Author's Note: I forgot to include this note when I first published a couple of days ago because I'm like the absentminded professor and therefore derpy at times. Anyway, the title of this chapter is "Earthrealm's New Protector," given to me by my pen pal, Obelisk of Light. Also, because she's got a soft spot in her heart for Fujin, it's dedicated to her. Go check out her stories and show her some love!
To the domain of the newly resurrected Dragon King, to the valley of ancient tombs that would've been better left undisturbed, sullenly obeying an order given by his uncle, came the Wind God Fujin.
He appeared through the clouded borders of the Outworld vale as though born from the heavy, choking smoke and dust that swirled through the air. He could make his presence known and move as raucously as a gale on the sea, but at the moment, he chose to move as swiftly and quietly as a ghost. His long white hair and gleaming, sky blue eyes could have falsely marked him, from a distance anyway, as Raiden. But even the fallen lightning god, when he was alive, could not have rivaled a face so young and carefree.
Thick, angular plates of polished iron guarded Fujin's shoulders, but they were the only armor he wore. Concealing them, shrouding a body so agile it might've taken to flight like a bird, falling to the tabi boots he wore on his feet, was draped the thin folds of a hemp cloak as green as the sky before a tornado. The deep hood concealed the wearer's face in shadow, effectively camouflaging him from enemy detection. And that was the point.
Fujin's feet barely touched the ground and scattered dust from one cliff wall to the other, leaving acres and hours drifting through the lazy breeze he left in his wake. Unnoticed by the Dragon King or his army, who had already started marching westward, the Earthrealm god of wind searched the forsaken region, first following the path from where the main temple entrance had been to a fork in the road littered by the Edenian rebels' bodies, then circled back, exploring the unlikely routes that Kuai Liang and Tomas, the two wayward Earthrealm warriors, could have taken.
No tracks remained; the dust settling from the disintegrated temple, along with the large chunks of debris, ensured any traces of the two assassins were long gone. Fujin occasionally spiraled upward, searching for them from above, but the lingering cloud, to say nothing of the profound darkness born when the Dragon King rose from the dead, cut his visibility to almost zero. The wind god found nothing, nothing at all.
And then finally, when Fujin had lost all but the most lingering scrap of hope, he saw the faintest movement at the far edge of the valley, a figure hunched beneath a low rock embankment. Instantly, he flew on a hard wind towards it, moving at an angle in direct opposition to the path the other Earthrealm warriors had taken only hours before. He soon soared just above the frozen chunks of many shattered skeleton warriors; the reanimated soldiers, though seemingly invincible in all other ways, were evidently vulnerable to a Cryomancer's magic, and they never even stood a chance. Good to know.
At the edge of this strange graveyard, just beyond the scattered pieces of the frozen figures, Fujin found Tomas. He crouched silently beneath the embankment, his face, faintly illuminated by the distant fires, was masked with soot and dust that was streaked beneath his eyes. Fresh tears glistened on his face. Behind him, also sheltered from the sight of anyone not endowed with the gift of flight, sprawled a vague shape clothed in blue and black.
The wind god hurled himself down like a microburst, landing hard on the ground as he approached the warriors Raiden had charged him with protecting. But Tomas, who had never before laid eyes on Fujin, immediately sprang to his feet and aimed his damaged mechanical hand at him, its tiny bay doors open and ready to fire a missile at him. He snorted angrily, though he trembled with despair and obvious grief.
"Get back," he snarled protectively, his voice heavy with his Czech accent, a stray tear rolling heavily down his cheek. "This is the only chance you get."
"Stop," the god calmly replied as he threw his hands up in deference. "I'm sure Kuai Liang appreciates your loyalty, but I'm your ally. I'm Raiden's successor. I am called Fujin."
"You're lying," he accused. "You just want the Dragon Medallion. But you can't have it!"
Fujin sighed, but then jumped into the air on a little current that barely lifted him off the ground, launched towards Tomas like a sudden gust of wind, and knocked him into the wall. A split second later, he had thoroughly bound the cyber-ninja with a measure of gossamer rope twisted from spider silk, a tool he conjured in his hand on the spot. And just like a spider's prey, the warrior wriggled to get free, but to no avail. He was helpless, at the god's mercy.
Fujin looked onto his captive fighter. "If I wanted the Medallion, I would've taken it, Tomas. I'm the god of the wind, after all. And as good as you are at fighting, my friend, you are still no match for me." Carefully, he propped the cyber-ninja against the cliff wall.
"What do you want?" the assassin growled, struggling to snap his bonds.
"Kuai Liang looks terribly wounded," he began. "I may be able to help."
"He's dead." Tomas' face crumpled as he stopped resisting the rope. "My nanotechnology kept me alive in the blast," he began. "But he was too hurt. I dragged him this far to keep him away from Onaga, but-" he paused for a long moment, clearly trying to compose himself. "He was my best friend…" The warrior struggled not to cry, but the grief could not be contained and it silently spilled down his cheeks when he wrenched his face in anguish.
Fujin looked at him, his heart full of pity, before he knelt beside the Cryomancer. He scarcely even needed to look at the abundance of wounds marring Kuai Liang's body; he recognized the Dragon King's scent in them, an overwhelming stench of malice, especially in the char marks scorching the skin of his right arm. But the Medallion on his chest caught Fujin's eye, a magical bauble that filled the god with tremendous grief of his own. He winced, but forced the pain away as he logically considered all the available facts. Never once had it so vehemently chosen its bearer, so what if it had fed him energy to sustain him?
Fujin touched the mortal's forehead. Nothing. No trace of life remained in the motionless figure. Kuai Liang, the youngest Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei and greatest Earthrealm warrior, was truly dead.
The god rocked back on his heels, his body light on them, and pondered what to do. It was one thing to call back the soul of a dead mortal, but another thing entirely to call it back when an immortal as powerful as Raiden had inadvertently slayed it. Though Fujin had learned great magic from Eidotheia herself, he barely knew how to conquer such tragedy. True, Raiden had tasked him with it, and his uncle, Himavat, had unofficially blessed his mission behind Toci and Gaia's backs. But Fujin doubted he was strong enough.
He reached out once more, this time working to wipe the dirt and flaking, dried blood from the Cryomancer's face, one so much like his brother's. The god felt no love for this mortal – his older brother, Bi-han, had humiliated him only a few years prior in the Temple of the Elements – yet Fujin sensed Kuai Liang had been very different than the wicked man who'd come to steal Shinnok's amulet. Fujin knew, from Himavat and Raiden's stories, that this man had fire in him that defied all reason; nearly all Cryomancer men, not surprisingly, possessed ice-cold souls, but the youngest son of An Zhi had been just the opposite. And that is why Raiden and Himavat had both admired him so vehemently. But the god of the wind would need more convincing than that. Even still, he cradled the mortal's torso in his arms and lifted it from the ground. If he couldn't save the warrior, he refused to leave him here where Onaga or one of his minions was sure to find him. The Dragon Medallion couldn't-
The blue gemstone suddenly flashed with glowing energy that dissipated almost as quickly as it began, but for a fraction of a second, it shone like a beacon through the darkness as if signaling the wind god. The Blue Dragon, the sentience that not only guarded the power harnessed within it, but fed that power directly to its bearer when it chose to, wanted his attention. It reminded him that just because the Cryomancer had ceased to live didn't mean it had. Even now, the Blue Dragon was still bonded to Kuai Liang's soul, and not even death could change that unless it had willed it.
Evidently, it hadn't. Fujin dropped the Cryomancer to the ground and then ran his fingers over the metallic dragon struck into the sapphire face. At first, it was so faint he could scarcely feel it. But then it was there. It was almost nothing, merely a trace ember of Kuai Liang's essence, the last spark of fire in an unusually fiery soul. It remained, but it was fading away; in the spiritual conduit between him and the Medallion, that tiny drop of his spirit lingered in much the same way a trickle of water might linger in the pipe between two interconnected basins that were otherwise dry.
Fujin knelt beside the corpse once more, carefully closing Sub-Zero's battered fingers around the Dragon Medallion, holding them there as he chanted an ancient invocation. It was a long and difficult one, spoken in a language he'd always struggled to master, much to Eidotheia's chagrin, and a long silence followed when he'd finished. The wind god wondered if he'd said it wrong, and he started to repeat it, when suddenly it was there. It felt…anchored somehow, not as if the Cryomancer's soul fought him, but as if it was being held hostage by the residue of Raiden's magic. The problem was that this man, whose soul was one of the strongest human souls he'd ever felt, almost seemed uninterested in resisting his bondage.
Fujin frowned. "I have never yet encountered a mortal soul strong enough to ignore my call," he said to it. "You will not be the first, Cousin. You still have work to do."
He held onto Kuai Liang's soul, the last fading ember of his life. But how to break the hold Raiden's last spell had over it, to fan it so it ignited once more, and then infuse it into the body before time completely ran out? How to coax that last bit of fire from the conduit that linked him with-
Oh. Fujin had forgotten a step. He'd never actually performed this spell because it came after Eidotheia had…He grunted but otherwise remained calm, refusing to let his grief distract and weaken him. That was in the past, and what had been done could not be undone.
Ensuring that Kuai Liang's hand remained tightly wrapped around the Dragon Medallion, the god unsheathed a dagger from his boot, a blade specifically crafted by Toci in her forge to wound immortals, and sliced open his own finger until a trickle of red, glistening blood bubbled through the wound. Then he carefully smeared it on the sapphire exposed between the Cryomancer's thumb and index finger; the Medallion thrived on blood.
As expected, it fed on the immortal ichor. Fed, and then passed the god's strength on to its bearer, carrying the lingering embers of life along with it. It gave the soul just enough power to shake its apathy and resist the dark magic encumbering it in darkness. At last, Fujin felt the Cryomancer start to fight.
Kuai Liang's body suddenly seized. Then the wounds the Dragon King inflicted on him, the ones earned when Raiden committed suicide, and even the ones he'd earned in his battles prior, began to close as his body healed. Scabs peeled and skin flaked disgustingly from the injuries to reveal flawless tissue, and finally he groaned, a labored sound that started deep within his chest. Soon his eyelids fluttered open, revealing dark blue eyes that matched the sapphire jewel that had sustained him. Then, as Tomas breathed a shuddering sigh of relief, the Cryomancer attempted to sit up but collapsed into the dirt once more.
"Easy, Cousin," the god told him as he touched his forehead once more. "You paid the Boatman's fee and had just boarded his ferry to the other side."
Again, Kuai Liang struggled to sit up. This time, he managed it, though he still looked pale and fragile. "Who..." The word came out as a weak croak, as if he were learning to speak for the first time. He coughed, spat out some lingering blood, and tried again. "Who are you?"
"My name is Fujin," he introduced for a second time that day. "I am Raiden's successor."
"Hello?" Tomas now erupted, trying to get the god's attention, finally able to speak after his initial shock at seeing his best friend reanimated. "Are you going to set me free now?"
"Are you going to be calm now?" he retorted.
"I'm not a child," the other shot back.
"That is not what I asked you. Can I trust you not to fire your missiles at me? Do you see now that I mean you no harm?"
"No, I don't trust you," he snapped. "You're trying to lull us into a false sense of security."
Fujin chuckled at that, slightly amused. "Himavat said that in spite of your outwardly childish behavior, you have an eye for detail and are not easily deceived. He was right to make you Kuai Liang's guardian."
"I'm having a feeling of déjà vu," Tomas muttered.
"Me too," Kuai Liang grunted as he struggled to stand. "Will you just tell him what he wants to hear so he'll set you free?"
Tomas swallowed hard in blatant disapproval. "Fine," he grumbled. "I promise not to shoot you. Yet. As long as you don't give me a reason."
"You are wise to be suspicious," Fujin said as he knelt beside the cyber-ninja and started to cut him free with the same dagger he'd cut himself with only minutes prior. "In Outworld, everyone has an ulterior motive."
"But not you."
The god smiled. "Especially me. But it has nothing to do with the Medallion, rest assured."
"Why did you save me?" the Cryomancer now asked, leaning against the rock wall to support the weight of his body. He panted and closed his eyes tiredly, resting his head against his arm.
"Why are you surprised?" the god countered, sawing through the last cord of his rope. Tomas brushed them off his body and then hopped to his feet.
Kuai Liang narrowed his eyes, the reflection of the distant fires glinting dangerously inside them. "Don't patronize me," he growled. "I failed everyone. I got our people hurt, if not killed. The Dragon King's army has been awakened, as has Onaga. The Realms are now in genuine danger of Armageddon. And why? Because I was too weak to stop Quan Chi and Shang Tsung. You should've left me dead."
Sorrow and self-pity were not emotions to which any of the Cryomancers were particularly susceptible, yet Fujin couldn't possibly miss either one of them as Kuai Liang spoke. Protestations rose in his throat as he climbed to his feet as well.
"This is not your fault," he said. His voice was matter-of-fact. "Against the demon sorcerer and the Necromancer, against the Dragon King himself, what could you have possibly done to win? What could one man do against an army, let alone some of the most powerful immortals to have ever walked the Realms?"
"Don't make excuses for me," the Cryomancer snapped.
"I'm not," he replied, annoyed but keeping the tone in his voice steady. "The fault lies with Raiden. He should've intervened the moment he heard Liu Kang and Shao Kahn had been assassinated. But he trusted his beloved mortals to handle the problem on their own. He should've known it was a fight they could not win. Not on their own, anyway. He gave his Champions too much credit."
"And still I feel like death was the least I deserved for my screw-up."
Now the god frowned. He knew that was An Zhi speaking now, not the Lin Kuei Grandmaster, that derisive man who hated his youngest son for being flawed and human. His voice carried to the present from the grave. Fujin would not get anywhere with the Cryomancer if he couldn't quell that vile man's influence over his son once and for all. But how could he make him believe he was good enough to save the world when he couldn't even believe he should live? The god decided that honesty would be the best policy. No tricks, no mind-games. Just absolute directness.
"You want to know why I saved you, Kuai Liang?" he asked. "Because Himavat commanded me to. Because he believed, as did Raiden, that you could be the one mortal who could defeat the Dragon King." Fujin paused and scanned the Grandmaster up and down. "To be frank, I don't see what Himavat sees in you, Cousin. But I love my uncle, and I trust his judgment. So I will help you in whatever way I can."
Kuai Liang lifted his eyebrow in puzzlement. "How can I defeat Onaga? You just said this was a task too big for us to handle on our own."
"But you're not alone. You have me. I may not look like much, but I'm wiry," he joked. When neither mortal laughed or even smiled, Fujin continued, stifling his embarrassment at his failed attempt at brevity. "And more importantly, you have the Dragon Medallion."
"I don't understand."
"There will be time for me to explain myself better later on. But right now, we have to leave this valley. Onaga has sent a warrior to hunt you down."
"Just one?" Tomas interjected. "I'm kind of insulted."
"You should be terrified," Fujin told him. "He's a Seidan Guard."
"Meaning?"
"They're akin to human policemen," he said. "But they're elite warriors. They're dedicated to preserving Order and eliminating Chaos, and they're wholeheartedly committed to this purpose, so they don't stop until they, as the humans say it, get their man."
"I eluded Smoke when I left the Lin Kuei, and he knows me and my habits better than anyone," Kuai Liang began arrogantly. "I think I can shake a perfect stranger."
"Think again," Fujin said flatly. "This man is their Captain and the best tracker in all the Realms. Trust me, Cousin. We have to move. You are healed but you are still weak and recovering from the trauma of death. You can't fight him now, nor can Tomas."
The Cryomancer snarled, but formed a kori sword with his powers that he then used as a crutch to walk. Fujin watched him and then nodded at the cyber-ninja, silently ordering him to assist his friend. Tomas stared back at him, defiant and unmoving, his arms crossed in silent accusation. The god suspected he would've stayed that way too if he hadn't have heard Kuai Liang curse and stumble to his knees because his life force, though stronger, was still at dangerously low levels. Tomas rushed to his side and hoisted him to his feet, draping his arm over his mechanical shoulder.
"Where are we going?" he asked Fujin, his accent not as thick as it had been only moments ago.
"We're going after Anya and the others," Kuai Liang breathed. "If they're still alive."
"They are, for now," the god announced. "But you are wrong. We're not going after them. Not directly."
"You listen to me-"
"No, you listen to me," he interrupted the Cryomancer. "Your friends have gone west, and the Dragon King and his army have also gone west. Onaga's hunting them."
"All the more reason to go after them."
"Don't be a fool, Kuai Liang," he said. "We must go east. Onaga wants the Dragon Medallion back, and if he gets it, he will destroy all the Realms so that he can remake them how he chooses. Billions of innocent people will die. Do not march up to him and willingly give him the only tool he needs to cause an Apocalypse."
"I hate to say it, but I think he's right," Tomas said quietly to his friend. "I want to rejoin them too, but with Onaga between us and them, we'll only get ourselves killed. And then, they'll definitely get killed."
Kuai Liang didn't say anything, but he nodded his head in silent agreement. Fujin didn't have to look into the man's soul to know how worried the Cryomancer was for his friends, and especially the woman, Anya. Raiden had put him in charge of them, had made them their mortal commander. It was an honor he didn't take lightly, and one he meant to follow through with to the bitter end. The wind god thought he could reassure him on that point.
"Take heart, Cousin," he began as the three of them started towards the east. "Your friends have crossed into the Falcata hunting grounds. This would be a deadly thing for most people, but I have a feeling it will be a blessing for your friends because of Anya's presence amongst them."
Kuai Liang looked at him in bewilderment. "What? Why?" he asked pointedly.
"And who are the Falcata?" Tomas asked a split second later.
Fujin smiled knowingly. "Hydromancer warriors. It would seem that your friends have inadvertently stumbled into Hydromancer territory."