Blood.

It set his teeth on edge. The very sight of it, the feel of it on his flesh, the wetness that soaked into his clothing, and the drainage that flowed from the canal of Kano's skull. All of it made his eyes twitch and tick like the watch lost in time.

It felt like a blur when the guards entered and Cage had pointed upward where he saw the muzzle flash for the briefest of moments. His jaw was slack, his muscles numb, he wasn't sure what to think. This man that had already murdered couldn't comprehend this one.

What happens now?

From a darkened doorway that radiated green energy, escaped by Cage's eyes, Quan Chi emerged. His eyes cast down upon the blood of Kano, and then up at the slack body and stained metal plate around his eye. Cage noticed him and the their eyes met, then down toward the body.

Cage wasn't sure how to greet him. He hadn't seen much of Quan Chi since they arrived on the island, he had dealt near solely with Kano or Sub-Zero. Now one of them was gone.

"This happened a lot quicker than I imagined." Quan Chi stepped at the threshold of blood and stone flooring. His boots kept clean, his linen breeches dare not sag beyond the boot line and his hands tucked neatly behind his back.

"You expected this?"

"In Mortal Kombat, Johnny Cage, death is your gift."

"Cut the bullshit."

Quan Chi looked back at him, a wry smile scratched the corner of his lips.

"I have a vision for the future, John, and Kano was only a small part of it." He looked back down and bit the edge off is upper lip in deep thought.

"What part am I playing?" Cage pondered. "When do I die in your little vision?"

Quan Chi lit his thin, wormlike lips stretch and smile, and his eyes grazed Cage's.

"You don't."

"So what happens now?"

"This must have been the work of that Earthrealm girl. The blonde one that travelled with Raiden."

"Seems like."

"Find her, you lead the Black Dragon now, Johnny Cage. I'll leave her punishment up to you."

Quan Chi nodded and stepped back three times before he turned and exited from the main entrance.

Cage took in a deep stale breath littered with the taste and scent of Kano's blood. He wondered if Kano died so that his future could be realized, or if all of this was some twisted game being played by Quan Chi.

Whatever the vision was, he would move like the pawn he was into the next square and see where it took him.

Back in his chamber he had found the slave girl naked on his bed, and the fur around her body to cover the curves and flesh. Her attention was aroused then the door shut and Cage tossed his sunglasses to the floor. He was silent, and his demeanor not like it had been before. She leaned up, arms folded across her chest and prodded for information.

"What is going on out there?"

"None of your business."

"I do not leave this chamber except to bathe and to eat. I've heard the guards running up and down these halls and not a single answer. If the island is about to fall to ruin, I would like to know."

"Nothing like that. Just a girl on the run." He joined her at the bed.

He took a real good look at the rom now. The sharp details of the crags in the stone walls, the wood that had been built into it to make this chamber nicer, one of the better rooms in the spires. Quan Chi maintained the best for those that would stay in the courtyard of the island, but in this moment, he didn't mind being in this room, for a hole in the wall it was clean.

"How do you want me tonight?"

"Silent." He spat. "I'm not your master. I'm just." He paused himself and looked at his hands, the floor, the door, the little details in color that he didn't really pay attention to before. He didn't realize what he had agreed to when he took Bowie's offer at the slave trade, he didn't know what he agreed to in finding Kano's killer.

He didn't know anything.

"If I couldn't escape the island, but had to lay low, where would I go?"

Nothing.

He looked over his shoulder at the Outworld woman and half expected her to still be sat up for him to speak to her, but she had laid back, eyes closed, breasts exposed and the stillness of the air caught in her breath.

"The fuck would I know? I'm just a prisoner."

"How?"

She glared, grimaced, smirked, wasn't really sure what emotion to use at that. Why show such interest? She was a slave with only one job to perform. She had no answers, no insights, but here this fool watched her, eyes in hers and begged for the answers with them.

In his seriousness, she leaned back up and covered herself.

"I'm from a small village, we had a leader that guided us to battle under the emperor's banner." She spoke, he interrupted.

"Quan Chi?"

"Kotal Kahn." She corrected. "My village took back our word to fight for him when he was not the leader we thought he would be."

"What happened to the village?"

"Gone. I don't know what happened to our leaders."

"Maybe they were captured." He pondered, she looked to as well, but the thought was erased before she could entertain it much.

"Doesn't matter. That was five-hundred years ago."

Cage's brow furrowed at the sight of her soft, youthful flesh.

"Okay then." He muttered and pulled himself off the bed. "I have a woman to find."

"Not me." She mused.

"No, cause you're just a prisoner." He saw hurt in those eyes, her soft thin chin turned up and her sunken dark eyes narrowed as he closed the gap between the bed and the door. Before it opened he turned, paused and stared at the shades on the floor, then the woman on the bed.

"These people, Quan Chi and Total Kahn–" She interrupted him.

"Kotal Kahn."

"Yeah, that. What would they have done to punish your village leaders?"

"Either trapped in a donjon that overlooked the arena and forced to fight for their lives in combat to amuse Kotal Kahn, or if it was Quan Chi, like me, a prisoner here. Somewhere on the island."

"Somewhere here? Like, the spires?"

"No, there are no prison cells in the spires. The prisoners are sent to the dungeons beneath the courtyard. It was once the lair of a great Shokan prince. Now, who knows what it looks like in there."

"I guess I'll find out."