See Part One for disclaimers and author's notes.
Chapter Seven
-- Nightmare's End --
Morning came on little cat feet. Well, actually, on dainty, punctuating points attached to Dammit who did his usual "Good Morning" routine of thumping down onto Micah's chest from height. He was a little put out when it did not get the usual response. The usual response was a satisfying "oof!" from his human and getting dropped onto the floor. This time his paws had hardly touched down when he went sailing across the room and out the door into the living room where he hit the floor on all four taloned feet and skidded. Polished wood and traction are sometimes mutually exclusive intersections of reality. Dammit thudded into the back of the couch.
He lay there for a moment, more stunned mentally than physically. His person had followed through with a threat! How rude! Dammit ignored the massive amount of fluent-in-several-dozen-languages cussing that issued from the bedroom.
A tousled mop of brown hair appeared over the back of the couch to blink sleepily at the bedroom doorway. Micah appeared. The bruising on his chest had practically disappeared. "Why am I sleeping in the guest bedroom?" he asked. He looked tired. Very tired. But he wasn't wavering this morning.
"Be -- cause we couldn't lug you upstairs?"
"Because neither of us knew your sleeping quarters were up there instead of down here. And you're heavy," Siobahn added her two cents as she came out of the kitchen area with a steaming cup of coffee. She offered it to him. He took it gratefully. Normally he didn't drink coffee on an empty stomach, but this morning was so out of normal for him, he decided it was worth it.
He sat down on the unoccupied couch and regarded the two ladies soberly. He was sorting out -- memories? He remembered dieing on a battlefield during World War II. He had been 17 at the time. He remembered waking up on the frozen battlefield, terrified of being alive after having so obviously died. It was then he had become someone else, buried the memories of who he was and became -- someone else. On top of that, he seemed to have some memories that belonged to someone else, someone named Siro. And those memories were disconcerting. Another death, a real death. He sat down.
He looked up at Siobahn, gazing into her wide dark eyes. Siobahn was still the woman-child he had rescued. He definitely needed to find her a more suitable place to live, someone to train her, someone to take care of her. He had a feeling that the troubles in his new memories were on the move. There was no place for a fledgling talent in his life now. He surmised he would have little or no time to deal with threats like the Talent Scouts for some time to come.
He focussed on Terry. Given what little he knew about her, he was surprised she was still here. He watched appreciatively as she stretched and woke up fully. She was small, compact and very self-assured. Given her looks, which were good but not spectacular, and her business, the self-assurance obviously helped. Even rumpled from sleep with no make-up, she was easy on the eyes. She met his gaze and colored self-consciously.
"'Scuse me." She scurried off to the bathroom to finish waking up and make herself more presentable. She looked at herself in the mirror and made a face. Then she washed it.
Siobahn came over and curled herself onto the end of the couch Micah occupied. "What now?"
"I'm not sure. I'm -- connected to -- someone. And I think he is the key to finding Terry's missing technition. I think we wait."
"It's not a game I'm good at."
"Nor am I. But a long life teaches you to appreciate things like patience. And I believe this is one of those times. I need to find you a safe teacher, anyway."
Something like a delicate snort sounded from the lady.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Siro awoke with a sense of disorientation, like trying to accept two sets of information simultaneously. He shook his head to clear it. The second set of data seemed to recede to the background. If they managed to free Rayden, he would have to ask the god what was happening to him.
He got up, passing Taja on his way to the bathroom. He had to admit, this was far more comfortable than either outhouses or night soil containers. Having been shown the fawcet to the sink, he tried the tap in the tub. Someone had left the shower head on. He jumped back, his head soaked.
Lia, hearing the commotion, tapped at the door and asked if he was all right. He opened the door with one hand while applying a towel to his hair with the other. The water was still running behind him. Lia grinned and chuckled. "Somebody forgot to turn the water down." She slipped past him and switched the water flow into the tub so she could turn it off without getting too wet.
"Indoor waterfalls?"
"Shower." She could tell she wasn't getting through. "It's for washing. Bathing?"
He considered this for a moment and nodded. He had occasionally bathed in a pool fed by a waterfall. The rushing water felt good and helped get the dirt and soap off. It made sense. As did one you could control. He let his eyes wander down Lia's slip clad body.
She followed his gaze, her mouth dropped open as she realized her state of undress and she bolted back into El's bedroom. "Shoot!" she muttered under her breath. Alone, in a bathroom, with an incredible, if damaged, male who was looking me me over like that and what do I do? Run. Of course. Aaahhh! Lia wondered what she was using for brains as she watched El unfold from her long vigil. The pure grace of her movement was breathtaking. Lia smiled when El noticed her watching. She blinked and moved into the bathing area. A few moments later, Lia heard the sound of a body entering water. She was tempted to go look. She shook her head resolutely and rummaged around for something she could change into.
Breakfast passed in silence. The plan was laid. They were ready. Lia took off in her own car, heading for her apartment for some clothing that was more "her" than the ones she had found. Not that she didn't like silk. It was just that it seemed to cling more than her normal clothing. And it made her so very aware of Siro -- and what was more troubling, it made her aware of Taja and El in ways she wasn't certain she wanted to explore. And it made her so very aware of herself and all those unprofessional reactions she was having.
Siro couldn't make sense of Lia's reactions. He could tell she was attracted to him. Yet something held her back. Perhaps she was married, he considered philosophically. Perhaps she believed he and Taja -- no. It was so obvious that he and Taja were companions, friends. He watched Taja as she helped clear away the breakfast debris. She was still wearing the silk tunic and flowing trousers. They moved subtly as she did, flowing, carressing, revealing and concealing her slender figure. He discovered his own wardrobe becoming uncomfortably tight. He dragged his gaze away from the redhead.
And it came to rest on El. Who was gazing back at him with those unfathomable eyes. She was dressed for work. Leather trousers, leather vest over a form fitting shirt of some unfamilar fabric. She was more angular than Taja, yet she was impressively endowed as well. Her consideration of him, as cool and detached as it seemed, was not cooling his responses.
"Let's move," she said quietly. They left the apartment to rescue Rayden.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Morning. Sunlight. Where? Rayden could feel the sunrise, but could not find it. Shao Kahn's throne room where there was permanent twilight, just as it was in the rest of OutWorld. Forever in semi-darkness.
He stalked tensely back from his encounter with Shao Kahn. He wanted a bath. He wanted to wash away his memories. He wanted oblivion. He wanted to cut loose the raw rage trapped just below the surface of the game he played with the Emperor.
The saffron haired woman saw the glitter of madness in Rayden's eyes as he entered the rooms they shared. His eyes flickered to her. She saw the calculation in them. Now, when she had news that would help them both, he was beginning to think like his enemy. She stood calmly as he stalked across the few paces between them. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. No reaction. He pushed her away with a rough laugh.
"He's right. There is no woman in you." He turned away from her to be stopped by a hand like a steel band on his arm. He froze. No. What had he done? The one person who had shown him anything but scorn in this realm and he had -- His face was like wood as she turned him back.
He would not meet her gaze. Not this time. All the self loathing, all the pain, all the soul deep hatred he had swallowed for so long was rising up, consuming him. He felt her fingers under his chin, turning his head, pulling his face to meet hers. He was surprised when her lips touched his, feather light, warm, inviting, demanding. His lips parted under hers, in surprise, in invitation.
Several minutes later, they surfaced for air. She blinked at him. She took his hand and drew him after her into the room he had never entered. She drew him past the silk draperies to the huge square bed. It stood well off the floor, the supports of the matress seeming carved from some warm stone he had never seen. She shed her layers, a puddle of rainbow silk on the cold stone floor. She flowed around him. Hot, cool, exquisite. Time flowed around them, over them, never touching them. She gave him joy and shared it with him.
He awoke curled around her. Her saffron curls lay in wild disarray across the pillows, tickling his nose. He tightened his arm around her. Her eyes opened and she shifted so she could look at him. He saw approval in her eyes. How long since he had seen that? How long?
"If you could leave, where would you go?" she asked softly.
"What?"
But she saw the answer in his eyes. "Sunlight. It has been hundreds of years since I have seen sunlight. I have found a path. Together we may be able to use it."
"No."
She could hear the need, the desire, the pain throbbing in his voice in that one word. "I can make it bearable. I can shield you until you are needed. But I cannot do this alone."
It took time. Finally, he agreed. He could at least find out if EarthRealm survived or was now a part of OutWorld. Delikra took him to a place she called the joining of Realms. Even without his powers, he could feel the separation from OutWorld, could feel the division that kept OutWorld on one side and the place that they were going on the other. Delikra stepped through. He saw the ripple of power and stood as though rooted to the ground. All that he had been lay just beyond that invisible veil. All that he could be. He could not move.
She turned to face him. She could see the war within. She reached back and caught his hand. Slowly, with great patience and deliberation, she pulled him toward her. He resisted, but he did not pull away. She could feel tremors running through him. She could feel his fears as though they were tangible, physical things. She could feel the indominitable will and strength of purpose behind the fear. Suddenly, she could sense another presence. Shao Kahn.
She pulled Rayden to her with frightening strength. Power poured through him like a tidal wave, sweeping everything before it. Shao Kahn arrived with a roar. He stomped through the field separating the place Delikra and Rayden stood from OutWorld. He bellowed his anger, drawing his sword. She stood between the two men, the two gods.
"No." No yell. No scream. Not even a raised voice. Yet both Shao Kahn and Rayden focussed on her. "You know me. You know what and who I am," she told Shao Kahn. "Choose."
The sword screamed through the air. Rayden froze. The sword stopped, the point mere millimeters away from her neck. Shao Kahn growled.
"Take him. He is no longer of interest." Shao Kahn spit at Rayden's feet, turned and stalked back into his Realm.
Rayden stood as though made of stone. There was no relief, no sudden release. She looked at him, turned him away from where OutWorld beckoned and toward the infinite darkness around them.
"Open a gate. Now." Silence. "Rayden. We have a bargain. Open the gate."
With an economy of gesture sometimes foreign to him, Rayden focussed his powers and opened a whirling vortex. It sucked them in and spit them out in a quiet green glade. He stared at it, dry eyed. EarthRealm. It was not a part of OutWorld. He did not understand why. Shao Kahn had been here, had pillaged and ravaged, yet the sun shone on, the grass was green. He seemed to be seeing things from the end of a very long tunnel.
She turned him so that he faced her. She fastened her gaze on his withdrawn one. She crooned words in a tongue older than mankind, words that were here and now, but also in other times and places. Memory receded. When she was finished, he stood before her, gray haired, clear eyed, a little confused. He saw a dark haired woman with eyes like a stormy sky clad in soft fabrics.
"I'm sorry," he said with a shake of his head. "What did you say?"
"This is indeed the beautiful place you told me it was. Thank you for guiding me here. I believe I promised you this." She placed a small leather pouch in his hand. He could hear coins clink inside. He thanked her with a grin and a nod.
"Then I'll leave you here." He turned and started to walk away. He turned back, his face concerned. "You're sure you'll be all right? I can wait and take you back, if you like."
"No. I can find my way, thank you. You said you were headed west when we met. Towards Samarkand. Perhaps we'll meet there."
"Perhaps, lady. Perhaps," he agreed and went. It was a long walk to Samarkand.
Email the author!
[email protected]
Main MK/MKC Fanfic Index Index of MKC Fanfic by dragon
Back to Main Library Index
Back to Main Fanfiction Index
Adventures of Sinbad ~~~ Andromeda ~~~ Angel ~~~ Babylon5 ~~~ BeastMaster: The Series ~~~ Beauty & the Beast
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ~~~ Charmed ~~~
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven ~~~ Crusade ~~~
due South ~~~
Farscape
Gundam Wing ~~~ Highlander: The Series ~~~
Miscellaneous Fiction ~~~ Mortal Kombat ~~~ Mortal Kombat: Conquest
Poltergeist the Legacy ~~~
Raven ~~~
(TSAo) Jules Verne ~~~
The Sentinel ~~~ Stargate SG1 ~~~ Star Trek: Voyager
I can't fix it if I don't know it's broken, so if you see anything wrong, please let me know. Thank you and enjoy your stay!