Work Text:
Sonya's always been an early riser, but apparently not as early as Liu Kang. When she emerges from the temple's guest quarters, full of restless energy and needing to stretch or run or do something, he's already in the long room that borders the fight pit, settled lotus-style on one of the half-walls that looks out over the sand.
"Miss Sonya," he says pleasantly, even though his back is to her and she hasn't said anything. "Good morning."
Coming up alongside him, Sonya can see that his eyes are closed, too. His hands are folded in his lap, prayer beads looped around them. She folds her arms, leaning one hip against the wall. "Okay, I'll bite. How'd you know it was me?"
The corners of Liu Kang's mouth turn up gently. "I would recognize Lord Raiden or Kung Lao's energy, and you don't walk like a monk, so that means you're one of our newcomers. If I had to guess from your footsteps, I'd say 'soldier', and Jax's tread is heavier than yours."
"Could've been an assassin," she points out, and his smile grows.
"Not inside Lord Raiden's wards." He opens his eyes, turning toward her. “Can I help you with anything?”
It’s on the tip of Sonya’s tongue to say no, apologize for disturbing his meditation and leave him to it. But there is a conversation she wants to have, even if she hadn’t planned on having it first thing in the morning. “Can I ask you something?”
Liu Kang nods, eyebrows raised in an open, earnest expression. He shifts sideways, staying in his cross-legged pose but making room for her on the stone wall, and Sonya hoists herself up, letting one leg dangle.
"Cole and I talked last night, after dinner," she begins. "He said you told him how you got your dragon mark and your arcana. He wasn't sure if it was something you'd want repeated, so I figured I'd ask you myself."
Liu Kang nods. "I would have told him if I'd wanted it kept secret, but I appreciate his discretion. I'll tell you, if you'd like."
He does. Tells her of years spent training with no mark and no guarantee he'd ever have one. Of tracking down a man who did have the mark, one it sounds like the world is definitely better off without, and taking it from him. Of his arcana showing itself right away, as if the fire had already been inside him, just needing the mark to let it out.
"Ever have second thoughts about it?" she asks when he's done. "Any hesitation before you did it, or regrets afterward?"
"When I was younger, I used to wish there was a way I could gain a mark without having to take a life," Liu Kang says, his tone contemplative. "But I came to see that as part of the test I faced. We call this Mortal Kombat for a reason--if I wasn't willing to kill for a chance to fight in the tournament, I would have no place there, no matter my skill. As for the particular life I took?" He shakes his head firmly. "No. When the moment came I didn’t hesitate, and I've never regretted it."
Sonya looks off to the side, absorbing everything he’s just told her, and Liu Kang bows his head as if to indicate that’s all he has to say on the matter. Silence descends between them for a minute or two until he asks, in that same gentle, even tone, “May I ask you something?”
Sonya nods. “Shoot.”
“Why didn’t you kill Kano when you first crossed paths?” There’s no reproach in Liu Kang’s tone, only open curiosity. “You could have taken his mark then, instead of taking him hostage.”
It’s the first time the Kano situation has come up between the two of them, but it’s no surprise that Liu Kang can tell that’s what’s behind Sonya’s questions. She sighs, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand. “I’ve asked myself that, believe me. If the fight had gone differently, I might have. But I knocked him out, and then...well, I wasn’t gonna just take him out while he was unconscious. That’s not how I operate.”
“And after that?” Liu Kang asks. “You could have challenged him many times since. Take him out in a fair fight.”
He says it like he doesn’t doubt she could. Sonya shrugs. “Yeah, but he’s one of us now, isn’t he? Even if none of us can stand the guy, he’s Team Earthrealm, and our situation’s bad enough without infighting. Besides, now he’s got his arcana, so not only would it be tougher for me to take him out, we’d be back to square one trying to unlock mine.” She shakes her head firmly. “I’m not gonna do that to us. I may not be a ‘chosen one’, but I’m a team player.”
She can't keep the bitterness out of her voice (okay, she isn't really trying to), and Liu Kang inclines his head. "I apologize if Kung Lao made you feel unwelcome yesterday. He's...not very used to dealing with those outside our order."
“I wasn’t gonna say it,” Sonya tells him. “But yeah, since you mention it, your friend could stand to work on his people skills.”
Liu Kang drops his gaze to his prayer beads, and Sonya wonders if she’s offended him. “I often think Kung Lao doesn’t fully understand what it’s like for us. The ones who’ve chosen to pursue a place in the tournament, and who’ve been on the outside looking in—where you are now, where I was before I won my mark. But at the same time, I don’t think we can fully grasp what it is to him.” He looks back up at her. “You’ve made a study of Mortal Kombat, Miss Blade. What do you know of the Great Kung Lao?”
Sonya huffs out a breath, thinking back to her destroyed research and the temple’s murals. “I know he was the last champion of Earthrealm to win the tournament,” she says. “And I know that was about five hundred years ago.”
Liu Kang nods. “His mark has passed on to many of his descendants over the centuries, but none of them ever claimed victory. Many died trying. By the time my shixiong was born with the mark, his family knew the next tournament would be our last chance. That’s why they named him as they did, in hopes he would be the one to follow in his ancestor’s footsteps.”
He leans forward, eyes intent on hers. “This tournament has been Kung Lao’s future since the day he was born. He has known this since he was seven, the year his training began in earnest. There has never been a reality in which he might pursue a path that was entirely his choice, be it studies or a career or marriage. Only this.” He pauses as if to let that sink in, then adds with a hint of a crooked smile, “So, yes, his people skills may be lacking.”
"Well, when you put it that way," Sonya says, returning the smile. "You've both been through a lot, training for this."
Liu Kang shrugs. "We have all been through a lot. And you…" he pauses for a moment, studying her. "You sought us out. Not for personal gain or the thrill of battle, but because you care about the history of Mortal Kombat and what it means. I cannot help but believe that means you are meant to stand alongside us at the tournament."
Hearing that from him brings back the feeling Sonya had when they first arrived at the temple--not just excitement at finally being here, or validation at knowing everything she'd learned and found and pieced together about the tournament was true, but a sense that she could be a part of this, claim a space among champions. The feeling that keeps coming back despite the immutable, impersonal fact that as long as she doesn't have a mark she's stuck on the sidelines, a supporting player at best.
"If I were meant to fight in the tournament I guess I shouldn't have passed up my chance at a mark, huh?" she asks ruefully.
Liu Kang's mouth quirks in another tiny smile. "Just because one chance has passed you by doesn't mean there won't be another. And if you do get another chance...I can't tell you what to do with it. But if you want my advice? Don't hesitate."
Sonya meets his eyes, nodding. "I'll bear that in mind."
For better or worse, her own sense of honor and duty still balks at the idea of trying to take Kano out while they're still more or less on the same side. She knows herself well enough to know that's not gonna change. But what she can do--what she needs to do--is be ready to act if and when those circumstances change.
***
Every step Liu Kang takes, every breath he draws into his lungs, every hit he takes from Kabal and every blow he deals in return, is accompanied by a vague sense of wonder that the world hasn't stopped turning. Surely it should have stopped; Kung Lao is gone, and the very idea of the world continuing to exist without him in it is intolerable, blasphemous.
Or maybe it’s not that the world should have stopped, but that Liu Kang should no longer be a part of it. He should have done better, should have fought his way free of Kabal in time to put himself between Kung Lao and Shang Tsung. Protected Lao’s life with his own, or at least died with him. There should not be a world in which Kung Lao is gone and Liu Kang is still here.
But he is still here, and so he will keep fighting until he can fight no longer, because that is the only thing that makes sense in this world that should not be.
There's a grim satisfaction, something too dark to be joy, in doing what needs to be done. Kabal isn't the one who took Kung Lao from him, but he kept Liu Kang from Kung Lao's side and gloated over his fate, and any voice of reason attempting to point out that reaching him sooner might have made no difference is willfully drowned out by the part of Liu Kang that finds a bleak sort of peace in watching the mercenary burn.
He's still kneeling at the edge of the tar pit when the plan for Earthrealm's champions to even the odds and face Shang Tsung's strongest fighter as a team goes very, very wrong. Liu Kang doesn’t see the portal open, but he feels it—a powerful surge of energy and a rush of unnaturally cold air. He starts in the direction it came from, cautiously at first, then faster when he hears Sonya yell “Cole, wait!”
He runs up just in time to see Cole vanishing into a curtain of black smoke. Sonya’s there, poised as if she might run after him, and as Liu Kang comes up alongside her he instinctively throws out a warding arm. He needn't have bothered; in the next moment the billowing smoke sucks in on itself, the portal disappearing as if it was never there.
"What happened?" he asks.
"Sub-Zero," Sonya tells him. "He had something--a bracelet, I think it belonged to Cole's daughter. Made a big show of it so Cole would follow him. We've gotta do something, find out where he took them--"
Liu Kang's stomach drops. Of course, Cole wouldn't hesitate to rush into danger for his family. He only hopes Sub-Zero's taunting doesn't mean they're already dead. "Patience," he cautions, calm reasserting itself. "Lord Raiden sent you to us?"
He didn't see Sonya arrive, but it's the simplest explanation for her being here, and sure enough, she nods. "Then he's watching. He'll find out where Sub-Zero's taken Cole and then pick us up."
"Right, okay, that makes sense," Sonya replies, relaxing fractionally--still tensed for action, but not about to rush off when they don't even have a way to follow right now. And then, unexpectedly, she laughs.
“Sorry,” she says when Liu Kang glances at her. “It’s stupid and nothing about this is funny. Just...the way you said that. Like we’re waiting for Raiden to pick us up from soccer practice in a minivan or something.”
Liu Kang doesn’t have it in him to laugh at anything right now, but he sees the absurdity of it, and he's come to know his new compatriots well enough to understand their humor doesn't mean they aren't taking things seriously.
“I’m going to tell him you said that,” he deadpans, which sets Sonya off again.
“No, don’t!” She protests through a wave of snickering. “He’ll zap me like he did Kano that time.”
Liu Kang waits for her laughter to die down, then glances pointedly at her shoulder. Her tank top leaves the mark there plainly visible, the dragon rearing its head proudly on her skin. "Speaking of Kano…"
Sonya gives him a warrior's grin, sharp and satisfied. "I didn't hesitate."
"Good," he says fiercely. "And your arcana?"
There's a lot going on right now, but not enough for him to have missed the fact that Mileena's lying a few yards away with a gaping hole in her midsection. One more nudge toward tilting the scales in Earthrealm's favor, though Liu Kang still doesn't know if it can possibly be enough to compensate for what they've lost today.
Sonya holds out her arms, makes her hands into fists. Rings of colored light glow beneath her skin and then burst forth, blasting two neat holes into a rock face a short distance away. "When I showed up here and saw Cole struggling with Mileena, I just...knew what to do."
Liu Kang feels a strange urge to embrace her—strange not just because they’ve only known each other a few days, but because he’s never been that tactile with anyone other than Kung Lao. He doesn’t know how Sonya would take being embraced, so he puts his hand on her arm instead, squeezing gently.
“I had a feeling it would be that way with you,” he says, truthfully. “And I’m glad you’re with us, Sonya Blade.”
Sonya turns her arm in his grasp, not to pull away but to grip his arm in turn, and they stand there clasping each other like the comrades they are now.
“I’m sorry about Kung Lao,” she says after a moment. “We don’t have to talk about it now. Or...ever, if you don’t want to. But I’m here if you do.”
Liu Kang swallows hard, the gulf of loss threatening to swell up and overtake him. “Thank you.” Still holding onto her, he squeezes his eyes shut, searching for the right words. “I can’t—can’t let myself feel it right now, not fully. If I start grieving again as I did in the Void, it won’t stop. I won’t be able to keep going, and I need to keep going, so.”
“I get that,” Sonya replies gently. “Just...don’t go so hard you burn yourself out. I didn’t know him very well, but I don’t think he’d want that.”
“He wouldn’t,” Liu Kang agrees, and doesn’t say but I don’t know how to keep it from happening without him here.
Any further conversation is forestalled by a crack of thunder and hum of electricity, and they both turn to face the curtain of lightning that’s appeared behind them.
“Carpool’s here,” Sonya says, and glances at him. “You ready to move out?”
Liu Kang nods. “Let’s go find Cole,” he says, and they move toward the portal together. “I’m not losing anyone else today.”