A Time To Mourn
"…and in your memory, master Li, do these candles burn, as did the flames of your spirit, which will soar to tranquility and peace in the next life. Farewell, my friend."
Liu Kang rose from his prayer, and left the grave, his heart heavy. In the attack on the Shaolin Temple of the Order of Light by Kahn's soldiers, close to two hundred good priests and warriors had died. The temple itself had been defiled, its walls inside and out splashed with the blood of the slain, written over in obscene graffito in languages dead to Earth. When Kang had returned from his victory in the Mortal Kombat tournament, the few survivors had already been hard at work laying the dead to rest, and cleaning the temple. Kang had not stayed to assist them. He had more important matters on his mind at the time, namely the avenging of his fallen comrades. He had returned to Outworld barely a day after he had returned. Now that he was back from that second journey, he could mourn properly.
Or as properly as he was able to. Much occupied his mind even now. He strolled into the temple proper, stopping briefly to set a table back up onto its legs.
What was the meaning of this? He asked himself, although a part of him already knew the answer. It was revenge, plain and simple. The dark lord of Outworld did not take defeat of any kind easily.
And I defeated him personally, he thought. Accepted each of his challenges, and overcame them. I even defeated his sorcerer a second time, and then humbled him before his public. What will be his retribution for that, and what will it cost us?
He strolled further into the halls of the temple, choosing his path randomly, and finally came upon the temple's eastern exit.
Liu Kang grimaced. This was the place where, he was told, the hordes of Outworld had piled many of the bodies of the fallen, one on top of the next, and doused them in buckets of their own blood and gasoline, before lighting them all aflame. With what was left, they had painted "Death to those who defy the Emperor" along the length of the wall, along with a hastily-drawn portrait of the helmet of Kahn.
The survivors were particularly fast about cleaning that up, though much of the wall was still stained red.
Resigning himself, he walked over to the nearest bucket of water, grabbed a sponge, and began to work.
Hideous. Why do the denizens of that place delight in such horrible carnage and cruelty?
Well, he corrected himself. Perhaps not all of them are so bad as that…
His thoughts went back to the brief meeting he had with a beautiful young – relatively speaking, in Outworld terms – woman during the Emperor's tournament, just after he had been speaking with the Thunder God outside Kahn's palace…
"Patience, Liu Kang," Raiden said. "Remember your actions at the previous tournament."
That was true, he had to admit. When he first saw how quickly and mercilessly their Outworld opponents killed some of the Earthrealm warriors in battle, he had flown into a blind rage, and had nearly lost one of his first fights. Raiden had cautioned him then, as he was doing now. But it was far more difficult to remain focused when those slain are not just simple strangers, but one's comrades.
"I know, lord Raiden. But the images of my brothers' corpses disturbs my thoughts."
"I am aware that you are here of your own accord, and to avenge them. However, you will find that it is easiest to lose a battle when one has no control over their emotions. Bear that in mind."
He nodded, but said nothing.
"We will speak of this later," the deity said. "For the moment, we have matters
of grave importance to attend to.'
"Such as?"
"Conspiracy," he said, and smiled.
Liu tilted his head slightly. The thunder god was a brave warrior and a wise teacher, offering advice and hope, where little of either could be found. But he also had a peculiar sense of humor at times, something Liu found difficult to comprehend in a god.
"So…just who are we conspiring with?"
"The young lady who stands to your left."
Liu jumped. She – whoever she was – was good. She hadn't been there a moment ago, and Liu hadn't sensed her approach. She was just slightly shorter than he was, and wearing the slim garments of an assassin. And because of those, she was quite attractive too – although Liu had the notion that had she been wearing a hefty wool coat, she wouldn't have been any less so.
"May I present to you princess Kitana, rightful heir to the throne of Edenia. Kitana, this is Liu Kang, the victor of the last Mortal Kombat tournament.
"It is an honor to meet you, Liu Kang," she said after they had bowed to one another.
"The honor is mine, princess."
Her eyes were especially attractive.
"I must meet and convene with the others," said Raiden. "I imagine that you have much to speak of, so I must take my leave now. We will speak again, Kitana."
"Farewell, most revered God of Thunder."
"Yes, farewell for now. Oh, and Liu?"
Liu's eyes went wide with the familiarity, though he had to shield them as Raiden took on his ethereal form of lightning. "Yes?"
"Don't try anything. She's ten thousand years old, way out of your league."
And with that, there was a thunderclap, and he was gone.
He heard a chuckle, and looked over to see the princess with a broad grin on her face – she had removed her mask, and now she was nothing short of beautiful.
"I'll never understand him," he said, looking up at the night sky.
"If all had a spirit such as his, there would be no war amongst men. But come, as he said, we have much to talk about."
A short time later, they walked down the path leading to the Armory of Kahn, for lack of any real destination. "It has struck me that you are the one who defeated prince Goro of the Shokan." she said.
"Yes, but barely. He was incredibly powerful, and for some time during that battle I thought defeat was assured. I still do not know exactly how I managed a victory that the great Kung Lao could not."
She smiled grimly. "There is a great potential in you, Liu Kang. Raiden sees that." She was silent a moment. "Even so, I wish you had not killed him. He was not as warlike as many of his people."
Confusion etched its features across Liu's face. "Kill him? I didn't kill Goro."
"…But he has not been seen since you defeated him. Everyone on Outworld assumes his death."
"No," he said, and shook his head. "No, there were three others who saw him afterwards. Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, two of my fellow Earthrealm warriors, along with a criminal named Kano, ran into him atop the large bridge on Tsung's island, or so they told me."
She was staring at him with remarkable intensity. "Go on."
"Well, they apparently fought against him – maybe Kano started it, or maybe Sonya wanted to arrest him." He smiled inwardly at the thought of the four-armed Shokan being read Miranda rights by Sonya. She would have tried to do that, too. "But as I'm sure you know, after I defeated Tsung, the island became unstable."
She nodded. "At the moment, it is off-limits to all but the highest of rank, and many parts of it lie in ruins."
"Right. So, the bridge collapsed, and Sonya tells me that she wound up in the Living Forest of Outworld with Kano, where the Emperor's forces apprehended them both. Johnny said that Raiden brought him to safety. After that, I suppose, is when Goro went missing."
He watched as she took all this in, nodding slowly. " Well, it relieves me to know that you did not kill him. Still, I hope he lives..."
From there, they had talked of many things, the truth of her past, the beauty that was Edenia, and her grotesque clone she had thought to be her sister. He told her about the massacre at his temple, and she winced as he described the details, and the nomad in charge of the killing. She had identified him as commander Baraka...
"You look tired. Perhaps you should get some rest."
Liu blinked, and looked up to the face of the person standing before him. It was Kung Lao, one of his closest friends and one of the survivors of Kahn's attack. About the same height as Liu was, but with dark brown eyes, a heavy-set jaw, and shorter black hair. Not by much, though – it was getting longer, and he had announced his intentions to let it grow into a queue. Liu didn't know why; the main reason he kept it short was because of the razor-sharp hat he usually wore, and he didn't want to bother griping over the loss of some hair – that had happened once during training.
"What makes you think I'm tired?" said Liu?
"For starters, you have been holding that sponge in one spot for close to five minutes now. I think it's ready to squeeze."
"I was thinking." He went back to scrubbing the wall.
"Well, I'm thinking, too. Thinking that I should take over for you while you go get some much-needed sleep."
"I just got started."
"You're a workaholic, that's your problem. It's not enough to go about defeating sorcerers and overlords, you have to make sure the temple's sparkling clean, too."
Liu's eyes narrowed slightly. "You want it should remain dirty?"
Kung Lao's face abruptly turned serious. "No, you're right. I should be helping you, anyway." He picked up a sponge and they began to work together, in silence.
More than Kitana and the massacre occupied Liu's thoughts, though, as he looked over at his friend. He could tell that the jokes on Kung Lao's part were a front for his true feelings; his teeth were gritted as he worked.
Liu had sworn never to take a life unless absolutely necessary. Even when he had faced Kahn, he had remembered Raiden's words, and even spared his life. As far as he was concerned, he had avenged them by beating Kahn before his people. But Kung Lao was more of a believer in the old saying that blood would follow blood. When he had learned the name of the commander in charge of the assault on the temple, he had sworn to find Baraka and destroy him. He likely would have – most probably, he would have even challenged the Emperor himself, had Kintaro not defeated him in the midst of the tournament, and badly. It was Raiden who had prevented his death, challenging Kintaro to a later duel – if, and only if, he let the Shaolin monk live. Kintaro's eagerness to face a god in battle had been fortunate, and he had agreed. Liu knew Kung Lao well enough to realize that was humiliating for him, to be saved like that.
Nevertheless, he had accepted it. But it didn't, Liu knew, ease his thirst for revenge.
As if to illustrate his point, Kung Lao said, "This isn't over, you know."
"This?"
"You know as well as I do, we're not done with Outworld and Kahn. It won't be done until he's dead, or we all are."
"I know."
"Then how can you just sit there and look so peaceful? Aren't you angry? Liu, why did you let him live?"
Liu put his sponge down, and went over to change the water. As he tipped it over into the nearby stream, he set his jaw as he watched the reddened liquid flow. He then hooked the pail onto a rope in the well by the stairs, and let it drop. There was a muffled splash. As he began to pull the bucket back up, he spoke.
"My friend…I've been thinking about it, too. I've thought about this, thought about everything Raiden has taught me, about Outworld, about the tournament…and I've realized one thing."
"Which is?"
"This is my destiny. I let him live to give him a chance to reform."
"He won't. You know that."
Liu walked back over to the wall beside his comrade, and resumed working.
"Yes. But I can't kill anyone outright like that. Besides, for him, defeat is far worse than death. Despite his boasts, his people's opinion of him has decreased. I'm certain they could see that it wasn't all a feint on his part. They know I hurt him, and badly. Perhaps that will spark a revolution of some type."
"Fair enough. I can't change your ways, only question them. All I know is that if it were me in your place then, his people would be in search of a new ruler." He was silent for a moment. "But you didn't answer me. Aren't you angry?"
"I was furious, of course."
"So why not-?"
"Because Raiden taught me that rage and blind emotion can only hinder judgement. That and, well, you just said it yourself. You can't change my ways – no more than I can change what I feel is right."
He looked up at the darkening evening sky. "I just know that I was not meant to kill him. Not yet. All that has taken place has been fulfillment of destiny. Mine, yours, the Earth's. I can't be angry about the past for any longer than I need to. It will change nothing. All I can do, for now, is live with it."
Again, they worked in silence. The wall was almost clean.
"Liu, just promise me one thing."
"Which is?"
"If he does try anything again…and you get to him before I do…you don't give him another chance. Him, or Baraka."
"Very well, Kung. I'll agree with you there…you don't give second chances to slime like that…" he smiled slightly, bid Kung Lao goodnight, and left to get some much-needed sleep, as his friend had put it.
Kung Lao watched his friend leave, and began to clean the further sections of the wall that were still slightly reddened. He wondered how Liu could have been so merciful. He tried to find that answer, and couldn't. How he could put it out of his mind at all, to concentrate on anything else was beyond him. There was so much he wanted to do now – he had major plans to reform the White Lotus Society, start from the ground up, for the group was but a shadow of what it once was. But as of right now, he couldn't concentrate on that.
Maybe later, after this work is done, and the temple has been sanctified, I will look into that, get some type of meeting organized. Perhaps I can contact Kai…
But what surprised him the most of all at the moment was that the other could even sleep at all, despite the fact that he had urged him to. All he knew was that Baraka and Kahn would both pay for their deeds if he had his way. Pay very dearly.
He stayed up all night, washing the wall.