Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated sooner. I was busy with this thing called life... It happens every now and then. But here it is, chapter 7. I hope you like it. I have to admit, I did not expect that many positive reviews, since it's my first MK story and all. Of course that also put me under some kind of pressure because I really don't want to disappoint anyone. So yeah, I hope I can live up to the expectations. Thank you for reading and reviewing this story. I can't express how much it means to me!
Chapter 7: About Honor, Compassion And Humanity
She stood there for a while, not moving, just staring into the darkness, trying to process what had just happened. It was all to much at once. The memories of her mother, Sub-Zero revealing her father's fate to her, him trying to get closer to her only to coldly push her away, another strange ninja attacking her, threatening to kill her, forcing her to fight him. And to her own surprise, despite the physical pain he had caused her, she had to admit to herself that she had actually enjoyed fighting him. It felt ridiculously good to let out her frustrations and anger on him. The adrenaline rush that had been going through her when she had kicked him in the crotch and escaped his grip had been overwhelming. And when she had managed to freeze him solid, she had felt accomplished like never before in her life.
A few minutes passed until she finally let out a bitter laugh that quickly turned into the most hysterical laughter. Tears were streaming down her face and she herself could not even tell whether she was crying or laughing them. If someone had told her she would be living this crazy, unreal new life two weeks ago, she probably would have called the psych ward.
When she regained her composure a little bit, she started heading back to the main building, talking to herself, occasionally letting out a laugh or a sigh.
"Jaime?" A familiar voice shook her out of her thoughts as she was entering the main building. "What have you been doing outside so late? And oh my, what happened to you?" Sonya exclaimed as she and Liu Kang approached the young cryomancer. It was just now that Jaime realized that her clothes were wet, her shirt ripped on the back from having been tossed on to the ground, her knuckles covered with her own dry blood and her right cheekbone slightly bruised.
"Oh, uhm, I... I just...", she sighed, "someone attacked me on the training grounds."
"Someone attacked you? Here? That's nearly impossible. Lin Kuei Palace is guarded 24/7." Sonya returned disbelievingly.
"Well, then those guards are doing a pretty crappy job with... the guarding. Because I was attacked."
"Who was it?" Liu Kang further asked.
"I don't know. Guy didn't bother to introduce himself. Sub-Zero and I were... we... and... and then he left. Next thing I know this guy shows up out of nowhere, telling me what an embarrasment I must be for the Lin Kuei and all kinds of mean things and it felt like he was intentionally trying to royally piss me off. So I got mad and we started to fight." Jaime explained.
"And?" Sonya pushed, trying to put the pieces together.
"And I froze him." Jaime added.
"Oh. Wow. That's good I guess."
"Yeah but it only lasted for about 30 seconds. Then he was... on fire... The ice melted and he walked over to me, reached out his hand and said something along the lines of 'anger is a powerful weapon, here endeth the lesson'." Jaime continued, mockingly imitating Scorpion's deep voice.
"What did he look like?" It slowly began dawning on Liu Kang who this attacker might have been but he wanted to be sure before drawing his final conclusion.
"Uhm... tall, yellowish ninja battle attire, face mask, deep voice. And those eyes... creepy as fuck. Milky white, no irises." She described him, only to look into the rather surprised faces of Sonya and Liu Kang.
"Scorpion?!" The Shaolin murmured disbelievingly.
"Who's Scorpion?" Jaime asked, slightly confused.
"The guy who attacked you, I'm pretty sure it was Scorpion." Jaime waited for him to say more, looking at him as if to say 'so what the heck does that mean?'.
"We'll explain. But we really should take care of that first," Sonya said, pointing at Jaime's hands,
"And then we need to report to Sub-Zero." Liu Kang added.
Jaime was ridiculously nervous as she was standing in front of the door to Sub-Zero's quarters. Sonya and Liu Kang had told her about Scorpion and Sub-Zero's 'coloful' history. How Scorpion had been killed by Kuai Liang's brother, Bi-Han. That he had been resurrected as a spectre in the Netherrealm, to come back for revenge, to anvenge his clan, his kin and himself and kill Bi-Han, only to find out about his enemy's brother and that they had both been betrayed by forces of evil. How they had formed an alliance, and later on some sort of friendship, based on their promises to atone for their own and their clan's crimes.
Jaime had been shocked by those revelations because not only had Sub-Zero's 'friend' threatened to kill her, no, he had also said all kinds of nasty bits to her - about him among other things. Especially the bit about Frost, his former student, made her feel uncomfortable. Sonya had only filled her in on the basics - that she had developed a great lust for power and turned against Sub-Zero and that he had not wanted to kill her but had to. She had also mentioned that apparently, Frost was a sore subject with Sub-Zero and he would usually prefer not to speak about her at all.
Her hand was shaking nervously as she reached out to know on his door. She could not help but to constantly think of the tender moment they had shared by the bridge. The way he had smiled at her when talking about her name, the spark in his amazingly blue eyes, the touch of his hand on hers, how her heart had almost stopped beating when he had leaned in to kiss her... And then his sudden reaction to it. As if he had woken up from a dream, back to reality in a heartbeat. Distant. Stone cold. The mere thought of it clouded her mind with confusion, especially with the things that had happened right afterwards. She was all three - excited to see him, embarrassed and ridiculously angry. She had no idea how she was supposed to look him in the eyes, let alone talk to him.
"Alright, here goes nothing." She muttered as she finally knocked. "It's me, Jaime. I need to speak with you."
"Come in." She heard him say from the other side of the door. She glanced at Sonya, who had agreed to go with her and wait outside, one more time as she shyly entered his room.
Sub-Zero's quarters were much like her own, only a bit more spacious. And instead of just one, he occupied two rooms, one of which served as a kind of office. It just now occurred to her that she had never been in his room. He was standing behind a huge wooden desk, facing the window.
"What do you want? It is late." He did not even bother to turn around and look at her.
"I... I was attacked." She replied shortly when closing the door behind her. That got his attention and he turned to face her, noticing her freshly bandaged hand and the purple bruise on her cheekbone.
"When?" He asked calmly, his voice cold, completely without emotion.
"Shortly after you left. Sonya and Liu Kang think it might have been someone named Scorpion." Jaime said, studying every inch of his face, trying to read him, to find some sort of reaction but he remained expressionless.
"You fought him?" He simply asked. Jaime was slightly taken aback by his question. For some reason she had expected him to show at least some kind of concern. But there was nothing, as if he was simply talking business.
"Uh... yeah. He made me fight him. It's not like I really had a choice. He made me just so unbelievably angry. And I think he did it on purpose." She explained, her voice growing impatient and louder.
"He did indeed." Sub-Zero said, towering over her, looking at her bruised face.
"What's that supposed to mean... Wait, did you know this was going to happen?" She asked disbelievingly.
"I did not know he was going to confront you this early in your training. But..."
"Oh my God... You set me up. Both of you..." She just muttered, taking a step back, trying to get as far away from him as possible.
"...He voiced his concern about you being able to control your powers when emotionally unstable. I simply agreed to let him test his theory. It was important that your emotions and reactions were real." He tried to explain. But Jaime was far from understanding anything. She just couldn't believe that the one person she had come to trust in this new, strange, hostile world did this to her.
"I was alone. I was attacked. My life was threatened. I was scared shitless. You know that my combat skills are... poor... to say the least. So I thought I was going to fucking die. And now you're telling me that it was but a test and that you knew about it?" She yelled, her voice cracking and tearful.
"It was important that your emotions were real. Sparring cannot compare to what is going through you in a real fight. You were not raised as a Lin Kuei. You haven't learned to control your power since you were a small child. You're different. Therefore your training has to be different as well." Sub-Zero raised his voice, which was something he did not do very often.
"Is that all you ever think about? Training, fighting and war? Is that all you care about? That I become a better fighter?" She looked him straight in the eyes, hoping that he would somehow feel something, that he would tell her that this was not all he cared about.
"I will protect you with my life if I can. But I will not be able to always be there to do so." He yelled at her angrily. "Hence I need you to be able to defend yourself. Do you still not realize how highly-coveted your gift is to our enemy? Have you learned nothing?" Sub-Zero took a step towards Jaime, his eyes piercing hers with the same threatening stare he had when he had pushed her against the wall on her first day.
"I don't care about my gift. I wish I could get rid of it. No one asked me if I wanted it in the first place. No one asked me if I wanted to be here. Because I really don't. Fuck your clan, fuck all of this!" She said, almost whispering. And for a second, she thought she could see a flicker of hurt in his eyes. Yes, she had just insulted his entire existence, his honor, his ancestors, the very thing that defined him as a person, everything he lived for. For a second, he looked weak and vulnerable and hurt. Like a human being.
"You and I, we are the last ones of our kind. We are the same. I am responsible for you now. Our paths have crossed for a reason. This is your destiny, as it is mine. It is something we cannot choose." He said, trying to make her understand his point of view but Jaime just shook her head in disagreement.
"I grew up as a normal girl with a normal life. With a mother who loved me, who taught me respect, compassion and forgiveness and love. Do you even understand the meaning of those words? You want to teach me how to fight, how to kill, how to shed the blood of others, how to win a war. And you're trying to tell me that it's an honorable thing. Innocent people die in wars. How could that ever be honorable? Do you even remember what you're fighting for?" She said, sarcasm dripping off her voice.
That was too much for Sub-Zero. Not only had she insulted his clan and his existence, no, she now also questioned his honor and his humanity. He growled at her, grabbed her throat, lifted her up and pressed her against the door.
"I fight for the survival of humankind, for Earthrealm, for your AND everyone else's freedom. How dare you question my honor? How dare you speak to me like this?" He yelled, slamming her against the door again, causing her head to crash into cold wood, making her give a wince of pain. It got harder to breathe but Jaime just growled back at him.
"We may have the same powers. And we may be of the same kind. But I haven't turned into a block of ice. Just look what you're doing... You want to talk about humanity? Your heart and soul are just as cold as the ice that you control. We're not the same. I am nothing like you. You... disgust... me..." She spat, a tear streaming down her face. She was prepared to be thrown across the room any second now. Seconds that seemed like hours passed, with him just continuing to stare at her, his cold breath brushing against her skin, his eyes wide open. And then he finally put her back on her feet again, loosened his grip only to now grab her by the neck and pull her into a violent kiss. Shocked at first by his rather unexpected reaction, she soon gave in to him as he wrapped his arms around her, closing the tiny gap between them. His rough lips hard on hers, she felt like she was melting away even though his skin was cold as ice, just like hers. He dragged her through his office in his embrace, their lips never parting but continuing their passionate dance, both of them breathing heavily as he smashed her against another wall, capturing her between his arms only for her to roughly push him away halfway across the room with a strength she did not even know she posessed, immediately following him, throwing herself back into his arms, pressing her lips on his again. As they rampaged their way through the office to the bedroom, only occasionally pulling away from each other for air, he could almost hear his mind talking to him, telling him to stop and how wrong all of this was. But once he had given in to his desires, it had been to late. A wave of emotions came crashing down on him like a tsunami, and he suddenly remembered how much he had missed being close to somebody. Jaime had been determined to stay strong, to tell him to fuck off, to not let him control her, not let herself turn into the cold, heartless excuse for a human being that he had appeared to be. Now all of that was gone. She was craving for his touch, biting his lip, burying her nails in his back causing him to hiss in pain every now and then. It was when he threw her onto the bed and instantly covered her body with his that she came to her senses for only a tiny moment.
"What are you doing?" She whispered, still out of breath. He pulled away just a little, supporting himself with his arms.
"I'm being human." He replied and she smiled in return as she could see the spark in his eyes again.
Alright people, so much for chapter 7. But of course this won't be the end of it. Cause man, that would be one stupid ending with way too little drama, right? Nope, that would be too frickin' easy... I suck at writing lemons so this is as steamy as it gets. I leave it up to your imagination what happens bext between them ;) However, this is not their happily ever after ending but meh, I kinda wanted them to get it on already...