Fanfic / Mortal Kombat Khronicles

A collection of short stories featuring various characters, intended to explore the cast in more depth than NetherRealm Studios will.

Mortal Kombat Khronicles is a compilation of short stories written by The4thSnake, exploring the kombatants' lives between the events of the games, as well as expanding on the storyline within the games themselves. Each chapter focuses on a different character, and while they are not in chronological order, they do make references to each other and some are direct sequels to previous chapters.

The4thSnake is also a YouTuber who makes a large amount of his video content around the Mortal Kombat franchise, and even has a series of videos compiling chapter summaries for Mortal Kombat Khronicles that can be found here and here.

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• Accidental Murder: Sub-Zero accidentally kills Frost while trying to disable her, after she spins around on him.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Sheeva is one of Goro's seven wives, as mentioned in his MK1 bio. She kills the rest to get into Shao Kahn's good graces, earning her a high-ranking position in the upcoming Earthrealm invasion.
• Adaptational Heroism: Mileena. See Tragic Villain below.
• Ancestral Gear: Liu Kang's bracers and bandana were passed down from the original Great Kung Lao to present Kung Lao, who in turn, gave them to Kang for good luck.
• And Show It to You: Kano kills Sonya's brother Danny by cutting out his heart and showing it to both of them.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Liu Chow, Liu Kang's brother that was only mentioned in canon by his bio for the first game^note Not counting the first film, where his death drives Liu's desire to face Shang Tsung, is the protagonist of chapter 30.
    • In the same chapter, Earthrealm's fire God, Kojin, who only appeared in Mythologies and was mentioned in MK4, is there to pretty much serve as the Raiden to Chow's Liu Kang.
  • Master Wen, a name mentioned among the casualties in the Wu Shi Academy Massacre in MK9, has an appearance in an earlier chapter.
  • Sonya's father, Colonel Herman Blade, whose biggest role in the games was being brought up in one of her MK9 arcade endings. Here, he's revealed to have personally led the raid that resulted in Kano losing his eye (in addition to killing his mentor Trev), as well as being a mentor figure to Jax, helping him get on the path to becoming the man he is.
  • Kuai Liang and Bi-Han's sister, who was only mentioned in a bio from Mythologies, is revealed to be Frost.
• Beta Couple: Averted. The author brought up the possibility of Jade and Kung Lao becoming this to Kitana and Liu Kang, but decided to keep their relationship platonic.
• Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The male Kytinn are more heavily armored, have thicker wings, and bladed arms; while the females, like D'Vorah have a more… distinctly feminine form.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Bo' Rai Cho is this among the White Lotus, as his loud, drunken, and boorish antics don't gel with the more reserved attitudes of the monks, but his immense knowledge as a martial arts master is too valuable to lose.
• The Cameo:
  • Mavado appears at the Red Dragon Artifact room where Onaga had the brainwashed Earthrealm champions at, when Ermac, Sindel, and ghost!Liu Kang show up to free them. Before that, Stryker is mentioned as having helped them get the information to find the place.
  • Kano, Tasia, and Jarek are at the Black Dragon safehouse, where the brainwashed Sindel was being held up.
• Canon Character All Along:
  • One of the Kytinn females that flee the destruction of their hive in chapter 30 is revealed at the end to be D'Vorah.
  • Played with concerning Chow and Kojin, who were both mentioned in canon (with the latter even appearing in a spinoff game), but never appeared in a mainline game. Their story reveals that they were the unidentified greed-clad warrior and flaming man seen in the background of The Pit II in Mortal Kombat II.
• Changed My Mind, Kid: Played with in chapter 30. While Kollector is helping Chow and Kojin find their way into the Kytinn hive, he walks out on them before the actual fight begins, claiming not to be a fighter. But he later shows up tossing lanterns to help Chow out while he’s caught in a pinch. When questioned on this after saying he’s not a fighter, Kollector simply replies that a surprise attack is not a fight. Though Chow suspects he simply failed to escape and wound up having to get involved in the fight.
• Chekhov's Gun: Retroactively with Liu Kang's bracers and bandana, given to him by Kung Lao. Both are mentioned to have ended up helping him survive the tournament; the former protected his wrists from being crushed in Goro's grip long enough for Kang to break free, while the latter kept the blood from a head injury out of his eyes during a fight and helped shield his eyes from Reptile's acid spit.
• Christmas Episode: Believe it or not, there actually is a chapter focusing on a Christmas with the Cage-Briggs family, when Cassie and Jacqui were young.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Kitana was subjected to this after being captured while trying to free her mother during the Outworld invasion.
• Combat Stilettos: Sindel ends her fight with Jade by stabbing her through the wrist with her heel.
• Composite Character:
  • Kuai Liang’s past self, Cyber Sub-Zero, is found by Cyber Frost in chapter 40. In the next chapter, she brings him out in her final battle with present Sub-Zero, where we learn that he has been upgraded to have the abilities (and ability to switch to the colors) of Cyrax and Sektor, becoming Triborg.
  • Khameleon and Chameleon take this to a logical extreme. Shang Tsung created a female companion for Reptile, with both understanding that the result wouldn't be a pure-blooded Saurian as the DNA of other races was needed to complete the process. The result, to their confusion, is currently a Sex Shifter.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Ermac delivers a brutal one towards a pack of Tarkatans.
  • Scorpion performs one on Quan Chi’s Bodyguard Babes after cornering him during the Battle of Armageddon, before moving in on the sorcerer himself.
• A Day in the Limelight: Each chapter can be seen as one for a different character. Though some, like Mileena and Sindel, get particular focus.
• Death Is Cheap: The author tries to mitigate this aspect of the franchise by introducing a rule to the universe that resurrections only work once, unless it is due to the direct intervention of the Elder Gods (a way to explain how Johnny Cage could still have been killed and resurrected twice canonically, as the first involved the Gods). Otherwise, anyone who dies can only be brought back once (and they often get milky white eyes).
• Distracted by the Sexy: The first hint to Mileena that Meat is male (at that point, he was little more than a gore-covered skeleton with eyes), is him awkwardly staring at her naked body, after she tosses aside her viscera-covered clothes from crawling out of a flesh pit. She later returns the favor, after magically giving him a full, if deformed body, and quickly has to grab some rags for him to fashion a loincloth out of to mitigate the issue.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Johnny's manager, Chuck, falls into this between Johnny's first death during the Outworld invasion and his return to the living following the events of MK4. Chuck spent this time trying to fight for Johnny's script to be brought to life in honor of his memory, while the execs were less than cooperative. Ironically, Chuck had to fight against the film execs forcing Johnny's character down this road in the movie.
• Enemy Mine: While infiltrating the Kytinn hive on Shang Tsung's now-abandoned island, Chow and Kojin find the Kollector hiding out and stranded in the depths of the island. Despite their opposing allegiances, he agrees to help them in their quest, and they part on surprisingly good terms.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Mileena views Meat and Skarlet as her "siblings," due to their shared origin as artificial creations. She also has a close relationship with Baraka, and is romantically involved with Tanya. There is also her "mother" Sindel and "sister" Kitana, though that one's complicated by brainwashing being used on all parties involved, and Mileena and Kitana's animosity following the latter finding out the truth.
  • Subverted with Shao Kahn's relationship with his "daughters." While he can put on a convincing loving, if stern, father act when he wants to, he ultimately sees them both as tools.
  • Kano seemed at least a little upset to lose his mentor Trev.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Bi-Han/Noob Saibot tells Frost that it was a young Sektor who killed their mother on orders from the Grandmaster to eliminate any temptation their father may have for leaving the Lin Kuei. However, Sektor could not bring himself to kill his and Kuai Liang's baby sister, so he instead left her on the doorstep of a nearby family. Though Noob attributes this to Sektor's youth, meaning his heart hadn't been hardened by years of killing yet, and assures his sister that this would not be an issue for him if they met again.
  • Tanya is disgusted with Quan Chi subjecting Mileena to his mind manipulation experiments. Though Quan Chi suspects this is more due to Tanya caring about Mileena herself, even if she refuses to admit it.
  • Kabal left the Black Dragon because he was appalled by the manner in which Kano murdered Danny, and how he used it to traumatize Sonya.
• Everyone Can See It: Liu Kang and Kitana's mutual attraction is obvious to everyone.
• Evil Brit: Kano's mentor and the leader of the Black Dragon before him, Trev, is implied to be this. Though Kano was never entirely sure of his nationality, as his accent could also pass for South African. And Trev, unsurprisingly, didn't bring up his backstory.
• Exact Words:
  • After Shao Kahn takes back his throne from Mileena post-Deception, he lets her off with a warning to make sure she does what no other person has done before she tries to take his throne again: kill him. This is how she gets around her innate desire to serve him, so she and Tanya can plot to do just that in the following chapter. As he didn't say not to do that.
  • When Kitana walks in on her "father" Shao Kahn preparing a head to make into a new skull helmet out of following her mother's death, she asks him who the owner of said head was. Shao responds that he was a former enemy who he's been unable to touch, because of a promise he made to his concubine to not defile his body in exchange for her compliance. Which, if you leave out the part where this "concubine" was his wife and Kitana's late mother, is true...
• Executive Meddling: In-universe example. Johnny Cage has to deal with a lot of this, and so does his agent, Chuck.
• Exposed to the Elements: Subverted. Sareena's Stripperiffic outfit proves to be detrimental when she tries to reach Kuai Liang in the frozen area surrounding the Lin Kuei Temple, after escaping the Netherrealm. She would have died if not for the Lin Kuei finding her.
• Fighting from the Inside: Kitana's attempts to break the magical control of her mother from the outside prove not to be enough, so she has to go inside Sindel's mind (with Nightwolf's help) to get her to fight it from within.
• Friend in the Black Market: Chow contacts one to get weapons for his and Kojin's assault on the Kytinn Hive. Apparently, he briefly fell into such crowds between running away from home and building a decent life in America.
• Genocide Dilemma: Brought up in chapter 30, where Liu Kang's brother Chow and the fire god Kojin must exterminate a Kytinn hive on Shang Tsung's Island to prevent them from eventually moving to actively attack the human race. Kojin realizes Chow may come to have some… issues with what they're there to do and assures him that if they do not, the Kytinn will eventually consume all of Earthrealm.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Woman!: Jade does this to Sindel, while she is too busy thinking of her personal failures to focus on the situation at hand.
• Good Costume Switch: After Sareena is accepted by Kuai Liang and the Lin Kuei, he gives her a thicker fur and leather version of her usual outfit in his clan's colors, as well as an enchanted undergarment to help her stay warm in the colder climate.
• Groin Attack:
  • Liu Kang used one to break out of Goro's grip, apparently having taken a tip on the value of a well-placed nut shot from Johnny Cage.
  • Ermac performs one on Johnny himself to wake him up after the battle with him and the other mind-controlled heroes under Onaga's control. Later in the chapter, Johnny Cage uses one on an Edenian guard.
  • Johnny also pulls this on the director of Ninja Mime before storming off set.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Scorpion finishes off Quan Chi at The Battle of Armageddon by spearing him in the chest with his flaming spear, then wrapping the also flaming chain around his body and pulling it, burning him in half.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Sub-Zero finally gets through to Frost during the assault on Kronika's tower and she agrees to join his side… only for Kronika to take control of her, leading to Sub-Zero trying to incapacitate her, ultimately leading to her death.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Jade dies shielding Kitana from an attack from Mileena during The Battle of Armageddon.
  • An attempt at this backfires horrifically in Sonya's backstory; after Kano has both her and her twin brother Daniel dead for rights, Sonya spits in his face, hoping he will kill her in response, but still buy enough time for the backup to arrive and save Danny. Instead, Kano cuts Danny's heart out in front of her out of spite.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: After finding out about Quan Chi’s treachery during the events of MK4, Scorpion is tricked into running through a portal leading to the Netherrealm wastes by the sorcerer while attacking him. But Quan Chi chooses to stand just outside the portal while waving Scorpion off, allowing the specter to spear him in the shoulder and drag him down with him.
• Ironic Echo: After Quan Chi is killed in The Battle of Armageddon and finds himself a disembodied spirit at the mercy of his former master, Shinnok. The latter "offers" to bring the former back into his service and pulls out a line Quan Chi himself used on Shao Kahn after his second defeat to Liu Kang to get him agree to his terms.

  Shinnok: You will accept my terms, regardless of the price, for the alternative would be... Well, I believe that is best left up to your very artistic imagination.

• Mercy Kill: Jade contemplates having to do this to the brainwashed Queen Sindel. She even swipes one of the injured and exhausted Kitana's blades, so she could give her former queen a quicker death than she could with her staff.
• Morality Pet: Meat becomes one to Mileena, after she finds him in the bowels of the Flesh Pits as little more than a gore-soaked skeleton. Taking pity on the creature, she goes out of her way and puts her own life on the line to help give him a body.
• Ms. Fanservice: Many female characters maintain their less than modest outfits from canon.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • For Sindel, it was committing suicide, leaving her daughter and people to live under Shao Kahn's thumb without her. Something she angsts over enough that Jade has to snap her out of it.
  • Kuai Liang/Sub-Zero II blames Frost's fall to villainy and icy imprisonment on himself, as her teacher.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Many characters only mentioned in supplementary material, like Goro's seven wives, Johnny's ex-wife Cindy Ford, and various family members are mentioned in the story.
  • Johnny's stunt doubles (who he complains look nothing like him) on the set of Ninja Mime are named Pesina, Ashby and Mullins, after the various actors who played him^note Daniel Pesina (Mortal Kombat (1992) & Mortal Kombat II), Linden Ashby (Mortal Kombat: The Movie) and Matt Mullins (Mortal Kombat: Rebirth & Mortal Kombat: Legacy), and his debut role is playing a character named Casper, after another of his actors.
  • In the next chapter, Liu Kang suggests that Johnny should get Tony Jaa^note his first live-action actor's stunt double in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation to play him in his next movie.
  • Bruce Lee is mentioned with a great deal of respect by the monks. He, of course, was the inspiration for Liu Kang.
  • Kano's mentor Trev is meant to be a tribute to late actor Trevor Goddard, who portrayed Kano in the 1995 film. The confusion concerning Trev's nationality is a reference to how people had mistook the actor's Cockney English accent for an Australian one, thus influencing Kano's Awesome Aussie personality.
  • Kabal's real name is Michael Richards, his contact for identity-changing is named David Cahill, and his new identity for the NYPD is Johnathan Lodge. All three names are references to some of Kabal's voice actors throughout the franchise. Michael Richards refers to his Defenders of the Realm VA, Kevin Michael Richardson. Meanwhile, David Cahill and Johnathan Lodge are surname swaps of David Lodge and Johnathan Cahill, his VAs for MK9 and MK11, respectively.
• Never My Fault: Frost blames Kuai Liang/Sub-Zero II for her fate during the events of Deadly Alliance (despite it being because she tried to steal his medallion) and "abandoning" her in the cryomancer tomb in Outworld (which was actually him trying to give her the best burial he could provide, as he believed her dead at the time). When she returns to Earthrealm in an attempt to kill and usurp him, she ends up killing several clan members who had nothing to do with what happened between them in the process.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Kuai Liang/Sub-Zero II has this response upon seeing his brother Bi-Han/Noob Saibot, his former apprentice Frost, and Smoke escape the Lin Kuei Temple.
  • Kung Lao and ghost!Liu Kang both have this reaction upon finding the latter's body missing from his tomb.
• Off with His Head!: This is how Kitana and her family finally kill Shao Kahn, after stabbing deep into his throat with Sindel's Kwan Dao and prying his head clean off.
• Pals with Jesus: Johnny Cage calls upon ghost!Liu Kang to help him with some invokedmeddling executives.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After rescuing her, Baraka and Mileena share a hug together.
  • Mileena goes out of her way and risks the wrath of her new master, Onaga, to help Meat after discovering him in his pitiful skeletal form in the depths of Shang Tsung's Flesh Pits.
  • Shang Tsung takes a moment to feed the fish in his koi pond, before meeting with Raiden prior to the tournament.
  • In chapter 22, Tanya shows genuine concern and compassion towards Mileena after finding her bloodied and upset in her quarters.
  • Baraka also comforts Mileena after she willingly hands the Outworld throne back to Shao Kahn following his return after the events of Deception, resulting in a fight between her and Tanya.
    • In the same chapter, Shao Kahn has about as close to one of these as he's capable of, by letting her off with only an Implied Death Threat, showing her a degree of respect for her ambition, and even making her his heir on the off-chance he dies in the coming battle.
  • The Kollector offers Chow the Great Kung Lao's championship medallion as a reward for helping clear the Kytinn.
  • At one point, brainwashed!Sindel insisted that Shao Kahn be less harsh with their "daughter" Mileena, and acts as a genuine maternal figure to her.
  • Subverted with Shao Kahn towards Kitana. He seems to have the occasional moment of empathy towards her after her mother's death, but it's all just part of his brainwashing and sick games. Most notably, he offers to let her help him in preparing a skull to make a new face plate out of... without her knowing that it is the head of her real father.
• Post-Coital Collapse: Liu Kang and Kitana after consummating their relationship in Edenia.
• Psycho Lesbian: Played With. Mileena and Tanya get into an intimate relationship in chapter 22. And while they are both villainous women, their sexuality is not treated as directly related to their evilness. If anything, it's used to humanize them.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Frost not only gets to take over the (Cyber) Lin Kuei as its new grandmaster, but she also gets the pleasure of her old "master" bowing before her after finding his past self, Cyber Sub-Zero. But she realizes it’s hollow on some level, as Cyber Sub-Zero likely only submits to her authority over him because of his programming. And also, she’s staring to feel a bit lonely…
• Redemption Equals Death: Frost dies after Sub-Zero finally got through to her, with her last act being to order the remaining Cyber Lin Kuei to aid him in battle.
• Related in the Adaptation: Frost is revealed to be the two Sub-Zeros' long-lost sister, mentioned briefly in supplementary material for Mythologies.
• Self-Made Orphan: Frost accidentally killed her adopted parents when her cryomancer powers first manifested.
• Sexy Dimorphism: Lampshaded by Chow in regard to the Kytinn.
• Shipper on Deck: Kung Lao and Jade, as well as Sindel, are this to Liu Kang and Kitana.
• Shout-Out:
  • Chow repeatedly compares the Kytinn Hive to Xenomorphs.
  • Bruce Lee gets an affectionate shout-out.
  • Kano compares his new eye to The Terminator.
• Silent Snarker: Kung Lao has shades of this, like shaking his head at Liu Kang insisting on lifting both an exhausted Kitana and her unconscious mother Sindel.
• Slashed Throat: How Kitana kills Mileena during the events of MKII.
• Smug Snake: As to be expected, Quan Chi is this around everyone, every chance he gets. Though ironically, Shinnok acts this way towards him when he's forced to come crawling back to his old master.
• Sole Survivor: D'Vorah and a single other female to serve as their new queen are the only Kytinn to survive Chow and Kojin's attack on their hive.
• Soul-Cutting Blade: The emerald-encased sword inside the Red Dragon artifact room from Deception is shown to be this, after the brainwashed Kung Lao attacks ghost!Liu Kang with it, stabbing him. Though thankfully, he manages to snap Lao out of it before he can do more damage.
• Throwing the Fight: In this fic's version of Goro's fight with Taven during the events of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Taven, sensing the nobility in his opponent, convinces him to throw the fight so he can pass and Goro could still say he did not just let him go.
• Tragic Villain: Mileena is portrayed as this. After her creation, she underwent repeated mind alteration spells from both Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn to shape her into the "ideal" enforcer (and a bit of twisted amusement on Shang's part). Then, after her "sister" Kitana breaks free of her own brainwashing, she treats Mileena as nothing more than an abomination, slashes her throat, and leaves her to bleed out without a hint of remorse, unaware that Mileena was brainwashed into believing they were genuine sisters too. Afterwards, Mileena is resurrected by Shang Tsung, only as a "test run" for the resurrection of Sindel, and Shao Kahn, who has dropped any pretense of her being anything more than a "potentially" useful tool to him.
• Troubled Production: In-universe example with Ninja Mime, thanks largely to Johnny clashing with the director.
• Undying Loyalty: Johnny Cage's manager, Chuck, does everything in his power to make sure Johnny's vision for a film series, loosely based off of his adventures during the events of MK1 and MKII, is brought to life with the proper respect shown to Johnny after his (temporary) death during the Outworld invasion. Even if it destroys his own career and life in the process.
• Unstoppable Rage: After Scorpion finds out Quan Chi is responsible for the death of his family, the sorcerer attempts to use his mind manipulation to incapacitate him. But Scorpion easily powers through it through sheer fury.
• Villain Protagonist: Several of the villains are given spotlight chapters, though Mileena is most noteworthy. Others include Tanya, Frost, Kano, Reiko, Sheeva, and pre-Heel–Face Turn Sindel and Ermac.
• Villains Out Shopping:
  • Shang Tsung is shown feeding the koi fish in his gardens.
  • Mileena offhandedly mentions reading through a lot of Quan Chi's books to pass the time between missions, during her time working for him and Shinnok.
  • Zigzagged with Shao Kahn making his skull helmets himself in his down time... out of the real skulls of his enemies.
• Walking Armory: As opposed to his brother who relies mostly on his skill in hand-to-hand combat and pyrokinesis, Chow goes into the Kytinn hive armed with an assault rifle, a shotgun, grenades, two automatic pistols, and a Desert Eagle.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Kung Lao is feeling down and disappointed in himself after Liu Kang defeats him in the fight to decide who represents their order in the tournament. To make him feel better, Liu gives him a little speech reminding him that they are both worthy fighters who will honor their family legacy... and should he fail in the tournament, it will be up to Kung Lao to defend Earthrealm.