AN: Shorter chapter but I hope you like it all the same. So close to some sweet, sweet Jashiness.
"I hope you slept well warrior." The elderly man said cheerfully as his new friend joined him.
"I would never complain about the hospitality of a host." Jack said, carefully dancing around the topic.
It hadn't been the worst place he'd ever slept but it was close to it.
Stuffy and cold the rock slab that had been his bed had been more of a hindrance to sleep than an asset. He seemed to be the only one affected by it though, all the other occupants of the room had fallen asleep the second they'd laid their heads down and had awoken nearly simultaneously the next morning, darting off as soon as possible.
Jack KNEW this because he has still been awake, perhaps stealing an hour or two of sleep at some point in the night.
He had followed some stragglers to a room filled with enormous red jars, nearly all of which had someone sitting in front of it, waiting patiently. He had also found the old man sitting by a one such jar and sat next to him.
Now the two stared at the sealed lid of the jar, each waiting for the other to speak. Jack opened his mouth but the old man held up a hand. Moments later a small creature entered the room and all eyes were fixated upon it.
It walked purposefully towards the raised section of the room where a large gong near the size of the wall stood idle, along with it a singular pedestal in front holding up a massive drumstick at least six times the creatures height, the weight of which should have been far too great for it to lift.
But Jack had learned to never underestimate someone based on their size.
The creature was female and old, that much he gathered when she uttered a phrase tiredly, the words he knew not, they were spoken in some dialect he had never heard before. Perhaps he had guessed wrongly that she was old, for she lifted the mallet with relative ease and brought it crashing into the gong, the sound of which echoed off the cavern walls.
Ancient runes lit up around the lids of the jars, glowing a vibrant blue, symbols danced along the side then faded away as quickly as they had appeared. Utter silence for a few moments then the lids popped off flinging in all directions yet none collided with anything other than the floor. Hands reached inside the pots with a fevered desperation, pulling back a bright red goo which was quickly smeared across faces. Breathing slowed and expressions changed, some held mirth and joy others horror and fear. But none held recognition, all were under some form of trance.
Jack stood angrily and reached for his sword, "Fiend! What kind of devilish tricks are these? You've enslaved these men! But no more!" Jack drew his blade from its sheath, he might not be at his full potential but he could certainly handle these demons.
"Please don't be so quick to judge Jack," the low elderly voice said as she slowly moved towards the duo.
"You know of me?" The old woman chortled, "Even in this remote place, cut off as we are, the slayer of Aku cannot escape his reputation." Jack narrowed his eyes, "You called me Jack…I haven't gone by that name since…" He cringed ever so slightly, he'd left that name where he'd gotten it, in a future that never was.
"Technically you've never gone by that name, at least not in public…" A gracious way for her to let him know that she knew how Ashi would call him Jack when they were alone. She'd tried to use his real name, she truly had, but had once told him, "To me you'll always be Jack" she had said hugging him tightly, "Anything else sounds wrong...It's the name of the man I fell in love with…"
When she'd left he'd left it with her, a memory of a different time. It no longer sounded right to him, the name she knew him by…had…known him by. He wanted no one else to know it. It made him angrier than it should've to hear it spoken aloud again.
"You don't know me but I mean you no harm. If I did I wouldn't have told your friend where to find you so many years from now, when you will be, or would have been, at your lowest. As I once, or would have, lead her to you so now I have lead you here." Jack's stare darkened. "Madness. Your words lack any merit or sense."
The creature sighed, "Oh the impatience of the youthful…" She took a handful of the goo, now a fine course sand and tossed into the air. With a slight twirl it became a fine mist.
"Humans see time in such a simple way…" The mist coalesced into a single line, "…one point to another, the past affects the future, always has been, always will be…" her hands expanded and line frayed in parts, folded in on itself, and at some parts disappeared completely. "…This is the ugly and beautiful truth though, time is not nearly so stable, and doesn't always follow a logical path. Some paths branch, others twist, and some…fade away entirely. And because of that fact a dark thought weighs upon you, keeping you up at night, haunting you, simple and yet so very complex. Will the memories fade?"
A pang of guilt ran through his chest, the words ugly on the air. As much pain as it brought him to think about, knowing that they were all gone, he couldn't bare for all the friends he'd made to become nothing…for all of it to have never happened.
They'd stood by him in the end, willing to throw their lives away against a foe they knew they couldn't hurt just to save him.
And then there was Ashi.
He knew it would be painless to forget, no longer tormented by the life that was no longer with him, the bitter emptiness, it would be so simple to go back to who he was before his mission had taken such a long and bizarre detour…
Easy yes but the thought of it made him ill.
For so long violence had been all either had ever known, the singular goal of destroying their enemy the only meaning their lives could ever have. But somehow they'd found so much more to life because of each other, and for a brief while they'd been allowed to simply live. Every moment since she had come back with him had been the happiest of his life, he felt hollow that they were over but…he would never trade them away. "I've tried to find peace with it but…I can't…rest…wondering if one day I will wake up and remember…nothing…will that be my fate?"
The old creature waved her hand once more and the mist congealed back into goo, landing in the pot. "I'm afraid that information is beyond me, I am merely a guide, when one falls from their path I set them back upon it." Jack sighed a tint of anger coming out, he was so tired of dead ends, he'd had enough for several lifetimes.
"I am at the last of my patience." Jack drew his sword and with a single strike sliced clean through the jar. It slid apart in two pieces and the goo became mist once more. Jack raised his righteous blade high, turning to slash the remaining evil pottery and free those from its accursed spell but the mist surrounded him. He tried avoid inhaling it, reaching for his gi to fashion a makeshift bandana but the mist was far too much, his vision blurred and he collapsed on the spot.