It was all like some half-remembered nightmare, with Aku holding her and the sword high up in laughing maniacally before whisking the three of them away to his lair.
There, while Ashi remains possessed, Jack is detained and forced to watch as his dear mermaid stares down their mortal enemy face to face.
"Well, my precious one, it's true I cannot kill you...the powers of the Dark Spectre Queen are very irksome. But we can still enjoy each other's company," Aku said as he stroked at her hair, causing Ariel to lean away with disgust. "Even better, the Samurai will have no choice but to watch as I bind us together in Unholy Matrimony!"
~What!?~ Ariel exclaimed.
Nearby, Jack looked equally shocked. "No!"
"Oh, I wouldn't consider having my way with you, not when we weren't even married. But I figured since you have no voice, you can't object at the ceremony." Aku raised his hands to the ceiling with a jubilant grin. "Where EVERYONE in the whole world will watch, as I bind us together, forever."
Aku cackled as he waved his hand in the air, and a black wind blew over Ariel, and when she looked down she was wearing a form fitting black dress and gloves.
"But now, it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding," Aku said calmly. "So, until then..."
Another wave of his hand, and a hole opened up under Ariel, causing her to fall.
~Ahhhhhhhh!~
Ariel's gold words shot out as she fell down, floating over the empty space before falling down. Halfway, she fell slowly, floating, until she gently landed at the bottom in a room, with only a single couch for sitting on. To await her fate and truly, the mermaid felt like a prisoner awaiting execution than a bride about to be married.
Ariel is crushed. Her whole world is collapsing around her. ~Jack, I can't let anything happen to you or Ashi, I can't! I don't care what happens to me, oh Jack! Ashi…!~ she buried her face into her arms, sitting on the ground with her arms resting on her knees as she sobbed silently.
Back up there, the blood rushed from Jack's face.
"It must sting, Samurai. To see BOTH of these beautiful ladies, who you love in your own way to succumb one by one to my will." Aku cackled.
Jack ground his teeth and struggled against his bonds. "NEVER! Ariel will never succumb to you, I'd sooner die and take her with me knowing we'd be together and safe in the afterlife from you!"
He doubled over when Ashi punched him in the gut, causing him to bend over with the pain.
"The bargain was that she would perish if you were destroyed - that witch never said what would happen if she were bound to someone else."
"And just what do you intend to do if she becomes so desperate to escape you that she'll choose -" Jack couldn't even bring himself to finish that sentence, let alone that awful thought.
"I can always resurrect her as a mindless drone." Aku said tactlessly, and shrugging. "It's only her voice and body I want, and if she's brought back to life she's bound to recover her voice. It's not like I've never practiced necromancy before."
Aku laughed with a conniving glance and Jack became sick with the idea, of Ariel's body no longer hers to control, and forced to bow to Aku's degenerate whims. Except the reply was just a jab meant to torment Jack much worse. Just then the villain looked contemplative stroking his beard, "Better yet I'll grant her eternal youth and immortality so her beauty never fades and her mind intact so she won't lose her reason overtime."
He certainly wasn't going to admit his true reasons for keeping Ariel alive and well…And after all, it will be fun to slowly corrupt the winsome mermaid the Samurai had fallen in love with into submission.
"Ah. It will be glorious, in a few short hours, everyone will be tuned in and I will proceed with the ceremony," Aku sneered at Jack. "I've already got witnesses, I just need a Dark Priestess to perform the Dark Binding. I can always get a caterer and band for later."
Meanwhile, a gold orb emitting a hauntingly beautiful song… was swirling…gliding right towards the dark tower…
It leisurely floated through a wall, and up to a weeping Ariel.
She suddenly looked up in shock, as a bright white light shined on her neck, the gold orb gently fading into her throat.
Upon doing so, she opened her mouth so she was singing the same melody. At long last she recovered her voice. She let it grow. She gave it all the sweetness and strength she could.
"Oh! What is this?" She gasped touching her neck. "Why...I can talk! I can speak again!" She cried out exuberantly. "But...how?" She then rubbed her face. "I can't lose focus, I must keep this secret from Aku. At least...until help arrives. Maybe my voice returning means that The Dark Spectre Queen knows I'm in trouble, and is seeking help."
"Oh, help is on the way, my sweet." Vanessa sighed as she looked at Ariel in her mirror.
She reached out her black scaly hand, and spun the frame backwards, and in a flash of red light it transformed back into her handmaiden, Mira.
Mira wore a golden set of light armor covering her chest and lower torso, although her belly, arms and legs were exposed. Under the chest armor she was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, with leather and golden gauntlets covering her fists. Her legs were bare, nicely displaying the flesh there, while her feet were shod in leather boots just a bit below the length. She wore a golden Viking-style helmet with delicately curling gold horns.
Vanessa turned to her other handmaiden, Keller.
Keller wore a bright silvery garment that fully covered her chest and arms, but nicely showed her thighs and legs. She wore metal and leather boots with crisscrossing straps on the front of them. Like Mira, she was wearing a helmet, but this one had no horns; instead it had a shiny moonstone-like gem on its center.
"Well, girls, time to pack up. Wake up my stone warlords, we march to Atlantica to warn the Sea King. He must know about this!" Vanessa declared with a finger pointing up to demonstrate the importance of her words.
"And then onward to the surface world..." Keller continued.
"And to Aku's palace..." Mira continued as well.
"To destroy him!" Vanessa shouted in glee.
The Dark Spectre Queen held up her necklace with her clawed hand, the ruby glowed bright red as she chuckled wickedly.
Meanwhile in Atlantica, despite having received the magical message from Ariel that she was safe and among friends nearly two days ago, Triton was still beside himself with worry.
"Oh your majesty, if anyone could keep her safe, I'm sure that Samurai human could do it." Sebastian tried to sound reassuring.
"And if Vanessa is on this, even more so, don't worry." One of the triceraquins added.
"Yes, and that's the tenth time you've said not to worry. It's time we went looking for Ariel!"
Suddenly the large screen started to fizzle and to the underwater resident's confusion, it showed footage from the pit of hate.
"What in the seven seas...?" Triton scowled.
"What does HE want?!" Urchin shared the sea king's derisive glare.
"Something must've happened." Attina whispered.
Whenever it showed footage from the dark tower, it usually meant Aku had some kind of announcement to make.
Elsewhere, one of the Scotsman's daughters rode on a deer, and came crashing through the doors of the castle home belonging to her family.
"FATHER!" The girl cried out.
"Shhhhh!" Her sisters shushed her.
"But. Aku he..." She started.
"Quiet, Lass. We know..." The ghost of her father said sadly. "The whole world knows."
He and all his daughters looked on sadly at the scene of the pit of hate shown on the TV-screen.
The youngsters at the Rave were dancing happily to the beat of the music, but it suddenly stopped, and the large screen showed the pit of hate.
"Akuuuuuu..." The dancers all said in sync, scared.
By now, everyone on Earth was watching the live transmission. What was going on?
Back in the Scottish castle, the Scotsman glowered. "Get on with it, you blasted bag of bloated -"
His elder daughter Flora cut him off, "Dad, we can't hear! He's on!"
"Oh! Sorry."
They all watched with bated breath.
In Atlantica, every one of Ariel's friends and family had gathered to watch the transmission.
"What's with -" one of Sebastian's old band members began.
"Shh! It's starting!" Simon, the sea monster, shushed them, pointing to the screen uneasily.
Images were shown with Aku's voice narrating.
"Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil! But a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku…NOT!"
Just then Aku himself popped into view.
"Because, after all these years I have captured Samurai Jack," Jack is raised up shackled to a fiery wall. "As well as his sword..." The sword is shown stuck on display. "And the Little Mermaid, Princess Ariel of Atlantica!"
And out of a hole comes Ariel, dressed in her macabre black wedding dress.
"NO! ARIEL!" Triton yells out in dread.
Behind the sea king, all of Ariel's undersea friends and her sisters reacted with horror.
"Oh no!" Alana covered her mouth. Aquata and Andrina hugged each other while shaking with fright.
Adella turned to sob miserably in Stevie's arms. Arista and Sebastian's old band huddled together fearfully. Attina was shaking her head in disbelief; it can't be!
Gabriella signed something worriedly, then Ollie nervously translated, "What does he even want her for, to eat her? To keep her in a cage or something?"
"Now, I know what you're thinking. Or at least, what the Dark Spectre Queen is thinking," Aku sneered. "Because I can't destroy The Samurai without annihilating Ariel."
He turns to a frightened Ariel with a sharp grin.
"But if I should happen to marry her, binding her to me for Eternity, then, no problem!" He laughed wickedly.
If one listened closely you can hear just about every friend or ally of both Samurai Jack and Ariel say the exact same thing:
"What?" The teens at the rave frowned.
"WHAT?!" The Scotsman and his daughters' expressions quickly went from dismay to outrage.
"WHAT?!" The woolies and some of the talking dogs' descendants were appalled.
"He's interested in Ariel?!" The farmer - the same one the mermaid had met then later rescued his family on her first trip to the surface world – gasped.
"Oh the poor girl." His wife whispered.
In their huts, the Archers scowled indignantly.
Seeing Samurai Jack captured at the hands of this monster was bad enough, but the idea of an amiable young mermaid being forced into marriage with the Deliverer of darkness was horrible, just horrible!
In his hands, the trident glowed fiercely with Triton's anger. "I forbid it!"
Sebastian and Flounder anxiously look over at Ariel's other friends. They are obviously distressed/repulsed about the situation but it looks like there's nothing they can do.
"Nightmare event of the year." Little E, the evil manta's son, says emotionlessly.
"That's the understatement of the century…" Flounder mumbled, holding his children close.
"I think it's time we find this Vanessa." Urchin said darkly.
Sebastian had trouble swallowing, "I was hoping you'd say that."
"I'm already here..."
Purple smoke whirled together to reveal Vanessa and her handmaidens, she gave a dry look at the screen and turned to the others.
"Your Majesty, I think we're both in agreement we want to go there. And do to Aku what seagulls do to clams: drop them hard till they smash against a hard surface!" She said smashing her fist against her other hand. She then raises her hand and her necklace starts to glow. "And I'll provide the transportation, and some comforts to ensure you won't be flopping about,"
Waves of energy shot out and wrapped around everyone.
"Shall we crash a wedding?"
Back in the dark fortress, a morose Ariel was already being prepared for the ceremony in another room.
"You are so lucky to be chosen." A three eyed alien female was saying as she finished adjusting the veil.
~I'm sure you'll find an evil overlord of your own one day.~ Ariel's words said stiffly.
The alien girl paid her no mind and finished her work just as a voice heard from the palace made an announcement.
"The Wedding ceremony is about to begin!"
Right on cue, the large door opened, revealing a number of blue-suited shadow minions in two different files in the hallway to keep Ariel within their sights.
"You are to be escorted to the altar," one of the said to her, its yellow-green eyes narrowing in suspicion, "Don't bother trying to escape, there are guards at every door."
~There's no need for violence, I-I'm going through with this.~ Ariel responded diligently.
Alright, this was it – here goes nothing. She walks down the hallways trying not to tremble at all the cold eyes of the guards watching her intently.
Upon reaching the main doors, instantly out of nowhere, unearthly voices had begun singing a minacious refrain.
Ariel gulped, then with her heart beating like a drum in terror, starts down the aisle to the Altar, which was situated right in front of a still confined Jack.
Ashi stood to the side, Aku was on the other, and as Ariel was brought up, a black veiled woman, with skeletal hands and long clawed fingernails appeared behind the altar.
"Are we ready?" The woman said in a voice like croaking of crows.
"We are, Dark Priestess." Aku stated.
"Then, you should know, the ceremony will commence. And after the binding, the mermaid will be free of the connection to the Samurai," The priestess turns to look at Jack. "Maybe."
Aku then shrunk down to the same size and height as Ariel.
"Now, shall we begin?" Aku said holding his claw out to the mermaid.
Ariel grimaced, but had no choice other than to place her tiny hand in his own and watch as the Dark Priestess started the ceremony. She takes a bottle of red liquid and a black rope out of her cloak, and she dips the liquid onto her claw to spread over the rope. Which she then uses to fasten and bind Ariel and Aku's hands together.
"As I unite you today I remind you of those gifts. And in your union may these gifts increase, so your powers may grow in the Service of Evil." She placed her claw over Ariel and Aku's hands briefly, before pulling it away. "So be it."
Ariel stepped backwards, as Aku pulled his hand free.
"Peeeeeerfect. And now, to sanctify our union..." Aku turns to the camera."To all those who dare oppose me: Your hero is dead, your hope is dead! I am the one true master!" He bellowed. "Let this be a lesson to all! Time to die, Samurai Jack!" The demon began shifting his claws into different weapons then he abruptly scratched his head with indecision. "You know...after all these years, I'm not really sure how I want to do it."
Ariel quietly let out a sigh of relief, this could be just the opportunity she and Jack needed to stall him until help arrives.
~Ashi, can you see me or at least hear Jack?~ Ariel inquired to the other dark shape.
"Ashi, please...you must fight it." Jack called out from his spot.
~Please, fight it. We know you're in there, Ashi...~ Ariel looked behind her at Aku, and then leaned over to whisper for the first time in her voice to Ashi. "Ashi, we know you're in there. Fight it for us!"
The figure that was Ashi shook, and trembled, and inside of the creature Ashi was shown struggling against the blackness.
Suddenly, Aku paused glances down at them, saw Ariel near Ashi and grinned.
"Well, you two seem to be bonding nicely. And I was just thinking of the perfect way for my daughter and I to connect." Aku gestured to Ashi. "Daughter, will you do your father a favor, and kill the samurai?!"
Ariel became horrified, shaking her head frantically.
"No, Ashi! No!" Jack pleaded.
Ashi's head spun all the way around, and though Ariel tugged on her arm, she kept stalking toward Jack.
~No! No!~
"One more thing: Crown the mermaid, so that the world should be reminded that she now belongs to Aku!"
The next thing Ariel knew, a small throne popped out from under her, leaving her seated upon it. Her eyes widened as the chamberlain approached to place an ornate black crown on her. Oh no…
"It is my duty and pleasure to crown you-"
Ariel avoided the crown the first time, she didn't want to lose sight of Jack or Ashi. The four armed shadow creature noticed and tried again.
"To crown you-"
She dodged it again, shivering. Except this time she wasn't so lucky, Aku noticed her intentions then snapped his fingers with a glower.
At once, clamps held down Ariel's wrists and her middle to keep her in place.
"Yes, the simplest solution is usually the best one."
"Ashi, you can't let it end this way!" Jack urged, "Please, Ashi, fight! Fight!"
The possessed shape of Ashi didn't seem to hear him; she only raised her right arm turning it into a pointed spear intending to slay Jack with it.
Just before the crown could be placed on Ariel's head and before Ashi could deal the lethal blow… the terrified mermaid scrunched up her eyes and took a deep breath. "NOOOOOOOOO!"
To be continued…