Reptile leapt from the rafters of the adobe and smacked into the pavement through the image of Argus. Several wide slashes through the empty air, the Zetarran slid back to assess the nothing it had accomplished.
A dot in the night sky, Nitara escaped the realm with Kitana far above the chaos below.
"You cannot touch me." Jade transformed from Argus and hissed back at Reptile.
Unscathed, Reptile rushed through it to attempt another attack, his reptilian brain unable to understand the incorporeal before him. Into the fire, he slashed through the Tarkatan horde riled by the entity that dragged the Queen's right hand into the wall.
In the chaos, Liu Kang joined the group, forced to push his way to the main street where the commotion grew. As he neared the center that parted like a sea around the entity he found himself staring at himself at the center.
"Liu Kang!" Liu called himself out of the crowd. "Champion of Mortal Kombat, former keeper of time."
"What is this?" The crew lined up, Liu at center, Kung Lao beside him with Bo' Rai Cho, the brother's at each end and the others behind. Liu Kang couldn't fathom the chaos around them as the crowd wanted blood, wanted answers. Answers no one could give them.
Liu Kang approached himself, almost calmly and looked himself over and transformed from the same form of himself to the undead Liu Kang once slain by Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, to the Liu Kang that once pushed through the portal of Outworld at the tournament to fight Shang Tsung with Sonya and Johnny Cage watching on.
"What is this?" The entity responded, "I am consequence."
The undead form of his former self backed to the center of the circle.
"Bring the brothers to me at the temple of Argus," the entity addressed the crowd, "and kill the rest. Then we will all be free of this chaos."
Faded in the blink of an eye, the group were left with the wandering eyes of the crowd. Tarkatan, Edenian, Shokan, the dregs dragged to and fro by Kitana. Unsure how they'd react, Liu Kang held still with the group in an ugly pause that lasted three tense beats until Reptile threw a body from the crowd and ascended like a cat up the shoppe building they had pushed him against. Once the commoners bled at the hands of the alliance, the cats chased down each royal rat to the palace.
Barely cleared of the crowd, the group ascended the palace towers to the third level where they watched the madness below. Reptile had been last to join, bloodied and climbed through a window by the skin of his claws, Taven pulled him aside to tend to as the others, unnerved, forced themselves to plan their next step without Kitana, Raiden, and Fujin to guide them.
"We can open a portal to Earthrealm." Kia suggested.
"That may not help us now. We should go to Outworld." Tanya objected.
"Raiden would come here first, we should wait for him." Liu Kang assured.
"I stand with Liu Kang." Kung Lao added, "Kung Jin is with Sonya, Kenshi, and Raiden will see to it we are all here as one."
"Then we will go to Outworld and unify with Kotal Kahn." Liu Kang agreed.
Bo' Rai Cho nodded, but did not speak. He relieved Taven of Reptile, having known the creature longer. Li Mei leaned against the window to watch the crowds at the gate with Kia and Rain.
"Only Kitana can deal with them." Rain assured. "Speaking of, how do we find her?"
Spoken through his teeth, through the pain as the bared scraping of flesh at his shoulder was tended to by Bo' Rai Cho, Reptile hissed back at Rain, "I can still smell her, I will follow them!"
Rain pondered the thought, his eyes on the crowd as they demanded answers and justice. He knew this was his platform to stand on, finally a moment to lead, but how should he? How could he? Torn himself, he knew his place had to be to settle the dispute regarding Edenia and Kitana first, as without her there would be no peace. As much as would have relished in this moment many years before, to take up the mantle in her place as King, these were different times, and their enemy far different than just one another.
"We will remain in Edenia." Rain commanded.
"What is your plan?" Taven asked as he guided Reptile to his feet.
"How soon can we expect Lord Raiden?" He turned to Liu Kang, but there was no answer.
"I can go to him now." Kia interjected and as soon as Rain nodded, she dispersed into the shadow.
"That settles that, we'll get the protectors of Earth Realm here immediately, and us," he turned to Taven, "the protectors of Edenia must retrieve Kitana."
"And the trap?" Tanya pressed.
"Trap?" Rain was blinded by this, unsure what she meant and annoyed by the eyes of disgust that stabbed him from her glare, like the old Tanya.
"Whatever that was made it clear what its plan is." She motioned to the brothers, "it wants you two to return to Daegon. I don't know why, but if you follow, you're just playing into it's trap."
"How do we get Kitana then?" Taven pondered.
And ugly silence fell on the group. The crowd outside now an irritable ambience to the vile situation they were buried in, but no one could come forth with an answer. If they couldn't rescue her without triggering some unknown plot, and they needed Kitana to stabilize the city, how?
As much as it pained him to be the one to speak up, to be the one with the idea he'd hate the most, Reptile hissed and glared at the vacant faces and clueless eyes of all the mortals around him. Fools, all of them.
"There is another Kitana." He reminded, though it took a moment, and only Tanya was quick to pick up on it.
"Mileena." She answered the crowd. "Put a veil on her face and she sounds like and looks exactly like their queen."
"Would that work?" Kung Lao pondered the thought. Though beautiful and certainly the perfect image of Kitana, he couldn't get past the Tarkatan trait of the woman that edged her from his desire to interact.
"You're an idiot." Tanya pushed past the men and grabbed Reptile by the injured shoulder to force him with her. "We're going to Outworld."
With the shadow of their being slowly faded as she opened the rift between the realms and dragged Reptile with her, it closed to leave the remainder of the alliance alone in the room with the noise outside the palace and their plans made without them.
Leaving Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Taven, Rain, Li Mei, and the uncertainty that began to sink into their hearts.