hope is a four letter word
closed starter with @yetremains
Shao Kahn’s throne room was ever-dark, dimly lit by sconces that never seemed to shed quite enough light, braziers that seemed only to tease, and the dual moons of Outworld—Rayden did not recall the last time he saw a sun rise over his former home. He knew Shao Kahn had done horrific things to the place, but this was beyond what he could have imagined, and he was quite creative.
Sprawled on that horrid, sharp-looking throne was the man himself, tall, armored, imposing, wielding life and death as if they were nothing, just as he always had. Rayden may not have always been Earthrealm’s protector, but he had at least seen the logistical mess wrought by all-out slaughter, of which his brother—his twin—had been so very fond. Time, it seemed, had not dulled Shao Kahn’s taste for it. Rather, his desire seemed to have sharpened.
“Your suffering delights me, brother,” purred the dictator, tugging sharply on a chain that led to an ugly collar about the former thunder god’s neck. He stumbled closer to the throne, lip curling at the proximity.
“So you’ve mentioned,” grunted Rayden listlessly. The light was nearly gone from his pretty blue eyes, replaced with a baleful apathy that ill-suited his otherwise handsome, if drawn, features. Lips that had once smiled easily were now down-turned at the corners. He was bruised, clad elaborately, if scantily, and seemed to care very little indeed about any of it. How could he? Everyone who might have stood a chance against Shao Kahn was dead and their blood was, as far as Rayden might have been otherwise concerned, on his hands.
“Come closer,” ordered the Kahn of Outworld in almost dulcet tones, sharper than Rayden’s voice, but uncomfortably similar in pitch. He pulled the chain again and forced the man still closer. “Tell me again why you refuse me, even now, when all hope is lost and my armies are massing to invade Outworld? There is no hope. You may as well come back to me, to your family, where you belong.”
“Competition’s too stiff,” responded Rayden evenly, with the words, if not the affectation of his former self. He gestured blandly to the beautiful, barely-clad Outworlder girls all around the chamber, all serving the Kahn in some way.
“You know better,” growled Shao Kahn, the madness evident in his voice, “than to think you would be one of these!”
With a violent motion, he threw his brother bodily aside. Rayden fell in a heap and lay still, knowing that getting to his feet would earn him a beating he was not certain he could take. Not right now. Maybe I should, he thought to himself, just get this over with.