Chapter Nineteen - The Red Dragon
The blind swordsman Kenshi walked around an empty area. He could feel the sand beneath his feet and the harsh winds blowing against his body. The tail of his red blindfold flapped hard against the wind sideways towards the left of him.
Kenshi slightly lifted his head up. He could feel the sun on his face coming from the east indicating that it's past dawn, at least in Outworld time.
Soon, he stopped in his tracks and he began to think about what had happen only a few hours ago. His bloody duel with the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung was long and hard, but in the end, it was worth it, even with waiting a whole decade.
'I've accomplished my goal,' he thought. 'I've avenged my ancestors and now I believe that I am the best swordsman there is.' But there was only one question left that lingered in his mind. 'Now what?'
He was still in Outworld. With the portal destroyed, Kenshi had no other way of getting home. His mind became blank, not knowing what to do at the moment. Then, he let out a short sigh and continued walking.
About an hour later, Kenshi was still feeling the sand below his feet and the harsh wind blowing against him. But this time, the sun had shifted and the tale of his blindfold flew behind him.
Suddenly, Kenshi felt uneasiness inside of him. He stopped in his tracks and let his senses kick in. He could sense someone not too far from him just by the feel of goose bumps on his back.
'Someone's behind me,' he thought.
"Who's there?" Kenshi demanded.
No reply.
Just because there was no reply, didn't mean that Kenshi was going to take his chances. After all, this was Outworld he was in. Once again, he slowly reached behind his back and lingered his fingers around the hilt of his katana.
"You know, for a blind man, you're pretty good at detecting those in your presence," said a very unfamiliar voice.
Kenshi turned his head towards the sound of the stranger's voice. "Who are you?" he demanded once again.
The stranger sneered. "Let's just say that I'm an assassin, and my job is to assassinate the blind swordsman named Kenshi."
"Do you work for Shang Tsung?" Kenshi asked. "Because if you do, I'm afraid that I've already eliminated him for good."
"Liar!" the stranger called out accusingly. "Now, let's get down to business. How would you like to die? Should I just cut your throat open right now to make it quick? Or should I just simply gut you open so that you die slowly and painfully?"
Kenshi took out his sword, which was still a bit stained with blood from his battle with Shang Tsung, and pointed it towards the stranger. "Wouldn't it be more honorable to fight first?"
The stranger sneered. "Fine… it'll be a nice warm up for my upcoming battle after I kill you. Just remember this as you die… know that you were killed by me, Mavado, member of the Red Dragon."
Kenshi only clenched his teeth in reply. The two charged towards each other. When Kenshi collided his weapon with Mavado's Kenshi immediately noticed two things. Not only was Mavado's weapon in an odd shape as though it was like a large hook, but also there were two of them.
He felt Mavado's weapons move back and aimed at him again, one towards his head, the other towards his ankles. Kenshi quickly ducked, then blocked the lower move with his sword. Mavado took this opportunity to take the back of his other hooksword and cracked it behind Kenshi's head. Kenshi fell forward, but then caught himself and rolled forward a couple of times. He got himself back up and turned himself towards his opponent. Mavado jabbed his hookswords at Kenshi, but Kenshi sensed it coming and immediately blocked him with his katana.
The two began to exchange moves with their weapons, both playing offense and defense at the same time. Sometimes, Mavado would come in with his weapons from different directions making Kenshi either duck or jump.
After a while, when they collided the weapons above their heads, Mavado immediately kicked Kenshi in the abdomen causing the swordsman to rear back a bit. Before Kenshi could recover from the move, he suddenly felt the hookswords implanted into his shoulders. The sudden pain almost made Kenshi scream, but he held it back by clenching his teeth and throwing his head back.
Mavado pulled him forward. He quickly took the weapons out of his shoulders, the blood spurting in different directions. Kenshi was about to lift his sword up again, ignoring the pain, when he felt the weapons impale him once again. This time, they were inside both sides of his ribcage. Kenshi clenched his teeth more and he winced.
Then, Mavado used the hooks, both still inside Kenshi, to lift him a foot off the ground. It was here that Kenshi couldn't deal with the immense pain that resulted from that and let out a short, agonizing scream. He then bended his head down a bit, hoping that it would make it look like that he was glaring into Mavado's face. As he did, his fingers slowly unraveled the hilt of his sword and the weapon fell into the sand.
Mavado leaned in a little closer to the swordsman and said his last words to him. "I'll see you in the Netherealm." With that Mavado lifted one leg and, with all of his strength, kicked him in the stomach. The force sent Kenshi flying backwards, the hookswords leaving his body. Kenshi could feel his blood spurting out of his fresh wounds as he landed hard into the sand. He rolled sideways in high speed and when he finally stopped, he was on his back, his right hand over his left wound.
Kenshi was still. All he heard was the sound of the wind and his breathing which pained him every time he inhaled. He could feel his own blood slowly exiting his wounds and some more of it inside of him along and the taste of it in his mouth. He was going to die in one of three ways. It was either going to be from loss of blood or the blood inside of him will take over his lungs and drown him.
Only a couple of hours ago, Kenshi had asked himself, "Now what?" concerning what there was left to do in his life. Now that he had accomplished his goals, he couldn't think of one thing that he would live for.
'There's nothing left for me,' Kenshi thought. 'I will proudly accept death.'
It was then that Alex came to his mind and Kenshi gasped a bit in pain. He thought about all of the memories they shared back in Earthrealm. He smirked a bit as he heard her voice in his mind.
Perhaps, right now, she was here in Outworld looking for him, or she was back in Earthrealm with Sonya and Jax since there was no other way of getting to Outworld. Or perhaps, something had happened to her when he lost contact with Special Forces…
Kenshi frowned. He could feel the coldness of the bracelet on his left wrist. 'Even if I get out of here now… I'll probably bleed out beforehand…'
Kenshi clutched his left fist as he turned his head towards the sky. 'I'm sorry Alex...'
Sonya Blade looked around in an empty space in the same area where she had her last battle with Kano. The winds were still harsh and the sands stung her body like a swarm of bees despite the mountains around her.
Approximately three hours ago, she contacted General White to let him know that they completed their mission in destroying the Deadly Alliance. With that out of the way and Cyrax safely back in Earthrealm, the only other mission left was to find Kenshi and go home. Then, during the contact, White had told her something she didn't expect him to say.
"Sonya, you and Jax have twenty-four hours Earth time to look for him," he had said.
"Why, General?" Sonya demanded. "I don't care if it takes forever; I'm keeping my promise to Alex."
"I know Sonya," said White. "But there are other missions here that must be taken care of and we need all the help we can. Plus Outworld is not much of a big world. If you can't find him, even if you, Jax, and the rest of your allies split up, he's most likely dead. Of course, if you find him, dead or alive, bring him back. This decision will be hard on Walker, I know, but hopefully she'll get through, especially with the baby and all."
Sonya sighed. Throughout this whole mission, she had hoped to find Kenshi alive, bring him home alive, and keep her promise to Alex. But with all the time that had passed, there was a chance that he could now be dead. Either way, Sonya was willing to find him.
She brought her radio up and only said, "Okay."
Sonya, Jax, and the rest of their allies made the decision to search for Kenshi. Everyone went solo except Sub-Zero and Frost, who went together, and Jax took Li Mei with him to bring her back to her home in the meantime. They agreed to meet in the same spot where Shang Tsung's Palace once stood in twenty-four hours unless contacted (Sonya and Jax gave everyone each a walkie talkie). Now with only twenty-one hours left, Sonya still had high hopes in finding the swordsman alive.
It was then that she heard footsteps not far behind her. 'Kenshi?' she thought with high hopes. She quickly whirled around and when she did, she saw a hook-like weapon right in front of her face.
Sonya was surprised, but quickly got her senses back in gear and dodged the weapon before she was impaled in the face with it. She took one of her Kali sticks out and quickly thrust it into her attacker's stomach as deeply as it would go. On contact, she heard a loud 'Oomph!' and the figure fell back, dropping their weapons. Sonya grabbed the weird-looking weapon and ran over to her attacker. Before the attacker got up, she impaled them in the back of the head and the figure fell forward dead.
"That's what you get for giving me a surprise attack!" she said. She then noticed the red dragon design on the back of the figure's black trench coat.
"A Red Dragon member," she muttered. She quickly ripped the weapon out of his head and turned him over. Sonya gasped as she recognized the figure.
"Mavado. This was the man who I fought in the illusion battle before I came to Outworld."
It was then that she noticed a similar weapon a few feet away from her. She walked over to it to take a look at it. Her blue eyes widened when she saw blood on the weapon.
'No...' she thought in horror. She looked around the area. While she did that, she prayed that the blood did not belong to Kenshi.
She walked around to see any sign of, well, anything around where she was standing. It was then that in a far distance that she noticed a figure lying down in the sand. She ran over as fast as she could despite the winds slowing down her speed. It took her three minutes to get close enough to get a better look at who it was, and when she recognized the black leather uniform, the katana a few feet away, and the red blindfold around the figure's eyes, it was no doubt who it was.
"Kenshi!" Sonya cried out in horror. She ran over to him and went down on her knees. She took her left arm and slipped it over his shoulders. Her arm was immediately covered with blood coming from his shoulders. Sonya looked for any more wounds on him and gasped when she noticed two hook-like wounds in his ribcage.
"Kenshi, speak to me!" she called, her voice slightly raised. She pressed her left arm into his shoulder wounds in hopes to control the bleeding. When she did that, he winced a bit in pain. Sonya sighed with a bit of relief now knowing that he was still alive and awake for that matter.
Kenshi moved his head a little before speaking. "S… Sonya?" he said, his voice low and raspy.
"Hang on, Kenshi!" Sonya ordered. "You're going to be all right!" She picked up her walkie talkie and spoke into it. "Everyone! I found Kenshi and he's hurt! Meet back at the palace immediately."
There were a few 'copy that' before Sonya turned her attention back to Kenshi.
"Come on, we're going home-"
"Sonya," Kenshi said. "Just go."
Sonya was shocked to hear this from him. "Kenshi-"
"Please," Kenshi continued. "I... I killed Shang... freed my ancestors... my goals have been... accomplished. Please... there's nothing left for me now..."
"Don't you dare say that!" Sonya yelled. "You're coming home and you're going to live! Do this for Alex! She needs you!"
"Just go," Kenshi demanded. "Even if you try... to get me home… it'll probably be... too late... tell Alex... I… love her... and I'm sorry..."
It was then that Sonya remembered exactly why Alex didn't come with her and Jax on this journey to begin with. It occurred to her that, of course, Kenshi knew nothing about it.
Sonya looked down at him. "Kenshi, I didn't want to be the one to tell you this, but there's something I need to tell you. There is something left for you! You said it yourself, you love Alex, and she loves you! She's not the only one waiting for you back home."
Kenshi became confused by that. "What... what do you mean?" he asked.
"Kenshi... Alex is pregnant. You're going to be a father."
At that, Kenshi's jaw dropped a bit. 'Me...a… father?' he thought. Emotions filled him as it came to him that there was still more left for him to live for. He had great friends at the Specials Forces base, he had a woman he loved, and now there will be a child who will be his to care for. 'Why did I decide to let myself die and leave all those who care about me behind?' he thought feeling foolish. For the first time in so long, he felt tear brim his eyes underneath his blindfold, but he managed to keep them at bay.
"Get me... home..." Kenshi finally said.
"I will," Sonya promised. She quickly took some bandages from her backpack and dressed Kenshi's wounds. Then, she threw him over her shoulders and began making her way back to the palace.
"So," said Kenshi as she began walking. "Did you... find Cyrax?"
"Yes," Sonya replied. "He's safe back in Earthrealm. Alex never gave me much detail on what happened, but we'll find out soon enough."
"Yeah..." Kenshi muttered. Alex came to his mind again. He couldn't wait to hear her sweet voice again, have her in his presence, and to feel her warm, soft lips against his own. 'Alex... I'm coming home,' he thought.
"Keep talking to me Kenshi," Sonya continued. "I want to make sure that you're still alive."
"Trust me," Kenshi replied. "I'll make sure of that."