Author's Note: So I was doing the math here, and I want you all to know that this month marks my 10 year anniversary of writing fanfiction for this website. I remember I started writing my very first chapter of Sub-Zero: Origins in November of 2011, and then posting it in December. It's so funny to me because when I first began, I never imagined ending up where I have. Throughout the years, people on dA have asked me for interviews about writing, my stories wound up on TV Tropes as good examples of such and such trope, at one point someone brought it to my attention that my story was the number one most-read story on this hell site. People have to tell me this stuff, FYI, because I don't pay attention to stats. I feel like watching stats like some writers do would just cause me a lot of unnecessary anxiety. Anyway, writing for you guys has brought me a lot of good experiences (and only a few bad ones LOL). I've always wanted to be a bestselling novelist, and in a way, because of you all, I've kind of achieved that goal. Still want to publish an original novel and become a millionaire, but it's still freaking cool that I've come so far writing fanfiction.
I only started this because I was super-stressed in grad school being held to ridiculous writing standards that just made the art of writing not fun for me anymore. Blessedly, that was around the time MK9 came out, and playing it inspired me to look for Mortal Kombat fanfiction. At the time, I couldn't find anything; it was all terrible (the quality of it has drastically improved since I first started here). So I asked myself what fanfiction would look like if it had been written by a formally trained writer. And furthermore, maybe I could just have fun writing again; it could be stupid, sloppy writing not worthy of the Canon, not held up against the likes of Shakespeare and Chaucer, and it could just be a way to cut loose. So I set out to write a story about my all-time favorite character, drawing from multiple Mortal Kombat sources, looking to have some silly, stupid fun, and I expected nothing from anyone. To my surprise, though, I gradually gained a following who not only read my story, but were legitimately invested in these characters I was writing about! It was amazing. I was just telling DarkAssassin15 last night that the greatest reward of being a writer - at least to me - is when my stories and my characters leave an impression on my readers, and also when they root for and against my characters as if they're real people. That just means the world to me. It tells me I've done my job. In these last ten years, I've forged many wonderful friendships with so many of you; Hell-on-Training-Wheels, en-lumine, Obelisk of Light, iceangelmkx, FloweryNamesLover, the-06, DarkAssassin15, and MKDemiGodzilla-Warrior have been with me for most of this journey, and I'm immensely grateful for not just the conversations with them about Mortal Kombat or the brainstorming sessions for my updates, but for the lasting friendships we've forged in that time. So on this, my tenth anniversary writing fanfiction, I just want to thank you all - my longstanding friends and those who have just recently joined me on this journey. Without your continuous love and support, I probably would've stopped writing fanfiction a long time ago. And I'm so glad I was able to knock out an update in time for my anniversary as a thank you gift to you all who made it possible. I hope you enjoy it.
And...*sinister laughter and evil moustache twirling*...I look forward to your angry emails.
For a long moment, no one could move. It was as if they were stuck in the very worst nightmare of their lives, unable to do anything but gawk in awe and terror at the Elder God of Air standing triumphantly before them. And Shinnok surveyed them all in return, a prominent sneer curling through his upper lip, somehow making his mottled gray skin look even more sinister. Tundra gulped as she threaded her fingers through Jiayi's and tightly squeezed his hand. It didn't fill her with relief when he squeezed back.
"Lord Shinnok," Havik now rasped as he knelt before the Elder God and offered him his amulet on his outstretched palms, "your return was long overdue."
"Indeed," he agreed, his voice ancient. He took the amulet from the Chaosrealm cleric and clutched it tightly in his long, gnarled fingers. "Assume control of Reiko's armies and slaughter all of Raiden's surviving Champions," he commanded. Havik bowed, then scurried towards the cliff. When he was gone, Shinnok looked at the three Cryomancers and sneered. "Bow before me so that I might spare your souls."
"Never," Jiayi defiantly told him, taking a half-step forward.
Shinnok didn't even bother trying to convince them. Without warning, he thrust his amulet at them, and with the motion came a wave of colorful energy. It blasted them up and out, knocking them away from each other. Olivia landed hard on the ground for the second time that day, this time feeling the bones crunch inside her chest. She whimpered, struggling to breathe, but found no relief. Tears involuntarily sprang to her eyes as she clawed deep furrows into the dirt with her fingernails trying to crawl away. Desperate, she swung her arm around at the Elder God, lobbing thousands of shards at him, but he calmly held up his hand as he stalked towards her and the projectiles vanished.
"If you will not join me, young Miss Sullivan, you will be destroyed," he said. There was no emotion in his voice, no passion. Just cold matter-of-factness.
With that, he thrust his amulet at her again, the colors from it dancing violently. The energy struck her at once, somehow burrowing its way in between the tiny molecules and atoms, electrocuting her from the microcosmic level and beyond. Tundra wailed - no small feat for a woman with several broken ribs - and then curled into a ball on the ground, screaming for him to stop. Death would've been a blessed reprieve from the constant thrumming of her very soul, from the dark fire ripping her entire being apart like a mere piece of tissue paper. Her voice burned out long before his will did, but still he continued as tears flooded down her cheeks. His divine power just would not stop.
Until, for a brief moment, it did.
Tundra hadn't seen what happened firsthand, but while Shinnok was focused on torturing the young Cryomancer, he had forgotten about Frost. With an ear-piercing shriek, the Cryomancer tackled him from behind like a linebacker, drilling the Elder God straight into the ground, stabbing a kori sword right through his middle. He yelped and grunted when he landed, giving her the chance to hack into his back with a kori pickaxe, screaming like a banshee as she relentlessly chopped over and over into his body, his immortal ichor splashing her with darkness. She was wise enough to know that her actions wouldn't accomplish much, but it gave Jiayi ample time to scoop Livy off the ground and help her stand once more.
"Run!" Frost barked at them, even as Tundra started to collapse in Jiayi's arms. He lifted her up again and dragged her along as she moaned in pain, never stopping, not even when Shinnok blasted Miyuki with his amulet and sent her body flying into a nearby tree. She slumped to the ground, unconscious.
"Prince Jiayi, only now at the end of all things do you truly start to understand," Shinnok jeered as he suddenly appeared right in their path. "I see into your soul. I know what you are."
Tundra managed to lift her head long enough to look at the Elder God just as Jiayi held her more tightly to him and proudly met his eyes. "And what am I, Lord Shinnok?" he demanded to know.
"A scared little boy," he mocked. "An orphan. All alone in the world with no one else to turn to. Not even the girl you so futilely vowed to protect." He smirked. "Tell me, did Himavat tell you why he wanted you to keep her safe?"
Jiayi looked at Olivia and then back to Shinnok again. "It was not for me to question the Allfather."
"It's because he values her life more than yours," he told him. "All this time, so faithful to him and the others, the obedient son, the dutiful son...Yet to him, you're just a pawn to be sacrificed in the great game he's playing. Recognize his deceit and shake loose your shackles! Join me, and you will not be a mere pawn in the game. You will be one of my exalted Knights of Perdition."
The Crown Prince bristled at that, thinking on his words, and then straightened, meeting the enemy's gaze. "If being a pawn is how I am called to serve the Allfather, Lord Shinnok, then I am honored to sacrifice myself to save the queen." He then turned his attention to Olivia, who was weakly hanging off his shoulder, but managed to flash a weak smile at him, prompting him to plant a kiss in her hair.
"Young fools," he dispassionately replied before he raised his amulet once more.
Only now, what could only be described as a white meteor hurled itself down into the ground between them, prompting a new earthquake to shake through the surrounding land. The force of the impact knocked both Tundra and Jiayi down to the ground once again, though Shinnok barely registered the shock. When the dust cleared, Himavat - donning white armor trimmed in silver and royal blue - now stood between them holding two very large kori axes that were crossed over his chest. His pale blue eyes locked on his brother's rheumy white ones, scowling as Raiden and Fujin now landed on either side of him, wielding a lightning rod and crossbow respectively.
"Raiden, get the mortals out of Seido now," the Elder God of Water commanded his nephew. "Fujin, help him. I can handle my brother."
Fujin wasted no time springing to action. "Come on," he barked at Jiayi and Olivia as he formed a portal back to the palace and then ushered them through. Raiden, who'd grabbed an unconscious Frost, was already floating to the top of the plateau as well.
"You're only delaying the inevitable, Brother," Shinnok sneered when they were gone. "The darkness will wash over the Realms and purge everything from existence. Their days are numbered."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," he retorted.
"Without Cetrion and Toci at your side?" he mocked. "Tell me, where are our sisters?"
"I didn't need their help to deal with you, Brother," he shot back. "I'm here alone."
The Elder God of Air tsked at him. "That was very unwise of you," he said before he threw his arm out, and with it, the amulet. Instantly, Himavat went flying and slammed through the trees into the cliff face. Boulders began tumbling down.
But the Elder God of Water was not incapacitated, not yet. He immediately kipped up to his feet and then squatted in a deep stance, slowly curling his arms towards his chest. The motion pulled every drop of water from the surrounding land, from the underground aquifers to the lush plant life on the surface, rising and growing until between them stood a towering wall of water. Lush green withered black, completely desiccated. It was an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice. He pushed his hands towards his brother, and as he did, the water surged towards him with all the deadly might of a tsunami. Shinnok had no chance to react before the rushing water began to froth white, turning into a violent avalanche that raced over him in an instant, entombing him in ice and snow. Flexing a fist, Himavat silently willed it to harden like rock.
It didn't hold Shinnok for long. Like a bolt of lightning, a massive microburst of air hurled itself down from the heavens, smashing the river of ice like glass, setting him free. The shards hadn't even stopped falling like hail around them before he launched himself towards his brother, shooting colorful lightning and fire from his amulet. Himavat, however, blanketed himself with a thick fog and disappeared from view. Still hidden in the roiling cloud, he conjured a water whip and threw it at his enemy, satisfied when it curled around his waist and caught him midair. Calmly, he snapped the whip and crunched the fallen god into the ground on his face.
Shinnok recovered quickly, though, and flipped onto his back before lifting his hand. As he did, a massive pair of skeletal hands shot up from the ground and clamped around the Water God. Himavat yelled in pain as the hands squeezed tighter and tighter as if he was nothing more than an insect being ground into goo in a child's palms. Dauntless, though, he sucked down a noisy breath before twisting his palms outward to touch the dead skin. Immediately, pale blue zipped through them, freezing them into glass. He shattered them easily with a slight shove just as his brother reached him.
Now Himavat lunged at him with twin kori axes that he just conjured to replace the ones he lost, and Shinnok blocked him with his longer, newly conjured poleaxe before trapping them and then thrusting forward. The Water God fluidly leaned backwards into a kip up that evaded the attack and caught his brother beneath the chin with his tabi boots, knocking him backwards. He didn't fall, but Himavat - who had regained his footing - relentlessly slashed at him. Shinnok blocked him once again and then crouched low, swinging his leg around to sweep him off his feet. His strategy worked; Himavat crashed to the blackened ground onto his back. With a wicked laugh, the Air God elegantly flicked his wrists, summoning the dead. The ground beneath his brother softened and congealed like lava, and as it did, ghoulish hands broke through the surface, grasping and grabbing him, pulling him down. It wouldn't hinder him for long, but it gave Shinnok the opportunity to return his attention to his sons. Still madly chuckling, he whirled into the air on a cyclonic wind, now searching for Fujin and Raiden.
At the top of the plateau, inside the ruined courtyard, over the rumbling of the Elder Gods fighting below, Raiden formed a portal to Earthrealm and screamed at his and Seido's warriors, "Run!" Like a lion-tamer cracking a whip, he hurried them through the portal and into the base at Ft. Albany. One by one, they leapt through, unable to get away fast enough, leaving just the Tournament Champions behind to protect their passage.
But his efforts were met by a wicked laugh.
"And just where do you think they can run to, Raiden?" Shinnok pointedly asked as he appeared on the crumbling parapet above them.
With that, he thrust his amulet towards the Earthrealmers and Seidans. A blur zipped through them, so fast even Bi-han had trouble seeing it, and then it was followed by an explosion. The blast was as powerful as a bomb, surging outward in a circle from the Elder God, rolling towards them like an aftershock. It launched enough debris to plug the sky clear out to the city proper with sand; dust, shattered stone, and tiny bits of the warriors closest to him all became a greasy film that cast the morning sun into a hazy brown twilight. Jagged rock rained in vicious squalls, breaking whatever - or whomever - they struck. Not even the Oni or the Tarkatans were spared.
Shinnok raised his amulet again to attack, but this time Bi-han - who was wounded from his fight with Rain but now shoving people through the portal as fast as he could - saw him and immediately lobbed an ice ball to stop him before sprinting towards the stairs to the parapet. It slammed directly into the Elder God's chest and shoved him backwards, but it did nothing else. The Cryomancer was not surprised by this development. Shinnok was one of the Elder Gods, after all, and impervious to injury. But Bi-han's intention wasn't to wound, merely to distract, and his plan to give the others more time worked. Shinnok snarled and whipped around to face his attacker, the escaping warriors all but forgotten for now.
When he saw the Cryomancer standing on the crumbling staircase up to the parapet, he sneered. "Hello, Bi-han, my deadly servant," he greeted before he glanced at the amulet around his neck. "I see you found the Eye of Athanasia," he began. "What a powerful relic to purge Noob Saibot from your soul. Pity, you're far more agreeable as my assassin. Still, we can rectify that. The Eye's power is insignificant next to the power of an Elder God!" With that, he lifted his hand and, with a simple flick of his wrist, the chain around his neck snapped. Shinnok grinned like a toothy jack-o-lantern as the Eye soared effortlessly into his palm.
Bi-han, unprepared for the psychic toll the action took on him, breathlessly dropped to his knees with a startled gasp. For a moment, his blue eyes flashed black, swimming in tar. And then came the pain. The Cryomancer's body was engulfed in agony as dark electricity coursed through his body. His skin began to boil and blister, the flesh of his face slowly melting as Noob's power suddenly poured more and more tarry darkness into him. Limp like a ragdoll, he toppled down the stairs and rolled to a stop on his back, not even hearing Shinnok's cruel laughter mocking him and telling him he would be his servant again soon.
Through the haze of the pain, Bi-han now saw Himavat tackle him and drag him over the back of the parapet. And then he saw Kuai Liang rushing towards him to help him. The younger Cryomancer slid on his knees to his brother's side and took his hand in his.
"Bi-han!" he cried as he cupped the other's face in his cold hands.
"Look who decided to join the party," he joked, tears leaking from his face. Relief flooded through him, thanking whatever god was looking out for him that he got to see his brother - his real brother - one last time.
"Better late than never," the younger of the two joked back. "Come on, let's get out of here. We have to get-"
"I don't have time, Kuai Liang," he cut him off before he groaned as a new wave of black pain washed over him. "Noob's coming. He's coming back. I feel him…" The pain was blinding, and he wailed now, clawing at his chest.
When the pain had subsided, Kuai Liang looked at him in confusion, his blue eyes glassy with tears. "I'm sorry," he barely whispered and then pressed Bi-han's hand to his chest as he looked down, fighting off tears. Then he started to stand, prompting the elder brother to pull him back down.
"What are you doing?" he demanded to know.
"I have to fight Shinnok," he babbled, his face old and tired, drooping now. "I have to save you. I have to-"
"He'll kill you," he argued, straining. Noob was creeping up, washing over him.
Kuai Liang looked at him somberly, suddenly wise beyond his years. "I know," he said with a tone of finality. "I know everything. But I have to try."
"No," Bi-han shook his head furiously.
"I have to! Look what's happening to you!" he argued, his voice starting to dissolve.
The Grandmaster hunched even further over him, and his older brother wished he could take a picture of this moment so he could look at and remind himself how close the two had become. He'd never quite believe this was the same brother who'd annoyed the shit out of him as a child. Getting him in trouble with Grandmaster Oniro and their father, sneaking animals into the Temple, playing pranks on him, following him around like a little lost puppy. God, why hadn't he appreciated those times when he could? How were they already gone?
The elder Cryomancer rested his hand on top of his brother's. "Kuai Liang," he whispered. "You have to let me go." The younger looked at him in alarm, so he continued, "You know what I'll become, the evil I'll do. Please...don't let that happen to me. Kuai Liang...You have to let me go." A great swell exploded through him then, and this time, the pain forced his back to arch rigidly and his voice to shatter into unearthly screams.
A light illuminated Kuai Liang's eyes as they began to register his understanding. Above them, Shinnok and Himavat battled in the sky. He'd be victorious soon and Bi-han would be his slave once more. Tears welled up in his younger brother's eyes and spilled over his sooty, bloody cheeks as he looked down on the older Cryomancer, who'd fallen lax and was now panting hard.
"Bi-han...No," he breathed, alarmed. He furiously shook his head. "No!"
"Kuai Liang, you have to," he said, panting. His face burned. It took all of his will to keep the demon at bay.
"No!" he cried more emphatically this time, truly understanding what Bi-han was asking him to do.
"Listen to me, there's not a lot of time. Please, there's not a lot of time. You have to listen." He grimaced as he clutched his brother's hands tightly and held them to his chest. "Kuai Liang, listen to me. Listen. I love you. I will always love you. You're my baby brother...But...but this is the only way to stop Noob Saibot from returning." He moaned and thrashed for a moment, finding it harder and harder to push the demon down. But when the wraith was controlled again, Bi-han gulped and met his brother's gaze once again. "I did ho-horrible things, things that destroyed me. You know what I did. I-I broke your heart. I broke our mother's heart. I broke...Sareena's heart. Please, Kuai Liang, save me from all of that. I don't want to do that again. Please, not again. Save me. Save everyone I would hurt as Noob Saibot."
The Grandmaster didn't say anything - his tears were coming too hard now - but he somehow managed to nod his understanding.
"Tell...Mom...that I did a good thing for once," he babbled, struggling to breathe. "Tell her I'm okay. Tell her I died with honor." He paused, wincing, before he continued. "Give…give my love to our family," he continued. "Give my love to Sareena too. Tell Tomas he was right for once…Tell Tomas he was right about how I feel." He grimaced and strained not to vomit, pushing Noob away, clutching his brother's hands even tighter. "Y-you have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong, Kuai Liang...be strong." He managed to lift his hand to cup his brother's cheek. "I'll always be with you, Little Brother," he gasped, the pain unbearable now. Tears streaked from his own eyes.
"Stay down," the younger whimpered his gentle command. It was their secret code, and Bi-han managed to half-smile when he heard it. What had started as reverse psychology when they were children had become his greatest motivator. He always told Kuai Liang those words to encourage him to never give up.
Bi-han nodded. "Stay down," he whispered. "And be brave. For me."
The Grandmaster nodded one last time before he pressed his forehead to his brother's blackening one. Then he formed a kori sword in his hand and wrapped both his and his brother's palms around the hilt, their fingers interlocked, aiming for Bi-han's heart. He closed his eyes, trembling, but the elder brother was oddly calm in spite of Noob battling for control. The darkness was surging, close to winning. But Bi-han consoled himself with the fact that, in the real world, whenever darkness found him, he always found the presence of a light. Damaged and bruised, perhaps, but a little light all the same.
He thought of his mountain home in the Adirondacks just as the sun was cresting the hills at daybreak, of that shining orange light igniting the valley into flames, dispersing it into a thousand beautiful shadows. Sometimes, when despair for the world grew inside of him, and he woke up in the middle of the night at the faintest sound in fear of what his life had been and would be, he'd hike down to the lake where mallards and geese rested on the water, and to where the great blue herons hunted for frogs and fish. He came into the peace of these wild things who weren't haunted by the past nor afraid for the future. He came to their still, tranquil water to remind himself how to be still. And in that stillness, he felt the stars above him, and the veins in the leaves, and the moonlight, and the balance. And for a time, he could rest in the grace of the world, completely free. Surely, that's what Heaven had to be. Just...freedom from pain and fear and grief. And that's what he wanted now, at the end of his life.
"Be brave," he whispered again to his brother.
Kuai Liang gulped and opened his eyes long enough to see his mark. Then, with all his strength, he drove his kori sword into his brother's heart, the blade meeting no resistance. Bi-han spasmed for a very quick second as the demon inside of him howled and screamed in pain and terror. Noob Saibot knew he was doomed, even as he desperately fought to take control before that happened. But Bi-han, ever stubborn, gave him no such satisfaction. He imagined himself flipping off the wraith, and when he died, there was a serene little smile on his face.
While Kuai Liang was tending to his dying brother, Fujin was hurrying Morgan as well as Olivia and Jiayi towards the portal, and gathering any stray Earthrealmers or Seidans left on this side of the palace wall. The going was slow. Not only were they all wounded to varying degrees, they had to fight their way through the enemy hordes still battling them as they tried to break through. Fujin cleared a path for them, blasting the bloodthirsty Oni and Tarkatans who still relentlessly attacked them with gusts of winds intermixed with his crossbow, maiming or killing them as easily as breathing. But it was still taking far too long. And Shinnok and Himavat battled far too closely over their heads.
"Run!" the Wind God roared at everyone when he saw his father blast his uncle with his amulet, hurling him into the edge of the plateau like a meteor. The ground shook again, throwing everyone but Fujin - who was hovering a foot in the air - to their knees as an explosion of dirt and debris choked the sky. "Hurry!" he urged the Earthrealmers and the Seidans. "Run!"
The sound of his voice attracted Shinnok's attention, and with a cruel chuckle, he said, "But we haven't had a chance to catch up, my son."
With that, he thrust his amulet towards the battlefield as he floated down and landed on the ground. Like the firestorm that follows a nuclear blast, a violent shockwave rode a cloud of flames outward from the epicenter, flattening the gardens and walls, throwing the warriors from both sides through the air. Even Fujin, shielded by his divinity as he was, tumbled uncontrollably through the air with a startled cry. The blast slammed him into the ruined remnants of a yard wall. The brick cracked in a fine webwork behind him. Around him, many of the mortals died in an instant, be they vaporized or killed by flying debris. Morgan, Olivia, and Jiayi were not counted amongst those lucky ones, but instead they blessedly tumbled to a stop very close to him, still alive but all knocked out cold.
The Wind God grimaced when he felt the small tree branch that had impaled his kidney, but in stubborn determination, he ripped the wood out of his abdomen with a grunt, the pain incredible. But he didn't care. He had to get to his daughter. He had to get her out of here. Wincing and panting, he crawled to Morgan and shook her to rouse her from her unconsciousness. She had a concussion, he expected, judging by the goose egg swelling through her eyebrow, shading it purple and red, steadily bleeding from a gash cutting through the pale blond hairs. He wiped the blood from her eye socket where it was pooling with his fingers, and then shook her.
"Morgan, wake up," he said, his words labored. He suddenly felt very much afraid for her. That was the worst part, a deeply buried part of him vaguely thought. He stirred inside, his heart tightened, his fear of loss overwhelming. He wiped his daughter's eye again, and then glanced upon her body, so small, vulnerable, physically incapable of fighting his father. He knew he had to protect her, but how could he protect her against the might of an Elder God?
"Morgan," he grunted again, louder and more urgent this time. "Wake up. You have to run. You have to get out of here-"
"And deprive her grandfather the opportunity of meeting her?" Shinnok's cruel voice interrupted behind him.
Fujin spun around and saw his father steadily closing in, his step self-assured, confident of his victory. The Wind God threw up his own hand, threatening to blast him with a gust of wind. "Stay away from my daughter," he spat as he now shielded her body with his.
"She will be the first to join me," he sneered. "And you, my rebellious son, will be the first I take my revenge upon this day."
As the Elder God took another step forward, Fujin hurled a violent gust of hurricane gale winds at him. To his surprise, however, Shinnok merely caught the blast and returned it to him, knocking him back several yards. He wickedly laughed.
"I am the Elder God of the Air," he declared, "and you thought you could use my element as a weapon to hurt me?" He twisted his wrist with a flourish, and with the motion, a terrible, electric pain surged through every nerve in Fujin's body, in every muscle fiber. An agonized scream escaped his lungs, dragging on for eons in his mind. Ten seconds passed. Then twenty, then thirty. Finally, the pain began to drift away like the tide, leaving only his twitching body in its wake.
"Morgan," he strained to say as he let his arm fall towards her, grasping.
"It has been many eons since last I saw you, Fujin," Shinnok now said. "You were barely more than a child, a mewling, petulant brat who always defied me. The breadth of your vision was painfully narrow. And yet, in spite of the years, you have not grown at all. I still find you as weak as I did then. How pathetic you are."
The Elder God's hand instantly shot out, prompting an invisible force to curl around his son's middle and then squeeze like an anaconda as he yanked him to him. The pain was like a sharp-toothed monster eating its way through him, and he howled again, finally rousing Morgan. Meanwhile, Shinnok lifted the Wind God up to his nose and sniffed the immortal ichor dripping from his injuries while his youngest son continued to writhe. Then he threw him to the side, his nose wrinkled in disgust. "I can smell your mother's imprint on you," he hissed at the Wind God and then threw him onto his back several feet away. "Soon enough, I will destroy her too."
"Father," Fujin pleaded, still grimacing as he pressed his palm to his bleeding abdomen, "stop this madness. Repent and take your place amongst the Elder Gods once more. You don't have to do this."
Shinnok slightly cocked his head. "But I want to, Fujin," he replied. "My darkness will spread over the Realms, and they will all learn the truth of Death."
"We'll stop you," he stubbornly replied as he forced himself to his feet. "I will stop you."
"Honor thy father, Fujin!" he coldly spat before thrusting out his amulet once more.
This time, however, instead of exploding outward, an unseen force yanked the Wind God's feet from beneath him and then dragged him towards the amulet in a shower of reddish-orange sparks. New pain zipped through Fujin, and it hurt so much that he could hardly negotiate the raw landscape that strobed in and out of focus all around him. That hateful colorful energy penetrated his skin and attacked his very divinity. The light inside of him - the light of all the stars, the light of the winds of Heaven, the light of Creation itself - threatened to shatter like a fragile piece of glass. Somehow, he felt every jagged edge slicing apart his insides. His immortal ichor began to gush from his nose. In spite of himself, he screamed again.
"You should have joined me, my son," he hissed.
And then, a thick branch of forked lightning crashed from the sky, striking Shinnok directly in the head, knocking him backwards and breaking his connection to the Wind God. The white glow was totally blinding, the roaring thunder deafening. Blue-white showers of sparks rained on his head. It blasted the Elder God back several yards, stunning him...for now, anyway.
While their father's body smoldered, Raiden quickly knelt at his brother's side, lifting him to his feet. "Get everyone to the portal," he commanded. "I will delay Shinnok for as long as I can. If I do not return, carry on in my stead as Earthrealm's Protector once more."
Fujin momentarily thought about arguing with his brother, but he caught a glance at his daughter being lifted to her feet by Olivia and Jiayi. He turned and looked at her, wanting nothing more than to protect her, and her alone, from his father. Quickly, he returned his attention to Raiden and nodded his head.
"I will do as you've asked, Brother," he replied. "Good luck," he added a moment later and then hobbled to his Champions as fast as he could.
Meanwhile, Shinnok had recovered from the shock of Raiden's attack and sneered at his oldest son. "And there's my other greatest mistake," he ominously said. Then, without warning, he launched himself into the air and soared at the Thunder God's middle, dragging him into the sky.
"Daddy!" Morgan yelled at him as he joined them and then quickly hugged her. "You're hurt." Her forehead furrowed in worry as she pressed her palm to his belly to staunch the bleeding, but he batted her hand away and tugged on her sleeves.
"Hurry, Morgan!" he barked at her and then glanced at the other two. "There's no time."
The four of them paid no attention to the titanic battle being fought above them, and once again started making their way to the palace wall and the portal beyond. It never occurred to Fujin to conjure his own portal to Earthrealm, and that was simply because he couldn't now even if he tried. Shinnok's attacks against him had weakened his already muted powers, so he was just as dependent on Raiden to save him as the mortals were. He barely had enough power of his own to ward off the persistent enemy warriors still closing in on them. Hurting though he was, he still dutifully ushered his own warriors through the danger. Hundreds of warriors from Earthrealm and Seido fled for their lives, finally reaching the palace wall without further delay. Even many of the Edenians and Outworlders - who had only been fighting because Reiko had compelled them with lies - threw down their weapons and abandoned the battle now that their General was dead. Their safety, all least for the moment, seemed all but assured.
And then, like a comet hurtling to the ground from space, Raiden flew through the air with a startled scream - blasted by the Elder God - and crashed into the ground below the cliff in a quaking explosion. And with the Thunder God vanquished, Shinnok returned his attention to Fujin once more.
The attack happened so fast that neither the Wind God, nor the Champions he was fleeing with, saw it coming. A fearsome cracking, not unlike the shattering of some great mountain, echoed from behind them, followed by shocked and fearful cries from the warriors ahead. They scattered in all directions, hurling themselves clear of the sudden danger. Many reached for their weapons, but to little avail. Before the echoes of that crack had faded, it was replaced and overwhelmed by what seemed, at first, to be the dull rumble of rolling thunder. And then the ground shook so hard that the precarious shelf nearby broke off and changed the geography of the plateau in an instant. From that chaos, Shinnok returned.
With a deep grunt, the Elder God thrust his amulet at Fujin again, throwing his power at his own son with all his divine might. The massive energy wave soared into him and slammed him with devastating force. The Wind God now flew, but not because he had willed it. He tumbled in surprise through the palace wall, finally shattering it completely. Stone and sand exploded in a billowing cloud of organic shrapnel. The Champions there - led by Sub-Zero, Smoke, and Kailyn - stood ready to defend the portal but recoiled with a chorus of cries as they were briefly blinded, their exposed flesh slashed and bruised. Fujin, however, fell under large slabs of rock and was crushed and pinned by enough weight that even he would find it difficult to break loose.
Olivia had never felt such fear in her life - not when she'd been kidnapped and dragged to Outworld by Reiko, not when she'd been lost in the dark in the tunnels below the Red Desert and tormented by the yurei, not even when she'd laid dying in her father's arms in Z'Unkarah. Her fear now was borne of pure despair. She kept looking over her shoulder at Shinnok, who was pursuing them as they climbed over the fallen wall after he had made short work of Fujin. She turned with jerky, marionette strides, her heart painfully pounding in her chest, her broken ribs poking her lungs, and saw him persistently following. It spurred her to limp even faster, even though her legs had turned to jelly with fright. Almost as if to comfort herself, she somehow grabbed Morgan's hand, and the two young women ran as if they were little girls running from make-believe monsters.
Holding her up on her left side, Jiayi yelled, "We're almost there!"
Olivia looked ahead and saw, to her relief, that he was right. They were so close to the portal now that she could clearly see the twisting edges of the event horizon bleeding off into space. Waiting for them was her father, her Uncle Tomas and Aunt Kailyn, the other Earthrealm Champions, and Hotaru, all of whom, upon first glance, looked battered, and all of whom stood ready to fight Shinnok. The Grandmaster yelled for them to run faster, and he motioned for them to hurry while his other hand curled around a massive kori sword. Obediently, she pushed her wobbly legs to work even harder.
But then there was another blinding explosion followed by another shockwave, and once more, she found herself flying through the air. This time, her body snapped into a ruined slab of stone wall and she slumped to the ground. She didn't even realize at first that she'd just cracked her shoulder blade and clavicle. Close by, Jiayi was groaning as he lifted a small slab of stone off his middle. Beside her, Morgan was wailing in pain as she clutched her knee to her chest; it had clearly ripped open on one of the broken rocks, and torn tendons and stringy bits of muscle dangled from the wound like old shoelaces that had frayed at the ends. Tears streamed down her face. Olivia's heart lurched. There was no way her cousin was walking on her own now.
Sinister laughter echoed around them on ill winds, mocking them. The Cryomancer's eyes were transfixed on the Elder God's as he stalked towards them like a hungry tiger ready to pounce. She scarcely heard their parents screaming for them to run. And when it was apparent to them that the younger Champions couldn't move, Sub-Zero, Smoke, and Kailyn charged forward to help them. It was a futile effort. Shinnok batted his hand at them as if shooing away a fly, and in response, an invisible force scattered them in all directions.
And then the Elder God sneered at Morgan. "Serve me, Granddaughter," he began, "and I might consider allowing your father to live through this."
Tears streamed down the Hydromancer's cheeks as she looked up at him in abject terror. But she gulped down her fear and her expression hardened to one of defiance. "Not in a thousand years," she bravely replied, though her voice wavered with pain.
"Pity," he coldly replied. "Such wasted potential."
With that, he flashed his amulet at them and, like it had earlier with Fujin, began yanking her towards it.
"Morgan!" Olivia shrieked at her cousin while the Hydromancer wailed as that invisible hand dragged her towards her grandfather.
In spite of the flaring heat in her ribs and shoulder, the Cryomancer lunged for her and managed to catch her hand in her good one to stop her movement. Unfortunately, it did no good. Shinnok's will never wavered, and now she was also being sucked towards the jewel. They skidded through the dusty debris and over rough stones for several feet. But then, Olivia's fingers brushed an outcropping of smooth rock and instinctively curled around it, halting their momentum for at least a moment. But the agony that ripped through her as the force continued to pull Morgan was horrific. The strain on her wounded shoulder seared through her back and her spine. She absorbed the trauma and fought it down, though her agonized cries now matched her cousin's. Deep down, she knew she just physically couldn't hold on for much longer.
As if reading her mind, Jiayi jumped on her then to share the burden. He gripped Morgan's black flak jacket tightly to give Olivia some relief. Even still, the power within Shinnok's amulet shook them loose of the rock and stubbornly pulled them even harder towards him. Thinking quickly, the Crown Prince formed a massive kori sword on par with Sub-Zero's, and he jammed it into the ground to anchor them in place. With one hand, he clung to the handle, and with the other, he held Olivia tightly to him.
But the Elite was only concerned about her cousin, whom she struggled to hold onto. "Morgan!" she cried as tears streamed down her face.
"Livy!" she howled back as she tried to grasp something to hold onto with her free hand. She somehow managed to curl her palm around her cousin's wrist.
But it was no use. Tundra saw her slide out of her grip, the sweat and the natural oils in their skin cursing them now. "Jay!" she screamed for him to help, but there was nothing he could do. He had no free hands to save Morgan.
When Shinnok's power snapped their connection, the world slowed to a standstill as if time had been caught in molasses. The Hydromancer's hands slipped from Livy's, and she shrieked as the amulet violently yanked her to it one final time before easily gobbling her up. She vanished in a cloud of fire and starbursts, her voice long and terrified before being abruptly silenced. Someone else began screaming. This time, the Cryomancer dully realized, it was her Aunt Kailyn wailing in grief behind her. The Tetrach's voice somehow managed to drown out her own. Tundra wailed and wept, her logic long forgotten, drowning in a sea of despair and grief.
It was Jiayi who kept his wits about him. As soon as Shinnok took Morgan, he somehow conjured the strength to pull Livy to his kori sword, holding her tightly with one hand as he yelled at her to grab the hilt. They weren't out of this yet; the Air God hadn't relented just because he took his own granddaughter's life. He wickedly laughed, taunting them, now yanking on them as hard as he could. Their own fingers began to slip now too. When Tundra's hands gripped the handle, the Crown Prince snarled as he let her go long enough to throw an ice ball at the Elder God.
He didn't have to. Just as soon as it struck him, Frost darted from the shadows and impaled Shinnok from behind with her narrow pickaxe, her eyes maniacal and dark, cackling like a madwoman. As soon as he fell to the ground with the weapon lodged through his chest, she leapt onto his back like a spider monkey, clawing at his mottled face with her fingernails. Momentarily startled, he struggled against her before finally throwing her off and onto her back. Then with an annoyed scowl, he yanked the weapon from his body and then stalked towards her. With quick reflexes, the Cryomancer formed a kori dagger in her hands and drove it right into his stomach as he stood over her. It didn't hurt him just as the pickaxe hadn't hurt him. But he looked at the weapon in wonder, almost bewildered by the attack.
While he was distracted, Frost kipped up and ran towards her niece. "Get out of here!" she hissed. "Give this to the Grandmaster," she added as she shoved the Dragon Medallion into the Crown Prince's hands. He barely even glanced at it before his attention returned to Tundra, who was still sobbing on the ground for Morgan. Blessedly, she let Jiayi lift her back to her feet and the two hobbled towards the portal, almost there.
Shinnok yanked the kori dagger from his body and then shook his head. "Oh, she's got to go," he muttered as he stalked towards her once again.
With her own wicked smile, Frost slowly turned around to face him. "Here comes trouble," she said, her voice psychotic and sinisterly playful.
With that, she aimed twin jets of cryogenic energy at the Air God that were met by his amulet's fire. The two forces crashed into one another in the space between them, the cold freezing the flames, the flames coiling around the ice. She shrieked as she stood her ground, but her cries were not those of pain. Rather, her hate washed over her, amplified by the darkness within. Oh, how good it felt to let the monster out of its cage! And as she thought it, her soul drunk in and drowned in the poison overtaking her. Shinnok was obviously stronger than she was, and she could never sustain this for as long as he could. But it didn't matter. She was dead anyway.
Nearby, Kuai Liang waved for Olivia and Jiayi to hurry as the others finally retreated through Raiden's portal. Tomas had already dragged Kailyn, who had fallen into hysterics, through. He felt similarly; killing Bi-han had left him screaming inside. Traitorous tears still betrayed him, streaking down his face, washing his filthy cheeks clean. His guilt was already an ocean drowning him. As he took his precious daughter's hand in his, he pulled her tightly to him, hoping she could hold him up like a life raft in a tumultuous sea. Something inside of him was fractured so deeply that he knew there would never be any hope of repairing it, and he was dead at sea. She, in turn, held onto him in much the same way, sobbing against his chest, sobbing with him, the horrible reality of the world long since forgotten.
Finally, though, he pulled himself away from her and, wiping his eyes, said, "Jiayi, get her out of here."
"Not without you!" she stubbornly cried as the Crown Prince wrapped his hand around her elbow.
"I have to get your aunt," he told her. "I'll be right behind you. That's an order, Tundra! Now go!"
She didn't like his answer, and she started to limp to his side before Jiayi physically lifted her off the ground and carried her through the portal, screaming for her father. Kuai Liang, trembling in shock but relief that the prince had saved her, relaxed slightly as he now watched Shinnok counter Frost's attack. The Elder God threw his arms up and with them followed a series of skulls launched into the air like rockets. They exploded beneath his sister's feet, knocking her to the ground as he leapt into the air above her and then drove his booted feet into her belly. Suddenly, ghastly skeletal hands wreathed in flames burst from the ground beneath her and gripped her body tightly. She cried out in shock as he stomped the side of her face.
"Miyuki!" Kuai Liang shouted from the portal.
The Cryomancer, fixed into place, shrieked in determination, sending a chill up her brother's spine. It had been decades since he last heard her terrible war cries piercing the battlefield. That was back when she was consumed by evil and completely remorseless. That was back when she was a ruthless, indiscriminate murderer.
Resourceful as always, Frost didn't let something as small as undead hands defeat her; tendrils of ice raced from her palms, expanding outward, freezing over the ground and the hellspawn in an instant. Then she kipped up with a shot and threw her right hand towards Shinnok, sending a jet of cryogenic energy at him as she landed. As predicted, the Air God gracefully flipped from its path, so the Cryomancer tried again. Finally, she squealed in frustration, threw out both hands, and aimed twin jets of ice towards her enemy. This time, she caught her target and maniacally laughed as his body dropped in a frozen ball to the ground.
Now Sub-Zero ran towards Shinnok at top speed, hoping to shatter him and neutralize him for the time being. But just before he reached him, the Elder God exploded free of his tomb, stepped completely around, and rigidly extended his arm so that the Cryomancer clotheslined himself on it. The Grandmaster's body unwillingly flipped up feet-first, and he slammed into the ground on his back so hard that he struggled to breathe. Even though the threat was writhing on the ground, choking, Shinnok managed to utter some ancient words while he punched at the air above him, prompting a battery of burning skulls to explode from the floor and knock him into the air. Sub-Zero soon landed on his side, groaning.
From the side of them, Raiden and Fujin - who'd both recovered enough to fight again - attacked their father as one, but he aptly defended himself by throwing a right hook at the latter before spinning into a back fist aimed at the former. As both of his sons staggered from the powerful blows, Shinnok then snap-kicked Raiden before he jumped up high and hooked a leg around his opponent's neck. His grip was firm and he easily slammed his enemy into the floor when they both fell to it. But Fujin took advantage of his superior posture and immediately gripped Shinnok's shoulders before he kneed him in the face and then cracked his elbow into the back of his skull. The blow actually dazed the Elder God, and stars swam through his vision as the Wind God followed with a swift kick to the ribs and another one to the face.
Shinnok quickly kipped up to face his opponents. Yet again, they charged him from different angles, but this time, he waited until they had nearly reached them. Then, he jumped and simultaneously did the splits, kicking them both in the face. As they staggered, the Elder God sprang backwards onto his hands and let his body flow into a cartwheel that put him into a perfect fighting stance.
That was when the two Cryomancer siblings attacked him as one. Sub-Zero had slid through an icy tomb to emerge in the Air God's face, punching him in the chin with a ferocious uppercut. When he fell backwards, Frost, who was behind him, caught his forehead and pulled him down onto her knee, slamming the back of his head on her kneecap. It stunned him for a moment, but with astonishing reflexes, he reached up and trapped her head in his hands, pulling her over his body as he stood. He then lifted her body off the ground by the neck, letting her feet dangle. Her brother launched himself on an icy slide towards him to stop him, but without even looking at him, Shinnok deflected his blow and violently hurled him to the side. Raiden and Fujin met similar fates when they attacked from the flanks.
"Your blood turns more to poison with each passing second," the Elder God jeered. "The Netherrealm has infected you. Soon, you will belong to it, and to me as well."
"Yeah?" she croaked as he firmly gripped her by her throat and held her fast above the ruined stones. "Get fucked." As soon as she said it, she spat in his face.
An expression of disgust fell across his face and he glared at her before he ominously pulled her closer to him. "You first," he murmured as his eerie white eyes pierced through hers. With a simple flick of his wrist, he instantly snapped her head to the side, breaking her neck.
"No!" Sub-Zero cried as he reached for her body, which Shinnok had already tossed to the side like garbage.
While Raiden and Fujin attacked their father again, he crawled to her lifeless corpse and slumped beside her. Those piercing blue eyes were already dark, blankly looking up to the polluted sky. Trembling, he closed them and then frantically stroked her hair as if to comfort her. Fresh tears streaked down his face. The sound that came out of him now was choked and smothered, like that of a beast of burden carrying an enormous weight. He found that he couldn't breathe.
Raiden and Fujin were knocked out of the battle quickly enough, if one could call this one-sided humiliation a battle. Shinnok drilled them into the ground on either side of the Grandmaster before flashing his amulet again, turning his full attention on them all. Still clinging to his dead sister, Sub-Zero tiredly looked up at him, praying to join his siblings quickly. To his left, Fujin was holding his wounded abdomen and struggling to breathe from a newer wound bored through his chest. He was weeping, the Cryomancer saw. To his right, Raiden was slower to recover; trembling like a newborn fawn, he fought to push himself back up but found that he couldn't, so he collapsed into the debris again. Shinnok merely laughed at them all, holding his amulet up to suck them into it.
And then, the white and blue clad meteor landed between his brother and his Champions again. The familiar sound of ocean surf teased their ears when he arrived. Himavat was not alone. The Elder Goddesses, Toci and Cetrion, burning orange and green with the might of fire and earth, their bodies like dragons until they landed on the ground, flanked him. The three of them glared at their rebellious brother and held up their hands to him. The Cryomancer couldn't tell who was more surprised by this development - him or the lesser gods on either side of him.
Shinnok's eyes widened in surprise while Himavat glanced over his shoulder at his three warriors. "Get out of here now," he barked at them.
Raiden nodded and laboriously climbed to his feet, curling his hand around Fujin's elbow, helping him up. Kuai Liang pushed himself up of his own volition, and together, the three hobbled towards the portal. Before crossing the event horizon, the Grandmaster risked a glance back and saw the fallen Elder God back away from his siblings uneasily before sliding into a fighting stance with his amulet raised to strike. In response, the other three raised their hands to shoot out colorful, ethereal blasts of energy at him, which he met with his own. And then Raiden yanked him through the portal, depositing him in the main hangar in Ft. Albany where hundreds of survivors were already waiting, and the portal collapsed from existence.
There was no time for rest. Kuai Liang looked around for his children, and especially for his oldest daughter, who was gravely wounded. "Livy!" he shouted for her. "Livy!"
He ran off the platform where the portal ring was erected and frantically started searching for her. Maybe the medics had already taken her to the hospital wing for treatment, but it was doubtful. The warriors' unexpected arrival in Ft. Albany had caused nothing short of bedlam in the hangar, and Army Rangers were dashing around, desperately trying to restore some semblance of order. Humans, Seidans, Edenians, and Outworlders milled around, some wandering in shock, many more huddled on the ground, weeping. Medics clad in fatigues and stethoscopes, many carrying first-aid kits, rushed around to examine people, triaging them to determine who needed the most help and when.
As Kuai Liang searched for his own daughter, he saw Kailyn on her knees near the gate platform, her face buried in her hands, her fingers tangled in her hair, rocking back and forth as she wailed in Tomas' arms for her lost daughter. Fujin quickly found her and wrapped his arms around the two of them, sobbing and apologizing profusely to her for failing her. The Cryomancer understood that pain - he had lived through that nightmare once himself - but he doubted there was a way to restore Morgan to the land of the living like Livy had been restored. But he couldn't allow himself to think on that now. His own heart lurched with grief for Morgan and Miyuki and most of all, Bi-han. If he allowed himself to think about the pain for one second, he'd collapse too. And his children needed him to stay on his feet.
"Livy!" he shouted again, his desperation rising. Then the crowd parted slightly and he saw her. "Livy!" he screamed and this time, she slowly limped around to look at him. Her eyes were sunken in and red-rimmed, but it was their blueness that struck him. Her tears had deepened their color into the most vibrant sapphires he'd ever seen, and a single tear streaked down her cheek, dripped off her chin, and fell onto the ground. "Livy," he breathed as he ran to her.
"Daddy," she whimpered when he gathered her into his arms.
Blistering relief stole his legs from beneath him, and finally he collapsed to his knees, taking her with him. She immediately threw her good arm around him and buried her face on his chest, bawling against him as he gently pressed her head to him and buried his own face in her hair. It reeked of smoke and sweat and blood. He didn't care. His heart hurt in a way that no medicine could help. It was like there was a hole drilled into the center of his soul, an unending pit that kept going and going, tempting him to fall in and get lost in the echo of those he lost. Because they were gone. At the thought, he clung tighter to his daughter, now sobbing too.
MKDemiGodzilla-Warrior, haha, yeah, it was pretty gruesome. It was inspired by my job, seeing inmates yank out their own intestines. It's uh...it's something else to see. And yeah, Cassie and Jacqui were always destined to kill Mileena and Tanya, and I'm glad they did. I hate those two characters, and I also hate their stans even more. So yeah, they had to go. Gave me a chance to include Cassie's fatality from MKX.
Obelisk of Light, thanks! All those fights were the chief reason for my long delay in updating. They just get really hard to write sometimes and I become overwhelmed with the need to procrastinate LOL And yeah, Reiko definitely deserved such a brutal comeuppance. I've known from the beginning that this was how I was going to end him. I'm so glad I finally got to depict that in a chapter. Shinnok's arrival was a cliffhanger, but hopefully his behavior in this update terrifies my readers ;)
Praxus84, thank you! You may have a point there about Mileena begging. It just seemed like the right way to go at the time, but now I'm second guessing that decision because she is pretty proud and defiant. Maybe Kotal will reward Cassie, though. I haven't thought that far ahead, though, to be honest LOL
alwaysdoubted, my goal for that chapter was to show real girl fights, not stereotypical girl fights. I wanted all our female characters, both good and bad, to really showcase their badassery. I think I accomplished that, and especially with Cassie and Jacqui vs. Mileena and Tanya. Also, it gave me an ample excuse to off those two characters because I loathe them both to the core. Frost, on the other hand, was tricky because I wanted to show her cheese starting to slide off her cracker while allowing her to remain one of the heroes. I hope with her fight with Reiko, I adequately conveyed that she was starting to become FROST again while also remaining honorable. It was definitely a challenge.
Pom Rania, I'll have to check that person out, but I haven't been on dA for ages, not gonna lie LOL And yeah, like I told MKDemiGodzilla-Warrior above, Reiko's gruesome ending was inspired by me observing inmates in the prison where I work rip out their own intestines. It's even worse to see than it sounds...