KITANA'S POV

My existence seemed so much different from before my death... I was with the one I loved, planning to eliminate the one responsible for returning me from the Netherrealm, but there was one problem with this entire scenario...

She was there.

Mileena was everything I despised... She was a clone, one cross-bred with that of Baraka's race, no less! Nothing more than a cheap, poorly lithographed copy of myself. She was also manipulative, deceptive, and desired nothing more than to rule over all of my realms... I knew that this facade of hers, being caring and all, was nothing but a fallacy, a trap to lure Markus in...

And yet... Mileena was different from when I last saw her. She was more composed, less erratic and unstable, as well as physically altered. One could merely wonder what the facelift she had received was doing to boost her self-esteem. If I did not have so much disgust for her, I would have been glad that she had seemingly matured since our last encounter.

Turning to Raiden, I glanced at the thunder god with an aura of frustration and hope. While I had died as a result of his dodgy plans to save Earthrealm, he ultimately was correct in his assumption that Shao Kahn's merger of the realms would bring about his demise. A pity he had not known of Quan Chi's plans, however... They would be most interesting once the Earthrealmers found out about them.

"Well, Raiden, let's get moving! The Netherrealm isn't going to kill itself, after all..."

If there was one thing that annoyed me more than Mileena, it was her boyfriend. He was rude, disturbingly uncultured, and showed no respect for those of a higher social status than himself. Turning to him, I gave as cross a look as my masked face would allow.

"You should show more respect to the Elder Gods and their subordinates, Markus... I do not believe Raiden deserves to be talked down to by someone not as closely connected with them as myself or Liu Kang."

The armored warrior turned to look at me, and I caught a glare from Mileena as he did so.

"Look, lady... Why should I respect anyone or anything that doesn't respect me? I have no reason to disrespect someone unless they do it to me first, but still. These 'Elder Gods' have done jack for me. Why should I listen to them?"

"The Elder Gods are responsible for the creation of the realms. You would not exist unless the Elder Gods had brought them into being."

"This is getting ridiculous... You're starting to sound some some sort of New Age hippie from another dimension. Until I see reasonably solid evidence that these 'Elder Gods' deserve my worship, I'm going to decline."

An Elder Goddess stood before him and he had the audacity to disrespect her in such a way? I was about to attack this worthless swine and his abomination of a girlfriend, when Lady Atraya spoke.

"Enough of this! We will return to Earthrealm and prepare for the upcoming incursion into the Netherrealm. I do not care about your foolish personal vendettas, nor do I wish to involve myself in them! Cease your hostility towards one another and make amends, otherwise you will tear this alliance apart! No one from any of the realms will survive the resulting conflict unless you end this!"

I looked at the abomination of a sister I had, almost entirely ignoring Atraya's words of wisdom."You know as well as I do that you have no right to the throne of Edenia, Outworld, or any realm! You were born of Shang Tsung's sorcery for Shao Kahn. What right have you to my throne?"

MILEENA'S POV

"No... No!"

It felt as though an invisible blade had been shoved through my chest as Kitana's barbed tongue spoke those horribly truthful words. I was not her biological sister, yes, but that never stopped me from attempting to be the sister I knew I had been intended to be. Her next words, though, were what left me truly speechless.

"You are evil, and have no place in this world!"

I stepped back, overcome with a feeling I had only felt once before: sadness. My mind attempted to put together a response to her barbed words.

"You are right, Kitana... I am evil, technically speaking. But if I have no right to existence in this realm or any other, then neither will you!"

I struggled to lunge at my 'sister,' but Markus held me back as I continued to yell at her.

"Look at you, Kitana! You are willing to use anything, and I do mean anything, to get your royal position back!"

The frustrating Edenian have me what I guessed was a smile. "You know as well as I do that if you were in my position, you would be trying to do the same thing. Being royalty is all you ever wanted, after all. Well, that and someone who wasn't afraid of your enormous maw..."

If looks could kill, Kitana would have died minutes ago. But before I could respond to her latest insult, Markus pulled me close and whispered in my ear.

"Don't waste your time with the jealous wench over there... Let's just go along with Atraya and life can get back to normal."

I gave a gentle nod as Markus kissed me on the cheek, my anger slowly subsiding. It was then that Johnny Cage decided to perk up...

JOHNNY CAGE'S POV

"This is just like my movie 'Terrordon," where me and the Garcia twins were going through a whole relationship triangle or something like that. Of course, that was in a jungle full of dinosaurs, Neanderthals, and other creepy-crawly things that I still have nightmares about, but it still had a big box office debut!"

The two sisters looked at me before Sonya smacked me. Oddly enough, though, I barely felt it as I noticed a bruise on the side of her cheek large enough for me to write my name in cursive on. "Woah... What happened to you?"

"Bruise from one of the Black Dragons, nothing to worry about."

I simply nodded as that Atraya chick raised her hand, a white light surrounding us as we began to reappear in the Special Forces headquarters.

I couldn't help but think about how bad that bruise must've felt on her face. Stepping over, I put a hand on her shoulder, one thing she oddly enough didn't draw away from.

"Lemme help take your mind off the bruise, okay?"

As I moved in for a hug, I heard several of the kombatants talk amongst themselves...

"Wow... Johnny's so cool at this whole comforting thing, he makes me look like Scorpion."

"My systems calculate a ninety-eight percent chance that the two of them like each other, with a less than a quarter of a percent error."

"I and the Others have been through love enough times to know that these two show the signs of it..."

"When is she gonna chain him up so then can get cuffed together, if you know what I mean?"

"Skarlet I thought I taught you better jokes than that..."

"Hey, I can't help it if I'm a fan of chains, whips, and other blood-letting forms of excitement!"

I looked at Skarlet... She seemed a bit pale and thinning. "Um, Skarlet? I think you need to get your drink on."

Markus noticed it too, turning to Sonya. "Does the medbay, or hospital, or whatever you guys have here carry blood packs, or at least perflubron?"

She nodded, and as the Iron Man-like warrior went to go get some food for his bloody bodyguard, I raised an eyebrow. "What's perflubron?"

Sonya merely hugged me again, something I was highly surprised at as she whispered in my ear. "You'll never know, Johnny. You'll never know..."