Pat-PAT! pat-PAT! pat-PAT! pat-PATpat-PATpat-PATPAT-PATPAT-PATPAT-PAT-

What is that, what is that? Takeda couldn't pinpoint the sound. It sounded like it was all around him, everywhere at once. An army, running through the snow from behind the cement bricks. Takeda's breath hitched in his throat, and his heart pounded against his ribcage, threatening to pulse through at any moment. His breath couldn't come fast enough, couldn't fill his lungs hard enough. He circled and circled. Where is it?

There was protocol for this. Ingrained in Takeda by Master Hanzo and the Shirai Ryu over and over and over again. Identify the threat. Assess its strengths, its weaknesses, and how to exploit both. Engage. Regroup.

Takeda didn't even have time to identify where it was coming from. It was already too loud, too close, and getting closer too quickly. He didn't even have time to guess what it could possibly be. A second later, a snarling brown mass launched itself over the low brick wall, over the ice-inlet, and flew past Takeda's shoulder - so close to him that flecks of spit and fur brushed against his face. A cry of surprise left his throat and he ducked away from it on reflex, right as it slammed into Jin's chest and tackled him to the ground. They rolled to a stop, and Takeda got a look at the writhing, snarling wolf on top of Jin. About the size of a small bear, it had slick brown fur gummed with blood, and glowing yellow eyes, like a hound straight out of Netherrealm hell. It reared its head back to snap its jaws down on Jin's face, and he barely slid his arm in the way. He jammed it into the wolf's throat, barring its jaws from his face and holding it off of him as it twisted on top of him.

Cassie ran forward and planted her foot into the wolf's side, shoving it off of Jin so hard it briefly went airborne. It landed on its back, squealing in pain, and scrambled to its feet. It skittered on its legs for a moment, as though it was taking stock of its injuries, and Takeda vainly hoped it would turn and run. Instead, it decided it was fine. It turned on Cassie next, inching close and closer to her with its lips curled back over its teeth. It snarled so low in its throat, it was more like a roar, flaring its eyes and baring its teeth over and over in a challenge.

Cassie met its stare, cooly cocking one of her pistols. The wolf almost attacked at the action, but Cassie cooly shot at its feet, and it bolted in the other direction. They watched it go, not daring to look away until it turned the corner past the mausoleum. It looked back once, howled, and ran out of sight. "Circle up!" Cassie yelled. "There could be more!"

"No, no! Let's move!" Jin said, crawling to his feet. "If there are more, I don't want to be cornered here!"

"Where the fuck did they come from?!" Cassie yelled. "There are rocks all around here! Like mountains-"

A cluster of howls reached them, extremely quiet and distant, but still they all froze in momentary panic, fists and weapons up, listening intently. Jin relaxed first, groaning and rubbing his chest where the wolf hit him. "They're far off. Way far off. We're okay for now."

"You good?" Takeda asked him, sounding breathless. He couldn't help it. His heart was still pounding in his throat, so hard his vision pulsed with it.

"I'm good. Got scratched a bit, but I'm fine." He pulled the flaps of his vest apart and revealed a thin red line on his chest. "Didn't even break the skin. Knocked the wind out of me, though." He raised his bow over his head and took as deep a breath as he could, but Takeda saw a grimace flash across his face, and saw him curl back up despite trying to hide it as best he could.

"Those howls were a response, weren't they? To the first one?" Jacqui asked. "Don't wolves do that?"

"Maybe," Jin shrugged. "But they're far off, now. We should still move. I'm not a fan of getting cornered by more of them." He lead the way away from the empty archway and away from Sub-Zero's ice-pocket. Back in the open air, Jin hung a right. He pointed back over to the mausoleum. "The wolf ran that way, right? Somebody watch our back and make sure it doesn't decide to come back."

"I got it," Jacqui said, moving to the back of the group.

"Okay, seriously? Where did they come from?" Cassie asked. The mountains and rocks and shit circle this entire place, but unless they learned how to climb-"

"Wolves can climb, Cass," Jin sneered like it was obvious. "Especially hellhounds from the Netherrealm. Did you see the eyes? They were glowing yellow."

The conversation lulled, and they all let it, starting down the other path. They passed three more tombs that outlined the area before hanging a right. The path narrowed and closed in on them once again, and Jin paused at the entrance. "Damn. So much for staying in the open."

"What do we do?" Jacqui asked, still facing the rear in case the wolf came back.

"We gotta continue," Jin said. "We have no idea what's beyond here. We could find somebody."

Takeda realized he nearly forgot about Master Hasashi. There were attackers here, there were wolves here . . . the odds of Hanzo escaping, especially without his kunai, were getting slimmer and slimmer with each encounter in this place. It made Takeda's heart sick. He didn't want to think about Hanzo being attacked or killed, or being ripped apart by wolves. He didn't want to think about Jax like that either, or Kenshi, or anybody that was here. He just wanted to find them and get out as quickly as possible.

He glanced down the path they wanted to go down, watching as the darkness intensified only a few steps in. He stared and stared, not understanding how that was possible until he realized that the rocks and mountains he thought had ended had actually circled around surrounding the low cement wall, rising above them. They squeezed it in, making it look even narrower and darker.

"We have to go. We can't just wait here," Takeda said. He held up Master Hasashi's kunai. "We still gotta find Master Hanzo-"

" . . . woooOOOOOOooo . . . " The howling reached them again, on the wind.

It was getting closer.

"Okay, let's go!" Cassie said. "We have to get somewhere where it's open." She pushed to the front of the group and took a few cautious steps into the darkness. "We still have that glow stick? It's really dark here."

"Yeah, I got it," Takeda said. Cassie had given it back to him after they left the spider caves. He pulled it from a loop in his belt and handed it to her. Cassie held it straight out with her left hand and held her gun out with her right hand, and half-ran, half-walked down the length of the tunnel - yeah, that's what it was, Takeda realized. A tunnel. They followed behind Cassie, into the darkness that felt tangible. When Takeda crossed the overhang the dark pressed itself to his back, pushing and bothering. his back twitched against it, and he shuddered despite himself, subconsciously edging closer and closer to the dim, orange light.

He remembered something his mother told him, when he was little and still living with her in Thailand. Every day, when she was finished with her factory job in the evening, she would come by the school where he waited all day, and together the two of them would walk home. First through the city, then through the mountains and jungles to their cottage. Every day, he tried to pretend he wasn't afraid, for his mother. He tried to pretend that the footsteps he thought he heard behind him weren't frightening him, or that the breezes through the trees didn't sound like whispers. He aways thought he had her fooled. Perhaps she let him think he had her fooled. His quick breath, his fists clenching at his side and squeezing her hand probably gave him away. "Don't look back Takeda," she would tell him. "They can't touch you. They're lost spirits and lost souls, and since you're not from their world, they can't touch you. Unless you look back. If you look back, you cross over."

"Don't look back, Takeda, don't look back," he told himself, over and over again. In some ways it brought him a sick form of comfort so he latched on to it for a moment. "Don't look back. They're lost spirits, they're lost souls. They can't touch you. Don't look back."

The howling started back up again, definitely closer, and it didn't stop. It sounded like a lot of wolves were gathering, and they were all crying at once. Jacqui bristled in discomfort. "Those wolves are coming, guys, and they're coming really fast. We have to get out of this tunnel, now!"

"I'm going as fast as I can! Can you maybe chill?" Cassie yelled.

"No! They're getting closer and closer to us! At this pace, they'll be on top of us!"

"We are going through a tunnel right now!"

Despite arguing, Cassie did pick up the pace. "Don't look back. Don't look back. Don't look back, Jacqui."

"What?"

"Something my mother told me. Don't look-"

"RRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr!"

Jacqui gasped, spinning around and putting up her fists despite his warning. He looked back, too. He had to. The shadow of a wolf turned the corner at the end of the tunnel, back-lit by the moon and the white snow, and its glowing eyes narrowed at the sight of them. It growled, and the sound echoed and echoed through the tunnel, reverberating and amplifying the sound. It barked out a sound. Probably a warning, Takeda realized, and the dread sank in his stomach. Cassie's gloved hand grabbed Takeda's wrist.

"Start backing away. Slowly," she whispered. "Don't make sudden movements."

He didn't even have a chance to before the wolf charged. All the other wolves, alerted by the warning, followed the pack leader, spilling in from everywhere. Over the walls, from the left of the entrance and from the right of the entrance. Snarling, growling, closing in. Like a tidal wave of brown fur. Eight, or maybe ten. Maybe twelve.

Cassie spun on her heels, dragging Takeda around with her. "Run!" She let go of him to pull her pistol, and fired blindly over Takeda's shoulder. With every pump of her arms while they ran, the dim glowlight strobed dizzily around them. Every so often, Takeda caught a glimpse of the wolf's shadow, bigger and smaller, bigger and smaller. The growling of wolves echoed and echoed, screaming in his ears. Getting closer and closer.

Cassie stopped suddenly, and Takeda slammed into her back, shoving her into whatever stopped them. A wall. There was a curve in the tunnel. They turned a left, and only went a few steps before the tunnel curved back again. Cassie turned around and shot at the wolves again. She must have hit one, because there was a loud yelp that echoed through the tunnel. The others paused for a moment- at least, Takeda assumed they did. There was a split second where all the growling and howling stopped in the tunnel.

"Let's go!" Cassie yelled, hauling Takeda along. Jacqui wasn't behind him anymore. He looked around frantically for her. "Wait, Cass! Where's Jacqui!"

"I'm up here! Just come on!"

The tunnel hung two sharp lefts, seeming to double back on itself. When it straightened back out, a feeble white light glowed at the end of the tunnel. The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Takeda coulda have yelled in delight if the wolves didn't begin their trek to them again. Their paws crunched in the snow behind them again and as much as he wanted to look back, he knew if he did he would only slow himself down. Instead, he let Cassie lead him along towards the light.

"Go, go, go!" Jin yelled. Snarling, getting closer and closer and closer. Pat-PAT! Pat-PAT! Pat-PAT-patPAT-patPAT-

Takeda felt warmth against his calves. They were so close-

The four of them spilled out of the tunnel, right as a wolf dove on Takeda and tackled him to the ground. It scratched and chomped at the back of his neck, but Takeda rolled and landed on top of the wolf. He threw elbow after elbow behind him until he hit something sensitive. The wolf let him go, and Jacqui took a couple punches at it.

Takeda scrambled to his feet. The other wolves were coming. Their shadows were nearing the end of the tunnel. They'd be overrun if they managed to make it through. Takeda pulled a plasma bomb from his belt and activated it, rearing back and hurling it as hard as he could into the tunnel. It exploded with a flash of orange, and the blow was so powerful it knocked all four of them back into the snow. Takeda recovered and sat up, ready to engage whatever else came out of the tunnel, but as the smoke cleared, no more wolves spilled from the tunnel. No more growls echoed through, no more paws hit the snow. The bomb took care of them. Bits of brown fur and chunks of flesh peppered the snow around the tunnel's opening.

"They're dead," Takeda said, collapsing back into the snow. Only a few seconds had gone by since they entered the tunnel, but it already felt like a lifetime. "Woah . . . "

Cassie checked the bullets she had left. "Shit . . . Everyone okay?"

Takeda held up an admittedly shaky thumbs up. Jin and Jacqui both said yes.

"Okay," she said. "I think . . . we are severely underestimating this place."

"This place doesn't make sense!" Jin yelled. "The snow's not even cold. Snow! What kind of a place - and the tech! Then the head was there, pinned to the tree, but there are no signs of human life anywhere! Not from that guy or any of his friends, not even from Hanzo and them! If Hanzo had fought someone off, there'd be signs of a battle."

"This is the fucking Netherrealm, Jin! Did you expect it to make sense?" Jacqui cried. "We gotta be more careful, because this place doesn't fuck around. We've got wolves, we've got a wall of souls guarding a mausoleum, we've got graveyards with fresh graves, we've got spiders . . . "

"I hate this place," Cassie finished for her.

"Ditto."

" . . . We still have about twenty minutes before it's time to rest for three hours. What do you guys want to do?" Jin asked. "Make camp now? Or keep going for twenty minutes?"

Takeda looked around to all of them, panting, dirty, just as exhausted as he was. And scared. They all looked just as scared as he did. "Make camp," he sent to all of them. He didn't want to say it out loud. He was shaking from the adrenaline. "Let's make camp. We need to regroup, and come up with a game plan."

"Yeah, I agree," Jacqui said, nodding in Takeda's direction.

"Me too," Cassie said. She paused, looking around their small area. It looked like any other section of the graveyard. Just a square section, with gnarled trees and overgrown dead bushes and berries and low stone walls and high rocks behind them. "The graveyard ends over there, it looks like. There's something over there, a really tall building or something, but let's explore it later."

Takeda arched his head back and looked at the rest of the graveyard upside down. He did see a structure and a glowing white symbol on it, but even thinking about it and trying to guess what the next fucked up thing they'd see would be exhausted him.

"It's Shaolin," Jin said. "That's a White Lotus, glowing at the top. Yeah, we can explore it later. Let's make camp here."

Wow. Jin must have been tired. He was so interested in the Shaolin, always eager to learn about them and explore the history and heritage of his faction. Him passing it up was telling.

The four of them set their packs down and started unloading their supplies. "This is a good spot," Cassie said. "We can use this tree right here for a center." While they were unloading, Takeda heard sloshing inside his pack, and realized he forgot about his canteen this whole time.

"Oh, shoot," he said. "Everybody make sure you drink water." As soon as he said it he became painfully aware of how dry and cracked his throat felt. All the excitement . . . he forgot about almost all of the necessities. Like all the training he did, for years and years, of survival and fighting meant nothing.

"Good call," Jin said, helping himself to his own. Cassie and Jacqui copied the two of them, and as soon as they were all hydrated, Cassie took control again, handing out orders. "Takeda, you start clearing this area of debris and other shit. Jin, gather anything we can use to make a fire pit. Jacqui, gather anything we can use for firewood and tinder. You know what to look for."

"Yup. Anything dry and brittle for tinder, thick for long burn time, and wet leaves for smoke."

"Uh-huh. I'll roll out our bed rolls and get some of the cans ready. Do we even want to eat?"

It was an honest question, but the way she asked it made it seem like she was saying, 'I'm a little too spooked to eat.' Takeda quickly looked into her face to try and see if that was what she meant, but she looked no different than any other time. If Takeda was being honest with himself, he really didn't want to eat. The excitement, and the dread that knotted his stomach while the wolves were chasing them made him lose a lot of his appetite. But, the survival instinct that seemed to be coming back during their down time told him that not eating was a very, very poor decision. "I want to eat," he said. "Start a can of whatever you think is good," he said. He dragged himself to his feet and started his task, moving all the little twigs that could be hard to sleep or rest on around the tree.

Before long, they had three sleeping bags arranged around a tiny fire that Jacqui managed to light. "No tents?" Jin asked Cassie after a while.

"No tents. It's only for three hours. If we decide to sleep for longer, then we'll set up tents. Then again, that's only if we sleep in the graveyard. If we find a way into the mausoleum, that'll provide cover. Same with the spider caves."

Oh, man. They'd have to eventually go down there, wouldn't they?

Takeda didn't want to think about it. "Who's taking first watch?"

"I am," Cassie said, without hesitation. "You guys chill out for a bit. In three hours, we'll keep exploring this shit hole."

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I hit a little block with writing as a whole and needed to take a bit of time away from all of my stories. I'm back, baby! :)

Leave a review if you have time! I love all you guys.

~Keyblader