Less of a handsomely cavernous room and more a maze of metal filing containers and display cases of opulent wood with glass that was polished to an impossible sheen, Sonya Blade's office seemed nearly as crowded as Cassie's did even though it was easily twice as big. A desk stood not in the far corner as the case was in Cage's office but loomed more towards the center, albeit nearly as far back as far could go. There were four seats lined opposite the General's impressive and expensive custom leather chair, her's a lush shade of sable while the others were a soft heather gray. Two of them were noticeably vacant while one was occupied by a man gently rocking a toddler back and forth in his strong arms, the seat next to him taken by the baby's bright purple carrier. Upon seeing that the team (and twins) had arrived, the man nodded to the General to shut the office door.
A dark-haired youth swaddled in thin traveling layers of breathable butter, the baby peeked over his father's shoulder with eyes of melted butterscotch, a smile of recognition on his round face when he saw Takeda and Jacqui, who had both been visiting the Shirai Ryu temple quite often as of late. Reaching out for the mind-reader almost right away, Haruka began to squirm insistently until he was passed to the telepath; gingerly the boy took the infant in his arms, smiling all the while. Glad as he was to see Haruka and Hanzo, he had one question for the father, "Grandmaster, why do you have Haruka? Shouldn't Evren-san be here too?"
Partially glad of having his arms back to himself, the former wraith also missed the weight of his son, but as Grandmaster he betrayed none of that when he answered his pupil, "Hitomi. You didn't tell him?" Completely casting his glance over his wife's son as if he didn't exist or was just a rather uninteresting piece of furniture, Hanzo Hasashi addressed his daughter, looking somewhat confused as to why she had not explained the situation to the boy. Perhaps, he mused with a foul taste in his mouth, it had less to do with her duties and more to do with affections he thought had been deadened long ago. Mayhap it was merely Takeda's allies causing a shake-up over certain revelations coming to light - it certainly was in Cassandra's genetic make-up to be as disruptive and difficult as she could be - but more likely it was the icy thorn himself. For Evren's sake he wanted to accept the boy, but there was just too much history behind his heritage, too much pain. He did try, but every time he looked into those insolent blue eyes, all he could see was the illusion Quan Chi had cast of Sub-Zero the night he lost it all, or just as bad Evren herself after the necromancer had seen fit to punish her through the Lin Kuei.
As if sensing that thought, the boy glared over at him with those same hateful blue eyes, the wish for Hanzo's untimely demise and gruesome suffering nigh tangible. Whatever else she had been or may have done, Evren was still his mother, and Zyanyo loved her; were it not for that love however, he would likely be trying to hasten that end himself, but as it stood... Dour, the younger of the two twins turned to face his sister for the first time since their spat, figuring that he should include Hitomi in the Hasashi family love-fest. Rightly so, she cast her head down under the pressure of his stare, ashamed.
Lines admittedly blurred between father and Grandmaster at this point, Hanzo wanted very much to stand up for his daughter and protect her (even from her brother), but for many reasons he knew that he could not. It was true that he may have missed the first ten or so years of her life, but that did not change the fact that they were blood, that he loved her and only wanted the best for her. Right or wrong for the decision to split them up, he knew without the guilt his wife laid at his feet that he ought to make amends, yet he would not apologize for doing what he thought was best, especially not here and now, when there were much more pressing issues to handle, such as what brought them all together now.
Aware of all eyes on her at this moment, the brunette nodded more to give herself the courage than to acknowledge an order, her eyes finding Takeda once more. "My..." seeing her brothers watching her as well, she restarted her sentence, "Our mother, she's not well." Wispy and just a child woken in a cemetery from a nightmare, Hitomi's voice gave away much and more to Takeda, "Fujin tells us it looks grim if we can't stop it soon, but he's not sure since he's less familiar with the physiology of those from the Netherrealm." Leaving out the rest, the telepath could still read it in her mind, Fujin believes that it's some kind of breakdown in her cells, but she's lived on Earthrealm for centuries and has never been ill like this before. There is another theory though.... Glancing from her father back to her baby brother uncertainly, Hitomi didn't want to say it directly.
Zyanyo, on the contrary, had no such reservations. "I agree with Ko'atal, it's his fault that she's dying."
Seething and clearly on the verge of tears beneath the loathing he protected himself with, Hanzo felt just this once he could truly sympathize with the boy and the terror he must feel over the prospective loss of a loved one, so he could hardly blame the boy for all of the resentment he carried, as misplaced as most of it was. Evren was right of course, Zyanyo did have to blame someone for things, and unfortunately it had been easiest for the demonic cryomancer to lay the fault at the feet of his father's oldest and most hated foe. Although how misplaced was this hate, really?
Ko'atal?! As in her Ko'atal, the Emperor of Outworld who was perhaps best known as Kotal Kahn?! What. The. Fuck!? Peering around her mom and at Jacqui while everyone else was still busy gawking between the hell-hole that was the Hasashi family and Takeda, the blonde wondered if maybe they would both be having to question their relationships the first chance they got. Seriously, how big of a home-wrecker is Hitomi?! Hopefully whatever the Kahn had to do with this realm-and-decade spanning train-wreck of a soap opera, it had nothing to do with taking the little half-beastie. Obviously it would have made sense for Kotal to have a past given how ancient he was - it wasn't as if she was clean slate herself when they started out - but whatever had happened between them should have been history. He'd never brought it up before, so clearly it must not have mattered to him that much. Right?
"How does the Kahn know your mother?" Praying that her own mother would miss the possessively demanding tone in her voice - more so that Kung Jin would fail to catch the panic undulating through her vocal chords - Cage took a handful of steps closer to the female Shirai Ryu, more than prepared to pull out the bitchslap if she didn't care for the other woman's reply. Fuck it if this started some kind of war, Ko'atal was with the blonde now, not some confusing-ass splattering of races and species that made Mileena look normal.
A man of a thousand words and apparently with a memory better than an elephant, the discarded son answered Cassie's question, never once ceasing to glare at Hanzo. "Because, when this Shirai Ryu dog wasn't in the picture at all, she was once married to a better man." Had Haruka not been in his arms at that point, Takeda would have sprung up with more than some choice angry words at that name calling, however Scorpion retained his composure at the adolescent strike. Hitomi actually did hiss at her brother's offensive put-down.
Say what now? While Cassandra may have been in dire need of a seat at that most unwelcome newsflash, Jacqui's jaw dropped at the realization that the kunoichi was less of a ninja and more some kind of horrible boyfriend-stealer. Honestly there was some relief at hearing that Hasashi had moved on from Takeda, but if it came at the expense of Cassie and her happiness, she wanted no part of that joy. Takeda was a pretty great guy, but Cassie was her sister, and everyone knew that family was for life when boyfriends came and went like the passing of the seasons. Although on the bright side, this put any and all plans she had to try and be friendly to the other girl on ice...
Her father's daughter through and through, Cassie wasn't going to played for a punk like this, so instead of crumble she would play it the other way, no matter what the consequences were later. I beat Shinnok for fuck's sake, this bitch should be nothing compared to an Elder God. Clearing the floor in a few short strides, the blonde balled up her fist as she moved and decked Hitomi so hard in the face that her hand came away smeared with the half-demon's blood, her foe flat on her ass from the sheer unexpectedness of the blow. All around them the reactions were varied in nature: Sonya was very lost as to what in the world would bring that on at this point; Hanzo jumped to his feet to intervene if need be; Jacqui did not disapprove; Takeda handed the baby to Zyanyo so that he could help Hitomi back up to her feet; Zyanyo took the baby with mixed feelings upon the matter; and Kung Kin waited with bated breath to see what would happen next.
Reaching up her face to feel the damage that had been done, Hitomi was not pleased to see her fingertips come away stained crimson, "Anata kureijīburondo no meinu! Anata no mondai wa nanidesu ka?" Knocking his hand aside when he hastened to help the damsel up, Hitomi ignored Takeda completely and popped up to her feet on her own, not bothering just yet to do anything about the steady flow of scarlet leaking from her nose. There might have been some in the office that had no clue what was actually said, but they could gather from the tone that was used. "It's on now!"
Thank you Elder Gods! Cassie almost sang out loud in her jubilation that the challenge had been accepted, "I hope you had a long and fulfilling life."
"Longer than yours will be." Hitomi took her stance and came at the blonde with a flurry of fiery fists lit by the graces and powers of hell, just as her father before her was capable of. There were some perks to being the offspring of a demon and a wraith. Mindful of the audience in the arena, Cassie ducked back beneath a high kick that could have taken out an eye with the right kind of heel, countering with a well-timed uppercut to the abdominals. Loosing a small portion of her lunch on the floor, the Shirai Ryu was crafty enough to use that same puddle of puke to assist in speeding up her movements as she launched herself at the other woman, knocking the air out of her lungs as they came crashing through one of the (thankfully empty) display cases, landing on the ground. Mounted on top of Cassie, Hitomi had reached for one of the kunai strapped at her thigh only to brush against empty air and the memory of reluctantly handing her weapons over at the front gate. God fucking dammit!
Smug at her enemy's predicament, the blonde simply laughed at the brunette's misfortune as she flipped the pair of them around so that she was riding top, as was only natural. "Ohh," grinning ear-to-ear in the halo of victory, Cage smirked at Hitomi and adopted a mocking tone, "does that hurt? Want me to kiss it better? Well too fucking bad for you that I'm not the sharing type." Gloating far from finished (just like her father would have done in the same situation), Cassie missed the scheming behind the other girl's eyes as she pulled the apparent winner closer, hands yanking the empty holsters by the strap below her breasts. With only half a second more than the others to see what was about to happen, Cassie felt the crushing sensation of the other girl's lips on her own before she actually registered that the other girl was kissing her.
A/N:
Wow so many reviews all a sudden! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much! I'm not sure if it's just one "guest", two, or three, but all the same you have my full gratitude mystery person/people! To try and answer your reviews the best I can, I'm really glad to hear that the story is liked, and so far as the length, there is a part of me that wishes that they would be longer (strange as that may sound), but I opted to not force a pre-set time limit, so they end when I feel the moment is right. Unfortunately, that seems to be sooner than later. Sucky as it is, I'm no stranger to writing a fic that is generally overlooked, so no, that typically doesn't dissuade me from continuing. I have a good feeling that this will see a conclusion, although it's really tough to say at this point if I'm being Kotally honest. Yes, yes I just used that pun. Anyway, on a personal level I really do like Takeda and Jacqui as a pairing (although I really do love her with Erron Black too), but for the sake of mystery, I'm not going to give away their fate as a couple just yet. Yeah, the three of them are all in pretty jacked up situations, there's no denying that. Anyways - and mind this is my own personal opinion and shouldn't be taken as a part of the story - I really really have a problem with Sonya's general attitude towards Cassie. Maybe it's just how I see things, but that relationship is just really jacked and doomed for... well, you actually really nailed that one! If things continue, I doubt that it will be much longer before a bullet enters that family picture. Either way, thank you so so much for the reviews! They really encourage me to keep going and to strive to deliver an amazing story for you other fans!
And again for the record, Mileena is one of my all-time favorite MK characters. Just so you all know that any and all Mileena-bashing is the characters and not me. Also, I used google translate for the Japanese, but I believe that it equates to "you crazy blonde bitch" and "what's your problem?".