Don't own Samurai Jack. If I did.... *Grins.* Well, just be glad I don't.

Ta. ;)

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Warning, this story has:

The Occult (demons, pagan gods, etc.)

Aku and Jack's blasphemous language (mostly directed at each other)

Yaoi (m x m relationships)

Violence (non descriptive)

Dark themes (mentions of cannibalism, etc.)

Should there be a warning for having an actual plot!??? 8-\

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Run away children! This will burn your virgin eyes!! The cannibals will eat you!

*Waves stick* Shoo! Shoo!

***

"Ahoy there stranger!" The mighty voice bellowed across the din of chirping birds echoing within the valley. "Ye desire a drink?"

Jack was taken aback by the sheer abruptness of the offer, for it was at least another two hours towards the mountain town of Brii. He snorted in shock, half-ensnared in the surreal embrace that lay just before sleep, caught completely off-guard. Blinking in both groggy bewilderment and amusement at the dishevelled man's apparel, the samurai relaxed from his formerly stiff pose and released the instinctive grasp on the hilt of his blade. He smiled in a cautious welcome, his dark eyes darting surreptitiously around the boreal scene to pinpoint Aku's location, but the demon's presence was muted. He didn't want to be found.

A block of ice settled into Jack's stomach as the scarred, tattooed man swaggered towards his position, many bottles of differing sizes in hand. "Aye, hello there stranger." The man greeted roughly, his single eye gleaming mischievously as he sauntered right up to Jack and plopped down beside him. "It's a grand mornin' for a drink, ain't it?"

"Urm...I suppose it is." The warrior replied, at a loss to say anything else. The atmosphere was heavy with tension, the birds were quiet, the air was still and forbidding, and the wind suddenly seemed a little cooler. Aku was lurking about, he could feel the chill the darkness of his form exuded, silencing all the animals with alarm, yet the wizard refused to reveal himself. Aku hiding himself from mortals? Now that was odd. Jack's frown increased as his eyes took in a steady surveillance of the surrounding forest.

"....And that was how I got stranded on this god-forsaken country," the rough merchant ranted on, completely oblivious to the danger he was in. "Ye wouldn't believe the trouble I had tryin' to get some lousy passports! Bloody 'ell!"

"Mm." Jack murmured distractedly, his eyes searching for a flash of movement as his hand stole downwards to his sword. He was acting ridiculous, yet the ice in his stomach refused to leave him, and as a warrior he never questioned his instincts.

What are you up to, Aku?

"Aye," the man nodded, seemingly to himself for as much attention Jack paid to him. "So there stranger, ye look a li'le thirsteh, eh? Eh?" He smiled and revealed a mouthful of rotten, scurvy-infested teeth most likely contracted going unprepared over the sea. "I can give ye some good ol' rum I snatched from a couple o' Aku's merchant vessels! It's good stuff too! I'll give ye a good price--twenty gold lakhs for three bo'les!"

"Uh, no thank you." Jack replied when the man fell into an expectant silence. However, his attention quickly swivelled back to the matter of Aku and he began to ignore the stranger completely. His sword slowly emerged from its sheath, gleaming a dazzling white in the sunlight so that it appeared to be made out of molten gold. There was a sound of rustling from behind and Jack turned his head the slightest bit, his ebony eyes narrowed into calculating slits.

"What ye be doin'?" The man asked nonchalantly, but even as he stepped into the light, his single eye changed. The pupil constricted into a narrow, lightning slit that was completely inhuman. The samurai's brows rose in response to this and his mind suddenly clicked, realizing the aura of danger had not been from Aku, the coward, but the creature before him! And here the 'Shogun of Sorrow' had fled from it's presence like a shadow flees from sunlight. How fitting. He should have known.

Seeing the flicker of recognition flash in Jack's eyes, the bedraggled man made a slow, sinister smile filled not with rotten, human teeth, but fangs far more suited to a lion. Right before his eyes, the demon's human shell withered and shrivelled away to reveal a dark, bony form armed with sinewy muscles and vicious looking talons. Its long, powerful neck arched to bring its angled head at eyelevel with Jack, and it allowed for another dark, toothy grin that smelled of rotting flesh. Without warning it made a violent swat that connected to the samurai's face, sending him flying off his feet like he had been clubbed by a cement block.

Jaw aching and skull pounding, the samurai managed to haul himself into a sitting position only to see the cadaverous, corpse-like creature hovering over him, the overwhelming stench of death reeking out its mouth from its former victims, making Jack's eyes water. It was an oni from Hell--what a god-forsaken beast! It raised its skeletal hand, readying for the final, killing blow, a leering grin skating across its thin, deathly features.

Crunch.

Both demon and samurai froze, staring at each other with equal amounts of disbelief before the beast abruptly keeled onto its side, emitting a low, sorrowful moan. Jack peered into its eyes, but already they were glazed over with the idle sightlessness of death. He turned back to study his saviour only to see the sleek, obsidian silhouette of Aku towering majestically over him, blocking out a majority of the sunlight.

"I thought you had fled," was all Jack said in way of thanks.

There was a most indignant snort from the faceless shadow of Aku above the warrior. "Foolish samurai." The wizard stepped away from him and turned to examine his victim with the indifferent malice all demons seemed to possess. He bent down and his elegant claws managed to pluck something from the carcass, taking great care not to touch any naked flesh of the demon. The shape-shifter examined the seemingly insignificant medallion before casting it away with utter disgust, one fang revealing itself beneath a curled emerald lip. "She knows we are here."

"Then why only send one minion?"

"Samurai, have you not figured it out yet?" Aku turned to gaze at him, the mocking grin dancing madly over his sinister features. "To her this is a game. She is testing you. Prodding for your weaknesses."

Jack remained grimly silent, sheathing his blade while casting a dark, suspicious look towards the sky, which had suddenly grown far blacker and more foreboding during the past five minutes. The silence in the air was only more pronounced, like the quiet before the storm. He could feel the breathless expectation and he knew his nemesis could as well. Despite the web of manipulation and intrigue that they had been carefully entangled in, Jack knew that they could not linger. The threat of Gaia was real that was for sure, for Aku would never employ the corpse-like onis of the inner circles of Hell. He had no power there, but this Mother of Demons obviously did. She would not kill Aku, but Jack was definitely dispensable.

"This game becomes more and more treacherous." The samurai grated while casting a dark glance towards the rogue storm swiftly encroaching upon their position. Foolishly, they were in the valley between the two biggest peaks of Devil's Pass. Jack had learned little of the actual science of this modern world, but he did know that the shape of the valley would act as a wind tunnel and intensify the violence of the incoming gale. He shivered slightly and began walking. The air had suddenly become cold--another bad sign. Potent storms always rode on a front of cold and hot air. Gaia had not only trapped them together with the only other person they could neither manipulate nor trust nor charm to get out, but also herded them in the most vulnerable place in the entire countryside. Trapped like rats.

Aku simply let out a growl, sensing the drop in barometric pressure. "It is merely a storm." He sounded sorely ill-convinced himself.

"We should head towards Brii," suggested the samurai as he was half-way down the suddenly feeble looking path. The area itself was infamous for its harsh, unpredictable weather and, courtesy of the moist ocean air, hosted the occasional hurricane despite its dry tundra climate. The town of Brii would most likely be protected against storms of any ferocity, but the problem would be to outrun the storm already bearing down upon them. Jack cast another glance towards the tempest roiling violently from the open ocean, clawing its way over the mountains that bordered the seashore.

Aku sensed his thoughts and shook his head. "You will never outrun her magic."

"Then we must take shelter." The warrior glanced around doubtfully at the barren looking valley lacking any sturdy structures strong enough to stand up to the black, brooding sky above them, crackling menacingly.

"The storm will destroy everything in this valley," Aku grunted, throwing another disdainful glance towards the blackening sky.

"Then what do you suggest!?" Jack demanded harshly, his patience steadily fraying the more Aku kept blocking him. There was no more time for these childish barbs!

The demon turned to the samurai after the outburst, his face cool and composed. "I said you could not outrun this storm, samurai, I did not say that I could not."

Jack paused, his anger replaced with bewilderment. "But?"

"She can sense my magic and use it to track my presence." Aku's eyes narrowed into speculative slits. "It was by this method that she discovered my location in the beginning."

"But she already knows where we are," the warrior raised one brow, noting the slight stiffening in his foe's posture.

"Tracking...is only one of the things that she does when she pinpoints the exact location of my magic." The demon cast him a baleful glare, ending the line of conversation.

Jack cast the shape-shifter a disgusted glance before shaking his head, unable to fathom a solution to escape Gaia's trap. Every step they made, every decision, every choice seemed to be the wrong one! How could they defeat an enemy that was as powerful and as subtle as a god? Jack ran his fingers through his hair, a habit he developed when the stress began to rub his nerves raw. It was the motion that tilted his head at an angle which enabled him to see the seductive glow amid the trembling blades of grass hissing in the wind. Suspicious, the samurai sauntered over towards the pale glow and realized it had been the object Aku had picked from the demon's corpse and then violently tossed it away.

It was round and golden, but the sinister designs engraved upon it's surface made Jack's hair stand on end. There was a wheel crafted into the gold depicting different beings of all races, raising their hands in despair towards the figure set in the middle. Adorned with cat-slanted eyes forged of tiny sapphires, the feminine figure exuded a deadly lure towards good and evil creatures alike. Her grinning face resembled the morbid, fleshless smile of a human skull as she held out her arms in a deceptively welcoming embrace. Reluctantly fascinated, Jack reached down towards the medallion to pick it up when his wrist was snatched by an unforgiving set of inhuman fingers.

The samurai froze, instinctively disliking the contact. Vaguely, in the back of his mind, he realized it was the first time he and Aku had made physical contact outside the battlefield, but the all-consuming revulsion made Jack automatically rip his hand away. Aku was...warm! Somehow, through all their confrontations against one another, he had figured the demon would feel as cold and repugnant as his personality. Instead, he felt warm and soft and vaguely...silky like tendrils of heavy air. Not solid, yet not quite insubstantial. It was strange and Jack didn't like it at all. Coming into contact with any of the spiritfolk was disconcerting enough, never mind a demon as genocidal as Aku. His hands were soaked with the blood of countless civilizations and millions of innocent people.

Amused by the violence of the warrior's reaction, Aku couldn't help the malevolent grin that slid across his dark features. "Do not touch this medallion, samurai, unless you would enjoy having the life sucked from your very body."

Grimly aware of their proximity to one another, Jack kept a firm grip on his sword. He was about to fire back a retort when a blinding fork of lightning struck a tall tree only a handful of paces to their right. The boom of displaced air made Jack's ears ring and his hairs stand on end once more. A smell of ozone was permeating the valley, sharp and clean in the middle of the storm, serving to remind the samurai that it would be best to argue later.

"We must leave!" He shouted to Aku over the wind, gritting his teeth against the stinging slaps of the wind as it increased in its ferocity, the bulk of the tempest now overcoming the mountain peaks. To his aggravation he was ignored. Aku was not looking at him at all, but rather facing towards east, cocking what Jack could only describe as his...horns towards the wind. It was only then he realized that the wizard was using them to perceive sound. By the way the demon inclined his head every now and then, it appeared he used them to sense vibrations in the air, similar to insects with their antennae.

Not to be ignored, the warrior stepped upwards to get right in the demon's face, but he stopped short and faltered when he saw the expression on his foe's face.

Terror.

The demon wasn't just afraid, he was terrified. The dread from earlier settled heavily into Jack's gut once more as he slowly turned back towards the squall, following Aku's line of sight. By all the gods in the heavens, he did not want to the see the creature which could make Aku tremble with fear! However, his body didn't want to listen and his eyes slowly rose towards the ferocious sky above, already knowing what he would see.

There atop the valley's crest sat a figure who appeared to be that distinctively blurry shade hovering between blue and violet. However, neither distance nor the difficulty in being spotted could stifle the all-encompassing FEAR radiating off the human form in an icy cloak of dread. She stood proudly against the chaotic backdrop, her form wafting an unnatural, otherworldly aura of a terrible, absolute power. The chill of the storm was merely a prelude to the iciness that gripped Jack's heart when her pupiless gaze fixed upon him. His legs felt nailed to the ground and all rational thought fled his mind as he locked gazes with the figure.

Gaia.

She was beautiful, but in a terrible, inhuman way that only accented the wickedness lying beneath her sweet, youthful exterior. She was of an average height with a heart-shaped face adorned with two angled, violet-blue eyes that glowed in the darkness of the tempest surrounding them. Her body was lithe but sinewy, festooned with numerous jewels and precious metals. She suddenly smiled as Jack met her gaze; holding out her hand she pointed towards the medallion lying on the grass beside them. It shone a brilliant green before it levitated into the air and dutifully lunged into the sky, landing neatly in the palm of her delicate-looking hand.

Jack suddenly understood. This was true evil. Physically, the woman appeared innocent if a bit mischievous, yet no amount of jewellery, gold, or physical deceptions could stifle the awesome presence that brought a deadly hush to the air. The fear oozing from Gaia transcended the mortal flesh and struck an otherworldly terror into Jack's heart. A despair that sucked away the will to try and escape, or even fight. It was like the aura of Aku, in fact, the crushing sense of dread about the two demons were identical, yet Gaia's presence dwarfed the wizard's by far. Physical appearances were meaningless. Aku may have been the ruler of the world, the most powerful demon on the planet even, but he was still merely a shard of a whole. A piece of a being who had terrorized the universe and had risen to challenge the very gods themselves.

Now Jack stared into the face of pure, undiluted evil.

"By all my ancestors...." The samurai breathed, his enchanted sword, which had saved his life so many times over, which had defeated countless creatures of darkness, was a useless lump of steel in his clammy hands.

"Greetings!" Despite Gaia's tiny, girlish form her voice resonated within the valley like a bronze gong, delicate and thunderous and Machiavellian all at the same time. Jack clenched his teeth, he could feel the hum of energy behind his eyes and it rattled his skull. "I have been searching for you, Samurai Jack." She suddenly dematerialized and then reappeared directly before them, barely an arm's reach away. Both Aku and Jack jerked their heads in shock; Gaia had been terrible then, she was unbearable now. The Darkness cocked her head slightly, her silken hair cascading over her shoulders, slanted eyes watching Jack with an intense, unblinking scrutiny.

"So," she rose one eyebrow, her mouth quirking in vague amusement, "you are the one aimlessly leading my child around. Shame on you, samurai." Gaia straightened herself, looking directly into the samurai's eyes. "You should not interfere with a mother and her son."

The warrior said nothing. The possessive words reminded him of his mother and the way the memories of their moments together had brought him a great deal of comfort during his trials through the future. He made a wince at the perversion of that same love which lay before him. True, they were demons, but the inhumanity of it was completely and utterly grotesque. Jack truly thought he was going to be physically ill it was so revolting. To refer to their relationship as mother and child while one attempted to...eat the other in an act equal to cannibalism was something even Jack couldn't have expected from Gaia.

Seeing his disgust, Gaia made a childish smile that was polluted by the evil roiling beneath her human shell. "So judgemental, are you not, little human? No matter. You shall not have the time to amend your ways. I grow bored of this little game. I must admit, you were not much spot; actually you were quite disappointing."

With one hideously beautiful arm, she reached out to touch Aku in what could only be described as an...affectionate manner, but the shape-shifter was wary of her charm and flinched away from her caress. Jack looked to his face, noting he had been silent the entire time, and saw his expression caught between the urge to bolt and a sick, demonic fascination. The samurai looked back towards Gaia to see her face was as colourful as Aku's: filled with an insatiable hunger that transcended the trivialities of mortal flesh and drove for the fulfillment of devouring a creature's life-force. Both Jack and Aku seemed small and insignificant compared to the inescapable malevolence of the creature standing before them in all it's terrible magnificence.

Jack remembered listening to the tales of his father, and the battles he had fought against the demon wizard Aku. He remembered standing there as a little boy, smiling mischievously as the Emperor finished his tale, his elderly features filled with a sober knowledge. Memories many years old that would never heal. Yet, as most boys did, Jack paid scant attention to the moral within the story and had wielded his wooden sword, usually used for sparring, to mock-battle with Aku. In his world of fantasy he had not been holding a wooden stick--no he had been wielding the magical sword his father treasured. Oh, how invincible he had been! How that demon had trembled before him! He, the mighty samurai! He was as skilled and as brave as the man he had seen at the bridge, fighting off four opponents at once. No! He had been better.

And then there had been terror. The cold, rough slap of shock that had coursed through his body when he had turned in the red illumination of Aku's magic to see the demon himself towering over the city. He had been nothing like in the pictures, where his father, the Emperor, had vanquished him easily, his young face painted in an expression of ferocity at the wizard's cringing form. No, he was so much...bigger. Not just in size, for he was all ready colossal then, but the icy waves of fear emanating from the wizard seemed to make him far more intimidating then he appeared. It had made his guts clench in terror to think of how his father had stood up to the demon shape-shifter, staring into the heart of evil.

There had been no frightened look of dismay on his face when he had spotted the Emperor, but a fanged grimace of hatred only accentuated by his inhuman features. Jack had felt totally helpless, watching his father, who he had thought to be as immortal as the legends surrounding him, being snatched away by Aku. The wizard had destroyed everything in the city, toying with the hapless people trapped in his clutches while he laughed and laughed that awful, booming, long-winded guffaw of his which made the earth itself tremble with fear.

In his mother's arms, fleeing their own country, he had stared back towards the city he had lived in all his life to see the demon of his imagination towering over it, revelling in it's destruction. He had felt small then. Small and weak and powerless.

It was how he felt now.

Gaia suddenly turned to Jack once more, her luminous eyes fixing on him with such intensity he thought her gaze would burn him. "Ah, so you are finally beginning to understand?" She made the most horrid smile but somehow it managed to glorify her dark beauty instead of distorting it. "Mm, I knew you would, Jack, sooner or later. Though I must say, I am surprised you figured it all out before Aku." She cast the wizard a fond glance, but it was as nurturing as the merciless, withering heat of the desert sun. Aku could not hold her sweet glare.

"Ah, yes," she continued on, amused at the shape-shifter's discomfiture. "It was I who freed you from your accursed prison. It was I who summoned the eclipse so you could grow fat and powerful leeching on this little world. This playground forgotten by the gods." Gaia's fanged smile was pure malice as she stared at both of them in turn, her gaze seemingly piercing through flesh and bone to look directly into the soul. "Did you really think you did it all by yourself, my son?" She cast him another amused glance that was tapered with the acrid edges of disdain. "Either way, it does not matter. You have gathered enough energy to be of worth to me once more; it is time you served your purpose, my little demon."

By all the gods, if only his father could see him now! Jack gritted his teeth, watching as Gaia slid ever closer to them, her eyes suddenly a deadly shade of violet that was as hypnotic as it was alarming. She was hungry.

Suddenly and without warning, Gaia lunged forwards, her dark violet hands suddenly more beastial as she leapt over the final gap between herself and Jack. Surprised, all his sinewy agility left him for one fatal second as he stared up at her. The speed at which she moved nearly defied his human sight as she descended upon him, her shadow blocking all else from sight.

"Farewell, Samurai Jack!" Her fanged smile and malevolent, violet eyes were the last thing he saw before his entire world was swallowed by the all-consuming pain. It was hellishly intense, coursing through every fibre of his being like some sort of poisonous venom surging through his blood, setting his flesh aflame and his senses awry. Just as Jack thought he could take no more, the world around him darkened mercifully until it erased all from touch, sight, and memory....

***

Ya, kinda OOC but hey! It wouldn't be all sunshine and daises if you were being chased by some crazy broad, would it? *Shudders.* Now that I think about it, Gaia's like a female version of Hannibal.

Creepy isn't it?

o.o;