JADE

After Ermac's instance of manifesting as an Edenian traitor, it was only natural that Jade would come under suspicion. Her inital assignment to Kitana's side had been due to her heritage, being the daughter of one of Edenia's royal guards. This however, made her a prime cantidate in the Kahn's eyes to be a secret member of the still quietly operating Edenian resistance.

In truth, Jade wishes everyday to herself that Shao Kahn would drop dead, and would kill him herself if she got the chance. But such a thing were only violent fantasies of great revenge. Shao Kahn was untouchable. He was a great schemer and could adequately prepare for any attempt made on his life from his experience killing Onaga. Even besides for this, he commanded great power. Shao Kahn was from a race of protectors assigned by the Elder Gods, and was a hybrid of an immortal demon and an Outworlder.

What had surprised her about the suspicion is that Mileena had been the one to come to her father. It was strange. Mileena would possibly be the only one to benefit from Kitana becoming an unsuitable heir, and Jade had her own suspicions about her motives.

So she was put in front of Shao Kahn's throne, with Mileena's sai to her own neck. Shao Kahn looked down upon her with dissapproval with Shang Tsung at his side.

"You will be temporarily relieved of your duties." Shao Kahn states. "Mileena's investigation will carry on for as long as it must. Only then will you be allowed to return to her side."

Jade gritted her teeth in frustration. She wishes Shao Kahn had been correct, although not for her capture thereafter. Jade had never attempted to tell Kitana the truth due to the consequences. Shao Kahn, at one point after the invasion had multiple Edenian advisors as a consolation to Sindel, in the hopes she would give him affection. She never did. Instead she impaled herself on her own Kwan Dao, and the advisors were afterward executed by Shang Tsung. This would be the fate of Jade if she chose to do the right thing.

The Edenian nodded, and Mileena's sai was taken from her throat. She attempts to stand, but a sharp point of Mileena's sai is held to her back.

"Not so fast. Shang Tsung has something to show you." She growls.

Shao Kahn makes a fist in his arm. "I realize you may not understand the severity of allowing Kitana to fall to the Edenian resistance. That is, of course if you aren't already part of their group." He explains, "Mileena's investigation may not end soon enough, but I have an example, one inside of this island itself to keep you in line."

The first thing that comes to her mind is torture, but Shao Kahn wouldn't waste Shang Tsung's services on merely torturing her. What he has to show her confuses her. All leverage Shao Kahn could have on her is gone. Her mother was killed by his forces during the invasion, and Shao Kahn himself executed Kotal long ago.

Shang Tsung steps away from his place. "Follow me."

Mileena releases her hold, and bows to Shao Kahn, before going off in the direction of her quarters. She'll be dissapointed to find nothing of use there.

Jade walks alongside Shang Tsung, all throughout the palace's confusing interior until reaching a locked door, secured by a lock. The strange woman is guarding it, as the door happens to be relatively close to the Lin-Kuei's areas.

The woman appears to be locked in place. although she periodically moves her arms to stretch or to grasp tightly on her dagger in a resting position, she is unable to move her own legs.

Shang Tsung summons the key into his hands and twists it.

"Where are we going?"

"My personal quarters. Exactly where your "motivation" resides."

"Motivation" is down a long, wide spiral staircase after the small doors opening and a descent. Shang Tsung's buried the place far, far underneath the earth.

After quite a long descent at his side, the two reach a large open room, lined with rows and rows of vats filled with a strange fluid. Once the two operating tables only illuminated by the glow of the liquid inside and several dismal candles come into view, Jade forces herself to look at her and Shang Tsung's feet to ascertain what direction they should be heading.

Once row after row passes, the two make it to a secluded hallway in the back of the room. It's locked yet again by another gate. Shang Tsung takes out yet another key, and opens the gate.

He takes her past and once they make one turn, there she sees it.

Unmistakable, even without his traditional war paint on. Inside of a cell in this strange prison is Kotal himself.

Jade chokes on air as she sees his form. Memories rush back to her of their secret relationship, in which Kitana had known and supported. Too many times had she covered for Jade and claimed she was by her side. Their relationship had become known to Shao Kahn after one single mistake, yet he had not done anything yet. It was only when Kotal criticized his decisions in his attempted acquisition of Earthrealm and neglect of his own Empire when he had chose to act. Jade had long since assumed that Kotal had been executed afterwards, but instead, he was kept in this disgusting prison for... centuries.

She found herself sick, imagining all at once every cold night he had spent in this place. He was in a meditative state, unable to see or perceive Jade as she looked on into his cell, which appeared to be his way to pass imprisonment. Jade's head began to hurt and her chest did too. Her breathing sped up to an unhealthy pace, which was made worse through Shang Tsung's reaction to her own.

The Sorcerer walked to the bars and forcibly broke Kotal out of his trance by acknowledging him.

"Kotal. You have a visitor."

His eyes opened wide in response, and his eyes locked with Jades.

"She's being investigated for possibly defying the Emperor. And if she is, Jade will go down here too." Shang Tsung forms a malicious smile. "But she will take your cell and replace you. And I'm afraid you will be killed.

Kotal and Jade kept silent. Neither dared to say a word to one another, despite their expressions showing grief.

In truth, Jade had moved on from their love long ago. It's not that she could not mourn him. Every year she had held a private vigil to his memory in her own quarters with a candle. But it had been such a long time. One which she had not been passing every day, letting the days blend together.

The sorcerer moves his head to Kotal's ear, but speaks in a volume Jade is sure to discern.

"I have no need to experiment on you Kotal." He spits, "Osh-Tekk are nothing special. You only serve as leverage."

KITANA

Kitana hates when Jade is sent on a private mission to accomplish for her father. Despite Shang Tsung's remark to her that Jade's duty was not to be her companion, She had relied on her company for a large part of her own life. The two had been close friends, and at some point Kitana had even wished to pursue a relationship with her, though her secret relationship with Kotal had ended such thoughts.

For now however, she has some kind of company. The strange woman, to whom she now knows as Skarlet accompanies her as Jade's temporary replacement. Kitana is thankful. Previously during Jade's excursions Shao Kahn had forced her to stay close, and perform work which she despises. Being assured to be safe offers her far more freedom.

She takes Skarlet to the gardens. It's one of Kitana's favorite activities after all. Outworld lacks the beauty Earthrealm has, and every 50 years the land of Shang Tsung's gardens changes. Tree's grow, and The sorcerer adds more for his own amusement. Her and Jade, once they arrive to their island create an extensive list of each one of the changes.

The princess is eager for the end of the tournament, as her father has promised to preserve Earthrealm's plants in a new garden in the palace to be built by the Naknadan's labor.

Both stand along a stone bridge overlooking a lake, with a large waterfall flowing into it. In the far distance, mountains surrounded by lush trees fade into the sky. A dragon statue from the left, and a statue of her father's champion, Goro on the right. Both have been there for a very, very long time.

Kitana sits at the edge of the bridge, dangling her feet over the edge, with the water below.

Periodically she looks backwards, just to see if Skarlet is still there, and she is. Just deathly silent, and looking directly at Kitana.

Skarlet intimidates her. She hasn't said a single word, and even Jade at her most secretive had managed to utter one word responses to her fathers orders. It's almost as if she's waiting to perform her duty. And an intrusive thought in Kitana's head is telling her she's wishing for danger to befall her, just to carry out an order.

Despite all hints, Kitana attempts to talk to her.

"Where are you from?"

The mage is surprised Kitana talks to her. Her face is blank for a moment, taking an unusually long time to respond.

"Here."

Kitana's skeptical. Skarlet is strangely unsure of herself when she's speaking, pronouncing her one word response in a serious tone. And the idea of Skarlet actually coming from Shang Tsung's island is strange.

"You are from Shang Tsung's island?"

"Yes." She responds, taking another pause to do so.

Kitana narrows her eyes, and her skepticism is replaced with annoyance. The island is Shang Tsung's private residence, so only a hypothetical family would come from it. But Shang Tsung had never taken a wife, and looked very different from her. If Skarlet knew what the island was, she would know Kitana wouldn't believe her. Skarlet was lying, but not intentionally.

"Are you Shang Tsung's daughter? Are you given residence on his island? Did your parent's have a relationship with him?"

Skarlet starts to visibly panic, averting her eyes from Kitana's and clearly thinking what to say.

If Skarlet understood her and were knowingly telling the truth, she would have responded in turn with short answers. Somewhere along the lines of "No", "Yes", and "They did" But not a single one of those answers leaves her mouth, not even after her pause would have conccluded for the first answer.

Her accent begins to make sense. It's strange. She speaks slowly, almost as if to try and say the right things, but fails to understand when Kitana links up words she doesn't know. Skarlet doesn't speak Outworlder somehow. It's surprising she was even able to join her father's court, though her magic use was probably enough of an upside to keep her.

"You don't know Outworlder."

She looks downwards. "No."

Kitana sighs and lifts herself back over the edge of the bridge. She gestures for Skarlet to follow her, and walks back in the direction of the palace. With precise and quiet steps, Skarlet follows her back inside.

The Princess takes her into her room. It's not much use being outside if Skarlet is unable to converse with her, and she feels its at least a small betrayal of Jade to do this without her. It's awkward, as Kitana wears her casual robes and Skarlet is practically wearing armor, but Skarlet watches on, sitting on Kitana's bed, as she looks through her sizable collection of books.

"What do you speak?" Kitana calls, trying to find some kind of resource on languages, though all she finds are indexes of languages spoken not by other outworlders, but other species.

"Polish..." Skarlet says, thinking of it for a moment.

The word doesn't sound like Skarlet's ramblings to herself had. It's an exonym of her own language. Thankfully, it's more helpful to her search. Kitana continues to grab books off of the shelves. It's no Outworlder language she's heard of.

Skarlet had to come from some remote place in Outworld. As Kitana gives up her search and slots another book back into the shelf, Skarlet asks her a question.

"Why?"

"I will help you." Kitana responds.

In truth, Kitana was just horrifically bored, but doing this would both please her father and allow her to have some interaction with others. Mileena was acting strange lately through the times she had even wanted to be around Kitana, and Jade was still gone at the moment.

Kitana turns back to Skarlet, and sees her take out a small chunk of red. She places her hand overhead and it melts, transforming into a thick red liquid, which reforms into a book. "I have this."

This bewilders her. Skarlet has a whole dictionary of it. Although Outworlder is replaced with "English", what humans call the language. Skarlet cannot be an Earthrealmer with her strange abilities, so she disregards that.

What she does not however, is the book itself. Once she opens it up and takes a look inside, it's an extraordinary and large amount of words in the written form of Skarlet's, and the other is in Outworlder. All of it. it's quite a sizable collection too, and at the end are practice sentences, some of which are those Skarlet was able to understand. She's been practicing, albeit very inefficiently.

She lies out the book in front of Skarlet and coaxes her to try and replicate one of the sentences, to see her pronunciation.

"Where... are you from..."

Despite struggling between words, she pronounces them enough for Kitana to understand. The way she says them is off though. But that's to be expected. She's only been using this for a short time, and even then, words cannot tell you how things are pronounced, and the directions given in traditional dictionaries would be no help either, as Skarlet's language has a whole different alphabet, with strange accents and a line through L's.

Eventually this will work.

AN: Kitana's gonna meet Kotal soon. Once she learns the truth she's gonna flip sides. Then the time skip will come to the tournament's beginning. This Skarlet thing will get a lot less prevalent once Kitana has time to teach her English for a few months.