The pauper leaned on the old ash wood staff and gazed up to the mountains far in the distance from the streets of Kyoto. There, the flickered lights of a dojo and temple glanced back at him and he smiled knowing an old friend must have smiled back at him.

The street was busy and he was old. The pauper in old withered robes amongst the beautiful Geisha and their kimono, then men ahead of them all to enjoy tea and the evening ahead of them. The pauper, despite his station, always tipped his old conical hat to those that passed him.

Behind him rested a dark alley between an Ochaya and an art gallery. When a warm breeze tugged on the pauper's robes, leaned on his staff he moved it to turn and looked hard into the shadows of the alley way until an man seemingly of similar age pierced the night.

"You came, Hanzo." The pauper smiled.

"Raiden. I will hear what you have to say." Hanzo did not.

In the Ochaya, they were escorted by a geisha in a black and blue kimono with sky blue cranes embroidered across the left that flew across her shoulder to the clouds on her back. She opened the door with a smile and nod and inside just a low table for them to sit at and wait for their tea to be served.

Together they sat, Raiden rested his staff and old robes with the geisha, though Hanzo would have none of his belongings in another's hands. Once settled and the tea had passed the old master's lips, he looked up into Raiden's white eyes and spoke.

"What is so important that you could not speak with me in my own dojo?"

"Every strep in the Chaos Realm was aimless, hopeless. To have purpose in such a realm is futile." He added, "my travels with Taven and Havik were not for a loss, however, but while there I felt a strange ripple in the realms. No, a crack in reality itself."

"Be concise, Raiden. I will not give you all night."

"Existence is crumbling, Hanzo Hasashi."

The Geisha returned, a shamisen in hand. She sat with a respectful distance from the two men and began to play the stringed instrument. Its long neck like a guitar, but thin and come down to a white square shaped drum where her delicate, careful fingers skillfully plucked to enhance the ambience of the room for her patrons.

"In no part due to my clan."

"You are correct, though I do ask for your aid."

"That depends, Lord Raiden. Just how do you think my clan can help if your Special Forces cannot?"

"A girl that time forgot has suddenly been placed in my care," he explained in his low, hoarse voice. The windows drawn, and the shamisen above their voices, he continued, "she is the key to why I believe the realms have finally begun to deteriorate."

"You do not answer me, Raiden. I owe you one more sip of tea until I get up and leave."

"Daegon plans to summon Blaze at the Pyramid of Argus."

"The old stories of Armageddon?"

"I've tampered with the realms for far too long, just as Kitana and Liu Kang have, just like Kronika before us." He explained, "by creating and breaking rules after rules, molding reality as we saw fit even when it couldn't, it has finally cracked and reality has suddenly begun peel. Armageddon is now the only way to save the realms as we know them."

"As we know it, or as you carved it so?"

"Both."

"What is in it for my clan, Raiden? That is all I care about."

"Redemption, restoration. Life, my old friend."

"You cannot promise the dead."

"I cannot, you are right, but I can promise that there will never again be a tragedy as you've seen before. You will have my protection as well as your own."

Hanzo started back into those eyes long and for as long as he did, surprised never once a pupil or static shock would form in them. His own were one pale and pulled back as the specter Scorpion, but those times were gone and his age was showing.

Though the serenity of the mountains were good to him, there were still many enemies of the Shirai Ryu. He projected many of them in his head, one such was the Wraith that he had created.

Still, as the last drop of hot tea streamed across his tongue and the Geisha gestured to upgrade to sake, he paused and held her in that same moment of thought.

After a long pause, Raiden reached for the Geisha. It was a gesture to retrieve his belongings, rather than to draw her near, but as her quiet feet guided her up, Hanzo stopped her and slammed the ceramic to the bamboo table.

"No." He spoke to her in a voice loud and clear. "We will have the sake."

"We have many things to discuss then, my old friend." Raiden smiled thinly.

Hanzo let out an exhausted breath and nodded. He shot back the first pouring of hot sake and held the fire within him.

"What do you propose, Lord Raiden?"