Edenia

Kitana had brought Ermac and the Earthrealm warriors to her home world of Edenia. The ongoing hostilities with Outworld and Shao Kahn would soon turn into an all out war and Kitana felt her friends would be better off as far from the Emperor's main forces as possible.

Edenia wasn't entirely without strife however as a branch of the Emperor's Outworld forces had been trying to create a successful siege of the ancient city kingdom for nearly a year now.

The Shadow of the Emperor had indeed stretched as far as Edenia. There it held a loose grip on the main city, but it was a hold which was becoming increasingly less secure thanks to Outworld's own Edenian Ambassador, the purple clad ninja known as Rain.

At the start of this battle between the realms Shao Kahn had sent Rain, a former Edenian Prince himself along with one of his own Shokan Generals, Kintaro, to take the city by force. Along with a legion of the Emperor's Tarkatan hordes it would be their job to try and pummel the city into submission as fast as possible. The Emperor's plan was to bring Edenia down before they had a chance to form an alliance with any of the other realms, specifically Earthrealm, which he desired above all others.

And so the Outworld forces, headed by Kintaro, launched an all out assault on the white stone walls of Edenia. For a time at least the Edenian military had kept their Outworld Invaders at bay. As the months passed however and winter fell into spring and then summer, the strength of the realm began to fail.

It was at this time, about six months before Liu Kang's resurrection, that Rain reacquainted himself with the Princess of Edenia- Kitana.

The two had known each other before. During Shao Kahn's last invasion of the realms Kitana had tried to persuade Rain to betray The Emperor and join the forces of good. Rain did not take up the Princess's offer however and following the subsequent defeat of Shao Kahn's forces, Rain disappeared altogether.

This time Rain seemed to be more willing to see things from Kitana's point of view. Rain knew of Kitana's grief at the loss of her lover Liu Kang and comforted her in her time of need.

As battle raged at the walls of Edenia frequent meetings were called for so as to form a peace treaty between the two armies. At these times a ceasefire was called for and Rain would be given temporary access to the city, along with Kintaro. Although no treaty was ever formed these meetings gave Rain and Kitana the chances they needed to be together.

Rain and Kitana had spent time together once before, as prisoners of Shao Kahn. During the Emperor's initial invasion of Edenia both Rain and Kitana had been smuggled away by Kahn's forces in secret. Both were then raised as The Emperor's own children and in time they became close, like brother and sister.

Sibling rivalries between the two soon arose however. On the one hand Rain was seen as a weakling by Shao Kahn who had been quick to notice his adopted son cared more for the arts of magic and sorcery than he did of brute strength. Meanwhile Kitana was made a Princess of Outworld, but she hated The Emperor for keeping her against her will and would do so for the duration of her time as a 'prisoner' of the Empire.

Now Kitana was back in her home realm and Rain was supposed to be fighting in the name of the man they had both once had to refer to as 'father.' Yet as time went on the relationship between Rain Kitana grew into something far more special than that shared between a brother and a sister. Kitana had found a warm, comforting, compassionate side to Rain's normally cold and selfish personality.

Rain however had an ulterior motive. Whilst he certainly liked Kitana and did not have to feign pleasure when in her company, his reasons for caring so much were more selfish than Kitana could have suspected.

Not only was Rain's plan selfish, but it was also deception on the grandest of scales. Rain planned to try and take Edenia for his own, without Shao Kahn. When Edenia began to fail to the might of Kintaro's shear military ruthlessness it was Rain who informed Kitana of the weaknesses in the General's seemingly impenetrable onslaught. It was Rain who allowed food supplies to be passed into the city in secret. Rain was helping Edenia to survive The Emperor's siege, but only so he could rule it for himself.

Rain wanted to be King of Edenia and wanted Kitana as his Queen.

Rain had been born a Prince of Edenia many hundreds of years ago (like all Edenians Rain inherited unnatural long life combined with youthful good lucks, another trait shared by himself and the Princess Kitana). Shao Kahn had raised him as his son but their relationship had gone cold following Rain's sudden desertion after Outworld's last invasion.

Rain went to great lengths to secure his position in Edenia. Soon his relationship with Kitana went from being a simple sibling friendship, to a secretive love affair.

Both were aware of the dangers they faced if their liaison was ever discovered. Should Shao Kahn hear of Rain's infidelity he would surely see him dead, no doubt impaled on a stake in one of his many blood soaked dungeons.

As for Kitana, discovery of her forbidden friendship would be seen as an act of betrayal. Her family might exile her, or worse, send her back to the imprisonment of Shao Kahn.

Nonetheless the two had developed feelings of what could only be called love for one another. They slept together most nights, for Rain knew of a secret entrance into the city not known to Kintaro and his men, and he would make good use of it.

Kitana would cry into Rain's chest about her lost love Liu Kang, then Rain would embrace her and hold her fragile body tight against his own. Then they would make love. Forbidden as it was neither could resist. Slowly Rain did truly fall in love with Kitana, but through it all, the passion and the prestige, his own diabolical ambition was never jaded.

Rain's wicked web of deception worked it's way to Kitana's heart with striking effectiveness, yet as he felt his goal come within reaching distance some disturbing news from Outworld put his plans on hold in a most unnerving of fashions.

It came as summer fell into it's final month, Kitana was given news of a rumoured sighting of her long thought lost lover.

Liu Kang was alive, or at least that was what the reports claimed, and Kitana decided she could not wait around in a place as far as Edenia with such a possibility in her mind.

Kitana left Edenia without a word to Rain, who she was already shamefully phasing out of her mind. When Rain found out about her disappearance he was left devastated. He had not only lost the woman he was just beginning to develop feelings for but his claim to the throne was slipping away to.

It would be a month before Kitana returned to her home worlds. When she did Rain noticed she had brought with her a group of familiar faces. Regrettably none of the guests Kitana had brought to her home were people Rain particularly cared to see. In fact, they were people who Rain thought could make his workings here much tougher than he hoped.

Arriving in Edenia along with Kitana were the Hollywood mega-star Johnny Cage, the Shaolin Monk and White Lotus front man Kung Lao, and most importantly, Liu Kang, who was it seemed very much alive and looked to be in as good a shape as ever. The rumours of his return were true it seemed, Rain was most displeased.

Rain also saw another face he recognized. This one her remembered from Shao Kahn's Palace. It was Ermac, the soul-borne necromancer created by Shang Tsung, and from what he had been told, traitor.

Rain saw these people arriving and knew his efforts to gain Kitana's favour had probably been wasted. He wouldn't give up all hope however and planned to meet up with his one time sister that very night, when she would surely be alone.

Ermac liked Edenia. When he first arrived he was quite awe inspired. The city's towering, white washed stone walls and marble walkways were a splendor to behold. Small streams ran through the city which gave it a pristine sparkle and added to it's already impressive sense of overwhelming majesty. Yet the most grandest feature of all Ermac saw in this hallowed city, was the main palace, which was also Kitana's home.

The Palace shone brightly beneath the beaming Sun and stood out as the focal point of every corner of town. Ermac knew he would like it here, and felt quite in sync with the locals in his regal new outfit, kindly donated to him by his wonderful friends at the White Lotus Society.