Mileena had had a difficult two years. After being resurrected as a test for her master's invasion plot, she served as part of the invasion force, initially as a part of the group assigned to protect the resurrected Empress Sindel. She was captured and tortured by Kitana for information on the whereabouts of her brainwashed mother, the key to the invasion's legality. While she had resisted for a time, the existential terror of knowing that she would not get another chance at life if Kitana killed her again led her to submit to Kitana's interrogation and tell her exactly where to find her mother. She had no doubt that Kitana would have executed her there and then if not for the timely arrival of Baraka and his extermination squad forcing Mileena's 'sister' to flee.

This same extermination squad - what remained of it after the invasion was over - had since been hunting Mileena for almost two full years. There were a multitude of reasons for this: first was that Baraka had been killed in the invasion, and many other tarkatans were far less tolerant of her existence than he had been. Their intolerance drew largely from her being an artificial tarkatan, created as a clone of Kitana with tarkatan DNA being used to complete her. She didn't even have tarkatan blades, and she had far more hair on her head than any natural-born tarkatan. Combine that with the knowledge that she had aided Kitana in saving her mother and making Shao Kahn's invasion illegal, as well as her own attack on Shao Kahn in the incident's climax (her reason for doing so still eluded her), and she had become public enemy number one for the Tarkata.

And now, after two years of flight, Mileena had finally been caught. She had been brought to the war camp of the Raka Tribe, formerly led by Baraka. The new leader of the tribe was another tarkatan of around the same age as the former warchief: Karbrac. He had been, by far, the most fervent in pursuing Mileena. Whether intentionally or not, Mileena couldn't help but find the way she was bound to a stake at the centre of the camp to be reminiscent of the state Kitana had put her in to coerce her into betraying the emperor.

"You don't have Shao Kahn's protection anymore, half-breed." Karbrac taunted from close enough that she could easily have bitten his throat out were she not gagged with her mask. "You are no tarkatan and you are no princess. You are a worthless wretch fit only to fill our bellies."

Karbrac's long bone blades burst out of his arms with intent. He reeled his arm back to thrust the blade into Mileena's chest. She struggled as best she could against her bonds, but without her sai or her teeth, she had to way to cut the ropes to free herself.

The world seemed to slow to a crawl as a familiar roar filled the air. Mileena's head shot up instinctively in the direction of the sound, spotting what seemed like an impossible sight: another tarkatan was positively flying down from above. He wore no clothes on his upper body, save for some form of leather over his shoulders with metal shoulder armour connected to it, exposing what looked like three thick metal staples embedded in the flesh of his chest. As he grew closer, it was clear there were another two such staples, albeit less than half as large, embedded in his forehead. But there was one more piece of metal that immediately stood out: his blades.

Most tarkatans were born with bone blades that emerged from their forearms. The female blades ran around as long as their forearms, while the males were often twice as long, almost impossibly so. It was, of course, common for a male tarkatan with shorter blades to become a social outcast, unless he could prove his blades were no less deadly than the average male's - usually to the detriment of his now mutilated detractor.

However, metal blades began as a symbol of status among the Tarkata. A rare trait, they were naturally a sign of greater lethality, as their ability to slice and their resistance to damage were far greater than the typically much smoother bone blades. Those born with such a trait, short or not, were seen as intrinsically worthy of being a warchief for his tribe for his potential ferocity. Even rarer in females, this trait made them by far the most desirable among the males and tended to lead to bloody conflict among the potential suitors.

In all Mileena's life, she had known only two tarkatans with metal blades: Karabak and Baraka. Karabak was the previous warchief of the Raka Tribe, since long before Baraka was even born, yet a young Baraka had opted to challenge him regardless. Mileena had been in attendance alongside Shang Tsung, her false memories temporarily lifted to allow her to embrace her tarkatan heritage fully and learn to master the savagery she would need to properly serve her 'father'. As such, she had witnessed Baraka's arrogance, his folly, as he challenged Karabak for his rank and ended the encounter fleeing with both bone blades severed (one sawn in two near the base and the other torn out wholesale).

As it so happened (or perhaps intentionally on Baraka's part), Mileena and Shang Tsung had also been present for Baraka's return to the war camp some time later. By this time, he had completely removed his broken armblade and replaced both with crudely-fashioned metal blades, appearing almost as if he had taken two swords and buried their hilts inside his arms. For the younger members of the tribe, this was laughable - for the elders, it was sacrilege. Karabak, in particular, was enraged by this display and challenged Baraka before the offender could even utter a word. The result, of course, was Baraka raising one metal blade to the sky, Karabak's severed head impaled upon it.

But this was no simple Fatality. Baraka had displayed an almost uncontrollable bloodrage, savagely stabbing and slicing and clawing and biting until Karabak lay mutilated on the floor, an eye gouged out, one armblade torn from its socket and the other arm severed at the elbow, one foot severed at the ankle, and his stomach opened up with his guts scattered across both the ground and Baraka's body. Barely an inch of Baraka's body was not coated in blood, though the ratio of his own blood to Karabak's was unclear, if obviously weighed in Karabak's favour (or disfavour, as the case may be).

Mileena had never seen such an awe-inspiring display of feral savagery. Although she was somewhat reluctant to admit it, she was smitten by the display. These feelings were, of course, suppressed along with her memories, as an Edenian princess would feel only disgust with a vicious tarkatan. But even so, some part of her remembered this... this massacre, and compelled her to request Baraka as her bodyguard or compatriot whenever possible. Kitana had the beautiful, graceful Jade, and Mileena had the brutal, savage Baraka. But then, with her role as Kitana's sister ended since Kitana had murdered her three years ago, Mileena had been allowed to properly appreciate Baraka - and to miss him after his death in the Invasion of Earthrealm at the hand of Kung Lao in revenge for the massacre of the White Lotus monks.

But that came much later. Following his slaying of Karabak, Baraka had earned respect enough to outweigh his sacrilege by immediately challenging those who rejected his claim to the position to try their hand at slaying him. Two of the elders of the tribe had taken up this challenge on the spot and been quickly overwhelmed by this youngblood's ferocity. Although no others would take up his challenge that day, many more would do so over the following years, each one attempting to ambush him when they thought his guard was down. Some attacked when he was eating; others came for his head while he slept; some made their move after gruelling, exhausting battles he participated in; and others even spent years earning his trust and currying his favour before making their move, only to end up as dead as Karabak.

There were some among the would-be traitors that came to respect him before they could make their move, ultimately opting to follow this young savage as their true warchief. This deep respect would eventually spread across the entire tribe, leading to them all embracing the artificial metal blades Baraka had forged for himself, creating a whole new symbol of status and respect as young tarkatans raced to be the youngest to remove their natural armblades and adopt the artificial ones. And, as one might expect, the competitions to see which among a particular group of males could forge himself the longest blades were commonplace.

This made the Raka Tribe by far the most deadly of all the Tarkata, earning the attention of Shao Kahn himself. He visited the camp personally and challenge Baraka to kombat. Eager for the challenge, Baraka accepted, finding himself on the losing end, but only after slashing the emperor deeply enough that it would have left a scar without his sorcery to heal it. In return, Shao Kahn tore the offending blade from Baraka's arm and inspected it, impressed that Baraka made not a sound as the metal was torn from the inside of his flesh. Shao Kahn arranged for Shang Tsung to forge better blades for Baraka, magically-infused and bearing both a mirror sheen and a more natural look to them.

Baraka was then appointed as the general of the tarkatan hordes. His ferocity became legendary across all of Outworld, striking fear into the hearts of so many of the emperor's enemies, and inspiring much of the tarkatan population to adopt their own metal blades to keep up and, perhaps, one day challenge him for his top spot. Of course, many had tried since then, Baraka using the opportunity to weed out the weak and spare those he deemed to have potential, including Karbrac.

Karbrac was not much younger than Baraka, but perhaps more arrogant. He was one of the few tarkatans to reach the upper echelons of their society in the last few centuries without metal blades, instead choosing to keep his bone blades and prove that he could be just as devastating a foe as any metal-bladed tarkatan. And there was no question among those who knew him that he was. There was a good reason, after all, that the Raka Tribe had deferred to him after Baraka's death. He had been quick to earn a name for himself in the invasion, and to make his own open challenge to those who would deny his place as the tribe's chief.

So, it was quite a shock when what appeared to be Karbrac's stapled-back-together predecessor came flying into the camp with a bloodthirsty battle cry and brought his nigh-unbreakable metal blades down on Karbrac's bone blade before it could pierce Mileena's chest. The right blade drove itself around a third of the way through the bone's middle, while the left sliced off a small chunk at the tip. Karbrac staggered back and yelped from the surprise and pain of the sudden attack. The instant contrast with Baraka's refusal to give Shao Kahn the satisfaction of causing him pain with his dismembering of him was palpable for Mileena, and probably for the rest of the gathered tarkatans that had been present to witness Baraka's rise. His guttural snarl caused the other tarkatans, still reeling from his sudden attack, to shrink back in surprise and fear.

"You are a poor chief, Karbrac."

"Who are you to judge?" the current chief responded, finding his courage again. "You died two years ago. What makes you a better chief?"

"I do not distinguish between 'true' and 'false' tarkatans. Your attempts at segregation make all Tarkata weak."

"And yet, I lived through the invasion, unlike you. If you want to stop me, you will have to kill me."

"No. I won't."

Baraka sliced through the ropes with one swift motion and held out an arm to catch Mileena as her starved body collapsed forward. It took only seconds for her strength to return and allow her to stand by her own strength again. Baraka then stalked over to the female tarkatan holding Mileena's sai and snarled at her to make her hand them over in fear. Once the captive was re-armed, Baraka made his declaration:

"If this 'half-breed' is so unworthy of the name tarkatan, then you will have no trouble killing her in real kombat. Unless you need to tie this 'wretch' up for fear that she is more than a match for the great Karbrac."

With this insinuation laid out, Karbrac had little choice but to accept the challenge, lest he be seen as a coward whose own rhetoric was used to best him. His blades bursting forth was all the indication he needed to give that he accepted the challenge.

Mileena was upon Karbrac in an instant. Despite his clear advantage in both muscle and range, Mileena easily outclassed him in speed. For her, getting close enough to attack with her shorter weapons and make his blades totally ineffective was a simple task. But ultimately, it was not her sai that brought their short scuffle to an end; rather, it was her mouth as she forced his blades aside with her sai and sank her teeth into his throat. His roar of agony came to an abrupt end as his vocal cords were torn out and swallowed whole by the so-called 'false tarkatan'. But she didn't stop there.

She wrestled him into the dirt and continued biting and chewing her way through his neck until only his spine remained, which was easy enough for a tarkatan's powerful jaw to bit through. Some said that tarkatan teeth were harder to break than their necks, and Mileena certainly made a compelling case for that being the truth. She rose to her feet, Karbrac's now severed head caught between her teeth as her head continued to shake like a TaiGore as it consumed its prey. Eventually, the head came loose and skipped across the dirt, rolling to a stop a few paces away before Mileena realised it was gone and ceased her rabid shaking. Baraka turned from Mileena to face the other tarkatans with a glower. This said more than words could and they quickly fell in line.

While the remains of Karbrac were being disposed of, Baraka led Mileena to what was once again his tent. Other tarkatans they passed along the way gaped in shock, awe and reverence at the return of their former warchief. Inside the tent, Baraka and Mileena found a succulent boar ready for consumption. Baraka tore off a single leg for himself and offered the rest to his slightly emaciated companion, who dove right in.

They ate in silence until Mileena no longer felt starved, at which point she asked Baraka the most pertinent question: "How are you alive? Were you not slain in the invasion by Kung Lao?"

"A Netherrealm sorcerer offered me a deal: resurrection, in return for my service to his master. I came here to bring you into his service as well."

"You came here... for me?"

"I could not participate in an invasion of Edenia without giving you a chance to avenge yourself on your 'sister'."

"Invasion of Edenia?" For most, the curving and widening of Mileena's blood-soaked grin would be imperceptible, but tarkatans had no trouble recognising the distinction. "This new master of yours must be very powerful. And very brazen."

"Our master."

"Yes. Ours. Our master. What is yours and yours alone... is me."

Mileena craned her neck to the side, offering her shoulder to him. He removed one of his shoulder guards to expose his own for her. As one, the two leaned in and sank their razor-sharp teeth, slowly, delicately by tarkatan standards, into each other's flesh. It hurt for both, of course, but this intimate act was also pleasurable for the two. It served as a symbol of their devotion to one another - and therefore, of Baraka's protection over Mileena, that any other tarkatan would be a fool to attempt to bring harm to her. The two completed the ritual by extracting their teeth from the wounds and sucking on the blood until it stopped coming.

Now, the entire Raka Tribe was back at the command of Baraka as they travelled as one to join the Netherrealm army in preparation for the attack on Edenia. And as for Mileena, she felt secure in the knowledge that she once again had a purpose beyond simple survival. That, and a faithful companion she could give herself fully to. Save for the opportunity to desecrate the body of her 'sister', the only thing Mileena could possibly ask for now was for someone not of the Tarkata to embrace her the way Baraka had. But her hopes of that ever happening were as low as Kitana's chances of surviving her wrath.


I was suddenly inspired while thinking about the contrast between Mileena and normal female tarkatans while looking at the female tarkatan on the Outworld forces' ship while editing my MK11 kritique. Tarkatans probably would view Mileena as sub-tarkatan and want her dead once she has no protection. Plus, I enjoy fleshing out realms and cultures on the MK universe. And Mileena kinda bad tho