Cassie said nothing all the way home. He her hands were shaking, and she could barely take in air, she knew if she ate any food she would vomit imminently.

"I need to think." she said as soon as they got home. She ran as fast as she could, and quickly disappeared to her room.

She locked the door, turned out the lights. The darkness was soothing at least in the moment. She leaned against the door, trying to maintain balance as if she would pass out at any minute.

"why?" she said out loud. Why did it have to hurt so much?! Kabal wasn't even dead, but she knew she would never see him again.
But she gave him her heart. This wasn't fair. She tried to switch positions. What would she have done if Kabal cheated on her- if it meant saving her life? Woudl she have been as upset? Could she have lived with the visions of him with another woman? no. it would have killed her. He was within his rights to do what he did.

She then proceeded to scream, cry, punch the walls, break things, while gasping for air. She fought the invisible demons of her mind, all until there were no more tears to cry.

Only then did her brain allow her a moment of clarity; she knew what she would do. She would join the military, like her mother. She would become strong, have adventures and help people in need; she would become a person Kabal would be proud of, and that would make this all ok.

The next say Sonya took her to HER base, as in the California military base run by General Sonya Blade. She got Cassie a recruiter who helped her fill out the paper work. She took an infantry job; she wanted to leave for basic training as soon as possible. But she knew, if she did well, she would have a shot at a more prestigious title like Special Forces (like her mother did….)

4 days later, Sonya got another piece of intell to add to her collection. A bloody nanobot and size of a finger nail with a hand written note: "another piece of kindle to fuel your fire. One day you will end Kano's life and it will be a victory for all of us. – your friend Kabal."

Kabal asked Kira to write the note for him (before the surgery) and send the package as a symbolic gesture of his faith in Cassie; in that he never blamed her for what happened- she was a victim of Kano's treachery the same as hundreds before.

To know that If/when Sonya looked at the contents of the chip she would feel the same way, allowed him peace.

Sonya snapped the bot open to find the memory chip, and after seeing what was on it, she vowed to make Kano suffer, even if it took another 20 years.

The end.-

=====Epilogue

Tremor awoke in the hospital; everything below his nose was gone. He was breathing and speaking through a neck trach.

"what? What happened? What's going on?!" he opened his eyes to see Kano laughing.

"wow, you sound just like him. You know Kabal, with the trach and all…." It was stupid but true.

"you told me he was a disabled old freak!" Thomas tried to scream.

"no… I told you we needed to be out of the area before the 'disabled old freak' woke up. I'm not sure how you heard –'let's take on the disabled old freak in a one on one fight after he gets an UPGRADE TO HIS LUNGS'. But I understand my accent can get a little confusing at times." Kano said, still finding this situation incredibly funny. "Don't worry with the right mask you'll look just like a pallet swap."

"a what?" Thomas had a headache.

"a pallet swap, a different color version of one of the greats; Subzero is blue, Scorpion is yellow, you can have a cute little brown mask like the sh-t that you are." He ended with a smile.

"piss off" Tremor said, although he didn't mean it, nor did it matter. Kano had invested too much time and effort in him to let him die in a public hospital. He would get Tremor back to New Zealand and (with alot of mechanical augmentation) their plans would continue.

the end (again..)