Sorry for the uber short chapter. I just could not for the life of me figure out what I wanted to write out for this one.

This isn't the 'End' of the series, but I am going to put it on hiatus. Sorry guys.

-Rachel

Several days had passed, the 'apocalypse' had come to its end, and yet, the Lin Kuei still felt like the world was ending.

"He hasn't left his room in days." Shion said flatly, almost annoyed.

"I think..it's taking more time." Yuki offered, but the white haired male glared at him, instantly causing the younger male to cringe. It had just been a suggestion, but it obviously wasn't what Shion wanted to hear.

"I get it, we all deal with things in our own time, but he's...frustrating." it wasn't that Shion himself was completely over what had happened, it was just the fact that Hope hadn't come out of his room since that day. And, no matter what he said or did, he couldn't get him to open the door. Sure, there was the general option of him doing so by force, but he was sure Kuai Liang wouldn't care for more destruction to the temple. Angering the Grandmaster and or Mileena wasn't in his best interests.

Yuki smiled a bit at him, it was honestly pretty funny to see how frustrated Shion could be with Hope. It reminded him of...at that thought, his smile faded away just as fast as it had come. Remembering them didn't help. But when did the deceased members of the clan become 'them'? They all had names, they were all people, and they all lived at one point in time. Stopping to think about them, made his eyes cloudy. 'Cloudy' being the evasive term, as he didn't want to accept the fact that he was still crying. It made him feel like a child again. But there were so many faces, and so many names passing through his head. Bitter tears fell, and he didn't even have the comfort of rain to mask them with. Just snow. White, cold, flecks of snow. And it wasn't as if he knew what 'cold' was, or how it felt. The wonders of cryromancy.

"Okay?" "Are you okay?" Shion had been trying for a few minutes to get through to Yuki. But it seemed he was in some sort of deep thought. "Hey!" He was starting to lose a bit of his patience, until he saw that Yuki was crying. He wasn't sobbing, his lips weren't quivering, but tears did fall. Beside himself, the amber eyed male decided to do the one thing that spelled out the feeling of 'feel better'.

Yuki stiffened a bit, uneasily glancing around. "What's wrong?" he asked, though his voice sounded shaky.

"Asking me 'what's wrong' when you're like that.." Shion was trying to play the 'well put together' person, and it was hard. Wanting to break down, but not allowing yourself to succumb to temptation. That constant inner struggle.

"Sorry." Yuki didn't know what else to say. What more could you say, in a situation like this? He slowly reciprocated the hug, as it felt awkward not to do so.

"If you're about done feeling sorry for yourselves- then it's about time for our meals." Frost interrupted the pair, no visible emotion on her face or in her voice.

Yuki was startled by her and 'jumped' a bit at her voice. Shion, on the other hand resolved to glare at the woman. "How about you mind your own business and get lost?" he haughtily snapped at her.

"Touchy." Frost didn't seemed moved at all by what he had to say. "Sitting outside in the snow moping about what happened won't change a single thing. They died. Now what are we going to do about it?"

"What is there to do?" Yuki asked, he wasn't sure what she was hinting at. There wasn't a way to bring them back, and if they turned out like Quan Chi's abominations, then he didn't want to. Disturbing their afterlives also wasn't in his best interest. Maybe they'd find peace, in death.

"Get revenge." Frost said smoothly, "The Outworlders assisted the Netherrealm. And while we can't do anything about the undead- we can show them just what we're made of. The Emperor and his group must be weak, and I have no doubt he'd be easy to pick off."

"Yeah, we step right on through the portal and end up executed." Shion scoffed, "Take your stupid ideas and get lost." he wasn't going to hear of it.

"They die, and we sit around, doing nothing? We know who their killers are, and we dishonor their memory?" Frost was growing increasingly bitter and annoyed at the fact that he was debating everything she had to say.

"That worked out really well with Scorpion, didn't it?" Shion was directly starting to provoke her. Frost was pissing him off, and he made sure to be sitting between her and Yuki. "Those 'people' who you disregard as dead, were fellow members of the clan. They died, so that we could live- and what good comes of dying? It gets rid of the meaning that their lives had."

"Careful. You're starting to piss me off." Frost warned, her hands glowing blue. Her eyes narrowed and she nearly hit him right then and there.

"I think that's my line." Shion stood up, "What are you going to do about it?" anger was better than sadness. And if he got to wail on her, then all the better.

"You guys shouldn't fight." Yuki interjected, but his words fell upon deaf ears.

Before Frost could swing or say anything to Shion she was interrupted by Kuai Liang. "I think that's quite enough."

Frost scoffed at him, walking away in a huff. Shion averted his eyes, he was still angry, but he couldn't project his feelings onto the Grandmaster. "Sorry, Grandmaster." He felt like a bratty child having to apologize like this.

"Did she provoke you?" Kuai Liang asked, wanting to get right to the point of things.

"Yes." Yuki answered for Shion, "Sorry, for...speaking out of turn, Grandmaster." he bowed formally to their leader, "But she, I mean, Frost- came over and starting saying...things."

The timid boy tried to get his point across, and Kuai Liang nodded to everything he had to say. "Rather than come and get me, you decided to resort to physical violence?"

"Not him." Shion shook his head, "Me."

"Would fighting her have solved any of your problems?" Kuai Liang asked.

"No." Shion admitted, "But it would have gotten her off our backs, and spouting off irritating drivel about avenging the dead members of our clan. Going to Outworld over a superficial grudge? No thanks."

"Frost suggested such things?"

"Yes."

Although he didn't want to admit it, Shion wasn't necessarily in the wrong about things. Fighting her wasn't the way to resolve it, but she had no right to speak about going to Outworld. "Challenging Kotal wouldn't bring about an end to the fighting here. It would only make things worse. Perhaps even a more tyrannical leader would take his place."

"Which is why we- well, I 'respectfully' had to decline her offer." Shion reasoned.

"I can see why you felt the need to do so." Kuai Liang nodded, "Try to not go the physical route next time, alright?"

"I'll do my best." Shion nodded, "But when dealing with a person like that, I tend to lose all rationality." who needed to pass judgment and act with a cool head, when you could just knock the offending party unconscious? And if it gave him reprieve for even the tiniest amount of time, then it would be worth it.

"Don't we all?" Mileena asked, appearing idly in the doorway. Were her face not covered by a veil, they could have seen her pouting. Her beautiful pink wardrobe had been destroyed in the fight over the fate of the world, and now she was reduced to wearing Lin Kuei garbs again. It was great for the nostalgia, but she wasn't one for living in the past- not anymore.

"Your encouragement will only get him into trouble." Kuai Liang scolded her.

"My expertise." Mileena mused, "Though I'm not the only one who enjoys such things." she said casually, it would be better to see them no longer sulking around, anyway.

"I miss having someone to enable me like that." Shion added himself into the conversation. Although he hadn't meant to, the sentiment left him feeling sad. He'd been speaking of Hope, but it also reminded him of the others.

"Has he still not come out of his room?" Kuai Liang asked, changing the conversational topic.

"No." Shion's tone fell flat at the thought of Hope still reserved to his bedroom. After that day, he'd just been a shut-in.

"Have you tried apologizing?" Kuai Liang tried to give him a quick solution to his predicament.

"And why should he feel the need to apologize?" Mileena asked, in her mind, he hadn't done anything wrong.

"No, he's right." Shion didn't like that she was defending him, he'd acted like an ass. "Like most things, I'd thought violence should have been the answer." trying to force his way into Hope's room hadn't ended well. It only made things worse. He'd never been scolded by Hope so fiercely before, even going so far as being told 'don't come back'.

"But it didn't solve a thing, did it?"

"No."

"Did it make you feel better at the time?"

"Yes- for a moment. But then, all I felt was the guilt."

"Perhaps you should go and make your feelings clear." Kuai Liang offered, and Shion nodded to him.

"You are right." the white haired male stood up, and was promptly followed by Yuki, who'd been silent throughout most of the conversation.

"You humans always move so progressively forward." Mileena mused, "In everything you do. Whether it's guilt, vengeance, happiness, it never stays with you, long." from what she'd observed from her two and a half decades amongst mortals, they just never seemed to find some sort of stability within their lives.

"That is probably because of our short life spans." Kuai Liang said, looking to the sky. "We are born into this world, knowing that we won't have long. As children, we hope and strive to become older, and to make those surrounding us proud. Moving from adolescence to adulthood, all we wish is to be younger, like things were before. But that wouldn't solve a thing. We'd only delay the inevitable, and that's why each day needs to be lived to its fullest with no regrets. So that when our time comes, and when we fade from this world, we can say that we lived."

"I...don't know what that feels like." Mileena admitted, "I was never physically a 'child'. I can't wish to be younger, as it was only a little over 25 years ago that I came into existence. I don't even know, if I have a soul."

"You feel, don't you? Live, walk, talk, move around with the rest of us? To have emotion, conscience, and be with the living, wouldn't that constitute a soul?" Kuai Liang asked, looking over at Mileena. He smiled at the hybrid, trying to let her know that she wasn't just some 'failed experiment' like so many had called her.

"But...I am not like you." Mileena reasoned, looking up at the cryromancer. Turning to face him completely, she almost shyly glanced up at Kuai Liang. Removing her veil, showing off her Tarkatan features. It didn't matter how many times he said that they didn't bother him, on some level, they must have. Of all the things to have inherited from Kitana, why couldn't she have received her beauty? It wouldn't have mattered if she had the Tarkatan teeth, if they were hidden by lips and cheeks. She'd grown lips, but her teeth still protruded through her cheeks.

"Diversity is to be celebrated, in life." Kuai Liang continued to smile, staring down at her. His eyes didn't dip down to stare at her teeth, they only reflected hers back at Mileena. "Are you at all worried that you cannot summon ice at will, like the others can?" he asked, "Is it your eye color that throws you, as well?"

"No." Mileena shook her head, "I did not think that having dominion over ice would have an effect on whether or not I could stay here. I possess powers that you do not." thinking it over, her eye color also didn't bother her. "No. But perhaps it would be easier for me to stand amongst mortals, were I to look like one."

"It's not a requirement." Kuai Liang reasoned, "You cannot help the way that you look, anymore than I can." his face wasn't unscathed. It had been marked by one greedy enough to use the blood kode. They cut him, and made a predicament that almost made Kuai Liang himself die.

"I don't mind the way that you look." Mileena admitted, "Whether it's like this, or like back then. You are you."

"So why is it different for you?"

"Because I am not a mortal."

"And I am not like you, either."

"We are different." Mileena nodded, "There is no debating this."

"And I enjoy our differences." Kuai Liang said, "Were we to be entirely the same, then what would be the point? Sometimes, people crave difference, so that they can live a full life. The concept of Yin and Yang clearly explains this. Also, the Chinese lore of Ragnarok."

"Ragnarok?" the term was entirely foreign to Mileena.

"Ragnarok, much like Yin and Yang is about differences. Like a book that humans call the 'Bible' it speaks of two humans that will sleep through a great disaster. The destruction of the Earth, and upon awakening, will find it back to its original form. Those two, will birth a new mankind that will inherit the earth."

"I don't know what the 'bible' is, either." Mileena said.

"It's not important. At least, not right now." Kuai Liang explained, "At the very least, we know that the apocalypse has come to pass. Shinnok and the Netherrealm should not be attempting anything."

"He's in pieces." Mileena and the rest had heard of what Raiden did to Shinnok. It was obvious, that the protector of Earthrealm had become corrupted.

"Yes, that's...troubling." Shion frowned at Hope's door, sighing to himself. "How am I supposed to say anything, if he won't hear it?"

"I don't know." Yuki admitted, "Maybe I should try?" he offered.

"Fine." Shion shrugged his shoulders, "But if he won't do it for me, then what makes you think-" when he turned to speak to Yuki, he was gone.

"Yes?" Hope asked, staring at Yuki.

"You uh...let me in." Yuki said, feeling a little anxious.

"I did." Hope nodded.

"I wasn't expecting that." Yuki admitted.

"Neither was he, I'm guessing."

"Why...well, forgive me for asking, but, why won't you talk to Shion?"

"...I don't know." Hope said, "You don't...well, you don't have to stand there, you know?" he patted the bed beside him, "To be honest with you, I just..felt like staying in here. I felt like not talking. It isn't just 'him'. It's me."

"Sorry." Yuki sat beside Hope, "I get that feeling..I do. But he's..concerned."

"Always the worrywart about me." Hope smiled a bit, "Why'd he come right now?"

"To say he's sorry."

"Ah. Guess I should..deal with that." Hope stood up, smiling a bit at Yuki, then walking to the door. He opened it, instantly awarded with a semi-startled Shion.

"I-" Shion was about to apologize, but found himself surprised when Hope nearly tackled him into a hug.

"Sorry." Hope spoke up.

"Don't be." Kuai Liang sat on the steps, waiting for Mileena to sit beside him.

"What happens from here?" Mileena asked, she herself staring at the sky.

"Maybe I get more Lin Kuei...I'm not really certain on what happens." Kuai Liang shook his head.

"I don't know what to do, when you're gone."

"All life comes to an end." Kuai Liang looked over at her again, "The battle we've fought is proof enough of that. But you don't need to worry. Legends are born so that a new dawn can arise. We aren't able to struggle forever in the fight between good and evil."

"It's troublesome."

"That's life."

Mileena wanted to say more, but she instead just nodded, and leaned on his shoulder. The passing silence was oddly calming, after all that they'd been through.