AN: One shots have a limit of three to four chapters. They're not necessarily romance – mind you.
Nivet: Dude, Skarlet has a very minimal role in the story. It is about Ermac and Mileena anyways. You may have your chance to be the first!
Insert generic MK disclaimer here.
And I apologize for my terseness.
Strange Relations II
He was startled at the "sister" part, almost. He sat there, stiff, and then Mileena reverted back to her place. She waited for him to react for a split second since her revelation, but he was unreasonably laconic. Maybe he didn't hear me, she thought. However she didn't try to apprehend if he was at unease simply because she didn't care. Her rare brusque visage donned a sanguine mask the instant she looked at him. He couldn't fathom if she was serious or plain crazy.
For some reason, she laughed loud. Real loud. The brouhaha from her mouth disturbing the tranquility of the forest.
Then she became quiet, and before she could think of something to say she laughed again.
Ermac's nodded thoughtfully. Heh. She's crazy indeed.
His brows furrowed for the first time. She's treating us like a toy...
Ermac, evidently annoyed, didn't talk at all. He was actually hoping that it will discourage her from bothering him.
Maybe if we ignored her for an adequate amount of time, she'll leave us alone. Better yet, she won't bother to approach us again.
Ermac crossed his arms and tried to abate the nascent of misogyny at the pit of his being. He tried to face his eyes at something else, but whenever he suspects his companion-intruder doing something vile he'd look at her menacingly.
5 minutes have passed.
Ermac was determined to clamp his tongue down.
Mileena blinked, she was confused, then bored. Seeing him quiet made her feel tedious yet lively at the same time. She was slightly surprised to witness him staring at her. Then a misnomer for his implied silent treatment hit her.
She thought it was a staring contest and "played along". Happily unacknowledged about the rules, she pouted, shouted and babbled nonsense.
Ermac didn't flinch.
20 minutes afterwards, Mileena decided to regale him. Why? She doesn't care. But for whatever reason that can agree with her barely-a-year-old reasoning was simply because...
Just because...
Unknown to her, this is the beginning of her hobby to rankle him in very humiliating ways.
The next 4 hours was spent with Mileena playfully torturing all of his psyche.
Patience is an innate virtue of Ermac's. How he was able to put up with the others back at Shao Kahn's was proof of its existence in his abnormal form; but then Mileena came.
Ermac had always been baffled at Mileena's effrontery since her...creation; yet how he was able to brook her pestering actions ever since her 'birth' was a testament of his patience.
How patient? It's enough to tolerate anyone execrable from time to time. Those things are surprising but forgettable in minutes. But putting up with Mileena taunting you for 5 hours straight without doing anything harmful to her was a herculean task.
Her topics were random, aiming at different people, he was not even sure if some of them are real - but he let it pass; she even talked about herself in third person for lord's sake. And dear, she didn't stop there. Ermac may be a neophyte in social functions as of yet, but clearly this woman wasn't aware of the restrictions.
She leaned her nose on his chest to smell him. She attempted without second thought to pull him out of his garb to see if he really was made of souls. She hugged him and pushed him to nearest tree trunk when she demanded that he'd play with her.
The serene euphoria that made Ermac so placid was foundering into the depths of the void he called his body.
Ermac was fighting the urge to flay her, to break that tarkatan face in numerous fractures that mocked him for so long as he could remember, the behemoth within his ethereal from struggled for dominance to torture that miscreant-girl-mutant-thing. He wanted to hurt her, to hell with the consequences. Maybe no one will even care if she was dead.
But he didn't let the anger surface yet, since he realized then his allegiance to Shao Kahn.
Why must she be royalty? Why can't she go back to that Kitana?
Why didn't Shang Tsung bound her to chains?
Why us?
Meanwhile Mileena giggled and kept persuading him to play with her. She ran her finger along his nose bridge, and pressed her index finger lightly at the exposed part of his nose. Ermac didn't acknowledge at the suggestiveness of it, he was too busy being annoyed at her.
If only he was Earthrealm defender he had a good alibi to dismember her. Come to think of it, he realized too late, Mileena was far worse than Kano.
"Come on big brother! I'm bored! Let us play! Let us dance! Talk to me!"
So she wanted to play, if she meant by fighting like she always did with the others, then...
No, no matter how much we wanted to, we cannot do that.
Ermac believed he talked a lot...to themselves. He even forgot to at least look like he was acknowledging her presence. Mileena thought he was ignoring her. She hated to be ignored. Like what her father did to her with Kitana or Skarlet were around. She gritted her morbid fangs. Not you too...
He was pushed further at the trunk of the living tree; her hands were on his shoulders to shake him out of his reverie.
"Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! Ermac! "
She was quaffing his patience and savoring the last drops of the abstract liquid. Ermac was paralyzed as she shook him.
He remembered bits of Shang Tsung's words.
"She has a mind of a child...Her logic seems misplaced at times but ... She's 8 months old..."
He didn't stutter and kept a straight face. How could that be? He was barely a year old as well but she's...the tarkatan blood could not be the reason. If she's a child - a toddler...
Mileena showed no signs of stopping the rapture she used to subdue him. Ermac had to do something and began to ponder amidst Mileena's feistiness. And with shards of false hope, he hoped his theory would work.
Then he said with restrained exasperation and sinking self - control. "Why can't we trust her?"
Mileena's sanguine eyes formed an icy glare; the demonic amber irises glowing in increasing intensity, but her eyes seems to be staring through him like his existence didn't matter.
She let go of him and distanced herself away. Ermac felt his lungs could finally breathe again.
"She's a whore! Don't you even dare talk to that woman under my watch!" She pointed an accusing finger at him.
Ermac clicked his tongue. "Go on..."
Mileena talked about "Skarlet" for an ample amount of time, rant would be more specific. She cursed her to the pits of the Nether realm, Mileena said horrible things about her. Skarlet… who she was he didn't care, so long she kept talking the less she'll touch him. His personal space is quite large for an average guy.
Ermac crossed his arms as he gazed at her, forming exegeses in his head on why she acts like that and savoring the lack of foreign weight on his clothing. She kept prattling about her plan to exterminate her sister.
"Father thinks she's so special!" She dug her hands in the soil, her knuckles whitening and dirt stuck to her gloves and shaking fingers.
He didn't reflect on her jealousy. He thought it was ridiculous for her to involve him in her selfish quest for attention that he didn't even bother to pay attention to every word.
Spoiled brat.
It's been a while, 10 minutes, but she kept on speaking. She wasn't even aware if he was still listening. Ermac ignored her voice like how he ignored Kano.
Yet the imaginary armor he adorned himself in cracked when Mileena pulled him up and jerked him to follow her.
Finally he talked about his annoyance in one phrase.
"You're a nuisance" Ermac reprimanded as he struggled to maintain his balance as she skipped with him in tow. It didn't come out as intimidating as he intended.
Spiteful girl.
Mileena winsomely skipped on the ground, dirt was trailing along her boots and she held both of his arms and paraded him along the seemingly muddy soil. She spun around and held Ermac with her innate strength.
She laughed louder and tightened her grip on his arms when he tried to uproot his appendages from her hands.
"Come big brother! Let's get rid of her once and for all!"
Let's?
Let's...
He planted his feet to the ground in one swift motion Mileena almost faltered.
"What!" Mileena hissed, her mood swings are hard to keep of track of, he noticed that they have indeed gone worse since the last time he saw her, which was hours ago. She continued to tighten her grip on him to permanently injure him, glared at him, mouthed profanities.
Her piercing glare only met unimpressed half lidded eyes. "We will not be a part of this" Ermac pushed her away without touching her, and lifted her up as green specks of ethereal souls floated in circles around her.
"Traitor! You're on Kitana's side! You're on Skarlet's side! I HATE YOU! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE!" Mileena screamed with her vocal chords hurting as her body disobediently straightened and her chin tipping back as Ermac's intangible grip on her tightened.
She continued yelling in pain and torment.
Ermac sighed. A friendly Mileena is somewhat tolerable, but having her as enemy is something he wanted to avoid. A screaming, stalking, backstabbing Mileena is far worse than the Mileena earlier. He looked around, suddenly aware of the unfriendly aura in the forest, the groans were louder and shadows trailed around the woods darkened in hues that even dulled the forest grounds. He didn't realize how much time must've passed till now. It was night.
Nighttime in the living forest is a death wish.
He thought about reasoning with her, but he doubted she'd be complaisant. Rendering her unconscious was not option now, the emperor could've assigned someone, some people or something to look for her with this time of night. He can't let the others think that he hurt her.
Screw it.
"I'm not on their side" He said calmly but loud enough to penetrate the voluble noise she created.
Mileena was silenced. "Really!" She exclaimed happily, her giddiness returning. "You're on my side?"
Ermac shuddered. She's calm now, a bit, now there's no need to constrict her sinuses. He remained laconic and Mileena fooled herself that he said yes.
"So you are!" Mileena giggled.
He had to stare at her intently, she was really a specimen to behold. He never knew that anyone was capable to be annoying without knowing it.
Mileena held back her chuckles.
Well, while she's preoccupied, her claims about the brother part earlier had him … "Why do you consider us your brothers?" He mouthed, and surprised it came out of his mouth.
Mileena cocked her head, there's something wry about the way she said it. "Because you are! Silly Ermac!"
So much for reason. He can't believe he had to change his tone of voice to get answers.
"But, why?"
She pouted behind her veil. "We're both created by Shang Tsung aren't we?"
A intangible knife made its way through Ermac and stabbed the soul inhabitants.
"…That's…your logic is misplaced." Ermac uttered, still confused.
"You know it's true!"
He had to explain to her that siblings aren't related as such, but decided against it. She would not and cannot comprehend it…yet.
"And you're the only big brother I have! I won't allow Skarlet take you too!"
We felt something…something figuratively amorphous…
"You're the only one I didn't play with yet too!"
Okay that part creeped him out.
He still held her, the intangible grasp around her softening since she had not try to wiggle her way out. Yet, the concentration of souls were magnifying as she smiled at him adoringly. He decided to not think about what she said, take advantage of her lively state, and teleport both of them outside the tournament grounds to calm her down before returning her to Shao Kahn.
They're in the soul chamber.
Why are we here? We're supposed to be at...
Ermac looked around, aside from everything in their usual wont, the Shadow priests were absent. No one's guarding the souls...
He looked at where Mileena should be, hovering two feet from the ground. But she wasn't there. The teleportation distracted him. Where is she?
And in a sudden involuntary outburst, he said her name.
"Mileena!" He was surprised to hear himself say her name. But he didn't let it daunt him and continued his search while a lingering thought slowly glistened.
Maybe she ended up some place else.
He stopped.
He felt an awkward murky feeling at the pit of his stomach. Emotions weren't Ermac's forte, but this new emotion was bothering him. He reflected on it. Whenever a new emotion should arise Ermac would try to understand it. Like now.
We feel sick...so this is a negative sensation. It's directed at...dare way say it. Her. Her... It erupted when we noticed she was missing. It's not anger...not anymore at least. What if something happened to...
He didn't know it fully yet, but he was not worried.
He felt guilty.
Somehow, somewhere in the constant chasms in his mind he can hear that girl saying his name with "big brother" preceding the former in a very reiterate manner like what she did earlier.
He even forgot momentarily the threats and the methods of killing her in his head.
Ermac turned his head to the big skull statue harboring the souls where he was rejuvenated, and turned his back to it. He gazed around the vicinity. The walls, the texture of the clay floor where he took his first steps. Then cautiously turned his head where he teleported into seconds ago and felt a draft wash over his robe. To his dismay and delight there's still no sign of her.
The feeling was getting worse though.
"She's barely a year old" Shang Tsung told Ermac weeks ago when he first saw her near completion in the Flesh pits.
She looked so horrid and…not beautiful in those torn sheets of fabric. He only says the truth.
Then he remembered something else from what Mileena ranted about 4 days earlier when she said that Kitana supposedly attacked her when she just came out of the glass tube she was in. And he remembered her words hours ago that were supposed to be forgotten.
Father thinks she's so special!
Kitana and Skarlet looked so beautiful…
He shook his head slowly.
What are we supposed to see here? Are we missing something...important…?
He turned his head at every possible direction he could look to distract himself. Mileena can take care of herself can she not? He almost spun in panic. The serenity and the loneliness he grew to love brought him a faint sinking of his chest. And the souls in the soul chamber trudged in silence.
But those composing him waved in modicum amounts of whirlpools.
And for the first time, he felt uncomfortable and comfortable being alone. For some reason he couldn't apprehend… Hell, he was surprised to think as such about his standards.
Then he saw a reddish hue a few feet away, how she arrived here without him knowing he did not know. But she stomped her feet brusquely as she approached him.
"You are Ermac?" She asked. He couldn't tell if the way her eyes looked at him had an inborn glare or she intended to do so.
That was quite regal. "You're correct. What do you-" She raised her hand to hinder him from continuing.
"No time to talk, I was alerted that there was an intruder in the fortress, and I came here to apologize"
"For what?"
"I took your captive earlier, before both of you could form I took her away to the pit. She's Mileena yes? I didn't know it at first and she started to attack me. Master was looking for her minutes ago so I brought her back to him."
What...? How….? When…? Never mind. She's already incoherent and terse with her words.
He crossed his arms "You did not answer the question. Why are you apologizing?" He said calmly.
"I brought her to Shao Kahn since she told me that you brainwashed her"
She paused.
"Your execution will be in 6 days' time"
Ermac was still calm, as was she.
"She dropped" to the floor in pools of blood and the liquid evaporated. Ermac didn't look surprised.
Ermac knew her then, she was the girl Quan Chi or Shang Tsung had created. He couldn't pinpoint when exactly she was created but decided tot leave it at that. Then he fought a disappointed sigh, so that's the Skarlet she was referring to.
How she thought why she thought she was her sister too was beyond him.
Then he reluctantly pondered on dialogue earlier. The "concern" he felt for Mileena left him.
Ermac stayed where he stood for half an hour….thinking…He paused and looked at himself.
What are we doing?
Why are we standing here and not reprimanding her?
Why didn't we maim her when we had the chance?
He grew aggravated and disposed his thoughts away.
Pathetic, once we find her we'll explain everything to Shao Kahn and deal with her there.
AN: it felt fluffy….. man…. Can anyone please tell me it didn't felt too quick….