Mortal Kombat: Broken Chains

By: Miss-DNL

Chapter 9: Burning Resentment

Scorpion growled to himself as he paced about his crude abode, one of his many hide-a-ways he had in the NetherRealm. He couldn't call any of the places he hid to get away from the chaos that was this realm a home, because he had no home anymore. It was said home is where your heart is, his heart was with his family and his family was gone. Therefore he had no home anymore. Further, despite this being his main hiding area Scorpion only had few things stored away in the little crevice, a few sharpening tools, spare weapons, things to fix his armoring, and etc. It looked like some stuff had been tossed in the area more than a dwelling. He had some things to sit on but no bed, he didn't need to sleep so he had no use for such a large object.

The current reason he was pacing about was the simple fact his wound still wasn't completely healed! His ribs were still aching as well but most of the other wounds had been long gone. If he was going to face that wretched new Sub-Zero he needed to be at full strength! He had beaten the whelp twice before but he wanted to be at a hundred percent to ensure that he'd succeed. Further he didn't want any weakness for the lowly, underhanded Lin Kuei to be able to exploit. Scorpion looked to the wound in question, he could move his arm again, but it was stiff and ridged in movement. It still pained him to move it. The monk had done a number on him that was for certain.

The specter couldn't wait any longer, the longer he remained idle the more chance he risked his mind drifting off into his memories. He couldn't stand that pain. Scorpion looked off into the endlessness of the NetherRealm. There was one thing he could do that'd speed up his recovery. The NetherRealm was full of Sorcerers, especially in the city of Necros. He could force one of them to heal his wound.

With narrowed pale yellow eyes Scorpion left his hiding area, teleporting to the outskirts of Necros. Scorpion hated this place, he hated the NetherRealm itself, the place was foul and disturbing beyond belief, but it was hell after all. It was supposed to be the most rotten place imaginable. The beings born in the realm it made no difference to them what atrocities occurred. They were born and made to be cruel and evil beings. Though it was mainly selfishness, they only cared for themselves, no one could be really trusted in this place. One that fell to this realm weren't much better off, of course it was a punishment after all. Most went mad from the pain eventually twisting and submitting to the realm influence, or became mindless husks. Few even came to like being in the realm!

Scorpion counted himself lucky he'd was strong enough to resist succumbing to the realm's infectious dark aura. The specter paused a moment, reflecting on his rage that consumed him when it was woken enough. Well, not tainted as much as others, he still had most of his mind to work with. Scorpion grunted as he walked down the molten rock ground towards the city. The gates were open for the moment, but they'd close if the revenants got too active. The undead were considered vermin if anything, and like vermin, there were many of them. If they gathered together and went to city they'd overrun the place. Thankfully they were too stupid to formulate such a plan.

The vengeful specter ignored the sites of impaled bodies scattered about around the entrance of the city. It was a common sight to see tormented souls in flesh husks impaled around for all to see and torment. Or for the zombies to feast upon, keeping them busy till guards or bored citizens came to kill them. It also wasn't a rare sight to see the bodies still moving, begging to be freed. If they were still able to speak that was, must just begged through whining or sad groans. Scorpion paid them no mind though, there was nothing he could do to help them, that and he had his own agenda to tend to.

He needed to find a sorcerer that was capable of healing his wounds. While that wouldn't be very difficult he needed to find something to pay for the treatment. Considering he had no money on him, he'd need something the sorcerer to find of value. Sorcerers were often cowardly, they hardly ever left the safety of the city they dwelled in. Partly for good reason, the NetherRealm drained their energy if they ventured too far into it. Scorpion of course had no issue at all with that, he was stronger in the NetherRealm. It was easier for his flames to burn here. He had even planned on dragging the new Sub-Zero down to the NetherRealm to put a fitting end to his accursed bloodline!

The issue being with the sorcerer he didn't want to end up having to go on a treasure hunt for a damned item in order to pay them. Or, if he wasn't careful end up under a spell, there were plenty of Necromancers running around, and he was an undead. While he was sure defy lesser ones, the masters he wasn't so sure of and he wouldn't risk it.

Frist thing first he had to find one, the specter moved though the tall, stone gates, metal doors hung inward, no doubt burning hot from the heat of the NetherRealm. The hot metal doors helped discourage the revenants if they ventured too close. Looking around, Scorpion immediately caught the eyes of a few citizens of the city. Mainly due to the assassin gear he was wearing. Others, the Oni, could smell he was undead and eyed him closely, seeing that he was wounded. Scorpion shot them an aggravated look, he was wounded yes but he was far from being easy prey for the flesh eating Oni.

Getting far enough away from the Oni that stared at him like vultures Scorpion looked forward, heading over to the smaller housing area of Necros. Scorpion hoped to find a sorcerer willing to work for simple things, food, body parts, things it'd be easy to get a hold of. Plenty of sorcerers needed, 'ingredients' for their blasted spells and potions. The vengeful specter had no qualms about killing any being in this realm. They'd have no qualms destroying him so it was fair to do the same.

Walking through the dark, black stone streets of the city made the already grim and dark atmosphere even more apparent. Scorpion had become accustom to the place, it was nothing new, though he was still disgusted by the morbid displays littered throughout the place. Pressing onward he'd heard that there was a sorceress that offered her services in exchange for ingredients or test subjects, preferably Oni. The ones back by the entrance would have done, but even though killing one another was hardly a crime in the NetherRealm Scorpion didn't want to deal with the possibility of getting mobbed. That would be annoying. He'd just find some Oni elsewhere, they were easy enough to spot.

"There's the walking flesh snack!"

Scorpion looked over his shoulder to see some of the Oni from before standing behind him. Looking at him with salivating mouths. There were three of them. Should be enough to sway the sorceress. Scorpion narrowed his pale yellow eyes, hand reaching for his chained Kunai. Before the Oni lunged at him he tossed it at the main one, impaling it into his heart.

"Come here!" Scorpion barked jerking the chain back, bringing the Oni to him. The Oni dragged along the ground, shocked from the attack. Stomping his foot down on his face Scorpion stopped the demon's movement before shooting a scathing glare to the other two Oni who now knew they had chosen the wrong target.

A while later Scorpion roughly shoved the door of the sorceress he had been seeking open. A loud slam followed suit. The specter was aggravated that he had searched for this damned woman for over an hour. Scorpion was sporting a few more small wounds from his fight with the Oni. The beasts fought fiercely, knowing he was going to kill them. He glared at the Nether woman in front of him, she looked back at him inquiringly. Judging by the cauldron in front of her she had been in the middle of some damn black magic. Scorpion didn't care what she was doing at the moment, he wanted his wounds healed and that was all.

"And for what reason did you nearly break my door for?" The sorceress inquired with an arched brow. If it hadn't been the fact she was faced with what she believed to be a specter she might have been more aggravated, but the being's prescience left her intrigued.

"You will heal my wounds." Scorpion demanded with a growled, still aggravated. If the woman didn't take his payment he'd make her heal him somehow.

"Is that so?" The sorceress questioned, slightly amused, with an arched brow. Seeing he was dragging something behind him she pointed to it, getting an idea of what it was, "Is that my payment?"

"Be glad I bothered to get you one…" Scorpion advised coldly as he tossed the carcass onto the sorceress's table causing several things to get knocked off, and broken as a result.

The sorceress ignored this and examined what Scorpion had brought her, she hummed while inspecting, "Young, has all teeth, horn is intact, some internal damage but this is a good specimen overall."

Next she went over and looked at Scorpion's wounds, the specter stiffened as the Nether woman looked him over. He didn't like her being close to his person, but thankfully it was short lived. The sorceress waved her hand as if dismissing him. Scorpion narrowed his eyes irately as she spoke casually to him, "I'm afraid I'll need a bit of a larger payment for wounds like yours, that shoulder of yours has deep damage to it."

Expecting this Scorpion pulled his chained Kunai forward, he had been dragging it along prior. The sound of something dragging brought the attention of the sorceress back to him and to her surprise she saw Scorpion presenting her with two other Oni bodies. The damage was varying but three specimen to make ingredients out of was plenty for her.

"I'm sure this is enough of a payment." Scorpion stated flatly.

"Oh yes," She answered excitedly, her blood red eyes lighting up happily as she clapped her hands together, "that'll do plenty. Place them on the table with the other, then" The sorceress answered before motioning to a chair, "have a seat while I prepare something to heal those wounds of yours."

Scorpion grunted and pulled his chained Kunai out of the Oni bodies before tossing them onto the table before he sat down on the chair. He eyed the sorceress carefully as she made some sort of concoction that was supposedly going to heal his wounds. He didn't know much about magic so he wouldn't exactly know how a healing potion for an undead was supposed to look but he still kept his eyes open for anything suspicious. When the Nether woman came back he went on alert looking for any tells of suspicion. She was holding some sort of large cup with a somewhat thick looking liquid inside. Nothing looked wrong, but that could be deceiving so he kept his eyes on her.

Seeing that the specter was tense and clearly mistrusting the sorceress decided she'd better be careful. Otherwise she could end up roasted before she got to dissect her future ingredients. Standing at the side with his wounded shoulder she says, "This will feel a bit strange…" She stalled a moment when Scorpion snapped his attention to her, "But that's because it'll be forcing the wounds to heal." The Nether woman explained quickly.

Scorpion thought this over for a moment. It made sense, to him at least. He huffed easing up ever so slightly, "Get on with it."

With permission the sorceress poured the liquid onto the specter's shoulder wound. As she had forewarned once the substance seeped into the wound it began to force it to close. It was a clenching, stinging pain but it didn't last too long and soon he felt a relieving feeling coming from his shoulder. Glancing at it he saw the wound was indeed gone, but to be sure he rolled his shoulder again. It responded much better this time, moving smoothly as he wanted it too. It felt a bit sore but he could manage easily with that. Once he finished inspecting the wound the sorceress felt she was free to continue and fixed the rest of his wounds. When she was finished Scorpion got up inspecting himself, he was finally ready to resume his hunt. Without another word Scorpion teleported out of the NetherRealm and back to Zhu Zin in Earthrealm.

When the specter left it a burst of flame the sorceress looked to the corpses on her table with anticipation, but she restrained her desire to cut them up and left her home. She walked from her home to the Quan Chi's palace. Once allowed through the entrance she went up to the demon Necromancer's throne and bowed to him. Her presence seemed to please Quan Chi who grinned slightly.

"So you've healed Scorpion's wounds?" He asked, the sorceress, as expected she nodded, "Then he has returned to Earthrealm?"

"Yes, Lord Quan Chi." The sorceress answered dutifully.

"Good, the specimen you requested will be delivered to your home shortly. Dead but intact as you asked." Quan Chi said looking pleased with the Nether Woman's work, Scorpion being injured was risk to his plan, it was taking too long to simply wait for him to heal. The faster he was healed the better for him.

"Thank you, Lord Quan Chi." The Nether resident said thankfully with a bow of her head, though inwardly excited she kept her reserve.

"Yes, yes, you may go now." Quan Chi said dully waving her way, he was done with her presence. Moment later the woman was gone and he grinned, chuckling amusedly to himself, "It's easy to get things done when people don't know that their doing your work for you." The NetherRealm castle was then filled with the sound of his dark laughter.

In a flash of hell fire Scorpion appeared back in Zhu Zin in the area he had fought the new Sub-Zero for the second time, he looked around at the city he could still see the damage from the fight. For a moment Scorpion felt minute guilt for damaging innocents home but it was quickly dashed as he knew no innocents had been actually harmed in the battle. They could fix the damage on their own. He had his own problems to deal with. First off was locating where the monk…Scorpion paused, what was his name? He had sworn that the wretched Lin Kuei Sub-Zero had called his name.

Ku Lee? Was that it? Scorpion stood still as he retraced his memory of that night. He felt irate at himself when he had trouble recalling if his guess was correct. He had been so focused on killing the ice ninja he hadn't really paid attention to what he said unless he knew it was an insult towards him. He growled slightly, at times being a specter was troublesome. His anger at times over took him so well he had trouble recalling what exactly happened. Blind rage was all too real for him. He looked at the city, as corrupted as it was there were still innocents dwelling here. Kung Lao had been right to worry about his fire harming someone, but he had also been wrong to defend the Lin Kuei for no reason!

Scorpion suddenly jumped to a darkened building landing on the slanted roof top, he roughly gripped it to keep himself from sliding off. He tore his mind from the bit of anger developing in his mind. He needed to focus, he needed to recall the monk! If he didn't it'd be more difficult to locate Sub-Zero. The Shirai Ryu specter worried though that the Lin Kuei had already left, run home to his masters. Finding the Lin Kuei headquarters would be difficult task, the Shirai Ryu had tried to locate it for centuries to no avail. Even though he was undead and no longer aged Scorpion wanted to kill the bastard Sub-Zero soon as able.

The specter growled to himself, his mind was getting off task again. Sitting on top of tall building Scorpion closed his eyes in order to focus himself. He drowned out the noise of people below and focused on the whispering of the wind. It was beginning to pick up slightly but the specter's hood shielded him from most of it. Forcing his mind away from his revenge, for the time being, he focused on the last fight with Sub-Zero. Concentrating he tried to recall everything the blue assassin had said after the monk had shown up. He knew he called out his name when he first appeared. Slowly the specter began testing names to what he remembered. He knew it was a two part name, first part starting with a K...the second part started with an L…

Kun…Kung? Yes that sounded correct. Kung Lee…no that wasn't right, Kung Lo…closer but something was off. The specter focused his mind back on what the Lin Kuei had said.

"This fight is not yours Kung Lao!"

Scorpion's eyes widened for a second as he got the monk's name. He got to his feet, now he needed to locate him. He doubted the monk was known for wearing a bladed hat in the city through. Kung Lao seemed like the type to avoid killing and using deadly force, he had repeatedly given him the option to leave. Regardless Scorpion was willing to harm him in order to get the information he needed. Though, he'd like to avoid killing the monk, he had been willing to before…but then his rage was driving him. The monk was following what he had been taught, what he believed in. Scorpion could respect that, though he thought it foolish to let wretched beings like the Lin Kuei live. If necessary he'd fight him to get to Sub-Zero yet again.

Still, he looked down at the people in the streets below, they blissfully unaware of the unholy being watching them from above. Scorpion became somewhat calm at the moment, if he was able to, he'd take the fights elsewhere. If he was able to.

Traveling along the rooftops of Zhu Zin once more Scorpion began to scan the city for the monk. If he was lucky he would spot him. Then again he hadn't really paid attention to his features, the hat hadn't helped with that either. If he had to he'd question a few people. He'd search every inch of the city if he had to.

At Reyland's Imports, Siro and Taja were carrying on business as usual, though the gap left by Kung Lao leaving left things rather off at times. Taja was straightening the trading shop, she swore people left all their manners at home when they went shopping. That and got incredibly lazy. It really irked her when they just let food goods drop on the floor, fruits and vegetables were salvaged more easily but other things not so much. She shook her head as he put the foods in the right bins. Taja looked up from her task, looking at her friend for a moment before slowly beginning to speak, "So…how do think Kung Lao's doing?"

Siro looked at Taja for a moment, he began to help clean up the shop before he gave her an answer, "So long as Sub-Zero didn't turn on them. I'm sure their fine."

Taja wrinkled her brows at the man's blunt answer, "You still don't trust him do you?"

"He came to Zhu Zin to have two men killed. Tore up the south side of the city fighting with a demon, and interrogated Kung Lao after he helped him. He's also killed for money for most of his life." Siro listed while he continued to work. Pausing his duty he looked up at Taja, "So no I don't trust him," He eyed his friend a moment, "Do you?"

Restacking a sack of potatoes Taja answered sounding a tad amused, "More than you do obviously, but that's not saying much."

The man gave her a vaguely annoyed look but didn't voice his annoyance before finishing what he was doing, folding some shirts, "Well, clearly." Siro retorted amusing his friend, finishing with his section he headed back towards the hall that lead to the housing part of the building, "You want a drink?"

"Sounds good. I'll just have some water though." Taja answered while she focused on cleaning up the place for tomorrow.

Siro nodded, but she didn't notice that. She did hear him leave the room though as she continued to sort the place out. A sudden, gasp followed by a gagging noise quickly ripped her attention from her chore and threw her into a startled panic. Dropping what she was holding she bolted for the hall. Only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw the specter that Sub-Zero had fought holding Siro by the neck against the wall. Siro spotted her out of the corner of his eyes and tried to shoo her away with his hand but she didn't listen. She was too stubborn to leave her friend in a situation like this, even if he did act like a pig sometimes.

"Hey!" Taja called trying to get Scorpion's attention but only managed to get the tall specter glance at her, though she couldn't tell that due to his blank eyes, clearly he wasn't intimidated or concerned by her presence. Taja rolled her hands into fist as she firmly stood where she was, "Let him go! Siro has done nothing to you!"

Scorpion had known the woman was present but had hoped his presence would scare her away. Obviously that hadn't worked, Kung Lao's friends were more loyal than he thought, although he should have expected it in retrospect.

Holding Siro against the wall firmly by the neck Scorpion answered the woman but kept his eyes on the man, "That is true, but he has information I need." Siro gritted his teeth under Scorpion's hold, the specter could easily kill him right now and he was far from comfortable with that. Siro tensed when Scorpion turned his hooded head to Taja, "So do you. Give me the answers I seek and I'll leave. Don't and I'll make one of you tell me."

Scorpion's serious tone made Taja tense up to the point she felt she was unable to move. Keeping her eyes locked with his pale yellow ones she felt like she was staring into a burning inferno of hate. Despite that she noticed he was significantly calmer than before, was it because Sub-Zero wasn't present? Taja guessed so, and she was correct.

The fact let her relax just enough to speak, "And what do you want us to tell you?"

"Where is Sub-Zero? I know that you're friends of the monk Kung Lao who saved him." Scorpion demanded. A street punk he 'spoke with' told him that Kung Lao owned this trading post. The punk apparently had a minor dispute with Kung Lao after the monk defeated him in a fight. Scorpion didn't care for his issue, it was a weak form of hate, a pathetic reason. Still the man had given him the information he needed.

Taja looked to Siro trying to get some sort of signal to tell her is she should talk or not. All Siro did was look back at her unsurely, he didn't know either. Swallowing a stone in her throat she spoke to the specter, "He's not here, he left to go to a Shaolin temple."

"You didn't tell me where Sub-Zero went…" Scorpion said with a low growl, he wasn't patient enough to deal this woman trying to give him the run-a-around.

"I don't know…" Taja answered stiffly, she kept looking at Siro. There was very little chance of him getting from the specter on his own.

Scorpion narrowed his eyes at her, she had hesitated to answer, "You're lying…" He said anger beginning to show more in his voice. Why were there so many defending Sub-Zero!? He could understand his clan mate, but these two had no reason to be protect him. Was it because of Kung Lao? That had to be it…surely these two didn't trust him.

"Why protect him? What reason do you have? Did the monk Kung Lao tell to be silent?" Scorpion question, for the moment wanting an answer to his agitated confusion over the location of his sworn enemy.

Taja frowned tensely, she was playing with literal fire. Hell fire to be exact. She wasn't sure how to answer this question, but she could tell the longer she waited to answer the more irate the hell spawn got. She needed to think of something quick, all she could think of was honesty. She gave Siro one last concerned look before saying, "Our friend is with him. That's why we can't tell you."

A look of understanding came over Scorpion face, now it made sense. They didn't want him to harm their friend. He could work with this. He loosened his grip on Siro's throat just enough for the man to notice the difference. Calming his tone he says, "I will not harm your friend. I'm only after Sub-Zero. Tell me which Shaolin Temple they headed for and I won't attack him."

The ex-thief was a bit surprised by the sincerity in Scorpion's voice, considering he was a soul bound to hell, but she still couldn't quite get herself to talk. Johnny was also with them and Sub-Zero was going to help them in the Mortal Kombat tournament. She bit her lower lip trying to decide then she realized something, "We don't know which…"

Scorpion glowered at the woman, "I don't have patience, so do not try and test it! Just tell me where which templet their headed to your friend won't be killed!"

The specter was distracted when Siro managed to say something, his voice hoarse but still managed to get the hell spawn's attention, "She's telling the truth…Kung Lao didn't tell us because he didn't want us to follow him. Wanted to keep us out of danger."

'Debatable whether it worked or not…' Taja thought to herself considering they were being interrogated by a being straight from hell itself.

The Shirai Ryu ninja thought about this for a moment, it made sense clearly the two weren't combat experts. They'd never last in a real fight, a fight to the death. The thought spark something in Scorpion's mind. The Lin Kuei scum was going to be participating in the Mortal Kombat tournament. He shook the though from his mind, no he wouldn't settle for waiting to participate in some foolish tournament.

"Which temple does Kung Lao come from?" Scorpion question, might as well go for the obvious at this point. He narrowed his eyes when they paused again, what patience he had was close to snapping, "I'll repeat, your friend won't be harmed. My only interest is killing the Lin Kuei!"

Taja, jolted when the specter barked the last part swearing it was like a mad wolf snarling at her. Once again Siro spoke up, "An old temple to the west, away from any village or city. He claimed it was one of the oldest his sect has."

The red headed woman stared at him, what was he doing? They couldn't trust this foul tempered to control himself enough to leave their friend unharmed. He swore he'd kill Kung Lao for getting in the way last time! At the same time she liked the thought of not being burned to death with unholy fire.

"His sect?" Scorpion questioned, if he knew the particular group of Shaolin he was looking for that'd narrow his search down. Especially if it was one of the smaller sects.

"I think he called it the White Lotus." Siro answered, he; namely his throat, was sweating. The specter gave off a lot of heat, it was like he was being grabbed by steam. The literal polar opposite of Sub-Zero's bone chilling body heat, though it could hardly be called that.

Scorpion narrowed his eyes, not out of annoyance but out of intrigue. He'd heard of the sect from his clan. How many had fallen trying to take items from their temples. The White Lotus was an old and strong sect. They had the best warriors, skilled enough to stand up to both the Shirai Ryu and the Lin Kuei. Scorpion's last mission as a mortal had been to steal a map from a temple, he knew how skilled their fighters were. Out of respect for the monks he hadn't killed any of them, though the first Sub-Zero hadn't been nearly as kind. The man has slaughtered any that got in his way, Scorpion was one of those victims. His human self anyway. It disgusted him how anyone thought the original Sub-Zero had honor.

The specter shook his mind from his angering thoughts. Kung Lao being a White Lotus made sense, he was obviously skilled. Scorpion could work with this, he knew the symbol of the White Lotus. The emblem being a white lotus of course.

Scorpion released Siro from his grip letting the man hunch over slightly holding his red throat. His breath was a bit labored from the experience. The specter took a few steps away from the two so he'd be able to teleport without burning them. He looked back at them saying, "You have my word your friend won't be harmed."

With that Scorpion teleported out of the building reappearing on a mostly unused rock path, the rocks were scorched by the specter's reappearance. He knew this path lead towards one of the temples he knew that belong to the White Lotus. It was in the direction the man had given him. He'd wait a while for Kung Lao and Sub-Zero to arrive. Scorpion creased his brow, why was the Lin Kuei traveling with the monk? Was it possible the monk was also going to be in the tournament? The White Lotus would want to protect their realm from Outworld so it was likely. Scorpion scoffed when he recalled that the White Lotus was supposedly founded by a god and some warrior. He didn't remember the exact details of the groups founding.

Scorpion, his soul being bound to hell itself wasn't too fond of the thought of gods. Did he hate them? No, not exactly, but he wasn't a worshiper either. If anything he had a bitterness towards them, his family, his clan had been slaughtered but they had done nothing! He glowered at the path ahead of him, it didn't matter. He wasn't about to attack the temple, the god's followers were safe form his wrath.

Sub-Zero was once again training by himself, he'd near perfected his ice dagger, mediation before training was really helping him focus and focus was key in shaping his ice. Once he got the general shape down it had all been downhill from there. Now making the ice sharp as a real dagger was simple. He still had a few issues with making the ice sturdy enough to not break in one hit but so long as he could at least stab something, or rather someone, once he was fine with that. He could make another.

Today he was feeling like he could tackle something harder. Today he was going to try and make an ice blade. A blade would be much more useful to him. Though he rarely used a blade all Lin Kuei had training in weapons common to assassination. Better to have the skill than to not have it and need it later.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to up and make a sword he decided to start with a base. He created an ice dagger first, to his liking the ice weapon formed quickly. Testing the blade Sub-Zero found it to be nice and sharp. Exhaling he took a deep breath and closed his eyes concentrating, ice energy began to glow from his hand and crept onto the dagger changing it to his willing. The blade extended and the hilt began to get readjusted to fit that of a blade. Opening his icy blue eyes he looked at the blade, of course it was crude, but it resembled a sword so he was fine with it for now.

The blade wasn't long enough though, he did like the spikey star-like guard though. The grip was good. Infusing more ice energy into the weapon he lengthened the blade, it was a bit hard to get the point right but he managed. He lightly gripped the edge of the blade, it was dully and rough. He slid his fingers across it while they were glowing with ice energy to smoothen the blade out and sharpen. He ran his fingers across, using them as a sharpening stone till he was satisfied with the sharpness of the blade.

Getting up from his cross legged position it was time to test his blade. He looked it over for a moment, he truly liking his weapon. It being made of ice he'd never seen any other person use it before beside himself, not even his brother. He hummed for a moment, his sword needed a name, "Kori." He said to himself.

Koori, meant ice in Japanese. He shortened it simply because he wanted to. He held his sword out to looking at the sun's rays leave a shine on the ice's surface. He wasn't worried about the sun melting his blade, his powers would keep his blade form melting for a significant amount of time. His sword, the Kori Blade.

Time to test his Kori Blade. He looked to the poor tree he had been using to test his daggers prior. With one are he swung the blade, it left an impressionable slice, Sub-Zero smiled at that and the fact his blade was still intact. He gripped the handle with both hands, now for a stronger swing. He brought the blade down with both arms, leaving a long gash on the cut up surface of the tree. Again his sword was still whole.

Looking closer Sub-Zero was pleased with how deep the gash was. He looked to his blade, frowning he saw cracks in it. Another swing and his blade would break. The ice assassin mended the cracks, he needed to practice his swordplay. As he went through his practice Sub-Zero thought of how more ready he felt to face Scorpion again. He'd been practicing whenever possible, as long as possible. He wouldn't say he was considerably stronger but he felt stronger than before. He kept telling himself next time would be different, with this new skill he'd things would be different.

Finishing that practice he put the blade down somewhere safe, he wasn't ready to destroy it yet. Now he created a much simpler shape, an ice spear. A simple shape, smooth with points at both ends. Once he had created the dagger this was the next idea he came up with, a projectile. Simple yet effective.

Sub-Zero took aim at a tree farthest from him. He pulled his arm back and tossed it at the tree. Hitting his mark, right after he made another and tossed it again. Sub-Zero kept doing this until he was satisfied.

A considerable sweat on his brow Sub-Zero decided he was finished for the time being. He'd been doing this since the sun came up, he wasn't sure what time it was at the moment but he didn't care. Generating more cold energy he cooled himself off, eliminating the sweat which turned to frost only to get brushed off. He looked back to his Kori Blade before picking it up, Sub-Zero wanted to hold it a while longer. Bond with it for a moment. He felt a smirk slid onto his lips, why not show it off to his traveling companions a bit? It was a feat to create one's own blade to battle with.

In the shadows a distance away from where Sub-Zero had been training, but not too far that one couldn't clearly see what the Lin Kuei warrior had been doing, hid Noob Saibot. The shadow wraith literally pulled himself out of the shadows, staring at his former brother as he left. The blue Lin Kuei not noticing his presence. Noob Saibot stared, more particularly stared at the weapon he was carrying. Never when he was mortal did he think he could create such a magnificent weapon from the ice he once possessed in his veins.

The shadow wraith's shock soon melted into bitter jealousy. Had he lived longer he would have been able to create such a weapon! Immediately Noob Saibot shook off, it didn't matter he was still stronger than his sibling. Kuai Liang, was soft, weak, pathetic, unfit to have is former title. Noob Saibot growled out of agitation, he hated his brother, he hated having to keep an eye on him. Though it did give him time away from his so called master. He should probably go report to him, tell him about his sibling's new ability. Noob Saibot snorted, it could wait, the bald bastard wasn't going anywhere at the moment.

Noob Saibot grunted pulling himself up to his full height, having been crouching prior. He and his brother were the exact same height, six foot two. Before his skin was black as coal they even nearly looked the exact same. New people to the clan often mistook them for twins when they were both adults. Only thing that differentiated themselves from each other was his eyes had been a dark navy blue while his brother's was an icy light blue. Noob Saibot once recalled that Sektor had once said that, thinking he wouldn't have heard, that the younger sibling was merely a backup plan. If it wasn't for the idea actually becoming true Noob Saibot would have found the thought amusing but now it was more of a blistering insult to him!

He had been the best the Lin Kuei would ever accomplish! His so called weakling of a brother was nothing compared to him! And he never would be, new skill or not.

The former Lin Kuei looked off to where his bastard of a brother had lumbered off to, he knew it was to where the two others and he were currently camping. Noob Saibot snorted being reminded that a new so called 'warrior' had shown up. He supposed he should tell his master about that. Stomach burning with aggression Noob Saibot knew he should leave before his blood lust made him rip Kuai Liang's head off. As much as he wanted to he couldn't, it'd ruin his master's plan and he didn't want to go that far to piss him off. Quan Chi didn't want Raiden to find out their involvement in this yet. Even though the god already knew Quan Chi's involvement in causing the creation of Scorpion. He didn't know about him or Quan Chi's plans to ally with Shao Khan. Though Noob Saibot personally guessed the thunder god wouldn't be surprised either way, but the less the god knew the better.

In the next instant Noob Saibot dropped through a pitch black portal and returned to the NetherRealm.

-_-; glad I managed to finally finish this before a month passed by.

I was having an issue of how to work out Scorpion's part in the NetherRealm. Namely the part with him and the Sorceress I didn't want it to be ill relevant to the rest of the story, just having it happen to get Scorpion back in the game. Then I realized Quan Chi probably has contacts in throughout most of the NetherRealm so that finally fixed that and after that I was on a roll. I'll be working on my back story for Scorpion in my MK AU next "Kindling of Wraith" so if you following that keep a look out. If not, I'll hopefully have another "Broken Chains" chapter done by next month.

Powers for this AU:

I'd like to make sure I'm clear that when Noob Saibot was the Original Sub-Zero he only had the abilities featured in the first MK and MK: Mythologies Sub-Zero. Just a nod to the original games he was in, nothing against MK9 it's just how I wanted to do things. Also to show Kuai Liang maturing his powers a bit sooner rather than later.

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