And here, we see our two deities making a new friend. And a proper explanation for Smoke's unintentional divine intervention last chapter.

"Ugh, I'm jumping into the nearest clean lake once we get out of here…"

Rei looks upset as she uses a spare cloth she found in the backpack to clean herself up, getting most of the blood and bile off of her. There was a huge pile of charred and sliced up corpses nearby, Raiden throwing the last of them onto said pile.

"It is not that bad, Rei. It could have been worse." He says, joining her, "I didn't know you could manifest blades made out of shadow like that."

"And I didn't know you could charbroil a damn corpse." She says, "It's probably the only saving grace of being in here with these things still. Smells like well cooked pork."

"Focus, you two. We need to go deeper." Bi-Han advises as he comes out of Rei's gem, slightly bigger once more, "Over there."

The gods watch as Bi-Han flutters over to a cavern nearby that went deeper into the temple. The two nod and head downwards into the cave, Bi-Han resting on Rei's shoulder. More of the clay statues were around, Rei immediately going to smash them. Raiden raises a brow.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not chancing any of these fuckers coming to life."

"...good point."

Raiden starts breaking some as well, not wanting to deal with them either. They smashed through at least 20 of them before they came across a rather slim bridge over a chasm. Fog and steam arose from it, but it didn't bother the three. Voices could be heard up ahead through the entrance above them.

"Let me go you brute!"

"We must repopulate our race, why can't you understand that?"

"I'd rather the Saurians die out that mate with you! You're horrible!"

"You'll have to accept me sometime, Princess!"

"Go die in a hole!"

"Saurians? I thought that Reptile guy was the last of them?" Rei looks at Raiden.

"I did as well…" He says, puzzled, "I did not realize these two were also Saurians… but it sounds like they are… incompatible."

"No shit, dummy!" Rei says, cheeks puffed out, "This is straight up kidnapping of she wants nothing to do with him! Let's go whoop his ass!"

"Yes, no male should ever hold a female against her will." Bi-Han adds, flying up to the entrance. The two gods follow, going inside. Once inside, they're treated to a very large and empty room. Most of the architecture was breaking apart, and there was a bunch holes in the wall. The four pillars around them holding the rooftop up were crumbling, looking like some well placed hits could knock them down. As the trio come in, they hear something.

"Behind you! Up here!"

Raiden and Rei look forward to the female Saurian in a makeshift cage on a still intact platform, trying to break out. "Help me out! Please!" She begs, "I don't want to mate such such a horrible waste of breath!"

"Hold on!" Raiden flies up there, "We'll get you out, we promise."

"Like hell you will!"

Raiden barely has enough time to react before the male Saurian, Chameleon, drop kicks him off the platform into the wall nearby, Raiden shouting in pain. Rei rushes over to help him up, looking worried. Raiden gives her an 'I'm ok' look before they look up at Chameleon.

"You attempt to take away my future bride? I won't let it happen, especially considering you're responsible for what happened to us Saurians, Raiden!" He shouted in anger.

"It was an accident! I did not mean so many Saurians to perish at my hand, Chameleon!" Raiden explains, "But drastic measures were needed to ensure Shinnok would not win!"

"You idiot! It's not Raiden's fault! It was Shao Kahn's for driving our race to extinction when he fused Zaterra with Ourworld!" The female yells at Chameleon, "Are you that stupid too?"

"You will pay for your crimes, Raiden!" He yells, letting out a loud hissing noise. The ground begins to rumble, and from the very entrance Raiden and Rei came through came a gigantic snake, venom oozing from both it's fangs and mouth. Chameleon grabs the female Saurian from her cage despite her protests and jumped down from the platform and onto the snake's head. On the ground opened a secret door to another room underneath them, Chameleon jumping in with his unwilling hostage. The two Gods run over to try and get to that room as well, but the guards their path, hissing loudly and snapping at them. They barely managed to get away, watching as the creature starts slithering around the room, mostly around the pillars.

Rei tries to attack the snake head on, but it was able to resist her attacks, swatting her away with a swipe of it's head, knocking her into one of the pillars and causing it to break down. Rei manages to avoid being crushed by part of the roof caving in via somersaulting out of the way. It starts moving around a different pillar, Raiden having an idea.

"Rei! Smash the pillars!" He yells, swiftly jumping onto some of the broken platforms, avoiding the snake as it tries to attack him to get to another pillar. It almost got him as he smashes the pillar down with one punch, teleporting away back to the center of the room to avoid the debris from the ceiling. He yelps as Rei springboards off his back to get to another pillar nearby, the snake barreling towards her. She screeches as it knocks her off one of the platforms, but Raiden catches her, the girl grinning.

"Such a gentlemaAAAAAAA-" She barely had time to react as Raiden had threw her back up. She looks angry, but she sees the snake coming at her again, making her gulp and quickly bust the pillar down with some well placed kicks.

"We're gonna talk about this later, Raiden!" She yells at him as they both gun it for the final pillar, "I don't appreciate being yeeted without my permission!"

"Just smash the damn pillar!" Raiden demands.

They both skillfully avoided the snake, letting out battle cries as they successfully smashed the final pillar. The snake hisses loudly, snapping at them. Rei barely avoids it, nearly falling off the platform, but Raiden catches her in time. Bi-Han avoids the debris and quickly retreats into Rei's gem for safety as the ceiling collapses. The snake looks ready to attack again, but is crushed by the debris above, the floor collapsing as a result. Without missing a beat, both jump down into the watery pit below, the now dead snake's body laying still in the shallow waters.

"Behind you!" A voice yells, Rei sees the female Saurian tied up nearby, but then she sees Raiden get flung into a wall right before she's sucker punched in the face, making her fall into the shallow waters. Both Gods look to see Chameleon, and he looked angry.

"You two are persistent pests…" he muses, "But even Gods can fall to the might of mortals. I'll kill you both to avenge both my race AND my pet!"

"I'd like to see you try, fish face!" Rei says, Raiden recovering from his unwelcomed introduction to the wall, wiping some blood from his mouth.

"Kill him, Raiden!" The female Saurian shouts. Rei looks annoyed that she wasn't mentioned, but was more concerned with beating the shit out of Chameleon. Raiden had already started brawling with the male Saurian, seeming to prefer not using his upgraded powers in favor of his bo staff and bare hands. Rei joins in the fight, going in with a battle cry. Chameleon dodges most of their attacks and fires back with his own, one of which ruins Raiden's staff via melting it. Chameleon suddenly vanishes, the two gods looking around.

"Where did that fucker go?!" Rei yells.

"Behind you!" Raiden yells, Rei barely able to react in time as Chameleon started slinging balls of green energy at them.

"Dance, pathetic fools, dance!" Chameleon cackles from his spot atop the dead snake as the two gods scramble to avoid the balls. Raiden fires an electric bolt back at him, knocking him back down to the ground by them.

"You won't stand in my way, Thunder God!" Chameleon tackles to him to the ground, but the Saurian is promptly drop kicked away by Rei, the Asali creating needles from the shadows nearby to sling at him. Chameleon dodges all but one, the one that landed nailing him in the shoulder.

"You can't hide from a Shadow Goddess, Chameleon!" Rei makes more shadow needles and slings them at him. Chameleon growls, quickly vanishing into thin air. Raiden quickly looks around, knowing how Saurians can cloak, but he remembers the water beneath them.

"Rei, watch the water! He cannot fully hide himself!" He says, dodging acid balls and energy balls being thrown at him. Rei does just that, but ends up getting tripped up by Chameleon, an acid ball hitting her in the back and damn near making her shirt dissolve away, the article of clothing now barely held together. She blushes hard, and looks furious.

"COME HERE!" She yells, flinging more shadow needles at wherever she saw the water moving and being sure not to hit Raiden or the female Saurian, who was cheering them on. Raiden seems to had enough as well, flinging lightning bolts around as well. Eventually, both a shadow needle and lightning bolt both hit Chameleon, knocking him out of his invisible state. The shadow needle had impaled the Saurian's leg while the bolt had stunned him.

"You're going down!" Rei strikes a pose, slapping her own ass and pointing at him. She rushes over and grabs him, suplexing him into the ground and bouncing up from it and flinging him towards Raiden.

"Heads up, Raiden!"

"I got him!" Raiden catches Chameleon into a headlock, giving him one hell of a shock, the Saurian screaming in pain before Raiden flings him up into the air with a roar, charging at him. Rei does the same with a battle cry, leaping up into the air from the other side. With precise timing, the two gods slam their knees into Chameleon's skull, completely crushing it and to drive the point him, they each grab one of his legs as they slam into the ground, destroying what's left of Chameleons' head while splitting his legs apart, a tearing sound being heard. They both get up, what's left of Chameleon's body flopping over. Blood turned the water around them red, but neither cared.

"Eat shit, dirtbag!" Rei cheers, looking very giddy. Raiden just looks oddly pleased with himself, catching his breath. On the fly teamwork was something he didn't quite expect.

"Well… that was certainly something." He says, dusting himself off, "We do make quite a team."

"Duh." Rei grins. Bi-Han came out of her gem again, feeling it was safe enough to do so.

"Um… help?"

The trio look to still see the Saurian girl still tied up. Bi-Han flies over and freezes the ropes, the girl breaking free with ease. She looks very grateful.

"I owe you two my life!" She says happily, running up to hug them both. Raiden and Rei both blush at the sudden show off affection, just looking at each other with confused looks. The Saurian girl moves away and bows.

"I am Khameleon." She introduces herself, "And no, it's merely coincidence that my name is the same as Chameleon's. Mine is spelled with a K."

"Nice to meet you, name's Rei." Rei introduces herself with a grin, "You already seem to know Raiden."

"Yes, and I do apologize for befall your race, Khameleon." Raiden adds, sounding a bit guilty. She shakes her head.

"There is no need to apologize for something that is not entirely your fault, Raiden." She assures, "It is Shao Kahn that caused the demise of the Saurians. My people suffered because of him, I had to watch countless Saurian children starve because of him!"

"A horrible demise indeed…" Bi-Han says quietly, "How did you and Chameleon survive?"

"I had survived due to breaking away from my village years prior to their demise. I tried to save them, but I couldn't stand Chameleon trying to be chosen as my mate! He's not the type of Saurian I'd want to raise children with. I had to fake my death in order to get away from him. It worked for sometime, I fled to Earthrealm and lived among humans for a while. I was at the tournament, but I'm sure neither of you recognized me." Khameleon giggled.

"You was at the tournament?" Raiden asks.

"Yeah! I was the pretty girl in grey." Khameleon answers, shifting into said female ninja in grey with a wink, "My human disguise is very good, no?"

"That's really cool!" Rei beams.

"How did Chameleon find you though? And how come Reptile didn't shift into his human form?" Raiden asks her. Khameleon shifts back into her default transparent form.

"Turns out Chameleon was at that damn tournament too disguised as a ninja in grey. He caught me changing back to this and had been chasing me all this time. I thought I could flee by coming through the forest and hoping a tree snagged him and ate him, but you saw how that worked out. As for this Reptile…" she looks angry, "He is a traitor, and I wouldn't dare reveal myself around him. He sided with the very monster that destroyed our people!"

"Understandable." Raiden nods, "Are you going to be ok?"

"I'm already so much better knowing he's dead." Khameleon nods happily, "Is there anything I can do for you two in return for saving me?"

"Do you know the way out of this forest?" Rei asks, "We don't know how to get out cause SOMEONE decided that avoiding this place was the best idea."

"Rei, I swear to the Elder Gods, I will throw you off the first cliff we come to if you keep insulting me." Raiden threatened her. Rei just blew a rasp at him, Raiden smacking her upside the head. Khameleon just nervously laughs.

"Y-Yes! I know the way out, but I'm sure it's almost nightfall, and that's when the real mean creatures of the Living Forest come out. I have a hut in the treetops you two are more than welcome to stay at for the night." The Saurian offers, "You two look like you need rest after that whole ordeal."

Rei and Raiden blink, looking over each other. They did look pretty beat up, and rest would surely be welcomed. Plus Rei needed to check what was all in this backpack Azriel gave her. Both nod at her offer.

"Sounds wonderful, Khameleon." Raiden nods, Khameleon bouncing a bit.

"Awesome, let's get out of this temple!"

After sometime, the group had gotten out of the temple and was now back at where Rei and Raiden first came into the forest from. The tree that flung Rei around looked eager for Round 3, an eerie cackle coming from it. Rei hides behind Raiden, not wanting to get flung around again. Raiden found it oddly amusing.

"Frightened of a tree? And here I thought you were a Goddess with self-respect." He taunts her, Rei looking at him with a deadpan look.

"Joke's on you, I have none." She says flatly before giving his ass another hard smack, Raiden yelping again with a blush.

"Stop that!"

"No! Your ass is so smackable!"

"Play nice, children, or I'm taking away your toys." Khameleon jokes as she goes over to a vine wall, removing her mask and using her own acid spit to melt it away. Behind the wall was another temple-like building. A very large tree was growing out of it, and there was a ladder build onto it. She quickly climbs the ladder, heading upwards. Rei and Raiden choose to just fly up instead, Khameleon seeing this and scoffing.

"Show Offs." She reaches the top, followed by the two Gods. The treetops looked like a bunch of tree houses connected together by plank bridges, but some of the bridges seemed to be slowly rotting away. Rei and Raiden look around, noticing that most of them were abandoned. Khameleon sees this too, looking a little sad.

"There used to be so much life up here…" She says quietly, "At least before I left a few years ago. I hope everyone is alright…"

"I am sure they left to find a safer refuge." Raiden attempts to comfort her, "The Living Forest is not exactly a place for anyone to live in."

"Better than Whisper Swamp back home. Entire damn forest that the swamp is in is fucking haunted and tries to kill you." Rei says, looking down at the forest floor below, "At least here it's the just the trees."

"Well, before I left, everyone was thriving quite well and we even had a decent trade system going on with Sun Do." Khameleon says as she starts walking over a bridge, the two Gods following, "My home is not far from here. Hopefully it is still at least halfway intact."

They carefully tread over the bridges, the structures creaking. Rei looks nervous, but doesn't say much. Raiden had been floating a few inches above the bridge as to not risk breaking one of the planks and falling through. As they came upon another abandoned tree house, they see what looked to be guards patrolling the next one.

"Who are these masked men? I've never seen them here before…" Khameleon ponders, "Are they friendly?"

"Intruders!" One of the guards immediately says as it spots the trio. More come out of nowhere, Khameleon squeaking.

"G-Guess not!"

"Get back!" Raiden orders, getting in front of Khameleon and Rei, firing lightning bolts at any that tried to cross the bridge. He yells in pain as he was hit with an arrow to the knee shot by one of the ones that couldn't get across, making him collapse onto his good knee. Rei looks angry, summoning more shadow needles and slinging them towards the guards.

"Raiden, you're hurt!" Khameleon rushes to the Thunder God's aid. Raiden shook his head.

"I am fine! Stay back." He says calmly, getting up despite the searing pain in his knee, and gets back to shooting more lightning bolts. Some combined with Rei's shadow needles to make electrified shadow needles, which made for an interesting sight. More guards emerged, some with bows and arrows. Rei looks worried until she gets an idea.

"Raiden, cut the ropes to this bridge!" She orders, looking around at the tree house across from them, trying to look for a weak spot. Raiden creates electrified blades with his hands and cuts the ropes, preventing any guards from crossing. Rei sees a weak spot, a single decaying rope holding most of the structure up, and she slings another few needles at it, There was a loud snapping sound, and the group watches as the structure tumbles to the ground below, the guards shrieking. Bi-Han finally comes out of Rei's gem, wondering what all the commotion was about right as they heard everything crash to the ground below.

"Sucks to suck, assholes!" Rei yells down at them.

"And STAY out!" Khameleon adds, stomping her foot to the ground. Raiden had fallen back onto the ground, sighing heavily as he looks at the arrow still jammed in his knee. He contemplates pulling it out, but remembers that it would only do more damage that way. The two girls look at him, both looking worried.

"You gonna be ok?" Khameleon asks, Raiden nodding.

"I will be fine… but I need one of you to push the arrow all the way through…"

"W-What?!"

"Pulling it out does more harm than good. Pushing it all the way through is the only way to remove it safely. I would do it myself, but I might do more harm than good knowing my strength."

"Not it!" Rei says, touching her nose with her finger. Khameleon sputters a bit before huffing.

"Oh, you beast! Fine. I'm not gonna enjoy this…" Khameleon looks nervous as Raiden straightens out his leg the best he could, looking very much in pain. She gets a good grip on the arrow, and starts pushing it down more, Raiden almost snarling, static cracking all around him. The Saurian kept pushing down in it until the arrowhead punctured through the back of the Thunder God's knee, and once she sees it, she grabs the arrowhead end and pulls the arrow out, Raiden looking to be both relieved and in pain at the same time. Rei dry heaves in the background, Khameleon tossing the bloody arrow off the tree house with a disgusted look.

"We need to get you to my home soon. I can treat your wound." She offers, "I studied medicine with the Edenians not long ago so I could help out others in need."

"Can't you just heal yourself like you did with Jax?" Rei asks. Raiden shook his head.

"I could, but my powers only can heal external wounds. This one is both external and internal, so I can't fully heal it." He answers, grunting as he tries to move his injured leg. Khameleon goes over to an abandoned bed, tearing off enough cloth to make a makeshift bandage with to wrap the wound in.

"This should help it a bit. Rei, help me get him up."

Rei and Khameleon both help Raiden to his feet, the Thunder God gently pushing them away to float.

"I can manage, do not worry about me." He assures them, "I just cannot walk."

"If you say so." Bi-Han muses as he lands on Raiden's shoulder, "Where is your base, Khameleon?"

"It's across from here, but since we destroyed the bridge, I guess one of you has to carry me-"

Khameleon felt herself being grabbed by Rei, the Asali yelling "YEET" as she flung Khameleon over, the Saurian screaming. She was caught by a large hand made of darkness on the other side, Rei flying over with a cheeky grin. Raiden follows behind, looking like he got secondhand embarrassment. Khameleon looks highly shaken up, but just looks at Rei.

"I-I guess that's one way to get me over…"

"Clearly you don't know how I work."