See Part One for Disclaimers
Chapter Three
Rayden, as out of his depth as he could recall being, remained in the woods behind the house and watched the two flying craft. There were arcane symbols on the sides of both. KEI, Inc. (For those in the know, Kimberly Elkins International, Inc. A very powerful and hush-hush sort of organization dedicated to keeping Kim out of trouble, or getting her out once she gets herself in.) It meant nothing to him. He watched as both Kim and Tam entered the landed vehicle and left. Cheri, standing well back of the blades whirling above the body of the craft, waved good bye. In spite of his desire to remain shut off, Rayden could feel a sense of loneliness once the two vehicles were out of sight. He frowned at the lone figure still standing in the yard of the house.
Cheri looked around and located the speck of gray in the woods that was Rayden. She could sense his desire to hide when she spotted him, a desire she also sensed he sat on. He remained where he was as she walked out to join him. She noticed that banks of rain heavy clouds were beginning to roll in over the crest of the mountain. Lord Rayden, huh. Well, she'd seen his power in clothing and moving them, she wondered what was next.
"Hi."
His gaze was disconcerting. Flickers of lightning seemed to be playing in his eyes again, sparking around his fingertips. "She knows about OutWorld," he said quietly.
Something with millions of nasty ice shod feet dashed up and down Cheri's spine. She became wary, although her body language did not betray this. "She plays video games. Apparently there is one called Mortal something-or-other that has a character with the same name."
"A character," he repeated. Two or three million ice-shod feet, Cheri re-evaluated the thing on her spine. "And Shao Kahn? Shang Tsung? These also are characters?" His voice was smooth as silk and twice as deadly.
Cheri's clear green eyes met his own plasma hot ones. "Rayden," she said softly. "I knew nothing of these things until I got dragged into Shao Kahn's throne room. Kim has interests outside of those we share. That's all."
"Alternate reality theory," he repeated the phrase Kim had used and watched Cheri's face carefully. Lightning still played around his finger tips.
Cheri's gaze became withdrawn as she considered his words. OK. Alternate realities were not a problem for her, for reasons Kim and Tam knew nothing about. She knew alternate realities existed. She even suspected that some of the more out on a limb fiction, entertainment on her world stemmed from leakage from relatively closely linked minds in alternate lines of existence. She met his gaze squarely again.
"OK. So, the place where I found you, where Shao Kahn reigns, is an alternate reality." She took a deep breath and released it. Her next words did not surprise her, but they were related to something she had promised herself she was not going to do again. "So, if a person knew how to cross to alternate realities, and apparently those vortex gate thingys can, we could put you back --" Oops, bad phrasing that, she thought as the pyrotechnics exploded around her.
"Rayden!" she yelled over the sound of electricity flying. It took several minutes for a thousand years of anger, self-loathing, resentment and reactions to continued abuse to expend themselves. Cheri waited it out until the lightning died down, the thunder returned to the storm above them and Rayden sank to his knees, panting and shaking.
His head jerked up as she moved toward him. For just a moment, as her shadow blocked the light, he saw -- then he saw her face, the too green eyes in the pale oval and knew he was not back there. He realized he had let fly with enough power to kill and was instantly contrite. He tried to find his voice as she squatted down beside him. She sat down, reached out and pulled him into her arms.
"It's all right," she murmured into his hair. "Really it is. You didn't hurt me."
Their faces were close, closer than they had been except -- Instinctively, he kissed her. Softly, curiously, inquiringly. Her lips parted against his, her tongue running along the soft curve of his lip, teasing, inviting. His arms went around her, pulling them together as their mouths and tongues explored each other. She could feel the muscles in her belly tighten in response, the heat building between them. Her mouth quirked in a smile through the kiss. That wasn't the only thing building.
His hands sought the flesh beneath her shirt, sliding the fabric up, finding the small, firm mounds of her taut breasts. His mouth followed, hot and wet on her already hardened nipples. His hands slid down her silken skin to her waist, to the fastenings of her jeans. He eased them over the curve of her hips and down her long legs. She had dispensed with the usual non-sensible cotton hi-cuts and now lay naked on the grass beneath the trees and his ministrations. Her breathing harshened, he was -- oh, yeah. He definitely was. Her thought processes degenerated to a tangle of sensations that felt wonderful and did nothing for coherent thought.
His tongue slid down over her belly, his hands cupping her buttocks and pulling her mound up to his mouth. His hot tongue slid between her engorged lips and found her clit. She practically exploded at his touch. Soft, hard, sucking, electric, he brought her to the brink, then slid his fingers inside her hot and wet core using them and his tongue to bring her over into a shuddering, convulsive climax that left her breathless.
But not without continued desires. She smiled up at him, her eyes slits of emerald in the shadows beneath trees and clouds. She reached for him, pulling him down on top of her. Their mouths met again and she let hers wander while her hands, with minds of their own, worked on divesting him of his clothing as well. It didn't seem fair that she should be the only one to enjoy the heat of the day and the cool of the grass.
For a moment, it seemed he would resist. A part of him wanted to know what she wanted of him. Another part, a very tiny part, but one that was recovering from his long incarceration, knew that she wanted only what she was immediately asking of him. It overrode the rest of his questions, his fears and let Cheri's hands and mouth and body help with healing of its own.
She rolled him over in the grass, straddled him and sat up to really look at the lean, hard muscled body between her thighs. Like her, he was pale skinned. There were no scars. Well, it would take a lot to scar a god. Though it didn't seem to take much to get his full attention. She slid along the heavy, engorged rod that lay against his belly. Her juices made it an easy slide and certain that he would enter her easily. She lifted up enough to pull his shaft up to her throbbing lips, then slowly, oh so slowly, slid down the length of him until their hairs entwined. His hands gripped the curve of her hip. He gasped as she slowly worked on him with only internal muscular contractions that seemed to demand his full attention.
She watched his eyes as she fondled her own breasts, keeping the nipples hard under her fingers. He pulled her down, his mouth hungry on hers again. His thrusts began, hard, demanding, needing. Soon they were meeting thrust for thrust, building tempo until it seemed as if the world could not hold the rhythms that shook them. He climaxed inside her even as her own orgasm took her. They lay together, glowingly exhausted in the aftermath of an experience that shook both of them, far more than their first encounter had done. That had been need of another kind. A sacrifice. This was -- well, definitely not a sacrifice.
The clouds overhead thinned and dissipated allowing the sun to break through and shine though the leaves of the tall pines around them. It felt good just to lie there with his arms around her. Very good.
~*~*~*~
Cheri awoke feeling a bit chilled. She was alone. Well, not exactly, Rayden was sitting in a tree a few feet away. He'd apparently summoned a blanket to cover his companion. She leaned up on her elbows and frowned at him. He looked down. Still no immediate softening of his face, no ready smile. She cocked her head to one side.
Twinkle out, twinkle in. He was beside her, squatting down to gaze into her face. "You --" he stopped. He couldn't find words. "Did I say thank you?"
"Yeah. You did," she assured him with a grin.
He looked thoughtful. There was so much he couldn't find words for. Words had been beaten out of him in OutWorld. He was still having a very hard time with this. There was so much he needed to know, so much he needed to say, so much -- so much he'd missed while he was captive. Cheri could read all of this in that look. She wished she had a good place for him to begin, but she didn't. She reached for her clothes and started pulling them on. He caught her hand in his, brought it to his lips and dropped the lightest of kisses on the back before releasing her.
She shrugged into her clothes, gathered up the blanket and suggested dinner. "Not as though we've worked up an appetite," she admitted with a laugh. "But I do get puckish around sundown." She would have added more, but suddenly there were two Rayden's in the clearing; one frightened, one angry.
"Who dares?" the angry one demanded. Jeans, Metallica T-shirt, hair pulled back in a pony tail, Reboks™ on his feet, a leather jacket half pulled on. He glared at the other one.
Fear and determination warred within Cheri's rescuee. He straightened and faced -- himself?
Cheri looked struck. "Oh, shit." Short, succinct, to the point.
It got the angry one's attention. His look changed as he recognized her. "You?"
"Oh, yeah." She sighed. "What's the old gag? You're not in trouble unless you get caught --"
"You're in trouble." His sense of humor seemed to be reasserting itself. He looked the other Rayden up and down, a troubled look in his dark eyes. "This is not --"
"No. It's not. I haven't been gobbled up by time traveling black tornadoes this time. I'm not certain exactly what happened. I got grabbed. Couple of black outfitted types. There was this guy with a skull covering half his skull --"
"Shao Kahn," they said as one. Each gave the other a look.
"Yeah. So I've been told. Anyway, I got pitched into a stone labyrinth with this -- Rayden -- and I got us out."
"Hmm." He looked the other up and down. "Fell into that trap, did you?"
Oh, the agony in the other's face as he nodded silently. The names Shao Kahn hadn't called him, he'd called himself.
"Well, you can't stay here." He ignored the panic in the others eyes and addressed himself to Cheri. "You're disrupting the power flows of this Realm. He has to go."
It was simple, basic. What the hell was she going to do? "Right now?"
"Yes."
"Rayden -- Lord Rayden -- Oh, goddess, is this ever tangled."
"Which goddess?" the denimed one inquired.
"The Goddess. Don't ask. Don't go there. I have enough problems at the moment. You're asking for -- the impossible."
"No. Just the reasonable. You brought him here. You put him back."
"No!" It was a hoarse cry yanked from the depths of despair. The gray robes twinkled out.
"Oh, thanks. You had to say that? You had to come bullying? Go! I'll deal with it."
"You'd best do so. Now."
"Go!"
Before the anger in those green eyes, even this Rayden knew that it was best to bow to her will. He left as he had come, swiftly and silently. But he would be watching.
Cheri walked back to the house. Yep. She could feel him, if she let herself do so. In the barn, far back in a corner, away from the horses, away from everything, pulled in on himself. He was cracking as he had not while still in OutWorld. There, his pride had held him together in the face of everything. Here, with the threat of a return to OutWorld, there was nothing to hold on to. Nothing.
Cheri looked into that pit of despair and sighed. She walked into the stall and knelt beside him. "I'm not sending you back." Nothing. "Rayden. You are not going back to OutWorld."
He shifted slightly, then looked at her, his eyes wide and black, not a shred of the sparkling plasma look to be seen. "He said --"
"He said you had to leave. He didn't specify where. I -- I have access to -- Well, let's just say this isn't the only level of reality I can reach. Trust me?"
"Do I have a choice?" His voice was dull. He had lost hope. How could he know that a new world was about to open for him.
Cheri led him back inside her home, fed him, shoved him into the shower, in spite of the fact that he really wasn't particularly dirty. Hot water tended to have a calming effect on people, even godly people. Cheri always felt better after a hot shower -- bath -- soak in the Jacuzzi. She went to get towels and returned to find a tropical storm in her bathroom. She left the towels outside the door and went in.
"'Scuse me." Rayden jumped, his eyes snapped open. Plasma. OK. He looked panicked. "It's OK. It's just me. Cheri. The girl from the mine, the forest -- Rescues 'R' Us?" That got a faint smile and he relaxed -- a little. "Scrub your back?" That got a rueful smile and a nod. Cheri shed her clothes for the second time that day and joined him under the water.
"One question. Do you vacuum it all up when you're through?"
"What?"
She pulled back the shower curtain. "You made a mess."
He laughed. "Yes, I did. And I'll clean it up. I promise." A part of his mind was looking at him very peculiarly, the rest was just glad she was there and didn't seem to be disappointed, disapproving, angry or any number of other things she could have been. But then, she didn't know him very well, yet. What an empty hole opened up at that thought, enough to swallow him whole except for a pair of slender, pale skinned arms that suddenly circled him and held him. They stood under the water for a very long time.
Cheri put the thunder god to bed and went rummaging through her storage room. Somewhere, in one of the boxes, trunks, bins, crates, she had stowed the item for which she sought. It wasn't very large or imposing looking, but it could open doorways into time and alternate dimensions, so she had packed it away safely.
Two hours later, she was beginning to think that (1) there was way too much stuff in her storage room, (2) putting things "someplace safe" was not the greatest idea anyone had ever had, and (3) it was time to unload some of this stuff. She sat down on a crate, looked down at the faded delivery label. Oh, yeah. This was the crate Lamont had shown up in. She hoped he was doing well. Dr. Robinson and Miss Scott had taken quite a shine to him.
"OK. If I was a portal control, where would I be? At Time Base, of course. However, that doesn't help -- oh!" she hopped down off the crate and dove into a pile of boxes. Of course. All she had to do was find the boxes she was holding for Tal Fenchurch, and that would -- yep. Here they were -- and there it was! She pulled the small, dull gray metal box out of the packing in which she'd nested it some time ago. Two dials and an activation button. So simple. So dangerous. She set the dials at zero and activated the device. A couple of feet away from her, a slight shimmer in the air indicated the presence of a portal. Why they were oblong and door sized, she had never figured out, but they were.
She turned it off, closed the box, replaced the stuff she'd moved and turned the light out. She closed the vault like door behind her and went to bed.
~*~*~*~
Tweet -tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet. Trillllllllll! Tweet! Phweet!
Cheri considered an adequate amount of C-4 distributed among the finches and other tweety birds outside her window. Didn't they know she'd just gotten to bed? Didn't they know she was tired? Didn't they know she was about to set out on yet another hair-brained scheme to save the world?
No.
She snorted a laugh and pulled her head out from under the pillow. OK. It was time to get up. She slid out from under the covers, her feet sliding into her fur lined house shoes (quarry tile is beautiful, but chilly on the feet!) and pulled on a well worn plush robe. She went to look in on Rayden. The room was empty. Oh, great. She made a swift circuit of the house and determined that he wasn't in it. She cussed under her breath in several different languages.
Sarcastic applause. She whirled to face -- Rayden. Rayden-now. She had to admit, he looked good. Not much older than his 1000 year younger self, and younger than the Rayden she'd rescued. "So, do you have a clue?" she asked sweetly.
He pointed to the front door. It was still locked, but Rayden didn't need doors, per se. She went out. He was standing on the curve of grass between the gravel drive way and the corral. There was a nasty looking, whirling, thingy between him and the corral perimeter. Rayden was just standing there, his robes whipping in the suction, staring at the vortex. Cheri padded over until she was next to him.
"I thought you said you weren't going back."
"I have to," he responded dully. Dead monotone. He was surprised when she grabbed his arm, spun him around to face her and backhanded him across the face, all in one smooth movement. The shock showed in his face as he tried to back away from her.
"Do I have your attention?" she asked sweetly. His head jerked up and down in a nod. Oh, hell. "Good. That leads to OutWorld?" Another jerky nod. "No."
"No?" he echoed.
"No. Oh, I will go back. But not yet. Not until I'm ready. Close it."
He did, with a gesture. He didn't even have to look at it. Several frozen great arctic owls took flight in Cheri's stomach, but she didn't let it show. So much power, and so easily bent to a stronger will -- for now. OK, she would be that stronger will. Until she could find the way to put the shattered psyche back together in a workable whole.
"Now, I'd like to get some breakfast before we go. Would you like some?"
He started to nod. "Yes. Please."
This was gonna take a while.
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