JACQUI: I know you think you have things to make up for, but–
JAX: I’m doing this for Sonya. She’s family.
JACQUI: That’s why I’m worried.
JAX: I’ll be fine. You stay safe, y’hear?
JACQUI: You stay safe too. I love you. Briggs out.
JAX: Briggs out.
He switches off the communicator.
KENSHI: Feeling better? Or worse?
JAX: Not sure. Maybe both.
Kenshi chuckles and places a hand on Jax’s shoulder.
KENSHI: They’ll be fine.
JAX: Question is, will I be?
They walk over the Krossroad’s bridge to the landscape before it. Several soldiers have set up a perimeter behind cover, facing outward into the hellish landscape beyond.
KENSHI: We have good crossfire position. But why is it Quan Chi travels by conventional means?
They walk over to another person – one of the Netherrealms’ more known denziens – for their answer.
SAREENA: He seems unable to fully use his magic. He’s weaker than when I was… in his service.
JAX: Sareena’s dead on. He doesn’t have Shinnok as a power source. He’s still Quan Chi, though.
Kenshi nods at this. The three of them take up a position behind some rocks as cover.
KENSHI: I realise you agreed to guide and observe. But you are welcome to assume any role you wish.
JAX: I’m too rusty. I don’t wanna jeopardise the mission.
Kenshi silenty accepts this. Sareena looks into the distance beyond their cover.
SAREENA: He approaches.
The soldiers around them ready their assault rifles. Jax and Kenshi crouch with Sareena behind cover, Jax with a growing dread visible on his face.
The scene cuts over to the hell-horses galloping toward the ambush at full speed. Quan Chi leads the group. All of the available soldiers take cover and aim their weapons directly at the approaching horde. Accompanying Quan Chi are Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Kitana, Sindel, Kabal, Stryker and Nightwolf. Kenshi waits a few moments before giving his command.
KENSHI: Now!
The soldiers open fire. They don’t score any immediate hits, but the barrage is enough to spooks the hell-mounts. They rear up on their hind legs and refuse to go forward. One soldier aims his gun and shoots a hell-horse on it’s shoulder, causing it to rear up and throw Kung Lao from his saddle. Seeing this, Sindel and Kitana both jump off their mounts and take cover. Jax notices this, looking very concerned.
Sindel shoots off a blast of purple magic from her palm that hits a soldier near Jax. He falls to the ground, either unconscious or dead. Stryker aims a pistol from his mount and fires, blowing a hole through the skull of another soldier.
A bullet fired from another soldier clips Quan Chi’s mount in the neck. It drops dead, falling on it’s master’s leg in the process. Liu Kang immediately dismounts from his hell-horse to assist Quan Chi. Two more soldiers shoot at Kabal’s horse, and he responds to their poor aim by charging them. As the horse approaches, Kabal pulls his hookswords from their sheaths, readies one in his hand and decapitates a soldier as he gallops past.
Kenshi comes out of cover to assist, and Jax realises that the skirmish is going to end badly.
JAX: Shit…
As Kabal takes the head off another soldier, Kenshi pulls out Sento and yells out in Japanese, loosing off a telekenetic push that shoves Kabal off his mount. As he rushes in to engage Kabal, Liu Kang finishes pulling Quan Chi’s leg out from under the hell-horse carcass. Several soldiers run up to engage them, and Kang lets loose one of his fireballs – which now looks more like a black hole encased with dark red energy. The fireball lands dead centre of the soldiers, exploding into flames and roasting them instantly.
With the way now clear, Liu Kang takes his master by the arm and escorts him through the ambush, with Kung Lao following close by them. They rush past Jax’s hiding spot, not noticing him as they move towards the Krossroads. Realising that no one else can stop them, Jax takes a second to ready himself and stands up from behind cover, charging after them. Kung Lao turns around and spots Jax approaching, and moves to intercept him.
KUNG LAO: Do not interfere, Jackson Briggs. Go back into hiding.
JAX: Hiding. I guess I have been.
They fight. Kung Lao proves to have lost none of his speed and skill in undeath and the battle is a difficult one for Jax to go through. But his strength and power have not left him, and his cybernetic arms are as reliable as they always were. After a fierce melee, Jax manages to overpower the former Shaolin monk and leave him unconscious.
JAX: That knocked some of my rust off.
On the other side of the Krossroads, Liu Kang and Quan Chi have taken cover behind a large rock. More S-F soldiers shoot their assault rifles at them, not hitting but forcing them to stay in cover. Liu Kang shoots off a dark fireball that kills one, but the others keep steady… until Liu Kang shoots another fireball that immolates them both.
With the soldiers dead, Kang motions to his master and they make a break for it. Hot on their heels, Jax scoops up an assault rifle. He takes aim, but a banshee scream and the purple soundwaves it produces – curtosey of Sindel – knock him not just off his feet, but into a roll that takes him right off the Krossroads bridge. Jax only stops himself from plummeting into the lava below by grabbing the edge of the bridge with one hand.
Sindel walks over to where he hangs on, laughing with glee. She stomps on the hand, trying to force Jax to let go. He hangs on but his metal fingers are strained by the action, especially when Sindel grinds her heel in.
She rears her foot back for another stomp, but at the last moment Jax lunges up, grabbing her by the ankle. Taken off balance, Sindel is dragged off the edge of the bridge along with Jax. Instinctively, she whips her hair out and manages to latch it on to the giant rock seen earlier. The effort stops them both from falling into the lava.
Jax keeps a death-grip on Sindel’s legs, preventing her from kicking him off. With no choice – and an increasing pressure on her neck – Sindel draws herself back onto the bridge by her hair, taking Jax up with her. As Sindel’s hair loosens itself from the rock, they both quickly get to their feet, Jax in a fighting stance, Sindel with her arms open and ready to hug him, bizarrely enough.
SINDEL: Welcome home, Jackson Briggs.
JAX: This hell is not my home.
SINDEL: Then why be fool enough to return?
JAX: I got a family to protect.
SINDEL: Quan Chi reunited me with my family. He will do the same for you.
They fight. Facing off against the woman who killed him is yet another giant challenge for Jackson Briggs, but whatever power Sindel possessed in life has been considerably weakened by her years in the Netherrealm. As such, Jax is able to fend off Sindel’s attacks and take the fight directly to her, which ends with her down and defeated at his hands.
JAX: Quan Chi’s not helping you.
Behind Jax on the ambush spot before the bridge, Kenshi is engaged with Sento against Kabal’s hookswords, and Sareena is fighting Kitana. She throws two roundhouse kicks that Kitana evades and blocks a fan strike, but takes a punch across the face. She staggers back and tries to reason with Kitana.
SAREENA: It is possible to escape Quan Chi, Kitana. I can aid you as Bi-Han aided me.
KITANA: You became too familiar with Bi-Han. Allowed emotion to corrupt you.
SAREENA: Emotion freed me!
She punches Kitana in the face. Kitana swipes low with her bladed fans, but Sareena backflips to avoid them. She throws a crescent kick that Kitana catches, but lashes out with an enziguri kick with her other leg, sending the former Edenian sprawling. Sareena kips up as Kitana gets back to her feet, but she takes a moment too long and eats a flying kick to the chest from the revenant that knocks her out.
Kitana stands over her unconscious frame and prepares to finish her, but Jax calls out to her as she readies her fans.
JAX: I don’t understand, Kitana. I mean, I hate the things I did here. But you enjoy being a revenant!
Kitana steps away from Sareena and into Jax’s path.
KITANA: It suits me. I am a victim no longer.
She charges at Jax and somersaults over him. Jax turns around quickly and staggers her with a right hook. She falls back into a fighting stance.
JAX: Yeah, I know what you mean, but this ain’t the way to assert yourself.
They fight. Once more, Jax finds himself taking on an enemy with speed and skill superior to his own, but with his confidence restored in his previous bouts, Jax allows his strength to truly shine through here. It isn’t long before Kitana also finds herself in the same condition as Sindel and Kung Lao; unconscious.
JAX: I gotta believe there’s hope for you.
Jax turns around to the ambush site and assesses the situation. The S-F troops have repelled the rest of the revenants, but many are dead and those who’ve survived look in need of hospital beds. Jax walks over to Kenshi and Sareena. Kenshi is resting near a rock, and Sareena is crouched near a badly injured soldier who’s helmet looks like charcoal.
JAX: Mother o’ God…
KENSHI: We’ve lost many. The rest are wounded.
JAX: And our “friends”?
SAREENA: The tide turned against them. They fled.
JAX: How you two doin’?
KENSHI: I’m fine.
As he says this, he staggers. There’s a large wound on his right leg that has gone straight through his armor to the flesh below.
JAX: That’s what I thought.
He turns around toward the Krossroads.
SAREENA: Where are you going?
JAX: Gonna bag me a sorcerer.
KENSHI: Alone?
SAREENA: You’ll be killed!
JAX: Wouldn’t be the first time.
He walks down the bridge. The scene cuts to Quan Chi’s fortress. Liu Kang stands over Quan Chi, who is seated on a throne.
LIU KANG: In your weakened state, is it possible for you to release Shinnok?
QUAN CHI: I am more than capable.
LIU KANG: And D’Vorah? Are you certain she is capable?
QUAN CHI: She WILL bring the amulet to me.
JAX: And I’ll be waiting for her.
Liu Kang turns around at the new arrival.
QUAN CHI: Jackson Briggs. A pleasant surprise.
JAX: Nothin’ pleasent about it.
[QUICK TIME CUTSCENE BEGINS]
As Jax approaches, Liu Kang gets into his fighting stance.
LIU KANG: So you return to Raiden? The fools follow fools.
He throws a dark fireball. Jax sidesteps it and walks forward.
JAX: Raiden did his best. He saved Earthrealm!
Liu Kang charges up another fireball.
LIU KANG: HE MURDERED ME!
Liu Kang throws it, but Jax ducks the projectile and continues forward.
JAX: That isn’t true!
Liu Kang throws another fireball. Jax dodges this one as well.
LIU KANG: You were not there! He stole EVERYTHING from me!
Once more, Kang throws a fireball. Jax doesn’t bother dodging this one; he bats it away with his mechanical arms. He’s now reached Liu Kang, much to Quan Chi’s surprise.
LIU KANG: You do not deserve to rejoin us.
Jax only chuckles at this. Liu Kang throws two last fireballs, but each one is knocked away by Jax, who pounds his fist into his palm, ready for battle.
[QUICK TIME CUTSCENE ENDS]
LIU KANG: Instead you will learn… there are worse things than death.
They fight. The battle proves to be one of the toughest of Jax’s life. The former Champion of Mortal Kombat has all of the speed, strength, stamina and skill he had when he was alive, and he’s every bit the fighter he was when he defeated Shao Kahn. But Jax’s own skill and courage give him the strength he needs to keep fighting, and even though the fight is close, Jax manages to take Liu Kang down.
JAX: I wish I could help you, Liu Kang.
With no more bodies to help him, Quan Chi rises as Jax approaches, seemingly to reason with him.
QUAN CHI: Jax, there is no need for hostil–
JAX: Just stop talking!
He punctuates his point by uppercutting Quan Chi square in the mouth. The sorcerer is thrown high into the air and crashes into a wall of skulls. He slumps down, KO’ed in one hit.
JAX: S’good to be back.
He switches on his communicator.
JAX: Kenshi. I got ‘im.
KENSHI: Excellent work.
JAX: I’m staying here. D’Vorah’s on her way. You need to get Quan Chi to Sonya. She’ll make ‘im spill his guts.