Mortal Kombat 9: Ember Edition

Chapter 4: Victory for Earthrealm

In her room, Ember had her face washed of the tears that had rolled endlessly through the halls and her hair brushed of the tangles and frizz that was a result of her running around. This was all done by the servant woman who had failed to take her to her room in the first place, meanwhile Ember sat in front of an elegant vanity and stared blankly at the mirror, toying with Bi-Han's name tag. She experienced mood swings, one minute she began crying her eyes out and wiping her face red with her jacket sleeve, the next she was shouting obscenities and vowing a violent vengeance against Scorpion and Quan Chi.

Princess Kitana stayed in the room with her, watching these mood swings and trying to calm her down until Jade had knocked on the door telling Kitana that the next fight was beginning. The princess reassured Ember that she'd return and for her to stay in her room and rest. This was during the rare moments of peace where Ember would simply stare at the mirror, presumably believing all of this to be a horrible dream, so the girl had complied with a silent nod. The servant woman finished cleaning her up so she mindlessly walked to the large window and stared outside.

The sky was orange and a breeze smoothly made the trees, flowers, and grass sway. It was too beautiful out, it should've been grey and raining to match the sour turn of events; it had been raining but apparently stopped. Unable to handle the scenery Ember turned away and sat down on the bed, groaning at how soft the blanket and mattress was. Like outside, the bed didn't match with the horrible things that had taken place.

The girl quickly punched the pillows, hoping feathers would fly out of them or that the cushion would deform, but it stayed fluffy and perfect; and that pissed Ember off. Her shrill startled the servant, the woman jumping from her seat while her temporary charge was having a fit.

"IT'S NOT FAIR!!" She cried out, punching and kicking at the bed till her anger tired her out. Once she was exhausted and her face was red and hot to the touch the girl let out a high-pitched whimper and dropped face down onto the blanket, crying herself to sleep.

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The bedroom door opened and Kitana entered, accidentally waking Ember up. With a nod, the servant was dismissed and the princess sat down beside the pyromancer, "Did you rest well?" she asked as the latter exhaled deeply and turned her head to look at the blue-garbed woman with tired eyes. Ember didn't want to get up, her body was sore and her mood wasn't exactly chipper at the moment, nevertheless she found the strength to sit up in respect for the princess.

"No..." she answered, rubbing the fatigue out of her normally fiery eyes. "How long have I been sleeping?"

"About a day."

"A DAY?!" Ember sat upright, her eyes wide in bewilderment. It didn't feel like a day, sure she had been tired, but a day?! That was way too long for her!

"Yes, you were so still that at first we wondered if you died. But we just decided to let you sleep...considering everything that had happened."

Ember shook the tiredness out of her head and sighed loudly. Kitana barely heard her muttering curses at herself for oversleeping; the princess managed to omit several choice words from reaching her ears before the girl rubbed her eyes again and asked "...so who won the fight?" she didn't actually care all that much about it, there just wasn't much else to talk about and she was still getting over the shock of her having slept so long.

"The Lin Kuei ninja, Cyrax, won. Much to Shang Tsung's displeasure, he had spared his opponent."

"Are the Lin Kuei on the side of Earthrealm or Outworld?" While they were from Earthrealm in fact, as Raiden had pointed out, the clan was fighting on the side of Outworld. It didn't make much sense to Ember, but she didn't feel like questioning it. While she started messing with her hair, Kitana stood up.