Disclaimer: I own nothing that is not mine.

Chapter Eight

One month later

Tori lay on her back in the dirt. She didn't move. It hurt to move, so she just lay there. She heard someone walk up to her and felt something kick the bottom of her boot.

"Get up." Tori sighed but still didn't move. She looked up to see Scorpion standing there, his muscular form outlined by the blazing sun that shown directly overhead. She couldn't see his face that well, but she knew he was glaring at her. With a small huff, she turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. Sure she was being stubborn, but after all, he deserved it. It was thanks to him that she was so beat up and sore, so he could stand there and glare at her all he wanted to. She wasn't moving.

Scorpion felt his eye twitch as the girl stubbornly refused to get up. Little brat. He knew he never should have let Raiden get him to do this. It was a waste of his time. With a growl he walked around by the girl's head and knelt down, balancing on his toes. Reaching behind him, he pulled out the shorter of his two kitanas'.

Tori's eyes flew open at the clang of metal to find Scorpion's sword driven in the ground a few inches from her face.

"I'll tell you for the last time. Get up," he said before standing and walking back over to his original spot a couple feet away. Giving a sigh of annoyance, Tori pushed herself up and grabbed the sword. She still clearly remembered when he'd started training her with it.

"Are you any good with weapons?" The question came out of nowhere. Tori stopped stretching and looked at Scorpion.

"What?" Scorpion seemed a bit annoyed at having to repeat the question but he did anyway.

"I said, are you any good with weapons?" Tori shook her head. Scorpion sighed before pulling out the shorter of his two swords.

"Here," he said, holding it out to her. "You're going to need to learn how to use a weapon sooner or later so I might as well teach you now."

That had been at the beginning of the month. She'd done well for the most part. She'd learned all the attacks Scorpion taught her but he still didn't seem satisfied. In fact, since he'd started training her with a sword he'd become a lot more mean, if that was even possible.

Scorpion saw the girl wince as she got up and a strange feeling ran through him. Was it guilt? His eyes narrowed. He didn't have time to be feeling guilty for the girl, pain came with training. It was something that she'd have to learn to live with. The minute she got up she lunged at him to start what would be yet another sparring match. In truth, the girl wasn't that bad. She'd learned every move he'd taught her and she used them all at the right time in battle. The only reason she lost to him was just because he had more experience than her. He kept pushing her because there was still something about her fighting that he hadn't uncovered: her elemental magic. He could sense it in her, but he didn't know how to get her to tap into it. It seemed that it reacted to her emotions mostly, so he'd been pushing her harder and harder. He wanted to find her breaking point. Blocking her last attack, he pushed her sword off to the side.

"That was pathetic. If you want to land a hit on me then you need to at least try." He watched as she stiffened and without warning found her sword coming at his neck in an upward swing.

'What the—!' With a quick twist of his wrist, he blocked her swing just before it reached him. That was when he felt it. Her overall frustration at him had turned into something more. She had reached her breaking point. With a growl she shoved him back with her sword, catching him on the arm as she finished her swing. Scorpion looked down at his arm to see the blood running down it. Was it just him, or had the brat gotten faster? Looking up from his arm he stared at her, trying to see her eyes, but he couldn't. They were being overshadowed by her bangs. Just then an idea formed in Scorpion's mind. Stepping back, he hesitated a moment before lunging at her. The girl didn't jump out of the way like he'd expected her to; she didn't even bring the sword up to defend herself.

'What the hell is she doing,' Scorpion thought as he got within less than three feet of her. His thoughts were answered when she held her hand out towards him. It looked a lot like Raiden when he threw lightning at someone. For a second nothing happened, and then something slammed full force into Scorpion, throwing him backwards and slamming him into a nearby tree.

Tori's anger vanished the instant she saw Scorpion slam into the tree and slide down to the ground. She didn't know how she'd done that, it was on an instinct. She'd just lost it while they were fighting. Of course Scorpion acting like a butthead had a lot to do with it too. Pushing these thoughts to the side, she ran over to where Scorpion lay against the tree. He hadn't moved and she hoped he wasn't dead. Again.

Scorpion shook the stars out of his eyes and looked up to see Tori standing over him with a worried expression on her face.

"Are you okay," she asked as she kneeled down beside him. He wondered what she meant for a moment before feeling the pain in his back. He gritted his teeth. Crap that hurt. He wished Raiden would have given him a warning that her element was wind, though the thunder god claimed not to know anything about that, a likely story. At least he hadn't broken anything when he slammed into the tree.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to—" Tori started. Scorpion cut her off.

"No, you did exactly what I wanted you to do. I've taught you everything you need to know. Now all that's left is for you to master your element." A look of confusion crossed over the girl's face.

"My element?" Scorpion sighed even though it hurt to do so.

"You're an elemental. Raiden informed us that you three were elementals before we started training you." The girl frowned at this information.

"And you didn't see fit to tell me this because?"

"You didn't need to know," Scorpion replied as he tried to sit up further. Pain ran down his back, making him grimace. Feeling something running down his arm, he looked down to see that it was still bleeding where she cut him.

Tori followed Scorpion's gaze to see the blood running down his arm and she flinched. Blood didn't bother her that much but she still felt guilty about it. She had forgotten that she'd even cut him. It seemed pretty minor compared to slamming him into a tree, but seeing it now…

Scorpion saw the guilt in her eyes as she looked at his arm.

"I'm fine. It's not as bad as it looks," he said as he pushed himself up the rest of the way. It hurt to stand but he had to get up eventually. Once he was up he looked over at the girl. Why had he even said that to her? It wasn't like he cared whether or not she felt guilty. For that matter, he didn't really care about anything that involved her. The tournament would be coming up soon and after that he could get back to his quest for revenge without having to worry about training an annoying little girl. Until then though, he would just have to put up with her.

Author's note: Enjoy!