Bondage
by Nyohah

6
Machinations of the Fallible
Third Day of Mortal Kombat

"Reptile has two strikes against him, and Scorpion, Jax, Kitana, Raiden, Kung Lao, Baraka, and Johnny Cage have all been defeated once. Kung Lao will not have to fight today, however. Congratulations to the undefeated—Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, and Mileena. Our first fight, in the arena, is Baraka versus Johnny Cage."

Johnny Cage removed his sunglasses, and strode into the arena. Baraka followed, panting from excitement.

After the announcement of the fight's beginning, Baraka started off with by rubbing his arm-blades together to create a spark. Cage flipped over it and landed a jumping kick on Baraka's face. Not that any kind of beating could make him look worse, thought Mileena, beginning to lose interest in the fight as she thought of what she would have to write next in her letter.

Baraka swung a hook at Cage's face, but he did the splits, ducking underneath it. At the same time he lashed out with a powerful punch to Baraka's groin. Baraka bent over double. The men in the audience cringed. Mileena turned to look at Kitana sitting next to her and saw that she too was laughing.

Cage uppercutted Baraka's bent form. It was beginning to look as if Cage would win the fight, and she saw Kung Lao start to beckon for Jax to hand over a bet. Baraka was enraged, it was quite obvious. He blocked Cage's jab, and lashed out with what seemed to be a lung punch with both hands, but something changed at the last minute, because Cage did not react as someone who had been punched in the stomach. His body flinched, and a drop of blood ran out from between his lips. Everyone gasped at the appearance of Baraka's arm-blades sticking out from Cage's back. With a look of utter contentment, Baraka lifted his arms up with enough force to crack through several of Cage's ribs as they tried to stop the blades.

Finally, a rib held and Cage was lifted off his feet. He gasped, trying to breathe through torn lungs without the success. Shang Tsung stood up, quivering with rage.

"I said no killing!" he screamed. "Until they've been defeated three times! That was only twice!"

"What you mad about?" grated Baraka, the first time even Mileena had heard him speak. "Master Kahn just bring him back."

"Yeah," said Jax, hopefully. "Shao Kahn'll bring him back."

Kahn, seated on his throne, looked at the eager faces of the Earth's defenders, and of Sonya, as she had been roused from her self-imposed trance, and was screaming obscenities at the mutant. "No."

"No?" screamed Shang Tsung. "But he wasn't supposed to die yet!"

Kahn ignored him and shouted, "Baraka wins! Fatality."

After the day's fights were up, Shang Tsung summoned Mileena.

"Master Kahn would like to see you," he said.

"Now?"

"No, in about thirty minutes. First there's something I would like to show you." He led her through the palace to a hall she had never entered before. "This is where we keep the valuables of those we've defeated. Most importantly, the Mandalorian paintings."

He brought her to a picture of a stern-looking man in an altered ninja outfit. "This was our first Mandalorian ally ever. Emperor Yuen. He was Number Three before you."

"What happened to him?"

"He died."

Mileena rolled her eyes.

"But this," he said, stopping in front of a picture of a young, beautiful woman, "is what I wanted to show you. The last Mandalorian queen, Yuen Ming."

There were several paintings of the woman. In one she looked very sad: her hair was down, her head was drooping, all that showed she was royalty was the silver circlet she wore. "That one was painted on the trip from the war back to Mandalore."

In another of the paintings she was wearing what appeared to be fighting garb: black pants, a green tank top, her hair in a braid, and she brandished what appeared to be a glowing bo. "See, she was a fighter, also, which is what made her so dangerous. And these, of course, depict her in her various queenly dresses, her face painted, her hair done very elaborately, her dresses unique, original artworks, made only once, and only worn by her.

"All the power that this woman had, I'm offering to you. Do you understand how lucky you are now?"

"Yes."

Mileena knelt in front of Shao Kahn, listening.

"I brought you here, Mileena, because I am suspicious of Kitana?"

"Kitana? She hasn't a treacherous bone in her body."

"But she does, Mileena. We saw her speaking alone with an earth warrior. We fear she may have discovered the secret of her true identity."

"What would that be, Master?"

"That she is not my daughter. That instead I killed her father when she was still a baby."

"I understand, Master."

"Watch her, Mileena, make sure she does not betray us. We know that you are faster, stronger, and stealthier than she."

Shang Tsung stayed after Mileena had left. "Why didn't you resurrect Johnny Cage? We can't use him! He wasn't defeated three times."

"You're right. We cannot use him for our first purpose, but we can for the other. Have you forgotten our Master who gave us our power? Our Master who gave you your gift? Our Master who reports to only Beelzebub himself? Satan does not require the rules to be followed for the resurrection of his right-hand man. He is already evil. Any blood from a good-meaning person will suffice for him, whether it was captured by the rules or not." Shao Kahn paused. "We shall start tomorrow. And we will get other blood during this tournament. Blood that we can use for our main goal."

Kitana found the answer at the back of the secret archives.

She had gone back up, after absorbing even the most boring historical parts of the book she had taken, and still wishing for more information about the planet she ruled by birthright.

She almost missed it. The room was huge, longer than the stretches they used to race sewer rats. Each Outworld rat was four times as large and far more bloodthirsty as the rats one would find on Earth, and the sport was a favorite due to the Outworlders' violent natures, and the fact that one rat a race, at least, was torn apart by the others.

Even though each pile was small, the room still continued for what seemed forever, each pile proclaiming the bitter, or glorious, depending what side one was on, defeat of a civilization. Kitana almost started on the Narrative of Mandalore, wondering why the defeat of this one seemed to be considered such a victory. It had twice as much memorabilia as the others. Then, she decided to see how long the room was, to try to decipher how many galaxies Shao Kahn, the wretched beast of a creature, had taken over.

It was sitting at the very end. The High Master, he who was above even Shao Kahn, had helped Shang Tsung write the rules for the original Mortal Kombat Tournament, and after many generations, they were nearly flawless. However, for some reason Kitana could not fathom, Shao Kahn had decided they did not apply to this new tournament, as it had an alternate purpose that she could only guess at. These new rules had to have holes, had to be flawed, didn't they?

Jade sat in the Living Forest, oddly her favorite spot, sharpening her fans. Kitana's were self-sharpening, truly unique pieces of art. The blades, made of a white metal that had been found only on Edenia and that was as strong as the titanium-steel alloy praised on Earth, were put together so that they appeared to be paper, up until the very moment they cut into your skin.

Jade's were poor imitations, really, easily dulled, made of reddish-brown metal that was not nearly as strong. She had many more fans, as she had no telekinetic skills to bring her thrown fans back and had to rely on the fact she could hide them and their holders from view, making it seem they magically appeared to the ignorant. She cursed as the blade on her fan broke, yet again, and she would have to find a replacement. She was just getting up to leave when she heard a familiar voice.

"Jade? Are you here?" It was Kitana. She soon appeared from around the corner on Jade's secret path, seen only by those she wished to see it. She was holding a scroll in her left hand. The tension washed off her face as she saw the green ninja woman. "Jade," she said, her relief evident in her voice as well. "I need your help." She held up the scroll. "I need you to give this to an Earth warrior."

"Why?" Jade crossed her arms and tried to look uncooperative. She knew she had to do it; she had learned long ago that just as she could not disobey Shang Tsung, she could also not disobey Kitana, but she didn't need Kitana to know that. Jade didn't think she was the kind who would take advantage of that sort of thing, but one never knew.

"I read the book. I need to get my revenge on Kahn, and I'm going to help the earth warriors, but you mustn't tell anyone. If you value my friendship at all, and respect my wishes, even if you do not help me in this quest, please don't betray me."

Jade was shocked. Friendship? A friend? Not colleague, not partner, not servant. Friend?

"I would never betray you, Kitana. And I will help you, by all means." Jade held out her hand to take the scroll. Kitana slowly reached over and placed in her outstretched palm. Jade closed her fist around it. "I will accomplish this task, Princess. I promise."