Bi Han "Sub-Zero" x F!Reader

Fifty

Voices.

There were dull voices that filled the sea of numbness and nothing. Darkness had you in its grasp, squeezed your chest until all the air disappeared from your lungs.

Choking, you sought the light. Just like you had always done.

But this time there was nothing to hold your hand out for. It was dark, pitch black. You weren't even sinking anymore.

So this was it.

The bottom.

As a sigh slipped from your lips it felt like shards of ice pierced your flesh, tore muscles and bones apart until there was nothing left but pieces that would never find their way back to the place they belonged.

It was cold.

Yet it felt like you were on fire.

Once again you closed your eyes and this time allowed yourself to sink all the way to the bottom. Your back nested against a surface, neither hard nor soft.

Everything was and yet nothing.

Voices muffled into your ear again.

No, not many. It was just one. A single voice cut through the dark, clawed its way deeper and deeper through the shadows until it managed to hold onto you.

M...

You breathed in, coughed at the feeling of fire inside your lungs. Then there was the feeling of sweat that ran down your face, over your neck and into your cleavage.

Mûd...

Your eyes flinched and for a brief second something painfully bright obscured your view. A flinch chased through your face.

You felt everything yet numbness filled your chest.

Mûdān...

There it was. Bi Han's beloved nickname for you.

Trembling, you took another breath, so deep that it was like burning alive. Finally, your eyes opened a crack wide. Bright light chased tears across your face.

Gasping for air and relief you twisted and turned. Something moved below you. Your fingers found long, soft fur and a chubby head.

"Mûdān.", Bi Han's voice tore your eardrums apart.

Trembling and gasping for air you managed to focus your eyes. A room appeared, made of gilded steel and bars. Crawling like a crow, you looked around.

Baobao raised his head, a thick tongue licked across your cheek.

Finally something you're useful for, animal.", Bi Han growled as he watched how the panda warmed your almost frozen skin with his saliva.

"K-Kuai-!", your voice broke as you found yourself calling out for the wrong brother.

Bi Han pulled a face, pained.

Thick bars of metal cut you off from him. But it wasn't you who was captured. It was him. Bi Han was locked up in a cell.

He shifted, tried to get closer. But with every movement of his, he was held back by huge chains. Each of his arms was detained, stretched apart as far as possible to keep him from casting his magic.

And yet, as your vision cleared you could see small crystals of ice grow all over his chains, the ground that he kneeled on. Like blue, frosty moss it stretch from him all the way to you, where it had grown a small flower on your shoe.

"Bi Han.", you managed to find your voice again.

He let his head hang low, his face hiding beneath loose strands of his black hair. They had taken his hair tie, his uniform and everything else that once had marked him a Lin Kuei.

And grandmaster.

All that he had left was you, lying outside his prison.

"You're awake.", his voice almost shattered. "You're finally awake..."

For a brief moment you just stared at him, still nuzzled up in Baobao's thick, warm fur. As your eyes traveled down your arms you could see every single vein of yours like a snake slithering below your (S/C) skin.

They were all as black as sin. Like poison lingering.

All at once the memories returned. Shang Tsung's deception. General Shao's betrayal of Outworld. Kuai Liang and Bi Han in chains.

"You betrayed us.", it slipped off your tongue in a whisper.

His hands clenched into fists.

"You're finally awake.", he sounded like all his prayers had been answered.

Fatigue raged in your every limb. You couldn't see it but your eyes were still fogged, deep wrinkles sitting underneath each one.

You looked like a dead body. But somehow you were still alive.

And he thanked every god for it. Even Liu Kang.

"You betrayed us...", you repeated.

Finally, for the first time, he lifted his head to meet your gaze. There was so much sorrow to be found in those brown eyes of his.

"You were gone for weeks.", a tear ran down his face.

A deep breath made your chest quiver.

"I wish I was dead.", you said with a sad smile. "This view tortures me."

He smiled.

"I am a murderer, Mûdān.", he said. "And I won't deny it."

"You betrayed me."

"Will you let me explain why?"

You hesitated. Tiredness stabbed your flesh, pushed your lungs in. You could feel how your mind yearned for sleep. However, this time you weren't sure if you'd wake from it again.

"Humour me.", you whispered. "But keep in mind... that no matter if the grandmaster would have ordered it... or not... he did not deserved your betrayal."

Something on his face changed. Guilt turned into no regret.

"I do not regret what I did.", he confessed. "But I do regret acting without care."

You chuckled, amused and bitter.

"You killed... your father just to get out of a marriage with me... I would have... never imagined you could despise me... so much."

"Mûdān. If there is someone I've ever loved it is you..."

You frowned, tired.

"Why... then..?"

"Father did not choose me that day.", his breath trembled, a different kind of horror appeared in his eyes as he recalled the memory.

"Wh... what..?", you barely managed to keep your eyes open.

"Father assumed that a child with my temper and your abilities would be more threat than use to the clan.", he shook his head. "He chose Kuai Liang instead."

Something inside your chest pulled together.

"N-No...", it slipped off your tongue.

Darkness crept into your eyes. Every limb was as heavy as stone. All you could see was his face. And only his face.

The pain on it. The agony of loosing you forever.

To his own brother.

"I tried to rival his decision but he wouldn't budge.", Bi Han bared his teeth, still resentful of this day. "So I let him die. But Liu Kang informed me that your union with Kuai Liang had been sealed by fate. I asked him to change it. He refused also."

Darkness devoured your mind.

"So... all this... for..?", you asked with a tired chuckle before your eyes fell shut.

You slipped back into a deep slumber.

"All this for you.", he leaned forward, bend the chains as much as he could as if that would bring him any closer to you. "Everything for you. Mûdān... (Y/N)!"