-Thought I'd be funny for once and give you a link to some funny YouTube vids. If you find them offensive in any way, I apologise for I do not mean for them to be. Nonetheless, enjoy the videos and the chapter!

watch?v=1qPG7NqMRD4

watch?v=ub0GzU56YMA

watch?v=2T_obaO46Bo

"The last doors are closing. We are nearly trapped." Raiden's voice was ridden in horror and his words sounded as though he had given up on the last bit of hope that he had. The deity was slowly losing hope from the time the tournament had started in Outworld several days ago, and at this point, there was very little left of the 'hope' Raiden had. It was fictitious to the Thunder God, mythical, completely consumed, non-existent, extinct, wiped out. But all in all, the Thunder God was grateful that his comrades had hope, such as Liu Kang and Kitana. Those two warriors seemed to never lose hope, besides having outbursts of anger at times. But they never were negative; at no point at all did they give up on hope. And Raiden was thankful for that, because if the rest of his warriors weren't optimistic as well, then the Thunder God was sure that he'd resort to some ridiculous measure to cope with his grief. And he wouldn't – couldn't – be known for that. He was supposed to be a hero, so for letting his emotions have such an effect on him would be shameful. Raiden was supposed to be Earthrealm's protector God, so failing to save his realm from any perils it was faced with was not any ordinary mistake. It was a mistake that no God could make. Not even the mortals that Raiden aligned himself with would let such a thing happen.

Liu Kang and Raiden teleported back from Heaven to the Cathedral, to find the warriors in the same positions as they were before. The mortals were spread around the altar. No words left their lips about their upcoming plans, but the warriors standing next to each other seemed to be talking amongst themselves. Kitana, Jade, and Skarlet were holding hands with the males standing next to them – Smoke, Sub-Zero and Noob Saibot. The Edenian Princess and her bodyguard had subconsciously gripped the hands of the males standing next to them, their affections for the renegade assassins taking it's toll on them. The two assassins looked at the females, heavily blushing before breaking out into a dazzling smile, their eyes twinkling adorably. It was not long before the males returned the grip of Kitana and Jade respectively.

Raiden and Liu Kang headed to the altar to regroup with their allies. The Earthrealm warriors could tell that they had not succeeded in their quest to try and enlist the help of the Elder Gods, for the Heaven-residing deities could not directly engage in mortal affairs. Nor could they unfairly punish someone for their crimes. Shao Kahn had not violated their will as of yet, so they could not do anything. Sindel saw the look of despair on Raiden's face, which made her upset. She wanted to do something – anything – to make him feel better. She wanted to run away with him and just get away from all of this madness. But the Empress knew that Shao Kahn would indeed have to be eliminated. There was no way that they could live a peaceful life together without eliminating the warlord that was the very root of their problems, time and time again. He had made Edenia suffer, and the Edenian woman did not want Earthrealm to suffer as her native realm had. She couldn't. Not if she was to make this realm her new home. Edenia was nothing but Wastelands now; it would take several millennia to completely restore the Royal Realm to it's former glory. Sindel was an impatient woman, so she definitely wouldn't like to wait so long to have her home back to normal. Besides, she had everything in Earthrealm. A lover, her friends, a peaceful life free of worry, the list could go on and on…

"Lord Raiden, what is wrong?" Skarlet asked. The red assassin knew what had happened, but she did not like the silence in the room, and had asked the question in order to create conversation. The hemomancer knew that she had come a long way from the days that she hated talking to now being the very definition of a chatterbox. She talked when it wasn't necessary, when she wasn't spoken to first, when nobody asked her, or to simply create conversation. It was as though talking was a new toy for Skarlet, a toy that she was obsessed with and couldn't put down for five seconds before playing with it again.

"The Elder Gods cannot help us on our quest. We must fight Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat to save Earthrealm. The Elder Gods do not see the Emperor's actions as something to penalise. It disappoints me that they do not share my point of view on this, but there is nothing I can do. It pains me to say this, but some of us may lose one another, and we may not be successful in saving our realm."

His words were pained and pierced through the warriors like a sword. The words seemed sharp enough to cut through the warrior's bodies, severing them at the waist and even dissecting some of them. They could imagine their sliced bodies falling to the ground, bleeding profusely, as a result of Raiden's words. Never had they been affected by words in such a way like this. Their feelings were alien compared to past ones. It had never hurt them so much before to hear Raiden say those words. How could the Thunder God have lost hope in such a situation where hope and optimism were something like a prerequisite to be a part of the situation? It seemed as though he had lost all hope and wouldn't be becoming more hopeful and optimistic any time soon…

But the heroes wouldn't give up. Not now. They had come too far to do so. It would be like climbing a mountain and reaching the halfway point of it, but then deciding to climb back down. Their efforts would be wasted on such an important task that they would surely fail and possibly be damned if they were to give up now.

They had come a long way from the start of the 9th tournament in Outworld.

They'd come too far to give up now.

-I know, I was going to have this be the last chapter of the main story, but I decided to make this a filler chapter with a cliff-hanger ending just to piss you readers off… Because I love you enough to do that. Man, this could be the longest story I ever write.

-I am grateful to all who had reviewed this story so far. CryoManceR, BleedingHeartsoftheWorldUnite, Cold Recluse, Masterdragon1, mkfreak123, A Brick Wall and the guest reviewers, thank you for making this the second most reviewed story I've written! All of you rock.