A/N: there were some generic grey ninjas in the background during MK 9. Particularly the female grey ninja standing beside two male greyish ninjas near Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage. I'll just use the spots they were standing at and say that the grey ninjas were Tengu ninjas.

…

TIMELINE - FIRST MORTAL KOMBAT TOURNAMENT - PREVIEW NIGHT

You stood as a representative of earthrealm at Shang Tsung's island with two of your Tengu brethren, the same two who grew up with you whom you have treated like were your brothers.

Your eyes lingered on Sub-Zero who was with Sektor and Cyrax on the the other side of the gathering just as the Tournament is about to commence for a preview night. You do not approach him. You two typically pretend to be merely acquainted outside of your private affairs. Someone caught your eye as you looked intently at the back of the yellow ninja standing to the left, the uniform resembled the idea of Scorpion's colours but the design was demonic. It did not remind you of what he used to wear as a Shirai Ryu.

Though the man seemed somewhat lifeless. You recognized this is a wraith. But it also must have been someone else before that. You inspect the details of his attire and some markings indicate Shirai Ryu. It…could not be, he looked like H-!

It cannot really be him. Wraiths are formed from having their souls sent to the lowest pits of the Netherrealm and Hanzo could not have winded up there.

You try to not think too much of it as this was a life and death tournament. Finally, the Sorcerer Shang Tsung flanked by the princess of Outworld and her guard appeared. You were a little amused to see Johnny Cage there since you remembered watching his movies growing up. You heard he is barely keeping his career together these days. Yet, he was first to be called up on the tournament during the preview night.

At the conclusion of the night rounds, everyone dispersed. You wanted to look for that Shirai Ryu who technically should not exist. Though, he seemed to vanished out of sight very quickly. You had noted that Sub-Zero had also walked off with his clan members so you went back to the guest quarters that was prepared at Shang Tsung's island. This was a tournament so you had doubted there would have been time to meet with the cyromancer. Your two Tengu comrades interrupted you and felt a meeting should be held in private before the tournament resumed in the morning

After your internal meeting, you decided to end the night in your suite. You were in the bathtub that was located at the corner surrounded by 2 walls. Tou heard someone enter your room and close the door. You grabbed your towel as quickly as possible.

As you were about to get out of the water; you heard the familiar voice of the cyromancer, "It is I."

"How sneaky, using your detective skills to find my quarters," you commented and popped back into the tub, bubbles surrounded your body again.

He appeared into the bathroom and it was obvious he engaged in some kind of battle though you were sure the tournament was supposed to start again tomorrow morning. He removed his mask: a bruise and a broken lip was visible on his face as he spoke, "Then be sure you stay quiet."

He stood beside you, sitting lightly at the edge of the bathtub and reached his hand into the water to feel for your chest under the bubbles. Your hand reached to cup his bruise mark but he turned away slightly, you knew he was not proud. Though without saying anything, you hastily healed his facial wound and from your guess, in consideration of where he was hit, it should have broken the skin in his inner cheek when it collided with his teeth. He still did not seem pleased and simply fumbled his hand in lazy circles around your breast.

"I have orders to kill Shang Tsung at the right opportunity. But to get close to him implies I may have to eliminate earthrealm warriors," he admitted. He had just returned to you after he lost a fight against Sonya Blade when she was on her personal quest to free Jackson Briggs. Truthfully, you knew he cared not for the other earthrealmers so he really told you to give you a heads up to not be in his way.

"Your fight was unmonitored by the tournament?" You figured and you received a nod. You did not want to sound as though you were to nag about his choice of a grandmaster, and it was not as if he had a choice in that regard. You did not need to ask certain questions such as 'why' because you already knew the answer; he follows orders with a neutral stance. "My elders already instructed me to not interfere with the Lin Kuei, lest there is a threat to my two brethrens who came with me. They are like brothers to me and those two are the ones taking the risks. They will not support the idea of harming earthrealmers if Sektor demands that. Your mission befalls no ills on me, but do not harm my party."

He almost seemed slightly relieved as his hand cupped your breast and gave your nipple a light squeeze but you wondered if you said that to alleviate him.

"Sektor and Cyrax will be informed that you and I have consulted on the matter," he replied. Depending on the context, you both do on occasion admit that you both have met if you both felt it had everything to do with the clans. In this case, it would not be surprisingly that you two had an opportunity to speak at the tournament. However, Sektor always wanted the opportunity to speak with you 'in private' for some time and you cringed at the thought. Luckily, you had been lucky enough to slither away each time.

If you had thought Bi-Han was bad news at the beginning, Sektor is twenty times at least the worse and is actually the worst.

"If those two men under my supervision are killed by Lin Kuei hands during this tournament, I will have no choice but to kill Cyrax. It is an eye for an eye," you laid down your terms. Since you would not hurt Sub-Zero for personal reasons and cannot kill Sektor for political reasons: Cyrax gets the short end even though the man had never once offended you.

"Hmmph!" He made a slight scowl as you did just threatened him but at the same time what you two do, while under orders, does not reflects your true selves. It certainly took courage and patience to accept that about one another. "That leaves those few earthrealmers as the true defenders," he concluded and you did your headcount that included Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, Nightwolf and now this newly released Jax.

His other hand unzipped his fly and he pulled out his growing arousal. You both adjust your bodies so his lower half was facing your face. You let his arousal fit it entirely in your mouth and began to suck and swirl your tongue and feel it grow to full length.

You reach to hold his hand and then lift it out of the water and he raised an eyebrow at you as he assumed you enjoyed the touch. It is not that you did not…however…

"Your armour is turning the water grey," you pulled your head back to answer him and you gave him the tiniest of smiles. Then you proceeded to scrub your hand with a soap bar.

He disregarded what you said and climbed in on top of you, the water splashing a bit everywhere already. You squirmed feeling vulnerable and your eyes were focused on looking at how the water quickly became dirty when he jumped in with his armour. He gripped and wrestled that soap bar from your hand with ease as you were unable to grip it since your hands were full of suds.

He pinned you down lightly with his upper body to which you had no real desire to push him off and you felt him ruffled through his clothing to loosen his sash.

He held you down and he rubbed the soap bar against your lower regions and then you felt him enter. You squint because water and soap certainly do not make a great lubricator.

He was rather rough this time pushing in harshly especially since you two were due for a meeting and this was not actually the most secure of places. Your body adjusted quickly to the abrupt entry. You held back your moans in an effort to stay quiet against him as he rocked you and water splashed everywhere. He was slowly removing his top armour one piece at a time while reminding you in slow powerful thrusts that there is more to come.

When he removed his entire top, he gripped your leg and let it rest over his shoulder. He stood up, which caused you to rest your other knee against the ledge of the bathtub and your hands on the edges to support yourself. He did use his free hand to support the underside of your waist so you may stabilized your balance. When you were stable, once of your hands reached for his solid length and guided the head back into you. He began to thrust and you coordinated your body to match efforts with him.

At some point, you almost slipped from feeling the force of his thrusts so he allowed you to stand properly as your leg shifted off his shoulder. He pushed your back until it arched with your chest and cheek pressed at the wall. He held his shaft and guided himself back in from behind. You placed your hands on the wall to help you push back to rock your body along the length. He grunted and then stayed quiet and his hand reached in front to simulate your lower regions. He knew exactly where to rub now and you shuddered against him in sudden ragged breaths as you knew you came from that.

As expected you started to get cold and shiver from being out of the water. He pulled you until your back was pressed up against his chest and then he sat back down into the murky water with bent knees. And yours to bend around his.

He licked and attacked your neck followed by grazing his teeth against your ear and cheek. He would not stop circulating around your lower regions even though you were sensitive already to his cordial hand. He was relentlessly pumping into you as he was close to release. You grit your teeth to hold back any noises.

You both began to breathe frantically, your head thrown back and eyes up to the ceiling while his was burrowed into the crook of your neck. You clutched onto his arms that had squeezed your ribs as he released into your body and you shuddered on him once again. When he pulled out, his fingers glaze on your lower regions to feel for the sticky fluids and he raised his hand to show you the mixture on his digits as he kissed your upper cheek.

You had to come back to reality and opened the drain and then turned on the faucet to continue to rinse yourself off once again after and get the soap suds out of his armour where they existed. He kissed you hungrily as you were trying to help him remove the suds from his pants. It was as if he was trying to get another course out of a 4 course meal…He sure is strange sometimes.

He had his quick dry techniques too, as soon as he got out of the water, he simply froze his clothes and skin and then broke off the ice that shattered on the floor and mixed with the puddles of grey water.

You wrapped yourself up in a towel and exhaled for a moment as you looked at the mess on the floor. Your tendency to say a random joke here for there in front of him had never changed as you started. "The custodian will get a fine tip."

He grabbed your hand and guided you to the bed as it would appear he had a chance to sleep with you for a little bit, undetected.

….

OFFICIAL OPENING DAY OF THE 10TH TOURNAMENT

In the grand opening day of the Tournament, you were called up early and you dispatched Sheeva and Skarlett in your first two rounds. You thought you must have been doing well. Though as soon as you fought Motaro, the match ended badly for you. He was tall, strong and fast, with all those extra limbs, it was advantageous for him to keep you down on the ground.

Not even your scythe was able to cut all that deep into his thick hide, it was like fighting an armoured tank. You knew how to throw shockwaves of energy at you your enemies from your training, but he weighed too much to be impacted. He charged right at you, pinning you to the floor and proceeded to slam your body with his fists until bones and body parts crushed into each other like pulp and you choked out on your blood caught up in your collapsed lungs.

After you died, you figured he got off you and was busy flaunting his victory to the morning crowd, the Outworld representatives were excited to see blood in the morning but the earthrealmers were less than pleased. You, of course, came back to life and healed yourself just enough to stand and you walked off the stage. You recalled the eye witnesses jumping out of their seats at the sight of your re-spawning capabilities. Even Motaro stood there with a dropped jaw.

You know this means you were eliminated from the rest of the tournament, however. You stumbled off the stage and stood to watch as the morning matches progress. A burst of flames appeared right where you had stood earlier in the ring of the fight, and the yellow ninja appeared.

Shang Tsang then announced the name of the yellow ninja, it is Scorpion! He kept demanding for Sub-Zero's pressence. You could have left anytime now that you had lost your placement but you stayed to watch this man fight two earth realm warriors, a new shaolin by the name of Kung Lao and the shaman, Nightwolf. Both were defeated which now has almost evened the scoring of the tournament for the morning.

As everyone was in the midst of dispersing, you listened in on Raiden as he struck a deal to Hanzo. Should he spare Sub-Zero, then the Shirai Ryu would be restored to the living. It did sound like a good deal but you had some concerns since Hanzo is clearly a wraith of vengeance. A wraith of vengeance is loaded with so much hatred that it would fail to use logic and reasoning.

Soon, the wraith was left to his thoughts. You decided to approach him but he spotted you first, those eyes, they were Hanzo's but devoid of life.

"A few of your techniques is Shirai Ryu, how did you come by this?" Scorpion hissed when he saw you enter his vision.

"You," you said casually. "Do you not recognize me?"

"I…" he paused for a moment and then continued, "I know who you are…and if you are in my way, I will defeat you without hesitation."

"I did not expect to see you…or ever again," You whispered.

"We have not seen each other face to face in years," he snarled, "We are once again strangers unless you prove to be my ally. Your clan no longer has any honour left by siding with the Lin Kuei."

"That does not change the fact that you are my friend," you pointed out.

He had a moment of shock in his eyes as he had forgotten about even having friends. He then seemed to recover quickly and returned to a cold stare.

You continued, "You know I have no say to the decisions made by the elders."

"After all these years, you still cannot lead!" he raised his voice at you condescendingly.

"You only taught how me to be a ninja, not a leader! It is a reflection of your own achievement," you pointed out and then you both briskly walked away from each other. It was not a great reunion.

You had one thing you have to do: prevent Sub-Zero from running into Scorpion. You want to keep Bi-Han alive….for yourself.

You spotted him mediating near a cave.

"I have something to talk to you about," you hurried to him. He stood up as you got into proximity and he placed his hands on your shoulders to inspect you as you were covered in your own dried blood from the brutal beating earlier.

"What is wrong?" You asked when you noticed he looked discouraged.

"Attending this tournament is the largest mistake of my life," he hissed and walked towards the caves. "I worry about life, death will take care of itself."

"Bi Han, that Shirai Ryu at the tournament, it is Scorpion. He demands your presence in a match; I prefer you avoid confrontation. This tournament follows no rules. I already experienced the first brutality in the tournament," you said sternly as you walked at his side and this was the first time you ever made a request of him outside of your relationship. You hated fighting these Outworlders and Nethrealmers as they were firm to believe that death in brutal battle is a justified cause and you did not agree. It would appear Sub-Zero did not either.

You did not want either of them to perish, if Scorpion won, the chances of him murdering Sub-Zero is high regardless of the Thunder god's offer. If Sub-Zero won, Scorpion's soul would cease to exist, this was one thing you knew about a wraith of vengeance. "He is a wraith now, a wraith is tied down to negative emotions and final memories. He cannot settle unless he feels he had achieved something right for his loved ones. Yet wraiths cannot perceive justice; only discontent and failure."

"I had nothing to do with his family!" Sub-Zero folded his arms. Ugh, whenever he does that, it reminded you of a bratty child to which you had troubles convincing. "I have bested Scorpion before, I will do so again!"

"You have no expectations to follow through the rest of the matches once the opportunity to eliminate Shang Tsung presents itself," you tried to convince him but he glared at you through his mask and breathed out a large puff of mist.

Why was Bi Han getting progressively angry? Then, he revealed it.

"What difference does it make? The grandmaster wishes for me to be turned into a cyborg after this tournament! I would be just as good as dead."

"You….did not tell me this," you blinked at him with confusion. Though, he cannot see your face right now with the mask on.

"I only knew of it this morning!" he angrily punched the cave wall.

"When did this happen? I thought the clan elders were speaking to each other of political matters."

"It is called the cyber initiative, it has been two years in the making at a remote underground location in secrecy. Hydro was the first to be turned into a working prototype. The first candidates for the production line are Cyrax, Sektor, and myself. If it is successful, and it deems to be, the rest of the clan will be cyberized to serve Shao Kahn! You understand, do you not? Your clan should break your deals while it is possible," he added. "…The Lin Kuei will ask for you to join its ranks in the next phase of cyberization as part of a trade off."

"That would mean I would be expected to give up the title Kremnine. I hope the elders plan to rename me to 1023MB because I will not accept a gig within the Lin Kuei," you suggested in attempt to lighten the mood. You have not seen what the cyborg model would look like and assumed it would be more of an 'life model' android.

"You will not have a choice, cyberization is complete obedience," he threw your pun out the window as he was not in the mood. The no free will part certainly sounded awful. "Hydro…looked mutilated."

You backed up for a second as you digested this information. Cyborgs that will serve Outworld? It seemed to foreign to you as a concept. You remembered Hydro for a brief while and had noted you had not seen his face in a while. It is clear that Bi-Han has seen an image of the cyborg form, likely by using some sort of communicator during a Lin Kuei meeting in the morning. You trusted the transformations would be inhumane as there is rejection written all over Sub-Zero's eyes.

"Listen to me…I had not ever done anything for you. But if you say it, that you would rather leave the clan to have your life, I will leave mine to spend it with you," you decided to declare, aware that this was the first time you have mentioned a concept of love to him and neither of you have ever said this four letter word. But would you two spend your whole life running away from clan desertion? Asking permission to leave is not an option as it would violate the truce with the Lin Kuei.

His eyes went wide at you, shocked as he realized you both will still have to give up who you are and all you have known. You cannot even dare believe you love each other that much to do that kind of sacrifice. You are sacrificing because both of you understood loyalty.

"My father…was a deserter. He left to be with my mother, an American investigator. The clan did not forgive him and found my family was I was a boy. My mother and father and baby sister were killed before my eyes. You don't understand, I must honour the title Sub-Zero which he and his father once bore!"

You felt a strong sense of sympathy for him. Flashbacks flood you as you recalled that he was uncharacteristically affectionate with you during the execution of the young Tengu and Lin Kuei couple. You know realized why he behaved that way. Ughhh…why is it he never told you these things so you can understand and relate to him?

"You were the one thing I wanted to keep to myself, not as a Lin Kuei, not as Sub-Zero," he said as his hand held yours which was currently holding your scythe. Your eyes went wide when you realized one would say such things before doing something rash. He immediately created massive ice nuggets in the cave that fell down and surrounded you. He immediately slid back outside the cave as soon as he pulled the scythe out of your hand and you were stuck within.

You tried pushing the ice with shockwaves which did not have as much of an impact as you liked. You screamed out his name multiple times, you did not even realize you were capable of screaming to the point that your throat ripped. You knew by now he must have left and you were angry that he lets his pride get in the way as he never backed down from a challenge. Your mind raced: only one of them between Scorpion and Sub-Zero will come out alive after this.

You truthfully do care for both of them. After all, you were in a relationship with Bi-Han for more than a year. Regardless that neither of you ever once utter the word of 'love' towards each other. You recalled the nights that you had met with him and he fell asleep after you had both performed intimate activities and you heard him whisper your name in his sleeping state. In his own version of understanding the events between you two, he had fallen for you even though he would never admit to it. This is how he knew how to love. It was no fault of his own as he was an orphan, raised to be a killer.

Yet, why is it you never truly express love to him? You knew you were capable of loving someone with all your heart and settling for them. Yet with this relationship, he would not want to bring it to that level. As a result, you never fully loved him because he never really let you fully love him. So you had set mental limits with Bi-Han, keeping things the way they were and capping them at certain limits because it was easy…for you.

You drop your head down and you secretly revealed your true nature when the tears started to fall and you whispered to yourself, "Hanzo, please choose life…."

….

A/N: ooooh there you have it, Bi-Han written as a conflicted man who was not all that bad and did cherish the reader.