Noobs eyelids twitched with every rumble he felt in the ground. He heard the shouts and inevitable screams of the soldiers, servants, and villagers turned volunteers just outside the tent he was in. A sudden and particularly powerful quake shook his eyes open. The slight breeze blew the tent flap askew enough for him to peek outside. His position gave him a direct line of sight to the entrance into the stronghold. The flap blew in the way and then out again, each time revealing a different scene. A squad of soldiers were bracing the large gate shut. The tarp blocked his sight then revealed that same squad starting to break ranks as the gate started to give and splinter. Once more the dark fabric waved that scene away and brought another; the gate and soldiers squashed beneath rubble. One tried to limp away, but the tarp blew once more and brought this story to a close. When the tarp relaxed, that soldier was on the ground, bisected, with tarkatans swarming in through the destroyed gate. Noob smirked behind his mask.

Well, things around here escalated quickly.

"I don't suppose they came for me?" Noob thought sarcastically.

If only we were so loved.

Suddenly something splashed across the outside of the tent. Noob didn't need to guess as it was; the way it crawled down the fabric resembled dripping blood, a sight Noob had become very familiar with long before his reincarnation. That it was indeed blood became irrefutable when a corpse with a deadly gaping wound across his back fell in through the tent flap. Following it was a snarling, bloody tarkatan. The Outworld mutant eyed Noob with great anticipation, believing him to be an easy kill.

"What are you waiting for?" Noob asked cockily.

The tarkatan growled and swiped at Noob. With perfect timing, Noob kicked the tarkatan's arm upwards, making the blade on his arm slash off the top half of the pole Noob's hands were tied to. The tarkatan snarled more and tried to stab Noob with both his arm blades. Noob expertly kicked both the tarkatan's wrists, diverting the attacks and leaving the tarkatan open to his own. Noob wrapped his legs around the tarkatan's head and yanked the mutant down to the ground.

"Your usefulness," Noob snapped the tarkatan's neck in between his thighs, "is at and end."

The tarkatan's eyes twitched momentarily as Noob kicked the body away. With the top of the pole sliced off, he was able to stand and lift his bound hands off the pole. He crouched down and used the still extended blades of the dead tarkatan to cut the ropes.

Lets get a better look at things.

Instead of simply stepping out into the open, Noob became as shadow and merged with the darkness outside. He was able to slip out of the tent he was in and navigate the stronghold now turned battlefield undetected. He moved behind a rocky outcropping and became full again. He scanned the fighting before him analytically. The mountain pass that the stronghold was built around was about three football fields long, and roughly half that as wide, and it was crowded. Edenian rebels clashed with tarkatans and masked guard soldiers. The rebels were well equipped, and highly organized. They rallied behind the orders given by Kitana and Jade, and the bottlenecked outworlders had little more choice than to throw themselves upon the rebel spears, swords, axes and maces.

The tactics of the outworld forces were brutish; but they had the numbers to back it up by the looks of it. By looking farther down the slope that they had come up, Noob saw that they had firearms, and war machines that they were slowly bringing up. At their current location, the guns were in no position to do any damage and the catapults and ballistas risked too much collateral damage. Despite Baraka leading the charge, it looked like Rain's army was at an extreme disadvantage. That was until a person that Noob was unfamiliar with entered the playing field; a very tall masked man clad in brown ninja like attire. He waded through the ranks of Rain's soldiers, seemingly oblivious to their deathly intent. He was three lines of soldiers away from the rebels when he crouched down, still noticeable underneath the crowds. Noob didn't understand what he was doing, but was more than surprised by what happened next. Spikes erupted out of the ground, skewering several of the rebels and even a couple of tarkatans. A few of them screamed because they hadn't been killed instantly and were left dangling on the stone. This caused a break in ranks of the rebels, and with Baraka spearheading the charge, Rain's forces widened the crack in their defences and turned the battlefield into a free for all.

Now that is...

"Interesting..."

Cool.

Noob shook his head, his equivalent of mentally rolling his eyes at Saibot. This newcomer did indeed have impressive powers, but that wasn't his concern right now. He saw that Kitana wasn't guarded as she shouted orders to her soldiers. It would be a simple matter for him to eliminate her. With her dead, he was sure that Rain's forces would decimate the rebels here, effectively reducing the number of armies in this war to two.

Don't even think about it.

This voice in his head wasn't Saibot's, it was too disconnected. This was the voice of Quan Chi.

"What do you mean? I can kill Kitana..."

You will do no such thing. The itinerary for this battle has already been planned, and you will not interfere with it.

"What do you mean it has already been planned?"

It is no concern of yours. Do not interfere!

Noob clenched his fists tightly at Quan Chi's belittling.

It is times like these that I miss the Grandmaster...at least he never denied you your kills.

"No matter how much the sorcerer believes himself to be in control, he won't be able to stop e from killing him when the time comes." Noob said forebodingly.

He was about to turn and leave when someone caught his eye, and his breath. Sareena wielded a long knife backwards and cut a deadly swathe through the tarkatans and masked soldiers that surrounded her. She was defending a Lin Kuei initiate that was pinned beneath some debris.

Lets go.

A masked solider threw himself against Sareena, forcing her back. Sareena was too busy trying to fight him off to prepare a defence against the tarkatan coming up behind her, or the five other enemies closing in. Noob felt his body try to move as if to rush to her rescue. However, something held him back. The feelings of anger he had for what he felt to be Sareena's betrayal overcame his concern for her, suddenly out of nowhere.

Lets...go.

Noob stood frozen in place and indecisive. All the while Sareena had become surrounded.

"Agh...Sareena, behind you!" The stuck Lin Kuei, Dimitri, warned.

Sareena glanced behind her and saw the tarkatan about to impale her with his arm blade. Thinking quickly, she stopped pushing against her current opponent so that she could sidestep the flanking attack. She received a glancing cut on her exposed rib; her opponent was stabbed in the gut in her place by the tarkatan. Sareena clutched her bloody side while the tarkatan uncaringly kicked his dead ally off his blade. The other assembled outworlders closed in on her. Suddenly, a mist swept over all of them. The smokey fog became so thick that it was blinding. Sound was not impaired, and Sareena heard the unmistakable shing of swords being drawn, and then the sound of flesh being cut and blood spilling onto the ground. She heard this several more times before the mist started to part, giving way to the sight of Smoke and the other three remaining Lin Kuei members standing amid the now dead outworlders.

"Just in nick of time I see." Smoke stated.

"A few minutes earlier would have been nice too." Sareena said while wincing at her tender wound.

"Maybe next time. Zhao, Ahmed, Wang, dig Dimitri out of there." Smoke ordered the other Lin Kuei.

They got right to it. Smoke looked out to see Rain's army still flooding in and Kitana's being slowly but surely pushed back. Something up by a rocky outcropping caught his eye; Bi Han. He saw his old friend sneaking his way out of the area.

"Sareena, I must go." Smoke stated.

"You must be kidding." Sareena retorted, evidently she noticed Bi Han leaving as well.

"I'm not letting him get away again."

"I'm going with you, maybe with the both of us..."

"You are staying here." Smoke interrupted.

"What? Smoke he may hurt you, maybe even try to kill you!"

"And he may very well do the same to you, and I can't allow that to happen. I promised Sub Zero I wouldn't."

Judging by the silence, Smoke was sure this took her off guard. The look on her face when he glanced at her confirmed it.

"It isn't simply a great trust that Sub Zero places in you; it is a great care as well."

"I, I can't just sit here while you go after Bi Han."

"Then don't. Kitana needs your help, and without Sub Zero here, its up to you to make sure that our brothers...your brothers making it out of her alive."

Sareena looked over to the other four Lin Kuei. Aside from Zhao, the other three had only recently reached the tier required to go on missions such as this. They looked spent and lost.

"You promise that you'll come back?" Sareena asked while putting her fist to her chest.

Smoke looked at the ground for a moment, and then touched her shoulder rather than copy her salute.

"Stay safe Sareena."

Smoke then morphed into a cloud and drifted away over the battlefield, in the direction Bi Han had gone. Sareena clenched her fists and frowned sadly; he hadn't promised.

Sub Zero had lost track of time in this dream state. Not moments ago had he been staring at the incinerated remains of Bi Han in the white void and now he was standing in the streets of a town in Nepal. He remembered this place well; it was the location of his very first field mission unsupervised. He had been dispatched with two other trainees to assassinate a small time warlord; on the behalf of that same warlord's second in command of all people.

Sub Zero tried his best to retrace his steps. He immediately remembered that one of the trainees did not survive the mission. The boy that had died wasn't someone that Sub Zero had liked, but it was still a shock to hear of his death. From what else he could immediately recall, Bi Han was not pleased with him in the end.

Sub Zero came to stand in an alleyway which gave him a clear view of the main street. It was flooded with the phantoms of the people he had seen there. The echo like sounds of their warped voices was almost maddening. He waited, looking into the stream of ghosts until a clear image could be seen within it; himself. It was his double from this point in time, when he was eighteen. He wore a heavily hooded cloak that concealed his blue uniform.

Cautiously, Sub Zero stepped out into the crowd. Despite his best efforts he still collided with some of the phantoms. Disturbingly, they walked right through him, or maybe he walked through them? Either way, they took no notice of him and Sub Zero tailed his double.

Once again he found himself mimicking his double at times; particularly when it scanned the area. The main street had small buildings on both sides. He could recognize the phantoms of the mercenaries employed by the warlord to garrison the town. Sub Zero found himself thinking like a teacher; his eighteen year old double was being too obviously alert, but at the same time he wasn't paying attention enough to the rooftops. Speaking of the rooftops, Sub Zero noticed something atop one of them. It was a hooded figure, with a crossbow trained on his double. The double clearly didn't notice this because he kept on walking. Sub Zero panicked as if he himself was in the line of fire; which technically he was, and prepared to push his double out of the way.

Before he could even attempt to do that, the archer was pulled down and out of sight. Sub Zero took one last look at his double and then crossed the street. He climbed the small bakery to the roof to satiate his curiosity. What he found shocked him. It was Bi Han, twenty one years old at the time, pinning the archer to the ground. Sub Zero stepped up to the pair and was shocked once again; the hooded archer was one of the Lin Kuei trainees, the one that had died during the mission. Bi Han held his hand over the boys mouth; because he was only a trainee he had a soft fabric covering his mouth instead of the hard face mask Bi Han had. Nevertheless the boy still mumbled in a panic. Bi Han looked down on him with cold anger. He removed the bolt from the crossbow and stabbed the boy in the heart with it, killing him.

Sub Zero didn't know what to think; Bi Han had murdered a fellow Lin Kuei...to save him. Bi Han dumped the body into an alleyway that had the phantoms of several mercenaries nearby; it looked like they would have been the ones to kill him.

"Surprised?" Nightwolf's voice asked.

"Very. Death on training missions was something to be expected and accepted. I could have died this day."

"You don't sound grateful."

"I'm more frustrated than that! All my life Bi Han was cold and detached, but then there is this. Why would he do this and then say what he did in the end?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'll show you."

The memory was coming back to Sub Zero now and he was able to find where his double had gone. He came to a tavern that had it's doors wide open. Stepping inside, Sub Zero found his double standing amidst overturned chairs, tables, cups, and spilt alcohol. Two men stood,almost completely frozen but screaming in agony from the pain of the frostbite. A single man, tattooed and scarred stood to challenge him. This was the warlord.

"The Lin Kuei have come for you." Sub Zero's double stated, now without the heavy cloak on.

"The Lin Kuei have sent boys to kill me! I'll admit that your ice trick is very impressive, but it won't help."

"Are you sure about that? These two won't be able to help you, and you have no weapon of your own."

"That's where you are wrong boy. I have the strongest weapon of all...a cold heart."

The warlord snapped his fingers and as if it was rehearsed, two more mercenaries; these ones not phantasmal, burst through a back door carrying the third Lin Kuei trainee. The boy was beaten and tied up, with a knife to his throat. Sub Zero's double turned to them but didn't attack. The warlord laughed at him.

"You see, boy, you don't have those eyes. You don't have the look of a killer yet. Now, stand down, or we'll kill your friend."

"Don't do it Tundra, you know what failure means!" The other trainee warned.

One of the mercenaries cut into his throat a little to stifle his plea.

"Stop! Just, stop. I'll do as you say." Tundra said.

He lowered his hands and the ice energy dissipated. Sub Zero noticed that his double looked exhausted; he wasn't as strong with his powers then as he was now, and didn't have the fortitude to bring his power back so soon after using it.

"Thats a good boy. Now do one more thing for me..." The warlord drew his sword and ran Sub Zero's double, "Die!"

Sub Zero's double prepared to try and block or dodge the attack. Suddenly, an ice blast froze the warlord's sword hand solid. Bi Han dropped down out of the darkness of the ceiling. The warlord made painful gasps at his hand and looked up in time to see Bi Han kicking him across the floor. Bi Han then swiftly created twin ice daggers and tossed them at the other two mercenaries keeping the third trainee captive. Bi Han's renowned accuracy with thrown weapons was already developed at this point, this didn't make any less impressive when each dagger plunged into the foreheads of the pair of mercenaries. They dropped heavily to the ground with their shocked eyes still open.

"Bi Han?" Sub Zero's double asked.

The memory of Bi Han turned and angrily back handed Tundra to the ground.

"You were the one that was free. Zheng was tied up and he still succeeded in this mission more than you!" Bi Han scolded while he untied Zheng.

"What are you doing here?" Tundra asked.

"I'm evaluating you, all of you, for the Grandmaster. You've failed Tundra, miserably."

"But, how? Look at what I've done..."

Tundra noticed Bi Han's cold blue eyes flare before he raised his hand, looking like he was about to hit him again. Tundra flinched from this and even Sub Zero felt a little sick; Bi Han's wrath still got to him even as an adult. Bi Han regained his composure and didn't hit him though he was still livid.

"Fine, let's have a look at what you've done. Two sloppy attacks..." Bi Han approached the two half frozen men.

First he broke off the frozen arm of one of them. Some unfrozen blood poured out of a vein.

"Sloppy..." Bi Han repeated.

Bi Han froze the blood as it fell. It formed into a four inch long blade of frozen blood with a sharp edge. Bi Han used this to cut open the throats of both these half frozen men, finishing them off. At this point it was a kindness.

"You've failed to complete your objective." Bi Han grabbed the warlord and dragged him over to the two trainees.

The once proud and brave man had been reduced to a snivelling coward, especially once he saw the two bloody ice sculptures.

"I would have killed him had you not interfered!" Tundra defended.

"You would have had your head cleaved in two! You should have killed him when you had your powers ready."

"They were going to kill Zheng!"

"And he told you to accept that. People will die, they will always die. Feng is dead." Bi Han revealed.

Tundra and Zheng were both noticeable surprised. Sub Zero now knew that it was Bi Han that had killed Feng.

"If you must make the choice, be a victor in death rather than a failure in life."

Sub Zero shook his head in anger and lost control. He grabbed Bi Han by his collar.

"And now you are a failure in death! How could you turn your back on everything when you were so didactic before?" Sub Zero asked, believing that Bi Han would not hear him. Suddenly, Bi Han looked up at him, and instead of blue eyes, he had white ones with a barely noticeable purplish outline. This shocked Sub Zero to the point that he let go and took a step back. As soon as he blinked the scene before was back to as it was before.

"And now I must finish you work." Bi Han said to Tundra.

Bi Han froze the warlord's neck and head. He then twisted his head; breaking the frozen neck so much that it decapitated the warlord and sent ice shards flying into Zheng, Tundra, and Sub Zero's face. Sub Zero closed his eyes and was back in the white void when he opened them.

"What was that? The way Bi Han looked at me, those eyes, what was that?"

"Evidence that you are close, very close." Nightwolf told him.

Did you think you were going to save her?

"No." Noob replied.

I know your lying.

"I'm not."

Don't lie to me, you can't.

"Well if you know so much then why do you bother asking me rhetorical questions? Because you must clearly no I hate those!"

...Call it being respectful.

Noob snorted at this. He had been descending the mountain at a slow pace, a trip here could possibly be fatal. He finally reached a flat plateau and stopped to take a break and collect his thoughts.

"You want to be respectful but everything you say is behind my back. I suppose you just can't help it." Noob taunted.

Can't I?

Noob saw his shadow gather in front of him and then Saibot rose from it with it's arms crossed. It's white eyes, nearly identical to his except for the purplish outline that covered it's entire body looked annoyed, but playful in a dark way. Noob hadn't willed Saibot to to materialize, but he didn't voice his opinion. Saibot would no about it anyway.

You're going soft.

"What would you have me do, stay and kill them? Quan Chi already said to not interfere."

Quan Chi would kill you if he knew that you met Sareena again and didn't kill her. That would be two failures, counting Sub Zero.

Noob decided to change the subject, he knew there was no winning with his other half.

"All the powers are moving against each other in earnest, I think it's time I set my plan into motion."

Our plan. We first need to find a portal to the Chaosrealm.

"I'm willing to bet that Kitana has access to a portal. I could probably use it to get there. The only problem is finding it."

Maybe you should ask him.

Saibot returned to Noob and the thing that it had seen was revealed in Noob's mind. Noob turned tiredly to find Smoke standing silently behind him.

"You followed me and abandoned your men."

"I've left them in capable hands. I'm not going to lose you again." Smoke said determinedly.

"Stop wasting your time Tomas." Noob said before turning.

Smoke got in front of him in cloud form and stood defiantly.

"I can't let you leave Bi Han, I won't."

"You're risking your life for a lost cause Smoke." Noob warned.

Smoke took a battle stance.

"I have faith Bi Han, I don't think I'm risking anything."