Chapter Text
Lord Raiden sends Cole and his family home first, to recover from their ordeal and prepare for what comes next. With Sub-Zero no longer a threat, they're safe enough for the moment--though unless one of Earthrealm's champions can prevail in the tournament, none of them will ever be truly safe again.
The rest of them return to the temple, and as they step from the portal, Liu Kang hears Jax's breath hiss through his teeth and Sonya's low "oh, God". He'd forgotten, in the midst of the day's events, that neither of them bore witness to Kung Lao's fate.
The shriveled thing crumpled on the sand is an empty husk, everything that made it Kung Lao gone, but it still deserves to be laid to rest properly. Liu Kang kneels beside the corpse, meaning to lift it, then clenches his hands as they start to shake.
“I’ve got you, brother,” Jax says quietly, moving to take his place. Liu Kang should thank him for his help, but if he opens his mouth, he doesn’t think anything will come out but screaming.
(Kung Lao had screamed for him, screamed his name. In his last moments, facing one of the most terrible fates Raiden had ever warned them of, he'd cried out for Liu Kang, and Liu Kang could do nothing to help him.)
“Liu Kang,” Raiden says, and Liu Kang looks up to see him beckoning. “I would speak with you alone.”
Obeying Lord Raiden is as easy as breathing—perhaps easier, now. Liu Kang follows him to the temple’s inner sanctum, eyes downcast. He glances up again when he feels a hand on his shoulder, the touch humming with restrained energy. This close, it's impossible not to be aware that the form the thunder god wears to interact with his mortal champions holds power beyond their imagining.
"I am truly sorry, Liu Kang," Raiden tells him. "Kung Lao's loss is a blow to us all, but I know how deep it runs for you."
Liu Kang hesitates. He and Kung Lao never spoke the full truth of what they were to another, and Raiden has never acknowledged it. Liu Kang is sure he knows; they had never imagined they could hide from a god, and that he never reprimanded them seemed the closest thing to acceptance they could hope for.
He pushes that thought aside--it's too late to wonder if he and Kung Lao could have had Raiden's approval outright rather than only tacitly. There are greater concerns now. "My lord, I spoke out of despair earlier, but I truly cannot see what hope we have for the tournament without Kung Lao. He was always the best of us."
"You underestimate your own strength, Liu Kang," Raiden says gently, folding his hands in front of him. "And that of your fellows. But it is true that we need every one of Earthrealm's champions." He pauses, then adds matter-of-factly, "Which is why you must try to rescue Kung Lao's soul."
Liu Kang stares at him. Hope springs up inside him at once, bright and treacherous, warring with disbelief. "Is such a thing possible?" he asks, heart thudding painfully in his chest.
Raiden turns, pacing a few steps away from him. "There may be a way. It will be more dangerous than anything I have ever asked of you."
"I'm not afraid," Liu Kang says at once. "There is nothing you could ask of me that I would not do to save him."
"Do not be so quick to swear that," Raiden answers, his voice going stern. "But very well. I can show you a path; it will be up to you to walk it, to find Kung Lao and bring him back. I will not be able to help you once you set out."
Liu Kang nods, squares his shoulders. "I understand, master. Show me the way."
Raiden shakes his head. "Not now. You need to rest and heal from today's battles."
"I'm all right," Liu Kang protests. His own wounds are nothing compared to what the other champions have endured, and he's pushed himself through exhaustion for worse causes than this. There's no time. "Send me now, please--"
"Enough." Liu Kang knows that voice, and knows it means there will be no further argument. "This journey will be perilous even at your full strength, and I will not risk losing you, too." Liu Kang bows his head, chastened, and Raiden says more gently, "Rest, Liu Kang. For Kung Lao's sake, if not your own."
***
The first time they meet at the Wu Shi Academy Liu Kang is wide-eyed and solemn, still not quite believing he’ll be allowed to stay here, and Kung Lao is a brash, stubborn thing who wears the pride of his lineage like a coat he hasn’t grown into yet, too big in the shoulders.
“Look after him,” Bo’ Rai Cho says to Kung Lao, who bows to their master with a serious look, then turns to Liu Kang with a crooked little grin.
“Shidi,” he says by way of greeting, and Liu Kang feels the corners of his mouth tug up in response.
“Shixiong,” he responds as he salutes, one fist pressed to the opposite palm.
***
Liu Kang fears he won’t be able to quiet his mind enough for sleep, but exhaustion takes over almost as soon as he lies down. When he wakes, he bathes and dresses, wraps his prayer beads around his wrist and once again ties the length of red cloth from Kung Lao’s hat around his brow.
He eats mechanically, nodding to Sonya and Jax when they join him at the table. They come straight from the fighting pit, still adjusting to the new abilities they unlocked in the heat of combat.
“Raiden told us about the mission he’s sending you on,” Sonya tells him, her gaze steady. “You really think you’re gonna be able to find Kung Lao’s soul?”
“If there’s any chance, I have to try,” Liu Kang replies, and she nods like nothing else needs to be said.
“Good luck,” Jax says, and Liu Kang manages a slight smile in response. “Any way we can help?”
Despite how briefly they’ve known each other, Liu Kang already feels a sense of kinship to them both—especially Sonya, whose struggle to claim her dragon mark reminds him of his own. Kung Lao and Cole were born with their markings, and Jax won his unexpectedly; they’ve all had to fight to make it this far, but Liu Kang and Sonya have had to fight just to prove they deserve the same chance as the others.
“Just take care of yourselves, and Cole, until I return,” he says in response to Jax’s question. “Until we return, I hope.”
***
Liu Kang wakes with a scream lodged in his throat and his body tensed for flight, and Kung Lao is there, one hand light on his shoulder and the other raised in a pacifying gesture.
“It’s all right, shidi,” he murmurs, over and over until Liu Kang’s panicked breathing slows. “It’s all right. I'm here.”
Kung Lao never asks what the nightmares are about, not even when Liu Kang huddles against his shoulder, shivering under the arm Kung Lao wraps around him. Sometimes they pass the rest of the night in the same narrow bed; Liu Kang curled in on himself, Kung Lao sprawled out with one arm flung carelessly across the smaller boy’s waist, blankets ending up kicked to the floor because even in those days Liu Kang runs hot.
***
Kung Lao’s body has been laid in one of the temple’s inner chambers, covered by a shroud. Liu Kang sits across from it, hands folded as if for meditation.
“When I open the way, you must go quickly and quietly,” Raiden says. “Think of it as slipping through a back door.”
“A back door into where?” Liu Kang asks.
“A place you are not meant to be,” Raiden tells him. “If you are discovered, your soul will be forfeit. You will see other captured souls there, but you will not be able to help them; a soul needs a body to return to, and even then the soul must still be whole enough to come back. Find Kung Lao and return at once, or both of you will be lost.”
Liu Kang nods, eyes fixed on the shrouded form in front of him. “I understand, master. How do I find him?”
“I do not believe that part will be difficult,” Raiden says with a hint of a smile in his voice. “Trust your instincts, and let the strength of the bond you share guide you.”
Cryptic as the instruction may be, Liu Kang has no doubt he can do that. He closes his eyes, drawing a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “I am ready,” he says.
Lightning dances in front of his closed eyelids, and then he’s somewhere else.
***
Liu Kang studies, trains, devotes himself to the teachings and principles of the Order of Light. Whatever Master Bo’ Rai Cho sees in him is enough for him to be brought before Lord Raiden, and whatever Raiden sees in him is enough for him to be told of the Order's true purpose, the great tournament and the dire need for a champion of Earth to claim victory there.
When Liu Kang is told he cannot fight in the tournament without a dragon marking, it feels like an inevitability—of course, this isn’t for someone like him.
And then he learns that there is a way to earn the mark someday, if he’s willing to do what he must to claim it.
***
Liu Kang opens his eyes to darkness.
Cautiously, mindful of Raiden’s warnings, he calls up a small flame in the palm of his right hand. The light is just enough for him to see his own body, and that he’s sitting on what looks to be smooth black stone. He glances around, listening carefully, but can make out no sign of anything but himself.
He gets to his feet, and that’s when he realizes there’s something else.
Tied to the fourth finger of his left hand is a red string that stretches away from him, into the black. Liu Kang stares at it, wanting to laugh and cry in equal measure.
Let the strength of the bond you share guide you.
He takes a few experimental steps forward, still watchful for signs of anything else around or any changes to the ground he walks on. The red string continues to stretch in front of him, as far as he can see.
I’m coming, Lao, he thinks, and quickens his pace.