EARTHREALM - SKY TEMPLE

The next few days Kremnine had been taking refuge near the Sky Temple, as it was deemed one of the more stable places to be. Sure the war with Shinnok is currently over, but it did not mean civilization was not rioting and order was re-established everywhere. Many places around the world turned into camps, slowly working on getting people back into homes and reuniting families.

She had her own little temporary housing she would return to at the end of the day, she noticed that today, someone left her a bouquet of black roses. She took them into her quarters and without her knowledge the shadow wraith was watching her every move. Then he almost broke a blood vessel in his brow when she visibly walked out of the other door of her abode and tossed the bouquet into the general community garbage dump just past the alley.

All that effort to get rare black roses, wasted! The wraith now understood rejection. No women in the past had ever rejected him, back in his day as a Lin Kuei, he would come across missions where he had to blend into society. Women would look dreamy eyed all over his fine muscular form, after all the majority of the male population in the cities had everything but a martial artist body.

Kremnine by now was eating her meal and heard a rustle that sound very close to her and she stop to inspect only to notice those black roses were somehow now in a vase in her bedroom. That creeped her out, she knew that meant someone is watching her.

Kremnine grabbed the vase and walked out of her quarters to a more quiet area in the camp. "I know you are following me," she called out. "What is your purpose?"

He appeared before her and held a box of what appears to be sweets. He literally shoved them into her hands since he was such a noob in romancing women. "I formally am courting you."

"Whhhyyy?" She asked suspiciously, with the last memory of him getting half hard while having her in chokehold. 'He is such a creep,' she thought to herself.

"Is it not obvious?" he folded his arms, he was so not getting this head start. Though he noticed something strange about her, she looked just a touch more mature than the version of her he saw in the Void. She must not aged there in void form, but right now she still looked younger than he was before he died. How odd, though, maybe it is was her makeup, he concluded.

She looked at the sweets and they were all of black just like the ugly flowers he gave her…it would seem no color is his favourite color. Who would give someone pitch black sweets? It already looks like something rotten or poisoned she thought to herself and flipped the package around trying to see if there was an expiry date. "You realize if this is poison, it will not kill me?"

"I have no intention of such. I declared I will court you," he said, cocky as ever. In his mind, she was just lucky he didn't just force himself over her, he knew he can at any point….but for his plan to work, he will also ensure she stays alive until he executes it completely. Only then he will break her…break her…and most importantly break her. His eyes started to hint he was smiling through the mask.

"You and I are on different spectrums of good and evil."

"'Evil' is not without the capacity to bond. Shao Kahn yearned for Sindel, he could have spawned a series of women to enjoy instead over the millennias but instead he chose to spawn daughters. Affection does not differ between good and evil," he explained and it is true…Shao Kahn is the perfect example though the Kahn's love was one-sided and involved obsession. "But should you feel that is important, I will amend my ways."

"Interesting proposal….My allies will not be convinced even if you convince me, but I will throw a good word for you to Raiden should you help me," she smiled mischievously at him. He wanted to roll his eyes but stopped and remembered she held key to his future achievements. "I seek study in Revenants and wraiths, I have a theory on how to undo the transformation, but it is not everyday that I can find a willing participate or someone who wants to talk about that sort of thing."

"I will help you to prove my willingness to change first," he lied and bowed slightly to her. In this passing of time, he understood she seemed to have some ability to conduct medical research.

"That is one way to get you through the door, not to say other paths are not available," she gave a small smile at him and tilted her head. He had to admit, she did look very cute like that. "Would you be alright with this…?" She asked him and her lips moved slightly after but was inaudible.

He has to say yes…just say yes, "Yes."

"Good, ….well the study starts tomorrow morning," she placed her hands behind her back and then blandly said, "come back later."

Another eye twitch for the shadow spectre and he turned around and left. If was as if she knew he did not sleep and said that to test his patience. She seemed that type of pathetic idiot that took pleasure in such small acts.

…

NEXT DAY - REFUGEE CAMP

The next morning the ninja in black appeared at the study area, no one else was present as they would have likely rang alarms that there was an interloper in the camp. The Tengu was marking up a small notebook and then noticed his presence. "Come here," she said.

He stood in front of her telling himself not to punch her for making him waste a half day. She tilted her head at him and commanded, "take off your mask."

He removes it and held it in hand. She then surprised him when she start squeezing his cheeks. "I do not get why you-are-doing this," he croaked out from his discomfort.

"For biology," she said and then took some notes in her notebook. She then brought the book over the face with her eyes, which were half lidded, were peeping above when she then threw in, "I always wanted to do that to someone …like seeing a child with chubby cheeks and pinching them."

Noob Saibot was in disbelief. She picked up some sort of handheld device that looked like it was measuring something about him and started circling him, stroking his skin in the process.

Kremnine even had the guts to brush hands against his rear and then start touching his bottoms.

"Stop it!" He whipped her arm away, he felt embarrassed and flushed but luckily his skin is so dark now no can see it. Should this situation be reversed, he would have been the one in her shoes savouring this humiliation!

"I believe it is your purpose to support my ambition," she said blandly giving him a look that strongly suggested she failed to understand why she should be stopped.

"That is not my purpose! I fail to see how harassing me supports you," Noob Saibot snapped.

"Yes, it helps!" Kremnine said defensively. Then she said something that literally almost made him walk out saying 'screw it' to his plans. "The scanners are not providing an accurate reading on your skin; you will have to take off your clothes."

"I will do no such act!"

"I am in the medical field, I have seen them all. If you are small down there then your secret is safe with me."

"That is not of concern!" He roared, now that he is wraith without master, he is much like a chaosrealmer, disliking the idea of being ordered and controlled. How dare she insinuate he was not large there, he has more to offer than his other Lin Kuei comrades!

"Fine, just the top will do," she sighed, then gave him a pretentious sultry look and changed her voice to sound more like she was on a hotline, "Maybe not today but eventually, you will take everything off so we can do an MRI scan."

"I, yet again, fail to see how that helps you," He said defiantly.

"Energy is not generated out of nothing. Humans digest food and turn it into energy, somehow wraiths and revenants must get their energy somewhere…." She continued moving on to theories on matter and energy.

Noob Saibot started to ignore her long explanation as it got too nerdy for him so he removed his sash and armour exposing his chest just to save him the boredom of listening to science. Then, she aimed her portable scanner at him.

"Oh wait….I guess it does not make a difference after all. Carry on…" the Tengu said without empathy or emotion literally causing the shadow spectre to lose his shit. At the end of the day, she told him to leave and come back again another time. When he did leave, he took his anger out on every smiling tree he could find in the living forest.

WEEKS OF SUPPOSED STUDY

The next few weeks, that behaviour continued, sometimes they met at the lab room, or study room or outside the campgrounds. Though sometimes Kremnine would not meet with Noob Saibot when there were more pressing matters of earthrealm to attend to. When they did meet, he was annoyed she seemed to causally touch him as if she had full permission, no,…more than that, her behaviour is causing him to react. He found himself with his blood rushed to his cheeks due to a feeling he was unfamiliar with or to having his blood veins pop whenever he was frustrated.

He can count each instance she did something to really frustrate him, for example, it almost seemed she was pretending to giving him an eye exam, the day started badly with her hovering on letters she expected him to speak out on.

"I….A?..M….…D..O..U..C..H..E?..B..A?..G.." he sounded as soon as she selected the letter on the board from a distance.

She started giggling midway and he was a little annoyed she having fun at doing a supposed exam and not entirely sure what she was giggling on about. He sat on a chair with the mask off as she had been a variety of tools to inspect him earlier before and then shortly after, she was standing in front of him, she placed her hand on his thigh while the other was holding the flashlight to peer into his pupils. Her face literally in kissing proximity. Then he swore she moved her hand so close to his manhood. When she was done, he pushed her hand off.

"How untamed of you, " she said blandly as she aimed the flashlight at his crouch. "Who gets excited over an eye inspection?"

At the same time they also shared moments that he held close to him. Kremnine did kiss him that time after all. In his other flashback, the events went as such:

"I have been addressing you a generic wraith in my reports…Do you prefer another naming convention?" She asked Noob Saibot and threw an eraser at him to get his attention.

He dodged it, of course, with his intense reflexes. "My name does not need to be on your reports."

"Your name is not actually Noob Saibot, if it were, than it is completely off from Kuai Liang."

"My human name is Bi-Han," he snarled, a sense of frustration lingering in him with her mention of his brother's name.

"Mmm…I suppose we never shared each other' s name….you have heard others address me as Rae, I am Quan Rae," she looked slightly to side, embarrassed to answer.

"Quan-?"

"Yes…that Quan…with all the years that sorcerer had existed, he has had a few illegitimate children. Should there was a way to dilute all his blood and hereditary traits off of me, I would do it."

"You are a halfbreed then?" He piqued and stared right in the orange eyes of the Tengu. That would mean her biology and vitality would not be the completely the same as a human much like he was when he was a living, breathing cyromancer.

"You took long to notice; I think I will start calling you Noob Slowbot in the reports…" She said blandly.

"It is because you are not worthy for me to GIVE ATTENTION TO!" He said defensively and progressively raising his voice.

She immediately covered her lips on his. He was about to push her off as he hated any situation where he was one being dominated over but then heard an all too familiar voice call out.

"Are you having troubles, Kremnine?" The voice of the Thunder God spoke on the other side of the door in the room.

"It is nothing to be alarmed of, Raiden, I am testing a sound based device," she said when broke the kiss and then gave the wraith a small smile and said, "that should shut you up…we are done here, come back another week."

It was a game…of cat and mouse and after weeks of it,….he…almost did not mind playing this long term or stopping if at all. Then one of the nights, the wraith was alone at the lake where he can see the camp where the Tengu stayed at from a distance, he figured she was asleep already. He found reaching his hand below, stroking himself as it had been a while since he had been releasing himself and he still built up like a normal male did. It was a quiet night and most of his nights he would doing errands in the name of the brotherhood of shadows. Luckily now that Havik and him are allies, the brotherhood stopped being hostile to him.

He continued to stroke himself through the cloth feeling the skin harden and as if a switch was turned on, he rapidly loosen his sash so he can undo the front of his pants and pull out his throbbing manhood. His hand dipped into the water and it was quite cold, but he was used to cold temperatures. He started stroking the length then as the water from his hand coated him enough, he start jerking himself a little more roughly.

He gasped and his eye shut thinking of walking into meeting spots at that campground and being able to see a sight of that lovely little Tengu who, in more recent days, had her eyes lit up and smiling when she saw him appear. He was getting close, he just needed a bit more precision and bit more focus under the head and then sighed harshly, releasing his load into his hand, thinking of her face being decorated by these fluids. This cannot continue, he thought as he felt there was something incredibly wrong with him.

Noob Saibot asked himself that this was for revenge, right? Why is he letting himself be degenerated by her? If he wants his revenge, he can get it done now. He warped himself in front of her in her bedroom where she was sleeping on her side, completely vulnerable. He gripped the bed sheets with malicious intent, but then he stopped, looking at her peaceful, resting face. His hand dropped as he lost the motivation of what he was thinking of doing and then warped himself out in the end.