Chapter 7: Into Deeper water

The rocks crashed down into the chambour and Subzero backed down against the wall as the fire came out whirling like a cloud of gas towards him. But he wasn't paying attention already his mind was somehwere else. His vision was bluring as he looked on the fire seemed to darken and dissapere until everything was complete darkness.

Suddenly he was spinning through rooms filled with hooks and torture devices. Screams leaped out down the corridoor as he saw a man briefly being pulled in two by two metal pistons. Spikes and blood lined the walls as he exited into the dark orange sky. Rushing he saw the river again the hands stretching out as he passed over the bridge into the pyramid summoned on by the sorceror's will.

The gateway opened and he moved up in the marble hallways passing brief glimpses of red eyes in the darkness, evil untold. Swirling round faster now he came again to the great pathway over the drop, there the bald man sat on the same chair, he looked up as he entered and smiled grimly.

"Welcome back again Subzero, you were quicker than I expected. Do you like my humble abode? Speak not, you must not remain here long, I shall return you to your realm. Next is the element of water, you shall be well rewarded when the amulet belongs to me, now go!"

Back he went again spinning down the passageways upside down under and round pillars, passed marble corridoors and great doors with arches reaching up into unthaomable heights, across the bridge and into darkness he slumbered to the sound of the gentle lapping of water against his feet.

When he finnaly awoke it was to a sound that had been reaching his ears for some time. The sound of water moving back and forth and the soft dripping of it from roof to floor. When his eyes opened they were met with a wash of blues and greens against a deeply ornate patterened roof. He groaned again rubbing his head. His torso hurt badly from the blow the Golem had given him, one he'd likely not forget. He wanted to rest now, but he had to move on. Reaching into the folds of his silk he took out a small green leaf. It smelled of mint and he remembered all that had happened. The god of wind, the Golem and Quan chi, Scorpion the map of elements the journy into the mountains, the black dragon, Smoke. He rubbed his head in pain and wished he hadn't remembered it all so fast.

Something the Golem had said struck him suddenly. What had it meant by bringing on his own destruction? Quan chi wanted an amulet surely that was all, what halm could an amulet cause? Then again he was a sorceror, and certainly a powerful one. Subzero still could not understand why he had not done his own dirty work, he'd quite likely be a lot better at it than he himself was. But then again that was sorceror's talk, "he had his reasons evidently or he wouldn't have hired me" thought Subzero. He repeated to himself mindlessly standing to his feet "What halm can an amulet do?"

A drop of water fell down and woke him up splashing over his nose it landed on the floor. Where was he now? Water, this place seemed pretty wet. This must be where he had to fight the element of water. He groaned again not having a clue which way he should probably be heading or what to expect. He made a mental note to next time ask for a decent job description before he undertook anything. He took a step forward and stopped almost fainting from the pain in his head. He felt tired and exhausted, kneeling down he delved again into the silk and took out some of the herbal remedies that he had received from his house servant Serriana. She was a good old lady and always did her job without question, much like himself although he was beginning to question things now. Perhaps Quan chi knew that? He didn't know, there were a lot of things he didn't know about this mission and wish he did since it would make things a damn lot easier.

The blue stoned passageway ended abruptly with a fall in the ground. The passageway continued into the opposite wall but there was a drop in the way, a rope hung down mid way that he could climb up on or slide down. He wasn't sure which he should take. Below a great river of water was rushing, the current was too strong and likely lead into propelled fans or some other nasty demise. He wasn't about to chance a dip, the element of water being his target he wanted to avoid as much of the substance as possible.

Of all the four areas of the temple Subzero found that this one was the nicest of the lot. There was something refreshing about this place? The water, it brought life and the coulers were pleasing to the eye even if the air was always damp and a little too cold for his liking. One thing that did irritate him was that the damp air seemed to soak his clothes. As he climbed up the rope he knew that it wasn't his own sweat, but instead it was the damp in the air that sank through his costume and into his skin.

The coulers of this place were refreshing to his eyes and the air was breathable. The quiet perhaps would have been disquieting to most, perhaps even terrifying. At some moments the noise of rushing water completely dissapered and all he could hear was the ocasional drip through the silence.

The floors and walls seemed to be made of some kind of blue marble. He didn't know what it was, but it was very tougth. Surprisingly it seemed even stronger than the rocky walls in the Earth temple, but that had just been tunnelled through the earth, this place seemed to have been constructed.

If this had been a real place in real life he knew for certain that it would have been the eigth wonder of the world. The stone was cut perfectly... too perfectly in fact as if only the most expert of masons had spent several years shaping each brick perfectly before fitting it into its slot. He wondered how much the place would have cost to build? An ocean of diamonds? A mountain of gold? Presumably if the enchantress is powerful enough he can create any kind of wacky dimension. What would he create he wondered as he walked down another coridoor. Something cold perhaps? An icy palace? No stab that he hated the cold. He'd have a mansion, with jacusis and marble walls a bit like this place, and a flower garden, and huge golden domes like the Tajmahal. But then again wouldn't it be easy to naviage for assassins like himself? "No" he chuckled to himself because he wouldn't be guarding any bloody amulets for all eternity he'd be having the party of his life.

Another thought came to mind. If these elements had so much power to create things out of magic, couldn't they just uncreate something? Could they not presumably destroy the amulet? And following on from that couldn't they unmake him in the fight? If they could he couldn't imagine how it had slipped their minds to do so. Presumably it was somehow not within their power.

The corridoors were not long in this temple. Each one it seemed stopped after about ten or more meteres to be interupted by a drop that didn't always have water at the bottom. Still it was a long way down, and death he knew for sure if he fell when he didn't intend to. There were less traps in this dungeon than he expected. The inhabitants were much more ferocious than the dangers or the booby traps. Some corridoors had been flooded with water that came up to Subzero's feet. To his disfavour some of these pools had become infested with electric eels that had managed to sting him on several ocasions.

He'd always thought of eels being less agressive creatures, perhaps they were? He wasn't a marine bioligist, but it evidently seemed that the ones in this temple were out to get him if not the monk he had landed in with them.

A monk had caught him bending round a corner and attacked from the shadows. Using Aikido Subzero had thrown him off the edge where he fell almost a kilomitere downwards into a deep pool of electric eels. The noise and screaming had sounded like an electric chair execution gone very badly wrong. It had a certain humor in it that only people like Subzero could chuckle at.

The monks in this place seemed if armed at all with tridents. Not surprising really since tridents in mythology had been asociated as a weapon of the sea creatures. The monks in the blue coridoors were just as human however as any land creature and just as disposable and vulnerable to Subzero's martial arts as any other was. It didn't matter in his opinian what weapon they used as long as it wasn't a projectile. How sorry he was to become...

One moment however had caught Subzero by surprise and very nearly killed him. The opening of the flood gate would have been a lot easier if Subzero had known in the first place that it was a flood gate. It was the first door he'd come to in the whole temple and was anxious to get through it presumably to the element inside. He'd placed his hands on the door just as with all the other doors in the other temples and not unusually it had started to open. However when the water had rushed out soon engulfing Subzero's feet and then shins he had made a run for it.

Turning round he pegged it. The door started closing at the end of the passageway. He roared more in fear than anything else sprinting faster he crouched in an icy slide, his head hit the door with a light knock and he fell out into the shaft grabbing wildly at the rope he saved himself from falling to his death. Water spilled out of the remaining space as the gate closed that would have trapped him inside.

He dangled a moment swaying on the rope he closed his eyes in relief cursing under his breath all of the gods he knew one by one. Climbing the ropes up and down continually he discovered more and more to his disliking that this place was a maze. The temple was confusing and seemed to have no end to the side passages main passages lower passages and many more to add. Coming into a large room a huge mozaic was on the wall. It showed two sea dragons fighting with each other over what looked like was an egg. He'd heard rumors in the past of something called a dragon egg. But he'd always shrugged it off with all those other legends the Lin kuei had stored in books. They were just stories after all. Looking up now he wondered whether some of them could in fact be true?

There was a thump behind him on the stone. Dodging a trident sprang out where he had just been standing. The monk aimed a horizontal blow which Subzero back flipped out of the way of. He must have been watching from the platform above. The monk stretched out and swiped again Subzero backed off frightened at the eagerness in this monk. The attacker tried a last ditch effort and through the weapon hurtling towards Subzero like a Javelin.

He caught it in mid air turning it round he threw it back at the monk. To his surprise the monk caught it like himself in mid air and threw it again back at him. This time he was shocked and dodged too surprised to try and repeat the throw. Instead he aimed an ice bolt which hit the ground. The monk flew through the air and gave Subzero a kick in the chest. He fell to the floor and defended himself from the monk who aimed kicks at him while he was down.

Grabbing the monk's leg he froze it and the monk screamed in pain falling to the floor and kicking with the other. He knew for sure the monk would never walk again, the foot could survive for perhaps a minute before it would become dead without blood. It needed imediate medical surgery. This was no golem he was up against this was a human being. A shame at that he thought inwardly that this fighter who was a mark above the rest should fall to such an easy trick.

The monk backed off crawling across the ground with the remaining leg and two arms. Seizing a shuriken Subzero finished him off with a blow to the head. The monk slumpped and moved no more. The star had hit him just off of centre grazing the top of the nose. It had hit home and killed him out right. Walking over Subzero putting a foot on the belly pulled hard and managed to get the metal piece out.

He remembered grudgingly in his early years how sometimes he had thrown the shurken so hard that it had become loged inside the body. His tutors had always advised him to put as much force into it as possible, but now a professional he realised that losing the shurikens wasn't always an option, come to that because of the wind god he didn't have many left. Of cource the messy alternative of fishing through the remains was a disagreable action when all else failed. He wiped the yellow fluid and blood off in a near by large puddel that had been caused by a continual drip from above. The water had started to dent into the ground so that it made a peculiar dip in the usually flat surface of the tiled floor. How many years of work had been ruined by that drip of water?

He left the monk where he lay with that same horrific gormless expression that seemed to stay on all people he murdered. The eyes bugged and the wound seemed to stick out unnaturally wherever it had been inflicted, open mouthed the foot frosty blue looked unnaturally bent at an odd angle even though he hadn't broken it. He'd seist to care over the years what his victems looked like when he was finished with them. They were dead, that was all that really mattered. They could no longer feel pain wouldn't be coming back for revenge and thus didn't matter any more. Subzero like most hadn't always been this way. It had become part of his education, a "self education" as the Lin kuei liked to call it. Each person learned different things from what they were taught, the secret techniques and martial arts lead on to other discoveries about ones self. Subzero felt that emotion was a hinderance to his work, and although born from the eastern parts of the world he had a strong Capitalist notion with money. He could almost have been a soliciter if he had been born the other side of the world.

Sektor relied on compleat obeyance of the Grandmaster to guide him through his life. Rank was everything to him, and although his firm cold logic was much similar to Subzero their morals were in fact miles apart. Cyrax was a wild card who believed that he couldn't do his job properly unless he enjoyed it. He'd go out of his way to make missions more interesting. Smoke seemed to have a strong belief in fate, that things worked the way they did because they were meant to. He didn't work with signs or gods, but seemed to have a belief that one thing lead to another , some moments had to be taken advantage of while others should be left on their own. There was a mutual respect between all of the arch assassins that moved through a general loyalty to the Grandmaster genuine or not. Inside assinations were common and although investigations were always carried out, they were often handed out to the assassins who were suspected to have caused the murder in the first place. It was encouraged, if there was a problem between two arch assassins in the Lin kuei then one of them had to go, eventually. Through this method the Grandmasters for generations had managed to keep control of some of the most deadliest warriors in the world.

After a good exploration of the high parts of of the blue laberyinth Subzero began to get to know his way arround. Some of the ropes he had climbed down had been cut short. This made things difficult as he couldn't get as quickly as he liked to some parts of the temple. Learning the higher areas he realised with grim sight that the passages wouldn't extend any further upwards or across. It seemed that the element of water had to be hidden on the lower floors of the level. This meant passing electric eels rivers of rushing water whirl pools and other torments that existed in what he mentally called the "sewers".

He'd seen a tenticle rise out of some of the murky water several times and was in no mind to venture that way although it looked like he might have to. He decended down towards the lower levels climbing down the ropes that hadn't been cut off in mid fall. He passed the electric eels again splashing through the water and eventually came through much climbing and jumping to another pool. This one seemed inacessable. Pipes came out of the walls and would stop him from jumping across the water on his own. There was nothing on the ceiling he could use to grapple but there was a large wooden platform that seemed to float on the water. It was circular a cylinder in shape, and looked much like a giant wine bottle cork. Standing on it he wobbled from side to side and found his balance with great difficulty.

The water below him was swarming with electric eels. They swam about across the surface some of them who were especially eager tried to electrocute the cork itself. With his foot he pushed off from the platform and started to float towards the pipe. He crouched but even so still wobbled imensely. It was hard to stay balenced on that thing that could easily turn over. He gripped the metal pipe thankfully and gave it a tug. It wouldn't give way.

Carefully he froze two points on the pipe with his hands and started to crack them. He gave them a gentle but firm chop several times on both sides and the pipe came away with a gush of water into the eel pool below. From there he used the pipe as a paddel. He had to admit it didn't make a very good one but it was better than nothing. Upon the second strike through the water he lifted the pipe to see an electric eel clasped tightly to the end. It zapped it and he felt the shock going down his arm he dropped it in pain banging his head on an upcoming pipe he almost fell in.

He shouted rubbing his head with a roar "I'll murder you, you little..."

The pipe sank down into the water with and clanked against the marble. It wasn't deep and the eel let go but the others swarmed round the object looking at it. He had to wait almost half an hour before the eels had lost interest and he could fish the thing out of the water again. Again he paddeled his way across this time being very carefull not to swish the pipe past eels. He ducked under the last pipe and hopped thankfully to the stone platform at the other end of the hall.

"Eels" he grumbled "I hate fucking eels. Perhaps I'll use one to strangle that Sorceror's neck? Then he'll realise what a..."

But he paused at that moment for something more interesting than the murder of his employer caught his attention. Up ahead of him was a very large green door. He looked it up and down and it didn't look anything like a flood gate. The brick round it looked the same as any other part of the temple but the door itself seemed mysterious. It seemed damp and green as if covered by weed or a strange light. Walking up to it he pressed his hands against the surface and waited until it opened.

He was in a large room with a grilled bridge from one side of the other. Large pipes came out of the walls with gushing water flowing out of them. He looked arround him with suspicien. This place was peaceful, much more than the other places in the passages and high areas of the temple. This seemed he quite confidently to be the source of the power.

The dripping here was conbined with a quiet rush of gentle water below that seemed to be pleasing to the ear. It seemed a strange battle ground for an element to use, but this it seemed was where the being wanted to face him. A puddel of water on the grilled bridge caught his eye. Mainly because any water should have fallen through the metal squares inbetween the wires. The god had given himself away. He was about to freeze the puddel when knowing that the game was up it rose to its feet itself forming a blue watery body that wobbled and flickered in the dull light.

"Subzero isn't it?" chuckled the element "Did you enjoy killing my brothers to get here Lin kuei?"

"You gods never did understand me" said Subzero with concealed anger "I'm not doing this for enjoyment or for pain and misery. I am simply doing my job"

"That's what an evil dictator's general would say at his court case. Is there anything Subzero that you really enjoy?"

"Heh, now that you mention it I guess I could count money"

"And does it make you happy?"

"What does my emotion have anything to do with this water god?"

"More than you think it seems. Has it ever occured to you that it might be your anger that drives you? Your anger than channels you into this efficient assassin that you so like to see your self as?"

Subzero paused and looked the element over with a tightened face "How do you know so much about me?"

"I'm made of water. Water slips through cracks, comes down from the sky. Water is the ocean and is everywhere. I listen to the ripples and out of all the happy faces and people who are content I here one voice. A voice filled with anguish and hate, bringing about it misery... despair"

"I don't feel despair as you put it. I have no use for that apart from inflicting it upon others. Do you feel despair water god?"

"Maybe I do" it replied and the voice seemed to echo round the room like a drop of water in an underground lake "Don't you want happiness Subzero? Haven't you senced yet what this amulet you seek will bring? You had mercy enough for Scorpion, although it did not save him from the skull faced death... have you not mercy for the world?"

"What happens to a god when you die?" asked Subzero slowly out of the blue. The question had been begging at his mind ever since he had entered the temple itself and climbed the mountain.

"We never die" replied the spirit the voice echoing through the water "When our mortal form perishes in this world we return to the council of the elder gods. Thern when our soul is replenished we can return to the realm we were vanquished in"

"Quan chi told me that there are ways of killing a god. That those ways have been lost to this realm for generations"

"The destruction of a soul is unthomable in evil compared to the murder of a life" he paused with great weight in his words "The destruction of a god whether good or evil is unforgiveable for all eternity, it is the greatest sin"

"Then my taking of your life will not destroy you?"

"If you can take my life" replied the god with a quiet serene smile "I have not foresight such as my other brother of earth"

"Good because I like you. You're the only person in this wretched temple who's treated me like an equal. I have to say I'm disgusted the way you gods look down on people"

"Perhaps you're right. We have lived since the dawn of time and get used to the idea that no mortal can defeat us. It is in our nature, yet we four brothers have swarn to guard this amulet until our lives have ended. I cannot let you pass"

"Heh, I'll be doing you a favour then" chuckled Subzero nastilly "When I kill you, you won't have to guard this stupid thing anymore"

"No" replied the god solemly "I do not wish for the return of the dark god. He destroyed many in the old times. I lost many of my brethren to him"

"What dark god?" questioned Subzero "Who is this god you're talking about?"

"You still don't understand do you?" said the voice with unimaginable sorow locked up in it "We desire life not death for all beings of this realm ... yet when the dark god comes all we have worked for will be at an end. The brothers of the shadow will swarm this world and slay all life"

"Enough I'm not listening to any more of this bullshit!" screamed Subzero standing back "You are trying to trick me water god. Well it won't work, I have never failed on a mission good or evil and I will not fail now"

"Then Raiden help us all" replied the voice bracing itself for the impact. Subzero leapt forward with an ice bolt he froze the water god on the spot before it had a change to move. With a spinning uppercut he smashed the element up into the air, it blurred turning into a patch of water it dribbled down joining back together it slivered under his feet tripping him up he fell to the grilled floor with a loss of breath.

The water god stood back against the edge of the wall and put both index fingers of both hands together. A white light bursed out as balls of hydro water shot out towards Subzero who staggering to his feet wrongly tried to block. The blast smacked into him with full force and he fell off of the platform with a scream of fear.

The water below came rushing up fast and boy was he shit scared. Frantically he tried to save himself but too late he splashed into the water far below the surface. In the gloomy cold deapths he tried to keep the air inside of him. Below at the bottome of the cavern he could see a huge giant old fan that stood still. It was rusty and bits of seaweed flailed off of it in the water. There was another splash above him and he saw the water god enter swimming below the surface towards him with white pupiless flashing eyes. Stretching hands forward he tried an ice bolt. The water froze out in a long line creating a pillar of ice in the water. The water god was hit and froze shaking from side to side uncontrollably. It sank slowly to the ground where it clanked on the floor below a frozen lump of ice.

Subzero rushed to the surface and climbed to a platform below. A rat squeaked and hissed at him before running into a small pipe and away. He looked at the surface of the water nothing moved. He smiled to himself "That was too easy"

Carefully bit by bit he began to climb up the walls of the cavern satisfaction glowing on him. He had defeated the god in one simple move. It was over. But he paused a moment gazing back down. Why hadn't the ilusion stopped? A moment later there was a great rushing tidlewave of water as the water god splashed out of the surface hovering in mid air it gazed at Subzero with an emotionless expression. The face seemed to constantly change as it flickered into a multitude of different emotions. Subzero hurriedly grabbed hold of the grilled bridge and hoistered himself up. The water god shot up and hovered in front of him over by the far wall where there was no bridge. He couldn't get to him while he stayed over there.

Again the god hovering in place extended both hands forward and water bolts started hurtling across towards him. He ran as fast as he could across the metal grilled floor not wishing to try the same thing again. The bolts splashed behind him hitting the bridge he was rapidly running out of room fast. Reaching the wall he tried one of the secret techniques of the Lin kuei. It required incredible strength. He ran up the wall four paces before leaping backwards in a flip, the water bolt hit below and some of the spray wetted his face. He landed breathing hard crouching on the platform. Gazing down off of the bridge he realised with sudden fear that the water was starting to turn round very fast.

All of a sudden it had become a very fast flowing whirl pool it span round at a deadly speed sucking the water into the central vortex. Slowly it began to rise. The water god's eys flashed again and another barage of water bolts shot towards him. This time he dodged back inbetween them the water rising all the time. Soon it would swamp him up and bring him down into the murky deapths where he would be chopped to pieces by the fan.

Another barage came fast but closer together this time so that he couldn't leap inbetween them like last time. The water god was learning. As the god rested a moment he gazed down into the murky deapths. It must have been the fans that were causing the whirlpool he could imagine no other cause, yet it gave him an idea. One chance, he might be able to pull off.

Again the water good shot more water bolts towards him but this time he was ready. Running across the platform he came to the wall. Aiming ice at the side he created a ledge which he slid along. Creating the ice beneath his feet as he went he turned away from the wall suddenly lifting both hands up he polar blasted the god. It froze on the post and shattered into ten thousand pieces all falling into the vortex below. He couldn't control himself, he had lifted his hands and also he had no strength left to create more ice. His hands were desperately cold he wobbled a moment on his own ice platform. It cracked from its position at the wall, and he fell uncontrollably into the whirlpool. He was being sucked in now round and round he struggled against the current. The fan came closer and closer spinning like a clarris wheel. Above the walls broke as water flooded into the cavern, the roof caved in and the light faded from Subzero's eyes. In a blur everything was gone. He was left in the darkness with only his cold hands, and they were so very cold. So very cold...