Haunted by demons [for Sonya]

[get_over_here]

One of the things Scorpion had found strange about being human again was his ability to dream. He had not dreamed since his death, and had no memories of dreams. He had been having many dreams since arriving on the island and becoming human again. But yet, he couldn't remember them. He had slowly decided that this was normal. Humans did not normally remember their dreams. His suspicion was that all of his human memories were still inside his head,, and that when he was asleep, they were threatening to re-emerge. He had spent many mornings puzzling over what he had just been dreaming about.

On this particular night, Scorpion was dreaming.

He was running. He was back on Earth, and he had to catch Sub-Zero before he could murder his clan, his wife, and his son. Rain poured from the dark clouds overhead. He was alive again and thought he could stop their deaths. Scorpion spotted his enemy far off in the distance. The figure hopped fences, climbed up walls, and dashed across rooftops, and Scorpion struggled to keep up with the incredible pace.

Fear drove him. Scorpion hardly ever experienced fear, but it was there now. He could not fail again. He MUST STOP this from happening, no matter what! In a sudden lightning flash, he saw Raiden standing ahead of him. Raiden commanded him to stop and told him the Elder Gods would not allow him to alter fate. Intensely defiant, Scorpion hurled a spear at Raiden. Raiden dodged the spear, and Scorpion had to jump and roll as Raiden sent a bolt of lightning toward him.

Scorpion kept moving. He didn't care what it took. He would defy the Elder Gods if it meant saving the ones he cared about. Then he saw....

....his home! Scorpion could remember his home! Sub-Zero was there and almost inside where his family slept.

Hanzo shouted at the top of his lungs, "NO!!!"

Sub-Zero broke the window out with one hit of his fist and slipped inside. Scorpion teleported inside with a flash of flame. But, he watched the scene through a wall of ice that Sub-Zero had created. He saw his wife and his son vaguely through the ice. Hanzo shouted to them. They turned, and he saw Elizabeth standing there with Weatherby. Sub-Zero had been replaced by Shang Tsung who yelled out, "Your souls are mine!"

Scorpion ripped off his mask, and blew hellfire against Sub-Zero's ice melting it. But it was too late, Weatherby had been replaced by Hanzo's dead son who lay bleeding face-down on the ground. Hanzo felt powerless and knelt by his son's corpse in horror. He remembered the other one who he loved, and he turned and saw....Sonya. Sonya?

Shang Tsung was going to kill her, but Sonya fought back. He rose to help her, but felt Raiden's hand on his shoulder, preventing him from rising. Raiden said that Hanzo was dead, and could not help. Sonya fought bravely, but Shang Tsung caught her with a lucky blow and he watched helplessly as the sorcerer brutalized her. It was horrifying. He had feelings for Sonya now, and was watching her body become unrecognizable, just before Shang Tsung claimed her soul.

After waking up, Scorpion raced out of his hut. He was dressed in his yellow uniform, since he didn't yet have other clothes to sleep in. He had to see Sonya. Now. He had to know Sonya was alright, and that he had just had a dream. Or was this the dream? The island could not be real. The island made no sense. The dream...seemed real. He felt the ground under his feet blazing by him, but he distrusted his senses, especially his sense of reality.

Once within sight of Sonya's hut, he slowed and crept with stealth towards the door. Scorpion wanted Sonya to be alright. Perhaps he could just see everything was okay, and slip back to his hut and figure out what had just happened. He slowly opened the door and took a few steps in. Sonya was fine.

He let out a breath of relief.

Comments

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

"See, you do have a purpose on the island-to keep me from thinking I'm even more insane than I already am."


"Actually, I appeared here just after I was tossed back into my cell, the day kahn ordered me to be publicly flogged. Not especially looking forward to having to go back to that, or shang tsung or Kahn.." She laughed, somewhat bitterly. "You don't know self control until you've had to listen to your enemy gloat and you unable to do anything save block it out."

And even that was a struggle, but retaliating would give them the satisfaction of her reacting.

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

Scorpion thought for a moment and tried to place himself in Sonya's position. He then shook his head.

"I don't know how I would have handled that. I do know that I would make them suffer for what they did. Shao Khan is powerful, but not a God."

After a pause, he added, "You will have the satisfaction of spoiling his plans on more than one occasion. I am not sure what will happen in the aftermath of the invasion."

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

"Actually, it's more Shang Tsung that I want to make suffer. Kahn needs to be destroyed, don't get me wrong, but with Shang Tsung..." She intertwined her fingers. "It's personal."

She smirked. "But I'd love to see their expressions when they know they've failed."

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

Scorpion nodded with understanding.

"Shao Khan does not accept failure, and is not above taking out his frustrations on his minions. With any luck, Shang Tsung will suffer greatly."

"I understand your anger, Sonya. I really do."

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

Sonya always wore her fiance's dog tags around her neck, along with the key to her steamer trunk.

She thought a moment before speaking, pulling the chain off of her neck. "Actually, Scorpion, we may understand eachother more than you know."

She stood up and headed over to the chest, unlocking the lid and pulling out a book, bound in old leather and returned to her seat.

"Remember I told you of the island sending items from home." She opened it to the near of the book. "This is a record of all the mortal kombat tournaments, from the 10th century onward. A red line means the fighter was killed, black means defeated but spared."

She handed the book to him to read. The date on the top of the page showed that the tournament was held in 1947. "One of the fighters was my maternal grandfather-surname Malecki." His name had a red line through it.

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

Scorpion was intrigued by the book Sonya had produced. He took it onto his lap and looked at the page she had opened. Indeed, there was Sonya's maternal grandfather's name. He had lost the match and his life. But, that was the risk of entering the Tournament.

"I am not surprised that you are from a family of fighters, Sonya. You have a real talent for combat." Scorpion greatly respected Sonya for her fighting abilities, and her courage to fully develop them. Other women might have allowed their talent to go to waste.

He started flipping pages towards more recent Tournaments. He was something he wanted to see.

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

She stared at him. Was he serious?

She huffed out a breath. "Let me put this into context: he was killed in Mortal Kombat, you know perfectly well what happens to a fighter when they're killed in Mortal Kombat. At the time my mother was seven years old and the middle child with a brother born soon after my granddad came back from the war."

As far as Sonya was concerned, she didn't really care about her grandfather being a warrior, there were other factors more important.

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

Sonya's gaze confused Scorpion for a moment. When she spelled it out for him, it dawned upon him what she meant. Shang Tsung had stolen her grandfather's soul. He had known the sorcerer's proclivity for stealing souls for his own power, but had not really dwelled much on it. His Netherrealm form was immortal, and he was convinced he had never been in such peril. As for the others.....he hadn't cared. He couldn't have.

But now, as a human, it was a bit shocking of how his perception could now be quite different.

"I...yes, of course. I had always been neutral towards Shang Tsung. I did not have the capacity to care about what he was doing to his victims."

He stopped there. It was like waking up. It was disturbing that he had not seen it this way before.

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

"You didn't have the capacity to care about your memories either."

"If you look back to the previous tournament, you'll see the same name-only this time it's my great uncle." She pulled the robe tighter around herself. "Maybe it goes further, and a surviving sibling married and changed their name, I don't know. I just know that for the past...hundred years or so, some of my family haven't been able to rest in peace."

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

He flipped the pages and looked through the names, and eventually found Sonya's great-uncle.

"I can see now why it is personal between you and Shang Tsung. You deserve vengeance."

Scorpion would surely help Sonya do it if he were to arrive. And, possibly back home, assuming he remembered this place.

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

"It gets better." She said, sarcastically. "When I was captured. He said that the reason for it was because an Earth woman of my skills was too rare to be killed in Outworld. Spent my imprisonment trying to 'convince' me to join Outworld and marry him."

Well, that was the cliff notes version. Sonya wasn't sure she had the mental energy to give details.

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

He had known of her imprisonment and had not really cared at all. It had nothing to do with his one purpose, so he hadn't really spared Sonya much thought except as a potential adversary in the Tournament.

"He is mad with power, isn't he?"

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

Sonya rested her chin in her palm a bit.

"Potentially, yes he is. Right now, I'd just call him cocky and paranoid." She smirked. "And if he were to ever show up here, it'd be a very small consolation that he'd be powerless."

Sonya tried very hard to not sound like she was gloating, and she only partially succeeding.

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

Scorpion had continued flipping pages and found what he was looking for. He read the entry, and saw with extreme pleasure the red line through the name Sub-Zero.

Scorpion stated, "There are some consolations worth savoring."

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

She looked at the Sub-Zero's name.

"On thing I don't get." Sonya pulled her hand away from her face and entwined her fingers together. "Why didn't you pass on after you finished him off? That was the whole point of you returning wasn't it, so why remain after having revenge?"

Vengeance was nothing new to Sonya. Lord knew she could never face Shang Tsung again without the strong urge to tear his face off, but she wasn't so sure she could make the same decision as Scorpion-she really hoped not anyway.

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

"Sonya, Sub-Zero was good, but do you really think he alone took out the entire Shirai Ryu? There are more that I need to track down."

Truthfully, that was one of the reasons he had been mostly neutral towards the massive destruction and enslavement of Earthrealm. His feelings were changing on that subject now that he was human.

"I don't spend much time thinking about 'passing on.' Not until I am certain that every last one of them has paid."

Preferrably with their lives. Painfully.

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

"Not unless they've some how mastered cloning. But from what I've read, there are so many, may as well have been cloned."

She rubbed her forehead. "I don't care what you say, but I honestly think that you deserve to have some peace here."

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

Scorpion was taken by surprise by Sonya's comment.

"I'm not so sure what I deserve, Sonya. I'm well aware of some of the choices I have made."

He tilted his head slightly and asked, "What makes you think so?"

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

"The road to hell's paved with good intentions-if I may use the saying." She turned to face him. "I've known some real bastards in my career, but I will say that at least you had genuine reasons for being in pain." She shrugged. "You're not completely the same man you were, so I'd say you've suffered enough becoming a Hell Spawn-ergo, here you deserve some peace."

"And believe me, that's no small thing coming from me."

She looked out the window of her hut. "It's about an hour or so past midnight. If you want some more sleep, it'll take awhile to head back to your hut."

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

Scorpion blinked. It was fascinating that he had told her some very damning things about him, but yet she hadn't condemned him. In fact, she saw humanity and hope.

"Sometimes, Sonya, I think you give me more credit than I deserve. But, thank you. I will return to my hut now, and let you get to sleep."

Perhaps she was right. She was more human, after all. Perhaps he should put some value in her judgment. It was a pleasing thought, at any rate.

"Goodnight."

Then he left and took his time walking back to his hut while looking at the stars and moon above.