CHAPTER 16: SAREENA

CHAPTER 16: SAREENA?

The woman lounged on the ground and took on a pose, “Have I been missed?” Quan Chi raised his hairless eyebrow and said, “I have moved on to bigger and better things.” “So have I,” she boldly uttered as she stood up.

In her high heeled boots was a pair of sais. Her forearms were covered by long black gloves and her body was tattooed with black and scarred from previous battles. Even her eyes had black tattoos around them, much like General Reiko had.

Quan Chi folded his arms behind him and looked her over as he said, “I see that you have your human form back.” “No thanks to your master!” she shouted only to hear Quan Chi tell her in a ruthless tone, “I have no master now.” “And either do I,” she quipped.

“Walk away,” he told her, “Prepare for the tournament.”

The woman proceeded to strut right past me. Her short black hair had a streak of white in it near her face. As she crossed my path, she uttered, “I hope she’s my first opponent.”

Quan Chi wondered, “Oh?” Then with a smirk he added, “She will be.”

She turned to me, bit one of her nails and with her cold dead eyes said, “I look forward to it.” Then she put her hands behind the tiny skirt she wore and pulled out a hand full of small throwing daggers.

With haste, she turned and threw four of the daggers. Each one landed in the pillars that created the gateway. She then told me, “Go pick them out of the pillars, you’ll need them when the tournament begins.”

She turned around, and quietly said, “See ya.” She walked away down the stone staircase.

Quan Chi was obviously amused, and he told Kano, “Take her to her quarters!” He then boldly replied, “I got no problem taking this little Philly to the bedroom.”

The two of us followed the mysterious woman down the stairs to the rock of the plateau. It was at that point that Kano appeared; the real Kano.

He asked, “So did you get her good did ya boss?” They both laughed in their maniacal way; Twin antagonists that were a thorn in each of my sides.

The real Kano took over as he was told, “Take her to my palace and find her a room and some suitable attire to fight in.”

Later that night, I had to opportunity to meet my opponent for the tournament. We had both been in Shang Tsung’s grand dining hall. A place decorated with paintings, snakes made out of gold and tables made of trees from the living forest.

She and I glanced across from one another. She sat at her table and I sat at my own. The people in front of the two of us had taken up and left the area, leaving the two of us to glair at one another.

After a moment, she finished with her food, and came to me. Instead of going around the large table, she confidently walked across the top of the table and hopped gently to the stone floor.

She uttered, “You and I have the same goal.” I rebutted, “I do not think so.” “You and I,” she said, “Are here to win.” “Win or lose,” I told her, “I am here to free my people.”

The woman questioned, “Then why are you here? Go to Shang Tsung’s prison and free them.” I put down my food as she sat down beside me.

Then I told her, “They would only hunt us down and capture my people again. They need to be stopped.” She questioned again, “So you’re going to kill them.” “Without hesitation,” I replied.

She almost pet my hair and said, “Good girl.” I refused to let her get near me and told her, “Don’t touch me.” The woman pulled her hand away as she informed me, “You do not have to be in a tournament to kill a man.” Without a smile she then added, “When you are a woman.”

“Alright, you’re in my space,” I told her, “Now get back.” “You can assassinate him,” she told me, only to hear me wonder, “How can I kill a man that I haven’t even seen?” I elaborated, “Shang Tsung enslaved my people, and I’m here to kill him.”

She questioned, “Shang Tsung?” Then she politely closed her eyes and smelled the air, “I can smell him.” When she gently opened her eyes again, she told me, “He is here amongst the fighters in disguise.”

I could only tell her, “I don’t know who you are, but you’re creeping me out.”

With a slight gyration and a slow twirl of her arm, she told me, “I am Sareena.” “I can tell,” I retorted, “You are very serine but not beautiful.” She calmly told me, “This body is beautiful.” Then she bit her black nail and said, “You have not seen my other body.”

She elaborated, “You do not see that I am a demon like Shang Tsung.” With the tilt of her head ever so slightly, she told me, “This is not my true form. Shang Tsung does not show his true form either.”

After a glance away from me, she said with a strange quiver, “I can smell where he hides.” When she turned her vacant gaze to me, she added, “We are both here because Quan Chi is using us.”

I almost had a smirk when I said, “Like all men use women?” “No,” she said politely, “He is using us,” and she got closer to say, “To kill Shang Tsung.”

She would pause and look at my face, but her eyes were still dead. Sareena spoke again, “You were standing next to him earlier today.”

She kept her face lose to mine and traced a few inches away from my face as she told me, “Would you give up your face to save your people?” “What?” I screamed with a shriek before I barked, “Get away from me!”

“No,” she said quietly, “Give it to me.” With a whisper, she added, “Your face.”

Instead of flipping out, I went and sat somewhere else. Sareena followed me and sat next to me and explained, “Lord Shinnok took away my human face for my numerous failures.” She whispered and told me, “Beauty and youth means a lot to an ageless demon.”

I harshly told her, “We are opponents, not friends, now get away from me Sareena!” With a whisper she almost put her hand on my thigh and said in a hush tone, “We’re not enemies, we’re friends.”

The words came from my mouth, “Last I recall, Quan Chi told me that we were foes.” Her hand tried to caress my hair again as she told me, “My former master plays us against one another to keep from knowing that he wants us to kill his ally.”

With some expression in her brow, she almost pleaded a statement, “You are to face Kano!” She shook her head and added, “Not me! If I would kill you, I would steal your face.”

Sareena elaborated, “Quan Chi would never play us against each other, and we are what assurance that he becomes the sole emperor of Out World.” With the shake of her head, and an violent tone, she glared across the room and said, “But I won’t let him. No! I will kill him with these black finger nails.”

After that was said, she dragged her nails across my thigh. I threw my chair behind me and stood up in a rage.

She pleaded, “Kano, you fight Kano!” With a hiss she lashed her attention to Kano at the head table and said, “Coward wishes to fight you. I heard him ask Shang Tsung earlier to fight you.” With an intense stare, she continued, “He avoids killing his blonde haired love!” After she turned to me and added, “And denies me your face.”

I looked to Kano and the room full of fighters that looked at us. That was until Sareena told me, “Sit down please.” Her hand took a chair and placed it next to me as she asked, “Will you kill Quan Chi?”

At the head table sat three men, Quan Chi, Shang Tsung and Kano. The two emperors sat on twin thrones of gold, on a table just for them, Kano and others ate below them at a table slightly lower.

With a stare across the room, I told Sareena, “I will kill them both.” She took another posture to look up at me from below and told me, “Then let me help you.”

I questioned her logic, “Why would you help me when we may meet in the tournament?” “Because I want to ensure,” she started to say, “That I never go back to my previous form as a demon.” She looked away and said, “I am not going back to that life.”

“Here,” she said as she reached into her boots. Sareena then pulled out her pair of sais and gave them to me and said, “You will need these to counteract Kano’s butterfly blades.”

I took them both in my hands while I stood there over her. She shook her head and stood up, before she told me, “I need to go somewhere.”

With her sais in hand, I wondered, “Where are you going?” She quietly looked at me and said, “I trust you to kill Quan Chi for me and I will kill the master that had taken my human form.”

After that was said, she walked backward away from me and uttered, “Keep your face clean for me. I will come for it when Lord Shinnok is dead.”

Sareena then disappeared into the crowd of fighters. Some watched her pass by them, or at least watched parts of her body as she passed by them. I sat down in my seat and uttered, “Who are these freaks and why do they always come to me?”

I looked to the left side of me to see one of the fighters dressed in blue garb. His body was pale and he had a huge scar over his right eye. Frost was collecting in his hair and his bare arms were generating a mist, because he was so cold.

With a nasty tone I told him, “You’re cold.” I stood back up and said, “If any of you freaks need me, I’m going to bed.”

In the distance at the head table, I heard Kano, “Get your rest girl. I’ll have something waiting for you when you wake up.” He said that while looking at one of his knives, before he picked his teeth with the blade.