Kuai Liang stood over Noob's body and studied the warrior's face for a long moment. He was certain he knew this strange creature, but that was silly. He'd never seen anyone like this in his life, and Noob's grotesque appearance and terrifying powers weren't exactly something he could forget. Yet, an uncanny sense of déjà vu nagged at him. It frustrated him.

"What are you doing?" Liu said breathlessly, breaking through the Cryomancer's thoughts as he joined him at his side.

"Who is this man?" he asked. "He called himself Noob Saibot."

"I don't know," the Shaolin monk answered. "He wasn't in the first Tournament."

"I feel like I've met him before," he mused.

Liu glanced at him. "He is familiar," he acknowledged. "But we need to go. Sheeva said they took Kitana to the arena. That's where the others will be located."

Kuai Liang nodded and followed the monk from the tower. Liu led him through the unfamiliar maze, past the unsuspecting guards, to a dungeon tunnel palely lit by the occasional torch. "How do you know the way?" he whispered in the darkness.

"All the Shaolin monks are required to memorize Shao Kahn's palace from diagrams and sacred texts that describe it."

"And who gave the diagrams to the Shaolin?"

"Raiden."

Kuai Liang nodded. It was a wise move on Raiden's part. Know thy enemy. He said nothing else as they both wound their way through the tunnel. His thoughts shifted to Tomas, and a surge of guilt welled up in him. He should be back in Earthrealm, staging an assault on the Black Dragon to rescue his fallen friend, not traipsing through a tunnel looking for some Outworld princess he didn't even know or care about simply because a Shaolin monk was in love with her. And if not that, he should be hunting down his brother's killer, the undead Shirai Ryu assassin called Scorpion. What was he even doing here, helping the Earthrealm Champions?

About ten minutes later, they emerged in a subterranean level full of machines, pulleys, and wild animals akin to Earthrealm tigers caged in boxes constructed of sturdy metal bars. Also imprisoned in cages were various humanoid figures; the Cryomancer noted a few men with four arms like Sheeva that Liu said were Shokan, five peasants, a female with lavender eyes wearing black and purple armor and feathers in her hair, two dumpy blob-men with glowing jewels embedded in their rib cages and welding goggles over their eyes, and three bald men with a mouth full of long, yellowish fangs and talons for fingernails. Liu called them Tarkatans and said they were terrifying soldiers, though as a rule not terribly bright. Loud but muffled cheering erupted above them, followed by the sound of people stomping their feet. Dust sifted through the ceiling as the basement quaked violently under the tremors.

"This is like the Roman Coliseum," he muttered to himself when the swaying stopped.

"Yes, but even more evil, if you can believe that," Liu replied. He motioned for the Cryomancer to follow him up a narrow flight of stairs that opened to bright light. Accustomed to darkness, Kuai Liang winced in pain as he shielded his face while his eyes adjusted to the brilliantly torch-lit arena. When he could see again, he saw that they stood in a doorway that exited onto a large dirt oval. Like the Roman Coliseum and sports arenas of the modern era, stands surrounded the floor on all sides and gradually tapered out to accommodate more spectators. These benches were packed with Outworld citizens cheering as a reptilian humanoid figure fought with Johnny Cage.

"Reptile," Liu growled, narrowing his eyes.

Kuai Liang was uninterested in the fight, however. His eyes rested on a large throne erected in the middle of the arena. A bold move, the action of a fearless man who wanted to be right in the midst of the gladiatorial combat, who wanted a front row seat to all the carnage.

The Cryomancer glared at the man on the throne, surely the Emperor Shao Kahn. He sat there larger than life, with such immense and blatant strength that it seemed like he had been born from the bloodbath that surrounded him. A mask fashioned from a skull concealed the upper half of his face before it joined a thick metal kabuto helmet, but even these couldn't hide a face so stern and unforgiving. Thick plates of riveted iron, edged in copper with large spikes scratching upward, formed shoulder armor that might well have crushed a weaker frame. Grotesque faces, an array of glowering demons and shrieking skulls, protruded from the plate joining the straps of leather crossing his chest as well as the armor covering his forearms and knees, embossed into the unyielding metal. He appeared completely unafraid, not remotely concerned that his gladiators might turn on him.

"Kitana!" Liu cried as he bolted from the doorway, breaking through the Cryomancer's thoughts.

Kuai Liang watched him run towards a woman chained to two pillars. Her head hung in humiliation, but even though he couldn't see her face, he recognized the princess by her blue outfit and flowing - if a bit disheveled - hair. He chuckled to himself at Liu's brash move. As if Shao Kahn would simply let her go, especially in the name of love. Once more, he silently ridiculed the emotion, vowing never to let himself be caught in such a predicament.

Then his blue eyes caught sight of the people standing beside Shao Kahn's throne. The pink clad woman from the earlier fight stood immediately to his left, and to his right stood an Asian man dressed in dark robes of a fine cut, but who was not conspicuously tall nor immediately noteworthy save for the disconcerting way his eyes, which reminded the Cryomancer of a pair of beady black beetles, seldom blinked. His skin seemed pulled backwards from his nose just like that of a woman who'd had one too many face lifts in her life.

Beside the Asian man was a bald, heavily tattooed man whose face was like the moon, pale and somehow wavering. Some kind of madness lurked on his face, but it was a quiet madness, cunning and calculating, not the rabid-animal savagery Kuai Liang was far too accustomed to seeing. It was disconcerting, he decided, perhaps because it gave him the sense that this man was about to lunge for his jugular.

He was certain that one of these two men was Shang Tsung, and at the thought, the hollow void in his chest began to fill with fiery anger - a quiet rage that utterly believed no one else could begin to understand his pain. The sorcerer had engineered the game that ended in Bi-han's death, and now that his brother was gone, Kuai Liang was certain he'd taken a piece of his younger brother's soul with him. As rashly as Liu had chased after Kitana, he stormed towards the throne as if he could steal his brother back.

Reptile had just finished snapping Johnny Cage's leg, and the Cryomancer glanced dispassionately at his groaning comrade as Kung Lao pulled him from the fight.

"Reptile wins!" the Asian man cried. That was Shang Tsung. He was sure of it.

"Shao Kahn!" Kuai Liang bellowed as he brazenly marched before Outworld's ruler.

"Sub-Zero, what are you doing?" Raiden hissed behind him, his voice mildly panicked. "Stand down!"

The Emperor fixed his gleaming red eyes on the Earthrealm Cryomancer. Even with the mask concealing his large face, his mere presence was intimidating, and Kuai Liang felt his blood chill in his veins beneath that firm, disconcerting gaze. For a moment, he thought he may have presumed too much. But it was too late now - his pride would not allow him to retreat at this point - so he stood his ground and stared up with a cold mask to match Shao Kahn's. This man was indirectly responsible for his brother's death. He raised an insolent finger at the Emperor, who was much larger up close than he appeared at a distance. But even though he gave off the impression that he could squash the Cryomancer like a bug, Kuai Liang would show no fear.

"You treat matters of life and death like a silly contest, a contest that my brother foolishly participated in," he opened, narrowing his eyes. "One of your sideshow freaks killed him, and I mean to avenge him. I challenge the hellspawn known as Scorpion."

"Nobody makes demands of the Emperor-" Shang Tsung hissed, but Shao Kahn held up a meaty hand to silence him.

"Very well," he said with an ominous grin as he leaned forward dangerously. His voice was deep and foreboding, as if thunder itself had been given a body. "You shall have him, Earthrealmer. And you shall have Noob Saibot as well."

Beside him, the tattooed white man clenched his fist in front of his face, and two columns of flames belched from the dirt before him. When the orange fire faded, Kuai Liang recognized the black clad man he'd fought in the tower. Beside him stood a man clothed in the traditional Shirai Ryu garb, yellow on black with a Scorpion embroidered on his breast, but his eyes were as milky white as Noob's. When he saw the masked Cryomancer standing before him, his mottled forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"What is this?" he hissed. Sub-Zero started. He had heard that voice before, several days ago when it cut through his mediation, abruptly silencing Bi-han's supplication. There was no doubt in his mind now. This was his brother's murderer. "Who are you?" Scorpion demanded to know only moments later.

"My name is Sub-Zero," he snarled back.

"Impossible. I killed that man," Scorpion declared.

"You killed my brother," he said. "And for that, I'm going to kill you."

Noob started laughing. It was an unearthly laugh, demonic. It unnerved Kuai Liang in an instant, had stripped away years of training and discipline and reduced him to the quivering semblance of a frightened child. But he was a young man now, no longer a boy living in his brother's shadow. He owed it to Bi-han to be strong and to show no fear. He scowled and faced his second adversary. "What's so funny?" he challenged.

"Your sentiment is touching," the black-clad man said. "Touching, but pathetic. Your brother is better off dead."

Rage at the wraith's words immediately erupted in Sub-Zero's heart, and he lunged at the pair of warriors. Noob instantly vanished in a pool of black tar, and Scorpion vanished in a whirlwind of fire. The Earthrealm Champion paused and glanced around. Suddenly, something stampeded him from behind, and he found himself face-first in the dirt with a mouth full of blood. He charged his fists with ice as Scorpion yanked him to his feet, and he lobbed a ball at the undead warrior, hitting him directly. He watched as the ice started to spread across his chest, but lurched in shock when flames engulfed his opponent and he emerged a second later unscathed.

"You didn't really expect that to work, did you?" Scorpion sneered.

Sub-Zero was momentarily distracted by the shouts that emanated from crowd in the stands. Catcalls were followed by cheers of encouragement from his comrades so loud that his attention was momentarily called away from the fight. As he was distracted, Scorpion's leg swept out in a wide, graceful arc, connecting with the Cryomancer's ankles, throwing him off balance. Without even realizing what was happening, he found himself flat on his back, sucking in deep breaths of air that seemed devoid of oxygen, wincing as tiny pebbles from the dirt dug painfully into his back. The subsequent tunnel vision cleared with just enough time to roll away from a kick to the ribs.

Now Noob joined the fight with a palm strike to Sub-Zero's throat. A gurgle escaped the stunned man's mouth when his windpipe was cut off unexpectedly. Keeping his hand in place, Noob lifted the Earthrealm Champion off the ground with a running push. The Cryomancer scrambled for balance midair, but could not find traction before his body was slammed into the stone pillar behind. The concussive force of the impact rattled the pillar. Noob let go of Sub-Zero and grabbed the falling man by his black and blue cowl. When the Cryomancer touched down, Noob jerked his head back, and drove it into the pillar ruthlessly, creating a tiny crater in the stone. A groan escaped Sub-Zero's lips and a small part of him hoped it was over, but his honor and pride would not let him quit. A brutal punch in the jaw from Noob, however, blindsided him. The crater in the pillar crunched even farther in and a crack extended upward nearly five feet, then with a loud shattering bang, the stone collapsed. Rocks flew in all directions, toppling over the Earthrealm Champion's head in a torrent of wild dust and debris. As the dust settled, Noob stepped back, crossed his arms, and watched his opponent.

"Stay down," he commanded. Sub-Zero tensed briefly as blood wept into his eyes, and then slumped onto his knees as his body swayed, ever so slightly, from left to right.

The Cryomancer looked up at Noob; his words had triggered a distant memory, and he began to understand why his opponent seemed so familiar to him. There was a strange hint of sadness in the warrior's eyes. Sub-Zero felt surprise at that, but then he recognized their shape and the inexplicable way his eyes could change from hard to soft in a split second. He remembered how his brother used to say those words often when they trained. Stay down, Kuai Liang. You can't win. He hadn't meant it, of course. He was merely challenging his younger brother to dig deep within his heart and find the will to win. They had sparred the day before he left on his secret mission.

"I want to go with you," he had told his brother in all earnestness. He hadn't liked the idea of being alone in the Temple. He had Tomas, sure, but he'd never been apart from his brother for long. Bi-han shielded him from all the bad things that could happen, and he found that he was afraid of being without him. Kuai Liang lunged at him.

"No you don't," Bi-han told him as he easily caught his brother's arm, twisted it around, and used his momentum to shove him to the ground. "Be grateful that you get to stay here."

"Do you know where you're going?"

"Don't worry about it."

"But-"

"I said don't worry about it," he said, and that was that. He looked at his brother. "Stay down," he commanded. With a cocky smirk, Kuai Liang kipped up and prepared to fight again.

Now, Kuai Liang looked up at Noob, now trying to force down the nausea and the sickly sweet taste of bile. It couldn't be. Yet, the dead black skin couldn't hide the thin keloid scar marring his right bicep. It was an unintentional gift from the younger Cryomancer; when his brother tried to teach him how to fight with the ice daggers he created, he accidentally stabbed him when he tripped over his feet and stumbled into his brother's arm. He was quite the klutz as a child, much to An Zhi's chagrin, and Bi-han patiently nursed all his wounds as a result of Kuai Liang's clumsiness.

And then there was the angle of his eye line. It was one of the few traits that set the brothers apart. His right eye was a normal, almond-shaped oval, but his left eyelid raced up at a sharp, straight angle like a hawk's before curving around and meeting the bottom lash line. It was a feature Kuai Liang had never seen on anyone else until now. Noob's left eye was shaped exactly the same way. Disbelieving tears sprang into his eyes, but he stubbornly refused to let them flow. Somewhere in the distance, a million miles away for all he knew, Shao Kahn began to laugh.

"Bi-han?" he mumbled over the Emperor's cackling, the sound of the words startling him.

Noob chuckled as he grabbed Sub-Zero's cowl and lifted him to his feet. "Bi-han is no more. I am Noob Saibot, and I am a servant of the Netherrealm."

Kuai Liang's heart sank at the declaration. During his life, he never could quite believe in the concept of the Netherrealm in spite of Sifu Halsey's insistence that it was real; the lakes of fire, the chains of ice, the eternal darkness - all of it ruled by red devils with pointed tails and cloven hooves. It seemed like a bad stereotype of itself. And yet, here his brother was, proving that the reality was much worse than the stories. Noob Saibot was a walking, talking corpse with a soul darker than pitch, his living light vanquished by darkness and evil. As far as Kuai Liang was concerned, he was the very definition of Hell.

"You traded one master for another," he hissed, trembling in pain, the wound over Bi-han's death violently reopened. His head split, his vision blurred. And none of it compared to the sorrow that now feasted on his heart like a ferocious lion devouring a gazelle. But somehow, he forced himself to stand. "Let me help you, Brother."

"Be quiet!" the elder brother snapped. "I don't want to remember you being so weak."

He shoved the Cryomancer backwards, and Sub-Zero heard Scorpion's unearthly voice yell, "Get over here!" Instantly, a sharp, fresh pain exploded through his back, and he felt his body dragged on a taut chain towards the undead warrior.

Then Noob rushed him while Scorpion struck him from behind, and though dazed, it infuriated him. The rage over it, which had been simmering inside him like a sleeping volcano, finally exploded in a cataclysmic burst of pyroclastic energy. Boiling with searing anger and hatred, Sub-Zero leaped aside, ripping the kunai blade from his back, and elbowed Scorpion in the neck, crushing his windpipe and knocking him over. The Shirai Ryu assassin coughed and gripped his throat. Immediately, Sub-Zero redirected his momentum forward, and in one easy move he sidestepped Noob, clamped down on his arm, and twisted it around until the bone snapped, forcing him to drop in pain. The Cryomancer planted a swift kick to his temple as he dropped before he faced Scorpion once more.

Unable to get around him, he rushed from the front. Sub-Zero jumped and scissor-kicked him in the face, enjoying the sickening crunch of bones as his opponent fell. He rolled to the side in time to meet Noob again, this time spinning into a kick toward the black warrior's chest, but Noob avoided the Cryomancer's attack. He darted towards him again as Sub-Zero leaped to his feet and sidestepped before he grabbed his brother's black cowl and pounded his head into a new stone column. He kept thumping Bi-han's undead skull into the stone even after he was certain his brother was unconscious, unaware until then how furious he felt towards him for leaving him, for dying. Shocked, he let go and backed away slowly.

But Scorpion had yet to be dispatched. Sub-Zero sensed the wraith charging him long before he arrived. He closed his eyes and saw his brother, both as a living entity and dead one. He saw Tomas, a cyborg servant of the Lin Kuei, captured after Cyrax blew him half to hell. He saw his father, that cruel man who ripped his children out of the life of their sweet, loving mother. He saw his baby sister, Sarah, who grew up without her brothers to look after her. He saw Raiden and Himavat recruiting warriors to participate in Shang Tsung's tournament to save Earthrealm from Shao Kahn's invasion. And above it all, he saw Shao Kahn, the Emperor himself, standing over the chaos and death with an arrogant grin plastered on his wicked face.

Something snapped inside of him. Unconsciously, as all the feelings flowed as one through his heart, cold blue ice sprang from his palms and grew nearly three feet long. A handle formed in his hand and a frozen hilt kissed his thumb and forefinger. With a long, ungodly howl, he thrust the kori sword directly into Scorpion's chest and ran him through. The wraith looked at him with stunned, white eyes. He sneered coldly behind his mask, and then jerked the sword upward. As expected, his movement slowly cleaved his enemy in two, and he watched in bitter satisfaction as it cut a path upward with a slow, tacky slurp like tape on a vinyl cushion until it broke through the top of his skull. Scorpion fell to the ground in a puddle of thick gore and twitched in the middle of his undead blood, his top half splayed in two.

Trembling, Sub-Zero held his sword before his face and looked at the blackish blood oozing down it and onto his hand and sleeve. Then he scowled and looked up at Shao Kahn. "It is done," he growled, and then turned and rejoined Raiden's ranks. The crowd, which had been wild and loud throughout the entire match, was silent.