The Final Night Pt. II
The wind played a gentle tone beneath the moonlight sonata of the creatures of Edenia's night beyond the city. The echoes from the cliffs, the chirps within the fields, Raiden listened to them all.
Glass clinked in the city behind him, and voices scattered from murmurs, cries, joy, drunken, all of it life and all of it so human. He passed through the tall grass, Liu Kang behind him until they reached a high pass that allowed them the best gaze down at the palace and city.
This might have been like ancient Greece to Raiden, or a movie scene for Liu Kang it hadn't seemed like a prison cell to one, and the only bastion to keep the world on hold for the other.
From high atop the hills, they could see where the cracks in the planet led to the great canyon like cliffs that creased down to the platform where the palace stood. Above the highest was a wisteria tree. Here, tided with rope for the spirit held within to rest, Raiden sat with Liu Kang and prepared an incense to burn.
The ashes of previous were churned and flattened, then the powder of the next gently pressed on top in the symbol of Edenia's fallen queen. Raiden gently laid the burning power as Liu Kang prepared the flame.
"Mileena and Syzoth have laid her body to rest in the family tomb beside her mother." Raiden informed him. "Has Shang Tsung restored you yet?"
"In secret." Liu Kang confirmed. "I do not trust him much beyond that."
"Don't." Raiden added, "Shang Tsung will take his chances at the pyramid to betray us all."
"It seems that will be expected by everyone, Lord Raiden." Liu Kang recalled the previous timelines. "Nothing ever happened beyond Armageddon, why is this?"
Raiden pondered for a moment. He watched the gentle flicker of yellow and orange hiss at the powder that smoked a thin line to his nose.
"The first time, Shao Kahn was dangerously close to victory. However, had I let him win, Kitana would have killed him." Raiden recalled the strange series of events that brought them to this mess.
Story was, there were many endings that could have transpired at the top of that pyramid. His was the only one he was interested in telling. Arrogant, Raiden thrust time itself background erased and rewinded. That's what caused Kronika's focus solely on him and Liu Kang.
"What would she have done with that power? Who would have killed her? There are too many questions we'll never know, why even ask?" Liu Kang pondered.
"There are a lot of questions that we'll never have answered that are very important to ask, Liu Kang." Raiden continued, "if you don't think of what might become, you may never see it through, or stop it."
"This is our punishment for screwing with everything." Liu Kang stood from the tree and took a few steps back to leave, only to turn and stare down at the sunken form of Raiden still knelt before the wisteria and Kitana's vigil "We're all fools, Lord Raiden. Gods help us if we lose."
Raiden watched for a moment as Liu Kang slowly descended the hill back to the city gates. He tucked the conical hat from his head and rested it beside the tree so that he may unfurl his long white hair and feel the gentle wind whisper through.
As the symbol burned slow and elegantly in remembrance of Kitana, her voice gently stirred him from his memories.
She was sat opposite of him, against the tree in the same kneeling position as he.
"You know, Lord Raiden, I don't think we've ever formally met." Kitana reached out with her voice to fully grab his attention. He stood away from her and she joined in mirror of his action. "My name is Kitana, Former Queen of Edenia, former Kahnum of Outworld, former sister of Mileena Queen of Edenia, and currently dead thanks to you."
"You have no right taking her image." Raiden's eyes crackled, they flickered white, but the entity smiled as though it only turned it on to see his anger flare.
"Who died and made you God?" Kitana mocked him with a snicker. "Kitana's punishment for tampering with reality was death. So too will it be yours and Liu Kang, just like Kronika."
"Why do this? Why manipulate and hide in the shadows when you can't even fight?"
"There's so much out there, Lord Raiden," Kitana pointed to the stars and took a moment to listen to the ambience of the Edenia. "Everything has a place, in this universe, in another universe, the infinite existence. Hard to wrap your mind around, I know, but I exist throughout all of it, just like gravity, just like time itself."
"I don't have time for your backstory, tomorrow it all ends." Raiden could strike it if he desired, but the tree was sacred and the incense at Kitana's feet just as delicate.
"We're not meant to go backwards in time, Lord Raiden." Kitana added, "everything is meant to move forward. When you took it upon yourself to cheat on the Pyramid of Argus, Kitana's future was stolen from her. The future of everyone that lived was stolen from them."
"A new future is born in the ashes of light, you think I'd let Shao Kahn win?"
"No, I would have thought you'd sacrifice yourself for her to. However, that didn't happen did it?" She circled him, slowly, and leaned to speak with vitriol in her voice, "I would have punished Kronika too. However, you're the ones that screwed this all up. Death is eternal, the magic you all wield now cracks through time and space. The destruction you cause when you screw with reality goes far beyond what Kronika would have done in her stupid new era."
"Your answer is to end it all? To simply make existence stop? That's worse than anything we've done."
"It is, but I'd rather not exist than continue in a world of Gods and monsters constantly struggling as if good or evil even matters."
"The only thing that matters are your actions. Who you are and what you do. Otherwise we're just smoke in the wind. Even so, it would all be worth saving." Raiden added, "tomorrow, you will find that life is worth fighting for, even in death."
Kitana snickered, she faded as Raiden kneeled back down to the incense as it ceased its little ember.
The wind carried the scent down to the city where Liu Kang had entered by the time he knelt before the tree.
He realized though, though everyone in the city waited for the battle they may very will not make it out of, none of them wanted to die. Not a soul wanted the next day to be their last, even if it meant the time itself would continue because of it.
He decided, no matter the outcome it would be the last time he asked any of them to sacrifice themselves. Good and evil would always come and go, but life comes only once.