfect form of payback.

Having had enough Hanzo grabbed the whip mid-swing. He slightly miscalculated as the whip hitting his hand burned intensely. The pain only made him grip the whip harder as he pulled Noob in and held a kunai to his throat, "You should know I'm stronger here in my realm than anywhere else."

Noob was unfazed by Scorpion's rage, rather he sadistically laughed, "You wouldn't dare kill me again, would you? It could ruin things just as killing me before did, just as killing Quan-Chi did. Everything you do only ruins things further."

Hanzo dropped the kunai, giving Noob ample time to kick the ninja right in his stomach, leading him right into one of the sides of the mine. Noob picked Scorpion's kunai up and twirled it around. Hanzo stumbled onto the ground soon afterwards.

"You know, you could've turned out just like me if you weren't so empathetic."

Hanzo spat on Noob's feet, "You're making that sound like a good thing."

Noob picked the tired Scorpion off of his knees, "You know, I don't think I like your attitude. I think you could use a bit of an attitude adjustment." He repeatedly stabbed Scorpion with his own kunai and wrapped the rope from his spear around his neck, choking the life out of the already undead specter. Fire burned the rope off, to which Noob responded by throwing Scorpion right into a stalagmite.

Hanzo let out a scream only furthering Noob's enjoyment of the situation. Blood seeped through Scorpion's wounded stomach. It trickled down the stalagmite and onto the ground. Noob pressed his hands against Hanzo's chest, furthering the pike through his stomach. At this point Hanzo couldn't even scream, leaving Noob bored. The sadistic wraith picked Scorpion up from the pike, "It doesn't feel good to suffer like this, does it? I'd know, only difference between what you did to me and what I'm doing to you is that I'm hurting you for crimes you really did commit."

Hanzo did not speak for he was a broken shell of what he once was. Noob placed Hanzo over his shoulder, "Don't worry, you can still make it up to me. You do owe me after all." The vengeful wraith walked out with his prisoner in tow, having great plans for him.

Speaking of big plans, Kotal Kahn was absolutely not prepared for what entered into his throne room. He waited patiently for his soldiers to return. Instead he was met with something far graver.

The doors to the throne room flew open to which Kotal looked to at first with optimism.

"Did you—"

His hopes were soon dashed as he met eye to eye with the Dragon King.

"So the legends were true."

A feeling of dread crept down Kotal's spine as he took a deep breath, "What have you done to my men?"

"They are fine," Onaga confirmed to the current emperor's relief, "they are my men after all."

Kahn's feeling of dread turned to rage when Onaga said that. He got up from his throne, getting up close and personal with the Dragon King, "Listen here, I don't care who you are but you cannot merely claim my empire so quickly! I know it isn't the most stable, but for once I'm trying to fix this wretched realm! These are my people now, not yours!"

Onaga calmly walked behind Kotal and took a seat in the emperor's throne, "If you want to win against the opposing forces, I'm afraid you have no choice. I have exactly what you want."

Kotal stood staunchly against the former emperor, "Nothing you have could make me want to liquidate Outworld to you!"

"Not even the use of my immortal army?"

It seemed that Kotal stood firm in his position yet he had second thoughts about his standing. The Dragon King's immortal army was the only chance Outworld had against Raiden, what else could be done? To make the deal even more tempting the Dragon King offered Kotal one more thing, "I will give to you a position in my new empire you cannot deny. You will either join, or I will kill you right here right now."

Feeling he had no choice, Kotal offered out his hand. The both shook on it, binding the deal. The Dragon King's sharp teeth shone through a bright grin, "You've made the best decision you could have. Welcome to the new Outworld regime, General Kotal."

Kotal Kahn felt shame in having surrendered Outworld to the Dragon King, yet he realized something. He now knew why his father surrendered Osh-Tekk to Shao Kahn all that time ago. It was under similar circumstances that Kotal K'etz was forced to resign his realm and now he, his son, is forced to do the very same under Onaga. In this moment, Kotal felt a new respect for his deceased father. The burden of ruler is indeed a heavy one that Kotal almost felt relieved to be free from.

Onaga looked out the window, motioning for his immortal army to make their way into the building. The mindless warriors marched inside in an orderly single file line. Kotal was pleased to see such an army, it put the ragtag one he had put together to shame.

Kotal looked to his new leader and asked, "Where are the ones who ventured to the forest?"

"They are awaiting your orders just outside the fortress."

Kotal made his way to Erron and Sheeva yet noticed something was missing. His first question was, "Where's Syzoth?"

Erron and Sheeva looked to each other with concerned glances. Erron was the first to speak up, "Well…y'see that giant dragon was Reptile."

Kotal gave a doubtful look, "Quit kidding around, where is he? He was one of my most trusted advisors."

Sheeva confirmed was her cowboy partner just said, "Onaga was reincarnated through Reptile. I…don't particularly get how, but he was."

"Excuse me?!"

Kotal looked between the two of them as if was sure they were lying but he knew they were telling the truth, "We need to find a way to free Syzoth from…whatever just happened to him."

"Why don't we just use 'em fer his army n' then when we defeat Raiden, we kill Onaga," Erron suggested.

The former emperor pinched the bridge of his nose, "No, no we can't just do that. I hate to leave one of my own men under such a spell for a prolonged amount of time."

"He isn't one of your men anymore," Sheeva was quick to remind him. Kotal agreed, "Oh I know, but I still feel partially responsible."

The three of them began to think just what they could do to help Reptile out of his possession. Erron was the only one who came up with an idea, "An egg was used to make Onaga reborn. Y'think that egg could hatch and have Reptile inside?"

Both Kotal and Sheeva remained silent at his suggestion. Erron shrugged, "Don't look at me I was just throwin' ideas around."

"I don't know what we'll do," Kotal admitted, "we'll regroup and talk about this later. For now, I need to discuss things with the Onaga."

The three of them went their separate ways, unsure of what could be next in their future. Things seemed to be at their worst for them so that means it's only up from here, right? Only time will tell.