"I don't need your education."
Fujin stepped lightly along the stone floor blocks until he reached the cell that Hotaru spat from. The deity's radiant light illuminated the tower room and the defiant, albeit starved face of the Orderrealm leader approached the bars.
Fujin could see by the shape of his bones that Hotaru either rebelled against Kitana's assistance as her prisoner, or the Stewardess tortured the man.
"I'm no warrior of Earthrealm." He spat at Fujin's chest, "you're wasting your breath."
"How has Kitana treated you in here?"
Hotaru leaned back and scowled, he didn't like the song Fujin chose to play. Pity? How pathetic. "Leave me."
"You're a prisoner, I could stand here all I want." Fujin pressed back. "I'd like to have a conversation though, we used to do that."
"You support the Thunder God, the heathens. You can leave."
"Would you rather see the world put right?"
"I'd see it destroyed if it meant finally bringing order to my realms."
"Your realms?" Fujin saw the madness in the man and perhaps the brick wall that he had spoken to this whole time. "Order is all that matters. The rich over the poor, the superior races above all and my rule cast like a hammer across the realms."
"Power is fleeting and merely the presence of insanity."
"Leave me." Hotaru backed from the bars.
Fujin stared, unsure of the creature that glared back at him. He didn't remember Hotaru quite like this, but any further discussion would be useless.
Key in hand, Fujin tucked it visibly in a loose hanging satchel by his right hip and did as the prisoner demanded.
Beneath Hotaru, the Half-God resided and waited for Fujin's footsteps that came quietly to him. Tanya and Kira in one cell beside Rain's, Fujin saw arrogance and rebellion in their hearts, but also defeat. They sought sanctuary and acceptance here, not power. Fujin stood back, all three in sight so he might address them equally and spoke.
"Do you want to get out of this cell?" He dangled the lure.
"Of course." Tanya pursued.
"Kitana will kill us." Rain added, "whether we're here or free."
"Do you think you deserve it?" Fujin pondered.
"Do you?" Tanya reflected.
"No." Fujin spoke, his arms folded and he leaned back against the wall like he were a parent with his three disobedient children. "You do need to be punished though."
"Death is our punishment." Rain cursed Kitana's name.
"What would you do?" Kia reached Fujin with her voice and he focused on her.
"You're not from Earthrealm, it's not my decision." He added, "but it is my decision to free you."
"When?" Rain pulled close to the bars.
"You have the blood of Argus in you, Rain, and I do not trust you on your own, so you'll stay with me until I see you've changed." Fujin cast his judgement, "as for you two, you will serve Kitana loyally, just as you will Kotal Kahn when he is free of the Netherrealm."
"I can't bring him back." Kia discerned from Fujin's lengthy stare into her soul.
"Still, you will do as you're told." He fished for the keys in the satchel.
It was nothing to remove the barrier between them, and soon the physical wall that parted the three from freedom. They stretched, they breathed deep and then realized they weren't truly free.
"Today is the day you begin to earn your freedom back." Fujin smiled.