The Oni and Edenians furiously pursued the Earthrealm Champions towards the Gates of Phlegethon, so when one of the demons soared through the air out of nowhere and swiped with its huge claws at Tomas' head, he wasn't particularly surprised. Guided only by pure instinct, he leaned backwards in an impossibly graceful arc, letting the ferocious monster pass just above his chin before he continued to run forward. More of the Oni leapt from the tops of the giant boulders lining the gully back to the Gates, ropes of drool spilling over their fangs, and this time he had to lean forward, the talons on one brushing the back of his neck and scratching deep furrows through his flesh. The Enenra writhed in discomfort, but did not stop moving.
Then a lightning bolt arched through those demonic faces, and as the monsters fell, dead, Raiden joined his side as both raced through the deepening gully. Vaguely, the cyber-ninja doubted that retreat would do much good; the Netherrealm alliance sped closely after them, and they were gaining. If they closed the distance even by a fraction, they'd easily catch the surviving Earthrealmers and slaughter them all. The thought only prompted him to grab Kailyn's hand to pull her faster along. He glanced to his side and was relieved to see Alex keeping pace with him. As long as those two made it out, as well as his willful niece and nephews, he didn't quite care as much if the others did. It was a terrible thought, he knew, and one he would take to the grave with him.
Suddenly, he sensed an oily, diseased darkness creeping through his connection to Bi-han. Startled by it, his head swiveled around to catch a glimpse of his old friend; the Cryomancer, perhaps oblivious to his own actions, unleashed Noob Saibot once again. This time, his cryogenic power produced an icy sickle that he handed off to his shadow, which promptly attacked the pursuing Edenians. They only had enough time to look back in surprise before the frozen weapon whipped backward and then forward. Orange hellfire glinted off shining ice. One warrior tumbled forward, rolling over several times before landing in a heap, headless. A second man screamed and fell to his knees as the sickle swiped in an upward diagonal across his chest, ripping open his internal organs so that they sprouted from his torso like a ghastly bloom of flowers. When he fell to his knees, he wound up tripping those who ran behind him. A third man began to stagger as it clawed at his back before it sliced his spine in half. In this fashion, Saibot cut down several of their number, and many scattered like cockroaches into the darkness to escape.
After a solid hour of sprinting to the Gates, they finally reached Phlegethon, the boundary that kept the wicked souls trapped for all eternity. A long, droning warhorn sounded behind them, and blessedly, their enemy broke off their pursuit. Raiden immediately conjured a portal back to Earthrealm and quickly began hurrying his Champions through. But Tomas, who had yet to account for everyone in his family, shoved Alex and Kailyn through the portal as fast as he could, but hung back long enough to find the others. He glanced over at Bi-han, who was also waiting, though he held Sareena in his arms. The Cryomancer was looking back at the approaching crowd, surveying it for signs of their niece and nephews.
The cyber-ninja quickly teleported to the top of a nearby boulder to get a better view of the stampeding warriors. It wasn't long before he spotted the twins jogging forward, both of them a little worse for the wear. Tommy had a lovely gash framing his face from the top of his head to his temple while Jamie had a broken nose and two very black raccoon eyes. Apart from those two glaringly obvious injuries, both looked mostly intact save for the normal bumps and bruises that come from fighting in a battle.
"Bi-han, here come the boys!" he shouted down to his friend.
He teleported down just as the Cryomancer plucked them from the end of the herd. "Where is your sister?" he demanded to know. "Where's Livy?"
"We thought she was with you," Jamie replied as they were now joined by Erron, Kabal, Frost, and Sergeant Cage's four-man team.
"Yeah, we haven't seen her since we first joined the fight," Tommy added.
A searing heat immediately exploded through Tomas' body, scraping apart his insides, feeling very much as if he could chew up steel and spit out barbed wire. "Why did you even come here?" he shouted at the same time Bi-han roared, "I TOLD YOU TO STAY AT THE BASE!" Neither warrior could begin to contain their ire with the children.
Tomas threw his hands into the air. "This is no game," he admonished. "Your uncle and I didn't tell you to stay behind lightly. This is literally Hell. It is no place for children."
"You let Alex come along," Tommy shot back defiantly.
Before he even realized what he'd done, the cyber-ninja's automated hand shot out and grabbed the teenager by the ear and pulled him close. "Listen here, chytrák," he snapped as the boy yelped in pain. "Alex is one of the Elite. He has earned his place here."
"Well, so is Livy!" he grimaced. "And she earned her place way more than Alex did!"
"Then she should know better than you two knuckleheads that you always respect the Masters, and you follow their orders to the letter!" he shouted. With that, he let go of his nephew's ear. "I have already lost enough of my family this week. Why did you feel the need to risk even more?" Tomas' heart lurched when he thought about Kuai Liang possessed by Reiko's magic, and Anya barely clinging to life back at the base. And Livy? God, how could they have lost her again?
Neither boy answered him, which prompted Bi-han to scowl and furiously shake his head. "These children have no respect for anyone or anything, least of all their own family." For a second, Tomas sensed Noob's oily stain wash over his friend's soul.
"Calm down, Frosty," Kabal rasped. "If you wanna blame anyone for this, blame me. I'm the one who let them tag along with us to Outworld."
Now Bi-han wheeled on him. "How dare you interfere in our family matters?" he snarled.
"I dare to interfere in your family matters when I get pulled off a stakeout because General Blade asked me to come help your stupid asses after your dipshit brother went psycho and tried to kill everyone," he shot back and then pointed to the boys. "These kids want to get their pop back, and they want to save their mom, and the way I see it, they deserve the same chance at it as the two of you. Maybe even more so. So if you wanna continue acting all hurt in your heart about them doing what they've been trained their whole lives to do, we can have a private discussion back at the base."
The two men glowered at each other for a moment, though Kabal relied more on his freakish mask to assert his dominance, until Miyuki threw up her hands in exasperation and hissed, "I am more concerned about finding Livy than watching you two have a dick-measuring contest."
Her comment made both of the twins snicker, prompting Tomas to slap the backs of their heads with either hand. "Be quiet, vy dva," he snapped at them.
"Frost is right," Erron now intervened. "We need to find that girl."
"That girl is probably dead," Bi-han now shot back.
"Maybe she survived," Cassie now offered.
"Not even a cat with nine extra lives is that lucky," he shot back. "So now I have to go and look for her corpse so that my brother, if we manage to save him, has something to bury." He wheeled on his nephews. "I never wanted to be the one to tell my brother that one of his children was dead. I never wanted that responsibility."
"Livy's not dead!" Tommy roared.
"Yes, she is!" he yelled back, his voice so strong and so certain that both boys flinched as tears sprang to their eyes.
Everyone stood there in silence for a moment, all of them refusing to accept what the Cryomancer had said. That girl was so stubborn that sometimes, Tomas was convinced she'd tell Death himself when she was going to die and how. It was a trait that reminded him so much of her father. Such tenacity had kept the both of them alive when lesser warriors would've failed. And both had died, he reminded himself, but fiercely fought their way back to the land of the living with a little luck and in spite of all odds. So the Enenra couldn't bring himself to believe - even though a part of him knew that Bi-han was almost certainly right - that his precious niece was gone.
But Bi-han wasn't done. He wheeled on the twins again. "Your arrogance and your stupidity have cost your sister her life!" he yelled. "What were you thinking?" he demanded to know.
"She's not dead," Tommy whimpered as he looked to his feet and wiped his dribbling eyes in embarrassment. But he didn't sound as convinced as he had a moment before.
"We just wanted to help, Uncle," Jamie told him. "Reiko took our dad. We couldn't just sit there in Ft. Albany, waiting for you guys to come back."
"Yes, you could have," he snarled. "And you should have. And this is why. This was never a game." He furiously shook his head and then stomped up to both of them. He easily stood a head taller than they did. "I have no patience for boys playing at war and disobeying orders from their superiors!" he shouted.
"You're not superior!" Jamie challenged. "You don't get to tell us what to do after you had your nose shoved up Quan Chi's ass!"
To Tomas' surprise, Bi-han immediately let go of Sareena long enough to backhand his nephew, and a loud crunch echoed through the air. The teenager fell to the ground with a loud cry as Miyuki yelped her brother's name and the others gasped in surprise. Jamie, meanwhile, writhed on the ground as Tommy furiously sprang to life and shoved his uncle and the demoness back with a barbaric war cry. Bi-han curled his fist to strike the boy like he had his brother, but now both Kabal and Erron wrangled him back and stopped him. Tomas then looked at the Cryomancer in shock while Kung Jin helped Jamie to his feet; for a moment, he hadn't seen his old friend, but rather his cruel father An Zhi, who was long dead.
"That's enough!" Cassie yelled. She looked at Bi-han. "What in the hell is wrong with you?" she snarled. "These boys may have just lost their sister, and you're gonna beat them up?"
"Don't interfere," he hissed as he threw off Kabal and Erron's arms. But he didn't offer to attack his nephews again, and now steadied Sareena in his arms once more. "This is a matter for the Lin Kuei and our family. Not snot-nosed divas playing at soldier."
"Oh, pal, I'm not playing," she retorted.
He ignored her and looked at the twins again. "You will return to Earthrealm," he commanded. "And you will stay there."
"No!" Tommy screamed. "Livy's out there-"
"The adults will find Livy," he interrupted. "If her body isn't damaged beyond recognition."
"We're helping, with or without your permission!" the boy yelled as heavy tears continued streaking down his face.
"I am not allowing my brother to lose any more children today," he declared.
"They're not children," Jacqui now interceded. "And they have every right to look for Livy."
"Fortunately, you don't get a say in the matter," he shot at her. "It's too dangerous for anyone to go retrieve her body. That's why I'm going alone."
And then, Raiden's voice broke their argument. "You are wrong, Bi-han," he said. "Your niece is alive. I sense her soul still burning quite brightly. She is unharmed."
Tomas didn't even try to hide his loud sigh of relief. "Then where is she?" he demanded to know.
"She is somewhere in this Realm," he replied. "Somewhere beyond the battlefield. But I cannot tell you more than that. My powers are greatly limited here, outside of Earthrealm, as you all well know."
"Then I guess I'm gonna go find her," Erron drawled. "Again. See what the hell kind of mischief she got herself into today. And Kabal and these boys can come with me too, seeing as how we started this thing together."
"The twins are not coming with you," Bi-han growled at him.
"Oh, I ain't asking for permission, amigo," he replied as his hands drifted dangerously close to his revolvers. "And the way I see it, you ain't in charge anyway. This is Smoke's decision. He's Frosty's second-in-command." At his declaration, everyone looked to the Enenra.
"It's very dangerous, Erron," he quietly said. "I agree with Bi-han."
"Well, let me ask you this," he continued. "Would you rather them stay with one of us who can protect them through all of this? Or would you rather they sneak off from Ft. Albany by themselves again, only this time they're alone and maybe bite off more than they know how to chew? Because that's why Kabal brought them along this time. He thought they'd be safer with us."
"But this is the Netherrealm," he argued. "It's not nearly as forgiving as Outworld, and you know it."
He nodded. "Yes, I reckon I do. But I also know that a man is forged in fire, and Hell has got an abundance of that." He now smirked.
"Not to mention the fact that I just watched this asshole knock the kid's teeth down his throat," Kabal now added, protectively standing between Bi-han and Jamie. "I don't want either of these kids around tall, dark, and creepy right now. If we were in Earthrealm, I'd arrest you for child abuse." He glared at the Cryomancer.
"Tomas, I'll watch them," Miyuki quietly said to him. "And I can teach them how to track. I'm very good at it. My adoptive father, Shinji, was the best tracker in Asia, and he taught me."
He inhaled deeply. "You'll forgive me if I don't want them running off alone with you," he told her. "Especially since you were MIA in the battle today."
"I wasn't hiding," she replied, looking at her feet. "I didn't fight, no, but I was using my powers to shield our guys when I could. I protected a lot of people from flying arrows."
"That doesn't reassure me that you'll adequately protect the twins if you run into any trouble."
"Then we'll go too," Takeda volunteered.
"Absolutely not," Cassie replied. "General Blade did not give us orders-"
"Livy is my friend and I'm not going to leave her here to fight for herself," he cut her off. "You three are welcome to go back to report to the General. But I'm going. I owe her big time."
The Sergeant stood silently for a moment, contemplating his words. Then she looked from him to the portal and back again. "We could get court-martialed for this," she finally told him. "Livy's my friend too, but you know my mom won't be happy about us just taking off without her permission."
"Then don't go," he replied. "I didn't exactly pledge myself to the Army like you and Jacqui did."
"Oh, yeah, right," she grumbled. "Like I can just let you run off and get yourself into trouble without back-up." She looked at Jacqui. "You can go to General Blade and tell her what we're doing."
"Like hell, I am," she replied. "I'm going with you."
Jin groaned. "I guess that means I'm going too," he moaned.
"You don't have to," Cassie told him. "You barely know Livy."
"Well, I'm certainly not going to stay bored in Earthrealm while you three are here having fun," he told her. "Besides, someone smart ought to be going along for the ride."
"Excuse me?" Kabal told him, now crossing his arms, clearly miffed by Jin's remark.
The detective's irritation didn't phase him. "I said what I said," he replied.
"Well, then, Smoke, it looks like we've got ourselves a doozy of a search party," Erron declared with a slight smirk as he looked at the Enenra. "I think the boys will be in good hands with us."
Tomas looked at the twins sternly. His first impulse was to say no, absolutely not, it was too dangerous even with the older, deadlier warriors going with them. He couldn't risk the lives of two more of Kuai Liang's children. But deep down, he sensed that Erron was right. Just like the Red Desert had destroyed Livy, had melted her down into something unrecognizable, and then molded her into a far better version of herself, so too could Netherrealm do that for the twins. In the days that followed, perhaps they would need such strong young men tempered by fire and forged into more powerful weapons.
With a sigh, he nodded his head yes. "Very well. You both may go to find your sister."
"Are you insane, Tomas?" Bi-han snapped at him.
"I think we all know the answer to that," he tiredly answered. He then looked at the twins. "If I let you go, you will swear on your honor here and now that you will do exactly as they tell you with no argument. This is not the time or the place for your childish pranks and games. If they tell you to hide, or to run, you will do so immediately."
"Swear," Tommy said at the same time Jamie said, "I swear." His voice was nasal and stuffy from the fracture in his nose. Then Tommy said, "We'll make you proud, Uncle. For Livy."
"You damn well better," he replied before he wrapped his arms around them both and held them close.
"So be it, Tomas," Bi-han growled. "If they and Livy die, it's on your head." With that, he stomped through Raiden's portal.
It was quiet in Anya's hospital room, but not really, Sam decided as she tiredly slumped in the vinyl recliner next to the bed. There was a low, steady hum almost beyond notice, but if it came from her mother's respirator or one of the ten other machines attached to her, she couldn't say. Every fifteen minutes, the blood pressure cuff on her arm inflated with a loud drone, then it clicked for a few moments before it let out a soft sigh and deflated itself. But that steady chirp that charted Anya's heartbeat was the worst; though Sam was glad for it because it meant her mom was still alive, the noise still managed to lodge itself in the middle of her brain and irritate the gray matter.
"Ugh, why won't she wake up?" Danika, Sam's slightly older cousin, finally yelped after attempting to heal Anya from her coma once again. The two girls, plus Connor, Sam's other cousin and Danika's older brother, had all taken turns healing the eldest Hydromancer, but to no avail. The blonde, curly-haired teenager got to her feet and began pacing the room in frustration.
Connor, who also had thick, wavy blond hair like his mother, Kailyn, was sitting with arms crossed on the windowsill. He sighed. "You know the irony of this, don't you?" he asked them.
Sam looked at him, puzzled. "No, what?" she asked.
"Aunt Anya is the one person we need to help us help her."
The youngest Hydromancer scoffed. "Well, you know that physically, she's fine. I don't know what else we can do for her. Even her surgical scars are gone." She leaned forward and rested her palm on her mom's forehead. She wanted to rest her hand on her smooth skull, but it was peppered with electrodes and so the bald skin was impossible to touch. "I just wish there was something we could do about her hair."
"It'll grow back on its own," he reassured her.
"I know," she muttered. "But it'll take years to grow as long as it was."
"Maybe when she wakes up, she'll decide she wants to change her look," Danika now offered.
"Maybe," Sam shrugged. "Why won't she wake up?" she now cried, her own frustration welling up inside of her.
"She can't," a new voice now spoke, startling all three of them. They lifted their eyes and turned their heads to face the newcomer.
He crossed the room towards the bed, and as he approached, he appeared to grow taller with each step. Sam sensed immediately - as she always did when she saw him - that he had weathered many storms, his face hale and steel. His stark white hair, as pure as angels' wings or newly fallen snow, was cropped short in a buzz cut, and his blue eyes were full of wisdom only attainable through eons of life. Though he moved with predatory deliberateness and ramrod precision, there was still something quite gentle about him, and reassuring, making him feel more like a kindly old grandfather than a military general or ferocious king.
"Himavat?" Sam's voice lilted as she looked at him.
His voice was startlingly quiet for an Elder God. "Hello, children," he greeted them. Danika wasted no time running into his arms, and she was soon followed by Sam as well. He squeezed them close to him and then glanced up at Connor, who hadn't moved a muscle. "Do I not warrant my great-grandson's affections too?"
"I'm too old for that stuff, Himavat," the nineteen-year-old grumbled.
He chuckled at that and let go of the girls. "As you wish, boy," he bowed.
"Himavat, are you here to help Mom?" Sam wondered, her eyes full of hope as she gripped his arm with both hands.
"Oh, Samantha, if only I could," he sadly replied, patting her on the shoulder.
"Well, why can't you?" she demanded to know. "You're an Elder God. You can undo whatever's happened to her!"
He shook his head and then sat on the foot of Anya's bed, gently squeezing her toes. "No, Sam, I can't. Not this time. Her fate is tied to your father's."
The youngest Hydromancer lifted her eyebrow and stood by him. She stared into his eyes. "I don't understand. What do you mean?"
"Sit," he commanded. "And I will tell all three of you a story." She frowned but obeyed him, and Danika joined her on the armrest of her chair. "Do you remember how your mother was able to save Livy three years ago when she died from her injuries?"
Sam blinked. "I suppose so," she said. "From what I've heard, she took just enough of Dad's soul to boost her healing powers, and she used what she took from him to jumpstart Livy's heart."
"An interesting way to put it," he smirked as he shrugged and thoughtfully stroked his chin. "But yes. Your father enraged Anya so that she would have the strength to take his soul, thereby using what she'd stolen to pull Olivia from Death's cruel clutches." He cleared his throat and then met Sam's gaze. "But what you probably didn't know was that, when that happened, there was a great transference of spiritual energy between them. And because of that, a part of your father's soul became one with your mother's, and a part of your mother's soul became one with his. The two of them became a living version of Yin and Yang, the light within the darkness and the darkness within the light." He smiled. "They had already symbolically fused their souls together at Massilia when they first became husband and wife, but in Z'Unkarah that day, to save Olivia's life, they quite literally became soulmates."
"Well, that's very romantic and all, Himavat," Danika now remarked as she brushed a lock of her hair from her face, "but what does that have to do with why Aunt Anya can't wake up from her coma? She's completely healed. Between the three of us, she has no injuries to speak of, not even ones from surgery. Yet, if they take her off life support, her vitals spin out of control and she crashes. She'll die if they take her off life support. So what's wrong with her?"
Himavat nodded as she spoke. "It is true, young Danika, that Anya is healed of all her physical trauma," he agreed. "However, she is not completely healed. Not yet. She is still suffering extensive psychic trauma."
"But why?" Connor now asked.
Now the Elder God looked at him. "It's because of your uncle, Kuai Liang," he answered. "When Reiko stabbed him with the kamidogu and infected him with his Blood Magik, in effect, he poisoned his soul. And because of the spiritual connection Kuai Liang now shares with Anya, she is poisoned too. She cannot wake from this coma as long as Kuai Liang is also asleep under the Blood Magik's spell." He sighed and looked down at his hands. "I fear that is not the worst of her issues," he then said. "With each passing minute, Kuai Liang falls further under Reiko's spell, and as he does, the poison destroys that much more of Anya's heart. The Blood Magik is spreading through her like a slow but devastating cancer, polluting her soul with evil, rotting her away from within."
"Wait a minute," Sam now interjected as she held her hands up in a 'T' shape. "Are you saying my mom is dying?"
Himavat couldn't bear to look her in the eye as he sadly nodded. "Yes, Little One," he told her. "If your father isn't saved soon, your mother will die."
Tears immediately sprang to her eyes and she jumped to her feet. "Then why can't you do something to save her?" she demanded to know. "Or to save him?" Her voice was steadily growing loud and shrill.
"I can't save her because she did this to herself," he calmly replied. "There is always a consequence for taking another person's soul; the universe demands a life for the life that was taken. This law is as old as all the life in all the Realms, Samantha. When she took your father's soul to save Olivia, Anya knew there would be a price to pay as Fujin had already warned her."
"Then what about my dad?" she shrieked. "You can save him, can't you? He was a victim then, and he's a victim now."
"He is," he agreed. "It pains me to see him like this, just as it pained me to see Tomas turned into a cyber-ninja, and it pained me to see Bi-han turned into Noob Saibot. But the worst pain I feel is knowing that - just like I couldn't save Tomas and Bi-han from their fates - I can't save Kuai Liang from this."
"This is bullshit!" she uncharacteristically swore, and somewhere deep inside of her she wondered if Livy had been a bad influence on her. "You could've saved all of them."
He shook his head. "My dear girl," he softly replied as he took her hands in his, "the hardest part of being an Elder God is watching all the mortals I've come to love struggle through this painful thing called life. But if I interfered with everything that came their way, what would they learn?"
"Maybe they'd learn that you actually cared about them!" she snapped, ripping her hands from him.
"Or maybe they'd grow to resent me for not letting them figure things out on their own," he countered. "Or maybe they would never discover wonderful and terrible things like love, and life, and death, and only know about these things in an abstract sort of way. Maybe they'd never learn to appreciate what they have because they'd have never lost anything that mattered to them." He wistfully smiled and took her hand back. "Samantha, I know it's hard for you to understand, especially because you're so young and vibrant and optimistic. But trust me when I tell you, smooth seas never made for experienced sailors."
"That's a cop-out," she argued. "That's not love!"
"On the contrary, that is the greatest love," he argued. "Do you know how hard it is for me to watch my beloved mortals do what they will do, even if their actions could destroy them? I love you so much that I will let you live your lives in freedom, no matter where your freedom takes you. But if, every now and then, you'll welcome some of this old coot's advice, I'll be happy to share it with you." He patted her on the head and then wiped the errant tears from her cheeks. "There is far more going on behind the scenes than you realize, Samantha. And while there are forces at work that are trying to save your father, there are also forces at work that are content to leave him as Reiko's slave. It is very hard to say which side will be victorious, for even Elder Gods cannot see all ends. But believe me when I tell you, I'm doing everything I can to stack the odds in Kuai Liang's favor. Just don't tell my sisters...They won't like that." He smiled at her again. "Deal?"
Sam blinked out more tears but swallowed the painful lump in her throat and nodded. "Deal."
"Good girl," he replied as he slid to his feet and wrapped his arms around her. "Have faith, Samantha. If not in me, then have faith in all of your family and friends who are fighting as we speak to stop Reiko and save your father." He squeezed her tightly to him one last time, patted her back, and then pulled away. "And go check on Grandmaster Hasashi," he ordered her. "It's important." He mysteriously winked at her and then vanished from the room, the sound of his disappearance like the breaking of the ocean on rocks.
"That sounds like a cop-out to me," Connor grumbled, still perched on his spot on the windowsill.
"Yeah," Sam thoughtfully trailed off. "Hey, can you two stay with my mom for a few minutes? I'm gonna go check on the Grandmaster."
"Yeah," Danika said.
The youngest Hydromancer said her thanks and took her leave of them before winding through the maze of hallways to the appropriate room. She found the Grandmaster in the same room where she had left him, and it was just as deafeningly silent-but-not as Anya's room had been. Just as they had done with her mother, the three Hydromancers had taken turns healing him when he was wheeled out of surgery. Her father had nearly killed him, and from what she understood about his injuries, she wasn't quite sure why the Shirai Ryu hadn't died completely. But now, he was resting comfortably in his bed, undoubtedly a side effect of the morphine the nurses kept giving him through his IV attached to a medicine pump. Beside him, a slender Asian boy sat in the chair next to him, his Shirai Ryu robes burned and ripped in spots.
"Hi," Sam softly greeted as she wandered into the room.
"Hello," he greeted back, his English accented by Japanese. Neither of them spoke for a long, awkward moment after that, mostly because she didn't know what to say to him. Her father was the reason his Grandmaster - his father in all but name - was in the hospital right now, having almost died in the encounter. What could she say, really? But finally, he said, "My name is Kota."
She smiled at him as she stood on the opposite side of the bed. "I'm Sam," she shyly replied.
"You are Lin Kuei," he said, now pointing to her training robes, and her purple sash on her waist bearing the Temple's tribal seal.
She frowned and crossed her arms, suddenly very ashamed of her Clan at the moment. It was not who her father was, she reminded herself. But she couldn't argue with the fact that it was his body committing the atrocities on the Shirai Ryu. How many innocent people had he killed when he was there? Kota seemed to recognize her discomfort and bowed his head.
"I am not angry at you," he said. "Grandmaster Hasashi teaches us that allowing anger to enter our hearts is like pouring acid into a vessel that was never meant to contain it. And like acid, it will destroy the vessel and everything around it. Instead, he teaches us to feel our anger towards those who have wronged us, and then let it go like a paper boat on a current of water."
She faintly smiled at that. "My sister told me he was very wise," she said.
"Your sister is Olivia Sullivan?" he asked incredulously.
She nodded. "Yeah," she said.
"Forgive me for saying so," Kota began, "but she wasn't very nice. She was kind of arrogant and rude."
Sam's smile instantly fell. "Well, she was going through a rough time and was really angry at our dad," she defensively said. "Besides, she told me a different story. She said the boys in her group, especially Takeda, constantly played mean pranks on her and made her feel like she wasn't welcome in your little club because she was a girl, and because she was Lin Kuei. So I don't blame her one bit for being rude. I probably would be too if people were treating me like that."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "It's obvious your elders didn't teach you or her a thing about manners," Kota said.
"At least they taught us how to be kind to outsiders," she fired back.
"If you two insist on arguing over such petty things," a deep voice opened, "then take it out to the hallway."
By this point, Sam realized that Hanzo had woken from his sleep. "I'm sorry, Grandmaster," she quickly apologized. "I didn't mean for us to wake you up."
He blinked back the drowsiness for a long moment before at last he pushed himself up and sat upright in his bed. "What happened?" he asked her.
She stepped back hesitantly, unsure of what he meant. "What?" she asked.
"I said, what happened?"
Sam swallowed hard and looked at him with wide eyes full of fear. He was way freakier than her dad was on his worst day. "Reiko attacked our Temple," she hastily began, and with that, she regaled him with the story of how they came to that moment in time. He listened quietly as she told him about the trip to Outworld, and Reiko's quest to steal all the kamidogu, and the attack on the Lin Kuei Temple. As she spoke, a void in her chest was beginning to fill with anger. Quiet, defeated anger that guaranteed her the right to her hurt, that believed no one could possibly understand that hurt. And he took it all in, his eyes thoughtful brown clouds as he pieced together her puzzle.
Finally, when she was done, he said, "How many of the Shirai Ryu survived?"
Sam gulped, not knowing the answer to his question, so now she looked to Kota for help. He shook his head. "We do not have an exact number yet, Grandmaster," he told him. "We are still looking for survivors. Maybe a third."
Hanzo absorbed that information into his mind, and the news prompted him to wince in pain. His head sagged to his palm, and he shielded his eyes at his temple. "The children?" he said.
"Most of the children survived," he told him. "Especially the littlest ones. They hid in the old Temple with the older children, and did not come out until Special Forces came to help us."
"Thank the gods," he mumbled. Then he looked at Sam. "And what of the Lin Kuei?" he asked. "How many survived the attack on your Temple?"
Sam shrugged. "I don't know, Grandmaster. I think it's about the same. The Tarakatans destroyed everything and they didn't take any prisoners. And my dad…" she trailed off, unable to find the words to express what she was feeling about her father right that second. If she allowed herself to rationally examine those feelings, she'd realize she felt guilt, guilt because she was mad at him for what he'd done. She felt that painful ball of needles rising once again in her throat. "Well," she croaked, "let's just say it was a good thing we had an emergency bunker to hide in."
To her surprise, Hanzo gripped her hand. "We will find your father, Samantha Sullivan," he told her. "One way or another, we will free him of Reiko's evil."
The Hydromancer stupidly looked at his hand, which was much bigger and far more calloused than hers. She couldn't think of anything to say in response. She was tired of everyone promising her they'd bring back her dad. They'd save her dad. They'd save her mom. True, it had only been a day since they'd all left on their own little missions, but she decided that talk was cheap. So finally, all she could think to say was, "Thank you, Grandmaster."
"Do not look at the floor when a Grandmaster speaks to you," Hanzo admonished, startling her. "It is disrespectful and denotes a sincere lack of courage."
Sam frowned and met his gaze. "What?" she asked.
"You are very different from your sister," he spoke. "She frequently rebelled against me and defied me, but she always looked me in the eye."
"I'm not Livy," she replied, now feeling the swell of irritation searing her chest from being compared to the Cryomancer. "I'm not brave like she is."
"No, you're not Olivia," he said. "You are doomed to live in her shadow, a mere shadow yourself. But you are wrong. You are strong too, Samantha, and brave, and because I know that about you, you can and will look me in the eye when I'm speaking to you."
A traitorous tear leaked down her cheek. "Yes, Grandmaster," she said as she forced herself to look, albeit timidly, at his eyes.
"Very good, Deshi," he said. "Now, tell me. Where did everyone go?"
MKDemigodZ-Warrior, actually, the Lakota are part of the Sioux Nation, not the Navajo or Apache. So I screwed the pooch on that one. But like I said before, I'll go back and revise. I am glad you liked the interaction between Nightwolf and Sherman, Jin and Lao, and Raiden and Liu. You're not the only one pushing for them to get revived. Maybe I will revive them, but it is not this day :D
ROCuevas, I'm glad you're excited to read on :D
DinoLord00, aw, thanks. It does pull the heartstrings to see the revenants face off with the people they once cared about, so that was a golden opportunity for me to punch you in the feels. I'm glad it did because there was a point with that chapter that I started to say, "Fuck it." Like I told my bud up above, I may revive them, but I may not. We'll see. I feel like I'm juggling twelve balls and plates and my mother's good China as it is right now LOL It will be interesting to see who comes out on top in the end of this thing - Reiko or Shinnok. But I know nothing, Jon Snow *tweaks evil handlebar mustache and giggles manically* And Bi-han and Sareena's relationship is one I've wanted to explore since Sub-Zero: Origins, but I never had a good reason to. Now, I feel like I have another opportunity with regards to them. As for Malphas, he didn't succeed in his plan to piggyback Subby and Anya's baby out of Netherrealm, so his spirit - which is only an echo of him even though it's quite potent - receded back to Bandiagara where it continues to haunt the ruins. Woe to whomever is stupid enough to go to that place voluntarily. I don't think he'll be making a comeback anytime soon, but never say never. ;)
Praxus84, don't ever call yourself stupid, my friend! I'm glad you've stepped out of the shadows and made contact. It's always good to hear from readers. Thank you so much for your high praise, and I'm glad that you have enjoyed my stories for so long. I try to make them enjoyable, so I'm pleased when I hear that they are. I can definitely give you some pointers for writing characters if you like. Just shoot me a message, or you can comment in a review what you'd specifically like to know, and I'll do my best to answer.
jeanosauryehet27, oh, honey, I don't think you have to worry about that. Papa Zero is gonna be as mad as a wet hen when and if he gets out of this predicament LOL You're very smart to figure out the twist with Xinyi being the traitor so soon. I really wanted it to look like Olivia thought they were arguing about her because she's insecure about her lineage. So kudos to you for seeing through my sleight of hand :D And yeah, I agree that there's chemistry between her and Jiayi. We'll see what happens with that ;)
alwaysdoubted, I'm glad you were on the edge of your seat! Fight scenes take so much effort that it means a lot to me to hear you say that. Kotal is infuriatingly logical, I fear. He didn't want to help because he wanted time to secure Outworld and protect his people. Why would he send his own men to die for Earthrealm? Then again, that's exactly what the Americans did for Europe in WWII, so he does seem like a selfish coward for not helping when the fate of all the Realms is on the line. Maybe he'll come around in the end ;)
Reptaliator, Rain is still alive because he is my most love-to-hate villain LOL I'm glad he gets this much of a reaction out of you, and anyone, really. He is the Ramsay Bolton of my Mortal Kombat AU. God, I wanted that fucker to die. Anyway, Reiko would be decidedly overpowered as a character if he was facing all of Earthrealm, Outworld, and Seido alone. He needed some damn good, albeit diabolical, warriors on his side to help balance the scales. That's why Skarlet's back, and soon, Mileena and Tanya. Resurrecting them serves a purpose: it shows how immensely powerful Havik is, and that will be important down the road. Trust me, young padawan. There's a reason for everything I do ;)
en-lumine, hello! I've missed you! Seeing through Xinyi and hating Rain seem like the theme of the day LOL I'm definitely glad you like my interpretation of Bi-han. I asked myself what kind of demons would he be facing after having come back from Noob freaking Saibot? And so this is what I thought. We always get to see him so bad and whatnot, but rarely do people write him as being this conflicted. So I try very hard to make him that way, which I hope makes him seem far more three-dimensional than most depictions.