Adorned at the Witten a stand-in for the Kahn of Outworld, Kitana watched as the wooden portal doors widened greatly with creak and buckle as Hotaru and his men stepped through into her domain.
Center upon the throne, Kitana waited, sat and eyes focused behind the blue regal attire. Her mask hid her demeanor, much as it hid her sister's maw, and her guardsmen too adorned in the attire of Edenian assassins.
She was no longer Kahn of Outworld, but Princess of Edenia, much like her sister. She would not stand for Hotaru and his men, nor would any Edenian in her presence.
An Edenian guard and Tarkatan guard of Outworld stopped the march ten paces from Kitana. Only then did she stand, and stand she did with Mileena at her right, and another guard at her left, still hidden behind blue mask.
She eyed the white haired leader of orderly men before her and looked down upon him from her three steps up on the platform Kotal Kahn would have stood.
Two each side as Hotaru and his men, all ten of them, were seats that were filled by all the leaders of Outworld. Tarkatan, Shokan, Human, Osh-Tekk, all races that still survived despite both Shao Kahn's rule, and the war between Kitana and Kotal Kahn.
"You bring word of Raiden, Protector of Earthrealm?" She watched his words and those around him wished to hear.
"If it is with all due respect, Princess Kitana, I wish to speak to Outworld's true Kahn." Hotaru returned, his words fell upon stone walls.
"Kotal Kahn will hear your words through me, and I will do with them as he had instructed me to."
This gave Hotaru pause. His black plate armor shifted in his movements to look around the Witten, two red flags waved at each shoulder in the Outworld wind that barely breezed through to acknowledge him.
"If I may speak plainly, Princ–"
"You may not." Kitana, though masked, spoke clearly. "You will speak only of the news you claim to bring."
He clicked his teeth and wiped the stubble from his flesh. The whites of his eyes focused on Mileena, so perfectly like Kitana, he could barely believe the rumors. He then focused on the other guard he could not identify, then to Kitana.
"The Thunder God has aligned himself with the realm of Chaos." Hotaru announced.
"What proof do you have of this?" Kitana prodded.
"The mere fact he would dare abandon his post in Earthrealm for the sick and sadistic heathens of that twisted realm is very nearly proof enough."
"Words, Hotaru. All you ever provide are words of a man with a stick up his arse."
"I seek men." Hotaru spoke plainly, "a thousand men to march into the Chaosrealm and slay the fiend Havik and take Raiden prisoner."
"This may not be considered sedition in Outworld, nor Edenia, but I will not have you speak ill of a great ally to both realms."
"Raiden serves himself these days, Princess of Edenia." Hotaru added, "and Outworld has no Kahn while you sit on its thrown."
Kitana turned to the guard beside her, the one unidentified and then to Mileena as she sat upon the thrown so rightfully belonging to Kotal Kahn.
She eyed the white daggers Hotaru stared back into her and removed her mask so that he may see her speak as plainly.
"That, Hotaru, is considered sedition in Outworld."
"Where there is chaos, I will bring order." A threat? She would have no need to find out.
The guard unmasked, and reptile transformed from the human flesh to his Zeterran form. He lunged with her order with those that had otherwise seated so quietly around Hotaru's men.
One of the flags pulled free of Hotaru's shoulder, the end sharpened to a spear and pierced through the attacking Tarkatan. As he turned to bark his orders, the shokan had already crumpled three of his men. Before he could pivot his body and aim for the stewardess of Outworld, Reptile had him.
Kitana walked the paces slowly and with hands behind her back as the rest of the men were slain and only Hotaru remained prisoner.
Close enough to see the film of anger flare across his white eyes, she looked back, ice blue and cold as the Lin Kuei, she smiled.
"Order suites you, Hotaru." She spoke plainly, "but it does not in Outworld."
"Wretch!" He spat, she wiped, and he gritted through bitter teeth, "you aid our enemies that form in the realm of Chaos! This is proof enough!"
"You ride a thin blue line on a flag of lies to suit whatever you desire." She finished, her back turned, "I presume you lie about Raiden to fit your narrative as well?"
"Of that, I do not lie!" He hissed and provided from the rubble of the slain rabble, a straw conical had now lathered in blood was tossed at Kitana's feet.
She did recognize it as Raiden's when she. Turned to inspect it, then looked back up onto Hotaru's narrow eyes for some etching of truth.
"I will speak with Havik, and you will be the gift to him from which he will accept my offer."
Hotaru budged, he pursued her with his might, but Reptile was far stronger and the shokan now at his side to hold him in place far greater than even the Zeterran.
Mileena watched on, fascinated, horrified, and emboldened by the tension and the bloodshed that thickened the air around her.