Disclaimer: Still don't own Mortal Kombat or any of its properties. Only the plot is mine.
Author's Note: Warning: a fight scene is coming up. It's M rated for a reason. Also, I may be on a roll now, but I might get blocked up. I'll try to fight through it because I want to actually finish this and my other fanfics. Without further delay, here's this chapter.
"When you all get to Outworld, have the team split up and keep their eyes open for anyone who looks like they could be in Kotal Kahn's or Kano's corner," Sonya tells the Lieutenant of the third team she sends out. "When you locate anyone, report back to me; do not try to retaliate. I repeat, do not retaliate!"
"Yes ma'am," he replies as he disconnects their call.
Sitting by the door in her office, Sonya slides down to the floor, burying her head in her hands. She's fighting a losing battle; the first two teams she sent out failed miserably and it was her fault. She sent them completely and totally unprepared for their invasion. As a result, the first team suffered many casualties at the hands of the soul collector Ermac. The second team, though she debriefed them better than the first, didn't stand a chance against Erron Black and his companions. She warned the team not to follow in their fallen soldiers' footsteps and keep their movements to a minimum. This is what she was afraid of… not that she didn't have faith in the team that Cassie built and Johnny trained, but she didn't want them to go after the Black Dragon for that very same reason. It's a selfish move on her part, but she can't think of anything else. Her mind is completely muddled.
There is a ping on her phone, indicating someone's trying to reach her somehow. She's afraid. The last time she got any sort of notification, it was a disgustingly bitter reminder she was somehow shackled to the will of her most hated enemy. On second thought, it could be the third team making progress already. She apprehensively checks her phone and sees she's received a new message from the Grandmaster of the Shirai Ryu, Hanzo Hasashi.
GonzoHanzo: General Blade. I do not wish to disturb you or your affairs, but something has come to my attention you must know.
Confused, Sonya stares at her phone in shock. Hanzo created a Friendships account? She muses before deciding to answer the chat.
SonyaTheBlade: Hanzo. While I'm glad to hear from you, this comes as a surprise to me.
GonzoHanzo: What, me having an account, or me writing to you unexpectedly?
Both, she wants to say but decides against it.
SonyaTheBlade: Your account.
GonzoHanzo: I blame both your daughter and my protégé for making this infernal account.
Sonya's heart drops at the mention of her daughter who's going through only the Elder Gods know what. Trying to keep her tears at bay she laughs through her pain, imagining Takeda and Cassie forcing him to make an account to "keep up with the times". Hanzo continues to write to her.
GonzoHanzo: I have a mole within the Black Dragon faction. He has told me some disturbing news regarding Cassandra.
Her heart speeds up. Does she have an ally working with Kano? This could be the break she needs.
SonyaTheBlade: Please, tell me everything you know. I've got less than 48 hours before John takes matters into his own hands. I'm desperate.
In his home that night, Johnny takes a very cold shower, one almost rivaling the temperatures of a certain cryomancer. Despite the frigid temperature, his body is on fire, still burning from the subtle touches of his ex-wife. No matter how many fights they got into in their past, Sonya still manages to keep a choke-hold on his heart and skin. He pounds a fist against the bathroom tiles in frustration as the pain creeps up on arm. The very same arm she assaulted with her sensual touches and her fiercely dictatorial eyes. "Please, Johnny, trust me on this?" she tells him in his memory which serves to bore a hole in his head. This was about the 28th time since Shinnok's invasion and defeat she called him Johnny, he realizes in his head. Counting the times makes him look like a madman, but he'll be damned if he ever forgets a woman like General Sonya Annette Blade. He only ran away from her after telling her she had 48 hours to get her shit together because he was afraid of what he might've done to her.
A few minutes later, he leaves the shower and settles into a pair of dark gray sweats and a matching colored wife beater. He begins pacing around his living room until he decides to go into his kitchen and help himself to a glass of scotch.
And it's how Sonya and Kenshi find Johnny, his bottle almost empty and his head bowed over his drink. "This is a new record," Sonya says as she glances at the clock. It's only half past 8 in the evening. Johnny looks up at her with bloodshot eyes.
"Didn't expect to see you here," he tells her slowly, his voice altered by his alcohol. "What's the update?"
Sonya stares at him incredulously and Kenshi begins telling him about Hanzo's spy in the mercenary faction and his impending participation in extracting Cassie from Outworld safely. Kenshi's story is interrupted by Sonya grabbing the bottle out of Johnny's hands as she smacks him upside the head with her other hand, causing Kenshi to jump and Johnny to cough and sputter. "This is how you want to solve all of your problems?!" she berates him.
Kenshi, thinking she's referring to him, immediate goes on the defensive, stating, "I was merely suggesting Hanzo—"
"Not you, Kenshi!" she snaps at him. Turning back to her ex-husband, she repeats, "I said, is this how you want to solve your problems?" She stares Johnny down as he slowly looks up to face her wrath. She narrows her eyes at him. "Answer me!"
"Fuck off, General," he retorts childishly.
Sonya lets out an indignant huff. "Real mature of you, John!"
Kenshi's growing discomfort becomes too much for him. "I'll be taking my leave now," he mumbles awkwardly as he backs away from the lover's spat taking place in front of him, not like the two of them notice him leaving.
"You're one to talk, Sonya," he retaliates.
"Well, what else are you doing to save our fucking daughter? Do you know how many teams I have out there risking their lives?"
"Oh," he starts, standing up (albeit wobbly), "You could be out there helping, too! Instead, you're lecturing me about my problems!"
"I'm not the one drowning my problems in a bottle!"
"And I'm not the one who uses work as an escape from mines!"
They both freeze. They hit each other below the belt, something they promised each other they wouldn't do, no matter how bad things got with one another. They give each other a hard stare before she turns away with her arms folded, blinking back tears and he sits back down on the kitchen island. "Christ, Sonya, I know you said we were wrong from the start once upon a time," he starts to say in a measured tone. She scoffs, choking back a sob. "But when did it become this bad?"
She swallows, not wanting to relive their painful past. "I don't know," she says, tears falling in rapid succession. She desperately tries to keep them at bay but it's not working. "I don't fucking know," she shouts in frustration. He sighs deeply. "Why do you treat me this way, John?"
He looks up, completely baffled at her question. "Treat you how?"
She turns back to him, not bothering to hide her emotions anymore. "I keep pushing you away and you could easily tell me to get out of your house, but you're not. You're still here. You've always been here. It's like you never really left." Sonya begins to sob in her hands. Johnny closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Even when I started moving up the ladder, you never left me," she says mournfully as her sobs get more and more uncontrollable. Johnny gets up and wraps his arms around her while she weeps in his arms, cursing herself for pushing him away and cursing him for taking a long time to actually walk away from her. Her crying makes him sober up almost immediately. They stay there, just holding each other for what seems like hours. When her tears finally die down a little bit, he directs them both to his couch. Still holding her, he shifts so they're both more comfortable. "I'm sorry," she croaks after a long time.
He sighs and shifts her in his arms again. "There's no need to be, Sonya," he tells her honestly. He hates seeing her in so much pain no matter how much she may have caused him. "We weren't perfect together."
"I could've tried harder," she sighs.
"There were plenty of things we both should've done," he starts, "but we don't have to make the same mistake twice, you know. Besides, we need to refocus our energy into finding Cassie."
Sonya exhales, wiping her eyes clumsily. "You're right. You're absolutely right. But I just can't focus right now."
"Breathing exercises help," he offers. She gives him a watery smile and takes a few deep, cleansing breaths, exhaling slowly. "See? Isn't that much—" his sentence is cut off by Sonya smashing her lips against his hungrily. It takes Johnny a few delayed moments to comprehend his current situation before he reacts. He gently pulls her away from him, not the reaction they both expected from him. "Sonya—?" he asks a silent question.
"I need you right now," she tells him as she crawls into his lap.
"But Sonya—" he starts again but is cut off once again by her lips.
"Shut up, John," she murmurs into his lips as she grabs the back of his head, deepening the kiss. Finally, he kisses her back, trying desperately to match her fervor.
Two weeks ago
After visiting her father in the hospital, Cassie and her team were going separate ways. Takeda and Jacqui would go on vacation somewhere in California while Kung Jin was going back to the Shaolin Temple in China. "Be careful out there, guys," she told them, giving the two boys a handshake each and her best friend a tight hug.
"Will do, Cass," Takeda told her.
"And you," she pointed to Takeda, "you take care of my sister. Or else you'll be hearing from the Briggs and Cage/Blade families." He laughed. "I'm serious. I don't want to have to send a SWAT team to your hotels if you don't keep in touch with me at all times."
"Almost all times," Jacqui muttered. Cassie turned to her and scowled. "I'm kidding. We'll keep in touch as much as possible."
"Good, cuz I wasn't giving you a choice. That was an order," Cassie told Jacqui before she pulled her in for another hug.
Kung Jin looked at his colleagues one more time. "Remember, if you find yourself in Outworld or the Netherrealm with no other way to escape, you have the right to defend yourself by kombat," he offered his last piece of advice.
Cassie rolled her eyes. "I doubt it'll come to that, but sure, I'll try to remember that," she told him. The four then went their separate ways.
Cassie wakes up with a start in the evening. How'd she manage to sleep the entire day away, she won't understand anytime soon. All she knows is there's the feeling of dried blood on her face and the familiar pang of hunger. Before she can make sense of everything, the door to her hell opens and Kano struts over to her. "Slept well, blondie?" he asks. She ignores him. "Well then, here's your dinner." He breaks off a piece of a sweet roll and tries to feed her. She doesn't budge. "You ought to learn that the more you fight me, the worse it's gonna get for you. Now eat before I shove it down yer throat!" He guides a piece of the roll to her mouth and she begrudgingly accepts, her mouth instantly watering at the taste of the slightly sweet particle of food. He breaks off another piece and she takes it without a fuss, trying not to cough up a sob.
After he finishes force feeding Cassie, Kano's about to leave when she clears her throat, signaling she needs his attention. He turns to her. "I want to cut a deal with you," she says, her voice scratchy from the lack of water. She clears her throat again when Kano stares at her in disbelief.
"Oh, really?" he asks her with his arms folded, stroking his now greying beard.
Cassie closes her eyes, fighting the urge to roll them at him. She takes a deep breath before she says, "I'm challenging you to kombat. I win, you let me go, and I won't even tell Sonya what happened. You win…" She couldn't even finish the thought. There's no way in hell she's going to lose to this 'old man'. For a long time, there's silence. Just when Cassie starts to doubt herself, Kano unties her. "That worked?" she asks herself in disbelief.
Cracking his knuckles, he warns her, "I ain't goin' easy on ya because you're Sonya's little brat."
Cassie balls up her fists with a look of fierce determination crossing her features. "I don't expect you to, old man." She gets into her fighting stance as he does, too.
"Old man? You're more like yer mum than you think. I wonder if you fight like her too?" he taunts. She strikes first, hitting him with a few simple but effective jabs in rapid succession, which catches him off guard. She fakes another jab, letting him catch her fist before she kicks him twice in the ribs, forcing him to let go. Now he's angry at the brat. He lunges, kicking her in the face, making her stumble back. He then grabs her left arm and flings her across the room.
Shaking himself off, he tells her, "So you want to play dirty like yer dad, eh?" Walking up to her, Kano grabs her and twists her arm into a spider roll twist behind her back. Using his weight against him, Cassie flips him over her back. She goes for a kick but he trips her. Undeterred, they both stand up quickly, her doing a backflip to catch his jaw with her foot. She then knees him in the stomach, followed by an elbow punch on his back. Before letting him fall to the floor, she uses her other knee to crack his nose with so much force he comes back up, followed by a double fist punch, a la Sonya. She gives him a roundhouse kick for good measure and he rolls a few feet away from her, groaning and coughing. Cassie then resumes her boxing stand.
"I think I won this round, huh?" she brags, waiting for him to get up.
Wiping his nose with the back of his hand, he growls at her. "I let you win that one. Now, I'm angry," he informs her before charging at her like an angry bull. She easily sidesteps him, but he grabs her from behind and flips her over. She lands on her shoulder, hearing a crack. Biting back a groan, she rolls over just in time to dodge his kick to the ribs.
Cassie stands up unsteadily and a series of parrot punches and kicks, which Kano parries with his own hooks. She nails an uppercut to his jaw, followed by a right and left hook respectively. He kicks her in the throat, pushing her backward but not quite knocking her down. When he runs up to her again, she reacts with a head butt to his forehead, nearly crunching him in his cybernetic eye. She swings her fist at him but he ducks. She swings her other fist at him and he catches her with a somersault in the air, knocking her to the ground. Before she can recover, he kicks her swiftly in the ribs, causing her to roll with the blow. His third kick makes her crawl into fetal position. When she got up, he sucker punched her, knocking her to the floor again with a strangled cry.
"Get up blondie. I'm not done with you," Kano declares. Cassie gets up and shakes the cobwebs from her head. "I told ya I didn't want ya to cut a deal with me. Prepare as Uncle Kano give you a lesson in—" his 'victory' speech is cut off by Cassie performing an ax kick to the back of his head. He collapses on the floor in shock but quickly recovers. She then produces a karate chop to his neck, bruising his jugular vein. He sputters and chokes, holding both hands to his throat.
Cassie takes this opportunity to catch him with a series of ruthless attacks: sharp jabs to the nose, a shadow kick to his chest, a roundhouse kick which lands on his waist and ending with another roundhouse to trip him. When she tries to kick him in the groin, he seizes her leg and twists her ankle, bringing her to join him on the floor. They both take a moment to gather their bearings and get up from the floor. Kano whips out his butterfly knife, brandishing it at her. "Oh, fuck," she mutters before she dodges his jabs successfully, narrowly missing impaling herself on the blade. He charges at her with the knife and they both fall down. He's trying to stab her between the eyes but she has her wrists interlocked together and uses all of her strength to keep it from making contact. Just when the tip of the blade is about to touch her forehead, she kicks him off of her. He falls backward and before she can give him a chance to recover, she finally kicks him in the groin, causing him to drop his knife and hold himself. She slowly walks over to him and presses her bare foot to his neck with the intent of choking him to death. "Do you submit?"
Kano stares at her incredulously. "You don't have the guts!" he jeers. She presses her foot further into his neck. "All right, I submit!" he chokes. Not wanting to take the chance, she puts even more pressure until his face turns red and he begins to cough. "You'll… never get… out if… you…" he chokes.
She realizes what he's trying to say and eases her foot off of his neck. She wins, so she needs him to release her. "You lose, grandpa," she heckles him in return. It's only then she becomes aware of the acute blinding pain coming from her scapula. She groans, wanting to escape this nightmare. Cassie starts to walk to the door Kano came from before she's suddenly dragged backwards by her hair and thrown to the floor. She screams as a fast blow to her face by his boot catches her in the jaw.
He grabs her by the throat and squeezes her windpipe harshly. She's coughing and trying to pry his fingers away, but that only makes him squeeze harder. "You may have won the battle, but there's no way in hell you'll win this war, blondie," he growls before he climbs on top of her, securing her in place with his muscular thighs. "Now, you're definitely gonna pay with a fate worse than death."
A/N: Cliffhanger! I know you all are gonna kill me for the next chapter. *prepares to be slaughtered like a lamb* I know the fight scene seemed lacking because I don't have any formal fighting training (I only have a bit of stage combat training), so I apologize if the actual fighting made them both seem like they're inexperienced fighters. I'll take suggestions on how to improve that and feature it in a rewrite. As always, reviews and thoughts are welcome. Thanks again for reading.
P.S, I'll probably be taking a few days off due to the fact that my hand is swelling up because of my Carpal Tunnel. I apologize in advance.