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The blind
swordsman Kenshi walked around an empty area. He could feel the sand beneath his feet and the harsh winds blowing against
his body. The tail of his red blindfold flapped hard against the wind sideways towards the left of him.
Kenshi slightly
lifted his head up. He could feel the sun on his face coming from the east indicating that it’s past dawn, at least
in Outworld time.
Soon, he stopped in his tracks and he began to think about what had happen only a few hours ago.
His bloody duel with the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung was long and hard, but in the end, it was worth it, even with waiting a
whole decade.
I’ve accomplished my goal, he thought. I’ve avenged my ancestors and now I believe
that I am the best swordsman there is. But there was only one question left that lingered in his mind. Now what?
He
was still in Outworld. With the portal destroyed, Kenshi had no other way of getting home. His mind became blank, not knowing
what to do at the moment. Then, he let out a short sigh and continued walking.
About an hour later, Kenshi was still
feeling the sand below his feet and the harsh wind blowing against him. But this time, the sun had shifted and the tale of
his blindfold flew behind him.
Suddenly, Kenshi felt uneasiness inside of him. He stopped in his tracks and let his
senses kick in. He could sense someone not too far from him just by the feel of goose bumps on his back.
Someone's
behind me, he thought.
“Who’s there?” Kenshi demanded.
No reply.
Just because
there was no reply, didn’t mean that Kenshi was going to take his chances. After all, this was Outworld he was in. Once
again, he slowly reached behind his back and lingered his fingers around the handle of his katana.
“You know,
for a blind man, you’re pretty good at detecting those in your presence,” said a very unfamiliar voice.
Kenshi
turned his head towards the sound of the stranger’s voice. “Who are you?” he demanded once again.
The
stranger sneered. “Let’s just say that I’m an assassin, and my job is to assassinate the blind swordsman
named Kenshi.”
“Do you work for Shang Tsung?” Kenshi asked. “Because if you do, I’m afraid
that I’ve already eliminated him for good.”
“Liar!” the stranger cried. “Now, let’s
get down to business. How would you like to die? Should I just cut your throat open right now to make it quit? Or should I
gut you in the stomach so that you die slowly and painfully?”
Kenshi took out his sword, which was still a bit
stained with blood from his battle with Shang, and pointed it towards the stranger. “Wouldn’t it be more honorable
to fight first?”
The stranger sneered. “Fine then. It’ll be a nice warm up for my upcoming battle
after I kill you. Just remember this as you die........that you were killed by I, Mavado, member of the Red Dragon.”
Kenshi
only clenched his teeth in reply. The two charged towards each other. When Kenshi collided his weapon with Mavado’s
Kenshi immediately noticed two things. Not only was Mavado’s weapon in an odd shape as though it was like a large hook,
but also there were two of them.
Even though Kenshi has been a swordsman for years, never has he ever fought anyone
with two weapons present. He was trained to fight one with double weapons, but it has been so long since. In his mind, he
prayed that he could remember what he was taught.
He felt Mavado’s weapons move back and aimed at him again,
one towards his head, the other towards his ankles. Kenshi quickly ducked, then blocked the lower move with his sword. Mavado
took this opportunity to take the back of his other hooksword and cracked it behind Kenshi’s head. Kenshi fell forward,
but then caught himself and rolled forward a couple of times. He got himself back up and turned himself towards his opponent.
Mavado jabbed his hookswords at Kenshi, but Kenshi sensed it coming and immediately blocked him with his katana.
The
two began to exchange moves with their weapons, both playing offense and defense at the same time. Sometimes, Mavado would
come in with his weapons from different directions making Kenshi either duck or jump.
After a while, when they collided
the weapons above their heads, Mavado immediately kicked Kenshi in the abdomen causing the swordsman to rear back a bit. Before
Kenshi could recover the move, he suddenly felt the hookswords implanted into his shoulders. The sudden pain almost made Kenshi
scream, but he held it back by clenching his teeth and throwing his head back.
Mavado pulled him forward. He quickly
took the weapons out of his shoulders, the blood spraying quickly in different directions. Kenshi was about to lift his sword
up again, ignoring the pain, when he felt the weapons impale him once again. This time, they were inside both sides of his
ribcage. Kenshi clenched his teeth more and he winced.
Then, Mavado used the hooks, both still inside Kenshi, and lifted
him up with them. It was here that Kenshi couldn’t deal with the immense pain that resulted from that and let out a
short, agonizing scream. He then bended his head down a bit, hoping that it would make it look like he was looking into Mavado’s
face. As he did, his fingers slowly unraveled the handle of his sword and the weapon fell into the sand.
Mavado leaned
in a little closer to the swordsman and said his last words to him. “I’ll see you in the Netherealm.” With
that Mavado lifted one leg and with all of his strength kicked him in the stomach. The force sent Kenshi flying backwards,
the hookswords leaving his body. Kenshi could feel his blood pouring out of his chest as he landed hard into the sand. He
rolled sideways in high speed and when he finally stopped, he was on his back, his right hand over his left wound.
Kenshi
was still. All he heard was the sounds of the winds and his short breathing which eased him with pain every time he inhaled.
He could feel his own blood exiting his wounds, some more of it inside of him, and the taste of it in his mouth. He was going
to die in one of three ways. Either it was going to be loss of blood, his organs will stop functioning, or the blood inside
of him will take over his lungs and drown him.
Only a couple of hours ago, Kenshi had asked himself, “Now what?”
concerning what there is left to do in his life. Now that he had accomplished his goals, he couldn’t think of one thing
that he would live for.
There’s nothing left for me, Kenshi thought. I will proudly accept death.
It
was then that Alex came to his mind and Kenshi gasped a bit in pain. He thought about all of the memories they shared back
in Earthrealm. He smirked a bit as he heard her sweet voice in his mind.
Perhaps, right now, she was here in Outworld
looking for him, or she was back in Earthrealm with Sonya and Jax since there was no other way of getting to Outworld. Or
perhaps, something had happened to her when he lost contact with Special Forces.
Kenshi sighed in his mind. He could
feel the coldness of the bracelet on his left wrist. Even if I did reunite with her, would we still be together afterwards?
Kenshi
clutched his left fist as he gave himself another thought. I’m sorry Alex, I love you.
***
Sonya
Blade looked around in an empty space in the same area where she had her last battle with Kano. The winds were still harsh
and the sands stung her body like a swarm of bees despite the mountains around her.
Approximately three hours ago,
she contacted General White to let him know that they completed their mission in destroying the Deadly Alliance. With that
out of the way and Cyrax safely back in Earthrealm, there only other mission left was to find Kenshi and go home. Then, during
the contact, White had told her something she didn’t expect him to say.
“Sonya, you and Jax have twenty-four
hours Earth time to look for him,” he had said.
“Why, General?” Sonya demanded. “I don’t
care if it takes forever, I’m keeping my promise to Alex.”
“I know Sonya,” said White. “But
there are other missions here that must be taken care of and we need all the help we can. Plus Outworld is not much of a big
world. If you can’t find him, even if you, Jax, and the rest of your allies split up, he’s most likely dead. Of
course, if you find him, dead or alive, bring him back. This decision will be hard on Alex, I know, but hopefully she’ll
get through, especially with the baby and all.”
Sonya sighed. Throughout this whole mission, she had hope to
find Kenshi alive, bring him home alive, and keep her promise to Alex. But with all the time that had passed, there was a
chance that he could now be dead. Either way, Sonya was willing to find him.
She brought her radio up and only said,
“Okay.”
Sonya, Jax, and the rest of their allies made the decision to search for Kenshi. Everyone went
solo except Sub-Zero and Frost, who went together, and Jax took Li Mei with him to bring her back to her home in the meantime.
They agreed to meet in the same spot where Shang Tsung’s Palace once stood in 24 hours unless contacted (Sonya and Jax
gave everyone each a walkie talkie). Now with only 21 hours left, Sonya still had high hopes in finding the swordsman alive.
It
was then that she heard footsteps not far behind her. Kenshi? she thought with high hopes. She quickly whirled around
and when she did, she saw a hook-like weapon right in front of her face.
Sonya was surprised, but quickly got her senses
back in gear and dodged the weapon before she was impaled in the face with it. She took one of her Kali sticks out and quickly
thrusted it into her attacker’s stomach as deeply as it would go. On contact, she heard a ‘Oomph’ and the
figure feel back, dropping their weapon. Sonya grabbed the weird-looking weapon and ran over to her attacker. Before the attacker
got up, she impaled them in the back of the head and the figure fell forward dead.
“That’s what you get
for giving me a surprise attack,” she said. She then notice the red dragon design on the back of the figure’s
black trench coat.
“A Red Dragon member,” she muttered. She quickly ripped the weapon out of his head and
turned him over. Sonya gasped as she recognized the figure.
“Mavado. This was the man who I fought in the illusion
battle before I came to Outworld.”
It was then that she noticed a similar weapon a few feet away from her. She
walked over to it to take a look at it. Her blue eyes widened when she saw blood on the weapon.
No... she
thought in horror. She looked around the area. While she did that, she prayed that the blood did not belong to Kenshi.
She
walked around to see any sign of, well, anything around where she was standing. It was then that in a far distance that she
noticed a figure lying down in a far distance. She ran over as fast as she could despite the winds slowing down her speed.
It took her three minutes to get close enough to get a better look at who it was, and when she recognized the leather uniform,
the katana a few feet away, and the red blindfold around the figure’s eyes, it was no doubt who it was.
“Kenshi!!”
Sonya cried out in terror. She ran over to him and went down on her knees. She took her left arm and slipped it over his shoulders.
Her arm was immediately covered with blood coming from his shoulders. Sonya looked for any more wounds on him and gasped when
she noticed two hook-like wounds in his ribcage.
“Kenshi, speak to me,” she said. She pressed her left
arm into his shoulder wounds in hopes to control the bleeding. When she did that, he winced a bit in pain. Sonya sighed with
a bit of relief now knowing that he was still alive.
Kenshi moved his head a little before speaking. “S.......Sonya?”
he said, his voice raspy.
“Hang on, Kenshi,” Sonya said. “You’re going to be all right.”
She picked up her walkie talkie and spoke into it. “Everyone, I found Kenshi and he’s barely alive. Meet back
at the palace immediately.”
There were a few, “Rogers” before Sonya turned her attention back to
Kenshi.
“Come on, we’re going home...”
“Sonya,” Kenshi said. “Just go.”
Sonya
was shocked to hear this from him. “Kenshi...”
“Please,” Kenshi continued. “I...I killed
Shang....freed my ancestors...my goals have been....accomplished. Please...there’s nothing left for me now...”
“Don’t
you dare say that!” Sonya cried. “You’re coming home and you’re going to live! Do this for Alex! She
needs you!”
“Just go,” Kenshi demanded. “Even if you try....to get me home...it’ll probably
be....too late...tell Alex....I love her...and I‘m sorry...”
It was then that Sonya thought about the unborn
child inside Alex. It occurred to her that, of course, Kenshi knew nothing about it.
Sonya looked down at him. “Kenshi,
I didn’t want to be the one to tell you this, but there’s something I should tell you. There is something left
for you! You said it yourself, you love Alex, and she loves you! She’s not the only one waiting for you back home.”
Kenshi
became confused by that. “What....what do you mean?” he asked.
“Kenshi...Alex is pregnant. You’re
going to be a father.”
At that, Kenshi’s jaw dropped a bit. Me...a father? he thought. Emotions
filled him as it came to him that there was still more left for him to live for. He had great friends at the Specials Forces
base, he had a woman he loved, and now there will be a child who will one day call him, ‘Daddy.’ Why did I
decide to let myself die and leave all those who care about me? he thought feeling foolish.
A tear fell from one
of his eyes. He had hoped that his blindfold would absorb it so that Sonya didn’t see it. But the tear had made it out
and went down his cheek. Sonya smirked as she saw it and wiped it away.
“Get me...home...” Kenshi finally
said.
“I will,” Sonya promised. She quickly took some bandages from her backpack and dressed Kenshi’s
wounds. Then, she threw him over her shoulders and began making her way back to the palace.
“So,” said
Kenshi as she began walking. “Did you....find Cyrax?”
“Yes,” Sonya replied. “He’s
safe back in Earthrealm. Alex never gave me much detail on what happened, but soon we’ll find out.”
“Yeah...”
Kenshi muttered. Alex came to his mind again. He could wait to hear her sweet voice again, have her in his presence, and to
feel her warms, sweet kiss again. Alex...I’m coming home, he thought.
“Keep talking to me Kenshi,”
Sonya continued. “I want to make sure that you’re still alive.”
“Trust me,” Kenshi replied.
“I’ll make sure of that.”
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