Fujin left mere hours later with an escort of two Osh-Tekk soldiers, as proof that the wind god trusted Outworld. Before he left however, the Kahn formerly apologized by inviting the god to dinner with him and the generals, so he was off to Earthrealm with a full stomach and high spirits.

"With Earthrealm's aid, it is quite likely that Raiden will fall," the Kahn said right before Fujin disembarked, "but what do you intend to do with him afterwards?"

Fujin hadn't thought of that earlier, but the answer was clear to him, "I will take him to the Elder Gods, and they will judge him as they see fit. I assume--"

"I am afraid at this time we have not the luxury of 'assuming,'" Kotal interrupted, hands behind his back. "Grateful as I am for your service, Fujin, I must make this one demand." The god's brow raised suspiciously. The emporer continued, "When Raiden is defeated, he will be brought to me. And I shall judge him as I see fit." Fujin saw visible bloodlust in the Kahn's blue eyes.

"You cannot kill him," Fujin argued, "He is a god."

The emporer waved that off as irrelevant, "I care not."

"You misunderstand," Fujin insisted, "He is immortal. You may beat and batter him, but he cannot be killed. You are not the first to attempt it."

"Those before me I am sure were not as powerful as I. I am certain that --"

"Shao Kahn tried," Fujin interrupted, "and failed." The Kahn immediately silenced and squinted his eyes at Fujin. The god of wind finished, "I am afraid you misunderstand. You cannot kill a god."

The words floated between them for a few moments. The Kahn's gaze was unwavering, as was the god's. The stalemate was finally broken when the emporer bitterly said, "Send your message to Earthrealm. We will discuss this further upon your return."

Just as Fujin and his guards were turning away, Derek hurried to where the two stood. "Wait!" he shouted. He approached the god and Kahn, breathless. He was equipped in leather Zaterran armor, obviously lent to him by Reptile. A dagger with a handle of bone rested on his hip.

"By your leave, emperor," he panted, "I would like to join in Fujin's quest to Earthrealm. I believe it would be best for one more Earthrealmer to tag along, as further proof of our alliance," Kotal Kahn raised an eyebrow at him, "And, uh, Syzoth agrees." He gave the emperor a nervous smile.

Fujin was chuckling. He flashed a smile at Kotal, "I'll gladly have him, emperor, if you allow it. He seems quite enthusiastic." Derek looked at Kotal hopefully.

The Kahn looked down at him, "Why not?" Derek almost jumped and shouted with glee, but he restrained himself.

Instead, he said, "Thank you, emperor. You will not be disappointed."

Kotal grinned, "I doubt I will be. Farewell, my friends," he said as they turned toward the portal again.

"Wait," Ermac appeared behind Kotal, gesturing toward Fujin. Fujin halted yet again.

"By the gods," Kotal grumbled, "Is there no end to this folly?"

"Forgive us, emperor," Ermac apologized. "Lord Fujin," he addressed the wind god with a bow and a fist on his chest, "We are afraid we have heard of your attendance too late, but we would ask if you could answer a few of our questions about divinity at a later time."

Fujin looked a little confused, but answered, "Of course. But I must say I did not expect you to be curious on this matter."

"Not us," the construct replied, "We ask for a... friend." His hesitation did not go unnoticed by any of the three parties.

"Very well," the Kahn decreed, "At that, I say that Fujin should be off before any further interruptions arise."

"Yes, of course," the wind god agreed with a smile. "Farewell everyone. I will return soon with the aid of Earthrealm behind me." He stepped through the portal with his guards and Derek behind him.

______________________________________

"Did you ask him?" Misaki asked eagerly when Ermac returned to her chamber. She was simply bursting with excitement. A chance to talk to a real god!

"We did ask him. He agreed to answer any questions you have for him when he returns," he barely got the whole sentence out when the short woman pounced on him, wrapping her arms around his chest.

By this time, he was used to these bursts of affection, so he reflexively hugged her back.

"Thank you thank you thank you, Ermac!" she gushed into his red cloak, "Oh, this is so exciting!"

Ermac simply smiled widely at her happiness.

______________________________________

A few hours later

"Then, of course, I leapt into that portal without a second thought," Derek finished his story shooting his hand forward. The portal led them in the middle of a dense forest, thankfully only a few hours walk from the SF base. Fujin said that he meant to teleport them right in front of the base's entrance. He didn't know why the portal didn't work then. It was nighttime in Earthrealm, so they were traversing through the dark.

To pass the time, he asked Derek to recount how he ended up in Outworld. He gave Fujin the exciting blow by blow.

"I say, not many others would have been as brave as to do that in such a moment," he complimented the Earthrealm boy.

"Well when your only alternative is to be swarmed by angry Argentinians, the choice becomes pretty obvious," Derek pointed out. Fujin laughed.

"Yes I guess that is so." He turned his attention to one of the Osh-Tekks, "What of you, soldier? What would you do in that situation?"

The guard looked surprised to he addressed by the god, "Um, I would, uh, probably attempt to fight the villagers. Or... it depends..."

"Of course you'd say that," the other Osh-Tekk said, chuckling.

"It's just... fear of the unknown. I know not what lies through the portal, the situation could be worse there. The unknown terrifies me."

"What about death?" a voice said before running a katana blade through the Osh-Tekk's back. "Does that terrify you?"

It happened in an instant. The figure removed his victim from his blade, sending the poor Osh-Tekk slumping to the ground. The second soldier unsheathed his sword and faced the mysterious figure. Suddenly, a second figure appeared behind him and snapped his neck. When he fell dead to the ground, Fujin saw that the figure was Raiden.

"No," was all Fujin could say.

"How foolish of you to believe that you could escape me," Raiden said, forming a ball of electricity in his hand and hurling it toward Derek. The former Earthrealmer fell backward onto the forest floor.

Before Raiden could lift another finger, Fujin lunged at him, landing blow after blow onto Raiden's chest, stomach, and face. The thunder god eventually caught up with him, and the two fell into combat, blocking and countering each other's attacks.

Meanwhile, the katana wielder-- who turned out to be a Shirai Ryu assassin-- pointed the tip of his blade at the fallen Derek. He barely had time to roll out of the way before he was skewered by the tempered steel. The ninja's sword sunk into the earth instead. Reacting quickly and cleverly, Derek kicked the sword's handle, snapping the blade off and leaving it stuck in the ground. The assassin held only an empty hilt. Derek quickly leapt to his feet and unsheathed his own blade. A thin dagger given to him by Reptile.

He attempted a stab at the assassin's throat, but he caught his arm with both hands, unfortunately for him, this allowed Derek to punch him in the side, right under the ribs. He followed with another punch to the ninja's masked face. As he stumbled back from the blow, Derek plunged the dagger into the assassin's spinal cord. He fell motionless to the ground instantly.

"Sure hope you don't fear death," he said to the corpse, feeling like a champion badass. He looked up and saw Fujin and Raiden still engaged in combat.

Raiden attempted to grab both of Fujin's biceps, but the wind god blocked his arms with his elbows and responded by grabbing the thunder god's shoulders and squeezing hard. Derek could hear the bones crunching from where he stood. Raiden cried out in pain and tried to remove Fujin's hands, but he just squeeze all the tighter. The thunder god growled in rage and clenched Fujin's side, pumping electricity into his torso. Fujin shouted briefly, but remained stable. He took a deep breath and flew a gust akin to a tornado's into Raiden's face, snapping his head back and blasting his hat off.

"Yeah! Get him, Fujin!" Derek shouted right before a kunai pierced into his leg's armor.

"GET OVER HERE!" He heard a deep voice shout as he was yanked off of his feet and deeper into the woods. He was dragged right beneath a man with a yellow mask and a black hood.

The kunai's blade didn't pierce much skin but it pierced some. However, Derek didn't have time to dwell on that as he lifted his arms to block a kunai aimed for his skull.

It was not easy. The man attacking him was much bigger that him and was putting all of his weight onto Derek. However, he fortunately neglected to sit on top of him as he stabbed, so Derek was able to redirect the blade to where it stabbed into the ground, just like the other ninja's.

He swung an elbow into the attacker's face and hurried to his feet, hoping it would buy enough time.

It thankfully did, and he rose just soon enough to block a sword swipe with his dagger.

"If you are of Earthrealm then why do you fight me?" The assassin asked. His voice was familiar. Iconic. "Did you feel as though you had no choice?"

He assumed the man had heard him tell his story. Regardless, that didn't stop Derek from quickly kicking him in the stomach. As he doubled over, the young warrior leaped into a front flip, slamming his heel into the back of the man's skull. He fell face first into the dirt.

"Maybe it's because Earthrealm never taught me to do that," adrenaline combined with the chance to show his worth drove him to strength that he didn't even knew he had.

The man suddenly burst into flames and disappeared, reappearing behind him an second later and sucker punching him in the head. Derek stumbled forward, but kept his footing.

"Quit this folly, boy," the man-- he believed it was safe to assume that he was Scorpion, the Netherrealm assassin-- said to him. "You are quite skilled, and I don't know what causes you to fight, but you should be fighting for your home realm."

Derek sheathed his knife and raised his fists, panting with fear, exhaustion, alertness, excitement and everything else to pant about. "If my realm is fighting for any of your causes, then I'm fighting for anybody going against you!" He glared furiously at Scorpion. Although he was quite terrified inside, he didn't let any of it show.

"So be it."

Scorpion jabbed at Derek's nose. Derek dodged it. He dodged another, another, ducked under a right hook, but was caught by an uppercut. He recovered quickly and kicked Scorpion in the chest. He then spun around and swung his heel into the dead man's jaw. He took a step back and drop kicked him for good measure. The undead assassin fell dead to the world.

After Scorpion didn't get up for a few seconds, Derek assumed he had won. After mentally fist pumping and hooting, he looked towards where Raiden and Fujin were fighting. It seemed that this time, Fujin was winning. The wind god had kneed the thunder god in the chin, grounding him. Derek cupped his hands around his mouth to cheer him on.

"You go Fu--" he was stopped cold by a sudden intense pain. He shakily forced his head to look down and saw a blade sticking out of his stomach. "No," he choked out, a dribble of blood running through his lips. The blade was removed and he slumped to the ground, still conscious, but powerless to move.

He saw Scorpion nonchalantly sheath his blade and thrust his arm out toward Fujin, impaling the wind god with a kunai.

No! Derek mentally shouted.

"Come here," Scorpion growled as he pulled Fujin towards him. He landed on his knees directly in front of the assassin. Scorpion drew his sword out again.

"I'm sorry," was all he said before slicing Fujin's head off.

Scorpion didn't watch the body fall, he couldn't bear to. He immediately ran to Raiden, helping the thunder god to his feet. "It is done, my lord," he said with a heavy heart. "Fujin is dead."

"Good, Scorpion," Raiden, despite being beaten badly by the wind god, looked actually pleased. "What of the child he was with?"

"He faced the same fate," Scorpion replied. "He lies over--" his words caught in throat as he pointed. Right where he had left the incapacitated Earthrealm traitor lied nothing but empty grass.

Derek was gone.