Nightwolf.

Kotal Kahn educated himself on nearly all of last tournament's combatants, only a scarce few were left unknown by him. He paid particular attention to the stories of Nightwolf, the Native American shaman from Earthrealm. He was a fierce fighter, using the power of spirits instead of souls to attack his foes. This spirit power was strong enough to destroy Shao Kahn's Soulnado many years ago, and he was the only known Earthrealmer to survive combat against Queen Sindel. However, that record was recently broken by Jackson Briggs and Cassandra Cage.

However, Nightwolf was the only one who succeeded in killing Sindel, unfortunately destroying himself in the process, though. Now a dead man, he served Quan Chi until his master's demise at the hands of Hanzo Hasashi. His loyalties are now unknown.

The Kahn had many questions.

"Why did you summon me here, Nightwolf?" he started with. He turned around to face the shaman, glowering.

"Shouldn't an emperor welcome an ambassador from another realm with open arms?" the dead man asked, stepping closer to the emperor. His voice sounded unnaturally deep, a quality necromancy will add to a person.

"Not an ambassador that seeks company in a barren desert, alone, and with no guard. That man shall receive only suspicion from me," the emperor said, scowling. And suspect him Kotal did. Whereas he didn't come fully armed, he always had his obsidian dagger, and his twin hooks were attached to his back should he need them.

They stared off for a while, neither speaking nor breaking eye contact. Finally, Nightwolf conceded, "Very well, emperor," he said, bowing, "The great and mighty war god. I thank you for meeting with me."

Hmm, the emperor thought, Perhaps his intentions are strictly diplomatic.

"Your flattery is unnecessary," he told him, "What I want to hear is your intentions." Nightwolf rose. "Why are you here?"

The revenant immediately replied, "Much like a lone wolf seeks companionship in a pack, we of the Netherrealm seek strength in alliance." He took a step closer to the Kahn. The emperor tensed. The revenant was unarmed, but Kotal knew enough about Nightwolf to not let his guard down. "I did not come for combat, emperor. The Netherrealm seeks friends. We will need them in our trying time."

The Kahn scoffed and turned his back on the Indian. The audacity of him! Hell seeking peace? Bah! Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. Not turning back, he asked, "Who leads the Netherrealm?"

Nightwolf hesitated. "Can we not lead ourselves? Is it impossible for us to take advantage of our new lives and seek our own fates? Can't we--"

"No," Kotal interrupted, pivoting on his heel and turning towards the shaman. Nightwolf did not miss the dull yellow glow coming from the Kahn's tattoos. He opened his mouth to argue, but he was silenced again. "You may not, because you are dead."

An obvious fact, even Nightwolf knew that he only lived thanks to necromancy, but nonetheless the words had a leaden weight on them. The shaman's negotiable face and demeanor immediately fell at them. A scowl slowly formed on his face to match the Kahn's.

"Who. Leads. The Netherrealm?" Kotal asked again, his hand tightening into a fist. Shinnok was dead, along with Quan Chi. If the man he suspected was ruling the demons, he must know about it.

Nightwolf didn't answer at first. His grimace portrayed nothing but hostility and, for a moment, the Kahn expected an attack. Just as Kotal was about to reach for his hooks, however, the shaman's face fell back into neutrality and he said, "Emperor Liu Kahn, and his queen Kitana Kahnum."

Kotal's eyes widened in shock. Liu Kahn? By all the gods, he expected Raiden to have taken over, but him? And he dares to disrespect the emperor's title! "How did this come to be?" the Kahn asked incredulously.

Nightwolf looked towards the boulder from which he emerged. Kotal was certain that there was a portal or teleportation rune behind it. The shaman turned back to him and asked, "Shall we sit emperor?" He gestured to the boulder, "It is an awfully long story."

Kotal's tattoos glowed brighter, "Then you will give me the condensed version." This translated to: No I will not sit and you would be wise to fear me at this point.

Nightwolf's arm returned to his side, "Very well emperor." He deeply inhaled through his nose. Then he spoke: "After the death of Quan Chi, us revenants knew that we had lost all hope of returning to life. Some of us mourned, others rejoiced. I simply wish I could have joined the spirits." At that moment, the Kahn saw a glimmer of humanity in the shaman. A trace of what he once was. "We learned of this news mere hours before we learned of the death of Shinnok. The betrayer, Raiden, had killed him. With both of our lords slain, we had no guide, no goal, no aspirations. We were lifeless in death. Until, Liu Kang found that he still shared one emotion with his living self: his love for Kitana. It seemed to be the one sole thing that raised his spirit, had he one. Together they--"

"Condensed version," the Kahn reminded him.

Nightwolf scowled and continued, "They deemed themselves married and Kitana declared herself Kahnum, making Liu Kang the Kahn. They have led the reparations of the Netherrealm's strength, tripling it within mere weeks."

With that, the revenant concluded his story. Silence engulfed the desert. Kotal Kahn just stared down at the shaman for a few moments, arms crossed not saying anything. The silence grew all the louder until Nightwolf added, "Emperor, the Netherrealm is strong now. If we were to ally..."

"At what cost?"

"What?"

Kotal took a step toward him, his large frame looming over the Indian. "At what cost do you gain this strength? Do you torture innocent souls until they know naught but violence? Do you kill the living so that they are damned to an eternity of  hatred?" Nightwolf opened his mouth to retort, "Silence! I have one more question." He stepped within arms reach of the dead man. "Do you honestly believe that would consider for a single moment to ally with the realm of demons? With Hell? With dead men?!"

He grabbed Nightwolf by the throats and backed him into the boulder. "Damn your alliance! And damn you too!" He clutched hard on the Indian's trachea, but received no pained reaction from him. In fact, Nightwolf looked almost unbothered by the sudden attack.

"I lament," he said, reaching up and easily pulling the Kahn's painted hand off his neck, "That I already have been." He kneed Kotal in the stomach, jabbed him twice in the face, and swung hard at his jaw. The strength and speed of the sudden attack left him stumbling back.

Kotal glared at the shaman, holding his jaw-- fortunately his helm took a bit of the blow. Nightwolf spread his arms and shouted, "Ancestors give me strength!" Instead of the usual blessings that empower him, however, red bolts fell from the sky and he glowed with a crimson aura.

"Do not look to the dead for aid!" Kotal growled as he absorbed more sunlight. There was no shade in sight, and the sun was beaming down on him; perfect. His tattoos and eyes positively shined. "For they will be late." He reeled him arm back and hurled a sunbeam at Nightwolf.

The revenant rolled out of the way, but the beam shattered the boulder behind him. He recovered from his roll into a kneeling position and formed a green bow, firing an arrow at the Kahn. Kotal quickly swatted the arrow to the side with his gauntlet. He unsheathed his twin hooks just as Nightwolf summoned his green tomahawks.

"I came for peace," Nightwolf said, baring his teeth and lowering his stance.

"Nzant!" Kotal hissed in his native language. Loose translation: Bullshit.

They both charged at each other with their weapons raised. Nightwolf swung a tomahawk upwards when they met, Kotal swinging a hook downward, blocking it. Gold and wood met spirit energy with a splash of white and a loud ting. The Kahn swung his other hook at Nightwolf's neck, but the shaman parried the blow. However, Kotal was able to surprise him by, instead of slashing again with his hook, he swung his fist still clenching the hook into the revenant's stomach. The Indian took a step back and jumped, swinging his foot into the Kahn's head. Kotal staggered. They both recovered quickly and charged back into close-combat.

Loud tings filled the desert as a figure shining yellow and another red fought to the death. Their battle of blades continued for a few minutes, as they were both skilled with their weapons. Eventually however, Nightwolf gained the upper hand; spirit energy does indeed trump gold in durability. After one more hardy swing, Kotal was holding nothing but a decorated handle in his right hand, the hook chopped off,  leaving it splintered.

Nightwolf raised both tomahawks in what would be a finishing blow, but the Kahn swung his remaining hook at the right time, catching the handles of both axes in the hook's curve. He yanked the weapons, along with Nightwolf's arms to the side and sunk the splintered handle into the shaman's collarbone. The Indian shouted in pain and elbowed the Kahn back a step. He then twisted and rammed Kotal with his good shoulder, sending him to the sandy ground.

Kotal rolled backwards as Nightwolf yanked the wooden shank out of his shoulder.

"You should have allied with us," Nightwolf said as the Kahn rose to one knee. "Were you wiser, you'd have chosen subjugation while you lived. Now, you will be forced to serve in death." He flung a tomahawk at Kotal.

The emperor brought up his arm just in time to catch the blade with his gauntlet. The green axe stuck fast into the metal. Kotal quickly fired a beam in retaliation from his other hand. Nightwolf blocked it with his tomahawk, however the sun magic evaporated the green weapon into nothing.

"Kotal Kahn," the Kahn said, rising to his feet, "No, Outworld bends the knee to no one!" He stepped forward and swung his heel at the shaman's head. Nightwolf ducked to avoid it, but that made it all the easier for Kotal to knee him in the face, but the revenant stopped his knee from making contact with a swift, two handed block. He blocked another punch to the face and gut, and countered with a jab to the eye that the Kahn blocked.

Sweeping his arm back, Kotal thrust his fist forward at the shaman's forehead. Nightwolf stumbled back a step, but Kotal kept pressure with a uppercut to the stomach that lifted him off the ground briefly. The Kahn sent him flying with a high kick to the chest.

Nightwolf fell into the sand. The emperor stormed over to continue his beating, but the shaman raised his hand into the air, calling down a red bolt to blast the Kahn onto his back. Nightwolf leapt to his feet and summoned another tomahawk into his hand. He strode over to the fallen Kotal.

Said Kahn groaned with the effort of trying to get up. He was fighting way too much lately, scarcely getting even the shortest of breaks.

He rose into a kneeling position, hand on the sand supporting him. He suddenly had an idea on how to finish this.

It was tactful, it wasn't genius, it wasn't even original, but it worked. Kotal grabbed a handful of sand and hurled it into Nightwolf's face. The tiny grains went everywhere; his eyes, his nose, his mouth. The shaman began wiping his red eyes, sputtering for a clean breath of air. He never got his chance as Kotal ran up to him and kicked him hard in the side. Nightwolf stumbled sideways, but kept his footing. Kotal then grabbed him by the shoulder and punched him twice in the face with his left hand. He released him for a brief moment before grabbing him hard by the face, pumping loads of sun magic into his whole body.

"On your knees," he growled, forcing the shaman downward. He struggled, but eventually, Nightwolf was shoved into a kneeling position. Kotal grabbed him by the chest and flipped him over into the sand behind him. He then grasped the revenant by the thigh and chest and lifted him high above his head, calling down a sunbeam to rain down on him.

He tossed the charred remains of Nightwolf onto the ground. Pieces of blackened flesh flaked off of him, but he groaned, still alive.

"Perhaps," Kotal Kahn said, "you may not kill what is already dead. Or alternatively, the only way to truly free you is by granting to a second, true death." He unsheathed his dagger, "Allow me to test my theory. You may see this as a mercy." He knelt next to Nightwolf and rose the blade high, aiming for the flesh right next to the heart. Just as he was bringing it down, however, he was tackled by some winged beast.

As he wrestled with the creature-- he soon found it to be a demon from the Netherrealm-- he saw Nightwolf being carried into a red portal by some revenant in a black cap.

Returning his attention to the demon, Kotal sunk his middle and ring finger into the beast's eyes, his thumb in its mouth, and squeezed hard. With a loud crack, he ripped the front of the demon's skull off. He tossed aside the bloody bone and glared at where the portal once glimmered.

Victorious as he was, realization dawned on him. An inevitable truth clouded over him like a looming thunder cloud blocking the sun.

Outworld now had two threats.