Bondage
by Nyohah
2
The Deceptions of Demons
First Day of Mortal Kombat
Pounding on her door startled the woman writing, causing her to drop her pen. Soon, a voice accompanied the abuse to the door.
"Mileena! Hurry up! We're going to be late!"
The woman quickly hid her pen and the small leather notebook she had been writing in. She headed to the door, barely remembering her mask before she exited. Kitana stood just outside the door, anxiety easy to read on her expression, even from just the shining black eyes that showed over the sapphire mask. "Come on, we have to hurry."
"You already said that," mumbled the woman, as they headed off, double time, to the arena, and she adjusted the violet silk that covered her mouth and nose. As they rounded the last corner, she straightened her posture, assuming an assertive stance. Everyone else was already there, except Jade. Once again, Mileena questioned what the third female ninja would be doing in this godforsaken tournament.
"Finally, you decide to join us, ladies. I suppose you've never heard of being punctual." That had been a typically snide comment by Shang Tsung, who was informally in charge. He was the one who'd suggested another tournament, as well as created the original Mortal Kombat, and Shao Kahn would much rather watch the fighters than actually participate or interact with them. Shang Tsung, on the other hand, loved to verbally torture them. "As you are now here, I will give you all the details of this new tournament. They're a little different than the former. There are only eleven of you, which rules out a bracket tournament. Instead you will fight until you have been defeated three times. One of you will have to sit out each day until we have an even number. On your third loss, your opponent has the option of killing you, but only on the third loss. Once a winner is determined from you eleven, they will proceed to fight me, then Kintaro, and then, finally, Shao Kahn, if they make it that far, which they won't."
"Kintaro?" joked Johnny Cage, his always-present sunglasses masking the gleam in his eyes. "Is he by any chance related to Goro?" He meant it to be funny, but the joke fell flat. At the demon sorcerer's smile, he actually thought about the connotations of such a thing, as Rayden, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Scorpion already had. All five tensed up, praying that it was not true.
"As a matter of fact, no." A very visible wave of relief washed over them; they exhaled one great sigh in unison. "But they are the same species. And Kintaro is even bigger than Goro!" declared Tsung impishly. The Earth warriors' reactions returned, some lowering their heads, some groaning. Mileena found herself analyzing them. Kung Lao probably knew of Goro from his ancestor having once beaten him, or from Liu Kang telling him of the Shokan. Liu Kang, Rayden, Scorpion, and Johnny Cage had all fought in the previous tournament. Jax had probably never heard of him, as Sonya hadn't returned, the very reason he had come. But Sub-Zero had fought in the tournament; he had seen Goro. She noted this, and it began to bother her.
"We will be having five matches today. They will end when a fighter is knocked unconscious, or is forced to surrender, which I hope will never happen. First fight is Sub-Zero versus Scorpion. We like to start our tournaments off with a bang."
After her match, Mileena sat down for a few moments, only to find that she was too restless to sit. She paced the halls of the palace, aimlessly wandering, and trying to sort out her thoughts. She wandered by a waiting hall and decided to sit in there, away from the demons. She was surprised to see that Sub-Zero had gotten a similar idea.
He was sitting at a table with his elbows on it and he rested his head on his hands, his cheekbones pressed against the back of his hands, as if he were studying the grain of the table.
Having nothing better to do, Mileena walked over and sat across from him.
"Hi Subby...can I call you Subby?" He stared at the table. "Do you talk?" No sound came from the ninja. "Do you move?" He did not move either. "Can you imitate a rock?—Very good!"
Finally, he lifted his head up, slightly. "Why does he hate me?"
"What was that? Rephrase your question. You can use a Chinese language, if you need to."
"Scorpion," he explained. "I could practically feel it, like it was a tangible thing. Why?"
"Well, I dunno, you did kill him, but that's no reason to hate anyone," she said sarcastically.
Once again, the ninja looked down at the table.
Mileena sighed, and tried to get him to open up again, for a reason she could not quite grasp and pinned as boredom and the lack of anything better to do. "You did really good in your fight," she said, both meaning it, and hoping flattery would work on the fighter, yet somehow knowing it probably wouldn't. "You're pretty quick, for an ice ninja," she added, half to herself, after she received no response.
"Actually," he whispered, "I'm water."
"Really?" She tilted her head curiously.
"The Lin Kuei way of using power naturally translates water to ice." He sunk even lower, and his voice, too, dropped, to a level barely audible. "It's not a good thing."
"Hmm," she said thoughtfully, trying to decide what he meant, and to get him to elaborate, but an appearance at the door stopped her. "Oh, hi Kung Lao."
"Am I missing all the fun?"
"Not really. He talked to me. It was exciting."
"He talks? Amazing."
"Yes, very—hey, I think he's blushing!"
"What?" Kung Lao gave her a look that all but screamed, psycho alert!
"Look!" Mileena pointed at Sub-Zero.
He buried his face, though already covered with a mask, in his hands, and sunk even lower.
Kung Lao raised an eyebrow at the woman. "How can you tell? He's wearing a mask. And he was facing the table!"
"No, really. I had a...friend who blushed all the time. I can pick it out from a mile away. He was!"
"Whatever." Kung Lao sat next to Mileena. "Do you think he's going to sit up again? He's barely done anything the entire time we were here. We didn't think he was capable of speech."
"Don't forget that he talked to me."
"You must have some amazing feminine charms to make him sp—" He sharply cut off his sentence and half-cringed as Shang Tsung stepped into the room.
"Are you hiding from me?" he said. "It took me forever to find you three. We've finished all of today's matches, and I'd like to congratulate you three on your win. Guess what your prize is!"
Kung Lao looked hopeful. Sub-Zero actually moved. Mileena rolled her eyes.
"You all get to fight at least three more times! Doesn't that make you absolutely ecstatic?"
Kung Lao and Sub-Zero both collapsed onto the table, not at all enjoying their reward. Feeling proud of himself at ruining yet two more people's days, the sorcerer strode out of the room.
"Imp," said Mileena. She looked at her companions, expectantly, waiting for someone to say something, but the light-hearted mood had been broken.
"I would have to agree, Mileena," said Kung Lao at last, "but I really ought to get some rest. Bloodbath tournaments and tired people don't mix."
He left. Mileena looked at Sub-Zero. She even leaned her head down to his eye level, trying to get some sort of a response. It was no use. She stood up.
"Subby, has anyone ever told you that you act like you're catatonic?" She turned and left, but she could have sworn she heard a slight exhaling sound that could have been a quiet laugh.
Kitana grunted as she pushed herself through the hole in the ceiling. Jade had told her the way to the secret room she had found. Kitana hoped it was worth the effort. This hole was barely half a meter square. She placed all her weight on one small rafter, praying to Master Kahn that it would hold her. This building was older than anything else she had ever seen.
Or that she remembered she had seen.
She pictured the scene in her head, as clear as though it had happened a moment ago, instead of four years. She had awoken, quite confused, in a hospital bed, Shang Tsung sitting next to her, looking distraught.
"My Princess Kitana!" he exclaimed when she sat up, then frowned. "You do remember you're Princess Kitana, don't you?"
Kitana had nodded, feeling more confused by the second.
"I'm so sorry," Tsung had continued. "We didn't mean for this to happen."
"What?" she asked, desperately. "What happened?"
"Oh, you don't remember any of it," he groaned. "You were hurt very badly. You were in a coma for almost a year. You've suffered head injuries. Now we're afraid you may have amnesia."
"Amnesia?" The princess was quite panicked by this time.
"How much do you remember? When was your last birthday?"
"The last birthday I remember," she had answered, thinking deeply, "was my twentieth."
Shang Tsung had cursed, looking horrified. "Are you completely certain that it was your twentieth?"
She thought harder. "Yes. Master Kahn gave me my ninja outfit, and my fans, and I was only supposed to get those on my twentieth birthday."
Shang Tsung stared at the ground, not daring to meet her shining black eyes. "My Princess, in that case, you are missing nearly nine thousand, nine hundred, and seventy-eight years of your memory."
At first, she hadn't believed that she could be so old. She only looked as though she was in her early twenties. But he had explained to her how she was of a great race that lived millions of years, that most all of the Outworlders were of this race, except for the mutants, who didn't live anywhere near as long, the Shokans, who lived longer, and the Centaurions, who lived nearly as long as the Shokans.
It was all so confusing to her. She felt as though she had been stripped of most of her life unfairly, and she thanked Master Kahn for even remembering the little that she did.
Jade was suspicious of this. Of course, Jade was suspicious of everything. That was why she knew every secret entrance—there was nearly one hundred—and crept around the castle spying on people, though Kitana had tried to get her to stop. She had met Jade just after she awoke from her coma. Jade had been taking care of Master Kahn's business in place of Kitana for the year she'd been incapacitated.
And now Jade had found this place, and she insisted that Kitana visit it. She'd told her almost a month ago, but with the preparing for the tournament, Kitana had just now been able to see it.
She replaced the ceiling tile that led into the passage. It was cut on an angle so it would stay in place, and it was cut so well that one couldn't tell from the outside. The rest of the thousands of tiles in this hallway were glued to the ceiling; she knew because she'd tried the wrong one several times, even with Jade's instructions. She wondered how Jade had found the time to inspect every one. Then she remembered Jade's uncanny ability to turn herself not only invisible, but intangible as well. She probably just walked through the walls until she found a passage, and then found the proper entrance.
The passage was completely dark. Kitana silently cursed herself for not bringing along a light, and placed her hands against the opposite sides of the tunnel, feeling her way around, not ever actually lifting up her feet. She concentrated on the directions, repeating Jade's exact words. Turn right at the first opening, then follow that hallway until it stops, and then turn left. You can't miss it. It's huge. There's a lantern right inside the door.
She had managed to get up enough courage to walk normally, when she slammed into the dead end at the end of the second hallway. She sighed as she picked herself up off the floor, and followed the final hallway until the walls on both sides disappeared.
Just as Jade had said, there was a small lantern sitting by the door on the right side. Kitana opened it, and used the flint inside to start a small fire. The light quickly grew to a brightness far beyond what the tiny flame should have managed, and Kitana wondered if the lantern was enchanted. Perhaps she should keep it.
The room was huge, and filled with books and chests of all sorts. They were all separated into piles. Hundreds of piles. Perhaps even thousands of piles. She studied the books on the closest and saw they all contained the word Edenia. The one opposite of it was Mandalore. Nearby, there was also Shokan, Kloesh, Meerta, and Chiss. She picked up the top book on the first pile, not only because it was the closest, but also because the book on top had no dust on it, like everything else in the room except for the lantern.
Narrative of Downfall: Edenia, she read.
Edenia was the site of the capital for the Union, the twelve inhabited planets with interplanetary communication in this galaxy. Edenia was also the last to fall to Shao Kahn.
Then it launched into the history of the planet, practically starting with the first bacteria that ever appeared. Kitana flipped through the book, and found that it opened to one page. A page whose corner had been folded down, exaggeratedly, so that anyone looking at this book could hardly miss it. Obviously folded down by a person recently, obviously Jade. The contents of this page shocked Kitana, forcing her to sit down and rethink everything she believed in. More importantly, this paragraph:
Then Master Shao Kahn took the daughter of the treacherous snake, the Union's Emperor Yuen Jer Rod and his bride, the Edenian Empress Sindel. The baby's name was Kitana. She was nine months old at the time Master Kahn killed her father, and her mother killed herself. She had been born in the fall of the year, by the Gregorian calendar of the planet Earth, 1974.
Kitana had dropped the book after reading this, and oddly enough, the first thought that ran through her head was What year is it now? 1998? So, I'm only twenty-four. There never was any amnesia. I was never in a coma. There was never any accident. It was all a lie.
She stood from the position she'd taken on the floor and yelled, "A lie!" She threw the book onto its pile. "My whole life is a lie!"
Then her voice softened, and took on a very dangerous tone, as she picked up the book again, planning to take it back to her room and learn about her true parents. "You will pay for this Kahn. I swear on the stolen souls of my dead people."