Chapter 14: Sacrifice

Jin walked down the dark, almost abandoned looking streets, carrying Asaki's body in his arms. Before he could get too far, a familiar voice sounded.

"She's dead isn't she?"

Jin stopped, turning around, "Quinton. I was just coming to see you."

"Going to get revenge on me? Where's your little friend to help ya?"

Jin shook his head slightly, "I'm not here to seek revenge. I'm here to ask a favor of you."

Quinton smirked, "Ask a favor of me? Me, the killer of your one and only love?"

"Yes…"

He laughed, "You must be pretty desperate to come to me."

"To be quite honest, I am. I want you to bring back Asaki."

"Bring back Asaki? Boy you must be out of your mind. I just went through all that trouble to kill her."

"You don't understand. I'm willing to hand over my life to you in return…"

Quinton shook his head, "There's really no way to do it anyway, not after being shot with a gun. Although..."

"Although what?"

"Well there is one way. I'd have to put you to the test and see if you're worthy of it. You'll have to enter my special realm and fight the monsters inside. Of course at the end will be a final boss of sorts." He grinned.

"I accept."

"Keep in mind that if you die while in this realm, your mind, body and soul gets trapped in there forever. Oh and also, in order to retrieve her soul you'll need to give the phoenix statue a sacrifice."

"So it doesn't matter how I fare in there...I'll die regardless."

"Well that's true but…if you make it to the end and give the sacrifice, Asaki will be alive again. Isn't that enough for you?"

Jin nodded, "Yes it is…"

Quinton smirked, "Very well then. I will allow you to take on this quest." He aimed a small gun at the ground, a large black circular energy field appearing before an oval shaped energy field emerged from the circle that was on the ground. "Enter at your own risk and your own free will."

Jin nodded, walking through the portal without further hesitation. Quinton laughed, "This is all working out perfectly father. Just the way you wanted it to." He then smirked, looking over at Asaki, "And for an added treat…I have you."

Asaki's eyes twitched, her breathing steadily regaining itself. Her eyes opened slowly as she sat up, holding her chest where her heart is, "Damn that hurt…Jin…Jin are you here?"

Quinton hovered over her and smirked, "I'm afraid your dear beloved Jin won't be able to make it here today to save you. But don't worry; he's still going to be your knight in shining armor. He's going to sacrifice his life for you because he thinks you're still dead."

"What? No…Jin can't be…no. I won't lose him again. You have to let me get to him. You have to let me see him."

"Oh I don't think that's even possible dear, sweet Asaki."

She blinked, "W-what do you mean? Where is he?"

"I just gave him a few…pointers about how to revive you."

"But I'm not dead."

"Which is what makes this little game so interesting and entertaining. You see, he's off in another realm fighting off monsters and if he makes it past that alive, then he'll have to fight another version of me in that realm. Should he happen to get past me, which I highly and seriously doubt, then he'll have to give himself up as a sacrifice to retrieve your soul."

"But I'm alive so why would he sacrifice himself to…"

"That's the beauty of the whole thing Asaki; he doesn't know you're still alive. He thinks that you're dead. And so his sacrifice…" he smirked and laughed a little before continuing on, "…is meaningless. He'll be giving his life for someone that's not dead. It was my way of killing two birds with one stone."

"Then why am I still alive if you want to kill us both?"

"You see Asaki, you're as smart as ever. I like that in a woman. It was my fathers plan to kill you Asaki but then that lover of yours, Jin wasn't it? Well anyway, he brought on this new twist. It changed everything, including my plans. My father would be satisfied with the death of your lover because that would still mean that you two couldn't procreate. However, then I look at you as the little delicate flower you are."

Asaki's eyes narrowed at him, "I'm not as delicate as you might think."

Quinton laughed, "There you see? You have that spunk, that charisma. Not to mention you're the hottest woman I've probably ever seen. That's when this new idea hit me. You and Jin couldn't procreate but…there's nothing in the future that said anything about you procreating with someone else, someone like me."

"What? I'd never…want to do anything like that, not with you anyway."

"Oh but Asaki, you will give me what I want."

"Or what?"

"Or I'll ravage your body and take what I want from you anyway."

"I'd rather die than do anything like that with you. You can never have my heart or my body; they both belong to Jin and me."

"What is it about him that you think is so flattering? Is it the fact that he's a swordsman like you? Or is it the way he dresses? Or perhaps his hair style."

"It's none of that you asshole. It's his heart and his soul. It's his spirit and the way he acts toward others and towards me. He has kindness and generosity that men like you could never have."

"Even if I were him?"

Asaki blinked, "What do you mean?"

"What if I were to tell you that I was him and he used a futuristic gadget to switch bodies?"

"Then I'd say…that's a load of bull shit because Jin doesn't speak or act the way that you do."

"Well damn you found me out." He smirked, picking her up. "Let's go."

"Let me go! Put me down! Let go of me!"

"Just calm down Asaki and things will go much better."

"Never! Now put me down!" she spat in his face.

Quinton licked at it with his tongue and grinned, "God you're so feisty Asaki. That makes me want you even more. You see Asaki, women from the future aren't nearly as beautiful, talented or spirited as you are. They lack every quality that I find appealing and it seems that you have each and every one of those qualities."

"Minus one key thing."

"And what is that my dear?"

"I'm sure that all the women in the future adore you. I'm sure they're attracted to your looks, power, money, fame…everything. But there's not one part of you that I find attractive at all. Nothing whatsoever. You're just a jerk that uses force to get what he wants. You don't ever work for anything. It's just as I heart Hotsuma say…you use other things to get what you want. You don't really have any of that strength, the strength lies in the things you use and you…"

Quinton pulled out a syringe, emptying its contents into Asaki, the needed stuck in her for a moment before he pulled it out, "Sorry to have to do that to you baby but you really talk too much."

Asaki blinked, "What…what is that stuff? What did you do to me?"

Quinton watched as her eyes slowly closed. "Just something to make you sleep for awhile baby, at least until we get back to my place." He walked off with Asaki in his arms, carrying her limp body back to his house and, once there, setting her down onto his very futuristic bed. "Just rest there for awhile, at least until you wake up. Then the fun will begin."

Hotsuma rushed inside his home, "Hold it right there! I won't let you have her! I promised Jin that if he didn't make it back, that I'd protect Asaki for him so I cannot allow you to house her with you."

Quinton laughed, "You're as noble as always however…" he used a heavy blast along with the hilt of his sword to knock Hotsuma into the wall, causing him to pass out. "…I won't allow you to have MY Asaki."

Meanwhile Jin was fighting off the creatures in the dark dimension. He pulled off the top of his outfit, standing topless, looking around at the creatures he had just defeated. His breathing was heavy and he was tired but he couldn't stop now, not when he thought that Asaki's life was on the line and the further he stalled, the less chance he had at bringing her back. Tirelessly he worked through the hoards of monsters until finally he walked into a large room. He smiled weakly, seeing the phoenix statue in the middle.

"I…I made it Asaki. Just…hold on a little bit longer…" he took a few steps toward the statue as a transparent red shield appeared over it and he could hear loud, deep laughing. Jin turned around quickly seeing the dark figure, his eyes widening at who he saw, "You? But aren't you on the other side?"

Quinton's dark and evil counterpart loomed in the room with a dark aura, "I have two parts. The one in here and the one out there. You'll find that in this realm I have more unique and powerful attacks than you could ever imagine."

"So in other words you're telling me that this place is one big place in your imagination where anything is possible."

"You could say that. In this realm, the amount of power is limitless."

Jin smirked, "So all I have to do is tap into this realms power and become strong enough to defeat you."

"What?"

"Simple. You said this realms power and strength is limitless. However, if that's true then who obtains and regains its power is all left up to the people within the realm. Simply put, all I need to do is draw upon the power of the realm and keep you from redrawing and regaining strength."

"You can't do that."

"Oh but I can. And thanks to you, I now know how."

"You can't…"

Jin closed his eyes, concentrating and centering his power. Soon his eyes opened, a red aura seeming to glow from his blades as he charged toward Quinton, "Now its time for you to be defeated once and for all."

Quinton looked on, shocked by Jin's new power. He then smirked, looking at Jin, "You can't kill me. You have to give yourself to the phoenix in order to bring back your love."

"I don't think so."

"What!"

"You told me that there needed to be a sacrifice given to the statue. However, you did not specify as to what kind of sacrifice or who is to be sacrificed and so I am free to give any sacrifice of my choosing. In other words, I'm going to use you as my sacrifice!"

"That's providing that you can actually defeat me."

"I can. For Asaki's sake, I must. I got to thinking while fighting these monsters you sent after me. Hotsuma was right. I can't allow Asaki to feel the pain of my loss…not again…not after having had to go through it all once before but it was too late. I was already in this realm of yours so then I thought about what you said, replaying each word in my mind and then I came up with this, offering you as my sacrifice."

"It will never work! You could never defe…" he didn't get to finish his sentence. Jin raised his empowered blades, striking them both down at him at the same time, slicing his body in two.

Jin sighed and sheathed his now normal blades. He picked up one half of his body, setting it on top of the phoenix statue's talons as one of the bird's eyes glow red. He blinked at this and then went back for the other half, setting it next to the other half. The bird's other eye shown a brilliant crimson red as the color escaped and went to its mouth. Jin thought to himself, "Don't worry Asaki. I'll be there very soon."

Asaki's eyes slowly opened as she felt that groggy feeling once more. She blinked, looking around and saw Quinton there again.

He smirked at her, "And now the fun begins. Don't worry baby, just relax." He slid down to her, hovering over her with his body. He held down her arms with his and smirked, "The wonderful thing about kimonos is, they're so easy to take off." He grinned as he pulled off her obi belt.

Asaki looked at him, "Get off of me right now!"

"I don't think so babe."

Asaki glared at him, her eyes narrowed, seeming to turn black, "I SAID get off of me."

He looked up at her then blinked, seeing her darkened eyes, that of an assassin, cold and uncaring, "Those eyes…just who the hell are you?"

"Ever heard of the Black Raven? Well that was me so I suggest you let go of me."

"You were the Black Raven? A delicate little flower like you?" His grinning returned as he looked at her, "Even more of a reason for me to rape and screw the hell out of you."

"You can't! Jin is suppose…to be my first…"

Quinton laughed, "You haven't even been screwed yet? God what a hot damn shame. Guess I got here just in time. You'll be extra tight for me."

Asaki closed her eyes, terrified now of what he was going to do to her. She struggled and tried pushing him away but he was much too strong for her. Jin reappeared in the area and stabbed Quinton in the back then slammed his sword into his heart from behind, ripping through his lung. Quinton's eyes widened at the sudden impact and Jin kicked his lifeless body away. He knelt down to Asaki, gently touching her cheek.

"Don't! Stop it! Don't touch me! Please! I love Jin!"

"And I love you too Asaki."

Asaki blinked, her eyes opening as she saw Jin there, "Jin…oh Jin they told me that you…Jin…" she hugged him tightly, pressing her loosely robed body against his topless figure.

Jin wrapped his arms around her tightly, "It's alright Asaki. It's all over now and we can finally be together."

"Yes. Together…at last." She rested her head on his shoulder and smiled, happy to be with him once again.

Jin looked over, seeing Hotsuma, "I suppose he came in to try to stop Quinton. Looks like he's just asleep. I'm guessing he'll be out for awhile."

Asaki looked into Jin's eyes, "Jin…I…I never did get my kiss when we were getting married…"

Jin smiled and nodded, lifting Asaki's chin slowly and gently, pressing his lips to hers softly. Asaki blushed slightly, her eyes widened a bit before closing and giving in to the passionate kiss.