Shadow Watcher Noob Saibot

I am Noob Saibot, a shadow demon from the Netherealm. I was made when The Creator was sent to the Heavens and trained under the Gods. There is a reason that only the souls of true, pure-hearted heroes enter that realm, and it's because they are not tainted with the crimes they committed in life. Mitharos was a killer, despite him doing so at Onaga's request, and he was not meant to be sent to the Heavens upon his death. With him entering the realm in his living body, already in violation to the realm's standards, he began to immediately adapt to the surroundings, and the evil portion of his essence could not be allowed, so it was removed from his body by the purity of the domain.

One's essence cannot be destroyed; it is the blueprint of an entity and exists for the sole purpose of defining a person, place, or thing. It creates the characteristics, rules, and limitations of an entity and these are things that cannot be simply erased; they can change locations either in wholes or portions, like when a creature gives birth, but can never be obliterated. The Creator's evil essence had to be sent elsewhere, and the most obvious location for malevolence to thrive is the Netherealm.

His evil essence was fused with that of the Netherealm, and when this happened, I was formed. I was the shadow of The Creator, his darkest aspects, and I was forever bound to him, and to the Netherealm, since I was concentrated vice. In order to free myself from my bondage, I needed one of two things: either become the dominant personality and destroy the good side, making me the only existing version of Mitharos, and thus inheriting his freedom; or he simply separates the bonds himself of his own free will. Naturally, I went for the more fun option. Like The Creator, I had spent my time fighting and training for strength and power, just so that the day I ever met him in my home world, I would be able to destroy him once and for all. When I saw him appear in the Netherealm, I gave him no chance to scan his surroundings; he was weak and pathetic with all of his goodness, and I had to destroy him to be free of my confines.

We fought for a terribly long time, and because of his goodness flowing through him, he was growing much more tired than I was. While surrounded by the Netherealm's essence, my stamina and strength were greater, and I was much more determined to eliminate Mitharos than he was to eliminate me; however, when he felt threatened, he realised the need to destroy me, and as such, the essence of the Netherealm began to recognise him as a useful vessel, just like the other inhabitants. It unlocked strange abilities in him, gifts that he had learned from the Gods, and he overpowered me so easily, I did not feel that I deserved to exist... But I was overcome with admiration for my Creator, and I recognised what we would be capable of if we were one again... I fragmented myself and rejoined my Creator, and together, we trained and made a name for ourselves and joined the Brotherhood of the Shadow. We became allies with several members despite our not being officially part of the group, but that was a minor detail. Our first real mission was simple; spy on the events of the latest Mortal Kombat tournament, and learn all that we could about it and Shao Kahn. For this, The Creator and I had to change our appearances, and I chose to mimic a ninja; with my dark complexion, I figured I'd be suitable as one.

The Creator and I separated to cover more ground, and to learn as much as possible. I spent most of my time watching Shao Kahn and his men, as there was a possibility that Shao was weakening, and that the Brotherhood could use this opportunity to rise from the Netherealm, and once free, take over the realms, primarily the Heavens. As I watched him from the shadows, I noticed something about Shao Kahn that was unusual... He was originally the protector of Outworld, and only became its ruler at Onaga's request, but long after Onaga's death, Shao Kahn changed and became corrupt and a dictator. Some thought that he had gone mad with power, considering he had won so many tournaments and realms for Outworld, but there was something off about him that only I could detect; I was from the Netherealm, and I could recognise the sweet, volcanic scent of my home very easily, and Shao Kahn's aura smelled similarly to that of my home world's essence! As a Realm Protector, his natural home had to have been the Heavens, so this did not make any sense.

I didn't put it all together until I saw him prepare for the end of the tournament. Although he always wore sacred robes, when he came to watch his own warriors fight in his personal arena, and when he prepared for his own battles, he wore armour that would've been fashioned specifically for an ancient Gladiator Demon. And the shadow abilities he used while fighting Liu Kang... He fought more like a demon above anything else!

I remembered the stories that Reiko's followers had told me, about how he and Shao Kahn fought in the Great War that almost destroyed the realms, and that their battle grew so intense, both sides stopped fighting and stayed away from the area where Shao Kahn and Reiko were. For beings who were not Gods, their power was especially great, and to this day, nobody knows what happened to Reiko, because at one point during their combat, Shao Kahn took Reiko's badly broken body and flew high into the air with his powerful wings, scattering so much wind and dust, nobody saw what happened in the sky... Moments later, only Shao Kahn's body came crashing to the ground; he said that he destroyed Reiko's body and that his remains burned in the atmosphere. This could not have happened, though, because Reiko's soul never returned to the Netherealm, leading people to believe that Reiko was spared, granted mercy from his better ...

Perhaps more disturbing to me was that Shao Kahn, one of the most powerful beings in existence, was being bested by a mere Human... But just like Shao Kahn, this Liu Kang was special... To this day, I can't put my finger on it, but there was something about Liu Kang that didn't fit... How was he so powerful? Reiko was said to be strong enough to face Gods, and Shao Kahn beat him, so theoretically, Shao Kahn should be too powerful for any mortal...

After Liu Kang's surprising victory and hasty retreat with his allies back to Earthrealm, I was ordered by Shinnok via an astral-projection to bring The Creator back. When I found him, Mitharos was so badly burned, he barely had anything left of his organs and muscles, so I took immense care with him as I re-entered his body and we teleported to the Netherealm. Shinnok had been most pleased with our findings, and made us official members of the Brotherhood. He predicted a war between Earthrealm and Outworld now, thanks to the return of Queen Sindel, and I was ordered to continue my reconnaissance and side with Shao Kahn until his defeat was imminent. I couldn't leave the realm with Mitharos, though, and surprisingly, The Creator granted me my freedom, which wasn't very difficult, considering when we had merged, our essences blended together, so we both had enough capacity for good and evil to be our own persons... Of course, I realised that there was a flaw in my design; I could only enter another realm as long as I was the shadow of a being that was already present. It didn't take me long to find a suitable body to take the shape of. One of Shao Kahn's henchmen, a traitor from Earthrealm named Kano, was an excellent body to mimic, and occasionally, I would still wear the ninja garb to keep people from noticing any resemblance.

For the most part, I stayed hidden in the shadows, avoiding confrontations while watching everything in my Dorfen, but eventually, once Raiden and the Shaolin Monks managed to enter Shao's fortress, I followed my orders and fought alongside Earthrealm, and faced several Tarkata and Centaurian warriors. I helped clear a path for Raiden, Liu Kang, and Kung Lao alongside other Earthrealm heroes, and I quickly followed them as they went to face Shao Kahn personally. When they had approached the long bridge leading to Shao Kahn, Raiden told everyone to stay back, saying he would face Shao Kahn without any assistance in Mortal Kombat (since I could teleport, I naturally found a suitable location near the bridge and hid myself in the shadows). Right after I snuck my way into the room, Raiden created a wall of electricity and blocked the path to the bridge to prevent the monks and other fighters from entering. The intensity, brightness, and noise from the shield prevented anyone from seeing what happened in that room, so what I saw was perhaps the most valuable piece of information I had ever obtained.

Rather than both warriors raising their fists, Raiden and Shao Kahn approached each other calmly and began to talk. I could barely make out what they had said, but the same name kept on being brought up again and again... Reiko. Shao Kahn yelled at the top of his lungs, exclaiming that Reiko was dead, that he no longer existed, and that Shao Kahn himself did everything under his own volition. At this point, the conversation became much clearer; Raiden spoke louder than before, saying that he knew that this was not Shao Kahn, and that he needed to be freed once and for all. At this point, Shao Kahn's mask glowed green and an energy blast sent Raiden to the other end of the room.

Raiden picked himself up and smirked, saying that he wanted to talk to the real Shao, not the impostor before him (if you think that this story is confusing at my telling it, imagine having been there). Shao Kahn laughed at Raiden, and charged at him with his shadow abilities, but Raiden teleported out of the way and electrocuted Shao Kahn. Kahn growled as the God's lightning struck him, and he calmly walked towards Raiden, picked him up, and slammed him into the throne at the other end of the bridge. Raiden got up and flew into Kahn's chest, pinned him into the wall of lightning he made earlier, distanced himself with a flip, and proceeded to hurl lightning bolts. Shao Kahn resisted the attacks once again and summoned energy spears to throw at Raiden. Raiden teleported behind the Emperor and removed the electrical wall blocking the Shaolin Monks from intervening.

Raiden floated off of the bridge and said that he drained Shao Kahn of enough of his power to feel that Kung Lao or Liu Kang would be capable of fighting him fairly. Shao Kahn was enraged that Raiden had backed out of their bout, but he was content in having the choice of fighting either Kung or Liu; he chose Kung Lao.

Kung Lao was a very skilled fighter, especially with his hat, and with his unique spinning and teleporting abilities, but he didn't have the same kind of drive Liu Kang had; even in his ``weakened'' state (Shao Kahn hardly broke a sweat against Raiden), Shao Kahn was more than a match for Kung Lao, as every single hit Kung took sent him across the room. When Shao Kahn created his hammer and struck Kung Lao down, Kung Lao stayed down; Shao Kahn defeated the monk.

Liu Kang broke down into tears when Shao Kahn declared himself the winner, but his sadness became rage, his skin tone reddened, and as he summoned great strength from the pits of his soul, his body was surrounded with flames. Somehow, watching Liu Kang do this made me feel tired... Even Raiden, Shao Kahn and some onlookers from Earthrealm seemed fatigued after Liu Kang's fire appeared, and he went head-on into battle against Shao Kahn.

While the fight between Kung and Shao was hardly worth repeating, Liu's fight with him was much more interesting. Liu Kang matched Shao Kahn's attacks blow for blow, and whenever Shao Kahn did connect a hit, Liu Kang was only briefly stunned and held his ground. He was much faster, and his intense flames burned Shao's skin, and his fiery projectiles engulfed the Emperor. Shao Kahn chuckled with his taunts, but Liu Kang knew he was bluffing and faltering. He ran at the tyrant and used his Flying Kick to send Shao Kahn into his throne... Kahn stumbled to get up, but he fell forward instead, having difficulty holding himself up... On his hands and knees, Shao Kahn began to laugh maniacally while saying, ``Go ahead, mortal; FINISH ME!''

Liu Kang's one weakness was shown once again; he refused to kill Shao Kahn as he did in the tournament. Raiden and Shao Kahn looked at each other, then at Liu Kang, their eyes beckoning him to change his mind. I wish I could understand it, but it seemed as though they both thought that it was a bad idea to allow Shao Kahn to live, yet Liu Kang decided to make a demand instead; Shao Kahn take his armies and forever leave Earthrealm. Shao Kahn got off of the floor and screamed in agony as he glowed green, and the souls that he had accumulated from Earthrealm's invasion began to escape from his body. Raiden flew towards Liu Kang, grabbed him, and together, they teleported out of the room, leaving Kung Lao sprawled on the floor... But the tricky Shaolin Monk had only faked his death (for what reason, I do not know), and teleported out of the room as well, leaving myself and the apparently self-destructing Shao Kahn alone. Shao Kahn's power was quickly escaping his body, and his throne room was being slowly destroyed. I teleported out of the fortress and saw that the portal between Earthrealm and Outworld was closing, and that the Earthrealm warriors were scrambling to return to their home realm. Kahn's tower fell apart by the time the portal had entirely closed, and before I decided to return to the Netherealm to inform Shinnok of the events that transpired, I wanted to bring him Shao Kahn's body as proof of his demise (or at least a few parts of him).

I searched for hours through the rubble, hoping to at least find his helmet, and luckily, I found Shao Kahn's severely diminished body intact. He was still alive, but nowhere near the same power level when he was fighting. He was so drained, he could hardly move. His stature had been reduced as well, and he seemed so small compared to his former self. In any case, he was still alive... I lifted Shao Kahn's body onto my shoulders and brought him to the Netherealm with me, to offer him as a gift to Shinnok.

Once I reached the Netherealm, I put his body onto the ground when I attempted to contact some Brotherhood members to allow me passage into the fortress (it was protected by Quan Chi's magic, so I could not teleport directly inside), and he began to get up. I prepared myself for combat, but instead of addressing me, he merely scoffed and removed his armour (which had become too large at this point). When he removed his helmet, instead of seeing a red-eyed, spiky-faced creature, his head had become human-esque, with black hair that had grey on the sides, blue eyes, and black eye make-up (no different from the majority of the Brotherhood members). I just stared in awe at who this being was; he was Reiko, in the human form given to him by Shinnok in the Great War!

It was at this point that other members of the Brotherhood came and saw their former comrade, missing in action for millennia, and congratulated me on finding him, and received him so warmly and heartedly, one would hardly believe that these were demons. Reiko seemed to be drained, though, and collapsed before we could get through the gate. Shinnok was most impressed by my findings, and thanked me full-heartedly for finding Reiko. He assured me that at his full strength, Reiko could perhaps change the tides of war in our favour, but I kept my doubts to myself. Reiko did not seem like the same warrior the demons made him out to be, as he was much smaller and I could not sense any of his ``great strength'' hidden within him.

I went into the training area and found Reiko try and summon his power, but it seemed like he wasn't succeeding. All he did was collapse, pant, swear profusely, and try again. He was a fairly strong person in his current state, but his God-like strength was nowhere to be seen. He looked at me as I pitied him, and demanded to know how I had found him and where he had gone for so long, and I simply said that he was in the rubble of Shao Kahn's palace. He grew more furious at the mentioning of that name, and tried summoning his power again, but just fell to the floor. I had great disappointment in Reiko, for he was nowhere near the Demonic-hero people made him to be, so I decided that if he was going to be of any use to the Brotherhood of the Shadow, I had to teach him all I could before the war began. Thankfully he was a fast learner, and I taught him to rely more on stealth, speed, and evasion rather than brute force. He learned my teleportation skills, and my ability to create small throwing weapons (he had a preference for shuriken). He was ready to return to his post as General Reiko.

Thanks to Tanya, a portal from the Netherealm to Edenia had been opened, and the Brotherhood was able to go to war against the Heavens. Reiko and Scorpion had led the first wave of warriors who were destined to fight against the Gods after the palace was taken over, while I led the second wave, to prevent Edenia from interfering. I could only enter the realm once I became the shadow of a warrior already present on the battlefield, and I had decided to go with that of the former Lin Kuei warrior, Sub-Zero. The Gods were difficult to fight against, but several of them fell before our warriors. It was a beautiful time indeed.

I briefly fought with Sub-Zero while the Heavens were being invaded, taunting him with visions of his brother, burning away in Hell for his crimes in life. Sub-Zero did not take too kindly to my mocking him, especially since I was wearing the same uniform as his brother, only in black. I simply evaded all of his attacks, teleporting away from him constantly, and all the while slandering the original Sub-Zero. I studied his ice-making abilities as we fought, trying to see if I could mimic them the same way The Creator could, but I could never truly master the technique; it was fun killing some of my weaker enemies with the ice-shatter though. In any case, I took solace in knowing I greatly disturbed Sub-Zero, so I left him alone to wallow in his own sadness and borderline insanity.

With the Heaven's forces severely diminished, the majority of Shinnok's men were sent back to Edenia to face Raiden, Fujin, and the Earthrealm warriors. This is when things became interesting, as something was happening to Reiko. He was feeling great pain in his chest, despite not receiving any serious blows, and I had to take him away from Queen Sindel's former palace to a quieter location. He felt as though something was going to leap out of his chest, and he needed to be calmed down. I didn't understand what was happening to him, but I came up with the idea of giving him a small amount of my Netherealm essence, in hopes that it would do him some good. He managed to calm down, and revealed to me his plot to overthrow Shinnok and take whatever he acquires after this war, and asked me to be at his side once he claimed Shinnok's established empire. I thought about it for a moment, and I considered how strong Reiko was as Shao Kahn, so I thought that I'd be better off with a demi-God than a fallen one. I said that it shouldn't be a problem for him, since he was already a powerful ruler, and he looked at me with an inquisitive gaze, and his eyes flashed red for a moment.

His voice changed, and he clutched his chest and demanded that I take him to Outworld. I hesitated at first, but when he grabbed my neck and began to crush my throat, I began to see things a little differently. I tried to break myself apart and get away, but his eyes flashed green and he held me together with some untold power. He told me he needed to defend Outworld and needed to be back there immediately, and he forced me to teleport to the ruins of his palace. While we were there, we saw a small band of Shao Kahn's former militia excavating the ruins, probably looking for their fallen ruler. Reiko, still holding me by my throat roared at the small group and his body changed entirely in a flash; his muscles bulged and expanded, his clothes ripped, and horns grew from his forehead, replacing falling hair. The eye-shadow marks disappeared, and he grew taller right before my eyes. His eyes were red as blood and he threw me to the ground; he was Shao Kahn again.

He looked at me and said that I was bound to him, and that I'd forever be under his servitude, as his private assassin, since he could vaguely remembered me taking him from the rubble. He somehow thought of it as a ``reward'' for helping him, and I tried brining up how I trained him in the Netherealm, and he simply looked at me like I was a fool, scoffing at the idea of him being allowed into the realm. I was puzzled by this for only a moment, when it finally came together; Shao Kahn arguing that Reiko was dead to Raiden, Reiko being infuriated by the mention of Shao Kahn and not knowing about being former ruler of Outworld, and Shao Kahn saying that he cannot enter the Netherealm (as a being from the Heavens, he's automatically barred from the realm), it all led to this; they didn't know that they sharing the same body!

The small band of Shao Kahn's militia ran to him, all led by Kano, and they bowed down to their master. At this point, a massive flash came and a gigantic hand swept away the demons that were in Edenia. Shao Kahn smiled and said that with Shinnok gone, now was the time to attack Edenia.

Without any interference from the Earth warriors, Shao Kahn and Edenia were at war, eventually with Shao Kahn's power failing... Kitana destroyed the orb that bound Edenia to Outworld, and this weakened Shao Kahn greatly, as the orb took a lot of his energy to keep intact. After this, Kano and his troops had to rely on portals to go between Outworld and Edenia, mostly the one in Scislac Busorez , and this made things much more difficult for Shao Kahn, as he was never at the peak of his power. He seemed to have grown tired of fighting constantly against the men of Princess Kitana and her new ally, Prince Goro. As his finest assassin, he relied on me a lot, and with that, I was able to gain much of his trust in his final years... So much so that he decided that I would be the perfect candidate to destroy Goro and sever the Shokan-Edenian alliance.

As a former champion of Mortal Kombat, I knew Goro would be a strong opponent, so I had to return to my home-realm and absorb its essences to increase my strength. Although this did work, I found myself once again bound to the realm until I could find another suitable host to become the shadow of. My decision was made in only a few moments, as I heard the screams of Quan Chi disappear through an ancient portal, followed closely by Scorpion. Considering I had been in Sub-Zero's form for so long, I had grown used to looking like a ninja, so I figured that Scorpion's would be a familiar one to have.

With my new found strength, I returned to Outworld and sneaked carefully through the Shokan lines and found Goro, watching the battle from a distance, with no guards around him, and tired from his own battles. A perfect opportunity to fight in Mortal Kombat! I would have directly challenged him, but considering his massive size and strength, I thought that it'd be much more, er-hem, ``fair'' of me to get a free hit before our battle commenced.

Our battle was spectacular as he was the strongest being I had ever fought with. My new gifts from the Netherealm helped me in this fight, and Goro was overmatched by my superior combat skills. He was too weary to be an efficient opponent, but our battle was rudely interrupted by a few Shokan guards, so I merely wounded him and fled, although later on, I found out the wound was mortal.

I returned to Shao Kahn's new fortress, and I sensed that I just missed a massive battle. There was blood spattered all over the room, particularly around Shao Kahn's throne... Where a blood-covered body lay. No doubts about it being Shao Kahn, but this time, his size and power didn't seem to be as weak as it was years ago. With my new freedom, I pondered the possibilities of what I could do now; the Brotherhood of the Shadow now needed a new ruler, so perhaps this was a sign. But even in my current strength, I needed the support of powerful allies, and who could be a much more useful ally than Reiko?

As I had done years before, I took the body and teleported to the Netherealm with it, and just as before, his skin tone and face changed, but this time, his overall physique remained the same... And his physical strength was still fairly large, but his magical abilities were non-existent (aside from the teleportation and weapon-summoning skills I taught him)... The only explanation I could gather from this was that during his battle, Shao Kahn used more of his magical abilities than his physical strength, and that he suffered too much before he could release his power in a massive explosion as he had years ago, leaving Reiko the majority of his tremendous brawn.

Reiko looked at me and seemed slightly more aware of my presence again, and I told him that we were taken back to the Netherealm after Shinnok's defeat, and that he had been in Baphomet's servitude until I released him. Considering how much I had helped him the last time he was around, Reiko believed me with little questions asked, and pledged his allegiance to me when I brought up reuniting the original Brotherhood and reforming it with new members, and he did not oppose to my leading it, so with Reiko backing me, I knew that I could reform the group with ease.

For the next few weeks, Reiko and I meditated, and I taught Reiko how to harness the power of the Netherealm to strengthen him as it did me, and this brought back the physical strength that Shao Kahn possessed originally, and made him even stronger than before. Considering Reiko and Shao Kahn were both separately mighty beings, their combined selves were overwhelming with power... Shao Kahn never tapped into this, but with the Netherealm feeding him, Reiko was able to. Now I had my enforcer.

The next person I needed was a sneaky devil that I became friends with very quickly while in the Brotherhood, and who managed to escape into Earthrealm and even earn the trust of one of Earth's heroes; Sareena would be a valuable asset and would help spread word of the return of the Brotherhood of the Shadow, acquiring more powerful members into our group. She eagerly agreed to join me, considering I was one of the few who fought for her return to the Brotherhood after Shinnok banished her to the fifth plane. She's already mentioned a serious prospect as well...

Reiko and I spent our time building up our strength and building an army of demons (mostly Oni) to be able to have a guaranteed force to take on the various enemies we'd encounter, but ill-luck seemed to fall before us when a portal opened and probably the most powerful Oni I'd ever seen came into the realm and announced the liberation of his kind and promised them flesh and a new realm to thrive in. This is when I recommended to Reiko that if he joined the demons, he could keep an influence on them as well, and when the time came, convert them into members of the Brotherhood.

I absorbed more essence from the realm and left to go to Edenia to see if my influence could be spread amongst Kitana's and Goro's men, but I felt a heart-wrenching pain in my chest and collapsed... My beloved realm was in terrible pain... All the essence I had taken from it had given me a strong bond to my home-world, and for whatever reason, I felt as though a portion of me had died... I didn't know what happened at the time, but I was sure that all the essence I had taken from the realm was all that remained of it. Now my goal has become clear to me; the Netherealm must not be forgotten. The Brotherhood of the Shadow must return to its former glory and return the Netherealm to the thoughts of all mortals. We will prosper once again in these new realms, and we will introduce new meaning to the term ``Hell''... I will continue to watch the events unfold in this new war between the realms of Edenia, Earthrealm, and Outworld, and bide my time before the new Brotherhood of the Shadow is unleashed to the unsuspecting fools. And who have I chosen to be the shadow of to return to the living realms and bring about my new order? None other than that of the Creator when he had his flesh - Mitharos.

Author : Jerrod Therace

Creation date: 2006-10-7-22-6

Modification date: 2006-10-7-22-6