The camera cuts to a view of the temple the heroes are currently in. Cyber Sub-Zero sits up on the slab he’s been placed on. He grunts in displeasure.
SMOKE: What is it?
CYBER SUB-ZERO: I remember… The things I have done for Shao Kahn…
Smoke places a hand on his friends shoulder.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: He cannot be allowed to merge the realms.
Nightwolf turns to Raiden.
NIGHTWOLF: Haokah, how can Sub-Zero best help us?
RAIDEN: I do not know. My attempts to alter future events have had negative consequences. Sub-Zero should never have undergone this transformation. Enlisting him may only further divert the flow of time.
STRYKER: We need intel, right? Let’s send him back to Outworld undercover.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: They will be unaware of my defection. I could deceive them.
Raiden considers this in silence. The scene then cuts to Shao Kahn’s throne room. Sektor and Cyrax are conversing with Noob Saibot, while several Tarkatan minions await orders. A portal has been opened and Cyber Sub-Zero walks through it.
NOOB: Earthrealm is finished. It will not be missed.
SEKTOR: Very well. You will return.
Noob and Cyrax walk off into the portal, with the minions following.
SEKTOR: You report late. Where is the intruder?
CYBER SUB-ZERO: I killed him in Earthrealm.
SEKTOR: He should have been saved for interrogation.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: He was formidable. I had no choice.
SEKTOR: Follow me. We must lead a new mission.
Sektor walks into the portal and Sub-Zero follows. They emerge in the Subway.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: What mission brings us here?
SEKTOR: I have scanned your neural net, 5-2-0. Your neuromodulators have been recalibrated.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Impossible.
SEKTOR: The experience has been deleted from your system. Remove your access panel.
As Sektor moves in, Sub-Zero grabs his wrist and palm-strikes him in the chest, sending him careening across the platform.
SEKTOR: Your programming has been corrupted.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: My soul was corrupted. Now it is cleansed.
They fight. Sub-Zero would have been a match for Sektor even without his cybernetic upgrades; with them, the match is one-sided and ends quickly with Sektor’s systems being knocked offline.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Artificial enhancements are no substitute for the human soul.
Sub-Zero walks over to Sektor’s inert form and accesses his mainframe. The camera cuts to his POV as he hacks into the system and discovers Sektor’s true orders; they are to escort military prisoners from Vogel University to St Dominic’s Cemetary for processing, with uncooperative prisoners being expendable. Sub-Zero also finds the path being taken from the station to the university and the cemetary.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Thank you, Sektor.
The scene cuts to the clock tower of St Dominic’s Cemetary. Eight army soldiers are currently being kept prisoner, with Kano, Goro and Kintaro watching over him. Kano takes the opportunity to blast the soldiers with his eye laser, laughing as he does so.
KANO: Oy! Run about, will ya?
Cyber Sub-Zero enters the clock tower.
KANO: Finally! C’mon, we gotta get ’em to the graveyard at Saint Dominic’s. On yer feet, all of ya!
CYBER SUB-ZERO: For what purpose?
KANO: Don’t care, really. So long as I get paid.
KINTARO: He said on your feet!
GORO: C’mon, up.
KINTARO: Get up.
Two ice blasts freeze Goro and Kintaro where they stand.
KANO: Hey! What’re
Sub-Zero freezes him with an ice blast as well and then turns to the soldiers.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: I will help you.
He takes a hold of the chain shackling the soldiers together and freezes it. He punches the frozen chain and it shatters completely, freeing the soldiers. Goro and Kintaro begin breaking free of the ice they are bound in.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Go! All of you! Now!
SOLDIERS: Let’s go! C’mon!
The soldiers make their escape just as Goro and Kintaro break free of the ice.
KINTARO: Your treachery will be punished!
They fight. Facing both Goro and Kintaro at once would be impossible odds for any normal human, but Sub-Zero was no ordinary human even before he was turned into a cyborg. Nonetheless, the fight is one of the most difficult of his life, but eventually he prevails against the Shokan warriors.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: All those teeth and claws, yet still overmatched.
Suddenly, the clock tower starts shaking, causing the bells to ring. A burst of green light appears near the exit and the soldiers seen before are all telekentically tossed back into the room.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Behind me!
The soldiers struggle to their feet and comply as Ermac floats into the room.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Come no further, fiend of Outworld!
They fight. Not even Shao Kahn’s personal enforcer is a match for Cyber Sub-Zero, and the red garbed ninja is soon defeated by the cyborg.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: You are not so fearsome.
With Ermac down, the soldiers surround and congratulate Sub-Zero.
SOLDIER 1: Thanks. I thought we were done.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: I must go. I need to investigate the graveyard.
SOLDIER 2: We’d go with, but we have to return to our unit.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: That is for the best.
The cyborg leaves immediately.
SOLDIER 1: Good luck, man.
SOLDIER 2: He ain’t gonna need luck.
In the cemetary, Noob Saibot is magically drawing two lines across the ground, creating a ring around another captured group of soldiers. Quan Chi is nearby, chanting a spell in a Netherrealm tongue. Cyber Sub-Zero is kneeling by a gravestone, undetected by either of them. The soldiers surrounded by the ring begin to glow green with the rising energy around them. Sub-Zero speaks into a wrist-communicator.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: This is Sub-Zero. I have encountered Quan Chi. He seems to be casting a spell.
Back at the temple, Sonya has her wrist-comm on speaker for the Forces of Light to listen in. Raiden receives another vision – this one of the Soulnado engulfing New York City.
NIGHTWOLF: Raiden, what is it? What did you see?
RAIDEN: One of Shao Kahn’s Soulnados, on a scale I thought unimaginable. All of Earthrealm’s souls imprisoned, absorbed by Shao Kahn, multiplying his power!
NIGHTWOLF: That is what Sub-Zero has found?
Raiden looks his amulet. More cracks and a burnt signature adorn it.
RAIDEN: No matter my efforts, the future remains in peril. How could I have failed Earthrealm?
NIGHTWOLF: Do not lose faith in the spirits, Raiden. They will guide you. Protect you. Sub-Zero, we will disrupt the Soulnado. I will be there momentarily.
The scene cuts back to the cemetary.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Hurry. The spell appears to be nearly complete.
Sub-Zero stands from his hiding place and walks into the clearing.
QUAN CHI: Who is that?
NOOB: The one Kano warned about. He is mine.
Noob walks toward Sub-Zero.
NOOB: You. You are not worthy of the name Sub-Zero.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Who are you to judge?
NOOB: I wore those colours before you.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Bi-Han?!
NOOB: Yes, Kuai Liang. It is I. Quan Chi restored me.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Restored? You and I both. We are flawed copies of our former selves.
NOOB: I have no flaws. Quan Chi has perfected me.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: For what end? To serve the Netherrealm and Outworld?
NOOB: It suits my purpose.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: But brother, we
NOOB: We share blood. We are not brothers.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: Then I will not regret your defeat.
They fight. Bi-Han may have had power granted to him from the Netherrealm upon his death, but Kuai Liang’s cybernetic upgrades prove to be superior in battle. After a fierce battle, Kuai Liang manages to defeat his brother and leave him unconscious.
CYBER SUB-ZERO: You are right. We are not brothers.
Quan Chi finishes chanting the spell and the soldiers are absorbed in the newly created Soulnado, which reaches into the heavens. Nightwolf arrives at that moment and addresses Sub-Zero.