I still do not own Mortal Kombat. Kotal is this chapter, next is Ermac, then D'vorah, then Shang Tsung, then Quan Chi. I haven't updated in months because of intense work on my dissertation, which is about to become intense again. I'm posting this chapter while I have a bit of breathing room. Stay safe from Covid 19.

Syzoth was still furious over Cassie putting the idea to become an Elder God in his head and then backpedaling out at the last minute. Did the realms really need Nightwolf or Fujin in that role? Fortunately, Reptile had a backup strategy.

"Ladies and gentle beings, please give a hearty welcome to the Khan of half of Outworld and my BFF, Kotal Khan!"

A tall, mostly nude, muscular man in a feather headdress and blue-green war paint walked on to the stage to tremendous applause. Kotal and Syzoth bumped each other's elbows and wrists before taking their seats.

"Welcome Kotal," Reptile said.

"It is a pleasure to be here, Syzoth."

"So, everyone wants to know, why have you resumed your title of Khan? I thought you had relinquished that to Kitana?"

"Indeed, I did, but now that Kitana has assumed the mantle of Elder God, she has given the mantle of Khan back to me. Of course, Shao Khan disputes this."

"Naturally," Reptile said. "Well, better him than Mileena."

Kotal started to contradict him, paused, raised his hand to his chin, and thought aloud, "You may be right about that."

"That whole family is about dominating people. Shao himself wants to dominate realms, wife Sindel wants to dominate husbands, dad Shinnok believes he does dominate realms, brother Raiden wants to dominate all realms in order to 'protect' Earthrealm, aunt Cetrion dominated the old Elder Gods, grandma Kronika wants to dominate spacetime, and daughter Mileena wants to dominate everyone sexually."

"She is definitely the worst of them," Kotal said.

"At least we don't have to worry about grandpa Norbert."

"I thought Shinnok was trying to restore him."

"Like that'll ever happen," Syzoth laughed.

"He possessed you in the previous timeline."

"That was his reincarnation, Onaga."

"Wait," Kotal sad suddenly feeling sick, "I think I met the Mileena from that timeline briefly. She and Onaga were…" he couldn't finish his own sentence.

"Her own great-grandfather?"

"To be fair, no one in that timeline knew that Shinnok was Shao Khan's father."

"It's still disgusting enough that Mileena would do it, given everything else that we know of her."

"To be fair they didn't know they were related and Mileena is attracted to anything with power."

"Still disgusting."

"And Mileena is not biologically Shao Khan's daughter."

"She still claimed to be and used that as her basis for becoming Khan. You should remember that better than anyone Kotal."

"I do, and I clearly remember you, Syzoth, saying, 'She is not Shao Khan's daughter. She was created in Shang Tsung's flesh pits.'"

"True, but Khan still created her to be his daughter."

"Then you should have used a different argument against her, like the fact that she is a sadistic nymphomaniac who would only lead Outworld to ruin."

"Listen, Kotal I will discredit Mileena or any of my enemies in any way that will work."

"I thought you had honor, Syzoth!"

"This from the Khan who wiped out the Tarkatans?"

"That was war. I said I have honor, not compassion. I didn't publically defame Baraka before slaughtering them."

"Morality aside, I have a proposition for you, Kotal," Reptile said.

"Tell me," the Oshtek warrior said.

"Cassie Cage is stepping down from her position as an Elder God. Your girlfriend, Jade, is already on their council. You need to act before they choose Fujin or Nightwolf to take her place."

"Syzoth," Kotal said, "Kitana Khan entrusted Outworld to me. It would be a breach of faith if I vacated my post just to be with Jade."

"But, Kotal, it's Jade!" Reptile pleaded. "Don't you want to be with her?"

"More than anything, but we each have separate duties now. But speaking of Jade, you should ask yourself the same question about Khameleon."

"What does Khameleon have to do with—" Kotal cut in Syzoth before he could finish the question.

"We both know that you only want me to take Cassie's place so I can vouch for you when Jacqui steps down."

"You wound me, Kotal," Reptile said. "I actually do respect you and think you'd be good at the job."

"I misspoke," Kotal said. "I know you respect my leadership and friendship, but I also know you well enough to know that you want to benefit from it if you can. So, my question stands. Were Jade able to successfully vouch for me and I become an Elder God, would you have me vouch for you if it separated you from Khameleon?"

Syzoth wanted to say something, but he did not know what he wanted to say. He just sat there with his mouth opened, semi-paralyzed. He couldn't really answer Kotal, as he did not know what he wanted most.

"Well, actually, what I want most is for there to be more Zaterrans, but I don't know the best way to go about it. As Khameleon's mate or as an Elder God?"

"The Syzoth I know is not a coward. You don't need to be an Elder God to beat Khamelon."

"Why would I want to beat her?"

"Not her, him. The other male Zaterran."

"That's Chameleon."

"That's what I said," Kotal said.

"You seriously think I'm afraid of him?"

"I think you are allowing yourself to be. Maybe its been so long since you have been around other Zaterrans that you are afraid you won't and can't be yourself with Chameleon…."

"…It's Khameleon…"

"….That's what I said. But Syzoth, we only know of three Zaterrans. You have as much chance with the female Khameleon as the male Khameleon does with her."

Reptile straightened his spine and sat up, confidence surging through him.

"You're right! I'm an uber-cool stealth assassin, who has killed hundreds of nameless henchmen over the years. I can impress Khameleon and walk all over Chameleon! I don't need to be an Elder God."

"Good, because as Outworld's Khan I forbid you," Kotal said.

"What?" Syzoth said, confused.

"You heard me. I'm all for you hosting this program on the side because it hasn't interfered with your duties…yet. But being an Elder God would give you an entirely new set of responsibilities. I'd lose my best spy-slash-assassin."

"Oh," Reptile said, "Yeah I suppose. Changing topics, is there anything you want to say to the public about our ongoing struggle with Shao Khan?"

"I don't know why either of us are bothering at this point. The new Elder Gods are about to rewrite the timeline. Then it won't matter who's Khan."

"Are you concerned by Shinnok's plan to raise Onaga?"

Kotal paused. "That actually does trouble me. Onaga retains traces of the One Being's memory—"

"—Otherwise known as Norbert."

"Yes. The One Being is a far graver threat than Shinnok or Shao Khan. Possibly more so than Shang Tsung or Quan Chi."

"And in his Onaga form he doesn't keep around an overly ambitious second-in-command to divide his forces at the last minute."

"Well, that is how Shao Khan got started. But still, the biggest threat right now is Shinnok and his daddy issues. He will threaten all the realms just to resolve his issues with this 'Norbert.'"

"And Shao Khan is just letting him get away with this?"

"Shao Khan has banished Shinnok from his holdings in Outworld, while Quan Chi has effectively done the same, supposedly in Shinnok's own interest, in the Netherrealm."

"Unless Shinnok gets a Saurian or Shokan, I'm not worried. And everyone knows what Onaga did to me and Goro."

"You mean everyone from the last two timelines. There are an infinite number of people from an infinite number of timelines running around these days."

"Still, to get to Norbert, Shinnok would have to merge all the realms or raise Onaga, and to do the latter he'd need a great dragon egg, and the one in this timeline is—oh crap!" Syzoth said. "Frost!"

"She cannot take Onaga's powers for herself, but she is desperate enough to force some hapless Shokan to take them."

"Stop it, Kotal. We may be giving Shinnok ideas. I don't know if he regularly watches this show or not—I'm guessing not since he hasn't picked up on the fact that everyone knows Quan Chi is using him—but I do know that he rarely comes up with his own plans."

"Yes," Kotal said slowly, "Perhaps it is wise to keep all our Shinnok references to insults."

"Definitely. He really is an idiot, isn't he?"

"At least Shao Khan knows Shang Tsung is plotting behind his back half the time."

"Speaking of Shang Tsung, he's on his way to becoming the One Being in an adjacent timeline."

"No, he's smart enough to keep the realms he is conquering separate. He has his timeline's versions of Earthrealm, Outworld, and the Netherrealm, but so far there have been no mergers."

"He clearly does not want to become a new vessel for Norbert."

"No. He is a bit smarter than Shao Khan. I will give him that."

"Yes, I can't believe neither Shao Khan nor Sindel expected Shang Tsung to betray them at Kronika's keep."

"Ermac has not taken the news that Sindel has always been evil very well," Kotal said.

"Poor guy," Reptile concurred. "Part of him is her ex-husband."

"You would think he is all Jerrod, the way he has been behaving lately. Always late for his duties, indecisive…it's sad to see what has become of him."

"He's on leave until he gets psychiatric help, right?"

"That is the plan."

"He's on my show tomorrow. I personally think it's a bad idea in his current state but it was his call."

"Try to keep him from spiraling to far down a path to self-destruction on your show. Shang Tsung is already planning on conquering the adjacent timelines and I need my chief of state back before he strikes."

"I'll try not to mention Sindel, or Jerrod, or Kitana, or Edenia," Syzoth sighed. It was going to be a boring program tomorrow night. As much fun as it would it be to poke and prod a rival's emotional soft spots on interrealm television, Ermac was a friend.

"Speaking of matters of the heart," Reptile said, "How are things with Jade now that she is an Elder Goddess?"

"Every relationship has its challenges, distance being ours. But things are better than when she was a revenant."

"Understandably," Syzoth nodded.

Silence endured a long moment before Kotal unexpectedly said, "I despise Johnny Cage."

"As does everyone. What is your particular reason?"

"Sonya made him an Elder God after she beat Cthulhu. The height of irresponsibility," Kotal let out a noisy sigh and made a fist. "Jade only became an Elder Goddess for two reasons: Kitana asked her to, and to counter Cage's influence."

"So, it's personal," Syzoth said.

"Jade was prepared to live happily with me as my queen, but then Kitana asked her to become an Elder Goddess. She struggled to choose between love and duty for several weeks until she found out that Johnny Cage was also an Elder God. She decided that the realms needed her to combat his destructive influence."

"His and Kung Lao's," Rptile interjected.

"Mostly his," Kotal said.

"And what of all the fans who want Jade to be 'with' Kung Lao?"

"Leave the fans to their shippings. Just because Her best friend is into Shaolin Monks does not mean that Jade is. I know she will never betray me. Shao Khan could not stop us and I doubt that Kung Lao will either."

"Still it must be hard, now that she's an immortal and so is he."

"Though we both live far longer than Earthrealmers, Osh-Tek do not live quiet so long as Edenians, so our eventual parting was something we had long ago prepared for."

"Still, it must suck," Syzoth said.

"Save your pity for Ermac. He's on tomorrow."