Why did pain always come with silence? Silence to reinforce it, silence that made it resonate throughout his body, silence that made his mind dwell on nothing but that pain. The darkness surrounding him did nothing but enhance both the silence and the pain. He wished he could push the pain away into the darkness, banish the tormenting silence, and lock it away somewhere where it couldn't effect him anymore. But no, he was the one who was locked away, in a cage hung precariously over what seemed like a never-ending pit. Of course, he was just guessing about the pit, he couldn't see much from what little light was cast in from the doorway to this floorless room. The only two things that were real right now was the cold metal of the cage against his cheek and the pain he felt. He made a guess that on top of all the bruises and cuts he had that two of his ribs were cracked if not broken, which amounted to the worst of his physical pain.

Yes, that's it Rayden. He thought to himself weakly, think about something other than the silence.

It had been nearly three days since he had been thrown in this cage, or at least he supposed it had been three days, he couldn't be really sure. Hell it could have only been three minutes for all he knew. In a world of eternal night it was kind of hard to get a good judge of how time passed. He had first tired to contact the Elder Gods, but had failed time and time again. Even with his now mortal and very battered body he should have been able to reach them through meditation, but after several attempts that lasted for hours on end he gave up in an exhausted heap. Obviously his brother had covered all the bases in his capture and had figured out some way to block him from contacting Rayden's only salvation. Now here he was, in the same exhausted heap, hours later tired not only physically, but mentally as well.

The reprieve from the pain didn't last long as the memory faded away as well as what little focus he had for the moment. Again he broke down, gave in and let the darkness take his thoughts once more. The pain he so desperately sought solace from, heart-sickness once more assaulted him. Heart-sickness from loosing his friends, or rather at not being a good enough friend to them. Not being able to protect them, not being able to save them, along with the rest of Earth Realm. He failed. That was his pain that he failed. Friend, Protector, God, he had failed at being each one. He knew needed rest, for both mind and body, but sleep wouldn't come. He knew he needed to figure a way to escape from this place so he could alert the Elders. Yet the only thing that came to him was the agonizing thoughts of his long dead friends assaulting him, all of them whispering one word; «Failure.»

The fraction of light streaming into the room was abruptly cut off several times as guards rushed past the doorway to where he was imprisoned. Loud voices booming in the background, issuing orders in some bizarre language he didn't recognize, mixed with the thundering footfall and his own howling mind was deafening to him. He curled up in a tighter ball trying valiantly to cover his ears, but instead he just aggravated his two cracked ribs making him spasm in pain and see spots dance before his eyes.

«SHUT UP!» he screamed in desperation, but his cries were either drowned out or simply ignored. Why couldn't they just all leave him alone? Why couldn't they all just shut the hell up and let him think of a way out of here? Rayden suddenly found himself wishing someone would just hit him in the head and put him out of his misery.

Suddenly his wish came true, as a large, fuzzy, and rather heavy thing fell right on his head!

He yelped as he sat up and spun around to face this new attacker. However, no fight ensued as he was too shocked by the sight that was sitting before him. There a huge gray domestic Earth cat sat, just as dazed as he, getting its bearings back after its fall. Before he could even start to guess where the domestic cat could have possibly come from, he got another shock as the cat shot a very human-like dirty look at where it had just fallen from. He looked up where the cat was looking, but only saw darkness. Brows nit in confusion he looked back to find the cat looking directly at him now, with a very sickeningly sweet cat smile on it's furry face. Purring quite loudly the cat proceeded to walk up to him and start rubbing on him affectionately.

Still confused, he started petting the cat on the head roughly, «Where did you come from?» he whispered, and was surprised at the gruffness of his own voice.

The cat oddly enough responded by staring up again and shooting another dirty look. This confused him even more as he looked up again only to see the same sight he did before. This cat has to be from Earth Realm, his thoughts ran ragged through his mind, domestic cats like this only come from Earth Realm. How could he have possibly have gotten here though? Suddenly it hit him just as painfully as the cat did in the head. What if Earth Realm has fallen? It was one terrible possibility for an Earth cat to find its way to Outworld. Did Khan merge the Realms? His chest started to seize up as his mind ran over the possibility of his worst fear come true. He didn't even stop to consider rational possibilities as he started to panic, he had to find a way out and he had to do it now!

A sharp pain shot through his hand as he cursed and fell backwards while the cat did a back flip escaping his clutch. In his fear-driven madness he must have begun to strangle the poor thing without even noticing and of course it had bitten him in retaliation. He sat back up and looked to see the strange cat now shooting him a dirty look.

«I'm sorry, please... I didn't mean to,» he started, trying to coax the big cat back over to him.

Instead it looked at him warily, and then jumped through the bars that made up the bottom of the cage he was in into the endless abyss below.

«NO!» he roared as he twisted and thrust his hand through the floor bars to try and grab the cat before it fell too far from him.

He froze again as his eyes widened considerably as the only thing he could hear was his own blood rushing through his ears. The sight before him chilled him to the bone, as there stood a young woman upside-down untouched by gravity, holding the sleek house cat in her arms like a baby. She wore mainly black leather with bead trim along the edges, but a very strange gray jacket with the most colorful patches all over it set off the playful mood she seemed to be radiating. Long red-brown hair hung over her face, but her huge brown eyes seemed to bore right through him. The cat was obviously hers as it rubbed it's head against her ample bosom purring louder than it had before like there was nothing at all was wrong hanging upside-down like that. Several minutes passed as Rayden and the strange woman just looked each other over several times.

Finally he licked his lips and dared to speak, «Who are you?»

The woman cocked her head to one side and narrowed her gaze at him.

«Please, can you help me get out of here? I need to escape,» then it dawned on his tired mind, she didn't understand a word he was saying.

«Gniyas er'uoy drow a dnatsredun t'non I. Yrros m'i.» She replied to his dismay, as he too couldn't understand a thing she said.

Thus in desperation he tried all the Earth Realm languages he knew, but to no avail, she either kept shaking her head at him or just giving him puzzled looks. Finally she stared to ignore him as she shifted the cat to sit on her shoulders as she went searching for something in the pack attached to her hip.

The exhaustion, pain, and frustration finally caught up with him as he cursed in desperation to no one in particular, «Dammit, why can't anything go my way for once today!»

The woman jerked her head up abruptly and glared at him with those intense brown eyes of hers, «You speak Ancient?»

His jaw dropped as he realized that he had in fact spoken in his races own language, «Yes, how the hell do you know it? Only a handful of mortals were taught it once and as far as I know they're all dead!» he demanded.

«Well, obviously not everyone who knows it is dead, or else I wouldn't have learned it, eh?» she shot back sarcastically.

He sat up, rubbed his temples, and sighed trying to clear his tired mind, «Listen I'm sorry, I-I've just been through a lot today and I need help. Could you please help me get out of here?»

The woman again raised her eyebrow and just jumped off the bottom the cage into the darkness, but then reappeared sitting on top of the cage above him, «Why should I help you do anything? As far as I know there could be a very good reason why you should be kept in there. I mean, hell, you almost choked my cat to death!»

She then grinned at the cat, which didn't match the blunt sarcasm in her tone of voice, «But maybe you're right, S... An enemy of our enemy is our friend.» She then turned to him with a sly look in her face, «But first you have to say the magic word!»

«Wha-?» he had no clue what the heck she had been talking about, his brain just wasn't working at all.

«Nope not it.» And with that she winked at him and then faded into darkness leaving him alone.

Standing there stunned, he finally realized what had happened and what little of his patience was left dissolved in anguish, «PLEASE GOD DAMMIT!» he bellowed as he punched the cage in defeat.

Just then a metallic groan came from the cage door which made him look up as he had accidentally swung it open with his punch. And there the mysterious woman and her cat stood on the balcony jutting towards the cage coming from the doorway to the room.

She just looked at him and sighed; «You don't have to scream.»

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow at her, as he wondered how she had unlocked the door without being anywhere near it at the time. He had no answer, but at the moment he didn't care as he carefully judged the distance to the balcony she was on and leapt out of the cage. The resulting landing wasn't very pretty, but it was effective, as he didn't fall into the endless abyss below. He just lay there for a minute waiting for his ribs to quit screaming or him to black out, yet instead he felt an arm slip around his back and help him sit up. He looked up to find the young woman probing the area around his two bad ribs.

«Do you mind not doing that?» he snapped as he made a feeble attempt to push her away.

She just ignored him utterly and kept right on poking him, and after a minute she muttered something in her own language at the cat. The cat just looked displeased and oddly impatient with them, tail lashing menacingly. Finally the girl sighed at the cat and then abruptly put both hands over Rayden's cracked ribs and took a deep breath. What happened afterward Rayden couldn't be sure, as he felt warmth spread outward from her hands, but then his body finally gave in to it's extreme exhaustion and he passed out cold.

When he came to, he was in a shadowed corner of one of the twisted hallways of the Black Tower. He had no clue where he was, but from the looks of the hallway, it was defiantly one of the lesser-used ones. The cranny he was dumped in was so well hidden in the darkened area no one would have found him anytime soon unless they knew exactly where he was. Rayden slowly stood up, still a bit groggy, but no physical pain met him as he moved. He quickly looked himself over finding even the numerous bruises and abrasions that his brother had given him completely healed. Another thing he noticed was that a small amount of his powers had returned to him, enough that he could give someone a small shock, but still it was something more than he had.

Getting used to being surprised all the time, he just stood there numbly trying to figure out how his powers had mysteriously regenerated. He knew that the strange woman had probably healed him and dumped him here in this relatively safe area, but restore his powers? That was impossible, only direct contact with Earth Realm could restore that and his immortality. It was a fail-safe of being turned into a protector of a specific Realm, the Immortal in question got all his powers bonded to the Realm, thus if the Immortal left the Realm and lost the connection with it he would be on his own to fuel his powers. This meant one could not wreak havoc in other Realms, but also if he abused his powers in his own Realm there would be a backlash of epic proportions to that Immortal, so much so that it could kill him. Yet here he was with a tiny amount of his powers restored to him, and he knew he had no direct contact with Earth Realm. Unless the woman was..? No, that didn't make one iota of sense.

He stood there for a moment more, trying to decide what to do next. Contacting the Elders from here was probably unsafe, it would leave him dangerously open as he would just have to sit there and meditate ignoring his surroundings. Plus, he knew his brother would be watching for any such signal sent that way, and if he caught it, it would lead him directly to back to Rayden, which would end up with him in that cage again probably in worse shape than before. Getting back to Earth Realm on his own would prove to be just as difficult as contacting the Elder Gods as he knew Shao Khan had every portal that led to Earth Realm under very heavy protection. Rayden sighed, but then he thought of the young woman again.

She was obviously from Earth Realm, both in the way she acted and that strange domestic cat of hers being dead give-aways. Who was this strange girl, and why was she here? Could it be that the Elder Gods had sent her to help him? Anything was possible right now, and he knew he shouldn't leap to conclusions, hell it could all be another cruel joke of his brother's just to drag him down again. However, at the moment he had no choice, he needed help in getting back to Earth Realm. And she was the only one he could think of that could possibly help him. Yet there was one big problem facing him, how in the hell was he supposed to find her in this insane asylum?

Author : WCC

Creation date: 2002-9-23-12-18

Modification date: 2003-9-14-17-25