A/N: I have a lot of fun writing these chapters. I tried to write this one quicker than the last one.
I hope you enjoy!
500,000 B.M.K.
Viper felt his head slam into the floor, his tail dragging on the marble as he coughed. "Am I bleeding from my mouth?" He thought as he let his hand trail over the area, and when he investigated he saw a green paste-like substance caked onto his hand. He shifted in his new position and could feel a pain erupting near his lungs. In his agony, Viper glanced to his left and could see Reptile. It was not long before a column of gold energy descended upon the green-scaled saurian.
"Don't hurt him… you… you." Every bit of his usual snark disappeared as he saw it. The bodies of moroi, 2 saurians, and whoever else was unfortunate enough to walk into the battle.
Even now, in his decrepit position, Viper felt the last traces of Zaterra, slipping through his fingers.
He struggled to his feet, "I can still save Rep-… Syzoth." He turned to the vampire and took in every bit of his appearance.
"Vampire… strigoi race… king of Vaeternus." Viper's tail helped him regain balance as he finished analyzing his foe, he got ready and bared his teeth, a depraved hiss escaping from the small seams between his fangs.
"Still alive? Good." The man said, his name was now irrelevant, having been replaced by an alias Viper found much more fitting, "Yaldson." He sprinted and reprimanded himself for causing more discomfort in his chest, but he smirked at the bloodthirsty satisfaction of the strigoi's metal armor breaking when his claw ripped into it. He made himself invisible and jumped onto a tall pillar in the room, he waited. The battle was not long, he watched the Yaldson's every move, waiting for him to make a mistake. When he saw it, a wrong turn, he pounced from his position and let his claws tear into the adversary, his vision blurred and all he could see was the vague shapes of his jet black arms and innards of the vampire.
"Viper, stop." A voice was added to the sound of mutilation. "Viper, stop!" He could feel a hand pull at his shoulder, Viper reluctantly listened. He knew the voice had to belong to Reptile, and so a half-satisfied, half-disgusted smile broke across his face.
"I saved Syzoth but… what did I just do?" He stood and his vision became clearer, he turned away from his most recent 'work of art' and tried desperately to recall his name. All that was left of his once grandiose appearance was an occasional undamaged blue tuft of hair and 2 black wings that were attached to his back.
The 2 remaining saurians stared at each other, then towards the bodies of their compatriots. Drifting towards the door, Viper recalled their true names, barely. "Pythos and Komodai."
Once they had reached the courtyard outside of the palace, the sun of Vaeternus could be seen shining on the capital city, and the chaos that ran rampant in it, images of a burning Zaterra forced itself into his mind. Slowly and steadily, an uneasiness grew on his hidden scales. In contrast to the discomfort, suddenly Reptile placed his hand on Viper's shoulder.
"Recent events notwithstanding, are you alright?" Concern flashed in his yellow eyes.
"Do you believe Shao Kahn will let us repopulate Zaterra? Because I do not. Not anymore." Viper stared at his raw hands, the feeling of self-loathing still prevalent. The realization that everything he was fighting for being a lie, smacking him in the face.
They stayed there, watching the destruction slowly engulf another realm, a black and purple portal slowly assimilating Vaeternus.
"I hate myself." Viper thought, he knew what he had become. it was only then that he realized the saurians were doomed, no matter if they reclaimed Zaterra. Quietly he walked in the general direction of where his emperor was, feeling that he was to blame for his race's endangerment.
22 A.M.K.
"Why did the smell matter?" Jacqui stated, unsure of why it had not entered into his story yet.
"Good of you to ask, it will come into play right now." He had a vexatious smile on his face as he waved his hand. Jacqui found herself liking the lizard a bit more as he continued. It occurred to her, that maybe this was what he needed. Someone who would listen to his story, and not judge him.
"I wonder if he ever told the tarkatan downstairs," she thought as he started the next part of his tale.
9507 B.M.K.
The strangest smell wafted into the throne room.
"It smells… sweet?" Viper thought as his tongue hung out and pulled itself back in for a more detailed sense of what it was. He instantly regretted it, the aroma stuck to the roof of his mouth and despite his best efforts, he could not shake it.
"Sweet is the wrong word. Fragrant, more like." Viper coughed and glanced about the room, mostly because he wanted a better look at who was causing the scent. When he had caught who he believed was the culprit, one word burned itself into his mind.
"Beautiful."
Alas, the beckoning of Shao Kahn interrupted him from further admiration. Like usual, the Kahn began talking with the peasants, who would receive his 'help.'
"They're more like to get their heads chopped off than receive true assistance from the Konqueror." Be it in chains or with smiles on their faces, eventually, everyone had filed out of the room. Everyone except the woman, and Viper.
He used every part of his will to refrain from looking at her, keeping his eyes trained on what seemed to be 'more important.'
"Why don't we just look at her?" Viper could hear his inner voice saying.
"Simple, we've never encountered that smell before, and even if we had we're still-" The inner voice stopped at the saurian's sudden biting of his own tongue. Viper could feel a small bit of blood welling where his teeth were not 3 seconds ago.
Shao Kahn held out a hand and beckoned the 2 of them closer. As they sauntered closer, his nose filled with the, admittedly nice, but overwhelming smell.
"Jade, he will be your partner." The woman looked over, while Viper simply stared back, no words having been shared. But in his awkward gazing, he was able to make out the features of her face. She had high cheekbones, and with those were a nice amount of gaunt that complimented her sharp chin excellently. Her lips were soft and pillowy. Her hair was as black as ink spilled across a page, but instead of cursing and fetching a new well and paper, he kept staring. His favorite feature though, were her eyes, they were the shape of almonds and they carried a shade of green that reminded him of the swamps in his homelands. It was... nerveracking but strangely calming at the same time to look at her. When she had noticed how long he had been staring, however, she smiled. In response, he looked down faster than he had ever in his life.
"Jade..." He mused. "Now, if I could stop creepily smiling every time I say that name to myself... that would be amazing."
The surprising knowledge that Shao Kahn was assigning partners was tempered by the fact that it was someone he had never met before, that he did not already want to estrange himself from.
When the emperor left his throne, probably searching for his empress sindel, Viper eagerly stopped to speak with Jade.
"Any idea where he was going? I'd bet it's to find Sindel." He said, bluntly.
"A wise observation." She responded, her hand reached out angled downward.
"She can't seriously be asking me to... actually... who the hell cares."
He took her hand into his, all of a sudden feeling quite uncomfortable, he lifted it to his lips and planted a kiss near where her knuckles would be. He had seen people do that, but it was quite a rare gesture and, it was unheard of to ask a saurian, in all their acid-lipped glory, to kiss someone's hand.
"Viper was it? Is that the first time you've been asked to kiss someone's hand?"
"Viper." He confirmed, and then continued. "Considering I'm a saurian, and acid comes out of my mouth? Yes." He cursed himself for reverting back to his sarcastic tendencies.
But, she laughed, and took her hand out of his.
"Then I'm glad I didn't lose my hand."
"You smell nice." He said in his mind... glad that he and his uncharacteristic eagerness were on the same page.
"You're outfit," He paused. "It's complimentary..." He realized in that moment that she may not have interpreted what he meant correctly. "To your eyes! It... it brings out your eyes." He paused again, looking at the hints of red eyeshadow. "And the... makeup also helps..." He stopped talking.
"Well, thank you." She said, smirking all the while. "I'll see you soon, hmm?"
"Yes... that would be nice." Viper smiled.
"Maybe we should just... stick to sarcasm? Hmm, Viper?"
22 A.M.K.
The giant lizard-man had a smile on his face as he described Jade. The slits in his eyes seemed to dilate as he continued on in his story.
"The drawing in the dossier… he must have made it." Jacqui thought about how she looked, and she knew that beautiful was one of many nice words one could use to describe her. "I bet she knew a lot more about him than anyone else."
Her mind jumped to Takeda and she felt lucky that she could even see him. But, Jade was… not here. Viper though…
"Sorry… kind of a weird question." She interjected, mostly to stop another silence from filling the room. "But… what did Jade smell like?" An awkward expression populated her face. It seemed Viper would've ignored her but, sure enough, he answered.
"If I described it you'd probably not understand. I smelled it better with my tongue, after all. And I'm quite certain humans are incapable of that."
"But… you did smell it with your nose first." Jacqui said, trying to push him.
"Well, yes. But, I can also smell things you can't." He retorted.
"Can you try? To explain it I mean." Viper shrugged.
"She smelled like…"
9023 B.M.K.
"Nightshade?" Jade guessed. She walked toward her partner, holding a small plant.
"Bittersweet nightshade." He said with a cheeky smile. Jade cupped the small flower in her hand, she looked at the purple petals, and the small yellow structure protruding from the center.
"How will this help?" She thought the flower was pretty, but as far as she knew it wasn't poisonous.
"It won't." It was captivating, how cynical he could be sometimes. But, she still had her mind on the task at hand.
"So… how are we going to poison him." She dare not say his name, the rat-like face came to her in a contorted image.
"This is just the flower." He said, his hand went further into his satchel, and when it came back out he held many small berries. "This is deadly nightshade."
"I wonder why it's called that." She turned her gaze to his and she could see a smile emerging from the shroud that blocked his face. The glow in his eyes made it seem that the world was losing its color and pouring into his oculi.
He turned away from her, still smiling.
Jade had always thought he was an amusing man, what with his sarcastic remarks and semi-animalistic mannerisms. Such as how during the rare times she saw him eating it would always be an unidentifiable red piece of meat or a bowl of wax worms and insects. And unlike the other members of Shao Kahn's court, she would find him spending most of his time in the library or his chambers, hunched over, reading.
Before excusing herself, however, Jade asked him for a book.
His response: "Yes, of course, my selection is yours."
And hearing this, she selected the one he seemed to favor updating most. As she left his room and began the walk back to her chambers she opened halfway through the book and saw pages dedicated to the different realms. There were ones she had heard of such as Seido and Earthrealm, as well as ones that were unknown to her, and seemingly the majorit of sentient beings, entirely. What interested her most though was a small note at the end of Outworld's section. It read: 'we're far behind.'
The sheer amount of information, and the time he must've needed to have collected it, was quite surprising. As she opened the door to her own chambers she lay on the bed and, considering the only season Outworld seemed to have was summer, rested without any sheets.
While she had checked the most recent pages of the tome, quite frankly, she was curious. Her hands opened the journal to the beginning. She reached a drawing.
It was an interminably lush swamp, filled with trees and lily pads. Among the shallow waters were a few reptilian creatures and in the reflection of the pools they dwelled in, as well as through the tops of the leaves, was what seemed to be a dark magenta moon accompanying the starry night sky. What interested her most about the picture though, was a bright red figure in the distance of the marsh.
"This must be Zaterra, and that," She pointed at the red blot, "has got to be Viper."
It was true, she had never seen the realm. But, descriptions from a certain saurian named Reptile, who may have been slightly under the influence at that time, were enough to confirm her theories.
Moving on, she flipped to a different page. This time, it was a cliff colored black as sable surrounded by a heavy orange sky. The moon, seemingly ever-present, shone in the background.
"Vaeternus," Jade mused. She hadn't met many vampires and the ones that she did, Nitara, never seemed interested in making nice with the other members of the court.
Next, was a golden palace surrounded by an equally bright desert. Although in that picture, Viper had, strangely, favored the sun rather than its lunar counterpart.
"Osh-Tekk," She continued.
Among the following page was a chartreuse fog with floating islands that hung defiantly in the sky. The ground was a rocky and fluorescent yellow plateau with large expanses of clear water surrounding it. The realm simply had to have been Chaosrealm, the terrain itself was a dead giveaway.
Continuing, there was a landscape of a giant archipelago. On the shores were palm trees, inhabited by hollow hives that would give trypophobes a nightmare. The characteristics made it plain that it was Arnyek. The realm was among many, or at least the annexed ruins of those among the drawings, that she had never been too.
She flipped through more pages and while pictures accompanied them, those realms were unknown to her. All of them except for the last one she came upon. It was one of the warmest drawings and looking at it made her feel some sort of sadness. When her hand went to it she could almost recall a voice that called her name with a strange familiarity.
She stubbornly pushed the thoughts out of her head, and examined the drawing closer. Quite frankly, it was beautiful. The hills were covered in a lush blanket of green, the sky was an endless blue, and the waterfalls flowed forever. The buildings were massive, domed, and complimented the areas of nature around them.
"Edenia," Jade thought sadly. She always did have an interest in the realm, but the libraries had limited information. And while it was true she could ask the other members of Shao Kahn's court, she could already tell that Reptile would frantically refuse to speak of the conquests, Kollector would preach the emperor's brilliance, Motaro would revel only in his kills, Baraka would nod and speak of battle strategy, D'vorah would demand isolation, and Kitana, Tanya, and Jade herself were all too young to recall the place. Which, hitherto, left one individual she could've gone to; Rain. However, the edenian prince was too pretentious for her to enjoy dealing with in extended periods of time. And as to the reason she never turned to Viper, she had thought him to be like Reptile.
A knock on the door interrupted any further musings she may have had and through the wood, a muffled voice called out: "Viper said you'd be here." It had to have been Kitana Accordingly, Jade walked to the door and, seeing the friend she had expected, embraced her companion with a hug.
"As I said, I went to see if you were still with Viper. He was hunched over his alchemy set watching the fumes spill out of a vial by the time he answered me."
"Fumes?" Jade asked with a laugh. She had seen Viper concoct poisons, sometimes she helped him, but the process never included spouts of miasma. "He must've become ... distracted." She finished conjuring up an idea of what he was doing.
"My mother, through my father, finally let me out the throne room, and so I came to find you." Ever since they had reached adulthood, or a fraction before maturity for Jade, they had been put through rigorous training. As they sat together at the edge of the bed it became apparent that, due to her time spent with the highest members of Shao Kahn's court, Kitana could gossip with the best of them. Jade wasn't quite listening though. She heard the supposed 'meat' of the whispers but the other parts were ignored. Instead, she was considering showing Kitana the journal.
"Wouldn't you say that it's questionable? Motaro, I mean," She asked.
Jade had finished mulling over showing the journal to Kitana and after answering her, she said: "I'll be right back." Handing the book to Kitana, she pressed her hands into the pages and instructed her to open the one with the drawing of Edenia. Her friend stood from the edge of the mattress and asked: "Is this... our home realm?"
"Yes." Jade answered.
"Did... did you draw this?" Kitana asked in disbelief.
"Well, you know me... I'm a prodigy." Jade joked, and while she did she left a mental note that she would have to ask Viper about this.
"May I... look at the rest of the pictures?" Kitana asked. But, another knock on the door interrupted them. When it was opened, in the doorway stood the very saurian whom the drawings belonged to. In his hand, that was blotted out by an ink-like enchantment, he held a small vial of purple liquid.
"Finished with your poison?" Jade asked playfully.
"Yes." He answered back in the same tone, holding the smile on his face that he had earlier.
"I hope the miasma didn't spread through the hallway," Jade found herself smiling again.
"If I start sleeping, you'll know." When he stood at his full height, the very top of his head was obscured not only by his hood, but also the doorframe.
"Excuse me?" They turned back to Kitana, who seemed to have put away the journal. "I think we're missing the importance of this conversation... how does the poison work?" Viper seemed to laugh at that remark. Behind his blotted out face, he responded: "You needn't worry, all you need know is that it will work... to deadly effect."
A/N: Considering the last part talked about height, I just wanted to say that Viper's height was off-handedly mentioned in the first chapter so he is 6'4", maybe a bit taller.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading! It means a lot to me that there are people who enjoy my story and that they'd take the time to read.
Sincerely,
The Swampian