Bondage
by Nyohah
8
Lacking Answers
Fourth Day of Mortal Kombat
Sub-Zero was already in the living forest, trying to ignore the trees' faces as he stretched, when Mileena arrived for their fight. She looked around, marveling at the odd curse that had caused the trees to become alive, when she saw a flash of bright emerald behind a tree. She looked closer and saw there was a slight drift of smoke from behind the same tree. She slowly backed away, staring at the tree. Finally, she saw the green more clearly—Jade—and the source of the smoke—a ninja wearing the same uniform as Sub-Zero, but in gray, with odd plumes of smoke drifting away from his body.
Jade had something in her hands, and from the positions of the two ninjas, they were having some sort of conversation. The ninja in gray nodded, and Jade handed the object she held to him. It was about the same size as one of her fans, but it was not quite the same, as there were knobs on the sides, and some sort of yellowed material rolled around the poles. A scroll? wondered Mileena.
She had no more time to wonder about the subject, because Kahn's voice suddenly appeared from nowhere; apparently they'd judged that the others were ready, and they'd waited on Mileena long enough.
"Fight!"
The two fighters circled for a long while, before Mileena became too impatient and attacked first. What ensued was a battle of who could punch and kick fast enough to penetrate the other's guard. Mileena was quite surprised at the speed of the ninja. He had been holding back in this area in his other fights, when he hadn't needed to be extraordinarily fast. Mileena hit him with more strikes than he did her, and he began to waver.
She thought she had it won, after she managed to fit a spinning crescent kick in and it sent him a few feet away. He jumped back to his feet, not as quickly as before, and she was aiming a roundhouse kick, when he suddenly leaned back, lifting his foot out of the way, and covered a meter circular area with ice.
Mileena slipped on the ice, flailing her arms and trying to keep her balance until the thin layer melted. She needn't have worried about that. He struck with two quick roundhouse kicks, one to the ribs and another to the head and followed it with a spinning hook kick, without ever setting his left foot down.
Rather than let this opportunity slip away, Sub-Zero flipped after Mileena, and as she rose, he grabbed her shoulder, stuck his foot in her gut, and rolled backwards, letting go at the end.
Mileena stood up, and backed away slowly. Sub-Zero stayed in his spot, having already risen, and they were both glad for the mutual agreement to take a short breather. And then, by accident or luck, Mileena's mask decided to be belligerent for the first time in her life, and slipped off. Just as the gray ninja was leaning from behind a tree.
He saw her face, and Mileena saw a look of shock register on it. The second time she'd been unmasked, the second expression of shock, and the second Lin Kuei ninja. What is it with these Lin Kueis? Do they have a goddess that looks like me or something?
She sought to close in the space, knowing she was faster in close, and not needing to fear his strength, for it was not exceptional, like a body builder's. She won the fight this way, but after she left, she felt she had missed something. No one had ever mentioned anything about Sub-Zero being very fast.
Jade dropped in on Mileena again that night. Mileena decided not to mention the secret meeting in the woods. How could a scroll possibly hurt someone?
"There's something I must show you." Jade beckoned for Mileena to follow, then jumped back into the hole on her ceiling. Reluctantly, but realizing she really had nothing else to do, Mileena followed. They traveled through pitch-black darkness for several minutes, and just as Mileena was beginning to wonder if they were lost, a light appeared. As they approached, it grew brighter to become a slit in the wall. By the glowing light, Mileena could see Jade signal to be silent with a finger to her mask. She lay down by the hole peering through it. Mileena did likewise.
"Take my hand," said Jade. "We need to be invisible so we are not spotted. This hole is not very well protected." The other ninja obeyed, and she found that being veiled by someone's natural talent was much preferable to the invisible robe.
They were looking down at a room that Mileena had never seen before. There was a giant tank inside of it, with a technologically advanced console that seemed completely out of place in the midst of the ancient demon runes that decorated the walls of the chamber.
"A computer," Mileena wondered aloud.
"It's keeping her alive while she finishes growing. You can't see her from this side, but you can from the other. And I cannot take you down there because I cannot make two people intangible and invisible at the same time. It's too much of a stretch on my chi."
"So why did you bring me here? I still have only your word that what you say is true. You could—"
"Shh! He's coming."
The door of the room opened and Shang Tsung walked in, followed by Baraka.
"Even though you have been bad, I still am going to give you your present," the necromancer was saying. He walked around to the back of the tank, and pressed on the buttons. Baraka was on the other side staring in fascination.
A light blinked on the edge of the tank for a full minute. Then the door opened, and Shang Tsung walked back around to the front.
It stepped out of the tank, long black hair, mutant teeth.
"I thought you would like her," said Shang Tsung. "I call her Mileena, after her 'mother.'"
Sitting up in the hidden passage, Mileena hissed. She began to lunge forward, maliciously, but Jade put her hand up.
"What are you doing? You can't fit through that hole," she whispered.
"No," replied Mileena, drawing a sai, "but this can."
Jade grabbed the wrist of the hand she was holding it with, and wrenched it around. Mileena dropped the sai, and it clattered to the floor of the secret passage. Then Jade rolled onto her back and threw Mileena away from the opening using her wrist as leverage. Mileena hit the ground with a thud.
Shang Tsung looked up sharply. Then he ran out of the room, leaving Baraka leering at his gift.
"He's heard us," said Jade, rising from her spot near the opening. "Quick."
"No," said Mileena. "There's a faster way. Take my hand again." Jade obeyed without question, and Mileena teleported to her room. She let go of Jade, and teleported again, to her room.
She put away her letter, then looked up. To her horror she saw the secret passage still open. What I wouldn't give for Kitana's telekinetic powers. She quickly teleported to the passage, and slid the tile back in place. Teleporting back into her room, she slid into the Chinese splits, and reached over backwards, stretching for her back foot, as Shang Tsung slammed open her door.
He looked rather disappointed in finding her there. "Have you been here for the last hour?"
"But of course," she said, sitting up from her stretching position. "I have to practice for the tournament."
The sorcerer raced back out the door, in the direction of Jade's room, without even shutting the door.
Mileena sighed with relief, stood up, shut the door, and collapsed on her bed.
The raven-haired girl laughed as she evaded an adolescent boy's pitifully slow attacks once more.
"You must not telegraph your movements," said the tall thin man, not to his daughter, but to his main pupil, the Li's eldest son. "And never forget to watch her eyes. They can betray her intentions, and you can use peripheral vision to see everything else. If you look down at her feet, she will punch you in the face, and you will never see it coming."
The girl smiled and effortlessly swung in two fast kicks that connected lightly with the boy's padding, then spun away.
THUD, THUD, THUD.
In the depths of her brain, something surfaced that made Mileena stop and think, I don't remember that happening.
She opened her eyes, slowly and heard the sound again, though not nearly as loud. It was a rather nervous-sounding knock on the door, as if the person knocking was afraid of the resident actually opening the door, which quite ruled out Kitana. And Jade would have probably dropped in through the ceiling, or walked through the door without even opening it.
She finally reached the door, and opened it. A rather nervous-looking ice ninja stood there, trying to decide whether what he wanted was worth the effort. He was holding something gray.
"What do you want?"
He stood there for a long time, until finally taking a deep breath and thrusting the object into her hands. "I thought you might like to have this."
She looked down at it. It looked rather gruesome, demonic. It was a small stone statue of some kind of imp. She held it up and looked questioningly at Sub-Zero.
"Why would I want this? It's a demon."
"No," he corrected. "It's a gargoyle. They used to put them on cathedrals to scare away demons."
"Does it work? I actually saw something like this in the underworld."
"Does a dream catcher work? It's symbolic. My mother gave it to me to bring, but I think you need it more than I do."
"Well, I'm asking if there is some sort of guarantee, so I could sue you if it doesn't work."
"I'm not Sony, and that's not a CD player."
Mileena smiled. "Thanks." Sub-Zero nodded his head, and swiftly left. Mileena shook her head. She shut the door and started to walk back to her bed. On an impulse, she turned it over, to look at the bottom. There was one word carved there, Syada, followed by a sign in a different language. She realized it was Mandalorian writing, the language they'd used in her village, and that the Demon Master had later taught her to speak but not write—the Forbidden Language, used by his enemies. However, she didn't recognize the word. Somehow, from the back of her memory, she recognized that the word and symbol meant the same thing, and she knew she'd heard someone say the word to her before, but she could not remember who, or why.
Later that night, in the morning actually, she had another dream.
The tall thin man gathered the raven-haired girl and the other little girl in his arms, and hugged them. "Syada," he said in Mandalorian, then in Mandarin added, "I'll see you tomorrow morning."
Mileena sat up quickly, knowing the answer was in her dream, but having the most frustrating feeling of not being able to remember what that dream was.
The Book of the Dead lay on a table made from a marble slat supported by Shokan femur bones. A vial that had once contained a liter of thick, red liquid sat next to it.
Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung waited, having just finished the last step in the resurrection process.
"You're sure Cage's blood was sufficient?" asked Tsung, miffed, a little at the waiting time, a lot at the unidentified visitors he'd had in the cloning chamber. Kahn did not have time to answer the question, because there was a bright flash of crimson, and as the smoke settled they saw a shape.
It did not appear to be the demon they had set to bring back to life. It was rather rectangular with points sticking out from an odd shape at the top. Then they saw a creature rise from the odd shaped thing. It walked out to greet them, and they realized their mistake. The odd shape was a dragon-shaped pallet.
The creature was their intended target. He was rather short, wearing flowing robes and a ram's horn headdress. "I have returned from the depths of hell, back to continue the fight against out enemies. And I am quite disappointed in your lack of progress since my unfortunate departure."
It had been far too long since Tsung had heard that voice, and he had to keep himself from laughing at the woman's voice the powerful demon used, due to the fact he was, indeed, a eunuch. But anyone who had any kind of sixth sense could feel the power that radiated from him, and it was more than enough to stop the sorcerer's amusement from increasing.
"Master," he said, "We do have a plan. But first, may I ask how you died?"
"You do not need to know sorcerer. They are on Earth, they cannot hurt you when you're on Outworld."
"Simply curiosity, Master."
"Is this plan one of yours, necromancer?"
"Yes, Master."
"Then perhaps I should consider promoting you again if it works, Shang Tsung." He started to walk back to his pallet.
"Yes, that would be most gratifying." Shang Tsung gave Shao Kahn a smile that was the epitome of their backstabbing relationship.