Reiko's prison cell, in spite of the silence deep in the bowels of the earth, was oddly noisy with the low crackling of torch flames, the jingling of the Seidan chains around his body, and the rustling of his robes against his skin. Reiko himself remained largely silent, however, his attention fixed on the shrouded visitor standing before him, eyeing his guest up and down as he spoke of their shared goal. Visitors were undoubtedly forbidden to come here alone, the General knew, especially ones who would make such unpopular promises. But that just made those promises all the more interesting.
He was cloaked and hooded in a tattered black robe, his features obscured by shadow. Reiko found himself amused by this childish attempt at cloak and dagger, and he veiled his predatory grin. As if such a simple disguise could hide this messenger's identity from the mighty Outworld General. Havik had already told Reiko of his ally in Mòhé who would make contact as soon as he was captured by the Cryomancers. Still, he allowed the man his charade, and he listened to his words and considered them, quickly weaving them into his plans, calculating how they might contribute to his efforts.
"Why?" When Reiko finally spoke, interrupting the last of the messenger's presentation, his voice was silky and sultry, dangerous, like the rattling of a snake's tail. "Why are you here?"
Though his face was shrouded by darkness, he started as if surprised. "We all know that you are a capable General and an effective leader," he opened, his voice on the cusp of uncertainty. "Warriors - even your enemies - respect you. We study your tactics from the time we are children. If anyone is capable and strong enough to take Shinnok's amulet, it is you-"
"Yes, yes, yes," Reiko impatiently cut him off. "I understand that, and I do appreciate a good ego-stroking from time to time, especially when I'm locked up in Seidan chains and it wasn't by the hands of a beautiful woman. I mean, why betray your people to an outsider, especially one who aided in the slaughter of thousands of Cryomancers when Shao Kahn laid siege to this Realm?"
"I...do not like what Mòhé has become," he said cautiously. "I am loyal to my people, General. But there are those - two very powerful ones in particular - who do not share my vision for the Cryomancers. I merely wish to mold my homeland into something it should be, and if that means serving you in your conquest to seize the amulet and punish the half-blood Cryomancers who stopped you last time, then I am yours, now and forever."
Reiko jerked sharply forward and his chains jangled until they went taut. "What Grandmaster Sub-Zero and his daughter did to me is of less importance than you seem to believe," he snapped.
His hood twitched again, not even trying to hide his surprise now. "But you told them-"
"I know what I told them, and I said it because it is always entertaining getting inside that lovely girl's head," he confessed, now relaxing once more. "But I'm a patient man. I certainly am patient enough to avoid seeking something as petty as retribution for a battle well-fought. They will get theirs in the end, especially her, and especially if you get your way about it."
"My way?" he repeated.
"Oh, come now," Reiko sneered. "Did you forget I can see into your soul and know your heart? I do not actively seek revenge on her, but I also do not mind this little distraction to keep her preoccupied." He looked deep into that silent hood, thinking of his own plan of distraction that he need not share with this messenger. He nodded slightly. "You may carry on with your game if it amuses you just so long as it doesn't interfere with my goals. In the meantime, you know why I'm here. Show me."
The hooded man produced a sigh that seemed to come from the depths of his soul. His cloak shifted and rustled as he searched for his prize. Then, with a simple flick of his wrist, it sat unimpressively upon his outstretched palm. It was just a serpentine dagger, clunky and old, with a pair of intertwined dragons forming the handle and crossbar. There were much more effective weapons to be found in any of the Realms, and certainly there were many more that were more beautiful to behold. And yet, this one was one of the rarest ever forged.
Reiko started to look away from it, and he found that for the briefest moment that he couldn't. The dagger seemed more solid, more weighty, more real than the mysterious man holding it, more real than this dungeon, and even more real than himself. It tugged at his gaze like a petulant child who would not be ignored, refusing to relinquish its grip on him.
He saw it for what it was, even though that was an impossible feat for others. He saw, and he knew that the metal from the original plate had been melted down and reworked by Onaga's knowing hands, fashioned into weapons that Reiko suspected were highly symbolic to the old Dragon King. This dagger was ages old, forged from the soul, the very essence, of Outworld. On some primal level he could sense but not hear, it vibrated with the Realm's purest energy.
"Are you sure it's Outworld's?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Quite sure, General," he said. "Emperor Koa'tal entrusted it to the Cryomancers after the Battle for Z'Unkarah three years ago. And now I'm entrusting it to you. If," he added intently, "you swear to me that you'll help me achieve my goals as well."
"Yes…" Again, Reiko's gaze had locked on the dagger. "I agree to your terms."
Within his hood, perfect teeth glinted in a crooked smile. "Well, then, General, I think it's time to let you out of those chains…"
Kuai Liang was in the middle of a mildly disturbing dream where he found himself ice fishing on a dirty, polluted lake when he was suddenly jarred awake by a loud explosion and the subsequent shockwave shaking the earth around him. It violently bucked him from his bed and he yelped in surprise as he tumbled to the stone floor. Nearby, he heard both Tomas and Miyuki, who'd stayed in his quarters on the couches for the night, also fall to the floor with a loud cry. Around them, the walls continued to groan and quake, and rock and dust sifted from the ceiling where a large crack began to form.
"Livy!" he cried for his daughter, who had stubbornly stayed on guard duty outside his quarters since their argument hours before. He wasn't quite surprised when there was no answer. She probably couldn't hear him over the angry roar of the earth.
With great difficulty, Kuai Liang climbed to his feet and staggered towards the doorway, struggling to walk as the ground swayed. He heard another loud explosion, this one carrying with it the sounds of people screaming, and it threw him to his knees once again. Stubbornly, determined to get to his daughter, he crawled towards the door now and finally reached it, and he used the doorknob to pull himself up.
"Livy!" he cried once again as he opened it and slid outside wearing nothing but his black pajama bottoms. A thin cloud of smoke twisted through the hall, prompting him to cough as his eyes immediately watered.
"Dad!" she responded from a few feet away.
She was currently pressing her hand against Roberto's shoulder to staunch the bleeding from where something large, probably a piece of the cracking ceiling, broke and fell onto him. His face was pale and he was grimacing in pain behind his red Lin Kuei mask, his body propped against the balcony wall that overlooked the city below, the city itself now on fire in spots as debris continued to fall from the ceiling high above. The other Elites, led by Sherman, Kuai Liang saw, formed a tight, protective circle around the door, blocking anyone who wanted to reach their Grandmaster without authorization.
"You're going to be fine, Baja," he said to Roberto as he joined his daughter's side. He batted Livy's hand away and replaced it with his own against the deep flesh wound as he summoned his powers to the surface and gently froze the bleeding tissues. "It's not too bad."
That was a lie. His clavicle, Kuai Liang saw through the wounded layers of muscle and sinew, was smashed into pieces and would require major surgery if Anya couldn't heal him soon. Thankfully, freezing the injury slowed his bleeding and numbed much of the pain.
"Thank you, Grandmaster," Baja panted as Olivia gripped his other hand to comfort him.
"Grandmaster!" a new voice yelled, the sound of it echoing down the hallway, largely drowned out by the screaming from the city. He looked up and saw Prince Xinyi running towards them at a full sprint. Immediately, the Elites, now led by Tomas, formed a wall of bodies to shield Kuai Liang from a potential attack. But attack was obviously not what the young man intended because he breathlessly threw up his hands in deference, his face red, and shouted, "Reiko's escaped!"
"Oh, my God," Livy mumbled, and now it was she who turned pale.
"Smoke, let him through," Kuai Liang commanded and watched as his men parted like the Red Sea to let the prince pass by. "What do you mean he escaped?" he demanded to know. "You said he couldn't get out of those chains without help."
"He must've had help," he replied.
"Where's your brother?" Livy now asked as she narrowed her eyes.
Xinyi shook his head. "Helping to restore order below," he told her. "But he is not capable of this. He would never betray me or our people."
"You're the one who said he might do something rash," she shot back.
The prince shook his head even more adamantly now. "No, you do not understand," he argued. "There is much we have not told you. Namely, the reason we believe Reiko attacked us to begin with."
"And what's that?" Kuai Liang now coldly asked, not liking the sound of where this was going.
Xinyi stared at him closely. "After you slayed the Dragon King, Grandmaster, Raiden returned each of the kamidogu that Onaga stole to their respective Realms, and he gave Outworld's to Lord Koa'tal. But after Reiko attacked Z'Unkarah and attempted to take Shinnok's amulet, the Emperor thought it prudent to hide Outworld's kamidogu where it would be difficult for anyone to take and use as Onaga did all those years ago. And so, he entrusted Jiayi with it because he knew that it would be safe with the Cryomancers in Mòhé where very few souls have seen our home and lived to tell the tale." He sighed and looked at Olivia. "To Jiayi, protecting the kamidogu is of the utmost importance. He is its guardian. He would not betray us."
Kuai Liang now scowled at the prince, grabbed him by the lapel, and shoved him against the balcony wall. "You knew all along what Reiko was after," he snarled.
"But we weren't sure it was actually Reiko," Xinyi replied, swallowing hard. "We had to be sure it was him."
"You put my family and my men in danger," he hissed, seeing red at the prince's confession. "You should've told me from the beginning what we were up against." Now he shoved Xinyi against the wall again before he got to his feet. "Where is the kamidogu?" he snarled.
The prince looked up at him and stubbornly bit his lip, clearly reluctant to give up his secret. But then he shook his head in defeat and sighed. "In the throne room, hidden inside a compartment in the wall."
"Stay here," Kuai Liang now commanded his daughter, and the prince as well.
"What are you doing?" Livy asked him, replacing his hand over Roberto's injured shoulder.
"Going after Reiko," he replied before he motioned at Tomas. "Take the men and help the people."
"I'm going with you," his friend replied, frowning.
"No," he shook his head. "It sounds like there are going to be a lot of casualties throughout the city. They'll need you. And find Jiayi. I want a word with him."
Smoke looked as if he might like to argue some more, but he quickly stifled his objections and nodded obediently. "Yes, Grandmaster," he said as he uneasily eyed the prince and then motioned for the Elites to move out in the opposite direction.
Kuai Liang then darted down the hallway, his bare feet soon raw from running over the rocky debris, his body occasionally tilted one way or the other when a fresh round of aftershocks shook the city again. He passed through pools of burning orange light reflected from the fires roaring up the opposing side of Mòhé, and alongside a handful of corpses strewn here and there, crushed to death by the falling rock. He paid them no mind. There was nothing to be done for them now.
Soon, at the end of a long hallway and a smattering of additional living quarters on one side of the hall overlooking the city, Kuai Liang found himself in the throne room. The hazy and empty chamber sprawled out before him, itself large enough to hold a small village. The wall gaped open at the far end, revealing the passage to the more humane of Mòhé's two prisons as well as the hallway to the Bīnglěng Dì Dìyù and the spot the Lin Kuei had originally appeared. From atop an array of icy columns carved into the rock to create the illusion of support, dragon sculptures loomed, glaring down with sapphire eyes.
Kuai Liang saw nothing in the throne room to cause him alarm, and yet he sensed something was close and formed a kori sword in his hands in response. His sharp instincts weren't ample protection, however. From the deep shadows cast by the door frame onto the adjoining wall, Reiko lunged at him silently, and now, the Grandmaster felt something hard slam into him and steal his breath, knocking his sword from his hands with a loud clatter. The force of the strike immediately knocked him to the ground, with him blindly spraying a jet of ice from his free hand into the nearby wall, freezing a nearly perfect circle on the stone. He groaned pitifully, his voice gurgling as he tried to breathe, shocked for a moment as he writhed on the ground. Soon, he felt his blood stream down his back, and he dully realized he'd been stabbed. But in spite of that grievous injury, he somehow pushed himself onto all fours and then staggered to his feet. Standing before him, holding an antiquated and bloody serpentine dagger in his hand, was Reiko.
"Greetings, Grandmaster," he said in a tone of smug superiority. "I should've known it'd be you who'd come after me. I almost feel flattered that I've earned the Dragonslayer's undivided attention."
"I will not allow you to do this," Sub-Zero growled.
"Do it? I've already done it," he smirked.
The Cryomancer tensed perceptibly, but he restrained the scornful comment he was about to make because Reiko now leaped through the air towards him with his dagger poised to stab him again. Sub-Zero immediately deflected it with a new kori sword in front of him and then arched his arm through the air in a perfect circle, slicing at his opponent's neck. But now Reiko ducked and countered with another attack of his own to the same end. The two warriors traded attacks in this fashion for several long moments, but after several seconds had passed, neither had inflicted any real damage on the other.
Finally, though, Reiko landed a blow. He swung his arm at the Cryomancer and cut a diagonal line cleanly and deeply across Sub-Zero's bare and heaving chest from side to shoulder. Bloody streams bloomed from the wound like weeping red flowers as he stumbled backwards, groaning in stinging pain. Both edges of the wound shifted, feeling oddly loose like an open envelope, and he staggered for a moment, gingerly pawing at it as if he couldn't believe a knife could do such big damage.
The General, meanwhile, wasted no time gracefully springing into the air, flipping towards his opponent and stomping him in the chest with both feet. Sub-Zero cried out in more pain as he crashed into the throne behind him, his head snapping hard against the iron fractals from which it was made. Relentlessly, the General charged after him as his vision faded in and out for several long seconds, this time swinging his dagger at his head, and the Grandmaster barely had time to scramble out of the way before the blade hit him and gave him a matching scar on his other eye.
Quickly, Sub-Zero fell through sheets of ice and emerged behind Reiko, and then promptly stomped the stone floor with his bare foot. Panting hard, he watched as blue ice surged across the stone and slithered around the other's ankles, creeping up both legs like twin snakes, freezing him into place.
Reiko scowled in concentration as he twisted his feet to break loose, but the ice held him fast because the Grandmaster had willed it so. Triumphantly, Sub-Zero stamped towards him like an angry bull on a rampage, his bloodlust quickening in his soul. In that moment, all his hatred, all his fury, all his lust for vengeance against the General for what he'd done to his baby girl exploded through him, and he threw what had to be the most powerful right hook he'd ever dealt to anyone in his life. The blow struck Reiko in the cheekbone, but the Cryomancer scarcely heard the loud crack of his eye orbit breaking over the sound of the ice shattering and Reiko flying through the air to the ground. It felt good to hit that bastard so hard.
The General moaned as he held his free hand to his rapidly swelling eye. The Cryomancer saw his opportunity to finish him and lunged at him with a kori sword, but Reiko unexpectedly kipped up and then roundhouse kicked him in the face. Now his eye socket crunched from the blow as his body rose into the air and an invisible cord yanked him violently down to the ground again. By the time he had landed, his eye had already swollen completely shut and blood poured from his nose, mouth, and ear.
With that, Reiko waved his dagger with a little flourish of his hands before he quickly straddled the stunned Sub-Zero and aimed it for his trachea, clearly intending to stab him to death. Ice spread through the Cryomancer's fingers as he tried again to block his enemy, and he connected with Reiko's gauntlet. Loud crackling filled his ears as the armor instantly turned to ice. But the movement only altered the General's course through the air, so instead of driving it through his throat, the blade pierced his left shoulder just above the clavicle. The Grandmaster howled. With a sadistic grin on his face, Reiko then jerked the knife hard to the left inside the wound, widening the hole, eliciting a blood-curdling scream that shrieked its way to the ceiling high above.
"That seemed like it hurt," the General jeered, panting in exhaustion from their fight. "Don't worry, Dragonslayer, it'll all be over soon. For Olivia's sake, I swear I won't let you suffer much longer."
Now he relentlessly withdrew his blade only to stab the Cryomancer in the chest just below his right nipple, eliciting another tortured groan as it slowly slid between the layers of tissue. Woozily, Sub-Zero heard the swoop of air before him, saw the ambient particles of dust in the air swirling, and then the General quickly stabbed the Cryomancer yet again. This time, the serpentine blade punched between his ribs and pierced the lung beneath.
The pain was so blindingly terrible that the Cryomancer felt involuntary tears leak from his eyes as he pawed helplessly at his gushing wounds and then at his enemy, but Reiko calmly smirked as he pinned down his wrists and watched as his opponent started to weaken from blood loss. With much difficulty, Sub-Zero took a ragged breath as the ice that surged through his palms and fingers receded into his blood of its own volition. He was too weak now to use his powers.
"This is not the end for you, my friend. Only the beginning," Reiko wolfishly grinned at him as he cupped his cheek in his palm, cradling it almost compassionately. "And I will see you very soon."
With that, he withdrew the dagger from between Sub-Zero's ribs and stood upright before he ran off towards the tunnels leading to the surface.
In direct defiance of the Grandmaster's express order, Olivia had not stayed put, and instead she bolted through the city after him to help him battle Reiko. She was only a few minutes behind him, delayed by falling rocks and detoured by the occasional fire, and when she emerged in the throne room with Miyuki on her heels, she was just in time to see the General escape through the opposite doorway. And to her horror, he had left her father in a bloody mess on the ground.
"Dad!" she squealed as she slid on her knees to his side. His color was pale and one eye - the other was black and swollen shut - weakly looked at her when she arrived. "Oh, my God," she muttered as tears sprang to her eyes. A quick glance over his body revealed several knife wounds and a growing pool of blood around him. "Dad, hang on," she babbled as she pressed her hands onto two separate wounds, freezing the flesh to slow his bleeding. It was no use, she thought, as the tears flowed freely now and blood bubbled through the other injuries. It was like a cartoon she recalled seeing as a child where the garden hose had sprung a leak, but when the character stopped it up, two more leaks revealed themselves.
"Livy," he croaked, his voice barely a whisper. Blood now gurgled in his throat and spilled over the sides of his mouth.
"I've got you, Dad," she whispered back, the words cracking in two in her mouth. Unbeknownst to her, she had curled her arm beneath his neck and took him into her arms before she started rocking him back and forth as if he was a small child. Somewhere deep inside, in a place inside her soul she didn't even recognize, the motion comforted her anguish. "Hang on."
Her hand, which was now stained and slick with his blood, found his and squeezed it. Please don't take my daddy, a childish voice inside her prayed to no one in particular. At the thought, she sobbed as she kissed his forehead and then stroked his hair with her free hand. Oh, God, there was just so much blood.
"Kuai Liang?" Miyuki asked, her tone small and afraid. She now knelt beside her older brother.
Olivia looked at her. "Go get Reiko!" she barked, her voice spiraling upwards into near-hysteria. "You get that son of a bitch and bring him back here now!"
Her aunt's blue eyes went wide in terror and surprise, and she furiously shook her head no. "I can't," she breathed, now crying as well. "I'm sorry."
"You have to!" she yelled. "You have to stop him! I can't leave my dad."
"I haven't fought anyone in years," she tried to explain. "I'm not a warrior anymore. I just can't."
"Go get him!" she shrieked, feeling her heart spin wildly out of control. "I don't care who in the hell you are. You can't let him get away."
"I'm sorry," Miyuki looked at her apologetically.
Olivia scowled at her, the cold fury gnawing away at her with nowhere to go. She knew if she didn't release it quickly, it would consume her altogether. With a heart as bitter as a walk through Arctika in winter, she held up her ice-charged palm and aimed it at the fearful Cryomancer. "Then get away from us before I kill you, you coward," she growled.
"Olivia!" she yelped, truly stunned by this turn of events. She shouldn't be, her niece thought. It was what she should've done all along.
"Get away," she repeated, and this time she summoned what moisture there was in the air to her hand, and forced it to chill beneath her palm to form an ice ball. This wasn't a threat, she mentally told Miyuki, this was a promise. Her cowardice was a slap in the face to everything her father stood for. The gesture worked. The older Cryomancer slowly backed away, her eyes as big as saucers.
"Kuai Liang!" Tomas' voice now shouted from the hallway and, within moments, he emerged in the doorway, flanked by both Xinyi and Jiayi. He took one look at his friend on the floor and was immediately at his side too while the princes looked on in concern.
"Uncle," Olivia whined to him as the cyber-ninja scanned him with his automated gauntlet. "Look what Reiko did to him. I don't think he's gonna-" She couldn't bring herself to finish her statement, and instead dissolved into frightened tears. She wrapped her arm around him even tighter and pressed her forehead to his once more.
"We need to get him back to Earthrealm to your mother," the Enenra told her as he tapped a button on his gauntlet and watched as a hologram of Raiden appeared and hovered just above a glowing orb embedded in the nanoweave armor. "Raiden, quickly!" he cried. "Open the portal. The Grandmaster is hurt. Badly. I need to get him to Anya."
"Then I will take you directly to the Temple," he said before his image faded and a portal to Earthrealm suddenly exploded into existence near the main doorway to the throne room.
"Olivia, lift his legs," Tomas now ordered her, his voice unusually calm and collect. The young Cryomancer was glad for that because it helped to calm her. Inwardly, she was screaming.
"Yes, Uncle," she sniffed and hiccuped as she obeyed him.
"Kuai Liang, hold on," the cyber-ninja now said gently, but the Cryomancer was unconscious now and barely clinging to life. He looked up at Olivia again, and now also to Jiayi who had rushed to his side and moved into position to help Tomas lift her father. "On the count of three. One, two, three."
Together, they lifted the Grandmaster off the ground and carried him into the portal. As Raiden had said, it took them directly to the Temple, and they emerged into the portal room where Gat, Cyrax's son, was on duty, sitting in boredom behind the computer controls. His eyes went wide in surprise and he sprang to his feet when he saw them.
"Make sure my mom is at the infirmary," Olivia barked at him through her fearful tears, and he nodded his understanding as they rushed from the room. "Tell her we're coming!"
Their journey to the infirmary felt like it took years, and their going was even slower because her dad seemed unusually heavy. The young Cryomancer strained to hold her father's legs up, but it was a challenge, and Tomas and Jiayi bore the brunt of the burden. As they hurried along through the Temple, both children and adults alike stared at them in horror as they passed, and some of the youngest children even started to cry. Olivia couldn't blame them. The Grandmaster was as much of a father to them as he was to her.
"Anya!" Tomas shouted ahead of him when they finally reached the infirmary and exploded through the door. With a quick heave and a strained grunt, the Enenra tossed Kuai Liang onto the first exam table he saw.
"Oh, my God!" Anya, whose lavender eyes were wide with fear and confusion, yelped. "Oh, no, no, no," she now mumbled as she dashed to her husband's side and quickly began running her hands all over his chest, smearing the blood around. "What happened?" she cried, though there was no time for explanations now. She looked up from the Grandmaster at Olivia, who was covered in her father's blood with tears running down her face. She was sobbing. "Tomas, get her out of here," she barked.
"But Mom-" she argued.
"Olivia, now," Anya growled at her.
"Come on, můj sladký anděl," Tomas began as he gripped her by the elbow and pulled her away. "There's nothing more we can do. This is in your mother's hands now."
MKDemigodZ-Warrior, if by "Game of Thrones" you mean it's gonna get bloody, well...you know me. I love a good bloodbath ;)
The Titan's Shadow, yeah, there's about to be a lot of animosity and chick drama between Olivia and Frost. To answer your question, I definitely plan on bringing both Takeda and Erron back, though their presence probably won't be as much in this story as it was in Ascension.
Daniel Barga, LOL, you'll see Anya a bit more in the upcoming chapters, but like you said, the focal point will be more on Frost than her in this story. I'm glad you like the Zero family LOL I try to make them as realistic to a real life family as possible.
FloweryNamesLover, it probably felt short because it was largely comprised of dialogue, but in truth, it was actually my longest chapter at 23 pages in Word. You know, I thought about making Olivia's date with Xinyi longer like you said and show more about what they talked about, but like I said, it was already at 23 pages and their discussion probably wasn't relevant to the story at all. The parts that were relevant were definitely shown. ;) Oh, Reiko's definitely a bastard - though in a different way than Rain was - but he's not the only one you'll see in this story...To answer your question, Rowena may make a cameo, but I don't want to promise anything since, as of right now, I'm not thinking that the Hydromancers will have much of a role to play. But I won't say no.
ROCuevas, thank you!
Westcoast Witchdoctor, LOL, yeah, I bet you could give Xinyi some pointers ;) But get ready for more roller coasters because I have some doozies planned for ya'll. :D