There came a time when I thought Lord Raiden could do no wrong. He had saved us many times from Shang Tsung's henchman on the island, and so many more between then and the invasion of Shao Kahn to Earth Realm, but that is when things began tear away at us.

Had I known the choices he made were merely human, were really just a man that desperately tried to do what's right, I would not have acted the way I had. Perhaps we would not have reached this point in our journey where my mentors has aged, and I am now a God, the God he once was.

Every moment he takes a breath, a mortal man, I have learned to savor the wisdom shared in them. When he is gone, there will be no Lord Raiden, there will be no Elder Gods to consult, no protector of Earth Realm to do what is right, even if it means doing the worst thing imaginable to assure a better outcome for all.

It's strange, these moments I spend with him, like now as we walk along the streets of Outworld's city beyond the Coliseum and watch as the lower city erupts in protest and the well-off fear for their lives but still hold dear to what ever tangible strings their Kahn can provide them, I think back to those times when he would tell me little things to help me and Kung Lao in our journey. Now, in his shoes, I find myself unable to do that.

What do you tell the man that's been through everything?

"Watch out, Raiden." A stone was thrown by the rabble.

Caught in my fist, and smoldered to ash, my eyes lit with the radiance of lightning and fire, just as Raiden's had back on the island before the goons in Goro's dining hall.

"I don't think think so." My cautious words burned through them and they scattered. Do not cast stones at a God and think that it will fall lightly to the earth.

"Well caught, Lord Liu Kang." Raiden remarked, but he would have done the same.

"Raiden, I feel you have been disappointed in me, in how I've handled things." As we neared a tavern where peace and privacy would be allowed us, it was the perfect time to finally have this discussion.

His eyes, those old mortal eyes stared back into mine. Did he feel surprised that I knew? Perhaps he was glad we got out of the protest of the city before we spoke. Maybe he knew it all along and has only waited for me to finally step forward and speak first?

The two of us found a table and sturdy chairs for a god and an older man, and after a moment of shared silence, baited breath that lured the other to speak, I chimed in first.

"I have not done as you would have." This is true, and at the core, why I believe those fatherly glares at me persisted when I would do something he disapproved of, or not do anything at all.

"I am proud of your ability to hold back, Liu Kang." He finally spoke after his words were carefully chosen, "but in times like this, in the face of Onaga, Shao Kahn, and the descent of Kitana, I would have imagined you'd have done something different than stand idly by."

"At the precipice of time Kitana told me that evil would persist, no matter what we did." That moment filled my head as if it were yesterday. Our eyes, young and in love, in wealth of power for good, but, as I explained, "I learned really quickly, that the worst things imaginable can be done with the best of intentions, Raiden."

As two mugs reached our table from a load bearing bar matron, he raised it to me and smiled and old fatherly grin. He knew.

"By the elder Gods, you've got it."

"I let Kitana shape time as many times as it took her to understand what we had already agreed upon, that the fate of the realms must be left in the hands of the realms. That is what freedom really is. No more destiny, no more strings being tugged on by some higher power, just men and women jostling to find their places in life."

"And yet, sometimes, Liu Kang, you must act to preserve even that." He added, "freedom is neither, nor dumb. It is a dying child that begs for the antidote and you will always be too far away to administer it. How you chose those final moments determines the fate of that child."

"The moment the fire in my eyes burned with the desire to kill you, I realized my folly and the visions of many timelines played before my eyes. Each one, we fought. Each one we died. Each one, Kronika got her New Era." He added, "It was the moment I laid down my fists and realized that inaction at times is the best course of action, but when I gifted you my powers and destroyed my chance at eternity, I knew in that moment that it was the right choice to make."

"We could have defeated her."

"We would have lost a billion times over, Liu Kang. There are moments that you will see where you the choice you make will hurt yourself, or someone else, but it is the right choice to make. If you believe you have not found that moment yet, then I understand, but I pray to the Elder Gods before us that when it does come, you will step forth and become the Protector the realms need."

This was a lot to take in. Moments played in my head of how that time could come. Was it between Kitana and I? Would be in battle with Onaga? Would I relinquish my own Godhood to save a mere mortal, just as Raiden had?

These thoughts weighed on my shoulders and perhaps what I didn't have this whole time was that opposite perspective. My inaction was because the actions of another were so futile that I believed it moot to do anything anymore. The world will find its balance, whether an evil regime takes over and forces its citizens to suffer, or a wondrous Queen heals a damaged realm with her love and friendship of the races spread like wildflowers across this realm. No matter which, the other would find a way to ruin it, find a way back, and then be made ruins again.

Is there really a moment in time where we can finally stop this madness and save the world?

Is that what you're telling me Raiden?

At what cost does it take to finally tilt the scales to one side to the point of no return?