Tabbi's POV
Kuai and I circled the front of the Cyber factory. There had been a few Cybers outside the factory, guarding it, though they had been easy to get past.
I was guiding a group of about 5 older students, while Kuai led about 5 younger ones.
Kuai nodded at me, signaling me to open up the factory door. I walked slowly up to the door, touching a few buttons, causing the door to slide open. "follow me," I whispered.
"Once you find Cyrax, you must disable his main frame, and let him initilaze," Kuai paused, "And Tabbi, please be careful. Leave Sektor to me,"
"We will be fine, Grandmaster," A student interjected, keeping his voice to a whisper, as he adjusted his mask. "We have been training for months,"
Kuai let out a sigh. "Just go inside. We will meet you at the other side of the factory. Cyrax is your top priority,"
I nodded. "Let's go,"
The students and I crouched down as low as we could, and tip toed our way inside the factory.
I spotted a few Cybers, which one of the students had also seen.
"Miss Tabbi, what do we do?" He whispered.
"We only attack if necessary," I explained.
"And necessary is?" Another student asked.
"Necessary is if they see us," I replied. "Follow my lead, and stick close,"
I walked up slowly. The two Cybers were just in front of us, with their backs turned. They were making conversation, not being good guards, I suppose. We just managed to get by them when, miraculously, one of the two happened to see us.
"Over there!" The Cyber shouted, alerting most likely the whole factory.
"Miss Tabbi?"
"Okay, yeah. Now we attack," I stood back to back with one of the students, while the other four pulled out their swords.
One of the Cybers charged at me, but luckily, a student managed to shoot an ice blast at it before it got to one of us.
I shot a few ice blasts at more of the Cybers as they got closer to us. We took them out one by one as more and more entered the front of the factory.
"Miss Tabbi, maybe we should make a run for it," a student, by the name of Damien pointed out. "There's an opening there," his index finger pointed to a door.
"Good job, Damien," I complimented. "I need one of you to come with me. The rest of you need to hold the fort here, okay?"
"Can I go with you, Miss Tabbi? Seeing as I pointed out the opening,"
I nodded. "Stay close. Those of you staying need to stay together. Wait for the Grandmaster and the others to come in,"
Damien and I sprinted across the room, while the other students stood back, and used their swords against the Cybers. I trusted them enough to hold their own against them.
I let out a sigh of relief as we made it to the next room. The relief was short lived, however, as I ran straight into Cyrax.
"Damnit," I hissed. "Cyrax," I crossed my arms.
"Tabitha," Cyrax's robotic voice sounded dull. No emotion at all. It made me feel the exact same way it did when I saw Kuai as a cyber. It broke my heart to see Cyrax turned into a heartless killing machine. "Have you and Kuai Liang come to seal your destiny as cyber warriors?"
"No," I got into my fighting stance. "We've come to restore the Lin Kuei's honor! And give you your damn humanity back!"
Cyrax responded by letting out a dull machine sound.
"Damien get back," I commanded.
"But-"
"Now!"
"Miss-"
"Now, Damien. Let me handle this,"
Damien reluctantly stepped back away from me and Cyrax.
"Where is Sektor, Cyrax?"
"Sektor's location may not be disclosed," Cyrax shot one of his nets at me, but I dodged out of the way just before it hit me.
I got closer to him, and punched him in the jaw, sending him flying against the wall. He got back up, dusting himself off.
Cyrax's saw came out of his hand. I tried stepping out of the way again, but, unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough. It cut me right in my side. It wasn't deep, but it hurt like hell.
"Damnit!" I cursed.
Cyrax and I continued our fight. Towards the end, I was sure I was going to lose. That was until, against my wishes, Damien stepped in, and shot an ice blast at Cyrax, shooting him across the hall.
Somehow, that was enough to knock Cyrax out.
Damien helped me get to my feet, and tied a piece of cloth around my waist. "Are you alright, Miss Tabbi?"
I nodded. "I'll be fine. Right now, we need to focus on getting Cyrax fixed," I gestured towards Cyrax. Damien helped me walk over to Cyrax.
"Help me turn him over," I commanded.
Damien and I lifted Cyrax up, and turned him over, so his backside was towards us. I searched on his back, looking for anything that I could press to reset. Unfortunately, a cyber Lin Kuei isn't like a mechanical toy, so there's no tiny little "reset" button to press. I froze part of his back, and ripped it off.
There, in big, green, letters, said "RESET" on a touch screen, which reminded me of The Matrix a little bit.
I tapped the screen, and it said "INITIALIZING"
I let out another sigh of relief. "Thank the Gods,"
Damien and I stood there for a few minutes, staring at Cyrax, waiting for him to wake up. Eventually, he did, grunting.
"Uggh," He grunted, as he stood up. "Tabbi?" His robotic voice came out. "Who is-"
"I'll explain later," I sighed. "Right now, we need your help. We need to find Sektor,"
"Wait, what happened?"
"Kuai and I will explain everything later, I promise. Just lead us to Sektor,"
Cyrax looked around. "Follow me,"
Damien and I followed Cyrax, slowly, as he lead the way. We walked for a couple minutes, eventually running into Kuai and the other group of students.
"Tabbi? Where are the other students?!" Kuai whisper yelled, surprised.
"Jesus, Kuai, you need to relax. They're up front fighting off cybers,"
Cyrax hushed us. "You both need to quiet down. Sektor is coming," He pointed down the hall, where Sektor was walking, along with two other nameless Cybers.
I let out a shaky breath, as we followed Sektor into an office room.
"Tabbi, you and Damien take those two Cybers. Cyrax and I will deal with Sektor," Kuai commanded.
I nodded at him. He and Cyrax went around one way, while Damien and I went around the other, to fight the two Cybers.
They were easy to take down, each only needing Damien to use his sword on them. Damien and I hid, while Cyrax and Kuai fought off Sektor.
"Miss Tabbi, we have to help," Damien whispered. "Sektor will kill them,"
"You're right," I nodded. I took a deep breath. "Let's go help them,"
I jumped out from our hiding spot, ambushing Sektor. We cought him off guard.
"Tabitha," Sektor said, emotionlessly.
I froze Sektor's feet to the ground, giving the others and opportunity to strike.
The fight went on for a while, with Sektor dealing blows to us, and vice versa.
There was one thing we hadn't been expecting. Sektor took Daimen's sword and plunged it through his body, about mid fight.
"No!" Kuai yelled out, as Damien dropped to the ground, dead instantly.
Tears stung my eyes. "It's one thing to kill one of us!" I shouted.
"It's another thing to kill my student!" Kuai exclaimed, as he shot an ice blast at Sektor.
I was angered at this point. I shot a wall of ice at Sektor, seeming to hurt him.
The battle went on and on, and on, until finally, finally, Sektor was dead.
I dropped to my knees when it was finally done, Kuai doing the same. I looked over to Damien's lifeless body, my eyes filling with tears once more.
Cyrax helped Kuai and I up off of the ground. "Would you like to bury him?"
"We have no time," Kuai shook his head. "We must get you and our other students back to our temple,"
"No," Cyrax stated, simply. "You must get you and your students back to the temple,"
"Cyrax-" I started, but was cut off.
"I dishonor the Lin Kuei name," Cyrax said with a sigh. "I can destroy this factory. Taking me and the other Cybers with it. You do not need me. You and the clan seem to be doing fine on your own. You must go along without me,"
"No," Kuai argued. "You are still part of the Lin Kuei, Cyrax. You do not dishonor the clan,"
"I do not want the threat of the Cybers reigning again. I must destroy all of us. Including myself," Cyrax reached down, and plucked Sektor's head off of his body. "However, this may come in use," He handed it to Kuai.
I tilted my head in confusion.
"Get your students out of here. Now." Cyrax commanded.
"Cyrax is right, Tabbi," Kuai said with a sigh.
"As soon as I press this button, the detention sequence will be started. You will have 5 minutes to vacate the factory after I press it. You should leave while you still can,"
Kuai and I looked at each other, and nodded.
"I'll miss you, Cyrax," I felt a tear roll down my cheek. "You'll die a good man,"
Cyrax nodded. "I will miss you as well,"
"Let's go," Kuai placed his hand in my shoulder.
The two of us turned and left the office room, after confirming that Cyrax pressed the button.
We went back into the main room, where there stood only three of our students remaining.
"Oh no..." I clamped my hands over my mouth at the sight of just about half of the students who went with us, spread across the floor.
"No time for this right now. We need to leave, now!"
I nodded.
"Let's go! Move it!" Kuai shouted at the remaining students, and all five of us ran out of the factory before it blew.
It started exploding just as we'd gotten far away enough.
The walk back to the temple in Arktika was silent, aside from our walking. The walk back seemed longer, possibly because no one was talking.
I clutched my side. I'm glad that Cyrax hadn't been able to put two and two together and figure out he'd done that. He didn't need to die thinking he'd hurt me.
A few more hours had passed and we made it back to the temple. Lights out had been hours ago. "Miss Tabbi, do you need to go to the infirmary?" One of our guards asked, after bowing to Kuai.
"No, I'll be fine. I can patch myself up," I shook my head.
"You're going to the infirmary," Kuai crossed his arms. "The rest of you may go to your rooms now. Tabbi, come with me,"
The students made their way into their rooms, and Kuai and I walked towards the infirmary.
"I feel awful," I instantly let out once the two of us were alone. "If I hadn't left them alone,"
"You did what you had to do. You had every reason to believe they'd be able to take care of themselves in your absence. I made the same mistake," Kuai stopped walking, mid sentence. "I hope you know that I'm not angry with you,"
"You should be," I sighed. "I did what I did against my better judgement. I knew it might not have been the best idea and did it anyway,"
Kuai shook his head. "I trust you made that decision because you knew it was the right thing to do,"
Kuai stopped in front of the infirmary. "In the meantime, I am going to see what information I can find from this," He gestured towards Sektor's head. "You must rest,"
"Fine. Let me know if you find something, okay?"
Kuai nodded, and turned around to go to his quarters. We didn't necessarily have a doctor, but he did do his job, in healing us up. He stitched up my wound and sent me on my way, telling me that I shouldn't be too active for the next few weeks, and I should be mindful of the stitches. Easy enough. I was fine with not having to move around very much for a little while.
When I got to my room, there was something very off. There was smoke coming from under the crack of the door. I raised an eyebrow. There was only one thing that could've meant.
Well really, there were two possibilities, and one seemed much more likely than the other. One, was that I left a candle lit in my room, and it started a fire. The other, was that Revenant Smoke made his way to the temple, and into my room.
And I sure as hell hadn't lit any candles before leaving to go to the factory. I hesitated before turning the door handle. Just as I'd suspected, Revenant Smoke was sitting on my bed, reading a book.
"You can't be here," I brought my voice to a whisper.
Smoke looked up, as he closed the book. "I thought you'd be happy to see me,"
"You know what will happen if Kuai finds out you've been coming here," I crossed my arms. "Now's not a good time,"
"You promised," Smoke said, standing up. "You said you'd help me,"
"I said I'd try, Smoke. I didn't promise anything. If Kuai finds out, he'll suspect the worst. He'll think you're trying to kill me,"
"I can't live like this anymore, Tabbi,"
"I'm sorry," I sighed. "You know I'd do anything to have you back. But it's been a long day. And I can't risk Kuai finding out about you. You need to go. Come back another time. Any time but now would be a hundred times better,"
"I can't do this anymore. I'm tired of pretending that I'm okay with killing people for Quan Chi!" Smoke brought his voice up to a whisper yell. "Last night he sent us out to attack the special forces. Do you know who was there that night? Johnny and Sonya's daughter was on that base. Had I found her I would have had to kill her. A little girl, Tabbi. You have to help me,"
I let out another long sigh. "I'm sorry, Smoke, I really am. But I just can't help you out right now. I want to, but I can't,"
Smoke grabbed the book off of my bed, as he walked over to me. "You need to tell Kuai about me. You have to,"
"Tomas, he will freak out if I tell him this,"
"Let him freak out then. Explain everything to him,"
"You must really have a death wish,"
"I must apologize for your losses of the battle today," bastard was always good at changing the subject as fast as he could. "I can't imagine what it must feel like to lose students so close to you," He pulled me into a hug. I was reluctant to hug him back.
"I'm sorry I can't help right now. I really wish I could,"
I tried getting out of Smoke's grip, but he only held on tighter. Eventually, though, he did pull away.
"I will come back when you're available," Smoke turned around to leave, until I grabbed hold of his arm, stopping him.
"Wait," I whispered.
"Now I have to go, Tabbi. I can't stay much longer, or Quan Chi will know I'm gone,"
"I just..."
"Tell me later. I must go now,"
"If you run into Sareena down there, tell her I'm thankful for everything she's doing for you, Tomas,"
Smoke nodded, a small smile appearing on his face. "I'll give her a hug for you. I know you miss her. She misses you too," Smoke chuckled. "Next time I see you, I do have an important thing to say. Until next time, Tabbi,"
He teleported away, not before placing the book back on my bed, and giving a proper goodbye.
The gist of everything, was that Sareena was aiding Smoke with getting his humanity back, so long as when he was out of Quan Chi's control, that Sareena went to Earthrealm with him. I let out a sigh of relief. I really hoped no one was around to hear that conversation.
Not even two minutes later, there was a knock on my door. I opened it to see Kuai.
"I need to show you something. Now,"
"What is it?" I asked, tilting my head.
"No questions. Just come," He tugged at my arm.