She wasn't supposed to be here. She had asked numerous times in the past, during the planning phases of just about every previous tournament. She had Initially asked to be allowed to compete. When her father had refused, she had asked to at least be allowed to observe. Again, he had refused. He never gave a reason, though she suspected he was simply being overly protective of her, as she was the only family he had left, following her mother's death. In the early days, she would object, urge him to reconsider. But at some point, she had become less defiant. If he said no, she would accept his decision and say no more on the subject until the next time.
And yet, here she was, skulking in the shadows on Shang Tsung's island. She had disobeyed her father for... what felt like the first time in her ten-millennia-long life. She had come to the island to observe the tournament, using skills taught to her by Jade to remain undetected.
She peered out from behind one of the statues in the garden. While most of the area was clear of vegetation, this particular corner remained overgrown, allowing her to remain undetected by the warrior who had so firmly captured her attention.
His name was Liu Kang. He was said to be a Shaolin monk, the same as Kung Lao. It was also said that he was a direct descendant of Earthrealm's last champion, but she had yet to see any proof. He certainly dressed in his style - red headband, spiked gauntlets, red pants, no shirt to show off his impressively-toned, muscular physique. She was surprised he was able to move as quickly as he was with such well-defined musculature, but she was certain it wasn't some sort of sorcery - all natural. She lost track of time as she watched, transfixed, unable to tear her gaze away from his form as he performed move after move in the centre of the garden, sweat glistening off of his perfectly sculpted chest...
Kitana shook her head to clear away such thoughts. There was no denying he was an attractive man, the very peak of physical fitness and kombat prowess, but she was here to assess his abilities, not his body. It was his skills that had piqued her interest, compelled her to observe and assess his abilities. And decide whether or not he should be considered a threat.
A mere two days ago, if Kitana had been told that a warrior from Earthrealm could potentially pose a threat to Goro, she would have laughed in their face. Goro was undefeated for four and a half centuries which, while not a lot of time for an Outworlder, was multiple lifetimes for an Earthrealm mortal. If Shao Kahn had any reservations about Goro's chances of winning for the tenth time, which he never displayed to anyone, even his own daughter, then it was simple caution and a desire to not have to yet again reset all of his plans thanks to the overconfidence of his minions.
But now? She had seen this man in action. His opponents had been formidable: the unnamed bo staff master, the camouflaged saurian Reptile, and even the undead spectre Scorpion. Despite Goro the Indomitable being his next opponent, Kitana had a strange feeling the Earthrealmer could emerge victorious yet again. As such, she decided she would have to do something about it herself, lest Outworld risk losing this cycle at the eleventh hour, due to its own brashness.
She waited for the right moment to strike, having more distance than she'd like between herself and her target. She quietly removed her steel fan from her belt and flicked it open, a near inaudible sound of metal scraping accompanying the action. She reached down for the second fan to do the same, eyes briefly leaving her prey to do so, leaving her open to attack. She wasn't sure if he'd heard her, or perhaps seen a glint of sunlight reflecting across the metal (a rookie mistake on her part), but the monk was now aware of her presence and launching the same dragon fire attack he had used to defeat Reptile, directly towards her.
She dodged out of the way, throwing one fan in the hopes that he would be forced to dodge or block, buying her some time to recover and get in close. With his spiked gauntlets, the monk was able to block the strike easily and respond with a second fireball. Kitana had managed to recover and get roughly halfway across the garden by the time she had to respond to his follow-up.
She threw her fan, slicing the fireball vertically and causing it to dissipate. The impact slowed her fan as well, making it even easier for him to parry than the first. His block brought his arm back behind him, saving him from having to perform a separate windup for his punch, which came just as Kitana finished closing the gap. She attempted to spin kick him in the throat with her heel, but his punch impacted her foot, stopping her strike short. His fingers had parted during the punch to open a gap for her sharp heel to pass through, before closing around it with a shocking tight grip.
He fiercely threw her foot to the side, sending Kitana into a spin. She utilised the momentum to attempt a similar kick aimed at the side of his neck with her left foot. In one fluid motion, he stepped back and pushed her leg along its now too-short arc with his left hand, leaving her floating in the air as her mind raced to catch up before her spinning body fell to the floor in a heap.
Not yet beaten, Kitana swung her legs around in a sweep, which the monk had to actually try in order to avoid, hopping backwards. Once the sweep missed, Kitana continued her arc, for a full 360, pushing herself off the ground as her legs pointed towards the monk. She had seen a somewhat similar attack performed by Earthrealm's Sonya Blade, which he too had no doubt seen. But this attack wasn't intended to actually hit; it was to catch him off-guard and close the gap between them so Kitana could get in a real hit.
Once she was back on her feet, Kitana managed to land a solid punch on his broad chest, pushing him back. Realising her mistake, she went for another spin kick, her long legs having just enough reach for her foot to connect with his arm as it rose up to block. Using the momentum, she swung her other leg up, over his arm and colliding with his head, sending him reeling. She landed back on her feet and, noticing one of her fans at her feet, quickly picked it up and brandished it.
Liu Kang recovered from the staggering blow, shaking his head to reorient himself. "Impressive," he muttered.
"Not as impressive as this," she retorted before making her move. With one stride and a hop, Kitana was in the air, body horizontal, spinning, as she delivered a kick from above Liu Kang's head. He blocked the strike with both arms, though not without being forced into a lower stance by the force of the strike. He forced himself back to full height and shoved Kitana's leg back up. Following the momentum, Kitana spun and attempted an upwards vertical slice with her fan. Liu Kang brought both arms down onto Kitana's wrist, stopping her momentum dead and digging into her arm with the spikes on his armlets.
She spun 270° until she was facing upwards, but the cold, hard ground didn't find her this time. Instead, two large, muscular arms held her in a bridal carry. Begrudgingly, she had to admit to being impressed with the swiftness of his hands. She looked up at the monk, his raised eyebrow and knowing smirk telling her he was toying with her, intentionally trying to embarrass her. Glad for her face mask covering her burning cheeks, Kitana raised her leg overhead to kick at Liu Kang's face. His neck moved deftly to the side before wrapping back around and pinning her calf between his neck and his shoulder. Kitana would have been impressed if she wasn't so humiliated.
She elbowed him in the chest, weakening his grip enough for her to drop out of his arms and plant her hands on the ground. Keeping herself from falling, Kitana moved her unpinned leg around to his other shoulder and kicked him in the side of the neck, releasing her other leg. Then, gripping his neck tightly from both sides, she used all of her might to throw him across the garden with her legs.
He managed to recover expertly, using his own hands to springboard off the ground and land on his feet further away. While this bought Kitana time to retrieve her other fan, she realised it may have been a wiser decision to instead slam him onto the ground at her feet, rather than giving him the space to perform yet more of his potentially infinite projectile attacks.
She was surprised as, rather than attempting a swift response, Liu Kang simply stood tall and turned back to face her. His expression gave a seemingly genuine sense of being impressed. Even so, he took his battle stance once again, already prepared to resume the fight. Kitana switched up her own stance, both fans open and ready to strike. They both stood, staring each other down, for quite some time before either one made their move.
He set off his dragon fire, which Kitana deftly deflected with one fan. The next, she instead eliminated by bringing her fans together with enough force to create a gust of wind that blew the flame out just before it reached her. It was close - too close to be a reliable strategy. He then began firing off a barrage of dragon fire: first high, then low, then an entire wall of flaming dragons. The first was easy enough to eliminate. The second would have been simple to hop over or to the side of. But the third posed a threat however Kitana dodged it. Thus, she decided to use her newest technique.
She jumped into the air, facing away from him, just as the low attack was coming. With all her might, she created another gust of wind, which sent her flying in the direction of her opponent, soaring over the fall of flame. She turned towards him, ready to throw one fan and utilise his moment of distraction to strike with the other in close quarters.
As if he had known exactly what she had been planning, he was already in motion. As she turned, she saw, to her horror, that he too had taken to the air, rocketing directly towards her with a flying kick. The attack caught her off-guard and struck her in the head, sending her tumbling end-over-end until she made contact with the hard stone below.
Kitana awoke some time later, head throbbing and mind sluggish. It took her a moment to remember where she was and how she had gotten here. She was currently lying on an elevated patch of soft grass, rather than the harsh stone she had landed on. As she slowly sat up, she realised two things: One, sitting up was a bad idea as it left her feeling both dizzy and nauseous. Two, her face mask had been pulled down and rested around her neck, leaving her face exposed.
"You are awake," said a male voice from off to the side. She turned her head uneasily towards Liu Kang, the man she had been trying to kill. As the pieces started to click into place, Kitana swung her legs over the edge of the raised vegetation and staggered to her feet, almost falling flat on her face as she did so. Luckily, her target was at her side quickly, holding her up. She began to worry she had received a severe concussion, if she thought the man she had just attempted to assassinate was now helping her to stand.
She pushed him away by the chest, falling off balance and almost falling backwards, but again, he caught her by the wrists and pulled her in close. It was like some bizarre experimental dance routine, as she began to tip over to the side, but he provided an arm under her back to support her. By this point, she was too tired, sore, confused, lightheaded, and sick to resist his attempts to... help her? She surrendered and allowed him to guide her back to the grass and sit her down.
"Easy now," he said kindly. "You took a pretty nasty bump to the head earlier. You haven't fully recovered yet."
"Why is..." She had to stop herself as she felt like she might throw up for a second. "Why is my mask down?" She wasn't sure why this was the first question she thought to ask, rather than why he hadn't killed her yet. She felt exposed, naked, as this man was able to fully see her face. Beyond tradition and hiding her identity, the mask also allowed Kitana to obscure and control her expression. Without any of that, she felt like Liu Kang could see into her very soul. She would have pulled the mask back up if not for the fact that it would stifle her much needed supply of fresh air.
"You stopped breathing after you hit your head. I had to perform CPR."
Kitana raised a finger to her lips feeling embarrassed at both the thought of another person's lips on hers, and also the prospect that such a thing made her embarrassed in the first place.
"I apologise if you feel violated in any way," he said, bowing his head, "but it was the only choice I had, given the circumstances."
"No, that... That is fine."
She was more than a little perturbed that she had just tried to kill this man, and yet he was the one apologising for saving her life. Just what was it that made him this way? Was it his Shaolin upbringing, were all Earthrealmers like this, or was he just an exceptionally polite man by nature?
"Why haven't you killed me yet?"
In response to her question, Liu Kang stared at her, as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. "We Shaolin do not believe in killing. Ours is a path of peace and enlightenment."
"And yet many of your kind compete in the tournament."
"There are times when one must enact violence to end violence. We are not so idealistic that we do not see the unfortunate truth of this universe we inhabit."
"That way of thinking didn't work out for Kung Lao, did it?" That gave Liu Kang momentary pause and Kitana wondered if she might have gone too far. But to her surprise, he smiled.
"Indeed. However, I do not believe you are the same as Goro. He is prideful to a fault, and loyal to his dark masters. Any possible threat to his reign is destroyed without question. But you sit here, speaking calmly with an Earthrealmer. You are not like the other Outworlders, those who fight viciously in this tournament until rendered unable to continue. And I am glad for it, lest Outworld risk losing one as thoughtful and beautiful as yourself."
"Why are you doing this?" she asked, almost angry at how defiant he was of her preconceptions. "Why are you being so... kind to your enemy?"
"My enemy? Clearly, you are of Outworld, yes, but it is Outworld and Earthrealm that are enemies; not you and I. Shao Kahn threatens all life in Earthrealm, and is thus my enemy. But you... I can no more blame you for merely serving your home realm than I can blame a man for defending his family or clan from an intruder."
Kitana lowered her head to hide her shame. Why had she done this? She had attempted to murder this man in cold blood, not because her Emperor had commanded it, not because the tournament structure had dictated it. Because she had chosen to. It had been her own choice, one of the first she had ever truly made. And the result would have been the death of the first person she could recall who truly saw her as something other than the princess who must be obeyed, or the big sister who would protect them, or the daughter who could be utilised as a weapon. She was a monster.
"I am... sorry," she muttered.
"For what?" he asked, as if he was too dense to be able to figure it out himself. He clearly wasn't.
"For trying to kill you, of course. I see now that you are a good man. If you are to die on this island, you deserve to die honourably as a warrior in the tournament; not like a dog in some out-of-the-way garden."
He smiled again, shaking his head. "I have faced many in this tournament that have tried to end my life. I can tell that unlike them, you didn't truly have your heart in it."
Perhaps that was true. Even Kitana wasn't sure anymore. All she was sure of was that she had wanted to impress her father, to earn his trust in her abilities, but she had instead failed him, even without any expectation on his part. And now, she was starting to cry. She hoped the monk wouldn't notice, but after she had attempted to assassinate him, she knew he wouldn't take his eyes off of her for a second, focused on observing any minute signs of a second attempt, however relaxed and casual he made himself seem.
He crouched down before her and wiped away one of her tears with his finger. She froze in that moment, goosebumps running along her skin, but she did not resist or back away. She allowed him to do the same to her other cheek.
"Come now. There is no need for tears. I told you already, you are forgiven for your actions."
"You don't understand. I wasn't even supposed to be here. I was expressly forbidden from coming here and yet I disobeyed my father and did so."
"I am sure, if your father loves you, then-"
"He is not just my father. He is my Emperor!"
Liu Kang's eyes widened in recognition, one of the few non-controlled responses she had thus far gotten out of him. "Shao Kahn is your father? Then you are Princess Kitana!"
She nodded. "His expectations of me are clear: I must obey him and dutifully fulfil any demand made of me, and only act by myself if absolutely necessary."
"It sounds like you are a slave, rather than a princess," Liu Kang observed.
Kitana sat in silence, pondering this observation. She had never really considered this viewpoint before. She lived in the lap of luxury, as a princess, with no wants or needs outside of her grasp. But could that be considered payment for her obedience and loyalty, rather than her royal birthright? Did her father provide so much for her because she was his daughter, or because she was an efficient servant? She had always known her father's love was never directly shown or given; his position as head of the empire meant displaying any sort of weakness could jeopardise everything - or so she had always thought.
But now that she thought more on it, it was strange that this lifestyle was something she was expected to partake in, rather than having the option. Would a loving father truly send his beloved daughter on dangerous assassination missions, no matter how skilled she may be?
Whatever the case, typical or not, Shao Kahn's wrath would be terrible if he ever learned she had defied him so flagrantly - especially when even she herself had no answer as to why she had done so.
"Listen," Liu Kang said, bringing Kitana out of her thoughts and back to the garden, "it is not my place to judge, but it is clear to me that it is more than the ramifications of failure that have you so shaken. You attacked of your own accord here, without your Emperor's blessing. You acted impulsively, and you regret your actions. So, what do you say we pretend this incident never happened?"
"Wh...What?" Kitana asked, eyes wide in shock.
"You were never here. I merely continued my practise in peace and discovered some flaws in my form by myself. I certainly would have enjoyed meeting you, had I actually done so."
Kitana simply could not fathom the depths of this man's kindness. His neutral worldview was to be expected, given his background, but even then, there were surely limits to how kind one could be to their enemy. But then, as he had suggested, were the two of them really enemies?
"This has been a... learning experience, for me as much as for you, Liu Kang. Th...Thank you."
"Please, think nothing of it."
With that, Kitana stood, mostly recovered now, and went to leave. Upon reaching the gate to leave the area, she stopped. "While I hope Outworld will win the tournament," she said without turning back to face him, "I also pray you will be spared Prince Goro's wrath."
"I hope so too." he replied from across the area. "It would truly be a shame to never be able to gaze upon your regal countenance again."
Kitana was glad he was unable to see her face as she lifted up her mask and pushed open the gate. As the princess departed and the monk continued her exercises, unnoticed to both, Kitana's discarded and long forgotten fans were picked up by a pair of near invisible talons.
I think the way Netherrealm Studios started Kitana and Liu Kang's relationship in MK2011 was one of the best things in that game, but it had too little room to breathe, thanks to the required brevity of the genre, and the focus of the story. So, I figured I'd take my own crack at it with more of an introspective bend to it
