Raiden creased his arms into his robes as he leaned against the mountain gate to stare into moon as it slowly descended the heavens. Staff leaned at his side, and hat the perfect net for the snow, he let his white hair fall like the river over his shoulders and thought deep in the silence.
Not far from the entrance, just to the left, Skarlet joined him, quiet, and dressed in black robes given to her by the Shirai Ryu. The moon, a crescent of white and silver lining pierced the sky with one final stab before the forest ahead would completely consume it. She wondered what the moon might have looked like the night of her death. It was night time, but so consumed by rage and her own bloodlust, she had forgotten to take a moment to enjoy it.
"The moon is so much bigger in Outworld." She mused with Raiden.
"Outworld is a planet just like Earth, but quite unlike it." Raiden added.
"I was born there to abusive parents. We were so poor, couldn't even afford human decency."
He smirked, as horrible as the truth was.
"I remember," she continued, "the moon was always the best part of growing up."
"Then you killed them, and many others Skarlet." He craned his head, eyes sharp and narrow.
"There's more blood on my hands than I can count, and I should be among them."
"Yet here you stand and beyond the grave."
"I also never learned to count, so, there's that too."
"Funny." He mused again and tilted his eyes back to the moon as the last sharpened edge fell like a fallen giant into the silent forest to crumble beneath the mountain.
"Will Kotal Kahn accept me?"
This had been a thought on her mind since the decision was made to return to Outworld. Not whether they'd understand why she had been brought back, nor the ramifications for it, but if those she trusted and followed long ago would accept her as she was now, rather than the blood stained image she had created in the past.
"I cannot decide for Kotal Kahn, nor for you."
"I suppose not. Maybe Kitana will."
"Only you can make decide your fate, only you choose the path you take."
"Is that God speak for, 'it's out of my hands', Lord Raiden?"
"In so many words."
She looked at him. Truly gazed upon him. The God of Thunder, Lord of Lightning and the Protector of Earthrealm. Come the time she'd've thrown everything away to kill him, and died trying. To her it felt like only days ago she battled Mileena and Kitana in the courtyard of Shang Tsung's island, but for Raiden it was fifteen years ago. It was hard to put away feelings, and to understand the new ones. It was hard just to breathe, and hard just to live in this new life.
"At some point, Lord Raiden," She pulled his attention back to her, "I know I will need to bleed someone. I died in blood, and woke up in it. My body yearns for it like a vampire in the night."
"To drink?"
"To feel."
"If you learn to control it and to understand your power, you can take a different path. This is your second chance at a different life, Skarlet."
"Maybe." She wasn't so sure, but she'd leave it at that.
Raiden took that cue and picked up the staff, ready to head back into the mountain gate and see Hanzo.
As he passed the threshold, she took hold of his shoulder. The long robe that tattered at the ground peeled some and tugged. He stopped but didn't turn back to her. He didn't need to.
"I've enjoyed these moments with you." She spoke softly, "it has helped."
The silent he God of Thunder continued his way toward the temple.
Inside with the warmth and the light, Hanzo stood by the only window with Takeda. As Raiden entered, he surveyed the scene before him. Across the room from them, Forrest had returned not long before Raiden and the room was filled with ten of the Shirai Ryu. Outside, another five still walked the grounds. He hoped not a single one would see battle this night, but his instincts were rarely incorrect when the scent of battle was in the air.
As soon as the blood witch passed the threshold into the Abbot's room, Forrest stood against her.
"She must leave. Both of you!" He demanded.
Hanzo snapped at him, but the man did not back down.
"You will bring death to my clan!" The katana came out, first in an arc from Hanzo and Takeda to Skarlet and Raiden.
Raiden stood silent, not shocked, but composed. Too much so for Forrest.
"I am the new leader of the Shirai Ryu! This title has been granted to me by the true Scorpion!" The point aimed for Hanzo, "you have dragged us into this as well, imposter, you die with them."
"A frightened child is going to show a God his strength? I see through–" Hanzo cut Raiden off.
The spear whipped across the room and stuck into the rice paper wall. A red line formed from the torn fabric of Forrest's robes. He knew the master of the Shirai Ryu could have killed him. To Forrest, this was evidence the man was not the true Scorpion.
"Enough!" Hanzo snapped at him.
"It's only just begun." Forrest noted the shadows form around them. The walls blackened and lights flickered outside of the temple.
Hanzo retracted the spear and took Takeda away from the wall. As the Shirai Ryu met at the center in unison with Raiden and Skarlet, they scrutinized the largest shadow of them all that formed at the entrance.
Closed behind Raiden, the door to the Abbot's room was a wide sliding shoji with lines of thin wood marked like squared down the length. A robot hiss filled the room from the outside as if the wind down the mountain took a sharp breath in and the that one second of silence, the Tekunin crashed through.
Ten in total with the large red Tekunin Sektor at the entrance, Forrest met those on the left with three of this brethren. Hanzo and Takeda with four others on the right. Raiden and Skarlet, backed by the other three inside waited for Sektor to enter further.
"I never liked the digital age." Raiden jested, but the stakes were high. He was first to charge.
In a bolt of light, the Thunder God raced toward the large cyborg in mid-air, his bellow like thunder and his hands scrapped the metal of the construct with volts of electricity that shuddered the machine. Staggered back and fallen on his back, Sektor seemed to deactivate. Skarlet pulled Raiden up and together they surveyed the outside, just before the fallen Tekunin.
Too close for comfort, Sektor awakened. Each light flickered and his machinery hissed and chirped until he pulled himself from the snowy ground. Skarlet was an easy target to knock out of the way with a clean punch, but his attention was on Raiden.
Together they pushed back toward the gate with hit and dodge, parry and counter. Unable to best the Thunder God, Sektor fed off the electricity until his power had fully charged again and his eyes lit a bright red. With a flicker and beep of his mechanics, he blasted the God in the chest and transported out of the way.
Inside, Takeda and Hanzo had coiled the Tekunin between them. Unable to move, and chained to the walls, the machines struggled to pull themselves free in a great breaking of the metal and carbon fiber chains that bound them. Once free, the two had the time to cut the machines down with their katana's, but as even flesh would stop at the spine, their blades, though the sharpest, could only cut an inch into the metal plated abdomen.
"They're still human!" Hanzo strategized, "find the break in the armor and put your blade through them."
On the other side Forrest had been bested and pulled from the building into the courtyard with his Shirai Ryu brethren. Two of the Tekunin out of the ten had crumbled before them all, and two remained on Forrest.
In the courtyard he freed himself from the group to recoup. His breathing was tight, the left side of his ribs were heated and pounded away at him. Without his armor he wouldn't survive much longer. Alone, he looked toward the gate to find the intruder God had pulled himself up from the ground and fought with Skarlet to hold Sektor back, but neither seemed effective in destroying the machine.
"This is your time." Scorpion appeared beside him. "Kill Hanzo! Only unified under you will the Shirai Ryu succeed."
Forrest pushed the entity away, but his hand passed through it. He had forgotten it could not be touched and fell to a knee.
"What of them?" He referred to Raiden and Skarlet.
Scorpion was gone.
All he could see now was the hole in the temple and the imposter inside.
Four down, six to go. Once the crease in the armor could be found, it was nothing to slide their blades into the mortal coil of the machine. A ghost formed beneath wires and oil. Takeda pulled Hanzo from his recent kill to survey the scene.
Outside he could see that Sektor could not best the Thunder God, but he and the blood witch could not defeat the larger of the Tekunin. All of the remaining Shirai Ryu had reformed inside the Abbot's room with them as they became surrounded by the last six.
Like a bullet headed straight into God, Forrest broke the line and lunged for Hanzo. The master of the Shirai Ryu met Forrest's blade edge with the flat of his and all of the battle settled around them.
Taken back, the clan watched the struggle between the men as they moved without care for those around them to the center of the room. Hanzo slid the flat of his blade down and then arched up to try and pierce the second and third rib of his brethren, but Forrest would use the small hilt of the blade to bash it up and open Hanzo's core.
One kick and the master was staggered backward into the clan. Takeda lunged in to strike at the traitor. Forrest, as he had at the river, struck the young man down.
Together as one, they aimed their blades at the point between one another's eyes and dropped back into their respective defensive stances. Forrest with his right foot forward, Hanzo with his left.
"You are an imposter, Hanzo Hasashi." His breath was shallow, too much to hide, but he added with confidence, "I will lead the clan to victory over the Tekunin, over the Lin Kuei, and over you."
"You've gone mad." He couldn't understand the sudden turn, but unable to process it, he'd fight it instead. "Get over here!"
The spear swung out from his waist, the blade dropped to free his hands for it and in that moment, Forrest charged.
Around them, unknown to them, the machines had continued to battle with the Shirai Ryu. One had pulled Takeda and tossed him through the Abbot's door into Hanzo's personal chambers nearly across the room.
The clinking of chain, the hiss of metal through the wind, the spear would not miss this time. Forrest entangled it with his blade. Nicked and scraped, it wound up in the chain and the spikes of the spear clung to the base, too close for his hands. He lowered and straitened the blade toward Hanzo as the master of the Shirai Ryu pulled it back.
Like a coiled snake it unfurled, but like a rattlesnake it hissed and shook the blade with the threat of death for the true Scorpion would not not miss again.
"Finish him!" Scorpion stood beside Forrest.
"See, I am chosen." The man boasted to Hanzo, but soon realized the master couldn't see, or wouldn't acknowledge the specter.
Another swing of the chain, Hanzo turned and grew momentum with each swing. Once the spiral and clank of chain swung and arched faster than the young man's eyes could follow, he thrust it forward in a near straight line across the room.
Forrest swung his damaged blade in an arc to catch it again, but the spear was too quick. Quicker than the crane, faster than the lightning.
He braced for the metal to pierce his burning ribs and shatter his heart. His flesh crumpled under the pressure of metal that seized his shoulder and yanked him in place. Transported away, Forrest had been captured by Sektor. The spear stopped mid-range as Hanzo tugged back and pulled it to him.
One by one the Tekunin faded.
Like a gun pointed in his face, he couldn't hope it would go away, but the bullet missed and the metal faded from sight. The machines were gone save for the dead. With fewer dead from his clan than the machine, Hanzo hilted the blade and tied the spear at his waist, then turned to the Mountain Gate.
Her face bloodied and bruised, Skarlet needed Raiden's shoulder to carry herself back to the temple.
"Listen to me, and hear me clearly!" Hanzo turned back to the Shirai Ryu inside. "Should any of you raise your blade to your master again, I will not hesitate to cut you in half like I did with the traitor."
From across the room, Takeda tossed the old Scorpion mask toward his master who was quick to catch it as only Scorpion could.
Adorned in the mask of the true leader, none present would question him.