A/N: This is mostly just a story idea that wouldn't leave me alone. If it gains traction I'll continue it.
I awoke to a burning pain in my lungs. Every gasp felt like fire, every breath was agony. I got to my feet, still shaking with the effort that it took to breathe. It was like my lungs were unused to the breaths that I was taking. Then I remembered that they were. I felt my neck, noting not only the lack of armor, but the lack of the seam where my head connected to my cyber body. In fact, every part of me that was not covered by a white t-shirt and skirt combination was flesh and bone. My cryo magic still came to me, as easy as ever, the familiar chill bringing a mote of comfort in this foreign body.
"Raiden," I muttered under my breath. He had been the one who had taken my moment of glory away from me. My ultimate triumph over that bastard Kuai Liang. I had failed Kronika. Instead of the ever present hot fire of anger, or the smoldering heat of hatred, I felt only the cold chill of despair. Unbidden, a sob escaped me. I collapsed to my hands and knees. Everything I had ever done in my life, I had failed at. Everything. From the cage matches where I was used and kept on a leash to now.
Kronika had said that not even Raiden could stand up to my power, that I would be able to easily best him, and return to her, victorious, for my life in the New Era. It seems that she had been mistaken. But, then again, everything else that I had seen her predict had been correct. Yet she was wrong here. Suddenly, it dawned on me. No, she was not wrong. She had lied to me, sacrificed me to delay Raiden and his allies with my cyber Lin Kuei. She too, had used me to her ends, before discarding me like trash.
A sharp pain on my left arm shattered my train of thought. Acting only on instinct, I froze my attacker and shattered them with a punch. I turned to see a large, black bear. Or at least what one would look like without a head. The bite wound on my arm bled freely, but a short pulse from my cryo magic stopped that. A roar drew my attention to another black bear. Though it looked… wrong. Like someone had taken the visage of a bear and mixed it with a demon from the Netherrealm. It's red eyes unnerved me. With practiced ease, I forged the ice daggers that were my mainstay weapon. The bear bellowed another roar and charged with reckless abandon.
"Pathetic," I growled as I dodged its swipe and slit its throat. The bear collapsed and as I walked away, thinking my quarry defeated, a hammer blow to my back knocked the wind out of me. I could do nothing but lay on the ground, gasping for air, reminded of the failings of a flesh and blood body. The bear took a few shaky steps towards me before falling dead. I blasted it with cryo out of spite. My breath was still coming in haggard wheezes for about another minute more. By the time I could breathe normally, I was already a long way from that small clearing.
It was strange. I was fighting creatures that wouldn't be out of place in Hell, but they were in a seemingly ordinary, almost serene looking forest. In my time before, and with the Lin Kuei, I traveled many places on Earth, but never had seen anything resembling these creatures there. It didn't feel like Outworld had either, and I had been told that the Netherrealm was an inhospitable hellscape. I always thought that when people died they were sent there, and not wherever this was.
The possibilities were making my head hurt, so I decided to get my bearings for now. A quick climb to a tall tree told me that civilization, where ever it may be, wasn't anywhere near me. Instead I saw forest, stretching at least to the horizon. Anger welled up in me. My first thought was that this had to be another one of Kuai's trials. I doubted that he had the capabilities to restore me to human form so completely without my knowledge. Even with all of his allies, I doubted that he would go to these lengths just to dump me here. More likely they would have just executed me and been done with it.
So it had to be something or someone else. The who, why, and even when eluded me, leaving me empty and enraged. Another one of the creatures entering my line of sight broke me from my thoughts. This one looked skinner, almost lanky compared to the bear. It had similar features to the other one: the same white mask, black skin, and piercing red eyes. I started to form my ice daggers, before deciding to take a more direct approach. The creature charged and I matched it, I dodged it's clumsy swipe before sending a punch into the vulnerable part of its neck just behind where I could see the skull.
Pain flooded my arm. It felt like punching solid steel. With a barely suppressed whimper, I retreated from the beast. It seemed to grin at me in jubilation at my failed attack. With a snarl, I fired a beam of pure cryo at it from my other hand, freezing the beast solid. Even through the permafrost-like substance, I could see the pitch black fur of the creature, it's glowing red eyes still fixated on me.
"Not so smug now, are you?" I taunted, poking the beast on its frozen snout. With a cry, I plunged an ice dagger through the bottom of its head into its brain. The beast, of course, didn't react. I left it where it was and continued in the direction I had been heading. Though the whole act felt moot as there was no way of knowing whether or not I was heading towards, away from, or parallel to any village, town, or city.
It was painfully obvious that I was no longer on Earth. There was a feeling that permeated the air. It was like a watered down version of the feeling that I had when I was next to Kronika's Hourglass. Sheer magical power, almost overwhelming in nature, dulled down to almost imperceptible levels. It was like nothing I had experienced on Earth or Outworld. Then, there were the creatures that attacked me. It was almost as if they were malice and hatred given form, not dissimilar from Kuai's brother. A chill ran through my body at the mere thought of that monster.
Another half hour of walking and I had yet to find anything even close to resembling shelter. I did, however, find a fresh water stream that proved drinkable. Or at least I hope it was. Forming a glass made of ice had been a simple matter, though it took three attempts to get the right thickness to keep it from cracking upon being exposed to the water. Not sure when or if I would find another source of fresh water, I created a canteen out of ice, filled it with the fresh water, and froze the entire thing. I fashioned a strap using a chunk of fabric from the stomach area of my shirt.
The sun was dipping closer to the horizon. It was becoming more and more likely that I would not find civilization before nightfall. Given that survival training had been a non-factor in my time with the Lin Kuei, I had zero practical knowledge on how to build a shelter. To that end, I found a particularly overgrown area and went to work creating a small shelter out of ice. I took bits of foliage and placed them over my temporary housing in order to better conceal it.
By the time everything was relatively set up it was well past dark. I had stripped over a dozen branches of their leaves and piled them together to form some modicum of a bed. My canteen got placed in an area just outside, away from the wall so it wouldn't freeze together with them. A tinge of pain ran through my back as I laid down, undoubtedly from a bruise that had formed from when that bear struck me. The pain didn't even bother me, I had dealt with far, far worse. The chill of the air created by my shelter brought an almost homey feel to the ramshackle thing.
I felt the familiar feeling of mental exhaustion set in almost immediately. It had been months since I cyberized my body, and I had not slept once since then. Been knocked out or shut down for maintenance yes, but never voluntary sleep. The sensation almost felt alien. This body was going to take some getting used to.