Sub-Zero: Origins

Brothers

"If you know what's good for you, you'll stay put," Shen stated as he and the other guards shoved Kuai Liang into his tiny bedroom. He fell face-first onto the floor, but then quickly flipped onto his back and looked at them.

"He's my brother!" the Cryomancer shouted once more.

"What on Earth is going on?" Tomas cried as he lifted his friend to his feet.

"If I was you, I wouldn't worry about Bi-han right now," Shen said, ignoring the Czech man. "I'd worry about my own hide. The Grandmaster is close to killing you, Kuai Liang. I can see it in his eyes."

With a furious roar, Kuai Liang lunged at the guards, his fists surging with fog and icy power, but Tomas quickly grabbed one of his wrists and stayed his hand. "My pr̆ítel, calm yourself. There is a time and place to fight, but this is not it," he said coolly. The Cryomancer looked at him, and saw something of a plan in his platinum gray eyes. He had known him long enough to know that his expression meant he was cooking something up. Kuai Liang sighed and grunted unhappily but nodded, and he lowered his hands, allowing his powers to fade.

"I will watch him," Tomas told the guards. They looked at him skeptically, then to Kuai Liang, and finally back again.

"You better, Tomas" Shen warned. "If you don't, he's going to spend the night in chains." Kuai Liang inwardly scoffed. As if chains would hold him.

Tomas seemed amused by the statement as well, but he said nothing as he bowed his head to the men in agreement. They backed away slowly, closing the heavy wooden door as they left. When it had latched into place, he promptly smacked Kuai Liang in the back of the head.

"What is the matter with you?" he snapped, his Czech accent thick. "Does the phrase 'pick your battles' mean anything to you?"

Kuai Liang was too upset to notice Tomas' annoyance with him. "Bi-han's dead," he announced. It felt as if he'd been outside of his own body when the words escaped him. It didn't feel real. It didn't feel possible. He scrubbed the wretched tears from his face and then sank to the floor on his knees, raking his fingers deep into his hair and holding them there.

"What?" Tomas cried. "How?"

"I don't know," he mumbled softly in response, lost in shock. "Sektor and Cyrax just returned from their mission and said he was dead. But Oniro had me dragged out before I could find out how."

"Then let us go and find out how," he suggested.

"What are you talking about?" the Cryomancer asked, looking up at him in confusion.

Tomas sighed. "They mean to turn you into a machine, my pr̆ítel. And the rest of us aren't far behind. So we need to leave."

"But Oniro explicitly told me I can't leave the Temple," he argued.

"Yes, but you're going to," he said. "I'm not going to let them turn me into a mindless killing machine, and I'm not letting them turn you either."

"We have no choice," he told him, the thought of running away unheard of. Nobody left the Lin Kuei's service, and anyone who tried met a gruesome end. He wasn't afraid of death, per se, but he wasn't anxious to die just yet. Still, suicide sounded better than the alternative. 

"Yes, we do. We just sneak out."

"We have to obey the Grandmaster," he insisted. "I am loyal to the Lin Kuei."

"Which is admirable under every other circumstance imaginable. But this? This asks too much of us. Come." Tomas immediately started packing up his things.