Final Confrontation

by Jcarlton

Stories that start before the first MK movie and then pick up after it ended. The world holds surprises for the kombatants once they return from Shang Tsung's island, and some adversaries refuse to stay dead. Note that MK Annihilation never happened.

9. FC9 Revival of Demon Warriors

Author's note (that's me:)

This story is written in continuation of my past eight Final Confrontation stories, as well as added in with a mixture of Quake 1, since I adore that great game and I hated the fact that there isn't a single good fanfiction about it anywhere. That and my favorite fighting game of all time – MK4, an eternal classic

But I digress.. Those stories were based strictly on the first MK movie as well as the MK : The Journey Begins cartoon, so that any characters who were not from either source were taken directly from the video games. So all known characters like Sonya, Liu, Johnny, Kitana, Rayden and Shang Tsung should be seen as the actors who played them in the first movie. To give a summary of the occurrences from those stories, since I wouldn't want someone to read all of them just to understand this, here's what occurred.

The first FC story took place before the MK movie as Sonya and Jax met Kano and Sonya hunted him down for killing her partner, whom she had only known for a few hours. The story ended where the MK movie had begun, with Sonya and Jax rushing into the dance studio as Shang Tsung and Kano waited backstage. Near the end of this first story, Sonya had met Scott, a fellow soldier who was under Jax's command who showed interest in her mission, unknown to her because he had personally come into contact with the Black Dragons while a civilian years ago. When Sonya returned from the tournament (without having Johnny Cage dying in the sequel since MKA never happened here), Scott became a close associate, along with Cage, Liu Kang and Jax. Sonya was famous for being the hot-tempered one in the team, while Liu was the strong and objective one, and Johnny was the relatively comical one who hated firearms no matter what. The ironic part was that whenever the villains were armed to the teeth, Johnny would join the heroes from the military as Scott and Sonya were armed also. Johnny ended up taking out as many villains as the others, and he was also the only one to emerge physically unharmed.

After several independent adventures, most of which made sense, Scott's past caught up with him when he met a clone of himself who had been created without his knowledge and was now working as an assassin for the Black Dragons. The clone had absconded from the criminal organization and was dying, so he offered Scott his exceptional physical abilities if Scott wished them, pointing out that Scott would also receive the assassin's memories along the way. Scott accepted, and while his strength multiplied beyond his imagination, his temper became an explosive one also. So it was with Rayden's help that Scott traveled to the land of the dead to learn how to control his temper under the guide of the greatest warrior ever, who happened to be Goro's older brother Durak. It was in this time that Sonya, Liu and Johnny had traveled to Outworld because Kitana's people were being brutally killed by mutants who now had the advantage of a new leader called Qarro. No one knew who or what Qarro was, but after Scott joined the four kombatants in Outworld after his training with Durak was over, an extensive battle with 200 mutants followed, which left only Scott and Johnny standing. It was only then that Qarro made his appearance and thus entered the first Centaur. Qarro was actually Motaro's student as Motaro was readying his Centaur army to invade the earth in order to gain a tactical advantage against Shao Kahn. As a test, Motaro wanted his average student, Qarro, to defeat the best human from the earth realm. Scott went against him and, with great difficulty, killed Qarro. So Motaro decided that his troops needed more training.

In FC7 Motaro's troops had grown strong enough and 1.5 billion Centaurs overran the earth realm. With Motaro being seen as their god, Rayden was able to mention to the earth warriors that the invasion would be repelled if a human was able to defeat Motaro in single combat. Rayden was forbidden to get involved directly since doing so would mean provoking the deity from the Centaurs' realm to intervene also, and Rayden was afraid that the battle which followed between the deities might've destroyed the earth in the process. The Centaurs' exterior was already known to be so tough that it was impervious to small-hand firearms, so a new 45mm Assault Rocket Launcher, or Arol, was developed in preparation for their imminent invasion. After a six-hour bloodbath, Scott and Sonya finally met Motaro and Scott challenged him, all the while with Shao Kahn wanting the humans to win since Kahn did not want Motaro to be his equal. The ensuing battle cost Scott his life as Motaro finally crushed him against a wall after a long fight. Not wanting the Centaur to win, Kahn desperately teleported Johnny Cage to the scene. Not understanding how he got there and not caring, Johnny challenged Motaro next. Johnny lost also, but escaped with only a broken ankle and several broken ribs. All hope of defeating Motaro in single combat seemed lost until Sonya realized that Motaro was exhausted since he had just beaten two of the best fighters from earth. Attacking his ego in front of his troops, she suckered him into accepting her challenge while she was rested and he wasn't. The mistake cost Motaro the fight and his life, and as a result the Centaurs who followed Motaro were forced to leave. At the end, Scott met Durak and the original Kung Lao in the land of the dead and Motaro was resurrected by Shao Kahn to serve as his second-in-command because Kahn wanted the Centaur army at his command.

And so brought FC8, and with it Kahn's attempt at taking the earth realm. Zeus first kept Rayden from interfering with it since he was afraid that Kahn might've become too powerful for even the gods if he conquered the earth, so Zeus didn't want to be on his bad side. Shao Kahn struck hard with a large army of Centaurs, whose head was Motaro, a large army of mutants, of whom Baraka was a member, and a much smaller army of Shokanites, of which Sheeva was a member while Kintaro was its new head after word of Goro's death in the 10th tournament reached them. When the attack started, Sub-zero, the younger brother of the ice ninja in the first MK movie, was caught off-guard, but decided to fight back quickly. He found Jax's army platoon by chance after killing several mutants and Centaurs and together they looked for human survivors. During their patrol, they ran into a mixed army of invaders and Sub-zero killed Kintaro by using the ice shower and shattering the statue. While this occurred, Sheeva was on a killing rampage against the humans while Liu, Johnny and Kitana had traveled into the Living Forest to search for a warrior who they were told could help them. That warrior turned out to be cyber Smoke, who was a metallic warrior built by Kahn as a series of living weapons. A living weapon's mission was to enter a realm after that realm had successfully resisted Kahn's attack for the purpose of annihilating it (i.e. Smoke's MK3 fatality). Smoke had developed a consciousness and had then absconded to the Living Forest to live alone rather than be used like that, so he always carried a hatred for Kahn. After Kintaro's death, Motaro decided he no longer wished to share the spoils of war with the Shokanites, so to keep his second-in-command happy, Shao Kahn decided to try to wipe the Shokanites out. Sheeva escaped the attempted genocide and then switched sides, siding with the humans as a result. As Liu, Johnny and Kitana took Smoke to Kahn's lair to confront him, Sonya killed Baraka on the streets by bludgeoning him with the end of her rifle. In the meantime, Scott returned as a specter by putting his soul on the line (Ala. Scorpion from MK : The Journey Begins) and interrupted the losing fight Sheeva was having against Motaro. Using his new powers as a specter, Scott destroyed Motaro and then asked Sonya to make sure Kahn could not find the Centaur this time. She, in turn, used a chainsaw to cut Motaro's arms, legs and head off, so by the time Kahn's forces found his remains, not enough was left to bring him back to life, so the Centaurs were gone from earth and Durak finally got his chance to hammer Motaro for trying to exterminate the Shokanites. Sonya was then pulled into Kahn's lair also because Shang Tsung had given orders to have her brought to him safely since he still wished to have her as his queen. Once there, Sonya traded places with a prisoner who was destined to die in a fight against Reptile so it would serve as entertainment for Kahn. While Sonya and Reptile killed each other by the spikes over the pit, Liu and friends reached the realm. Johnny, Kitana and Smoke held off Kahn's troops while Liu challenged Kahn himself. Liu proved to be no match for Kahn, so after watching both Johnny and Kitana die, Liu gave the order for Smoke to detonate Kahn's realm, taking with him every person there.

This particular story below is a crossover between my stories and Kazuya Mishima, who was Shao Kahn's human partner in Ashes Of The Phoenix. I will not tell you what happened in that story because you have to go read that first. It's for your own good. Kazuya's story was told in Ashes and then his sad fate was recounted in chapter 2 of Phoenix Reborn. This character was by far the deepest, most three-dimensional fictitious character I had ever encountered, so I just felt compelled to give his fate a second chance. His entire personality in Ashes was a mixture of hatred, determination and strength, so much so that he had lost the ability to feel. So being the only character that I haven't created that I still think about, even after all the time since I've read Ashes, Kazuya is included in this last story of the series. His story was a warning of what could easily happen when hatred invades the heart, a danger that everyone needs to be aware of in the real world. More than anything it's a warning to stay away from hatred, and also a reminder of how to love both others and one's self and that self-love is needed no matter how messed up the world is around us. That's what I believe the Mortal Kombat universe stands for, a warrior spirit which does not give in to wrong pressure. So this story is for all MK fans, those who see MK as something more than just a fight, and for any individual who has gotten screwed by life for doing the right thing. So all in all, this story should be read with those infamous words from the MK movie which work for the real world also - face your fear, fear your enemy and face yourself.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Black Abyss was as cold as he first remembered it when he arrived. How long ago that was he did not know. Sometimes he thought he could still hear his brother crying out after him to come back, though he knew that it was not possible. The inhabitants of the Black Abyss were cut off from all the souls in the other two divisions of the realm of the dead as well as those souls' guardians, so he knew his brother had to have returned to his Gray Kingdom sooner or later once the Guardians had released their grip on him. As much as he tried to bring himself to lock all emotions out, the feat seemed to be an impossible one. Scarcely an hour went by, or at least what felt like an hour in this abyss which was void of time, that he didn't think of his brother or the other countless faces that he had enslaved while plotting his strategies against the Shao Kahn. He thought to himself that it was all the better that his brother had not been allowed to have access to him as he didn't want others to waste their existence by only reflecting on the past. At least his brother had a purpose in this realm, unlike him. Interacting with the Tsathoggua Guardians had been painful, at first. They were everywhere when he had originally entered the Black Abyss of his own free will, tormenting him, restricting his arms and legs with their slimy and cold tentacles, talking all at once. He had been able to take it, though. He had never begged for mercy, he had never asked to be left alone. It had continued to the point where the Guardians almost seemed surprised by his omnipotence over the torture they endlessly subjected him to. When the immeasurable time passed, the Guardians began taking less interest in him, as if they were bored with him. Perhaps he did not amuse them by reacting as expected, he thought to himself, but this was a positive occurrence as well. Now he was left alone periodically because the Guardians wanted to spend more time with the more suitable inhabitants who were pulled into this abyss on an almost regular basis. All of them were forced inside, no one entered of his or her own free will, of course, he had been the first and only soul so far to undertake such an act. By leaving him alone, the Guardians made it possible for him to meditate, to contemplate about his life of 28 years and of his actions during that time. In this emotionless state of mind, the only painful experience was during the many times the faces of one of his many victims would appear in front of his eyes when he opened his eyes after meditating. The face would never utter a word, it would lock eyes with him for a few instants before vanishing. It was as if it knew that he had no company whatsoever in this realm, and it did not want to alleviate his punishment by talking to him.

He had his eyes closed at this moment, seated with his back straight on the black and slick substance which passed for a floor, when the subhuman voice of a Guardian interrupted him.

"Bored yet?", one Tsathoggua Guardian hissed from his left.

Kazuya Mishima opened his eyes, although he knew from experience that he would not be able to see his addresser.

"No", he calmly replied, without shaking his head or taking his eyes off the empty void he saw in front of him.

"Maybe we are", another Guardian from his right entered the conversation, "With you".

"And that concerns me how?", Kazuya still didn't shift his eyes.

"Our concerns are the same concerns of everyone in the Black Abyss", the original Guardian shot back.

"Everyone", a third Guardian speaking from an area over his own head added, "Even those who still have no business being here but like to pretend they do".

"If you have a problem with my presence, you're welcome to do something about it", Kazuya annoyed them by closing his eyes.

"Amusing, very much so", the second Guardian hissed.

"These former mortals are such an act to follow at times", the first Guardian went on.

"This is the first I've ever heard of you using sarcasm", Kazuya reopened his eyes, his head slightly shifting to his left.

"Your presence does not amuse us, former mortal", the third Guardian's voice seemed to rise, though Kazuya wasn't sure, "You have no business being here. The Black Abyss was created during the birth of time so it could house the souls which were evil beyond hope and repentance. It is not our purpose to be sheltering souls who wish to procrastinate taking responsibility for their actions in the realm of the living by not going to the Gray Kingdom as they should. You seek to obliterate your very existence by staying here indefinitely. That cannot be allowed".

"I am procrastinating nothing", Kazuya exhaled as he brought his face back towards its original position straight ahead, "No one who enters the Black Abyss may leave. I am here permanently".

"You do not belong here", the first Guardian barked back, "This is for souls who committed only evil acts throughout their entire time in the realm of the living for their own sake, for selfish reasons".

"You knew who I was when I was standing at the gate, did you not?" the former mortal asked, wishing he was left alone.

No answer.

"Did you not?", he repeated, still staring straight ahead.

"Perhaps", the second Guardian finally admitted.

"They why did you allow me to enter if you could see my state of mind at that time?", Kazuya asked further, "Unless you do not recognize repentance when you see it".

More silence.

"I proved to be a disappointing play object, didn't I? That is the reason you granted me passage in the first place, to have fun at my expense. How frustrating for you that this was not the case".

"No former mortal may speak to us in such a way", hissed the first Guardian.

A black, oily tentacle shot out of the shapeless mass to his left and wrapped tightly around Kazuya's throat. Not unexpectedly, his facial expression did not change, he didn't give in to the instinct of clawing at the tentacle. The annoying soul didn't even turn his face towards the Guardian as he was unfazed, and the surrounding Guardians could see it.

"You will vacate this abyss at once", the first Guardian went on, finally withdrawing the tentacle after seeing the lack of effect.

The tentacle was pulled back into the shapeless black mass and disappeared inside of it.

"Cannot do that", Kazuya flatly stated with a slight shake of the head.

"You do not have a choice", the third Guardian shot back.

"I think I do", he replied in a calmer fashion, "I think you are incapable of getting rid of inhabitants, although I doubt this was ever an inconvenience for you before".

"We will make your existence here as miserable as possible if you do not agree to leave", the second Guardian threatened.

"Do as you will", the same calm response that irritated them continued, "I can never risk putting myself in a position where I will be able to call a likeness of the devil which had possessed me. Any discomfort from you is secondary".

"A ridiculous reason for wanting to stay in the Black Abyss", the third Guardian commented.

"Perhaps to you", Kazuya answered.

"You are half correct", the first Guardian said in a somewhat calmer voice, "We cannot force you to return to the Gray Kingdom, but if that is your sole reason for staying here, perhaps there is a way we can all get what we want".

"Such as...", he waited for them to finish as he turned his face to the left again.

"We do have the power to return you to the realm of the living", the Guardian told him.

"Absolutely not!", Kazuya barked, turning his face back straight ahead, "Stop wasting my time!".

"Not to the realm from which you came", the same Guardian explained, "That is not allowed, but we could send your soul to a parallel dimension, one where the earth realm does not possess its inhabitants with the magic you used in your necromancy. As far as we know you will be unable to repeat your style of actions even if you desire to".

"You heard me", he pressed on, "If you do not have anything else to say, at least anything of importance, leave me be".

The Guardians did not like what they heard, but they said nothing else. They were planning a strategy among themselves to rid this abyss of the unamusing inhabitant.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Quan Chi approached the alter with an ever-speeding pace. He didn't even know why he was in a hurry. His master had waited several millennia, surely he could wait a few minutes more. Still, though, the mere thought of being able to free his messiah so they could both rule this world was one which made even him somewhat impatient.

Finally reaching the steps of the modest alter, Quan Chi promptly kneeled in front of it. Looking up, he rested his palms together and placed his hands in a perpendicular fashion to his stomach. It took only an instant before he was able to call his master. A face appeared on the top of the alter over the sorcerer's raised head, one which he recognized happily.

"Shinnok, the time is near", Quan Chi's voice carried a hint of the anticipation that had been plaguing him during his entire trip to this destination, "Now that Shao Kahn has been defeated your powers will be unmatched. The whole earth will be yours to consume".

"So I have felt his downfall", Shinnok's voice echoed in the sorcerer's mind, "But Kahn has been banished till the end of time. His captive souls were released as he was sent towards his destination. It would be impossible for me to reach him while he is in between universes".

"True", the sorcerer replied, "That is why we will not traffic with the Shao Kahn that we knew. I have found another earth realm for you and I have already crossed over into it, it is one whose version of the Kahn has been sent to another resting place after his death. This one's souls were freed while he was in the realm of the living before he was carried to the realm of the dead after being stripped of his powers. I am calling upon you from this new earth presently".

"When can you free me from this Black Abyss?", Shinnok's voice sounded more hopeful this time.

"As soon as you give your word, master", the alchemist grinned, "With Shao Kahn's power destroyed, nothing is keeping us from using my whole force to free you from that, ahem, eternal prison. One which will be eternal no more after tonight".

"And what of Rayden?", Shinnok demanded.

"Rayden has no power in the realm of the dead, master", Quan Chi was frustrated that he was forced to go over every detail for what felt like was the hundredth time, "We can use our armies to deal with him once you are here, but he has no say in what happens to you on your way to this world, this I promise you. And once the monster is reawakened, Rayden will be nothing more than an insect to be devoured like everyone else in this world".

"And you are sure you will free me and only me?", the master's questions became more annoying.

"Yes", the sorcerer tried to hide his impatience, and succeeded to only do so partially.

"Then do so, I await my freedom", at last Shinnok gave his blessing.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Guardians were a persistent bunch, Kazuya knew that much. Which was why he wasn't surprised when they tried to ambush him as soon as he stood up after his meditation was over. A black tentacle wrapped around each of his ankles and each of his wrists, with a fifth tentacle gripping his neck to force his head steady. The former mortal didn't even have to guess where they planned to take him, he already knew. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a grayish portal large enough for a person to slip through opening approximately thirty yards ahead. At the pace that the Guardians were carrying him towards it, they'd reach it in about half a minute, maybe less.

"You will leave this abyss, one way or the other", one of the Guardians who was carrying him hissed.

"You have no reason to worry", a second Guardian added, so as to try to keep their subject from resisting, "It is a portal to another universe, one where no mortals are capable of magic, as far as we know. You will be unable to use your wizardry there".

Just fifteen yard to go before he would find himself being hurled into the portal, into another mortal world, a world which wasn't ready for him.

"I don't think so", Kazuya whispered.

Before any of his restraining Guardians knew it, he shifted his right wrist at a sharp angle and pulled his right arm towards his chest. The tactic worked, the Guardian who was holding on to that wrist saw that limb being freed from its grasp. As the remaining Guardians tried to compensate, Kazuya sent his right wrist into the black, oily mass which was behind the tentacle which held on to his left wrist. That one released his second limb as a result, although the former mortal thought that it was the shock of having a subject resist which surprised the Guardian enough to have the grip loosen. Kazuya seriously doubted that any blow could've injured these oily Guardians.

With both wrists, he gripped the tentacle which grasped his throat and pushed the tentacle away from him while pulling his torso away from it at the same time. As he felt the pressure on his neck weakening, he kicked out with both legs, the impact softening the strength of the two restrainers which had a hold of his ankles. With a final snap from both his arms and legs, the three remaining tentacles saw their respective limbs slipping out of their grasp.

Hearing only a hiss from all five Guardians, Kazuya didn't stop to look as his feet landed on the slick ground and he bolted away from the portal as fast as he could under the conditions of this environment. The fact that he still wore his boots was the only thing that kept him from slipping on the ground during his hasty retreat.

"You never give up, do you?", he spoke up as he turned his face towards what he believed would be his pursuers.

Except that the Guardians were not giving chase. In fact, they didn't even stay together. They dispersed instead, two going towards the left and three heading towards the right, but not a single one came after him. So Kazuya stopped running from the portal and turned around to look at it, as well as to watch the direction that the Guardians were heading. He remembered that these creatures were not the kind to stay in a fight with a subject who put up resistance. Instead, they would wait with inhuman patience until he was more vulnerable and they would try to push him through the portal then. Kazuya told himself that it just meant that he wouldn't be allowed to let his guard down, ever. He just didn't know if that was humanly possible.

He walked a good distance away until he came back to rest on his knees and began another meditation state. Looking past his right shoulder, he could see that he was far enough from the grayish portal that it only appeared to be a quarter the size of a human fingernail.

The image he saw in his mind was an unexpected one indeed once his eyes were closed. The first indication that something was different was the voice Kazuya heard once he had been meditating for only a short time. A deep voice, almost sounding like a loud whisper, spoke to him in his mind's eye.

"Can you hear me?", the distant voice asked.

Kazuya did not answer as he would have when addressed by one of the infinite number of Guardians in the Black Abyss. He did, however, manage to communicate with the being in the same fashion by which he was hearing the message. He heard himself answering the question even though he never opened his mouth.

"Yes", he flatly stated, "Who are you? And where?".

A bolt of lightning appeared just a few yard in front of him in his mind's eye. Kazuya watched it intently as the electricity then expanded and a man was soon standing on that very spot. The visitor who was communicating with him telepathically wore white, the clothes matching the color of his long hair as several strands of snow-white hair emerged from under the straw hat.

"I am known by many names", the visitor informed him with a bow, "You may call me Rayden, though".

"Rayden", Kazuya saw himself talking to this being by opening his mouth this time, although the whole scene was still only playing in his mind as he was kneeling, "The thunder deity?".

"That is correct", Rayden gave a slight smile.

"Why are you here?", Kazuya's curiosity overwhelmed all his other questions at the moment as he saw himself standing at his full height.

"I need your help in protecting the earth realm", the deity explained without any hesitation, "You are the only one I can turn to".

"You must be out of your mind!", Kazuya turned his face away from the thunder god, "I am the last person the earth needs to see".

"No", Rayden corrected by shaking his head, "You are needed. A force of almost unimaginable power is about to be unleashed from this Black Abyss in order to attack the realm to strip it of all life and soul".

Kazuya did not answer, only stared back at him.

"My oldest adversary was sent here after his defeat at my hands", the deity explained, "But one of his student sorcerers is about to help him break free".

"I do not believe you have all the facts", it was Kazuya who shook his head, "No one who enters the Black Abyss may leave, unless of course the Guardians try to kick that soul out. Before me, that has never happened, and I doubt it ever will after me".

"Shinnok has found a way to break through the barriers", Rayden's voice carried the slightest amount of fear, "His sorcerer, Quan Chi, is still alive in the earth realm and can make his escape a possible one".

The last statement got Kazuya's attention.

"How?", he asked.

"That is not important. What is important is that he will leave this abyss behind unless he is stopped".

"How can you turn to me for help after I've brought the apocalypse to your world? Do you not know who I am?", the former mortal's mouth curled as he remembered his actions during the partnership with Shao Kahn.

"I know who you are", Rayden nodded, "You should know first off that it was not my world you were dealing with when you became allies with the Shao Kahn".

Kazuya's eyebrows lifted as he nonverbally asked Rayden to explain.

"I am not the Rayden from your earth, my earth is one from a parallel universe to yours", the god said.

"You're not Rayden?", the new details began confusing the young Mishima.

"That I am", the deity sighed, "I simply am not the Rayden that you knew. I do have a world to protect, though, a world that came under attack by Shao Kahn, just like yours did. Except in my case you were not the Kahn's ally and his destruction came via another fashion".

"If you were trying to baffle me you just succeeded".

"I am sorry, that is not my intention", Rayden sounded patient, "There are many different parallels of every realm in existence. Every realm has approximately the same mortals, as well as the same deities. Every one of those parallels also has a different place for the dead. Yours, for example, has three stages, mainly Paradise, the Gray Kingdom and the Black Abyss. Mine, on the other hand, has only one stage where everyone is sent after death. The amount of evil intent in a person's life, however, decides how much power, if any, the person's soul will have, so the more selfless a person was in life, the more power he or she will have over someone who was evil. Do you follow so far?".

Kazuya only nodded once.

"Good", the deity gave a friendly smile, "My earth came under attack by the Shao Kahn at about the same time that yours did, except that my invader did not have help from a mortal with a misguided view of saving the world".

Kazuya did not feel flattered after hearing his own description, he only maintained the steady stare into Rayden's eyes.

"Both our Shao Kahns were defeated. Yours was banished till the end of time, mine was sent to the realm of the dead where he is constantly tormented by the souls that he had stolen".

"Great", the young Mishima exhaled, "May both realms live in peace now that the monsters are gone from them".

"It is not that simple, I'm afraid", the urgency in Rayden's voice returned, "Although defeating Shao Kahn was a tremendous accomplishment for my realm's mortals, it created a second problem. The Shao Kahn's predecessor from your realm in evil was named Shinnok. My realm's history contained him also, but his powers have long been diminished after the millennia that he spent in the realm of the dead. My Shinnok is powerless now, as is my Quan Chi who exists in the realm of the dead with him, but yours is not despite all the time he had spent in the Black Abyss, that is the extent of his evil. The Quan Chi who occupied your earth realm with his master was never killed like my version was, so after my Shao Kahn's defeat, your Quan Chi has crossed through into my universe because your Shinnok saw his chance to come back into the realm of the living, even if it is not the realm from which he was banished".

Both individuals locked eyes in silence before Rayden continued.

"Your Shinnok will try to return to my earth at the exact moment that Shao Kahn was defeated in my history so he can try to absorb all the souls which will have been released from the Kahn after his death. Attempting to steal the souls from someone who has been banished till the end of time cannot succeed, but stealing those from someone who has been killed can. This will make Shinnok infinitely more powerful than he was back when first defeated. In order to stop him from ever reaching my realm, I need someone who will be able to intercept him here, in the Black Abyss itself".

"Which makes no sense", Kazuya pointed out vehemently, "Why will you not stop him, then? If you can come inside the abyss, then you can fight this monster".

"Deity or no, I cannot enter the Black Abyss", Rayden looked apologetic, "I am merely communicating with you from the celestial palace, you can only see and hear me, that does not mean I am right there in front of you".

Kazuya only sighed, still unsure of what to think about his visitor.

"I do know what you did with the Shao Kahn in your realm", the deity pressed, "But I also know why".

No answer from the person he was addressing, just the same blank stare. If he had not been a deity, Rayden thought to himself that he would've found that stare very annoying at first and downright scary on the long run.

"I know that your reasons were pure", the god went on, "Which is why you do not belong here, the Guardians are correct in that respect. But this is not about that. I am here to ask for your help because first, you are the only one who can help me and, second, because I think you want to. Nothing could make your guilty conscience feel better than to save one world after you tried to destroy another".

"Nothing can make my conscience feel better", Kazuya repeated almost angrily, "The second half of your statement is meaningless".

"Are you sure?", Rayden lifted his right arm and touched Kazuya's forehead with the edge of his fingers.

A flood of memories invaded Kazuya's mind. He saw moving images, an advanced civilization with tall buildings, even taller than those he had seen in the metropolitan cities in his life. He viewed flying vehicles sailing through the air between the buildings under a bright blue sky. It was a world full of life.

Then Kazuya saw the monster. He had never seen anything like it. The closest he could describe it was a red worm which stood upright with arms and a hideous face, and this worm was almost as tall as the skyscrapers that he remembered from his earth. The monster inhaled and, with that action alone, thousands of souls were stripped from human bodies and pulled into its mouth the same way that an evil soul is pulled into the Black Abyss. The bodies of the soulless humans remained alive, however, despite the fact they looked nothing like their former selves. They turned into thin, grotesque zombie-like creatures which could neither think nor remember. Young Mishima next saw the great buildings crumbling as destruction engulfed the entire realm. As the whole scene faded from his eyes, the last face Kazuya saw was that belonging to the one which Rayden had called Shinnok. The ominous face of the red devil only returned his stare, dangerously waiting for his second chance to inflict the same damage again.

Kazuya's eyes snapped open as the vision finally ended. Rayden was standing in front of him like before as the deity waited for his reaction to the things he had just seen. The stern expression on young Mishima's face promised that he had changed his point of view so that it agreed with Rayden's.

"The giant you saw is called Chthon", the god explained, "My Shinnok utilized it to separate the human soul from the flesh. It is a weapon of immense capability, as you witnessed. Chthon is asleep now, but your Shinnok can and will reawaken it if he reaches the earth realm once more. Everything that you saw in your hallucination happened in my realm thousands of years ago. Shinnok's actions led to its destruction, and it was a long time afterwards that Homo Sapiens walked the earth again".

"He has to be stopped", Kazuya thought out loud, pleasing the thunder god, "How do I do that?".

"You will know when Shinnok attempts his escape", Rayden promised with a satisfied smile, "And perhaps afterwards I could convince you to leave this place behind and to take your place in the Gray Kingdom as you deserve".

"I will do what I have to", the former mortal declared, "Foiling Shinnok's plan is all that you need to be concerned about. I do not want to see you afterwards, ever".

He had indirectly told the thunder god not to bother trying to convince him to leave the Black Abyss after his mission was completed. Understanding the hint, a partially-disappointed Rayden bowed his head and turned into several sparks of electricity before vanishing.

Kazuya opened his eyes. He was still on his knees in his meditating state.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

It wasn't long after the incident that, from inside the Black Abyss, Kazuya heard a roar as one of its occupants screamed out, but for once it wasn't a scream of agony, but one of triumph. The inhabitant roared as red bolts of lightning began to emerge from one direction of the abyss. Kazuya's attention was diverted towards the red lights which appeared in the usually darkened abyss as he made his way in its direction. He saw the demon warrior dressed in red, the one that Rayden had called Shinnok, as red electricity covered that one's entire body. Shinnok began roaring louder as some of the invading electricity left his body and slammed into one of the invisible walls of the Black Abyss. A hole began forming in the invisible wall, much like the grayish portal that had been created earlier by the Guardians in the hope of forcing Kazuya through it. Before the newly-produced portal was large enough for the rebellious inmate to step into, though, the Guardians swarmed around the demon. Tentacles flew from every direction imaginable as they eagerly wrapped around his limbs. Friction created by the red lighting exploded every time a tentacle tried to wrap around a limb, forcing every aggressive tentacle back.

Amid the cautiously retreating tentacles, Shinnok quickly moved towards the ever-expanding gateway. Kazuya could see that the inmate desired to leave this place as much as he wanted to stay inside of it. Not wanting to let him re-enter a second earth realm, the young Mishima sprang into action.

With the red demon only half a dozen steps away from his salvation, something unexpected happened for both him and his surrounding Guardians. Kazuya slammed into Shinnok from behind, sending the other inhabitant of the abyss against a Guardian. Shinnok crashed face-first into the shapeless Guardian and bounced off, turning around and eager to find out who dared interfere with his plans. As his eyes registered the new opponent in front of him, Kazuya twisted his own upper body to the right. Twisting back to the left, the back of Kazuya's left knuckles crashed into Shinnok's face, sending the demon's upper body back with a yell. Before the rebellious inhabitant was able to strike back, Kazuya's right fist delivered a second blow, this one a swift uppercut to the target's chin. Shinnok's face snapped towards what was the sky in the abyss with a satisfying snapping sound as his head hurt. The tentacles around him took advantage of his debilitated state by swiftly wrapping him in between each other. Because of their second attempt, however, an even more violent reaction took place between their tentacles and the red lightning around Shinnok's body. The explosion sent many of the surrounding Guardians in several directions as some of the resulting electricity struck the expanding portal.

That is when all hell broke loose.

The only memory that Kazuya could've compared it to was the chaos he had felt aboard the doomed commercial airliner when he had teleported Bruce Irvin out of it after his assassin had accidentally caused it to crash. The Black Abyss felt like the inside of an airplane after someone had shot one of the windows out. Kazuya felt a tremendous pull towards the newly-created grayish portal. He gasped as he realized what was going on and desperately dropped his upper body horizontally against the ground to reduce the pull of the portal. It was to no avail, he kept being helplessly dragged towards the opening. He thought it was ironic that the Guardians had succeeded by accident something that they had attempted on purpose several times before.

Turning his head towards the portal as he came ever closer to it, Kazuya saw a glimpse of Shinnok as the demon yelled and was then sucked into it. Young Mishima didn't know what waited for him on the other side of the portal, but if it was anything other than the Black Abyss, then he knew he could be a threat to whoever was there. Kazuya clawed at the ground, still seeing no effect as the portal was now a dozen steps away at most. His screams didn't help either. If he had been any of the other members of the abyss, the Guardians would've most likely fought to keep him there. But he already knew that they were happy to see him being pulled into the accidental portal, so no assistance could've been expected from them.

"NO!", Kazuya screamed as he tried to drive the heels of his feet into the ground also, "YOU CANNOT MAKE MELEAVE!".

He didn't hear any responses.

"RAYDEEEEN!", he yelled out in desperation, calling out to the god who had been responsible for putting him in this situation in the hopes that the deity might've intervened on his behalf.

No one was around to answer him because the last thing he heard was himself screaming some more before he was pulled into the center of the whirlwind.

His skin was on fire, or at least that's how it felt. He couldn't stop screaming as he was hurled violently into open air. Although his eyes were open the entire time, he couldn't see anything around him once he was past the portal itself. Kazuya felt his body falling towards some gravitational force as every bone in him felt like it was about to break from the intense pressure on his body.

Just when he thought his form would shatter under the strain, he crashed against a ground. The impact did not hurt him as much as it should have, considering that he had been falling for almost a minute. His mind did not ponder about that fact, however, because he was still trying to recover from the dwindling pain which afflicted him from head to toe.

"Aaaaaggggh!", Kazuya gasped, trying to inhale as much of the cool breeze into his lungs as possible as he rose on his hands and knees.

His head was still facing downwards in the daylight, so he didn't see who was around him, he only heard the first person speaking.

"You...", a man's voice sounded terrified, "You... You are evil! Evil".

Kazuya only gasped further as he began looking up towards the source of the words. He wouldn't have known what to say even if he had instantly regained the ability to speak.

"How did you arrive into our world?", the man continued, "We are doomed if you are here! I can feel the evil all around you, as well as inside of you! You are evil! YOU ARE EVIL! YOU CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO...".

"Hey, like shut up, will you?", another female voice interrupted the man as he had begun screaming, "Looking out for these mutants is difficult enough".

Kazuya tried to turn his head towards the new source, but was unable to find the woman who had spoken up.

"YOU HAVE TO BE DESTROYED!", the man continued screaming, "YOU ARE..".

"I said shut up!", the woman snapped, interrupting him again, "Either you do it voluntarily or I'm gonna show you what a broken jaw feels like!".

The threat had done it, the man didn't say anything further.

Kazuya finally turned his head around far enough to see who had voiced the promise of bodily harm if the loud man had continued. While still on his hands and knees, he saw an athletic young woman with shiny blond hair and dressed in a neon-green halter and sweatpants of the same color along with white sneakers and a wristwatch wrapped around her left wrist. She had her right fingers wrapped around the handle of a semiautomatic pistol and the middle of both her forearms were wrapped in thick and bloody three-inch wide bandages. She approached him with heavy, painful steps until she was within an arm's length of Kazuya's form. Looking down at him, her eyes locked with his as she extended her left hand down at him. Not knowing who she was, although she looked very familiar, and not caring at the moment, he accepted her offer by gripping her left hand with his right one. She pulled him up to his feet as new pain attacked his ribcage as soon as he stood up straight.

"What just happened?", she asked him.

"I wish I knew", Kazuya replied as he looked down upon her to maintain their eye contact since she was only slightly shorter than him.

The deep scar on her left cheek was one of the first things he noticed.

"Were you...", she chose her words carefully, "Where did you just come from? From the sky?".

"Yes", he answered, realizing he couldn't have clarified the situation further.

"But you're here", she broke eye contact with him as she visually surveyed the area they were standing in, "On earth".

She turned back to look up into his eyes again as she holstered her weapon.

"And you're alive", she finally said.

Kazuya's heard sank with disappointment when he heard her last three words. It was the last thing he wanted.

"By the way, I never had the pleasure", she extended her right hand towards him.

"My name is Mishima", he told her as he gripped her hand with his own, "Kazuya Mishima".

He held his breath to see if any signs of shock or fear were going to appear on her face when he mentioned his name. To his surprise, her facial expression did not change.

"Name's Sonya Blade", she promptly replied, gripping his right hand back, "Nice to meet you".

"I do not know how I arrived into this realm", Kazuya explained, "But this is not my world".

"Well, where are you from?", Sonya asked as she let go of his right hand and walked back to the man who had been complaining about Kazuya's evil state as soon as he had crashed against the ground.

"I am from earth as well", Kazuya looked up at the sky and rubbed his forehead, "But it was a different one than this".

"How so?", was her next question as she squatted next to the man she had threatened only a short time ago.

That man was lying on the ground, perhaps as if he was injured.

"Can you stand up?", Sonya asked him in a professional manner, leaving no emotion in her voice.

The man nodded in response, so she gripped one of his upper arms with her right hand and wrapped her left arm around his upper back to help him get back up on his feet.

"Sorry about before", she explained as the man began rising to his feet, "You were just making too much noise and I was afraid that one of these mutant patrols might've found us".

"No hard feelings", the man answered as Sonya released him after he was able to stand under his own power.

"Good", she patted him on the back, "I didn't see you coming close to me, guess I was distracted by our flying visitor there".

She pointed at Kazuya as she made her last comment.

"It shows that I'm not being as careful as I should be", she continued, "But stick with me and all three of us may make it out of here in one piece".

"Maybe I'll just do that", the man replied, pressing his left forearm into his stomach.

"Name's Sonya, by the way", she finally stated to him.

"Reiko", the man nodded once.

"Mutant patrols?", Kazuya repeated as he approached the pair, "Might I ask you what exactly is going on here?".

"Man, you really aren't from this earth, are you?", she looked at the new visitor.

"That is what I said", Kazuya was eager to hear an explanation.

"We're under attack", Sonya's voice almost sank to a whisper, "Shao Kahn's been hammering us with his armies".

xxxxxxxxxxx

Mark felt uneasy as he and his associates stood around their boss. It wasn't just the occurrences of the past day that had him feeling nervous, although they didn't help. His new boss was now making deals with demons which weren't unlike the ones who led the offensive against the planet. Killing humans came easy enough for Mark and his friends, working for the Black Dragons demanded no less, but for the first time, Mark found himself wondering if his superior had been wise. He looked at Jarek with a concerned look on his face.

"We still have time to jet this place and screw this whole deal", Mark advised.

"I said be quiet!", Jarek snapped back at him, "If you guys can't shut up for just a few minutes then you should all go outside and wait for the arrival there".

The idea didn't sound bad to Mark or any of the other employees. After exchanging looks, they reasoned they'd be happier outside rather than being inside to risk any temper tantrums this new demon could throw. Quan Chi paced the floor of the humble shrine as he watched most of the humans leaving the place and Jarek remained the only other occupant in the room a few steps away. It was perhaps because his visitor did not know the power linked with the devil Shinnok, Quan Chi thought to himself, since it would've been impossible for any mortal not to be anxious once he or she knew of Shinnok's true might.

"Stop being so damn paranoid", Jarek scolded, "Your boss will be here".

"Do not take that tone with me. You are still a servant to us", the sorcerer shot back.

He might have answered at such a tone of voice with physical violence before. No mortal had spoken to him in such a way for a very long time. But the apprehension he felt while waiting for Shinnok's arrival prompted him to be much more tolerant of others, at least for now. So Quan Chi wished that his master would get there already so he could start acting like his old self again.

Just as that last thought had entered his mind, a red burst of electricity appeared on top of the shrine. The form turned into the silhouette of an adult man before Shinnok himself was seen standing on his own alter. The first thing the demon from the Black Abyss did was lock eyes with the sorcerer who had freed him from his eternal damnation. Quan Chi smiled back as he bowed his head low, irritated more than ever that Jarek did not copy his reaction.

"It is like old times, master", the sorcerer's voice erupted in joy.

"Yes", Shinnok smiled back as he descended from the alter and walked towards his rescuer.

"Allow me to introduce Jarek", Quan Chi raised his head and pointed behind him, "It is he who will show us to the resources we need while our power is still limited at the present time".

The red demon only stared at Jarek and briefly grunted.

"Nice to meet you too", Jarek's face registered disgust.

"He is the leader of the most feared criminal organization in this realm", the sorcerer continued.

"The Black Dragons, at your service", Jarek bowed his upper body down as he smiled and rested his right forearm against his stomach in a sarcastic copy of Quan Chi's earlier action.

"Let us get to it then", Shinnok didn't want to waste any time, "Much work needs to get done and Shao Kahn's scheduled destruction is not long from now".

"Not until I hear your part of the agreement from your own lips", Jarek stood back up, his face no longer bearing the sneering grin, "After my organization's resources help you and you become king of the world, you'll destroy every one of my competitors".

"That was the agreement", the demon assured, "Only after I get what I am after".

"No, that's what I heard from snow-white here on your behalf", Jarek pointed at Quan Chi, "I wanna hear you promise me".

"I give you my word", Shinnok satisfied him, "Shall we leave already?".

"This way", the smile reappeared on Jarek's face as he pointed to the exit, "The cars are outside".

"Cars?", Shinnok repeated.

"I had tried to explain to him, my lord", the sorcerer pointed out, "He has his syndicate employees waiting to take us anywhere we need to go with land-roving vehicles. Little does he know".

"Land-rovers? Your machines can't even fly?", Shinnok seemed insulted.

"Please, I could get the cars to take us to our private jet", Jarek countered, "We do have pilots available, despite all the bullshit taking place outside".

"We do not need your petty machines, mortal", the demon, "I will take us to Chthon's palace with a mere thought".

"Whose palace?", Jarek shivered involuntarily at the name.

"My...", Shinnok smiled, "My pet".

"Your pet", the Black Dragon leader repeated.

"Yes, the one who can steal souls", the demon smiled, "Like this".

Without another word, Shinnok pointed his right index finger at Jarek. A flame shot out of the edge of his finger and struck the mortal's torso. The heat from the projected fire alone would've been enough to melt an ordinary human, but Shinnok seemed unaffected despite his closeness to the projectile. Jarek only had enough time to let out one, short yell before his charred body crumbled on the ground. Satisfied, Shinnok raised his left hand with the palm facing the remains and concentrated. Jarek's soul was pulled out of his remains and, instead of rising towards the heavens, it was drawn in the demon's direction. With a second, ear-piercing scream, this time emanating from Jarek's soul, the criminal's spirit was swallowed by Shinnok. The demon felt better already, although the acquisition of one soul was only a small fraction of the power he had felt back when he had lost his battle against Rayden in the previous earth realm.

"Never trust a demon", Shinnok grinned as he turned away from Jarek's remains and addressed his sorcerer, who appeared amused.

"Come", the demon ordered as he pointed to Quan Chi as he was ready to teleport the sorcerer and himself to his desired destination.

Jarek's charred remains stirred. Rather than stay on the floor as a burned mess, the burned parts came together into a solid mass and a body then rose from the floor until it stood. Instead of Jarek, though, the new result was a skeleton-thin zombie which stared at the demon and the sorcerer with a blank look on its face.

A red cloud appeared out of both Shinnok's palms. Before it began engulfing both him and Quan Chi, though, as he had expected, a lightning bolt shot through the roof of the alter and submerged the demon and the sorcerer inside of it. Shinnok screamed out in outrage since he already knew who was responsible for such an act.

"RAYDEN!", the demon yelled.

Mark and other Black Dragon bodyguards ran into the room from outside after hearing the commotion and stood all around the zombie which used to be Jarek. None of them understood the magical net which held the two people, though. The only thing they saw and heard was Shinnok howling in anger as he shot bolts of red electricity into the net in an attempt to break through it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Baraka headed towards the long line of humanoid slaves who carried equipment and raw materials towards their destination. The nomad grunted in disgust and anger as he overpassed the first slave. That person paid no attention to the larger mutant as he kept his eyes fixed straight ahead in an effort to stay on his feet while hauling the heavy box on his shoulders. From a few feet ahead of the slave, Baraka heard the captive behind him whispering to himself. Desperate to have some fun at someone else's expense, the mutant stopped and turned around.

"Say something?", he grinned, bearing down on the man behind him as he stood over a foot taller.

The slave only shook his head as his wide eyes met Baraka's.

"Strange", the mutant kept grinning, proudly showing off his teeth, "I thought you had. It wouldn't be an insult towards me, now would it?".

The man shook his head stronger.

"I think it was", Baraka raised his right arm above the level of his own head in an attempt to strike with the blade which protruded out of his forearm.

Before he was able to deliver the blow, a familiar female voice interrupted him by calling his name. The nomad turned around without killing the terrified slave as he watched Mileena approaching. The masked servant of Kahn's in the purple one-piece suit and matching gloves and boots walked haughtily towards him, happy with herself that she was one of the few individuals who could still get his attention by calling upon him only once.

"Greetings, fellow servant", Baraka stood in place and bowed his head with his arms rested on either of his sides.

He didn't know how, but he was sure she was smiling behind the mask. The slave only stood next to the mutant who had been trying to kill him only a moment ago, not knowing whether to be thankful for the woman's interference because none of Kahn's servants had a reputation for being merciful towards his slaves.

"Are you done wasting time?", Mileena scolded in a teasing voice once she stood in front of the nomad.

It was then that she finally turned her attention towards the immobile slave next to them.

"You may go", she waved with her left hand, trying to get rid of the inconvenience of not being alone.

"Nah!", Baraka grinned, "I heard him, he insulted our Kahn".

Before the slave had a chance to deny the accusation, the mutant gripped him by the back of the neck and threw him face-first towards the ground. The humanoid let go of his cargo, crashed down flat on his stomach and then felt the nomad's left foot crushing the back of his neck.

"What should the penalty be?", Baraka returned his grin towards Mileena, ignoring the struggling man below his foot.

"That is up to you to decide", she added from under the mask, "But we have more urgent matters to attend to, so make the penalty a quick one".

"Urgent matters indeed", the nomad sounded sarcastic, "They better be after I was dragged away from my fun on the earth realm. Those natives are so much fun to play with".

"It is", she told him, disregarding the gasps from the slave on the ground, "Since our prototype has absconded, master wants as many more like him as possible to replace his duties. We need some living weapons against earth especially now".

"Why now?", the nomad was genuinely surprised, "We are winning".

"Did you not hear?", Mileena informed him, "The Centaurs have abandoned their part in the master's offensive against earth, most likely because of Motaro's death, and master is either unable to locate Motaro's remains or is unable to revive him this time".

"Not good", Baraka hissed to himself, pressing his foot further into the slave's neck to stifle the annoying noise that one kept making.

"Exactly", Mileena agreed, "Which is why you are needed to oversee the new project of building new living weapons. Master Kahn gave that order just before he left this realm, no one knows where he went, not even Shang Tsung".

"I see", the nomad told himself, "So it is a good reason after all".

With that, Baraka lifted his left foot off the slave's neck and, even before that one was able to breath easier, sent his left blade into the humanoid's upper back, severing the spine. The slave sputtered blood out of his mouth as his head, arms and legs waved violently on the ground. Baraka then stopped all movement from him by swinging his right blade downward on his neck and severing his head. The nomad raised his bloody left blade in front of his face and began licking the blood off it with a passion although it was known that nomads such as himself did not use blood as a necessary nutrient. Seeing the invitations, Mileena pulled down her facemask and revealed her own mutant teeth from behind it. She jumped up and embraced the much larger mutant and they passionately kissed, some of the blood from Baraka's mouth passing to hers.

"I do so love these quality times we share together", Baraka grinned as he momentarily pulled his bloody mouth away from hers.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"We've been under attack for some time now", Sonya explained to her new comrades, "But I have a feeling that things may just be starting to turn in our favor".

"What makes you say that?", Kazuya asked as he watched her comb the surrounding streets and buildings for any signs of movement.

"I've just taken out the chief four-legs", she gave a wide grin while her eyes were still canvassing the area, "Well, not me exactly, but a friend did. I just made sure that punk Kahn couldn't revive him".

"Really?", Reiko asked in his own turn as he voluntarily stayed close to the two others around him, "Kahn can revive the dead?".

"Yep", she went on, "But he won't be with Motaro, I saw to that. And without Motaro, the entire Centaur army leaves Kahn's invasion force. A point for us, to say the least".

"Was that the decapitated Centaur who was missing his legs and arms that I passed a few blocks back?", Reiko pointed behind him.

"That's him, or at least was", Sonya confirmed, "I'd like to see Kahn bring that piece of meat back from the dead, huh?".

All three individuals found shelter behind a crumbling wall and temporarily sat down next to it, especially since Reiko seemed to be tiring rather quickly. Kazuya was busy inspecting Sonya as she checked the ammunition in her pistol, for the third time, when he finally remembered the reason she looked so familiar. It wasn't long before she noticed his stare.

"You see something you like?", she questioned in a surprisingly friendly tone.

"I just recalled where I knew you from", he admitted, "Lieutenant Sonya Blade was busy leading one of the surviving army platoons against my syndicate in my world. I remember seeing you through my enchanted mirrors".

"Ah, famous in every place", she smiled.

"Well, it was said that this lieutenant had a heart of stone and treated everyone around her as mere objects and tools, nothing more", Kazuya continued.

"Well, it's nice to be appreciated", her tone became more sarcastic as she glanced by the side of the wall.

"That is only what was said about her", the young Mishima corrected, "Not about you".

"Why would someone who is defending this world be fighting against you before you came here?", Reiko shot back at him.

There was a moment of silence as Sonya realized the question made a lot of sense.

"Good point", her eyes turned cold as she gripped the handle of her weapon and looked at Kazuya.

Before the young Mishima could even think of what to say, Reiko's scream interrupted them. The dark-haired man let out a yell as he pointed behind them both. Kazuya and Sonya turned around to see a pack of approximately twenty 7-foot tall mutants, most of them with bloodied blades. The invaders growled and inhaled air aggressively as they slowly approached the three humans with their blades raised horizontally in front of their chest. Every mutant wore a broad smile on his face, remembering how easy these earth natives were to cut apart on their razor-sharp blades. Sonya was quick to raise her firearm at arm's length in front of her face. Kazuya lifted both arms in front of his chest and lower face as he stood ready in his fighting stance. Reiko appeared scared as he kept moving restlessly behind the pair.

"This should cut down the odds, not to mention their grins", Sonya commented.

She pulled back on the trigger with both speed and ferocious accuracy. The pack of mutants began screaming, most of them yelling because they were impaled by 9 millimeter bullets, but some howling as they charged over their wounded comrades to reach the three natives. In the few, brutal seconds that it took Sonya to empty all twenty rounds in the pistol, only six mutants were left standing. She charged ahead with the blank weapon still in her right grip as the closed the distance between her and the six invaders. From ten yards away from the charging mutants, she somersaulted into the air as she curled her body into a ball. While in the air and coming back down on her feet, she first threw the empty handgun towards the first mutant in the pack. The steel and plastic firearm spun through the air and struck that lead mutant on the forehead. The struck mutant shrieked as his head was thrown backwards from the blow and he found himself falling on his back. The large gash on his forehead would not have constituted a mortal wound, but three of the five surviving mutants then stepped on him on their rush to be the first to get the humans. The mutant screamed further as he felt his 300-pound comrades bruising his spinal cord with every step and he didn't get back up once the charge was over.

The second mutant in the pack met Sonya as she turned upside-down on her hands. Her ankles wrapped on either side of his chest, just under both his armpits, and she legtossed him over her in a perfect semicircle. The mutant screamed as he found himself being hurled in that semicircle and then crashed back-first against the ground behind his female human opponent. As he gasped and tried diligently to climb back to his feet, the mutant saw the male human running towards him in order to team up with the female fighter. Kazuya rushed past the fallen second mutant on his way to reach Sonya's position, but first turned around long enough to deliver a swift kick to the downed mutant's chin. That one's face snapped towards the blue sky as he saw stars and was knocked unconscious.

Sonya shifted the majority of her body weight on her left foot as she turned to her left. Her right leg shot up as the knee was bent and it straightened in the middle of the swing. Her right ankle crashed into the third mutant's jaw as that one staggered towards his own right under the blow. The mutant saw her following him, ready to deliver more punishment, so he spread his arms wide before swinging both blades horizontally. Two 5-foot long slashes covered the area in front of his chest as his arms crisscrossed, but the human had restrained herself from getting too close to him. Both blades met air as Sonya dropped down on her left knee and sent her right leg sweeping the area in front of her just inches higher than the ground. Her right ankle met the ankles of the third mutant and that invader shrieked as he crashed down on his left side. Before he was able to stand back up, Sonya rose on her knees and gripped his throat with her left hand. Pushing forward with a groan, she shoved his neck backwards until the mutant was lying on his back. As she saw him lifting his arms to attempt another strike, she straightened her left arm as she positioned her 140-pound body on top of his to keep him down. Turning her right hand into a fist, Sonya delivered a jab into his eyes. The mutant's attention was obliterated momentarily from that blow, but he kept fighting. A second punch with her right fist in between his eyes stunned him enough so that a third similar swift punch knocked him out of the fight.

Kazuya, in the meantime, bent his left knee and crouched on it as he sent his right leg in a thrusting attack against the fourth mutant. The bottom of his right foot slammed into that mutant's left knee and the invader howled as his knee bent in the opposite of its natural direction. The mutant kept yelling as he gripped his broken left knee with his left hand. Taking advantage of that one's distraction, Kazuya delivered a punch with his right fist into the stomach of the fifth mutant. As he did, he caught a glimpse of the sixth mutant running past him, most probably to either attack Sonya or Reiko, but Kazuya could not worry about him. With his attention on the fifth invader, he uppercut that one with his left fist. The mutant's face shot upwards, only to have his body point back downwards towards the ground as Kazuya sent a third right punch into his stomach. As the mutant bent forward under the third blow, the human swung the outer part of his right fist downward into the back of the invader's head, knocking the mutant down on his hands and knees. Kazuya then gripped the back of the invader's neck with his right hand and jumped on top of the mutant's back, pressing his knees into that one's lower back. The human's weight, along with his forward thrust, sent the mutant's face accelerating downwards until his eyes crashed into the ground and he saw stars. Kazuya got off the fifth mutant's back and stood in front of the fourth mutant, who was still grasping a broken knee with his left hand while swinging wildly with his right blade. The mutant swung downward with his right blade, meeting air. The human gripped his right wrist and drove it towards the ground until the tip of the blade entered the ground. The human then dropped on his knees and delivered his left fist into the fourth mutant's already-broken left knee. The mutant's shrieks became even louder as his legs weren't able to support his body any more and he fell down, unable to stand up.

Unknown to both human fighters, the sixth mutant rushed past them and overtook Reiko. The invader thought to himself that a scared native would be an easy kill since this one did not appear to be as aggressive as the two humans who kept five of his comrades busy. As the mutant raised his right arm to strike, though, Reiko calmed down and stared up into his eyes. An instant of locking eyes with this human was enough to convince the mutant to lower his right arm by his side. The invader couldn't believe who he was looking down at.

Kazuya had finished off his latest opponent as he helped Sonya up to her feet. They both turned around, suddenly remembering that one mutant had gotten past them in an effort to kill Reiko. They also knew that Reiko seemed much less capable in the art of war than the two of them. To their surprise, they both saw Reiko standing over the body of the mutant as the invader was lying on the ground on his stomach, completely immobile and in a small pool of his own blood.

"He ended up stabbing himself while trying to do me", Reiko panted, "I couldn't believe it, it was the most incredible thing I ever saw. Is this luck or what?".

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It's a good thing that it was these bladed things that attacked and not anyone else, huh?", Reiko still appeared to be feeling uncomfortable around the bodies of the mutants, even after he had calmed down, "I'm just glad it wasn't one of those horsemen or one of those four-armed things. They're probably smart enough not to trip on their own knives, those guys".

"We won't be seeing either one of those", Sonya told him as she tightened the bandages around her forearms, "The Centaurs are gone, like I said, and the Shokanites deserted after that dickhead Kahn tried to turn on them".

"Really?", Reiko asked, "How do you know this?".

"I ran into one of them, a woman", she recalled, "Her name was Sheeva and she said she had survived an assassination attempt since Kahn had used the Centaurs to try to wipe her race out".

"Wow", Reiko exclaimed, "Two down, one to go, then. I was really impressed with the way you two fought when those bladed things attacked. No matter what happens, I'm gonna stick by you both".

"They're called nomads, and you're welcome to", Sonya smiled as she picked up her empty pistol and fed a fresh clip of bullets into it before holstering the weapon, "I'll just be glad when this whole thing is over, yet again".

She turned to Kazuya next as he was seated by himself several yards away without contributing to the conversation.

"You OK?", she asked him from a distance.

"Just fine", he replied, staring only ahead and not returning her glance.

"The two of us did make a good team, Reiko's right", she approached him, "We should...".

An outburst of electricity interrupted her. Kazuya spotted it too and recalled seeing such an entrance just a short time before. Rayden stood in front of the three humans and locked eyes with all three, starting with Reiko and ending with Kazuya.

"I'm glad you are enjoying his company, Sonya", the thunder god stated while still looking into Kazuya's returning glance, "Kazuya can help you and your friends. Isn't that right?".

The young Mishima didn't reply, but his facial expression alone told Rayden he was infuriated for being brought into the realm of the living after he had done what the thunder god had asked for.

"It was not my intention to bring you here, Kazuya", Rayden tried to explain, "I needed you to stop Shinnok, but the demon warrior slipped into my realm anyway. I would not have asked you to follow him here, but as long as you did, perhaps you can be of use to my mortals".

"Say what you came here to say and leave", Kazuya's voice deepened as his face lowered and he maintained his eye contact with the deity while standing up to his full height.

"You have a new threat", Rayden turned to Sonya, reasoning that she had enough of a history with him to listen with more attentiveness.

"No kidding, boss", she told him, "Tell me something I don't know. You just figured that out about a day after Shao Kahn started his invasion?".

"This is not about the Shao Kahn", the deity pressed, "Someone new has arrived here from the Black Abyss. Shinnok plans to reawaken a monster that can kill someone and take that person's soul with a thought. With this reawakening he plans to destroy the Kahn, take his souls and then rule this earth after annihilating all human life from it".

"Gee, you'd think one clown with his army of circus freaks would be enough", Sonya crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I have restrained Shinnok temporarily, but he will break through my barrier in little time", Rayden went on, "We need every moment until then to send reinforcements to Chthon's lair to intercept Shinnok's effort. It won't take him long to destroy my barrier, especially not with his sorcerer I saw at the scene with him helping".

"Sorcerer? Not Shang Tsung, is it?", she wanted a clearer statement.

"No, his name was Quan Chi, someone who makes Shang Tsung appear young in comparison", the deity clarified.

"Really? Start teleporting then", Sonya clapped her hands once.

"It's not that simple", Rayden's response surprised her, "I do not want to send you and Kazuya there alone. It is very dangerous for just the two of you".

"Uh, three of us", Reiko corrected.

The deity looked at Reiko as he finished his statement. There was a strange aroma which surrounded this mortal, not similar to the one surrounding Kazuya, but the thunder god did not know what the scent signified. The dark-haired man gave him a nervous smile when he realized he was being stared at, indicating he was more scared than curious, so Rayden turned his attention back to the other two humans at the scene.

"Fine, call my friends then. You do know where Johnny and Liu are, correct?", Sonya thought out loud, "Unless...".

"Johnny and Liu are fine", Rayden gave her a sigh of relief by reporting that both kombatants were still alive, "They are in the Outworld with Kitana, and possibly another ally".

"Have them meet us there", she suggested rather quickly, she was getting used to the idea of coming under fire with her fellow kombatants.

"I am not sure how long I'll be able to assist you", Rayden added, "I am breaking the restraints put upon me by Zeus already. If he was to find out that I'm even talking to you now, he would force me back into the celestial palace until this chapter in earth's history was over".

"Jeez!", Sonya raised her arms in frustration, "Fuck him! What does he think this is, a game or something where we have to worry about rules more so than the outcome?".

"I am sorry", the deity shook his head once.

"It's not your fault", she added while rubbing her forehead, "This whole thing is starting to get to me, that's all. You're not gonna get in trouble if you're caught, are you?".

"I won't get caught", Rayden sounded confident, not finding it odd that she was as concerned about his welfare as her own, "And even if I do, the consequences will still be nothing when compared to what will happen to you if we do not try to stop Shinnok".

"So what happens now?", Kazuya crossed his arms in his own turn.

"Yeah, teleport us to this Ch... Whatever's lair", Sonya suggested.

"Again, not that simple", Rayden went on, "Any action taken by me other than teleporting myself would be too obvious to escape Zeus' detection. In order to be able to take you there without anyone in the celestial palace knowing, I had to create a teleportation area on this earth from the sky. That invariably makes my aim somewhat inaccurate, as I was only able to make one in the approximate limits of this city. I landed on the earth next to it and saw where the portal had been created from the sky. It is at the intersection of 5th and Bluetane avenues".

"That's only a mile or so from here", Sonya remembered, "Hell, we can walk there. What about the guys and Kitana, though?".

"They are in the Outworld", the deity went on, "Since only the earth realm is being watched, I will be able to teleport go there and simply teleport them to Chthon's lair right away. But just remember that there will be a great time fluctuation as soon as you enter the lair, as if you were traveling between realms. Even though it's on the earth realm, the unholy power of stolen souls keeps that lair standing over time, and it also muddles the basic concept of time. People who travel into it may require as little as a minute or as long as several hours to enter. I will tell the other half of your team to watch for such an occurrence also".

"OK, do that", Sonya said, "Good luck".

"To you too", Rayden took one last look at all three humans before turning into an explosion of electricity and vanishing.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rayden appeared in a much different environment than earth when he arrived in the Outworld. The first thing he remembered about this place was the purple sky. He personally liked blue much better, but this was not the time to be comparing favorite colors. He hadn't been in this realm for a long time, not ever since Shang Tsung had brought Goro to beat the original Kung Lao in mortal kombat five centuries ago. The sorcerer had used the Outworld as his stronghold while preparing for the tournaments against the earth's best warriors, all the time poisoning the air so that Rayden specifically could not enter it. Ever since Tsung's defeat during the tenth tournament at Liu's hands, the atmosphere had begun to convert back to its original environment, thus making it possible for the deity to visit. Although the air was still very uncomfortable for him to breath, Rayden found it better than it had been for the past 500 years. Only wanting to spend as little time in this realm as possible, he set his sights on the four individuals he spotted from the air before materializing in front of them

"Lord", Liu was the first to bow as the bolts of electricity expanded to form the shape of an adult man.

Kitana did the same afterwards, though Johnny and the gray cyborg who had smoke emerging form his body did not.

"Fancy seeing you here", the actor smirked as he took his sunglasses off.

"You are needed on earth, my friends", Rayden's words struck a chord in Johnny's mind.

The actor thought it was strange that the deity referred to them as friends. He had never thought of the thunder god as a friend. A guide, perhaps, and maybe a protector, but not a friend. Before he was able to think about the matter for long, though, Liu was already in the middle of a conversation with the deity.

"Kitana was about to attempt opening a portal into Shao Kahn's realm", the monk indicated he would rather strike into Kahn's domain rather than return home for now.

"I realize you do not know of the latest occurrences on your realm", Rayden explained, "There is a new threat in your world, someone who may end up being even a bigger threat than the Kahn. A demon called Shinnok has arrived with his personal sorcerer to reawaken an apocalyptic monster. He is every bit as ferocious as the Shao Kahn, and he is already in your realm. Sonya and a few friends are already on their way to intercept him".

"A few friends?", Liu wondered.

"Kazuya Mishima for starters", Rayden told him, "You do not know him from your world since this version of him is not from your earth, but of another, parallel earth realm. The important fact now is that he is a fierce warrior and he could prove to be helpful at this time. There is also an inhabitant of earth named Reiko that they have apparently come across".

"This is Smoke, by the way, lord Rayden", Kitana finally pointed towards the cyborg.

"The gray warrior you were advised to find", Rayden thought out loud as he stared into what would have been the cyborg's eyes.

Smoke pressed his right upper arm against his side, raised the forearm and rested it diagonally against his torso.

#Any enemy of Kahn is a friend of mine#, he spoke in his robotic voice.

"But what if we destroy Kahn first and then return to face this demon?", Liu insisted.

"If Chthon is awakened, it may very well swallow the Shao Kahn up as well as every other life in your world within a very short time", the deity explained, "This truly is more important, Liu. I know you are eager to end the Kahn's threat to your home world, but meeting Sonya and Kazuya there would be more beneficial to earth for now".

"Allright", the monk agreed, although he didn't like procrastinating his scheduled bout with Shao Kahn since it had been frightening him more and more as time went on.

Although Liu wanted to get his bout with the all-powerful opponent over with, he went along with Rayden's idea.

"I have warned Sonya's team about this", the deity said as he placed his palms together, "Because of the necromantic environment surrounding the lair, I cannot say for sure how long it will take you to get there. I have a few more items to cover with you, but that can wait until you return to the Outworld for Kahn. For now, we must worry about Shinnok and his sorcerer Quan Chi first".

"Understood", Kitana answered for the whole team.

Electricity emerged from the thunder god's hands and it engulfed the four fighters. Both it and Rayden soon vanished as the three humans and the cyborg found themselves in a totally new climate. The sky was dark even though they knew it was daytime on earth. They were standing on the edge of a large, rectangular-shaped building with an open ceiling. Just the width of the rectangle must have been half a mile, and the length was even longer. Huge columns emanated from the ground as they supported a second floor which was as large as the ground they were standing on. The most noticeable aspect of this lair was that lava covered the middle of the area. The entire ground was covered by a giant lava pool which was almost as long and wide as the lair itself. The second floor simply gave a better view of the pit itself, although no one had any idea on how to get there since it was about two hundred yards off the ground.

"Great", Johnny put his sunglasses back on since the brightness from the lava easily hurt his sensitive eyes, "Just when I thought I saw every weird place in this universe".

All four kombatants sighted movement from their left. They swiftly turned in that direction to spot a bald-headed man with silver-white skin approaching them in a cautious fashion.

"So", Quan Chi whispered loud enough to be heard, "Rayden has sent his team of losers to stop me and my master. Too afraid to do the job himself, I see".

"We don't need him to finish off the likes of you!", Johnny barked back as he realized he was talking to Shinnok's sorcerer.

After all, the actor reasoned, only the demon's sorcerer would've referred to him as a master. Liu and Kitana were quick to restrain him by the arm so he wouldn't go ahead of the team alone. Any effort against the invaders needed to be done together.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk", Quan Chi admonished as he was about a dozen steps from the humans, "Such a temper. But tell me, how good is your temper when turned against, say, one of your own?".

"Can you make some sense or do you always talk as good as you look?", the actor shot back, waiting for him to make his point as all four fighters kept a careful eye out on the approaching sorcerer and their surroundings.

They thought to themselves that Quan Chi appeared too arrogant for someone who was outnumbered by four opponents. So they were careful to comb the area around both him and themselves to make sure that the sorcerer had not arranged for anyone to deliver a sneak attack while he distracted them himself.

"My point, pretty boy, is your weakness there", Quan Chi addressed Johnny but pointed at Smoke with his right index finger.

The cyborg noticed that he was being discussed. He was waiting patiently for one of the three humans to give the word so he could launch his projectile against the warlock. No matter how powerful Quan Chi believed himself to be, Smoke knew that one harpoon imbedded into his lower throat would have killed him for sure.

"Hmm", the sorcerer winked, rubbing his chin with his left fingers, "I can't say I've never seen technology like that before. His type was somewhat ancient, though, the people that my master and I destroyed in the previous earth had technology way more advanced than that, and this was thousands of years before".

"I am just about getting fed up with you!", Liu walked ahead of the rest, pointing back at the sorcerer in his own turn, "Our world is under attack and you keep us preoccupied here! Either you will tell us where your master is or you will die where you stand!".

Kitana withdrew two paper fans which were surrounded by razor-sharp edges, seemingly out of nowhere. At the same time, Smoke's chest opened until a square hole was made visible. Just an inch under the surface of his chest, a harpoon with the ability to impale a wall eagerly waited to be launched.

"I have a better idea", Quan Chi grinned, "Let's even out the odds. Maybe I can use the prehistoric technology in that walking tin can there".

With that, the sorcerer held his right arm up, with the palm facing towards the ceiling, and began curling his fingers inward. A red gas began forming in his palm until it condensed enough to be seen from where the kombatants stood. By the time any of the four fighters recognized that the sorcerer held the gas in his hand, Quan Chi threw the contents of his palm towards the cyborg. Smoke let out an electronic gasp and took several steps back as the three humans turned their attention towards him if only for an instant.

"Now", Quan Chi placed his palms together, still smiling, "Kill all three of them".

The sorcerer then turned and ran away while Smoke only stood silently for a moment as red fumes emerged from his body instead of the regular gray ones.

"Smoke, are you all right?", Kitana asked as she took a step towards the cyborg.

The mechanical kombatant answered with force. He ignored the princess and turned his attention towards Liu since the monk was clearly the leader of the team. His spear shot out of his chest and headed straight in the monk's direction. From a distance of only ten yards, he could not have missed, and Liu only had enough time to gasp as he saw the accelerating spear sailing through the air towards him. His spear would have struck the leader of the earth warriors exactly where it was intended to if Kitana had not pushed him out of the way. She threw him to the ground and out of harm's way just as the cyborg's projectile reached the spot where Liu stood a fraction of a second ago. The spear tore into her throat and emerged from the back of her neck as Kitana gasped for an instant while blood erupted out of her mouth. She dropped the fans on the ground as Smoke withdrew his bloodied spear out of her neck and Liu heard himself screaming from a far away place.

Johnny Cage flew towards the cyborg in a flying shadow kick. The bottom of his foot struck Smoke in the chest and sent the cyborg gliding through the air for ten yards before that one landed on his back without making a sound. With brutal speed and efficiency, the cyborg sprang back to his feet as he viewed Liu down on his knees and holding Kitana's almost-severed head in his hands. Tears were running down the monk's face, so Smoke could've struck him with a second attempt by using the spear with a reasonable chance of success. Before he was able to send his projectile again, however, Johnny rushed in his direction and executed a standing shadow kick against him. The actor seemed to slide on the ground on his left foot as his right leg was held high, pointing at the cyborg's chest again. Smoke saw a flash of colors resembling Johnny's clothing which followed him before the second impact sent the cyborg staggering backwards and crashing back-first into one of the columns which supported the second floor. Seeing the cyborg dazed for only a moment, and not wanting to face him when he was not, Johnny turned around and ran back towards Liu. The monk was still holding Kitana's corpse in his arms when the actor reached him.

"Liu, she's gone, there's nothing we can do!", the actor grabbed the monk by the shoulders in an effort to pull him up to his feet, "We have to get out of here".

Liu stood up as his eyes were targeting the column against which Smoke had crashed. Not wanting to lose two teammates at once, Johnny pulled the monk away since he believed Liu could not have beaten the cyborg, especially in his currently grieving state of mind. The cyborg lifted his right arm until it pointed towards the two men and a tongue of flame shot out of it, intending to burn them where they stood. Both kombatants turned and ran in the opposite direction, feeling the intense heat from the flame on their backs even though the tongue itself had not touched them. Quan Chi was nowhere to be seen since the sorcerer had already undergone a hasty retreat immediately after issuing the order to the reprogrammed cyborg.

Smoke ran after Liu and Johnny, calmly giving chase even though his running speed was at least three times faster than any human's. Despite the head start the humans had by running first and the distance they were away from the android, it would've taken Smoke only a few seconds to catch up to them. This was especially true since the hunted had nowhere to run but in a straight line. To their left was a solid wall while to their right was the pool of lava, so the only place the two kombatants could run was straight ahead. Glancing over his shoulder once, Liu spotted Smoke raising his arm to activate his flame thrower again. This time he was close enough to be able to burn both individuals with ease. Since the rectangular-shaped hallway did not turn to the right for at least hundreds of yards more, Liu had to take the one possible escape route his eyes caught. Seeing an opening in the wall to their left, the monk threw himself against Johnny, forcing the both of them into the opening a fraction of a second before another tongue of flame shot through the air where they had been standing. Johnny crashed into the ground first as Liu landed next to him. Struggling to stand up fast, both men saw that the opening was a dead end. The small room in the wall was covered by three walls in itself and it led nowhere. With Smoke only a few seconds after them, both fighters knew that this was the moment to fight to the death. Once the cyborg appeared at the entrance of this opening, either he would survive the encounter or they would.

Before Smoke reached the opening to the room, though, both fighters heard a slight humming sound and then felt the ground underneath their feet moving. Johnny gasped as he saw that they were being pushed upwards towards the second floor. The two had stepped on an elevator which operated by sensing someone's weight on the platform. The rising platform took only a few seconds to take them to the second floor despite the awesome height of the columns which supported that floor. Upon reaching it, both men kept standing on the platform, unsure of what to do next. The second floor looked exactly like the first, except that it was on a higher altitude, so the view of the lava pool was different. Liu stepped off first, and Johnny followed him an instant afterwards. As soon as the actor was off the platform, it rushed back downstairs, leaving a hole in the floor where it was before. The actor realized that they had made it possible for Smoke to follow them, so he swore at himself for not staying on the platform until Liu could have found a heavy object to replace their body weight with.

Once the elevator hit the first floor, both kombatants heard it humming again, meaning that another passenger was riding it to the second floor to join them. It took the platform a few seconds to reach the second floor, like it had done with them, and when it stopped at its destination, the cyborg was standing on it, ready to finish his task. But Liu and Johnny were ready as well. The monk tackled Smoke from his left side and the cyborg crashed on his right side off the platform with Liu on top of him. Feeling no one, the platform went back downstairs. Liu jumped back on his feet just in time as Johnny let loose a furious barrage of kicks aimed for the android's head and chest. Smoke was busy just trying to defend himself from the actor's constant kicks as he stood up, so he didn't see Liu as the monk delivered a brutal flying kick aimed as high as possible. Liu's extended right leg struck Smoke in the head and sent the cyborg staggering backwards and towards the hole in the floor that the elevator platform had left by going back downstairs. Smoke stepped into the void in the floor and lost his balance as he disappeared down the chasm. He didn't scream as he fell two hundred yards, but Johnny and Liu next heard his body crashing into the elevator platform below. Once feeling weight on top of itself, the efficient platform then rose towards the second floor again. It neatly covered the void in the floor as Smoke was lying on top of it in a prone position. Sparks flew out of the cyborg as it vehemently tried to stand back up but failed with each effort.

"Come on, buddy", the actor tapped Liu's arm, "Now's our time to finish it".

The monk placed both his hands on either side of the cyborg's head and, despite that one's heavy weight, lifted him off the platform. Not accepting Johnny's offer for help, Liu dragged Smoke to the edge of the second floor as he heard the elevator going back downstairs behind him. Looking over the edge of the second floor, Liu's stern eyes saw the lava pool starting just after the edge of the first floor, which was exactly under the same spot as the edge for the second floor. So pushing someone off the second floor would mean throwing that person into the lava. Liu considered dropping the cyborg into the lava pool and ending his sudden menace once and for all. The only sight he could see in his mind was Kitana being fatally stabbed for daring to help him. Before grief threatened to be the only factor in his decision, though, Liu also remembered that Smoke had just saved all their lives in the living forest before volunteering to help them fight Kahn. It was Quan Chi's magic which had made Smoke into the killer that he had turned into.

The monk slipped one forearm under the back of Smoke's knees and another one below his upper back before holding him over the edge of the second floor. Before Johnny had a chance to ask what he planned to do, Liu then changed his mind. The monk turned around, away from the edge of the second floor, and threw the cyborg back into the empty elevator shaft. Liu didn't look to see the result, but he knew what happened after he heard Smoke hitting the hard ground about two hundred yards below for the second time. He was already walking away when the elevator lifted the cyborg's already-mutilated body towards the second floor yet again. Johnny looked back at the elevator one last time before turning to join the monk.

"What are we gonna do now?", the actor asked the obvious.

"We need to find that sorcerer!", Liu spat between his pressed teeth, "And his master also. I just realized we failed in an even greater way than I had thought".

"How so?", Johnny asked, speeding up his pace to try to keep up with his fellow kombatant.

"Shinnok is a soul-stealer", Liu explained without looking at him, "Just like Shao Kahn. When we were busy running for our lives, I'm sure he took Kitana's soul to add to his arsenal. We weren't even able to save the princess' soul".

"OK, OK, that's fine", the actor passed his ten fingers through his hair, "We beat this Shinnok and release her then, right?".

"Right", the monk agreed, "We just have to find him first".

The second floor turned the right corner a fairly long distance ahead of them, so the monk turned to the actor and looked at him.

"One of us should go back downstairs, to increase our odds of finding this insect of a sorcerer", Liu suggested, "We will be able to cover more ground that way. And if you find him, do not hesitate to kill him yourself".

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense", Johnny told him, although he didn't like the idea of separating in such a hostile environment, "I'll go back down".

The actor offered his right hand, palm facing upwards, before the monk slapped down on it with his own left palm. Retaining his adamant facial expression the whole time, the monk turned away from Johnny as the actor carefully ran back towards the waiting elevator. The last thing Liu heard as he himself ran towards the right corner of the second floor was his partner trying to use the elevator to go back downstairs. Liu did not know how one would take the elevator downwards, as it seemed to only climb upwards when it had a weight on it and downwards when it carried nothing. He had faith that the actor would find a way, though. Johnny, in the meantime, removed Smoke's immobile body from the elevator and, as soon as the flat area began its descent towards the first floor, he jumped through the hole in the floor. His feet landed on the elevator as it was only about three yards down from the level of the second floor and he regained his balanced on it as he was carried all the way to the first floor.

Liu kept running until he approached the right turn and reached the beginning of the length of the rectangular building he was in. It had taken him at least five minutes of a slow, wary run before he had reached that corner. He saw that the length of the second floor started off as spacious as the first floor ground had been, but the middle of the length of the second floor soon became much more narrow, so it only allowed one person to walk on it at one time. The thick columns from the ground level held the narrow passageway up, but there was empty space of about five yards between the passageway and the wall next to it. Following the trail along the length of the second floor thus meant that Liu could have watched for any signs of movement on the second floor as well as the area below by looking over empty space next to it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In the meantime, Quan Chi was on the ground floor as his servant zombies forced over twenty humans towards the edge of the fiery lake. Those humans had been found relatively far from Chthon's lair as they were trying to hide from Shao Kahn's armies. Needing the extra manual help, as well as the souls for the sorcerer's master, Shinnok had stolen the souls from the Black Dragon bodyguards after those had responded to Jarek's screams immediately following his escape from Rayden's restraints. Taking the soul of a person who had just died was easy, but if the soul was not taken within a few minutes, it would be impossible to steal. Such an act of necromancy was relatively effortless, but it required finding someone who had recently died. A more difficult art was taking the soul of someone who was still alive. This took more energy and it left the soul's former owner as a mindless zombie, not much more than a savage animal. The zombies who were forcing the regular humans towards the edge of the lava had been Jarek, Mark and other members of the Black Dragons a short time ago, but now did their master's bidding only. After Shinnok had stolen their souls, he had brought them with him to Chthon's lair and then ordered them to go out and bring the first humans they spotted back to be sacrificed. Amid the wails and cries of the terrified humans, who had been bitten by the zombies in the effort to force them in from outside the lair, Quan Chi concentrated.

"What the hell are you?", one male shrieked, "What are those things?".

A zombie clobbered him over the head for daring to address his master in such a tone of voice.

"What are you gonna do to us?", an adolescent female gasped in between frightened tears.

The sorcerer ignored them both as he continued his prayer. Within two more minutes, a red cloud surrounded those terrified humans. That was the last sensation they felt because their souls were wrenched out of their bodies next. Quan Chi's ears would have hurt from the screaming which surrounded him if he had been an ordinary mortal, but he was not. All the stolen souls came together and sailed through the air until the unholy mass rested in front of the sorcerer. A group of savage zombies stood at the exact spot where the kidnapped humans had been only a short time ago. The new zombies joined the old ones who had brought them into the lair in a random walk around the ground as Quan Chi telepathically called for his master. Shinnok promptly appeared out of the air a few steps in front of his servant since he already knew why he was being summoned. The red demon raised his right arm, with the palm facing the sorcerer, as Quan Chi sent the mass of stolen souls his way. Shinnok inhaled the souls and felt stronger yet. He roared in laughter.

It was another ten minutes of brisk walking on the second floor before Liu heard the loud laughter which seemed to follow the terrified screams he detected just a short time ago. He knew that the sound came from closeby and then spotted the person he despised most at this time. From the second floor level and through the space next to the passageway, Liu saw Quan Chi on the ground below. The sorcerer was facing the lava pool as he seemed to be praying towards it. Shinnok, standing behind him, wore a happy expression on his face

"What is the status on the rising?", the demon asked.

"Very soon", the sorcerer assured.

Without another word, Shinnok vanished into thin air. Near Quan Chi and where Shinnok previously stood, Liu spotted several thin zombies wondering away aimlessly. The earth warrior reasoned that the sorcerer had let his guard down since he already assumed, falsely, that Smoke had killed both earth realm kombatants. Liu could've run back to the elevator to go downstairs now that he knew where the sorcerer was located, but he did not wish to lose sight of this one, since doing so would mean giving Quan Chi a chance to escape. Instead, Liu walked towards the open space on the second floor, the whole time keeping his eyes set on the sorcerer below, and then jumped off until he wrapped his arms around one of the columns which held the second floor up. In such a fashion, the monk climbed down towards the ground, hoping that the sorcerer would not hear him approaching.

From the first floor, Quan Chi only heard a light noise from high above. He turned his face upwards just in time to see Liu climbing down the column about thirty yards from the ground floor. Knowing that he had been spotted, Liu leapt off the column with his arms spread arms wide. The sorcerer's eyes ballooned wide open as he realized the mortal human was diving straight for him. Quan Chi let out a short yell before Liu reached him. The sorcerer reacted fast. He dropped down on his back and lifted his right leg ahead of the rest of his body. Liu's stomach met the bottom of the sorcerer's foot and Quan Chi continued with the monk's speed by grabbing Liu's shoulders and pushing the earth kombatant off him instantly. Liu flew horizontally along the ground floor as he curled his body into a ball. He gracefully landed on his feet several yards away from Quan Chi's head as the sorcerer stood back up fast. The monk screamed as he rushed back towards the sorcerer, who turned into his fighting stance. Not knowing how the monk had gotten away from the cyborg, the sorcerer ducked as Liu executed a high roundhouse kick aimed for his head. Coming back down on his feet, Liu tried to leg sweep his opponent, only to have Quan Chi jump up to avoid the second strike. The sorcerer tried to counterattack as he came back down on his feet and Liu stood up, but the monk delivered a high front kick with his left leg first. The bottom of Liu's foot slammed into his target's chin before his opponent staggered back and spat out blood. Eagerly following him, Liu delivered a right uppercut into the same chin and sent the sorcerer flying backwards in a semicircle. While still in the air, Quan Chi crashed into the nearest column and painfully bounced off it before coming to rest on his hands and knees.

Feeling desperate, the sorcerer concentrated enough power in his right hand in the time it took Liu to run up to him to deliver more punishment. Quan Chi tossed the contents of his hand into Liu's face and the monk's upper body snapped backwards as he covered his eyes because he was blinded for a few seconds. As Liu gasped, frantically trying to regain his eyesight, the sorcerer stood up and ran away from him as fast as possible because he knew the instant magical concoction would not last long.

"QUAN CHI!", Liu yelled as he saw the sorcerer's silhouette dashing away, "YOU CANNOT HIDE FROM ME!".

Liu rubbed his eyes one last time as he had gotten enough of his eyesight back.

"This world is not big enough to hide you from me, you moving target", the monk whispered under his breath.

Liu chased after him. Before he was able to close the distance between the two of them, however, the monk saw Smoke leaping through the air from the sorcerer's direction towards him in a flying kick. The cyborg ignored the fleeing sorcerer as Quan Chi ran past him and kept his attention fixed on the human from earth. Liu's eyes widened when he spotted Smoke's return. The monk sidestepped towards the wall and away from the lava pit in just enough time so that Smoke's extended leg flew past him. The cyborg landed on his legs with the grace of a cat and wasted no time in attempting another offensive. The cyborg headbutted Liu in the nose. The monk saw stars as the back of his head crashed into the wall behind him. Liu screamed and twisted to his left while planting his right foot into the cyborg's stomach. That strike had almost no effect because Smoke next gripped his throat with a gray left grasp. The cyborg strangled Liu with that one hand as he pressed the monk's back against the wall and then lifted him a foot off the ground. Rather than kill him slowly by strangulation, Smoke then bent his right arm at the elbow and pointed his right hand towards Liu's face. It was only a split second before Liu knew that the cyborg planned to let loose a tongue of flame, thus intending to burn the monk instantly where he was held.

While Smoke was trying previously to execute the flying kick against Liu, though, Quan Chi's hasty retreat to the elevator had been suddenly cut short when he had run right into Johnny Cage's form. The actor gripped the sorcerer by the collar with his right hand and smiled.

"Well, well", the kombatant with the sunglasses grinned, "Look what the cat dragged in".

Johnny punched him in the stomach with a left fist. As the sorcerer bent down, gasping for breath, the actor gripped him by the collar with both hands. Without another word, Johnny dragged the sorcerer towards the edge of the first floor where the lava pool began. With the front of Quan Chi's feet being held on the solid ground while the back of his feet were in the open space over the lava, the actor retained his grip on the sorcerer's collar as he stood in front of Quan Chi and slowly moved his arms towards the lava pool. Quan Chi screamed in fear as he found himself being dangled at a sixty degree angle just over the lava. Keeping the sorcerer in the vulnerable position, Johnny looked over his own shoulder to see Smoke gripping Liu in the air by the monk's throat, ready to burn his partner alive.

"Release the hold you have on Smoke, or I swear I'll drop you right now!", the actor barked as he shook his arms a bit, indicating to Quan Chi that he was serious.

The sorcerer did not answer at first, only looked into the kombatant's mirrored sunglasses with his own terrified eyes.

"NOW!", Johnny ordered, "Or are you willing to trade your life for one fighter from earth?".

"No, no!", the sorcerer finally begged, "I will do as you say!".

Quan Chi closed his eyes and curled the fingers of his right hand inward. As a result, Johnny saw a red cloud emerging from Smoke's body and then disappearing into the air. The red smoke emanating from the cyborg's body was replaced with the usual gray ones before the cyborg quickly put Liu back down on his feet and released the grip on his neck.

"That's better", the actor gave the sorcerer a smile as he walked backwards from the edge of lava pool, thus making it possible for Quan Chi to stand up straight on the edge of the ground level on his own.

"Too bad that ain't enough, though", Johnny kept on smiling.

Before Quan Chi knew what to do, the actor turned into his fighting stance.

"Tell me how the water is after you take a swim in it", the actor told him.

Both Liu and Smoke saw Johnny delivering a front kick into the sorcerer's stomach. The impact sent Quan Chi staggering backwards and, since he was already standing on the edge of the pool of lava, the sorcerer fell into the lava as he kept screaming. Johnny only stood near the edge as he stared down at the sorcerer's burning form. The actor remained emotionless as he saw Quan Chi's skin literally melting and then smelled the burning flesh underneath it. Quan Chi gave one last scream as he pushed his skinless forearm out of the lava. The last thing Johnny saw was a skeletal arm sinking into the pool before the sorcerer's entire body had disappeared into it.

"Fatality", the actor whispered to himself.

Johnny turned back towards the two other kombatants. The cyborg stood still as he stared at the monk whom he had tried to kill more than once, and had nearly succeeded in his latest attempt. Feeling wary, the actor walked towards the pair hoping that Smoke was back to his normal self but ready in case Quan Chi's reversal spell had been a hoax.

#I am contrite#, Smoke declared in his usual voice, #I was not acting out of my own will#.

"Yeah, we know", Johnny approached the pair as he pointed behind him, "That melting snowflake back there just removed the reprogramming spell he cursed you with".

Either ignoring or not detecting Liu's angry look towards him, the cyborg then turned toward the actor to reply.

#I have felt Shinnok taking the soul of the princess just after her death#, the automated warrior let him know, #It occurred when I was busy chasing you into the elevator. We should try to free her soul, along with everyone else's#.

"Uh, yeah", Johnny agreed, amazed that Smoke had not felt Liu's glare, although he already had, "We should do that".

Before anyone could add any suggestions for a future course of action, an angry roar sounded through the lair.

"HOW DARE YOU!", Shinnok's voice was heard echoing through the lair.

The demon came into sight just a few feet in front of all three kombatants and standing several steps next to one of the massive columns which were holding the second floor in place.

"The sorcerer had been with me for close to an eternity!", Shinnok barked, now visibly upset, "You will pay for your actions!".

"Funny", Johnny turned to him, "That's what we were thinking about you".

The demon did not flinch.

"I will take your entire world's inhabitants to hell for that!", Shinnok continued, "And I will start with you three!".

"Hell, huh?", the actor gave a snappy answer although his spite for the demon was evident, "What is that like? I'm picturing it's a place where everyone is forced to stand in an unemployment line that never moves. Am I close?".

The demon didn't reply.

"See, ugly's death was only a start", the actor explained, "It doesn't make up for Kitana, alone".

"Ah, yes", Shinnok finally gave an small grin, "Your precious princess. She does feel right at home, indentured inside of me".

Liu growled in anger, taking a step closer to Shinnok before the actor restrained him. It wasn't safe to attack such a powerful demon yet, especially since this opponent knew a lot about the monk's style by absorbing Kitana's soul

"Do not be vexed", Shinnok's smile continued, "You will keep her company soon enough".

With that, the demon raised his right arm towards the ceiling.

"Behold, your destruction", he announced relatively quietly.

That is when the three kombatants saw what they believed to be an inhabitant of hell itself.

It rose out of the pool of lava. Its height reached the second floor of the structure, its mass was larger than anything the three fighters had seen before. Chthon climbed out of the lava, bearing an approximately round width at the stomach which was at least thirty yards in diameter. Its skin and flesh were so rugged that it allowed this animal the freedom to be sleeping inside lava for thousands of years before being reawakened to wreck havoc against the inhabitants of the realm for the second time. Both of its gigantic arms were longer than two buses aligned one after the other. As Liu and even Smoke looked up and appeared momentarily hypnotized by Chthon's grotesque and horned face, Johnny only felt grateful that he had remembered to bring his sunglasses.

While Shinnok was so busy bellowing in laughter at his accomplishment and his opponents' shock at the sight, Smoke was the first to react. The cyborg reasoned that his flame-thrower would not be of any use against an adversary who felt perfectly comfortable inside a lava pool. Smoke thus took two steps towards the lava and stopped near its edge. His spear flew out of his chest and struck near the base of Chthon's stomach, only a few feet on top of the level of the lava. The monster's skin was barely scratched at the strike. Not surprised, the cyborg let loose as much electricity as he could afford through the cable which was attached to the spear. The electricity traveled through the cable and impacted into Chthon, the result of which was that the monster felt a small tickle at the spot where the spear had hit. Screaming at the defiance shown by the tiny cyborg, the monster waved one of its arms towards Smoke. A fireball emerged from its hand and struck the cyborg in the torso. The source of the cable in Smoke's chest was torn out of it as the spear remained imbedded in the monster's skin while the cyborg was hurled backwards. He violently crashed back-first into the wall behind him and loosened several pieces of rocks from it before sinking to the ground amid a wave of electronic drivel. Smoke finally stopped sinking towards the floor and remained on it in a seated position with his back flattened against the wall behind him. Johnny and Liu only had enough time to watch as the cyborg rested lifelessly on the ground and stayed immobile.

Johnny reacted next. The kombatant charged towards Shinnok with a yell, intending to tackle him and pin him to the ground with all his might. He had already lost two of his partners within a very short amount of time and he was going to make the being responsible for the loss pay. As the actor neared the demon, though, a blue vertical wall appeared in between them. Even though he saw the new barrier, Johnny was running too fast to stop instantly. The actor crashed into the magical wall and bounced off it with an involuntary shriek. He was hurled backwards into the air before violently meeting the actual wall of the lair and coming to rest on the ground not far from Smoke's obliterated body.

Liu's pulse raced as he couldn't see any movement from Johnny's immobile frame. The actor might've been dead, or perhaps merely unconscious. The monk hoped for the latter, but he didn't have enough time to investigate to ease his fears. Liu turned his attention back to the demon responsible and saw that one raising his right hand while he still stood behind the security of the mystical wall. A bright flame appeared at the tip of his fingers as it then began spreading towards Johnny's direction. The grin on Shinnok's face widened and Liu saw the demon impatiently waiting to acquire the kombatant's soul.

"It does pay to be well-versed in the black arts", the demon complimented himself, "I doubt the Shao Kahn himself is capable of stealing the soul of a living person. That miscreant must wait until his opponents are deceased before being capable of any necromancy. I, on the other hand, do not have that limitation".

Liu turned into his fighting stance, desperate to distract his adversary from concentrating on the task at hand.

"Fight me, coward!", the monk yelled, "Why do you choose to hide behind that barricade?".

"Hmm", Shinnok grimaced, "I will, that's a promise. After I take your friend's soul, that is. And you will be here to watch the whole thing, lucky you. But do not worry, he will still be around to watch you meet your death right afterwards".

Liu became more desperate as he remembered the zombies which had been wandering around the grounds of the lair. He asked himself if Johnny would've turned into such a creature if the demon had acquired the actor's soul. Not wanting to find out, the monk turned the first and only plan in his mind into action.

The kombatant vaulted into the air with as strong a leap as his legs could afford, only he wasn't targeting Shinnok like Johnny had earlier. Liu knew that any attempt to get through the blue barrier would be a waste of time and energy, and time was the one factor that he did not possess presently. He turned his vertical body counterclockwise while flying towards the column that the demon was standing several steps to the left of. As Liu reached the pillar, he gave out a yell while raising his left leg and then swerving it. The back of his left ankle crashed into the column and the impact loosened an explosion of stones from it. Pieces of rock and gravel flew in every direction imaginable as the monk dropped to the ground while covering his head with his arms. Some rocks were tossed into the lava pool where Chthon watched the whole commotion down below between its master and the annoying mortal. Other pieces of stone flew in the direction opposite Shinnok's and others still hit the wall near the fallen actor and the cyborg. Additional stones also found their way towards the demon himself. Seeing them, Shinnok quickly switched the barrier so it protected his left side rather than his face and torso. Although his shield protected him from the flying debris, Liu's attempt had succeeded because he had been distracted long enough to turn away from his attempt to steal the downed actor's soul.

The red demon was infuriated as he then spotted Liu rebounding around the lair while barely touching his own feet to the ground. Liu jumped up and recoiled off the column and sailed through the air towards the wall in front of Shinnok right above his two fellow kombatants. He positioned his legs ahead of the rest of his body so that his feet met the wall about eight feet above the level of the ground before he bounced off that also, this time flying straight into Shinnok's face. The demon gasped as he realized he had not repositioned the barrier back from its current left location. The realization came too late because the next thing he saw was Liu twisting in midair before extending his own right leg in a straight line. The only sight the demon could visualize after that was the bottom of the monk's shoe coming towards his face before he felt the impact right between the eyes.

Shinnok gave out a yell as he staggered backwards, making sure to stop short of falling into the lava behind him. Observing the hit delivered against its master, Chthon threw a second fireball towards the ground, this time aimed at Liu. The monk proved to be the faster of the two, however, because he evaded the burning sphere while somersaulting away from the demon. The fireball struck the wall a short distance away from Johnny's motionless body as Liu continuously increased the distance between himself and Shinnok.

Annoyed at the mortal's persistence, the demon motioned up at Chthon with his right hand, indicating his monster that the monk was his alone to kill. Seeing the gesture, Chthon growled in obedience and simply watched as its master dropped the blue shield altogether. Liu came back down on his feet and stood his ground in a fighting stance. The only scene he viewed was Shinnok rushing at him as the demon wore a very incensed facial expression. Liu was glad, the demon had left Johnny alone and had given in to his desire to destroy an enemy with his bare hands enough to turn down the guaranteed protection that the blue barrier had afforded him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The streets leading towards 5th and Bluetane avenue all looked the same. A countless number of carcasses, both human and mutant, littered the ground. Red seemed to be a more prevalent color on the ground than the grayish asphalt that the roads and sidewalks were made out of. Although such a sight wasn't anything new to Sonya before, it didn't mean it became easier to remain focused. She tried to block out the smell of blood as she stepped over the latest body as she, Kazuya and Reiko crossed a street. Reiko seemed to be the most nervous of the three as he still appeared uncomfortable with the constant reminder of death surrounding him everywhere he turned. It was a grim expression of what had happened to many before them and also what waited for them. Sonya noticed his neurotic facial cast but reasoned that it was difficult enough for her to remain sharp under such excrutiating circumstances. She told herself that she'd try to support Reiko if he broke down and wasn't able to continue, but until then she had to worry about maintaining the steel grip she currently had on her emotions. She just wished that grip wasn't loosening with every cadaver she had to step over as she maintained the pistol gripped with both hands while her arms were bent at the elbow in front of her torso.

"How much further?", Kazuya asked almost in a casual tone of voice.

"Four blocks", she said as she looked at him.

She kept looking into his eyes even though he had never glanced into her direction even when asking the question. Sonya was forced to wonder how this man could've remained so calm when she, someone with several years of experience in the Army Special Forces, was fighting a constant battle in her mind to stay tranquil. Ignoring the dead bodies did not come easy, no matter how many of them she had seen throughout her career, but Kazuya was acting as if he was taking a usual walk down the street and seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

It was then that Sonya remembered Reiko's yells when Kazuya had first dropped out of the sky. She had forgotten the warnings about the evil state of this stranger because of Rayden's visit, but she pondered about them now. Even though Rayden had given his assurances that Kazuya was on her side, she had to admit that she knew nothing about him even at the present time. It was only after several moments that Kazuya even noticed the constant stare he was receiving from her and turned his face towards hers.

"Is something the matter?", he politely offered.

"Just thinking too much, I suppose", she replied, taking a few steps closer to him as Reiko always stayed near her, "I'd like to know who you are".

"Then you should've said so", the visitor from another realm answered as he looked ahead again.

"Guess so", Sonya agreed, "Stuff like what the other version of me was doing leading a platoon against you in your dimension".

"Yeah!', Reiko added after her statement.

She turned to him for a second and smiled before diverting her serious attention towards Kazuya again.

"That is a long story", Kazuya explained, "But it starts when...".

He was interrupted by human screams emanating from a nearby building. All three turned towards the source of the noise and spotted an adult man being forced inside the entrance of the building by two larger mutants. The two invaders were inside the building before Sonya could take aim with the pistol. Without a second thought, she bolted towards them.

"Stay with him", she ordered to Kazuya, motioning towards Reiko.

Forgetting about the recollection about his life, and never being one who ever took orders as an adult, Kazuya gave chase as an agitated Reiko seemed to wish they hadn't heard the screams, or at least that his company wasn't so bold in the face of danger. The wooden door to the building had been closed by the second mutant who walked through it. It didn't remain that way for long because Sonya reached it first and broke it down with a single front kick delivered next to the doorknob. The two mutants inside the lobby were already standing over the eviscerated body of the man when the dislocated door crashed down on the lobby floor. Both invaders turned their attention towards the new natives as Sonya stood on top of the broken door and took aim with the Glock. She heard Kazuya entering through the empty doorway as she was about to pull the trigger. Before she did, however, she heard another scream from behind them both, except this time it was Reiko's. Both she and Kazuya turned around to see two other mutants carrying Reiko away from them as he struggled against the two, much stronger invaders. Not wondering why the mutants would want to abduct a human when all she saw them doing so far was killing on the spot, Sonya gasped as she turned around to take aim at the kidnappers. She stepped off the door and stood in the doorway next to Kazuya, aiming past him, but her action left her open to an attack from behind by the two original mutants in the building.

Both invaders rushed towards the armed female human thinking to themselves that they had come across a lucky break before she got a chance to use her weapon against them. As they closed half the distance between themselves and her, though, Kazuya carefully moved towards them. Thinking they would have some fun at the male human's expense, both mutants slowed down their forward rush as they scrutinized their newest opponent. Before giving them a chance to attack, Kazuya picked up the broken door off the lobby floor. The invaders gasped as they saw him lifting the door over his own head before hurling it towards them. One mutant ducked out of the way while the other invader wasn't fast enough and thus allowed the horizontal door to hit him in the chest. He dropped on his back with a solid noise, feeling dazed. With one mutant down, at least temporarily, Kazuya bolted towards that one's comrade. Once the human was near enough, the mutant swung downward with the right blade. Kazuya sent his upper body towards the left at the waistline as the aimed blade touched the floor merely inches to the right of his own right foot. Holding on to the mutant's wrist with his own right hand, he made sure the invader wasn't able to lift that arm again. Before the mutant was able to use his left blade in response, Kazuya raised his left arm above his own head before bringing his left fist downward on the invader's forehead. The mutant saw stars as his head snapped back and the human let go of his right wrist. A right jab followed into the mutant's solar plexus, driving the invader backwards still. Annoyed, the mutant raised both arms horizontally with his own shoulders in an effort to swing with both of them. Before he was able to deliver the blades into the human target, though, Kazuya turned to his left as his right knee was bent and kicked with his right leg. His right ankle met the left side of the mutant's jaw and loosened several of that one's teeth as the invader's head snapped to his own right. With the human's leg still high in the air and past the mutant's face, Kazuya pulled his right leg back down the same path it had been raised. The back of his right ankle smashed into the right side of the invader's jaw and snapped that one's face towards the left before Kazuya was standing on his two legs again. Letting out a shrill scream, one that demanded blood, the mutant received a left front kick into the chin from the smaller human. His upper body snapped back under the impact and he crashed back-first against the floor.

He didn't get back up, so the human turned his attention back towards the first mutant who had been struck by the door. That invader was still lying on his back, although he was starting to get back up. Kazuya quickly walked up to him and, after looking down at him for an instant with a pair of cold eyes, lifted his right leg as the knee was bent. The mutant didn't understand what the earth native was doing as the human's jet-black eyebrows came closer together, but then felt the crushing feel of the bottom of Kazuya's right boot on his throat. The mutant gasped for air as his body was forced back into horizontal position on the floor. It was two seconds later that the human heard the invader's neck snap. It was only then that Kazuya took his foot off the mutant's throat.

Sonya, in the meanwhile, had the muzzle of her pistol trained with both hands towards the back of one of the mutants who was busy carrying a struggling Reiko away from her. As she was about to pull the trigger, a foreign leg kicked out at her wrist from her left, knocking her hands as well as the weapon towards the sky as a bullet was fired from it. The handgun flew out of her grasp as she gasped and lost her balance because of the impact in her arm and staggered to her right to remain on her feet. She regained her balance within an instant and then turned to her left to see the culprit responsible. She swallowed a lump in her throat when she found herself returning the gaze of three large mutants who looked down at her.

"Uh, hi guys", she locked eyes with all three nomads in turn as she turned into her fighting stance, waiting for the first one to attack, "Nice weather we're having today, huh?".

Seeing no movement from any of them since they were waiting for her to attack first instead, she decided to try to not disappoint them. She exhaled hard through the mouth in an annoyed fashion as she took a step closer to the trio who were themselves wondering which one would get to dismember the female human into the most pieces. Sonya bent her right leg at the knee and then sent that knee into the groin of the middle mutant. That one's eyes bulged open as he first bent down in an ear-piercing scream and then fell backwards on the ground. Outraged, his two fellow nomads rushed at her as she quickly walked backwards. The mutants converged towards her from either side as they closed in on their target. The invader on her right reached the human first, so she greeted him with a swift kick to the stomach as he was readying to strike with his blades. That one gasped momentarily as he was forced to take several steps backwards. The mutant on her left reached her then as he swung his right blade horizontally, aiming for her neck. Sonya ducked in enough time to see the blade flying overhead. Seeing the mutant from the right returning for another chance, she grabbed the overhead wrist belonging to the left nomad and pushed it along with its original curve. With her added momentum after it, the left mutant wasn't able to stop his right arm from swinging when he wanted it to, so his right blade found its mark in the chest of the mutant at her right. That one shrieked and blindly swung with both blades as he felt the knife entering his rib cage. Sonya was already out of his range as she dropped low and quickly staggered to the spot where her pistol rested on the ground. By the time the mutant on her left pulled his blade out of his comrade and looked towards the native, he was looking down the muzzle of her pistol. One pull of the trigger sent a 9mm round into his forehead and he dropped dead on the ground.

Kazuya emerged from the doorway of the building as the third mutant who had been previously kneed by her finally stood back up, though still in more pain than he cared for. Seeing both his fellow nomads dead on either side and the two natives standing in front of him, he decided to turn around and began running as fast as he could away from the humans. Dismissing him as a threat, Sonya rotated where she stood in the hopes of finally spotting the mutants who had carried off Reiko. Unfortunately, that hope was too optimistic since the only person she found alive within her line of sight was the young Mishima.

"Where is Reiko?", Kazuya asked out loud although he did not want to hear the answer.

"They took him", she informed, "They got away from me".

"From us", he corrected.

"Yeah", Sonya's irritated expression met his, "From us".

"What is it?", he noticed the accusing stare.

"Why didn't you stay with him like I told you?", she demanded, her voice more stern than usual.

"I reasoned you would need my assistance", Kazuya justified his previous reaction to proceed after her into the building.

"I was fine!", she snapped at him, "That guy in the building was dead whether me alone or we both went in there, but now Reiko's gone too. We knew he couldn't watch out for himself, you should've been there to back him up in case trouble appeared".

"I'm sorry", his expressionless face looked in the direction she had aimed at in her search for Reiko's kidnappers, "It was my fault. We should give chase".

"What the hell for?", she holstered the weapon, "He's gone".

"He may still be alive", he protested as he turned back to her.

"No", she shook her head, "I haven't seen those bladed freaks spare a single human that they ran into so far. I doubt they'd start now".

"But...", Kazuya was lost for words while staring back into the direction where the mutants had taken their human prize, "I cannot be responsible for the death of yet another person".

"It's OK", her voice was more courteous as she patted him on the arm, "But there's nothing we can do for him now except to win this damn war with him in mind".

"But...", he stopped, not knowing what to say.

"Come on", Sonya patted him on the shoulder, "We gotta go back to 5th and Bluetane. That's where we can put an end to all this hell".

Kazuya didn't want to admit it, but he realized she was right. Reiko was just another casualty of war, a casualty that he could've prevented if he had been more careful. He followed her as they both proceeded towards their original destination. It wasn't long before Sonya brought up the statement that had been clinging to her mind ever since she heard it. Her curiosity demanded that she find out more about this dark stranger who served as her partner after having met only a short time ago amid such dangerous enemies.

"For yet another death?", she repeated his words, "What did you mean by that?".

Kazuya said nothing, only kept marching towards their objective.

"I understand if you're too freaked to tell me, but I think you want to", she added, "Besides, there's a good chance that one or both of us won't make it out of this alive, so it's not like I'm gonna be able to go on a talk show to tell the whole world about you once everything goes back to normal".

She had hoped to get a chuckle out of him with her last statement, but she was disappointed. She was about to drop the whole subject when he actually answered.

"You were leading that platoon against me in my own world because I was partly responsible for the Shao Kahn's invasion", Kazuya blurted out, still staring straight ahead.

Sonya didn't think anything could surprise her, but she found out she was wrong.

"Come again?", she asked, stopping.

"I made a deal with the Shao Kahn to be his human partner", he stopped also as he looked slightly down into her blue eyes, "It was under different circumstances. His invasion was an imminent one, just like here, so I took advantage of it".

"Really?", she crossed her arms in front of her chest, hoping he didn't notice that one of her hands had crept closer towards the shoulder-holstered firearm.

"Killing me now will do no nothing for you or your realm", he had noticed as he turned partly away and stared down the empty street, taking a few steps towards it.

Disappointed, she lowered her arms by either side, though still staying ready to reach for the pistol.

"I had thought that the Shao Kahn had to start by stealing the souls of this earth that were the most evil. I believed I was saving the world", he briefly explained, "At least that is what the devil inside of me had me convinced. I expected the Kahn to take every corrupt soul from my realm and then I planned to destroy him, getting rid of both him and his souls, thus making the world a better place".

"Makes sense on paper, I suppose", she said, "But then again, a lot of things do, and then almost never do in the real world. Am I right?".

"Correct", Kazuya turned to her with a slight smile on his face, "There were so many variables when it came to the Kahn's method of choosing so-called 'evil' souls that the procedure was seriously flawed. It took the actions of a very brave police officer to point that out for me, and even then I did not understand what he was telling me right away".

He turned his attention back down the streets, unable to stare into her eyes for more than a few seconds.

"Instead, I attempted to kill him for his efforts", he exhaled, not wanting to relive the memory after having done so a countless number of times in the Black Abyss.

"Oh", was her only response as she began relaxing her guard.

"And that is not the worst part", Kazuya added, "In order to try to beat the Shao Kahn, I had to tap into the same black arts that he did. I had to steal souls to increase my power. I planned to take the souls of the chosen ones, yours included, to ensure that I could destroy the Kahn when I did meet him in single combatat the end. The madness only ended when my brother was finally able to betray me, and that is when I took my own life and my captive souls were released".

"Wow", Sonya sighed, "I had no idea. But you felt confident enough to take Kahn out? Was that wise? I mean, this guy was, like, over 10,000 years old. How old were you?".

"28", Kazuya gave a frank response.

"Right", she explained, "This guy didn't last this long by putting himself at risk. Isn't it possible that there were things that he never told you that he planned to use against you on the off chance that you'd turn on him?".

"Yes, that is a possibility", he admitted, "But I couldn't realize it back then. Nothing could convince me that what I was doing was wrong, just like nothing could convince me to lower my guard. The police officer was only able to trick me into lowering my mystical barrier against him by expressing doubts about my ability to beat the Kahn. Nothing other than that could have worked".

"You must be some kind of a superhero", she thought out loud, "Someone who's trying to make a whole new world, huh?".

"A hero I was not. On the positive side, the Shao Kahn was defeated in my realm", he told her, "I do not know how, but my soul was freed from his grasp after he had acquired it, as all souls are after their captor is defeated through single combat or killed. It was afterwards that I took myself into the Black Abyss despite my brother's insistence that I follow him to the Gray Kingdom, I could not risk exposing the world to me ever again".

"Great, about Kahn being beaten, I mean. Maybe that means that Liu will be able to drop him like the bad habit that he is once...", Sonya was interrupted.

"Liu?", Kazuya asked, surprised to hear the name, "Liu Kang?".

"Yeah", she told him, "You know him?".

"Know him?", he chuckled, "He was sent to challenge me. Awesome warrior, he was. He never got the chance, however, because my friend Lei had beaten him to me".

"Neato", she went on, "So if you know Liu and me, wadda you know about Johnny Cage?".

"You mean the actor?", Kazuya inquired.

"Uhuh", she nodded.

"I know nothing about him, I'm afraid", he had to admit.

"Oh. Oh well", Sonya shrugged, "Two out of three ain't bad, though".

She took a few steps closer to him.

"I can't say I agree with you shoving yourself into this abyss place, though", she told him, "You were dead, so what kind of a threat is that to the realm of the living? And punishment to yourself is one thing, but it does nothing to atone for your victims themselves, I mean, right?. Going to this gray place with your brother might've been the right thing for both you and everyone there that you had wronged. You could've let them confront you there, gotten the whole mess over with".

He did not answer at first, only looked away.

"I cannot face them", his voice was down to a shaky whisper, "I've killed too many individuals for the sole purpose of taking their souls. But even that was easy when compared to when I've even taken someone's soul while leaving his body alive. It was an extremely difficult task that I committed purposefully just so he'd know how I felt when I had given mine to the Kahn in our bargain".

"But you're totally, like, on our side now, right?", she asked out loud even though she already knew the answer.

"Ever since I've gotten my soul back, yes", he nodded.

He was shocked when she placed her arms around his upper back and gave him a hug.

"What was that for?", he asked with the agitation still apparent on his face when he pulled away.

"I dunno, I just thought you needed it", she smiled.

"Please", Kazuya turned away from her and began walking towards their original destination, "Never do that again".

She walked after him, not willing to let the conversation end there.

"So, if you could take souls then, does that mean you can do it now also?", she asked.

Kazuya only replied with a sharp look, one that told her she should know better than to ask such questions.

"No", he finally answered, "Only a few humans from my realm were capable of sorcery, whether it being for good, such as healing, or for evil. I could do both, but I do not feel that kind of aura in this realm. I'm sure that this realm's inhabitants are not capable of such necromancy, which is a blessing".

"A shame", Sonya commented, "We might've been able to use that against Kahn".

"Are you mad!", Kazuya stopped and raised his voice for the first time as he appeared irate, "Did you not hear everything that I just told you?".

"I was just saying that...", she was interrupted.

"Necromancy corrupts the soul!", he calmed down enough to lower his tone of voice, "Most of my personality was destroyed when I undertook that black art. No one should ever engage in it, for any reason. Even if such an act was possible on this realm, which it's not, I would never take another life for the purpose of using that person's soul for any reason whatsoever! Not if it's a soul of pure and noble intent, either, or even the one soul that is stronger than that".

"OK, OK", she bent her arms and raised her palms towards him, "I was just thinking out loud for any ideas that we might use against Kahn, that's all. But just out of curiosity, I'm guessing that your soul of pure or whatever intent gives its necremancer the most power. But what's stronger than it?".

"You know I will not tell you. It doesn't matter now. But regardless, I'm sorry about my outburst", he rubbed his forehead, "Your realm's inhabitants will beat the Kahn, I hope, but they will not have to use such sorcery to do so. The whole subject is a very sensitive one for me. I hope you understand".

"Yeah, sure thing", she told him, "Come on, we better keep heading towards that teleport Rayden has waiting for us".

The teleportation spot was exactly where the thunder god had told them it was. It looked like a small, grayish tornado, except that it stood in place, made no noise and created no wind whatsoever. Both fighters approached it slowly and carefully as the immobile twister waited with silent patience. Once he stood near the place, Kazuya thrust his right forearm into it and he couldn't see his hand inside of it even though the teleport was transparent.

"I feel nothing", the young Mishima told her.

"So we should go in, right?", Sonya looked up at him.

His silence told her he agreed, so they both took one long step towards the teleport and disappeared into it. They had hoped to find a new environment on the other side, one that they could recognize as Chthon's lair, but that did not happen. Instead, both fighters found themselves stuck inside the portal as a grayish wall surrounded them everywhere.

"What is this?", Sonya looked over her head and below her feet to see nothing but gray.

"I wish I knew", Kazuya replied, "I never experienced this when I teleported either myself or others in my realm".

He heard her sighing with impatience. He knew that she wanted to be fighting the invaders' armies with her friends, instead they were both stuck in between two spaces and not standing in either one.

"Rayden warned us that there might be some time fluctuations during a teleport, did he not?", Kazuya reminded her, "My guess is that this is what we are currently experiencing".

"Great", she whispered under her breath.

"So what do we do now?", the young Mishima thought out loud.

Sonya yawned rather involuntarily, an action that Kazuya noticed.

"When was the last time you got some rest?", he asked.

"Don't tell me you're concerned", she commented in a softer, more weary voice.

"I am", he replied in a more attentive tone, "I cannot have my partner falling asleep when we engage the enemy".

"My heart's melting", she smiled by using a sarcastic voice as she yawned again.

"Maybe you should get some rest. We can go back where we came from", Kazuya suggested.

"No way!", Sonya protested, "I wanna be awake when the shooting starts and I want that to be as soon as possible. I'll get all the rest I need when Kahn's been broken".

"I did not know that the Shao Kahn was susceptible to bullets", the young Mishima replied, feeling confused.

"No, no, it's a figure of speech that idiots in the military use", she told him, "Don't worry about it".

Another yawn followed.

"I could wake you up after a short time", he offered, wishing for her to get some repose.

She only shook her head in response.

"Why are you so eager to confront the Kahn as soon as possible?", Kazuya wondered out loud in a calm voice.

"I have to, allright?", her reply was more exasperated, "Let's just do this damn thing!".

The expressionless look he gave her was enough to calm her down.

"The longer we wait before beating him, the more people die", Sonya explained in a softer tone.

She laughed after that statement, but it wasn't a humorous chuckle.

"You know, I actually lost count of the number of partners I had lost ever since I first ran into the Black Dragons", she finally told him as she turned to face the other end of the portal, "Even partners I only had for a short time, it's annoying. Besides, I gotta do this while I'm still in a pumped-up mood and before common sense overtakes me and I get scared".

The feeling overtook Kazuya as Sonya was finishing her remark. The young Mishima saw his partner's lips moving, but he could no longer hear any words that she spoke. Instead, the sight in front of his eyes faded and it wasn't long because he no longer saw her or the inside of the portal which surrounded them both. Kazuya saw the same kind of vision that Rayden had provided him with back when the thunder god had visited him in the Black Abyss. Kazuya saw the same technologically advanced earth realm from thousands of years ago as its inhabitants were slaughtered at the hands of Chthon and Shinnok. The bloodshed was a massive one, he could easily distinguish that, but the young Mishima could also see that some of the humans had survived,. Some earth inhabitants had seeked shelter after being forced to abandon the large number of deceased and soul-less victims behind. It was then that Kazuya saw Rayden soaring through the sky in an effort to intercept the demon Shinnok. The thunder god hurled into the demon with a violent impact. Kazuya couldn't clearly see the occurrences any more because the vision began to fade. He did sense one last emotion before the illusion disappeared altogether, though. It was one of oblivion, as if everyone and everything alive had suddenly died.

Kazuya opened his eyes in time to see Sonya slapping him in the face with an open right palm. He flickered his eyes a few times as he felt momentarily dazed and stepped back without even realizing it.

"I'm sorry", Sonya walked after him to make sure he was unhurt, "I thought I had lost you there for a sec. You just stared right ahead but you wouldn't respond to anything that I said".

"Uh", he inhaled and exhaled several times hard.

"What happened?", she sounded concerned, "You know, maybe we should go back to earth and get some rest before proceeding towards Chthon. I think you need...".

"I am fine", he held up his right palm towards her in front of his chest, "Thank you for your consideration. I was merely experiencing a... a...".

"A what?", she asked him.

"A residue of what occurs when one is presented with a vision from an external source", he told her at the same time that he understood what just happened, "Some scenes are witnessed by the subconscious and do not surface for the conscious mind until later".

"Come again?", Sonya was confused.

"He did not tell me everything", Kazuya's face became more tense, "Rayden lied to me. He said Shinnok had destroyed the earth realm thousands of years ago, but that was not so".

"If not Shinnok, then who?", she wanted him continue.

"All life on earth was destroyed", he added, "But not simply because of Shinnok's desire to absorb it all. The earth was annihilated as a result of Rayden's interference against the demon. He was as responsible for the death of that prehistoric earth as Shinnok was. He just neglected to mention that".

"Are you sure?", Sonya questioned, "That doesn't sound like Ray...".

She was interrupted by a spark of electricity which appeared several feet away from them inside the portal. Recognizing it, Sonya turned partly in its direction as she waited for the spark to enlarge into the size of an adult man before the deity stood in its place.

"You lied to me!", Kazuya pointed an accusing right index finger towards Rayden.

"No", the deity shook his head as he appeared sad, "I simply did not tell you the whole truth".

"You said that Shinnok destroyed the earth!", the young Mishima remembered.

"I specifically said that Shinnok's actions resulted in the destruction of the earth realm", Rayden remained calm, as opposed to his infuriated accuser, "The fact that his actions prompted me to respond, leading to a conflict which annihilated all life on earth, was something I had hoped to keep from the vision I sent into your mind. Obviously it did not turn out to be so".

"That is why you are afraid to fight against Shinnok for a second time?", he added, this time with less anger in his voice, "It was your conflict itself with his necromancy which destroyed the world".

"Yes. I was prepared to do battle with Shinnok. Too prepared", the god admitted in a dry voice, "I was given a second chance to be the earth's protector when life reappeared millennia later, a chance I did not deserve".

"Well, I do not blame you for the earth's annihilation", Kazuya surprised him, "I know all too well how one can destroy something in an attempt to save it. But you should have trusted me with that information when I was sent on a mission to thwart the demon".

"You are correct", the deity bowed, "I apologize. If you wish to continue with your mission into Chthon's lair, the portal will take you there in a short time".

"Yeah, definitely", Sonya answered for the both of them.

Giving the hint of a smile, Rayden turned into a shapeless mass of electricity before vanishing into the air. Behind him, a small hole appeared in the wall of the portal and began expanding until it was large enough for a person to walk through. Recognizing the way out to their final destination, Sonya gripped Kazuya's left shoulder with her right hand to get his attention.

"You ready, superhero?", she asked after he turned his face to lock eyes with her.

"Yes", he affirmed.

"Great", she yawned one last time as she covered her mouth with a left hand, "Let's go".

They both walked towards the opening and stepped through it one at a time. The portal shrank into nothingness behind them as both fighters looked ahead. The first sight was that of a red monster which seemed to be sitting inside a lava pool. They were on the first floor of a two-story lair.

xxxxxxxxxx

Shinnok used all his captive souls to his advantage. His necromancy enabled him to react stronger and faster than he could ever have hoped for on his own. The demon dodged aside as Liu sailed through the air past him in a flying kick. Landing on his feet, the monk turned around and rushed back towards his opponent, hoping that he could defeat this necromancer in the same way he defeated Shang Tsung during the tournament, which is to say with simple, unadulterated talent in the face of such dark and supposedly superior sorcery.

A right punch flew towards Shinnok's face. The demon grabbed the monk's right fist as it was only inches short of his face and squeezed that one's knuckles. Liu pressed his teeth together as his eyes locked with the red demon's while he felt his fingers being crushed against each other. Not giving up, the human sent his left fist towards the right side of Shinnok's jaw, only to have the demon intercept that second attempt with another grip.

They remained in that fashion for several heartbeats, eyes locked with each other, looking like two statues who were merely standing still but were in truth pushing against each other with all the strength available to them. Liu broke the standstill first. The monk jumped backwards into the air with a scream, his legs leaving the ground as his body was raised horizontally and then pushed as far behind him as possible. With the monk swinging his legs upwards in a circular fashion, the red demon was forced to lift his own arms to react since Liu was soon upside-down as his hands were still locked with Shinnok's. Liu pulled his arms towards him while turning in midair before Shinnok's grip finally let them slip out of his own hands. Frustrated, the demon did not have enough time to react while Liu swung behind his standing form and gripped both his shoulders from the back as he then lowered his body back to a standing position behind Shinnok. Liu's feet slammed into the demon's lower back and sent his opponent staggering forward with a scream that was filled with an insulting pain. It was only then that the monk's feet touched the ground exactly behind the demon.

The demon turned around to face his antagonist, growing impatient with the seemingly infinite resilience that the human showed. He stood his ground as the monk ran up to him, feeling confident he could recognize that one's attack and counter it before it was executed. Liu bent his right leg and vaulted into the air with his entire body supported on his left one. He began swinging his waistline as well as straightening his right leg towards the left. Shinnok understood that the mortal was trying to accomplish a roundhouse kick while in midair aimed for the left half of his face, so he reacted accordingly. The demon lifted his left forearm in an effort to intercept the kick, and then felt foolish because he realized the attempted kick had been only a diversion, one which worked exactly as it was intended. With his opponent blocking the left side of the head, Liu withdrew his right leg while pulling his left leg ahead of his stomach. After having both legs bent at the knee, he sent a powerful kick with both legs into the demon's unprotected solar plexus. Shinnok screamed from pain alone as he was catapulted backwards before landing hard on his back several yards away. Liu fell down on his back also but jumped back to his feet almost instantly, as opposed to the slow, agonized climb Shinnok had to endure to regain his foothold on the ground. The opponents locked eyes as the demon staggered to a standing position.

"You've proven to be more annoying than expected", the red demon spoke harshly, complimenting his adversary even though he did not wish to, "A pity, really. I was hoping to enjoy stifling the life out of you. It seems like I will have to take your life from a distance instead".

With the monk wondering what he meant, Shinnok closed both fists into themselves. He opened his hands to reveal two razor-brimmed paper fans, one held in each hand. Liu's eyes widened when he recognized Kitana's fans as he wondered how the demon could accomplish someone else's signature move.

Then it made sense. Smoke had informed them that Shinnok had taken Kitana' soul, so it wasn't inconceivable that the demon now had access to the princess' abilities also. Liu wasn't able to think about it much longer because Shinnok threw the fans from twenty yards away. Both projectiles glided smoothly through the air in a semicircle, so that the two fans put together were following the circumference of a circle. The monk gasped when he realized that he stood at the exact spot where the two semicircles met. Hoping he was doing the right thing, Liu stood on place until both fans were almost upon him. With the projectiles only feet away from their target, the monk dropped flat on his stomach and was glad to see that both fans flew overhead. Missing their target, the fans returned to their point of origin as they sailed back towards Shinnok.

The demon ignored the fans which flew his way as he glided over the twenty yards of ground at a speed much faster than a mortal could walk or even run. He sped towards the monk as Liu was getting back up and was standing in front of him even before the earth kombatant stood up straight. Liu felt the steel grip of the demon's right hand on his throat before he was violently pulled up to his feet and then felt his back being slammed against the wall of the lair.

"Did you really think your gymnastics could be a match for my strength?", bellowed Shinnok as his face burned into Liu's, "Your mortal energy is nothing when compared to the power I receive through necromancy. Too bad for you that you never learned that".

Shinnok pulled his right arm towards him before straightening it again, banging the back of Liu's head against the wall as a result. A punch with his left fist bloodied Liu's jaw as the monk tried to think of a plan. Liu screamed as he gripped the demon's shoulders and pushed forward with all his might. Shinnok was driven back until his own back crashed against the column that Liu had used to distract him to prevent the theft of Johnny's soul. Feeling unaffected, the demon violently thrust his right arm ahead and sent the monk flying backwards through the air before Liu landed hard on his back about fifteen yards away. Struggling to stand back up with a painful moan, the human saw the demon gliding inches over the ground towards him. With Shinnok close enough to be getting ready to get his hands on the stubborn earth native, Liu executed a leg sweep. His right ankle met the demon's feet, but since his adversary was not standing on the ground itself, but hovering a few inches above it, the monk's ankle barely touched the bottom of the demon's feet and then sailed underneath them. Unaffected, the demon gave an angry seethe before picking the struggling monk up by his throat and tossing him backwards through the air for a second time. Liu found himself flying helplessly in a semicircle before his back felt the hard ground below yet again. He ignored the pain engulfing his spine as he pulled himself up to his feet and faced the ever-advancing demon.

Taking one step forward on his left leg, Liu twisted to his left and extended his right leg ahead of him as he sailed through the air in a powerful flying kick as a headlong attempt to turn the tide of this confrontation. To his extreme frustration, Shinnok remained standing tall as the bottom of Liu's right foot slammed into the blue barrier several inches in front of the demon's chest. Liu bounced off the magical obstacle and crashed on the ground on his right side before turning involuntarily on his stomach. While laboring to get back up on his hands and knees, he felt Shinnok gripping the hair at the back of his head before the red demon pulled him up to his full height. Liu next saw the blue magical barrier one more time, except this time it did not form a wall in front of his adversary to protect him. Instead, the blue wall bent inward until it engulfed the monk and wrapped him completely from his shoulders down to his feet, completely forbidding all movement except for his head.

Liu desperately tried to struggle, he attempted to free his arms and his legs, but to no avail. The barrier was as flexible as rubber, but stronger than steel, the resulting power of a countless number of stolen souls. The monk's shrieks became louder when he saw Shinnok calmly lifting him off the ground and then proceeding towards the edge of the lava pool while a satisfied smile occupied the demon's face. With only two more yards before the demon was standing on the edge of the pool, the earth kombatant saw his end coming.

"And after I send you to the same fate you sent my sorcerer, I'll make good use of your unconscious friend back there", Shinnok laughed as he pointed at Johnny's still motionless form.

"I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL FOR THIS, COWARD!", Liu yelled as he felt the extreme heat of the lava while Shinnok finally stopped at the edge of the pool, staring down into it.

The demon wanted to give his vanquished opponent the chance to contemplate his death because he knew from experience that few things were as much fun as watching the fear on someone's face when that person realized that death was imminent and inescapable. Just as Shinnok had enough fun looking forward to the act and was ready to actually toss the restrained monk into the lava, though, he was overcome with a totally new emotion. A voice that was not his own emerged out of his mouth.

"NOOOOOO!", the demon screamed out loud.

The yell caught Liu's attention because he recognized the voice as Kitana's even though it had emerged from within the demon. Shinnok's body shook and convulsed several times as he stood on the edge of the pool, still holding on to Liu.

"GET BACK!", Shinnok cried out in his own voice, "THE MONK IS MINE TO DESTROY!".

"NEVER!", Kitana's voice replied from within the demon's own mouth.

Acting against his will, Shinnok lost control of his arms for an instant as the soul he had been exercising total domination over just rebelled. Kitana's soul took command of the demon's arms as Shinnok threw Liu down on the ground behind him and to his left as opposed to tossing him into the lava. With an involuntary flick of the thumb from Shinnok, the blue force restraining the monk also disappeared, freeing the kombatant instantly as Liu bounced back to his feet into a fighting stance. The demon then turned around to face the human.

"Finish him, Liu!", Kitana's voice addressed the monk from within Shinnok as the demon stared at the mortal kombat champion, "Do it now, while I still have control of...".

Kitana's voice was interrupted as Shinnok's enraged accent returned. The demon gave out a yell as he tried to rebuild his blue barrier, but this time he wasn't fast enough. He saw Liu flying towards him at an angle aiming away from the lava pool behind him. Liu's flying kick slammed into Shinnok's chest and the demon cried out in pain as he crashed back into the stone column behind him. He bounced off the column and then landed on the ground below, a defeated and broken demon. Liu landed on his feet as he saw Shinnok convulsing twice while the demon groaned in pain and turned to lie on his back. The monk walked up to him and looked down upon the demon's face after reaching him.

"Let's see your necromancy get you out of this", Liu dropped down on his knees as he used his downward swing to also send a left fist into Shinnok's face.

The demon screamed out in agony as blood exploded out of his nose.

"You cannot do this!", he hissed as the monk hoisted him up to his feet after gripping his neck with a left grasp.

"You have been defeated in single combat", Liu declared, pointing at the demon's face with his right index finger, "You now have to release all your captive souls or face self-destruction".

Shinnok only spat back at him.

"Have it your way", the monk seemed unaffected.

Liu dragged Shinnok's heavy bulk towards the edge of the pool. The demon did not even realize what the earth kombatant planned to do with him before he felt a kick delivered into the back of his left knee. Shinnok yelled yet again as he dropped down on his knees and Liu secured a grip on the back of his neck. That was the last time the red demon breathed the hot hair which emerged from the lava because the next scene he was aware of was that of Liu pushing his torso towards the still pool. The demon sensed his head being submerged in the lava as Liu restrained his neck just above the level of the liquid fire. The only factor which prevented the demon's head from vaporizing instantly was the large amount of sorcery which he used to protect his physical form, but even that had its limits. Shinnok wanted to scream louder, but no sound emerged from him as lava entered his open mouth and burned everything it came into contact with. The demon's arms and legs kicked out desperately above the level of the pool, only to find that his reactions had no effect because Liu's grip confined his head in its place. Liu smelled flesh burning for several seconds before he finally pulled the demon's head out of the lava and then tossed Shinnok several yards away against the nearest column. The demon's upper back rested against the stone support as his facial features were burned beyond recognition, leaving only a hideous red skull where his head had once been. From the low hissing sound which emerged from the skull's mouth, Liu could tell the demon was still alive despite the ordeal he had just been exposed to.

Feeling no pity, the monk walked up to the defeated demon and kicked him in the head before a bright beam of light shot out of Shinnok's eyes and mouth. Covering his face with his right forearm, Liu took three steps back as he watched the spectacle unfold. All the souls which had been used to empower the demon's force, including Kitana's and Jarek's, were given their freedom. Liu saw Kitana walking out of the light until she was close enough to touch his hand with hers. It all reminded the monk of his encounter with his younger brother after he had defeated Shang Tsung during the tenth tournament, a memory he had wished he would never have to experience again.

"Thank you", Kitana smiled at him.

"I couldn't have done it without you", the monk told her.

"Glad to help", the Outworld princess replied, "I just wish I could stay with you longer".

"Me too", he admitted.

"Don't worry, Liu", she brought her face closer to his as she placed her left palm on his face, "I will see you soon enough in the next world. Until then, your friends need you".

She kissed him once on the lips before she was slowly pulled backwards until she joined the procession of souls leaving Shinnok's body and then heading towards the sky through Chthon's lair. Liu didn't even get a chance to hold her hand like he had done with his younger brother's soul, a fact he hated. An endless stream of souls were still busy exiting the demon's eyes when Liu saw Kitana's soul disappear past the lair and into the sky. Despite the occurrences near the ceiling of the lair, his attention was then diverted by the sound of movement. Liu turned his focus back towards the demon as Shinnok was wearily lifting his left arm into the air and towards Chthon.

"D...", the demon gasped with a cough, "Desssstroy... him".

Responding as the loyal servant, Chthon bellowed as it tossed a fireball towards Liu's exact location. The monk only had enough time to dive aside as the projectile burned the ground below where he used to be. The monk ran past Shinnok and down the hallway as he kept dodging several burning missiles from the giant monster who stood in the lava pool. It was after he had narrowly escaped approximately ten fireballs from above before Liu spotted the portal down the hallway towards which he was currently running. Not knowing who was about to emerge from it, the kombatant headed in its direction. He was about twenty steps away from it when a figure appeared out of the portal and stood in place. Reiko calmly remained standing in front of the portal with his arms crossed in front of his chest as he saw Liu running towards him.

"RUN!", Liu motioned ahead of himself with his right arm, "DO NOT REMAIN STILL!".

The earth kombatant reached the visitor within a short time and was about to warn him about Chthon's attacks in case that one had not noticed it yet. With Liu just three steps away and trying to get a hold of the stranger because he was convinced that anyone left standing still would be struck by a projectile, Reiko extended his right arm. A sledge hammer materialized in Reiko's hand just before the visitor swung the enchanted weapon horizontally. The heavy end of the hammer crashed into Liu's face and dislocated his jaw as the monk was hurled backwards before falling down on the ground. Surprised, the monk was about to climb back up to his feet when he saw Reiko rushing towards him while still holding the hammer. Gasping, Liu rolled on the ground to distance himself from the human attacker before he clumsily jumped back into a standing position. Proving to be a relentless aggressor, Reiko said nothing as he kept advancing. The monk ducked as the attacker swung, the hammer flying harmlessly over his own head. Before Reiko had a chance to regain a fighting stance, Liu delivered a solid right hook into his face, but felt as if the right fist had met a wall. Even more surprised at his opponent's apparent strength, the earth kombatant's eyes widened as Reiko lifted the sledge hammer vertically over his own head with amazing speed. The heavy end of the hammer crashed into Liu's forehead and the monk fell down unconscious from the blow without even realizing he had been struck.

Chthon stopped firing towards the ground below as it saw the new arrival. Not having the human from earth to worry about at the present time, Reiko wore a stern expression on his face as he stepped over Liu's unconscious body and had his eyes preoccupied by a sight ahead of him. The bulky weapon in his hand vanished amid a countless number of white sparks as he kept approaching the downed red demon. Shinnok noticed the new arrival as well as the look that individual was throwing at him but was unable to react even if he wanted to. Reiko finally stopped advancing when he stood about five yards in front of the demon and they both locked eyes with each other.

"So", Reiko spoke first, "You're the one who has come here to try to steal the souls that I had rightfully stolen first, huh?".

Shinnok only coughed in response, his face still in a blazing agony.

"Pathetic", Reiko went on, "I had thought you would put up a better challenge".

With that, Reiko aimed his right palm down towards the demon before a green fireball shot out of it. The projectile struck Shinnok in the chest and the whole lair echoed with the demon's cries. Quietly enjoying the show, though it did not appear so from his facial expression, Reiko adamantly watched as the demon was engulfed in green fire and burned alive for approximately thirty seconds.

Shinnok stopped moving altogether as his remains fell towards the ground as a pile of bones and ashes. A portion of the souls he had stolen were still busy exiting their captivity out of him at the time of his death, as Reiko noticed. Reiko then stretched both his palms towards the exodus of souls and concentrated. Hearing dozens of howls at once, Reiko pulled the souls who hadn't gone past the ceiling of the lair towards him. It was only a moment afterwards that the souls involuntarily formed a massive cloud and the entire cloud entered Reiko through both eyes.

Reiko screamed in triumph as his arms were outstretched towards the second floor.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Baraka was standing with his head lowered as he was busy carving his nomad tribe's symbol inside the exposed entrails of the slave who was lying on the ground on his back. He was currently inside one of his master's large factories and could hear the almost deafening sound of metal striking either stone or other pieces of metal in the background. The mutant traced the outer silhouette of the desired symbol with his left blade at the present time after he had already used his right blade to do most of the work. The tip of the left knife punctured the intestines and began outlining among them as Baraka heard his name being called from a distant.

Baraka growled without raising his head. He hated being interrupted by anyone other than Mileena or Shao Kahn, the former because he enjoyed her company and the latter because the Kahn was the one individual who could scare him enough to make him forget his dislike.

"BARAKA!", the voice called for the second time.

Again no response from the nomad.

The caller came closer, still not disturbing the mutant's artwork until he was near enough that Baraka could hear his approaching footsteps.

"I suppose we better stop, heh?", Baraka asked the slave whose stomach he was working in.

That man did not answer, only returned the same blank stare he had been giving him with his open eyes ever since the mutant had slit his throat half an hour ago.

Raising his head finally, the nomad turned to his left to see Reptile standing about ten yards away. The green ninja wore his human disguise at the present time as he had his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"You are needed back there", the ninja pointed behind him with an annoyed tone of voice.

"Don't tell me you can't handle a few hundred slaves by yourself", Baraka grinned as he withdrew his left arm away from his latest kill before walking up to stand face to face with the shorter ninja.

"I would do just fine if your significant other in purple did not distract me on a regular basis by fondling the male slaves because you can never satisfy her", the ninja appeared to be grinning under his green mask.

Baraka howled at the insult as he raised both arms, blades ready to strike. The ninja quickly took two long steps backwards before turning into his fighting stance. The smaller warrior then reached for his chin with his left hand before pulling his human disguise off, revealing a green lizard-like face.

"You wisssshhhh to confront me, nomad?", the lizard hissed, his voice having changed.

The mutant did not respond, he knew of Reptile's abilities enough so that even he was careful enough not to pick a fight with the green ninja when not needed.

"What are the oddssss that I can burn your pretty facccce before you can cover the disssstancccce between you and I?", the ninja dared.

Despite the desire to slice the ninja's body parts off, Baraka knew when the risk was not worth taking. He lowered his arms by his sides as he walked towards the lizard-like creature.

"It is only because master keeps you around as his personal entertainer that I do not strike you dead", the mutant lied as he walked past the ninja,

"I'm ssssure", Reptile told him, "But do not fret. Life will be back to normal when the masssster returnssss from hissss vissssit on the earth realm. I am missssssssing hissss pressssencccce alsssso. I haven't killed a sssslave over the pit for almosssst a day, I am experienccccing withdrawal ssssymptomssss".

With that, the green ninja replaced his counterfeit human face as he followed the mutant back to the assembly line of the factory. Baraka could never get used to how natural the human disguise appeared when the ninja used it, he doubted that even most humans could tell that the ninja was not one of them when masked.

"Are the living weapons ready yet?", the mutant felt annoyed as he proceeded towards the loud metallic noises, "These cursed humans are so slow. Too bad the master saw it fit to exterminate the Shokanites. Lousy as they were, they could work faster".

"Yes", the ninja agreed as his human voice had returned along with the disguise, "The weapons are ready to be sent out towards the earth realm in the unlikely case that the natives there repel our invasion".

"I still don't know why that is necessary", Baraka replied, "Even if Smoke is gone, earth natives stand no chance against us".

"Perhaps", Reptile went on, "But the master chose to play it safe, especially after losing the Centaur division of our army. If earth does not bend to our rule, these living weapons will make sure it is destroyed".

There was a moment of silence as they both approached Mileena, who in her turn kept an eye out on the humans who were unloading the raw pieces of metal not used in the construction. A slave, either unconscious or dead, lay motionless a step away from her feet, but she ignored him for the time being.

"I just wish I knew where on the earth realm the master went", Reptile went on, "I have never seen a time when he left his realm without informing us of his precise destination".

"Beloved!", Mileena exclaimed as she saw the two of them coming closer.

The lady in purple ran, jumped up and embraced the 7-foot tall mutant as she whirred loudly while her feet dangled at least a foot over the level of the factory floor.

"I have great news", she informed Baraka once she separated from him and came back down on her own feet, "I have just been informed of the master's orders. If earth successfully resists, the master had given instructions that you and I should take the living weapons into the portal. He has already given Shang Tsung instructions on where to create a portal for".

"Wonnnderful", Baraka thought out loud, "Just the two of us, a mission well-planned".

"Not just the two of you", Reptile countered from three steps away from the pair.

Both Baraka and Mileena turned their attention to him, disliking what he had just said.

"You don't think I will trust you two ignoramuses to lead such an important mission in case it becomes necessary, do you?", the green ninja went on.

"The orders were...", Mileena protested as she lowered her face towards him, not a good sign for whomever she was addressing, but Reptile did not appear concerned.

"The orders were for you two, but master did not specify that no one may accompany you, that I am sure of", the ninja interrupted.

"Maybe", Mileena pulled out a sai with her right hand from out of nowhere, or at least so it seemed, "Maybe not".

She hissed as she moved towards him with the weapon, only to see the ninja reacting in a speed that was almost too fast for her eyes to follow. Before she was able to complete her first step towards him, Reptile had gripped her right wrist with his left hand while at the same time placing a stranglehold on her neck with his right hand. Anticipating Baraka's interference, the green ninja saw the mutant rushing at him from the corner of his left eye and delivered a perfect side kick with his left leg. His left foot crashed into Baraka's solar plexus and the large mutant flew backwards in a smooth semicircle before landing hard on his back. Having neutralized that threat, Reptile bent down as he sent Mileena's back against the ground in a violent impact that was painful enough for her to lose her right grip on the sai.

Reptile released his grips on her neck and wrist, but before Mileena could even take a breath, much less strike back, he planted his right foot against her throat. He could've crushed her windpipe easily, but the ninja purposefully pressed down on his foot with enough strength to strangle his opponent without killing her. He then pulled his human disguise off before looking down into her widened eyes.

"You wisssshhhh to protesssst?", the lizard hissed angrily.

Mileena had witnessed the kind of damage the lizard ninja's saliva could do against the slaves who had been forced to fight him, and she also saw him getting ready to send his saliva down towards her. Gasping for air, she only shook her head to the best of her abilities as his foot restricted most movement from her head.

"Good!", Reptile's lizard-like face grinned a sadistic smile, indicating that he might not have spared her life.

"Reptile", the name was called out from behind the green ninja in a calm, authoritative tone.

The ninja instantly lifted his right leg off Mileena's throat and took one step back as he lowered his head in respect. Mileena gasped for air and looked up, not having heard the arrival of the person who had ordered the green ninja to release her by only calling his name. Baraka was already walking back to the scene as he pressed his left palm against his chest as Shang Tsung approached the trio from behind them.

"Enough of this", the sorcerer told all three of them as he crossed his arms behind his back.

"Ssssorry, masssster", Reptile promptly replaced his human disguise after lifting his head and still remaining at attention.

"You are needed to send the living weapons towards the earth realm in case it successfully resists", Shang Tsung went on, eyeing all the individuals there, "And Reptile will go with you because I will accompany you, and since he is my personal bodyguard, his presence will be required also. The three of you shall be led by me".

"You!", Mileena felt as shocked as she sounded when she stood back up, rubbing her throat.

"Yes, unless anyone here has a problem with that", the sorcerer icily replied.

Mileena shook her head as Baraka looked away and Reptile remained standing in attention. The silence lasted for several heartbeats.

"Why would you want to go to earth in a mission to destroy it?", Mileena finally blurted out, unable to contain her curiosity.

Shang Tsung shot a cold stare at her, his face tightening in anger. Mileena's eyes widened as she quickly questioned the sensibility of such an inquiry.

"My reasons for going there are my own", the sorcerer whispered, his words almost cutting through the air between himself and the warrior in purple, "And I doubt the emperor would be satisfied by trusting such an important mission to you, no matter what his orders were".

With that, Shang Tsung turned away from the trio and walked back to where he had come from, leaving Shao Kahn's three servants behind.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Oh damn!", Sonya blurted out involuntarily as she caught sight of Chthon.

Kazuya said nothing, quickly turning his attention towards the direction that the monster was staring at instead. He followed the monster's gaze until he was looking at a scene which was exactly ahead of them, about thirty yards away. Sonya soon looked ahead also before she recognized the immobile form on the ground to be Liu's. Neither she nor Kazuya recognized the person who stood over the monk, but she withdrew her 9mm pistol rather than take chances.

Reiko, on the other hand, was still getting used to the power surge he had felt after absorbing such a large number of new souls when he heard Sonya's two words from behind him. He turned around and, disappointed at the inconvenience of having the two humans here, tried to figure out the best way to dispose of them.

"Reiko!", Sonya gasped out in surprise.

She lowered the weapon until it was pointing towards the ground.

"Yes", Reiko smiled, "So you made it here after all. I was following you two until you led me to Rayden's portal because I did not know where that washout Shinnok was located. Rayden actually helped me without realizing it. Too bad for you two that you had to follow me".

Neither Kazuya nor Sonya understood how Reiko was still alive, much less how he found his way to the lair. They both cautiously approached him, Sonya having raised the firearm at a degree off the ground as she gripped the handle of the weapon with both hands. The mystery of Reiko's presence seemed to suddenly unravel, though, as a cloud wrapped around the man that the young Mishima and Sonya were watching. They could see his silhouette from inside the cloud as Reiko shrieked momentarily. Then, they both saw the silhouette becoming taller and more muscular. Sonya's eyes and mouth widened as Kazuya was abruptly overcome with a sensation. He remembered that he had only felt such a sensation once in his life, and that was only when he had been in the presence of the Shao Kahn. His face hardened as he stopped walking towards Reiko and turned into his fighting stance. He placed one his hands on Sonya's shoulder as an indication for her to stop moving towards Reiko also. Turning towards him long enough to see the new predatory expression in Kazuya's eyes, she stopped walking forward also, though she still did not understand.

"Get behind me!", Kazuya whispered an order as his eyes were still set on the cloud in which the enlarging Reiko was engulfed.

They were both standing partly in front of a stone column while Sonya was about to protest that she was not going to hide behind him or anyone, but she never got the chance to say anything because they next heard laughter coming from inside the cloud.

"HAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!", the maniacal laughter did not sound like Reiko's voice any more as the cloud dissipated.

In Reiko's place stood a seven-foot tall colossal individual who locked his blood-red eyes with both Kazuya and Sonya. He wore only a red belt strap along with red shin guards and red shoulder straps, both of which were covered with sharp spikes. His forehead was covered with six thorns, three on the left and three on the right, with several smaller thorns in between them. His entire body was covered with tight, bulging muscles.

"Shang Tsung might have been my student", the new individual gave an evil smile, "But that does not mean a student could never teach his master new tricks".

"I don't get it", Sonya kept switching from the person who stood fifteen yards ahead to Kazuya who was next to her and vice versa, "Who...".

"I decided to visit this realm when I sensed your arrival", the seven-foot tall muscular individual pointed at Kazuya, ignoring her altogether, "I couldn't comprehend the new aura I felt from the new visitor to the earth realm. This visitor carried my redolence all around him, as if he had come into extremely personal contact with me, but I had no knowledge of who he was nor any recollection of ever coming into contact with him. My curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to look in on you, to see how it was that you knew me but I did not know you. I still do not understand the answer to that question, I am sorry to say".

"I do know you", Kazuya gave a cold reply, "From a parallel universe only. You serve the same purpose there...".

"Will either of you make some sense?", Sonya thought out loud in the middle of his statement.

"...as you do here", the young Mishima went on, "You destroy worlds for your own pleasure, for your sole satisfaction... Isn't that right, emperor Kahn?".

His last words chilled Sonya's senses as she finally realized the person who had accompanied her the entire time after she had met Kazuya had been the epitome of evil itself.

"Oh well", Kahn grimaced, "Now that I know who you are, I suppose your souls will make a fine addition to my collection, quiet pure they are, you know".

Shao Kahn pointed his right palm towards the pair.

"There's just that exasperating factor of you two being alive", he added, "But I will fix that soon enough".

A green fireball shot out of his palm, aiming for the pair. Both Sonya and Kazuya jumped aside to avoid it and did so successfully. The projectile tore into the column behind them and shattered a large hole in it, spraying the area around it with a countless number of stones. An approximately rectangular-shaped rock which was almost a foot long and several inches wide struck the young Mishima on the side of the face, knocking him down on his hands and knees. Remaining on her feet from sheer luck, Sonya leveled the firearm ahead of her face with both arms straight as she fired. Half a dozen rounds shot out of the muzzle of the weapon and went straight for Shao Kahn's head and torso. Kahn moved his right arm around his upper body in motion that was too quick for the human eye to follow. Disappointed to see him still standing, Sonya stopped firing for now to survey the damage the six bullets had done. Kahn smiled as he opened his right hand and six bullets fell out of his palm before hitting the floor by his feet. Sonya exhaled angrily as she tossed the firearm on the ground, turned into a fighting stance and remained motionless as her eyes remained locked with his. Kahn didn't get a chance to strike back.

"WIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!", she let out an ear-piercing yell.

The earth kombatant bolted towards her much larger adversary. The first strike she delivered upon reaching him was a right side kick into his stomach. Kahn closed his eyes momentarily as he slightly bent down from the impact. He stood back up straight and swung with a left fist, which would have proven to be a powerful blow had it connected with its intended target, which was her head. Sonya ducked enough so that his fist met air, though, and she then stood up to execute a roundhouse kick, the result of which was that the back of her ankle met his upper arm but did no real damage since her leg recoiled off his body.

Not wanting to give him another chance to strike back, she twisted to her left as her bent right leg shot up, straightening before it met his left upper arm. Kahn stepped back as she advanced upon him, sending a high right jab which connected with his solar plexus. Still unhurt, Shao Kahn kept stepping back as Sonya continued delivering a left front kick into his chest. He took yet another step back from the latest kick, and only grinned in response. Not disheartened, she sent a left side kick into his right knee, hoping to be able to break it, although she knew that such an expectation was probably too optimistic. She was right because her opponent's face did not even register the slightest hint of pain.

Sonya turned to her right as her left fist flew towards Kahn's solar plexus yet again. Kahn took another step back while his left palm was raised to meet her fist. The earth kombatant's fist crashed into his palm and Sonya's eyes widened as she felt pain shooting up her left arm. She screamed involuntarily as she withdrew her left forearm and gripped the left wrist with her right hand.

"AAAGGGHHH! MOTHERFUCKER!", she yelled at no one in particular as she partly turned away from Kahn and slightly bent down.

The distraction on her part lasted only a second, but it was long enough for Kahn to take advantage of it. A white spear appeared in his right hand amid numerous sparks as he gripped the back of Sonya's neck with his left hand and roughly turned her so she faced his right arm. He had his right arm lowered by his side with the tip of the spear pointing forward. Without even giving her enough time to realize what he was about to do, Shao Kahn stabbed the earth kombatant through the stomach with the spear. Sonya's body was bent in half at the stomach as Kahn thrust the spear in an upward motion and lifted her body several inches off the ground through the process. The tip of the spear exited out of her lower back as she opened her mouth and eyes wide with shock and blood exploded out of her mouth. Still coughing blood, she was brought back down on her feet as Kahn pulled the bloody spear out of her stomach, which then vanished from his hand as quickly as it had appeared. Sonya's legs collapsed, unable to hold her weight up. She would have crashed on the ground, but Kahn kept her standing by gripping her throat with a left fist.

"That was for disposing of Motaro's body and making it impossible for me to reclaim my army of Centaurs", Kahn barked, looking down into her blank stare while her blood poured on his left wrist.

He picked the gasping female human a foot off the ground before headbutting her in the face. Sonya's head snapped back as Kahn's forehead broke her nose and she saw stars. Shao Kahn finally released her throat and she fell the distance that separated her from the floor before lying on the ground as a mangled form.

"I will take your worthless soul once you are dead, which should be any time now", he declared standing over her body, "It's just too bad I am unable to pull your soul while you're alive like that wretch Shinnok could, but I will get yours soon enough".

Kahn turned away from the downed kombatant as he surveyed the surrounding lair.

"Impressive place", he addressed the human on the floor who couldn't respond, "Maybe I will see what I can do about that lava beast after I'm done with you and your friends".

With that, Kahn turned back to Sonya and, enjoying the sight of her lying on her back in an ever-expanding pool of blood, stepped on her neck in an attempt to break it since that was the only way he could take the kombatant's soul as his own.

"KAHN!", the voice was ferocious enough to get the emperor's attention.

The seven-foot tall antagonist turned to see an irate Kazuya approaching as he held his arms in front of his chest in a stance. The arrival of the mysterious human presented a puzzle for Kahn that he wished he did not have to solve at the present time. If the emperor had killed Sonya now, he would only have had a few seconds to take her soul, but Kazuya could've taken advantage of his distraction by attacking him as he did so. On the other hand, if Kahn killed Sonya now and turned away from her corpse to face Kazuya's attack, her soul would have escaped from his possession. The emperor did not like either option, so he realized he had to force himself to let the human female die naturally by bleeding to death so he could have taken her soul after crushing the secretive human male first.

"Good, you're alive to fight me", Kahn grinned as he lifted his foot off Sonya, "I wouldn't have it any other way. But not here. Come to the second floor, if you dare. The view is much better from up there, and the loser gets a freefall trip down below".

With that, Kahn was engulfed in the same cloud as before and the fog surrounding him then vanished, and the emperor was gone with it. Kazuya was running towards Sonya even before that one was gone as he only paid attention to trying to save her life. The young Mishima knelt behind her and lifted her shoulders before resting the back of her head in his arms. The female kombatant could only cough, gasp and try to inhale air as more blood emerged out of her mouth. Kazuya finally realized that she was choking on her own blood when she reached up and backwards before grasping his left forearm with her left hand. The young Mishima had just remembered that he needed to turn her around on her stomach so she wouldn't be suffocated when Sonya began going into shock.

Feeling desperate, Kazuya withdrew both his arms from behind her and let the back of her head touch the ground. He didn't even realize he was capable of saving her life, but rather reacted by instinct as he quickly stood up, took one step until he was standing next to her stomach and then squatted down next to her. Looking down into the mortal wound that Kahn had afflicted on her stomach, Kazuya gently rested his right palm on it. Before he knew it, he felt energy discharging out of his palm and then entering the wound. Sonya's mouth and eyes widened as much as possible and her midsection shot several inches off the ground from the impact while her legs and torso remained fixed on the ground. Kazuya paid no attention to her reaction, he only maintained the energy link he had already created with her for several more seconds before finally withdrawing his palm. The female kombatant's midsection crashed back down towards the floor as she returned to lying flat on her back. The only difference now was that Sonya coughed violently and sat up under her own power. Blood that used to be in her mouth spilled out onto her already stained halter, but she then found out that she could breath just fine. She instinctively passed her right hand over her bare stomach to feel the piercing wound caused by Kahn's spear, but only found a healed dark scar which was closed instead.

Seeing the result, Kazuya stood up feeling relieved as Sonya kept massaging her stomach to make sure she wasn't imagining what she felt. She kept wiping the blood off her flesh as she rubbed it, but the old blood dripped off her and no new blood replaced it. Looking up at him with an expression that was a mix of comfort and shock, she tried to stand up also, only to lose her balance and find herself falling back down. Kazuya reached down and gripped her shoulders to keep her from crashing against the hard floor again before helping her back up to her feet. She was still panting when she was finally on her own two feet right in front of him and her eyes locked with his.

"Not that I'm not grateful, mind you", she whispered, lifting a bloody left hand next to her head, "But how the hell did you do that?".

"I am not sure", he had to admit, "I merely followed my instinct".

"What...", she looked back down at her stomach, "What did you do?".

"I used sorcery", Kazuya understood at last.

"I...", Sonya was still recovering from the momentary shock she had endured while wounded, "I thought you had said sorcery was not possible in this realm".

"I cannot explain it", the young Mishima admitted, "It is not important now, either".

He took several steps past her, combing the second floor of the lair with his eyes.

"He's up there", he meant Kahn, "The only important mission right now is to destroy him".

"Uh, yeah", the female kombatant replied, "Let me... Let me check on Liu there. I'll be right with you afterwards".

"No!", Kazuya sharply countered, turning his face back towards her, "You stay here. This is between him and me".

"Uhuh", Sonya shook her head, "We're a team, rem...".

"You're too weak in your condition", he interrupted, walking away from her and heading down the hallway, hoping to be able to find a stairway to reach the second floor.

"Hey!", she called out after him, "You can't...".

"You have to stay with Liu", Kazuya interrupted again as he got farther away, his cold gaze still staring at the second floor.

"But you'll never beat him!", Sonya's voice rang with urgency, "He's got so many souls helping him, you've got none!".

"The second half of your statement is true", he replied, feeling confident, "I will beat him because I have righteousness on my side".

Unable to suppress his impatience to confront Kahn, and not wanting her to follow him, the young Mishima suddenly bolted down the hallway instead of walking. He inhaled and exhaled on a constant basis as his angry face tightened in anticipation of meeting the enemy while maintaining the run down the first floor of the lair.

"Oh man!", Sonya told herself as she watched him go, "He's dead if that's the only thing he's counting on".

Sonya wanted to go after him, but knew she couldn't as soon as she walked one step in his direction and felt dizzy from a loss of blood. She pressed her right palm on her forehead as she staggered towards the far wall away from the lava pit. Using the wall to support herself, she was about to head towards where Liu lay motionless several yards in front of her when she heard a deep noise from behind. Turning around, Sonya gasped once when she saw three thin zombies slowly walking towards her from the exact position where her firearm rested on the ground about fifteen yards away. Liu was lying about twice as far in the direction in front of her, so the zombies would have gotten to her first and then to him.

"Oh great", she thought out loud as the zombies came closer.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shao Kahn was already on the second floor, looking straight ahead as he stood next to the elevator shaft. He was staring ahead, examining Chthon's massive structure. It wasn't long before the lava monster, realizing that it was returning the glance of the creature who had killed its monster, began opening fire. Chthon roared, lifted its right arm and threw a fireball in Kahn's direction. The emperor grinned as he easily sidestepped the projectile, which crashed into the wall behind him. Chthon roared again, irate at having missed its target, and it fired again.

The emperor had evaded at least two dozen such projectiles from the monster before he finally heard the elevator behind him being used by someone below. The elevator platform hummed as it carried a passenger to the second floor. Shao Kahn turned around as Chthon stopped firing, curiosity as to the identity of the new visitor having overtaken the monster. The emperor wasn't surprised when he found Kazuya's calm but determined gaze staring back at him when the elevator stopped on the second floor. Kazuya had his head slightly lowered as his eyes were locked with Kahn's while he stepped off the elevator, which then proceeded to go back downstairs. The floor they were both standing on had a wall on one side, where the elevator shaft was located, but was an empty edge of the other side, leading to the lava pool below.

"About time", Kahn almost acted like his human enemy was late for an appointment, "I have been dodging missiles from Shinnok's pet for quiet a while just so you would know my location. Fun, those missiles are. Perfect exercise, if I ever needed it, which I don't. But I still would not want to get hit by one of them, could ruin my complexion... Or yours".

"I have been waiting a long time for this", the young Mishima told his adversary.

"If you say so", the larger emperor stood ready, "Assuming that you will last longer than a dozen heartbeats against me".

About ten yards separated the two opponents when Kahn turned into his simple fighting stance.

"Personally, I think I will crush you even faster than I did my last victim", Kahn grinned, "But let's make this fight into an interesting one. I bet I do not even need to be myself to crush you within just a few heartbeats".

Kazuya was waiting for him to make his point, so he did.

"I used to have a general", the emperor went on, remembering with fondness, "His mere sight alone was enough to bring instant fear and despair into the hearts of most of his opponents. That's how he won a majority of his fights anyway, almost every human was so shocked at seeing him for the first time that they could not put up a decent resistance. And those few that did never lasted long anyway".

A new cloud engulfed the seven-foot tall emperor. Shao Kahn's frame became even larger, approximately 18 inches taller and several hundreds of pounds heavier. The cloud then vanished, leaving the emperor alone after he had taken the shape of his latest desired character outside of his natural appearance.

"They used to call him Goro", Kahn grinned as he had morphed into the shape of the Prince of Pain, "Awesome was his might. There are still legends about him, even after his loss in the tenth tournament".

Goro-Kahn kept his eyes locked with the human, his grin widening ever more.

"Of course", the emperor added slowly, enjoying every clear word, "If my usual frame could've destroyed you in a few heartbeats, just try to imagine how quickly the task can be accomplished with this body of mine".

Kazuya had enough. The young Mishima leapt high into the air as he remained in his standing position, aiming for the emperor who now possessed four arms rather than two. He flew in a high semi-circle which reached at least half a dozen yards into the air before starting to come back down because of gravity. By the time Kazuya's body approached the floor, he was reaching the spot where Goro-Kahn stood. On his way down, the young Mishima lifted his left leg high in a front kick and held it there until he overtook the emperor. It was only when he was close enough to the massive emperor that Kazuya pulled his left leg downward, bringing the back of his left ankle down on the top of Goro-Kahn's head. The force of his front kick, increased greatly by the descending motion of the high semicircle he had jumped, was strong enough to daze even the emperor, though only momentarily.

Landing on his feet, Kazuya delivered his left fist into the side of the emperor's stomach. Before Goro-Kahn was able to strike back, the young Mishima sent a right uppercut into his opponent's chin, and then followed it with a right punch into Goro-Kahn's stomach. The pseudo Shokanite bent down, however slightly, under the impact, but his head had reached down far enough for Kazuya to twist to his own left to kick the larger necromancer in the head. Kazuya's right ankle crashed into the side of Goro-Kahn's face and the emperor found himself spinning around about half a dozen times before crashing horizontally against the floor. Groaning and shocked, Goro-Kahn cursed under this breath as he climbed on his four hands and two knees. Before he was able to stand back up, Kazuya quickly walked up to him and kicked him in the side of his right knee, thus knocking him back down flat on his stomach. The young Mishima took several steps back as he heard the emperor cursing louder.

"Do you wish to try another tactic?", a relaxed Kazuya asked him as the emperor stood back up on his feet from several steps away and reverted back to his usual, seven-foot tall figure.

The young Mishima noticed that Kahn was now wearing the steel mask on his face, the metallic disguise that Kazuya always remembered the Shao Kahn having in his former universe. The skull-shaped mask only allowed the emperor's two red eyes to be shown to anyone who looked at him from outside of it, all other aspects of his face were hidden.

"Allright, how's this?", Kahn fired a green fireball in his opponent's direction.

The emperor had hoped to be able to vaporize the annoying human with that one projectile, but he was disappointed when the mortal jumped aside and the fireball impacted into the wall and dissipated. Kazuya rolled on the ground before rising on his feet, an action which cost him precious seconds since the impressive emperor was already upon him even before he was standing at his full height. What followed was as rapid as it was brutal. Shao Kahn rushed forward into Kazuya, smashing his right shoulder into the human's face. The fighter from earth flew backwards into the air before crashing into the wall behind him, blood dripping out of his nose and mouth. Kahn charged after his target, reaching the dazed human and withdrawing a giant stone hammer from thin air. He lifted the heavy weapon over his own head and swung it downward, aiming for the human's head. Kazuya saw the hammer coming down on him soon enough so that he was able to duck low and try to roll out of the way. He didn't get far, but was able to put enough distance between himself and Kahn that the hammer crashed into the wall behind him and he was only hit by small pieces of stone which exploded from the impact.

"You believe you can run from me forever?", the emperor asked as the hammer vanished from his hand and the human rolled away from the wall and stood back up.

Chthon began firing its burning projectiles towards both of them as he had finished that last statement, but it missed its initial attempts because Kazuya had advanced against Kahn yet again, driving him backwards with a series of quick punches to the head and torso. The human first drove his right fist into Kahn's solar plexus, added a left downward punch into the emperor's forehead as soon as that one bent down slightly, an action which sent Kahn's entire torso bending forward against his will, before Kazuya finished off the set with a right uppercut into his lowered chin. Shao Kahn was hurled backwards even farther as Chthon's fireballs tore into the wall behind him with ferocity, leaving their mark, while both combatants continued fighting. Ignoring his bloodied hands which had been injured from striking Kahn's steel mask, Kazuya bolted for his opponent.

Undaunted, Kahn rushed back forward and delivered a left front kick into Kazuya's midsection, a strike that sent the human flying backwards in a horizontal line before painfully landing on his back about fifteen steps away. The young Mishima felt his ribs cracking from the impact of the kick, but tried to ignore the pain as he pressed his teeth together while getting back up. He had barely stood when a red fireball made of lava shot past him right in front of his eyes, missing him by about a foot before hitting the wall further away. Chthon apparently no longer cared which of the two it hit now that its master was dead. The lack of preference on the monster's part did not help the earth warrior because the unmasked emperor soon reached him again. Kahn delivered a powerful right hook punch, which connected perfectly with Kazuya's jaw, and the emperor was quick enough to then send his right elbow into the human's face also before that one even dropped to the floor. Having felt the impact of both hits almost simultaneously, Kazuya saw stars and dropped on his hands and knees as more blood trickled out of his nose and mouth. Recognizing defeat when he saw it, Kahn proudly pulled out his hammer once more as yet another fireball shot past him about a foot away from his upper back. The emperor seemed to have forgotten about the lava monster as he smiled down on the beaten human, trying to savor the moment before the fatal blow was delivered with the hammer.

"Pathetic, like the rest of your race", Kahn grinned, looking down at him, although his facial expression remained forever hidden, "This is why your humans will serve as nothing but a... meal for me on the long run".

With that, Kahn raised the hammer over his head, ready to strike one last time.

"I might a well tell you a little secret before you see oblivion and find yourself as my eternal slave", the emperor's mask hid his grin, "I cannot be killed, not by the likes of you. The elder gods know that many others such as yourself have tried before, none has succeeded. This is because I partly owe my existence to inhabitants from the earth realm, and partly to the inhabitants of all other realm also".

Shao Kahn hissed air into his mouth, still holding the hammer over his own head, but obviously had not finished talking about himself.

"I was born at the onset of time itself, representing the epitome of evil", the emperor added, "Being fed the souls of human vice every time a depraved person died. And evil actions on the part of humans have always existed, and always will. That is what ensures my immortality".

Kazuya looked up and saw new images being thrown into his mind as the emperor talked, images which referred to what Kahn was mentioning. Shao Kahn showed the earth warrior the portraits of humans, generally men with a few women interrupting the mostly-male exhibition. The faces shot past his eyes quickly and the young Mishima didn't recognize most of them, but did distinguish Adolph Hitler as an exception. Joseph Stalin was the next one to be identified after several seconds later. Some of the portraits were dressed in modern clothing, some in clothing which referred to the middle ages, some still seemed to come from prehistoric times. Then, Kazuya caught a glimpse of his father also, the elder Mishima's face shot past his eyes as quickly as the others had, though he doubted that the emperor had made the connection between the two humans. Either way, this indicated to Kazuya that his father was dead in this world and had not been much different in this universe when compared to the one from which he had arrived.

"Their existence created me", Kahn went on, "And their continued existence sustains me".

It was inescapable that Kazuya linked the faces that were being shown by Kahn to himself after he had traded his soul to the previous Shao Kahn in his own universe. Tears traced a path from his eyes and downward on both cheeks as the young Mishima remembered his actions as well as the fate that the emperor was planning for him. It was then that he recalled enough of his past to forget about his aching ribcage and even his aching head. He saw the sight of the Peace Corps massacre, the bodies which had been left behind after the soldiers had finished their pointless slaughter of everyone in the church. The human knew that the enemy he was fighting with at the present time was a predator just like those soldiers had been, and any physical and mental pain was worth tolerating as long as it destroyed predators like the Shao Kahn. As the hammer swung down, with the vicious emperor behind it eagerly waiting for his latest kill, Kahn saw something surprising.

Kazuya's right hand shot up as his face hardened and the tears stopped. His upper body was raised from the ground as it switched to being supported on his left hand and knees alone. His right grip held on to the handle just below the head of the hammer despite the force with which Kahn was swinging it downward against him. Kahn's eyes widened with shock as the human next stood on his knees and placed both his hands around the handle of the massive weapon, struggling for its possession as both fighters locked eyes. Kazuya's determined gaze met Kahn's bewildered one for a short time before the emperor's facial expression toughened again, his desire to kill the annoying human now joined with anger because of that one's apparent omnipotence. It was only after Kazuya stood up on his own two feet and went against the immortal on equal terms that Kahn decided to make the hammer vanish into thin air, which it did. As two fireballs shot past them, one on either side, Shao Kahn headbutted the shorter human in the face, sending that one staggering backwards.

Kazuya screamed as he gathered his concentration and counterattacked. He crouched down on his left knee and kicked out with his right leg, his right ankle meeting the side of Kahn's left knee. The kick did not have the desired effect since the emperor remained standing. Gripping the human by the neck, Kahn tossed him aside, a move which sent the earth fighter staggering until he neared the edge of the second floor. With his back facing a 200-yard drop into the lava pool and with Kahn advancing against him from the front, Kazuya gambled on the one noise he heard from behind. He went on the assumption that Chthon was readying to hurl another fireball aimed at him. As Kahn to about three yards away from him, readying to strike one more time to send the human to his doom below, Kazuya dropped flat on his stomach. His assumption proved right since a fireball shot above him, past the spot where his upper back was previously located when he stood up straight. With him lying on the floor, the fireball struck Kahn in the solar plexus instead and the emperor's scream echoed throughout the lair as his torso was engulfed in flames. Kazuya took advantage of the fact that Kahn was momentarily standing in place while burning as the human executed a leg sweep. Kazuya's ankle met Kahn's and the emperor crashed down on his side before rolling involuntarily towards the open end of the second floor. Kazuya jumped back up to his feet and took several steps towards the wall as the emperor rolled over the edge of the second floor and was heard screaming as he fell down until he finally hit the lava below and disappeared into it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sonya, in the meantime, was busy fighting off three zombies at once. It was bad enough that the mindless creatures seemed to want her dead as all three converged against her at once, but she was now responsible for Liu's safety also. If the zombies had gotten past her, the monk would not have stood a chance, assuming he was alive, that is. Since the kombatant did not know the status of her comrade, she had to presume that he was still alive while considering any action, so trying to run away at the present time was not an option. She wished it was, though. Even in her weakened condition, she was sure she could have outran her three unintelligent attackers since they were moving very slowly. Hating the fact that she had to stand her ground, Sonya turned into her fighting stance and actually moved towards the zombies. She reasoned that she was going to have to fight them sooner or later, and her chances of winning the confrontation would have been better the closer she was to her handgun.

"Oooogggghhhh", the first zombie whined as it met her and tried to claw at her face while she was only four yards away from the weapon.

It didn't get to do anything else because Sonya placed her hands on either side of its head and grunted as she turned its head sharply counterclockwise. She heard a satisfying crack and grinned before the zombie dropped to the ground with a broken neck. The second and third opponents, though, were not so careless. The second zombie lifted its left arm before swinging it downward on her head. Sonya screamed as its clawed fingers carved a deep scar on her face, beginning just next to the left eye and tearing the flesh for several inches until it stopped on top of her old scar on the left cheek. A fraction of an inch closer to the eye socket would've meant a blow which would have blinded the eye. She wasn't going to give the two remaining antagonists a chance to strike again, so she dropped down on her left knee as the third zombie raised its right arm to attack in its own turn.

Sonya legsweeped the second zombie with her right leg and that one dropped on its side with a whispered groan. Standing back up on her feet, the kombatant felt the third zombie clutching at her face with its left hand. It gripped her mouth, digging its claws into both her cheeks, as it attempted to hold her head steady in order to strike with its right hand. Sonya screamed and delivered a right front kick into its stomach at the same time. That zombie took several involuntary steps backwards, stopping about a yard behind the handgun, but not before tearing flesh out of both sides of her face first. Feeling several sources of sharp pain in her head, she next felt the second zombie grabbing both her upper arms from behind her with surprising strength, trying to restrain her in such a way for its partner. Sonya screamed again as she threw her head back, hoping to be able to smash the back of her head into its face, but the tactic did not work. She lifted her right foot and slammed it downward on top of its own right foot, but the zombie showed no sign of pain as its grip did not loosen.

The kombatant had no more ideas as she saw the third zombie walking back towards her. Feeling desperate, she pushed herself forward, carrying the second zombie on her back, as she tried to reach the handgun before the third antagonist reached her. Sonya fell down on her right side next to the weapon with the zombie still hanging stubbornly behind her. The second adversary did not give up its grip, but the fall against the floor loosened its grasp on her upper arms enough for her to pull them free. Still lying on her right side next to the feet of the third zombie, she dove forward until she felt the reassuring handle of the 9mm Glock pistol in her right hand. Turning around to her left while still on the ground, she swung the firearm downward so that the muzzle of the handgun crashed into the jaw of the second zombie behind her. That one momentarily moaned in pain while Sonya turned back and held her breath as she anxiously aimed upwards with the weapon. One pull of the trigger sent a bullet into the forehead of the standing third zombie. The thin antagonist dropped on his back without a sound as she then struggled to stand up before the second zombie behind her would be able to strike again. Breathing again, she succeeded on rising to her feet and turning around to face that one as it was still lying on its right side on the ground. Stepping backwards and away from him, Sonya put several yards in between herself and it as she gripped the pistol with her right hand. She straightened her right arm, aimed downward into the zombie's forehead and pulled the trigger once. Its body convulsed once before it stopped moving altogether.

All moaning stopped after that. Sonya groaned in pain as she carefully touched the new wounds on her face for an instant with her left hand. Seeing blood on her left fingers as a result, she thought it was a blessing that there were no mirrors in this realm as she slowly proceeded towards Liu's position, her senses ready in case she ran into any more zombies because the handgun was ready to be used this time. Not seeing or hearing any, she finally reached the monk, squatted next to him and placed two bloody left fingers on his throat as she held her breath again. Glad to be feeling a pulse, Sonya patted her fellow kombatant on the shoulder and gave a tiny smile.

It was then that the heard another moan, this time from in front of her. She looked up to see four more thin zombies limping towards her from about fifteen yards away. Wishing they would just leave her alone, Sonya remained in a squatted position and gripped the pistol with both hands.

"The nice thing about technology...", she told herself, "...is that it really evens the odds".

She pulled the trigger twice, two bullets entering the chest of the zombie to the furthest left. That one took two steps back before resuming its trek towards her. Surprised, Sonya stood up as she quickly decided to aim for her opponents' head only. A third bullet into that zombie's forehead dropped it dead on the ground. It was only a switch from one zombie to another after that, each aimed at the forehead and being stopped cold with one pull of the trigger.

She next looked in the direction where Kazuya had run to reach Shao Kahn. It was a gamble to leave the unconscious monk behind, as she wasn't sure that there were no new zombies in the area, but she reasoned that defeating Kahn took precedence over everything else. Promising to herself that she would return for Liu as soon as possible, Sonya proceeded ahead, remembering that she had six bullets left in the handgun.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kazuya stood up, turned around and looked down into the lava pool as the Shao Kahn's screams had ceased. He saw Chthon reaching into the lava with its right hand, as if in an effort to try to retrieve the fallen emperor. For several instants, the monster appeared to have the reactions of an anxious child who was digging through a jar full of candy. It wanted to recover the remains of the individual responsible for ultimately killing its master, even if that meant leaving everyone else in this realm alone for now.

Although the young Mishima was hopeful that the lava would be enough to kill the Shao Kahn, he objectively feared that it may not be. So with Kazuya anxiously watching the event below him with interest, the monster kept digging in the burning pool. It was a few instants before Chthon ceased combing the bottom of the pool floor with its hand and looked away from the pool and straight ahead. Kazuya momentarily believed that the monster was looking at him, but soon found out that it was not the case as Chthon next raised its head towards the ceiling and gave out a yell. The sheer volume of the scream was enough to send the young Mishima covering his ears by instinct and staggering backwards until his upper back pressed against the wall behind him. With his eyes kept open, Kazuya looked at the giant lava monster, wondering why it was crying out in such a way. He wasn't sure, but he thought that its cries resembled the cries of pain more than anything else. Chthon withdrew its hand from the pool and was now violently waving its arms in the air, its huge hands reaching about a hundred yards in each direction.

The monster's apparent torture lasted for a few more heartbeats before Chthon suddenly exploded. Kazuya gave out an involuntary yell as he dropped down on his stomach, covering his head with his arms, while a countless number of pieces of burning flesh spread everywhere in the lair. Fragments of Chthon's body, both large and small ones, flew aimlessly in every direction, some of them having struck the wall around where the young Mishima was lying.

It was only after the extremely loud sound from the spontaneous detonation had ceased and all of the blistering pieces of the monster had come to rest around him that Kazuya thought it safe to stand back up. He inhaled and exhaled several times as he rose back to his feet, realizing that the temperature around his environment had just increased by about ten degrees. Expecting the worst, the young Mishima carefully walked back towards the edge of the second floor to take a look down at the lava pool below. While he was only halfway towards the edge, he saw a masked Shao Kahn rising vertically through the air as the emperor seemed to have emerged out of the lava pool itself. Kazuya only saw his adversary after that one had already risen into the air about fifty yards out of the pool, and then continued to climb upwards as he stood up straight, all the time facing the direction towards the earth fighter, so as to confront him. The emperor finally stopped his upwards travel when he reached the same level as the second floor that Kazuya was standing on, totally immobile in a fighting stance.

"AS I SAID", the emperor howled, standing on air from about a hundred yards away from the edge of the second floor, "TOTALLY UNSTOPPABLE".

xxxxxxxxxxx

As that occurred, Johnny gasped as he suddenly woke up in another part of the first floor. The actor instinctively placed a right palm against the back of his head, trying to cope with the tremendous headache he was experiencing. It took him several seconds before he remembered what had taken place to knock him unconscious. The kombatant then recalled Shinnok, and thus lifted his upper body off the floor, combing the area around him to see signs which would indicate one way or another how Liu Kang had fared against the demon.

Climbing slowly back on his feet, the kombatant had to hold on to the wall behind him to make sure he didn't lose his balance as he tried to adjust his eyes to the brightness of the lava ahead of him. He didn't realize that Chthon was no longer inside the lava pool, that fact escaped him as he was busy visually searching the first floor. He first saw Smoke as the cyborg still lay motionless in a seated position with his back to the wall a few steps away. Taking his eyes off the metallic kombatant, the actor next noticed the charred remains of a corpse relatively nearby.

Johnny gasped again, afraid that the body might have been Liu's. Half running and half staggering in the corpse's direction, the actor reached it quickly before squatting next to it. It was only after examining the hot cadaver from a closer position and noticing a few small pieces of red clothes which surrounded it that the kombatant was able to sigh in relief. The skeleton and ashes were actually several inches taller than Liu, and the scraps of red clothes around it indicating to him that the body belonged to Shinnok. Feeling glad, Johnny stood back up on his feet as he then walked back to where Smoke lay, still without noticing Chthon's absence.

Having reached the cyborg, the actor finally became aware of the large, red spots of red ink which seemed to be everywhere around him. He wasn't covered by them, but he saw that Smoke was, as was the area around where he had been lying before. Squatting next to the cyborg, Johnny came closer to the ink spots to notice that they weren't ink at all, but rather what appeared to be pieces of meat.

"Meat?", Johnny asked out loud as he touched the first one he saw with his right hand to push it off the cyborg.

His eyes widened in pain as his right fingers felt like they had touched fire. Quickly withdrawing his hand, the kombatant fell backwards and had to bring his left arm behind him to keep from crashing back-first on the floor. Standing up and holding on to his right wrist as he blew air into those fingers, the actor finally figured out that those were bloody pieces of hot flesh.

"Oh my Rayden", he told himself as he finally turned around and looked in the direction of the lava pool, at last figuring out that Chthon was not there.

"Could this be him?", Johnny asked as his attention turned back down towards the cyborg.

Not knowing the answer, he quickly used his foot to clear the pieces of flesh which were lying on Smoke. Having done so, the actor squatted next to him again and then rested his left palm on the cyborg's face, hoping to get some kind of a reaction even though he did not expect to see any. It soon became apparent that the cyborg was no longer functional and Johnny was forced to acknowledge the fact.

"Sorry pal", the actor whispered as he stood back up.

The kombatant walked away from his metallic ally, eager to find Liu. Before seeing the monk anywhere, the first sight he witnessed was movement inside the lava pool. A masked, large human-like shape emerged out of the lava and rose high vertically through the air, not even having seen the actor. The masked figure rose until it stood on air at the same height as the second floor before it screamed to someone who was apparently on the second floor itself.

"AS I SAID, TOTALLY UNSTOPPABLE", the actor heard the masked figure declaring.

Johnny did not knew who was on the second floor, but now knew that he was heading in that direction.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

With that, Shao Kahn turned his body in midair and flew horizontally towards Kazuya. The human only had enough time to twist the right side of his body backwards before the gliding emperor flew by his right, barely missing him. The emperor landed on his feet just shy of the wall and turned around at the same time that the earth warrior twisted where he stood also. Both adversaries faced each other from several steps away, trying to guess what was on the other person's mind. It was Shao Kahn who acted first, though. The emperor placed his wrists together and pointed both palms towards the smaller human. Green inferno poured out of his palms and shot towards Kazuya. The young Mishima gasped, raised his forearms ahead of his chest and, as a result, produced a spontaneous shield inches in front of his torso. The thick tongue of fire emerging from the emperor's hands struck the human's shield and expanded around it. Although spared from coming into contact with the tongue of fire itself, Kazuya screamed out in pain as he was pushed one step backwards and then fell down on the floor on his back from the sheer heat of the fire alone. Lying flat on his back, Kazuya tried to raise his upper body but found out he couldn't as Kahn lowered his own arms so that the flames found their new mark on the floor instead since his target was no longer standing. The fact that the impromptu shield was present was the only factor which prevented him from being burned to ashes within an instant, but the shield's power was evidently decreasing while the emperor's fire did not diminish in strength. Any attempt to roll aside and out of the path of the green inferno threatened to take away from the limited strength used to power his shield, so he could not risk proceeding sideways for fear that the fire would engulf him as soon as the shield's force was reduced even by a tiny fraction. The human gasped and groaned on an irregular basis and the wall of flame threatened to crush him at any second while he could feel the shield's strength decreasing.

The immobile stance between both fighters lasted several more seconds, with Kahn standing with his arms pointed down and towards the human and Kazuya only trying to cope with the ever-increasing pain from the inferno. The sight was only finally interrupted when the two adversaries heard someone using the elevator towards where they stood. Sonya appeared standing on the elevator shaft, pistol in hand, as she came face to face with the emperor who turned his masked face away from his target to see her entrance from his left side. Without saying a word, the female kombatant stepped off the elevator and single-handedly aimed the firearm towards the emperor's head. As the elevator climbed back down towards the first floor, Sonya straightened her right arm in front of her face before pulling the trigger three times. Two bullets ricocheted off the emperor's mask and a third bounced off the side of his left shoulder as the female kombatant sighed in disappointment.

"You?", Shao Kahn asked, unhurt, though surprised to see Sonya still alive.

He then turned his attention back to the task at hand, which was maintaining the steady green flames that shot out of his palms to attack Kazuya. The emperor was not sure how the woman hadn't bled to death, but guessed that the male fighter who was slowly being overcome by his power most likely had a hand in it. He reasoned that, whether a sorcerer or not, the male earth warrior would succumb to the fire in no time at all, and then the warrioress would be easy prey.

Determined not to see her latest partner die, Sonya gripped the handle of the pistol in her right palm as she rushed at the emperor. She did not know what harm she might have afflicted while the bullets were ineffective against his bare skin, but the idea of just standing there while Kazuya gradually burned was not an option. She was screaming at the top of her lungs as she neared Kahn, intent on pistol-whipping him to the best of her abilities. Unfortunately for both her and Kazuya, her best effort proved to be mostly futile because she landed a solid blow on the emperor's outstretched left elbow with the pistol and Kahn's arm did not even budge as a result. Instead, Kahn withdrew his right arm towards him while still maintaining his left arm stretched in front of his chest to continue the sorcery. With his free right hand, he easily gripped her bloodied face and tossed her backwards without much effort. Sonya retained her grip on the weapon despite the fact that she flew about ten steps back before landing hard on the floor surface. She heard something crack in her lower back when she finally landed on it.

Struggling before she was able to lift her upper body off the floor, Sonya only saw Kazuya's protective arms fighting a losing battle as the shield they kept in place began to crumble ahead of him. The young Mishima's screams seemed to be getting louder as the heat from the green fire constantly surrounded him. From a fair distance away from him, Kahn remained standing still and looking down at his human opponent, clearly enjoying the defeat of the first person who had actually been able to trade blows with him, though only for a short time.

"He can't take him", she whispered to herself, "He needs help... He needs...".

Sonya stopped in mid-thought. She finally realized the meaning of the latest developments which she had witnessed. She remembered that Kazuya had been able to heal her when she was facing a certain death, and he was now preserving his own life with the use of an enchanted shield. The kombatant knew that both acts required sorcery, but it was Kazuya himself who had stated that the inhabitants in this realm were not capable of necromancy.

"We can't do it", Sonya thought out loud as she watched the difficult scene ahead, "But those who come from other universes can, can't they? Someone who could do magic in his home realm takes his talent with him, even if he comes to a place like this. You just didn't know it until you became desperate".

Sonya's face calmed when she understood that Shao Kahn needed to be defeated, and if the chance was missed now, humanity as a species might have been lost. But to destroy Kahn, the kombatant realized, Kazuya needed assistance, the type of assistance he had forcibly taken from others in his own universe before coming to this earth. With a soul to increase his strength, Kazuya at least had a chance in this confrontation. Sonya also remembered well that he had previously told her that taking the soul of someone who was alive was extremely difficult, unlike taking the soul of someone who had just died. The young Mishima needed souls or he was going to die sooner rather than later, and with him most likely died any possibility of destroying Kahn.

But what could be more a powerful sorcerous fuel than a soul of pure and noble intent? Kazuya had never told her, so Sonya had to guess, and do it quickly. Hoping she was correct in her assumptions, Sonya made her decision rather quickly as she remained seated on the floor and set her eyes on her hurt partner.

"Hey superhero!", she called out.

Kazuya turned his distraught face towards her despite his present condition at the same time that the emperor did also. The young Mishima was about to yell that she leave him and save herself, but he never got the chance.

"Make good use of it", Sonya added, confident that he could hear her despite her lowered voice.

Kazuya saw her next action, but his eyes did not immediately comprehend what she was trying to do. Sonya had gripped the handle of the Glock pistol so tight that her right knuckles turned white. Bending her right elbow, she turned the weapon until it was pointed towards her. With both fighters watching, she pressed the muzzle of the firearm against her upper left chest, about where the heart was located, before she pulled the trigger once.

Her upper body violently shook once following the suppressed sound of the weapon discharging. The floor behind her was stained with several drops of blood before her weapon slipped out of her fingers and her upper body dropped back. She was dead about the same time that she ended up lying flat on her back and the handgun rested on the floor next to her stomach.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!", Kazuya heard himself screaming.

He didn't even realize it when he switched control of his magical barrier to just his left arm while he extended his right arm towards Sonya's corpse. He was going by instinct alone when he concentrated his energy in the direction where his partner was lying dead. One part of the young Mishima pulled her soul out of her body even while another part of him was grieving over her loss. Without fully conceiving his actions, he had called up his necromantic powers within an instant. Kazuya pulled Sonya's soul towards him after the soul emerged from her corpse. The kombatant's soul appeared to be a cloudy, white and shapeless form as it left her body and was yanked in Kazuya's direction as it screamed. The young Mishima felt himself becoming more tense as her soul finally reached his face and then entered his own body through both open eyes. The young Mishima then closed his eyes before opening them again, thus having stolen her soul and having claimed it as his own.

Kazuya's eyes reddened as he dropped the enchanted shield which had preserved his life against Kahn's green flames up until now. The human no longer needed it because he no longer felt any pain as he bent his legs and then swiftly jumped up on his feet to a standing position, energized more than he ever thought would be possible, thanks to the use of a soul that had been freely offered to him. Shao Kahn felt a sudden shock overcoming him, his inferno which should've been enough to vaporize an ordinary person within an instant was hitting the young Mishima's bare skin without any effect. Wearing a cold, sadistic grin on his face, one that made even the emperor feel nervous momentarily, Kazuya stood up to his full height as his body was constantly bombarded by Kahn's now-useless inferno.

Kazuya screamed as he lifted his arms towards the ceiling and faced the sky. It was a yell loud enough to reverberate through the entire lair, and one which exclaimed a power-hungry obsession. He had felt the inhuman strength which is derived from stealing souls before, so the powersurge was not a surprise for him. The difference between his current intensity and the one he had experienced in his own universe after making a deal with the Shao Kahn was that before, the power increase had been slow and steady. Kazuya had first stolen the souls of a corrupt organized crime family. The souls of all those members had been relatively weak, so he had been given the time to adjust to his new strength and confidence before acquiring future souls with his sorcery. In contrast, gaining Sonya's soul had brought him in contact with a much stronger vigor because the lady kombatant's soul had been much purer, approximately as faultless as Michelle Chang's. When acquired first, such a noble soul provided power that he was not able to cope with right away, unlike a corrupt soul from whom the power increase would have been slow and gradual. Also, the fact that Sonya had relinquished her soul to him from her own free will by taking her life made her level of purity higher than any previous souls he had stolen. This explained the almost-maniacal glance the human threw towards Shao Kahn as both adversaries stood staring at each other, even while the emperor continued his projectile of green fire against the human's torso. Growing impatient with his larger opponent, Kazuya placed his own wrists together, straightened his arms and aimed both his palms into the source of the inferno as he was panting heavily through the mouth. As Kahn's fire struck him in the hands first, the human saw the emperor's red eyes behind that one's mask for the first time.

"DIE, KAHN!", Kazuya thundered, his raving red eyes locked with the emperor's red ones.

A bright red blaze shot out of the human's palms as it came into contact with Kahn's green flame. The emperor's inferno proved to be the weaker of the two within an instant as Kahn saw his own fire vaporizing into nothingness just before Kazuya's red tongue of fire struck him in the chest. The Shao Kahn was hurled backwards before being pinned against the wall behind him. Kahn screamed as he violently thrashed his arms in every direction, desperately trying but failing to stop the flow of red fire against him. His scream was heard even louder than Kazuya's, except his was a cry of pain while the human's had been a cry of overwhelming power.

Kazuya grinned as he enjoyed the sight of his enemy being literally burned alive as he began advancing towards Kahn's position, his straight arms always delivering the devastating blaze against the larger antagonist. He was about ten steps away from Kahn and still approaching when the walls both around and behind the emperor began to melt from having come into contact with the heat from the red inferno. Kahn's skin turned brittle while melting pieces of the wall from behind him came to rest on his padded shoulders and bare back.

"FOOL!", barked Kahn, his voice echoing the overwhelming pain he felt, "YOU WILL NOT SAVE YOUR REALM! YOUR REALM IS DOOMED NO MATTER WHAT! MY LIVING WEAPONS ARE PROGRAMMED TO FIND MY COORDINATES AND TO THEN ANNIHILATE THE REALM IF I AM NOT ABLE TO CONQUER IT!".

The emperor's statement was followed with another excruciating scream. Closing the distance between himself and his target, with the emperor feeling a more painful burn with every step that the human came closer, Kazuya finally separated his own wrists and stopped the outpouring red inferno once he was standing in front of the emperor. Kahn didn't get a chance to rest, however, because the raging human gripped the larger emperor by the throat with his left hand, thus keeping Kahn standing. Turning his right hand into a fist, Kazuya angrily yelled as he sent that fist into Kahn's steel mask. The emperor's mask shattered from the impact as Kazuya's fist tore past it and smashed into the Shao Kahn's face next. With the fractured pieces of the mask falling on the ground around his feet, Shao Kahn dropped to his knees without a sound in front of the smaller human and then collapsed on his stomach. Not sensing any further movement from the emperor, Kazuya staggered several steps backwards while still panting before an intense beam of light shot out of Kahn's body. The human's heart was pounding with such strength in his chest that he could hear it, but he didn't think about it much as he watched an endless stream of souls exiting the Shao Kahn and climbing towards the sky. The young Mishima dropped to his knees as he kept staring intently into the bright light above, his panting did not calm as he found himself yearning for the souls which seemed to be just beyond his reach. He quietly reached up towards the light with his right arm but was unable to draw the exiting souls in towards his hand. Having failed, Kazuya dropped down on his hands and knees, the energy used to destroy the Shao Kahn having exhausted him.

"Need more souls...", he whispered to himself, his red eyes extending in a rage, remembering his experiences in Africa with perfect clarity, "Have to save the world... Have to punish the guilty!".

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Baraka heard the chaos all around him before noticing anything that happened. The sunny sky over his own head thundered as Mileena whimpered near him. She and the larger nomad stared up into the sky as a painful howl was heard from its direction above. It took them both an instant to recognize the source of the scream. Although they could hardly believe it, Baraka and Mileena realized that the howl belonged to their emperor as he was dying. Mileena shook her head in disbelief as she looked at the nomad.

"This cannot be!", she exclaimed, her eyes wide with fear, "Those earth natives could not have defeated our Shao Kahn!".

The realm began losing its present environmental conditions. The temperature dropped at least forty degrees within moments as a cold chill overtook all its inhabitants. Thick clouds overtook the sky which had been sunny only an instant ago since it had been the Shao Kahn's unholy power which had kept his realm in its former condition. No one else in the realm possessed enough power to maintain an entire realm, not even Shang Tsung, so with the emperor's power broken, the realm was forced to return to its previous state.

Before Baraka was able to answer Mileena in an effort to calm her down, a countless number of portals spontaneously appeared everywhere around them. Without a warning, several bladed mutants much like Baraka were hurled from each portal before they crashed on the ground of Kahn's realm. Most of the mutants were physically fine, although a few were dead. After the portals spat out at least a score of mutants each, they all vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.

"It is so", Baraka had to admit to her amid the confused mutants who began to stand back up around them, "The emperor is dead. That is why the portals he generated to carry his armies into earth are no longer working".

Many of the mutants appeared as surprised as him, as they realized they were no longer in the earth realm. They stood up with their bloodied blades, wondering how they were pulled out of the earth realm in the middle of their invasion, and then surveyed the cadavers of their fellow mutants which were pulled back also.

"BARAKA! MILEENA!", Reptile's voice carried with it an air of urgency.

Both warriors turned to see the green ninja calling for them from thirty yards away as he seemed in a hurry.

"Shang Tsung gave the order", the green ninja informed them, "The living weapons are ready to go to the earth realm".

xxxxxxxxxx

The power-hungry demon inside of Kazuya grew stronger, increasing with it his obsession with cleansing the entire world of all evil, no matter what the cost to himself or others. The hatred within ensued him to passionately press his teeth together as he began to plan a strategy in his mind, one which he felt was delayed for too long as a result of him being trapped in the Black Abyss which came because of his own fear and foolishness. Now that he was back in earth, the young demonic Mishima vowed to never return to the previous, useless state of mind he was in when he had no souls increasing his personal power.

"So much time wasted!", Kazuya barked to no one in particular, dragging himself back to a standing position.

"I have much to do", he calmed down enough to resume talking without raising his voice as his red eyes concentrated on the Kahn's corpse ahead of him.

It was true that the emperor had met his end without having done Kazuya the service of destroying half the population of the earth realm that was causing it harm, but even such an obstacle was one which could have been overcome. With his new power, the human knew that he could've started off on his journey to protect the innocent element, something that he had aimed back in his own universe. He knew he possessed the ability to take lives on a massive scale, even if it would have taken one person a tremendous amount of time to try to cover the entire planet. It had been Kazuya's belief that the Kahn himself needed more than a year to attempt to complete his mission before the young Mishima had planned to challenge the emperor to single combat. Knowing that, the human knew that it would've most likely taken him much longer, but he was ready, he was willing to wait as long as needed to accomplish what he wanted.

The only noise the human could still hear at the moment was his own loud breathing as he sneered at the Shao Kahn's corpse before turning away to leave the lair. He wore a wide and delighted grin on his face, glad that his deadliest opponent for control of the earth realm was now dead. The grin then faded suddenly when the young Mishima saw another sight as he was heading towards the elevator shaft. Sonya was lying on her back and in a pool of her own blood several steps away from him, her wide-open eyes staring out towards the ceiling as her head was slightly resting on her left shoulder. Kazuya's red eyes met her vacant ones by chance for only a fraction of a second, but it was long enough to make him stop in his tracks before reaching the elevator. There was something captivating about the silent way her face seemed to be asking him to restrain himself. He had seen that stare in his mind a countless number of times after his death, it was the glance of his many victims which had torn at his conscience, and which now disturbed the human side of the young Mishima. Despite his obsession with cleansing the evil from this realm, Kazuya also remembered how he cried after the devil had been torn from him while he stood at the edge of the Black Abyss.

"STOP GIVING IN TO THE WEAKNESS!", he yelled at himself, staring at the ceiling and tearing at his own hair, "YOU HAVE A MISSION IN LIFE!".

He involuntarily began crying through his red eyes, unsure about how to continue, his human side encouraging one path while his demon side encouraged the exact opposite. Kazuya dropped down to a seated position on the floor as he placed his face in his palms and began sobbing. He continued in that fashion for at least five minutes, remembering the crimes committed by his demonized self in his former universe. He soon found himself going against almost all instinct in his mind as he withdrew his hands away from his face and stood up while turning in the direction of his partner's corpse. Without bothering to wipe the tears out of his eyes, the young Mishima pointed his right arm down towards where Sonya lay.

A cloud emerged from his right fingertips as it took the shape of a small, dense fog in front of him. It was only a few moments afterwards that Kazuya was able to withdraw his arm and the formless cloud ahead of him took on the shape of his dead partner as she was facing him. Sonya's appearance crystallized a few feet away from the young Mishima, and, although the kombatant still wore the clothes she had on at the time of her death, she was not a solid form. The young Mishima's eyes turned from red to their usual black color as he felt his newly-found power draining away. Despite the loss of his supernatural strength, Kazuya could still concentrate enough on what occurred in front of him to realize that he easily saw Sonya'sdead body through her own soul. Her transparent apparition smiled at him as all her injuries were gone, from the cut on her left cheek to the stab wounds on her stomach and forearms.

"I was hoping you'd let me go afterwards", her soul appeared glad and thankful.

"I cannot believe what you just did", he replied, raising his right arm as his palm faced her.

She raised her own left arm to meet him, but her transparent left hand passed through his right hand without being able to touch it.

"Huh", Sonya kept smiling as they both withdrew their arms, "Takes a lot of concentration, I guess".

It wasn't long before she turned her face towards where Shao Kahn lay on the floor.

"Is he dead?", she asked Kazuya, her face having turned serious for an instant.

"Yes", he made her happy, "Thanks to you".

"No", her smile returned as she looked back at him, "Thanks to us".

"Of course", Kazuya began to feel fatigue after the tremendous amount of energy he had used against the emperor and the strain that his formerly-superhuman form had taken from the emperor's green inferno.

"Do me one last favor?", Sonya asked as she felt she could not stay for much longer.

"Anything", he calmly replied.

"Look out for my friends", she requested, "Liu, Johnny and Kitana, I mean. They should still be here".

"I will do my best, I promise", he pledged.

The peaceful grin on Sonya's face widened even more. She placed both her hands on either side of his shoulders, surprising her partner by actually being able to touch him this time. The lady kombatant reached forth and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thanks, superhero", she then stepped back and away from him.

Both warriors maintained eye contact in the few seconds it took Sonya's soul to turn into a cloud. Kazuya watched her soul rise towards the ceiling until it reached the top of the lair and passed through it on the way to the sky beyond. It was only after her soul was gone that the young Mishima's attention was diverted to a spot ahead of him rather than where the ceiling ended. He saw a large, circular portal quickly expanding until it was about ten yards in diameter. Before the curious human was able to take his first step towards the new gateway, he saw two figured emerging from it. One was a large mutant with a three-foot blade sticking out of each of his wrists and the other was a smaller masked woman who was dressed in a tight purple outfit.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Baraka and Mileena walked out of the portal not knowing what to expect on the other side. The 7-foot tall nomad was sickened to see Shao Kahn's body lying lifelessly several steps ahead of him, only yards away from a human mortal who was the only alive person he viewed. The mutant's purple-dressed partner gasped as she almost dropped the sai she held in each hand, but then firmed her grip on the weapons to retain them. She only took a few steps forward, getting closer to the corpse of the human female as she examined the area ahead of her. Both nonhuman warriors knew that the only way the living weapons could've been activated towards the earth realm would've been either if their emperor had ordered them sent there after the realm had successfully repelled his attack. Since Shao Kahn was known to have been on earth at the present time, he would've only called upon the living weapons at the time of his death. Baraka and Mileena should've known what to expect, but they still found themselves unprepared for the sight of their emperor lying dead on the ground in front of a human who appeared to be the victor in the fight against Kahn.

Gathering their concentration, both invaders turned into a fighting stance as they faced their emperor's vanquisher. Baraka lifted both arms until his blades pointed at Kazuya and Mileena rested the sais against her forearms, ready to attack. It didn't take long for the young Mishima to turn into a fighting stance of his own, although even Kazuya had doubts about his chances against two energetic opponents while he himself was physically weary. Still though, the human knew that running towards the elevator shaft would've only left him vulnerable to a swift attack from behind, one which would have proven to be fatal. As the two invaders locked eyes with the native, more figures emerged from the portal. Kazuya's attention was again distracted away from the two original invaders and towards the portal, this time to witness two cyborgs coming forth from inside of it, one was red and the other yellow.

#Earth realm, identified#, Sektor spoke to his metallic partner only as he stood straight, ignoring the human and the mutants on the scene.

#Acknowledged#, was Cyrax's only reply as he walked a dozen steps away and stood straight also, distancing himself from the first living weapon.

Both cyborgs simultaneously bent their left elbow and leveled their left forearm in a horizontal position before pressing buttons on them with their right hand.

#Auto-destruct initiated#, Sektor went on in his robotic voice.

#Annihilation of earth realm imminent#, Cyrax added.

The young Mishima shifted his body slightly. He thought to himself that his odds of winning had gone from bad to worse with the arrival of two new warriors, and these were invaders the kind of which he had never faced before. He didn't even know if the metallic warriors had a vulnerable spot. Before he could devise a plan of attack, though, he spotted even more movement from behind the cyborgs. Shang Tsung and a human-masked Reptile stepped out of the portal behind the living weapons, forcing a discouraged sigh out of Kazuya as he finally realized he was outnumbered six to one. It was only then that the portal behind the six invaders vanished.

Even though the new human and the green ninja did not act in an aggressive manner, Kazuya did not have to think long to realize that the arrival of the cyborgs was not good news for earth. As both Cyrax and Sektor waited the few seconds needed before their auto-destruct sequence was completed, the human sprang forth. Ignoring both mutants, Kazuya glided forward in a flying kick aimed at the left side of the cyborg who was closer to him, which happened to be Cyrax. The living weapon spotted the human flying towards him and suspended the auto-destruct sequence temporarily as he turned in Kazuya's direction. Cyrax's chest opened a split second before an electric green net shot out of it, intercepting Kazuya in midair and violently throwing the human backwards as he screamed. Kazuya flew backwards until his back slammed into the wall next to the elevator shaft with such force that it bruised several of his ribs. The net glued his entire body against the wall, he found that he couldn't even move his arms or legs despite his best efforts. He kept up his vain struggle as he felt his strength draining and, through the net, saw Baraka approaching him.

"Poor human", the nomad taunted, showing off his razor-sharp teeth, "This is what a trapped fly feels like as it watches a spider approaching".

Behind the male mutant, Mileena grinned with joy as Reptile stood at attention, quietly surveying the area around him to secure Shang Tsung's safety, as was his job. Shang Tsung, on the other hand, found out that he did not need to travel far into the earth realm to locate what he had been looking for. A fairly short distance away from the emperor's body and from the trapped human, the sorcerer spotted Sonya's corpse with her eyes which were still open and staring out into nothingness. He realized right away that she was dead and a feeling of sadness overwhelmed him as he gave a deep sigh. His sole reason for being interested in the earth realm ever since losing it in the tenth tournament to Liu now lay dead several steps away from him. Realizing he had no more interest in this realm, Shang Tsung tightened his mouth and locked eyes with his bodyguard, nonverbally indicating to Reptile that it was their time to leave.

"Leave the human", the sorcerer ordered while turning around as Baraka was within reach of where Kazuya was trapped, "He will be dead soon enough along with everyone else".

With that, Shang Tsung raised his right arm and a wave of energy emerged from his right hand. The energy came to rest in midair just a few feet in front of him and soon began expanding into a second portal, one which would've have taken them back home.

"Are you crazy?", the nomad shot back, "A kill this tempting?".

"I said leave him!", the sorcerer raised his voice as he partially turned his head towards Baraka before returning to the task ahead.

Just then, the net holding Kazuya against the wall disintegrated and the young Mishima fell on the floor debilitated from his efforts against the Shao Kahn as well as the blow he received against the wall from Cyrax's net. He dropped on his hands and knees, desperately trying to get back up but feeling as if his arms and legs had abandoned him. It was then that Baraka delivered a sharp kick into his face, sending him turning over before he twisted horizontally and crashed flat on his back. Ignoring the sorcerer's orders, Baraka lifted his right arm, ready to deliver the right blade downward into the human's chest. Despite the encouraging grins being heard from Mileena, the nomad was interrupted because he heard an unfamiliar noise from nearby. Neither he, nor Mileena, nor Shang Tsung, nor Reptile realized that the noise occurred because someone was using the elevator to get to the second floor. The elevator shaft reached their floor and the six invaders were forced to acknowledge the presence of the second earth native on the scene, although the sorcerer was the only one who recognized him from experience.

A dazed Johnny Cage stepped off the elevator shaft as he combed the entire area around him. The actor saw the emperor's dead body, and he also saw Sonya's afterwards. His face tightened in anger as he proceeded towards Baraka and Kazuya first. Although he couldn't personally identify the human who was about to be executed by the nomad, he had remembered the mention of Kazuya's name by Rayden when they were back in the Outworld. The kombatant reasoned that any enemy of the nomads would have to be a friend of his. Both Baraka and Mileena stared at him for an instant without moving as Reptile shifted his direction towards the actor to be ready in case that one tried to harm the sorcerer. Shang Tsung, on the other hand, paid no more attention to him and just returned to working on the portal. He had a long history with the actor, there was no doubt about that. The actor, after all, had been the one who had killed Goro during the tenth tournament and had made it possible for Liu to challenge him. Despite that, the sorcerer no longer cared about any revenge scenario he might've otherwise wanted to carry out against the kombatant now that the human in which he was most interested was dead.

"You dimwits just can't stay in one realm, can you?", an emotionally exhausted actor barked at the large nomad.

"Ooh, the native is getting restless", Mileena teased, raising her forearms in front of her and shaking the sais as if she was afraid of the lone human who had just used the elevator.

She stepped backwards in mock fear, coming closer to the edge of the second floor until she was just three steps away from it.

Johnny had enough. His loathing of all kinds of invaders had reached its peak as he remembered all the losses he had been forced to endure over time because of them. First it had been Scott, then Kitana, then Smoke, and now finally Sonya. And to embitter the whole situation, the one female in purple was mocking him while the male nomad was about to strike another fellow human being dead. Trying his best to maintain enough concentration to be useful, Johnny dashed ahead with a shadow kick, sliding on his left foot as his right leg was held high in front of him. The strike was not a good one, as his senses were still muddled after having been knocked unconscious, and he ended up losing his balance and staggering to the side right after the bottom of his right foot met Baraka's solar plexus. As he faltered to his right, the large nomad was forced one step back despite the flawed kick which he had delivered, thus giving the weakened Kazuya the crucial time needed to roll away from the mutant's reach. With the young Mishima climbing back on his hands and knees in an effort to stand, Baraka and Johnny faced each other as Mileena approached the humans. In the meantime, Shang Tsung completed the portal ahead of him and looked back over his shoulder for the last time. The final sight he witnessed was the actor and the nomad rushing towards each other as Shao Kahn's victor was still busy climbing to his feet while Mileena closed in on the trio. Cyrax and Sektor remained still, getting ever-closer to their ultimate goal of destroying the realm and every living thing in it in a matter of moments.

"I hope you are ready to be sliced open, human", Baraka sneered towards the actor, "You do know that you have no hope of emerging victorious. We are not like you, after all. We do not have weaknesses, we are the peak of the evolution process, unlike you!".

"Yeah, right", the actor angrily shot back, "I think you'll find that fighting humans is my ex-wife, which is to say, a bitch".

Having seen enough, Shang Tsung turned to Reptile and motioned towards the portal with his head. They both left the others behind as they walked into the portal, reasoning that it was up to Baraka and Mileena to decide when they wanted to follow in their own turn before the realm they stood in turned to dust.

"FORGET HIM!", Kazuya warned the actor, "THOSE MACHINES ARE ABOUT TO DESTROY THE PLANET!".

Johnny heard the prediction as he had reached the nomad and delivered a solid uppercut into that one's chin. Having found enough strength to stand, Kazuya then rushed forward and tackled Baraka in the stomach, knocking the nomad down on his back and freeing the stronger actor to concentrate on the cyborgs. Kazuya pinned Baraka's back against the floor by pressing his left palm on the nomad's chest and then lifted his own upper body up before a barrage of right punches from the human crashed into the mutant's face. The continuous flow of punches kept dislocating teeth in the nomad's mouth as the back of his head kept slamming into the floor behind him because of the impacts. Despite his superior size, Baraka found that he was unable to push the smaller human off because of the constant surges of pain that one delivered into his face. Kazuya's brutal punches only ceased when Mileena reached him and kicked the human in the head. The young Mishima was hurled backwards and off the larger mutant as his back met the floor a few feet next to the nomad. Mileena bolted past Baraka with her sai ready to deliver a fatal strike into the aggressive human's head. Seeing the female in purple as she raised the sai in her right hand, Kazuya quickly rose on his left crouched leg before his right leg shot up towards her. The bottom of his right foot met her stomach and Mileena gave a yell as she dropped both sais and flew through the air. She roughly landed on her back and grudgingly stood up about three steps away from the edge of the second floor, her sights still set on the human. As Kazuya stood up also, facing her and ready for her next attack, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his skull as Baraka delivered a headbutt from behind him. Seeing stars, the human involuntarily staggered forward for several steps before crashing on his stomach just a few feet away from the edge of the second floor.

Leaving the young Mishima alone with the giant mutant for now, Johnny executed a second shadow kick, this time aimed at the red cyborg. Sektor simply stood his ground as he viewed Johnny sliding towards him. The actor had thought that the cyborg would've tried to counter with a flying kick, or at least tried to dodge out of the way, but Sektor did neither, preferring to just face his attacker head-on. The human was only confused about the cyborg's reaction for a short while because he then noticed the reason why the living weapon acted in such a way. Before Johnny had reached him, Sektor's chest opened to reveal a foot-long missile which shot straight out of it. The kombatant's eyes bulged open in shock as his shadow kick was interrupted and he suddenly dropped flat on his stomach fast enough to see the missile flying over him before it struck the far wall. Eyeing the human who now climbed back up to his feet, a calm Sektor targeted the kombatant with a second, heat-seeking missile. The cyborg reasoned that this way, the human would not have been able to dodge the projectile no matter how fast and agile he happened to be since the missile would always return towards him. With the actor rising on his feet, the red cyborg fired again.

Johnny ducked his upper body as the second missile shot over him, missing his back by merely inches. After traveling about twenty yards through the open air, though, Sektor's projectile turned around and headed back towards the actor. The kombatant gave a short yell as he realized the second projectile was smarter than the first. Feeling desperate, Johnny dashed towards the second, yellow cyborg as the missile set its sight on his upper back. Standing his ground, Cyrax saw the human running towards him with the missile in hot pursuit. The cyborg's instant calculations told him that the human was doomed and would not reach him before being struck by the projectile, so Cyrax did not worry. About ten yards away from the yellow cyborg, though, Johnny reacted by an instinct which he hoped would not let him down. Guessing that he was about to get hit by the missile, the actor performed an instantaneous full leg split on the second floor, thus lowering his upper body by about two and a half feet. The missile behind him flew over his head and kept traveling straight. It was about to turn around again when it struck Cyrax in the chest and the yellow cyborg exploded in a countless number of pieces.

Cyrax's left forearm hit Johnny in the forehead as the actor was still in the leg split, so the kombatant was pushed backwards and crashed on the floor before he was able to stand back up. Turning on his stomach, the kombatant placed his fists against the floor in an effort to stand back up when he was only a few feet away from the edge of the second floor. He saw Baraka about to deliver a left blade down towards Kazuya's battered body from twenty steps away as the two were near the edge of the second floor also. Mileena, who stood halfway between him and the nomad, was now staring at Cyrax's remains with her mouth clearly open even from behind the purple mask. The actor had to think of a way to save Kazuya's life, and he knew he'd never be able to reach the mutant in time before the death blow was delivered. So Johnny frantically grabbed the hot forearm which had struck him in the head moments earlier with his right hand and set his sights on his target.

"No weaknesses?", he whispered to himself as he tossed the heavy forearm towards Mileena with as much strength as his right arm could afford.

The metal forearm flew towards the female invader and violently struck her in the head. Mileena screamed out in pain as she clutched her face, not realizing that she had staggered closer to the edge as she did so. She took one step too many and soon found herself trying to plant her left foot in an area past the solid floor. She tried to pull her left leg back when she realized that she had stepped too far out, but it was too late. Mileena yelled out as she felt herself falling over the edge and towards the waiting lava pool below. Reacting by instinct, she made one last attempt to hold on to the floor with her left hand as she was falling past it. Her left fingers dug into the edge of the floor and kept her suspended in the air, just one slip away from a burning death below.

"Noooooooooo!", Baraka yelled out as he saw her falling.

The nomad left Kazuya without delivering the fatal blow and rushed towards the spot where Mileena had fallen. He gave a huge sigh of relief when he saw her hanging on for her life, so he dropped down to a crouching position just near the edge of the second floor and gripped her left wrist with his right hand. Mileena also reached up and grabbed his right wrist with her right hand also, thus securing a better hold on her rescuer. As Baraka was about to pull her up, though, he heard a click from several feet away and to the left. The nomad looked up towards his left to see Johnny standing near the edge of the second floor also, about five steps away from him. The actor's somber face met his eyes first and then Mileena's as she too had looked in his direction when Baraka did not pull her up immediately. Straitening his right arm and then raising it, Johnny pointed Sonya's 9mm pistol directly in between Baraka's eyes. The actor hoped the weapon was not out of ammunition yet since he felt weak after the latest stress and was no longer sure if he could single-handedly face two opponents at the present time. At the same time, the nomad's eyelids widened as he ended up staring into the muzzle of the firearm while he was holding Mileena over the edge of the second floor.

"No weaknesses indeed", the actor told him, his voice a mix of an unusual calmness and anger, "Did you think I didn't see the way you looked at her?".

Johnny pulled the trigger once. Baraka opened his mouth to protest, but never got the chance to say anything because a bullet tore through his forehead. Pieces of his brain were blown on the floor behind him and to his right in a bloody mess. The nomad dropped dead on his right side without a sound as his right grip loosened around Mileena's hand and wrist. She, at the same time, gave out a long yell as she found herself falling the two hundred yards from the edge of the second floor until her body dropped into the red pool. Her yells suddenly quieted as she was instantly submerged into the lava, leaving behind only a thin puff of smoke to indicate where she had touched the pool.

Sighing, Johnny released his grip on the handgun and the weapon slipped out of his hand before hitting the floor. His right hand shook involuntarily for several moments because he had never fired a gun before. The actor bent his right arm and brought his right wrist in front of his torso so he could grip it with his left hand before the shaking stopped. As the kombatant then looked past Baraka's corpse towards Kazuya, he saw his fellow human rising up on his hands and knees. The kombatant was about to walk towards the young Mishima to help him up when Kazuya pointed at him with a left index finger.

"Behind you!", Kazuya warned.

Johnny did not even get a chance to turn around. The only thing he felt was a solid punch into the back of his head as Sektor had delivered a jab from behind him. The actor's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he dropped unconscious on his right side, only two steps away from the edge of the second floor. Having neutralized the threat to its mission, the red cyborg walked back to where it had previously stood. Still on his hands and knees, Kazuya could only watch as Sektor stood in place and seemed to be pulling its forearms inwards.

#Auto-destruct sequence in eight... seven... six... five... four#, the cyborg declared, about to complete its mission in a matter of seconds.

From over twenty yards away, Kazuya kept his eyes fixed on Sektor as he tried to stand back up. After everything he had witnessed so far, he could not allow the earth to be destroyed now. He tried to push himself back into a standing position in one last attempt to rush towards the red cyborg in order to desperately push it off the second floor and into the lava pool below, even if that meant going over the edge with it. As the young Mishima was trying to stand, though, he found that his body had just endured too much physical damage. His arms collapsed and he found himself crashing back on the floor on his stomach. He cursed himself for not being strong enough to stand, although he knew he didn't have long to be disappointed in himself.

xxxxxxxxxxx

In another place in the universe, Rayden had been watching the whole scene as he felt even his divine abilities being tested because he was forced to remain away from the earth fighters who fought for the continued existence of the realm. The protector of the realm of earth was finally ushered to Zeus' throne room as he had continuously demanded an audience. The king of the gods remained seated as he eyed the anxious thunder god who walked inside faster than his escorts.

"Shao Kahn is dead", Rayden told Zeus what that one already knew, "You have no more reason to keep me here now that Kahn is no longer a threat".

"Is that so?", Zeus replied in a prudish fashion.

"Yes!", Rayden exclaimed, not understanding why the king of the gods answered him in such a way, "I demand to be allowed back to earth to help its natives against Kahn's remaining warriors!".

"Your effrontery amazes me, I will allow you that much", Zeus angrily stood up from his throne, "You demand from me after you have gone against my orders to stay away from that realm?".

The thunder god pressed his teeth together, his hopes of not being detected had been overly optimistic.

"And now you expect me to reward your disobedience?", the king of gods added, approaching the deity.

"Your business is with me", Rayden finally spoke up, "If you wish to punish me, I will understand, but the earth natives should not be punished for my actions".

"Well, it seems to me as if those precious natives of yours would not have reached such a successful end result if you hadn't guided them to Chthon's lair in the first place", Zeus declared, rubbing his chin with his right fingers, "So I think I will let things turn out as they would have if you had obeyed me from the start".

"No!", the deity aggressively closed in on him, "You cannot do this!".

"You forget, puny realm god, I am the king", Zeus gave him a sarcastic smile.

"Well, I am leaving for earth whether I have your approval or not!", Rayden turned his back at the throne.

"How dare you?", Zeus pointed at the deity's back with his right palm.

Rayden turned back to face the king of the gods, quickly walked towards him and delivered a right hook punch into his face. Zeus found himself crashing backwards against the throne in a most inelegant fashion.

"Seize him!", the king of gods angrily spat, looking up at the younger deity.

None of the guards who had escorted Rayden into the throne room budged.

"Did you hear me?", Zeus barked, standing back up.

"I think your rule is near an end, my king", Rayden flatly stated before turning around and walking out of the room.

xxxxxxxxxxx

In Chthon's lair, Sektor had reached the time when it had two more seconds to go before detonation as the portal which was created by Shang Tsung dissipated.

#...three... two...#, the red cyborg was interrupted by a flash of electricity.

Rayden appeared several steps in front of it, approximately between the cyborg and Kazuya. Raising his right arm, the deity pointed his palm towards Sektor before an outburst of electricity shot out of it and struck the living weapon. The cyborg had no idea what was occurring as it was hurled backwards from the impact before its back struck the far wall and it exploded into a countless number of red metallic pieces. Sektor's head flew in a semicircle until it landed past the second floor and fell down towards the lava pool below. The cyborg's head disappeared in the liquid fire only a few feet away from the point where Mileena had met her death

Having neutralized the last threat to earth, the thunder god turned to examine the people that he knew were still alive, mainly Johnny Cage and Kazuya Mishima, as he knew that Sonya Blade was already dead. Keeping in mind that Liu Kang was the only person still alive on the first floor, he made a note to check the monk also as soon as he could. He first knelt next to the unconscious actor and was about to try to reawaken him when he heard an unfamiliar noise from below. Looking down past the edge of the second floor, the thunder god saw the lava pool quivering even though it had been calm before. It was only an instant afterwards that the lava pool exploded, sending drops of burning liquid upwards towards the second floor, although the explosion spared the first floor. Pulling his upper body inward from the edge, Rayden covered the actor's upper body with his arms, although he was glad to find that his reaction was unnecessary since the lava did not reach their position. Turning his attention back downwards, though, the deity's eyes widened when he realized that the lair was about to be overflown with the lava in the pool. The liquid fire was starting to spread towards the first floor after having received the eruption which had followed the introduction of Sektor's head inside the pool.

Reacting fast, Rayden did not stop to check on the condition of the two humans on the second floor. A lightning net shot out of his left palm before it separated into three parts. One part engulfed the unconscious actor, the second swallowed up Kazuya as the young Mishima still hadn't realized what was occurring and the third net glided towards the first floor under its own power and submerged the oblivious Mortal Kombat champion. The thunder god quickly closed his left hand as he felt the lair sinking into the lava, and he and all three nets vanished out of it. They left Chthon's lair as it slowly immersed into the liquid lava, taking along with it the bodies it carried and making itself the final resting place for all those dead warriors.

Johnny Cage was the last to wake up and the first sight the actor saw was Liu offering him a hand, so the actor exhaled in a tired fashion as he gripped the monk's palm and was pulled up to his feet. He found himself standing in the middle of a street on earth, back in the city where he lived for quiet a while before the invasion had started.

"Glad to see someone else is still alive", the actor told his fellow kombatant.

"Yes, I would've hated to be the lone survivor", Liu replied, still remembering Kitana's and Smoke's deaths.

"Sonya's gone too", Johnny informed him.

"I know", the monk pointed partly behind him, "Kazuya told me".

The actor looked past the monk, expecting to see the young Mishima there. Surprised, Johnny saw only destroyed buildings but not anyone else, even the thunder god was nowhere to be found.

"Where is he?", the kombatant asked out loud.

"He couldn't stay", the monk let him know, "He was going out of his mind since he had no place in this world, or so he thought. Rayden promised to take him someplace where he'd feel right at home".

"Which is where?", Johnny asked next.

"A place faaar away", Liu sounded surprised, "But Rayden promised he'd be back soon. We get to fix this realm of ours now that Kahn's armies are gone for good".

"Great", the actor sighed just before he heard noise from behind him.

Both kombatants turned around and were pleasantly surprised to see an army platoon heading down the street towards them. The first vehicle in the squadron was an armored humvee as it slowed down before coming to a complete halt. Major Jackson Briggs opened the front passenger side door and stepped out of the vehicle with an M-16 rifle in his left grip as a 9mm pistol remained holstered to his waistline.

"Well, well", Jax gave a small grin, "Look who it is".

"Nice to see you too, muscle-man", Johnny delivered a relaxed and mock military salute.

"I take it you guys know that the last of the freaks are gone?", the major asked.

"Yep", the actor went on, approaching the string of military armored vehicles, "Has something to do with Kahn being a dead vegetable in some lair, Rayden knows where".

"Get in, dudes", Jax pointed to the soldiers who had emerged from the humvees and tanks behind him, "We'll give a you a scenic ride around the city. Sit next to the dude who has frost coming out of his fingers at will. He's a riot, never short of an icepack if you gotta a headache".

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

The first sight Sonya saw in the next realm was the incredibly bright sky, and the surprisingly dark ground. The ride towards this realm had been rocky at best, but she now finally waved good-bye to the skeleton who was dressed in a large and simple piece of cloth.

"Not much of a conversationalist", the kombatant thought out loud as Hades did not look back while his boat sailed through the crystal-clear water.

She shivered involuntarily, although not from cold, as she turned away from the water and headed inland. She felt nervous about what she might find in the realm of the dead, as she had no idea what to expect, so she kept breathing as constantly as she could. The second sight Sonya saw was a large Shokanite, one even bigger than Goro, as the four-armed fighter delivered a massive punch into Motaro's chin. The Centaur dropped to the ground with a painful groan as the Shokanite then sent his right upper fist into the top of the Centaur's head. With Motaro screaming out, the kombatant finally noticed the one individual who was standing a few steps away from the aggressive Shokanite. That individual, having sensed another presence in the realm of the dead, turned his attention away from the scene that he was enjoying to see who was interrupting his fun. Sonya stood still as she wrapped her arms in front of her chest and looked past the beating that the four-armed warrior was submitting the four-legged warrior to. Feeling much more comfortable after seeing a familiar face, she grinned as she saw that the human who was eagerly watching Motaro's beating had been Scott.

"Noooo!", Scott's mouth turned into a wide grimace as he saw her despite the fact that seeing her here meant that she was dead.

The ninja left the thrashing he had been watching and rushed towards Sonya before he wrapped both arms around her. Durak had stopped hammering on Motaro as he saw his student leaving the scene and looked towards him.

"It is good that I do not need your help to handle this Centaur", Durak growled at the human, "I would hateto imagine what would happen if I had problems and my partner left me stranded".

"Oh, don't even worry about that four-legs", Scottgrinned ashe turned towards the Shokanite with his right arm wrapped around the blonde kombatant's shoulders.

"Huh?", the giant Shokanite wondered out loud as Motaro flopped to the ground on hisleft side.

"Durak",the ninjaadded happily, "This is bestest friend anywhere. You're gonna love her".

xxxxxxxxxxx

The young Mishima couldn't believe his eyes when Rayden's electricity vanished.

"I just thought thist wasthe closest to home thatI could bring you", the deity reported, "I still have to apologize tfor having brought you to tthe universe by accident".

Kazuya saw a Peace Corps mission in the middle of Africa. All around him llay evidence that the Shao Kahn's invasion had not spared this section of the continent. People lay dead or injured at several places, but so did many other individuals who were trying to help the wounded. The unexpected withdrawal of the last section of Kahn's armies had made it possible for the Peace Corps mission to resume its goal.

Rayden pointed past Kazuya, nonverbally indicating that he should turn around. Rotating in place, Kazuya first thought he was looking in a mirror, but then realized the person he was looking at was not a reflection at all. He was staring at a skinnier version of himself, the version of himself who was part of the Peace Corps mission in Africa in this universe. It only took the young Mishima an instant before he realized that this version of the mercy mission in Africa had never experienced the massacre that his own mission had the misfortune of encountering. Never having been shot, this version of himself had never gone on a disciplined task to save the world by eventually making a deal with the Shao Kahn. Instead, this version of himself was busy applying pressure against the open wound in the chest of a lacerated man about thirty steps away from where the deity and the foreign Mishima stood.

"You can go talk to him", Rayden whispered from the side as Kazuya's eyes remained set on his thinner self.

"Are you saying I can stay here?", the stronger Kazuya quickly ignored his more slender self and anxiously addressed Rayden.

"Well, yes", Rayden gave a small smile, happy to see the young Mishima excited, "I just... conceived that you may desire to use your obvious powers to assist the Africa mission in this universe".

Kazuya smiled for the first time as he turned back in the direction of his other self. He finally felt as if he was at home. Having been given a second chance to work as part of the Peace Corps, he knew there were many things he would have done differently. To begin with, his confrontation with this version of the Shao Kahn showed him he had powers that could come in handy in such a hostile environment.

"I must leave to assist my other warriors", the deity went on, "Will you be allright here?".

"Yes", Kazuya replied before turning his face to the thunder god, "Yes, definitely".

"If you wish to talk to me, simply call my name, I will reach you wherever you may be", Rayden added.

"Thanks", the mortal said after a brief silence, his attention still captivated by his mirror image, "I will keep that in mind".

He stared at his more peaceful self for one last time as the deity turned into a flash of electricity and disappeared. He inhaled and then exhaled for one more before heading in the other Kazuya's direction to greet that version of himself.

END

Midway, Mortal Kombat, the Dragon Design and Logo, and all offical character names and pictures are registered trademarks of Midway Games, Inc.

All Tekken characters are owned by Namco.