The young woman enters the living room carefully, she slowly shuts the front door as not to disturb the peaceful, sleeping newborn and toddler strapped to her chest.
An ancient, but bulky and powerful man rises to meet her, a warm smile on his pale face.
She carefully places the older of the two on the couch first, she places his younger brother next to him and embraces the man quickly, picking up the newborn and sitting next to the toddler on the couch.
"It is good to see my stepdaughter, and my grandsons again.", Whispers the man.
"It is good to see you too, Sub Zero." Answers the mother sweetly.
"That title is from another life." He responds nostalgically.
The toddler shifts his attention to the voice, curiosity in his eyes.
The man's old and battle-weary face shifts to disappointment that someone is missing.
"Where is my son? Should he not be overjoyed that his newborn is healthy?" He questions with a whisper from behind the couch.
The mother's gaze shifts to the floor, she answers without turning around. "Li had duties with the L-"
"Lin Kuei."
Interrupts the grandfather, his tone discontented, but not angry.
"As Grandmaster I would never forbid a parent from seeing their child, nor would I deprive the parent of naming that child," The man comments, his voice full of disgust.
The toddler's peaceful rocking stops, realizing the happy tone is gone. The grandfather recognizes and softens his voice.
"Wu has not been the Grandmaster I had hoped he would. He has already broken Lin Kuei tradition by assigning himself and descendants the title 'Sektor' not even a month after exchange of power."
He hasn't been Grandmaster in over a hundred years. Corrects the mother internally.
"But Lin Kuei politics are not why I came to visit tonight,", States the mother, redirecting the conversation back to her sons. "Little Kuai is going to be a week and a half soon, and I want my sons to spend as much time as they can with their grandfather… before he is gone."
The mother expresses sweetly, shifting her gaze between her sons. She carefully rises to her feet, pulling her newborn close to chest, then gently hands him to his grandfather as he sits in his ancient rocking chair. The grandfather holds the newborn close to his chest, looking down his grandson's serene face as he sleeps soundly. Tears well up in the corners of his eyes as he chuckles very quietly.
"I told myself I wouldn't cry this time, but he is so-"
"Perfect, innocent, and pure." Both swoon in unison.
The woman picks up her older son, placing him next to his brother on his grandfather's lap. The older brother squeals quietly, he smiles to his grandfather and younger brother.
"You three stay put; I'm getting the camera." Smiles the mother, she turns and hurries to the storage room.
-
Seven minutes pass, a looming dread comes over the grandfather. His stepdaughter was never one to doddle, and he could not rid the feeling something was wrong.
Perhaps it is just a baseless, intrusive thought. Maybe she needs help lifting it, that tripod for that camera is made from salvaged iron. He assures himself internally.
The toddler's happy squeaks stop, he looks around nervously, unsure as to why the chair had stopped rocking.
The grandfather rises very cautiously, placing both boys on the couch, he gives a careful kiss to both foreheads.
"You two sit tight; Papa will be back." He whispers.
The man exits the living room, enters the kitchen and turns right, stealthily walking up the narrow stairwell.
He enters the storage room at the top, maneuvering his way through neatly packed shelves and gazes inside the walk-in closet.
His stepdaughter lay on the floor, tied and gagged.
He begins to untie her, but she shakes her head in objection and says something muffled. The grandfather stops and loosens the gag to better understand her.
What he hears drains the little colour from his pale face. His heart stops, restarting three times faster.
He artfully weaves between the shelves and shuffles down the narrow stairs as fast as he can. His pace quickens once he reaches the bottom.
As he enters the living room, a devastating sucker punch turns Sub Zero's legs to jelly, he stumbles into a corner table, knocking a lamp and many trinkets onto the floor, which shatter.
The noise startles both children, who begin to cry. Two Lin Kuei enter through the window across the room, sending shards of glass everywhere. The assassins grab both boys and sprint out the front door into the darkness. Sub Zero's head clears in time to recognize this, tunnel vision takes over as he sprints towards the door.
Halfway across the room, the first Lin Kuei bodychecks Sub Zero into the wall and blocks the front door. Sub Zero rises to his feet shakily as the assassin unsheathes his dao.
The Lin Kuei slashes for the neck and misses, Sub Zero summons an ice sword and counterattacks with a thrust, which is parried.
Sub Zero attacks with an overhead slash, the Lin Kuei blocks with his sword and knocks Sub Zero back against the wall with a turning side kick. The assassin maintains his momentum and recklessly thrusts at Sub Zero's midsection, he sidesteps s and counters with two shifting punches that send the assassin stumbling over the couch, leaving his dao lodged in the wall.
The assassin growls in anger as he unsheathes his jian, kicking the couch to the side. He thrusts rapidly at Sub Zero's torso, he parries three strikes as retreats, sidestepping the fourth and pivots, tackling the Lin Kuei warrior and making him drop his sword.
Sub Zero sits up on the assassin's chest, he rains punches down with primal rage, he breaks the man's nose, dislodges his hood and cuts the assassin's left eye. Despite the damage, the Lin Kuei maintains his composure and sweeps Sub Zero as he swings recklessly, attacking with a straight armlock.
Sub Zero rolls out of it and rises to his feet, he stuns the assassin with a right cross and left knee to the body before he can fully reach his feet. Sub Zero attacks with a reverse punch but receives a counter right hook that splits his lip and stumbles him backwards.
Grabbing his jian from the floor, the Lin Kuei thrusts it directly into Sub Zero's torso, Sub Zero immediately tears the blade from his stomach, grunting loudly as he shakily tries to stab the assassin, who jumps back in fear.
Sub Zero utilizes this opportunity to seal the wound with blast ice, his legs buckle in pain.
Realizing his error, the assassin pulls a small knife from his pocket, he sprints towards Sub Zero and thrust the blade at the side of his head, Sub Zero stumbles backwards to avoid the knife, but a left hook to the body forces another groan of pain from him.
Despite his body commanding him collapse, Sub Zero straightens his posture, wiping the blood from his face as plants himself into a powerful fighting stance, getting a second growl of annoyance from the Lin Kuei warrior, who charges again with his knife.
Sub Zero grabs the assassin's wrist and stomps on his knee, forcing an agonized yell from him.
Sub Zero shoves the warrior back, he falls over, but uses the momentum to somersault to his feet, cursing in mandarin as he puts weight on the compromised knee. Sub Zero summons a large battle axe and approaches the warrior slowly, the crackling of ice fills the room as he drags the axe onehanded across the floor.
Clutching his knee and somewhat hunched over, the assassin shakily lifts the blade and attempts to thrust in a last-ditch attempt at an attack, he misses by over a metre.
Sub Zero plants his feet and, grips the axe tightly with both hands as rage overtakes him, he swings the massive blade into the assassin's torso, nearly lifting his him off the ground, tearing it just as quickly. The assassin gasps in pain, unable to vocalize anything more, as blood spills from him onto the oak floor.
Sub Zero's grip tightens even more in anger, unaware cracks are beginning to form along the axe. He lifts the axe shoulder height and smashes the blunt side into the Lin Kuei's face, the axe shatters on impact, slicing his cheek and knocking him unconscious.
As the Lin Kuei's stiff body hits the floor, Sub Zero pounces on him and connects a barrage of punches, bouncing the unconscious man's head off the wood floor, tears streak down his face.
Sub Zero's tears become full fledged sobs; his punches stop as the rush of adrenaline fades.
The assassin's bloody, mangled face stares lifelessly at the elderly cryomancer, who's breathing is wheezy and erratic.
Sub Zero forces himself to his feet with a groan, he hobbles through the kitchen, clutching his midsection. He grunts in pain and gasps for air each step he takes up the narrow stairs, collapsing at the top on his hands and knees, his vision clouded with tears.
Sub Zero stumbles to his feet, hobbling through the break room and collapses in front of the closet. All the colour drains from his stepdaughter's face as he unties her.
Sub Zero embraces his stepdaughter as she sits up to her knees, staining her blouse with blood.
He tries to console her as he shares the dire news, his voice extremely weak and raspy, "I'm so so sorry, Vanessa, they took your boys. Sub Zero loses composure and cries into her shoulder.
"You did everything you could, perhaps Li… can help you find the Lin Kuei once you recover." Vanessa responds uncertainly.
A solemn nod is all Sub Zero can respond with; a lone thought echoes in his mind.
I failed you Bi-Han, I failed you Kuai Liang, and I failed you Vanessa… All I hope is that one day you can forgive me.
This chapter was both fun and overwhelming to write, because of how little canon material there is, it meant I could go wild with creative liberties, but it meant the chapter might feel less grounded in MK lore than the others. While it is probably more likely that the original Sub Zero had already died by the time Bi-Han and Kuai Liang were born, I decided to make him a very elderly man having lived for at least 350 years (I headcannon Cryomancers live 300-400 hundred years max because there is no canon lifespan for them, but that would put the original Sub Zero just under halfway through his life when he trained Shujinko. As for Bi-Han and Kuai Liang's parents, I had so many possibilities because all we know is that the father was a cryomancer and their mother was chinese american, I leaned into the father having more Chinese influence because he was Lin Kuei and the Mother having more American influence to balance them out.