Author's Note: I just wanted to forewarn people that this chapter contains torture, so if you're squeamish about that kind of stuff, you might skip it altogether. I researched different torture methods just to write this chapter because I wanted to describe something very disturbing and relatively unheard of. This was the only one that actually made me squinch my face up and say, "Oh, my God!" Consider yourself warned.
Anya floated through a dim twilight vaguely aware of the dull ache in either shoulder. Sareena had forcibly restrained her as Smoke's whirring saw blade bit into her clavicle. She remembered the searing pain as well as the sound of her voice screeching helplessly while he worked, but she had withstood the trauma well until he thrust his robotic fingers through the wound and yanked on the first bone he touched. She'd blacked out immediately and hadn't been fully awake since then. She was content to drift, and she easily ignored the voices screaming for her to wake up.
But a new voice – one not shrill like the others before it, but one deep and sinister – jarred her brain from its apathy. It said, "I shall now leave you in Frost's capable hands." It was Quan Chi.
Cold terror chilled her blood, but it was not fear of the sorcerer. Rather, it was that name – Frost – that set her skin into goosebumps. In the darkest recesses of her mind, Anya saw nothing but red attached to Frost – the red of the truck, the red of her blood as it formed a halo around her head on the pavement – as if the entire world was colored in crimson. She…she remembered her. She'd forced her to crash and nearly killed her in the process.
Then, like dominoes falling up, her memory rewound itself further, and she stood in a kitchen as Frost dug a knife made of ice into another woman's throat. She strained to remember the older lady's name, but her mouth could only hum stupidly around the letter 'm.' Anya couldn't dwell on it long, though, as she immediately tumbled backwards through disjointed images of a massive temple built in an icy plain, and an apocalypse that nearly tore a city apart, and a hospital where the insane counted on her for comfort, and a different hospital where the staff fought to keep her alive when she didn't want to be, and then…her mother.
The woman stood against a black backdrop, smiling as her pale lavender eyes met her daughter's. A sharp twinge of pain stabbed at Anya's heart, prompting scalding tears to cascade down her cheeks. It was like looking in the mirror at a slant; their features were nearly identical, yet there was something infinitely more powerful about her mother, though she couldn't fathom what, and knew she'd never possess it for as long as she lived.
You're stronger than you know, her mother's voice echoed around her. Be brave. Face her with your head held high.
At the thought, Anya finally opened her soggy eyes, noting the way her road-dirty cloak obscured her face. Still, she recognized her prison, a cage with iron bars like a kennel.
"Oh, and Frost," Quan Chi continued as he walked past. "If you wish to be the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, you need the Dragon Medallion. You can take it one of two ways: it can choose you, or the Grandmaster himself can give it to a blood relative."
"What are you talking about?" Anya heard Kuai Liang ask in confusion. "That's not how-"
"It's just food for thought," the sorcerer said. She didn't need to see his face to know he was sneering. "And Frost?"
"Yes?" a feminine voice asked sweetly, though it set Anya's teeth on edge.
"You may do what you wish to those two until we leave again, but these four are off limits."
"Spoil sport," she pouted as he stomped away.
Anya waited until he vanished through his portal before she subtly peeked at Frost. The deadly warrior stood proudly before Sub-Zero and Kabal with her hands on her hips. She nodded at a man to her side. Anya recognized him immediately.
"Boys, you remember Drahmin, don't you?" Frost smiled and looked at the fleshless demon. "Tie them up, will you?" Then she glanced at Anya with a devious grin. "And will you get Little Miss Water Park as well? I don't want her to miss this."
"Quan Chi said she was not to be touched," Smoke said as Drahmin hoisted Kabal to his feet and attached his wrists to a black stone wall nearby, hanging him a foot off the floor.
"Stop being such a little girl and do something bad for once!" she yelped.
"Leave An-" Kuai Liang started to say, but Frost back-fisted him across the jaw and split his lip open in a new spot. A tiny river of blood gushed from his mouth as the demon tormentor now cuffed him to the wall as well.
"Shut up," she snapped at him before she pointed at Kabal. "And just so I don't have to say it again in a minute, you shut up too." Then she chuckled as Sub-Zero spit out a mouthful of blood.
Drahmin now approached Anya and easily flung open her cage. Panicking, she threw her palms at him with a terrified yelp, hoping to catch him with an errant jet of water. She did, but unlike earlier that evening when it had caught him by surprise, he now scarcely seemed to notice and easily gripped her by the scruff of her neck, simultaneously yanking off her cloak. She tried kicking him to no avail, but only succeeded in making her shoulders hurt like hell.
"I have a gift for you!" Frost sang as she skipped to them.
"You shouldn't have," Anya grunted as she squirmed to get free in spite of her discomfort, trying hard to dig her dirty fingernails into Drahmin's raw muscles.
"Oh, now don't be that way," the other admonished. "I know we haven't always been the best of friends, but I really do think of you like a sister."
"Lucky me," she muttered. Drahmin's clubbed arm, the spiked metal weapon newly replaced, now wrapped itself around her slender body, holding her tightly. Tears sprang to her eyes as her shoulders protested the pressure and the spikes bit at her skin like thorns.
"So I wanted to give this to you as a peace offering." She slipped a bluish metal ring, something that looked a lot like a dog collar, from her similarly-colored tunic. Across the room, both Sub-Zero and Kabal started struggling in a mad frenzy when they saw it, yelling warnings, but Frost ignored them as she joyfully slipped it around Anya's throat. Immediately, the prisoner felt dizzy as a blackness briefly washed over her vision. She stopped fighting Drahmin, her head suddenly weighing a ton.
"And then we can take a trip to the wonderful, beautiful, serene Land…Not!" Frost giggled as she patted Anya's cheek and then motioned for the demon to chain her up as well. He silently carried her towards the wall and slammed her into it beside Sub-Zero. She tried to stifle the pained groans as he twisted her shoulders up in yet another awkward position, but couldn't.
"Anya?" Kuai Liang asked in concern. "Are you okay? Anya?"
"Of course I'm okay," she said drowsily, blinking back the tears. "Just feel a little drunk, that's all." She opened her eyes and looked at him with a shaky smile to hide her distress.
"Why are you covered in blood?" he demanded to know as he nodded at her shoulders. Smoke's impromptu incisions and stitches were clearly obscured from his vision.
"Why are you?" she shot back pointedly, nodding towards all the blood that splattered his face and clothes. Then she closed her eyes again and let her head sag against her arms. "I'm glad Rain didn't kill you two."
"Yeah, that makes three of us," Kabal mumbled as Frost stood before them, her brilliant blue eyes darting back and forth in curious amusement.
"Why are you people so afraid to die?" she asked as she stroked her chin thoughtfully.
"Who says we are?" Sub-Zero shot back, and she laughed.
Anya now glared at her. "Don't look into her eyes," she hissed weakly. "She'll steal your soul. I'll handle her. So, Frost, we haven't chatted in a while. How are things going down in the Underworld?"
"Oh, well, look how brave you are!" she exclaimed. "You really do fight with your heart, don't you, sweetie? That seems to give me an advantage over you as I no longer seem to have one. I wonder if you'll still act so tough when I do this." Instantly, she grabbed the prisoner's left shoulder and yanked down hard, almost to the point of dislocating it again, and giggled as her victim howled and Kuai Liang and Kabal both tried to lunge at her. "I didn't think so," she sneered.
"It'll pass," Anya croaked as the combined pain and sudden nausea gradually faded. She glanced weakly at Kuai Liang, who was still struggling to get free of his bonds.
"Definitely," Frost agreed. "When your heart stops." Then, without looking at Sub-Zero, she sighed impatiently and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're gonna kill me. Glory and hallelujah and all that crap."
"You are not allowed to harm her," Smoke repeated, his robotic voice more urgent now.
"Would you please calm down already, you overgrown bucket of bolts?" she snapped. "I'm not going to harm her. I just want her to have a front row seat to see what I do to my big brother and his bestie."
Kabal snorted, prompting Sub-Zero to give him a wayward glance. "See, even your bitch of a sister knows that you are the wind beneath my wings."
With eyes closed, Anya weakly leaned her head against her arms and sighed at the remark. "God," she whimpered at the same time Kuai Liang hissed, "I want that to be the very last thing you say today."
"Quiet, all of you," Frost barked. "I want to talk about the Dragon Medallion with my Brother. You heard Quan Chi. You can give it to me. I don't suppose you'd just say yes now, would you? End this tiresome discussion before it starts? That's crazy, right?"
"I don't know where Quan Chi got an idea like that, but you can only get it one way. It has to pick you," he answered her.
"I see," she said slowly. "Okay, I assumed we'd have to do this the hard way. Sorry, Smokestack," she said to the cyber-ninja, "Little Princess is suddenly an eligible player again. Go tattle to Quan Chi if you want."
Anya's heart started pounding in her chest once more while Kuai Liang struggled even harder to get free of his bonds. "No! Leave her out of it. Dammit, Frost, I'm not playing games with you. I'm telling you the truth. The Medallion chooses you. You can't just take it, and you can't just have a blood relative will it to you. It chooses you."
She grinned devilishly. "I might believe you, dear Brother, were Sektor not adamant he could take it from you. You two did grow up together in the Lin Kuei."
"He's an idiot!" he yelled. "He's dumber now than he was before he was automated. Besides which, I grew up with Smoke too." Sub-Zero looked over to the cyber-ninja. "Smoke, would you please tell her that is not how it passes from person to person?"
"I do not have sufficient data on that subject," he replied flatly.
Anya let out a long, shuddering sigh. She knew Tomas knew the correct answer, but those damned Slaving Protocols in his head restrained him from answering honestly. Beside her, she heard Kuai Liang mutter, "Of course you don't."
"You know, I understand Smoke was there when the Dragon Medallion came into your possession," Frost began. "Smoke, will you kindly tell the class how that happened?"
"Grandmaster Oniro and Sektor fought over it. It fell on the floor. He grabbed it and it became his," was the monotone answer.
"Interesting," the female Cryomancer chirped as her brother now dropped his head in defeat. She glanced at Drahmin. "Would my lovely assistant today kindly grab me a volunteer from the loser pool and strap him to that table?"
Drahmin grunted his reply, clearly unhappy at being referred to as Frost's assistant, but promptly grabbed one of the other prisoners chained to the wall, a dumpy little creature with a glowing orange jewel embedded in his blubbery chest. As he fastened the struggling, wailing man to a wide, rusty table in the middle of the room, she wandered to a small cage where dark creatures squirmed behind a mesh door. She opened it and yanked out one of the animals by its neck. It was a rat.
With her usual evil smirk, she cradled the fat brown rat in her arms like a miniature dog, kissing its muzzle and patting its head like it was her faithful pet. It kicked its legs as if it was swimming, but she held fast and watched intently for her prisoners' reactions. "A misunderstood creature, the rat," she said dangerously. "They get a bad rap because they'll eat anything, and they carry the most horrendous diseases."
"I would definitely agree with that, Frost," Kabal said. "That one seems to be tolerating you fairly well."
"Well, unlike my present company," she continued, her smile unwavering, "they're very smart. They solve puzzles. Which makes them terribly interesting to watch. Observe."
The white-haired woman carried the rat to the disgusting man strapped to the table. He must've known what was coming because he took one look at the creature and started to cry as he ferociously fought his bonds. His wails did not move Frost, and she gently set the rat onto his belly just as Drahmin covered it with a metal tub seemingly forged just for that purpose. Then, the demon inexplicably spread a large stack of burning coals over the top.
"Anya, don't watch," Sub-Zero ordered her, but she couldn't pry her eyes away.
"What's she doing to him?" she replied softly, her breaths coming in short pants that were a blend of horror and disgust. "Kuai Liang, what's she going to do?"
"Don't look at him, look at me," he said more urgently. "Dammit, Anya! I mean it!"
But she ignored him, albeit involuntarily. Curiosity compelled her eyes to remain focused on Frost's latest victim. Underneath the metal tub, the rat loudly scratched at the sides. She could almost feel its terror at the growing, inescapable heat, her heart thumping wildly in time with its own. Meanwhile, the victim's voice rapidly spiraled upward from a low cry to a shrill whimper to an ear-piercing shriek. Empathy for him and the rat flooded her, and Anya soon felt her own hot tears stream down her face as she heard herself scream at Frost to stop. The rat's heartbeat as well as her own thundered in her ears faster and faster, louder and louder. Her cries and the victim's shrieking reached a deafening crescendo. She couldn't stand the noise and strained to get free to put an end to it all.
And then there was silence.
It came unexpectedly. The rat's heartbeat calmed, and the man on the table stopped wailing. Instead, he stiffened as his eyes bulged from his head in surprise. His sweaty neck pulsed and flexed into his fleshy face as if he were trying to vomit. Then, sudden realization flooded him and he started to screech more frantically now, flailing his body every which way his bonds would let him. Viscous, yellowish fluid, his blood perhaps, began oozing from his mouth and nostrils. About a minute later, the rat, soggy with bodily fluids but otherwise unscathed, suddenly bolted from a spot in between his legs, and from her vantage point Anya thought that spot was his anus. The man, unlike the rat, was dead.
Frost clapped giddily as Anya looked away and sobbed into her arms. "That has to be some kind of a record!" the female Cryomancer exclaimed. "I've never seen a rat move so fast through the intestinal tract in my life!" Drahmin hoisted the red-hot tub off the victim's belly, allowing her to peer at the small, uneven perforation where the rat gnawed through his stomach and found its way through his digestive system. "I think these disgusting, little blobs must be physiologically different than us. I mean, radically so," she said pensively.
"Anya," Kuai Liang said to her, ignoring his sister, "look at me."
"No," she whimpered almost inaudibly as she shook her head. She felt sick, and was half certain she was going to throw up. She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing her stomach to stay down.
"Please look at me."
She shook her head again. She already hurt too much inside. She didn't think she could bear it if she looked into his eyes right now. But that didn't concern Frost, who was now skipping to her yet again.
"Aw, that empathetic side of you is a real problem, isn't it, Princess?"
"At least it proves I have a spark of humanity in me," she shot back, shaking in fear.
"Humanity is overrated."
"You're such a bitch," Kabal spat from beside Sub-Zero.
"No, I'm a witch. A majo. Get it right, handsome." Frost chuckled and looked at her brother. "I'm guessing by her reaction that I just popped her torture cherry. I mean, I know Quan Chi strung her up like a fish on a hook, and I've had a go at her too, but she's never actually seen it done to someone, has she, Brother?"
"No," he said, his face scarlet. He shook violently as well, but it was with rage.
"Well, what a shame we don't have some sort of flavored coffee to celebrate this moment in our lives," she chirped as she grabbed Anya's chin and yanked it towards her. She met Frost's sapphire eyes with as much hatred as she could muster as the woman continued. "You know, Anya, you really could've just left the dress at home and told the Grandmaster you'd be wearing a look of desperation today."
"What is wrong with you?" she whispered.
Frost smirked. "Well, some people say upbringing. But I'm going to go with genetics." She paused as she stroked her captive's cheek. "But it's you, darling. It's you that I'm worried about."
Anya felt something snap inside of her then, like a rubber band flexing backwards and painfully slapping her skin. It was the accumulation of all the frustration, of all the hatred, of all the sheer anger she felt for the woman meeting at one pinnacle inside her heart. Suddenly, the fear was gone. With her jaw set in determination, she spat in the Cryomancer's blue eyes.
Surprised, Frost stepped back as she wiped the spit from her face. But she quickly recovered and grinned evilly once more. "Let's do it again!" she squealed ecstatically.
Kuai Liang fumed more furiously with each new victim Frost tortured in front of them. With the first man, he wasn't entirely sure why she forced them to watch, and thought it was merely to show them what she was going to do to them next. It wasn't until he saw Anya's distraught face that he understood. It was his sister's way of torturing her without actually harming her, turning her profound empathy for others into an instrument of pain against her. She had watched every prisoner Frost murdered, in spite of his pleas for her to look away, and their agonizing deaths were rapidly taking their tolls on her. Now, he stared at her as the twelfth victim slowly died, and saw her beet-red face, stained by tears and road dirt, fall into a defeated mask that barely held any expression at all. He felt sudden panic when he realized what it was: she was broken.
"Here's my last rat," Frost said as she carried a large black animal rife with parasites and slicked with slime in her hands towards them. She didn't muster the courage to kiss it this time as she had with the clean ones prior. "I've been saving this one just for one of you three."
She thrust it into Anya's face, but the Hydromancer only slightly cringed and looked away, probably more because thousands of fleas infested its fur than because she was afraid of the animal itself. Frost deduced this as well and shook her head no. "Hmm, so the Princess isn't afraid of rats? I never would've guessed. Oh well." She sidestepped to her brother. "What about you, Grandmaster? Have any rodent phobias?"
"Go to hell," he snarled.
"You are so mean to me!" she cried in faux exasperation. "I'm telling Mom!"
He started to reply but she was already to Kabal. Sub-Zero remembered his partner's hatred of rats and the way he'd whimpered when he had to share a tunnel with them that day they invaded the old Lin Kuei temple. The Cryomancer found he was proud of the warrior throughout this entire ordeal simply because he masked his fear well. But as Frost gradually crept towards him with the animal writhing in her hands, he began to tremble uncontrollably. She giggled in this strange, unearthly chatter.
"Oh, I think we have a winner here," she chuckled. She thrust the animal into Kabal's face. He grimaced and flinched, prompting her to snort. "Drahmin, have you ever heard of such a ridiculous thing in your life? One of Raiden's champions is afraid of a teensy little rat." She and the demon tormentor both began to cackle hysterically at that.
"Leave him alone," Anya growled beside Sub-Zero, startling him. He swung his head to look at her, and saw the red thunderclouds in her eyes. Evidently, her spirit wasn't as broken as he'd initially thought, for which he was grateful.
"Make me," she chided like a schoolyard bully. "Don't move, my dear piece of dried up shoe leather," she warned Kabal. "This one seems like it's raring to bite something, and you've got to look pretty tasty to it right about now. We haven't fed it yet today." Her words made him tremble harder, which amused her further, and she mercilessly set the rat on his shoulder. He grunted and tried to hold still out of pride, but he couldn't stifle his fear. As predicted, his incessant shaking prompted the rat to scurry up an arm and clamp down on his scarred knuckles with its yellowish-orange teeth. He howled now as crimson blood spurted from his hand and trickled into his trench coat's sleeve. The noise startled the rat and it ran down his arm, into the coat, and burrowed its way into his NYPD t-shirt, prompting him to squirm and moan uncomfortably while Frost giggled beside a chuckling Drahmin.
"Stop it!" Anya screeched, crying once more. "Leave him alone."
Kuai Liang had to do something to help his partner, and quick. "If you don't stop it now, Frost, I'll never give you the Dragon Medallion!" he yelled.
That got her attention. She abruptly stopped her laughing and put her hands on her hips. "You bore me, you know that? You have no sense of poetry." She sighed wearily as she pulled the rat from beneath Kabal's navy shirt and handed it to Drahmin. "Still, I suppose I want the Dragon Medallion more than I want to hear Extra Crispy over there cry like a girl. However, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you why the sudden change of heart?"
"I don't know what you mean," he lied. She knew he was stalling.
She smiled. "Don't be coy with me, Sub-Zero," she sneered. "You know as well as I do that everything we do is dictated by motive. So do tell. You let your girlfriend suffer through twelve piles of dung, but Crispy Crittered gets bit once and you're ready to sing like a canary? What's up, Bro?"
"Why did you lie to me? About who you were?"
Frost rolled her eyes. "Really?" She shook her head. "I work for Quan Chi, I infiltrated the Lin Kuei, I'm trying my hardest to kill the love of your life, and would've succeeded already if it weren't for that jackass Rain saving her, and you actually have to ask me why?"
"Yeah, I do," he argued. "Why? I want to know why you didn't tell me who you were from the beginning. I don't know what our father did to you, Sarah, but you had to have known that I could've made things right."
Now his sister doubled over with laughter before frantically running her hands through her newly cropped hair. Both fists clutched locks at either temple and pulled. Then she angrily stood upright again. "You wanted to make things right?" Her eyes were almost black like onyx, sharp, and wild.
"Yeah, I did," he replied as he fearlessly met her now psychotic gaze. "I still do."
"Too bad," she hissed. "Nothing's ever right." She threw her arms on either side of him as if she were doing a push-up off the wall, stood on her tip-toes, and thrust her face within millimeters of his. He felt decidedly unnerved by the action, but remained motionless, expressionless, waiting for her to flinch first. She didn't. Instead, she said, "Nothing's ever right, Kuai Liang. If it was, you would've kept looking for me even when your little bitch convinced you to stop."
"Sarah-"
"Shut up!" she snarled, her normally cold exterior rapidly crumbling. "I'm still talking!" When she saw him swallow his words, she whispered as if it were difficult to speak, her body shaking now as well. "You didn't keep looking, and I can't say that I blame you. Why should you care for the sister you never knew you had? Why should you care that your worthless excuse for a father tried to killher after selling her to the highest bidder, but missed and wound up getting her adopted family instead? Why should you care when your life was so much better, with friends, and a mother who loves you, and a woman you love so much that at her word, you'd abandon your own sister to her fate? Why indeed?"
Sudden understanding flooded Kuai Liang. She was…jealous. Of Anya. And she blamed her for feeling so lost in the world. He glanced over at her. She looked exactly like he felt: bewildered. He looked back to Frost. "Sarah, I didn't know-"
She giggled again, but this time it wasn't her usual psychotic mirth that prompted it. It was an uncomfortable laughter that brought genuine tears to her blue eyes. "I've wondered for a long time what my brother was like," she whispered. "And I used to think maybe he could make things right. Maybe he would know how to fix the way I felt inside because no one else did, not even my Otousan." She shuddered as her hand curiously touched the jagged scar running the length of his cheek, tears slipping down her face silently. Then, as if she suddenly remembered herself, she stepped back. "But I don't think that way anymore. That's just a childish fantasy."
"No, it's not," he argued, and he meant it.
"I'm going to make a grand show of your death," she began, her voice quivering. "I hope Rain does everything he promised to do to Anya, and I hope her memory comes back just so that she can live every moment knowing that I was the one who threw her into that life with him. If it weren't for me, she'd still be home with you, and you both would probably be happy. But you'll be dead, and her life will be spent in utter servitude to that disgusting animal. I hope she suffers every minute of every day and knows it's because I made it so."
"Sarah, stop," the Cryomancer ordered. "Think. I can help you. Let me help you."
She sniffed, blinking furiously, and then grinned halfheartedly. "You know what the difference is between you and me?" she asked. "I know what I am. What are you, Kuai Liang? What exactly are you willing to do to get what you want?"
"Sarah-"
"My name is Frost!" she roared as kori daggers formed in each hand, and she charged at him, plunging them into the rock wall on either side of his head. Chunks of smooth, black stone exploded around him, and both Anya and Kabal yelped in surprise as bits of dust and debris rained onto their shoulders while a glossy sheen of blue-white ice gradually spread behind their backs. Sub-Zero vaguely noticed the coolness on his skin, paying closer attention to the rapid thumping inside his chest, as his little sister's evil smirk returned. She clicked her tongue and stepped back again.
"Give me the Dragon Medallion now, or I will kill both Kabal and Anya in front of you," she growled.
"I can't," he said, glancing worriedly from his love to his partner and back again. Both of them looked back at him in wild-eyed panic. "I can hand it over, but it won't give you the power to rule the Lin Kuei. I told you, it has to choose you. Quan Chi lied to you. He's messing with your head. That's what he does."
Frost inhaled deeply. "Drahmin, strap Kabal to the table. And how do you start this saw machine? I think cutting Anya into bits will be the ideal way to go." She pointed to two massive saw blades, one horizontal and the other vertical, jutting from the opposing wall. Rusty brown bloodstains spattered the black stone around them.
"I'll do it," the demon grunted as he hoisted Kabal from the wall. The detective flailed like a fish on a hook and kicked at his tormentor's body with his heavy boots, but Drahmin barely noticed the warrior's efforts, and fastened him to the table as commanded. Kabal continued to struggle, jerking around and yelling like a madman in restraints.
"Kuai Liang," Anya whimpered as she too fought her bonds, but the cobalt collar around her neck had significantly weakened her, so she couldn't resist as fiercely as his partner had. She looked timidly at the demon as he approached her, his painted mask and fearsome stride terrifying to behold.
"No," the Cryomancer uttered as the three Earthrealm prisoners in their cages, whom he'd long since forgotten about, suddenly came alive with noise. He could hardly hear over their frantic yelling. "Frost, I'm not lying to you! Why won't you listen to me?" He twisted his wrists around his cuffs to get free, but only succeeded in cutting into them. He felt tiny rivulets of blood bead on his skin. "Anya!"
"Get your hands off of me!" she yelled at Drahmin, who was now unfastening her from the wall. "Kuai Liang!" she cried.
"Kick him!" he ordered.
To his relief, she actually obeyed, and her bare foot clubbed the demon squarely in the crotch, prompting him to drop her to the ground as he roared in pain. Unlike Sub-Zero and Kabal, who had been cuffed, she had no such restraints holding her, so she easily jumped to her feet and scrambled away. As she ran, the Cryomancer watched her reach around her neck for the cobalt collar's clasp, manage to unhook it, and throw the entire thing to the side just as his sister shrieked and gave chase. Anya's speed really was a great asset to her, but unfortunately, Frost outwitted her as she ran for the exit. She lobbed an ice ball at the ground ahead of her so that when Anya unwittingly bolted onto it, she lost her balance and crashed into a short flight of stone steps leading up to the door. Frost quickly caught her and yanked her up by the hair with another annoying laugh. But then Sub-Zero watched in shock as Smoke now intervened when he grabbed his sister by her short locks and lifted her off her feet.
Naturally, Frost tried to freeze his arm with her powers, but before she could, he calmly punched her in the jaw and then threw her to the ground. "You were expressly ordered not to harm the human called Annalise Anderson," the cyber-ninja said in his digital voice, though the Cryomancer almost swore he heard…anger…in his old friend's tone. Smoke aimed his palm at her, the one with the mini-missiles embedded within, and the hatch on the tiny launch tube slid open.
Frost, confused as to how she wound up on her butt, glanced up at him as he extended his other hand to Anya and helped her to her feet. "What are you, her knight in cybernetic armor?" she chided as she spat out a mouthful of blood and then slowly stood as well.
"You are disobeying orders," he said.
She didn't get a chance to respond because now, with an angry roar of her own, Anya tackled her to the ground. Sub-Zero didn't know who was more shocked – him or Frost – as his love started punching her in the face, her blows sorely lacking in good technique but efficient nonetheless. Sadistic joy pounded through his heart as he saw blood stream from Frost's nose and mouth in thick, clotted rivers. That's my girl! he thought with pride as he mentally cheered Anya on.
Her victory was short-lived, however. Frost didn't tolerate the assault for long before she blocked a punch, hoisted her knee into her attacker's middle, and threw her over her head. As the Hydromancer crashed into the cobblestone floor with a grunt and a thud, an electric blue ice ball formed in his sister's palm. She flipped onto her feet, shrieked angrily, and lunged forward. Anya saw the attack coming and scooted backwards on her butt in terror, and then wildly flung her hands at the Cryomancer before she shielded her face, spraying water blindly at her target. Suddenly, Frost started screaming in agony.
While Anya looked at her in stunned silence, Kuai Liang quickly discerned that the water caught her hand just as the ice ball left it, freezing it solid. He saw it grow rigid and stiff as it turned a sickly blue, as if death itself had been turned into ice. Tears of agony streamed down Frost's face as she clutched her wrist to her chest and rocked back and forth to quell the pain. The sight only bewildered and shocked Anya momentarily, and then she was on her feet and bolting towards her friends while Smoke and Drahmin followed her.
"What are you doing?" Sub-Zero demanded to know as she reached him. She reached above his head and worked at the cuffs.
"I have no clue, I'm just winging it," she breathlessly admitted as the two men approached. She fumbled to get him free, but her hands shook too hard for her to unfasten his bonds. "Dammit!" she cried in frustration after her fourth failed attempt.
"Look out!" he warned as her aggressors reached out to snag her. With a high-pitched yelp, she whirled around and sprayed them both with a powerful jet of water that knocked them backwards over Kabal's table.
"Hey, watch it!" the cop yelled at her, though it was obvious he was as terrified as she was.
With a startled, uncertain look in her eyes, Anya faced the Cryomancer again. "That's not what I meant to do," she muttered quickly, her breaths coming in nervously. It was obvious that adrenaline overwhelmed her. "I meant to…I meant to…" she stuttered.
"It's okay, it still worked," he reassured her. "But you have to get away. Don't worry about me. Get out of here and find Raiden. He'll help you."
"No," she stubbornly argued and continued working on the cuffs.
"Yes," he insisted. He didn't want to do it, but he knew he was going to have to resort to frightening her to get her to obey. And he suspected he knew just how to do it. "Rain's going to be back any second now and he's going to take you away. Is that you want?"
Anya immediately stopped and looked at him, fresh tears forming in her eyes. "No," she admitted.
"Then do what I say and go. I'll be fine. Trust me," he replied.
"But…but I can't leave," she said. "I don't want to leave."
"I know, but you have to go. Find Raiden. Will you actually do what I say for once?"
Her tears slipped down her cheeks as she lowered her arms, cupped his face in her hands, and nodded reluctantly. Kuai Liang breathed a sigh of relief as she touched him, a certain reinvigorating euphoria flooding him. Immediately, the little injuries Frost had dealt to him earlier – his split lip, black eyes, broken nose – began to heal. Involuntarily, he thought. Anya seemed to be having trouble controlling these newfound powers of hers. Either way, it's what he'd been longing for since she'd angrily run from the Lin Kuei temple a few weeks prior, and he savored every second as if he'd never feel the pleasant tingling again. He wished he was in a position to kiss her.
And then, probably reading his mind, she stood on her tiptoes and planted a soft, timid kiss on his lips as if she weren't sure he'd allow it. But just as soon as he realized what she was doing, she had pulled away again, her cheeks red with embarrassment.
"I'm sorry," she apologized.
"Go now," he ordered breathlessly, though part of him wanted her to stay.
"And where exactly do you think she should go?" a new voice asked. It was Rain.
Author's Note: This was intended to be one long chapter, but I realized it would be impossibly long if I left it the way it was. So, I broke it into two separate chapters in order to be easier on the eyes. It may seem like it ends on a cliffhanger, but that just felt like the place it needed to end. I'm rapidly working on the second part of this chapter, so hopefully that'll be up in a few days.
