Kuai Liang looked at Himavat in disbelief. "Stop?" he repeated, not certain he'd heard the Elder God correctly. "You want me to stop?"
"That is what I said," he replied. His ancient eyes looked sad and troubled.
"After everything she's done-"
"She is still your sister," the god finished for him. "And she is still my distant granddaughter."
"But Himavat-"
"You cannot undo what she has done," he began, "but you don't have to damn yourself on account of her. She has surrendered to you. If you kill her now, there will be one more terrible mark on your soul, and this one will be darker than all others combined because one of the gravest sins in the world is to kill your own family. If you kill her now while she's helpless, while she is no longer trying to hurt you, no amount of good deeds hereafter will cancel her murder out. You will be punished too, and nothing I do will be able to stop it."
The Cryomancer never took his eyes off Himavat's, and no one spoke for the longest moment. Finally, he heard Anya's voice say, "Kuai Liang? Himavat's right. She's not worth it. I don't want you to lose your soul over her because then she's beat you."
The Grandmaster snarled angrily as he now looked down on Frost's face. She looked back at him, her blue eyes full of terrified tears, but refusing to struggle or say a word. His rage overwhelmed him. "No!" he yelled as he throttled her and slammed her skull into the dirt again. "She's the reason I almost lost you. And my mother. And she murdered our friends' families. She deserves to die. She deserves justice." He started to freeze her once again.
And then he felt a hand on his shoulder. To Kuai Liang's astonishment, it belonged to Noob. The wraith knelt by the Cryomancer. "Brother," he began. It almost sounded like Bi-han's voice for once, not the voice that belonged to the demon inside of him. "Listen to me."
Sub-Zero glared at him. "Oh, so now I'm your brother again? I wish you'd make up your mind, Noob, because your indecisiveness is starting to piss me off."
The wraith narrowed his eyes. "I've forgotten much since Scorpion killed me," he said. "That's what going to the Netherrealm is, Kuai Liang. It's forgetting." He paused, sighed, and then resumed. "But I remember that for our whole lives, you followed me everywhere like a puppy. You wanted to know everything I knew and do everything I did. And I always let you come with me when I was allowed to. But this time, I won't let you follow in my footsteps. It's too late for me, Brother. But it's not too late for you."
"This is not justice," Himavat said to him. "But I will give that to you, if you wish."
"How?" he demanded to know. Like a pressure cooker about to blow, the Cryomancer could no longer contain the rage building inside of him. It started to leak out at the corners of his eyes. He felt so angry, so confused, so uncertain.
"Make Frost sit up, now. Hold her tightly. And don't let her look away for a second."
Sub-Zero glared from the Elder God to her several times before he finally grunted and obeyed. He forced Frost to sit up, and he locked his arm through hers, keeping her immobile. Tired, wounded, and dirty, his sister didn't resist, though her eyes were full of trepidation and uncertainty as to what sort of punishment awaited her. Everyone's eyes fixed on Himavat as he gently cut his hands through the air.
Suddenly, Outworld and all its horrors disappeared, giving way to a scene in Earthrealm. From high up a mountain they saw a beautiful beach at sunset, with a red sun sinking into a midnight blue sea where whitecaps formed and dissolved quickly into the ocean water. In the lush forest beyond the sandy shoreline, a tiny village with Japanese-style houses broke through the trees. And now Kuai Liang saw his sister, her long white hair flowing gently on the wind, sitting beneath a wild cherry tree on a grassy slope above the village. Her eyes were dark and sunken as if she hadn't slept in years, and there was such terrible pain reflected in them that for a moment, Sub-Zero felt as miserable as she looked.
Squatting on her knees in her awestruck brother's arms, Frost gazed around while sudden realization hit her, prompting grief-stricken tears to stream down her face. For the first time since Sub-Zero had met her, there was no arrogance in her expression, only agony. She wailed and buried her face in his arm, but he yanked her head back by her hair and forced her to look.
"No!" she yelped, fighting to get free. "I don't want to remember this!"
"Too bad," he hissed as Noob cautiously took a place by their side, standing with arms crossed, and remaining silent. "You're going to take your medicine."
"Please, Kuai Liang, have mercy on me," she begged.
"You've got to be kidding me," he snapped as he clamped down on her body tighter.
"You sit out here a lot," a deep voice said in Japanese to the young woman under the tree, interrupting the siblings' struggle. The younger Frost looked up, and the Cryomancer followed her line of sight to an elderly man carrying a staff engraved with strange red symbols.
"Who are you?" she demanded to know, responding in Japanese as well. She tensed, and Sub-Zero saw cold fog wafting from her fingertips. "I've seen you lurking around a lot lately."
"I'm just a traveler," he cryptically replied. "My name is Kiyoto." He looked at her expectantly, wanting her to give her name.
Miyuki shook her head. "I don't care. Go away and leave me alone."
"You know, I think I've heard of you," he said, ignoring her directive. "I heard that a long time ago, the Tatsuyoshi clan took in an American baby. You're her, aren't you?"
"Is it that obvious?" she half-snarled, her face an annoyed mask.
"Shame about your real family," he said. "That had to be hard growing up like that, knowing that about them. Well, I'll be on my way," he said as he started to hike down the hill.
But naturally, Miyuki wasn't having it. "Wait!" she yelped as she leapt to her feet and grabbed him by his sleeve. "You know my real family?"
"Of course I do! But…you don't?" It was obvious to Kuai Liang that this 'Kiyoto' was manipulating her, but for whatever reason, his sister bought into his game.
Miyuki looked away. "No," she muttered. "My Otousan told me never to speak of it."
"Then it's probably for the best. They're not good people. You're better off."
"You could…you could tell me," she suggested hopefully. "I wouldn't tell him I knew. I could just pretend. I just want to know where I came from."
The man looked at her thoughtfully. "Well, ordinarily I would never go against a child's father, but in this case, I think a person has a right to know where she comes from."
"I agree," she said.
Kiyoto smiled and pointed to the tree with his staff. "Let us sit," he suggested. She obeyed, and he followed before he began to speak. "You were born in the United States," he began. As he spoke, the scene shifted again, but this time his voice carried over as if narrating it. And your father, your real father, was notoriously cruel. He had been raised in your rival clan, the Lin Kuei, you see. But he took an American wife so he could have some sons and heirs to his legacy.
Sub-Zero studied the house that now appeared before them and recognized it immediately. It was his mother's home. Late autumn, a bitter chill hung in the nighttime air and coated the grassy yard in frost. Suddenly, the front doors of the antebellum mansion swung open, and he saw a much younger Bi-han carrying a bundle in a pink blanket with one hand while dragging his two-year-old brother along with the other. The toddler was bawling in terror. A moment later, An Zhi burst through the door after them. With a ferocious grunt, he lobbed an ice ball across their path, freezing the grass solid. When the children ran onto it, they immediately slipped. Kuai Liang harmlessly landed on his butt, but Bi-han refused to let go of the baby cradled in his arm. A loud crack cut through the still night when the oldest sibling landed directly on his elbow and screamed in stunned agony. But he refused to drop Sarah.
The infant had been wailing just like her older brothers, but Bi-han carefully set her on the grass as he cried in pain. He then scrambled towards his little brother to help him up, but An Zhi had reached him by that point and squeezed his shoulder to subdue him. As ice flowed into the boy's body, his eyes dulled and rolled into the back of his head. Sub-Zero glanced up at Noob, but his undead brother's eyes didn't even blink. Now their father did the same to the toddler in spite of the tiny boy whimpering at his feet.
"An Zhi hated girls," Kiyoto's distant voice spoke as they watched the middle-aged Cryomancer now scoop his daughter into his arms and look at the bawling infant with loathing. "They were useful to him only for procreation. Even still, on the night he stole his sons for the Lin Kuei, he took you as well. Sarah."
The scene shifted, and this time a crowd of clan heads and gang leaders gathered in an abandoned warehouse. An Zhi stood at the front of the circle, scowling at them all as they took their seats. He wore the same blue warrior's uniform that Bi-han and Kuai Liang both adopted later on, but also wore a long black coat trimmed in black fur, and in that outfit he looked imposing. Sub-Zero trembled slightly when he saw his father cross his arms and survey the men; even though he knew the man was long dead, he still had the power to strike fear into his younger son's heart.
It was an established truth that An Zhi was cruel and intimidating, Kiyoto said, but it was also an established truth that he was a shrewd businessman who knew the power of money. And he wanted it.
"Why'd you call a meeting in the dead of winter, An Zhi? It's colder than a well-digger's ass," an Australian man asked impatiently. He was a large man with arm muscles bigger around than Sub-Zero's waist, and a black dragon tattoo curling around his right shoulder to his wrist.
"I have something I want to sell, Trevor," the Cryomancer replied, his voice calm but icy. Once more, it unnerved Sub-Zero. "It's worthless to me. But before I throw it out with the trash, I thought I'd see if anyone wanted it."
In Kuai Liang's arms, Frost started to cry harder while An Zhi lifted an eyebrow and signaled a much-younger Sifu Dimitri to approach. The Russian man had been one of his, Bi-han's, and Tomas' teachers, so it looked odd when they saw him carry a tiny baby still wrapped in her pink blanket to An Zhi.
"A baby?" Trevor asked in confusion.
"This is my daughter," the other sneered spitefully. Do I have any takers?"
Kiyoto's voice returned to narrate as the warriors now watched the clan and gang members argue back and forth. My dear, little Sarah, he said, your father initially wanted to throw you over the cliff by the Lin Kuei temple. But then, he realized it could be more profitable for him to sell you into slavery to one of his enemies. He didn't particularly care if the winner of his auction made you a prostitute or a personal plaything. Many of these men were pedophiles, and naturally they were the first to start bidding for you. You were just old enough to molest. Your father knew that, and was prepared to give you to one of them anyway, provided the bidder paid him well enough.
"Oh, my God," Kuai Liang heard Anya gasp at the revelation. He glanced at her and saw her hand clamped over her mouth in disbelief and revulsion. Beside her, his best friend also looked horrified, but he also looked grief-stricken, undoubtedly hating himself for doing to Ava what An Zhi intended to do to Frost.
"Stop this!" the female Cryomancer shrieked.
Nearly everyone in this meeting was interested in buying you, Sarah, Kiyoto continued. But one man in particular wanted you more than anything.
Now the scene focused on a middle-aged Japanese man wearing a black suit and black tie printed with a red dragon. The expression on his face suggested a terrible struggle within, like he couldn't decide if he wanted to bid on the baby or not.
"He's with the Tatsuyoshi clan," Noob declared, and Kuai Liang knew he was right. They were the old Lin Kuei's rival enemies. An Zhi particularly hated their Grandmaster, Shinji, and often spoke of eradicating the clan off the face of the earth. Sometimes, Oniro entertained his thoughts. Sub-Zero never understood the animosity his father felt for their rivals, and no explanation was ever given. But now, when he remembered how Frost called her father "Shinji," he suddenly knew where she learned how to fight.
"That's your Otousan, isn't it?" he whispered to her. "That's Shinji." In his firm grip, he felt her faintly shake her head yes.
"$185,000," An Zhi declared with finality. "Will anyone bid any higher?" No one answered. He thinly smiled. "Very well. Going once, going twice-"
"500,000," the Japanese man promptly shouted, startling everyone in the room into hushed chatter. But An Zhi and the man both stayed silent, just staring at each other.
Finally, the Cryomancer said in amusement, "I'm stunned, Shinji. I'm fairly certain you only needed to pay $200,000 to kill one of my children."
"I don't wish to kill her," Shinji announced. "Nor do I wish to make a slave of her. I want to adopt her."
The other chuffed, one of the rare times Kuai Liang ever saw the man smile. And like all the other times, it was wicked and condescending. "Well, isn't that sweet," he said drily. "And so very noble. Adopting your worst enemy's daughter? Whatever will you tell her when she's older?"
"That is my problem," the other said. "Do we have a deal?"
"Unless someone else wishes to outbid you," he replied, scanning the room. Not surprisingly, there were no other takers. "Very well," he soon said. "She's yours, Shinji."
Soon the Earthrealm warriors watched the Japanese man cradle tiny Sarah in his arms as he trekked from the warehouse into the winter's night. A gentle snow was falling. She cooed. With a serene smile, he pulled her blanket around her tighter, and then looked up at the dark sky. In the soft white glow of the floodlights, they saw tiny snowflakes land on his cheeks, his forehead, and his hair. He closed his eyes for a moment and then looked back at his new daughter.
"Come, my little snowflake," he said softly. "It is time to go home now."
In Sub-Zero's arms, Frost whimpered. "Please stop," she begged softly as they now found themselves inside a large minka house, probably Shinji's. Several Japanese men wearing black robes embroidered with red dragons crowded inside of it, most of them terribly unhappy judging by the scowls on their faces.
The problem, Sarah, was that while Shinji and his wife had wanted children more than anything, none of the other members of the Tatsuyoshi wanted you any more than An Zhi did.
"How could you bring that witch into our village, Shinji?" one of the clan elders yelled at him.
"I do not see a witch when I look at her," the other calmly said. "I see a baby in need of a family."
"Do not play word games with me," the outspoken man snapped. "If it's true what you said and An Zhi is her birth father, then you know what kind of a monster she'll become. She is Lin Kuei!"
"The Lin Kuei do not love their daughters like we do," he retorted. "It is true that her father is our enemy-"
"How stupid are you?" another elder challenged. "He simply handed his daughter to his most hated enemy? That is terribly suspicious! I'm shocked you didn't think so, Shinji."
"He is only interested in money," the Grandmaster said.
"And power," the first man added. Sub-Zero nodded in agreement. He wasn't wrong about that, and he had the sinking feeling that the second man had made a valid point as well. An Zhi had seemed uncharacteristically complacent towards the man he'd held nothing but contempt for as long as he could remember.
"This child will be the death of us all," a third man spoke. "Her powers come from evil spirits passed down to her by her father. She is a curse on us all. She has to go."
"I agree," said a fourth. The first and the second men nodded.
"Enough!" Shinji yelled. "You sound like superstitious fools. There is no evil inside of her but what we teach her. And I will teach her goodness, the way of peace. But my little Miyuki is not going anywhere. And if anyone has a problem with that, let him come forward and challenge me now. From this day forward, she is my daughter. She will know nothing of An Zhi, her real family, or her ties to the Lin Kuei. I forbid anyone of saying a word to her about it."
The scene abruptly changed. Now Shinji, wearing a black yukata embroidered with a red dragon, walked up the beach. His face was stern, and he carried himself with obvious pride, but even still there was a profound kindness and wisdom in his almond-shaped eyes.
Now a pretty girl of about five or six bounded towards the Grandmaster. She was small and wiry, her body practically swimming in her white yukata printed with pink cherry blossoms, but she seemed healthy enough regardless. Her dark brown hair had been braided and tied into a knot on her head, and someone had pinned a cherry blossom just above her ear. Unlike Shinji, the girl was clearly Caucasian, and when Sub-Zero saw blue eyes to rival the sea, he knew she was his sister.
"She looks like you did, Kuai Liang" Noob announced. "You were spindly like that too."
"Okaasan always said I was too small," Frost muttered sadly. "She was always trying to fatten me up. She always gave me extra rice and wouldn't let me leave until I ate it all."
"Otousan!" the girl squealed as she giggled. She ran into his outstretched hands and hugged his waist. Now the Grandmaster's hard expression softened into a wide smile, and Kuai Liang felt a twinge of jealousy. Evidently, her adoptive father loved her far more than An Zhi loved him and Bi-han. She had been lucky.
"Look what I learned how to do!" she chattered away in Japanese as she backed away from the man. She held out her right hand. White fog wafted around it as a small blue energy orb grew in her palm. Suddenly, the light within faded and solidified to reveal a jewel-shaped ball of ice. Now Kuai Liang smiled. He remembered his similar discovery when he was a child.
"You are so smart, my little snowflake," Shinji told her as he knelt beside her in the sand.
"I showed this to Okaasan and her friends when they were having tea," she said. "She got mad at me, and her friends called me a majo. And so did Hoshi and Yukari. Why'd they call me that, Otousan?"
The man inhaled deeply and hung his head. "Sweet, little Miyuki," he began, "they called you that because they believe you have an evil spirit living inside of you."
The girl frowned and looked at her little ice ball. "But…why?"
"Because of what you can do." He rested a hand on her open palm. "They do not understand your powers like I do. They do not trust them, and so they do not trust you. They also think you're evil because of who your real family is. Your real family was not good people. I saved you from them. Many in our village thought I was wrong to bring you home. The Tatsuyoshi are afraid of you, Miyuki."
The child's face contorted and a single tear slid down her cheek. "But I didn't do anything wrong," she argued as she stuck out her bottom lip stubbornly. Now she looked like Bi-han did when he was a child and got upset.
"No, you did not," he agreed. "You are exactly what you are meant to be, my little snowflake. And I am proud of you." Shinji smiled reassuringly at her as he wiped the tear away from her face. "But to save you from unnecessary pain, I forbid you from speaking of your real family, and I also forbid you from using your powers in front of the rest of the Tatsuyoshi."
She frowned again. "But Otousan, that's not fair!"
"Do not argue with me, Miyuki," he said sternly, his smile fading and his eyes growing hard. She stuck out her bottom lip even more, but obeyed. He sighed a moment later. "I will take you from the village from time to time so that you can safely use your powers without the others knowing. But you know I am busy, Musume, so we will not be able to go all the time."
Miyuki smiled as she hugged Shinji. "Thank you, Otousan!" she said. Her eyes sparkled happily.
"It didn't work," Frost mumbled in Kuai Liang's arms.
"What didn't work?" he asked.
She craned her head around to look her brother in the eyes. "The villagers…they always called me majo," she explained. "Even when they thought I couldn't hear them. I had…I had no real friends because no one wanted to play with a witch whose family was Lin Kuei. I just had Kimihiro and Ruriko, my little brother and sister. And then I didn't even have them." Her face crumpled, and more tears flooded out as she faced forward again.
Author's Note: I'm sorry I had to leave everyone hanging right there, but that was a logistical thing to make this chapter easier on your guys' eyes. I had originally intended Frost's story to be one chapter, but as I was working on it, I realized that to do it justice like I really wanted, it was going to be over twenty pages long on Microsoft Word. That translates into a lot of strain on your eyes. So I decided to break it up into two smaller chapters. So, this wasn't intended to be a cliffhanger. But I promise you, in the next chapter you'll be rewarded for your patience. Finally, you'll really understand why Frost is so batshit crazy. Hopefully, you're starting to get a taste of why, but after the next chapter there will be no doubt ;)
Also, to the people who've recently added me to their favorite authors' lists, I want to thank you. I typically like to send a personalized thank you to everyone individually, but I got busy and lost track of your names. I apologize. But yes, thank you so much for that. I'm so flattered that you want to read my stories! And as always, I appreciate everyone who's reading, even those who stay in the shadows. It's the most encouraging thing in the world. Thank you all too!