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Earth Realm Special Forces Base, Nighttime...
After Kurai had activated the transmitter and revealed his location, Sonya and the group took some time to prepare themselves to transport with Raiden to India instead of rushing in head on. With Kurai and his family in Shinnok's clutches they had to be quick to rescue them but also cautiously careful or they risk Kurai and his family being killed by Shinnok's hand.
Though the group wasn't too worried since they knew Kurai could handle himself just fine. Even against one like Shinnok.
The group was about to depart as they crowded around Raiden in a circle when Drake looks over to see two familiar faces walking towards them. But how did they manage to get into the base? "Grandmaster Han! Master Akuma! What are you doing here?" He asks, which stops Raiden just as he is about to teleport himself and the group to India.
Han and Akuma both walk towards the group with determined expressions on their faces as Raiden walks up to them. "Han, Akuma. As Drake said, what brings you here?" He asks the two curiously as the two men walk up to the thunder god.
Han and Akuma look at each other before looking back at Raiden as Han answers. "Where ever it is you're going, Lord Raiden, Akuma and I are going with you. I made a fatal mistake sending you all into a trap without the proper information. And now..." He pauses to take a quick glance over the group to see that Kurai is not among them, which causes him sigh sadly.
"And now Kurai has been captured and is in the hands of the enemy. I have to make this right." He states with determination as Raiden sighs tenderly.
He walks up to Han and gently places a hand on the grandmaster's shoulder. "Kurai's capture is not your fault, Han. Kurai planned this." He kindly explains to the man, which causes Han and Akuma to look at Raiden in shock.
Raiden nods. "Yes. We now know where Shinnok is, and we're heading there now. If you both still wish to join us. Then by all means, do so. I will not stop you." He says to them both before walking back over to the group. Han and Akuma look at each other briefly before Han nods assuringly. They then both walk over to the group as they welcome their help openly.
Raiden prepares again to teleport to India. "Wait, wait, wait!" Drake suddenly shouts, stopping Raiden again.
"What is it, Drake?" He asks with slight agitation in his tone as Drake looks around the group, but notices that three Lin Kuei ninjas aren't among them.
"What about Sub-Zero, Eclipse, and Smoke? Are they not coming? We could use their help against Shinnok." He asks curiously, wondering why the ninjas aren't coming with them when they could be of great help in the fight.
Sonya chimes in. "They're staying here to keep an eye on Scorpion. They want to make sure he doesn't go berserk when regains consciousness. So, it's better for everyone at the base if they stay here to keep an eye on him." She explains to him, to which Drake nods with understanding.
Seeing that everyone was now ready, Raiden prepares once more to teleport himself and the group to India. He pauses for a moment and glances over at Drake with an amused smirk, causing Drake to chuckle before they finally teleport to India.
But they had no idea of what lied ahead and what they were in for when they arrived.
A bolt of lightning strikes the center of the palace grounds and the group looks all around them to see the surrounding area engulfed in flames. And not just normal, regular flames, but white flames.
The group quickly figures out that Kurai had already made his move without them and this worries them. Jade and Drake especially.
Without waiting for orders from Raiden, Jade and Drake take off in separate directions to look for Kurai. Ophelia also for Jade.
"Jade! Drake! Wait!" Raiden calls out to them as they run off, but they ignore him. The remaining group left behind all look at each other with concern.
Just what had happened here? Was Kurai behind this? And why make a move without them when he knew they were coming?
Inside one of the windows of the palace, Delilah could be seen with a twisted smirk on her face as she chuckles lightly. "Oh, Kurai... You clever little dog, you..." She says with amusement as she watches Raiden and the group from inside the palace. "This will be fun to watch."
Meanwhile, Earlier with Kurai in Shinnok's Fortress...
Kurai paces back and forth in the cell in a huff but manages to keep his composure while remaining as calm as possible. Tanya watches him timidly but doesn't say a word, she just scoots closer to the wall and continues to hide her stitched scar from Kurai. She couldn't imagine how much angrier he would become if he saw it and figured out what Delilah had done to her. Though she knew that it was only a matter of time.
Kurai stops pacing near the cell bars then leans against them and releases a deep, aggravated sigh. He then turns around and realizes that Tanya has not openly said a single word to him after he was brought to the cell. She hasn't even tried to do her usual flirtatious teasing she normally does when she's around him. Either because his mother, sister, and Ophelia are here this time, or something is bothering her. He didn't know.
He just knew something was wrong.
He slowly begins to walk over to her. "Tanya?" He tenderly calls out to her making her tense and freeze. "Are you alright? You haven't spoken a word to me since I arrived." He points out with concern as he kneels down beside her. She says nothing and avoids his eyes.
He sits down beside her and gently takes one of her hands into his. "Tanya, I may not have been here as long as you have, but I know something is wrong. Please tell me. I don't like seeing you like this." He tenderly pleads with her as he feels her hand begin to tremble.
She tightly grasps her hand with his but still avoids his gaze. She closes her eyes and fights back her tears to keep herself from crying. "Tanya." She hears Ophelia call out to her. Tanya opens her eyes to see Ophelia walking over to the cell bars before she stops.
"He's going to find out sooner or later, Tanya. It would be better if he hears it from you instead of finding out on his own." She explains softly while looking at Tanya with sympathy. Tanya remains silent as her lips tremble while Kurai looks back and forth at the two with confusion.
"Tell me what? What is she talking about, Tanya?" He asks with concern as Tanya takes a deep breath and wills herself to finally look into Kurai's eyes. The moment she does, Kurai realizes even more now that something is terribly wrong.
Tanya's eyes don't have the usual brightness and life they normally do anymore. Now, they look dull and almost lifeless. They look almost like they did when she reunited with him on Shang Tsung's island, but this is much more severe and tragic than that.
He holds her hand tightly while moving his other hand to caress her cheek gently. "Tanya? What is it? What happened to you?" He asks her softly as she leans into his hand and takes a shuddering breath before looking directly into his eyes.
She finally decides to speak. "Kurai... I... I can... I no longer have the ability to give you... what you eventually want..." She answers cryptically with tears streaming slowly down her face, but this confuses Kurai.
"What? What do you mean by...?" He begins to ask but trails off when he follows the movement of her hands. She slowly lifts up her top and slightly slides down her skirt to show Kurai her stitched scar, where her womb once was.
Looking directly at the scar, Kurai understood. He feels his body heat up with rage before he takes a deep breath and quickly stands up and walks away from Tanya to compose himself. Tanya curls herself up into a ball against the wall as Kurai begins to pace back and forth again, but now he is barely able to keep himself calm.
Ophelia watches him tenderly as Sindel and Kitana walk up beside her. "My Prince, it will be alright. Please just remain calm." She tells him softly while Sindel and Kitana watch him worriedly.
He walks over to the other side of his cell and furiously grasps the cell bars tightly. He tries his best breathe slowly as the other part of him, his warrior part, shakes and trembles, aching to get out of the cell and take the fight to Shinnok. But he doesn't want to endanger the four women with him. That is until he looks up into the other cell and angrily gazes upon the corpse remains of Prince Fahran and the memory of him killing Sadira after besting him in combat floods back into his mind.
"Kurai, darling, please. Don't do anything rash. Just calm down." She calls out to him tenderly, but Kurai had already made his decision.
He shakes his head slowly before turning to look at her. "No, mother, I don't think I will. I'm getting us out of here." He growls angrily before walking over to the cell door.
Sindel, worried that Kurai will draw the attention of the guards, grabs hold of her cell bars and tries to stop him. "Kurai, don't! You'll just make things worse if the guards come, even more worse if Shinnok comes with them!" She whispers sternly, but Kurai ignores her as his hands are engulfed in white flames.
He puts his hand up to the cell door and slowly drags his hand over the bars. To the shock of Sindel and the other three women, the bars glow red hot and instantly melt to the floor without so much as a hint of sound. Kurai walks over to the other cell and does the same to let out Sindel, Kitana, and Ophelia.
Kurai looks over back towards his cell as they walk out to see that Tanya has not moved an inch from her spot. He walks back into the cell and kneels in front of her. "Tanya, we're getting out. Why are you still sitting here?" He asks her curiously, but she keeps her head down before speaking.
"Leave me, Kurai..." She whispers sadly, shocking Kurai and the others.
"Tanya!" He exclaims with bewilderment, not believing that Tanya would want him to leave her behind.
Tanya looks up at him dejectedly with tears in her eyes. "Your friends will be here soon, Kurai. You have to go. Just leave me." She says to him sadly, but Kurai refuses and shakes his head.
"No, Tanya! We're all getting out of here together!" He firmly tells her as Sindel, Kitana, and Ophelia remain silent and watch the exchange in sadness. Tanya's lips tremble before she lowers her head again.
"I'm nothing but... but damaged goods now, Kurai. I can't even have children anymore. I can't have YOUR children. I'm not worth rescuing at this point." She continues to say with a dejected tone before looking down at the floor with sadness.
Kurai, not believing that the woman before him is the Tanya he knows, shakes his head sadly and sighs. "Tanya, you may not be able to have children anymore, but that doesn't make you damaged goods. I don't even see you that way. You had a horrible thing happen to, there's no denying it." He begins to say to her tenderly before placing a hand on her cheek softly.
She unconsciously leans into his hand and looks up at him to see the same loving expression she saw when they both shared their intimate moment after the tournament on Shang Tsung's island. Her heart skips a beat as she stares lovingly into his eyes.
"But that doesn't mean you should just be left behind. You may have been violated in the most horrible way, but you're still someone I care about, Tanya. You not being able to give me children doesn't change anything between us. You're still my girl." He tells her genuinely, making her heart soar.
Her eyes flutter as she struggles to find her next words. "Kurai... Say that... Say that one more time. Please..." She pleadingly says as she feels a faint hint of a smile creeping up on her face.
Kurai smiles and leans close before kissing her lips softly, making her eyes close, before he pulls away. She moans quietly and bites her lip before opening her eyes to look at Kurai lovingly. "You're still... my girl, Tanya. And I am not leaving here without you. Period." He says to her again, making her smile brightly before she begins to laugh lightly.
She lowers her head again then looks back up at Kurai. "Ok... Alright... I guess I can go with you since it seems like you can't get enough of me, darling." She says to him teasingly with a smile, but the smile didn't match the tone. Regardless, Kurai smiles and nods.
"That's my girl." He says happily before he begins to help her up to her feet. Tanya struggles to stand up since her legs feel like jelly from the constant pain in her abdomen, even with Kurai's help. She manages to make it to her feet and Kurai helps her walk over to the cell door.
She leans against the bar but she and the rest of the group freeze when they hear footsteps coming down the stairwell to the dungeon. The footsteps continue down until they see who they belong to.
Reiko and a couple of demons with him. Reiko looks up to see the prisoners outside of their cells. His eyes widen and he turns to run back up the stairwell to sound an alarm, but he turns to see Kurai in front of him with a fierce glare.
Shocked, he stumbles backwards before Kurai punches him and knocks him down to the floor. The demons both snarl and roar before attempting to attack the Edenian Prince, but Kurai dodges them and swiftly rips the head off of one before holding the other against the wall and beats it senseless until there was nothing left remaining of its head.
The demons body drops to the floor as he turns his furious gaze back towards Reiko, who had regained his bearings and begins to crawl away from him. But stops when he when he reaches the feet of the four women that were being held prisoner. He looks up to see all four of them glaring down at him furiously.
He turns back to see Kurai walking towards him. Reiko tries to think of something to say to save himself, but the look on Kurai's face tells him that he is really not in the mood to listen.
Reiko then looks over at the dead demons to see that they're dead. Not believing that demons from the Nether Realm could be taken down so easily, he shakes his head in disbelief. "Impossible...! You... You're a... a monster." He whispers angrily before getting up quickly to try and grab one of the women, but finds Kurai in front of him again.
This time, Kurai grabs Reiko by the throat with an infuriated glare on his face. He lifts him up into the air and slams his against the dungeon wall harshly. Reiko groans painfully and glares back at him, but feels himself slowly losing consciousness. "Even if you... manage to get out... you still won't win... against Lord Shinnok... you should just... just... SURRENDER!" He chokes out loudly, but Kurai scoffs.
"Tough talk from a man who is getting the life choked out of him right now." He says to him condescendingly and tightens his grip on his throat with a growl. Reiko gasps desperately and struggles against Kurai's grip, but fails to do anything to help himself as his legs flail around. Sindel and the others, not used to seeing Kurai being so cruel, didn't know what to do or say to try and stop him.
"Kurai, stop! This is not who you are! Please stop!" Sadira's voice pleads with Kurai in his head, making him pause and briefly soften his grip on Reiko's throat.
"Sadira, you really don't expect me to just-?" He begins to say, but is quickly interrupted by Sadira's voice.
"Yes, I do! You've beaten him already and he knows it! Now, let him go! Don't be like that person again, my love! Please!" She continues, giving Kurai a brief moment of realization of how he was just acting and also remembering how much he despised the person he had become after Sadira had died.
Sadira's voice did not speak another word to Kurai as he looks up at Reiko, who was struggling to keep his eyes open from the lack of air. Kurai growls in frustration before letting go of Reiko's throat and dropping him to the floor. Reiko takes in large gasps of air while wheezing and coughing from the pain on his neck.
Reiko painfully looks up at Kurai with glare and tries to say something threatening to him, but no words come out, only incoherent sounds. Kurai just stares down at Reiko with an indifferent expression before interrupting him. "Be angry at me all you want, Reiko. But don't think that you didn't deserve what I just did. If you are, then you're just as delusional as Shinnok and Percival Silva." He condescendingly says to him before kicking the former general in the face, knocking him out.
Kurai doesn't even turn around to face Sindel, Kitana, Ophelia, and Tanya. He just sighs deeply, feeling ashamed of his actions that they had to witness. "I'm... Mother, I'm sorry you had to see that side of me. I haven't acted that way in so long, but with everything Shinnok and Delilah has been doing and Shinnok taking this place as his fortress... I just..." He tries to explain, but trails off and shakes his head shamefully.
Sindel looks at the other three women then looks back at her son before placing a tender hand on his shoulder. He turns his head to look back at her to see her smiling with understanding. "Kurai... I may not have liked seeing that side of you, but... I understand. Nine thousand years in Earth Realm, you've probably had to do many things that you're not proud of. I didn't understand it before because I couldn't bring myself to, but seeing this side of you just now... I can finally start to understand. And this changes nothing. You're still my son. My darling Kurai. You always will be." She says to him tenderly, making Ophelia, Kitana, and Tanya all nod in agreement at the Edenian Queen's words.
Kurai says nothing and just smiles before nodding. "Thank you, mother." He says simply before she smiles and embraces him in a tight hug.
Pulling away, she gently grabs his face and pats his cheeks. "Now then, how about we get out of here? I believe we've been here long enough, wouldn't you say?" She says cheerfully, making the others laugh lightly with nods.
Sindel then turns around and points to Ophelia and Kitana. "Alright. Kitana, Ophelia, you two help Tanya walk. Kurai and I will take point and take care of any threats in front of us. Got it?" She says to them, but Tanya shakes her head.
"Lady Sindel, no. I'll be fine. I'm not much use for a fight right now, but I can walk on my own." She says to them and tries to take a step away from the cell bars that she was leaning on to help her stand. But she takes one step and almost collapses to the floor if Ophelia hadn't caught her.
Ophelia shakes her head. "Tanya, in your condition right now, you won't make it far on your own, let alone go up the stairwell that will lead us out." She softly says to Tanya, who looks up to protest but Ophelia silences her with a firm expression.
Tanya sighs dejectedly before nodding her head. Ophelia then looks over towards Sindel. "I'll help Tanya walk, Sindel. You and your children should use your abilities to help us out of the dungeon. We'll take care of Shinnok once we get Tanya out of here." She suggests, causing Sindel to think for a moment about the plan then eventually agrees with a nod.
"Very well, Ophelia. Kurai, Kitana, you and I will take point while Ophelia takes care of Tanya. We'll handle Shinnok when the time comes." She tells her two children, who nod before standing beside her and cautiously makes their way up the stairwell leading out of the dungeon.
Ophelia, meanwhile, helps Tanya back up to her feet and follows the three royal family members as closely as possible. As the group slowly makes their way up the stairwell, they eventually come across a wooden door leading outside to the palace courtyard with an old rusted lock on the handle.
Sindel walks up to the door and is about to force it open, but Kurai stops her. "Mother, let me. If this door still has a special way to open it, then I'm the only one that remembers how. There is also a trap on the door that prevents prisoners from escaping the dungeon if it's forced open." He warns her, causing her to nod and step aside to allow Kurai to open the door.
Kurai kneels down and sighs deeply. "I can only hope that Shinnok was stupid enough to not change much in this place. This special trap door included." He whispers quietly before unlocking the lock the way Sadira had taught him all those years ago.
He makes one final turn of the lock and it clicks. Kurai froze thinking he had made a mistake, but fortunately, nothing happened. He sighs with relief and stands back up before opening the wooden door slowly. The group walks out and freezes when they see a horrific sight.
Just as Kurai expected, Shinnok had indeed taken Sadira's old home as his own and turned it into dark fortress. Though what Shinnok had done was nothing short of disgusting. Sadira's palace was now nothing more than a distorted and twisted nightmare of what it used to be. Bodies of multiple Earth Realm residents hung from spikes that covered the walls of the palace. Inside and outside.
Bodies were strewn across the courtyard with blood puddles and splatters all over the palace. The very sight caused Kurai's heart to shatter at the sight of the once beautiful palace that has now been turned into a twisted, bloody nightmare.
"Well, well, well. I must say, Kurai, you never cease to surprise me." The group hears off to the side. They look up at the steps leading to the throne room to see Shinnok at the top of the stairs with Silva and Hornbuckle standing beside him.
Shinnok begins to clap with an impressed expression. "Once again, Kurai, you prove to me how resilient and resourceful Edenian's can be. I must admit that you are a great credit to the realm of Edenia." He says with surprising respect to Kurai, but his expression soon shifts into one of anger.
"But unfortunately for you, this is as far as you go." He threatens with a dark tone before Silva lets out a whistle that pierces and echoes in the night sky. After a moment of tense silence, multiple demons spring up from the castle walls growling and snarling at Kurai and his group while Malek and his army of centaurs walk out from the multiple entrances of the palace with fierce expressions.
Kurai and the others look around them as the situation they were in has now become grim. Tanya, Ophelia, Sindel, and Kitana all grow worried from the odds that are now stacked against them, but Kurai does not waver. His focus remains on Shinnok for the crimes he's committed and for what he's done to the place he had once called home.
Shinnok's face shifts again, but this time into a distorted and disgusting smirk, feeling that with Kurai and his group surrounded, he has won. But Kurai scoffs inwardly. "Yeah, keep smiling, Shinnok. You're in for a rude awakening once I start beating the life out of you."