Rushed into place, Mileena sat at Kitana's right as Reptile, undisguised stood at her left. In moments like this as the world rushed to her head like the blood that now boiled in her hands with each knuckle crack and fidget just to warm herself up from the freezing pressure of the moment before them, Mileena was unsure of her place here in this palace to a Kahn that had been missing for years, and to a sister that seemed to hold herself together by the rule of law alone in the face of his people.
Where does she fit in all this? Where do they together fit in this puzzle should Kotal Kahn return, or perhaps not?
Each moment like this, she felt further from Kitana than perhaps her sister would like and as the face of the traitors entered the meeting hall of the Kahn, all within it must have, in unison, felt their own sense of uncertainty.
Rain, Tanya, and Kia entered.
Already she could sense the shaken dynamic of the three, with Tanya ever a step on Rain's heels who begged to be before them all, and yet not at all before Kitana. Kia, swallowed by her own darkness, entered like the devil in a church in the land she sullied with Quan Chi many, before Mileena felt the sting of life itself.
"Come to trial?" Kitana looked down upon the three.
"We come for sanctuary." Rain gazed back up, he knew his place in this conversation and his body movement gave it completely away that Kitana had the power to cut his head of should she have the whim.
"You're already guilty of treason in Edenia, sedition in Outworld, and inciting an insurrection at the Mortal Kombat tournament that lead to the death of my mother." Kitana continued, "you come here for sanctuary? I have only justice to give."
He reeled back and lurched forward on a knee.
"Absolutely, but I come not seeking sanctuary for just myself–" Kitana cut Rain off
"They die too."
He rambled forward, "but I seek sanctuary for the realms as we know them."
Together, Reptile, Mileena, and Kitana rolled their eyes and scoffed at this. The fool held no weight soaking weight, but somehow his demeanor came off real to Mileena, even as Kitana readied her blade to strike them all as they deserved.
"Wait, sister." Mileena irked Kitana and behind their shaded masks, she spoke through those jagged teeth with more certainty in her resolve to hear this fool's story than Kitana's to see him dead. "At least let's hear them?"
Kitana let that pause hang like an ugly noose in the room and before Rain or Tanya could swing by it for that moment of reprieve, cut their very breath from their throat with her own.
"Loose lips sink ships, Rain, this better have nothing to do with you." Kitana would hear them.
"I'm afraid it has everything to do with me." Rain, kneeled before the steward of the Kahn began what little he knew of the Red Dragon's attack on him.
Though the dots had not connected just yet, he had them all on the page to be read before him. Just as Kitana feared, Kia and Tanya likely would have known of Rain's ties to Argus and thus, through Quan Chi, the prophecy of Armageddon.
Daegon was active. That's all that mattered now.
"Throw them in the cells in the tower above, keep them from the other prisoner, and Rain," she pulled him by the chin with her words, "I'll think about it."
Though unwilling to be imprisoned, there was no chance of escape from this situation. Tanya pulled Kia together and the three were taken to the tower beyond the palace. Their fate would be determined, but for now, Mileena turned to Kitana and watched her eyes carefully as the last breath of the trainers fouled the air around them until the door slammed on them from behind.
She never had a mother, but in this moment she felt if Kitana had been slain as perhaps Sindel was, would she feel the same in this very situation?
Once dismissed, the men and women around them of Edenia, Tarkta, Osh-Tekk, and Outworld emptied the meeting hall until only Reptile, Kitana and Mileena sat in the heavy silence.
Only Reptile with his reptilian brain unable to comprehend the depth of complication that aroused from this fateful meeting spoke first.
"We must kill them."
"We must," Kitana agreed and turned to Mileena who shook her head.
"No." She thought and she spoke and peeled the mask from her scarred maw and spoke candidly again. "What if they're right?"
"They are right." Kitana spoke plainly as well, but added, "but they are also traitors and as such must be put to death."
"The rule of law must be kept in the realms, Mileena." Reptile explained.
"Can we speak alone?" Mileena insisted.
"Reptile knows all things." Kitana peeled her mask and denied her sister that grace.
"Even what you tell me of what is to come?"
"Rain must not be allowed to live to see Armageddon." She was stiff and the air around them thicker. "Daegon must be killed as well."
"Taven?" Reptile suggested.
Kitana nodded.
She couldn't understand. Words spoken to her now suddenly rushed to her head and all they were back then were words. Warnings and history lessons of things that never happened until now as the future is somehow laid before her.
Mileena pondered, as she knew Kitana's past, but yet not her own.
"Where do I do stand in all this? What did we do then?"
Her answer?
The sound of silence.