Snow fell heavily upon the grounds and rooftops of the Lin Kuei village. Footprints in the ground were being covered up in matters of minutes by the ever thickening snow even as the recruits were training vigourously. Several different groups were spread about the village, each training. Some were large groups led by one leader, others were simple sparring matches.

Feet slid back in the snow on the training platform as the woman attempted to keep her balance after defending from the attack. The woman exhaled deeply and stroked a few of her deep red bangs behind her ear and readjusted her loosening ponytail. Once done, she could feel the tips of her hair tickling her back just below her shoulder blades. She narrowed her lime green eyes and took a few strides forward to retrieve her simple-in-appearance scythe off of the ground before holding her left hand ahead of her in a parrying stance while keeping her right behind her, keeping a strong grip on the black handle of her weapon.

"Now best of five?" The woman's sparring partner laughed. He was dark in skin, had pulled back dreadlocks, and was dressed majorly in yellow, whereas his partner was in black; both being of Lin Kuei attire however. "C'mon Elora," he began, "I get you with that hit every time."

"Shut it, Cyrax," Elora grumbled impatiently. She waved her left hand in the 'come here' motion as she continued speaking, "One more time."

Elora Tenshi. She was 24 years of age, pale skinned, 5'8" in height and had been a member of the Lin Kuei ever since Sub-Zero found her abandoned at 7. There weren't many females in the Lin Kuei, but in her time, Elora had come across a few. There's Frost- or was. Elora was well fit, all because of the constant training in the clan over the years and had a nice body, but no specific feature on her was over-exaggerated. She could definitely hold her own against most, but she always struggled with hand-to-hand combat. Even if she knew the way of martial arts, she didn't prefer it. However, she had began training with a daibo and quickly found it to be her calling- hence the scythe now.

"Ready?" Cyrax called. There was a hint of mockery in his tone but Elora knew he was patient and willing to let her get her focus in control.

With a nod, Elora immediately dashed towards Cyrax. As soon as she were mere feet away, he immediately crouched through the ground, smoke erupted and Elora knew he was now behind her. She dropped, pressed her palms to the slippery wooden platform, and kicked her feet upward in a cartwheel fashion and made contact with the underside of Cyrax's chin. As soon as she rolled to her feet again, she gagged at her loss of breath when his fist came in contact with her gut. Her green eyes looked up at him just as his knuckles were drawing close to her already bruised face. She raised her left hand and pressed her palm to his fist, redirecting his attack to the air beside her and she brought her right knee up to his gut to stun him. She twirled her scythe and brought the butt-end of the handle to where his shoulder meets his neck. Elora noted that his knees buckled from the blow and saw an opening. She shoved her scythe at him again to knock him completely off balance by a head blow but he grabbed her arm and yanked her very close to him before punching her directly and causing her to fall backwards.

Cyrax rubbed his neck for a second as he took a few step backwards, looking at Elora as she rose to her feet again. "Too impatient, Elora." Cyrax commented. "Aggression doesn't work if you are careless."

Elora half grinned through her deep breaths, "Still got some hits in, didn't I?" When he shrugged, she began to twirl her scythe with her right hand and broke into a sprint towards him. Cyrax released a projectile at her. It was an explosive, but one for training purposes so it wouldn't blow a limb off. Elora counted the seconds in her head until she knew it would explode. She kicked off of the ground and leaped in the air, spinning sideways. When her sight locked onto Cyrax once more, she noticed that he had already launched a green net towards her before she was even on the ground. Elora smirked and pulled herself in tighter to speed up the spin she was in and brought her scythe blade down with great force as she slid to a final pose. The net that was once upon her vanished as it first broke to each side of her.

Cyrax had rushed her while she was crouched and easily dodged any ready attacks she had for him. The two locked together again and as the tides, once more, were turning in Cyrax's favor, he reached to grab her arm, the one move he kept parrying her attacks with to get the upper hand, but she feigned her attack and swooped his legs out from under him as she dropped to the ground once more. Before he hit the ground, she had pounced on him and slid to his back, locking her legs around his torso and locking his arms. She had pulled the blade of her scythe to under his neck and forced him to tip his head up towards her.

"1 for me," Elora happily announced.

Cyrax groaned at the feeling of his body being squeezed and the scythe blade still pressed firmly under his chin but he grinned regardless, "1 - 4," he mocked. "Congrats."

Elora pulled herself off of him and helped him up just as the training was called to an end. The two walked together towards the largest building with most of the other Lin Kuei members; it was dinner time.

"You hear about Frost?" Cyrax started up a conversation.

Elora nodded and looked off in the distance towards the Grandmaster's building and, sure enough, she saw Sub-Zero stalking away alone. "If he's upset," Elora began, "he doesn't show it too much in public."

"Only when he goes off alone," Cyrax commented.
_

Elora had dressed in much lighter clothing now; a black tank top with dark grey, soft pants. She had taken her hair out of the ponytail and her silky, dark red hair was hanging down over the front of her shoulders and down the middle of her back as she was strengthening the blade of her scythe. She sat in the center of the floor on a rug covering the dark brown wood in her quarters. She glanced up at Cyrax occasionally with a just as serious expression as his words were.

"Wouldn't Sub-Zero warn us," Elora spoke up, "if this 'Cyber-Initiative' whatever was really happening?"

Cyrax leaned forward in the chair he was seated in, reaching out a hand as he was speaking to talk with his hands, "No body wants to talk about it. Maybe he won't act because it's all just rumors anyways."

"And maybe," Elora began, "that's all it will be." She sighed and glanced down for a moment as she mumbled, "It's just all in the back of our minds." She looked back at Cyrax, "What did Sektor say?"

Cyrax sighed and leaned back in the chair with a thud, "He thinks it sounds promising and like a good idea." He rolled his eyes as he recalled the conversation with his red-dressed friend, "He says it's for the good of the clan."

"Don't know why you hang out with him," Elora shook her head as she turned her attention back her weapon. "He's always seemed," she paused for a second, "irrational. I take it," she looked up at Cyrax, "he became angry when you tried explaining your opinion?"

"Of course." Cyrax answered. He then chuckled lightly, "He also blamed my opinion on you and said the same as you. He can't understand why I talk to you."

Elora smirked, "Maybe you need new friends."

Cyrax just grinned in return.
_

Months passed and Cyrax and Elora began noticing that some of their clan members began disappearing one by one, and they started to fear the worse. It wasn't until Sub-Zero came to them, did they realize that this 'rumor' was truly a reality.

"Run." Was all Sub-Zero ordered the two and left without Elora or Cyrax to give any goodbyes or retorts. Elora looked over at Cyrax, which he returned her gaze, and he could see a small hint of fear in her eyes. They both grabbed just their gear and any weapons they found useful before they attempted to set off.