Mortal Kombat: The Phoenix Verison

Chapter 19: Make it Rain

In the jungle of Outworld, the trees shielded most from the beating sun. Vegetation was growing wildly, with vines and roots of the trees strewn across the jungle floor, waiting for anyone to trip over them and land face first into the moist dirt.

Despite being covered from the sun, it was a humid day and that meant the bugs came out.

"Do you see the tent?" Ember asked, swatting flies from her face.

"There, we're not that far now. Try to keep quiet; we don't know who's out here." Hanzo said, "Be careful where you step." He added.

The advice came too late. From behind he heard a string of curses and a thud. The ninja stopped. "...Did you trip?" He asked over his shoulder.

"...No..."

"It sounded like you-"

"Don't look!" With that he kept his eyes on the tree in front of him. A sigh escaping him.

She sounded like she was struggling. "Ember there's no shame in admitting you tripped." He found himself rolling his eyes as she ignored him but grunted like she was stuck on something. "Did you get your foot stuck on a vine?"

"No..." she repeated.

He sighed again. "You're not very truthful, are you?" She huffed and then the scent of something burning filled his nose.

The corner of his mouth turned up in a little grin, despite himself, when she finally came up beside him.

"I'm good, let's go." When she noticed him looking at her, slightly amused and unconvinced, she crossed her arms. "What? I was just making sure no one was following us."

His eyes told her he wasn't convinced. "Of course you were." She muttered something under her breath and treaded on to the Kahn's tent, Hanzo behind her.

Upon reaching the royal tent, Hanzo checked the perimeter while Ember peered in to see what was happening.

Her mouth nearly dropped to the floor.

The view was slightly obstructed, but unfortunately not blocked enough to prevent her from seeing what was taking place.

She saw a woman dressed in pink with black hair cut short and hands bound behind her back. A pink mask had been recklessly tossed to the dirt beside her revealing the jagged teeth of a Tarkatan. Ember remembered her as Mileena, the clone of Kitana.

Ember had been told of the civil war in Outworld, how Mileena had survived both Shao Kahn and Kitana and believed that she was the true Kahn. It was weird seeing her after all these years-it made her think of Kitana and that left a funny feeling in her head that she didn't like.

The other person was the bug woman that she had briefly seen the night Johnny was taken. This confused her, as Cassie, Takeda and the others didn't attack the bug lady. That night was blurry and maybe no one had thought to tell them that the bug was with Quan Chi and Shinnok, or maybe Shinnok's power had really messed with Ember's mind and she had been seeing things that hadn't happened.

The bug woman had knelt down to Mileena, hard exoskeleton fingers grabbing the clone by the jaw before smashing their lips together.

This wasn't what horrified Ember, although seeing a giant bug woman did freak her out.

What horrified her was that Mileena was struggling against the woman, each shake of her head dropping several flesh-eating bugs to the ground.

The bug stood up and released Mileena's face. Screaming as her face was being eaten away, Mileena violently convulsed as she fell to the ground. The skin was devoured at an alarming speed.