We live in a universe, and the universe lives within us.
The brains talk, but the will to live is dead. Fifty years ago, I can remember what it felt like to land the final punch that caused Shang Tsung's body to collapse into the sand. He looked up at me and his eyes reflected the souls of those he had defeated and I could swear I heard gratitude through the pupils of his eyes whispered in through thousands of lost voices.
We live in a universe, and the universe lives within us.
Now, the mountains of Lhasa are feeling the rain. A lot changes in fifty years, unless you don't age. Though the monks at the White Lotus have protected me, as I gaze out to the sun on another morning, the same thoughts they cannot protect me from filter through my head.
I shouldn't be alive.
The water was hot and ready to pour. My morning routine of setting the water over hot coals to boil it for tea, and then a morning of meditation and training. For fifty years I have trained to fight in Mortal Kombat. For fifty years I haven't aged a day since the defeat Shang Tsung.
This morning, the sun was still low over the horizon and the temple looked peaceful before anyone was out on their daily chores. I got up earlier and earlier each day to avoid them. My home is here, but my purpose is no longer to serve them.
Lord Liu Kang brought me back to Earthrealm after the death of the only woman I had loved. We had a child, a child I have yet to find. Probably had a child of his own somewhere. To watch her wither and curse you for your youth, despite my devotion, was heartbreaking enough. I had travelled to Outworld to seek out Shang Tsung, to offer myself to him, just for the chance to die. Lord Liu Kang saved me, and I had realized that this curse does not just pass. It must be passed on through Mortal Kombat.
My thoughts drifted with the sun. Kitana was a fair and just ruler of Outworld, and a dear friend. She upheld the tradition, but the tournament held little meaning now, other than to symbolize and hold respect for those that lost their lives and saved their realms before it. My battle with Shang Tsung was the last true tournament of Mortal Kombat before Kitana Kahn rose to power and defeated Shao Kahn for good.
How will the world end today?
As these moments of meditation pass like the many days and nights before it, I had come to see people born and die on a daily basis. Life for the lucky is just a thin and frail thing. You don't realize how fast it is until it's gone. You don't know how great it is to know you're just passing through, until you are forced to stay.
It is as though–
Someone is here.
My home by the White Lotus temple is small and modest. One room, a small alcove for a fire and food, and beyond that, it is all I've needed. There is no door, and so to see Lord Liu Kang stand at the threshold as I sip on this tea was most welcome.
It meant something important was about to happen.
Something I had waited fifty years for.
"The Great Kung Lao." He greeted me.
"Lord Liu Kang." As I had greeted him many times before.
"May I enter?" He was always welcome, but always asked.
"I was only meditating." He sat as I spoke to him and offered a tea, which he accepted kindly.
"The ship will arrive in Hong Kong in seven days. Have you prepared for your battle with Goro?"
"Your faith in me is strong to think I will reach Goro, Kitana's Shokan Prince."
"You defeated Shang Tsung, I have every reason to trust you will defeat Goro."
There was something in his voice that told me otherwise. I liked that something, I believed in it more than what he told me.
"You are trying to stack the tournament, Lord Liu Kang?" There was little reason to hide the truth, so I prodded. He had come later than anticipated. I would have been in Outworld by now had it been the last tournament.
"I have asked Raiden to enter with you."
"Raiden? He is a good fighter, perhaps he will defeat Goro." Raiden was a far better fighter than myself. He was trained by some unknown master long ago and has always had this innate ability in him that I could never match. He had history in his bones, and his combat showed.
"If one of you cannot, I trust the other will." There it was. He knew something about this tournament that I did not. Did it mean more to him to win this time than when I had defeated Shang Tsung?
"Are you that apt to defeat your former lover?"
There was a bit of ire brought out of him, but he played it calmly. "Kitana is not my concern. The victory of Mortal Kombat is. It is better to maintain Earthrealm's protections than to let it slip and allow a beast like Goro to go unchecked."
"When do we leave?" It was futile to fight it. Though the meaning behind the tournament was lost, just as the meaning behind my own life, the closer I was to that tournament, the closer I'd be to death.
"Now. Raiden is waiting for us in Hong Kong."
"May the Elder Gods be with us then, Lord Liu Kang."
All the while, I could only think with such apathy: We live in a universe, and the universe lives within us.