0
She reaches for the moon — gone.
Scent of damp grass in the garden — gone.
Silhouette shaped like her Sister in the sunrise — gone.
The dreams shatter one after the other.
She will be next to break.
VII
She wants her Sister. Right now. Right now.
"Addas, over here. Quickly."
Not Sister. Not wanted.
"Well, well, well. This one looks familiar, huh?"
"Unmistakable."
She's sprung a leak in her side. Her tongue tastes cobblestone. Cold creeps into her starting from the fingers and toes.
"And off her leash, by the looks of it. See those fangs? Tarkatan."
She only sees black and trembling outlines in the void. Searches for Sister's shape in the constellations, lost in the vastness.
"Addas, look here. This wound is fresh—"
Do not touch.
"—she still lives!"
"Hardy, this one. Worry not, Raphael. She will not be alive for much longer with that gash. Come, we should return to the village before we arouse suspicion."
Wait.
"Are you mad? This woman is slipping away from us as we speak! Go find someone, Addas!"
I don't want to die.
She lets out a cracked whine because she cannot find Sister in the dark and it is getting colder and colder, and she is alone with ghosts, and she is not ready.
"This 'woman'? You are the one who is mad. You know that this is the Queen's prisoner, yes? You yourself called her a thing 'best left forgotten.'"
The word "prisoner" bores its way into her head.
"I won't deny that I said it, but can you not see what state she is in? We cannot abandon her here!"
"I am not helping that abomination while we are pressed for time. Let it be."
What does "abomination" mean?
"Such cruelty is unworthy of you, Addas."
"The Queen can just find another Tarkatan trophy—"
There is a sound of knuckle striking hard flesh. Then there is no sound. She tries to move. Her legs are too cold to move. She makes a noise with her mouth and it does not fix the problem.
"Find the guard, Addas. Or I will, and I will tell them exactly why we are here."
Why hasn't her Sister come yet?
"Fine. I will bring the guard here. You can come up with an excuse for why we are in the palace this late."
She fades further into the black, submerged within the ocean of dark sleep. She fights for the surface, takes what air she can to remain awake. She cannot taste the cobblestone anymore. There are vestiges of the stranger's white presence. His voice rings out, words trying to pierce the water. "How long has...been lying here?" He ebbs in and out of focus. "You will be fine, my lady. The guard...and take you some...safe."
She sinks deeper.
"Lady Jade...know about this."His hand takes her trembling fingers. Holds her tight. Cannot wave him off. Figments of strength.
No. Don't…she must not know…
"What?" He turns his ear to her storm of fangs. "I cannot hear you, my lady."
Don't tell Jade.
Her words are dust in her mouth and she is pulled into the abyss.
She's awake. Alive.
Everything around her is dead and without color and she sits up in bed unmoving. It must be morning because there is the faint glow of day behind the shut curtains. This must be real because the throbbing pain in her side fills her with fresh hurt every other second. She must be Mileena because she's already felt the shock of being here, shed the tears in response to the pain, been every bit as weak as that wretched creature had told her she was. Mileena stares into the emptiness because there is nothing she can do now but await her judgment. Her hands placed together on her lap as if chained.
The things Kitana and Jade will say to her when they come in here any moment, any minute now, they are coming to yell louder than they ever have, they are coming to administer a punishment more awful than anything she can imagine. She wonders if she would rather be dead. She thinks about that for a while, because she can't come up with a single word in her own defense, knocked stupid by her own failure.
Here are the words that occur to her instead:
Prisoner.
Trophy.
Abomination.
Not-Mileena.
What do they mean?
The door creaks open and her heart turns to ice, she is frozen, on fire. She stares at her hands. See how compliant she is? How willingly she will accept punishment if you please just go easy on her, Sister? The pit in her stomach yawns wide and will swallow her.
"Kitana, she is awake." Staccato of Jade.
Mileena cannot shut her eyes any tighter.
"Let me see her." Azure notes of Sister. Mileena marks Kitana's every approaching footfall.
Kitana is here, at her bedside. Mileena turns away and becomes small, invisible.
The lash: "How are you feeling, Mileena?"
Eyes shut. Shut. Shut. Closes her mouth as tightly as she can. Her fangs dig into her gums. It hurts when she closes her mouth like this but she has to, has to be small and invisible. Kitana says something else but Mileena shuts it out. Nothing matters until the yelling starts. But the yelling doesn't start at all. Her Sister isn't doing anything but kneeling there by her side. Unless it is a trap. It must be.
Mileena forces it out: "Am I in trouble?"
"Don't worry about that right now," Kitana says. "Are you still in pain? I can have the nurses fetch anything you need."
She wants to hug her Sister.
Not Mileena.
Mileena shakes her head instead.
There are birds chirping outside but in this room there is no sound. Mileena only feels Kitana's and Jade's stained-glass colors, and her own, each distinct, like in those windows in the grand hall, colors that never commingle or blend at all. But Sister is nice to her right now. Warmer than expected. Is it safe? Mileena starts to prioritize her questions:
a. who found her
b. what happened to the intruder
c. were the things she saw last night real
d.
Kitana touches Mileena's hand.
RED RED RED RED RED
Mileena hisses. Mileena hisses at Kitana and curls into a ball in her bed, her head against the wall. Red. Red. Red. Red is all she sees and feels and there is a siren in her ears blaring Get away. Get away. Get away. Get away. Get away. Get away.
Beyond the siren she hears a gasp.
"Kitana, let us leave her for now." Mileena's eyes are closed tighter than she ever thought she could close them, lashes wet. She feels Jade vanish into the hallway. Jade calls after Kitana one more time and then she is gone for good.
The azure of her Sister fidgets, ebbs. Kitana becomes her own color, becomes the limpid depths of what Mileena believes is the color of sadness. "I will be right out." But she is talking to nobody.
Now Mileena feels Kitana's color recede, recede, beyond the doorway. Linger. Linger. Waiting. Mileena turns her glance toward the door but her Sister is already gone. She remains in the dark of her room, on her side of the divide. The door is closed. She wonders if Sister had tears of her own just now. She does a lot of wondering, here in the dark.
Mileena tries to sleep but it doesn't work. So Mileena thinks about the new words she learned last night. She thinks about the new words until there are many more birds chirping outside than there were before. Then she stops. The birds also stop.
Her handmaiden drops the silver tray of raw meat on the nightstand and leaves without saying hello. She is always too scared to say hello to Mileena and right now this makes Mileena angry instead of amused. The meat is bleeding and the juice forms a little red pool.
People talk in the hallway. What about, Mileena wonders? About how much of a fool Mileena is. Or rather, the Queen's "prisoner," her "Tarkatan trophy." "Not Mileena" was Reptile's venom-soaked name for her. Cannot cast that name away; every second she thinks about it is a second in which she loses, fails, is useless, for she cannot figure it out but cannot defend herself against it.
Her shadowlands are static and dull and realms away. She looks at her dolls, her candles, her ornaments and books and ribbons and finds no spark or lure. Her stupid Teddy. All is monochrome, a sketch uncolored and unshaded without depth. What was it she had wondered, again? When Noob Saibot had spared her and Jade? "That man would have killed you — instead, you are still alive. There will be another chance, won't there?"
Nothing could sound stupider.
"What do I do now?" she mumbles with eyes closed. "I thought I was helping in the forest, but I only made everything worse. I tried to make up for it, but just made an even bigger mess of things." She grabs her hair in black bunches. "Why can I not do anything right? What am I missing? What is wrong with me?!" She repeats her question, louder, louder, until it hurts and she's throwing shades of burning red with her voice and full of hate. She takes her pretty pillow and tears it open with her fangs, throws it across the room. A storm of feathers.
Queen's prisoner.
She screams and hurls the tray of meat across the room, where it clangs against the wall and the meat goes splat. Bleeding juice on the pink wallpaper.
Not Mileena.
Rains punches on her own legs until they're throbbing in purple pain and she keeps going and going and going until her legs are mush.
She throws open the curtains so hard they tear somewhere. The light floods her vision. When she gets used to it she finds the lower sections of the palace in disarray. Threefold the usual number of guards out on patrol. Chatter of men and women in the gardens and squares below. Leaves in the flaming shades of fall scatter over the rooftops, making sounds not unlike rain as they tumble over in the wind. There is a nervous energy in the scene below. Like something could go off or erupt at any moment.
Is this my fault?
Enough of this little cage. She needs to find out for herself. Even if she hurts all over.
She fails to find her dress after minutes of searching. Gets so furious that she has to stop herself from punching her beautiful mirror.
Mileena procures a spare violet-and-indigo gown that she doesn't like. Her Teddy watches her struggle through the pain to put it on. He has nothing to say to her and vice versa. She grabs him and turns him around so he's facing the wall. She turns every single one of her dolls and stuffed animals around. She goes to the door, presses her ear up against it. The chatter outside has receded. One presence lingers. An emerald aura.
Reptile's voice calls from memory: "Not ssstupid after all."
Mileena yanks the door open.
Jade meets her stare, wide-eyed.
"Um," they say, in unison.
Blink.
"Were you listening?" they say, in unison.
Mileena scurries back inside, turns away, cannot acknowledge this woman. Cannot let her see the bruises on her legs.
"What are you doing up? Unless you're feeling better already?" Jade's eye catches the meat splattered on the wall, the feathers scattered across the carpet and bed. Sighs.
"Why are you here, Jade?" spits Mileena.
"Kitana asked me to check to make sure you were alright."
"You were spying on me." Acridly: "Again."
"You seem to like spying, yourself, Mileena."
"Shut up!" she roars. "That's different!"
Jade starts to respond, cuts herself off. Mileena steals a glance at the woman's expression, partly concealed behind that green mask she almost never takes off. Consternation. Weakness. But no care to exploit it right now. Everything is monochrome, grey. Would rather destroy than tease. "I apologize — your sister is simply concerned about you, Mileena."
"Lies. You are lying. You and her both. You are not concerned about me."
Jade looks up and down the hallway, enters Mileena's room and closes the door, but not completely, and this does not escape Mileena's notice one bit. "Can you tell me why you think I'm lying, Mileena?"
"Do you think I don't know that Sister is furious with me?" she snarls. "Do you think I cannot hear her telling you about how I cannot be trusted? That I cannot be trusted to go out on a walk at night without getting in trouble? Or to help her 'friend' on a little mission without it blowing up in our faces? 'It's all Mileena's fault! It was such a big mistake to send her along with Jade!'"
"But—"
"No! I know you two are saying this! I know you are scheming behind my back!"
"Mileena, do not take this the wrong way, but I suspect you're hearing things. Kitana has said nothing of the sort to me."
Hands balled into fists as the rage constricts around her heart like a snake. "I don't believe you, Jade. I know. I know the second I leave you two are talking about me and you think I cannot hear it! You think I cannot be trusted—"
"I apologize if I gave you that impression, Mileena, but that is simply not the case."
"Well, why don't you close the door, and tell me what the 'case' is Jade? I'm not going to hurt you!" She stares at the woman, her jaw open wide into a monstrous grimace. "Or maybe you think I will, when you tell me the wretched truth of what you and Sister really think about me!"
Jade's hand is still on the doorknob. Mileena hurts all over but she'll never tell.
Clack.
The door is closed.
"Oh, well, all you had to do was ask," Jade says with a shrug. "Anyway, if you take a seat on your bed for me, I will tell you something."
Mileena backs up, sits upon the feather-covered bed. Disarmed. I did not think she would do it.
The hue of Jade's emerald shifts ever so slightly.
"Kitana is receiving a guest today from Earthrealm. If you are feeling better this afternoon, I think it would be nice of you to meet him."
Mileena leers at her with arms crossed. "Why should I care about some acquaintance of Sister's? It has nothing to do with me."
"Really? I figured you of all people would be interested to see a new face in the palace."
"I am not in the mood."
"You certainly seemed a little bothered that Kitana and I were spending so much time together without you." A hint of a smile beneath the mask. "I think this would be an opportunity to, well, include you a bit more than we have been."
"I would rather it just be the three of us."
"Then you can make a 'brief' appearance, as you are, of course, still in recovery. But it would do you some good to know who Kitana can trust, yes? And if Kitana can trust you with knowing who she can trust, does that not mean she trusts you, too?"
This is very hard to think about…
"I will be back later, Mileena. In the meantime, please try to get some rest. And by that I mean maybe do not throw things around so much." Jade shows herself out, stops at the threshold. "Do you mind if I ask your handmaiden to clean that up?" Gestures to the meat and blood in the corner.
Mileena grunts. The woman leaves.
Mileena can only be still, mindful only of the throbbing pain in her side, and wondering what new trick Jade is devising.
They did not yell at me. Even after I failed so utterly. Are they...toying with me?
She bunches the sheets up in her fists.
"Wait!" Mileena hisses. "I said wait! I am NOT ready yet!"
But Jade, her erstwhile escort, leaves the hallway and walks out into the foyer without her. Mileena hides behind the corner in her violet-and-indigo dress and the elegant mask she'd (hastily) fished out of her dresser for this occasion. Early afternoon sun spills into the grand hall. A procession of guards lines the room in typical symmetrical fashion. More of their number than usual. "She will be out in a moment," announces Jade. Mileena winces.
"She?" Sister.
"Why, your sister, of course."
Mileena snarls. Might just be easier to sneak back to her room. What a sinister little trick she could play, to leave Jade stranded like that. The idea dies on the vine; not in the mood for games right now.
"I see," says Kitana. Fingersnap. The guards leave the room down the stairs like automatons.
"Your sister?" A man's voice joins the conversation. "My apologies, Kitana. I don't quite remember you having a sister."
"Well, I may have neglected to...elaborate on some things."
Mileena's eyes go wide. Swallows hard. Her fingers dig into the embossed ornamentation on the wall as a dark violet wells up within her stomach. I am Sister's secret? What kind of secret?
"Ah, she's right down the hall," says Jade. "Excuse me! Our guest is leaving! Would you please come say hello?"
Mileena steps out, sapped of confidence, eyes locked on the Earthrealmer. Stops at the threshold. His face is etched in her memory but his name escapes her.
She snarls "Hello."
The color drains from his face in an instant. To Kitana he whispers, "Mileena? She is here? Why?"
Kitana lightly kicks his shin.
True colors. His stark crimson essence spills forth, plain for all to see. What he says to me next is fake!
The man glances back at Mileena, visibly recalibrates the emotions on his face into something resembling warmness. He offers a polite nod. "Forgive me, Mileena. I am glad to see you well." He places a hand on his chest, smiles. "I am Liu Kang, of Earthrealm, if you don't recall. It has been some time, hasn't it?"
"Some time, indeed…"
She maintains eye contact with him; he loses the game, breaks away from her, back to Kitana. "I suppose it's time for me to head down to meet with the monks for their training."
"Very well. You will be in Edenia for the next few days, yes?"
"Only for a short time, yes. It would not be a good idea to leave Johnny Cage to his own devices as the 'representative' of Earthrealm."
"Especially when it's Lord Raiden's device in the first place," adds Jade.
"Ha! A good point." The three of them laugh, their colors blending, mixing. Mileena's snarl is hidden well beneath her veil.
What betrayal is this?! Stop laughing! Begone, begone, begone! Out with you, filthy Earthrealmer!
They talk. And talk. They keep talking and talking. Mileena leers at the three of them and it doesn't matter to her what they are saying, because the exchange of smiles, the ease with which they trade words and jests, their familiar body language, fills her chest with crimson. Bared fangs slick with drool. She is nauseous watching their stupid undeserved frivolity and oh how it could change, how she could change it all in a second, and there is nothing stopping her, and yet.
He offers his farewell, his niceties, his false courtesies. He offers a brief glance and a slight smile to Mileena as he sees himself down the stairs, out of the palace, Mileena cares not, wishes he would leave forever. She wonders if she can kill him with a stare and imagines she could bore a hole through the back of his head if she thinks hard enough.
"Are you feeling better, Mileena?"
what is he doing here, how dare he talk to her Sister without her permission, why were they laughing, were they actually laughing at her, why did
"Mileena?"
Snaps out of it.
"You were surprised to see me," says Mileena after a moment. "Weren't you, Sister?" She leers at Jade. So does Kitana.
"Ah, well," says Jade with a shrug. "It occurred to me that it might make for a nice surprise for Liu Kang to formally meet the Queen's, well, enigmatic sister."
"Yes, but perhaps next time you will let me know in advance?" says Kitana. Looking at Mileena, she quickly adds, "If only so I could help with the introduction. It's rather awkward, otherwise."
"Certainly," adds Jade, brightly, "That shall be my policy going forward."
Is that a smile beneath her mask?
What are you up to, Jade?
"In any case, I am relieved to see you up and about, Mileena," says Kitana.
Grunt.
"Is something the matter? Is it your injury?"
"Do not toy with me, Sister," Mileena says, jabbing a finger at Kitana. "You are going to punish me for last night. You and Jade. I am tired of waiting for it!"
Kitana's eyes widen. She exchanges uneasy glances with Jade. "I… Well, I find it strange that you are asking me to punish you rather than doing everything you can to avoid it—"
"Spare me your tricks! I know you are going to do it no matter what!" hisses Mileena. "How could you not be angry with me after last night?!"
"For...what, exactly?"
"You know for what! Do not play games!"
"For being hurt? For wandering out on your own in the middle of the night? I suppose you were up past your bedtime, but I do not know what else you did 'wrong' that would deserve—"
Mileena stops listening. The spikes in her heart recede little by little. But what about Reptile? What about the mysterious man who almost appeared in the garden? Why were you not in your room? What about the visions?! Boiling anger gives way to confusion.
"It may be best to discuss this somewhere more private," says Jade.
Kitana nods in agreement, and extends an inviting hand to Mileena. Mileena doesn't notice the hand until Jade points at it.
"Mileena?"
Here, in this solemn waiting room between the throne room and the foyer, this room with the high ceiling, she stares, stares at the throne through the slightly ajar door. Mileena sees the ash-sketches from the parchment she'd stolen from the study last night, the embracing sisters, juxtaposed over that view. The betrayal and the death. Her breathing gets heavier.
"Mileena, is something wrong?"
Sister's voice shakes her from her reverie. "I'm listening," she lies.
Kitana is seated on one sofa, Mileena on the other. Jade paces behind Kitana. "Just so I understand," Jade says, "you were saying that you could not sleep after the incident with Noob Saibot, went for a walk, and got lost. And then you were attacked?"
Mileena nods.
"Could you explain that part a little more?"
Pleased that her little omission of her various thefts seems to have taken: "I tried to kill him."
"Well, I would expect no less."
"You must have seen who it was that attacked you?" asks Kitana. "I struggle to think of who could have breached the grounds, especially so near the palace center."
"It was Reptile" she says without thinking. Then, upon seeing their startled reactions: "I think!"
"Could it be?" Kitana asks Jade. "Reptile and Noob Saibot in one night? Here in Edenia?"
"He fights for Outworld if given cause to fight at all; it makes sense," says Jade. "It's no coincidence. They are likely working in concert. Which means..."
"They have a benefactor."
"My thoughts exactly, Kitana."
"This would count as an invasion from another realm, would it not?"
"Perhaps, but—"
They're going off in a direction that excludes her. "I said I think! He looked like Reptile and talked like him too, but his eyes were different, a different color, not Reptile's."
Not Mileena.
"NOT REPTILE!" she barks, vision flaring blood red. The two women opposite her recoil at her outburst.
Jade dances around it. "'Not Reptile', you say… He is the last of his race. I cannot think of a creature you would confuse him with." She adds, lightly, "An evil twin, perhaps?"
"Jade!" Kitana hisses.
"My apologies, Kitana."
Mileena does not understand this tangent. Only makes her more frustrated.
"Regardless, we'd best proceed as if Reptile really did infiltrate the palace. Jade, we will need to triple the guard at the palace perimeter and triple the rounds in the center."
"Shall I warn Liu Kang, as well?"
"Yes. I will also contact Cage and ask him if his companions have found any more information on Raiden's whereabouts. We must get ahead of any threat to Edenia or the other realms."
Mileena bristles at the thought of that Liu Kang man intruding so casually upon this space which she has claimed as her own. How easily he had enmeshed himself with these two, crossed the divide that keeps Mileena balled up on this sofa, thousands of miles away. She has questions about the visions, questions about the two monks, about the scroll, about Sister's pendant, about Johnny Cage, about Raiden and Sonya and all of these names she recognizes but does not truly know. But she decides that speaking of any would be overplaying her hand and would risk harsher punishment. She tucks them away as secrets. "So," she mutters, "am I in trouble?"
Kitana looks at her, seems to struggle for words. Sighs. "No, but I think it would be best if you went to bed a little earlier than usual for the rest of this week—"
Mileena growls loudly.
"Please don't take that tone, Mileena," says Kitana patiently. "I could be much harsher, you know. But I understand why you took your walk last night and, despite what happened with who we think was Reptile, you came out of it alright. Well, mostly alright. So I'm only imposing a curfew."
It doesn't make it better at all. Mileena stares at the carpet between her sofa and Kitana's. Steals a glance at the throne. "I have a question."
"Yes?"
Mileena leers at Jade and huffs loudly.
"Ah, alright," says Jade. She bows and takes her leave of them.
"I understand," says Kitana, leaning in toward Mileena. "Alright, I'm listening, Mileena."
Mileena leers at the open door leading to the foyer and grunts.
Kitana sighs. Gets up. Closes it. Closes the door to the throne room, too. Returns. "Are you ready now?"
"How come you never punish Jade like you punish me?"
Kitana doesn't say anything.
"Is it because you two are friends and we are not?"
Kitana looks like she is searching for words that do not exist.
"Are friends more important than Sisters?"
Quietly: "Are you upset with Jade, Mileena?"
Mileena curls up a little more on the sofa. "I am upset with you both."
Saying it out loud like this brings a swelling of deep ocean blue to Mileena's chest. Her eyes grow heavy. She cannot believe that just saying those words brings tears to her eyes.
"Why?"
The gentle intonation of "why" penetrates her heart. Mileena buries her face in her knees and shakes her head.
"Is it because we yelled at you, Mileena?"
Mileena shakes her head, not because it's untrue, but because she's trying to stop crying like a weakling in front of her Sister. Not Mileena Not Mileena Not Mileena
"If it's not that, then..." Kitana starts, but does not continue. Maybe she cannot. Maybe Mileena isn't giving her enough. But Mileena is too busy fighting herself right now and she both regrets saying a single word and can't imagine living without having said it. She is unable to say anything more to her Sister. And yet how can her Sister not know? How can Kitana not know why her own Sister is upset with her the same way Mileena knows exactly why Kitana is secretly upset with her? "Can you tell me what we did to upset you?"
Mileena shakes her head, curled up in her ball.
"Then," she sighs, "I do not know what to say, Mileena. I'm sorry.
"Oh, Mileena, your legs...they're all bruised up."
Mileena covers her eyes, gets up, and walks toward the door. She hears something that sounds like Kitana's voice calling after her, but she's already opened the door and even though she doesn't know where she's going she is leaving as fast as she can.
Mileena searches the palace for something to break. She looks for something to kill or else rip apart into little pieces. There are too many options. Instead she finds a nice secluded place and screams and screams and it feels like she could tear out anyone's guts with her hands if they would just let her.
She's out on some balcony near the edge of the palace grounds. Watching the Earthrealmer Liu Kang preside over combat between two monks from the town, a smattering of possibly fifty identically-garbed monks behind him in perfectly symmetrical arrangement. They do not see her. She hides behind a pillar. They only imagine they see her. She is invisible invisible invisible, the perfect illusion. She is a secret, a good and clever secret, not a secret to be kept out of shame or hatred.
One of the monks connects with an uppercut that sends his foe soaring. She hears the hard kthwack from where she is. Victory. She recognizes the winner. The man who'd spoken to her last night as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Vague recollection of the name Raphael but he has no color, none but the white of his gi. He lends his foe a hand, helps him to stand. His nature is that of Mercy. He'd shown Mercy to her, too. Or perhaps it had only been Pity.
What is the difference between the two?
Applause. Kang and the combatants exchange words. "A strike on par with Addas's own!" one of the spectators says. She cannot hear the rest.
At Liu Kang's side: the other man. The Addas. The slinger of vile words.
"Tarkatan trophy. Queen's prisoner. Abomination."
He claps, too, just like the rest. The words he used to describe her, they are clapping as they swim around her head, they are clapping and smiling abomination and singing the praises of Queen's prisoner the monk who best left forgotten won the fight.
Her nails dig into the pillar as she snarls. They are all tainted with his stink. Do they think horrible thoughts about me, too? Her eyes go wide. She imagines them all torn asunder in a sea of blood, parts scattered and voices silenced so that they cannot even be given the chance to judge her. It fills her with a rich satisfaction in her stomach, the same she gets after eating.
Kang joins them in conversation. He joins them in laughter. He is confident and heroic at the center of that group just as he'd been confident with Jade and Sister. He is the star in the night sky, the Good Man, the Champion, an intruder. She presses hard against the pillar with her body, snarling, trying to blink him out of existence. There is nobody she hates more right now than Liu Kang. Get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, go home, go home, die, die die!
It is so obvious that he despises her.
She thinks of him laughing with her Sister and it makes her unable to see. She feels naked without a means with which to address this urge to change everything in a second. She needs something to hold if she cannot grab hold of the nearest throat. She needs the sais that had been left on her dresser; they will help her, they will give her the means to do anything to make the sick feeling inside of her better.
She turns around to go get them.
"I thought it was strange you weren't in your room," says Jade, here, in her way.
Mileena stands completely still and says nothing.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Mileena stands completely still and says nothing.
"Ah, wonderful! Come with me. I have something to show you."
The balcony overseeing the hedge maze. When she first arrived in the palace six months ago, Mileena attempted to explore it, conquer it, make it hers. She'd become lost, failed, and emerged later bitter and angry. A place which ensnares, which would conquer her with its complexity. If she cannot dominate such a place she will steer clear until a means by which to do so presents itself. Now is not that time, for she is here, now, with Jade, whose hands are behind her back.
Mileena looks down at the labyrinth. Not in the mood to play games.
"Kitana told me that you asked her why she and I are friends. Is that true?"
She stares dead ahead. "Behind my back." She lets out a bitter laugh. "Behind my back, Jade."
"But we are behind Kitana's back now, no?"
Mileena stops smiling as much as her mouth allows.
"Well, Mileena, I thought about what I said to you yesterday in the forest, after our encounter with Noob Saibot. It was wrong of me to throw all of my frustration at you. So I thought I would answer your question myself."
Liar. Just a trick. I know better now.
"The best way I can put it is that friends have something in common. Something that connects them, even if they may be from totally opposite backgrounds or circumstances. Even if they argue and fight."
She is admitting that she and Sister laugh at me behind my back. That they hate me. That they keep secrets from me. She desires my hatred. She desires even worse than my hatred. Mileena's eyes flare red. Nails digging into tightly clenched fists, nearly breaking skin.
"Kitana and I are friends because there is a lot that she and I share together."
filthy Jade wretched Jade disgusting Jade evil Jade horrid Jade despicable Jade deceptive Jade Jade Jade Jade Jade Jade stealing my Sister sharing secrets with Sister
"With that said…"
Jade produces a cloth from behind her back, holds it out to Mileena. Unfurls it. Mileena's eyes fall upon the emerald rose from Kitana's garden.
"...I believe you dropped this last night."
Mileena takes it before she can think.
Just as radiant as it had been last night, even though the color of its blossom does not melt onto her hand as before. The color of its flower is Jade's. The color of its flower blooms into her own. Her anger contorts into a shade and shape she does not recognize. This balcony is the void. The labyrinth below is no longer a maze but an emptiness and Jade is a thousand miles away in a dream, and the inside of Mileena's head is singing without music.
"It was near where you were found last night. I found it after the guard carried you off to the ward." She chuckles. "Kitana's private gardens are quite beautiful, are they not? Emphasis on 'private.'"
Mileena stares at the rose.
"Your handmaiden told me just now that you had been picking flowers for…'Lady Jade,' was it? Curious that you did not mention this to Kitana or I earlier."
Mileena swallows hard.
"I have a feeling there is more to your tale about last night than you were letting on, Mileena."
Mileena's eyes are now on Jade.
Who leans in and whispers, "So perhaps this can be our secret." Outline of a smile behind her mask. "Something the two of us can share."
Jade takes her leave. The world comes back into focus. Swaying of trees. Autumn leaves raining upon the tiles of the roofs. Some chatter in the distance. The minutes pass. An eternity goes by. And Jade's color remains splotched on Mileena's canvas, bleeding over her intent, bleeding over her wants, her questions, her intentions. Conclusions drawn now torn to pieces and lying like feathers on the floor.
Mileena looks at the rose.
The contours of a contest emerge and her eyes light up.
"Two can play at this game, Jade."
The setting sun sets her southern shadowlands ablaze.