Chapter Seventeen: The Souls of Warriors

The real Sub-zero had somehow made his way to the Soul Chamber, where he was now freezing some unfortunate souls who got in his way. If they had just told the cryomancer what he wanted to know, he would have let them go. Maybe.

"A pity you could not have cooperated."

As he finished his handy work, Kuai thought about what Tomas was doing right now. He hoped his friend had made some progress on finding the sorcerers or Scorpion, but he was more worried about what was going on in Smoke's head. He was not dumb. Sub-zero has known Smoke for years and could tell that something was bothering his comrade. Whatever it was, Kuai was going to find out whether Tomas liked it or not, hopefully sometime soon.

Sub-zero was about to walk away before he heard footsteps coming his way. They sounded like metal clanking on the ground. The cryomancer already knew it was a cyborg even before it deactivated its camoflauge. Unlike the others though, this cyber ninja was yellow and had bright green eyes. Kuai clenched his fists as the robot approached him.

"You are ordered to return to the Lin Kuei temple for assimilation."

It was hard to hear with the metallic tone, but Sub-zero could have sworn he heard an accent behind the voice. It was… familiar.

"You may have a different design, but you will fall like your comrades before you."

"Do not resist capture, or I will be required to take you by force."

"You are welcome to try."

Sub-zero quickly summoned an ice ball and threw it at the cyborg, freezing it instantly. Cracks appeared on the ice and steam shot from them immediately. It melted the ice just enough for the robot to break out of its prison. Kuai was surprised that the cyber ninja broke out so fast. The Grandmaster must have upgraded his minions after the encounter in Zhu Zin.

"Safety disabled. Combat mode engaged."

The cyborg then sprinted to his opponent and hit Sub-zero square in his chest with the palm of its hand. The cryomancer was thrown backwards and landed harshly on his back with a grunt. As he sat up, Kuai placed a hand where the robot had struck him on the chest and took a deep breath.

"This cyborg may prove to be a problem."

Sub-zero got to his feet and got into his fight stance, leading the cyber to do the same. After a few seconds, the two charged at each other and Kuai covered his hands in ice like he did back in Zhu Zin. He threw a punch at his adversary, which was blocked and countered with a kick to the cryomancer's side. Kuai blocked that attack as well and the two ninjas continued to exchange and block blows. After a while, Sub-zero summoned a Kori blade to get the upper hand and swung it at the robot. Suddenly, the cyborg's hand transformed into a weapon of its own: a buzz saw.

The two weapons clashed and their owners pushed against each other. While Sub-zero was distracted, the cyborg made another saw with his other hand and slashed it at the cryomancer to drive him back. Kuai did jump back to avoid the buzz saw and the robot threw a small yellow sphere right after him. Sub-zero's eyes widen when he realized what it was, but before he could react, the ball exploded and covered the area in a smoke screen. The cryomancer was greatly that it was not a explosive or else he would have lost a few limbs, if not his life. However, Kuai could not see a thing through the smoke, but the cyborg could very well see him.

Metallic hands reached from the fog and wrapped themselves around Sub-zero's neck. The ninja was thrown to the ground and the cyborg was on top of him using his weight to keep the other down. Kuai tried to pry his opponent's hands off of him, but they would not budge. The cyborg placed more pressure upon the cryomancer's throat the more he struggled and Sub-zero soon began to see black dots in his vision. He could not believe it. Kuai was about to lose this fight all because of a stupid little bomb that… Wait. The yellow bombs, the buzz saw… there was only one person Sub-zero knew that wielded those weapons in the Lin Kuei. Even though he was being choked, the cryomancer managed to speak.

"C..Cyrax?"

Once the cyborg heard the name, it paused. Like it was actually thinking for itself. Kuai thought he had broken through to his old comrade, but just as he opened his mouth to speak again, Cyrax started choking him again, this time with a lot more force.

"I am Lin Kuei Unit LK4D4."

Sub-zero gasped as he desperately struggled to breath. He had to do something before he lost consciousness. The cryomancer slowly removed his hands from the ones around his neck to make it look like he was giving up. Before the other realized what Sub-zero was doing, he had made an ice knife and stabbed it into the robot's arm, which made sparks fly from the wounded limb. Being a cyborg, Cyrax could not feel the pain, but his arm lost all function and it hung limply by Kuai's head giving the cryomancer the chance to pry the other robotic hand off of him easily.

Once he was free of Cyrax's death grip, Sub-zero kicked the machine off of him and scrambled to his feet. He rubbed his hand around his neck and coughed a few times before he looked over at the cyborg, who had pulled the knife out of his arm and tossed it to the side. It broke as soon as it hit the ground and immediately began to melt. The robot was still ready to fight again, even with its injured arm, but Kuai was not sure if he was ready to fight back.

Now that he knew that the cyborg was indeed Cyrax, Sub-zero could not bring himself to fight the Botswanan. Cyrax never intended for any of this to happen, but now he was paying for his mistakes. He should have never created that armor for the Grandmaster. He should have never allowed his loyalty to blind him of Oniro's true nature. Cyrax did not deserve to be transformed into… this. This mindless metal being who would never again be able to think or feel. He could never be human again.

But that does not mean that Sub-zero was not going to try to help his friend. Maybe it would help if Cyrax saw a familiar face. Slowly, Kuai took off his mask and cowl. Hopefully no one else was around to see his face.

"Cyrax? Cyrax, do you remember me?"

"I am Lin Kuei Unit LK4D4. You, Tundra, have been ordered to return to the Lin Kuei temple for assimilation."

"Stop calling yourself that! You have a name and it is Cyrax! Do you not remember your own name?"

"I am Lin Kuei Un…"

"STOP!"

A moment of silence passed between the two ninjas and surprisingly, neither one of them attacked during that silence. Sub-zero let out a breath.

"Please, my friend. Remember yourself. Remember me, remember us. My brother, Smoke, Hydro… you know who we are. And I know that you are suffering within that body. Oniro is giving you orders and it must be incredibly difficult to resist him. But you can overcome this. Fight it!"

"I am… I am…"

Cyrax could not finish his sentence. He knew what to say, but… something was telling him that he was wrong. He was programmed with the name LK4D4. Well, it really was not much of a name, but it was something, right? Something that identified as a being. Yet, his target was telling him otherwise. Who was this Cyrax? Was he someone important?

He was going to ponder on the subject more before a voice rang in his head. It was the Grandmaster.

"Unit LK4D4, you are to proceed to the Coliseum with Sektor. He will be in need of your assistance."

Kuai Liang did not know what was going on with the cyborg, but suddenly, Cyrax turned around and started walking away. He called out to the robot.

"Cyrax, wait!"

He did not know if Cyrax had heard him or had simply ignored his plea, but either way, Cyrax had activated his camoflauge and disappeared, leaving Sub-zero alone in the chamber.

"Dammit…"

He cursed under his breath. How could Kuai have let Cyrax go like that? He should have done more for the cyborg.

"The readings were getting stronger and now they're gone."

Sub-zero heard a voice coming from the entrance of the chamber. Someone was coming his way. He quickly put back on his mask and cowl before the newcomer could see his face. Appearing from the shadows, two figure in what seemed to be military attire were walking side by side. One was a big, African-American man with a bald head and the other was a blonde woman who was holding up her wrist for her comrade to see. They stopped a good distance away from Kuai still unaware of his presence.

"Are you sure the readings are accurate, Sonya?"

"Positive. I…"

The woman, Sonya, looked up and saw Sub-zero. She looked surprised to see the blue ninja for some reason.

"Sub-zero!? But… you're dead!"

The blonde and her partner Jax continued to walk towards Kuai as though he was a friend. Had they known his brother while he was alive? Before they came any further, Sub-zero held up his hand to stop their advance. He needed to it clear who he was.

"I am not the Sub-zero you speak of. He was my brother."

"Your… brother?"

"I am only here to learn Sub-zero's fate. I know he was killed by a specter named Scorpion. Do either of you know of his whereabouts?"

The two Special Forces members looked at each other and after a moment, Jax gave Sonya a nod saying it would be okay for them to tell the ninja where Scorpion. It was not like they were friends with the Shirai Ryu and it did not seem as though this Sub-zero intended to hurt them. He just wanted to find who killed his brother.

"Try the Coliseum. That's where Shao Kahn is holding the rest of the fights for the tournament. We're heading there now."

"I see. So he is participating in this tournament as well?"

"Yeah. He's…"

The Soul Chamber suddenly began shaking, interrupting Sonya. A wave of souls surrounded the three warriors.

"You have disturbed our regeneration process."

The new voice sounded like multiple voices combined into one. Sub-zero could not tell whether it was a man or a woman who had spoke, but Jax and Sonya seemed to already know who it was. Before the trio, a red-garbed ninja appeared from the souls. His body was wrapped in black bandages and his eyes glowed green. Jackson scowled at the him.

"Ermac!"

Without warning, Jax walks over to Ermac and grabs the ninja by his throat. Ermac is unfazed by the African-American and when Jax is about to throw a fist at him, the ninja used his telekinetic powers to stop the Special Forces member. He raised his hand, which was now surrounded by a green aura, and used telekinesis to grab both of Jax's arms. The force of the green energy caused the man to shout in pain as his arms were spread out and they soon started to vibrate violently. With a wave of his hands, the telekinetic crushed Jax's arms into little chunks of flesh and shoved the now armless man to the ground. He was howling and writhing in pain as Sonya ran to his side.

"Jax!"

The blonde quickly uses her energy blasts to stop the bleeding from Jax's arm sockets.

"Stay with me, Jax!"

While Sonya tended to her partner, Ermac turns to face Sub-zero.

"We will break you as well."

The cryomancer took that as a challenge and stepped forward.

"Not if I break you first."