Dealing with the choices of others is the price of our freedom. In the game of time, there is only one path that can be taken, but how we fall on that road was never up to us until Liu Kang and I created a fork in the road for time to stray.
This is not the best timeline, but it is the only one left to us now. My hands stretch across all of Outworld to hold it together like a mother, as my mother had in Edenia.
Now, the natural born Kitana of this timeline has gone missing, and King Jerrod, an idle king struck with grief and panic. My spies within the realms could find nothing on what had caused this disappearance, but one can only imagine, with a mind like my own, that Kitana would have sought answers to the death of her mother and the annihilation of order in her own way.
Now, as we wait for news, I sit at the council with the only people that know this dark secret to the origin of time. Raiden, Fujin, Goro, and Liu Kang sat quietly at the long table in the meeting hall. Once my seat was taken, Liu Kang glanced over, as though to see if I were ready.
This will be a difficult meeting, for the fate of Outworld will be decided, and the fate of Edenia.
After a moment to take in the stale air as night fell upon us and the torches lit from window to window until the room shivered with warm light, we began.
"My spy within Ko'atal's army has sent word that he passed into Earth Realm thirty nights ago." The news I had laid before the council for them to collect.
"Who leads the army in his stead?" Goro pondered.
"A blood witch known as Skarlet, and the Edenian traitor Rain, son of Argus." As powerful as Skarlet had become, she was not the woman that had trained under Shao Kahn when we first met. Rain, however, the traitor he had become, was still the son of the god that would bring Armageddon to the realms. He would be the greater threat.
"The locations of Daegon and Taven are still unknown." Liu Kang chimed in. He added, "it would appear that Armegeddon, if activated, may not play out as it did initially."
"It may still happen." Raiden added.
"Why has Ko'atal crossed realms?" Goro asked, he cared only to focus our conversation to discuss the war and the eventual battle with Ko'atal and Skarlet's forced.
"To resurrect Jade from the Nether Realm." This was harder to say, as the memory of my dear friend flooded my busy mind with nothing but her voice, and her presence. She may have followed Ko'atal, but she stepped forth with love, and I cannot blame her for that.
"He must be seeking the Spirit Walker known as Nightwolf." Raiden pondered and leaned back, fingers rubbed at his chin in deep thought. "It may be the last thing he does."
"Honestly," I broke ranks for candor, "I wish him success in his endeavor."
Liu Kang caught my gaze. He understood the gesture, the feeling behind my words as we had been close once before and he knew all of my secrets, my desires, my love for my friends and family, but then put his hand on the table and spoke up, "this is the time to strike his army."
"It is." Goro agreed, and nodded toward the Fire God, which then turned back toward me, "it makes strategical sense."
"With what army, Goro? Edenia has sided with Ko'atal, my own people fear for their lives. The will of the people is not on my side."
"The army of the Shokan!" He bellowed, "what army do you think carried you this far to victory?"
"The Shokan," I then saw his eyes narrow as my next words crossed him, "and the Tarkatan, of whom have lost faith in my ability to lead them."
"What keeps you on that throne then, Kitana, if you believe the city has already fallen?" Raiden tried to draw forth from my heart the answer, but this is a question I had yet to truly know the answer to myself.
"What drives any of us?" My eyes struck Liu, "we have not known each other's hearts since the realms reformed, and Raiden, I have tried to kill you in my own foolishness. I am human, even as I have borrowed the power of a God."
"A gift, Kitana," Liu Kang reminded. "I split my power with you so we could spend the eons together."
"Immortality," Raiden suggested, "is not always a gift."
"You handled it just fine, Raiden." Liu Kang responded, then all eyes turned toward me. "What are we doing, Kitana Kahn?"
"Waiting." The only word I could think, as my thoughts fell upon the natural born Kitana of this timeline. She was me, which means she was also destined to become Queen of Edenia, just as I had hoped I could be. She held power in that realm, and held love and faith within the people of Outworld. Most importantly, she understand my path and how we had gotten to this point. "We must wait for Kitana. She is loyal and she will convince Edenia to side with us in the coming war."
"Kitana has gone missing, my Kahn." Goro added, and though he was not wrong, I held out faith that this girl was very much like me and merely on a mission to discover the truth on her own, as i would have. "Do we sit here even as the witch knocks on the doors of the palace with the city burning behind her?"
He had a point.
"Listen to Goro, Kitana." Raiden advised, "we cannot sit idle while their army grows bigger."
All of this was true. Ko'atal had amassed a greater army than I across the ocean, and even if we had the realm of Edenia behind us, that would merely give us refuge, not aid in the war.
Something had to be done now.
"Raiden," his human eyes locked on mine, "for many years you have advised us throughout the realms and through many different timelines. You gave up your power without question to save all life, from Earth Realm to the Nether Realm, what would you do?"
"I only did what I thought was right, but not before making many mistakes that weren't." He then added, with a grave tone in his voice, "you should bend the knee to Kotal Kahn."
"Traitor!" Goro slammed his two massive lower fists down onto the hard wood between he and Raiden and pushed his seat back, but my hand stayed him. He would listen, or he would be asked to leave.
"Go on." I had urged the former Thunder God.
"There is no good outcome in war with Kotal Kahn, for either of you." He added, "but together, you can protect the realms far better than at each other's throats."
"You propose I work with Ko'atal? We have seen the kind of realm he rules before."
"It is tough, yes, but it is fair. He is a just ruler and I might remind you, that he stepped down without question when you proved to be the greater shoulders from which Outworld could lean on." Raiden then adjusted this statement, to create the loophole for myself, "he is not our enemy, and would be a great ally in coming wars. He will keep you as his greatest advisor, and next in line for the throne should he fall in battle as he had against Shao Kahn in the fight against Kronika."
"And if he doesn't?" Goro wasn't there. He did not trust this, but Raiden was right.
"I can understand that position, Raiden, and thank you for your guidance." The next words must be chosen carefully, as it would decide the fate of this realm. "I chose to lead Outworld to protect it from Shao Kahn, Onaga, and Armageddon. To quell the forces of the Deadly Alliance, and the eventually the Black and Red Dragon Clans. I thought I could do that by myself, but that's proving far more difficult than I'd like to admit."
"It's okay to ask for help, Kitana." Liu Kang chimed in.
This was a harder statement to accept than the fire in his eyes when he still looked at me.
"Before this timeline, Goro, Kotal Kahn and I were great allies, and I do not harbor hatred for him, merely stubbornness toward the idea of him ruling."
"Then why are we here and not groveling before the army of traitors?" Goro was not pleased, but strategically he could understand, somehow, some way.
"Because I still hold out hope that Kitana can be found and with the backing of Edenia, at least ensure we do not go to war with Ko'atal, and rather find a peaceful solution."
"If the witch comes knocking instead of Ko'atal?" Raiden pondered, as he knew Skarlet from a different timeline was far different than the one that had been molded by the events in this one.
"I will treat her with respect, but I will not bend the knee to her, only Ko'atal." I added with bitter emphasis, "Rain however, must be imprisoned."
"This timeline will not survive Armageddon." Raiden warned.
"None of them did." Liu Kang looked to us all, with the eyes of a man that had seen the events unfold through countless battles against Raiden.
"Then it is agreed, that our true enemy is Taven, Daegon, and Rain. If not them, then the role they play in the destruction of the realms. Kotal Kahn must be made aware of everything." The indication did not sit well with Goro, but he came to understand when he was told. Hopefully Ko'atal would find Jade in his journey, so that when he returned to meet my peaceful surrender, he too would come to understand. "Let us adjourn for the night. Thank you, all of you, for all that you've done, and all you have become."
Raiden and I had made amends after the battle at the coliseum. It was difficult to admit that he was not the reason for all of the problems that have plagued me since the etching of this timeline. It was my own stubbornness that would not accept that in creating a world of true freedom, it meant that I could not not truly control it.
Liu Kang had accepted this long before I had, and for a long time I hated him for it, but even still, it was Raiden I took it out on, because it was Raiden I could hurt.
He was the one I thanked most as we parted ways. Goro, I had trusted with my life and secrets, but for now, he would have to stand alone and ponder the discussion had this evening. He would understand, but that anger of his must subside first. Goro, my dearest friend, you will find the light in this darkness, just as I had.
Liu Kang had stayed behind and shut the door behind the gargantuan Shokan Prince. He had done so without my knowledge as I stood by the the last lit torch at a squarely hewn window in the stone meeting hall. From here, I could look over the coliseum and even see some of the lights of the city beyond it, but I could not see his intentions as he approached and rested his hands on the stone window to look out with me.
"You were dismissed, Lord Liu Kang." I reminded him.
"I have not been the God Raiden thought I would be." He said, eyes still out to the coliseum, not once strayed toward me. This caught me off guard.
"What do you mean?"
"Kitana," he finally turned toward me, leaned himself against the hewn window sill and looked into the dim light reflected from my eyes, "I had failed you as well."
"No, you were right. We can't keep going back and refreshing time."
"No, not that! Fate only moves in one direction, but so should have our hearts."
It was too late for this talk. My feelings toward Liu Kang had disintegrated, and all that was left was respect for a friend I once knew. To see his eyes like this, the way he looked at me, perhaps he had thought about the past today, and that made him think about how things could have been.
"I don't love you anymore." He admitted. "I stopped loving you many timelines ago."
"Same." My throat tightened, but the feelings were mutual.
"I love the thought of you. The people we were before all of this."
I'll admit, during the tournament, that silly little Mortal Kombat tournament in 1995 was so simple, and so perfect for us to meet, to come together, to discover new worlds that had never been available to us beforehand, such as love. However, I am not that Kitana anymore.
"I miss how simple things were. No Shao Kahn, Onaga, or any of the complications that just spiraled out of control into this awful mess we live in now." He turned back toward the night. "I wish I could go back to that."
"We can't, Liu." I added, "even if we turned back time, you would still be the Fire God that stands before me."
This silenced him. His eyes became downcast toward the coliseum grounds as mine shifted up toward the moon and stars.
"I'm sorry Liu, but I don't miss not knowing who we are, what's to come, and having no idea."
"Seems we don't know that now." He snipped at me, quietly, but those were words with fangs behind them. I chose to ignore it, as a beacon was lit beyond the coliseum walls.
"Liu." He followed the path my finger pointed out toward and then suddenly another beacon was lit.
"War?"
"No!" My chest expanded with elation, it wasn't war, but an answer!
Quickly, I rushed out of the room, and hastily traversed the long stone staircase to the third floor, the open meeting room with the portal doors wide open for all to enter. Here I would meet the public, greet visitors and finally see her again.
With Tarkatans at her side, a young woman in blue and black was brought before me. She held a small burlap-like sack that looked stained in blood, but had been many, many nights ago. Her face was covered by a mask, blue and richly woven like the silk of Edenia. It was Kitana!
She had finally returned from whatever journey she felt needed to be taken and trusted me with the answers she had sought. With authority I stood still, but with glee I smiled and my eyes lit as I welcomed her.
"Kitana of Edenia, welcome to Outworld. We have missed you."
She stood there, as if frozen. Her eyes scanned the surrounding and then looked into mine. She did not have the gaze of the princess of Edenia, but of a wild animal.
As soon as our eyes met, I felt the need to avert, and scrutinize her entire being. The clothing was old, and dirty, scabbed by the streets of the city. She had been here longer than I expected. Her stance was different than that of a princess, and when she looked at me again, I could see that they did not know me.
"Kitana?" I stepped forward.
"You wish!"
The woman stepped forth as the Tarkatans backed toward the door to stand guard. The sack was opened and the fabric unfurled. Out fell from the wretched confines a head that, despite the blood pooled in the fabric, had not rotted. Someone intended me to see this.
The head rolled to face me. My own face stated back, cold, dead.
Kitana had returned.
"Seize her!" I rushed forth and the Tarkatans reacted with haste.
The girl lunged between the three of us and toward the windows, which like everywhere else in the castle, were open and wide and enough for her to lunge out of with great speed.
The girl fell, head first, and waited a painful landing, but before I could see her land, my eyes were struck by a bright green light that formed beneath the girl. Her silhouette suddenly taken by the green energy as though it had pulled her into a different dimension.
Was that a new Mileena?
"Kitana!" Liu Kang raced into the room, but his voice was not thrown toward me, but toward the lifeless head of Edenia's princess.
With every choice a path has been taken from me. Freedom felt like a box to suffocate in. The walls closed in with every second I stared back into the eyes of my mortal self until all I could see was darkness.
What happens now, I have no idea.