Disclaimer: I own nothing that is not mine.

Chapter Seventeen

The rest of the tournament passed quickly, and it was dark by the time the last two competitors had fought. Once they were finished Shang-Tsung stood to address the crowd. The nearby torchlight cast deep shadows on his face, giving him an eerie demonic look.

"Tomorrow you will face the champion of my tournament. I suggest you all get well rested tonight." With that said he turned and walked off the arena, disappearing in the dark. The crowd began to talk amongst itself as people made their way inside to go eat. Pretty soon it was only Raiden and the rest of the group standing out in the glow of the torchlight.

"Well, it appears we're done for the day," Raiden said as he turned to the group. "You all did well, and your wounds should heal soon enough." As it turned out Raiden was right. Emma was already able to walk without help, and all the girl's wounds had stopped bleeding. Tori was using Scorpion as a support, something he didn't seem too happy about, but had no choice in the matter. She hadn't realized just how deep her cuts were and had practically fallen over after she'd stepped off the arena. She would've had a very ungraceful meeting with the ground, but Scorpion had caught her. He still hadn't spoken to her, a sign she took to mean he was mad, but it wasn't like he had been talking her ear off to begin with so she ignored him.

The group made their way to the dining area where they found the rest of the warriors stuffing their faces. After eating, the girls made their way back to their rooms where they talked for a while before retiring for the night. Several hours later, Tori was awakened by a loud clap of thunder. Getting up, she walked over and looked out her window. She had a perfect view of the courtyard below, and she could vaguely make out figures in the dark. Just then a flash of lightning lit up the sky, illuminating the figures below. Tori caught sight of a large hat and realized it was Raiden. He seemed to be in a serious conversation with Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Ermac, judging from the way they were all standing.

'What the hell are they doing,' she thought as she stared down at them. Suddenly Raiden looked straight up at her and she jumped away from the window. She waited for a moment before looking back out at the courtyard, but they had disappeared.

'Oh, well that's not suspicious,' she thought sarcastically before going back to bed.

The next morning the girls walked out to the arena to find the other competitors rioting around the square.

"What's going on," Emma asked.

"How are we supposed to know," Ella said, giving Emma a look.

"The others are rioting because Shang-Tsung ran off last night," a voice said from behind them. The girls turned to find Raiden standing there with Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Ermac behind him.

"He ran off? What about his champion," Tori asked.

"It appears he didn't have one. He didn't think you three would make it this far, so when you did he ran out of options. It was either fight you himself or run, and he chose to run."

'What a pansy,' Tori thought. She looked at Scorpion and found that he appeared to be thinking the same thing.

"So what happens to the tournament," Emma asked.

"The tournament is a way to protect Earthrealm from invasion. With Shang-Tsung gone, no one is left to govern it, and since you three won against his warriors, that means that Earthrealm wins by default."

"What about Quan-Chi and the other person," Ella asked. "They haven't given up, have they?" Raiden frowned at her question.

"No, they haven't," he said. "But this loss will set them back and buy time for us. However, I asked only that you three go up against Shang-Tsung. The rest will be taken care of by us." He said as he indicated to the three silent men behind him.

"So if we're done what happens now," Emma asked.

"Well, you three can go back to your normal lives now that you're done with Shang-Tsung. I can create a portal that will take you back home, but we need to go somewhere quieter." He turned and began walking farther down the beach, indicating for them to follow. The guys, Tori noticed, were being unusually quiet, and she wondered if it had anything to do with the conversation they were having with Raiden last night.

By the time they caught up with Raiden he was already creating the portal, so Tori decided to use her spare time to do some prying. Turning, she looked at Scorpion before changing her mind and going to Sub-Zero.

"So," she asked Sub-Zero. "Why are you all so quiet?" Everyone in the group looked at her.

"You do realize that you're going back to your realm for good, don't you," Sub-Zero asked her. Tori nodded. "And. . ." He paused and looked at Emma. "Once you go back you will never see us again." Tori looked to see both Emma and Ella staring at the ground. Apparently neither of them had thought of this.

'Of course the people that they like actually like them back,' she thought. Scorpion was probably counting down to the last second when she would step through that portal and be gone from his life forever. She glanced over at him and found that he was still staring at her. His eyes gave away nothing as he held her gaze.

'Yep, counting the minutes,' she thought flatly as she turned away. At that moment Raiden came over and joined the group.

"It's all set. You should be able to travel back to your world without any problems." The girls looked at him before looking back at Sub-Zero and the others. Sub-Zero and Ermac didn't seem too happy about the situation either, but there was nothing they could do.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Tori said when she realized neither of her friends were going to say anything. Sub-Zero seemed hurt that Emma wouldn't speak to him, but didn't act on it. Ermac, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to say something to Ella but held himself back. Scorpion was just being Scorpion.

"I guess it is," Sub-Zero said, but as he spoke he was looking at Emma.

"The portal will close soon," Raiden said. The girls paused a minute more before going over and walking through the portal. Then they were gone.

End

Authors note: Enjoy! If you liked this story then you should go read the sequel I'm working on. It's called Animal and I promise it is much better than this story because I've had more time to develop my writing.