Retrieving the Amulet

The scene cuts to Outworld. Takeda and Jin climb up the stairs of Kotal Kahn's palace to meet with Jacqui and Cassie. Cassie is speaking with Sonya over her communication piece, next to a large table which seems to be where Kotal Kahn and his advisors would meet to discuss affairs.

"The Kuatan Jungle?"

"With at least two divisions of Tarkatans. They're on the move constantly to avoid detection."

Jacqui checks something on her communications device, which appears to be a map of sorts.

"That's not far. Maybe two hundred kilometers."

"You know what to do."

Cassie replies

"Yes ma'am."

"Good luck. Blade out."

Kotal Kahn and D'Vorah walk up to Team S-F from the other side of the table.

"You have new information? From Earthrealm?"

"Kano gave us the details on Mileena's location. She has the amulet, but she's got a lot of protection."

"We will strike immediately."

D'Vorah then suggests

"Perhaps a two-pronged approach. The army will engage Mileena -distract her - while This One retrieves the amulet."

Cassie shakes her head before commenting

"Not alone. "This One's" coming with."

"Stealth is of the essence."

"Did you not hear me?"

"You may assist in the main strike—"

Kotal cuts her off not wanting to hear the argument further

"D'Vorah. We will grant their request and I will finally be rid of Mileena."

D'Vorah doesn't look very happy at Kotal for this decision, but she says nothing to him. Cassie for all her attempts still had her mind on Alex. She shook her head fearful of his fate. She was reminded of the last time he had been missing and she was as much scared for him now as she was then.

-Flashback-

'Not a word about this Ms. Cage'

"Fuck that."

Cassie thought to herself. Desperate acts call for desperate measures, with regards to the threatening messages. Cassie's senses and gut told her to go to her mother for help. She still wasn't sure how to ask for help beyond showing her mother the messages. She got to the Special Forces base and found her mother in her office through the glass window, switching between numerous monitors and flipping through dossiers. She knocked on the closed door and heard her mother's voice, though Cassie couldn't properly hear exactly. She saw Sonya face the door and stand up from her seat and make her way towards the door, so she stood back and at attention. The door clicked and opened as the General made eye contact with her daughter, who in return duty saluted her superior

"At ease, Specialist Cassie. How may I help you?"

"General Blade...I mean, Mom...Alex is in trouble."

Cassie stammered in a low voice, much to the shock of her mother, who is not used to seeing her daughter Cassie in such a state, even on the battlefield. Sonya ushered her daughter inside her office. Sonya closed the door behind her as Cassie took out her phone and opened the text messages from the anonymous number. Cassie told herself that she would never show such images to anyone else, but her back was against a wall and she felt she had no other choice. Though she cringed at having to show these inappropriate pictures to her mother, Cassie had to fill General Blade on the full context and seriousness of the situation. Sonya analyzed the pictures, looking for any clues for Alex's possible whereabouts. Without turning to look at Cassie, General Blade noted

"We can try to trace back the number, but it's possible they used a burner, leading to a dead end."

"Exactly my thoughts. I just don't know where to start. I still think it's worth a shot."

Cassie replied, to which Sonya nodded. Sonya hooked Cassie's phone to the nearby monitors and made a few command inputs that traced the anonymous phone number's GPS coordinates. Within seconds, the monitor displayed a topographical view of the United States and then expanded to include the globe. Several pings dotted in many areas around the world, ranging from their homeland to Chicago, San Francisco, Mexico, Nairobi in Africa, Germany, Sweden, India, and Seoul, Korea. Specialist Cage and General Blade analyzed the many pings to see if any were decoys meant to throw them off their trail. They both noticed larger pings coming from the United States, closer to the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. Sonya looked closely and noted

"If they did use a burner as I suspected, we wouldn't be able to track them down, but here they are. Must be amateurs."

Cassie cracked a smirk, now that she was able to pinpoint where Alex is being held captive. Cassie stood straight up, rolling her shoulders, saying

"Alright then. We can assemble a small team for extraction, and we can open up some mother/daughter can of whoop-ass on these fuckers."

"No."

Sonya's word cut through the air. Cassie turned her head to her mother, who was still hunched over the desk and looking at the monitors. She slowly raised herself up and turned to her daughter, continuing

"I have responsibilities here and unfortunately, we can't reallocate resources for this type of mission. I know how deeply you care for one another and if I were in your shoes, I'd want the same, too. However, our priorities, including mine, are set on far bigger threats and events on our soil and in the other realms."

Cassie huffed at her own mother refusing to help, but couldn't help agree that logically, she was right. Months removed from the incident with Reiko and Havik, Earthrealm's non-aggression pact with Outworld is still rocky. The ink is more or less still fresh on the Reiko Accords and, though the Osh-Tekk is admirable and honorable, Kotal Kahn's actions do not seem to bode well for the future of this pact. General Sonya's, and by association the Special Forces', full attention is on monitoring inter realm activity, to Cassie Cage's dismay. As Cassie looked closer at the coordinates sitting on Alex's presumed current location, Sonya caught her attention.

"The best I can do is provide infil and exfil by land and assign just one member of your choosing."

Cassie looked back to her mother, noticing a slight smile on her face as she continued eyeing the dossiers on her desk. Though she wanted to give her mother a hug for being able to pull some strings for her daughter, time was of the essence. Cassie had to immediately begin thinking of who would join her in rescuing Alex.

"General."

Cassie stood and saluted to General Blade. Her mother returned the gesture and sat back down, flipping through another file as Specialist Cage unplugged her phone and started walking out of her mother's office. Cassie opened her text messages and searched for a familiar face. She initiated a call and put it to her ear as she paced towards her break room. Once she knew the call had been picked up, she greeted

"Hey! Jacqui? I got a favor to ask of you."