Part 1: A New Mission



The robed samurai warrior walked along his path, never breaking and never giving up... but still his heart grew heavier with every step he took, with every moment he remained stranded here. How could he have not found a way by now, it almost seemed as if there was no way on Earth to go back through time again. If there was no way, why was he still fighting? He would not be able to avenge his father and undo all of this evil that has been wrought upon so many through the sorcerer's influence. It would be hopeless...

He shook his head to clear those thoughts away, combating them with the knowledge that even if he could not return through time, he could defeat Aku here in this time. It would not undo the evil, and it would not bring back the lives lost to the sorcerer's dark powers, but it would allow those who live here to begin rebuilding their shattered lives. He could still make this world a better place, it would just take more time.

The irony of that thought struck him instantly and he gave a small chuckle at his own imagination. He stopped chuckling though and even stopped walking when he saw a tall building over the hill just ahead of him. He hadn't seen any signs of settlement in the last week, let alone something so grand as one of the cities he knew to be scattered about. He walked toward it cautiously with one hand always on the hilt of his sword.

It was a large, bustling city with buildings that reached up into the sky at every turn. He had been in one before, and as not so shocked now, but still he marveled at the incredibly large buildings that flanked him. He remembered before going to a place called a bar for information, and he'd found enough to discover when he was. Perhaps if he was careful and a little lucky, he could repeat that here.

He walked up to one of the buildings with a sign over it that read 'Playful Kitten' and pushed his way through the double doors. The noise blasted his ears after the grim silence of the wild forests, but again he was not so overwhelmed as before. People were scattered all over the place, sitting at table or dancing with partners on what looked like a dance floor near the back. Jack made his way over to the bar counter and sat down.

"What do you want?" the bartender asked in a gruff tone of voice. Before the warrior could adequately reply a feminine voice spoke from beside him.

"Wine, the strongest you've got." The bartender nodded and headed off to fix the drink while she sat on the stool right beside him, staring at him intently. She was obviously not human. Her ears almost appeared to be webbed and her eyes slanted sharply inward, with light blue where there should have been white. Her skin was pale white and looked slick to the point of being slimy, while her green hair hung across her back in a perfect line.

"I do not drink wine." Jack informed her calmly.

"Just shut up and listen, I have something to tell you." What gentleness her voice held before was gone now. "You're the warrior everyone's looking for aren't you, the one even Aku wants dead."

"Indeed I am." Jack replied. "When I find a way back home I will defeat him and undo all of this evil."

"Look, there is no way back home... but I know a way you can destroy Aku in THIS time." She told him steadily. He stared back at her in silence while the bartender brought his drink. He paid it no mind however, all of his attention focused on this woman.

"How?" Jack asked once the bartender was out of earshot.

"Follow my lead." The woman reached into her pants and took out a few similar objects. She waved them at the bartender. "Hey, room for two alright?" The bartender smirked and took the money, handing her a key with a sly glance at the samurai.

"I didn't think you were the type." He shook his head and went back to his other customers. Jack stared after him in confusion until the alien finally pulled him into the back, shutting the room door behind them so that they were alone.

"Come look at this." The woman was all business as she walked over to the table and spread what looked like a map of the stars. Jack walked over and looked at it over her shoulder. "Now pay attention because I'll only explain this once. Aku has had a lot of time to build his powers beyond even what you faced before. Still, after he conquered this world he opened his star-ports to others hoping to take their resources as well."

"I know this, but I don't see what this has to do with me." Jack said.

She stared at him as she spoke. "The alien races didn't just flood in on their own, he needed emissaries to travel the stars for him and open trade agreements, most often ending with him taking control of the entire species, as with my people. So he used his excess powers and created four scions. The Scion of Sorcery, the Scion of Sight, the Scion of Strength, and the Scion of Sin. They traveled the galaxy and still do... divided they're vulnerable. You can defeat them."

"So Aku is even more powerful now than he was those years ago, all the more reason I must return to my own time and destroy him before he can become this strong."

"Don't you get it!?" The woman said angrily. "There is no way back to your time! You have to defeat the scions and then Aku here and now!" She told him. Jack stared at her for a long time, weighing her words wisdom with what he knew for certain. It was true he had found no way back on Earth... but perhaps the way back wasn't on Earth. He could do as she asked and still search for ways home on other worlds.

"Okay I am listening, why must I defeat the scions first?" Jack asked. The woman nodded when she realized he was now open to it.

"Because if you attack Aku now he could dispel the scions and draw their power back, swamping you. Attack the scions and eliminate them one at a time, and the powers they hold will be gone forever. Aku can dispel them, but they cannot push themselves back into him or call for backup without normal means of communication. Take them all out and Aku will be vulnerable as he was all those centuries ago."

"My quest would be far easier without him here, and his evil would no longer hold so many captive to it..." The samurai mused over his choices for a little while. What did he have to lose really, he was as likely to find a time machine on another planet as he was here. "Very well, I shall go to these other worlds and destroy the scions."

The woman grinned and stood up straighter, holding the map in her hands. "I knew I could trust you warrior, your reputation far precedes you." She folded up the map and smiled at him. "Come on, I have a ship, I can take you to the world where the first scion is staying." She turned to head toward the door.

"Wait... what is your name if we're to travel together?" Jack asked.

"Keela." She told him without turning around. She opened the door and stood to the side, looking at him. "Come on, we should move quickly before bounty hunters track you here." Jack wasn't sure how much he could trust her, but he had no reason to believe she would betray him. So he left the room with her, heading toward the ship hangar.
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Jack walked among the fleet of space ships with a look of absolute awe on his face. The sheer size of some of them was overwhelming with more small ones flanking them on every side. Various aliens and some human people worked on the ships, fiddling with plates and wiring. He stopped at one ship to watch as its pilot adjusted a strange device the likes of which the samurai had never seen before.

He approached the figure at he cursed to himself and tried to fit two wires together. He looked down at Jack when he finally realized he was there. "What the bloody hell d'you want?" He asked. He was a shorter man reaching up to about the samurai's chest, with a dark tan covering his entire body. His eyes were dark brown and his hair was a musty red, in stark contrast with the rest of him.

"I apologize, I was merely curious. I nave never seen anything like this before." The samurai reached one hand forward to run it over the metal plating on the side of the machine. The worker grinned proudly and sat up.

"Aye, no other like it in the galaxy. M'friend designed and built it with his own two hands. Anywhere in the universe in 1.5 seconds." He stood up and leaned against the machine, patting it as if it was his child.

"How does it work?" Jack asked curiously.

"That's the secret to its speed, it bends time." The man grinned at Jack's blank expression. "The Aurora-Engine creates a field o'condensed time around the ship, coating it so that it exists outside as it moves across the galaxy. When it reaches its destination it uses the pilots time signature t'fade back into being 1.5 seconds after it left."

"It can go through time... can it go back through time?" Jack asked more determined now.

"Puh, only if you happen t'have a man from the past with you." The pilot smirked and snorted at that idea. The warrior just stared at him seriously however, halting him.

"Hey Jack, let's get going, shall we? The ship's ready." Keela walked up beside him and stared at the other pilot with distrust in her eyes.

"I may have a better idea... will you allow me to use your ship to go back to my own time?" Jack asked the pilot.

"Use m'ship? For no reason? You must b'joking." The pilot scoffed at the idea, smirking. "Why would I let you take m'ship for no reason?"

"I am Jack, if I can get back to my own time I will be able to defeat Aku before he could spread his evil through the world. If your ship can take me there, then everything will be much better here in this time. History will be altered into something better. Now, will you help me?" He knew his story was unbelievable, but his serious manner and gaze made the pilot think twice before turning him away.

"Come on Jack, he won't help us, let's just focus on taking Aku down in THIS time." Keela tugged at his arm, but the samurai didn't move an inch. He stared at the pilot steadily until finally he responded.

"Alright, I'll take you for a ride, couldn't hurt nothing, but b'warned, if you make any attempt t'take m'ship, I will kill you without a thought." He told the warrior steadily.

"I accept your terms, I give you my word of honor I will not try to take your ship." Jack replied.

"Jack come on, this is a waste of time, we should get going not meander with fools." Keela glared at the pilot, but he gave no notice.

"M'name is Reggoth, this here is the Betron-4, come on board and I'll show you back to wherever you came from." Finally he turned and smirked at Keela. "But from what I've heard, the broad can stay here."

"Get lost!" Keela shot back, but Jack grabbed her arm sternly.

"There is no need to worry, once I return to my time everything will be better for everyone." He smiled at her reassuringly, though she still looked more nervous than accepting. "You'll be happier in the new timeline than in this one with Aku in it."

"Well it'll still take me a few hours t'finish reconfiguring the time-dilation matrix, why don't you take the girl out for a few drink t'calm her down?" Reggoth winked slyly and chuckled. Jack looked over at her, noting the blatantly distressed expression on her face. He'd just met her, but still he didn't want to hurt anybody.

"Thank you, I will return in a little while." Jack turned toward Keela and put one hand on her shoulder. "Come, we should talk." He led her away from the shipyards. He noticed her eyes staying on a ship across the yard, one he figured was probably hers.

"I don't trust that guy, you should forget the whole thing. I can take you to the scions, and then you can take down Aku in this time." She told him again angrily, as though she was trying to pound her way into his brain.

"I do not see why it's not better to destroy Aku in the past, before the scions were created." He replied.

"Because... oh forget it! I don't need to explain myself to you! We WILL take out the scions and defeat him here and now... you'll see." With that Keela stomped away from him without another word, leaving him staring after her in confusion. He would have thought she'd be happy to have Aku never take over if she hated him so much. Something seemed amiss... perhaps she was a minion of Aku... well soon he'd be back in his own time and it wouldn't matter anyway.
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"All systems operational." Reggoth said as he tapped the control panel in front of him. He was in the co-pilots seat since the engine used the time signature from the pilot to determine the point of re-entry. If everything was as they thought, they would appear 1.5 seconds after the samurai warrior had left his time, with plenty of time to find Aku and finish what he'd started.

"This is very strange..." Jack commented as he watched the hangar doors open above them. It was night now, and only the stars showed through the blackness of space. It was an odd thought that they would soon be up among them, he'd always just looked at them from the Earth.

He held onto the seat with white knuckles as the engines fired, sending vibrations throughout the length of the ship. His teeth ground together nervously, but apparently it was normal because Reggoth didn't seem nervous at all as the ship began to move. Jack tried to calm himself down, but all he could picture was the ship plunging into the ground at insane speeds.

The noise was deafening as the ship ascended into the dark sky, the boosters carrying them closer to the stars, though they still looked as far away as ever. A small blip on the green circle in front of him caught his attention in a moment, along with the attention of the real pilot.

"Looks like your girlfriend decided t'join us." Reggoth smirked and looked up at the front window again. "She can't follow anyway, don't worry about her." Jack watched the screen for another moment, noticing a smaller blip coming from the larger one.

"What is that?" Jack asked curiously. Reggoth looked down at it, his eyes going wide when he saw it.

"Bloody bitch is firing at us!" He exclaimed just before something slammed into the side of the ship, sending a shockwave through it. The pilot tapped the panel in front of him quickly. "What the hell d'you think you're doing!?" There was no response, only another blip on the screen in front of them. "Hold on Jack." Deggoth said as he yanked on the stick.

The ship whirled in time to avoid the next blast, coming around so that Keela's ship was in view. Reggoth fired his own blast, but the Aurora-Engine obviously made the ship incredibly bulky and it wasn't nearly as maneuverable as Keela's fighter. She dodged the blast and fired a few more blasts, plunging several holed in the hull of the ship, including the engine section.

"Warning, Aurora-Engine damaged, temporal explosion imminent." Reggoth stared at the panel in shock and anger just as the screen in front of them showed Keela's face.

"You'd better get back to Earth before your ship takes you with it. I'll take you back myself." She told them. A hook fired from her ship, latching onto the Betron-4's hull and dragging it back down toward Earth.

Jack's heart pounded as the shaking increased. He could see the fire building up outside the ship as they approached the Earth's atmosphere again. Re-entry was extremely bumpy, but they managed to get through it. Still though they plummeted toward the ground as the hook gave out from the pressure, sending them toward a mountain.

"We must get out of here!" Jack tore his seatbelt off and leapt to his feet, grabbing Reggoth before he could say a word and darting into the back. He shoved the door open, watching the landscape whiz by below them. In a few moments they flew over a small lake, so he leapt from the ship, taking the pilot with him.

"Are you bloody nuts!?" Reggoth screamed as they plummeted toward the water, slamming into it with enough force to knock the smaller man unconscious. Jack pulled him back to the surface and began to swim toward shore, making it just as the Betron-4 slammed into the side of the mountain. The blast shook the entire landscape even waking the pilot who opened his eyes slowly.

"M... MY SHIP!" Reggoth screamed almost in pain when he saw the impact site just as Keela's fighter landed a few yards away from them. He stomped up to it and waited by the exit until Keela made her way outside to greet them. "You destroyed m'ship you little..."

"Back off!" Keela shoved him back, sending him flying hard into the ground. Though she looked frail, she was obviously pretty strong. "I don't give a damn about YOU or your ship!"

"Who do you care about then, are you working for Aku?" Jack asked suspiciously.

"No of course not, I hate that monster more than you do, which is why we will take him out HERE in THIS time!" Keela retorted.

"I will not go with you until you explain yourself." For once Jack let his anger seep into his voice as he stomped up to the slightly smaller woman. "Why did you stop me from returning home, and why do you only want Aku destroyed in this time?"

"Because..." Keela hesitated, her pale blue eyes growing moist as she glared up at him. "Because as evil as he is... as much as I hate him... if it wasn't for Aku, I would have never known true happiness." She replied.

"Have you lost your bloody mind?" Reggoth demanded. "Aku rains evil everywhere he goes, he's a demon worse than any I've ever seen, and you say he brought happiness into your life?" He threw his hands up in disgust, but Jack's eyes just stared into hers intently.

"A long time ago, I worked on a trader vessel... as a piece of merchandise..." She stared back seriously, never letting her eyes waver. "When Aku opened his ports here, we came to see what new business we could find... it was here that I met a human named Jonathan. He stole me away from the trader ship and we took our own ship from the yards, taking off across the stars and never looking back. If Aku hadn't opened the ports I would have never met him and I'd still be a piece of merchandise." When she finished her eyes dared the two men to judge her harshly.

"I understand now why you want history to remain... but to condemn all living things to evil and tyranny for a reason so selfish is no better than the one who inflicted it upon them." Jack told her steadily. She'd been ready for a scream, a yell, a rant, but this caught her off guard. "I know your life was hard, but others are now even harder because of Aku's evil, we cannot condemn them to this fate, especially since it was my own failure that led to it."

"Well what do w'do now?" Reggoth asked angrily. "M'ships now a smoldering piece o'crap on the side o'the mountain."

"I can still take you to the world where the scions live, we can still destroy Aku together Jack, you and me." Keela offered.

"Agreed... but I must have your word that if I find a way back home, if I find a way to stop Aku in my time, you will not interfere." The warrior replied.

"Jack come on... don't be ridiculous, let's just go." She said.

"I will not go with you without your word of honor." Jack told her in no uncertain terms.

"Fine... I give you my word." Keela told him, though she was frowning as she spoke.

"Hold on lady, you owe m'BIG for this! It'll cost me a BIG fortune t'rebuild everything that you destroyed!" Reggoth reminded her angrily. "Feel lucky I don't charge you for emotional damage too."

"Do I look rich to you? You're just out of luck." Keela tried to worm her way out of it, but Jack would have none of that.

"It is our interference that destroyed his ship, it is our duty to repay him for it." The samurai told her.

"That's right it's your duty. I'm not leaving you alone until you repay m'every dime." Reggoth told her. "Or maybe I should just take your ship in return and fit it with m'own engine."

"No way, that's the ship Jonathan stole for me! Touch the controls and I'll skin you like a pig!" Keela yelled furiously.

"We should go, the scions are waiting and we won't earn the money to repay Reggoth for his loss standing around here." Jack told them calmly as he went inside Keela's ship. The other two stared after him, then scowled at each other darkly before turning to follow him. Jack knew this would not be easy or fun, but what in his life HAD been those things up to this point? He would just have to continue his fight as he always did and hope he found a way home. If he didn't, he could always settle for destroyed the evil here. Either way, he would not allow Aku's evil to reign very long.

TO BE CONTINUED