Chapter Fourteen
Quan Chi's palace was a wreck. It seemed he had more enemies than he had anticipated, and when they couldn't find him they took out their anger on the next best thing. There were claw marks covering the walls, anything that could be torn down lay in tatters on the ground, and she was fairly certain she saw a few piles of feces of God knows what species.

Parts of the palace lay completely in ruin, still smoldering. Apparently he had some powerful enemies as well. She sincerely hoped that they had all had their fun and left already.

They entered from a large hole blown into the main wall, climbing over the rubble like insects. Sareena surveyed the destruction with an intense sense of satisfaction. "They will have looted everything worth taking already," she said toothily, still smiling.

"Isn't that a bad thing?" Frost asked.

"No, it is wonderful. It means Quan Chi will have no amulets or artifacts to rely on. I can only hope they raided his secret stores. It's been long enough that they should have found them by now." She looked from side to side slowly. "I think it is best if we enter the main hall directly. I don't want to risk running into any of the bigger nasties if they have taken up residence."

"You aren't exactly inspiring confidence here," Frost reiterated. "Tell me again why I have to be bait."

"Who else would draw off the Oni so I can deal with Quan Chi?" Sareena asked with an air of exasperation.

"But what if they corner me or something?" Frost protested.

"Then yell really loudly," Sareena said calmly to Frost's annoyance. "Meet me back here in an hour."

"An hour? How the hell am I supposed to figure out what time it is?"

"You're a smart girl, I'm sure you'll figure out something." With that she took off in a loping stride up the stairs leading to a large wooden door that had already been torn off its hinges by an earlier visitor. She disappeared before Frost could lodge another protest.

"This sucks," she told the realm in general, kicking at a piece of a statue and stubbing her toe badly. "This really, really sucks."

Well, Sareena hadn't said anything about going inside, had she? She couldn't miss the intended meeting time if she never left the courtyard. But an ear-piercing shriek rang through the air, and she found herself running inside to avoid whatever it was. Maybe she would just stay near the exit and watch Sareena from there.

The whole place was giving her the creeps. It could have just been the dead bodies in cages lining the walls. She wondered if they had been dead when Quan Chi fled the Netherealm. Dead bodies seemed to be quite the in thing to decorate your home within the Netherealm. Maybe there was an undead Martha Stewart stumbling around giving out interior decoration advice to the big shots. Maybe they just all had really bad taste.

At least none of the Oni Sareena was worried about seemed to be around. If they were anything like Drahmin or Moloch she'd be able to tell if they were coming from a mile away. They stunk something awful, although she fully admitted that after two weeks without a bath she probably was pretty disgusting herself. But at least she didn't attract swarms of flies.

She didn't want to know what she looked like. Between the matted dirt and blood, torn clothes and unwashed hair she probably fit right in with the permanent citizens of the Netherealm. If she didn't smell of live flesh and blood, she could probably have used it as a fairly effective disguise. Or at least maybe the smell would make most run in terror.

She wished Sareena had talked more about the elder Sub-Zero. Sifu had never mentioned a brother, although that could have been because of the elder's death. Why didn't the Lin Kuei celebrate a member who accomplished such an impressive feat? Unless he died doing something dishonorable.

She hadn't thought about that before. Sifu claimed the Lin Kuei had changed for the better, but what did they do to their dishonorable brethren? Where had all the former Lin Kuei gone? She knew seppuku was more common amongst the ninja clans, but was she supposed to perform it too? Was she going to be given a choice?

Maybe Sareena would know. She seemed to be good at ferreting out information that no one else was supposed to know. Sometimes, Frost had been certain Sareena was just kept around the temple by Sub-Zero to find out who was leaking information. She didn't seem to have any other talents besides slinking around and attempting to get into Sub-Zero's pants. Then again, that may have been the other reason she hadn't been kicked out yet.

Another keening cry cut through the air, and Frost mentally cringed. A whole hour in this place? Sareena had obviously lost her mind. Who took an hour to kill anyone? Of course, Sareena was probably going to drag it out as long as possible. Freed demon or not, she had a black heart and a mean streak bigger than the realm itself.

When she got to thinking of the realm, she began to wonder how large it was, exactly. From the way all the preachers went on, it seemed that the Netherealm contained a lot less lost souls than expected. Were there different layers? Sareena had mentioned something about the abyss, but she might have been speaking metaphorically. If not, she'd hate to see the lower levels; this was bad enough as it was.

A sudden crashing made her drop into a fighting stance. Sareena burst from the wall like some sort of angry goddess. "He was already dead!" she shrieked, ripping a piece from the stone wall as if it was made of cardboard. "He was mine." She tore a few more holes amongst the crumbling structure until she stalked out into the courtyard, stomping about like a three-year-old having a temper tantrum.

Frost didn't know what to say.