"Are we boring you?"
Rain lifted his head, the heavy weight of his skull over his tired shoulders cracked at the neck and tilted back as his eyes speared through Quan Chi at the head of the table in dining hall of Goro's former lair.
"You like to talk, and I know a lot of talking is going to be done here tonight, but I'm getting tired of waiting, tired of talking." Rain responded, arms folded, and all eyes on him.
"I agree." Quan Chi added, "however, meticulous planning has brought us to this point. You don't just take a face from the aging gallery and walk on down the hall, Rain."
"The is the end, of our elaborate plans." Rain pressed a finger to the ancient wood of the table and eyed Quan Chi as heated as he received. "While we toil away until you've had your fun with the Earth Realmers, Jarrod remains King of Edenia, and Kotal Kahn continues to throw my future queen in peril for his own selfish ends. I want action. I want results."
"Sindel and Kıtana gone, it's true, you could take it from Jarrod, but that would pit you against Kotal Kahn and his best lackeys Skarlet and Reiko." The sorcerer indulged the Edenian, but the others became visibly irked by the length of this conversation, the sole focus being the whining of a would be King.
"Edenia is useless. Ancient temples and lands of nothing. Should have been taken by Shao Kahn long ago." Sub-Zero put his own plan on the table as he spoke up, "the Cyber Initiative will pave the way for a new future on Earth Realm, if not all the realms. Sektor and Cyrax have succeeded in becoming fully automatized, and Jax will soon follow, among the rest of the Lin Kuei."
"What does that do for me?" Quan Chi pressed.
"Keeps Raiden and his warriors busy while I pave the way for a better tomorrow, for a brighter and cleaner Earth. Your next move will be executed with barely an inconvenience." Sub Zero smirked, eyed Rain, the wannabe-king and could see the fire in those eyes, much like those of Scorpion that stood to Quan Chi's right side.
"Assuming they get off this island." Kia added, "the Brotherhood of Shadow is dedicated to this plan, Quan Chi."
"What about me?" Rain tossed to her, a spark between them.
"Your bitch is the reason Jataaka is dead at the hands of Raiden. Tanya would not be pleased to see me help you any further." Her sharp tongue cut, but her words, though bitter, seemed playful and he grinned at the idea of Tanya being cast into the fires of rage over him becoming ruler of Edenia.
"Hardly reason enough. Jataaka was rash, not like you, not like Tanya. Not like Skarlet." He cast it back at her.
"Raiden doesn't leave this island." Quan Chi cut the banter, broke the tension, and his eyes scanned the others as he continued, "I have seen visions of what is to come, and he will stop at nothing to see all of what you have worked for come to a bleeding end. I know the future, I know how it must end."
"As I killed the great Shokan Goro, I will kill Raiden for you." Kia stood.
"Enough pandering," Sub-Zero mocked, "what is the future, and how does it end?"
"I have seen only to a point, but Raiden has been systematically cutting off all that would have destroyed Earth Realm. Shao Kahn, Onaga, now he seeks to use this tournament to kill us all in one fell swoop."
"Didn't answer his question." Rain cut in.
"Time as we know it would end." Quan Chi spat, "you selfish child, all you care about is yourself and your ends, but have you thought of what happens when one of them gains control of time itself?"
"What do you mean?" Kia was latched, unable to fathom this.
"This is not the first roll of the dice for the Thunder God. He has somehow defeated a titan to become a keeper of time. Which means he can alter it to his liking." Quan Chi explained.
"So, you're telling us the world sucks because some random God made a wish?" Sub-Zero pondered.
"A wish is a dream your heart makes, no, this is the result of him completely tampering with the entire realm of existence. To that, we must snuff out the Thunder God here and now." Quan Chi responded, only to be cut off again by Rain.
"So you can become the ruler of time?" The daggers of his eyes saw through the sorcerer, but Quan Chi smirked a wry, thin smile of smug intent and spat back.
"Is that not what you would do? Any of us here?" He gauged the temperature of the room, all of it the same.
"We all have things we want to do, goals we wish to meet, and we've all agreed to come here and help you because you agreed to help us. If you become the keeper of time, what's stopping you from destroying all of us?" Rain added, "I will kill you before that happens."
"Assuming I don't tell Kotal Kahn you've been planning to usurp him before this all comes to fruition." Quan Chi stood and leaned over the table to eye the Edenian what he hoped was power over him.
"Do it. Skarlet will be at my side when I kill him, and then we'll kill you." Rain stood to match him.
"She would never turn on Ko'atal." Kia cut between them with her voice, she stood and mocked the idea, "she is as much his as Jade was, I wouldn't be surprised if he's been between her thighs too."
As the arguments began and the tensions rose, Sub-Zero eyed Scorpion, silent, still as all of this transpired. if the specter had pupils they'd be locked on Bi-Han. Sub-Zero without need to stand pressed his hand against the table and from the tip of his flesh the wood began to crystalize and the air around them chilled to a deathly cold only the specter would be comfortable in. The rest pulled away and all eyes fell onto the Lin Kuei.
"A God is not easily destroyed, and if we have no clue where how he holds this power, then it will be a long time before any of these plans come to fruition." He added, "until then, time is ours just like the future. So, sit down, everyone, and let's figure out how we take out the Earth Realm defenders first."
"Skarlet will fight one of them tomorrow." Rain suggested. "She will not hesitate to kill them if I tell her to."
"What if Kotal Kahn says otherwise?" Kia prodded further, but Rain ignored it.
"I will see to it that Johnny Cage dies tonight. Under the terms of Mortal Kombat, of course." Quan Chi assured them.
"I will have Jax kill his partner." Sub-Zero added to the pile, though his seemed far harder than Kia's thoughts of Skarlet's betrayal of Kotal Kahn. "The future is wild, and I plan to be at the helm, but until then, let's agree to do this."
"Yes. Scorpion will handle the monks. Kotal Kahn, I know, will want to quell the fires that burn in the Native." Quan Chi added the two the others refused to mention. Stronger than the others, sure, but they were still mortal. "I will deal with Raiden.
"Then we have all reached a common ground." Rain backed from the table and the meeting was over.