Disclaimer: I do not own Mortal Kombat or any of its characters. All rights belong to Ed Boon, Netherrealm Studios and Warner Bros.
"Greetings combatants! Welcome to the first official day of the 10th Mortal Kombat tournament!" Shang Tsung declares as the fighters gather inside of the temple. "Many of you, I'm sure, have already been challenged by many people here on the island before the tournament began, but that was to be expected. Fighters... don't often like to wait for too long, lest they go mad from the inaction." He continues as the fighters watch and listen to him.
As he spoke, Kitana and Jade each take glances at Kurai, who is currently standing with Raiden and his group of fighters, before both look at each other and nod as Shang Tsung continues to speak. "As the tournament progresses, only one of you shall have the honor and pleasure of facing Prince Goro of the Shokan, our current reigning champion. I hope that whatever moments you make here, cherish them deeply, they may just be your last." He warns them all cryptically before gaining a sly grin on his face.
"Let Mortal Kombat begin!" He declares then disappears from the altar, causing the other fighters to walk away as well to spread out across the island to challenge other fighters.
Kurai, watches as Liu Kang, Jax, Sonya and Cage all walk away to fight in the tournament before looking over at Drake, who was smiling at him. "Well, this is it." He says to him calmly, making Kurai nod his head in agreement as he watches the other fighters leave.
"This is it." He repeats before looking back at Drake. "We may have to fight each other down the line since this is a tournament, Drake. And you'll be on your own until this tournament is over." He warns him with caution, causing Drake to nod his head in understanding. "Yeah, I know. Killing is allowed in the tournament too, so, I'll just have to be smarter, faster and stronger than my opponents. I think I can manage, Kurai." Drake says to him with a bright smile.
Kurai nods with a smile of his own. "Don't forget though, if you challenge me or I challenge you, I will be kicking your ass. Don't forget that." He tells him with a laugh while he extends his hand to Drake, which he enthusiastically grabs and shakes firmly with a toothy grin. "Bring it on then... old man." He answers humorously, causing Kurai frown at him before smirking. "Ok, yeah, I'm definitely kicking your ass just for that." He tells him, causing Drake to laugh before they both walk away from each other.
As they all walk away, Raiden watches them all before lowering his head slightly. "May the Elder Gods watch over all of you." He whsipers before disappearing in an electrical flash of lightning.
With Kurai, 30 minutes after the tournament began...
Walking along the sands of the islands beach, Kurai had his eyes closed while listening to the sounds of the waves while also keeping his senses sharp for any potential threats or opponents that will be coming this way. But no one has shown up just yet.
Or so he thought.
"Well, well, well, as I live and breath. Is that the cute little Kurai that I used to play with when I was little?" A feminine, melodic voice says from close behind Kurai, causing him to reactively jump a few feet away from the woman that managed to sneak up on him.
Landing on his feet, he closely examines the woman and sees that she is quite stunning. Dark skin, long bowl cut hairstyle and wearing a very revealing black and yellow warriors suit with daggers on each side of her toned thighs. But what made him feel a little uneasy, were her eyes. While the woman didn't seem to look like one of the undead, her eyes were still blank. No pupils, no irises, nothing. Just blank, pale sheets of white.
The woman giggles at Kurais reaction before putting her hands up calmly. "Oh-ho, I'm sorry, Kurai. I didn't mean to frighten you. It's just I haven't seen you in thousands of years. Not since Edenia was invaded and taken by Shao Kahn." The woman apologizes while standing still with a friendly smile.
Kurai still felt a little uneasy and laughs lightly with confusion, the woman was looking at him like he was an old friend, but he didn't recognize her and that made him feel bad. "Um... look, Miss, I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are. You may remember me, but... I don't remember you. I sincerely apologize." He tells the woman honestly, but his answer causes her to frown deeply.
"Aw, you don't remember me? Well... that's... sad. I had hoped and prayed we would meet again one day, Kurai, but I didn't take into account that you wouldn't remember me. Then again... it has been thousands of years since the four of us have been together in one place." She tells him with sadness, which causes him to look at her curiously.
"I'm sorry, the four of us?" He asks her. She looks at him with a genuine smile and nods before she answers. "Yes, the four of us. You, me, Kitana and Jade. We were all the best of friends when we were kids in Edenia, Kurai. THE best. We always looked after you when we were kids. You were still pretty small when we would look after you. Not necessarily a baby, but you were still pretty small." She explains to him as a sudden painful flash went through Kurais mind when the woman mentioned his sister and the one named Jade.
The dark skinned woman in green, Jade. One of his friends. Kitana, his sister. And...
"Tanya." He whispers, causing the woman to stop before gaining a beautiful bright smile on her face. "Kurai... you... you remember now?" She asks him with tears building in her eyes while walking towards him with a quickened pace.
Kurai roughly shakes his head to get rid of the sudden pain, then looks up at Tanya, who was looking at him with tears flowing down her cheeks and a smile on her face. "I... I don't remember everything, Tanya. But I'm... I'm getting some memories back." He explains to her, making her shake her head before she laughs happily them embraces him in a tight hug.
"I don't care. You're beginning to remember. That's all that matters to me. I've missed you, Kurai. I've missed everyone. It's been... so lonely... for so long." She whispers sadly to him and hugs him tighter, causing him to hesitantly hug her back. He still didn't remember everything about this woman, but memories were steadily starting to come back.
But why are his memories locked? That's the question. Back at the Dark Wu Shi temple, not even Grandmaster Han had an answer when he realized that Kurai had lost his memory before sending him here to the island. Kurai would have to find out how his memories are locked and why they were locked to begin with.
Kurai then felt Tanyas shoulders begin to tremble, causing him to gently rub her back. "Tanya? What's wrong?" He asks her with concern. He feels her hugging him tightly again before she pulls away for him to see her tears flowing freely down her cheeks. He gently places his hands on her face, causing her to kiss the palm of one of his hands with trembling lips. "Kurai, I... I hope that when you regain all of your memories... I hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive me. Forgive me... for what I had done all those years ago. But... if you can't, then please remember this, all those days I managed to have with you? The four of us together? They were the best moments of my childhood." She says to him tearfully before quickly placing a kiss on his forehead then suddenly disappears right in front of him.
"Wait!" He calls to her, but she's already long gone. "What have you done, Tanya? What did you do?" He quietly wonders when he hears the sound of footsteps behind him. Quickly turning around to face whoever was walking up to him, he pauses when he sees who it is.
Jade.
And she looks like she's looking for a fight. "Kurai! I challenge you to Mortal Kombat! Accept or yield!" She declares as she pulls out her silver bo-staff from her waist and prepares for a fight with a glare on her face.
"Damn it, Jade." He whispers quietly with frustration. "I accept." He answers as he pulls out his silver kunai with the ninja wire attached, causing Jade to lose her glare and pause in shock.
"That kunai... I've only ever gave one person a kunai that was made from the same Edenian Steel of my mothers bo-staff." Jade thinks to herself as she looks at the kunai as best as she could. Memories of a little boy with dark hair and brown eyes wearing the same colors of blue as his sister came flooding back like a tidal wave that caused Jades heart to suddenly ache. "And I gave him that kunai the day of the..." She wonders sadly before shaking her head then glares at Kurai again.
"Kitana and I will have our answers soon enough. For now... I must fight. I have a duty to Edenia... I mean Outworld." She corrects herself as she and Kurai face each other down in their fighting stances.
Kurai vs. Jade...
Jade begins the fight by rushing towards Kurai with her bo-staff twirling left and right to try and knock Kurai down quickly, but like always with Kurais opponents, they underestimate him.
Kurai dodges to his left and shoves Jade forward into the sand, causing her to look back at him with a furious glare before backflipping into the air to try and land on his shoulders. But Kurai rolls out of the way and kicks her legs out from under her, making her land roughly on her back.
She flips back up to her feet then stabs the pole into the ground while balancing herself at the top of her bo-staff. She then uses her momentum she built up to launch herself into the air the flips forward looking to swing her bo-staff downward over Kurais head, but he dodges the attack.
He jabs her in the gut just as she straightens herself up, knocking her forward, uppercutting her into the air then uses the wired kunai to wrap around her ankle before roughly pulling her back down into the ground hard.
She gets up coughing while glaring at Kurai as he stands ready, but she surprises him when she suddenly throws a razor-rang at him, which he barely dodges as it cuts his cheek. As her razor-rang imbeds itself into a large boulder sitting on the beach, Jade uses the distraction to rush Kurai just as he turns to face her again.
She leaps into the air and strikes left at Kurais face, throwing him for a loop as he's just been stunned. Jade uses the opportunity to keep on him and twirls her bo-staff again against his face, doing serious damage as she drives him back.
Jade spins around gracefully on her feet before knocking him down on his back with her bo-staff then points the tip of it at his throat. Both panting heavily, she glares down at him with a smirk. "Yield, Kurai. You've lost." She declares to him confidently, causing him to smile and shake his head. "Not yet, I haven't." He tells her defiantly before kicking her knee, causing her to kneel before he swats her bo-staff away then kicks her to flip over backwards and back to his feet.
She glares at him furiously before thrusting her bo-staff repeatedly at his entire body, which he narrowly manages to dodge before grabbing the end of her bo-staff with his left hand. "That shit... is getting really old, really quick, Jade." He says to her angrily.
She tries to yank her bo-staff out of his grasp, but it wouldn't budge, so, she quickly summons her razor-rang back into her left hand and begins to use the razors edges to try and cut him, but avoids and dodges them easily while countering with his kunai.
She thrusts one of the razor-rangs blades towards his torso, but he quickly catches her arm.
POP!
"ARRRGH!!!" She screams in pain as she switches the razor-rang to her right hand and continues to attack Kurai with no success.
Swinging wildly and angrily, Jade loses her focus and fails to notice Kurai swinging his kunai around beside him in the air before launching it towards her, making it pierce itself into her left shoulder, causing her to yell out painfully. Kurai flicks the wire aggressively and pulls hard, causing Jade to fall down with the kunais momentum. Flicking the wire again, Kurai pulls the kunai back towards him into his hands before rushing Jade just as she rolls over on her back.
She gasps when he suddenly sees Kurai crouching over her with his kunai pressed dangerously close to her throat. Gulping loudly, she lets out a deep breath before glaring at him. "Go ahead, do it. Kill me. Those are the rules." She seethes at him as he glares down at her darkly before his face softens.
Sighing deeply he stands up straight and shakes his head. "No, Jade. I'm not going to kill you. Not when I... not when I haven't had the chance to even fully remember who you are." He tells her, causing her eyes to widen with surprise.
KURAI WINS!
She painfully sits up before turning her head to look at him curiously. "So... so, I'm not going crazy. You... you and I used to know each other. Kitana too. But... why do I feel such... familiarity with you?" She asks him, which causes him to turn around and shrug his shoulders. "Honestly, Jade. I wish I had the answers for you, but I don't." He tells her honestly before turning his head around to look at her.
"But, I've been told that... I'm the lost Prince of Edenia. Queen Sindels son. Kitanas little brother." He says to her, cause her to look at him in shock at the revelation as her memories came flooding back again like a wave crashing over her. This time, she didn't ignore it.
The memories of the dark haired little boy, that she, Kitana and... Tanya. The memories of that little boy they all used to look after and play with when they were children all came flooding back and she couldn't stop the tears from welling up in her eyes as she shakily stood up to get a better look at the little boy she and her two friends adored as children, now stood before her... a man.
With a shuddering gasp, Jade lifts her one working arm and hand to her mouth when she finally notices all the scars that riddled Kurais body as she shakily tries to stand up and walk towards him, but stumbles, causing Kurai to dash towards her and catch her before she fell.
Falling into his embrace, Jade does whatever she could to hug herself as close to him as possible as she weeped and sobbed against him while he held her close. "Kurai, by the Elder Gods... we thought... we had heard you were dead. We thought the worst after Shao Kahns invasion of Edenia. What happened to you? Where have you been all these years?" She tearfully asks him while grabbing hold of him tightly not wanting to let go of one of the only good memories that held her together while she served Shao Kahn in Outworld.
Kurai shakes his head. "Jade, I know you might not believe me, but... somehow... my memories have been locked. I can't even remember my time in Edenia with you and Kitana." He tells her half honestly. He wanted to mention Tanya, but what she said to him earlier before she left caused him to consider keeping her being here on the island to himself. For now.
For now, he wants to enjoy this small embrace with Jade before he can be reunited with his older sister. Maybe even his mother too. If she's still alive after all these years.
Jade, not caring at the moment of Kurais predicament of his locked memories, painfully sits on her knees and ignores the pain all around her body as she embraces Kurai in a tight hug. "By the gods, Kurai, now that I remember everything, I can only tell you how much I've missed you. It's been so hard since Edenia fell. Kitana and I... we haven't been the same for thousands of years. We've... done things, terrible things that we can't take back." She tells him tearfully, making him nod his head in understanding.
"So have I. Since I've been in Earthrealm, I've seen and done terrible things. I've taken part in events in history that people today consider cruel and heartless. But... I did what I had to to stay alive and survive. If people call that cruel, fine. They can call it whatever they want, but I did what I had to. I have the scars to prove that, as you can plainly see." He says to her with a light chuckle while pointing to his body, causing her to nod her head as she slowly traces the scars all along his torso and arms.
"Yes, I can see that. You've seen battle before. Many battles." She says to him with a sad tone as her hands begin to tremble while she continues to trace her fingers over his scars. She then closes her eyes with trembling lips before hugging him tightly again as he hugs her back. After a moment, she relaxes and sighs deeply while enjoying his warm embrace.
"Come on, Jade. Let's get you patched up." He tells her calmly, which makes her look up at him, frantically shaking her head. "No, no! I'll do it myself. You defeated me, so, I'm already eliminated from the tournament. I can patch myself up. You continue with the tournament. I'll be alright. It'll be better if we don't raise suspicions." She tells him, making him want to protest, but she firmly shakes her head. "No, Kurai. I know you want to help me, but it's against the rules of Mortal Kombat. You're not allowed to help me." She tells him assertively. Hesitantly, he nods then holds her to help her stand back up.
"At least let me help you with this." He tells her before gently grabbing her left arm. He looks at her for permission, causing her to smile and nod.
POP!
"Ugh!" She grunts in pain before stretching her arm out to get feeling back in it. She looks at Kurai with a grateful expression before hugging him again. "Now, I can hold you with both arms, Kurai." She giggles, causing Kurai to chuckle as he hugs her back. "Um... Jade, I hate to ask you this, but I would be forever grateful if you don't tell Kitana about this." He tells her with concern, causing her to look up at him with a confused expression.
"What? Why, Kurai? She's your sister. She deserves to know you're alive." She protests, causing him nod in understanding. "Yeah, I know, I know. It's not that I don't want her to know, it's... it's this Shang Tsung that I don't trust. You both work with him after all." He explains to her, causing her to understand why he doesn't want Kitana to know about his survival. Yet.
If Shang Tsung were to hear word that Sindel and Jerrods only son is still alive, he would send word to Emperor Shao Kahn, which would most likely cause the mad ruler to do whatever necessary to bring him to Outworld so he can serve him next to his sister. And that would not bode well for the other realms, not even Earthrealm. Kurai and Kitana together as a team would be a force to be reckoned with against the realms. Kurai wouldn't want that, and after everything Jade has seen during her time in Outworld, she doesn't want that either.
Nodding with understanding, but still uncertain, Jade agrees to keep quiet about Kitanas little brother being alive and here on the island. "Ok, my prince. I'll keep quiet, for now. Just please, be careful during the tournament. Kitana lost you once. Don't make her lose you again." She pleadingly asks him, making him nod. She nods her head in return as they both hug each other tightly.
"Just one other thing, Jade." He begins to tell her with a soft chuckle, making her look up at him curiously. "What's that?" She asks, causing him to laugh lightly. "Just call me, Kurai. I'm not a prince. I've lived... a humble life for many, many years. So, Kurai will be fine." He tells her with a smile, causing them both to laugh lightly. Jade then looks up at him and nods in understanding.
"Thank you. Alright, I better get going. Take care, Jade." He tells her before he starts to walk away, but she stops him and turns him around quickly before pulling down his mask. "Jade, what-?" He begins to ask, but she interrupts him by placing a single finger on his lips.
She smiles beautifully with a shrug. "I just... I wanted to see your face again, Kurai. Not a mask." She answers him then quickly places a kiss on his cheek, but it was dangerously close to his lips. Pulling away with a tearful smile, she hugs him one last time before he has to continue with the tournament. "Stay safe, Kurai. I just got you back. Don't make me lose you again. Don't make Kitana lose you again either. Come back to us." She tells him sorrowfully before looking back up at him. "All of us." She tells him.
Kurai nods and gently kisses her forehead, causing her sigh deeply, before pulling away from her then quickly leaves to continue with the tournament.
Jades whole body shakes and trembles before she collapses to the sandy ground of the beach with a tearful smile on her face. "He's back... Kurai is back..." She whispers quietly before something flashes across her mind that causes her to gasp fearfully.
"Wait... the prophecy!" She thinks to herself as she looks in the direction that Kurai had left. "The White Flame Phoenix shall rise from the ashes and bring the realm of Edenia back to the light..." She whispers fearfully, but also hopefully.