“What would you be without me, then? Patient X? Another orphan starved and trampled on Outworld’s street… Without me, you are nothing. I lifted you to Outworld’s palace, entrusted you with teachings, and established your place in court. All to see my work undone by a filthy Earthrealm dog and your foul-mouthed little runt.”
Fury glistened under the golden plating of the Kahn’s mask, sharp teeth baring amongst every word. Hatred and disappointment were understatements of the word, written out even under the helm’s visage. “Return to me the Kamidogu, witch… The Kamidogu and your spawn.”
Skarlet’s knees were close to buckling, to throwing herself down towards the Emperor’s feet. Just as she had been trained to do once before, knowing it meant survival. Her hands kept low, the fabled artifact he had demanded so directly, shimmering in the warmth of the distant light. Her quiet apologies returned, muttered under her breath as the blade rose. Kano and Billie were too slow to protest, expectations of her handing it off falling flat in the instant.
The Sanguinaire received the worst of it, her punishments in short lasting as the Blood Kode’s power repaired exposed muscle. Her chest was nearly brought to a caving pulp, what remained of her lungs twitching in muscle memory. Her lover fared no better, though the Kahn’s hammer spared him a majority of the blow. Seidan metal ripped from its socket, from its screws. Bones smashed or jutted in gruesome splays as their blood ran in rivers between one another.
Still, their eyes remained on one another. Not the Emperor’s scrutiny.
“Lovesick fools,” Shao Kahn seethed, “cast your eyes upward, not at each other. Admire that I won’t give either of you the mercifulness of death… My own daughter… You’d rather suffer this fate than part from your Earthrealm dog.”
Here they stood, a parent without children, a child without parents, her gaze suddenly hardening in an expression he knew all too well.
Kano shared that look. That fateful day Skarlet faded in and out of the transfusion, the push and pull of uncertainty, in Billie’s delicate health conditions, in the fear he’d lose it all in one gust. Only, Billie had lost it. All but the legacy carved in manufactured weaponry, in the artifacts plundered in treacherous ways. When blood money built an empire that now fell heavy in her lap.
Crash!
The Mage’s hands moved protectively, her lover’s head resting tight against her chest as the vat in front of them shattered to pieces. Glass and sickly liquid rushed as the man inside hit the stone hard.
The Nightrider caught himself on his forearms, hacking up the green ooze that surrounded him. Tears finally stinging hot along his face as rage wracked through his form. The sheer force brought his hands down into the shards of glass, pausing only to cough up the ice that plagued that horrible dream. Ever so slowly, the crawl of his body against cold shards, his mind unclouded. No longer bound to the large mirror shatter of the timeline’s uneven course. No longer bound to the magic that –
Old Epilogue scenes that’ll be reworked eventually but are very hot on the mind right now
#MKBloodMoney #Skarlet #Kano #ShaoKahn #MKOCBillie #MKOCTomek
