Chapter Thirteen
The Netherealm was turning out to be a lot like the Wastelands of Outworld, only hotter. And with less Tarkata. It was like the gods got tired of creating and just sort of gave up once they made the area of the Netherealm surrounding the first portal. There was just nothing but molten lava and rock and the occasional strange outcropping like someone sneezed while they were making the ground.
It was also amazingly boring, despite the inherent danger of wandering around Hell by yourself. She tried to entertain herself by thinking of what her companions would have been doing if they were still with her. Kenshi would probably be complaining about the smell and getting antsy for a fight. LiXue would be paranoid and constantly looking over her shoulder. Min would be wandering along with his face buried in a scroll, tripping over himself and everyone else as he tried to translate his scribbles. But thinking about them only made her chest feel tight.
Maybe part of the torture of the Netherealm was not knowing if her friends lived or died. If she knew they were dead she could grieve, but instead she was left in a state of limbo, wanting to think they were alive but knowing that the chances of their survival were slim. Every time she hoped for something it blew up in her face, but how could she not help but hope for the best for the people she had come so far with.
She hoped for a lot of things. She hoped for her friends safety, hoped Sindel had succeeded, hoped Ashrah tripped on her damn sword, hoped she got out of the Netherealm, hoped Sifu would forgive her, hoped Min transcribed the markings in the Traitors Hall... but that's all there was. Hope. There was nothing she could do it seemed.
She couldn't even help herself.
And she was furious about it. She'd never been so helpless before. Always it had been her choosing. Now there was nothing left to do but hope for the best and let fate have its way with her. Karma was a bitch sometimes.
There was no reliable way to tell how long she had been walking. Her legs ached fiercely, but so did her feet from the unforgiving stone. She couldn't sit on the ground, it was so hot, it was painful. So she just kept walking, hoping against hope she would stumble over a long lost portal and be saved.
People in life rafts must have felt the same way. Just waiting for something to happen, someone to rescue them. Dying must come as a blessing.
She would have given anything for a cool place to sit and rest. A cave. A rock to sit on. Just someplace to keep her lower body from screaming at her to stop and let it recover. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she fell asleep. She'd probably wake up and find all the skin melted off her face or something equally disgusting.
She desperately tried to think of some good that could come of all of it, to try and shake the despair welling up within, but nothing came.
There was nothing good about the Netherealm.
"I am not hot," she said aloud, in protest of reality. There were monks who survived extreme temperatures by meditation and mental exercises, why couldn't she? "I am cool as a cucumber."
Somehow her body didn't agree with her mouth. "I am practically shaking it is so cold," she told her rebellious sweat glands. "I will freeze to death if I stay out here much longer." She tried to think of cold things like snowstorms and ice cream and the Frozen Temple, but it was hard when she was sweating so much it felt like her features were dripping off of her face. It did feel a tiny bit cooler, but maybe that was just wishful thinking.
"I am freezing," she said again.
"Has the heat gone to your head?" a slimy voice asked behind her and she jumped.
The speaker was a scaly creature with a series of sharp horns on the crest of its skull. Its mouth was filled with a set of yellow fangs dripping something she suspected was acid. It looked vaguely feminine, but it may have been its smaller size that gave her that impression. With the size of its claws, it shouldn't have been able to sneak up on her without her hearing, but she was inclined to blame the heat for any lapses in her attention.
"Who the hell are you?" she asked grumpily. It didn't occur to her until after she said it that perhaps it wasn't the smartest thing to say to a demon.
The creature snorted. "Really, Frost, I'm insulted," it tried to sound indignant, but the fangs got in the way. "You don't recognize me in my true form?"
She was glad to say that no, no she didn't. She was fairly certain the people she dealt with weren't secretly demons in disguise. Unless of course, they didn't disguise it at all... "Sareena?" she asked incredulously.
It laughed heartily. "Very good..."
"Why, why do you look like that?" Frost asked. Sareena had to be one of the vainest people she knew, seeing the fastidious demon looking like an overgrown gremlin was a shock. Not to mention it was more than a little confusing.
"It seemed like the most appropriate outfit for the occasion," she smiled a predator's smile and stretched her claw tipped digits like they were aching to dig into flesh.
"What are you doing here? I thought you came to hide at the Temple to keep from coming back," Frost tried not to flinch as those claws came dangerously close to her face.
"Quan Chi is dead. There's only one place he could have gone. I want to make sure he stays here, forever." Sareena hissed, and a bit of her spit hit the ground, leaving a steaming hole. "That bastard must pay!"
"Do you know where to find him?" Frost asked, stepping away from the acid dripping off of Sareena's fangs.
"He will try to reach his palace," Sareena snarled. "I will tear him to pieces before he even sets foot inside. He will regret the day he enslaved me forever." Her fingers were clenching like she had them wrapped around the sorcerer's throat and was squeezing the life out of him.
A thought occurred to Frost. "Sareena, how did you get here?"
Sareena's head whipped around alarmingly. "I know of a portal. I used it to escape before." She paused and regarded Frost with a smirk. "You want to know where it is, don't you?"
Frost tried not to look interested, but the desperation must have been etched in her face for Sareena said, "If you will help me destroy Quan Chi, I will show you where it is."
It was a devil's bargain, and she knew it, but Frost agreed anyway. What choice did she have? And Quan Chi was a bad guy after all; she doubted she'd get in trouble by permanently removing him as a threat. It was Sareena holding up her part of the deal that she was worried about. There really was no reason for her to complete the bargain, worse yet; she could demand something else in the end.
"Why do you want to kill Quan Chi so badly?" Frost asked, as Sareena led her towards their destination.
Sareena's eyes swiveled to her, "Quan Chi used to control the Brotherhood of the Shadow. He trapped three of us in a deal, he would hide our hideous forms, and in return we would be his personal assassins. We did everything he ordered, and those that questioned were destroyed without mercy. All hated him, but we were forced to obey."
"A decade and a half ago Quan Chi contracted a Lin Kuei warrior to steal an amulet of immense power from the temple of the gods. With it, he and Shinnok would be able to escape the Netherealm."
"The elder of the Sub-Zeros, yes, there were two of them, succeeded in his mission and retrieved the amulet, only to be confronted by a furious Thunder God. Raiden sent him to the Netherealm to retrieve the amulet from Shinnok in the Prison of Souls."
"Quan Chi sent my sisters and I to kill the Lin Kuei, but when I was defeated, Sub-Zero spared my life. In return I betrayed Quan Chi in the hopes Sub-Zero would help me escape with him. But before either of us could do anything I was killed by Shinnok."
"Quan Chi resurrected me for the shear purpose of punishing me for my betrayal, and I spent many years in the deepest abyss of this wretched place, wasting away. But when Quan Chi fled the Netherealm to escape the hell spawn known as Scorpion, he did not realize that his magic would fade and those he had tried to restrain were freed."
"I escaped through a hidden portal and soon realized I could keep my beautiful form on my own. I have no need of the sorcerer at all anymore, and I plan to take my revenge. I want to see him broken and humiliated before I bind him to this place."
"You have some serious issues," Frost replied. "But tell me more about the older Sub-Zero."
Sareena raised one scaly brow in a mockery of the humanoid expression. "I don't know much about him, he died soon after he stole the amulet back from Shinnok."
"He stole an amulet off of Shinnok. Wasn't Shinnok some evil god?" Frost was now quite intrigued.
"He also defeated four gods to get the amulet in the first place," Sareena said. "It's a shame he died so young, he could have done much," she added sadly.
"Young? When was this?" Frost asked.
"Fifteen years ago maybe, I don't know, when you're thousands of years old you don't count the years like mortals," Sareena shrugged her scaly shoulders. "He was quite young for a human, he wasn't much out of his twenties I believe. I didn't ask. It didn't seem important at the time..."
"That doesn't make sense. How can he be the older brother if he was thirty fifteen years ago? He'd be, like, forty-five now," Frost protested.
Sareena regarded her with a slight smirk. "The Dragon Amulet has a great many benefits for its bearer. But the power it provides comes at a great price. Your sifu is much younger than you would think he is."
"Oh." Frost was quiet for a moment, lost in her own thoughts. She wasn't quite sure she wanted to be Grand Mistress so badly if the price was so high. What else had Sifu had to sacrifice to be on top?
She tried to shake the thoughts from her head. "You never said what you needed me to do."
Sareena laughed a short barking laugh, "You never asked. I need you to be bait."
"Bait?" Frost didn't like the sound of this at all.
"Yes, you will provide a distraction so I can take Quan Chi from behind."
Aside from the mental image the last part had given her, it still sounded like a horrible plan to her. Why did she always have to be the distraction? Just once she wanted to be able to take the lead and play the hero. Then again, she didn't want to face down the sorcerer that had helped kill the Mortal Kombat champion without her kori powers.
Sareena seemed sure of her self though, so perhaps Quan's powers had diminished. Of course, if she had six-inch claws and was spitting acid, she might be a lot more confident too. Maybe it was best for her to draw the attention and let Sareena take care of her own problems. Hopefully, Sareena wouldn't let Quan take care of her first.
She sighed heavily and followed Sareena farther into the bleak landscape.