Disclaimer: Don't own it.
Author's Note: Since I started this new job, I don't know when I'll be able to update. Plus I feel bad about taking so long with chapter 13, so here's the new chapter now. Enjoy while you can.
Being back on base was trying for Cassie the first few days. She either had lower rank soldiers eyeing her with contempt or higher rank officers giving her pity looks. She also suspected that Blake was giving her an easy handout by telling her and Jacqui to oversee a training session with newly enlisted privates rather than send her team back to Outworld.
On Wednesday, after having to sit in on a meeting on new tactical approaches on how to recapture D'vorah, Cassie storms into the S-F training gym angrily, Jacqui following closely behind. Jacqui cringes visibly when Cassie throws a right jab at a practice dummy, causing it to swing to and fro frantically. "I swear to God, the next person who looks at me in that pitiful way is getting a nutcracker." Her angry declaration is followed by left and right hook, a spinning snap kick and a shadow kick which breaks the dummy in half.
"What the—" Jacqui starts as she sees a fellow soldier ducking away from the flying piece of plastic.
Turning to her best friend, Cassie states, "It was a piece of shit anyways. No sweat."
Jacqui seems to think otherwise. "That's the fourth one they've had to install, Cass," she tells her friend carefully.
"Well," Cassie snorts, "Blake and everyone else is gonna have to install new balls if they don't stop fucking with me."
At a loss for words, Jacqui turns away from her indifferently. Wanting to change the subject, Jacqui asks, "I never got to ask you about your date on Saturday. How'd it go?" Cassie stops slapping at the new punching bag and smiles slowly. Though her back is turned, Jacqui starts giggling at Cassie's possible reaction. "That well, huh?"
"Maybe," Cassie eludes suspiciously.
Jacqui smirks. "Uh, huh. So you guys are official, huh?" Cassie turns to her and Jacqui catches the flash of uncertainty in her eyes. "Wait… he didn't ask?"
"I… I don't know… I… shit, I don't know," Cassie responds. She plops down on the floor and runs her fingers through her hair. "I never asked him. And I don't know when I'll see him again since I'm here and shit."
Jacqui crawls over and sits next to her. "If you think it's because he doesn't like you or anything, I promise that's not the case," Jacqui tells her with a pat on the shoulder. "Maybe he was swept up by the date itself that he didn't think to ask."
Cassie sighs. "I know," she responds. She takes out her phone and checks her messages and notifications, something she hasn't done in a while. She furrows her eyebrows at a message Yuri sent her. "All right, ninja guy, what are you doing?"
"Lemme see?" Cassie shows Jacqui the message on her phone. "Ooh, a question."
CassieCage: Yeah? Sorry, just got to check my phone.
His response comes quickly and Cassie rolls her eyes. She then goes to check her notifications again and sees that one of them involves a relationship change. Cassie bites her lip, fighting a blush off her face. "Real smooth, Yuri-Nato," she laughs.
"Oh gosh, that's super cute," Jacqui remarks as she pinches Cassie's cheeks. Cassie playfully slaps her hand away. "Definitely related to Taquito for sure."
"Idiot sandwich fool," she sighs affectionately. Jacqui raises an eyebrow at her and she promptly explodes into laughter, causing a small group of soldiers to look at them weirdly. "Okay, basically, you know I call people an idiot sandwich. He calls people idiot fools."
"Redundancy at its finest," Jacqui teases.
"Shut up, it's cute. Anyways, we just decided to put it together and so now we'll both call people idiot sandwich fools."
Jacqui shakes her head as Cassie laughs again. "Y'all are dorks." Cassie shrugs as if to agree. "But super cute dorks. You guys are good together."
"Thanks girlfriend," Cassie says, giving her best friend a hug.
"Of course. And we need to double dip again."
"Oh Jesus," Cassie mutters with a smile.
For the second time that week, Sonya finds herself clenching her fists and gritting her teeth. She rubs at her face with her hands as the professor continues his lecture. "So basically, when Raiden the thunder god chose his champions, he did so with the intent of them living up to their full potential."
"How did he even manage to pick them?" Nicole asks. "Other than the Shaolin, I would assume they had no idea about higher deities existing. Or unbelieving of such."
"Excellent question," he responds. Professor Valdez sits on his desk, a sign the class knows as him going from lecture to story mode. "Because Raiden had godly powers; he was able to watch over people. Anyone seeking extreme redemption or fame was observed carefully by Raiden until it came time for the tournament."
Well, that's a comforting thought, Sonya thinks to herself bitterly. "But also some of the defenders he'd chosen were there by complete and utter accident," Professor Valdez continues. Sonya's eyes go wide in shock. "For example, the leader of a famous mercenary 'faction', so to speak—"
"Kano," Sonya inadvertently growls. The class turns to her and the professor raises an alarmed eyebrow. "Sorry, continue."
"No, no, you're correct. His name was Kano. Yeah, though born here in Earthrealm, he switched alliances to Outworld in order to seek asylum from Special Forces," he tells the class. Sonya swallows uneasily. "Two major players in this particular branch of the army have been hunting him and the faction down years before the tournament began."
"Wait, wait," Andrew interrupts the professor with as he waves his pen in the air, "What were their names?"
Sonya rubs her forehead as the professor answers his question with, "I only know their names as Major Briggs and Lieutenant Blade. You know military decorum and such."
"Fine," Andrew begrudgingly accepts.
As Professor Valdez opens his mouth to continue his story, another student blurts, "I think I've got a question."
"Shoot."
The student turns to Sonya and asks, "Any relation to you, Sonya?" Immediately, the entire class focuses their eyes on her.
Sonya narrows her eyes at the unwarranted attention. "Excuse me?"
"Sorry," the girl apologizes. "I mean, is there any relation between you and Lieutenant Blade?"
Sonya closes her eyes and counts to ten, practicing her tactical breathing. "Why do you ask?" she wonders after a moment.
"Uh," Professor Valdez stresses as he scratches his neck.
"No, I mean because Blade isn't really a common last name, that's why I asked," the girl explains.
"Imagine if she was though?" another student blurts out.
The class begins to talk over each other as Roxanne, Nicole, and Andrew are at a complete stand still, unsure of what to do or say. Finally, after the chatter reaches its crescendo, Andrew finally shouts, "Everybody, shut up!" The class instantly quiets down. "Let the man finish his lesson and leave Sonya alone. Whether she's related to anyone or not is not entirely your damn concern, so shut the fuck up."
Professor Valdez lightly bangs the top of his fist to his head. "Thank you," he tells Andrew wearily. "As I was saying before, Major Briggs and Lieutenant Blade chased Kano down to the island where the tournament was being held. Does anyone know where it was?"
The class is silent for a long time. Finally, "Probably should ask Sonya," a male student jeers as a few of his friends laugh.
"All right," Sonya starts, turning to address the asshole student, "listen here, you little shit eating dumb ass. I'm gonna say this once and once only: don't speak to me in that manner and don't assume to know what me or my family have been through. You don't know me or my struggles and you certainly don't know shit about the Mortal Kombat tournament. So either shut your ignorant mouth or I'll go over there and shut it for you."
The class jeers at the student's gob smacked face. "Are you actually threatening me?!" he asks in disbelief.
Sonya stands up, packing her items on her desk and hastily shoving them in her bag. "Kid, I've been in the military longer than you've even been considered a thought. So I'm not threatening you; I'm simply making a promise. And I don't often make promises I can't keep." With that, she leaves the classroom, slamming the door shut behind her.
Johnny finds himself at his favorite pizzeria eating two sausage slices of pizza. While he's drinking from his soda, a familiar woman comes up to him and greets him with, "Old Johnny boy."
He stops sipping his soda as his heart pounds in his chest. Only one woman called him by that name. Turning around slowly, he faces his ex-wife Cindy for the second time in a month. "Cindy," he deadpans, straw sticking out of his mouth.
"Fancy seeing you here," she tells him as she slides into his booth uninvited. "How have you been since I seen you last?"
"You mean since a couple of weeks ago?" he questions with a frown. She nods. "Fine, I guess."
"Good, good," she responds as she flags down a waitress to their table. "Let me get a triple supreme slice, no olives but extra anchovies." The girl nods and walks away quietly.
Johnny grimaces. "You still like those little bastards?" he wonders, referring to anchovies.
"Can't get enough of them," she laughs. "So…"
"What do you want, Cindy? It's no longer a coincidence that I've seen you twice in a month," he finally snaps right when she's about to explain herself.
She furrows her eyebrows at him. "Why do I have to want somethin' from ya?" Johnny's frown grows deeper at her guilty look.
"Fine. What do you not want from me?" he amends his previous statement.
She sighs. "I've been thinking—"
"Oh, goody," he groans.
"C'mon Johnny boy, hear me out, all right? I've been thinking about us lately. You know... what our lives would've been like if we stayed together and such. I know I don't have any right asking you this, but I'm curious; would our lives be different?"
"You mean, if you'd gotten the help I told you we both needed?" he demands darkly, narrowing his blue eyes at her. She shrugs. "Probably."
Cindy's face brightens up significantly. "Yeah?" She smiles at the waitress who brought over her slice and a glass of lemonade ice tea. She takes a sip from her drink. "How so?" she probes curiously.
"You ever seen that show with the washed up stars who were in a relationship but trying to work on their own addictions?" he counters, leaning forward.
"Lord, I have. That train wreck of a show?" She laughs loudly, covering her mouth with her hand. "Yes, I know what you're talking about."
"Yeah," Johnny snorts, "that could've been us if things were different."
Her mirth immediately disappears from face. "All right, I probably deserved that one," she laments. She tears a piece of her crust off and pops it into her mouth. "Well, I think we could've worked out."
"Sorry, but I don't share your sentiments," he brutally tells her.
"You know, my son looks up to ya," she mutters after a long while. He lifts an eyebrow at her. "He does. He's been asking me all these damn questions about my previous marriage to you, and I can't even give him the answers he wants. I promised I'd get it from the horse's mouth."
Johnny rolls his eyes to the ceiling in exasperation. "If I recall, you divorced me."
"And you cut me off, burying yourself in your job. Then you'd gone off and almost gotten killed. And next thing I knew before I even got a chance to blink, you were married again."
"Three years is a blink?!" he proclaims angrily. "Oh, I didn't realize," he drawls, sarcasm oozing from his mouth bitterly.
She had a point though; after his humiliating public split from her, he'd gone out and started doing more films, shifting his focus from boyhood heartthrob to action man. Unfortunately, his quest to reinvent himself just about backfired in his face; people began calling him a fraud, saying he used special effects. As a result, he entered the Mortal Kombat tournament in a bid to prove himself. And that's where he'd met Sonya whom he, in an ironic twist of fate, divorced, causing Sonya to bury herself even more in her job.
Cindy angrily rips another piece of pizza and bites into it. "It seemed like it."
"How old is your son?" he asks her as he finishes his soda.
"My little guy is the same age as your little girl," she answers him softly.
"He's hardly a little boy then, huh?" he bites.
She sighs. "I know," she replies. She clears her that awkwardly. "He's still my little guy, just like yours is your little princess I bet."
"True," he reluctantly agrees. Having enough of the back and forth, Johnny flags down his waiter, wanting to pay for his food. "I need to get home…"
"Don't worry, Johnny boy. I gotcha covered," she tells him as he's fussing with his wallet. "I understand. Tell your wife I said howdy."
"Mmm hmm," he answers, still managing to drop a twenty dollar bill on the table.
Despite her best efforts, Sonya's unable to regulate her breathing. Standing over the bathroom sink at her school, she splashes water on her face repeatedly, almost compulsively. She looks at herself in the mirror; her bloodshot eyes and blotchy face greets her back. Her lips quiver as images of her life flashes through her mind. The tournament, Shao Kahn's defeat, her friends dying at his hands, chasing after Kano; even bits and pieces of her life with her ex fiancé creeps its way into her memories.
She skips the last of her classes and drives around Venice and Redondo Beach aimlessly, trying desperately to clear her mind. She finally finds a spot by the marina and sits on the jetty. She closes her eyes with a morose smile as she recalls another memory, not quite as painful as the others.
On the eve of their wedding, Johnny and Sonya sat on the jetty as they watched multiple sailboats and jet skis go by. The sun was setting and the natural dusk highlights the hazy blue of his eyes. She's staring at them from the side, unaware or uncaring of Johnny's eyes following hers. After a few moments of silence, Johnny asked, "You sure you wanna go through with this?"
She sighed. "No, I'm not sure, but we're still doing this, aren't we?"
He turned his head to look at her intently. "Sonya," he started, "we really don't have to do this, you know. Marriage is a scary thing."
She scoffed. "You're telling me this as if you speak from experience," she quipped with a laugh. He gave her a withered stare. "Wait, hang on. You've been married before?" He scratched the back of his neck guiltily. "Oh, Jesus. Poor woman."
He frowned at her. "That's actually not nice, Sonya," he drawled warily. She looked down, ashamed. "Sorry. Didn't mean to snap at you."
"It's fine," she told him, "it was insensitive of me. But we do have to do this; it's the right thing to do."
He turned his attention to her bulging stomach. He gave it a tiny pat before stating, "It's not entirely necessary; I would've still helped out with the baby regardless of our marital status." He gently rubbed her shoulder before continuing, "Besides, I've already told you but I'll tell you again: we're stuck with each other now."
She sighed again. "Maybe, deep in the back of my head, I want to get married. I've been cheated out of it once; I refuse to have the opportunity taken away from me again," she responds defiantly.
He nodded. "Okay, I guess we're doing this." A beat of silence passed between them as she took a deep breath. "By the way, do you know what we're having yet or no?"
"Yeah. I found out at my last appointment," she informed him. He raised an eyebrow at her. "I'll tell you when the time is right." He groaned at her answer. "Hey, c'mon Cage, I'm letting you have everything else. The baby is getting both of your last names regardless of gender. Let me have a few more things to myself before we have to share."
"The least you can do is call me 'Johnny', Sunny baby," he joked. She whipped her head towards him sharply, one of her pinned curls unraveling. "What?"
Sonya shook her head at him. "Why?" she wondered in reference to the new nickname.
"Because," Johnny began explaining, twirling the loose stand of hair between his fingers to recreate her pinned curl, "your hair is like a golden ray of sunshine, even with the sunset."
She rolled her eyes but laughed at his explanation. "All right. Then I'll call you Bluesy because your eyes remind me of the ocean on a beautiful day, calm and clear."
He joined her laughter as he carefully fixed the pins in her hair. "Deal, baby." He leaned over slightly and gave her a sweet peck on the cheek.
Sonya sits for a while longer, carefully wrapping her arms around her knees and caressing her braid. If Johnny was sitting next to her, he would've used her braid as a means to tickle her ear. She laughs at the thought as a few more tears trickle down her cheek.
Later that night, Cassie and Jacqui are lying in bed, preparing themselves for lights out when the door to their room creaks open. Cassie's pillow is on top of her head so she hears nothing. Jacqui cracks an eye open. "Get out," she mutters to the stranger drowsily.
"You were the one who said I was allowed—" he starts before Jacqui throws a pillow at him. Yuri ducks, missing the object by a hair. "That is unbecoming," he whispers.
"You're going to wake her," she berates him. She points to the top bunk. "Go."
Rolling his eyes, Yuri jumps on the top bunk and sits by Cassie's legs gently. She immediately removes her pillow and is about to scream when Yuri places two gentle fingers on her lips. "Please do not scream," he whispers. Her eyes go wide in shock before realization hits. "I did not mean to frighten you," he apologizes as she narrows her eyes at him. "Okay, on my count of three, I will remove my fingers." She rolls her eyes in response. "Fine," he grumbles and removes his digits from her lips. "Better?"
"How'd you get in?" she immediately demands in a hushed voice.
"Do not concern…" he starts to tell her before she growls at him. "I had assistance. I thought you would be happy to see your beloved boyfriend," he teases lightly with a laugh.
"Gross. I'm leaving," Jacqui declares with a disgusted scoff and she shuffles out of their shared room.
Cassie smothers her giggles with her hand. "Oops," she laughs. After a second, she adds, "I'm actually not that sorry."
"This I know," Yuri tells her. He lies down next to her, his breath tickling her ear. "I did not know when I would see you again, so I thought I should visit."
"Aww, risking federal prison for me. I dunno whether to hit you or kiss you for that," she responds.
"I have risked worse," he tells her as he kisses her cheek. Her eyes widened again. "Shall I tell you the story?"
"Um, yes," she answers him.
He chuckles. "Well, on my lonely trek to Japan, I hit a bump, so to speak."
"What kind of bump?" she inquires, turning to face him so she can better hear his story.
He blinks at her. "The kind of bump where you lose your map and walk around in circles with a broken GPS. I was meant to go north. Instead, I went east and landed myself in Vietnam."
"Babe, dude, you mean in those dangerous valleys?" Her eyes are threatening to pop out of their sockets due to her shock. He laughs but nods. "Dude! You could've died!"
"I am fully aware of this," he tells her, ashamed. "But I did not so there," he argues as he sticks his tongue out at her.
Cassie scoffs. "Don't stick your tongue out at me unless you're planning to use it," she scolds Yuri. As a direct result, he licks her face from her jawbone to her temple. She squeals and slaps him on the chest. "You're such a freak!" she laughs as she uses his sweater to wipe his saliva off.
"You asked for it," he reminds her with another kiss to her cheek. She blushes happily at the gesture. "As I was saying, I managed to find my way out of those valleys and into Hong Kong."
"Jesus, lucky breaks," she marvels proudly.
"An even luckier break: I somehow found my way into the Lin Kuei temple," he continues. She gapes at him. "Mmm hmm."
"I'm surprised Sub-Zero helped… you know, if this is where this story is going," she admits.
"So was I at the time. But it seems as though they had buried their hatchet long before I arrived, so there's that matter to consider," he finishes. Cassie shifts her body so she's able to give Yuri a huge hug. "What for?"
"For being so brave," she answers. She smirks. "So, since you seem to like danger so much, you ever been bungee jumping?"
He chuckles. "I have actually," he tells her. She groans. "Why do you ask?"
She slaps a hand on her forehead. "Because, I wanted to take you. Break your 'bungee virginity' so to speak. Fuck it, we're still going," she finalizes.
"I would like nothing more," he responds as he tilts her head to his and presses a kiss to her lips. She turns her head and deepens the kiss, throwing a leg over his. He pulls away and hitches an eyebrow. "I am allowing you to control this," he reminds her gently.
"Aww," she coos as she brings him closer, "you're such a sweetheart."
"Only for you, babe," he replies, capturing her lips with his once more.
Once she gets home, Sonya kicks off her shoes and is in the process of hanging up her jacket when she hears keys jiggling. Johnny swings the door open, accidentally hitting Sonya on the shoulder, not realizing she'd just entered their home herself. "Ouch, Johnny," she snaps, still in a bad mood from her class earlier. Instead of apologizing, Johnny grabs her by the waist and presses her to his body. He begins kissing her frantically, snaking his hands under her shirt. She matches his fervor unquestionably, caressing his face and running her fingers through his hair. She gives it a sharp tug and he grabs her thighs to lift her legs onto his waist. Their lips still entwined, he walks her over to the couch and sets her down, falling on top of her gently. "John," she whispers.
"I just need you, Sunny," he answers. They start shedding their clothes and touching each other as each bit of skin becomes exposed to the other.
When the task at hand is done, Johnny kisses down Sonya's body, grabbing at and pinching her nipples and breasts as she groans. He gets to her center and begins sucking on her clit, making her moan his name wantonly. "Fuck, Johnny," she whines as he continues his ministrations, showing no signs of stopping. In fact, when he hears her moaning his name repeatedly, his tongue strokes her faster and harder. Before she's able to stop it, her orgasms are met with a loud moan. "Johnny," she whimpers again.
"I'm not done with you yet, babe," he tells her. He presses his tongue to her clit again, drawing it slowly up and down and loving the way her body responds to him. He nips at her and she tugs his hair harshly. "Okay, you'll pay for that," he teases her before slipping two fingers inside of her and flicking his tongue back and forth on her overly stimulated nub. She covers her face with a pillow as her body continues to quiver with each stroke. Still pumping his fingers, he crawls back up to her and whispers in her ear, "I need to hear you, babe." She shakes her head at him through the pillow. "All right," he answers, replacing his fingers with his now throbbing member and ripping the cushion from her face.
"Oh fuck Johnny!" she cries into the air as she holds on to him. She scrapes her fingernails over his back as he nibbles every inch of her face. Their lovemaking is rough and needy, reminding each other of the way they sought comfort in one another's arms.
And when they finish at the same time, she bursts into tears, weeping quietly in his arms as he embraces her closely in his grasp. They sit in silence for a long time, hearing the occasional hoot of an owl. Once she's reduced to shuddering hiccups, she asks, "I had to relive the tournament again in my class. What about you?"
"My ex-wife told me she regrets divorcing me," he responds. He swallows uneasily.
"That would make my day a nightmare, too," she sympathizes with him as she nuzzles his neck. "Why, Johnny?"
"I don't know, babe," he laments.
"It's not fair Johnny, I don't deserve this," she complains. "We don't deserve to feel this way about the past."
"We have to find a way to make peace with it."
"I know," she sighs. "How can we though, when everything we've ever done up to this moment bites us in the ass?" He shakes his head, unable to say anything else. She snuggles closer to him and he adjusts their blankets. Soon, the soft sounds of the ocean nearby lulls the pair to sleep.
A/N: Please review as always. Your thoughts are always appreciated.