Smokescreen: A Collection of Vignettes

Chapter 11

It was a strange feeling to be a passenger in her own body. It was like watching a horror movie, except everything was real. She had stood by evil versions of her allies and had fought beside them. Whatever Shang Tsung had released, it was made to turn everyone to the darkness, including Liu Kang. Even the sweetest of hearts, Raiden. The entity, just a formless cloud of black, played on everyone's inner turmoil and used those against their victims.

Liu Kang. For all of his faults, she considered him a dear friend and companion. She was fighting him, and it hurt to see the pain and despair in his eyes, knowing that he might have to end her. In her mind, in all honesty, death would have been far preferrable than this misery that she endured.

Sakura, still trapped, had faced many iterations of her friends and foes. There were even hybrids of them. It was rather intriguing, actually, that there were so many possibilities that existed. Enough of that, though. The thing that hurt her the most in this fight was watching the Tomas of this timeline die. Though he had been heavily influenced by Shang Tsung, it was definitely a relief for him. For beneath all of the darkness, there had been a man that she had known. She had seen the love and affection behind them before he passed, slain by another iteration of himself.

And it angered her so much...

Grief and despair had taken her. So much sorrow flowed through her that in her desperation to free herself, the creature that had been controlling her was sidetracked. It hadn't expected its host to fight back. This gave Lord Liu Kang a free shot. With his godly powers, he expelled the entity from her. Her mind went blank before going completely black.

A sweet and blessed silence.

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"Sakura?"

The young woman woke up, her vision quite blurry, before she tried to move. A large hand pressed on her shoulder and forced her to stay in place. As her vision cleared, she could see figures surrounding her before she could finally make out the faces of healers. One face, though, stood out to her.

"Wha...what happened, Tomas?"

Everything seemed like a fever dream. Her abduction from this timeline went to being possessed. She went from being possessed to fighting her friends at the pyramid. Warriors from different timelines had fought and died there. She looked at her lover and felt happy and sad all at once.

"Do you want time alone?" He asked.

"No. I...I need you."

The gray-eyed warrior nodded and stayed at her side.