Chapter One: The Unchanging Timeline
Here's my fanfiction reboot on Season 5, Episode 10, a.k.a. Episode CI.
Aku had broadcasted to the whole world that he captured and imprisoned Samurai Jack. During his bragging and broadcasting, he stated that in one week's time, he planned to televise Jack's brutal execution by his daughter's hands as a warning to all who dares to oppose and defy him. Ashi, the revealed daughter of Aku, was currently in her four-horned black female form and likeness of Aku.
Days before the scheduled execution though, Jack was being tortured and beaten by Ashi, Aku's daughter, the woman he loved, who was under Aku's control and dark influence. Aku would sit back and watch his daughter torture and beat Jack for his sick and twisted amusement. During all this, Jack pleaded and begged Ashi to remember who she was and to fight against Aku's control over her mind and body. But sadly, during all his days of suffering and brutal mistreatments, his words didn't seem to reach her ears and heart as she would continue to inflict wounds on him.
(Meanwhile)
During the days that passed since Aku's global broadcasting, The Scotsman and his daughters made a worldwide campaign to all of Samurai Jack's friends and allies to come together for an all-out attack against Aku and to rescue Jack. They had gotten the call out to everyone to unite and join forces. All of Jack's allies and friends who watched the broadcast had the intentions of joining forces in one big coalition as a declaration of war against Aku. They all responded and sent messages to each other, agreeing to stand and unite as one. There was no way that they were going to allow their beloved hero and friend be executed by their common worst enemy.
Everyone who responded to the call all gathered at the The Scotsman's home and it was indeed a colossal number of people from all around the world; from the Spartans, the children of the rave and their female DJ who was leading them, the amphibious people of the underwater kingdom, the woolies, the archers, the androids, the talking archaeologist dogs and many, many more.
After they had all assembled together, the leaders of each group formed a committee to discuss their war plan in their all-out attack on Aku's fortress and at which points to attack it from. There were much deliberations and suggestions that were offered as to how they would attack in partnered groups and as divided battalions. After much needed time spent on the war tactic deliberations, everyone began making all of the final preparations with all of their gathered allies for their attack on Aku's fortress.
"This is amazing dad!" The Scotsman's eldest daughter cheered excitedly, "We're almost ready and everyone we sent the call out to all agreed to join us to rescue Jack and bring about Aku's downfall!"
"Aye lad!" The Scotsman agreed happily, "We'll all march to Aku's fortress and beat down the walls to rescue Jack! Then with Jack in our company, we'll beat and crush that Aku baby once and for all!"
"Some may die in this encounter against Aku, dad," the second eldest daughter stated, "Surely everyone knows and understands the danger of this mission."
"We have no use or patience for spineless cowards or ingrates!" The Scotsman sternly declared, "This is Samurai Jack we're talking about! Throughout the years, that man selflessly risked his life countless times for everyone without asking for so much as a penny in return! He more than earned our respect and dignity and we owe it to him to rescue and save him from Aku! If I have to die again to free Jack then so be it!"
"But dad," the eldest daughter pointed out, 'You're already dead. You can't possibly die again."
"All more why I will fight and keep fighting against Aku!" the Scotsman laughed, "Even if it takes fifty more years to beat him!"
(Two Days Later)
An impressive battalion of Spartans, armed with their swords, spears and shields, made their march towards Aku's fortress with their king leading them. They were two hundred and fifty yards away. With the fortress in view, the Spartan king turned to his loyal soldiers and declared with a loud voice, "OUR COMRADE AND BROTHER IN ARMS, SAMURAI JACK, IS WAITING FOR US! THIS WILL BE THE HISTORIC DAY AKU THE MERCILESS MEETS HIS DEMISE AND THE END OF HIS EMPIRE!" the king turned around and rose his sword high towards the sky and commanded, "FORWARD GO BRAVE SPARTANS!"
The Spartan king and his battalion of Spartans charged forward valiantly with their warrior roars. Aku's army of insect robots and humanoid androids appeared from out of the fortress and rushed at the incoming Spartans. They Spartan king and his battalion met with Aku's forces and did battle with them. The Spartans slashed and stabbed their way through the opposing robotic forces that were coming by the many. Regardless, the Spartans fought with everything they had. This was a war and rescue mission to save the man they dearly regarded of a brother and valiant warrior.
A large army of archers, riding upon the woolies, galloped through the arid terrain as they made their way to Aku's fortress. Both the woolies and the archers riding them had strong eyes that carried courage and determination. They weren't going to allow Aku to have his way any further and kidnapping Jack with the intent to have him executed on television pushed the woolies and the archers to the point to join forces and declare war on Aku and his forces. They knew risks and the dangers presented. But Samurai Jack selfless heroism was their inspiration to fight back and help bring about Aku's downfall.
After a long ride, they finally arrived at the fortress. Taking their positions, the lead archer declared, "MY BROTHERS! TODAY WE DECLARE IN ONE VOICE THAT WE AS A UNITED PEOPLE AND TRIBE WILL NO LONGER STAND FOR AKU'S EVIL AND OPPRESSION! ON THIS DAY, WE TAKE OUR STAND AND FIGHT BACK, IN THE NOBLE NAME OF OUR COMRADE THE SAMURAI!"
The archers and woolies gave loud war cries as they charged forward towards the fortress with courage and unyielding determination for victory. Soon they saw Aku's army of war androids and flying machines coming at them to defend the fortress. That didn't serve to deter the woolies and their riders one bit as they continued their forward charge. Reaching Aku's force, an all-out war broke out and exchange of firing between sides took place. The woolies trampled down on the androids that came their way, crushing them beneath their feet. Their riders fired their many arrows, one after another and brought down more of Aku's robotic minions while gradually making their way closer to the fortress.
Off from a distance in the horizon, a giant ancient samurai mecha was making its way towards the fortress. Manning the mecha were androids whom Jack once helped and saved when he once piloted the samurai mecha years ago against a terrible force. The androids came to return Jack's heroism with their own as they charged forward towards the fortress.
They were ready to give their retort to Aku that they had enough and weren't going stand for his tyranny any further.
"How long until we arrive?" the commanding android asked.
"ETA: Three minutes until our arrival, sir!" the piloting android said.
"Excellent!" the commanding android said, "Full speed ahead! Let's show Aku what we really think of him and rescue Jack from his hands!"
High in the sky were many hundreds large white birds flying through the skies with the children of the rave riding on their backs, armed with laser cannons and laser riffles ready to go to war against Aku and his army. Accompanying them were flying war machines that were being piloted by talking archaeologist dogs ready to take their shot at Aku and his minions. Within minutes they arrived at Aku's fortress began to open fire against it. Not long after, Aku's flying defense force flew from out of the fortress and did battle with their aerial attackers.
It was open war in the skies. But the children of the rave with their female DJ leading them along with the archaeologist dogs allied with them, there were determined to keep fight until they got to Jack and freed him.
On the surface, a huge army of the amphibian people from the water kingdom were charging forward firing their weapons at the opposing robotic forces storming from out of Aku's fortress.
(Inside Aku's Fortress)
Aku watched from his screen the war that broke out from outside his fortress now under siege.
"These insects dare to believe that their futile efforts to oppose me will grant them their long-desired victory," Aku sneered, "It's quite amusing to watch knowing that they're all going to die before the day is out."
Jack, bruised up and in much pain, looked at Ashi with pleading eyes. Ashi's body though was not her own. Currently it was consumed and under the control and influence of Aku. Currently, Ashi just stood there motionlessly and quietly, seemingly ignoring Jack's pleas to fight Aku's hold on her.
Inside Ashi's mind however, a war and struggle was going on as Ashi was trying to fight for control against the darkness that was trying to completely consume her. The darkness was using memories of her mother's abuse and control of her and the indoctrination of her mother's dark cult ways as a means to weaken Ashi's will to fight back. It was telling Ashi that part of Aku is also a part of her being and implying that she was meant for the darkness.
"You're not your mother! You're not your father! You are your own person! Fight it Ashi! You can beat it from within!"
Those were Jack's words to her a few days ago and it kept repeating in her mind over and over and over again.
"Jack!" Ashi said within her mind as she started putting up a stronger fight not to let the darkness completely consumer her.
(Meanwhile Outside The Fortress)
Chaos was reigning; Aku's fortress was under heavy ground and aerial attack from all sides and angles. Aku's robotic army came charging out of the fortress that was under siege and began going into battle against their attackers. Meanwhile, the Scotsman was leading his daughters riding on large bucks through the air as they caught up with the giant samurai mecha that was now less than a minute away from the fortress.
(Back inside the Fortress)
Aku continued watching the scenes of the battles that were continuing to take place until he grew tired of them.
"I've had just about enough of these bothersome insects ruining my domain," Aku said, "It's time I, Aku, put these foolish mortals in their places and remind them who's master and that my evil is law!"
Suddenly there was a thunderous quake followed by massive explosions from the ceiling and all of the walls of the fortress. Mountains of burning rubble and debris fell to the ground within the fortress with a large dust cloud that blanketed the vicinity. Aku wasn't harm by the explosions at all as he had more of a look of annoyance. When the dust cloud cleared, Aku looked to see the giant samurai mecha staring down at him. Jack looked at the mecha with widened eyes as he immediately recognized it.
"That ancient samurai giant!" Jack cheered with hope being reinvigorated with his heart.
"HA!" Aku mocked, "A giant war machine built in the likeness of the samurai!"
The mecha grabbed Aku by his horns and slammed him up against the wall. Aku turned immediately turned to Ashi and commanded, "Daughter, kill the Samurai!"
The mecha pulled Aku from off the wall and out of the fortress. Once out of the fortress, it dragged Aku away for a short distance. After that, the mecha slammed Aku down to the arid desert floor. Once Aku was on the ground, the mecha proceeded to stomp down on the dark lord's face fiercely, cracking the ground underneath Aku in the process.
"Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!" Aku cried from the brutal force of the stomped before changing his shape to a giant black crab and crawling away fast from the mecha's foot stomping on his face. Turning to face the mecha, Aku threatened, "Your attack on will cost you dearly!"
The mecha ignored the threat and retrieved its giant swords from its compartment. Aku changed back to normal and challenged, "Bring it on fools!"
(Back Inside The Damaged Fortress)
Ashi shaped her right hand into a large blade and prepared to stab Jack straight through his heart. Jack looked at Ashi desperately and pleaded, "Ashi please! Don't do this! Don't let Aku win! Fight against his control and free yourself!"
Ashi didn't verbally respond as she just moved forward closer to him. She pulled her bladed right arm back and readied herself to deliver the finished deathblow.
"Ashi!" Jack pleaded again. Just before Ashi could carry out Aku's orders, she was blasted and thrown from Jack by a spectral energy attack. Jack looked up to see The Scotsman and his daughters galloping down into the fortress towards his direction. Meanwhile, his daughters went to deal with the possessed Ashi who saw that the daughters of The Scotsman were an invading threat that needed to be dealt with.
"Jack!" the Scotsman yelled out happily as he hurried over to Jack, "It's been a very long time lad!"
The Scotsman, using his bagpipe, fired energy blast at the shackles holding Jack up against the wall. Jack fell to the floor. The Scotsman tried to help Jack up but he went right through him.
"Blast!" the Scotsman grumbled, "I forgot I no longer have my body!"
Jack sooner got himself up off the ground before he took a good look at his longtime friend.
"You're…dead," Jack said with a hollow tone filled with disbelief.
"Aye!" the Scotsman confirmed, "It's a long time about that. But never mind that lad! Let me introduce you to my beautiful daughters," after the Scotsman got through identifying and going through all of their names, he said to Jack, "So, pick which one of my daughters you'd like to marry."
Jack replied, "I'm very flattered by your offer but-"
"BUT?!" The Scotsman retorted, "You mean my daughters aren't good enough for you?"
"No, no it's not that!" Jack clarified, "It's that, I met someone already."
"Really lad!?" The Scotsman asked, "Who exactly?"
"Her," Jack replied as he pointed to Ashi who was now engaged in fierce combat with the Scotsman's daughters. A moment later, The Scotsman turned to Jack with a concerned look and replied, "I don't think she's right for you lad."
"Ashi is under Aku's control," Jack revealed, "She's not herself and I must help her break free from the grasp Aku's evil have on her!"
Ashi, seeing that Jack was now freed, turned her arms into tentacles and smacked the Scotsman's daughters away from her before she rushed over to Jack. Seeing Ashi's incoming attack, the Scotsman used his bagpipe to fire a spectral blast her her. But Ashi managed to dodge the attack as she continued her pursue of Jack. Getting close to Jack, Ashi turned her arms into large blades and started slashing at Jack who was pleading to her to fight Aku's control over her as he moved and dodge all of her attacks.
"Ashi!" Jack pleaded, "You must fight Aku's control over you! I know you're stronger than this! Don't let Aku win! You're not his puppet!"
His words seemingly fell on deaf ears as Ashi continued hacking and slashing at him with her razor sharp arms that she turned into pincers. Jack narrowly avoided a horizontal swipe from her right pincer that would have taken his head on clean. Jack moved and pulled back as Ashi rushed at him.
(Meanwhile)
The giant mecha was still fighting fiercely with Aku. While the mecha took some damages, it was still functional and able to continue fighting as it was delivering hard punches into Aku's face.
"Foolish mortal giant!" Aku roared, "Your attacks on me will accomplish nothing! No mortal weapon can harm me!"
Aku punched the giant away from him and fired an optic laser attack at it. The giant however quickly dodged and deflected the attack towards the skies before engaging Aku in combat again.
(Inside the Mecha)
"Sir!" the pilot android warned, "We've taken 42% damage, but our power reserves are still holding and our auxiliary reactor power is still on standby!'
"Good!" the commanding android replied, "We'll take everything Aku throws at us and more if it'll give Jack a chance to escape and fight!"
"I only hope we survive to celebrate this!" a cadet android remarked from one of the operating bays.
(All The While)
Ashi was holding Jack by the throat to the ground, strangling the life out of him.
"Ashi!" Jack pleaded lowly, "Ple…Please remember…You're…Ashi…Remember who you are…Everything we went through together…All the great things you've done…You said that I saved those children that were being mind-controlled. But the truth is that you were the one who save them…not me."
Ashi started having memory flashbacks in regards to what Jack was telling her: from the time he continuously protected and saved her while in that massively giant monster, how he was gentle with ladybugs, her time listening to his stories about the stars' birth, when he explained and show her the truth about Aku, when she fought the abductor and blew up the machine controlling the kidnapped children from the village that was attacked.
"You gave me back hope when I gave up on myself…" Jack explained, "You gave me a reason to live and keep fighting…You battled and overcame the darkness your mother indoctrinated you into…You helped me…You protected and saved me…That's why I value and treasure you with my life and would die for you…I love you Ashi!"
When Ashi heard those words, again she started remembering all of the good she did and the kiss that she and Jack shared together. And after hearing his love confession, it gave her mind a powerful boost to fight and conquer the darkness that tried to swallow and consume her. It was a fierce mental battle but Jack saw that Ashi was listening as her grip around his neck gradually loosen until she completely released him. She stood back up and remained there motionlessly. Jack slowly stood back up and looked at Ashi.
"Ashi?" Jack called out lowly before her structure took on her normal human form with her face and hair being freed of the black Aku-like features. She opened her eyes, and looked at Jack with teary eyes.
"Jack!" Ashi called out happily before running over to him and embracing him tightly. Jack happily hugged Ashi back just as tightly, fully relieved that Ashi conquered the darkness that almost consumed her.
"I'm sorry Jack," Ashi apologized, "I'm so sorry."
"There's no need to apologize," Jack assured, "You're you again, that's all that matters to me."
"Hey lad," the Scotsman interrupted, "I know you and your lady friend are having a moment but we have bigger problems to worry about!"
As soon as that was said, the giant samurai mecha crashed down to the ground with heavy damages. Around the mecha were many injured and wounded allies and fighters along with a mass of scrapped enemy robots and droids. Aku flew back into the fortress to see that Jack was still alive and in Ashi's arms.
"Daughter!" Aku said, "Hurry and kill the samurai! You have him in your grasp now!"
Ashi released Jack from her embrace and turned to Aku with a look of resistance and replied with defiance, "No!"
"No!?" Aku retorted angrily.
"And I'll never kill him!" Ashi added, "And you can't make me!"
"How dare you talk back to your father!" Aku retorted.
"You're not my father!" Ashi said.
"Yes I am!" Aku retorted.
"No you're not!" Ashi countered, "You're a monster who doesn't belong in our world!"
"You insolent child!" Aku growled angrily, "It's true what they say: If you want things done right, you have to do it yourself!"
Aku roared as he extended his arm out to reach out and crush Jack to death. Ashi intercepted and with her newfound powers, she blocked Aku with elongated arms of her own.
"WHAT!?" Aku shouted in disbelief. Pulling his arms back, he fired his red optic laser beams from his eyes straight at Ashi. Ashi retorted by firing optic laser beams from her eyes directly into Aku's laser beams, triggering a tug-of-war between them as they struggled for supremacy. A moment later, the opposing laser beams triggered an explosion to occur, resulting in a stalemate between Ashi and Aku
"Ashi!" Jack said in amazement, "You have Aku's powers!"
"I know!" Ashi replied, "Jack!" Ashi suggested, "I'll hold Aku off! Go retrieve your sword!"
Jack nodded and hurried to where his sword was being held. Aku rushed to stop Jack, but Ashi jumped and changed her two arms into tentacles before wrapping them around Aku, holding him back.
"Not so fast Aku!" Ashi replied as Aku struggled to break free from Ashi's hold on him. All the while, Jack ran as fast as he could to get to his sword while avoiding all of the falling burning debris. After a few close calls with the falling debris, Jack reached the wall carrying his sword. Jack jumped and climbed the wall holding his sword and quickly stretched out his right hand to reach for it.
"Got it!" Jack shouted triumphantly as he grabbed and pulled the sword from off the wall. He jumped off the wall and leaped away just moments before flying debris came flying at him from Aku who threw it at him.
"Curse you samurai!" Aku roared as he managed to break from Ashi and push her off him. Aku made an attempt to rush at Jack but Ashi ran as fast as she could and reached Jack first. Taking a hold of him, Ashi opened her mouth and shrieked white rings out of her mouth and guided them to encircle both herself and Jack together. After doing that, both Ashi and Jack vanished in a flash of white light.
Upon seeing what happened…
"Oh no…," Aku said fearfully as he realized what Jack and Ashi were about to do…
(In The Time Portal)
Jack was holding Ashi's hand as they fell and travel through the time portal together.
'This is it!' Jack thought happily, 'I'm truly going back in time to destroy Aku once and for all!'
"We're almost there Jack! Get ready!" Ashi said as they were coming to the end of the line. Soon the opening of the time portal appeared, and Jack and Ashi dropped right through it.
"WHAT!?" Aku panicked in disbelief, "YOU'RE BACK ALREADY!?"
Jack didn't give the younger and weakened Aku a response as he charged at him and slashed him.
"AAaaaaaarrrgggghhhh!" Aku screamed in tremendous pain after feeling a part of him disintegrate. In a panic, Aku leaped down to another platform in an effort to escape from Jack. However, Jack went in pursuit of Aku and jumped down to the platform where Aku was and took another slash at Aku, breaking and disintegrating another part of him. Aku screamed again while again trying to make his escape as he didn't have enough strength or power to fight back.
"This can't be possible!" Aku roared out in fear and disbelief as Jack continued hacking and slashing at him with his sword. Soon, there was just half a head of Aku that was left after all of the other parts were destroyed. Desperately, Aku again tried to make a quick run for it with Jack hot on his trail.
"I need time to heal and regenerate back to full strength!" the heavily weakened Aku cried out, "I have to get away from here!"
"Your evil and reign of terror ends now Aku!" Jack declared at his leaped into the air and soared down towards with the blade of his sword aimed directly at Aku's remaining head. Everything seemed to have slowed down as Aku saw that his demise was fast approaching. Suddenly he felt the piercing pain of Jack's sword plunge through his head and seconds later Aku got magnetically pulled onto Jack's sword. Raising his sword up, Jack declared, "This is the end for you Aku!"
Jack then plunged and stabbed the blade his sword down through the ground. This resulted in an explosive chain reaction as Aku's remaining essence got pulled into the explosions from Jack's sword. The explosions triggered Aku's fortress to begin its collapse and complete destruction.
"C'mon!" Jack warned Ashi, "We must leave here now!"
Ashi nodded as they began their escaped from the exploding fortress. Jack and Ashi ran and evaded the falling and burning debris that were collapsing all around them. Soon, the pair found themselves outside of the fortress before it completely collapsed and exploded.
Once they were a safe distance, Ashi fell to her knees, appearing like to she was catching her breath. Jack knelt down next to her as he placed his hands on her shoulders, holding her up to support her.
"Ashi?" Jack asked with concerned, "Are you alright?"
"I don't…I-" Ashi struggled to speak as she felt life draining from her, "I don't feel so good."
"Ashi?" Jack asked worriedly as he turned and held Ashi in his arms, "What's the matter?"
Soon Jack noticed that Aski started vanishing from his arms.
"What's wrong?! Ashi, what's happening to you!?" Jack panicked.
"Aku is gone…," Ashi said weakly, "Killed in this timeline…Meaning…I never existed. Aku was the reason…why I existed…"
"NO!" a heartbroken Jack cried as tears built up and poured down his face, "You can't leave me now! We were to have a future together! You were the only woman I ever loved Ashi! You can't leave!"
"Ja-Jack…" Ashi said with her voice growing hollow, "I lo-ve you…too."
Ashi vanished from Jack's arms before Jack fell to his hands and knees and wept bitterly.
"ASHI!" Jack wept loudly seeing that the woman he love was gone forever, "THIS ISN'T FAIR! I DEFEATED AKU ONLY TO LOSE THE WOMAN I LOVE IN THE PROCESS! THIS ISN'T FAIR! ASHI!"
During Jack's weeping, something unexpected started happening: Jack himself started vanishing. Jack looked to see this phenomenon happening to him as he had a most perplexed look on his face.
"What is this!?" Jack asked aloud, "What's happening?!"
A most familiar dark figure started reforming in front of Jack. Jack slowly looked up and to both his horror and disbelief, his eyes widened to see Aku reforming and regenerating back to normal. The once destroyed fortress was also returning back to normal as though no type of damage or harm came upon it.
"NO!" Jack screamed while he continued disappearing, "THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! I KILLED YOU!"
Aku wordlessly continued being reformed along with his fortress.
"I traveled back to the past from the future to kill you!" Jack cried, "How could my noble efforts only meet with failure!? HOW COULD THIS BE!?"
Jack felt himself slowly vanishing and being pulled away from the timeline he was in. Aku was fully reformed along with his fortress before everything went white.
(Unknown Location)
"Jack!" a deep voice called out, "Jack!" the voice called out again, "Jack!"
Jack opened his eyes slowly to see that he was no longer in the human realm. Standing before him were Ra, Odin and Vishnu.
"Jack," Odin started off, "While it's noble that you seek to destroy Aku which is the purpose you were chosen for, you went about this completely the wrong way."
"How?!" Jack said, "I fail to understand this! I went back to the past and destroyed Aku! It's been my mission and goal for all this years to return to the past to vanquish Aku from there and rid world of his evil and reunite with my family and people!" Jack hung his head low in defeated and grief, "But my efforts, my goals…my success in travel back in time because of Ashi's help, they were all for nothing! Aku still managed to survive and carry out his reign of evil and terror upon the world! It was for nothing!"
"Jack your efforts failed because you sort the most illogical method in your quest and hopes to defeat Aku," Ra said, "Time traveling to the past was never the answer because time is not something any mortal should ever attempt to tamper with. That was why I refused to answer your question about knowing of any time portals years ago."
"Time was meant and created to flow in only one direction: Forward!" Vishnu spoke up, "It was never purposed to be used or exploited by any mortal to alter one's past or the past of another person in whatever way they thought was right!"
"Throughout the centuries many around different parts of the world have made and opened time portals in their quests for power," Odin explained, "To prevent such disastrous exploitations of the timeline and history, those time portals were protected by those we entrusted, like the Guardian who bested and defeated you in combat years ago."
"Jack," Vishnu said, "Let us explain in clearer details why killing Aku in the past didn't work as you had hoped it would."
"A time paradox went into effect as a result of you and Ashi tampering with the past," Ra revealed.
"A time paradox?" Jack asked with a confused expression.
"A contradiction in the flow of time and history," Odin clarified, "I'll explain: Because you as Jack from the future killed Aku in the past as a result of Ashi traveling to the past with you, Ashi disappeared soon after because her father Aku from the past was gone, meaning she never come into existence. The time paradox here is that if Ashi never existed because Aku was killed in the past by you as Jack from the future, then you couldn't have gone back in time because Ashi never existed for you to meet her and send you back to the past with her in the first place. That resulted in the historical flow of time correcting itself."
"Aku from the past timeline was completely revived with you as Jack from future being removed and pulled out of that timeline," Vishnu interjected, "In other words, the past corrected itself and removed the time paradox; meaning that your time traveling to the past never happened nor was it ever meant to happen."
This was a heavy, overwhelming load for Jack to hear and listen to. It was a colossal blow for Jack to discover that he wasted so many years of his life in vain pursuing a mission to travel to the past to defeat Aku from there. Tears began flowing down Jack's face as he started crying loudly when the weight of the truth sank in deep.
"I failed!" Jack cried, "I failed everyone horribly: my family, my people, all of my teachers and friends! I forever lost Ashi, the woman I loved. It was all for nothing! I failed!"
"Don't speak such foolish nonsense Jack!" Ra sternly rebuked, "You just went about fulfilling your mission the wrong way, but you didn't fail!"
"Aku still can be defeated once and for all," Odin assured, "But not through time traveling to the past! Aku can only be defeated properly through the present time."
"Plus, you didn't fail anyone," Vishnu interjected, "The loss of your family, teachers and friends from the past was no fault on your part, tragic as it was. They knew Aku removed you from their timeline and hurled you into the future since Aku himself bragged about it. But they had hope that in the future Aku would be defeat by your hands, they just knew it would not happen during their lifetime. Even in death, they knew you would one day return and liberate everyone from Aku's oppression as the chosen one."
"Though it's sad that you lost your family, friends and teachers from the past," Ra spoke up, "Your obsession and dwelling so heavily on past for all these years of your life have blinded you to all of the blessings you had in the future."
"What?" Jack replied in confusion.
"You're so obsessed and caught up dwelling and living for the past that you blinded yourself completely from seeing all of the new friends, allies and teachers from the future whom you met who, like you, oppose Aku," Ra explained.
Jack was made to see visions of everyone he ever met and helped during his many years and adventures in the future: from the Scotsman and his daughters, the woolies, the 300 Spartans, the arches, the androids with the giant mecha, the sea people of the underwater kingdom, the salamanders who helped him purge the Aku illness he was once infected with, the archaeologist dogs, the rave children, and so many more faces and people and national groups.
"These people have great regard for you samurai," Odin stated, "They not only see you as their hero, but as their greatest inspiration, their savior whom they love deeply and dearly."
Lastly, Jack saw Ashi's smiling face.
"You even found a woman from that timeline who loves you with her whole heart and soul," Ra pointed out, "Ashi and all these people love you Jack, and are willing to fight and die for you. They're risking everything for you because you inspired them to fight against Aku and bring about his ultimate destruction in their timeline. Do you honestly think you failed these selfless, noble people who are willing to go through such lengths for you?"
"But the fact of the matter is that you love the past more than you love these people," Vishnu stated with disapproval, "Whom you saved and inspired. Do their existence and the fact that they love you to this extent mean so little to you to point that you'd rather attempt to reset the past in your image and erase their existence just to satisfy your own goals and ambitions?"
That revelation hit Jack like a ton bricks as he honestly never once took that thought into consideration. When he thought about it, he felt both disgusted and ashamed of his actions and the number of years he wasted on a dream that would have surely erased their existence.
"I've made so many mistakes in my quest to defeat Aku," Jack humbly confessed as he hung his head low in shame, "It's only now I realize that Aku was right in that I'm a foolish samurai."
"You're only foolish if you never humbly acknowledge and admit your mistakes," Odin stated, "But there is still hope to defeat Aku, but you must do it the right way, with the help of all of your friends and allies and the woman you love."
Jack wiped away his tears and took several deep breaths to calm himself down. He took several moments to allow everything he heard to sink in and readjust his thinking on matters.
"As hard as it was for me," Jack said aloud, "I have to accept that I can never go back to the past; I'll never physically see my parents and friends and teachers from my past timeline ever again. The logic of time will never allow for it."
After a brief pause in his speech, Jack continued, "But these loved ones of mine will forever live on in my heart. It's a bittersweet truth I have to accept and live with. Despite this, I have new friends and teachers from the future. I have Ashi whom I can start a new family with! Together with them, I will bring about Aku's destruction so that the memories of my ancestors, family, friends and teachers from the past can finally have true peace! I will give Ashi and all of my new friends a future they deserve and bring about Aku's ultimate destruction once and for all!"
Ra, Odia and Vishnu said in unison, "THEN GO! THEY'RE WAITING FOR YOU TO LEAD THEM TO VICTORY, SAMURAI!"
There was a brilliant flash of white light and Jack found himself gone from their sight.
Jack is going back to the future to fight Aku in his final showdown! Find out what happens next chapter coming soon.