Aeons ago, there had been a war in the heavens. The Elder Gods themselves were embroiled in conflict as one of their own rebelled, and brought his formidable powers to bear against creation itself. When all hope seemed lost, it had been the lesser deity Raiden, with the help of his brother Fujin, that averted utter catastrophe. The protector of the comparatively diminutive Earthrealm had succeeded where each other realm, and even the Elder Gods themselves, had failed.

Through the combined might of the lightning and wind gods, the overwhelming power embodied within Shinnok's amulet had been overcome, and his power stripped from him. Thus cast out from the heavens, Shinnok found himself condemned to suffer within the Netherrealm, helpless to escape an eternal misery concocted of the surviving Elder God's design.

As protector of Earthrealm, Raiden had taken on the responsibility of ensuring the amulet would never be recovered. Wardings to ensure hostile souls could not even find the Temple of the Elements, let alone enter it. Keys representing the spirit of the Earth's energies to prevent free travel from chamber to chamber. And his own brethren, the elements themselves, would all play a part to ensure this primordial artifact created by the Mad god would remain in eternal suspension.

However, denial had brought disaster unto the realms. The refusal of Raiden's own intuitions, out of a petty perceived weakness stirred by a serpent's tongue, was ultimately what had allowed Shang Tsung to drive a dagger between the thunder god's carefully crafted layers of protection.

Now Raiden beheld the broken body of this mortal woman who had been the instrument to bring his carefully constructed plans crashing down. She whom he remembered from a lifetime prior as a warrior of the Earthrealm's own wartime fighting force. She who had been a distraction, a fascination, and now an intimation. He beheld her and began to call into question… everything.

Fujin began the process of reviving their elemental brethren of water, earth, and fire, leaving Raiden to finally face the riddle of his heart.

Without thinking, Raiden reached out to her, the electricity that flowed through him sparing her from the coils of mortality that had begun constricting about her. Kombat was nothing new to the thunder god, but even a member of his own Order of Light would've been on death's door from such horrific injuries. He did not linger on such thoughts, preoccupied instead with how a body as weak as hers could have possibly managed the gamut of the Temple of the Elements.

His warding, the key system, the elementals… Shang Tsung's foul magics could not account for every failure. There was something he was overlooking, and as his energies flowed into Y/N, an intimately familiar feeling washed over him. It struck him silent, and soon he found himself gathering the woman in his arms without a second thought, meditating as the waves of electricity flowed through her.

A swirling blue flooded his mind, and he immediately recognized it, but could not fathom the reason for such a vision then and there. It was as if he were in the presence of the Jinsei itself. As Raiden contemplated the meaning of this connection, Y/N stirred with the barest gasp. Brought back from the brink of death, she placed a shaking hand upon his chest.

All contemplation. All worries. All purpose and thought seemed to freeze from this tiny gesture, and Raiden found himself awestruck, utterly at a loss from those five delicate fingers resting upon his heart.

"Th-thank you…" came the gentlest voice from the pregnant silence, as Y/N felt the truth of her own mortality pressed back, moment by moment.

"…Gratitude is unnecessary."

Raiden responded with well-practiced stoicism, but the feeling could not be shelved, ignored, nor denied. It was as Fujin alleged; there was something more to all of this, a fate he could not escape, one that Raiden now understood would reflect utter folly to continue to deny.

Having been ravaged by the magics of Shang Tsung, plus the combined might of the Shaolin and the elementals, Raiden knew it would take more than his own life force's healing properties to properly cleanse this mortal woman. Recalling the image of a swirling blue that had come unto his consciousness earlier, he and the woman disappeared in a flash of light.


"All the more's the pity, my friend…" Quan Chi's drawling voice cut through the lingering echo of rage and anguish. He held aloft Shinnok's amulet, which thrummed and pulsed with terrible magics, freshly-wielded.

The disagreement had started innocuous enough, for Shang Tsung was self-assured that the simple possession of the Mad god's amulet would afford them the necessary strength to subjugate Earthrealm without fear of the Elder God's reprisal. But Shang Tsung was not of the Brotherhood of Shadow, and thus could not understand the true destiny that had been thrust upon them with the acquisition of Lord Shinnok's long absconded symbol of power.

Quan Chi could no more refuse to revive his god than the fires of Netherrealm could refuse to burn. And if that ushered forth the end of the realms, such was meant to be. Shang Tsung just didn't understand. He was not a true believer, and thus would have to learn this harsh lesson within the torturous confines of his Lord's amulet.

The red-eyed demon of the Netherrealm held the amulet up reverently between outstretched arms, as if returning to an interrupted vigil.

"Worry not: Lord Shinnok will have use for you yet, soul stealer… All in good time." Quan Chi's voice began to echo in otherworldly tongues, and a long-awaited ceremony now began with dark portents and sinister tone.