Jarek

"Never, Sonya! I've agreed to help defeat Shinnok not to turn myself into the Special Forces! The Black Dragon live on!"

- Jarek to Sonya after she tries to force him to get into custody

Jarek is a minor villain character in the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games, who made his debut in Mortal Kombat 4, only to return in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon while he would be only mentioned in the future series.

Info
Jarek was freed by Kano, a fellow Black Dragon, along with the other Black Dragon Clan members from an United States Special Forces detention facility, before the events of the first Mortal Kombat. Kano proposed to reform the Black Dragon, but he merely wished to use them as pawns in order to slow down any SF agents who may have been following him as he was after the Eye of the Terminator. Jarek was stationed as head of his security at a downtown office which the Clan was using as a front for their criminal activities. While he was down there, he was confronted by Major Jax Briggs on a helicopter on the building's helipad. Jarek was defeated, and Jax believed that he had killed the Black Dragon warrior, but Jarek survived, albeit escaping his captor's clutches. He was the only Black Dragon member aside from Kano to survive the encounter with the Major.

Shortly before the events of Mortal Kombat 4, Jarek fled to the planet of Edenia after learning of Kano's apparent death. Thought to be the last surviving member of the Black Dragon alive, he was pursued by Lt. Sonya Blade and Jax who were seeking to destroy the last remnants of the Clan forever. However, seeing that Earth faced the threat of the Fallen God Shinnok's invasion during this period, they decided to focus their attention on the new threat, and Jarek agreed to help his sworn enemies defeat this common foe, as Shinnok would have none of Jarek's useless help. After the destruction of Shinnok's dark forces, he resisted allowing himself to be turned over to the SF, claiming that the Black Dragon lived on. He erased his trail after failing to kill Sonya, but Jax found him and threw him off a cliff, presumably killing him, but Jarek would escape death once again.

Jarek survived the fall by driving his kick-axe into the ravine side, slowing down his fall enough so that he only ended up gravely injured. Using his presumed demise as a cover, Jarek went into hiding and began to master new fatality techniques in order to exact revenge on his adversaries, including the Black Dragon leader Kabal, who he saw witnessing his drop into the cliff at Jax's hands.

However, he became frustrated with the difficulties that his injuries befell him and for losing a match against his former leader, and soon he wished to do nothing more than to kill everyone, including the Black Dragons that didn't betray him. Jarek would eventually learn of a Great Battle taking place in the Edenian Southlands, where Forces of Light and Forces of Darkness would fight to determine which alignment is superior. Founding out that his fellow Black Dragons surplus their leader would participate in that folly, Jarek too took part in the Battle, where he died like almost every combatant of the franchise.

Alternative timeline
Jarek makes a small cameo appearance with the rest of the Black Dragon Clan when Kano tries to get some pay from Kotal Kahn for doing his bidding, albeit very poorly. Shortly after, the Black Dragons are forced to escape otherwise they would all be spending the rest of their lives in Kotal's Castle dungeon for their role in Cassie Cage and Jacqui Briggs' kidnapping.

While Jarek and some of his comrades, like Tremor would escape, Kano would be captured by Total Kotal and be imprisoned in Kotal's dungeon, only for Jarek and the others to never come rescue him. They are evil and disloyal mercenaries after all.

Jarek's fate after Kano's rescue by Mileena is unknown, but he is somehow presumed to be still alive.

Quotes
"Never! Nevah!"

- Jarek resisting Sonya

"Hey there, name's Jarek. Not Jerk. Not a nice place this Never Land - even someone as nasty as myself would find it appalling. Can you do me a favour, tho? I wanna prove to my fellow Black Dragons that I'm the toughest b-tard in the clan by pulling out the teeth of an Oni! If you can bring me three of 'em, I would gladly reward you for your efforts. Oh, and also, spare me an actual fight with an oni."

- Jarek giving Shujinko a mission

"I might just pull your teeth out for that."

- Jarek after punched

"You've found me some oni teeth! Excellent! Now I can leave this stinking place! Here's your reward (proceeds to give 'Jinko some coins)."

- Jarek after Shujinko does his bidding

"You traitorous son of a biatch! You left me! YOU... LEFT ME! Kabal: Calm your big tiddies, I didn't have a choice. Besides, it doesn't matter if you survived anyway, as I will not allow you to do anymore of our operations. Jarek: What!? Kabal: To be frank, I was hoping the Red Dragon had captured you instead of Kano. He is at least useful. You are a failure and a disappointment to the Black Dragon. You may be a loyal puppet, but you are useless nonetheless. Jarek: FOR THAT YOU WILL DIE!"

- Jarek confronting Kabal

Powers and abilities
Basically the same moveset as Kano has, down to the point that he has laser eyes. The only original stuff Jarek has is that he uses a lasso, kick-axe and a whip instead of butcher knives.

He also has a star-shaped blade that he uses as a throwing weapon.

Trivia

 * Jarek is mentioned in an intro dialogue between Kano and Jax in Mortal Kombat X. Jax refers to Kano as a "second-rate Jarek".
 * During the Great Battle in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Jarek is seen fighting Queen Sindel.
 * Jarek's fighting style is Dragon and it was rumoured that he was trained it personally by Argus's clone itself.
 * Jarek's situation of being betrayed was very similar to John Marston's. In Marston's case the traitor was Dutch van der Linde while in Jarek's it was Kabal.
 * His name in Slovene means Ditch, hence his nickname "Trench" and "Ditch".