A/N: This fanfic was inspired by Mortal Kombat Desperation by FloweryNamesLover, Of Crystal Shards and Dust by Daemon of Wrath and Dust and RWBY Heroes: A Double Edged Sword by Dunedan. The authors of all three were a tremendous help in offering their feedback during the planning phases, you guys are the best!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that I haven't created myself, Mortal Kombat is owned by Netherrealm Studios and RWBY is owned by Roosterteeth (dammit).
Now on to the show and please review and tell me what you think.
-Unknown Location-
Light and dark, good and evil. They are two sides that since the dawn of time have always been at war with one another and yet, one cannot exist without the other. It was an inevitability, just as the wheel of time continues to turn, ever onwards towards its inevitable conclusion as both light and dark continued to clash. Armageddon. The final battle between the forces of light and dark that would bring about the destruction of all the Realms in a final apocalyptic ending that would destroy all that ever was and all that ever would be. What most didn't know was that this would result in an entity more ancient than even the Elder Gods, returning. An entity that would be the destruction of all that ever was.
From what would emerge from the ashes of what was when the entity was reawakened no one knew, not the greatest of kings, not the wisest of sorcerers, not even the Elder Gods, in all their vast power and knowledge, knew. Not even the great Keeper of Time herself, Kronika knew. All that anyone knew was that it was something that must be prevented at all costs. To that end, Kronika had over perhaps hundreds of millions of years and perhaps millions of different timelines, manipulated events that would prevent Armageddon from ever occurring. And each time, she failed. Sometimes it happened at the hand of Shao Kahn, others it happened at the hands of Shinnok or Onaga and on rarer occasions still it was because of Daegon, Quan Chi or even Shang Tsung.
No matter what she did, be it through the subtleties and intrigue or even a far more direct approach, could Kronika prevent Armageddon from occurring and with it, the destruction of all existence. Whenever Armageddon started to occur, Kronika would reset time again and work through it all over again. Subtly manipulating people and events in a desperate attempt to thwart it. It was something that had been done so many times that even the Goddess of Time itself would wonder on occasion if she would ever lose track of it all.
In the last timeline, when Armageddon was about to commence at the Emperor of Outworld, Shao Kahn's hands, something happened. Something that happened without any subtle manipulation or direct action, something that surprised Kronika.
When all hope seemed lost, and mere second before his own demise at the hands of Shao Kahn, the God of Thunder and protector of Earthrealm, Raiden sent a series of visions backwards in time to his younger self. Visions of the future and how Shao Kahn would bring about Armageddon. While the visions were a good attempt at a warning, the lack of preparation in sending them left them a jumbled mess that the Thunder God's past self struggled to make sense of. Initially it was his belief that if Shao Kahn's champions could be defeated in the Mortal Kombat tournament he would not be able to conquer Earthrealm and merge it with Outworld, then all would be well.
Mortal Kombat, a tournament system created by the Elder Gods in an effort to maintain balance and prevent large scale inter-Realm conflicts from occurring. If a Realm wished to invade another and merge them, then the invading realm had to defeat the defending realm's champions ten times in a row in a tournament held once every few years, though in Earthrealm's case it was once every fifty years. Upon defeating the defending Realm's champions after the tenth tournament the invading realm was allowed to carry out its invasion and merge the Realms. If the leader of the invading realm attempted to merge the Realms if they had not first won ten consecutive victories, then the Elder Gods would intervene themselves, and wipe the leader of the invasion out of existence and if their armies still did not relent, they would be next.
For thousands of years, Shao Kahn focused almost all of his efforts towards expanding his empire on conquering Earthrealm. With the help of the visions Raiden and the other champions won the tenth tournament, preventing Shao Kahn from merging the realms. What should have been a victory for Earthrealm however became only a temporary delay. Shao Kahn's advisor, the sorcerer Shang Tsung had devised a new strategy one that would offer bait far too tempting for the Thunder god to pass up. There would be a new tournament held in Outworld, and this time, if Earthrealm's champions won, then Shao Kahn would give up his claim to Earthrealm forever but if the forces of Shao Kahn emerged victorious, then Outworld would absorb Earthrealm.
Realizing that Earthrealm would be forever at risk if the standard tournament system continued, reluctantly agreed. While there were many battles in Outworld, ultimately, at the cost of one of Earthrealm's champion's lives, Earthrealm emerged victorious after Shao Kahn was near fatally wounded as the last Outworld combatant. For several months Raiden and his allies settled down, believing that they were at last free from the threat of Outworld.
They had vastly underestimated Shao Kahn's determination and the depths of his ambition. At the advice of the Netherrealm sorcerer Quan Chi, who stroked the conqueror's ego and offered up yet another plan. He claimed that the Elder Gods laws were mere fiction and that they should simply conquer the Realm by force of arms. After all the Elder Gods had never truly done anything on their own, as they had always used proxies to act in their stead. His anger stoked and pride threatened, Shao Kahn did just that.
For months Shao Kahn had quietly gathered his armies and prepared for his invasion. When he finally did strike, he took Earthrealm completely by surprise and over the course of several weeks, systematically tore apart Earthrealm's defenses and killing almost all of its champions before offering their souls to Quan Chi, who turned them into his own undead revenant slaves. However when Shao Kahn attempted to merge the realms the Elder Gods turned their full fury down on Shao Kahn and wiped him from existence.
While Shao Kahn had indeed been defeated there were still other threats, more specifically Quan Chi and his master, the fallen Elder God Shinnok who launched yet another invasion of Earthrealm two years after the first one had concluded, using the depleted manpower in its armies as the perfect opportunity to strike. Raiden and the remaining champions fought desperately against Shinnok and Quan Chi and with the help some unexpected allies, they turned the war around and defeated Shinnok, sealing him within his own amulet.
Eighteen years had passed since the Netherrealm war and now the Realms faced an uncertain future, not only to those that inhabited them but to Kronika as well. In all of her time shaping events, she had never seen them unfold quite like this before. It was one of the reasons why she heeded her daughter Cetrion's advice, that this time she would let the mortals do as they willed, without planting ideas in their minds, unless of course Armageddon started once again.
It was a gamble to be sure, but at this point she was more than willing to try anything. So far things had not proceeded as they normally did, which could either be good or bad. Champions that were on the side of light had been forced to serve the dark and now there were new champions for the light that would not have existed before if the timeline had not been altered by Raiden.
Now new events were starting to unfold and it was quickly becoming apparent that unlike every other iteration of Armageddon, the final battle wouldn't be fought atop a pyramid centered in a large crater in the ruined Realm of Edenia. Instead it would occur in a backwards, seemingly insignificant Realm that very few knew or cared about. A Realm known to its inhabitants, simply as Remnant.
Kronika looked away from her hourglass and allowed the visions of the past and countless possible futures to cease. Standing vigil over her was the entity known as Geras. Geras was a construct that Kronika created to act as both an agent of her will, as well as an ever faithful guard to watch over her hourglass which controlled the sands of time itself when she was otherwise occupied. Geras had been her constant companion throughout all this time and save for her daughter Cetrion, there was no one she trusted more.
"Geras, you have been with me since the beginning. Since I began my…quest to save the Realms throughout all of these countless iterations you have stood by me. Tell me. Am I doing the right thing by letting events unfold without any…manipulations?" She asked.
Geras did not so much as make any real movements at first and instead continued to stand watch, his stoicism not betraying how he felt "Kronika, like you I have been witness to countless timelines and thus far none of them have ever unfolded quite like this before. We may be doing the right thing, we may be doing the wrong thing, but perhaps it is best that for the time being, we let events continue as they are."
It was times like this that Kronika was grateful that Geras was more than just a protector for the Hourglass. He was also a very capable advisor who did not hesitate to give his honest opinion on a matter, even if said opinion was something that she really didn't want to hear. "I suppose there is some merit to that. In all honesty Geras I am very, very tired, as ironic as that may sound. I'm tired of the manipulations and the failures to stop the destruction of the Realms. Perhaps the prevention of Armageddon lies not in the hands of the Elder Gods, but maybe in the hands of simpler, more honest souls."
She gave a sad smile to her longtime companion before turning back to the hourglass. Watching as events began to unfold.
To be continued.
A/N: yes I know that this was basically an info dump and that was why it was released with the first chapter. I mainly wrote this so that anyone who has watched RWBY and hasn't played Mortal Kombat will have an easier time following along.
As for those of you who HAVE played Mortal Kombat 11 and recognize Kronika as the villain of that game and are wondering why she's acting the way she is here well…I felt that Kronika in MK11 was a bland, boring and ultimately redundant villain. Out of nowhere she took the place of a villain that the remake timeline had been building up to (in this case a corrupted Raiden or even The One Being) and apparently her motivation is to create the "perfect timeline", but they never explain why that is other than achieving "balance between good and evil" and that's it. We're never told why the balance between good and evil is so important and we never get any kind of definitive answer because she dies at the end of the game she is introduced in.
Now the majority of the MK villains motivations can be summed up in one sentence: They are power hungry bastards or they are after revenge, or both. Thus all their actions are to expand their own power and/or obtain revenge. However Kronika's goals are clearly more than just power for herself but given that she dies at the end of the game without even any real elaboration on what they are just makes her seem somewhat boring and forgettable as a villain.
That's why I'm making her more of a neutral character, one who is trying to prevent Armageddon (whereas in the original game it's heavily implied she set it into motion as part of her plan to "balance the universe") and has spent billions of years trying to do it, only to fail each time. Now she's definitely not a nice character, she's interfered with free will (by planting her own ideas into the heads of others) and has caused a lot of suffering and death towards countless people both innocent and guilty as a result. Granted it's to prevent the end of the universe but some might argue that she is doing some rather unethical things to go about it but given the stakes involved *shrugs* it might be justified depending on who you ask.
Whether or not she'll have any more of an impact on later chapters, well…I'm not going to tell you.