"Watch out!"

Two men were running as fast as they could through a snow littered forest in the blackness of night. Their only light source was the white full moon that dangled over them lowly. As the two men ran at full speed, behind them they could hear movements throughout the trees. They didn't dare to look back behind them, as their only goal was to escape their predators. One of these men was dressed in an all grey ninja garb. A black mask covered his hooded head, while his ally was dressed in an identical getup, the difference being that his garb was light blue. Trees snapped under the pair's legs as they ran. Both of their faces were horror struck, and the desperation emitting off of them could easily be sensed. The two ran, and ran until they were met by a fully silver robotic menace.

"Oh fuck!" Shouted out the grey ninja at the sight of the machine. These words caught the attention of the blue ninja as he extended his arms out as quickly, and as far as he could stretch them. A glimmering, blue orb flew from his hands, and rapidly encased the cyborg in a sheet of thick, bone chilling ice. After seeing the success of his move the blue ninja sprinted towards the cyborg, and placed his hands upon it's shoulders. Using the momentum of his run, the ninja forcefully threw the cyborg as hard as he could manage. The robot smashed straight into a nearby tree, and shattered instantly into a pile of flickering parts, and blood. The grey ninja looked over at his blue dressed friend. Both men were in complete disbelief at the events that had been unfolding before their very eyes. The grey ninja began to speak with a slight shakyness to his voice.

"Was that the last of them?" He asked while trying his hardest to recover his breath. His friend looked over at him, and watched as the grey ninja bent over quickly to allow the air to move through his lungs easier.

"I... I think so!" He breathed loudly, as he placed his hands upon the back of his head. The blue ninja's eyes gazed around at the shivering winter storm that surrounded them in every direction. The distance was very hard to see due to all the snow rushing past them at an astonishing pace.

"I think we outran them. It'll be hard for even them to track us through this damn blizzard." The blue ninja stated. He put his hands down to his sides, and quickly walked over to his comrade.

"Are you okay Smoke?" The blue ninja asked as he placed a hand on the grey ninja's back.

"What the fuck do you think Kuai?" The ninja responded with a lot of bitterness to his voice.

"We're on the run from psycotic, robotic maniacs! How do you think I feel, and don't call me Smoke anymore either! That name is dead to me, and so is that stupid fucking civil language they've been forcing us to speak for forever!" The grey dressed ninja bellowed. The blue ninja named Kuai looked very taken aback by his friends attitude. He removed his hand from his back gently.

"No, no you're right Thomas. We should try to distance ourselves from that. You're right. Look I don't know about you, but I think it's a bad idea for us to be out here much longer. We need to move. Now." Kuai spoke with a deep sigh.

"And where exactly are we going to go, huh? We've got no family, we've got no friends, all we have is each other, and quite frankly we both know we can't take care of each other out there in the open for long!" Thomas argued. Kuai pondered his thoughts for a moment, and as he did so an awkward silence befell the pair of them.

"Raiden." He spoke finally. Thomas looked at him as if his idea was the dumbest thing he's ever heard.

"Raiden? Are you kidding me? You really think that the protector of Earthrealm is going to take time out of his fucking day to help out two former Lin Kuei goons who are on the run? That is literally the worst idea i've heard come out of your mouth Kuai." Thomas spat in frustration. Kuai however seemed very keen on his suggestion.

"No, no listen to me! I remember my brother telling me one time that if I was ever in any need of aid that Raiden would be obliged to assist me." Kuai remembered his brother's words almost exactly in his head. Thomas still seemed to doubt Kuai's wishes.

"So, because your brother said so is what we're going on now? Let's make that clear. Give me a break." Thomas shook his head.

"You don't understand! I don't know the full story, but Bi-Han said that once a long time ago he teamed up with Raiden to stop Shinnok, and Quan Chi from gaining entry into Earthrealm. He also entered the Mortal Kombat tournament on Raiden's request. Raiden owes him a few favors!" Kuai had felt like he had proven his point valid, and from the look of his friends face, it had appeared so.

"O..Okay, but we both know that Bi-Han died in that tournament under Raiden's guidence, right? Based on that alone I wouldn't be so quick to put both of our lives in his hands." Thomas eventually replied.

"Well I know that if we continue standing here with no other option, then we're as good as dead, right? We're both in some deep trouble here Thomas. This may be our only way out of this alive." He answered calmly. After another short awkward silence between the two friends, Thomas doubtfully shook his head in agreement.

"Right. Fine, well we'll go find Raiden, and see what he can do for us. We have no other choices. " Thomas finally agreed, even though he still seemed slightly against the idea presented to him.

"So did your brother ever mention where we could find him?" Thomas asked. Both of them appeared to have regan their breaths.

"I don't remember." Kuai whispeared. Thomas sighed, and began walking forward.

"Well, we better get a move on if we're going to have to find out. I just hope it won't take forever." He called out to Kuai who was slightly trailing behind him. They both could hear the loud crunches that the pure white snow made under their feet as they walked. Thomas placed his hands up to try and block the snow from coming in contact with his eyes. A mist flowed out of his mouth, as the cold weather continued to effect the two. The two men marched as silently as they could through the winter wonderland. Paranoia filled their minds, as the fear of running into more of the Lin Kuei's machines controlled their every movement. Their movement was halted at the sound of a loud snap. Kuai heard Thomas shoosh him silently. Suddenly another loud crunch came from behind them, causing them both to turn on the spot.

"Fuck!" Thomas hissed softly.

"Maybe it's an animal?" Kuai suggested. Thomas shook his head.

"No.. I don't think so. Be quiet." He demanded. Thomas lifted one of his feet off of the pure white snow under him, and slowly began walking as quietly as he could . Kuai followed his example identically. The two did not get very far, as Kuai heard a loud metalic sound come once again from behind. He turned instantly, what he saw made him jump violently.

"Thomas move!" He screamed, as he lundged away from an unidentified object that was making it's way steadily torwards them. He landed in a roll, and during that roll he heard Thomas give a heartfelt scream. Worried Kuai looked over at his freind who was standing, and screaming at the top of his lungs. At first Kuai couldn't tell what had just happened, but after noticing that blood was spraying everywhere upon the white snow turning it a dark red, and seeing that Thomas was holding onto his arm tightly he put two, and two together. Thomas's arm had landed with a thud. His arm had been completely taken off by a spinning saw blade. Kuai looked both greatly concerned, and disgusted. He lifted his gaze up torwards the direction from which the saw blade had came in flying. Standing inbetween two incredibly dead trees he saw a shadowed figure standing stiffly before him. The figure slowly made it's way out of the shadows, and revealed itself to be a yellow colored machine like human. It's eyes were glowing green, and black tubes were sticking from it's head. Kuai was panicked.

"Look what you've done! Look at what you just did Cyrax! This isn't what you do! This isn't you!" Kuai bellowed as he tried to persuade the robot named Cyrax, by showing it what it had just done to Thomas, who had fallen to the ground. Thomas's eyes stared at where his arm used to be. It was cut clean, and his bone had become visible underneath under all the blood that was just gushing out. Tears of pain flushed into his eyes. Cyrax paid no attention to Kuai's words. He just stood emotionless. His eyes were locked on the blue ninja before him.

"As of the Grandmaster's wishes you both are required to return with me to begin your transformations." His voice echoed throughout the night, and sounded very technologically generated. Kuai looked over to his wounded ally, and then back to Cyrax.

"You'll have to kill us! We won't be turned! We won't become one of you!" Yelled Kuai. He balled his fist up. Cyrax stared forward, and at an lightning speed he shifted his body to face Kuai. Hoping to get the upper hand, Kuai charged forward. He brought down both of his hands from above his head in hopes of bashing them against Cyrax's head, but to his dismay Cyrax had caught both of them. Cyrax in return would bash his solid steel face right into the skull of Kuai, thus knocking him back onto the ground. Kuai held his head painfully, and noticed that a trickle of skarlet colored blood was making it's way down his face. Cyrax did nothing, but look down at him. No looks of remorse. No looks of anything. Kuai rolled himself up backwards, and again ran straight for his enemy. Cyrax used his instinctive combat prowess to evade each, and every of Kuai's attacks. Cyrax took advantage of an opening, and delivered a very stiff kick straight into Kuai's abdomen. He bent over quickly from the impact, and spit out a mouthfull of copper tasting blood. As he stood hunched over Cyrax struck him with a hard kick right under Kuai's jaw. The force pushed him backwards, and once again he had landed on his back. He stared up at the night sky, seeing stars from the abuse he had taken. The panick began to kick into Kuai's mind. Thomas was rendered useless, and could be moments away from bleeding out, and if Kuai couldn't think of anything to stop Cyrax he would be taken back to the temple he had ran away from in hopes of avoiding being turned into the lifeless machine. One of his biggest fears is to become a lifeless void. A zombie under somebody else's control. Forced to live the rest of his life as a mindless slave. The thought alone haunted him. He had to make a chance to get away. He had to find a way to save the only person in his life that he had left to care for. He couldn't allow himself to be weak like he always thought he had been. He needed to be there for Thomas. He felt he had already failed his brother by not going with him to the tournament like he wanted, and he never wanted to again feel the sorrow that he experienced when he learned of Bi-Han's death, knowing that if he had went he could've saved him. He needed to find a way to beat the odds he's never had to face before.

Blood was once again filling Kuai's mouth, and while he was deep in thought he spit it out. The stickiness of it made it clump together, and land right beside his head. Cyrax saw this, and believed that Kuai had been defeated. He quickly made his way over to Thomas who was shouting at Cyrax to stand back, but the robot wasn't listening. Cyrax grabbed Thomas by his wound, and raised him forcefully from the ground, and Thomas screamed as he did so. He held Thomas steady, and then pushed him away lightly. Thomas stood wobbly, and still in shock about losing his arm. His skin had turned into a pale white. Cyrax's chest cavity swung open, and out of his chest flew out a glowing green net. The net wrapped itself all the way around Thomas tightly, holding him completely still. Thomas swayed inside the compressed net, and fell over. He wiggled as he tried to break himself free. Kuai noticed his struggle.

"Thomas quit moving! You'll only bleed out faster!" He informed. Thomas listened to Kuai's words, and ended his shuffling. Cyrax turned back to Kuai, and upon noticing that Kuai was making his way back to his feet, he started making his way back torwards him. Upon reaching him, Cyrax leaned Kuai over slightly, and began throwing heavy fist into his stomach. Each punch made Kuai groan in agony. Cyrax grabbed Kuai by his shoulders, and then proceeded to throw him into a tree much like Thomas had done to the silver robot minutes ago. Kuai sat with his back against the tree. His vision was starting to fade, but the thought of losing Thomas kept him in it. Cyrax moved positions so that he only stood a few feet away from where Kuai was seated. Kuai knew what was coming, and he knew what he had to do to avoid it. Once again Cyrax's chest cavity opened, and another green net was forming inside. Kuai stuck out one of his hands, and another blue orb formed in his grasp. He flung it at Cyrax, and the orb landed directly into his chest cavity, thus freezing the net inside of the machine. Kuai then forced himself to his feet again, and used all of his energy to sprint as fast as he could to Cyrax. As soon as he was close enough he jumped into the air, and extended his leg. His foot landed across the side of Cyrax's head, causing the robot to flip in a cartwheel like motion. Kuai landed roughly, and exhasted on his face from his sudden burst of energy. Cyrax on the other hand bended his elbows, and knees, and sprung up from the impact. Kuai's last hope of stopping Cyrax had failed. He could only watch as Cyrax bent over to grab a hold of him. Kuai felt his body flowing through the air, as he was thrown once again into a tree. He heard a loud pop upon hitting the tree, and held his left shoulder in response. He cried out loudly. Cyrax had no intention of stopping his beatdown until Kuai has been knocked out cold. Kuai felt his failure overcome him. Because of him Thomas would die, and if he somehow didn't he, and himself would be turned into what was standing before his very eyes. A monster. His vision was once again fading, and this time he just felt like just accepting it. What was the point when his opponet couldn't even feel the attacks he had been dishing out? He knew he couldn't ever win this fight. As Cyrax edged closer, and closer something very strange happend. Cyrax's entire body became surrounded by a dark cloud. His body began smoking, and shaking lightly. Kuai goggily glared on in confusion. Cyrax's shaking intesified, and the smoke that surrounded him began to grow heavier. Then in an instant Cyrax's body exploded almost like, an atomic bomb, only the blast radius wasn't very large. Peices flew in every direction, and Cyrax's blood soaked Kuai instantly. Kuai was so out of it that he almost didn't notice the blood splatter. He would soon be rendered unconscious by a large chunck of metal.

(Hours later)

Kuai awoken with a jump. He looked around at his current location, and he noticed that he wasn't by the tree he was thrown against. In fact, he wasn't even in the same area. He was in a small, rocky cave that was dimly lit by a fire that had been started in the center of the shelter. His mind had began thinking about what he had just seen. Cyrax's explosion, Thomas's arm, getting thrown into a tree. Did it actually happen? Was it all a dream? He tried to sit up, and when he did he was met with an imense amount of pain. That's when he knew that these events he had seen actually happened. He forced himself to get to his feet. His head was pounding, and he was covered in so much blood. He looked around the cave again, and wondered how he got there. Did Thomas drag him here? No, he couldn't have with that arm of his missing. Where was Thomas? Is he okay? Kuai left the warmness of the cave to see that the blizzard outside was still raging. He wouldn't survive alone out there in his condition. He knew that for sure, but what about Thomas? He had to find him! He had to know he was safe! Not knowing was the worst part, and right now Kuai could feel that sting of failure that he so wanted to avoid. He knew Thomas didn't make it there. It was in his gut. He figured Thomas was either dead, or being turned into a robot as he thought. Thinking about this caused Kuai to break down into tears. He was all alone. Nothing left but himself. First his brother, and now his best, and only friend, and all because he was weak. What was left for him to fight for anymore? He had lost everything. Kuai slowly turned to the fire, and sat down in front of it. His icy blue eyes began to shift to red as he continued his wheeping.