Realizations

They say you can never really learn anything from victory and you can't really enjoy victory until you've tasted defeat. Joy must teach us nothing. It's only logical, all that time I spent doing things I enjoy simply made me weak. I couldn't defeat Scorpion because I was weak.

Pain is weakness leaving the body. That is why I embrace my current horror. I have no sense of direction, I cannot tell if my eyes are open or shut. All I know is my world right now is cold, dark, and... slightly humid. What the hell is this: the sewers of Georgia? Pain was digging into the back of my skull, ever so slightly. It felt like a parasite was trying to sneak his way into my head without my knowledge.

Then again, why should I care? I'm supposed to be burning in flames for the rest of eternity anyways! Somehow this was different though. I know this isn't heaven but it feels nothing like I envisioned hell. Of course it is no picnic, but if I really wanted to I could push that pain out completely. Maybe that was the torture, an endless life and a nagging mind splinter. Or maybe something else.

Maybe I've resigned my life too quickly. Maybe that splinter is a thread of life still inside of me. What did I have to lose? I focused on that pain. I envisioned the ice like that pain, I imagined it flowing over me. Damn! Wait... That's a good thing! It's working I can pull it to the front of my mind.

For a few moments I had to concentrate on keeping the hurt there. The pain made it increasingly difficult to want this but I kept focused. Then it all rushed to me. It was like being crushed under a tsunami.

I could feel my limbs. Shit! Now I don't even want to feel them. They sting and ache and feel useless. Maybe I made a mistake... I probably just reversed my thinking of coming back to life and sent myself to death and by consequence, hell.

"Ironically, you are so close to the truth." The voice wasn't as malicious as I would've expected. It was almost like I was an infant being sweet-talked to sleep by his mother. I contemplated replying but I wasn't quite sure what to say. It was safe to say I was a little confused still.

"I can tell exactly what you are thinking, Brother. For I was in such a place many years ago." Brother? It made my blood boil. This was not the voice of my kin. Cold crept through my corpse.

I suddenly gained a higher level of conscientiousness and I could feel the pain slowly relieve itself. Then it hurt a lot more. Holy crap, like the shattered pieces of my bones were trying to gnaw their way out of my skin. What is happening to me?! Suddenly that pain was gone, my limbs were limp but painless. I flexed each one individually and they seemed to work. My eyes still closed, I could only guess the damage that was done.

"Wake up, SubZero." I was confused by this new voice. So foreign yet familiar. I've heard it before but

in some different context. My anger turned to curiosity. Immediate fatigue blew me over and I started to fade again.

Blackness.

Hours? Days? Years? Who knows how long I was out. I'm awake now though. When I was younger my brother taught me his way of waking up from a sleep. First, you must scan your entire environment with every sense except for sight. I was told that is the first sign someone has woken, if you aren't ready for battle the moment you open your eyes you are simply ill-prepared.

From what I could tell I was on a stone slab in the middle of an empty room made of some kind of rock. That is why the cold is so intense here. We must be underground somewhere. This place seemed all too familiar. Could I possibly be... In the temple? I couldn't determine someone in here with me. It felt deadly still. I prepared to fight, my eyes slowly opened.

I was alone, I was covered in blood. My right eye could barely open and I felt a clean gash that started on my forehead and ran right over my eye to the corner of my lip. It was still open and bleeding, he must have caught me with his sword. Wait... I hear breathing...

I spun around and a soldier stood in his yellow robes. Tengu. I am alive. I'm a prisoner. I must escape.

"Speak Tengu! Where am I?" I spat at my captor.

"You should be thanking me. You see, I've set you free." His voice was cool, slick, and very confident. Arrogance seeped out of every hole in his body. I could tell he's going to get on my nerves real quick.

"Speak sense or not at all! I won't play into your mind games." I took a forward aggressive step and it didn't seem to phase him. I'm about to knock him down a few notches.

"I know things about you that you couldn't possibly imagine. You, your powers, your family, your clan, your thoughts, your dreams, nothing is hidden, within these walls there are no secrets.

"Strike two."

"It's very interesting to observe you SubZero. You suffered debilitating injuries fighting Scorpion, yet somehow the flesh wounds are all the remain." His demeanor hasn't changed one bit. His cryptic words annoy the shit out of me.

I took a chance at looking like an idiot. I forced anger through my body and clenched my fists. I didn't look but I knew it had worked, his face started showing a hint of fear. He quickly covered it up but I know I saw it.

I wrapped my right hand around his throat and he allowed it. I knew it felt cold to him but it wasn't doing the damage I wished for.

"Transfer your hate to me." I barely questioned the words. It felt as if he's been my mentor for years. I did as he said and I saw the pain inside his eyes. The skin closest to my hand turned blue and started cracking, about to crumble.

"You won't kill me. I know things you have begged to know for as long as you can remember. Things the Lin Kuei will never tell you. If you kill me you will never know of your family. Johns Zero, I am your only chance." My family? For as long as I've lived The Grandmaster has told me of my family's death and how they saved my brother and I. I receded all feeling and stepped back.

"Tell me of my sister"

Aaron McCallen looked back into my eyes with almost a sense of pity but I imagine he knew better.