Summary/disclaimer: Time for another chapter of Past and Present. Enjoy the 3000-word chapter. I don't own Samurai Jack, Adult Swim, Warner Bros and Genndy Tartakovsky do.
"You sure you don't want to fly on the bird?" Jack asked as Kishi used the jets on his boot to fly next to the bird as Ashi looked over, Kishi had added a cloak that had black and red velvet and a massive Ying and Yang symbol on it with duel dragons, Ashi could also see a whiteish looking armor under the heavy black armor.
"What's the other armor for?" Kishi looked over as he followed Jack, Ashi and the bird down into the hole with his rocket boots.
"Your see, Ash, it's a surprise." Kishi hovered in the air as Jack and Ashi rested before hovering down, Kishi had built the rockets to be solar powered and only use the fuel in the armor when it was dark out.
"There isn't anything down here." Kishi said as he landed next to the bird, the tattoos on his armor and the lenses in his mask lighting up the cavern as Ashi and Jack searched for the sword. Kishi noticed a ram like creature on the ground and turned to Jack, the expression on the samurai's face said it all.
"It wasn't your fault, Aku corrupted them." Jack sighed.
"That isn't why I am upset, Kishi…. But thank you all the same." Kishi flew up to the top of the hole as he landed next to the hole.
"I do not believe that I lost the sword, I think the sword left me for spilling the blood of innocents." Kishi was about to speak up before Jack cut him and Ashi off.
"Before you ask, I must do this alone. Kishi, I want you to stay here with Ashi." Kishi didn't say anything but nodded as Ashi spoke up.
"We can help, we didn't come all this way to do nothing!" Jack nodded.
"I know, but I must do this on my own." Ashi sighed.
"We will wait here." Kishi began to walk to the cliff as Ashi took one last glimpse at Jack before following the apprentice to the edge of the mountain.
"Don't take it too hard, old man has always been this stubborn, Ash, it isn't your fault." Ashi nodded before both turned their heads towards a cloud of dust the size of a small mountain.
"Well, looks like it won't be boring today-…" Kishi looked up and set the scanner of his mask to its fullest to see something that made him freeze up in shock.
"Kishi, what is it?" Kishi turned to face her as the army stopped.
"Brother…." Ashi looked down at the army.
"BROTHER, ITS ME, DEATH BLOW, DON'T YOU WANT TO SAY HI!? I MEAN, ITS BEEN SO LONG SINCE OUR VILLAGE WAS MURDERED BY AKU!" Kishi was about to speak up when he was cut off.
What he heard next both shattered his heart and caused something in him to snap.
"I MEAN, ALL THAT MONEY I GOT FROM SELLING OUT THE TRIBE IS NICE AND ALL BUT I DECIDED TO KILL THE LITTLE WORTHLESS BROTHER THAT SURVIVED AFTER I KILLED DEAR OLD MOM AND DAD!" Ashi looked over to see Kishi barely restraining himself from tossing himself down the mountain to kill this monster.
"ARE WE NOT STILL FAMILY, BROTHER!?" Kishi had enough as he pressed a button his belt that caused Ashi to look over as the armor changed.
The black heavy duty armor peeled back into the lower layer as the snowy white armor that Ashi had seen under the armor wrapped around Kishi, his sonic blade split into two, the second blade glowing blue like the other which glowed red. The helmet became more spiked as the blue eyes and tattoos on the armor became blood red as Ashi could see blue flames shoot out from the boots, lifting Kishi into the armor a foot off the ground.
"Kishi? Do you have a plan?" Kishi turned to her and the assassin was slightly intimidated by the red lenses as Kishi spoke, his voice electronically deeper and booming.
"Kill them all, I am going to tear that 'freak' in half." Ashi nodded before speaking again.
"Isn't he your brother?" Kishi hovered for a second as he answered.
"He stopped being my brother when he slaughtered my parents." And before Ashi could respond, Kishi was gone, dozens of the Beetle drones that Deathblow had brought to reinforce the lizard men were cut in half as Kishi slammed into them, the cybernetics in his armor enhancing his strength as he slammed into a beetle bot hard enough to toss it into a dozen more which exploded.
"FACE ME, YOU COWARD!" Ashi, jumped down and began to fight as well.
Deathblow watched as Ashi bulldozed the lizard men down the mountain, her punches and kicks sending dozens of his soldiers down the mountain as she snapped spears off and threw them at his men, broke necks and hands, tossing her opponents around like rag dolls.
"SOMEBODY KILL HER, SEND IN THE ULTRA BOTS!" Deathblow watched as Kishi slashed the bots in half effortlessly.
"Impossible, their tritium x bodies are impossible to cut through, even the Samurai's sword can't cut through it!" Kishi turned as he impaled one of the bots and split it in half, oil raining down onto the ground.
"These blades are high frequency sonic blades, their vibrating so fast they can cut through any metal…. Even the Ultrabots." Kishi snarled.
Kishi looked behind him as Ashi was covered in blood from her slaughter as Kishi turned and effortlessly cut one of the lizard men in half as he walked towards his brother. Deathblow turned as Kishi tossed the corpse to the side, the area around the brothers covered in destroyed beetle bots.
"You…." Kishi growled out as Deathblow smiled a morbid smile.
"Me, yes, I did kill them, you want to know why!? Because they always favored you, you were always special. I used to be the center of their world and then you were born, why couldn't you just die like the unwanted bastard child I know you are!?" Kishi drew both of his swords as Kishi and Deathblow circled each other, Kishi's eyes widened at the green sword on his brother's back, it was dripping in dark, corrupted magic.
"Ah yes, the sword, Aku forged it with me, told me the only way that it would work is if I killed dear old mom and pop, I did and the sword trapped their souls in it, leaving them to be tortured even in death, lovely, hmm?" Kishi growled.
"I'm going to enjoy carving your heart out through your neck for what you did…." Kishi growled out, his anger barely contained. Deathblow smiled a grin that a psychopath would wear.
"AH BROTHER, YOU DO CARE, COME GIVE ME A HUG!" Kishi lunged at the demented cyborg that had consumed what Kishi once called his brother.
Ashi wrapped her Kusarigama around the neck of one of the rat soldiers and broke his neck with it before kicking one of the soldiers into his friends, crushing all of their bones.
"So, it is true, you allied yourself with the Samurai scum and his demon apprentice." Ashi tossed the final soldier to the ground, the plain was littered with corpses and broken machines as Ashi turned and gasped.
"Akio, your alive!" Ashi was kicked into a rock formation as Kishi turned, his blade clanging off his brother's mystical sword in a way that shattered the rocks around them.
"Ashi!" Kishi bellowed as he stepped back to avoid a swing from his brother's blade.
"Pay attention, this is lovely, two families trying to destroy each other!" Deathblow laughed out like an insane machine as Kishi turned.
"I'm turning you into a washing machine, you pile of scrap metal and bones!"
Ashi picked herself up as her sister twirled her naginata.
"You will die, you backstabbing worm!" Ashi dodged a kick that shattered the rest of the rock.
"Akio, listen to me, the Samurai isn't the monster, Aku is!" She dodged a stab from her sister's spear as Ashi stared into the soulless mask that once covered her own face.
"Lies, blasphemer, now you will die for betraying Aku's order!" Ashi leapt onto a ledge and summoned her combat clothing and tied her hair back up into its single point.
"No, I won't." She twirled her Kusarigama as her sister lunged at her.
The plains and mountains shook like blows from the gods themselves as Kishi and his brother slashed at each other, their punches meeting caused small earthquakes, their swords clanging off one another sent shockwaves that could shatter bones and kill. Kishi dodged bursts of gunfire and other weaponry as his brother used every weapon in his arsenal against his sibling, including calling in reinforcements. Kishi was pushed back by his brother into a stone like wall, their blades were twisted into a blade lock against each other, both brothers trying to overpower each other.
"You care for her, don't you brother? Maybe when I kill you, me and her can get to know each other." Kishi was enraged, both by the twisted thoughts his brother had in mind and the insane laughter ringing in his ears.
"You're not laying a damned hand on her!" Kishi pushed his brother back before preforming slashes and stabs at his brother that Deathblow was unable to block. One slash cut his shoulder and sent oil spilling onto the ground, another cut his chest open, exposing wires and parts of his lungs enhanced with cyborg tech.
"UGH!" Deathblow bellowed in pair as a beetle bot hit him from behind, the blow knocking off his helmet as Deathblow brought down his corrupted blade as Kishi slashed the beetle bot in half before turning to attempt to stop the blow.
He was only partially successful.
Ashi turned as she watched as Deathblow's blade cut down Kishi's face as she traded punches with her sister before disarming her sister by catching the spear in her kusarigama and sling it out of her sister's hands along with slamming her into the rock.
Cutting his left eye and arm.
"Kishi!" She caught her sister's roundhouse and kicked back, her distraction caused her to miss judge her strength in the kick, it sent her sibling flying into the rock.
And shattered her ribs.
"Ah, I was hoping to cut your head in twooooo!" blood leaked from the cut as Kishi held his face and tried to stop the bleeding.
"Guess your dear Ashi is going to be ne-…" Before he could finish, Kishi brought up his sonic blades in a x slash.
Cutting through his brother's eyes.
Deathblow screamed with pain as oil and blood gushed from the blows, his cyber eyes now permanently destroyed.
"Your pay for this, you hear me, you will pay!" Deathblow fired a row of missiles from his back which Kishi darted away from. When the smoke cleared, his brother was gone.
"Kishi!" Ashi looked up the mountain to see a single figure rushing up the mountain, her sister had also disappeared, though the blood also told Ashi that she was badly wounded along with her shattered mask.
"Kishi?" Kishi looked at the girl with his one good eye, his right hand holding his face where the cut was, Kishi looked up at where he could see the figures running up the mountain before grabbing Ashi with his other hand and tossing her into the air as fast as he could towards the summit.
"I'll be fine." Kishi looked at the cut on his chest that his armor covered over as it repaired itself. Kishi crawled over to his helmets as he pulled the snow-white mask onto his face before turning his weapon into a sniper.
'I'll be fine.' Kishi repeated in his head, not trusting his own words.
Ashi ran to the top of the summit before stopping as a rain of arrows rained down on her to which she kicked up a rock to block them.
"Weak, both of you." Ashi turned to see her sister holding her side as another figure emerged.
"But mother, I-…" Akio was cut off as she looked down to see a dagger through her chest before she was pushed off the mountain to her death.
"Akio!" The figure turned and Ashi gasped.
It was her mother.
"You were the most perfect of us all and you tossed it away for a Samurai and his demon spawn of an apprentice." Ashi looked down at her fallen sibling.
"Do not mourn her, she was weak and she failed…. Now, I will give you one last chance to prove your allegiance to Aku's perfect order…. Kill the Samurai." Ashi looked at the bloody dagger, thought about what Kishi had told her about and scowled.
"No."
"NO!? YOU DARE TO DEFY ME, YOU MISERABLE WASTE OF LIFE?!" The High Priestess lunged at Ashi as she used a bone like horn from a cow skull and her Kusarigama to block the dagger.
"I made you, I raised you, I gave you purpose and you throw it all away before some worthless child fills your heart with love!? I raised you!" Ashi slashed her mother across the arm.
"You turned us into weapons, sent us off to war, you never cared about us, we were cannon fodder, more soldiers for you to kill Jack with, Kishi respected me and showed me how strong I had become!" The High Priestess slashed at Ashi only to be kicked backwards.
"There is no place for love, Ashi! He slaughtered your sisters and you grow a crush on the demon spawn's apprentice?"
"Kishi was right, you killed us! We were dead the minute we were born, you never cared!" Ashi dodged slashes from her mother's claw like nails before the rock collapsed on her.
"You and your siblings were tools for Aku, nothing more!" She lunged at Jack before Ashi grabbed one of the arrows and tossed it at her mother, it impaled her in the back as she fell off the mountain. Ashi collapsed as a surviving lizard man raised his sword to finish her before a bullet which shattered his head hit him.
Jack rose and looked behind him, Kishi was holding Ashi in his arm, despite the mask, Jack could see that his apprentice was blind in one eye. Kishi looked ready to destroy anything that threatened him or Ashi as his blood-soaked armor could tell as the armor's ai washed off the blood.
"Kishi, are you alright?" Kishi ignored the question and looked at Ashi who he cradled in his arms.
"Is she alright?" Kishi nodded as the girl awoke.
"Thank god you ok." Kishi said as he looked down at the girl before looking up at Jack, now wearing his old kimono, his hair up in its pin and his sword on his hip.
"Great to see you got a haircut, new clothing and your sword back." Ashi weakly joked as Kishi set her on her feet.
"Are you ok?" Ashi asked as Kishi nodded.
"Yeah…" Ashi looked at the dead soldier and then back at Kishi as he removed his helmet to check his eye. Ashi moved closer and moving on instinct locked her arms around Kishi as she kissed the apprentice, Kishi was frozen for a second before planting an arm around her and closing his eye. Kishi merely went with his emotions as the two broke apart.
"What was that?" Jack laughed.
"That was a kiss, apprentice, it is a sigh of love." Kishi looked at Ashi.
"Thank you." Ashi said as Kishi titled his head.
"For what?"
"For showing me that I am stronger for facing my past and for helping me to have a sense of purpose. I now feel like I have a reason to keep fighting for." Kishi put his helmet back on and stepped up to the assassin.
"I am not leaving your side until the day I die, Ash, we are finishing this war or dying in the process." Jack looked at the duo as Ashi turned to Jack.
"Now what?"
"Now Aku." Kishi grabbed Ashi's hand gently and intertwined their fingers as his cloak swayed in the breeze.
"We take down him, my brother and your cult or we die trying."
The trio stared off into the sunset.
Author notes
Kishi loses an eye, the evil of his brother is revealed, Ashi has begun to face her inner demons, Jack regains his sword and romance begins to bloom! I loved the episode last night and I was more than happy to write this…. Let me know if the violence was a little bit too hardcore, I wanted to show how ruthless Ashi and Kishi are compared to Jack and how powerful they were. Next chapter is going to be posted on Sunday. I will be adding a few non-story bonus chapters. Until next week, Lighting Wolf out!