Kitana waited until the Osh-Tekk leader had turned his back before she rolled her eyes, making an exaggerated show of it.

She could physically feel the strain of her patience wearing thin, and had to keep herself held together- to keep herself from making a remark as the supposed Kahn finally walked away to tend to other business.

As if there was something more important to tackle than the ordeal they were facing now.

At the very least, Kotal had stopped talking, which was all she could ask for.

She felt Jade slap her on the arm, which gave way that her strained eye roll didn't go unnoticed.

"We don't need him," Kitana finally spoke, tired of holding her breath. "He talks too much for us to get anything done, he'll just get in our way."

"We are out of our element and out of our own timeline here, we need as many allies as we can manage," Jade reminded, speaking firm from a place of logic- and frustration, it seemed. "Earthrealm is doing what it can to reunite as many fighters as possible, we must do the same- even if it involves Kotal."

"Your ex-boyfriend."

"We never dated," her friend corrected.

Kitana gave a soft huff. "That's not what I remember."

Another slap to the arm convinced her to drop the topic.

There were a lot of things for them to take care of, a lot of things for them to try and get back under control.

And the fact that it had all just been dropped into their laps without warning only made it that more frustrating to deal with.

She had had enough to deal with in their own timeline.

But now she was here, in the future, basically dealing with the exact same ordeals- but with less control over them.

Shao Kahn was attempting to take control of Outworld for Kronika's army, so that he might rewrite his own future, so that he could rewrite how fate had had him killed during the Tournament.

How fate had killed all of them during the Tournament.

Herself included.

"What are our plans moving forward then?" Kitana questioned, attempting to put herself back on track- lest she go back down the crippling rabbit hole of their current situation. There was a lot of work for them to do, they couldn't risk wasting any more time standing around debating it. "The Osh-Tekk are willing to help, but Shao Kahn has the Tarkatans on his side- and with Baraka at the front, they won't be as easily defeated as Kotal thinks so."

"He has Skarlet as well," Jade reminded.

Of course.

Skarlet made this scenario even more complicated.

While she had never personally stuck around them for long, Kitana had seen the Tarkatan camps before; she knew what kind of carnage and gore was strung about like decoration in those camps. Skarlet would be well within her element in them, which would be problematic should they try and force a head-on conflict. Pure blood was limited, but fresh blood was never scarce around Tarkatans. It would be enough to give Skarlet the advantage she would need, the advantage she would be depending on should battle occur.

They needed just as many advantages as they could get; they couldn't risk Skarlet getting the upperhand on them.

If Skarlet so much as slowed them down, it would leave them open to Baraka, to the rest of the Tarkatan army.

And Kitana wasn't willing to risk such a fate.

"Do you think Sheeva is still around?" Jade questioned. "We could try to convince her to join us as well. A Shokan unit would be a good starting point for us."

"We could- but you heard what Kotal has said. He started war with the Shokans and maimed Prince Goro in battle," Kitana reminded, irritated still by the news Kotal had practically boasted about. "Sheeva will not help us if she knows that we are working with him." She gave a pause, trying to quell the continued frustration growing in her chest, only to lose the fight. "Kotal is more trouble than he is worth to us."

"We just got here, Kitana," Jade ushered, sounding as equally frustrated as her. "Give him a chance."

"He's only helping us because he wants to sleep with you- again."

Jade gave a frustrated, almost muffled scream from her throat before the woman whipped around towards her. And Kitana felt that maybe she had finally pushed that line in the sand a bit too far, especially given the look that Jade was burning through her right now.

"And Liu Kang is any different?" Jade pressed.

"I never said that," Kitana lightly scoffed.

In all fairness, there was definitely a difference in how Kotal and Liu Kang acted- and how the two acted around them.

For one, Liu Kang had manners.

And he wasn't so offensive on the eyes.

And he also didn't enforce multiple counts of genocide in Outworld.

"Can we please just focus?" Jade snapped.

As much as Kitana was semi-enjoying riling Jade up, there were more important things for them to be focusing on.

Namely how they were going to circumvent this entire ordeal going forward.

They needed to keep an eye on Shao Kahn and his movements, but in order to do so they needed to track down the Tarkatans and their camp- which could be an issue. Kitana had some knowledge of where the Tarkatans liked to set up their camps, but she wasn't certain if the information was still relevant two decades later. Especially given how sparse their populations were in this apparent future.

Tarkatans were creatures of habit, but that wasn't to say that they couldn't change.

Especially not with Shao Kahn at the helm now.

"Where do we start?" Kitana asked, carefully broaching the topic- mindful of her friend's irritation with her now. "Do we track down the Tarkatans or try and hunt this D'Vorah down first?"

Jade didn't answer immediately.

But given how the woman's eyes moved around in a trackless matter, the silence was just in part to her thinking process.

"The Kytinn Hive has never changed, it might be best for us to start there," Jade offered. "As for the Tarkatans, there's three places I can think of where they might be located but that's it. With Shao Kahn leading them, there's no telling where they could be anymore."

They shared the same issues then.

"Kotal would know," Jade reminded.

Kitana groaned in response, but opted to mind her tongue this time.

"I suppose we can ask him then," she replied, admittedly through gritted teeth, "- but he's not coming with us."

"Grow up."

With a sense of great reluctance, Kitana moved to follow Jade as the woman went on to tracking down the Osh-Tekk leader. She didn't like Kotal's authoritative manner, but she supposed she would be hypocritical to not call herself out on it as well. She didn't like for someone else to be making the shots and giving her orders, treating her like she was some kind of common soldier.

Even if he was Outworld's ruling Kahn.

And even if they were in his camp right now.

And even if they were depending on his army to help overthrow Shao Kahn's.

They only made it a few feet before Kitana stopped, feeling a seemingly cold chill run down her back despite the hot Outworld sun above them. It felt like there was a shift in the breeze somewhere, and it was just enough to alert her to someone else's presence- to someone who wasn't there before. It reminded her of how she used to track Reptile while he was camouflaged, using the Saurian's natural abilities to hone her own assassin skills.

And right now, the gifted trait from decades spent as an assassin, from decades spent needing to keep an eye on her own back, was telling her that something was wrong.

Kitana noticed that Jade had stopped as well, no doubt feeling the same thing.

"Took you long enough to notice," a voice called out from behind them, confirming her suspicions.

Kitana turned at the voice, fingers already disengaging her fans as she slid into a fighting stance- not willing to take a chance with this timeline. She caught sight of Jade doing the same at her side; the woman's bojutsu staff fully extended in preparation.

There was a shift of movement in front of them, a subtle distortion before a woman emerged out of thin air.

An illusive cover; a common tactic.

Kitana watched as the woman stepped forward, before a second woman appeared just the same next to her.

It was difficult to describe the woman who revealed herself to them.

She was dressed in a pattern of blue and black, with an oddly armored waist cincher, and an assortment of plated armor on her neck, chest, and shoulders. At first sight, it was hard to tell exactly what the woman was wearing, let alone try and simple it down to something she could understand. Black hair had been split, with two parts of it braided and one part of it curled into a bun, in which the two braids were pinned into it at the sides.

The blue veil covering the woman's face was a give away.

As were the armored fans that dangled from the woman's hips.

The other woman with her was dressed in a pattern of green, black, and gold- and was a little more conservative than her blue counterpart. Her arms were wrapped in black binding with golden armor covering her forearms and biceps, providing the only bit of armor the woman had. A black halter top was tied behind the woman's neck before it disappeared under a royal-green bustier, giving off a sense of elegance to the woman's attire.

And there was no denying the similar-looking bojutsu staff the woman carried at her side, nor the green veil that she too adorned.

Kitana stepped back at their appearance, at the knots that formed in her thoughts and in her throat.

She felt the sudden grip of Jade's hand around her arm and caught sight of the woman angling her staff in front of the both of them.

Despite the confusion and shock, Jade's instincts were still to protect her- to protect the both of them.

"Well, well," the first woman spoke, before she reached up and pulled down on her blue-veil, revealing a face Kitana should've been expecting and yet was still shocked to see. "It took awhile to track you down- and this was the last place I would have expected, despite the information we were given."

Kitana could feel her heart beating in her throat now.

She felt a bead of cold sweat roll down the back of her neck.

"It's a pity."

"What's going on?" Jade pressed, the first to speak from their end.

"Is it not a given?" the other woman mused, before she too removed her green veil- revealing an equally familiar face. "I suppose not, given how things have been going for you so far."

"You're me?" Kitana questioned, fighting herself to get the words out. "But... the me from this timeline is dead."

"I never said I was from this timeline," her seemingly other self spoke. "Kronika has made a mess of things, and like everything else that goes wrong, somehow it always comes to us to make it right again."

"The power that Kronika wields is fragile, and where it is assumed to run forward and back, it is instead uncontrollable- even beyond the Titan's command," the second version of Jade continued. "Thus, you get mishaps like this one, where we are not from this past nor this future, but rather from a timeline to the left or right. An unforgivable mistake, but we have no choice but to do with it what we can."

Her head was already hurting from the explanation.

It was difficult enough to understand how she was in the future to begin with, leaving her own place in the timeline behind.

But now there was... another version of her?

"We're from a separate timeline," Kitana's separate half retorted. "I am what you become when you don't stay as a Revenant."

"This?" Kitana gestured to the other woman with the pointed remark.

"Would you rather be dead, as you are now?" her future self snapped.

And Kitana felt the tense sharpness in the woman's voice, felt the way it shivered under her skin.

"I didn't think so."

"Let's retrace our steps here," Jade spoke, speaking over their heated conversation. "In terms of this timeline, we are from the past, and our future selves are both dead and Revenant. But... you two are from a separate timeline, where we are not?"

"We still lost our lives at the Tournament," Jade's future half corrected. "The difference is that we do not stay dead and Revenant. The Special Forces recovered us after five years, during a battle at Quan Chi's fortress. It wasn't pretty but it got the job done, and now we are like this- alive and thriving, which is good considering this incident has now occurred."

So... now there was three of them in one timeline?

How were they going to correct this going forward?

They didn't even know if they could send themselves back into the past- or if they would even be able to stop Kronika to begin with.

"You look confused," Jade's future half spoke. "That is a given."

"I thought this situation couldn't get any worse- and yet it has," Kitana remarked.

"Oh, it's about to get much worse," Kitana's future self replied, looking to something behind them now.

Before Kitana had a chance to question the woman, she heard the answer for herself.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Of course.

Kitana turned to watch as Kotal approached their dysfunctional group; his eyes passing from one person to the next and to the next.

And from an outsider looking in, it was probably even more confusing.

"To grasp the meaning of this would be above your brain function," Kitana's future half spoke, giving a subtle wave of her fan towards the man. "If you'll excuse us, we have important matters to take care of- none of which involve you."

Kitana was surprised by her other half's attitude towards the man.

Noticing that it seemed to mirror her own sense of disdain with him.

And it didn't go unnoticed to the Outworld Kahn.

Kotal sized himself up at the blatant display of disrespect. "As Kahn and leader of this camp, you bear no power to tell me what to do here," he spoke. "This situation with Kronika affects me just as greatly as it affects you, and I will do everything in my power to prevent her and Shao Kahn from achieving their goal. Outworld depends on me to set this right."

Kitana rolled her eyes once more at the man's words.

And caught her future self doing the same.

"That is very nice, Kotal, but it does little to sway me," Kitana's future half continued, blatantly disregarding the man's full title, while waving her fan once more. "Now please stop wasting your time and mine. We have plans we must take care of- and your attendance is not needed, nor is it wanted."

"You don't-"

"This isn't up for discussion," her future self interrupted. "Your power here may be important to you, but I am not from here, thus you have no jurisdiction over me. If anything, Kotal, you're no better to me than you are in my own timeline."

"Your own timeline?" the man questioned.

"You are a very nice fur rug," Jade's future self interjected.

"And you're more useful to me as that rug than you are here as Kahn," Kitana's future self continued.

"You know, funny story, Mileena never told us how she did it- but your blur fur is very soft and velvety," the future half of Jade mused, edging the conversation on. "And it looks very fitting in front of a warm fire. Mileena takes good care of you too."

Kitana watched the subtle back-and-forth tag-teaming going on in front of her.

Part of her was amused, the other half mildly horrified.

And when she glanced over to see Jade's reaction, she could only describe the expression of mild concern.

"Mileena?" Kitana questioned, alongside Kotal.

"Outworld Kahn," Kitana's future half answered. "I had some objections to it, but seeing how this timeline has turned out, I'm beginning to think that she really was the better choice. I think you would find that allying with Mileena would've proven more beneficial than allying with... this thing."

The woman flickered her fan towards Kotal with the last remark.

"Mileena was insane and she would've driven Outworld to ruin," Kotal spoke.

Kitana could feel the heat of her future self's glare as the woman turned on Kotal, clearly unamused and unimpressed by his interruption and persistence. She watched as the woman crossed her arms and set to stare the man down- ignoring that he was taller than she was.

"And yet, Outworld is fine in our timeline," the woman continued. "And so is Edenia for that matter. And yet- I do not sense Edenia here."

"You have Edenia?" Jade interjected.

"Oh yes, it was a bitch to get back, but it was well worth the struggle," Jade's future self nodded. The woman extended her bojutsu staff before she staked it into the ground behind her, allowing her to lean back against it now. "Mileena knew where Shao Kahn had hidden the Edenian orb, and once the matters in Outworld had settled, and we were clean from the Netherrealm, she summoned it back. It was quite the spectacle."

Kitana felt a cut of envy with the words.

She had never known about Edenia until days before.

But now that she was aware of it, all she could focus on was how out of place she felt in Outworld now.

"Tell me, Kotal, do you even know where Shao Kahn hid Edenia?" Kitana's future self queried once more.

"No, but it cannot be difficult to find," the Kahn answered. "We have destroyed most of Shao Kahn's memorials and his palace. The only place we have yet to reach is his burial chambers, which is where I presume it has been hidden. He has taken Edenia to his grave."

Kitana's future self let out a thoughtful hum and tapped her fan against her chin in thought.

The woman glanced around the camp as if looking for something, only to not find whatever it was she was seeking.

"Answer this for me, Kotal," she continued. "Tanya and Rain, where are they?"

"Dead," Kotal answered. "They had aligned themselves with Mileena and acted as opposition to Outworld. I had to get rid of them to protect it."

"Interesting," her future self remarked.

And when the woman turned back towards them, Kitana knew there was an ulterior motive to the woman's question.

"Tell me, as Edenians yourself, why would you align yourself with a man who has murdered three Edenians?"

Kitana frowned at the question, feeling a slight surge of anger herself.

For a moment, it felt like all of her irritation and anger towards the false Kahn was justified now.

"General Rain and Tanya were Edenians?" Jade questioned.

Admittedly, Kitana had limited knowledge of the two.

She knew Rain to be one of Shao Kahn's Generals, and she knew that Tanya was one of his advisers, one of his tacticians. They were always in the Emperor's council, but Kitana could count on one hand the amount of times she might've interacted with them herself.

"Tanya was the daughter of a high-ranking Edenian Ambassador," Jade's future half spoke, filling them in on the information they were missing. "Rain was moonlighting as the son of an Edenian General, but his real father was Argus, Edenian's Protector God. I'm not close to either of them, maybe cordial at best, but I understand the gravity of what their deaths have brought to this timeline."

"Shao Kahn had a knack for collecting Edenians," Kitana's future self tagged on. "And now, there is another Kahn standing before me who wishes not to collect, but to kill."

"I did not kill them because they were Edenian!" Kotal objected.

"But it is rather suspicious, is it not?" her future half continued to press. "Do not try to defend yourself to me. I will be handling this matter from now on. You may find yourself a quiet corner to sit in and dwindle with your own work- but do not cross mine."

"You are in no position to make commands at me."

"You will be in a position without legs if you try me," Kitana's other half continued to bat in return. "Come, we will handle this matter on our own. The ordeal with Kronika and our Revenants is our responsibility, and ours alone. Outsiders are not welcomed."

Kitana watched as her future self turned away and began making her way out of the camp.

She watched as Jade's other half straightened up, plucked her bojutsu staff from the ground, and turned to leave just the same.

And she didn't hesitate to follow them.

"We'll handle finding D'Vorah and Baraka. You stay here and keep an eye out for movement from Shao Kahn," Jade spoke to Kotal, before she too moved to join them.

Jade was a peacekeeper.

Which was a good thing- and also a mild annoyance.

But one could be assured that Jade had never burnt a bridge in her life.

Other than with Shao Kahn.

In a bit of a surprise, and relief, the four of them made it out of the camp without further resistance.

Then again, Kotal probably wanted them gone.

"So now what?" Kitana asked, trying to bite back what felt like a surge of adrenaline coursing through her now. "We don't really know where we're going- or how we're going to get there."

"The Kytinn Hive is a landmark," Jade's future half remarked. "And the Tarkatans are where they usually are, or at least where they should be. And if not, then we'll be able to track them by scent- as they do with people."

One couldn't deny that a Tarkatan camp was easy to detect by the smell of roasting human meat.

An agonizing smell, but a well recognized one.

"I also stole some of Kotal's horses before we went inside," Kitana's future half spoke. "Transport will be easy."

True to her word, there were three Outworld horses hidden away not too far from the Osh-Tekk camp. They had already been saddled up, but they were probably already like that before they were taken from their hitching posts.

Kitana wasn't sure she even knew how to saddle up a horse.

Or why that thought even needed to exist given what was going on currently.

"Odd, I took four," Kitana's future half remarked, as she grabbed the reigns of one horse and lead it out of the subtle hiding spot. "Something must've grabbed one- can't say I'm surprised. Well Jade, it looks like you and I will be bunking up."

"I'm taking lead."

"The hell you are."

Kitana felt a knot in her throat as the reigns for one of the remaining horses was put in her hands. She knotted the worn leather around her fist for a moment before she forced herself up into the saddle.

It felt like she was just going through the motions, not really thinking about her next plan of action.

So much had suddenly been dropped on them, so much had changed from their original plans.

She wasn't exactly sure where they were in the grand scheme of things anymore.

She was pulled from her ongoing existential crisis by the touch of someone's hand on her arm, and she looked up to see Jade next to her; the woman looked far more comfortable on horseback than she did.

"Be honest, was this a mistake?" Jade questioned.

And Kitana wasn't sure if the woman was referring to them ditching Kotal where he stood.

Or to the faint arguing of their future selves going on in the background.

"I don't know," Kitana offered, vaguely at that. "I don't know anything anymore, but we're already here so we're in it for now."