Chapter Fifty-Two

Later That Evening

Cave

Sitting in the lounge at the small table, Rose explained everything to the Edenian royals about the situation she and the other chosen ones were in. With hot drinks in front of them, Kitana, Sindel, and Jade listened in with interest.

"So basically," Rose began to conclude. "Our goal here is to make sure that the medallion falls into the right hands."

"Indeed," Sindel agreed after taking a sip of her drink. "Who knows what the Emperor might do with such power."

"That's what we fear," Rose said. "With only two of our chosen ones left in the tournament, we may have to begin a plan B. What that will be, I'm not sure of just yet."

From there, the three Edenians began to tell their story… how they were involved with Shao Kahn years ago, their constant wars in Edenia, and their current situation as they attend The Blood Tournament.

"That sounds alarming," Rose replied after they were finished with their story. "May I ask one question, and you don't have to answer… say that one of you were able to win the medallion in the tournament. What did you plan to do with it?"

"We had hoped that we would use it to finally bring everlasting peace to Edenia," Kitana answered.

Rose smiled. "The medallion is indeed deserving to be in your hands." Then her smile faded. "I would like the three of you to join us here. When I first saw you, I sensed your pure hearts and souls, which is all you need to be one of our chosen ones. I will personally seek out your belongs tonight so you can get yourselves settled here. I also ask for you to stay here for your safety from further attacks from the tarkatans and Shao Kahn's minions."

"Thank you kindly," said Jade. "We appreciate your hospitality and we'll be honored to help you in your cause."

"One thing I must ask," began Sindel. "You mentioned 'our chosen ones.'"

"Ah yes," Rose said. "I am not the only one leading the group. The Thunder God Raiden is leading as well."

The three women's eyes were suddenly big as saucers and Jade nearly choked on her drink. "RAIDEN?!" they all called out.

Rose looked at them in confusion. "Yes… you know him?"

That's when the curtain to the room opened and Raiden stepped in carrying a bag of food. "Did someone call me?"

Then he noticed the three Edenians standing up from their chairs and staring up at him. A surprised look appeared on his face as he did not expect the three to even be here in the first place. "Um… hello ladies," he said a bit nervously.

That's when Sindel stepped forward. "Hello Raiden," she said before raising a hand and slapping him hard across the face. Raiden dropped his bag in surprise upon being slapped.

Rose looked up at the two with amusement. "About time someone did that!" she called out.

Ignoring her, Raiden raised his own hand to rub the pain away from his cheek before looking at Sindel. "May I ask why you did such a thing?"

Sindel placed her hands on her hips. "Why didn't you inform us of any of this?! We could've helped this whole time you know!"

Raiden stared at the Queen. "First of all, I didn't even know you three were even here. Just because I'm a God doesn't mean I know everything! Second of all, I'm NOT the Protector of Edenia! That's Argus' job!"

Sindel sighed a bit as she understood. "In that case, I apologize for hitting you."

"No no," Rose cut in. "I give you permission to hit him anytime you want."

Raiden glared at Rose as Sindel continued. "Well… thank you kindly… I think."

Kitana spoke up then as a thought came to her. "I need to ask you something… you see… I know this young man named Siegfried-"

"Schtauffen?" Rose cut in.

Kitana looked at her. "How did you know?"

"She's a psychic," Raiden mentioned. "Though she's actually more of a psy-"

"I've seen him fight in the tournament," Rose quickly said before Raiden finished. "There is good in him… but there's another side of him. Something darker, something that he seems to be trying to fight perhaps. Out of precaution, he can't be here."

"…I see," was all Kitana said.

"Now," Sindel said. "Shall we settle in?"

"I'll show you to your rooms," Raiden offered.

"Thank you Raiden," replied Kitana.

With that, Raiden left the room with Sindel, Kitana, and Jade following him.

Palace Grounds

"Tell me again," said Cassandra. "…how did I get involved in this?"

"You were just in the room and Rose asked you to help us," replied Ken.

"Shh! Could you two try to keep it down?" whispered Yun.

"Try not to trip this time," said Cody. "Last time I was behind you and you almost tripped and I almost crashed into you."

"This is Rose's fault anyway," said Yun. "If she hadn't thrown all those mugs, we wouldn't be trying to sneak these mugs out of the dining quarters."

"Will you both be quiet," Cassandra demanded quietly.

"Yes ma'am," the two replied.

Quietly, the four of them tip toed out the door of the main palace without being seen carrying countless mugs in their arms. Since it was nearly late at night, barely anyone was outside at this time, much to their relief since they were told not to get caught.

"Phew, we made it," said Ken. "And no one has seen us."

"Don't jinx it now," Yun suggested. "We still have another twenty minute walk back to the cave."

"True," said Cody. "But we do have a five minute walk to the forest. Once we're in the forest, we're in the clear and we don't have to worry about getting caught."

"…I still can't believe you forgot the bag to carry these mugs in," mentioned Cassandra.

Yun looked at the young woman. "You complain a lot."

Cassandra's mouth dropped opened in reply. "I don't complain a lot!"

"Shhh!" Cody hushed. "Be quiet. Let's get going before we-"

"Who's out there?!" someone suddenly called out from inside the palace.

Because the voice called out unexpectedly, all four of them were so startled that they ended up dropping all the mugs. All the mugs crashed on the floor into countless pieces and leaving behind an ear-piercing shatter. Once the four realized what they did, they all looked down at the broken mugs in horror.

"Oh… crap…" said Yun.

"What do we do now?" asked Cassandra who was a bit shaken.

That's when they heard running footsteps from within the palace. Ken gulped. "There is one thing we can do… RUN!"

"What about the mugs?!" cried out Yun.

"Forget about the mugs!" called out Cody. "I'd be more worried about my life right now!"

"Show yourselves!" another voice called out.

"I'm out of here!" Cassandra cried out as she began running.

"Me too!" Cody, Yun, and Ken cried out as they began following her just as the guards inside got outside.

"Come back here!" one guard cried out as they began chasing them.

"OH CRAP!" Cody shrieked as he realized they were being followed.

"That's the last time I do anything for that crazy woman!" screamed Yun.

Having no other choice, the four took a turn away from the path to the cave in hopes of somehow losing the guards on the way.

Back At the Cave

Reaching one of the curtains, Lei Wulong quietly peaked over one of the edges of the fabric. Even though the gap between the curtain and the cave walls were a couple of inches apart, Lei was still able to look through the opening.

Quietly, Lei looked into the room behind the curtain, smiling to himself upon seeing Chun Li inside. She was sitting on her bed looking through some paperwork. He also noted the outfit she was wearing… a pair of long navy blue jeans, a yellow spaghetti-strapped tank top, and her hair done in her usual ox horns hairstyle held up by yellow ribbons. Lei also noted that she was barefoot as well.

After watching her for another minute, Lei decided to walk himself in. "Even in another world, you're a workaholic."

Chun Li immediately looked up from her paperwork, seeing Lei walking over to her. "It's fine really… we finally get them done, yet Guile wants me to overview my part of the report before we can really call our work 'complete.'"

Lei laughed a little. "Well Wagner did warn us since day one… Guile's a bit OCD with double checking anything."

"There's nothing wrong with double checking," Chun Li said. "But to be honest, I think we've done it more than once." She smiled. "And the good news is that you came in just in time. I just finished looking over everything."

Lei sat next to her on the bed. "Are you just saying that just to find an excuse to get away from the paperwork?"

Chun Li chuckled a little. "Not at all. I'm being truthful."

"Good," Lei replied smiling.

A thought came to Chun Li and she sighed a bit. "Do you think we'll ever find out anything at all in this 'mission?' I mean, considering that we'll be here for another… eight days."

"Ah so we do have a little over a week left before we go home," Lei said before answering her question. "To be honest, I'm not one-hundred percent sure. Even if we get a small amount of information to bring home in the aftermath, I'm sure that'll be okay." He then placed his hands on the young woman's shoulders. "Tell you what… why don't we forget about all this for a little while. Last I looked, no one was sitting at the campfire. Let's sit over there for a while."

Chun Li smirked as she placed a hand over one of his. "Sounds nice. Let me get my jacket and I'll meet you over there."

"Sounds good to me. I'll set the fire up in the meantime." With that, Lei left a kiss on the side of Chun Li's head before getting up to leave the room. Chun Li watched him go until he disappeared behind the curtain.

Beach Area

With his eyes closed, Dan Hibiki performed a slow kata. He kept his mind in full focus, taking in deep breaths and, at some point, letting himself feel the soft wind against his face.

Nearby, Nightwolf sat under a tree, his eyes also closed as he meditated. His mind was also clear, free from any thoughts as he kept his focus on his own energy.

Time passed as Dan slowly maneuvered himself around and Nightwolf unmoving from where he sat. Eventually though, Dan slowly stood himself straight, resting both of his arms on either side of him before opening his eyes, the view of the beach water in front of him.

A minute later, Nightwolf opened his eyes as well and noticed Dan walking over to him. "Have you finished your kata training?" the shaman asked him.

Dan sat in front of his master. "Yes Nightwolf. I just completed my kata for the day."

"Very good," Nightwolf said. "You have done well since you began your training. I believe that once you test yourself in combat, you will become a much better warrior. With that in mind, you are almost complete with your mental training."

"Already?" Dan said feeling a bit disappointed. "Time does definitely seem to go fast."

"It does indeed," Nightwolf agreed. "But even when your training is declared complete, you should never stop. Through continued practices, you will learn new things you never thought you would learn, and your skills will still continue to improve. Within a few days, your training with me will be completed when you take your final test."

"And what will happen in this final test?" Dan asked.

"That information I will withhold until that day," Nightwolf replied. "Until then, I want you to stay focus on all that you have learned up to this point. On the day of your final test, you will know."

Dan placed a hand on his fist before bowing his head to the shaman. "I don't know how to thank you, Nightwolf. When I came here, people viewed me as nothing more than a goofball. I hope that, with my new training, I will prove them wrong."

"It is possible that people will see a change in you," Nightwolf said. "But before you can prove to anyone that you are a good fighter, you must prove your skills to yourself first. Only then will you leave a good impression on others. Now, let us meditate and reflect on today's training."

Dan nodded as he straightened his back and placing his hands on his knees before closing his eyes. Before he began his meditation, he briefly thought about what his final test could be. Whatever it was, he hoped to pass it.

Cave

In the halls of the cave, all was quiet as Kilik replaced some of the burnt out oil candles with fresh ones. It was a chore that Raiden had asked him to do… most likely because he was the first person the Thunder God saw when he realized the candles had to be replaced.

Kilik didn't mind doing the small task. The only real pain about changing the candles was trying to avoid getting his fingers burnt by the hot wax.

We're better off just letting them cool off overnight and clean the bases before replacing them, Kilik thought with a small sigh.

As the young man continued replacing the candles, he noticed a shadow overcasting just next to him as he lit up a candle. Curiosity got to him as he turned around to see who was coming… only to be surprised by the sight of his new friend Jade.

"Hello Kilik," Jade said upon noticing him.

"Um, hi Jade," Kilik replied after swallowing. "How did you find your way here?"

"Well it turns out Kitana, Sindel, and I are chosen ones as well," the green-clad woman answered.

Kilik rubbed the back of his neck. "Well… now you know why I ran off the way I did the day I found Paul in the forest. I apologize for that."

"That's quite all right," Jade said. "I figured you were hiding out somewhere that was a secret… considering that I never saw you around the palace."

"Yeah," Kilik sighed.

A smile came over Jade's face. "You know what this means? This means that we can finally have that training session we keep promising about without one of us having some sort of interference."

Kilik smiled a bit nervously. "We are definitely a bit overdue for that aren't we?"

Jade nodded. "Shall we 'dance' tomorrow?"

Kilik couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Sure, sounds great. I don't think I'm doing anything tomorrow."

"Good," Jade said. "Meet me just outside the cave at one o'clock. See you then." With that, she took her leave down the hall. Kilik watched her go until she entered what he believed was her room. Afterward, he continued with changing the candles.

In Another Part of the Cave

Lying in bed on his back, Wagner looked up at the ceiling above him. One hand rested behind his head and the other over his stomach. Though he was already in his pajamas (consisting of a black muscle shirt that was a couple of sizes too big and black and white flannel pants), he wasn't tired enough to go to bed just yet. At least in the area he was in, all was quiet aside from the occasional footsteps that would pass his room from people passing by.

Is it me or was today boring? he thought to himself at one point.

A sudden breeze came through the edges of the closed curtains making the room cooler than normal. Wagner took a moment to use his feet to kick up a dark green cotton blanket over to him before unfolding it with his hands and laying the fabric from his feet to the middle of his torso. Afterward, he placed his hands back in their original positions.

At this point, I could fall asleep in his position now that I have the blanket on me, the young man thought again.

As he continued looking up at the ceiling, thoughts played in his head, mainly of his childhood. Those memories before the day Shadaloo destroyed his life seemed as though they were from a distant time to him… but what really mattered what those good days when his parents were alive and his sister was living under her own free will.

For the first eleven years of his life, he lived in Brockport, California, a small town located along the coast just south of the city of Monterrey. Other than that, he couldn't remember too much about the neighborhood, not even the house that he once lived in. Perhaps it was mainly because it's been nearly a decade since he was last in that town.

His mother was a stay-at-home mom who took care of him and Lisa, who was three years older than him. His father was a scientist and lecturer who previously worked in a chemistry lab before being transferred to another facility that would pay his father greatly for his experiments. Being with the new facility required his father to travel out of the country for a long period of time before returning for a week or two before once again traveling.

To this day, Wagner wondered if his father ever knew that he was working for a criminal organization. Was he aware of all the horrible experiments that were being done in the organization?

Was he involved in any of those experiments?

Wagner knew that those questions would never be answered. However, what mattered now was finding Lisa and freeing her. How he was going to do that, he wasn't sure. However, the main thing was finding her first.

Since arriving in Outworld for the tournament, Wagner wondered if Lisa would be here, perhaps accompanying a former member of Shadaloo. However, with only a little over a week left of his stay here, he was beginning to highly doubt it.

His thoughts were soon interrupted suddenly as a female voice broke in. "Wagner? Are you in here?"

Wagner stood up as he recognized the voice. "Yeah Sonya. Come on in."

The curtain to his room was slightly pushed aside as Sonya stepped into the room. Wearing a green tank top and black sweatpants, Wagner figured that Sonya was pretty much getting ready for bed.

"I was getting a drink in the lounge and I found this watch," Sonya said as she lifted up a silver wristwatch. "I wasn't sure if it was yours or not."

"It is actually," Wagner replied. "I didn't even realize I left it in there."

Sonya smiled as she handed the watch to him. "Just be careful next time. It's a really nice looking watch."

Wagner took the watch in her hand. "I know. Guile's wife gave it to me for my eighteenth birthday." He placed the watch on his wrist before proceeding. "So how was your day?"

The blonde agent shrugged as she sat down on the bed. "All right, I guess. Today was rather a boring day."

"Tell me about it," Wagner agreed. "I'm about ready to go home. How about you?"

"Yes and no," Sonya replied. "No because I haven't really been this relaxed since my last vacation. Yes because I look forward to see Earth's technology again."

Wagner laughed a little. "I know. If I had known we were going to end up here, I would've brought my portable DVD player along. I brought my disc man with me… but I forgot to bring extra batteries and the old ones died about two hours before Rose showed up on the boat."

"That's a bummer," Sonya said.

A thought came to Wagner then. "So… do you have a family?"

Sonya stared at him. "Why do you want to know?"

"Just curious," was his answer. "And I did tell you about my family, so it's only fair."

The blonde woman smirked a little. "Well… my father was in the US military and my mother was a homemaker. They've both since passed away. I also had a twin brother, Daniel… but he too passed away when I was young from illness."

Wagner frowned a bit. "Damn… must've been hard to end up being the last family member to survive. Before I found out my sister was alive, I knew that feeling all too well."

"Yeah… speaking of your sister-"

"Nothing yet," Wagner quickly replied. "But at this point, I highly doubt she's here with so little days left of our time here."

Sonya stood up. "Even with those little days left, just continue to keep your eye out. And even when we leave here, you can still continue to search for her back on Earth." A yawn came over her, pausing for a moment before continuing. "Well… I'm off to bed."

"All right," Wagner said. A grin appeared on his face. "Gee, that was a depressing conversation."

Sonya laughed. "But it's definitely something one needs to talk about every once in a while."

"Yeah… hey, thanks for returning my watch."

"No problem. Goodnight Scott."

"Goodnight Sonya."

Afterwards, Sonya turned around and left the room. Wagner laid back on his bed. Sleep suddenly began to come over him and from there, he decided to hit the hay for the night. After closing his eyes, his eyebrows arched down in annoyance as a thought came to him.

Damn it! She called me by my first name!

Cave Grounds

Wrapped in blankets, Lei and Chun Li sat in front of the lit campfire, which had countless twigs and thin branches in order for the fire to last longer. During the time that they were silent while leaning against one another, Chun Li looked up at the dark blue sky. She frowned at the thought that Outworld's night sky didn't provided any stars.

And the one time we didn't have to deal with light pollution too! she thought.

After looking up at the sky, Chun Li looked over at the man next to her. "Lei?"

"Hmm?" he replied as he turned his head to her.

Chun Li nudged him a bit with her elbow as a smile came over her face. "When we go back home, what is it that you look forward to the most?"

Lei turned his head over to the campfire as he tried to think of an answer. "Let's see… a few things actually. For one thing, I can't wait to sleep in my own bed and in my own apartment… with windows!"

Chun Li laughed a little. "Yeah, I knew we were all going to miss those windows the very day we first came to this cave."

"…You know what's even sadder?"

"What's that?"

"…I actually miss rush hour."

Chun Li's jaw dropped open in shock. "That's the one thing I don't miss."

A grin came over Lei's face as he decided to joke with her. "You mean you don't miss the traffic, the smell of exhaust fumes in the city air, crowded bus stations, and the rude people?"

"None of that," Chun Li said after spitting her tongue at him. "But I will say that I can't wait to see the stars again… even if they can barely been seen from Hong Kong."

Snaking his arm from out of his blanket, Lei placed it around Chun Li's shoulders. "And I know another thing I look forward to… the dinner and movie date I promised during the first round of the tournament."

Chun Li smiled feeling a bit flattered. "You still remembered."

Lei brought his face closer to hers. "That's a sort of thing I don't forget."

Noting how close he was, Chun Li decided to take the opportunity to slowly cover the remaining space between them before pressing her lips against his. Lei immediately returned the kiss and used the arm wrapped around Chun Li to bring her a little closer to him, putting more passion into the kiss.

As the kiss continued, Chun Li felt her heart flutter through the majority of the time that passed. She had been in relationships before. However, her relationship with Lei, though short-lived up to this point, seemed different to her and she had a good feeling that this relationship was going to last, considering how sweet of a person Lei was.

In Lei's mind, it was once in a while hard to believe that he was with a wonderful woman like Chun Li. His last relationship had ended badly after his ex had dumped him in favor of his former assistant because she couldn't handle his workaholic ways. It had left him depressed, but he had since moved on. After that experience, he didn't think a woman like Chun Li existed.

He was glad to be wrong.

As the two continued to kiss, the two suddenly heard what sounded like a few people running and out of breath. At the same time, Lei and Chun Li broke their kiss and turned their heads to the noise. They weren't sure how to react upon seeing Cody, Yun, Ken, and Cassandra running a couple of more feet before collapsing on to the ground a few feet away from the couple.

Lei let the four catch their breaths for a moment before he dared to question them. "…What happened?"

That's when Cassandra slowly got herself on her knees before slamming a fist into the ground in frustration. "I AM NEVER DOING ANY FAVORS AGAIN!" she screamed out as she got herself to stand up. She then ran back into the cave.

Silence lingered in the air again for a moment before Chun Li spoke. "Um… do we dare want to know what happened?"

"Don't worry," Yun said as he was finally catching his breath. "Cassandra just likes to… complain."

"Basically," Ken continued for him. "We were sent out to get new mugs at the palace. We got caught and were chased around the tournament grounds, trying to avoid coming over here, before we finally lost them."

Cody raised a single finger up in the air. "I officially declare Raiden and Rose INSANE!"

Lei laughed. "I hope Rose didn't predict you saying that."

Chun-Li stood up. "I'll get you guys some water. You just rest here."

Yun tried to move but couldn't find himself to right away after all the running he did. "…That won't be a problem…"

Shao Kahn's Fortress Grounds

Hidden behind a large boulder staying most invisible, Yoshimitsu spent a majority of the evening checking up on activities in the fortress grounds. Mostly the area was quiet and he mainly saw guards and a few other unknown individuals going about their way.

The quietness of the area actually made Yoshmitsu disappointed. From where he was, he had hoped to at least hear a conversation between two guards about any activities in the fortress… or even about the medallion, but he highly doubt he would hear anything about the medallion from mere guards.

As he continued to play spy, the katana wielder began to wonder… does the Outworld Emperor even know the real power of the medallion? Perhaps if he did, he would've been consumed by it's powers by now and everyone would've known about it by then.

Yoshimitsu could never forget the day the medallion came close to consuming him. Centuries ago, he had been in the middle of a battle between an evil clan here in Outworld and he had been leading his Manji clan to defend themselves against them. The medallion and the scroll that came with him were placed safely in one of his pouches.

While in battle, a sudden pain struck him and he was suddenly surrounded by a white light, no longer able to see his surroundings. He had grabbed the medallion, hoping it would somehow grant him to stop whatever was happening to him. He remembered being in shock upon looking at the red tear on the medallion. It had glowed numerous times before… but this time the red light was more of a bright beam and would've hurt the eyes of a normal human being.

He happened to have been holding the medallion in his right hand, which was suddenly turning black. He tried to drop the medallion then, but his fingers refused to move. In a desperate attempt to escape from the clutches of the medallion, Yoshimitsu took his katana and chopped off his own arm just below his elbow, freeing himself from being consumed by it's power. The light went away then and he found himself in Japan.

Briefly after that thought, Yoshmitsu looked at his right arm. After he had chopped it off all those years ago, he had previously replaced it with a wooden prosthetic, but as new technologies came about, it has since been replaced by a bio-mechanical prosthetic. The arm has been great use to him, especially when it came to use his katana to fly away from enemies like a helicopter.

He then looked up at the night sky, realizing how late it was getting. From there, he made a decision. Because of lack of activities as of now, Yoshmitsu decided to continue spying the area. Perhaps within a couple of days, he would infiltrate the fortress…