Author's Note: Thanks for the wait guys… and the reviews too!

Chapter 2

(Edenia – Kitana's Room)

Kitana let out a soft groan when she felt the sunlight hit her face. Her eyes opened slightly and noticed an unfamiliar shadow being cast over her body. She turned her head to find a magnificently built stranger staring out of the window. After replaying the previous night's events in her mind she remembered that it was ninja that came in the middle of the night: Sub-Zero. Kitana felt a light burning in her cheeks when she found herself admiring the ninja's muscular back. She even moved her head to find his finely crafted abs and smiled to herself when she noticed how his pectoral muscles and biceps were accented by the way he crossed his arms over his bare chest.

Sub-Zero felt a pair of lingering eyes on him and turned his head to her. "Good morning."

"You wear that mask and hood while you sleep?" Kitana questioned.

"It's a habit." He said flatly. "You're up early."

"Well I have some business to take care of." She said as she moved off of her bed. "Are you going to be okay alone?"

Sub-Zero moved behind a large dresser. "I have some business to take care of as well."

Kitana looked at him curiously. "Why did you…"

Suddenly the door to her room opened and a young girl entered.

"Princess, Jade is waiting for you downstairs. She wishes to speak with you."

"Tell her I'll be down soon." Kitana replied with a smile.

The girl bowed and left the room. Kitana's face contorted into a skeptically one as she turned to Sub-Zero.

"You knew she was coming?"

"You're a princess?" he countered.

"Is that a problem?" she quipped.

"I…suppose not." He averted his eyes in embarrassment. "I will go try to find a portal out of Edenia. I'll be back by nightfall."

Kitana watched as he put on the rest of his ninja garb and promptly jumped out of the window. She frowned and moved towards her dresser to change out of her sleepwear.

'What could Jade want so early in the morning anyway?'

The princess walked through the halls casually smiling politely to those she saw and found her best friend Jade waiting impatiently in the entrance hall.

"Finally!" Jade cried out in exasperation. "What took you so long?"

Kitana rolled her eyes. "You know I just had like 5 minutes notice. What did you expect?"

"I expect that your best friend would be able to walk up to your room instead of having to wait in the entrance hall like a stranger."

"I'll talk to the guards about it." Kitana chuckled. "Now, what was it that you needed?"

"Queen Sindel gave me a few assignments today. They sound like it would involve some rough stuff." Jade smirked. "I was wondering if maybe you'd like to help me out?"

Kitana laughed. "I suppose I could help for a little while but I should be back before dark though."

"Aww… that's okay." Jade teased. "My mommy won't let me cross the street."

"Shut up."

(Edenia – Forest)

Sub-Zero sat crossed legged in the middle of a serene forest. His eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and concentrated. The ninja was searching for the pull on his mind that he felt the first time he sensed a portal. He picked up on the sounds of the forest: leaves rustling in the wind, birds feeding their young and insects flying around… but no portal.

"Nothing." He sighed. 'I'll have to keep searching.'

The cryomancer moved down his original path deeper into the forest. He kept his senses sharp for anything that felt unnatural within the forest. Sub-Zero was surprised to find that this was much more difficult than in Earthrealm because of the abundance of magical energy in Edenia. His senses barely picked up a missile in time to escape the explosion.

"Sektor…" he growled.

The menacing crimson cyborg moved quickly to dispatch his target. Sub-Zero blocked and countered, but his attacks were dodged and countered. The two ninjas fought fiercely, but because of their similar training they couldn't break through the other's defense. Sub-Zero knew this was a losing battle since the cyborg had an almost infinite amount of endurance. The ex-Lin Kuei warrior purposely left an opening and jumped back, leaving an ice clone, when the cyborg took advantage of this opening and froze. Sub-Zero dashed forward with a powerful roundhouse kick that forced Sektor into a tree. He then followed up with an uppercut but before the cryomancer could attack in the air, the cyborg disappeared and reappeared below Sub-Zero with his own uppercut. Sektor continued his assault with an elbow strike to his prey's stomach and finished by driving him into the ground with a powerful aerial axe kick.

Sub-Zero fell to the ground in a heap. 'I have no choice… I can't keep this up right now.'

He pushed himself up; his breathing became more uneven as time passed. His head slowly turned until he spotted Sektor preparing to fire a missile from his chest plate. Sub-Zero took his chance and released an orb of icy energy from his hand which effectively froze the missile within Sektor's chest. The cryomancer followed by freezing the ground below the cyborg causing him to slip and fall onto his back. He was then immobilized further by another ice blast from the icy ninja. Sub-Zero then used the rest of his energy to escape as quickly as he could. As he ran, he heard a loud explosion from the missile but he doubted that even an explosion of that magnitude could stop Sektor.

(Edenia – Canyon)

Kitana descended into the canyon with a series of quick jumps from ledge to ledge. She had changed from her princess-like attire into a black and blue shoulder-less as well as back-less leotard. It went up and connected around her neck while leaving a teasing amount of cleavage exposed. Her outfit was completed with matching thigh high boots, armguards and a ninja styled mask.

She turned to Jade who had landed in the canyon moments before her. "What are we doing here?"

Jade had on a similar uniform as Kitana. Although her boots only went up to her ankles, the armguards were replaced with elbow length gloves and both were colored black along with her mask. She had also added a metallic belt around her waist which featured a long green and black sash that hung between her legs. Her haired was pulled into a bun along with Kitana's but she secured lacquer chopsticks to keep the bun in place while Kitana used a gold clasp and a blue ribbon.

"We're looking for those mutants the queen's generals reported seeing here." Jade responded while resting her thin metal staff on her shoulder.

"The mutants again?" Kitana raised her eyebrow. "We've already searched half the realm for them. They're not here."

"Well now we're starting the other half." Jade retorted.

Kitana rolled her eyes. "Fine… but after this you're getting a big 'I told you so.'"

Their heads turned as they heard a deep snarling.

"You were saying?" Jade readied her staff.

"Okay… you got me this time." Kitana pulled out her fans.

There was a long eerie silence as the two warriors scanned the canyon for anything that might pose a threat. Minutes seemed to pass like hours as the women waited for something out of the ordinary to occur.

"Maybe it was just a wolf?" Kitana suggested.

They turned to find a large muscular Tarkatan mutant unsheathing his blades and snarling violently at them.

"Well… now I know I'm getting old." Jade remarked sarcastically. "They did not make wolves like that in my day."

The princess ignored her friend and defended herself against the Tarkatan's furious blade swipes. She skillfully blocked each attack with her steel fans. The mutant was physically stronger than her and easily forced her back into one of the canyon walls. Kitana deflected a stab which caused the beast's arm to be caught the stone wall. Another repelled attack forced the second blade into the wall near her waist. She quickly took advantage by kneeing him in the stomach, spinning around and stabbing her fan into his abdomen. The finishing touch was slicing her second fan across his neck; effectively decapitating him. Kitana kicked his body off of her and noticed Jade was having problems of her own. She was faring well against a mutant that had attacked her, but more mutants seemed to be spawning out of nowhere. Kitana willed her fans to spin in a circular motion a few inches above her hand; creating a vortex that levitated several Tarkatan warriors into the air.

"Jade!" she called out. "Now!"

Jade stabbed her staff through a mutant's chest and pulled out her razor edged boomerang. It was thrown in a perfect arc and upon its return it sliced off the heads of the Tarkatan mutants that were floating helplessly in the air. In her distracted state Jade barely noticed that Kitana was at the mercy of one of the mutants. However, she couldn't help her friend now that three more mutants to contend with.

'Damn it.' Jade cursed in her head. 'Hang on Kitana…'

Kitana tried to kick off her attacker but he pinned her down roughly. He roared loudly in her face and bit into her shoulder. She suppressed a scream and decided to take her chances. Kitana pulled off her mask and her lips flashed quickly with a blue energy before she pressed them against the Tarkatan's cheek. He froze and gasped while tumbling backwards. A loud roar of pain echoed throughout the canyon as his body stretched to twice his normal height before exploding into a mass of blood, organs and limbs. Kitana clutched her injury and gathered herself back onto her feet. She limped towards Jade who was pulling her boomerang out of a Tarkatan's skull.

"You still need to teach me how to do that." Jade muttered putting away her boomerang.

"After today…you can forget about it." Kitana breathed heavily.

End of Chapter 2

Author's Note: This feels a little weird. I'm not sure why…