Sareena held her knife in a reversed grip in front of her face as she circled around Reptile, and the Saurian moved similarly. She was careful not to trip herself up on any of the dead Lin Kuei; Reptile was a tried and true predator whom would pounce the moment she slipped up. She had to keep her eye on him because of his ability to turn invisible. The top cliffs of the mountain pass were covered in dirt and dust, and if she saw him camouflage, she could track him by noting the sediment getting stirred up. If he blended without her taking note of his position first however...

"Think fast!" Reptile said before sprinting at her.

Sareena barely had the reaction time to keep up with his incredible speed. He was charging straight at her, probably being overconfident. She slashed outwards at him when he was within reach, but he blocked it. Instead of countering, Reptile pulled her forwards and vaulted over her head and behind her.

"Oh no..." Sareena gasped, turning around quickly.

She was too late. Reptile had turned invisible and she had no point to reference his location or movement.

"And I thought you were being overconfident. Dammit." She cursed.

Sareena took a defensive stance once again. There was no wall to put her back to; just a road of stone and dirt leading away from the battle and the drop into the canyon, where the army had been moving through. If she could reduce the number of directions to get attacked from, she may have the advantage. She made a move towards the drop into the canyon.

"Going somewhere?"

Sareena ran straight into Reptile's incoming hook, with the lizard man becoming visible at that moment. The punch spun her around and made her fall over. She scrambled to her feet to find Reptile had vanished again. Sareena sprinted for the drop again, pushing herself to go faster. She involuntarily grinned when she was close, she could see over the edge!

Suddenly a muscular and scaly arm close lined her stomach, and she was lifted into the air before being thrown back. She landed roughly on her back with the wind knocked out of her. Reptile taunted her by becoming visible, standing with his arms crossed. Sareena clutched her bare stomach and scolded at him angrily; even with his mask and lizard eyes, she could tell Reptile was looking at her condescendingly.

"Thats not going to work, demoness."

"I'm not accustomed to coward's games!" Sareena mocked.

"Ha! I don't care what game I play, so long as I win!"

Reptile tore off his mask and spat acid at her. She had to roll backwards to avoid getting melted. Reptile, once again, had vanished when she looked.

"I've got to cheat then."

Jade ran and, using her staff like a pole vault, lifted herself up into the air. Swinging her legs up and then abruptly down, she came down at Tremor with her staff overhead. The massive ninja was able to sidestep the crushing metal blow and tried to counter with a hard right uppercut, but Jade easily dodged it and struck him in the back with her staff as she pulled it back. Tremor attempted to back hand her, but Jade nimbly dodged it and planted her staff straight into the ground. She pulled herself up on it and kneed Tremor right in between the eyes. The giant stumbled back and pinched the bridge of his nose. Jade spun and thrusted her staff into his gut, but Tremor caught it in both his hands.

Jade tried to pull her staff away but Tremor had a death grip on it. He suddenly pulled it towards him and brought his huge leg up. Jade was literally kicked off her own staff.

"My turn!" Tremor gloated.

Using the staff like an extravagant baseball bat, Tremor tried to club her in the head. Tremor's reach combined with the long staff made it impossible for Jade to get close, but she did not need to. She prepared to throw her razorang...

"No you don't!"

Tremor brought up his foot and stomped on the ground. A shockwave that split the earth went shooting towards Jade. She had to get out of the way by diving to the side. Tremor followed by discarding Jade's staff and stomping towards her, his three steps sending hairline cracks through the stones towards her. Jade knew she was not going to dodge in time when she felt the stone splinters stinging her skin. The cracks reached her and erupted out from the ground as stone slabs, knocking her backwards. Jade rolled and slid along the rocky ground several feet before recovering, rolling backwards and into a kneeling position. She was steady, but she could not ignore the throbbing pain and the scrape marks littering her body.

"So soft..." Tremor whispered.

"What the hell are you?" Jade asked tiredley.

"You must've seen some extravagant things in this world, is the concept of an earth manipulator really so mind boggling?" Tremor asked playfully.

Jade scowled at him, clearly in no mood for his gaming tone. Tremor sighed and knelt down, placing his hand on the ground.

"I assure you, its nothing quite so magical and mystical as you may be used to. I'm more of a, marvel."

The stone beneath his hand started shifting, gathering in pebbles and shards at his hand.

"I was the subject of an experiment, the details of which even I'm not totally familiar with. It could have been for some noble cause like green terraforming, maybe emergency rescue services, but most likely it was for a weapons program."

The stone had completely engulfed his hand, and compacted and shaped itself to fit his hand and forearm like a gauntlet.

"In lamest terms, the experiment allows me to manipulate magnetics fields with extreme focus and power, and by targeting the minerals hidden within the stone and earth, I can perform all the tricks you've seen..."

Tremor clenched his stone fist, making sure Jade was watching.

"And ones like this!"

He suddenly opened his hand, and the brown and grey stone flew off it like dust. Remaining on Tremor's hand, framing his forearm and his fingers ending in points, was sparkling diamond.

"Pretty, huh?" Tremor teased.

"I'm not gonna be impressed by diamonds like some swooning girl." Jade replied.

Tremor charged her. His armoured hand was raised high in the air. Jade held her razorang strong and prepared to meet his attack with her own. Tremor reached her and swiped down on her. Her razorang collided with his hand and stopped in it's tracks, then started getting forced back. Jade had to use both her arms to even try to hold him back. Tremor loomed over her with his massive frame, his weight alone enough to strain her muscles. A screeching sound was heard whenever her razorang scraped against his hand.

"Not quite so spry now, huh?" Tremor mocked.

"How...how did you do that?" Jade asked towards his hand.

"I can extract the minerals to the point that they are all thats left. Granted, I can only draw out and manipulate what minerals are within the earth. This mountain is absolutely rife with them! And since nothing is harder than diamond, thats what I chose!"

Tremor pushed down even harder, and the pointed diamond claws scratched Jade's forehead. She leaned her head back as blood started to pour into her eyes. She kicked at Tremor's knee, but he moved out of the way of it. As he brought his foot back down, Jade felt the ground beneath her feet shift. Before she knew it, she was sinking beneath the ground. The ground had turned weak, and sand like, and she could barely keep her footing enough to hold Tremor's hand back.

"It was nice meeting you, Jade." Tremor said.

She was stuck. If she used her hands to pull herself free, Tremor's diamond gauntlet would fatally wound her, but if she didn't do something soon, she would sink beyond rescue.

Sareena slowly backed away from the ledge, keeping her eyes and ears peeled. The sound of the retreating army was so distant now that she almost did not hear it. The wind whipping into her face and her own heavy breaths were what she heard mostly. She looked back, the bodies of the Lin Kuei were ten paces away.

"I'm not there!" Reptile shouted.

Sareena turned back in time for Reptile to powerfully kick her in the stomach. She lost all her breath and flew back, seven paces. Sareena turned and crawled the rest of the way, hearing Reptile's snickering and hissing all the way. She reached the body of Dimitri and hurriedly searched his pack. Suddenly, she felt something grab her angle and start dragging her back.

Reptile dragged her back and gnashed his teeth. His acidic saliva gathered in his mouth and dripped out from between his teeth.

"Its time to eat!"

Reptile leaned his head back, about to vomit his acid all over her. Suddenly, Sareena rolled over and whipped a baseball sized capsule at his head.

"Eat that!" She yelled.

Reptile coughed up black powder. His eyes watered uncontrollably. Sareena had thrown a smoke bomb at him, minus the ignition wick. Without the explosion, the capsule broke and the powder inside covered Reptile, making his invisibility pointless. Sareena got to her feet and roundhouse kicked Reptile, flipping him head over heels. From the ground Reptile shot his tongue at her. Sareena blocked it with her forearm but was yanked off her feet when it began retracting. Before Reptile could chomp down on her arm, she sliced off his tongue with her knife.

Reptile rolled over in pain, and Sareena took her chance to run to the edge again. She sprinted as hard as she could, but after glancing back She saw Reptile already pursuing her, and gaining ground quickly.

"You're not getting away!" Reptile yelled.

"Come and get me!"

She was almost there. Fifteen paces, ten, five. She felt Reptile's breath on her neck and quickly leapt forward, clearing the distance and going into free fall. She twisted in the air and tossed her knife, but then felt Reptile tackle into her. They both landed hard onto the ground twenty feet below. Sareena's back ached from the impact, and she just could not move yet. Reptile was on top of her, he could finish it right here. But he did nothing, just laid there. Sareena pushed him off of her cautiously. Still he did not move. His body rolled over to reveal her knife, planted firmly in his forehead.

Sareena took several breaths and laid back, the rough stone somehow being comfortable enough for her to take a break. The faces of the dead Lin Kuei haunted her, and she triumphantly and angrily pulled the knife out of the Saurian's skull.

"That was for my men, you damn lizard."

Suddenly, a quake rocked the ground around her. Following that, the walls and ground started rumbling constantly, and the cliffs started to slowly crumble. Rocks of all sizes fell all over the place.

"I've got to move!"

Sareena got to her feet and went after Kitana's army.

A few minutes earlier.

Jade had sunk down to her thighs now, in the same predicament still. Tremor stared at her the whole time, looking more excited than she had ever seen him. For all her determination, she just could not find a solution, but she would not give Tremor the satisfaction of seeing her accept her fate.

"Its too bad you came her by yourself, I was hoping for more of a fight, gah!" Tremor suddenly slumped forward.

He slumped enough for Jade to see what had happened, something had been imbedded in his back, one of Kitana's fans!

"What the hell..." Tremor growled.

He turned to face his attacker. Instead a fiery portal opened before him and Scorpion jumped out, kicking him in the face. Tremor was knocked over by the kick. Scorpion, taking little notice of his hand placement, lifted Jade out of the ground. Kitana joined them, supporting Jade.

"Are you alright?" Kitana asked.

"I'll be fine Kitana."Jade replied.

"Now you are you mean." Scorpion added bluntly.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Jade asked defensively.

"Saving you evidently, foolish girl." Scorpion replied.

"Foolish?"

"Enough! We've got other problems right now." Kitana reminded.

Tremor, chuckling, got to his feet. He rubbed his head and wiggled his diamond hand.

"Now this is more like it. I'm gonna try my best not to kill you Kitana, Mileena wants that pleasure all for her greedy little self. But you two,"

Tremor launched himself into the air with an earth pillar, and went flying towards them.

"You are dead!"

Kitana teleported her second fan back to her and then began twirling them in the air. The updraft created caught Tremor and kept him in the air.

"What the hell is this?" Tremor asked with surprise.

"You've caused enough trouble, I'm tired of Mileena and you!" Kitana stated angrily.

She jumped and flipped in the air, kicking him out of the updraft and sending him colliding into the wall. He was stunned by the impact but opened his eyes in time to see jade throw her razorang.

"Oh no..."

"You're finished!" Jade proclaimed.

They all heard the impact, and they heard Tremor's screaming. Only, he should not have been screaming.

"What?" Jade asked out loud.

Scorpion grunted and drew one of his mugai ryu. They then saw that the rock from the wall had gather over half of Tremor's face. The rock had stopped the razorang from going deep enough to kill him, but when Tremor pulled it out, his left eye came with it. Tremor's pain and rage drove him into a frenzy. He put his hands together and smashed the wall. Rubble started falling from above all around them. He then stomped on the ground and it split, and spikes erupted all around. Then everything started shaking, lake a constantly moving quake had come to them. Tremor growled the whole time.

"We can't fight him here. Lets move!" Scorpion said.

The three of them took of running, while Tremor began causing the mountain to tear itself apart..

Sareena finally reached the clearing where Kitana's army had retreated. Thousands of soldiers with scores of servants filled the empty plain framed by heavy forests. Their numbers had been reduced by nearly a third.

"Finally, we can regroup." Sareena spoke to herself in relief.

She made her way down the hill when she sensed something. Its energies were familiar. It was the Netherrealm. Suddenly, at the end of the clearing, green electricity sparked and then a small explosion of light blinded her. After rubbing her eyes she saw something that made her heart drop. A massive green portal. Out of it came scores of ono and undead Netherrealm soldiers. At their head was a man brandishing a war hammer; Reiko. With his signal the Netherrealm army attacked Kitana's. The sounds of battle soon echoed throughout the air. With Rain's army advancing from the mountain behind and Quan Chi's army heading them off, the Rebels were trapped.

I've said this in my profile as I'm gonna say it in these few updates as well. I've been away for a long time because I was in jail, and was released on November 25. I could not update obviously, and its slow going getting back into things, I've missed a lot in just a few months. I hope that whatever readers enjoy this story stick with me, and I hope this news doesn't effect anyone's opinions of me.