"You were to talk to him, Mileena!" Shao Kahn slammed one fist against his throne. She swore she could see the armrest tremble with the force of the blow. "He has… had… a purpose." The Emperor's voice echoed in the throne room. She could almost believe they were the only ones there - if she hadn't lingered amongst the sycophants, each waiting to speak to him. She had seen Shang Tsung and Skarlet amongst them, the former moving like a Kuatan jungle snake around the clumps and clusters of warriors and curious Outworlders, gauging the atmosphere and how best to re-establish himself. She had heard the doors open as she stepped up for her own audience - even more curious pushing in for a show. She'd been confident at the time.
She was far less so now. Father leaned forward, glaring at her. It took every ounce of audacity in her body to keep from backing down, or even letter her knees touch the floor. She would not kneel before him. She had been Empress, and that reminder coiled steel around her spine and a flush of pride and confidence through her body. She was as good as Father was. She tipped her chin up and met his gaze squarely, her Tarkatan eyes boring into his viciously draconic ones. They were far more similar to hers than he might like to let on.
He spoke again, voice heated and angry. "You ate him."
"It was kombat." She crossed her arms and stared at him, jaw tipped upwards defiantly. "He lost. I took what was mine by right."
From beside him, Sindel laughed. It was low and throaty and mocking. Her mouth curved sideways as she resettled herself on the throne, leaning closer to Father. "Oh, she's certainly your child in that."
He made a noncommittal sound in response, his fingers curling around the warhammer at his side. "Do you know how difficult it is to find someone like that I can trust?"
"Trust?" Mileena pulled her head back, his words to her a kick to the gut. "Trust that foul beast?"
"He was predictable. You will find that predictability becomes important in your court." He looked down at her, frowning beneath the heavy helm and half-mask. "But you may already know that."
"Speaking of predictability and trust, Father… when is the last time someone went to the sorcerer's island to see what he has wrought there? I know what happened while the usurper reigned, when your general Reiko was put in the thrall of the Kamidogu. Should someone not go to the island now and see what may be of use there? Or what has changed?"
"You think you are the one to do this?" Shao Kahn's eyes blazed as he examined her, looking deep into her soul.
"Would you rather send Kitana? Baraka? Some of the Shokan?" She forced her hands to remain loose at her sides.
"You are not going, Mileena. Not to the Flesh Pits here in Outworld, and not to the ones on his island. You've overstepped your bounds. You've proven you're a beast that must be brought to heel."
She let out a sharp breath, all of her nerves and instincts flaring. She wanted to physically reel from the words. Her pride was bruised, her confidence cracked; sheer indignation kept her upright. No weakness. Do not let him see weakness.
"You forbid me?" She summoned up all the airs of the Empress she had ever had, though they felt more like weak breezes now.
Her father met her eyes, the draconic red and yellow flaring with threat. "You are to be confined to the fortress grounds, and the Koliseum. With a Shokan escort. You failed to make Baraka kneel, you brought back a traitor to my keep, and you killed and ate Kollector. If you were anyone other than my daughter, I would have you set in the Koliseum against beasts until they tore you limb from limb. If you are so much as seen thinking about breaking this edict, you will regret it."
"But-"
"You whine like Kitana. Walk carefully, Mileena, lest you end up confined beside her." Father leaned back in his throne, jerking his chin towards the doorway. "Go."
Snarling, she turned on her heel and walked at a measured pace towards the door. Long strides ate up the distance and she shouldered her way past courtiers, her face heating with embarrassment.
How dare he chide her like that. In front of the court, as if she were an ignorant child.
She stormed out the hall and towards the stairs, mouth contorted in an angry snarl. The soft sound of movement and the faintest clink of metal against metal carried from behind her. She whirled around to see Rain leaving the audience chamber not quite at her heels. A beast following his master. As it should be.
"Rain, come with me." She jerked her chin up the stairs in a familiar invitation to her apartments.
"My apologies, princess, but I don't think that would be in my best interests." She could almost see the smirk under his veil, the way his lips curved in sarcasm and false cheer. "If I wish to earn my role as a general once more, it would hardly make sense for me to be seen in your company. Let alone give Shao Kahn reason to believe that I have sided with you."
Her eyes went wide at the blithe lack of concern in his voice.
"You used me so quickly to get back into the court?!" Her hands balled into fists, fingernails digging into her palms. She felt them prick the skin, the smell of her own blood filling the air around her, grounding her. "You bastard."
That word had always made him snap and respond. She let her mouth pull up in an expression of pure vindictiveness as he recoiled. It seemed time had not changed all things.
"I am a son of Argus-"
"One of three. Put two of you together and Edenia might have a god again."
Hatred boiled across his face as he reached for her, eyebrows angling down and his cheeks taut. She dropped back into a ready position, drawing her hands up.
"My divine nature cannot be argued." He flicked a hand out, encircling her in a sphere of water with shocking suddenness. The speed and skill of his water magic had been something she had appreciated - until now. The water squeezed around her, pushing in and crushing her ribs. She desperately wanted to suck in a breath of air, expand her lungs against the constriction-
Water forced its way into her nostrils, between her teeth, and she forced herself to exhale. Anything else would make her drown, leave just a soaked corpse just outside Father's throne room.
And none of the guards had moved to do a thing.
She screamed, a sudden expulsion of breath and rage. With it, she dragged up the memory of knowing how to move. She pushed herself through the space-between-places to drop out of the water-ball and into the air — behind Rain. Her fingers seized his throat, squeezing tightly. She flung her body weight at him. It knocked him down, pinning his shoulders to the ground with her knees. She took several ragged breaths, driving the rough metal of her knee armor into him, her fingers tightening around his neck. The red rage began to recede - only to be replaced by the staccato sound of a single pair of hands clapping.
She jerked her head up to meet Father's eyes.
"Perhaps you are not so much like your sister after all. You two will fight in the Koliseum. There is no reason everyone shouldn't be able to enjoy the two of you trying to murder each other."
⁂
Mileena rolled her shoulders and looked into the press of bloodthirsty Outworlders in the stands. They were crammed cheek-to-jowl, hungry for blood and spectacle. She stood at Father's side, barely in his good graces, but a sign of favor nonetheless. On his other side, between him and Sindel, stood Skarlet. She had her head bent towards Father, speaking softly to him - not loud enough for Mileena to hear. Anger bubbled up in her at the sight of the blood mage so close and easy with Father, even as Mileena slipped away.
Sindel sat on a throne on his other side, leaning forward intensely to watch the kombats. Shang Tsung had not been treated so well; he sat in the stands, conspicuously isolated.
In the pride-of-place as trophies, Kitana and the blonde Earthrealmer Sonya Blade were chained to the customary posts to either side of the Emperor's throne. Mileena couldn't fault Father's public humiliation of them; she likely would have done the same. Had done so for those enemies she'd captured, before setting them to fight for her amusement. The two once-warriors wore short summer robes, nothing at all like fighting gear. They were clearly prizes, not warriors; the spectators were making sure the women knew precisely how far they'd fallen.
Sindel had smirked the entire time as a dozen Earthrealm soldiers were hauled out for the day's amusements. She had also made certain that Blade's kin - future kin? - in particular were settled before Sonya had been led in and chained in place. They were shackled and kept on the sands, far enough from her to let her see their bloodied faces, their bodies purpled with bruises… but not close enough to talk. Sonya had fought against her restraints, kicking out with a foot and kicking a guard in the jaw to send him reeling. The crowd had cheered, and Kitana had uttered some word - and with it, Sonya had gone still.
Father wanted them to rage at their restraints, to fight and struggle. Instead, they both stood limp, as if dead. Uninterested.
Mileena found herself strangely suspicious of the two. She hadn't lived as long as she had without her justifiable worries, no matter that they'd been called paranoia by detractors. And she knew her sister. She knew the older woman that had become Colonel Blade. She trusted neither of them, but she could not yet determine what their plan was. Her eyes keep going back to Kitana, and the way her own eyes kept looking up, away, in the direction of the fortress.
At that moment, she hated her sister with a fierce and burning heart. If their roles had been reversed, Tanya brutalized and trapped inside and Mileena humiliated on the sands, she would have slaughtered the entire Koliseum to make her way to Tanya, no matter the cost.
And yet Kitana merely stood.
She did not deserve Liu Kang. She did not deserve something she did not have to fight for, and somehow all the fight had gone out of her. This had been Father's most feared assassin?
Well, he'd said that if Kitana had fight, he would not have needed Mileena; perhaps she should be grateful for it. As it was, some strange emotion pulsed through her, weaker than the hatred, but new and unusual and she hated Kitana anew for it. This new feeling wasn't disgust, but something else, and she pushed it aside and refused to acknowledge it.
The Koliseum sands and the moments just before kombat were not the time for emotions.
She jerked her head around back to look at Shang Tsung and then blinked quickly as she realized who now sat beside him.
Rain.
Hatred surged through her again, replacing that indefinable feeling fully. This was not good. His eyes were full of angry promise, the kind that would normally have her thinking about throwing him (or Tanya, or on some particularly memorable occasions, both of them) on the nearest somewhat flat surface. As it is, that look made her want to reach into his chest and rip out his heart and lungs and liver and leave him as food for the beasts.
If nothing else, Kotal had certainly ensured the Koliseum had a variety of slavering, ravenous wildlife for entertainment. Father had decided to warm the crowd up with some smaller kombats, pitting Earthrealmers against some of the beasts to make way for his own preferred creatures. Most of them hadn't been fed for several days, just to encourage their vicious natures. Not that they needed much help, either.
Shifting on her feet, she watched a pair of Father's warriors yank two Earthrealm soldiers to their feet. The men were dragged forward and with a quick slash of a knife, freed from their bonds. The two looked at each other and back to their companions with a sense of desperation, while a Naknadan lethargically cranked a wheel to raise one of the beasts into the arena. The reptilian creature snapped and snarled, flinging itself against the bars of the cage. The Naknadan lifted the cage latch and swiftly leaped out of the way.
Not fast enough.
The beast leaped from the cage and immediately slashed out with a claw, raking the Naknadan across the back and tearing off one of its arms. The shriek and fresh smell of blood set the entire arena to screams of vicious glee. The beast roared, saliva dripping from sagging jowls, before it bit down on the Naknadan.
It was the first victim, but it was certainly not the last; the two Earthrealm soldiers fell quickly to fang and claw. The slaughter continued as various beasts took the Earthrealmers apart, fangs digging in and shaking them like children's toys, flinging them halfway across the arena. Bodies skidded and slipped like dolls, screams of pain falling silent when the various wildlife would finish off its prey. Her tongue licked out, tasting the air. She sighed with disappointment. It was a waste of good meat; the corpses were discarded back into the space below the ring to feed the beasts.
The Earthrealmers put up a bit of a fight. She was impressed at times despite herself; two managed to kill the large Kuatan jungle-cats they were pitted against, and were permitted to live. The remainder lingered in pieces around the arena to the crowd's enthusiasm. Skarlet hummed happily throughout it all, drawing blood from the dust and the dirt into vials and spheres, coating her weapons in it, licking it off her fingertips. In another time, another life, perhaps they could have been sisters - Father's daughters that were nothing and yet everything like him, far more suited to Outworld life than Kitana and her Edenian delicacy seemed to be.
As it was, Skarlet was insinuating herself closer and closer to Father, pushing Mileena out, and that was something she could not let stand. Mileena growled as the last of the bodies were dragged off the sands, the surviving Earthrealmers roughly hauled closer the better to see the kombat to come. Mileena rolled her shoulders back and cracked her neck, readying herself. She stepped away from Father's throne, hearing Skarlet's throaty chuckle follow in her wake.
A puddle formed not far from her, pooling on the pounded dirt of the arena. Rain, making a show of himself - as always. She snarled with exasperation as he flowed out of the puddle and into the air, holding his arms out dramatically. Cheers rang out - because of course they would for such a show. She instead merely dropped into a ready stance.
"And here I remember the days you enjoyed the spectacle as the Empress." Rain ran a hand along his arm, calling the katar blade forth and curling his fingers into place. The blade glinted in the bright sun, angling rays into her eyes. She reached back behind her with smooth motions, drawing her sai and holding them before her. Her heart raced in her chest, the sound loud in her ears. She did not bother with a mask today; let them all see her face, that it was truly her in the Koliseum. She inhaled deeply, catching the fresh-storm scent Rain almost always carried with him, and beneath it the saltier smell of clean sweat.
"Those were different times." She glanced sidelong at her father and his inscrutable expression. "I will not be Empress again until Father is gone - if such a thing happens. But I am still a Princess of Outworld, and you are nothing but a god's byblow that did not even know it until he was told by someone else. You owe everything to my father!"
"Not everything," Rain said. "Though I'll grant that the pleasure of humiliating you utterly in front of your former subjects is something I do owe to him."
He moved forward with the smooth grace he'd always had. His booted heel slammed her face in a swift and smooth opening strike. Her teeth clicked in her jaw and she rocked back with the force. Anger surged through her, taking control. He would regret what he'd done.
The rest of the fight fell into a blur, her sai stabbing into him and around him, their fists and feet blurs. Water quickly muddied the floor of the Koliseum, blood following shortly after. She raged against him and the sounds of the spectators filled her ears. He used his hydromancy to keep her at a distance, surrounding her with water or forming waves that threatened her stability. There were only so many times she could teleport, and she could feel her energy draining with each one as she tried to close the space between them. She managed several vicious blows, once landing on his shoulders and taking a chunk of skin and flesh from his shoulder before he knocked her back.
"You taste good, Rain." Her tongue licked out across the bloody smears covering her face. "Maybe I should leave some for Skarlet. She does so like Edenian blood."
There might - just might - have been a hint of a pleased sound. An exhalation almost like a moan at the prospect. But the crowd was loud, and it was hard to be certain.
Mileena cartwheeled into him, a series of kicks that pushed him back and back and back until she slammed her heels into his shoulders. He wobbled, and she had a moment to plan her next move. One kick straight to the stomach, or a sai instead, right across the soft skin of his abdomen, and he would be finished.
His shoulders shifted, feet sliding ever so slightly in the mud.
She could taste the victory, the sound of the crowd roaring her name and the abject apologies he would utter to her and Father as she slammed her sai into his shoulders, pinned him to the ground, and —maybe, in an act of charity—would let Skarlet have her way with him.
He wobbled, and then she flew backward as a force of water jetted from his hands and crashed into her. Her ribs creaked at the strain and she almost couldn't breathe as she dropped onto her back on the wet earth. Shock and rage burst through her as she struggled to inhale. He was on her before she even had a moment to kip up and gather herself, his katar overwhelming her field of vision and sliding point-first towards her neck.
Rage subsided as yet another new emotion bubbled to the fore, one she refused to become familiar with, though she knew it. Humiliation. She hated it now as much as she had the first time she'd ever been forced to experience it. He knew it, too.
The point of the katar pricked her throat as she swallowed. Rain's eyes crinkled with pleasure at the sight. She could watch his own throat bob, chest heaving as he worked to catch his breath. His other hand pinned her sai-hand down, so she could not even stab at him to regain her freedom. No kicks would do here. He had her on her back and at his mercy in front of the entirety of Outworld.
"My Emperor?" He dragged his face away from hers and looked to Shao Kahn. She could feel the gritty sand in her mouth, along with the tang of blood - his - and sweat - both of theirs, commingled. She spat the mixed fluids into his face, streaking his veil.
"She may still be of use to me - at least until there is an opportunity to see if she can be improved upon." Father's voice carried, loud and disconcertingly satisfied.
The roars of pleasure turned to jeers, the sound sour in her ears. The katar poked her throat just a bit more deeply, and she could feel the one point begin to separate into three. He pulled his hand away, the blade springing wide open and droplets of blood scattering into the air.
They hung suspended for a moment before gathering into an orb, spinning slowly back towards Skarlet. Rain stood easily, making a flourishing bow towards Father, the katar vanishing in a globe of water.
Mileena pushed up off the muddy, blood-soaked ground and glared.
She was not certain, but she might have seen Kitana smiling.
⁂
"How the mighty have fallen." Shang Tsung smiled at her, all face and lips and no teeth. She returned a similar look, all teeth and nothing else. "Things not going your way at the moment, are they, Princess?" Something about his voice made her want to reach for his throat and rip out his vocal cords. Knowing him, he'd find a way to grow them back.
She kept looking at him, feeling almost sullen, as he stood just inside the doorway to her chambers. There were few people she wished to see at this moment, her mortification still fresh and stinging. She had spent hours in the baths, but no matter how she scrubbed the blood and dirt from her, it still seemed to coat her skin. A taste lingered in the back of her mouth and her throat that refused to vanish, no matter the wine she drank.
"What did you tell him to do, sorcerer?"
"Me? Tell who?" His dark eyes widened in feigned surprise.
"Rain. I saw you with him. What did you tell him to do to me? Did you tell him to humiliate me?"
"Would I do that?" He maintained the look of mock guilelessness, but she knew better than to believe him. "You are my daughter, Mileena. I am your creator - you are as much my child as you are Shao Kahn's. I would not see you murdered."
"You speak nothing but lies and deceit! I have been told Tanya's body is in your Flesh Pits. The ones on your island. You said nothing of this." Her hand curled into a fist at her side.
"I gave you clues, Mileena. I gave you just enough to find your own way if you were not fool enough to stampede your way through it all. And it seems you have been."
Her hands twitched restlessly at her side, glowering at him.
"I wished to see how you improved. There was little time to see before my… untimely demise. Though time seems to have its own opinion on matters now."
"Says the sorcerer equally brought to heel."
"I have a proposal for you, Princess Mileena."
"A proposal for me? Some call me foolish, but even I know better than to trust you." Particularly after seeing him with Rain at the Koliseum. Particularly after Rain's betrayal.
Even so, she felt a hungry, clawing need to keep an eye on the two of them. If she knew what they were planning - or how Shang Tsung was going to manipulate her, manipulate Rain - perhaps there would be a chance to come out on top. She did not have to trust either of them; she only needed to know how to use them. And she could learn how to do that.
Once again, her confidence wavered, though she could not risk showing it. She craved the presence of reliable advisors. D'Vorah had been that, once. Kotal, once. Reptile, and Ermac, so closely committed to her and her cause. Baraka had remained true until Kitana had managed to twist him into believing in his own authority. Tanya would know what to do. Tanya had never betrayed her. Shang Tsung… hadn't Father said she needed predictable people? Shang Tsung was predictable - he was always lying, always scheming. She couldn't trust him if her life depended on it.
That was predictable. It would do for a start.
She would listen to Shang Tsung's proposal, for Tanya's sake. That was what Tanya would counsel her to do. She might - just might - be able to see this through, get what she wanted after all. Resolved, Mileena nodded gracelessly and gestured for him to continue. He stepped further inside. With a gesture, the door thunked solidly into the frame behind him, sealed and the wood limned with the sickly green glow of his sorcery.
He smiled, smooth and slimy in a way that made her want to return immediately to the baths. "After Shao Kahn, you have the best claim to Outworld's throne. None dispute this. And I do not want to be… burdened… with the day-to-day matters of rulership. I am content to use my power for the betterment of Outworld and my own projects. Your father's need to conquer everything ruined him the first time and brought us all to ruin. You are impulsive, without millennia of experience. But with me as your advisor… think of all the power you can have, and the realms you could conquer."
That was a strong, strong temptation. To reign and conquer in her name, not as Father's lackey…
"And how does Rain fit into your plotting, snake? I can speak of recent proof that he will betray you for his own ends as soon as he breathes."
"Rain wants godhood and Edenia and believes I am a way to both of those things. I believe I can make this beneficial for all of us. The question remains as to whether or not you believe you can do this or if your impulsiveness will destroy the planning."
She resisted the urge - barely - to reach forward and squeeze her nails into his throat and silence his insulting mouth forever. She turned on her heel and strode across the cold stone of her chambers towards the balcony, heels clicking with every step. This was too big a decision right now. She needed to think. He was relying on her ambition and the screaming need for vengeance. She paused with a hand on the doorframe, then turned and looked back at him. "I will consider it, sorcerer. Go, and let me think on your proposition."
She caught the rapid rise and fall of his eyebrows in surprise, quickly veiled by the usual sly and charming smile.
"Of course, Princess."
She wanted to say yes, but more - she couldn't seem hungry for it. Couldn't make him know how badly she was tempted. She'd be that much closer to getting Tanya back… she could make him give her Tanya, for her aid. But if he was coming to her, he would have to be desperate. Have to
"It isn't as if you are going anywhere," he added blithely, bowing politely in her direction. "When you have come to a decision, you know where to find me." Another gesture, and the green glow vanished from the door. "But don't take too long. I'd hate for you to miss out on the opportunity."
She watched him leave, the door opening and then closing behind him, leaving her alone once more. Her fingers dug into the wooden frame, more of it splintering off in her grasp. How long could she wait?
⁂
"Earthrealmer." Mileena looked at the blonde woman blocking the door. "I need to see your master."
"My jailer, you mean?" The woman crossed her arms and glowered at her. She was dressed in some of Kitana's castoffs, summer robes much like those she'd worn days ago at the humiliating bout in the arena. The Earthrealm woman looked down at her clothing and then back up, a faint flush pinking her cheeks. These were in shades of green, suitable for leisure in the baking heat of Outworld. Shang Tsung had dressed her to embarrass - certainly not for kombat. Mileena could barely see the customary leotard beneath; the sorcerer was certainly indulging himself by making her as unhappy as he could.
"He's not here. Last I knew he was sucking up to your father in some meeting."
"Excellent." And for once, Mileena truly smiled, feeling her face twist with the expression. "Because I have a proposition for you."