It was a strange thing to look into the mirror now and see a pair of blank, milky white eyes staring back. Had she not known better, she would think she was possessed by some ethereal entity. But Mileena did know better. She had seen such eyes on two individuals before: the Earthrealm spectre, Scorpion, and the recently resurrected bride of Shao Kahn, Queen Sindel. There was one detail that connected these two individuals; and that now connected Mileena to them as well.
The memory of those events were still fresh in Mileena's mind; as if they had only just transpired, despite having actually taken place some months ago. Mileena had been assigned to observe her sister- no, 'sister', Kitana. During the unofficial Mortal Kombat tournament that had been held in Outworld in the wake of Earthrealm's victory in the official tournament, the Thunder God Raiden had secretly approached Kitana in Outworld's Living Forest, away from the prying eyes of her foster father. Mileena had observed from behind the nearby trees, the groaning faces masking any noise she might have made. Despite the noise, though, Raiden and Kitana's conversation had been clear as day.
Raiden asked Kitana how she was able to stand serving the man that had murdered her father and led her mother to suicide; who had conquered her realm and subjugated its people. Neither Kitana, nor Mileena, understood what this lunatic was babbling about, but as the conversation continued, something began to change within both 'sisters'. Kitana had always had a sense that something was not quite right with the life she led - she had confided as much to Mileena many times - and she was now beginning to gain clarity. Mileena, meanwhile, felt something else trigger within her: a part of herself that had been locked away, kept hidden from even herself as part of her father's long-term plans.
In that moment, the two twins realised the truths of their respective existences. Kitana, hesitantly, allowed Raiden to undo the magical brainwashing that had kept her true heritage from her for so many millennia. Mileena, similarly, felt the veil of lies that permeated her own mind lift, and her true nature came to light - she was not Kitana's twin sister, but an abomination created by Shang Tsung to observe, and eventually replace, Kitana. She was to become Kitana's perfect double, secret tarkatan teeth notwithstanding, and weed out any remaining Edenian loyalists that might be conspiring against their conqueror.
Mileena's true memories resurfaced as the result of one of numerous triggers Shao Kahn himself had implanted into her mind to account for numerous scenarios in which her true purpose would need to become known to her. Kitana's true memories resurfacing was one such trigger.
Something green and brown moved in Mileena's peripheral vision. She turned quickly, sai ready to strike, only to find that what she had thought at first to be some denizen of the forest, was actually the dark-skinned, green-clad Jade, Kitana's best friend a loyal bodyguard. Like Kitana, her memories had been rewritten to believe that she was an obedient servant of the Emperor and his family, and that Mileena truly was Kitana's twin sister.
Jade held up a hand, and raised a finger on her other hand up to her mask-covered lips. Still cautious, though perhaps overly so, Mileena remained on edge, even as she lowered her weapon and turned her attention back towards Kitana. Jade, it seemed, had also been observing Kitana, and was here to work out a plan of action with Mileena. Whether or not Jade had been programmed on a deeper level by Shang Tsung, Mileena had no idea. Perhaps she, too, had been given triggers to cause certain behaviours or actions under certain circumstances involving Kitana. Perhaps even the unwavering kindness she had always shown Mileena had been programmed into her by the sorcerer as well.
Regardless, she had not immediately attacked Mileena, as she surely would have if she had remembered the truth. Jade was as skilled a warrior as she had ever seen, so her assistance here would prove highly valuable, especially when faced with one as powerful as Raiden. Even outside of his assigned realm, a god was not one to be taken lightly. But if they could get the drop on him, Mileena was sure she and Jade could incapacitate him long enough to do the same to Kitana. Then, Mileena could take her back for reconditioning and return to her own ignorant fantasy.
But it was not to be.
After making a plan of action, Mileena move around behind Raiden while Jade moved to the other side of the clearing. Mileena was to move in as Jade attacked from the other side, drawing Kitana and Raiden's attention so Mileena could strike from behind. It was a simple plan, yes. Few would expect something so simple to work against a god, but even this plan could work in the face of overconfidence.
Jade made her move, unleashing a savage battle cry to get their attention. That was the signal. Mileena lunged down from the tree branch she had climbed up to, both sai extended out before her and poised to strike at the Thunder God's neck. Mileena's gaze was locked in on her target; so much so, that she failed to notice as a previously unseen assailant rocketed into the sky, letting out a sharp screech, and delivered a fierce kick to Mileena's jaw. The strike tore Mileena's mask open and sent her careening to the ground. She spun through the air like a top before landing in front of one of the trees, striking the back of her head on an exposed root.
She awoke some time after, her wrists and ankles bound by rope. Her landing had left her with a severe concussion. She was dazed and confused, struggling to either remember what had happened, or to even sit up properly.
An unfamiliar male voice was the first to notice Mileena's laboured movement. He drew attention towards their prisoner, leading to a high-heeled boot jabbing Mileena's chest and forcing her onto her back. The heel wasn't applied with enough pressure to break the skin, but it would surely leave a bruise, at the very least. Though her vision was somewhat cloudy and unfocused, Mileena was just about able to make out the figure of the one holding her down: her sister, Kitana. There were other figures surrounding them, but Mileena could barely make any of them out in the dark forest. Jade was nowhere to be seen, most likely having fled to inform the Emperor rather than risk this vital information being lost through their deaths.
Even with her hampered vision, the look on Kitana's face as she looked down on Mileena was... indescribable. The look of utter contempt in her eyes was agonising - far moreso than the heel digging into her flesh, or the throbbing migraine that kept her from thinking straight.
Kitana demanded to know what Mileena was. Not who; what. Mileena was confused by the question, as much as she was by the tone with which she was addressed. Mileena thought perhaps Kitana was testing her to make sure she wasn't a shape-shifter? Asking questions to see if she was the real Mileena? She answered that she was Kitana's sister, Mileena. Kitana dug her heel in deeper. She repeated her question, but the pain only made it harder for Mileena to understand what was being demanded of her.
She asked what Kitana meant, gasping for breath as her sister's heel dug further and further into her lung. She screamed that she was Kitana's sister, begged to know why she was doing this. Kitana heartlessly denounced Mileena as her sister, calling her 'an abomination of Shang Tsung's flesh pits'. Moving her calves under her thighs, Mileena forced herself up onto her knees, sending Kitana reeling in surprise. She recovered quickly, however, and stepped closer to Mileena, her razor-sharp fan unfolding in her grasp.
"Sister, please!" Mileena begged. "Please, don't do this, I'm begging you!" She continued to plead for Kitana to see reason, but her words bore no impact as Kitana held her fan to the side and fiercely swung it in an arc, slicing through the flesh of Mileena's throat and knocking her onto her side.
As Mileena lay dying, blood gurgling in her mouth and glinting off her exposed teeth, Mileena could only tearfully ask herself what she had done wrong. What had she done to disgust Kitana so? She loved Kitana, as any sister should, but Kitana returned only hatred. Mileena felt cold in both body and soul as her vision faded to black and her life came to an end.
That would have been the end of her story, had the Emperor himself not seen fit to have Mileena revived in preparation for his invasion of Earthrealm. Her time in the Netherrealm had been brief, and even now remained largely unremembered. But in that short time, Kitana had defected to Earthrealm and Outworld had lost once again. It had been the Shaolin monk, Liu Kang, that had emerged victorious, both on Shang Tsung's Island and in Outworld. It was said he carried the blood of Earth's last champion, Kung Lao, and Mileena could certainly believe it, if he had bested Shao Kahn himself.
Mileena had been understandably confused upon her revival, by a great many things. Why had she been brought back at all, after her failure to stop Kitana? What had become of Jade? How was the Emperor able to invade Earthrealm when he had lost both tournaments?
The answers, it turned out, were far more simple than she'd expected. Although Mileena had indeed failed to prevent Kitana from defecting to Earthrealm, she was still seen as a valuable asset by the Emperor, and could still be used to sow discord among Kitana's allies. Jade had indeed fled the scene upon witnessing the sudden ambush on Mileena, opting to inform her master of Kitana's betrayal, though Kitana's exact motivation seemed to remain unknown to her former friend. And as for the invasion: there was a certain loophole in the laws of Mortal Kombat that the Emperor had uncovered long ago. He had opted not to use it until now, preferring to remain patient and play by the rules so as not to incur the wrath of the Elder Gods. But the time for patience was over.
Ten thousand years ago, after Shao Kahn had conquered Edenia and merged it with Outworld, he had taken the now widowed Queen Sindel as his bride, and her daughter Kitana as his foster daughter. Not long after, the inescapable distress and the crushing depression finally became too much for Sindel to bare. She abandoned her people and her daughter to suffer under the Emperor's rule, throwing herself through the window of one of the palace's towers. Even now, Mileena was glad that Kitana had never had to suffer the sight of her mother's corpse impacting the ground hundreds of feet below.
But even death failed to provide the escape Sindel had longed for. Ever-plotting, the wise Emperor had anticipated that Sindel would eventually rebel against him or seek the sweet relief of death. Through sorcery, Sindel's husband had ensured that her soul would remain confined in Outworld until such a time that she was needed. As he had anticipated, that was now.
He had not, however, anticipated that she would not take Kitana with her in death, but both he and Mileena were thankful she hadn't. Kitana was still young then, her mind easily moulded by her 'father'. By the time she was old and wise enough to question the truths she had so hastily consumed in her youth, the Shadow Priests' research into mental manipulation magics had yielded a much more potent method of ensuring Kitana's continued loyalty.
All of this, Mileena had learned from Shang Tsung in the hundreds of long hours he had spent by her side in the Flesh Pits, carefully forging her in both body and mind to be ready to replace Kitana when the time came. It was a strange thing for Mileena to think back on how her emotional responses to Sindel's demise had shifted so frequently since then. Initially, she had had little to no response. Sindel was just a long-dead person, after all.
As more and more of Kitana's memories were infused into her mind, Mileena began to grow sentimental, even breaking down in tears on more than one occasion over the loss of her 'mother'. As she began to develop more of her own sense of self, these feelings had diminished until her emotions swung in the opposite direction: leaving her cackling madly at the foolishness of the Empress, believing there was anything within her feeble power that could release her from Shao Kahn's grasp. And as Shang Tsung had begun to put the finishing touches on Mileena, preparing her for her first meeting with her 'father', Mileena had begun to feel strangely content with Sindel's fate: she had abandoned her people due to her own selfish desire for escape. And she now suffered for it.
Or, she had done, until now. Shao Kahn could not travel to other realms without earning that right through ten straight victories in Mortal Kombat. However, it was still entirely possible for his agents to travel between the realms; as well as his enemies. If, for example, his enemies were to enter his domain and abscond with his wife or his daughter, it would be unjust for the Elder gods to refuse the Emperor the right to pursue the abductors and dispense justice. Thus, if he were to discover that his Empress' soul had been transported to Earthrealm and a dark ritual been performed to restore her to life there, then surely, the obvious assumption was that the Emperor's enemies were plotting to use his wife against him as a hostage, or an enemy. It was through this rationalisation that Shao Kahn had the means to achieve what his followers had so many time failed to accomplish.
Mileena had awoken on a slab - cold and hard against the bare flesh of her back. As if she had been transported back in time to before she had first been presented to the Emperor, Shang Tsung stood over her. He reached out, pressing down against her flesh in various places, turning her arms and legs over for inspection, inspecting every inch of her body for any imperfections. It was highly likely that the sorcerer knew Mileena's body far more intimately than even she herself did. Mileena had always suspected that Shang Tsung harboured some hidden desire for Kitana, though that had never particularly bothered Mileena, even now as he pressed down on the flesh of her bare breast . To her, it simply meant that she was the perfect double for her 'sister', masterfully crafted so she could better serve her master.
Until Shang Tsung ran a finger over Mileena's throat, she had almost forgotten that she had been brutally cut down by her 'sister'. Her creator moved his hand away quickly as her own hands shot up to cover the once afflicted area. She almost thought being cut down like a dog by her own sister was nothing more than a horrible dream, as there was no remnant of damage to be found; no scar, not even a slight difference in texture. Tears formed in Mileena's eyes, though the exact reason why eluded her. Shang Tsung seemed to notice, but if he did, he said nothing of it; simply continued his inspection.
Once the inspection was complete, the sorcerer had taken Mileena's hand and helped her down from the slab, supporting her body on her still wobbly legs. She didn't know how long her body had gone without use, or even if this was still the same body as the one she'd died in. Either way, she didn't care. All that mattered to her was learning the outcome of the tournament and the fate of Kitana. The honour of informing her, though, was reserved for the Emperor himself - a suggestion from Shang Tsung to allow him to vent his frustrations, apparently.
Once she was clothed in a new outfit - still in her preferred purple, but displaying much more cleavage than the last one - Mileena was presented to the Emperor. It was just like when she was first brought before her 'father', what seemed like a lifetime ago. By the time her déjà vu subsided, Mileena had been seated in a small chair before the Emperor's throne, and Shang Tsung had departed to travel to Earthrealm.
Shao Kahn seemed oddly healthier by the time he finished catching Mileena up than he had when she had arrived. She supposed it really was a good idea to let him vent like this. Now that shea knew the scheme that was now in play, one thing became clear to Mileena, even without either Shao Kahn or Shang Tsung telling her as much: her resurrection had been a practice run for the resurrection of Sindel. She was sure she would be given an important task, which she would dutifully fulfil, but that was simply a fortunate possibility thanks to her revival being a success. Otherwise, she was sure someone else would have been assigned those very tasks. Probably Jade. She couldn't help but feel a certain sense of melancholy, but she didn't particularly mind. She was alive again, and she had an opportunity to both continue serving her Emperor, and to hunt down her treacherous 'sister'.
And now here she was, staring into the milky white eyes that stared back from beyond the confines of the mirror in what was once her and Kitana's bed chamber. The room, once cleanly divided into Kitana's belongings and Mileena's, was now cleanly divided into Mileena's belongings and a ravaged mess. To anyone else, it would appear that some sort of vicious altercation had taken place recently, but to those who understood Mileena at all, it was clear why the room had become like this.
Mileena pulled her mask up over her mouth and continued to stare. It really was impressive just how perfectly - tarkatan jaw notwithstanding - Shang Tsung had captured Kitana's likeness. Mileena was happy with Kitana being the one whose face she wore, as she was unquestionably an incredibly beautiful woman, so losing Kitana's brown eyes was quite the blow to Mileena. But she could make herself and Kitana twins again.
She held her sai up against the mirror, over her reflection's covered mouth. She slowly twisted the sai as she dug it deeper into the glass. She scraped the jagged point away from the mouth, along the cheek until she reached her ear. She then did the same to the other side, savouring every second, imagining blood spilling out from the fresh wounds as Kitana screamed and begged for Mileena to stop, begged for the mercy she had so callously refused to show as she'd sliced her own sister's throat open and Mileena would do the same to her slice open her throat with her sai fix her with the same look of disgust and contempt she had seen as she died leaving that as Kitana's last remaining memory before she lunged on her sister tearing open her throat with her teeth drinking her blood consuming her beauty for herself and truly becoming kitana the kitana shao kahn had always wanted it was her destiny her purpose her sole reason for being restored to life revenge revenge vengeance murder blood satisfaction pleasuremurder killkill flesh taste
Knock knock.
The wooden impact audible from behind the door awoke Mileena from her blood-crazed trance. It took her a few moments to take in what she was doing. She was panting heavily, having just stabbed her reflection's face too many times to possibly count. Her reflection barely even existed anymore, with all the cracks and missing pieces. There was some red on one of the shards that it took her a moment to realise was reflected from her cheek. She reached up and found that she had somehow splattered herself with blood there. She looked over her hands and found that there was now a small hole from her palm to the back, through which she could see clearly. She wasn't sure when or how she had managed this, nor why it didn't seem to hurt beyond a mildly irritating sting.
She staggered back, almost fell, as her brain raced to try and understand what had just happened to her. If this was an effect of the resurrection, of her tarkatan blood or simply some sort of mental breakdown, she couldn't rightly say. She staggered over towards the bed, burning lightheadedness and blurry vision taking hold as she stumbled drunkenly, finally finding the bed as she tripped over her own feet and landed face first on the mattress.
The bed was rougher than she'd expected, but it was better than remaining standing. Her breath was ragged, picking up its pace. She rolled over onto her back to allow herself access to more air. She felt sick, like she might throw up and pass out or pass out and throw up. What would even come up if she did throw up? Could she even throw up? Was that biologically possible for her? Just how perfect a recreation of human physiology had Shang Tsung created here? Her arm was resting on her forehead to help numb the pain, but it didn't help much.
The knocking came again and she opened her mouth to reply. She wasn't quite sure if she'd actually made any noise, but the door opened, regardless. It was some unremarkable slave girl, informing her that she was to report to the Emperor for her next assignment. Mileena groaned out an acknowledgement and waved the slave girl off.
As much as she wanted to simply lie here until she was better, Mileena knew that refusing the Emperor's summons would bring an abrupt end to her second chance at life. Feeling like a ragdoll, Mileena forced herself to sit up and push herself to the edge of the bed, where she sat for a few moments. As she opened her eyes, she realised why the bed was so rough: all this time, it had been Kitana's ravaged bed she had collapsed onto, not her own pristine one.
As she looked over the room from her new perspective - the room's upper half perfect and beautiful and the lower half ravaged and disfigured, she couldn't help but let out a mad cackle that echoed through the halls of the Emperor's palace.
It was upon entering the throneroom (or rather, staggering into it) that Mileena, for the first time ever, laid eyes upon Queen Sindel. She recognised her from Kitana's memories, could probably have even drawn her perfectly from memory before now. But Mileena's birth had come millennia after her 'mother's' death. Even so, it was uncanny to see the Empress with the same blank eyes that, not twenty minutes ago, had been staring back at Mileena from her own reflection. But it was just as bizarre to see her sitting so comfortably in her own throne beside her husband. Truly, Shang Tsung's sorcery was a thing of wonder.
Both Shao Kahn and Sindel observed Mileena's entrance, neither seeming to be able to take their eyes off of her. The Emperor seemed far more displeased than his wife, if the scowl he wore so fiercely and the bemused smirk playing across her black lips were any indication. While she had tried not to let her sudden illness show, Mileena couldn't help but clutch her head as she approached. She took a knee before her masters, but even this was a struggle.
"What is wrong with you!?" Shao Kahn demanded impatiently as he stood, his naturally intimidating stature made all the more monstrous by Mileena's low stance and ever-blurring vision.
Shang Tsung appeared from somewhere to Mileena's right. She wasn't sure if he'd been there the entire time or if he'd only arrived just now. The sorcerer crouched down beside his creation and began inspecting her face. After checking her eyes and her temperature, he announced his conclusion.
"She appears to be ill, Emperor. A side-effect of her resurrection, perhaps."
Shao Kahn turned his head towards Sindel, seemingly contemplating. As he was about to speak, to presumably give Mileena her orders anyway, Sindel spoke up.
"Let the girl rest, Husband," she said to the surprise of all present. "Jade knows Kitana just as well as Mileena, and may yet hold her trust. Send her instead and allow Mileena time to recover until the time to strike arrives."
The Emperor, no mere brutish thug, considered his wife's counsel a moment. Slowly, he nodded his head in agreement. "Very well. But I leave her care to you. I have more pressing matters to attend to than babysitting." The annoyance was there, clear in his voice, but he had agreed nonetheless. Mileena was to be held in reserve, while Jade worked on the plot to eliminate Kitana.
Once the Emperor had issued his orders to those in attendance, he departed to inspect Motaro's centaur army. Mileena, struggling to stand, moved to leave.
"Hold, child." By now, aside from the mandatory guards, only Sindel and Mileena remained in the throneroom. "Come closer," Sindel beckoned from her throne.
Uneasily, Mileena did as she was asked, staggering, hunched and pretty damn sure she was going to pass out any second now. She practically collapsed at Sindel's feet, resigning herself to whatever admonishment or punishment the Empress saw fit for her insolence. She didn't care as long as she could finally get some rest.
Sindel lowered a hand to help Mileena raise herself up enough to look up into her queen's white eyes with her own identical gaze. Sindel extended her other hand and gently caressed Mileena's cheek, freezing her daughter's clone on the spot. Mileena's breath caught in her throat, her mind focused and barely even registering the sickly feeling that had dominated her body and thoughts for the last twenty minutes. Sindel then leaned in and planted a quick, warm kiss on Mileena's forehead.
Not only that, but she was smiling! It was a strangely familiar smile; one from Kitana's memories, ten thousand years old and buried deep until this very instant. It was a strange sensation for Mileena: a bizarre concoction of emotions that threatened to burst open her chest like a grapefruit.
"Shang Tsung truly is a miracle-worker," Sindel mused, brushing strands of raven hair out of Mileena's eyes. "To not only restore life, but to create it wholesale..." Seemingly lost in thought, Sindel gently pulled Mileena closer, resting the assassin's head on her lap.
"M-My Queen...!" Mileena stuttered, mind growing more confused by the second.
"Hush now," Sindel cooed. "I know from experience that returning to life isn't as simple as awakening from a deep sleep. I understand the confusion and the unease of returning to a life that is nothing like how it was when you left it. Even now, bound to Shao Kahn's will as I am, I still remember my old life and can clearly appreciate the jarring juxtaposition in which my former and present self reside, and yet I feel no loss of self, as one might expect. Nor do I feel concern over this. This spiralling sensation will pass in time, as it did for me. For now, rest here and let your mother see you through it."
Mileena's eyes widened at the suggestion that Sindel saw her daughter's clone as as much her daughter as the real deal. It was yet another simultaneously alien and familiar sensation that threatened to throw her current state of mind into further turmoil. Eyes welling up, Mileena managed to croak out Kitana's name, to which Sindel's response stunned her.
"Kitana," Sindel repeated with as much disdain as Kitana herself had most recently spoken to Mileena. Even with no defining features remaining in them, Mileena was absolutely sure Sindel had rolled her eyes at the mention of her true daughter's name. "That girl is no more my daughter than she is Shao Kahn's. She had a chance to serve the Emperor as his dutiful family, but she foolishly threw it all away. As did I, once upon a time. But I have seen the error of my ways now - Shao Kahn has shown me the light and I am now his, mind, body and soul. If that child refuses her rightful place in the universe, then she no longer deserves to exist within any realm that will inevitably become a part of His empire."
Mileena remained silent throughout all this, petrified by the prospect that Sindel's scarily unnatural hatred of her own flesh and blood might carry over to the genetic replica of that flesh and blood. However, this proved unnecessary, as Sindel seemed almost to be able to read Mileena's thoughts with perfect clarity.
"You needn't worry, my dear," she chuckled, her voice now a soothing, calming tone under whose power Mileena couldn't help but relax. "You have continued to serve faithfully, even after death. Your loyalty is unquestionable, and will be rewarded appropriately once the traitor is eliminated. But enough talk of duty and loyalty. What matters most is that you, my one true daughter, recover your strength. Rest now, Mileena. Rest and allow your mother to make you feel better."
Mileena's eyes were overflowing now, unable to hold it back. Sindel didn't seem to mind, however, even as her knees grew increasingly damp from her daughter's tears. Mileena closed her eyes and allowed Sindel's stroking of her hair and her gentle humming to lull her into a deep sleep. Until she awoke, fully recovered and ready to serve, she dreamed a long dream of a thousand different ways her confrontation with her 'sister' would play out, and make her mother proud.
The main goals for this chapter were:
•To explore Mileena's state of mind through her death at Kitana's hand in MKII, and her resurrection prior to MK3.
•To explore her relationship with Sindel and how they two might complete each other in the wake of Kitana's departure.
Mileena is such a fascinating character with so much potential (all of which is wasted by the games), so I'll be discussing some of these ideas and more in a future video series I'm planning.
