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He slammed his fist into the stone wall, his teeth grit together. Blood drips from his fist, knuckles beginning to bruise. His eyes flick over to Sektor, his glare hot. "What do you mean that Sub-Zero died? I'm here, aren't I?" He practically growled out. There's a bruise on Sektor's face, and Cyrax is noticeably missing from the red cladded man's side.
"I mean it's impossible. Cy— I saw your skull being dropped on Shang Tsung's throne room." Sektor had claimed, looking as if he had seen an actual ghost. The cryomancer was half tempted to throw a snowball at the Grandmaster's heir. Because he's here, isn't he? The thought in itself makes absolutely no sense. Then he thought back to Smoke. The man had been avoiding him all week, and Bi-Han had forced himself to not growl as Sektor pushed himself past.
Smoke has some explaining to do.
He finds the teenager with four others: Aurelia, Hydro, Muchen and Aiguo. Hydro and Aurelia are his friends; a hydromancer like him, and a girl who can stay forever young. Aurelia was actually already older than all of them, though she didn't look it. She looked like she was twenty-seven, though he knew she was much older than what she appeared to be. Something about being born in 1798.
(He recognized that... tattoo, on her wrist. If you could even call it that. It had been once, back when Smoke had recently joined the Lin Kuei when he was ten. Aurelia– or Mauve, as was her code name, had looked at him with a slight smile curling on her lips. But she didn't look happy. "Its amazing.. what monsters will do to anyone that are different than them." She had spoke, running her fingers through Smoke's hair. The boy sleeping on her lap. She was akin to a mother figure to him, you could say.)
Bi-Han had never asked for the details. He just knew she'd been around for that. Had watched so many people survive. And that before, she'd lived in a shelter ran by a cult in Warsaw.
He shook off his thoughts. "Smoke!" He yelled, his brows furrowed. The teen glanced over at him, and then gulped. Aurelia had moved to place a hand on top of Smoke's shoulder, as he stormed over.
"Bi-Han-" Aiguo began, but he shushed him and Muchen with a shake of his head. Bi-Han poked his finger straight into the amnesiac's chest. "Why is Sektor and the Grandmaster so surprised that I'm still alive? And where is my brother, Smoke." He says with a scoff.
Somehow, he knew that Kuai Liang and Smoke were closer than what appeared to be the truth. He'd seen the stolen glances in passing, the bumping of each other's shoulders, his brother's hand sometimes on Smoke's shoulder or the back of his neck. Or even the occasional staring at each other's masks── or lips, if they were unmasked
They weren't as subtle as they thought they were.
"He.." Smoke started out, looking around. And it was almost as if the teen had realized something. But somehow, Bi-Han didn't care. He didn't want to care about.. whatever Smoke was to Kuai Liang. If it was Smoke's fault that Kuai Liang wasn't here, he'd rip the kid a new one. "He what? Out with it, Smoke." Bi-Han gripped the collar of Smoke's uniform, almost dangling the teen off the ground. He was sure he looked unamused as he felt. Smoke swallowed quietly. "... He dressed up in your colors and went to the tournament dressed as you."
He stopped. "What?"
"I don't want you to go!" He had a mission the week before the tournament, and scheduled to return just a few days before. It wouldn't take that long. Still, his younger brother was insistent that he not go. He glanced over to Kuai Liang, shaking his head. "The mission?" He'd asked, and Kuai Liang had groaned. "The tournament, Bi-Han! I have this bad feeling about you going."
And god, hadn't he pushed his brother's worries aside? If he hadn't, maybe his brother would still be here. But would he? It's almost a shocking realization, that his brother had gone to the tournament in his place.
"... Bi-Han," Muchen had tried to ease. "Come on. Let go of Smoke. It wasn't his fault."
He looked at the silver haired teen, before he eventually did let him go. Shakily, Smoke fell to the ground, but then got right back up. He was silent for the longest time. Life was cruel, taking his brother away from him. "... Do we know who's responsible? For Tundra's demise." He says. Sektor wouldn't talk, he knew this.
But his allies just shook his head. His lips draw into a thin line. So he glanced to the side. When the cyber initiative eventually takes place, they need to get out of here. And while he has no problem leaving Smoke here to become cyberized, he knows that if Kuai Liang was still alive, it would break his heart. So he'd save the kid, even if a part of him was angry at the loss of the only family he had left.
"... Let's go." He says, before Aiguo had looked between him and the rest of their little group. "Where are we going?"
"To find Cyrax."
Cyrax hadn't returned with Sektor. But surely he'd been there at the tournament. So if anyone knew what fully happened (the name of this Shirai Ryu despite the fact they were supposed to be dead ─── though a part of him had an idea of who it was, and he hoped he was wrong), it would surely be Cyrax. He'd been Kuai Liang's friend, so if anyone knew the full story... it had better be Cyrax.
He really hoped that it wasn't the person he thought was responsible. Please, let him be wrong.
His mother had ran from his father once she found out what he was going to do. She didn't say anything to him. Just that if their father found them, it wouldn't end well. They'd gone all the way to a small village in Japan to hide, where he'd met a boy around his age. Their homes were on opposite sides of the village, but one of them and their mothers always made the journey everyday.
"Your last name is so funny Bi-Han." The boy would poke his cheek, laughing as if it was funny. Bi-Han, almost ten, had made a face. "What's so funny about Kuàng, Hanzo?" He had asked. He'd shrugged, and then squeezed his arm. Their mothers Mingzhu and Kohaku had laughed on the front porch.
His father had found them a few months later, shortly after Kuai Liang had been born. He didn't want to think about what Hanzo had thought, their house a wreck, his mother's body nowhere to be found— the two children gone. Hanzo had always grinned ear to ear when holding Kuai Liang.
If I find out it was you who killed my brother, Hanzo, I will kill you twice, he told himself as he, Smoke, Aurelia, Hydro, Aiguo and Muchen left the temple.
Once had been enough at the temple of elements. He'd hoped he wouldn't have to do it twice.