As Geras sank deeper and deeper beneath the crimson waves of the Sea of Blood, the anchor chain of Kharon's ship ensuring he would never escape his eternal fall, Raiden turned his attention towards the other kombatants yet to be defeated. Of particular note was Kronika's final foreign allied faction, following the defeats of Shao Kahn and the Black Dragon: The Cyber Lin Kuei, inherited by Frost in the wake of Sektor's death. They were currently the largest threat Raiden's army faced as they sailed towards Kronika's keep.

Before he could head off to battle the cyborgs, however, a sleek, white, feminine figure landed on the ship a few yards from where the Thunder God now stood. He had not seen her since he had informed her of the Lin Kuei's existence, following one of his final visions of the future to help Sub-Zero rebuild his clan. But even so, Raiden recognise her instantly as Frost, in spite of her extreme augmentation. The only part of her original body that remained now was her head.

"Thunder God!" she practically growled in a loud voice, as if believing volume indicated power. "The warriors sinking your fleet are under my command." She began to circle him, to which he responded in kind.

"You have made a devil's bargain with Kronika, Frost. The power and control you have long desired are not freely given by one such as her. They are yours only so long as you remain useful to her. If she succeeds in resetting the timeline, you will have no place in her New Era. She has been manipulating you from the very start."

"And why should I take your word over hers? I know about your visions, Raiden. And of my original fate. You sought me out because you knew I was Lin Kuei in the original timeline. I ended up following the same path, which you could have prevented if only you had cared for all mortals as you do your precious chosen warriors."

"My visions always lacked context. I saw you joining us in our quest to battle Quan Chi and Shang Tsung. I saw nothing of your betrayal of Sub-Zero."

"He betrayed me!"

"No, Frost," said the man in question as he approach the two from behind Raiden. "I would never betray my own. That is the difference between you and I. A difference I should have spotted long before it became an issue. Raiden, you go an assist the fleet. I must deal with Frost myself."

"Are you sure?"

"Her failings are my own. I must be the one to make this right."

"Very well," Raiden responded with a nod, no doubt sympathising with Sub-Zero position, given the fates of Liu Kang and Kung Lao. He took to the skies to defend the ships, leaving the two cryomancers alone on the deck of the lead ship.

"You think you can deal with me?" Frost asked tauntingly. "You may have beaten me last time, but Kronika has augmented me further since then. What have you done to strengthen yourself since our last encounter?"

"I have reflected," her former mentor replied simply.

Frost scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Here we go."

"I realised that, though your villainous path stems from your own character flaws, I am also at fault for not recognising them and helping you through them. The blame is to be shared by the both of us."

"What's your point, Sub-Zero? I'd rather get on with this before my new body rusts."

"The point is that I cannot condemn you for what you have done without first atoning for my part in your downfall. And atone, I shall." He took up his fighting stance, and Frost did the same.

Kuai Liang had fought with Frost many times. Most had been during her time training under him, but this was to be their third real clash. The first had been a few days after she had attempted to disrupt his peace talks with Hanzo and assassinate the Shirai Ryu Grandmaster. His harsh admonishment of her actions led to her disenfranchisement with how the Lin Kuei was run and she made an attempt on his life. He had anticipated this, of course, never truly being able to fully trust any member of the Lin Kuei in light of how many of his old Lin Kuei comrades had turned or been turned against him. Frost had fought viciously, but fruitlessly, forcing her to retreat after receiving some serious wounds from his ice sword.

At the time, he had been feeling particularly vindictive towards her for attempting to ruin his attempts at making peace with Hanzo, as her betrayal brought back painful memories of every single one of his comrades from the old Lin Kuei, his brother and best friend included, turning against him. As such, he had elected to prevent his other students from pursuing her, trusting her wounds would be the end of her soon enough. She had survived, of course, presumably thanks to Kronika, who had augmented her body with technology far more advanced than anything Sektor had ever developed.

Their next encounter came during his and Hanzo's raid on Sektor's Cyber Factor only a few days ago. There, he had defeated her in single kombat, admonishing her for her choice of allegiance, while she criticised him for his choice of allies and refusal to embrace the Cyber Initiative. She had been defeated, naturally, but Cyrax's presence had created a distraction for Bi-Han to extract her before making his own move against the duo.

Now, in the Netherrealm, on the cusp of the final battle against Kronika's forces, the two fought again, for what both knew would be the very last time. Frost had skill, there was no doubt. However, most of her techniques had either been learned from Sub-Zero himself, or had their weaknesses exposed by many sparring sessions between the two. The rest were learned from Bi-Han and Sektor, both of whom were no match for Kuai Liang now. Predictably, it was the elder of the two cryomancers who emerged victorious, leaving Frost panting on the ground, her cybernetic body scarred and dented and coated in unearthly cold patches of ice.

"How!?" Frost demanded to no one in particular. "How am I still not good enough!?" She slammed her robotic fist down onto the supernaturally strong wood of the deck, creating small cracks in the boards and coating the area around it with frost.

"This is what I've been trying to explain to you, Frost," Sub-Zero replied, his tone soft and sympathetic. "This impatient haste of yours and your desire for control have always been your Achilles Heel. You saw my alliance with the Shirai Ryu as a sign of weakness, rather than the strengthening of both clans it truly was. You believed isolation and reliance on one's own strength were the keys to greatness; no doubt cultivated by your years spent living on the streets, fending for yourself. In your haste to punish me for my 'weakness' and 'betrayal' of your values, you didn't listen to my reasons and rashly attacked Grandmaster Hasashi. Your brashness cost you your place among your brothers and sisters. But, I realise now that it should not have. Rather than casting you out and leaving you to the wolves, I should have placed an arm around you and encouraged your growth."

"You think I give a damn about your excuses? We didn't need more allies than each other. You and I are both descended from a dead race. We are both outsiders to the rest of the realms. Against all odds, we found each other. We had a place where we belonged. But that wasn't enough for you. You needed Scorpion, the man who murdered the only other cryomancer of our generation. Your own brother! Our race is on the brink of extinction because of that man and you betrayed the cryomancers' legacy when you decided to welcome him into our home instead of helping me to master our rare and unique gift."

"I fully understand you sense of betrayal now, Frost. You finally had a place you could call home, with another cryomancer - one would would not see you as a monster or a freakshow - and he cast you out when he should have treated you like family."

"I'm happy you finally understand. But it's too late now. You had your chance. I am with Kronika now. I will be the one to create a place for the cryomancers to belong in the new era."

"You know I cannot allow Kronika to succeed, Frost."

"But that's the irony of it all, Sub-Zero. You can. And you will."

Struggling to make sense of Frost's incomprehensible taunt, Sub-Zero almost missed the subtle upward movement of her eyes towards something closing in from above. He just managed to slide away on a trail of ice in time and turn back to face his new attacker. Said attacker was a chilling reflection of a past best left forgotten.

Unit LK-52O, referred to as 'Cyber Sub-Zero' by Johnny Cage, was Kuai Liang's cyberised self from the time of the invasion of Earthrealm. But his chassis was not exactly the same as it had been originally. It was slimmer and sleeker, similar to Frost's cybernetic body, suggesting that his cyberisation had been incomplete at the time this past incarnation was pulled from, and that the process had been completed by Frost or Sektor using Kronika's technology. As Frost was now the master of the Cyber Lin Kuei, she was no doubt his master as well.

Kuai Liang was grateful every day since his restoration for Quan Chi's vanity. The sorcerer had stripped him of his cybernetic augmentations soon after his transformation into a revenant, finding that it ruined the aesthetic of a dutifully brainwashed and obedient Sub-Zero at his beck and call, similar to the shadowy wraith form that Bi-Han had taken on in the sorcerer's service.

Similar to Frost, Cyber Sub-Zero unleashed a beam of concentrated cold from his chest, though he had to open his chest cavity to do so, similar to other first generation cyborgs. Sub-Zero countered with his own ice beam. While his powers had been augmented by the acquisition of the Dragon Medallion from Sektor, Kronika's augmentation of his past self proved a powerful upgrade that allowed the cyborg to nearly match his future self's power. After a few seconds of stalemate, both Sub-Zeroes broke off their ice torrents to rebuild their energy.

"You've upgraded my past self," Sub-Zero noted, panting from the exertion.

"Indeed, I have. Kronika's technology makes the automation process much faster and much more effective. Even your precious Dragon Medallion won't save you from your augmented self's upgrades."

Sub-Zero sighed deeply, chilling the air around him further. "You still don't understand. This medallion is not what gives me strength. It gives me an edge, yes, but my power comes from years of experience and introspection - spiritual growth, not mystical or technological augmentation."

"Hm. I'll take the augmentation, thanks. For instance..."

From the top of his head down to his mechanical feet, Cyber Sub-Zero's body changed from his signature bright blue to a familiar yellow. Before Sub-Zero could comment, his cyber self's chest opened up again and fired out a green net that was unmistakably Cyrax's. Sub-Zero quickly froze and shattered the net, only to find himself now facing a red version of his other self, who fired one of Sektor's missiles from that same compartment. The projectile was easily dealt with by a quick freezing, causing it to drop from the air and right into Sub-Zero's waiting hand.

"You like my new improvements?" Frost taunted. "It's based on unused plans Sektor was drafting up when you killed him. He called it 'Triborg', a cyborg with the powers of three separate Cyber Lin Kuei members, all rolled into one ultimate killing machine. You just happened to be lying around, so I figured I could make good use of you. The irony is just delicious."

"Again, you flaunt your flaws, Frost. You've merely presented me an opportunity to prove my exact point." Sub-Zero threw the frozen missile directly at his other self, knowing that the cyborg chassis would not be severely damaged by the blast, but it would leave him an opening to quickly immobilise his past self without risking him meeting the same fate as Kano.

His other self suddenly turned a dull grey and disappeared in a haze of smoke, right as the missile was about to connect, instead flying off the edge and into the bottomless blood ocean below.

"Of course, with some help from Kronika's technology, I was able to expand the scope of the design beyond anything even Sektor could have imagined."

While Frost's attitude towards her twisted experiments sickened Sub-Zero, he knew that retorting and provoking her would not help him right now. Instead, he focused on finding his hidden counterpart. What Frost had yet to learn was that a cryomancer had the potential to sense sources of cold, as such a thing was not a natural occurrence. Even if he was using the powers of another Lin Kuei, Cyber Sub-Zero's body remained a source of such cold, and no matter how incorporeal he made himself in his smoke form, that would not change. Nor would his future self's ability to freeze him solid.

It was an unusual clash, facing himself, but it brought back a mix of unpleasant memories of battling Sektor and Cyrax, as well as less distressing ones of training with Bi-Han, back before either of them had found themselves corrupted by dark forces. He almost lamented, fighting such a skilled cryomancer, that Frost could not have become nearly this effective a warrior.

What gave Kuai Liang his edge in the battle were his years of experimenting with ice weapons. At the time of his automation, he had only recently begun creating swords of ice. Now, he could craft a powerful battleaxe, and quickfire kunai. The kunai, thrown in a set of five, were blocked by a shield of ice deployed by his counterpart, which was then shattered by the downward swing of the axe, which then came back up and sliced through the front of his armoured torso. Without real blood to spill, the damage was not life-threatening, but several important connections were severed, crippling his control over his limbs and sending him collapsing to the ground.

Unlike Cyrax, there was no control device at the base of the neck. Kronika's design had made a quick restoration impossible. As such, Sub-Zero instead fired out a stream of ice to freeze his past self in thick enough ice to knock the ship's movements a little off-balance.

"How...?" Frost asked in astonishment. "He was augmented by Lin Kuei and Kronika technology, purged of emotional weakness and gifted the power of three other Lin Kuei legends. How could he lose?"

"Even now, you still believe advanced technology and powerful cryomancy are all you need to be powerful," Sub-Zero sighed, stepping closer and taking a knee before his former student. "You believe improving your physical power is the key to success, but you are wrong and have always been wrong. One must also hone one's mind, one's skill. Power alone did Shao Kahn little good when faced with the likes of Liu Kang and Kitana. The true power you sought was never within your grasp because you were too young and inexperienced to recognise the internal obstacles in your path and I myself was too brash and judgemental to show them to you. Had I been a better mentor, you could have beaten down those barriers and stood by my side as a protector of Earthrealm. My blindness caused you to repeat your broken path from the original timeline. And for that, I am truly sorry, Lixue."

"Lixue? What does that mean?" Frost's usual disrespectful disdain was long gone from her tone, leaving only the vulnerable young woman Sub-Zero had failed to realise was hidden beneath her brashness.

"It was the name our mother had intended for you. Mine, Bi-Han's, and yours. My brother and I were taken to the Lin Kuei, while our younger sister was left behind. You were that younger sister, Eira. You and I have always been family, but we didn't realise until now."

"Y-You're lying. I would have seen it in the Cyber Lin Kuei database!"

"The database from thirty years ago?"

Frost remained silent.

"Sektor uncovered the truth when your powers began to manifest. He kept tabs on you for future capture until his death. I only recently gained full access to those files, thanks to Cyrax. I swear, had I known, I would never have cast you out. But, all that aside, it does not excuse my shortsightedness. All I can hope is that you can now see the flaws that have held you back for so many years and work to overcome them, whether with the Lin Kuei or not."

"I... I could overcome them and then come back to kill you, you know."

"I know. But, I see now the potential for greatness within you. And I hope that you can see through Kronika's manipulations. She is the enemy of all of us, Eira. Even her allies will not live to see her New Era. Whether you can forgive me or not, I implore you. Please, join us in stopping her scheme."

For the first time since she had first joined his clan, Sub-Zero held out a hand for Frost to take. She knew this would be a perfect opportunity to form an ice blade and stab Sub-Zero through the heart. To make him pay for the years of humiliation she had suffered because of him. But, something deep inside stayed her hand. She didn't know if it was the startling revelation of their familial connection, some sense of forgiveness for him, or simply the knowledge that, if nothing else, he was right about Kronika using her. Whatever it was, it compelled her to take his hand and let her former master help her to her feet.

"You are not forgiven, Sub-Zero. But, I will join you in opposing Kronika. As will the Cyber Lin-"

Frost shuddered suddenly. Her eyes flew wide open, twitching rapidly before her cybernetic irises turned from their icy bright blue to a dull grey. Her body relaxed after this, shifting lethargically to a neutral posture with a blank expression on her face.

"Oh, Frost," the cybernetic woman said in a pitying tone, in a voice that was definitely not her own. While he had never heard it himself, there was no doubt in Kuai Liang's mind that this was the voice of Kronika. "You should have known I would have planned for your fickleness; that such a betrayal would not go unpunished. You are bound to my will by more than your word. The technology I augmented your body with is, and ever was, mine to command. Now, be a good little soldier and kill your former master."

Frost's eyes closed for a brief instance, before reopening to expose a brilliant ice-blue light emanating from her sockets. It brought to mind the unreal light that emanated from Raiden's eyes when he was enraged. Kuai Liang supposed it made sense, as that was exactly what Frost's puppeteer was - enraged. Frost took a kombat stance, but one closer to Geras' than her own. Truly, Frost was no longer in control of her own body.

The puppeteering made her sloppy. Even as an initiate with only cage fighting experience, Frost had fought with more grace and skill than this shambling marionette show. It was clear that Kronika had no intention of actually trying to kill Sub-Zero, but instead to break his will by forcing him to kill the woman he had only just reconnected with. Despite knowing this, Sub-Zero also had to put in some effort to avoid being struck by her wild swings with her ice blades. If he allowed himself to be overcome with concern, Frost could well land a lethal blow.

He aimed an ice beam at Frost's feet, encasing them in thick layers of ice. He then raised the beam across her entire body and froze her completely. If nothing else, he could leave her here on the ship until he could find a solution after the final battle.

A sudden feeling of déjà vu overcame Kuai Liang, bringing to mind an image of an all together unfamiliar event: he stood in a cold chamber, freezing an attacker solid. The attack was Frost, still human and unsullied by technological augments. He sensed that he was leaving he here until he knew what to do with her, after she had attacked him twice and murdered a number of her fellow Lin Kuei.

Raiden had warned, as they had embarked, that Kronika's spire was a kind of nexus of time. It was possible that one might experience déjà vu or even receive visions of a now dead timeline. No doubt, this was the original timeline, where Frost had betrayed Sub-Zero in Outworld, seeking to take his Dragon Medallion for herself. Her mind warped by her near death, she had convinced herself that he had betrayed her, and that her desire for vengeance was righteous enough to justify murdering her compatriots in cold blood. The parallels between the two timelines were at once concerning and disgusting. He wondered if Kronika had personally manipulated events to parallel past timelines. Either way, it was a chilling memory.

Sub-Zero felt vibrations under his feet, bringing him back to reality. The ice was beginning to crack around Frost's immobile form. She looked almost a little blurry inside the ice block. It was quite evident that her body was vibrating at a high enough speed to break out of the ice in only a few seconds. No doubt, an anti-Sub-Zero countermeasure in her augmentations. With a quick slide, Kuai Liang put some distance between himself and his former pupil to prepare for the next round of attacks.

Right out of the gate, she unleashed an ice beam from her chest through a gap in the ice. As she was still encased, once the attack was dodged, there was no risk of her pivoting to track him with it. Having spoken with Cyrax after the latter's deactivation at the Cyber Factory, Sub-Zero knew that a cyborg could be deactivated with a power surge or damage to their power supply, without risk of death, so long as power was restored before it hit zero. Without life support functions, the cyborg's death was inevitable. While he hadn't seen the inner workings of the large, round power supply on her back, he was confident he could damage it enough to prevent another escape attempt, and then freeze her until Kronika was too dead to control her anymore.

His target set, he moved around to her back and forged a firm, hard ice stake to plunge into her back. As he pulled his arm back to strike, the ice around Frost's midsection cracked cleanly all the way around. As his weapon drove home, the ice above the crack spun around 180°, along with her upper body. Instead piercing through a thick wall of ice to damage her power supply, the stake instead struck home deep into the unprotected core in her chest.

The core, as far as he understood, was where the life support systems were actually run from, as well as serving as a focusing point for a number of her abilities. Sub-Zero's strike was fierce enough to send a million other cracks out across the ice and shatter the entire block around her, freeing her body to collapse into Sub-Zero's arms.

Frost's eyes returned to their normal (for her cybernetic form, at any rate) shape and colouration, but with pupils shrunken in shocked horror, mirroring Sub-Zero's own.

"No!" Kuai Liang cried out as he gently lowered himself to one knee and cradled his failed protégé in his arms. "Frost, I..." Words escaped him. How could he convey how sorry he was for stabbing her in what was essentially her heart and killing her?

She wheezed and shuddered uncontrollably in his arms, as if cold. It was indescribably unnerving to see a cryomancer in such a state. How could Kronika's designs be this inefficient? Had she been given in ineffective core? Had the core weakened from overuse in the fight? Was this simply a failsafe to make her easy to dispose of? Regardless, Frost's death had been orchestrated by Kronika.

"D-Don..." Frost rasped. "Don't let her break you, Sub-Zero," she said, as if reading his thoughts. Her eyes rolled back in her skull and the blue lights in her mask shifted to green. "Unit LK-4ST to all units: Command of Cyber Lin Kuei, transfer to Kuai Liang, codename Sub-Zero."

At the delivery of this command, Sub-Zero saw the cyborgs at the stern of the ship in battle with Scorpion and Jax ceasing their battle, leaving the two warriors confused. The lights switched back to blue as Frost's eye came back down to stare into her brother's.

"Make her... pay... Grandmaster..." The lights in Frost's eyes dimmed into blackness. First, the iris and the three inner dots. Then, the six outer lines. And finally, the row of middle pips.

Sub-Zero shed an icy tear. "Goodbye, Sister."

Soon after Frost's passing, Raiden returned from defending the fleet, accompanied by Jax and Scorpion. He walked up behind Sub-Zero and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I am sorry, Kuai Liang," he said in a sympathetic tone.

The Grandmaster of the now unified Lin Kuei laid his sister's body down on the ground and walked over to his still frozen past incarnation. With one solid punch, he both let out a cry of impotent grief and released the so-called 'Triborg' from his prison. Upon quickly recovering, Cyber Sub-Zero bowed before the new master of the cyborgs, his new allegiance clear.

Sub-Zero turned back to address Raiden and the others with a simple, but determined declaration: "My family has suffered enough. Kronika must die."