His heart raced, and his world torn asunder with every beat. He wasn't sure if he should feel anger, betrayal, or elation.
Kotal Kahn sat upon the throne motionless and waited. Beside him on his left and right respectively was Nightwolf and Mileena.
The native of Outworld looked as statuesque as he, but Mileena couldn't find comfort in her stance. He turned to her and gestured, if she wished to leave, she could, but she turned it down just as the doors opened for the Thunder God and resurrected Blood Witch.
The long walk from the entrance of the meeting hall to the thrown was uncomfortable for all but Raiden, his confidence was as sure as his step and his silence. Like Kotal Kahn might have for her, it appeared the Protector of Earthrealm had taken Skarlet under his wing to guide, but he didn't trust Raiden's motives completely.
"That's good." Mileena halted the march about a Shokan's pace from the throne.
"This cannot be." Nightwolf uttered and pierced Skarlet with a long, still stare. He would have seemed like a statue to her as he focused in on her very soul.
"Yet it is." Raiden assured.
He looked down upon her, the black and red hair as long as he remembered it was on her last days. Her eyes looked back, but though it was Skarlet, she was certainly changed. He saw a confused woman like she had been dropped in the Kytinn nest with no warning and expected to survive the week.
He felt the same way.
Kotal Kahn spoke nothing at first. He just stared. Everything about her, beside her clothing and demeanor was the same as when she was alive. He recognized that for her, it probably only felt like a few weeks had passed since the Tournament, for them it was many years.
He managed to gather his word to speak. "Why are you here?"
"We don't know." Raiden interjected, but Kotal Kahn wanted an answer from Skarlet.
After an ugly pause, she spoke as best she could of what she knew. She felt like it may have been as much as everyone else, but that cold stare from the Kahn felt like the maw of Mileena at her gut yet again. She had to say something.
"I was brought back by a thing, I don't know what it is. I don't know why." She answered.
Kotal Kahn leaned back. If it were Jade before him, this would be such a different feeling and a vastly different setting. His thoughts dwelled on her and he recalled his time in the depths of the Netherrealm. Was the answer there?
"What do you think, Kotal Kahn?" Raiden suggested Kotal's input be a better gesture. "You're the one that went through hell and back."
"I failed what you have succeeded in." His tone dropped, his mind a vast expanse of Jade and hell. He clenched his jaw in his hand and wiped the anxiety and harsh light of day that blew in from the cracks and crevices of the hall.
Before another word be said, he added, "do you know where you were?"
"No."
"Tell me."
"I remember nothing of hell."
"Yet I remember everything of it." He conjured the image of the levels of hell he had to travel to reach Jade, only to lose her a second time. He remembered Quan Chi's face, and the face of something else. "This thing that brought you back, do you know it's face?"
"It has many faces, all of the dead." Raiden intercepted. "It is called The First Evil, one of the primal forces of nature."
Kotal Kahn remembered the entity had told him something about Jade, about life and death in the realms changed by Liu Kang, Kitana, and Raiden, but now in this moment, put on the spot, he couldn't remember.
All he could remember was that Skarlet, the traitor to Outworld stood before him while Jade, who he had travelled hell and back to get was not here.
"You expect me to save your realm, Lord Raiden, but you bring before me a traitor?" Kotal Kahn shifted in his seat. He leaned forward and eyed the Protector of Earthrealm like he would Shang Tsung.
"This is not my doing, if that is what you mean." Raiden insisted, but Kotal Kahn kept his stare, his expression unmoved.
"You expect me to forgive my greatest partner in command that betrayed me? You expect me to give you my forces to battle at the Pyramid of Argus in Edenia? You ask too much."
"We've already discussed this." Raiden hissed, "you have expressed as much already. We will be leaving by nightfall."
"Why do you protect her then?" He prodded. "The traitor? She held no love for you and your chosen ones."
He glanced back at her, leaned on the staff for balance and saw the uncertainty in her eyes, the same he saw in Kotal Kahn's.
"Considering you have no interest in affairs beyond your own, I have no reason to explain myself." Raiden shut him down.
"Fair enough, Lord Raiden. You may go peacefully." Kotal Kahn waved him off. He couldn't see them leave fast enough and as the door shut behind them, he turned slowly turned to his commanders, Mileena with no words, then Nightwolf.
Nightwolf glanced down at the Kahn, his chest heavy, and his mind ablaze with questions, but for Kotal Kahn, only one answer.
"She is pure."
His heart raced, and his world torn asunder with every beat. He wasn't sure if he should feel anger, betrayal, or elation.