Meanwhile, on the way to General Blade's office...

Glaring at no one and nothing in particular - although if she had eyes in the back of her head Briggs would likely be flashing Zyanyo one of those fabled looks that could kill - Jacqui kept her deep tawny eyes on the floor as she power-walked to Sonya's office, imagining Hitomi's face and how great Takeda would think she looked with a big black eye and a couple missing teeth. Or for that matter, how would Jin feel about Zyanyo's come-ons if the Lin Kuei were to be suddenly become a girl for all intents and purposes. Ok, so maybe she was channeling Cassie and her dad in that second answer, what with their famed ball-buster fighting styles, but that didn't make their approach any less wrong in this situation.

Again, it wasn't that revenant's offspring and revered beauty was jealous about meeting the girl that had taken her boyfriend's - at this point questionable - virtue (and vice versa); Jacqui was pissed off because she had to find out that way, and in front of the rest of the team too. Of course she would have told Cassie pretty much everything about that encounter anyways, but this was not only humiliating, it also stole the choice of how much fat she could trim from the bovine before it was slaughtered and sent to the dinner table. She should have had that chance, but more than that, Takeda should have trusted her enough to tell her those kinds of intimate things. I trusted him with my scars.

Inattentive to both their quivering leaf of a guide and the furious powerhouse that was Specialist Briggs, Zyanyo and Kung Jin were rather busy entertaining the other. Mostly it was just shameless back-and-forth flirting, but the cryomancer wasn't quite prepared to let their first night together die, and the archer (who was more than into remembering what almost transpired) cared enough about his team to attempt to get to the bottom of what brought on that dazzling display of asshole-ness. What could he say, they were all starting to grow on him in their own ways, even Cassie, although that was more like a fungus or malignant growth.

"You surprised me last night," Zyanyo whispered to the monk with a devious smirk, careful to keep one eye on the others at all times as to not take a wrong turn and get Jin in trouble with the General for missing the entire meeting, or at the very least strolling into the office halfway through a tirade, all disheveled and bright red from intensive groping. So far as the General went he'd heard stories, though he'd never actually seen the woman for himself, and so far as the Shaolin was concerned, never before had the Lin Kuei beheld anything half as beautiful, or as fascinating. So in other words, if the twin had the opportunity to catch the bowman alone, he was certainly going to seize it and capitalize upon it. "I have to admit, when we went back to your room last night, I didn't expect the night to end with my clothes on. And here I took half a minute to actually think about what would make the best appeal while being the fastest to rip off."

Crude, crass, and apparently without a single care in the world, Jin thought that Zyanyo was something else than what he tried to put out there in the world, something that couldn't quite be hit in just a single shot - which only served to intrigue the monk. It was undeniable that whatever went down in Cage's office was hardcore and intense, but that didn't mean that any of them should judge and define Zyanyo for it. It wasn't like they knew Hitomi at all, and even Takeda hadn't seen her in years, so for what they all knew she deserved everything that she got in that room. Now maybe that was also an unfair assumption, but he was just the tinsiest bit biased.

But seriously, after what 'Z' whispered in his ear last night to encourage the decision to move their party of two to a more private locale, the line about removing his clothes was nothing that you couldn't say to a devote and most pious nun. "I guess last night will never know how fast it would have taken us to get off what it took you two hours to stuff yourself into." Implying that there was still wiggle room in the future for them to make that discovery, it was Jin's turn to flash a smile, just daring the other man to make his next move. The good thing about Zyanyo was that he was obviously the type of guy that would, with or without an invitation.

Pursuing his lips beneath the wraps while his blue blue eyes widened like dinner plates, Zyan was pleasantly surprised by the Shaolin, "My my, someone's a naughty little monk. I have half a mind to punish you for using that kind of language."

"And what's the other half telling you to do with me?" Jin couldn't pass that one up.

Ever his personal signature, the Lin Kuei cocked his head to the side and beamed at the archer, although this particular grin was up the ally of 'boy, I am going to just devour you whole, and if you don't watch it, that's going to be sooner than later.' Kung Jin had made his stance on how far to take this thing clear from the very beginning, and Zyanyo respected that. Parts of him may have turned blue that had no business being that color, but still he respected that boundary. Besides, it wasn't as if he got nothing in return - two and a half hours of tonsil hockey and a rather feisty companion was more than worth the delay in his book. "Now or later?"

Oh, the bowman liked the tone in the other male's voice, but he liked the way he was leaning closer even more, something stirring deep below at the thought that anything could happen next, he's just an incorrigible scoundrel, isn't he? More than twenty-seven twenty-eighths tempted to continue this particular conversation, Kung Jin was not quite so blinded as to miss that this would be his best possible chance to play detective for the sake of the team - those jerks had better appreciate this grand gesture. "If you tell me something now," no stranger to gambling with questionable odds, Jin already had such terms prepared in his mind for circumstances such as these, "I can make it worth your while later." Subtle, very subtle Jin. At least Zyanyo (aside from just being quite the looker below all that fabric), seemed interested in this bargaining game, his sparkling yet maddeningly familiar orbs toying with taking the bait. It was some damn good bait, so he'd be a fool to pass it up, trap or no.

Just as Kung Jin predicted, Zyanyo mulled the monk's deal over as they walked ever closer to their determined destination, acutely aware of how much of a fool he would have to be to ignore this as-of-yet undefined offer while also weighing what it might be that the slightly older man wanted to ask into. If it pertained to the cyomancer's heritage, there were certain areas that were such a dark shade of black no one would ever get access, but there were some spots of gray and white that would came for free, no payment required. Likely though, it would trace back around to his darling sister and what that ugly mess was all about. Not that he could blame him for wanting some insight after a display like that. I'd want answers too if our roles had been reversed.

Damn, damn, quadruple dammit! Cursing his upbringing (though hardly for the first time), Zyanyo shook his head, "No, you don't have to put yourself in that position. I mean I won't stop you if that's what you really want and this was just your flimsy excuse," shrugging at the lack of a replay, the junior snowman did what he considered to be a decent job of hiding the disappointment there, "but you don't have to feel like you have to." Speaking up so that Jacqui could hear this as well, Zyanyo revealed himself before the court, "You want to know why things are so bad between me and my sister? I'll tell you, free of charge." Knowing Hitomi, she probably already broke down and cried to Takeda. "Our mother raised us without our biological fathers. For over ten years we lived happily, just the four of us, but one day she came back from her yearly 'World Tour of Sorry' and told us every horrible detail that led from our half-sister to how she met her own father, which led to us. That led to the revelation that we were actually half-siblings as well, although since no one else in the family is a cryomancer that should have been fairly obvious." It wasn't, not before that. "She made us both swear that we wouldn't go around just blabbing who our dads are, but since I only had to just promise her, I see it that my old man doesn't care who knows about his shame."

"Wh-who," the guide had shambled back like a hermit crab and blurted out before he could stop himself, "who is your dad?"

Eyeing him critically so that the peon shrank back like the yellow-bellied coward he was, Zyanyo looked at the other two family members of legendary fighters and decided to just tell them, as if it should have been that hard to guess, "The Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, although you," you being the pussy, "might know him better as Sub-Zero." Well it was either him or Bi-Han, but seeing as the elder brother was already dead by the time that Quan Chi sniffed out the blooming romance between his daughter and prized assassin and made Kuai Liang step in, the newly-dubbed Noob Saibot had already been fed to a soulnado. Besides, Evren swore that she had only known so many lovers in all her centuries alive, and the only cryomancer on that list (because that's exactly the kind of thing every son needs to hear about his mother) was the former Tundra. Now if I care to believe that story... Holding their attention, the Lin Kuei continued with explaining why his sister was the bane of his existence. "Hitomi accepted everything, just like that. Different dads or not, we were supposed to be twins. How could she not see what was wrong with the picture like I did? Our mother lied to us, and worse she even made the man who raised us with her lie! But no, she was fine with it. And to add insult to injury, we left our home in Outworld after a huge fight that began with our step-father asking to keep me," at least someone had the sense to see how this news was all affecting him, "and moved to the Himalayas so they could meet with Scorpion and work things out. That was hard enough on me for my twin to chose the other half of her family, but that heartless bitch had to go and pick him over me! It was like she stopped loving me the instant she found out that we weren't blood."

"Him," Jacqui whispered more to herself than the guys, "being Takeda."

A/N:

Well I was waiting for the reveal that Sub-Zero was Zyanyo's father, but meh, it works just as well here. Now before I come under heavy fire for this one, I would like to say in my defense that I do not think that Kuai Liang is that type of person in the slightest. Then why you ask would I put such a plot line in my story? Simple - it bothers me that Sub-Zero is so alone. Not even thinking romantically, it bugs me that he has no one to be close to! Scorpion has Takeda, so why can't Sub-Zero have someone too? Yes yes, I realize that he's training Frost, but come on, I think we all know where that one's going, so I don't count that. Not enough of a reason to give him such a dark role you say? Well I also point out he was not in control of himself for the whole time he was under Quan Chi's command, and as much as I do love the necromancer, I wouldn't put this kind of despicable act beyond him. Maybe that's not fully concrete, so I'll point out just how much he hated himself after being freed from the sorcerer in the comic, and bring up his intro/banter with Mileena. Maybe it was just me, but so much of that screamed something happened there, and I just can't see them interacting without some kind of a catalyst. Granted that's a whole other train of thought with me, but really, that banter implies another side of Sub-Zero...

And speaking of banter/intros, there was one of Kung Jin's (I can't recall who the other person was, but I want to say was either Erron or Reptile) where he asks if he owes the other person money (maybe Kitanta?). To me, that would imply that he's no stranger to gambling, or at least asking other people for loans, but given all of the evidence, I want to say gambling. Seriously, a rather interesting monk, despite not knowing nearly enough.