Hello lovlies! I know that I have been absent for a while. Life has been quite a hectic one. Back to time management. Please enjoy this romantic, suspenseful, action filled Sub-Zero love story- or that's what I aim to provide hehe. This picks up from Sub-Zero's last scene in Mortal Kombat X. Forgive for any errors, it is fanfic after all and I write this out of pure love for the story. This will change perspectives between characters, kind of like how it goes in a comic/video game of course! XD
"Ice is so mysterious... appearing beautiful and calm, but also as deadly. It can be fragile. It can hold your life then suddenly engulf you to your death if you fall into it's crack. You can see through it, but it's unclear. There's so much more to it than it shows us."
-Iclyn
Chapter One
The Drop
Earth Realm's sky boils as Grandmaster Sub-Zero leads the front of the Lin Kuei. They push Kotal Kahn and his small brigade back towards the portal for Outworld. Kotal Kahn fiercely refuses to give in, the amulet must become his. Part of his men have already been pushed through the portal and he decides to express his thoughts to lessen the pain of defeat.
"Sub-Zero, you should leave Earth Realm behind and join me! Fight against Shinnok for me and I will give you a new temple, more grand than the one you have lost."
"You speak as though Earth Realm has already endured it's fate, however, Earth Realmers are stronger than you know. They will defeat Shinnok and the amulet will be in safe hands once again. My place, and my loyalty lies with them... perhaps this encounter will give you a lesson about honor and loyalty."
"Loyalty!?" Kotal Kahn scoffs, "I've been betrayed by those I deemed loyal. Where is the honor in that?"
Before Grandmaster Kuai Liang can rebuttle with a final piece of wisdom, the earth trembles. Light breaks through the clouds in the sky as they are being swept away by unseen forces. On ths moment, Kuai knows Shinnok has been defeated. Kotal Kahn and his men stop fighting and all of them observe the sky. Kuai looks to the Sun God clad warrior, watching his thoughts circulate in his mind. He returns his attention to the Grandmaster.
"Perhaps I have underestimated your Earth Realmers... However, they cannot be trusted with the amulet- it belongs in Outworld!"
"It will not leave with you, Kotal Kahn. I assure you Lord Raiden will keep it safe, and if you don't like it you can take it up ith him."
"Hmm... I do not like it but perhaps I can agree, for now. However, when Lord Raiden fails and the amulet falls into the wrong hands, I will pluck it from them!"
"Speaking of wrong hands, Kotal Kahn, you have left your thron undefended. Perhaps you should focus on the stability of you throne and the agreement that you will not return to Earth realm without advisement."
Kotal Kahn is silent in response and signals for his men to go through the portal back to Outworld with him, his injured in toe. As they do, Grandmaster signals his to gather their injured and prepare to return to the Lin Keui Temple. He assists and supervises as the last of them go through but as one of them does, a warrior flyies through the portal and lands with a dead thud from Outworld. One of the Lin Keui run up to the Grandmaster.
"Grandmaster! What is happening"
"I'm not sure, but it must be rebels taking advantage of this opportunity."
Two Lin Keui carry the dead warrior from Outworld to the portal and they throw him in. Sub-Zero decides that he will have to force the portal closed and begins to focus his energy onto it. His ice begines froming around the radius of it, forcing the portal to become smaller and smaller. Before it becomes too small to pass through, however, another warrior comes flying through the split second before it slams shut, and dissipates.
She groans, the paint nearly isn't as bad as the sharpness of the ringing in her head. Her vision blurred so badly she couldn't make out any fine details of anything, only fuzzy shapes of trees and other people. The warrior woman moves herself up onto her knees. She felt the full weight of the steel sword through her abdomin. If she was bleeding fataly, she wouldn't know until she pulls it out. Perhaps she can freeze the wound over but she needs to keep fighting, despite it. A thin sheet of ice forms over her hands and she presses the blade between her palms, pushing the blade through as deep as the could, painfully. Remembering to breathe she reaches behind herself to pull the sword the rest of the way out, but she knew it would be difficult as high up as it was. Before her hands could find it she lets out a gasp of surprise as the blade is being pulled out of her. Her sensory deprivation made her vulnerable, and a target. She falls forward, attempting to steady herself on her hands but they give and she falls onto her left side. The woman looks up, a blurry hooded, masked figure standing over her handle the sword that was pulled from her. She watches with her eyes as he passes it off to another, a dulicate of him. A couple more of similar figures surround her, the ringing surpassing into pain makes their voices muffled and distant. Her body gives into the disorientation buzzing in her head and goes weak, the pain and ringing overtaking her, the blurry vision, the sensory deprivation increasing. Another figure comes into her view over her head, different from all the others. He has broader shoulders than the rest, no hood, without a mask, dark hair with a matching beard, and icy blowing eyes. His voice is deep, and though she can't hear much more than a soft and faint voice, it still comes through as strong and authoritative.
Her eyelids snap open, glowing fiecrely as she bolts into a standing position, ready to deefend herself, but all she saw was a dimly illuminate paper wall. The warrior woman keeps her guard up as she looks around. Embarassingly, she realizes she is in a medicine room, a hooded and masked warrior standing there, staring at her. The room is lit by only candle light, no windows, perhaps to protect all the variety of medicine bottles on the table the warrior stands next to.
"Relax, you are safe." He finally musters out.
"Oh.." she lowers her guard, "Forgive me, I thought that I was still.. in battle."
The icy sheet covering her skin fades away, and she lowers herself down to sit squarely on the bed. She sighs a deep breathe, examing the bracer over her broken arm. It feels immensely better, as did her abdomin from where she was stabbed in the back. Gauze wraps are around her chest, encompassing her shoulder, a plain linen pair of underwear- not the pair she was wearing. The warrior approaches her now that she is settled.
"Here, drink this."
She takes the small wooden bowl from him, glancing up at him. He continues, "It will prevent infection."
"Thank you."
Graciously, she drink it. It's bitter, floral, and a little earthy but it's soothing qualities quenched the thirst that she has been ignoring for quite sometime. Her dark, wavy hair glistened in the light, enhancing the pale silver highlights as she stands form the bed. As she hands the bowl back to the medicine warrior she asks;
"Where am I? What will become of me?"
He turns away, returning the bowl back to the counter. She watches him walk to the side of the room across from it. Once there, he lifts a garment that is hanging on the wall from it. He returns to her with it in his hands, giving it to her.
"Grandmaster wishes for you to join him for a meal. He will... know what to tell you."
The young wom furrows her brow at him but he has already turned about and is exiting the room. The wooden framed paper door slides shut. 'Know what to tell me? Why did he hesitate like that?' She examines the garment further. It is a short sleeve, nearly floor lengthed kimono, black in color with a blue trim. The material is soft, with a subtle sheen to it, no doubt that it is silk. At this realization she became eager to putting it on. It hugs her, flowing nicely but there was no mirror to look at, not even a reflection from a window that did not exist in this room. She runs her fingers through her hair, it was without tangles, it had been brushed. For a moment she wonders who may have seen her naked and wishes that it was a woman that might have but she dismisses. She needs to focus on the now and what will happen. Those were questions she can ivestigate later.
The shadow of the medicine warrior waits outside of the paper door. She realizes she doesn't even know his name, unsure if he may have been one of the blurry figures she saw before losing consciousness. How long was she out for? Would she even need to know his name? The only reasons she could think of why she was here and not in a cell was either to use her for some kind of exchange or to be put through to a trial- but she is going to be break bread with the Grandmaster. Surely that can't foreshadow an ill fate, but she knows any Outworlders to be unpredictable. She walks as silently as she can to the door, simply to test his level of perception to that of her stealth. He doesn't move a muscle at all as she walks to the door. Once she reaches it she taps on it's wooden frame. His shadow quickly turns about, and the door slides open as he step back with is a little taken aback by his behavior. 'I couldn't have startled him. If I'm a prisoner here then their guests would have to be treated like royalty.' This thought puts her mind a little more at ease. She steps out, and as she does, he steps beside her and idicates with a gesture of his hand to follow him.
They continue down a corridor, with similar paper walls and doors. Many rooms were dimly lit with the light of what she assumes is the sun, some give no lights, and very few had the warm glow of candle light. They come to the top of a winding staircase, and before it is a long row of leather boots. They look to her to be water proofed and notices a chest at the end. The warrior rumages in it and hands her a pair, accompanied by socks. They are soft and light, with loop buttons going up the side and look hardly worn. She works them on, surprised by the comfort and mobility. It makes her wonder where her garments are, her boots, all her possessions. She opens her mouth to ask the quiet warrior but he has already turned around seeing that she was ready and heads down stairs, she follows.
They walk down several levels and she realizes that they had been at the top floor of the building, of whatever building they are in. Once they reach the bottom of the staircase he guidees her through a hall, decorate with what she interprets to be the history of this place. Armor, swords, small shrines, many names, hanging scrolls but the warrior did not slow pace and ushered her on. They turn into a throne hall, the throne frosted in ice. It occurs to her that the temperature had steadily been dropping, but it couldn't possibly be that cold in that room, she can't even see her breathe. It's in that moment when they cross through the throne hall, passed the torches and other warriors that this may possibly be the Lin Keui Temple. Though she's never seen it, she's heard stories about their Grandmaster, a Cryomancer. She would approach this with an open mind, too many other times she had let her pre-concieved notions of others determine her behavior towards them. He leads her to large wooden doors, solid, and hand carved in symbols, representing tradition, with two gaurds on either side. The medicine warrior opens the door a gestures for her to continue on without him.
The colors of the sunset flooded her pale glowing eyes from her left. Mountains encircled the entire area. Now she is more certain that she is back in Earth Realm after many years away. She continues forward, to the steps, observing the two, upright coffins, and large altar of a man, a large saucer torch in either hand, encompassed by a circle. She sees the table set with a meal between the bottom of these frozen steps, made of iron or wood she could not tell, by a broad shouldered man with his back to her. The young woman begins her dissent down the stairs when she hears the doors close behind her. That is when he turns and waits to greet her.
"Welcome to the Temple of the Lin Keui," he says as she reaches the bottom of the steps, "I am the Grandmaster, known to many as Sub-Zero."
She bows her head in respect. His eyes glow brightly. She remembers seeing him, but he was only a blur before, and she felt humbled by his presence even more now, knowing who he is.
"I am Lumi Nieva, from Outworld, but many only know me as Iclyn."
A subtle smile graces his face. She held back, a sign she wasn't ready to trust him, but trust needs to be built.
"Iclyn, from Outworld, but it is not where you were born to."
She knew he caught it, she had to explain.
"Correct, I was born of Earth Realm... but it has been many years since I have been here. I wasn't certain if I should tell you more than I first did."
"To build trust one must first be forethcoming not only in their words but all their actions." she nods to his response, "Come let us eat."
They sit at the table, the temple at her back and the sunset to her left, sitting across from Sub-Zero. They grab the bowls and begin to eat. Iclyn had not realized how starved she had been as the food hits her stomach. She's eager to scarf it down but holds herself back, for she knows eating too fast on a shrunken stomach could make one sick. She savors the delicious food, having forgotten what it was like to sit to a meal that wasn't made over a campfire. The sunset pulled her gaze, it's beauty washing over her face with it's subtle warmth. Shadows couldn't conceal the deep blue and purples of the mountains, the snow reflecting the colors of the sunset slightly. Her gaze falls over the upright coffins, the altar, the tree set further back, and then to the Grandmaster himself. His eyes are already lifted up to meet hers.
"Grandmaster, where are we in Earthrealm? I cannot place it in my mind."
"The Lin Kuei Palace. A remote region of Arctika. We are here so that we may focus on our training, our focus is defending Earthrealm, along with Lord Raiden and a few other chosen Earthrealmers." he pauses to tak a sip of tea, "How long ago did you start losing control of your powers?"
She felt her face flush, an unusual feeling for her. He had been paying close attention to her, and asked her a question no one had before.
"You pay great attention to detail..." her fingertips were covered in a thin sheet of ice, "It started gradually- my powers began to grow faster than I could understand. I had been seeking answers, but the war and chaos of Outworld deterred me along the way. When I was much younger, my mother died and my half-sister born of her left us, I continued training with my father. He was considerably old, as was my mother who was a Cryomancer, my father half-blooded. Perhaps I was too young to remember all the lessons he taught me, but he taught to have heart, loyalty, and compassion... and then I decided to start fighting for something greater than me."
Sub-Zero is silent for a moment, taking it all in. He looks up from his cup. His eyes to meet hers.
"Was this cause that led you through that portal?"
She casts her eyes down.
"It was all to free Edenia, that is what was the whole mission. Despite Mileena's execution the rebellion continued on. Kotal Kahn wasn't planning to free Edenia, but no one else was willing to stand up to him.. and as you know he doesn't always like to listen." her eyes meet his and his neutral expression, "My intententions are always for good, but I'm not even sure what is the right side to stand on..." She trails off.
"Perhaps because you haven't found the right place to make your stand." her expression enlightens at his words, "Consider joing the Lin Kuei, fight for good, defend Earthrealm, and I can teach you to control your powers."
"I-would be honored, Grandmaster, to join the Lin Kuei."
He smiles softly. She had what Frost did not, humility. Her answer now leads him to what he says next.
"Iclyn, you say you have a half sister."
"Yes, her name, or the name she always wanted to be called by, is Frost."
"I know her, she is here."
Her expression is shock, the words absent from her mouth.
"He-here!?"
"Yes, you-"
He is interrupted by a crack of thunder and the howling of the wind. They both look up to the sky, then to each other and rise from their seats. The clouds darken and eletricity fills the air. Lightning strikes only a couple of miles away. Iclyn is till watching the scene unfold when the Grandmaster places a hand on her shoulder to guide her away from the table. She follows him as he returns to the palace.
"What is it?" Iclyn's curiousity peaked.
"An unexpected guest."
