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The more the first Sub-Zero looked into Sareena's eyes, the more confused he became. Before he even realized it, he would find himself standing still, utterly captivated by the supernatural gleam in the eyes of the woman he had rescued from the Netherrealm.

Those dark eyes, with crimson irises as scarlet as the fires of Hell, framed by burns around her eyelids, consumed him. It only took a few seconds for Bi-Han to drown in them, wishing he would never have to look anywhere else again. He could not understand it.

How could a creature born of darkness possess a gaze that carried such menace, yet soften into nothing but tenderness whenever it rested on him? How did Sareena do that? It felt like sorcery. Demons were not supposed to know such things, he thought.

Bi-Han should have known better. He should have known that sparing her life would change him forever. He should have known that one should never stare into evil for too long.

Yet he was far too arrogant to heed anyone's warnings. When he looked at Sareena, there was no evil.

There was only love.

The cryomancer could not stop himself from cupping her face in his cold hands before pressing a kiss to her lips. As he rested his forehead against hers, the question still lingered in his mind.

Tundra was nothing more than a frozen biome, a treeless plain. Just like him. Cold and underestimated.

Yet the title of Grandmaster eventually fell upon his shoulders. From Tundra, he inherited a title of great importance, one that had once rested upon Bi-Han.

With his older brother's death, Kuai Liang was forced to carry on his legacy. Once a warrior known as Tundra, he was now burdened with sins that were never his own.

While struggling to restore the honor of the former leader of the Lin Kuei, he also had to atone for crimes he had never committed.

The cryomantic power flowing through his hands served as a constant reminder that he now bore the coldest title of all. And almost without realizing it... He became Sub-Zero.

Because he remained faithful to the principles of the Lin Kuei... the very principles he had once believed Bi-Han followed as well.

Kuai Liang was not the first to bear the name, but his training and his determination to fight for his brother made him a better Sub-Zero than the original had ever been.

Kuai Liang did not merely inherit the mantle. He gave new meaning to the title of the warrior who wielded the power of ice.

The desperation of needing to join your lips with those of your beloved as if your very life depended on it. Kissing becomes more than a display of affection, it becomes a necessity.The absence of a kiss becomes almost as agonizing as the lack of oxygen in one’s lungs.

Liu Kang’s heart tightens as he feels basorexia burn within his chest. She is there, so close, yet at the same time so distant on the other side of the table while speaking with Johnny Cage.

He tries to convince himself that he has no reason to feel disappointed. After all, this is not his Kitana. Not the same woman he met during the tournament, not the same one who fought beside him, not his beloved Kitana.

But then why does the uncontrollable desire to claim her lips in a kiss torment him so slowly?

Why does Liu Kang keep staring at Kitana laughing at the actor’s jokes? Why does he hope she will look at him instead of Johnny? There was no reason for such longing. She was not his Kitana. Liu Kang would have to console himself with that truth.

When Empress Sindel’s banquet finally came to an end, Liu Kang accompanied Raiden through the palace gardens. The two walked peacefully through the night until they eventually parted ways and followed different paths.

As the God of Fire walked among the countless flowers, he noticed a graceful presence following him and did not even need to turn around to know who it was. He would recognize her footsteps anywhere.

“Is something wrong… Princess Kitana?”

She smiled at his question and approached him with an elegance that was almost reverent.

“I feel a great frustration, Lord Liu Kang.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” he replied, trying to appear indifferent.

“You should be, considering you are responsible for all of it.”

The God of Fire furrowed his brow as he watched her approach until she stood less than a foot away from him.

“Forgive me, Princess, but I do not understand.”

“Stop with the formalities, Liu Kang… I see the way you look at me. Stop pretending you feel nothing for me.”

“Wait, Kitana, you should not...”

“What? I should not love a god? I think it is far too late for that, don’t you?” Liu Kang was startled when Kitana grabbed him by the neck and pressed their foreheads together. Once again, that uncontrollable desire surged through him, but there was still that cursed problem.

“Princess Kitana…” He tried to gently push her away by her shoulders, but Kitana only clung to him more tightly.

The Princess of Edenia kissed the lips of the God of Fire with pure hunger and longing, full of need, as though she depended on his lips to survive.

The resemblance to his true Kitana deeply frightened Liu Kang and, for a brief second, he even tangled his fingers in her dark hair. Yet almost immediately, guilt washed over him and he broke the breathless kiss.

“You should not do this.”

Liu Kang had not created her in this reality to replace his true love... he would never do such a thing. And yet, it was impossible to deny how tempting she felt in his arms at that moment. Was she truly not the same?

“You should not love me in this reality. You… have a better life now. You have everything you ever wanted."

“I do not have you, my Liu Kang,” she whispered, caressing his face.

Liu Kang closed his eyes and shook his head.

Was there a small chance she remembered something? Perhaps a flaw in reality itself, or simply destiny trying to reunite them?

When Kitana lifted his chin so he would look at her and captured Liu Kang’s lips once more, he could not resist as he had before.

For one brief moment, Liu Kang surrendered himself to Kitana’s kiss because basorexia burned within him. He tightened his arms around her waist, pulling her closer.

It occurred to Liu Kang that perhaps the Kitana of this new timeline also suffered from basorexia.

Pushing her away now felt almost cruel to the life he had created.

At some remote point in its deepest depths, sinners dwell frozen up to their necks for their crimes of betrayal. Not even their tears of regret escape the glacial cold. Their own sins imprison them.

The divine is light, warmth, the farther one is from it, the colder their fate will be.

The Devil is not a man with horns and a trident. In truth, he can be beautiful, after all, he was the angel of perfection, the wisest and closest to the Creator. However, he allowed pride to consume him and paid a very high price for imagining himself above the heavens.

Power is capable of blinding people, leading them to commit terrible mistakes. When they finally realize it, they are surrounded by chaos and shadows.

“Liu Kang could have saved you! If only you had…” Kuai Liang’s words echo through Bi-Han’s mind as a reminder that if he had been more patient and had not challenged forces greater than himself, he would still be the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei.

Liu Kang was the god of fire, protector. He, on the other hand, was merely a beautiful man with a heart colder than ice. Bi-Han had been given a second chance the moment Liu Kang created a new reality in which he would be Sub-Zero and Kuai Liang, Scorpion. Even knowing his cruel essence, the god of fire did not interfere in his destiny. He merely allowed Bi-Han to choose his own path. For not even a god can violate the free will of a mortal.

And Bi-Han chose.

He chose power over honor.

Bi-Han chose to betray his brothers. To betray the principles of the Lin Kuei, and to betray himself the moment he accepted the shadows and allowed them to transform him into Noob Saibot, granting him a dark power that would never truly be Lin Kuei.

Forever renouncing the position he once held.

Bi-Han had already been Grandmaster; he had never lacked anything. Yet there was always that desire within his essence; the need to always have more.

Liu Kang knew it was inevitable. He knew that sooner or later Bi-Han would be consumed by ice or by shadows. The chance to change had always been there, but it was rejected.

Bi-Han merely stares at his reflection. His body lies there, paralyzed, as the ice consumes him. His dark hair sways in the cold, thin layers of frost forming over his skin, and in that moment, as cryomantic energy dances through his hands, a terrifying truth is revealed:

Beauty can deceive.

Even the most beautiful of men can possess a cold and cruel heart.

As Bi-Han walks the path toward darkness, he can hear Kuai Liang’s screams echoing through the blizzard.

“Brother!”

Bi-Han ignores him and extends his hand to embrace the chaos within himself. He accepts the mantle of Noob Saibot, and all the ice becomes nothing but darkness.

“Bi-Han, don’t do this!”

He connects with his cruel essence, forever distancing himself from his brother and from everything Liu Kang had planned.