Disclaimer: Mortal Kombat belongs to Netherrealm Studios and Warner Bros.
A/N: This one-shot is set in Poe's Daughter's MK AU. While being familiar with her AU would help, it's not strictly necessary to enjoy this story.
No Salvation for the Tainted
The journey to the Temple of Elements was perilous at the best of times – to say nothing of the gods who lived within it – but for a Cryomancer who was once a denizen of the vilest bowels of the Netherrealm, the cold weather and whistling wind of the Himalayas were mildly irritating at best.
Narrowing his dark blue eyes, he spotted a grey circular stone door at the bottom of a snowy cliff and nearly sighed in relief. This time around, he had no Map to guide him except for the one he could recall from memory. Had it failed him today, the long journey would have been for naught.
The first time he was here, he was known as Sub-Zero of the Lin Kuei, taking one step closer to damnation. Now he was Bi-Han of no clan, taking one step closer to peace. Salvation was only for the untainted.
Had his brother Kuai Liang known of this, perhaps he would have approved. After all, he was the only one between them who was on speaking terms with most gods. It came with the territory of being the Chosen of the Lin Kuei.
Not for the first time in the last two weeks, there was a subtle oily whisper in the older Cryomancer's brain. It takes less than a second to teleport. As he always had since his cleansing resurrection alongside Hanzo Hasashi and Jackson Briggs, he ignored the temptation of the last remnant of Noob Saibot and stepped into the fading light of dusk.
When he had made it to the door, Bi-Han's instincts compelled him to shield a bare hand with a coating of ice before making contact with the mossy stone. It was as though a part of him expected the Temple itself to deny him entrance for his past theft of Shinnok's Amulet. However, he had not travelled here for treachery. Bracing himself, he gave the door a mighty push and swung it inward.
He had expected the distant warmth of the Fire Temple to reach the entrance, but all he felt was the characteristic chill of the mountains. With slight trepidation that he hadn't felt when he was first here, he lowered his plain black hood and faded blue mask and walked down the narrow stone path to the Temple, shaking away the sparse snow from his clothing in the process.
Bi-Han's second incursion into Earthrealm's Temple of the Elements may not have attracted mortal attention, but fortunately ... or perhaps unfortunately for the man, the only god who still lived in this place had certainly sensed him.
He has some nerve to return here. A stray breeze picked up speed in response to the Wind God's flared temper, disturbing his braided silver hair. A mere thought stopped the formation of a gale among the lower pillars of the grotto as Fujin cut through thin clouds and descended to the cave entrance of the Wind Temple.
The last time Bi-Han was within these walls, he had killed one god and incapacitated two others before facing Fujin himself. His defeat at the hands of the same mortal and the subsequent theft of Shinnok's Amulet was not a memory Fujin wished to revisit yet again. As destiny would have it, the next time the Wind God and Bi-Han crossed paths was in Outworld, when Onaga rose again and the Cryomancer was an undead wraith.
The Amulet – now imprisoning the former Elder God who created it – was no longer in Earthrealm proper and its current location was not known to most mortals.
Surely dying twice – once in the Mortal Kombat Tournament and again on the plains of Outworld to protect his brother Kuai Liang – had changed Bi-Han? He would find only the dying embers of a forge, cool and empty caves, and drying waterfalls in the lower Temples on this day.
As the Wind God awaited the former assassin's inevitable arrival, his lingering anger gave way to quiet curiosity and an undercurrent of apprehension. A long halberd materialised swiftly in an outstretched palm. If the Cryomancer wished to trade blows with him again, he would not be caught on the wrong foot a second time.
Upon finding three out of four temples completely devoid of mortals or deities, Bi-Han fleetingly wondered about the futility of his self-assigned mission for perhaps the umpteenth time since he'd set out on it. Of course, now he was climbing an inner wall of the mountain; he had come too far to simply return home to a lonely cabin near the woods of Arctika. His soul's path to damnation had its otherworldly beginnings here, and while he was never inclined to worship, perhaps the part of him that simply desired to put his past well and truly behind him would be content at the end of all this.
He continued his silent ascent until he reached the cave entrance of the last shrine that he wished to ever visit. Though visit was certainly not the proper word for the occasion, for he was technically an unwelcome interloper regardless of his intentions.
A cool, familiar voice rang out from some distance away, cutting his stray thought short. "If you are after Shinnok's Amulet again, you won't find it."
The Cryomancer purposefully banished the beginnings of a kori sword that was about to form. This was no time to act on instinct. "I come in peace," he announced, stepping through an ornate archway into the Wind Temple and within the Wind God's line of sight.
"Your blasphemy makes you unwelcome here." Fujin frowned, holding his halberd. However, the weapon was not raised towards him. The god's sky blue eyes bored into his own, as if looking into his soul, but did not glow in fury.
"I will speak my piece and not trouble you again," Bi-Han said, in as respectful a tone as he could muster without adding an honorific. His days of blind servitude were a thing of the past.
Fujin's gaze seemed to soften, if only for an instant. "Very well, then," he responded. "Though I can't help but wonder if you're here at your brother's insistence." There seemed to be an undertone of mockery in the deity's strangely curious voice.
"Kuai Liang doesn't need to know everything," he replied.
"If you insist," the Wind God said, in a far less hostile tone. They both knew that Bi-Han's brother would have approved.
"I was once known as Sub-Zero and then as Noob Saibot," Bi-Han began. "I enjoyed being undead. I even thought the shadows suited me more than power over ice, even though I wouldn't have ever wanted to lose my Cryomancy while I was alive.
"As much as I'd like to pin the blame on Quan Chi for everything ..." he averted his gaze from the Wind God's eyes and continued, "I did embrace the darkness. Quan Chi may have wanted my soul, and when he did get it, I should've resisted ..."
And resisted he had, after he'd died at the hands of Onaga. However, he had no chance against the combined will and magics of an Oni sorcerer and a former Elder God. Not until his true restoration to life.
If he could have helped it, today was the first and last time Bi-Han would confess to any god. He met Fujin's eyes again, vaguely noting the now-fading look of sympathy on the immortal's face.
"I was an assassin once. But not any more. I no longer obey any grandmaster, sorcerer or fallen god. I won't aid Earthrealm's foes willingly, but I won't fight for Earthrealm either." He had participated in more than enough Mortal Kombat tournaments to last a lifetime.
The air around them was mercifully silent when the Cryomancer had stopped speaking. The awkward quiet was punctuated only by their steady breaths.
If the Wind God was disappointed in him, he didn't show it. His countenance was once again guarded and neutral. In any case, he did not have anything more to say to the deity, and he suspected that the god did not have any advice to offer to a former adversary. With a slight incline of his head, he turned away from Fujin and walked out of the grotto's entrance, not desiring to overstay a rather tenuous welcome.
He climbed down the same inner mountain wall that he had taken earlier and reached the lower Water Temple. For the first time that day, he absently ran a finger over the left side of his old tunic, which once sported the symbol of the Lin Kuei.
Maybe Sareena will be waiting for me at home. A slight smile formed on his face at the thought of the demoness; the one silver lining of his time in Quan Chi's service. No whisper of Noob Saibot could quell the pleasant warmth coursing through his veins.
At last, he was simply Bi-Han; one step closer to peace.