The world was dark.

There was something strangely familiar about this darkness, but she couldn't quite place it.

Thinking itself was somewhat difficult. Her mind was sluggish, unfocused. She was sure she could normally think faster than this, but she wasn't quite sure.

There was a sound coming from her periphery. It was some sort of mouth sound. A voice? Yes, a voice. A voice she had heard before. Where or when, she wasn't sure. There was something simultaneously comforting and concerning about this voice. She trusted it, but also knew it was inherently untrustworthy. It was deep. A male, probably.

On that subject, she was female, right? She was sure she was. There was an oddly compelling doubt within her, as if there was something unnatural about her very identity.

The voice interrupted her thoughts. It was speaking to her, she was sure. She wasn't sure what it was saying, mind, but her consciousness latched onto one word: 'Princess'. Was that her name? She was certain the voice was referring to her by that word, and that she'd been called such in the past. No, no, she was starting to remember now. 'Princess' was a title. Her title? It was a title of esteem, she recalled. Was she one of esteem? Why couldn't she remember? She felt incomplete.

The voice continued to speak. A part of her understood the words being spoken to her, but she couldn't quite make any of them out. It was strange to be so deaf to the words, yet so open to their meanings. The words continued pouring in, slipping right past her conscious understanding and entering her subconscious mind. Whatever was being said, she was sure she could trust it, in spite of her misgivings mere moments earlier. She simply lay back and allowed the words to fill in the blanks of her incomplete mind.

As time bore on, another word grabbed her attention. This one seemed to hold a much more powerful, personal meaning for her. Yes, she was sure this word was special - unique, even. It was her word, and hers alone. No one else owned this word. It was her name. Her personal, unique name. A name given to her by someone important, but she didn't remember who. Regardless, they had given it to her and she refused to let it go again. The word gave her comfort, it gave her focus, it gave her purpose. She concentrated hard on the word, allowing it to take shape in her mind's eye until it was as clear and tangible as her own body. She was almost ashamed to have lost this word until now. This time, she would make sure that she never lost sight of her name: Mileena.


Mileena's eyes shot opened, accompanied by a sharp gasp. There was suddenly something warm and hard beneath her prone form. It was a familiar hardness; one she was sure she had felt before. In fact, this entire situation was alarming familiar to her. She felt like she being born again.

Something felt off about her vision, somehow. It wasn't necessarily the quality, but it was definitely... different. Indescribably so. Even so, she could see Shang Tsung off to her right, staring at her in clear anticipation. She realised now that it was his voice that she had been hearing in her stupor.

"Ah, the princess awakens," he said with a wide grin. "I was almost beginning to worry I might have to kiss you to awaken you."

Princess? She was sure he had said that word before. Somehow, it just felt wrong now.

"Confused? Of course, returning from death is never as straightforward as one might think."

"Death? What..."

"Temporary memory loss is to be expected, of course. Especially with traumatic memories of death. They will return in time, not to worry."

"I died..."

"That's right. Fortunately for both of us, the Emperor saw fit to have you restored, saving my greatest work from being... wasted."

"I don't understand."

"You will, in time. For now, simply relax and trust me as I perform a checkup to make sure there are no problems. Can you do that for me?"

"I... Y-Yes. I can."

"Very good. If all goes well, you'll be back on your feet and serving your 'father' in no time."


The checkup was long. Invasive. But Mileena couldn't bring herself to mind all that much. She wondered how much freedom she really had to resist the commands of Shang Tsung. Shao Kahn's commands were absolute - she had been created to obey them, after all - but Shang Tsung, while the one to actually create, didn't seem to have any such power over her.

She was sat on the slab now, finally giving her back a rest, though her rear end was starting to get numb. Regardless of her body's discomfort, the fog in her mind had almost entirely cleared up. There were still a few patches of missing memory, such as the particulars of her death, but her other mental faculties had recovered enough that she was certain she could operate on her own, at least. Shang Tsung returned from a brief departure, bearing what was unmistakably one of Mileena's sai. Without a word, he crossed the chamber and held out the weapon for her to take.

"You're giving me a weapon before you give me any garments?" Mileena asked slyly, starting to come back to her old self.

"Clothes are unnecessary for the final test," he replied as she took it from him.

"But a weapon is? Am I to perform an assassination in the nude?"

"Would you?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"If the Emperor commanded it."

"More's the pity. No, this is a different kind of test. I want you to take that sai and pierce your flesh with it."

Mileena thought she must still be recovering from her death when she heard what must have been her imagination. When she made no response, Shang Tsung repeated his command.

"No," she said flatly.

"You refuse?"

"That is what 'no' means, sorcerer."

"Very well, you don't need to actually do it. Your response to the command is what matters."

Mileena tilted her head at this, unsure how to respond.

"Now, one last thing before our tests are finished..." The sorcerer conjured up some unknown mystical energy from his palm, coating his hand an an otherworldly green mist. Without warning, he reached forward and pressed two fingers to Mileena's forehead, between her eyes. A strange fogginess enveloped Mileena's mind as the energy entered her head. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets - though it was difficult to tell from how blank and white they had become in her undeath.

Mileena's mental processes stopped almost entirely, all sense of awareness fading into oblivion. For the briefest moment, she recalled the encroaching darkness of death and started to panic. But the moment passed quickly into nothingness.

The sorcerer passed a hand in front of Mileena's face. It was hard to tell if her eyes were following it, though she didn't blink in response to the closeness of his hand, which was a good sign. It seemed a more audible test was in order.

"Mileena?" he said, grinning as her head turned a little to face him head on.

"Yes?" she responded, her tone distant, lethargic, emotionless. All semblance of personality had been stripped away, leaving only an empty puppet. It made her creator feel nostalgic for his early days working in the Flesh Pits.

"Please take that sai and pierce your flesh with it," he said again.

"As you wish," she replied, barely finishing her response before jamming the weapon into her own thigh. The suddenness and power of the jab made even Shang Tsung recoil in surprise. Narrowly avoiding getting bloodstains on his immaculately formed attire, Shang Tsung recomposed himself.

"No sense of self-preservation," he noted quietly to himself. "This won't work for the Emperor's plans." He had Mileena remove the weapon from her flesh and used his magic to quickly heal the wound, as if she hadn't even broken the skin. That done, he reached out and extracted some of the magic suppressing Mileena's thoughts. Her stiff, robotic posture loosened into a more relaxed form as her mind became more her own.

"Are the tests done yet?" she asked, shaking her head. Her tone was more natural, but there was a clear difference from the norm - her tone lacked the usual vitriol and impatience Mileena displayed around him, instead presenting a calm, almost friendly demeanour.

"Not quite yet, Princess. Just a few more. Please, take your sai and pierce your flesh with it."

"Why?" she asked - a request for an explanation, rather than a challenge to his authority.

"Because I want you to."

Mileena's mouth formed a smile (yes, her tarkatan teeth kept her mouth in a near perpetual grin, but her creator knew her facial structure well enough to be able to see the difference). She once more responded, "As you wish." The act was calmer, slower, more precise as she slowly pushed the metal deeper and deeper into her thigh. Her tone, also, displayed a clear difference: more like she agreed with his command than that she had no choice in the matter. His grin grew wider as she winced in response to the pain. Her body began to shiver and shake in a sickly manner, but the almost oblivious smile never left her face.

"Excellent," the sorcerer noted in a sinister tone he genuinely couldn't stop himself from using. "We may need a few more minor tests to get this just right. But you don't mind. Isn't that right?" His choice to divide his last sentence into two was very much deliberate.

"Of course not, Shang Tsung," Mileena replied dutifully. "Whatever you need."

The experiments continued for some time - Shang Tsung suppressing or restoring Mileena's will to varying degrees, having her inflict self-harm, healing her, and trying another percentage. He did note that her enthusiasm, when she had some semblance of personality, eroded over time. No doubt, the constant back-and-forth was wearing away at her mind. He decided he probably shouldn't keep this going for too much longer. While the Emperor likely wouldn't care if Mileena was left with permanent mental scarring, so long as they had the results they needed, Shang Tsung couldn't deny a certain fondness for his creation, and didn't want to do too much damage.

By the time they finished, she seemed exhausted. He lowered her back down onto the slab and issued one last command: "Sleep." Even without his magic, the sorcerer doubted Mileena would have put up much resistance to this particular suggestion. With another wave of his hand, he sent Mileena into a nice, lucid dream as a reward for being such a good sport. All the credit would go to him, of course, but her participation would prove vital for the Emperor's next great scheme.


Shang Tsung entered Shao Kahn's throneroom soon after. Baraka was finishing up a report on the training of the tarkatans. Something about needing stronger practice partners. The Emperor bid his general to leave upon noticing the sorcerer's entrance. With a bow to each, Baraka left the two to their privacy.

"I trust you have good news, at least," the Kahn said in a tone that was subtly threatening. Shang Tsung had failed his master twice already, and he understood the consequences of the proverbial third strike.

"Your faith is well-placed, my Emperor," he replied with a bow of his own. "The resurrection proved quite a success. Mileena, while a little disoriented, is completely restored to the land of the living in both body and mind. As for her mind, the spell took some experimentation, but I have found the right balance of obedience and independence you will require in your trump card. Mileena is naturally docile and submissive, however - a result of the tarkatan DNA within her. I doubt her... 'mother' will be quite so easy to tame."

"You just let me worry about that, Shang Tsung," the Emperor replied, dismissively. "Continue the experiments on other subjects. Your have earned my trust, for now. But do not allow that to go to your head, lest you lose it."

Shang Tsung gulped involuntarily, but he couldn't help but grin wide at the thought of what Shao Kahn had in store for Earthrealm. Raiden, Liu Kang, Kitana - the looks on their faces when they realised that all their struggles and their sacrifices had been invalidated, as an incomprehensibly large army invaded their world, commanded by the boldfaced defiance of Emperor Shao Kahn and his newly-resurrected Empress...


I was inspired to write this while making Mileena's episode of Wasted Plotential. I had to be careful not to retread The Shadow's Descent too much.