When you conjure the devil, you better make sure you've got a bed for him to sleep in.
Lost in the world of parts unknown a fortress of suffering was penetrated, the lock raped by the every growing darkness. A nothing that became something until all behind it was a void of despair and darkness.
Hidden away in the cogs of time deep within Earthrealm, Bi-Han passed through wall after wall, corner from corner, shadow from shadow. The first room he paused in was a factory as big as a military hangar.
Men and women in torn jeans and white beaters worked tirelessly alongside conveyer belts and tables. Each of them stained across the face with expressions of purpose, a goal, though none of it their own. Sparks flew and sweat stained the air around him. Many crevices and unchecked corners where the shadows watched on as the humans and the well oiled machines burned away like coiled cigarettes.
The shadow never lingered too long. Any spark of light that cackled at the corner and the shadow moved on.
Trapped down many halls, many tunnels, and winding corridors that traversed several different levels, a single room housed the leader of the Red Dragon, Daegon, who stood over six sunken Tekunin. All on a knee, all eyes downcast and his main-hand tight around a pipe with a jagged prong that hissed at the Tekunin with sparks of electricity.
Beside Daegon, the shadow leaned from the corner to inspect with great interest, a figure much like that of himself. Bi-Han as he was, and no longer as he is.
The shadows watched.
"The ancient rituals demand that you sacrifice yourselves for your failure." Daegon spoke. "Seeing your deaths will bring me little joy."
He stabbed the first at the far left, then one by one each cyborg was electrocuted and permanently deactivated. At the last, the individual lifted its head and the dim red lights for eyes started back up at the leader of the Red Dragon that seemed to hesitate with it.
"However, sometimes a little joy is enough these days." Daegon proceeded to prod and slay the failed Tekunin before him.
"As Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, it is my duty to discipline anyone that falls out of line. Any errant strand must be put back in place, or plucked." Sub-Zero guided Daegon, then his eyes lingered to the corner beyond the Red Dragon leader and let it fall into the shadows.
Bi-Han slowly emerged from the darkness, his presence detected, and his hidden ability useless in the face of death itself.
"What is your endgame, Bi-Han, or is it Noob Saibot these days?" The entity that wore his own face turned to Bi-Han, arms folded and eyes as cold and sharp as his were when blood flowed fiercely through him.
"He can see you?" Daegon noted the shadow's arrival.
"I appear to those I wish to see me." Bi-Han, the former, spoke.
"My only goal is to kill my brother." The true shadow approached.
"If the Tekunin, the master race of man and machine could not massacre the Shirai Ryu, what makes you think you could best the Lin Kuei?" Daegon prodded.
"Because you know nothing of your enemy." Bi-Han taunted, his guttural voice echoed in the room and shuddered through Daegon's bones.
The wraith chilled the room and the miasma that spewed from the sickle always stuck in his shoulder tested Daegon's constitution. The true wraith turned to the entity, eyes black, but still Bi-Han's.
"You are not the shadow. I know your true form." Bi-Han called it out, and reached for former Sub-Zero only to find nothing to grasp.
"The perks of being in the depths of hell." Scorpion transformed from Sub-Zero as Bi-Han's hand passed through his neck. "He's right though, Daegon. How do you plan to kill me?"
"You?" Daegon looked into the dead eyes of the specter.
"Hanzo and Kuai Liang." Bi-Han answered for the entity.
"Force. Production is up, and we will send more cyborgs, even Mavado and Hsu Hao will join."
"They will die." Scorpion answered.
A long pause fell as the two bonded by hell waited for the answers to reach the dense skull of Daegon's meaty body. Impatient, Bi-Han faded backward into the shadow, his time here already too long and wasted.
"To kill them, you have to go at them through their family."
The snow passed down from the trees like a wasteful hand-me-down from the harsh light of day to the darkest of night. Deep in the depths of the undergrowth and the shadow below the forest roots, Bi-Han waited. Not far were the gates and the walls of the Lin Kuei. Here he would wait and each moment that passed another fallen member of the clan would emerge as night urged the shadow to grow darker and wider.
Tonight was the night.
Your challenge, my brother, is accepted.