Callipso was now few feet away from her ex-master.

She only glared into his eyes emotionlessly. 

Sub-Zero could sense the tense moment between the two Black ninjas. They both waited for a moment whether the opponent would attack. Nobody moved. Sub-Zero knew their feeling before the battle. Sub-Zero, himself had experienced a lot of time.

If you're not moving, fine. Callipso decided. Lady's first…She spun with her led straight to the side. Sung-Hee reflexes made him jump to the side and did the same thing.

When Callipso came back from the spin, she crouched down to avoid the spin kick and formed a fist.

Sung-Hee felt her fist whack his chin. It was lucky he didn't bite his tongue. His head snapped back. But he let his body follow (?) his head and flipped back.

Callipso stumbled back as his legs kicked her away. Sung-Hee was on the ground again facing her. Sung-Hee attacked her immediately. Callipso dodged them all. They both looked each other in the eyes as they attacked. What a beautiful face. This was not Callipso's thought.

"HAA!" With a battle yell, Callipso found the chance to do a spin kick between his attacks. Sung-Hee fell to the side. But he landed on his hands and cart wheeled to make some space. Callipso followed him not to make some space. Sung-Hee quitted to do cart wheeling and started to run toward the temple's pillar, and he ran up to the post and landed behind her.

Callipso twisted her lithe body to face him but she received a kick on her floating ribs. Her back hit the thick wooden pillar. She crouched down quickly as he threw some punches where her face was. She slid her leg to trip the ninja. But it seemed that the ninja already knew what she was going to do and he was high up in the air. Callipso got up and followed him to the air. She succeeded to grab him in the midair and threw him hard to the ground.

Sung-Hee fell head first to the dusty floor of the temple. Yes! Sub-Zero thought. But Sung-Hee with angry looking eyes, slid on the floor right under the still-on-the-air (?) Callipso and brought his legs up. Callipso's eyes opened widely. Now this was painful. In the next moment, Callipso realized that she was rolling on the floor feeling the pain on her stomach. Sung-Hee stood up, and slowly went toward to lying ex-black ninja. Sub-Zero hesitated. Should he go? Or should he wait. 

Sung-Hee was already there and glancing down triumphantly to the female ninja. He brought his leg up and in the next moment, his black boot was heading down to crush her head with speed. Sub-Zero's hand formed a fist in the tense moment. And the next moment, an agony scream echoed the ancient, dusty temple. Sub-Zero's eyes were half open watching the ground, afraid to see what's happening. But wait, Sub-Zero thought. Callipso doesn't have that low voice. And he opened his eyes. There he saw Callipso, who was still lying on the floor, holding Sung-Hee's foot with her both gloved hands and twisting it unpleasantly. Then when she was bored of twisting his ankle, she pushed it upward. This made Sung-Hee fell backward. Callipso stood up and watched the lying flamingo with her cool face.

Juba couldn't resist the attacks since he got the blow to his gut. Jax attacked him madly, not giving him any chance to fight back. This made Juba dizzier and dizzier. Suddenly, he was pushed back and fell roughly to the floor with his chest facing up. He managed to lean on his elbows and looked up. Every part of his body pained. His opponent stood up looking back at him. Then Juba saw him mutter something and saw the other's hand searched in his pants. Juba knew he couldn't fight back with his badly injured body. So he just lied motionless and stared at Jax. In Juba's tired eyes, he saw the other warrior took out his knife. Juba stayed emotionless and gazed at the standing opponent.  He watched Jax as he held the knife into a throwing position, he watched him as he threw it. He felt an incredible pain on his chest but he kept on starring at the victor's eyes. On his right, or on his left chest, he did not know. He finally closed his eyes as he felt the pain take his conscious away.

Liu fell diagonally, head first to the ground. Reiko stood up few meters away from him doing some quick, slight steps that went right, left and up and down. Liu got up as he rubbed his cheek and went into a fighting pose. This is going to be difficult than I thought. Mused Liu as he glared the opponent's shiny eyes. Liu started another round as he span and brought his leg with speed. Reiko blocked with his arm as the leg came to his side, then he let his other hand, which formed a fist, sprang forward. Liu dodged at the last moment and since Reiko's torso came closer than before, he punched right in the middle of Reiko's abdomen. Reiko moaned. Bull's eye. Liu thought happily and without taking a break, he lifted his leg up and bashed Reiko's neck with his shin. Reiko fell to the dry ground with another moan. But Reiko too, without pausing, he jumped up and attacked him. Liu was surprised but his supreme reflex tilted his head to the side and avoided the fist and he returned the surprise with his knee digging Reiko's abdomen. Again…Reiko thought as he groaned…on the same spot… All he could do was just cover his stomach with his hands, and he knew that this movement didn't even heal the pain. Liu kicked powerfully Reiko's solar plexus in a sokutou form and made Reiko topple to the left. Then with his left leg, he kicked him on Reiko's upper arm and made him go dizzily to the right. Then Liu jumped up and as he spun backward, he kicked the warrior's chest with enough impulse to lift him up for a moment, and came back to his feet. This double kick made Reiko choke. This is not good…He received a sokutou kick on his thigh. Reiko shouted in pain involuntary. This kick was enough strong to stun his leg. The mortal warrior continued his attacks as he kicked Reiko's both shins. Reiko kneeled to the ground. Then he felt the opponent's hands that formed a shutou bashed his neck. If this goes on and on, I won't survive! Reiko realized. Liu kept on attacking. I have to stop this, or, I won't meet Zafria…Zafria! Zafria's face came up to his mind. With a loud, masculine roar, he stood up. This took Liu aback. Half scared by the recovered warrior's shout and half surprised that he still had some strength to stand up. And in the next moment, he realized that he received a powerful punch to his face, which sent him 3 meters away. Reiko speedily (?) limped away. Liu just sat there where he fell. Aw… He rubbed his cheek.

Scorpion sat on the downstairs' old sofa with his legs crossed. He could hear Haruna cooking in the kitchen as the good smell came into his sensitive nose. Why did they come? He was thinking about the two soldiers of Shinnok's. Did Shinnok sent them to kill me? Or somebody else did? Because I still don't report back? …I have to go back…? He closed his eyes. Then sighed. He wanted to know who was this mysterious female, Haruna. He knew that he met her somewhere. And besides, if I go back, I might get attacked again. I should stay here for a while.

Scorpion opened his eyes and he silently looked at the entrance of the living room. A moment later Haruna appeared and said. "Lunch is ready." She smiled and went back to the kitchen. He stood up from the sofa. A slight pain still rushed on his chest and back. Then the young Shirai-Ryu ninja walked slowly to the kitchen.

The kitchen was pretty small because the dining table was taking most of the place. Though the squared table was quite small too. They sat facing each other.

"Please eat!" Haruna looked straight into his eyes and smiled. She was not afraid now. Why do I have to be afraid? He saved me! Her white cheek turned slightly red.

Scorpion looked at the food. It looked good. Without checking the food as he used to, he ate a piece of roasted meat straight away. It was delicious. And there was nothing wrong with it. No poison, nothing. Then he realized that Haruna was looking at him.

"It is good." He spoke. He thought he heard a sigh from her. Then she began to eat.

When Haruna was almost done eating their meals, she broke the silence.

"Are you a ninja?" Scorpion finished eating his meal and put the fork down.

"Yes." He is really Hanzo. Haruna thought. He has that necklace and he's a ninja.

"How did you know?" Scorpion asked as gently as he could in his harsh voice.

"Um, well, I don't know, you wear this clothes that looks like a uniform…and you can fight."

"I see." Scorpion watched as she finished her meal. "Have…have we met before?" He hesitated but asked. Haruna didn't know how to answer. Say YES! She told herself. But when she opened her mouth, a telephone rang loudly.

"Excuse me!" Then she rushed out of the room.

Kitana grabbed Wabiko's shoulder and with her other hand, which formed like a spear, she brought it forward as the hand whipped through the air and hit Wabiko's windpipe. Wabiko froze for a moment. Kitana let her go. Wabiko spat out some blood. What the hell…is…happening to me…? She now realized that she could only breath out. She slowly fell to her knees, still coughing out some blood. Before she fell to the ground, she looked at the standing warrior. Her face was emotionless and looking directly back at Wabiko.

Kitana stood panting and waited Wabiko to breath out her last breath. Then she realized that Sonya, Johnny, Liu and Jax were staring at her few meters away.

"Wow, that was a cool ending." Johnny broke the silence. "I could use that scene to my new film…"

"Where are the other enemies?" Kitana asked.

"They're all gone." Sonya replied.

"And…where're Sub-Zero and Callipso?"

"Oh…I guess they're still fighting."

"Let's go find them! They might need help!" And the others followed Kitana.  

            

Callipso's shin touched Sung-Hee's groin hard. Then a small moan echoed in the hall. Callipso got up and did a triple spin kick aiming his solar plexus. How long are we fighting? Sung-Hee thought tiredly as he received three kicks seriously. She's not even tired? He wondered in pain.

"Tired of fighting?" She asked. Sung-Hee looked into her glowing red eyes.

"Fine, I'll make this battle shorter and easier." And she unsheathed her three-bladed platinum knife. Sung-Hee jumped up. The next moment, the blades slashed the air. Sung-Hee began to sweat. He couldn't continue dodging these pointy things. In the end, he will be a piece of meat on a skewer! And Sung-Hee didn't even have time to take his hidden weapon out since she was attacking him with speed. The knives smoothly stayed on her fingers and danced trickery in her hands. It spun wildly in the air and shone beautifully in the dim temple. Sung-Hee remembered that she was one of the magnificent Black ninja who handled long daggers. Sung-Hee took out the round object and pressed the button. Then he screamed in pain. When his attention turned away, the blade slashed his stomach. The portal opened. Ignoring the pain,

"You'll pay for this!" Sung-Hee dived into the portal as he left the message. 

Callipso stood motionless as the portal faded away. Then she wiped the blood from the blade. She could sense Sub-Zero walking toward her. She looked at him.

"Are you ok?" He asked gently.

"Yes. Well, that was indeed a long fight. I don't feel like fighting anymore!" She joked. She sheathed her shiny blades where it belonged. The two ninjas heard footsteps coming towards them.

"Sub-Zero? Callipso?" It was Sonya's voice.

"We're here." The two also headed out where the voice came.

"Oh good, you guys are alive!" Johnny smiled.

"Yea, we're alive…" Callipso smiled back. "Well? How was your fight?"

"Some escaped but, we killed two of them." Jax said.

"Yeah, Sung-Hee escaped too. That bastard." Callipso frowned. "Let's go home. I'm tired."

"I agree." Liu said as he still rubbed his cheek.

When they were heading slowly to the Dragon Jets, Sonya remembered something and said: "Wait!" And she ran back to the place where they had been fighting. And in the next moment she came running back.

"What were you up to? You couldn't wait until home to go to the toilette?" Johnny asked.

"No, stupid. I brought this from one of the corpses. You know the object that opens the portal." And she showed to everybody.

He opened his eyes in pain. Is this the Nether realm? He thought. But no, the surrounding landscape was same as before. Huh? That means…I'm still alive? When he breathed, his chest pained. With courage, he looked at his chest. There was a knife stuck on his right chest. The knife missed his heart. He slowly touched the knife and pulled out.  An agony shout came out from his mouth. But the knife was out from his wounded fresh. He slowly sat up and looked around. I'm alive…I'm alive…and I will survive…Then he sheathed his knife to his belt and slowly stood up.

Juba went toward the temple to spend the night in there.

Scorpion felt the warm touch drew away from his back.

"There." Haruna said as she finished wrapping new and fresh bandages. "If we do this about once or twice, your wound will be gone!" She said as she smiled into his face.

"Thank you." Scorpion realized that he was thanking her again. He watched as the young female pack up the things into the first aid box.

"You seem to know a lot about medical science." He asked her.

"Yes, well, I have to. I want to be a nurse." She told him. From that moment, the chat started. Scorpion listened her. Leaving some short comments or replies when needed. But he was not bored at all. Emotions and feelings (except anger) was rare coming out from his masked face. He was indeed interested talking to her. And at the same time, he couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe that he was letting this female this close to him. And this conversation, he realized, was the longest in past few years…It was two hours later when Haruna exited the room and both of them went to sleep.

"What did you say? You couldn't destroy them?" Shinnok asked in surprise. Only two warriors kneeled in front of the fallen elder god. Quan Chi stood few feet behind Shinnok.

"Where're the others?" The god asked.

"…We don't know exactly, my lord." Reiko answered with courage.

"What do you mean 'we don't know exactly'?" Shinnok's expression was confusion mixed up with anger. 

"Where are Reptile, Wabiko and Juba?"

"We suppose Wabiko was eliminated, same with Juba. But, we don't know about Reptile."

The fallen god asked another question. "And you came back because you were about to get murdered?" No replies.

Quan Chi's white lips curved slightly upward as he heard the god growled. He knew the reason why this god became a fallen god. He heard him talk and scold to Reiko and Sung-Hee but the white creature didn't listen to him. Those warriors didn't come back. Then Scorpion must have killed them. Then that means he's alive. And he's with that female. I should send another pack of fighters, more skilled fighters to destroy him before he remembers anything about his past. When he finished thinking, he was surprised that Shinnok was still shouting some rude words to the kneeling warriors. Then came a pause. Quan Chi guessed that his breath ran out.

"OUT! All of you, OUT!" Shinnok shouted. Again…Quan Chi thought. Then with another pathetic plan of his…he sighed. Then with a bow he exited the room heading to the fighters' room.

Quan Chi opened the door and entered the room. He paused there for a moment and gazed at the warriors who were training, sleeping on the benches, and some, eating. Those…one, two…six fighters will do well for the troublesome young Scorpion. Those fighters are pretty well trained than those last two. Quan Chi grinned. Then he walked over to the six training fighters.

"Ehem." He drew attention. The fighters looked at him and stopped training. Then they looked at who he was and quickly bowed.

"All of you must kill this ninja." He suddenly started to explain. He didn't want to waste his free time.

"He is an elite Shirai-Ryu ninja…" The warriors glanced each other. "…Who is in Tokyo, by some reason, he doesn't want to go back here.  He betrayed us. Now he must pay for what he did." Quan Chi didn't know what Scorpion did. "This is your mission to murder the Shirai-Ryu ninja. If you will succeed this mission, your reward will be something that you could not imagine." He finished. He didn't even remember what he said. He just blabbed it out. I hope I made sense…Then the warriors thanked him by bowing a low and long bow and scurried away. Quan Chi made a satisfied smile. All I have to worry about now is, will Scorpion die?

I…I can't concentrate…She sighed and opened her eyes. Callipso sat in the middle of her room. She meditated as she basked the moonlight. Her breathing was a bit faster that usual. Her smooth shoulders moved up and down exaggeratedly. She was remembering about the long fight which she took part. Sung-Hee, you foul coward. Sparkle of rage burned inside her. Why couldn't I destroy him today? I had almost an hour. She remembered the attacks she gave. If I crouched down after I did that high kick, I could of have punched the abdomen…and then, then…no…it's too late. She sighed again. This was such a non-sense. She was wasting her time. I'd better sleep. She disrobed herself. She neatly placed her black gi (ninja clothes) on one place. Oh damn. Her night robe was now in the washing machine. She shrugged and slipped into her bed.

"Ow!" Sung-Hee shouted the way he wanted (?).  Nobody's around so…"Ahh! That bitch" He shouted again in pain. He was just treating his wounds that he got from Callipso's knife. She'll pay for this. Luckily, the wound wasn't deep, except it was long. He plastered the medicine again. And again, he shouted.

Reiko opened the door and smiled to the guest.

"Hey." He let Zafria in, who still stared at his bruise.

"Reiko…are you ok?"

"Yea."

"Does it hurt?"

"Well…a bit, but it's alright. Don't worry." Reiko didn't want to show his beaten body to her. Zafria buried her face into his warm, strong chest. Reiko put his arms around her.

"Were you about to get killed?" She asked. Reiko thought about it.

"Well…but I'm alive here!" He made a bright voice. Zafria looked up to him. Tears shown in her eyes. Reiko stopped laughing. Zafria started to sob. It looked adorable (?) to him.

"I…I don't…wa..want to…s…s…see you like that…anymore…" Reiko held her tighter with one arm and with another hand; he brought it up to her beautiful face and removed a drop of tear with his hand.

"Warriors can't always win, honey. They have to know and experience what the hell is "losing" too." He spoke softly.

"But…if…if you're de..dead…you…can't…do…anything about it." Zafria sobbed.

"Yes I know. Warriors have to learn how to stay alive too. If they can't, they aren't well trained or something like that. And you're here for me, and I can't do anything stupid. And I won't."

Zafria sobbed as she still buried her face into his chest for a moment, but then with a clear voice: "I'm pregnant." Reiko paused and stared into her eyes. How many seconds they stared at each other?

"Wha-you mean…you mean that…you and me-" He stopped talking non-sense when he saw Zafria nod. Amazing! Yes! Her and my child!! WOW! Reiko didn't even notice that he was smiling. He suddenly let go of her and rushed into the bathroom. Then he washed his face with freezing cold water and looked into the mirror in front of him.

Zafria listened his roar (?) of joy. She finally felt relaxed in these few days. She felt so warm inside her from that roar of joy.

Reiko came out from the bathroom smiling at her.

"Zafria…I just can't explain. It's just…" Then he kissed her.

Zafria never felt so good and relaxed in her life. They lay in the bed, close together, warming the new life between them.

Scorpion opened his eyes by the birds' cheeping sounds.