Before (Part 1)

Prologue

The woman stood outside the burning building, tears of fear dripping down her rosy cheeks as she watched the flames rise higher and higher into the night sky. The stars couldn't be seen through the thick smoke, as if it was a dark cloak covering the Japanese earth. She held her hands over her mouth in shock and disbelief, trying her hardest to hold back a sob.

"Ki! Ki, where are you?!" she screamed. But the only reply she recieved was the sound of the roof caving in on the house, her home, with her family still inside. Her heart sank in her chest as she realized that he wouldn't be coming out, she'd never see her husband again, or her daughter, or her son. The woman held her head in a her hands as she cried, falling to her knees on the dew-covered grass of her their front-yard. She'd have to raise the baby she was pregnant with alone as a single mother, a widow. She would be on her own.

"Lisa!" the woman heard someone scream her name. Her head shooting up from her palms, she looked around through the dakrness and saw a man approaching her, her husband, covered in soot and ash, carrying something small in his arms. Her husband, Oroku Saki, was carrying a baby in his arms as he ran to her. But there were two children in the fire, where was the other?

"Ki, where's Shang?" she asked quickly as Oroku Saki handed her Karai, his daughter from an earlier marriage he had. Karai was their oldest child, who was almost two years old, then Shang, who was born six months earlier, followed by the new baby still inside the mother's stomach. They had decided to have the baby's gender be a secret, then find out when he or she was born.

"He's still inside, I'm going back in for him." the man said. Lisa held Karai on her hip with one hand and reached for Saki's arm with the other, but her fingers barely skimmed the skin on his forearm as he made a run in the direction of the burning building.

"Saki!" she screamed. Just before he would've ran back inside, the doorway was suddenly blocked as a huge chunk of lumber landed in front of the wooden door. Saki grabbed the wood, but reeled back in pain as the skin on his hands began to blister because of the intense heat. Pieces of burning debris and charred splinters shot through the air, landing a few feet away from Lisa's feet. She held Karai close as Saki watched the building finally completely crash in on itself, nothing left.  There was a deep pain in his eyes, a horrible disturbing pain. His son, his baby, his child, was gone.

Tears began to flood down Lisa's cheeks as she realized that her son hadn't survived. No one could've survived a flaming roof crashing in on them, especially an infant. Oroku Saki was silent for a moment, his back facing his wife, as he shut his eyes. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides, the pain from the new sores only fueling his anger. This was Hamato Yoshi's fault. If he hadn't gotten in the way of his relationship with Teng Shen, then he wouldn't be standing here, watching his home burn to the ground with his only son inside.

"Karai..." he said, his voice deep and emotionless. Lisa walked up to him, handing him the baby girl. He held the child in his arms, looking into her eyes. He could see the fear and the confusion, her fright as the reflection of the flames danced across her small eyes. Holding her close, he turned back to the fire that had engulfed his house. "I will avenge you, Shang. Just like Teng Shen."

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Five years passed and Oroku Saki's hatred for Hamato Yoshi grew. There wasn't a single day that would pass where he wouldn't think of his late son, or his late wife. As more days went by, he watched his two daughters grow. Lisa had given birth a month after the fire to a beautiful baby girl that they had named Madeline, after Lisa's great-grandmother. Just like they had named Shang after Saki's great-grandfather.

Madeline had her mother's long flowing golden hair and her father's passion for martial arts and jujitsu. He knew that she would be an amazing soldier someday, the same went for Karai. The two would be his most important generals in his army he planned on creating, the two kunoichis, with Lisa ruling beside him.

But, one day, three months before Madi's fifth birthday, Oroku Saki's eyes were opened for the first time in years. He realized what a monster he had started to become, how he would force his daughters to train every day, the way he had locked himself in his office and hardly ever talked to his wife anymore. He was turning into something that Teng Shen would've been ashamed of.

Quickly grabbing a piece of paper and a pen, he sat down at his desk and began to write a letter. He sat there for hours, trying to think of the right words to say, but could never come up with them. He would write and re-write sentences, crumple up pieces of parchment and throw them away, then start all over. Writing was never something he enjoyed, but when it was something as important as this, he knew he needed to just get over his discomfort and do it already.

So, sighing deeply, he pressed the tip of his ball-point pen against the paper, knowing that this was it. He knew that the evil inside himself was consuming his soul, turning him into a monster. A few minutes later, he had finished the letter and placed it in an envelope, sealing it, and addressing it to Madeline.

But before leaving the room, he opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a small blue baby blanket. Running out of his office, the letter in his hand, he quickly sprinted to Lisa's bedroom and opened the door. The woman was sitting on her bed, looking at some old photos in her hands, when she glanced up at him and saw the serious expression on his face. It had been a long time since she had seen him, so this was quite a shock to her.

"Ki, what's wrong? Is everything alright?" she quickly asked him, placing the photos in a small pile on the bed-spread and getting to her feet. Saki took her hand and placed the letter in her left palm, the blanket in her right, then gazed into her eyes. Her shining, beautiful blue eyes.

"I need you to give these to Madi when she's older, when she's ready to know about Shang." he told her. Lisa's eyes widened, but she nodded in understanding as she took the two objects. "Keep them safe and hide them. If I ever ask to have them back, don't give them to me. No matter what I say or do, guard these two items with your life." Saki turned around to leave the room, getting to the doorway, when he turned back around. "I'll be giving you another item to give her in a few months. I figured I should let you know."

And with that, he left the room.