Your Father is a Hero

by WizardlyWords

Forty years have passed, but the future has not changed. Jack no longer looks for the past, he no longer looks for hope in the future. He only travels, a poor means to escape his demons. But through a mountain pass, in a desolate land, he finds what he believed to be impossible. Children, filled with hope. [Cover Image by Inyuji]

8. Jack and the Ash Angel

Forty-four years have passed.

Forty-four years since he had been thrown into a dark future, forty-four years since the portals to the past were destroyed, since lives were slain for joy, since evil reigned without contest, since the hope of the world faded to nothing but charred embers. Forty-four years since a darkness swept over the future, and turned it into a land of vile deeds and misuse.

Forty-four years since hope was lost. And four years since it was found. Found in the shape and form of seven girls, fighting to survive their own dark past and forge a brighter future.

Seven girls that he was charged with protecting, and raising.

"Hgyah!" Ashi yelled as she spun on her heel, her other foot rising to deliver a heel strike. The from was near perfect, with her body angled to provide strength and arms brought in to allow herself to rotate faster. If it had struck true, it would have done much damage. Fortunately or not, she was not sparing with a novice.

"Hugh!" Aphi let out as her folded arms caught the inside of Ashi's leg. A wise move, avoiding the hard bone of the heel, letting the opponent's muscle soften the blow. However, she wasn't done.

The twin-horned girl kept her arms up, but spun her body in time. One of her legs extended, aiming to sweep the ground out from Ashi. With the girl kept in place by her own leg, it made for few options. But the children were not trained to accept their conditions, not by him.

"Hray!" Ashi let out again as she spun her body parallel to the ground, jumping off of the ash laden earth and ripping her foot from Aphi's grasp. She was free, but she, like her sister, didn't wait for her opponent to recover.

Instead, her foot came down again, this time with the dorsum of her foot aiming for her sister's head now. It would have been a mighty blow if it had connected, one powered by the spinning of her body and gravity itself. Because of that, Aphi was just as determined to avoid it.

One of her free arms lifted above her head, her forearm catching the crux of Ashi's foot before it could impact her. For the breifeest of moments, it left Ashi floating in the air with her extended foot being the only thing keeping her right. Aphi struck out with her other hand. It was clear she was trying to aim for the solar plexus with the strike, an area where a clean strike would lead to a spasm of the diaphragm, perhaps even loss of air. But Ashi didn't let it happen.

Ashi let out a breath of air as she pulled her leg in with the blow. She avoided Aphi's blow, and put herself over the girl as well. When they were unarmed, it was advantageous position. One that Ashi did not wait to let pass. Her body barreled down on her sister, her own arms grabbing at the horned girl's arms to keep them from striking out, her other leg bending and wrapping about the support leg Aphi had.

The sudden motion and flexing of her limbs sent the pair of sisters to the ground, leaves and ash billowing up from their crumbled forms. Crumbled and tightly knit to the untrained eye, but a clear victor to Jack's. It was even more evident when one considered who Ashi had limbs on all of Aphi's own, but was laying on top of the other girl and holding her in place. In short, a pin.

"Enough," he spoke standing next to the sisters. Ashi and Aphi looked up to him, breathing heavily and waiting for him to speak. He waited for a moment, watching them and ensuring that neither of the sisters hoped to continue the fight. They weren't supposed to, as they had been doing this for a year, but sometimes the rivalry of siblings was a stronger motivator than his own teachings.

Though if he were to be honest, Aki and Adi were the only two who truly had to fear regarding sneaky tactics such as that. Nevertheless, it was time to teach the girls.

Jack lifted his hand, motioning for the pair of siblings. They stood up, clothes covered in sweat, forest growth, and spotted with Ash. Avi would not be pleased about having to clean them again.

"You've both done well. Prioritizing the weak area of the other, aiming for areas that would do the greatest damage and be the hardest to defend. And at the same moment, you both did well to avoid being struck when it happened." Both Aphi and Ashi beamed at the praise, postures straight and focused. "Now, do you know where you erred, Aphi, that allowed Ashi to gain the advantage?"

The quieter of the two girls opened her mouth for a moment, but said nothing in response. Her head only looked left and right, searching for an answer that couldn't be seen. She likely only saw the same ash that covered the floor they walked across.

"Aphi exposed herself to deliver the blow." Jack turned to Ashi as she took over for her sister. "It may be a requirement to expose one's self to strike out, but she did so while I still had a superior position, and therefore, was a greater risk than necessary. I took advantage of it." And she was correct, as the 'eldest' of the siblings so often did. Jack looked towards Aphi, the girl doing nothing more than bowing her head in acceptance. It earned a nod of his own.

"Correct," Jack spoke. "It also is good to remember that once you are pinned, you have few ways to escape. When you moved to pin Aphi, you must be aware that it also limits what you can do. That is to say, you cannot defend against another opponent while you have one pinned beneath you." The difficulties of being trapped between multiple foes.

"I understand, father." Ashi's dutiful response came with a bow of her head, one that Aphi mimicked in every way. "If I were to duel Aphi with Aki or Adi by her side, I would keep that in mind." Jack smiled beneath the length of his beard, well aware that she did not put Avi, Ahi, or Ami in the same list as the four of them. He spoke no argument to the response.

"Very well. And once more, you both did an excellent job." Jack congratulated the siblings with hands on their shoulders. They both looked up to him, beaming with his praise. It was praise they had well deserved. "Do you have any questions for me?" He suspected not, as they were not the same as their inquisitive siblings. It was always good to ask though. Children so often thought of ideas he believed impossible.

A shake of their heads confirmed his thoughts, however. Soon after they found themselves walking back through the forest, the small distance necessary to where the rest of their family had made an encampment. The woods that was covered in green foliage, fallen leaves, and ash the likes of which was more deserved at the edges of a volcano or ruins of a village. Neither were found here.

It wasn't a concern for him now, however. Jack was always more concerned with the little ones, swiftly growing, than anything else. It was a concern that grew as they moved from being no taller than waist high, to swiftly approaching just beneath his chest. Soon they may be able to look him in the eyes, thus making little ones a very inapt phrase.

"Looks like they're back!" Jack saw Ahi announce as they stepped into the clearing. The devil-horn haired girl waving at them as they approached. Her ladle was still sitting in the pot she was stirring, steam rising with a familiar and delicious scent. "Just about done cooking up the chicken and rice-bean soup. Pretty sure you'll need the protein, and the carbs will help your fatigue as well." She pointed at Ashi and Aphi as she spoke. "Not much I can do to save you from Avi if she sees your clothes, however."

Jack smiled as the siblings he had trained made noises of discontent, realizing their error. Wordlessly, they moved to another area just beyond sight, doubtlessly to change before their sibling returned. It left Ahi to snicker as she continued to cook.

"Oh yeah, dad, before I forget," the girl caught his attention again. "Ami and Adi were looking for you. Something they found over there, not sure what." Her finger pointed towards the small pathway they had cleared, a break in the otherwise mild foliage of the woods. "Pretty sure they're just down there, waiting for you and doing whatever it is they like to do." It was a long list.

"Thank you, Ahi," Jack responded to the child, who grinned at the praise as well. "Is there anything else you need for your dish?" He knew better, from the years she had cooked, than to leave before asking.

"Actually, yeah, if you can find it." She let go of her ladle, dropping down to search in her satchel for a moment. She came back up with a small piece of folded paper, tossing it towards Jack. He caught it, unfolding it as she began to speak. "Nothing I need to really complete the dish. It'd just help if you could find a bunchel of that for the dish. Greens are important for mood stability."

Jack nodded as he observed the vegetation illustrated on the page. For her to give it to him implied it was either common, or appeared, in the woods. Most other greens or vegetables came from the farms.

"Very well." Jack nodded with his words. "I'll return with Ami and Adi in a small while. I hope not to be too long."

"Please don't be," Ahi stood up as she held a small contained in one hand. Garnish sprinkled from it into the dish she continued to stir. "There isn't exactly a big window between cooking the meal and keeping it warm. You can burn a soup you know, and I don't want to burn anything else in the woods." He nodded, understanding her words.

For the amount of Ash that decorate the woods, something else had to have been burned.

Jack made his way through the woods by Ahi's direction, pushing the branches that bundled with his beard and hair, pulling them away and preventing knots. The same ash that decorated the trees began to coat him as well, turning his black hair to an alabaster shade. He brushed off the soft dust, wondering for not the first time where so much of it had come from.

There were no open areas of the woods to imply it came from a recent fire, and no village or volcanoes decorated the landscape either. It appeared to have merely been dropped over the woods, by something unseen or unheard. Perhaps both. Or, more likely, perhaps the inquisitive siblings had found something as well. It wouldn't be long to find them.

"Ami, Adi," Jack spoke as he breached the clearing, seeing the pair of sisters standing before a rock formation. They turned to him, the bob-cut hair of Adi hidden partially beneath a large brimmed hat. A journal in her hands was being scribbled on with pen and ink she kept in great supply. The bangles horned hair of Ami stuck out above the thick goggles she wore, seemingly opaque with their fog and color.

"Hey dad," Adi spoke up, waving to him with her pen laced between her fingers. "How'd sparing go with Aphi and Ashi?" He smiled at her, the ever-inquisitive sister.

"They have improved greatly and soon will be able to keep up with me," Jack spoke honestly and evenly. They learned at a rate far above the rest of their siblings. "However, Ahi told me you have found something." The reminder immediately set off a bell in Adi's head. Ami only nodded in response, quiet as her more combative sibling.

"Yes, well, it is something that both Ami and I have discovered." Adi spoke as she flipped through the pages of her journal. "Ami has confirmed through seismography and tectonic plate mapping that we are far removed from any historically well-known or likely newly formed magma cracks in the earth, making the appearance of the dust and oddity we cannot understand."

Jack nodded, understanding most of what she said. Only most, not all.

"However, that is relating only to the heavy dust sediment that appears to be frequently, and rather evenly spread through the woods. The suspicion for this was that something else was intentionally spreading the dust, either through a sky burning or some other labor intensive act." Her eyes looked up to her sibling, the mechanically inclined of the two.

"I found something," Ami returned. "Namely that the ash is not volcanic in nature, belonging that it has majority of its cells closer to greenery and other forms of plantation." Jack watched her nodding. "I mean they are from a fire or burned vegetation, not volcanic ash."

"Ah," Jack now returned. "Does this mean you know where the fire took place?" The ash would have run if was old, through the constant ran of the woods. The siblings, however, shook their head.

"No, because instead we believe we found the focus of the ash." Adi flipped pages in her book. "Or rather, one of the foci in question." Jack folded his arms as they continued to speak.

"I was able to perform a density measurement of the ash in varying areas of the woods, mapping out a map of the expected elevations." Ami spoke up as she produced her now infamous tablet, a device that only she and Adi took pleasure in using. Ahi hated it telling her the efficiency of her cooking. "The data was able to produce an expected origin of the varying trials of dust, assuming low wind falls."

Jack stared at the map the mechanically gifted sister had produced. Beneath her thick goggles, the map showed an elevation of their woods, assumingly, with small dots outlined across it. Each dot was denoted by a measurement, of a small value such as mm or cm, and indicating the surface it was measured on. Jack was sure it was all very important, and he was glad that Ami understood it.

"We were able to track the data to an area nearby our camp, and we did find something." Ami finished as she twisted her tablet back around, flicking the screen as Adi closed her book. Jack watched the inquisitive sister reach up to a wall of vines behind the, covered in Ash as if a fore was blown atop it. With a mighty tug, the vines came down.

And revealed a statue, large and daunting, underneath. Jack's eyes widened as he stared at it, Jaw agape beneath the thick of his beard.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" It was impossible to not hear the excitement in Adi's voice. "I cannot carbon-date it yet, as the machinery involved is incapable of transport, but the level of detail etched into it show a great amount of care and focus put into it! Given its size and location, it's clear that it was chiseled and shaped her, but the rest of the nearby vegetation grew in around it, meaning that this structure may date to ages older than the forest itself, or at least this mapped section of it!"

Jack let the bob-cut girl speak on in jubilation. He continued to stare at the rounded eyes of the stone dragon, a figure he had seen many times before in his distant past.

"Further, to have endured this long would imply either a level of upkeep or care that is counter-intuitive to the level of vegetation that grew over it. That is also to ignore the ash that was deposited not only over it but the vines and some roots encroaching on its territory. However, I am not familiar with the design or history of this obelisk, as it has too many differences from other dragon like statues before, namely its box-like shape." She was looking for a reason for the ash. Jack wasn't looking at that.

He was looking at the Shaolin Dragon. He was looking at the tool of the monks.

"I recognize it." He spoke the words even as his eyes remained fixed on the statue. He knew where they were. "I know who made this. I know where we are."

"You do?!" Adi quickly replied, before collecting herself. "I-I mean, yeah, I know you would, a-and Ami knows where we are as well, but… you know who made it?" She was curious, obviously, and it wasn't something Jack wanted to hide. He grinned the longer he stared forward.

They were in the presence of friends.

"Yes. They are-"

"HYAAAAA!"

---

Avi wasn't like her sisters. She wasn't always prepared for danger. She never wanted to look for it.

She always looked for how things appeared, for how to make them look better. The arrangement of colors across a coat, the stem and stitch in the lining, the balance of weight through the fabric. Those were what she looked for when she was looking at others. When she was looking at nature, she looked for the balance in height, the separation between elements, the way they flowed, the way they meshed. That was what interested her.

The difference between the balance of nature and the balance of one's appearance was small to her eyes, something that she had come to realize over the many years she'd spent with her father and sisters. Clothes changed for nature, but the beauty of nature created a new beauty in clothing. It was something she enjoyed trying to find, the balance between both. Nature had its own, and she loved to match it.

Avi didn't care for the why or how like Ami or Adi. She didn't care to make change like Ashi or Aki. She didn't want to know how to use nature like Ahi or defend from it like Aphi. That wasn't what she wanted to find.

She wanted to find balance, because that was what gave her peace of mind.

What often shattered her peace of mind, and she was sure it would for many others, was the disruption of nature, ruining what was in balance. Ripping clothes, dirtying the colors, burning trees, clogging rivers, all things that were not meant to happen. These things did nothing to help her peace of mind.

Neither did the ambush of warriors.

Avi only realized they were under attack when she saw a palm strike sail towards her, aimed for her chest. The teachings of her father told her to divert and dodge, not to panic. Her hand hit the wrist of the oncoming attack, bending in the same direction as the hand she used. It worked to avoid the blow, but only the first.

The foot that swept the ground out from underneath her made her tumble backwards, nearly knocking the air from her as her back hit the dirt. She had enough time to gasp in pain, her long hair falling over her face, before she saw her assailant's foot slamming towards her. She reacted the same.

Her foot rose to push the descending strike away from her, forcing it to slam into the dirt and ash next to her. It left Avi beneath her assailant's feet, a position both advantageous and risky. As her father taught her, she took a risk.

The long-haired sister struck out with both of her fists, aimed for the knees of the attacker. He bent his legs before her blows struck, making them glance along this shins and leaving her open. An opening he took advantage of with a raised open palm, the digits aimed towards her. Instinctively, Avi raised her arms to defend herself.

SLAP Her defense was not necessary.

She saw the man's hand be struck away, just before he was attacked by the spinning foot of her sister, striking at her lower back and forcing him to real over and away from her. It freed Avi from her position beneath him. She rose quickly to defend herself.

"Avi! You okay?" Avi heard Aki ask her, her sibling standing in the posture of the Ox, arms close and head bowed. "He get you anywhere? Anywhere I should match on him?" She shook her head at her sister's concern, the bow in her hair whipping with her effort.

"N-No, I'm… I'm okay," she returned carefully, taking deep breaths to recover herself. She took the time to eye the man across from them, as he now did with them. The glare was what she saw first, the focus on them. Avi focused on what he wore, as it would tell her who he was.

He was dressed unlike the normal assassins that they were used to, Aku's minions that attempted to harm their father and her siblings. His clothes were much brighter, a shade of orange that appeared more appropriate for the tropical sands, but flowed easily across his body. A chain of beads were woven around his neck, appearing very close to the prayer beads. They were easily visible as he struck the posture of the crane, a foot raised into the air and arms extended forward and back.

Wait… the crane? How did he know that?

"You stay here," Aki spoke up, her eyes on the man. "Back me up if he gets in a lucky shot. Strike high, cause I'll go low." The bow charged low, but the crane struck high. Aki didn't know!

"Wait, Aki!" Avi yelled to her sister, but the energetic sibling was already charging forward. The man was prepared for her, but she didn't see that. She was striking like an Ox, but he was patient as the Crane. How did he know the Crane?

Aki's fist struck towards the man's center, her feet moving to secure their ground with each blow. It was meant to make her blows stronger, and her defense greater, against an opponent that struck out swiftly. A low center of mass. However, the man's extended hands were able to swim past her blows, pushing them as he crouched and leapt over each swing, dancing around her as he searched for an opening of his own.

Her rambunctious sibling didn't offer him one, as she rarely let anyone see, instead, switching her stance to that of the snake. Swift blows meant to strike clean and true, a single strike to end a great duel. But the snake was weak to the crane, that waited for the snake to be vulnerable.

The man's foot beat away the swift strike of Aki's clutched hand, jumping back as to keep his posture and stance sure, but using his arms to balance as he did so. A palm against a tree, a grip on a branch, a twist of a vine, all to ensure that he was as sure on his one foot as Aki was on two. And it was working. Avi knew it was working, she could see it.

Because Aki struck high, aimed for the man's neck. It was a true strike, but one the man's foot quickly swept away. Away in time for him to spin with his other raised foot, striking at Aki with the sole of his foot.

BAM!

Avi winced as Aki took the blow to her chest, sending her flying back and to Avi's side. She caught her sister, keeping her from painfully tumbling across whatever lay beneath the pale ash of the woods. She raised her own hand in defense, careful of the man's approach. But he did not.

Instead, Avi saw him standing in the clearing of ash made by the duel between him and Aki. Waiting patiently like the crane, swinging on his feet and swaying in the wind. He knew the stance well then. Better than she did, better than Aki did. That was bad.

"Lucky… shot…" Aki let out, taking in long breaths to collect herself. She leaned on Avi's arm, offered for support. "Guy knows how to… get the right foot in…" He knew more than that, Avi realized.

"We should get Ashi, or Aphi," Avi stated. They were the best fighters of their family. "Father will be back in time with Adi and Ami, a-and we can hold him off until then." They had held off others before.

But then again, they hadn't fought those who knew the same stances as their father. The Crane's defense of the Ox and Snake. Aphi, however, knew the Buffalo and Monkey. Those would work well against the stance.

"HYAAAAA!"

Avi turned her head at the shout, a battle cry she knew was familiar with. Aki did the same.

They saw Aphi and Ashi dueling with another man. A man dressed striking similar to the one they were fighting. They were dueling him on the offense, their forms switching between the Crane, the Ox, the Buffalo, the Monkey, and the Tortoise at speeds Avi couldn't match.

She couldn't, but the man could. Matching the both of them, Aphi and Ashi, blow for blow on the defense. He gained no ground, but he didn't lose any either. Their feet were treading the exposed forest floor, free of the ash they had kicked up. They were dodging and swimming through the land, all around the person in question.

Ahi, crouched next to her bowl of soup, and not knowing what to do. Nto an idea s she watched Aphi and Ashi duel one man of orange, and Aki and herself faring against another. Men that had to be, or at least likely were, friends.

Partners, comrades, allies. All those things. But at the end of the day, their enemy.

Avi turned back towards the man, who had not moved from the beaten forest floor, swaying above the ash they had kicked free. He didn't strike when they were exposed, but he didn't retreat. Waiting than, but for what?

"Kay, this is bad," Aki spoke up. She started to push herself to her feet, rising off of Avi's support. "Dude knows how to fight, and fight like us." If the situation were less dire, Avi would compliment on Aki's observations. However, she did not have the heart. Not while she was trying to figure out how the man knew so much on how they fought. Both men. "We need to think of something, something smart and something cool." Maybe not cool, but something at all was correct.

But Avi was not a fight. She was a thinker of balance and peace. Not fighting like this.

"The Crane flies from the Monkey and Cricket, but strikes the Snake and Ox," Avi listed out her father's words, the poem that she memorized nearly a year ago as her siblings learned the forms. It made remembering the stances easier, balancing them as it were. "But… but one who swims between all forms is matched only by a current that is stronger than itself." And that was what Aphi and Ashi fought.

A man battling their switching forms with a speed that they struggled to equal, matching only because it was two to one. The idea that balance was reached through an inequality was not good. When a single hill could support many trees, it was a strong hill. When a single fighter could best many others, he was a strong fighter.

This was a strong man, and likely they both were.

"Time's up then. Time to go!" Avi looked just in time for Aki to rush forward, again. She raised her hands, but didn't know what to say or do.

So instead, she watched Aki strike as the Cricket, swinging her arms before pulling them in, trying to draw in the swaying arms of the man's Crane. He ducked between what he could, retreated from the others, but he lost ground as Aki continued her approach. A reach for his head countered by a duck and roll, a strong kick avoided by a flip of the back, but all backwards. It didn't last.

The man changed his stance to the Ox, and he began to strike out again. Aki reached for his arm, grabbing it in the crux of her wrist, but the man pushed forward with the blow, barreling into Aki. Avi bit her lip as Aki rolled from the exchange, righting herself with arms raised in defense. Ash covered her body, taken from the forest floor. The man however, only had it about the shins of his orange suit and palms of his tan hands.

The misbalance in ash showed the inequality of strength. Aki was losing to the man. Aphi and Ashi were equal. They weren't strong enough.

"Girls!" Avi smiled brightly at the call. She turned to see their father running from the woods, followed by Adi and Ami.

Their father, throwing away his garb his armor and showing his strength. Their father, running to their aid without a moment's of hestitation. Their father, the man who had taught them of how to fight, survive, learn, and grow.

Their father was here, so they would be okay.

"Dad!" Aki yelled, grinning past her ash covered arms. "Help me take this guy down! He fights like you, but he's weak as hell." Avi blushed at the insult, but spoke no words of complain for Aki's words. She was right after all. "Ashi and Aphi got another dude their dancing with, but if we take this guy out now, then we can take care of the other one faster than Ahi can cook a tuna!"

Aki wasn't one for plans, but she was right about this. It made sense. Aphi and Ashi could handle themselves more than her other sisters. Their dad was strong, so much so that almost anyone he fought had no chance. This man knew his fighting style, but that didn't mean he could win.

Avi watched her dad stare at the man, still as the man who watched him in return. The wait for the first move, likely. It was what happened often in nature and in fighting. The first to break balance of concentration. It was a contest to see who would break first.

"Samurai Jack." Avi turned to the orange garbed man. He spoke, and he knew their father. "I did not believe it was you."

"I am surprised to see you as well." Avi looked at their father. Why wasn't he adopting the pose of the Monkey? Or the Crane? "I didn't not realize we were so close to the temple, not until I saw the statue. Not until I saw you." Avi's eyes widened at the words.

"Wait, dad, you know him?" Aki's concern was valid. It was one Avi shared. This wasn't what she expected, which meant something was off. "The dude just jumped and attacked Avi outta no where and that's it? Not to mention his friend still fighting Aphi and Ashi!" That was true, they were still fighting. Avi nodded her head and looked at the ongoing fight.

Only to see Aphi smiling as she dodged a kick above her head, Ashi grinning as she snaked underneath for a strike, and the man they fought casting a smirk as he twirled out of their way. The balance of a fight meant foes fighting out of anger didn't smile. Smiling was meant for enjoyment. Aphi and Ashi enjoyed fighting each other and their father, not enemies.

"They're sparing, not fighting. They must have realized quickly that you fight as they do." Avi listened to her dad, listened as she watched him fold his arms and grin from beneath his long beard. He was relaxed, happy even. That was not what Avi expected, not when the fight before was so intense. "But Aki is right. You did strike at Avi unnecessarily."

"I was meant to test the mettle of your company, not to injure them in a duel." Avi watched the man lower himself back to a neutral posture, standing like her father would before a noble that offered to hosue them for the night, with hands folded behind his back. "They have talent, to be sure, instincts as well. For those so young, it is a marvel to behold. Though I must confess. Knowing who they come from makes it almost an expectation." Where they come from? Did he know about the Red Mountain?

Avi's dad walked forward, boots beating the ash from the ground as he approached the cleared patch of land the man stood in. When they were eye-to-eye with one another, the man extended his hand towards her dad. He grasped it, shaking it, as friends did in many of the towns they had seen.

Then they embraced like family.

Avi looked back to Ami and Adi, watching as Ami took pictures on her tablet and Ami made notes on her journal. Neither were looking away. Aki raised her hands and shook her head when they saw one another, just as confused as Avi felt. There was no imbalance present, but… she didn't know what was going on.

"It has been too long, samurai," the man spoke from above her dad's shoulder. "Too long since Grand Master Tam Sung and the Shaolin have seen you." Avi did not know those names.

"Then I am glad to see you once more," her dad returned. "For it is important to return to where we grew from." Avi didn't know what to say that.

"The hell?" Aki did, apparently.

---

The temple had not changed.

It had been forty-four years since Jack last walked these halls, and millennia before that, and still it looked scantly different. It was as if the years treated the old stone and carved halls with the same apathy that it treated him. He knew it was not the case, as there were many students walking the halls, many who trained in rooms that they walked past and cared for the building as they walked through. The tall and long halls that could befit a parade of Chinese capital, or an orchestra of master musicians. The temple lacked nothing in size.

Jack could tell the tiles that had been replaced as weather and time led to crack and ruin, the statues and sculptures chiseled and painted to withstand times river, and even the walls they walked past, cleaned of the grim and ash that plagued the woods outside. Not a speck of the odd ash that Ami and Adi were researching traveled inside. Perhaps that was why they were the focus of attention, because everything else was merely maintain the old, and they were new.

Many eyes that watched him and the little ones curiously. Eyes that recognized him as the heralded samurai, the man who fell through time and was a master of the arts they continued to learn. Him and the little ones that were kept around him, the lithe girls clothed in appropriate garbs that acted like tourists to the temple they lived in.

It was a fair trade for them to do so, as the girls were no less inquisitive or enthralled with the halls they walked through. All seven of the girls had eyes in every room they passed, studying the focused students as they harnessed their chi, memorizing the carvings that had been etched into stone millenia before their own births, and the cleanliness of a building in an otherwise uninhabited and isolated forest.

Adi and Ami, to little of Jack's surprise, were scribbling details across the journal and screen, taking pictures with what they could and memorizing everything else they could no.t. The monks that accompanied them smiled and humored the girls, proud of their heritage, their history, and more than willing to share it. He knew they were deserving of the focus.

Avi, however, kept close to Jack as they walked, closer to him despite her sisters so heavily invested in learning about the temple they walked through. The monks were focused on them as well, both entertaining and herding them forward towards an old friend. But not Avi. Avi remained focused on him.

Jack looked down at her, worried that perhaps the ambush of the monks earlier had done more to her than she let on. But a glance to her eyes showed it was the not the case. She did not shiver as she did in the midst of fights she was ill-prepared for, didn't wander towards Aphi or Ashi for protection.

"Is it alright to be here?" Avi questioned him quietly. "It so different from everywhere else." Jack didn't understand why. This was not how she normally reacted.

"We are here," one of the monks spoke, bowing lightly to the group as he stood before a door, a familiar door. A door that stood taller than many buildings, and wide enough to birth a rapid river. Time had not weakened the doors appearance.

Jack looked down at Avi, heeding still the girl's worried. He rubbed her shoulder, nodding and smiling at her question. They were allowed, and Tam Sung was an old friend. There was no reason to feel ill about their presence in this holy temple.

"I believe that Master Tam Sang will be thrilled to see you again, Samurai Jack. I trust your daughters will be respectful to the master in his presence." Jack wasn't insulted by the inquires or words. They were rules.

"They will be," Jack spoke, eyeing the girls as he confirmed their manners with eyes. He put his hand on Avi's head when he came to hers, earning the girl's calm smile. He wouldn't let her be put in harms way, she knew this. "We all will be."

"Very good. Then, may I introduce to you once more, Grand Master Tam Sung of the Shaolin Monks."

The monk slowly retreated from the front of the group, bowing as he walked backwards towards the door. As he did, a mighty boom echoed through the stone hall, accompanied by the mighty doors opening with a slow swing. Air blew past Jack and the girls, earning gasps of surprise from a few of the little ones. Jack only felt a grin widen beneath his disheveled beard. It was impossible not to as he drank in the familiar sight beyond.

The room beyond was still hardly considered a room at all. More open to nature itself than a porch of a farmer's shed and allowing the evening sun to dip through the foliage that grew around it. Foliage that consisted of strong vines lain across the ground, blooming lavender and aqua flowers that drooped and sagged across their steams. It led to a glowing figure in the center of the room, wrapped in the woods as if they were a blanket.

And there sat Tam Sung, now a day old or younger than the many years ago Jack had seen him.

The same patient smile across aged lips.

The same content pose born from a balanced chi.

The same bloom of aura that came from the focus of his life force.

All the same… except the ash.

Ash, that Jack realized dropped around the ends of his vines and foliage like pollen in spring. It turned the content smile beneath his beard into one of concern and mild worry. Grand Master Tam Sung did not look injured, but as Ami and Adi said, the ash was ill-natural. For it to be here was something… wrong. Avi's words rang in his head.

"Samurai Jack." Other words rang as well. "It has been too long since last we spoke. Too long since last I laid eyes upon you. Too long, but now no longer." Jack sighed at the familiar voice.

The girls did not.

"Whoa! Huh? What was that?" The boisterous Aki let out, the girl looking around as if to see the method to which she heard the voice. "The heck was that? Am I goin' crazy? Cause I promise I did not have that cannabis! It's still in the backpack." Jack smiled at the young one, patiently. Even if her confession would earn a discussion later.

Ethereal laughter filled the room, a laughter that joined with soft chuckling. The look Aki gave him in return was one of betrayal, as if her sisters had placed another slug in her boot for skipping on camp preparations.

"Ah, young one, you have no reason to fear for your mind." Tam spoke once more. The girl whipped around to the man on the floor, one with nature. The purple mascara of her eyes nearly ran with how wide her eyes grew. "What you hear is what you see. I am no intruding upon you, as you are the ones who agreed to meet me."

"Whoa." Was all Aki simply returned. "That's… that's crazy. That's really crazy. Crazy awesome, yeah, I'll admit. But… geez dad, you think you could've warned us?" The samurai blinked as the girl looked back at him, scratching her mestled hair as she glared at him. He shook his head in response. He honestly could not.

"No… he couldn't have." All eyes turned to Adi as she spoke now, adjusting the brim of her hat, even as she leaned forward towards the man, though still some distance away. "This is an unprecedented phenomena, natural or otherwise, that appears to combine the human nature and senses with those of the natural life force of the forest. This is something that has been only theorized by some cultures and religions. For it to actually occur… it must be a secret of some great renown."

"And speaking of it at all outside these walls would risk the stability and strength of this temple," Ashi finished for her sister. A leader that looked to have all the answers. "It isn't a matter of trusting us, it was a matter of trusting all those around us, even those we could not see." And she had all the wisdom to be one, as Jack noted.

"Hahaha, you have wise children, young Samurai," Tam's ethereal voice spoke again. "Having seen so little of this holy temple, and even just glances upon my current form, and they have deduced not only the reason for your silence, but also our isolation." Jack nodded in response to the old friend's words. They were very smart kids, of that he was sure.

"This is… oh geez I have no idea how I'm going to get used to this." Aki put her hands to her head and shook it. It was a humorous sight, to be sure, especially amongst her siblings. "Someone's talking in my head and I'm feeling like I'm walking on ash clouds." However, it was neither the time nor place for it.

Jack put a hand to the girl's shoulder, jolting her. It took only a quick moment to look into his eyes that she realized her mistake. She was brash, but she was far from reserved.

"Crap, um," Aki began, quickly turning back towards Tam Sung. Her bow was poised, despite her rough nature. "I'm sorry about freaking out just now Mr. Grand Master Tam Sung. I should be used to things like this, or at least close, but I'm not. So… sorry again about that." Jack heard Ashi give a harsh sigh from between her sisters.

"Think little of it, young Aki." Jack held back a grin as the girl jolted at her name. "Do not think ill of my knowledge. I merely observed you and your group as you approached our temple. The woods have been kind to warn us of unknowns. And I must confess, I did not recognize the samurai at first, nor did I suspect he would have such a large family in tow."

And he did not either or would not have just four years ago. But despite the forty years prior, he now felt more at ease with the little ones around him than he ever did in this dark future alone.

"But Samurai Jack, I must confess that I was surprised to hear that you did not take the portal in time that my students led you to." The girls whispered around him as Tam Sung spoke. "I am not disappointed, merely surprised. I suspected you would think the world more important than a pair of young students, especially one such as yourself, thrown into this harsh land. Yet, from what I see before me, I am pleased to see that you staying has led to you sharing a bit more of your light with this bleak future."

"And I as well," Jack returned. He knew the girls were looking at him. He could tell because Aki did not hide her proud smirk and Avi was standing very close to him. "I can only hope that it is something continues no matter the years that follow."

"It will, father. You can be sure of that." Ami smiled beneath her thick goggles. Her confidence was not something to be questioned. "I have yet to think of a way that we are not separated."

"Yeah, we're all in this together. You saved us from that stupid mountain, so now we're out here surviving for fun!" Aki held up her thumb in approval of her own words. Her energy was like Ami's confidence, impossible to comprehend.

"It is never a poor sight to witness, the resilience of youth within years of torment." Jack felt his smile dip at the words. Tam's statue like posture didn't shift with his words. "Even the many students that we bring to our temple, not all of them can maintain hope and peace in such a way as yours."

"And yet I see that your temple and people remain vibrant in an otherwise abandoned land." Jack returned with compliments. Tam deserved them well. "Your students do not lack in ability either, and the care they maintain for their home shows their loved for it."

"Very true, very honest," Tam noted. "And it is why I must share my own observation as well, of your seemingly endless youth." Jack sighed through the thick of his beard. "Last I recall, you say this was not the result of your chi, but of a trick of darkness. I do not believe such a trick may last for so long, young Samurai."

He didn't know either.

"And I am still looking for a reason as well." Jack felt Avi grab the back of his arm a bit tighter. "Aku's magic has done something to me that I do not understand. I do not age. I do not grow old. And yet, I am still here looking for a way to return to the past."

"Even though you know that there exist no more?" It was not something Jack wanted to hear, but the confirmation from the wise Grand Master was something he expected. "It is a harsh truth, young Samurai, but one I feel you already knew. However, I am glad that you have grown from the torment that this knowledge wrought upon you."

Jack looked at Tam now with hard eyes. The torment was not something many, or hardly any, knew. It was not something he spoke of or shared. It was not something he wanted the girls to know, or remember.

"Dad, what is he talking about?" Adi questioned first. Jack didn't respond.

"I speak of nothing evil or vile, young Adi," Tam Sung spoke to the girl. She only nodded slowly in reply. "It is merely a product of my wisdom to be curious of things I do not fully see, and appreciate the resilience of those who work through dark times. And your father, following the knowledge of his mission's end, fell into a darkness himself."

"Father?" Ashi now asked. For her to question meant unease. It meant a feeling all the little ones must have shared.

"Grand Master," Jack began carefully. "I thank you for admiring my resilience through those times. However, those are not times I wish to remember." There was a hardness to his words, and from the way the monks moved, he knew it was not how they expected him to respond. "I have moved on from then. I hope never to see such an Omen again."

A slow sigh left him as he spoke, fists clutching as he remembered that horrid thing that followed him. Followed him in the shadows of mountains and trees, in the darkness of the night and the corners of the day.

Omens of a past that he failed to change the future that he was trapped in for all eternity. Beyond the life of the little ones who called him father and saw him as a hero, to when they would cry to him and wonder why he could not save them from the death that he could not accept. Left to wander forever in a dark future that Aku ruled without relenting a scrap of land or life.

"Dad!" Jack flinched.

Avi was grabbing his coat, shaking it harshly. Ahi was right beside her a hand on his shoulder. The rest of the girls were looking at Tam. Ashi and Aphi were in the positions of the crane and bull. The monks were in the water-buffalo stance.

Oh, this was his fault.

"Wait, wait!" Jack spoke quickly, earning the attention of the girls. The tension broke with his words. "I apologize I… I had not thought of such things for some time. I did not meant to frighten you."

"Scare us?" Adi spoke up. She gripped Jack with both her hands, staring at him beneath the brim of her hat, eyes focused on him as if he were soon to disappear. "Dad, you've never done that before. Ever. I-If you did, it was when were ten or something!"

"She's right, father," Ami now. "Of all the logs that I have, this has never happened before." Not to them it hasn't.

"So naturally, we're a bit wary at the men who made you freeze like that." Ashi spoke, though her stance was shaky. Jack nodded his head at their words. They were right, all of them. But they were wrong.

"No, girls, it's-"

"They are right, young Samurai." Jack's words fell to nothing as Tam Sung spoke. "I did not think before I questioned, and as a consequence, I delivered unto you painful memories you long buried. It was a mistake on my part to bring them up unnecessarily. For that, I apologize." The words echoed through the minds of all present, calming tensions easily.

The little ones lowered their posture in time with the monks, feet settling back to the ground and arms returning to their sides. It was good, but it wasn't all.

"I accept your apology," Jack returned appropriately. "Though I do not believe it is needed. You did not know, and I had forgotten myself." And in truth, he had. The memories of the Omen had long since left his mind. Too many other worries, present and requiring attention, to think of the sins of his past.

"And that is a blessing I believe you do not soon lose," Tam spoke on. "To have loved ones that bury your pain, leaving them beneath the soil so new memories, new hope, can bloom from the fertile soil is an amazing thing. The beauty of human nature, as it were." Jack looked down as something gripped his arm tightly. He saw Avi's hold had strengthened, her eyes shut to calm herself. "I may be wise enough to recognize the strength of such bonds, but that does not mean I am free from the error. I did err when I spoke of your past, and thus my apologies are due."

The glow of the room seemed to pulse with his words, rebounding across the stone walls and twisting vines in time. It was the same image of peace Jack remembered from decades ago, the last he saw of Tam. The decades were harsh to him, but they appeared to be inconsequential to the Grand Master of the Shaolin ways.

"As recompense for my error, may I offer some words of wisdom or seeds of knowledge you may seek?" Tam offered. "I lack any knowledge of ways to return to the past, young Samurai, as the woods and nature have yet to find another. But for the survival of the present, within these dark times, perhaps I may be able to offer something else you and your kin are curious of. It is the least I can offer as an old friend." Friends carried no debts, but Jack was not to turn away a hand of friendship.

"Thank you, Grand Master. But I do not have anything else I am curious of." Jack's words were honest. His worries were not born from ignorance or lack of knowledge. Merely time itself. "However, I do believe the girl shave questions of their own." They were the curious ones now, and two more than the rest of the siblings.

"Us?" Adi questioned, pointing at herself. Her eyes looked about the room, seeing the eyes of her siblings upon her, Jack included in the number. "Me?"

"You." Jack returned, nodding towards the bob-cut girl. His head turned towards the other inquisitive member of the group. "And her."

"Me?" Ami voiced similarly to Adi, though her eyes were hidden beneath her goggles. "Us?" Her hand, however motioned between the pair.

"Both." Jack grinned with the words. "I believe you both had a curiosity of the woods, one you were looking to discover before we were found. Perhaps the Grand Master may be able to offer some assistance." Jack moved his eyes from the girls and back to the figure crouching upon the ground, one with nature.

Though his form didn't move and his only connection one of the mind, Jack knew his old friend was smiling with the words.

"Offering the path of wisdom to those who wish to grow in its soil," the Grand Master noted. "I am not the only wise one here, am I?" Jack chuckled with the words, a sound that his old friend chorused. "But yes, I may be able to offer assistance to you both. What may be this problem for which you are searching an answer for?"

The pair of girls looked between themselves nervously. Adi had he rhands rummaging through the pages of her journal when she broke contact with Ami, the more mechanical of the two tapping across her pad as well. Jack was patient for them, as were the rest of their siblings. It was hardly anything new to them.

"Um, we were wondering about, mostly about, the deposits through the forest." Adi started, before biting her tongue and shaking her head. "I-I mean the ash deposits through the forest. Specifically their origin and reason for persisting in a non-arid environment."

"In more detail, the reason why they appear to congregate and seemingly originate from the statues that we found in the woods." Adi turned her pad to the glowing figure of Tam, though they were still some distance away. Jack spoke nothing, even as he heard Aki chuckle at the motion. "The measurement of the ash deposits show that they lose their volume the further they are from the etched stone, implying that they either originate or were spread outward from these structures."

"Yes, that, but we haven't found any reason for the ash to exist," Adi followed, a finger on the page of her book. "No charred areas to imply a fire, no volcanic or tectonic plate activity, and no wreckage or other damaged vessels to imply the reason for the ash existence. We want to know if there is a reason for this, one that we can understand."

The air hummed as Tam thought. A pregnant silence that was matched by the monks bowing their head as the question was raised. Jack waited patiently for the answer, as did the girls.

"You are wise children, and should be proud of this." Tam's words began with a compliment. "More than the reason why, I know of who spread those ashes. The question of why is something we do not know ourselves."

"Who?" Adi parroted. "You mean this was spread by an outside source? That makes sense, but only to explain the data. It fails to account for motivation or reasoning. A who implies that there has to be a reason or motivation for any act, as a lack of who returns to natural developments which can be accounted for the culmination of unrelated events."

"Adi's getting deep again, dad," Aki spoke up from Jack's side. "Want me to do the usual?" Jack shook his head.

"Not right now." Their attention returned to Tam, Ami, and Adi.

"Yes, young ones, a who is involved." Tam Sung spoke, returning the focus of Adi's rambling. "The who that has spread the ash throughout the woods. The woods are where you likely observed the most of the ash, but that is not where it began."

The wind whistled as the Grand Master spoke on. Jack listened intently, as he would a child memorizing the lessons of his teachers.

"The ash began to fall within these temple walls." The samurai focused harshly on the words.

"That should not be possible," Ami spoke up. "Though you have a significant amount of yourself located in the exterior of the temple, the amount of ash deposits observed is far higher than one would expect. Further, with the data collected from the monks who attacked us, the idea of an intruder making their way inside to merely spread ash is highly dubious at best." The logical mind of Ami shown through.

"And were the individual one of flesh and blood, your logic would be infallible." Tam complimented the words. "But it was not a being of this world that spread the ash. Though nature speaks to me often of the spirits that reside in the woods, they have uttered not even a whisper of the ghost that seems to haunt us now."

"A ghost is spreading ashes." Adi spoke as if it were a fact. "Many cultures note that ghosts may leave behind or alter the physical environment to leaves messages. However, ash does not appear to be a common symbolism in them." It was only when she finished that Jack realized that Adi was looking through another book of text as she spoke.

"Dear child, it is not a ghost that haunts us." Both girls looked back at the Grand Master as is voice echoed through their minds. "The being appears as a ghost, but one of mortal soul it is not. Rather, the distinction from the cycle of nature begets her to be something more. Beyond what the mortal coils may allow."

Jack had a suspicion of where the Grand Master was going. He had met many beings of grand power before, many as mysterious as ghosts, and as formless as air.

"It is an Angel of Ash that haunts us." That was not one of them.

"An… angel?" Ami questioned.

"Would this be of Geo-Christian decent?" Adi asked without missing a beat. "No, not them. Angels do not act in such a way of warnigns. Dreams are the closest they usual come. I… I don't know what would be close to this."

"There is no closer than recognizing what is," Tam Sung spoke to the girls. "The Ash Angel has been witnessed by a few of my students, a formless being of gray that ghosts through the temple. Ash is left in its wake and nothing more. Nothing is ruined, nothing is wasted, only ash left behind. Ash that we can only brush away, but never be rid of."

Jack recalled the cleanliness of the temple as they walked through the halls. The unmarred floor, the walls, the reliefs. They were all cleaned, and were constantly being cleaned, by the students. All to keep the ash away.

"Is the angel warning you that death is coming?" Jack questioned carefully. It would not be the first time a spirit gave an omen of an approaching end. The memory of his own Omen was large in his mind. "A threat upon your temple.

"No, young Samurai. Not in the sense that our way of life is being threatened." Tam's voice vibrated lower as he spoke. "I believe the Ash Angel is warning me of my longevity and mine alone. Warning me that I fight nature when I should accept an end." That was not something Jack could easily accept.

"That can't be true." It took the samurai a moment to realize who had spoken from the little ones.

He was surprised to see Avi voicing herself from them, stepping away from him as she spoke.

"Ash comes from ruin, from something burned or killed." Ami nodded at Avi's words, admitting the trueness of the statement. "For the angel to spread ashes about you, around the forest, as some kind of sign for your age doesn't make sense. It would… it would be a harmful thought."

"Truly, young one?" Tam questioned. "May I request you enlighten me of your reasoning?" Both monks looked at their Grand Master before the girl again. Jack felt a swell of pride, but hid his grin beneath the thickness of his beard.

The strength Avi was momentarily gifted with appeared to have been robbed from her in the next moment. The girl's stance shook at the idea, looking about her sisters, the monks, Tam Sung, and Samurai Jack all looking at her. He could see the unease in her eyes. He offered only a patient smile and nod of his head in return. It was all the girls ever needed to know he was there for them.

"I-I mean, that is… I don't understand spreading ash to warn you of… you." Her hand extended towards Tam as she spoke. This was not easy for her. "Ash comes from death, and to destroy something else, o-or to create an aspect of it as a warning… it would mean that the angel is, um, inconsiderate of the younger life of the woods. Because… the ash would choke that life. But it wouldn't harm you."

"You're saying that the angel is being inconsiderate to other life in the vicinity of the temple?" Ami questioned her sister. "Though a spirit that it is, we have numerous data entries of spirits being harmful to non-related individuals while spiting their intended target." Jack could not fault the googled girl.

"N-No, not that," Avi dismissed. "I mean, um, why would an Angel of Ash spread ash as a warning of death instead of… something else. W-Why not fire, o-or skeletons or… something else that would be a warning." Jack nodded slowly at her words. There was a sense to it. "A-And then why everywhere? If it was just you, Grand Master then… wouldn't the angel only be focused on you? Why the temple, o-or the woods it… it doesn't make sense."

The air hummed with Tam's voice, a noise that Jack mimicked with his own. That was true, and jack believed it. Adi and Ami were the more inquisitive of their seven siblings. But Avi, more than the others, always saw the beauty in purpose in things.

Never truer was that than now.

"You have given me much to consider, young Avi." The girl blushed at the words, bowing her head and letting her long hair drape forward, shifting her pink bow. "I see no error with your words, and it only shows that even with millennia behind me, there will always be wisdom to be gained." The Grand Master and elder of the Shaolin chuckled through the air, voice deep and rich. "We have exchanged knowledge, but perhaps now we can trade each other some hospitality."

"Oh?" Jack questioned. He had truthfully forgotten about the days and nights he had spent in the temple, so many years ago.

"Capable as you all are, I believe little replaces a well-made bed and warm food. Both of which we can provide for you all. Gifts of the Shaolin to the young Samurai and his younger wards."

The pair of monks in the room bowed deeply with the words, an action Tam was incapable of making. It was clear that the offer was not one born of thanks, but welcome. Not for helping the mystery to be solved, but for being present at all.

Friends were rare in the dark future, so the bonds of the past were always due to be renewed.

"I humbly accept, Grand Master Tam Sung." Jack bowed deeply with his acceptance. "And I thank you on behalf of myself and the girls."

"Thanks are unnecessary, young Samurai," Tam returned. "It is as the man of kilts would say. Friends carry no debts." And Family held no regrets.

Jack smiled kindly to his old friend with the words, a silence that was birthed from the room of vines and stone, between the man who had lived through history and the other that had endured it.

It was broken when Jack felt a tug on his arm.

"So they're going to make up for the chicken soup then?" Ahi questioned beside him. "Because that was good chicken soup I made, and I didn't get a chance to share it."

Jack smiled as he tussled the girl's hair, Tam joining in his laughter.

---

She was worried for her father. They all were. They had never seen him like that.

It was on her mind as they left the chambers of the Grand Master, being led to a dining area with the other monks garbed in orange and strips of yellow. It was on her mind as the monks kindly bowed to them, offering them mats to sit on and food to eat. It was on her mind as he father smiled and thanked the monks that he both knew and first met, welcoming the warm food and company.

Avi didn't say a word though, not to her father and not her sisters. Her father appeared happy. If she were to voice the concern now, it would ruin the atmosphere. And a safe place, a warm atmosphere, was something to be cherished. Warm colors that came with matching food, a large room without fear of being attacked or needing to defend, was something that she and her sisters were welcomed to often see.

It wasn't on all their minds now, Avi knew that. Her sisters hadn't forgotten, but they heeded their father's request to relax.

They were thinking about where they were. How they were surrounded by the Shaolin monks in vibrant orange robes, well pressed and stitched, being served plates of salad and vegetables topped with plucked goose. The goose was dry, but the greens were vibrant and rich. Ahi wasn't allowed to complain, per their dad's request.

"What did you do to prepare the goose? I mean after you defeathered it, of course. Did you cook the bird whole or turn it to strips first?" She could not complain, but as was common to happen whenever they at in the company of another, her questions of the food were near unending. "Because if you cooked the bird whole, it allows the fat and juices that come out of the heating process to be reabsorbed, adding a fatty tasty to the meat!"

"Can't you already tell that then?" Aki asked their sister. "You've got the tongue of a freaking triple-headed dog over there and you're asking them how they cooked it? I'd bet a buck that you already know."

"I have a guess, yes, but that's not a hard fact. I want to know so I can match this then improve it!" Her confidence and declaration were far from uncommon. "And I can't improve something if they already cooked it in the way that I'd prepare it."

"Eat first, then have discussions with the chef," their dad instructed from across them. Ahi heeded his words instantly, though with a bite to her lip. "I'm not saying you can't ask, but meals for the Shaolin are meant to be peaceful and free from thought. It helps to relax the mind and ease the body."

Avi looked around at the words of her father. And he was right, like he always was. The monks that sat around them in the room, either along the walls or bowed before small tables, all ate in complete silence, slow and carefully with the salad and meat presented to them. It meant they were making the most noise, breaking the balance.

The idea of her sisters ruining the balance of these monks was an appalling thought to her. Not when they had clearly done so well to beautify their temple, selves, and land around them. All except for the angel of Ash…

"Meditation through ingestion," Adi added without missing a beat. "It is common in many wandering tribes to be patient with meals in order to focus on the tasks that need to be performed either through the rest of the day or in the harsher climates of the night."

"Slower eating also results in better digestion of nutrients and materials." Ami added next. She snaked a long piece of meat from her salad to her mouth, dropping it from her chopsticks to her open maw. "If you rush eating, your saliva doesn't have time to break down the large chunks of food into the macromolecules your digestive juices then further disseminate."

"Alright, alright, I'll eat first and slowly." Ahi grumbled as she took another leaf from the salad bowl. It dripped with something Avi didn't recognize. "Give me time to figure out how they made the dressings." She mumbled before taking a bite of the crunchy leaf, chowing down on it. "Lot of vinegar, but with a thickener like mayonnaise added to it. Not mayonnaise though, no eggs."

"Don't speak with your mouth full." Ashi chastised Ahi for their father. Her chopsticks pointed at the dual-horned sister, even as her own posture closely mirrored their father's. "Chew, swallow, then speak when you are done." Avi smiled at her sister's words. She never left room for complaint or argument.

She took a bite of her own salad again, tasting the greenery and stripped carrots on top. There were some fruits in the bowl, things she didn't recognize, but they went well with the sauce that Ahi was still trying to deduce. Her goose remained uneaten on a plate next to her, waiting for her hunger to get the best of her. She didn't like eating meat, but Ahi and her father were stringent on ensuring she ate it.

The monks around them had their eyes shut as they ate, lips smiling as they chewed their food almost soundlessly. She couldn't tell if it was the contentness of their place in the world or their company. It could have been either. A lot of people smiled when they were around their father. He was that amazing.

Someone who would walk into a strange land and save the people because they asked.

Someone that endured decades alone when Avi herself could hardly stand minutes.

Someone that, apparently, had buried a deep pain and hidden it from them all. Avi still hadn't forgotten. She couldn't forget.

It was like a wound beneath a bandage. No matter the dressing she applied or the colors she painted it, the wound was still present, still an ugly red or disfigured purple, and no dressing or make-up could correct it. Nothing would set it right but time itself. But time wasn't helping her father. Or was it? She couldn't tell.

The Grand Master had shown her father was not alright, but he had not shown any pain for years, not to Avi or her sisters. Was that the balance he maintained? The pain of his past for their present? She didn't know, couldn't know, and that bothered her.

She hid a sigh by taking a bite of the goose. It was moist, easy to chew, and so much harder to swallow than the crunchy leaves of the salad. She swallowed her pride with the meat though. It was what her father wanted.

Avi turned away from her food again, chewing as she looked about the large room they were in. A monk or two stood as they finished their meal, walking away with hands folded behind their backs, dishes set on the table they knelt at. Someone one collect them then, like a restaurant, but not a restaurant. This wasn't like a city of Aku. This was a guarded temple.

A temple that showed a balance of color and life, of peace and content. The kind of balance she enjoyed to see. One that was being lightly threatened by the Angel of Ash. An angel that drifted like mist…

Wait…

Avi blinked, looking back at a far wall in the temple dining room, past the monks that still knelt at their tables and others rising as they finished. She traced a wall that was golden green, a mirage of the forest light and relief carvings. She stared at it, unblinking and unmoving. Because if she moved, she wouldn't be able to convince herself that the figure she saw was.

A figure that was pale as snow, and translucent as glass. A figure that drifted across the walls like mist, fell like snow, and left without a sound.

Avi looked around herself in a panic, for any monk, sibling, or even her father to see what she saw. If they had, then they could act. If they had, then she wouldn't feel crazy, delusional, off balance. Someone else had to have seen it. It wasn't possible that none of them had.

But when she looked around, no one was speaking of it.

Ahi was still muttering about the salad and goose, Aki was teasing her, Adi was writing in her journal as she ate, Ami was doing the same to her pad, Aphi was silently staring at her food, Ashi was mimicking their father, and their father was smiling beneath his beard as he watched Ahi mull over her inability to decide. None of htem had reacted to the ghost on the wall.

No one, not even the monks. No one but her. Why only her? How only her? Was it because she saw the imbalance? The streak of pale over the vibrant gold? Was it because she was looking for the change, the difference? She didn't know. Ami might now, Adi could know, but Avi didn't know.

She should speak to her father, tell him about it. If she told him, then he would know what to do. For sure he would.

But the image of him paralyzed in the room of the Grand Master returned to Avi's mind, never having fully left. The image of her father struck with a pain she couldn't see, frozen with something she could feel. It wasn't the Ash Angel that frightened, but she didn't know what did.

If Avi told him about the Ash Angel, about the being that was haunting the halls of the Shaolin, would he be okay? Yes, he would. He was their father, and he was invincible. But would he be okay in his mind? Would he remain balanced?

There, Avi wasn't so sure.

It was Tam Sung who reminded him of his past, and the Ash Angel was something the Grand Master could not understand. If that was true, then the balance of power meant it might awaken such thoughts in her father. Such pain that he would freeze in front of them again. Her father still as stone made Avi's gut quell.

No, that was too much. But… maybe she could find it. If she found the Ash Angel and told the others, then it would be alright, then they would be prepared.

She could find it, as she had just found it. It hadn't left long through the hallway of the dining hall, past the monks that hadn't noticed it and away from her family who hadn't seen it. It was just there. She could find it, leave it, and tell the others all before they noticed she had left. To do it, Avi only had to leave.

And like Ashi would say during their spars, indecision was the quickest path to defeat. She couldn't wait.

She rose from the table silent as air, drifting pass the monks with shut eyes and others bowing out of the way. The hall she took was no different than the others her family was guided through, carved with reliefs, matched with stone, and painted elegantly at that. It was the same balance with the orange of the clothing the monks wore and greenery of the forest that was beautiful to see.

But there was something different now. Something that wasn't there before. It was something she had seen many times today, but not seen inside the temple, not outside of the Grand Master's room. It was something, she heard, that was cleaned often when it appeared.

Ash. A thin long trail of pale ash across the tiled ground.

Avi stared at it, taking it in. It horribly clashed with the tan stone the temple was lined with, strewn like a holed bag of salt. It mared the ground that it was on, forcing her to stare at it. It stood out to much to not look at it. And that was the point. It had to be.

It was a trail, and she had to follow it.

---

"Rooms have been prepared for you and your children, samurai," the monk spoke as they traded down the immaculate halls. Jack nodded in turn. "We do not often have visitors, so we were unable to prepare a room for each of you."

"That's fine with me," Aki spoke before Jack could respond himself. "Spend most of the time bundled together I the woods or wherever anyways. Not like we were expecting this to be some kind of super famous hotel or anything. Soft beds is good enough for me to think of it as four stars." He sighed with the child's words. Her attitude and demeanor were often as spiky as her hair.

"No, no, this is going to be great! The earliest records of Shaolin temples date back to thirty years A.A! No new data regarding the living spaces and culture exist in the modern day!" The excitement poured off of Adi as she spoke, enough to make Jack grin beneath his long beard. The girl's excitement for the new and undiscovered as a contagious thing. It was likely she'd have many questions now, knowing that he was apart of their order once. "That reminds me. How long were you a member of the Shaolin order dad? You never mentioned that before." And the devil spoke when his name was whispered.

"It never came up." And it never did. His past, when they had first met, was still haunting him. Still haunting him, as Tam's words and actions proved already. "Though if you are curious now, I will speak of what I can remember." He would not deny his child the path to knowledge. He would not for any of the little ones.

"There are a plethora of questions that need to be answered in that case." Ami followed her sister with her inquisitions and curiosities. The two most knowledgeable, and curious, of the seven children. "Aside from the cultural habits and martial arts mastery, questions need to be asked of technologies developed to create the pseudo-shielding necessary to survive in these forests without inviting malicious intent or intruders." Her eyes were unclear beneath her goggles.

"Wait, hold on, how do you know they haven't fought off other threats before? Like, they could have taken on a bandit raid yesterday for all you know." Aki leaned close to her sister as they continued to walk. Jack spoke nothing for the rivalry she smoldered. "You gotta spill the answers you learn, Ami."

"The deposition of the ash in the forest was neither disturbed heavily nor fresh, implying that it had been untreaded for no less than two weeks time." Her answer was clear and distinct. "Further, both the temples and the outside structures lack any fractures or superficial damage that could have come from blades, guns, or other forms of modern technology. Visual based information only, but it appears all damage accrued and not-yet treated is basic erosion due to time and elements, not combat."

"And because there is no damage to the temple, the possibility of them faring against foreign threats regularly is unlikely." Ashi finished for her sister. She was one to take the lead when she could, and she often did. "An assumption, of course, but you are rarely wrong when it comes to your data."

"You are correct that we do not face the evils of this land often, rarely if ever." The girls turned their attention back to the monk guiding them, listening intently as he spoke. Jack smiled patiently, following their guide as they turned down a new hall. He recognized the living quarters that they approached, hardly a day older than the last he saw them some forty-four years ago. "And so long as memory or direction to this place is kept hidden or forgotten, I may tell what little I know of the protection Grand Master Tam Sung offers."

"Can we be more open with the food?" Jack hid his chuckle with a scrap of his boot against the ground. He knew well that the other girls would turn to Ahi for the question, and her single track mind. "What? That was a good salad, and the best way to get the fiber in you is through the greenery like that. If I can keep our moods regular by copying that, I'll do it. I'm not going to turn down a good recipe when I see it."

"You are more than welcome to make the same meals as us." Jack heard the humor in the monk's voice as he spoke. He sounded no less amused that Jack was. Children were rare to see for the Shaolin, where their members came through direction of their inner spirit. Not families. "Though I will confess I do not know if a salad is considered a recipe."

"'Course it is! You have to put the right amount of the right ingredients or you'll get a mess of food that no one will want to eat. That's not even talking about the dressing that usually goes with it. The vinegar you used? That was some good stuff!" Jack was not sure what the difference was between the vinegar and the dressing. Ahi did, and that was enough.

"I will… ask if the recipe can be given to you," the monk returned. Jack heard Aki snickering. "In the meantime, for the night, your rooms are here and you will be well provided for." He stopped as he spoke, hand motioning towards three sets of doors. Jack recognized the area, though the wood of the doorways and carvings of the walls were all new, newer than the last he'd been here.

Adi opened one door with little hesitation, followed in by Ami just behind her. He heard the inquisitive pair of girls begin to speak at length, swiftly disappearing behind the walls of the room. There was little curiosity associated with what they were speaking of. No other sisters joined them, a habit formed through exposure. When Adi and Ami emptied their packs and minds, there was little room for anyone or anything else.

"The reliefs on the walls are well-maintained and detailed, likely etched with a sort of chiseling tool specifically for the purpose of art and sculpting." Adi's voice was echoed by the scratching of her pen through one of her many journals. "These are likely of the similar fighting stances and the animals they originate from, as depicted by the crane standing with a single perch and the monkey hanging from a lower limb."

"Postures between fighting stances of the now-recognized as 'Shaolin Arts' and the relief carvings are within a 90% confidence area." The snapping sound of a camera came from within, accompanied by a flash. Ami's tools were working hard in there, through her screen, camera, and self-made computer. "No discernable secrets to the martial art forms shown, likely purely for observation and recognition, but still well-detailed and maintained. Given limestone used for the carvings, a carbide steel chisel was most likely used."

Jack and the rest of the girls soon tuned out the enigmatic pair as they spoke on. There would be little rest in that room tonight. Aphi opened the next door over to the monk, Ahi and Aki following her inside. A whistle came from the doorway, one that Jack and Ashi recognized.

"Nice," he heard the most relaxed of the siblings approve. "I get what's got Ami and Adi so riled up at least. Definitely nicer than most rooms we get. Beds for sure are." Jack turned a curious eye to the monk at the words. The mats he remembered that were common to the Shaolin were not sized for comfort, but space.

"Good view, too. Plenty to see out the window even with all that dumb ash out there. Maybe I can spot a deer we can clean for breakfast tomorrow." Jack quirked his brows now. Those were not the living spaces of the Shaolin he was used to. Not the monks who favored the life of nature to the seclusion of a single room.

Wide windows, expansive architecture, detailed reliefs, and large beds were not this.

"We do not have guests often," the monk responded to Jack's look. "However, the few moments that we do, we try to ensure we give them the same peace that we have secured in this forgotten land. More than any other who has passed through here, you and your family are do this much." He bowed with his words, lowly and deeply.

"I thank you for the comfort and hospitality," Jack returned as he mimicked the bow. Ashi, just beside him, did the same. "It is more than necessary and worth our thanks."

"Thanks are unnecessary when it comes to you, samurai. No other has done so much for our ways and the preservation of the world as you." The log beard Jack wore kept his lips from showing, hid the smile of his disappointment. "Any peace of mind we may offer through this holy temple is yours to have. Your acts and deeds have earned this much." Perhaps, but there was still far more that he had not done.

"There is still much to do." It took Jack a moment to realize he was not the one who spoke. Ashi was standing again, her posture stiff but respectful, the tallest she reached just beneath Jack's chest line. "We humbly accept your hospitality and thanks, but we are not done yet. I am not sure when we will be." And now he blinked as he gazed down at the young girl, the self-described eldest of the seven.

Jack could recall many moments she took charge and took higher responsibilities than the others. He could name far fewer moments her words mimicked and then proceeded past his thoughts. If it was her growing, he missed the planting of the seed.

"So long as nature persists, nothing is truly finished." The monk returned the wise words, words Jack recognized from previous Grand Master Cheng. "You sound as determined as your father, young one. I am glad to see that you carry the same strength as him." Jack spoke no words to the falsehood of his strength. It was not his place to correct the perception of the Shaolin.

Instead, he watched the 'eldest' of the seven sisters blush as the words. She was fortunate, very much so, that neither Ami or Aki was there to witness it. If they had been, she would have been tormented by them for weeks to come.

"I-I thank you once more. And… And I thank you for taking care of us, again." The smiled returned to Jack's unseen lips, one the monk across form him bore as well.

The innocence of children was a calming thing, especially in a future full of darkness and want.

"Would you like to see the room now?" Jack asked Ashi, earning a grateful look from the girl. "I will leave it to you and Avi to decide which beds to claim as your own." Both girls were often the last to pick their places of rest. It would be fun to see who would decide first among them.

Ashi looked behind herself at the words, then past Jack. Her roaming eyes caused a bout of concern. Something was wrong.

When he turned to the monk, he saw the familiar man looking past them as well, before dipping his head into either door that the rest of the girls had entered. He emerged each time with a look of unease. The concern in Jack rose.

"Father," Ashi spoke to him now. "Where is Avi?"

A cold dread washed over Jack at the question.

---

She saw the Angel again, another glimpse of gray along the gold and green of the temple. It was enough to tell Avi she was following the right path. Enough o give her both confidence, and concern.

The trail of ash followed the angel, littering the ground with the same uneven line. The girl walked beside it, following it with her feet as the eyes traced the misty form of the Angel, looking for it whenever it darted out of her vision, hoping it would pop back in once again. It was either luck or a lack thereof that kept her from being noticed by the monks in the temple.

She'd seen none of them as she continued to walk the halls of the holy place, walking through the same clean halls with the same reliefs, looking for an angel that hug to them like moss, drifting over them like mist. It left the long-haired girl wide eyed and tip-toing through the stone building, nervous to be found by either the men who lived in it or the Angel that haunted it.

She didn't stop, however. Stopping would be admitting defeat, and her father would be blamed for it. If she found a way to help her father by finding the Angel, discovering a way to either exorcise or give peace to it, then perhaps her father would not be burdened with the memories of his past, not anymore than he already was.

But as Avi continued to walk through the stone halls, the halls began to change.

Color left halls in a slow drip. Each step she took forward was marked by a paler and paler shade of gold and green along the walls. The vibrant colors that gave the temple life were being bled for a calm and unfitting gray, the same gray as the Angel she followed and ash she trailed.

The reliefs that were drawn across the walls grew odder in detail, losing the history that Adi marveled at and starting to appear more in line with the aged images that they were. Dulled lines instead of sharp edges, pale stone instead of painted marble, missing features over detailed figures. All of it was happening as she continued to move forward step by step.

That all spoke little of the ash that she followed as well. The trail that it had begun as, a thin marker like string, began to widen and expand along the stone floor, covering it more and more. The tiles no longer appeared to have cracks, but appeared to instead be covered in the ash, as if they had been uncleaned for the decades between her father's last visit and now. So different, so harsh a contrast, to the vibrant and beautiful temple she and her sisters were welcomed into before.

She wanted to believe that it was the same, but looking ahead of her, Avi could not see how it was. The hallway was no longer clean. It was strewn with ash.

Ash that lined the ground, that painted the walls, that dusted the ceiling. Ash that fell like snowflakes in the winter, soundlessly drifting from the high ceiling to the stone floor. It was no longer a blanket let alone a string. It was a mist that covered everything, the same mist that the Angel appeared to be made of. A soundless fall of pale flecks of ash that stole the color of the temple in the same time it took the sound and life.

The absence of it all left Avi looking down at herself, breathing heavily to hear her own voice. It sounded muted in comparison to before, her footsteps muffled by the ash she stepped through. Even her clothes, garbed darkly like her father's but stitched to better match her lithe figure, looked slacked and unmetered as the ash began to coat her. It was like the snow from the mountains, but without the biting cold or ripping wind.

It was comforting and disturbing, inviting and repulsive. It was a balance that Avi didn't understand. She'd been through the ash of villages before with her father and sisters, seeing the ruin that was left by the marauders, thieves, bandits, and assassins of Aku. But this was… different. Different in a way she didn't know how.

But she kept walking, because her father would retreat. She wouldn't retreat back to her father until she had knowledge that could help him. She didn't want him to come here and be frozen again, like Tam Sung had done to him.

Avi didn't want to see her father terrified again. It was okay if she was scared for a moment to keep him from being the same.

The Angel was doing something to the temple, ghosting around it for some reason. There was reason for everything and Avi just had to find it. She knew there was a reason that gold went so well with green in nature, while you hid the seams of a stitching, why darker clothes were preferable for colder environments and why thinner fabrics were best for forests and deserts. There had to be a reason why the Angel was here, and she could find it.

She continued to search through the halls she walked, foot falls slipping from taps against the tile to muffled crunching of ash to eventual nothing, dampened so well by the thick ash that coated the ground. The ground and all else, still falling from the ceiling like silent snow in a calm winter.

The reliefs of the walls were hidden from her, the high ceilings were nearly just as unviewable. It was all so hidden, so secretive, and she didn't know why. Avi ould only guess if the hall she walked in now was always this strewn with ash, or if the Angel had coated the halls upon her following its form. She didn't know. She only knew that she or her sisters had not been down this way before, and the monks and her father spoke nothing of it if they had.

It felt abandoned though, left for nature to reclaim within the temple. There was no greenery to show that the forest was taking it, no light to show that it was trying to break to the outside, nothing but pale ash on paler stone. It was difficult to think of the area as anything but untreaded now.

But Avi stopped, breath soft and low, as her eyes bore something down a new hall, down the path of ash the Angel had created. Specifically, the end of the hallway, or what path she was taking at least.

A hallway that ended at a mighty wooden door.

A door so pale it looked as if it were charred from a fire and left untouched, so fragile despite its towering size that a single flick of its wood would send it tumbling down. If it was to be balanced with something, it would have come closest to the grand door to the Grand Master's room. Where the doorway to the old man of her father was mighty, tall, and needed two men to push, this door looked akin to fall over by a stray wisp of wind.

Avi stared at it, walking closer with muted footsteps and quiet breathing, still fearful that a wrong breath of air, a sneeze so much as that, would blow the door over. And she so nearly let one out.

Right when she saw the misty form of the Ash Angel descend from the high darkened ceiling, drifting through the door, and beyond sight. It left the long-haired daughter of the samurai to stare for a moment. Stare, wonder, and steel herself like her father's lance.

Her hand touched the pale wood, ignoring the give it had as she lightly pushed it forward. It made as much noise as the footsteps she made walking down the hall. It opened to a room that was truly like that of Grand Master Tam Sung's, so similar, and so different. Like a tree that grew on the bank of a river. One side rooted well and strong in the earth while the other had roots drinking from the river without a speck of dirt for support.

This room was the river and Tam Sung's was the earth. Large holes extended from the room to the outside forest, a forest that hid its greenery and light beneath the shade of the ash that fell and coated its leaves. The tiles and stone slabs that made the room were painted with the specks, making it appear more akin to be gray than gold, green or even a modest tan. It was a mesmerizing sight, but it paled like its color in comparison to what was in it.

The Ash Angel of question, floating like its namesake in the center of the room.

An Angel that was misty in form, appearing to conjure itself from nothing as the edges of its hazy figure drifted into ash on the floor. Wisps of smoke that extended from its rear, rising like wings into the ceiling, others falling lower than she believed the floor reached, pooling like ancient robes of the figures Adi called old goddesses.

Her color, for it had to be a her now, matched that of the ash that it spread, but separated by the nothingness between. It was enough to make her look present without being so, a part of her here and somewhere else, but plenty enough to see the contours, lines, and details of her face. It was the face that decided what colors would be worn best as well as fabrics to carry, for they all brought out the finer features, a balance as it was.

And staring at the Angel, Avi could only say she was beautiful as the golden stone of the temple. The ashy color made her seem meek and approachable, the vacant eyes made her intimidating and strong, and the little else that could be seen painted a figure that had patience for time and those who were bound to it.

Avi stared at it, standing in the doorway, unsure if she should now continue to approach or run for her father. She knew where the ghost was, as she was sworn to find, but now had not he answer of how to leave, if she could leave.

But the Angle was not speaking or making a noise, giving no indication that it wanted to harm her. Maybe it didn't. It had led her here, with the Ash on the floor and her ghost like form. Maybe it wasn't something else. It was impossible for Avi to know, not so long as the angel remained quiet as the death it appeared to be.

"Who… are you?" Avi finally asked, her hand grasping the frame of the door she had opened. She could leave if she needed to, wanted to. She only realized that she wanted to leave that she had asked the wrong question. Adi would have scolded her. "What are… you?"

And the Angel still didn't speak.

Instead, she moved.

Soundlessly as the way she flew in here and the time Avi had followed her, the Ash Angel floated towards her. Her body seized, sure that running would be the best option. She was always told to run first when something she didn't know was coming at her, because that was always safe. But right now, that didn't seem right. Maybe it was because she followed the Angel here, maybe it was because it was smiling at her. Avi didn't know. IT just felt that if she ran, it would have been wrong.

So she did nothing, nothing as the Angel fell down until her misty form was all Avi could see. Her partial face, partial wings, partial robe, and all the ash that fell beneath. It felt like she was being coated in it, but still, she never felt the cold chill. In fact, it was warm.

It was warm, and it was in that warmth that she saw a seed growing from fertile soil, a stem slowly climbing out of the earth and reaching for the sky. A stem that bloomed into a flower, a vibrant and beautiful gold, and hung itself towards the sky. She watched the flower as time spun by it, twisting it until it was wilted, until it was falling, and then, until it was dust on the earth once more. Then she saw it bloom again.

Avi chocked on nothing.

She fell forward, through the Angel and into the room of Ash. She crawled forward across the ash laden floor, stopping only when her vision was staring at the partial light that fell from the high ceiling, keeping her sane and knowing that she was nearly outside. It was that sanity that she needed. Because she didn't know what just happened.

"What was that?" She asked, unsure if it was for herself or the Angel. "What… what did you?"

And the Angel didn't respond.

She only moved again, twisting in the doorway and stopping still some distance from Avi. Maybe out of respect, maybe patience, but she didn't approach. Avi only distantly noted that the ash colored door was shut, but she was still staring at the pale misty form of the Angel, trying to figure out what she had seen, what she had done.

"Was that… you?" She asked, knowing the answer. "Were you a flower once? N-No, no, that's a bad question. Adi wouldn't ask that." What would Adi ask? She wouldn't understand anything Ami wanted to ask. "Was that how… you… speak?" That felt like a right question.

And Avi watched the ash billow and fall from the Angel's form as she nodded her misty head, swaying slowly enough to track, almost lost in the folds of her robes and wings, all of the same hazy color and shape. It made the long-haired girl swallow again.

That was how she spoke, but then what was she? A flower blooming, growing… dying. Dying like ash.

"Are you death?" She asked, terrified at the prospect, at the idea of staring at death itself.

Her father had shown her sisters and her how Aku was evil incarnate, spirits of the forest, desert, and sky. It made sense that death existed. It didn't make sense that it would be here.

But the Angel swayed again, opposite as it had before. That was a no then, maybe, it matched at least. It matched like watching a caterpillar crawl slowly across the fresh branch of a maple wood tree, stopping at the tip of a twig. It fell of the side, clinging to the edge of the bark with tiny feet and curling itself like a bat. A hard chitinous shell formed around it, stopping only when the caterpillar seemingly ate itself whole. Then the cocoon broke free, letting out a magnificent butterfly, large and free, colored like a rainbow, and flying freer than any other animal or insect in nature, leaving behind its coccon to turn to ash on the ground.

Avi let out another deep breath of air, collecting herself. Another vision of something weird. Something that didn't seem like a plant growing and dying. It was a caterpillar going through metromorpho… metaorfo… going through a change.

"Change…" she spoke the word, testing it. "You are… change?" And the Angel nodded again.

Avi didn't understand. How was ash related to change? Why was change here? What did it mean? Was she being tricked? She had been before, her and Aki. Was this… similar? It didn't feel the same.

"Why change?" Avi asked carefully. She couldn't think like Adi now. She had to think like Ashi, think like her father. "Why is change made of… ash? Why coat this beautiful temple in it why… why surround the monks with the symbol of the end?" Because that was what ash was, the end of something. It wasn't hard to figure that out.

When something became ash, there was nothing that followed. New things may take its place, but something burned did not return as something greater. It was left to help something else. Ash was nothing but the sign that change was fast approaching, the sign that things were ending or ended, and it was time for something else to take its place. Just as was true for a forest fire strewn with ash, as far as Avi's eyes could see.

An ash laden floor that was surrounded by trees far off and away from the charred plain of land, a land that was a pale alabaster next to the vibrant greenery and blue sky. An ashen land that had day and night pass over it in the moment of seconds, and was followed by new growth that peeked out from the ashy ground towards the sky again.

Ash was pushed away as shrubbery and greenery grew up and out, turning the simple plain into a new home for new growth, trees that aimed to reach for the sky, providing cover for the many animals of the forest that ran underneath the new high canopy, stomping along the ash and leaves on the ground, and coated the forest with fresh new life. Life that would not have been here without the ash to show it was time ot grow.

And Avi watched a stroke of lightning stoke a flame, turning a tree that had fallen into a raging pyre, a fire that swept through the forest and consuming the life that had grown. She watched it turn the vibrant green and deep browns into pale ash, floating towards the ground, chocking out the fire that had birthed it. Then when it was all done, only ash remained again. Until more greenery grew.

"Ash exists to show nature it is time?" Avi questioned herself with the words. She checked herself when she saw the Angel approach her again, falling until her pale almost luminescent form hovered in front of her. "You are not change but… the sign that things must change." And that made the most sense.

The Angel grinned as she rose once more, an action that Avi nearly missed were it not for her closeness in the moment of, a moment that had passed. In the next, the Angel showed her magnificence either intentionally or not.

Her body grew until it blanketed the ceiling with her mist, spreading out about the room and letting the ash swirl at her feet. Avi didn't move as it happened, but she watched with the idea of telling Adi and Ami all about later.

She watched as the dust spun about the room like a whirlpool, as it crashed soundlessly against the walls, as it rose up to the ceiling like waves, then fell back down as if a snowbank had been destabilized. All of it happened as she stood in the center of the room, watching as the flecks of ashen snow moved around her.

When it stopped, the Angel was in front of her again, floating and hovering above her, showing the greatness of incorporeal form. It took Avi a full moment to realize what had happened, and why she had witnessed it.

The Ash Angel had sent things back to the way they were in the room, back to the way they were before they entered and before they spoke. She wanted to be asked more questions, because she couldn't explain unless one was asked. Because no monk had approached her, because the Grand Master had sought her out as an enemy or foe, not as an ally or spirit, she was never asked a question.

So she would ask the questions.

"Why are you… leaving dust in the temple?" Avi shook her head with the question. "No, no, that's not right. I know why." Because there had to be change, because ash was the signal for change. "Why do you… why do the Shaolin Monks need to change?" That was the right question.

Because the monks were peaceful, respectful, and valued their solitude. Enough that they made a temple deep within the woods, far beyond the normal eyes of Aku or man. So deep in the woods that looking about the length of the forest from end to end, from the youngest sapling on the border of one country to the youngest across the expanse of the canopy, they were not even a speck to be seen or considered.

They had endured in the woods for some time. Time enough that Avi watched trees grow around the temple, grow into mighty giants that towered high above the saplings beneath them, falling over as their aging was done, rotting across the ground, and burning into ash. Ash that sown the ground for new saplings to come, saplings that grew into trees all the same.

But the temple endured.

She watched as the elements tore through the forest around them, running amok and showing the difference in power between even the forest giants of earth against the gods that ruled the sky. Snow that fell from the highest clouds collecting on the earth, weighting from like dust to heavy anvils on the impossibly tall structure of the trees. Whipping winds turning the soft fall of rain into a dash of daggers against their bark. The hottest heats of the summer turning the river beds into husks of dirt and sand as they changed the very forest itself.

But the temple endured.

The temple that had seen marauders and bandits through the forest. The same bandits that Avi watched raze towns, burn villages, and skewer across expanses of land for things to grab and steal. She watched through her mind as the villages of plains, lakes, and even the forests were not safe from them. Yet, when they reached the temple, they had no luck or things to find.

The monks used the many forms that they had learned, the same forms that Avi had learned, and defended their home from the evil men. They broke bones, they destroyed guns, they ruined weaponry, but they did not kill. And in the end, the bandits fled.

She watched the towns that were struck by the bandits regrow like saplings in the woods. Larger towers rising from the burned buildings. Metal barricades being constructed around the edges of lakes, homes rising into the high canopy of the tallest trees. Defenses learned from failure before.

But the temple endured.

"Because they don't change." Avi spoke the words as she watched the Angel, watching the pale creature nod at her. "They don't change and… and it makes them too different from everything else." She realized that without an image from the Ash Angel.

They were different from the rest of the forest, perhaps the world, because they did not change with it. They did not adapt to it. They fought the forest, they fought the world, all to keep themselves the same. They had not endured the change, they resisted it. They had not overcome a change, they had fought against it.

Change was necessary to keep things beautiful, operable. To never change one's clothes meant dirtying them until they were unusable husks and wisps of fabric, worthless things. To never change the land meant that it would never produce anything different, never offer the fullness of life. Change was what was necessary to make life beautiful.

The monks either did not know that or fought against it.

"It's not their fault," she spoke quickly, shaking her head. The Angel twisted her head at her. The softest twists of her foggy form being the sign, the emptiness that was her eyes screwing together. "They… they resist because the world is dark. The things out there, changing to be like them… it isn't good. Things that my father said once were peaceful and docile now… now attack recklessly, strike out meanly. It's dangerous." And to lose what you were was also dangerous.

Dangerous to lose what you were like the man of green that stood on a hill of blades, riding a mount that yearned to charge to met death herself. A man that wore armor like her father, but sat with the figure of Aku, glaring an omen through his emerald eyes, provoking the cowards to run and the meek to submit.

Her father was being chased by the man. For months. For years. For decades.

Chased across endless plains, across expansive seas, across endless skies, across time itself.

All the way to the Red Mountains of ominous ends.

There… he found her. Her and her sisters, huddled in the dark and begging for help. And he extended a hand to them, one that Avi didn't need to see to know she accepted. The one action she took that she felt no remorse, no guilt, no unease for committing to. The first act of her life that she didn't regret.

And it was the first in decades her father hadn't either.

The omen no longer followed him. The man of green and death no longer pursued him. Jack did not see him, and that was why the girls hadn't found him. He was too busy focusing on them. Too busy for him.

Braiding their hair, making their meals, preparing beds, meaning clothes, teaching reading, instructing martial arts, guiding home, leading to the next village, to the next town, to the next day. It was all for them, and it was all something he had never done before.

Because their father, her father, had changed for him.

Her father was happy.

"He's… happy." Avi's breath shook with the simple statement. She didn't know why. She had no idea why she had the quiver to her voice. She didn't think there was a reason.

She never thought her father was unhappy. Never. Upset, disappointed, but never unhappy. He smiled at them, laughed at their jokes, their quips, their lives. He tucked them in at night, told them stories to help them sleep, and sometimes slept with them when the nights were loud or winds cold. He was always with them.

Avi felt a warm mist wash over her face. She blinked, realizing only when she did how hazy her vision had become. She was crying. She was crying and the Ash angel had a mist-formed hand on the side of her face, reaching from the top of her head to the dip of her chin. It wrapped around her head, the fog of her form pushing at the long locks of her hair. Avi didn't shirk away from the touch.

It was warm and comforting. Like her father's.

"He… l-loves us-s." Her chest shook at the words. She truly had no idea why now. She always knew he had. "He's… he suffered so much bef-f-fore us and… a-and he still helped us. H-He… I-If he d-d-din't he… we…" Nothing would have changed.

He changed for them. And the change made them all happy.

The Ash Angel smiled down at Avi, her face as clear as she believed it ever would be.

The kindness in the hollow eyes was breathtaking.

BAM!

The Angel was blown away in a puff of smoke.

Avi was left coughing with tears on her cheeks as the ghostly form of the Angel blew past her and into scattered mist. She dissipated beyond her sight, leaving behind the ash of the room and the long-haired child she had 'spoken' to. Her hand reached for her throat, wiping away the tears and ash that had been blown there.

"Avi! Avi!" She heard her name call. She couldn't see who said it, not with a hazy vision and ash in her eyes. Her hands rubbed at them, her tears washing away the pale flecks of soft snow. "Avi! Please say something!"

She blinked twice, clearing her gaze, and stared at the man who had his hands on his shoulders. Terror was clear in his eyes. Avi smiled as she saw it.

"Daddy," she spoke simply, staring at the man who had raised her. "I'm… I'm okay." He was terrified, and she knew why. She had left and not told him. That was not what she did, and he didn't know what to do.

So she fell into his arms, resting her head on his chest. His arms wrapped around her much smaller form a moment later, holding her close. She relished the embrace.

The Ash Angel was warm. Her touch was caring. Her images were enlightening and message clear.

The embrace of her father, holding her tightly as he cooed her name, was the soft lullaby she could listen to for days.

She heard others in the room around her, other foots beating at the ash that treaded the room, kicking it up as they searched for the Angel she was speaking to. They wouldn't find her. They didn't know where to look, or how to look. It was all the same to them.

But if they didn't know, then she could tell them.

"Father," Avi spoke again, hesitantly pushing against his chest, leaning away from him. He let her, but kept his grip firm on her shoulders. "I spoke to her, the angel. I talked to her here." His eyes, already wide with fright, narrowed in focus.

"What did she say?" He asked without hesitation. "Did she need something? Did she try and trick you to do something?" with their history of spirits, the concern was not unfounded. But Avi shook her head.

"No, not she didn't." She doubted the Ash Angel could. Change through violence didn't appear to be something she could do. "But… I-I need to talk to the Grand Master. I need to talk to Tam."

"The Grand Master? Why?" Avi turned to see the monk she had dueled, and lost to, in the woods, speaking. A bowstaff was in his hands, his eyes hard and focused. His voice was little different. "Did she make threats to him? If so, we can prepare to exorcise the temple and be rid of her if necessary."

"No, nothing like that happened." That was never the Angel's intent. "She was trying to convey a message, j-just something for him to understand and… And I understand it now."

The monk looked to her father, and she joined him. Her father looked down at her, eyes hard and grip tight. She didn't feel anything but comfort and ease in his grip.

And his nod was assurance that she would speak to Tam Sung as swiftly as he had come.

---

"… and that it what I saw. She is not an omen of death or something ending. She is change, she is the signal of new life." Jack listened to Avi speak, her words clear and succinct. It was obvious to him that she was choosing her words carefully. As she finished, Jack listened on. He listened to the air, where the voice of his old friend rang from.

For a time, there was nothing. Nothing but the hum of the Grand Master in deep thought, even as his body remained impassive upon the floor, rooted by the vines and growth of nature. The monks beside him did much the same, heads bowed in concentration. They would not speak, not before the Grand Master, but it was against the Shaolin ways to not contemplate what was before you. Instincts were apart of nature and deserved to be apart of thoughts.

"This Ash Angel is a spirit of change." There was no question, only the affirmation of a fact. "A being that is not apart of nature, but an observer that watches over it. A silent watcher that follows the cycles without being a part of them. Is this correct to you, young Avi?" Jack looked down at the long hair of the girl, standing in front of her siblings.

"Y-Yes, it is." Her voice shook for a moment, but she held herself firm. He spoke nothing, as it would be an insult to her growing strength.

"Change… the thing I have long witnessed and believed to be apart of. Never did I think that I was insulting a greater spirit with my longevity." Tam Sung hummed as she spoke, the air shaking as he did. Jack listened to the regret in his voice, the sorrow. It was not miserable, not decrepit. It was the same sadness he felt when he had failed to see the better choice of two options, and witness the future of his actions.

It was living with the knowledge that the future he was in was not the best that could have been. And because of that, the Grand Master Tam Sung had sorrow in his soundless voice.

"I knew we had endured for some time. I knew that we fought against the nature of man, nature, and the worlds beyond to keep our temple alive. But never did I think that I was insulting the very spirits of nature by doing so." The sigh that left his mind rolled across the room, bringing forth a sorrow breath of air from Jack's own lungs.

His hand gripped Avi's shoulder a bit tighter, having never left since he took her from the ashen room. Her hand rose to rest atop his, gripping his fingers tightly. He spoke no complaint, and let her hold him as she needed.

"I wish to say that I need to think upon your words, young Avi. To meditate on what you have said, for the news you have brought and testimony you have delivered are the very words that can shake the foundation of a kingdom." The girl shook beneath Jack's grip. He did not let go of her, and neither did she for him.

"Avi's correct though." All eyes turned to Ami as she spoke. Her goggles were still tight around her eyes. "After reviewing the ash deposits on file and going through the room that Avi was in, I've determined that next to a correlation with the foundation of the temple itself, the ash tends to congregate to areas that have a more progressed half-life than other areas."

"The older things are being dusted more than the new," Ashi spoke in turn, explaining the girl's words. "The oldest sections of the temple, and the oldest statues outside, are the ones that Angel is marking."

"I understand," Tam spoke back. "The need to remind me that they have endured longer than the giants of the woods, and perhaps even civilizations older. Endured when the rest of the world changed. Clung to the last bit of light in the past, rather than fall into the darkness of this future." Jack swallowed on nothing. He could feel the terror in the words, threading through and becoming one with the Grand Master's voice.

"That's not it!" Avi yelled out.

Jack blinked down at her, the girl having leaned forward with the words. The monks did not react, aside from blinks at her.

"That's… she's not asking for that," Avi spoke on. "She doesn't want to see the light die. She doesn't want misery. She wants new life. She wants new birth. Darkness breeds only death and misery. Scattered ashes allow nothing to grow, only pact dirt can allow a sapling to become a mighty tree." Her words almost felt as if they weren't her own.

Jack looked to the other girls, nearly all of them reacting the same as he. Aki was blinking with a hand scratching her messed hair, Adi writing the words like scripture, and even Ami recording it on her tablet.

"The Ash Angel wants change, because there is only so far some things can grow. She wants change so that the new life can have the chance to grow. Without change, and without chance, then there is nothing left but a growing shadow." A shadow that loomed with a figure that would not fall, casting a dark gaze on all that bore it.

He could think of only one other thing that had not changed in this dark future, and Avi's words struck deeply within him.

"It is… as you say, young one," Tam returned with some thought. "The ever growing woods are culled by time and fall to rot. Rot that can degrade, that can return, or that can burn. All of which leads back to new growth. New growth that can see the sky, reach for it, and return when it has gone too far." His voice was melancholy, Jack realized. Reliving the sweetness of a memory that didn't follow his words. "Young Avi, I have a question for you. Would you be willing to answer it for me?"

The girl turned her head to Jack, looking up at him with curious eyes. Her matched the gaze, curious himself, before smiling in time. Perhaps it was the act of speaking, perhaps it was the answer she had, but something of what she wanted to do made her nervous.

He patted her head, rubbing it to spread her dark hair around her scalp. Her head bent to push it away, looking back up at him with a happy pout. It was all she ever needed to know he was there for her.

"Yes, I would Grand Master Tam Sung." Jack's hand left her shoulder as she bowed at the request.

"Then, Avi, would you believe me if I told you that I had thought the Angel not of death, not of change, but of misery?"

Jack's hands balled to fists as Avi stood up and straight. He heard the girls behind him muttering, Aki offering a rude curse, and Adi grabbing another journal. They didn't speak to argue, but they were obviously just as affected. Even the monks, aside their Grand Master, looked at him with aghast.

"Grand Master?" One of them questioned, biting his lips as he finished. A monk was not to speak while the Grand Master conversed, and it was something he remembered only after he spoke. But neither Jack, the other monk, or Tam Sung himself made motion or spoke words to reprimand him.

The words of the eldest of them present was far more demanding for attention.

"S-Sir?" Avi stuttered. Jack blamed nothing on her. "I… I don't understand." Neither did he.

"I would not expect you to. To understand would require years of knowledge, study, and meditation." There was nothing mocking in the words. They were statements of facts. "Those are the only activities I partake in any more. The only things my time will now allow me to do."

The room shifted as Tam spoke. Jack took uneasy breaths as his friend continued.

"I have instructed generations of the Shaolin, following the ways of my father and furthering our knowledge through nature. I have stared into the heart of chi and found what separates the mortal coil of the human flesh from the bark and timber of nature's shell. I have seen how the density of air shifts from the open sky to enclosed lungs. And I have seen how to use them all, by becoming one with them."

Adi's pen scratched and scrawled in her journal as she spoke. A dark part of Jack knew that book would have to be burned later. He could not speak now, not while Tam continued to do so.

"I believed when I undertook this passage of my chi, the evolution of my spirit, that I would be able to protect the ways of the defenders, those that fought against the yearning dark by embracing the constant light. As my father before me and his before him. I did just that, for centuries upon centuries I have done that."

It was the march of time that Tam never saw the end of. Time that Jack knew he was also marching towards and into, without the voice or reason to argue against it.

"I regret few of my actions and even fewer in my words. Everything I have done has led to the Shaolin lasting beyond anything else before the time of Aku's reign." And Jack knew the truth of the statement, beyond the immortals themselves. "However, it is time that has clung to me and burdened my tethered soul with a heavy weight. A weight… that I find myself thinking of more as the days go on."

Like a rider in green and armored for war, watching a man who has given up on life. Jack stiffened his back, unwilling to turn away. Even as a pair of hands grabbed his own, a grip that he matched with a hand around, he continued to watch the perpetually smiling man, and his aura that surrounded him.

"I am one with nature, and though that unity has brought me inner peace, it has also reminded me of the cycle I can now never escape." The teachings of Buddha. The eternal cycle that death releases. "The paths I have chosen are my own and I regret none of them. Yet, that freeness from regret does not welcome a bountiful amount of joy and relief. Instead, it welcomes misery."

Jack shut his eyes. He suspected, he guessed, but he loathed the answer. He could feel the aura of Tam dip as he released the omission, like a confession of guilt.

"Misery?" Avi asked. "Misery. Because… because you can no longer change." Jack opened his eyes and gazed at the back of the girl's head.

"Yes, Avi, because I cannot change." Jack looked back to Tam, as well as the rest of the room. "I believed the Angel that you spoke with to be one of misery, showering me in ash to remind me what I cannot do. Coating me in dust to tell me I will never be thus. Enjoying my misery in silence, as silence my body is doomed to stay within."

"I have no mouth and I must scream," Aki spoke from behind Jack. WHAP! He spoke no words of punishment as he heard Aphi or Ashi deliver a strong blow to the girl's side.

"You know that it's true." Avi was shaking her head with the words. "She… she was too kind for that." The air rumbled with a dry and soundless chuckle from Tam.

"Now child. Now I realize that. For the months before you came and the years before that, I believed that the spirits were drawn to my misery, the only darkness within these otherwise hallowed halls. And because of that, I wished to endure for the land, wallowing in my misery silently. Silent as the ash that the Angel spread." Jack knew now how foolish the notion was. He knew after four decades of attempting the same that it was an act of cowardice, not strength.

But the Grand Master knew now. His words were no longer important.

"Your words and actions, Avi of the Samurai's kin, have given me a relief that I thought impossible." Chuckling came from behind Jack. He wasn't sure if it was his own or not. He tended not to laugh when he felt proud, only grin. The twists of his beard were evidence enough he was doing just that. "It is a relief to know that we are not being tormented but asked. Not warned but requested. So rare is it for the spirits of nature to offer such warnings, and how fortunate we are to have you to tell us."

Avi shifted in place uneasily. Jack watched her, not sure what she was doing. He recognized the lack of confidence, the unease. But he didn't know why.

"Grand Master," her word rose and fell. "I… I trust you know what it is the Angel is asking. I-I hope you do because… it is what needs to change." Jack hadn't thought of that. He knew how foolish it was for him not to.

"I have, Avi, I have for some time now." The voice of tam held none of the despair he spoke of before. "And I must say, there is little I have to regret or argue against."

But, as he let his mind wander of the elements that needed change, of Tam's words, he realized with a cold dread what it was the Angel was asking. What it was that both his ward and old friend spoke of.

No.

"No," Jack spoke almost involuntarily. He didn't know the word had left him until the little ones looked at him in time with the monks. "No, Tam. Not this." He wasn't sure what to say.

"Father, I… I-I know. I do." Jack wasn't sure if she did. "I'm… the Angel was honest and… I think the Grand Master understands."

"Understand what?" Aki asked. Jack wished to hear the answer as well, though he already feared what he expected. "I'm missing something, I know it."

"Grand Master Tam Sung has, by the apparent warnings of the Ash Angle, has lived among the spirits of nature for too long." Adi spoke, pages rustling as she did so. Jack's eyes shut, clenching, hating the meaning to every letter uttered. "Thus, the spreading of the ashes is the signal of the higher spirit of nature that the Grand Master must move on from his post… and retire."

"Retire?" Not Aki, Ahi. She knew, she knew what it meant. She had used the same word often when they were hunting, often with Aki, making jokes about the word when they found possible game. There was no humor to her voice now. Jack could find none in the room. "Wait. You're not… n-no way. I know we just met us, not dad, us, but… but really?" His jaw was shaking.

"Yes, young Ahi," Tam confirmed without even the ghost regret upon his looming voice. "My journey is done. It is time for me to die."

"GRAND MASTER" "NO!" The monks shouted from their post, turning to the sitting man wrapped in vines, aura soft and welcoming. His words were the opposite in every way.

Jack found nothing in this moment to be inviting or warm. He was cold and jaded.

"Yes, my students. It is time for me to move on. Time to truly return to nature, and welcome the change it will bring." Change. The idea of it. Change from the perfect past to this present. Jack struggled to name any time change had helped him. "But do not fear. Do not regret. I am not departing at this moment, not so quickly as to leave you all blind and grabbing in the dark."

There was no comfort to be found in those words. The assurance that death was delayed, not stopped, hardly brought comfort to those who were destined to bear its weight.

"Both of you have served the Shaolin loyally for many years now. Years that like fathers before you and sons that will follow you. Just as I have done for my father, though I lack a child of my own to follow my steps." It was a goodbye. He was saying his goodbyes.

"This is not the end." Jack spoke, stepping forward past Avi. She felt him grab his arm, hold it tightly. He did not shirk her need to have comfort. He needed much the same. "Tam Sung, you were there when I began my journey. I… Do not force me to bear the end of it without you."

"That is a promise I cannot follow, Samurai Jack." His head fell at his the man's words. At the peace in his old friend's voice. "Know that I am aware this will not be a time of celebration, of jubilation or peace. It will hard, it will be sad, but, as the Ash Angel has shown Avi, it is necessary. The necessary part of life that I have long fought of, and foolishly so." That wasn't what he wanted to hear.

Jack didn't know what he wanted to hear.

His fists clenched, rag efilling him. Anger at himself, at the idea of Tam having to die, at the Angel that told him he had to, at all of it. Jack understood, he comprehended, and yet he didn't understand. It didn't make sense, because it wasn't fair. None of it was fair.

"Be at peace, Jack," Tam continued to speak through the halls of his room. "Be at peace as I am. It is in peace you find the answers that you need, not in your most desperate hour." And he was right again, the Grand Master, soon to be former, of the Shaolin.

The last of his eldest friends.

"Grand Master… who will lead us?" The monk to Jack's right questioned. "Are we to disband the temple? To return to our forgotten homes?"

"No, that is not the way of nature." Tam instructed. "Change, alter, but never truly revert. It is as the Angel warned, not foretold. We must change, not disappear." Jack wouldn't allow them to, even if it was to fight against nature itself.

He had fought gods before. Fighting for the life of his friend would be worth it. He swallowed harshly at the reminder that his friend, the last of his friends from beyond even the forty-four years, was soon to be no more.

He felt another one of the girls grab the back of his shirt, scrunching the material. He said nothing but some silent thanks for the comfort he knew Aphi must be attempting to provide.

"Someone new will lead you now. A new member of our ranks, a member with knowledge of the past, but wisdom of the present, to recognize the change needed for the future." Even with what were likely to be final commands, he spoke as wisely as he did when speaking of the portal of time. Jack's chest shook, and he would not acknowledge why.

The aura of the Grand Master shifted like a clog in a river. It left, focused, and moved about the room, humming as it did so. Jack watched it as he felt it, wary of his friends words.

"I humbly request that be you, Avi."

No, the answer was no.

"What?" Jack had no words to answer Avi's question. It was the same as his own.

"Wait, what?!" Aki yelled now, and none of her siblings moved to quell her. "You gotta be kidding me with that question. She helped you out and now you want her to replace you?"

No, the answer was no.

"That is a bold request to make," Ashi joined in. "Asking one of us to assist you because of your negligence." Her words were sharp, but Jack did not correct her. They were cruel, but he did not stem her. Not when he had the same thoughts.

"That's not happening." "No way." "Statistical impossibility." Adi, Ahi, and Ami added.

Jack said nothing still. He said nothing as he focused on the cross-legged posture of his old friend, form no different than it was forty-four years ago, but now bearing words he never thought he'd hear from the old friend of a time past. A request for aid was not impossible, a request to change was something he did not foresee. A selfish request for a replacement was unheard of.

No, the answer was no.

And because of that, Jack did not know what to do. He was left staring at Tam Sung as his Avi's sisters spoke for her. Differences between violent rejections and quiet snipes against the man. Insults, no doubt, but insults made against the idea of Avi taking the place of the man wrapped in nature and communing with beings beyond perception. Their anger was warranted.

"Peace, please," Tam spoke again, as the little ones raged on. "I ask again, peace. I am offering a request, as it is only as I can do."

"It is too far a request," Ashi spoke again, defending her 'little' sister. "Though there is little doubt Avi has assisted you with the matter of the Ash Angel, to ask of her to replace you as the head of the Shaolin, without knowing what that entails, is rather rude and inconsiderate of a wise man."

"Not to mention stupid," Aki added on. None of her siblings attacked her.

"It is why I am offering this to Avi as a question. Not a passing of a baton or changing of the throne. I offer as I have offered others who have walked into these hallowed walls and burdened themselves with the balance of nature and self." Jack knew well what it was. It was the same thing that Tam's father had offered him.

"You wish to mentor Avi." He spoke now. Later, Adi would tell him his voice was short and sharp. Notable enough to earn a quiver of her scratching pen.

No, the answer was no.

"I am, young Samurai," The Grand Master returned. "I offer because Avi has shown she knows how to earn the trust of spirits, how to find them when I cannot, and commune with them when I doubt. That alone if farther than any other in the order has come. As some may say, her finding of the Angel and holding of a conversation is an act of fate. And now, I act upon what I believe is due."

"Nothing more is due on her part." Jack felt the bite in his own throat as she spoke. "Avi has done far more than I ever would have requested of her, and has aided you beyond what I have done in the past. I am saddened that you are looking to move on from this world Tam, but even still I cannot think of why you would want Avi to be your replacement."

His hands were tight on her shoulder again, possessive as some may say. She was his ward, and a ward he had raised and taught for four years in a future darker than most nights in the past. She was still shy, timid, and in need of growth. It wasn't time to let go.

"I do not make this offer in haste. Nor do I offer it lightly." Tam spoke still. "Young Avi has earned my admiration and shown her wisdom in the short span she has been here. And correct me if I am wrong, but do you doubt her abilities?" Jack felt his mouth twist beneath the length of his beard.

What had overcome Tam to make him ask such questions? Where was the wiseman who spoke evenly and with inviting nature?

"She is still too young," Jack continued. "She is still needed among her sisters. I still need to help her." None of the little ones were ready to be on their own yet, let alone the meekest of the seven. "We have seen much of the world, but not yet nearly all. Too long has she spent isolated, alone, forgotten and… and I am not willing to let her go.

None of the girls spoke now. Avi had a grip tight on the hands that held her shoulders. Jack did not release her.

She had referred to herself as willing to wait for Aphi or Ashi to assist her in a fight, laughing at quips Aki would make at her expense, helping collect ingredients with Ahi when it came to preparing meals and food to have, suggesting parts to use in machinery for Ami, and pointing out details Adi may have missed her journal.

To guide the Shaolin for her further days with only years beneath him? No, the answer was no.

"Forgive me, Samurai Jack. It appears I once more did not consider you when I offered my words." Tam's words echoed through the room, almost an admission of his losing ground. It made sense, as Jack would not relent. "Perhaps instead of speaking around her, it would be best if Avi herself answered."

A slow controlling sigh left Jack's lips. That was okay. That was preferable. Avi would not leave her family so quickly. He knew her well, as did her sisters. Her answer was obvious without words.

The longest haired of the seven siblings took a shaking breath before she spoke, one that echoed through the room. Even the monks aside Tam watched her imploringly.

"Would I truly replace you? So… so quickly?" Jack looked down at the back of the girl's head.

That was not the response or even question he imagined she would speak.

"Not so quickly, no." Tam responded. "You are wise and clearly watch for what is beyond simple sight. But there is still much to learn about control of one's self before you rise in the ranks of the Shaolin ways. I offer mentorship for you to understand as I have had, to allow you a truss on which to grow upon."

That was what her family was for. That was what he was for. Jack did not voice it, because he knew Avi was well aware of it. That was why Jack had no fear when she slowly moved his hand off of her shoulder, when she turned midstance to look at him, and when she looked up at his eyes with her own small gaze. The steelness in it is what gave him pause.

That, and the frown she wore.

"Father," she spoke, hands folded above her chest. "I spoke… I spoke the Angel for a reason." She had already given the reason to the monks, and her duty was done. "There must have been a reason why we came here, why no one else could see her, why… why it was so easy to listen to her. And I do not believe it is because I just… care for balance."

"It is because you are wise and detailed, Avi," Jack returned to her. It was the common part of her, the part of her that everyone knew. "Only you could tell the difference between gray and alabaster as it clung to walls."

"Yeah, not to mention you're the only one who was actually scared of the thing, at first at least." Aki's words bordered insulting, but the compliment as clear.

"No, but… but there is a reason that she let me follow." She continued on. "She could have hidden herself like the seems of clothes or tried to hide herself like the unpleasant split end of fabric. Instead she guided me… led me to that room. She… the Angel was trying to tell me something and… I-I think this is it."

Jack felt his jaw open without noise, his gut falling with the motion. He stared at Avi, unsure of what words would be worth speaking.

He wasn't sure if words existed at all.

"I believe I have to stay."

---

Avi said nothing as she watched her sister's pack. There was nothing that she believed could be said.

She was standing aside the entrance to the ancient temple of the Shaolin, the ash of the Angel having already begun to wash away with wind and spite. It dampened what little noise was made until it was mute, no different than the hall, no different than the room. The noise was no different, but the situation was too different. It was a perfect imbalance.

She felt none of the peace she did when the Angel 'spoke' to her, none of the ease or assurances of images. What she saw now bade Avi only pain and disappointment, an ache she knew easily how to fix, but couldn't be sure it wouldn't lead to another. To fix the mistake she felt now meant foregoing what she believed was right, what she knew by simple observation was necessary. As necessary as extending the hem of a skirt or resetting the sole of a boot.

Her family was leaving, and she was joining them.

Ashi, Aki, Adi, Aphi, Ami, Ahi and her father were leaving, and she was staying behind.

She watched them prepare from the doorway of the temple, the stone already cleansing itself of the as the bore against it, washing away with the rising light of the new day. Bright and brilliant rays that shone across the forest, haloing the golden walls of the temple, and luminating the many monks that watched with her. The men of orange garbs that watched her father and sisters preparing to leave.

And Avi was with them. Not her family. Them.

Fists tightened along the length of her dress, loathing the circumstances already. A necessary change, a needed change, but something she still found no joy in. Her long hair blanketed her vision as her head dipped, hiding her sisters and father from her view. It left her staring only at her black locks, hiding from the world her shaking jaw and clenched eyes.

She could still too vividly recall the pain on her father's face. The shock, the horror, the disbelief. It made her flinch, it made her eyes tear. It… it wasn't a good memory to think on, not even a dozen hours passed since she bore witness to it. The silence that followed was all the more harrowing for it. Shouting would be easier, Avi knew it would. Because that was what she endured from her sisters.

In the presence of the Grand Master, flanked by the monks that had dueled them, her six sisters descended onto her with a rage she thought deserved only for those who wished for harm. Cruel insults from Aki, dismissing her compassion from Ashi, noting her inability to feel from Adi, called objective weakness from Ami, regret for having fed her from Ahi, and not even a flicker of concern from Aphi. Nothing but dismissal and insults from her siblings.

But she had endured, as she knew she had to.

Avi had endured the barbs and insults from her sisters as they were thrown at her with a force she had never seen before. She stood as tall as she could, shaking like a crooked tree, as their jeers went far beyond the usual mockery of fights and disagreements. The sincerity and honesty in their words, the anger and wrath they promised to her. It was enough to make her cry.

And her father did nothing, nothing but stand back and watch her with an empty gaze. It was the same gaze she had seen him stare up with in the Angel's memories. The look of pain, betrayal, disbelief that made her heart whimper and mind freeze. It was not what she wanted. Far from it. She wanted everyone to be happy, to be content. This kind of pain wasn't what she wanted.

Not the pain of her sisters ignoring her as they prepared to go, not the emptiness of their gazes not so much as glancing towards her, not this. They were her sisters, her blood, her family! She loved them! She loved all of them! And… and she didn't want them to leave like this.

But she didn't know what to do.

The Angel had shown her how the change was necessary, it has chosen her to help bring the change that was necessary, and it had even warned of the pain that was coming through the necessary change. But she still didn't like it, even as she made herself strong to endure it. It was all an act, all a lie, all just to make herself feel half as strong as her siblings, and a fraction of that as her father.

Nothing would have satisfied Avi more now than to run to her father and beg his forgiveness, hugging him tightly and promising never to say anything foolish again. She wanted to offer to cook meals with Ahi, help collect data with Adi, build things with Ami, train with Ashi and Aphi, or even let Aki scream to the sky. There was nothing Avi could think of now that would be more helpful, more liberating, than that.

But she could not think of how it could help. It would be fighting the change that the Ash Angel showed her was necessary. To fight that would lead to the same situation that Tam Sung had found himself in, one that brought words to her mind that she wished never to hear from anyone, let alone friends of her family.

Misery. Being trapped in misery and not speaking of it to others.

It was, ironically perhaps, little different than what she felt now.

Her breath was shallow beneath the curtain of her hair, unwilling to look up and risk her sisters seeing her with tears. She was unwilling to witness any more of their hateful glares, any more of the fire that burned against her. It hurt, and she hated that it hurt, she hated that she knew why it hurt. But more than anything else, she hated that she knew she had to do this.

It was necessary for everything to eventually change, or else nothing would be beautiful. Becoming something else, but not disappearing. Never that. Like the bow that she wore, always changing how she wore it or where it was, but also still there. Changing, but not gone. She raised her hand to her hair, content to at least brush it, remind herself that it was there.

But it wasn't.

Her eyes flew open beneath the curtain of her hair, staring down at the ground to see the ribbon she adored resting there. It had fallen without a sound and pushed away what little ash was there with the same breath. A long shaking breath was taken in through her throat at the sight.

The ribbon her father and family had given her, that she loved to wear, resting in the ash of the Ash Angel.

Of the Angel of Change.

Her knees bent slowly, arm extended and reaching for the long pink strand of fabric. It would be a non-issue to clean, to prepare, to retie. She had done it thousands of times before. But… it was different. It was different and she knew it. And Avi hated that even that was different.

She didn't want everything to change. Not all at once.

Her fingers flicked across the material, but stopped before she could grasp it. It was no longer necessary to. She saw a heavy hand grab it instead, picking up the fabric with hardly anything more than a small whoosh of air. She looked up, already knowing who she would see.

Avi was unsurprised when she stared into the stern face of her father.

He held her ribbon in his hand, a loose grip that almost let the fabric slip from his fingers. Her father was always tall, taller than her and only shorter than the most bestial of individuals, but Avi believed she was looking at a giant now more than just her father. The shadow of his hair, his beard, the furrow of his brow, it was all there. Too many times before did Avi ask if she could cut it with her sisters, even Ahi and Ashi agreeing with her. It made him look too dark, too mean, too cruel, when he was always so kind, gentle, and loving. He was her father, and he never did anything to make her believe otherwise.

It was why the unease she saw in his eyes made her heart pain all the more. She swallowed the butterflies flittering up her throat as she looked at him.

He knelt down in front of her, his clothing stretching with the movement, before he reached out to her. Avi didn't shy away. Not from him. She didn't move as his hands brushed around her hair, pulling back the long strands until they ducked behind her ears and out of sight. They fell like curtains along her shoulders, down the arc of her back.

Her father took the ribbon then, lifting it behind her head and out of sight. She felt him wrap it around her long strands, tying together a bundle and knot with the fabric and hair. His hands were rough and calloused from age and wear. He always treated her hair like a soft quilt when he helped to tie her bow. He was always so gentle with her. Now was no different.

With tears still in her eyes, breathing shaking like the fragile leaves of fall, Avi let her father tie her hair behind her head, using the oldest thing she had, the most precious thing she had. Her hair was fed through the ribbon, tied around it, and settled along the length of her neck with a single large bund. She recognized the shape of the hair by the feeling alone. Adi had helped her tie it once before.

A ponytail. A ponytail held in place by the pink ribbon. It left her face unhidden in front of her father. Her father and his focused gaze.

"You are the only one of your sisters with hair long enough for this," he spoke as if it were any other morning. "You're also the only one to care for her hair enough to make it easy to tie. No matter how much you tell your siblings to care for theirs, you are the only one to put such care into it." His hand moved from the back of her head to the top, stroking the long black strands, pulled back in a taunt fashion. Avi wasn't worried. Her father knew how to tie her hair.

He had spent years learning how, once it had grown longer than her sisters and she hated the idea of cutting it. She could change it so much, and her father was keen to help her with it. Even now, while she was so close to leaving him and her sisters, hurting him in a way she loathed to do, he still tied her hair gently, loving her as he did so.

"I remember when you first tried to tie your hair. You were afraid that it did not look right, and you were afraid to ask me or your sisters for help." Avi clenched her jaw for fear she would sob if it opened. "I assured you it was fine. Ami made you a mirror to help you, and Adi volunteered to carry it so you would not have to worry." And it had never so much as cracked so long as she had it.

And Ahi made sure to remind her to tie her hair up when she cooked, and Ashi and Aphi asked her how to tie it tight against her head when she sparred. And Aki would make jokes about how her hair couldn't be tied down. And Avi loved that she was the only one her father would spend time with to manage her hair. The only one of their family who needed it.

"Avi," her father spoke to her, his voice full of somber and pain. She took in a deep breath of air at the sound, keeping herself from collapsing into him. "Have I… Have I done something to neglect you?"

What?

"What?" Avi spoke the question through her mind, body and soul. "No! Father no!" Her hands reached out, jaw shaking with the words and eyes a mist as she gazed at him. His own did not change. "That is not true! Not at all!" She yelled to him.

She threw her arms out in denial, hateful more of the idea of scorning her father than their scorn brought upon her. She was the one harming them through her actions, she deserved their scorn. There was no way they could even imagine they had earned hers!

"I'm choosing to do this because I believe and feel it is just!" She put her hands to her chest, never taking her gaze off her father. "The Ash Angel showed me more than merely the monks and their endurance through the ages, their rigidity against change. She showed me the beauty of what came of change, of the magnificence that nature and man reaches through the changes brought by time, harm, or necessity!"

A caterpillar blooming to a butterfly, a coastal town building walls for prosperity, children of a red mountain walking across an endless plain.

"I do not want to leave you, you or Ashi or Aphi or Adi or Aki or Ami or Ahi! I've loved goring through mountains and forests, and across plains and deserts and seeing things that I never thought possible while we lived in the Red Mountain." Her father flinched, but she continued on. "It let me see just how beautiful the world was because of hos different it could be. And all that difference wasn't made that way. It all changed to be so different, to be so strong, lasting, and beautiful."

Her father kept watching her, and Avi continued on.

"I loved seeing how different races changed their clothes to match the region, watching them blend form and function, then watching how they changed with the tasks they did and never once looking anything less than appropriate. I loved having the chance to be able to try all those different things, to be able to knit my own clothes, to hem dresses, to make new articles of clothing for us all to wear, and I loved doing it because I love our family."

For the first time since her father approached, she looked beyond him, to her sisters awaiting with their belongings. They were all staring at them, all with wide eyes and mouths. Not one of them moving. They were listening, and Avi wasn't dong.

"And… And it's because of that love that I know I have to leave because… because I-I need to change now." Her father said nothing, not even a twitch of his beard. "The Ash Angel picked me, a-and she did that because she thinks I can be helpful here. She… She's watched so many other people endure and change and fix themselves with time. I believe, I know that she's making us stronger. She has to, because it's why nature is thought of to be everything but weak. Beautiful, eternal, vibrant, ever-lasting, even fragile, limited, and sometimes sparse, but never weak."

She swallowed a thick ball in her throat, determined to finish. Now wasn't the time to hesitate and lose herself. Her father was listening with her sisters.

"But the one thing that never changes is the love that's there. And… And I will never stop loving what we have." Have, not had. She wasn't losing anything. They were still her family. "I love everything we've done together and all the places we've gone. I love all the things you've taught me and how much you want me to grow. I love my sisters, all of you, and… and I hate the idea of having to leave you for any reason!"

Her tears were falling now, but she didn't stop them. They pattered to the soil beneath her

"But I know… I-I know that if I don't I'll... I'll regret this." Her entire neck shook as she swallowed heavily on the ball in her throat, the tears trying to turn themselves into a torrent. "You are right father that I have much to learn still, so much more. But I know that I will learn what I need here. I've… I've learned so much with you and my sisters, but i-if I'm going to grow anymore… I-I need to change. And that… that is here."

Her arm motioned towards the monks and temple, the garbed men watching pensively, yet passively, at the display. She wasn't sure if that was for the better or worse.

"It's nothing you have done, father, nothing you've done makes me want to do this, because I don't. I don't want to, but I need to." The difference was massive, like the choice between a rain jacket or bikini in the midst of a monsoon. "Grand Master Tam Sung invited me, the Ash Angel guided me and… and you inspired me."

"Me?" he questioned. He didn't understand.

"You, father," Avi confirmed, the new ponytail she sported bobbing with her head. Silence emanated around the forest as they spoke. "Because the Ash Angel showed me what happened to you, what you were before you found us." She saw the terror wash over his eyes. That was not acceptable. "But then how you changed! How you saved us and… and how helping us helped you. I watched you change and I'm glad I did."

Her sisters were talking, or perhaps the monks. Someone was, but Avi didn't care who. Her father was what mattered now. Like the spirit of nature, there was always a keystone, a driving part, that decided the course of the land around it. Be it the color of one's eyes or the species in the food chain, there was always something.

"I know you are angry with me and… a-and I deserve it. I deserve to be hated and despised and cursed by you and Adi and Ashi a-a-aand everyone." She didn't want to, but she deserved it.

"Avi!" Her father called, kneeling to her. She could hardly see him, water misting her eyes and hiding him from her. But she spoke on.

"But I d-don't want you to think I'm mad, because I'm not!" Her lips were shaking with her jaw. "I-I-I-I don't father, I… I-I-I-I-I-"

Her words were broken as her father swept down and embraced her.

It was an action he had done hundreds of times before, out of comfort, joy, and hello. An action that was once so foreign to her that it was unnerving, but now was the tropical bed of flowers that made her see the beauty of life she'd never thought she'd witness.

Her father's head, falling into the nape of her neck, damp with some liquid she loathed to name, was new. It left her staring forward in shock, at her sisters who looked at her with eyes rimmed with red lines and uneven stares.

"No, Avi. No." Her father muttered into her skin, his hold tightening around her. "I do not hate you. I am not angry at you. Never such a horrible thing." His head brushed against her neck, his beard tickling her skin as it dampened. "I'm not angry, I'm scared."

The word didn't make any sense with how her father used it. He wasn't one to be scared, by anything, ever.

"I've… I've watched over you and your sisters for so long. Watched you grow, and taught you, and helped you, and now… you are leaving. And I'm scared that come tomorrow when we awake I won't see you help clean camp or comment on our dress." Her hands clutched at the back of his garb as he spoke. Every word was being memorized by her like a mantra, a prayer. "I do not hate you Avi. Never such a horrible thing. Never." His beard scratched her as it shook left and right against her.

Avi buried her face into the crux of her father's neck, hating the actions that brought her to this moment, but loving the embrace as much as she had every time before it. Perhaps even the summation of every time till now.

"I love you Avi. I love you so much." And Avi felt what little resistance she had left break.

"I love you too, father." She buried herself against him.

Her sisters were quick to join.

They jumped around her, her siblings crushing her against her father as they tried to wrap around her back and their dad's, pushing them so close together that their hair bled together in a tangled mess. A mess made up of tears, whimpers, and apologies that she couldn't follow, not through the release of the angry twisting maw in her gut.

They loved her, and she loved them. They were angry at what was happening, not her. Never her. And she was wrong to think that they were. They loved her, and they would miss her. Avi knew it was true.

She knew it from the way she felt Aki sobbing into her back, Ami pulling off her goggles to get closer to her, Aphi rubbing a hand on her head, Ashi cooing soft condolences, Adi promising to send her letters every day, and Ahi saying she'd make a special salad dressing that would have them think of her every time they ate. Everything, at this moment was about her.

Because when they left, they'd be leaving her behind. They hated that, not her. It was the key difference she had not seen before.

It was what she couldn't realize until she was being swallowed in the misery of her sisters, being carried away by their love in the same moment. Her sisters, her father, their family.

She loved them all so much.

And it was why the goodbye was impossibly hard.

A goodbye that came when her father and sister's released her, when their tear-stained faces held uneasy smiles. A farewell that was uttered as they picked up their luggage, every sibling muttering a promise on wet breaths of when they'd see each other again. All of it leading to an exit through the ash washed woods.

Gone, until Avi remained with the monks and the temple.

She stared down the path, feeling the weight of her heart matched by the bun of her hair, a last gift of her father, and memento of her sisters. Her eyes shut as she focused on it, memorizing the feeling that was there.

It would change, change like she already had. Change, but not go away. Nothing truly leaves, only changing like the flow of time.

Her concentration was broken when a monk came up behind her, a heavy hand clapping on her shoulder. She looked up at him, loathing how she must have looked pitiful in sight. His eyes and gentle smile, however, showed only compassion and understanding. This was not common for them, she realized, but far from unnatural.

"You are a strong woman, Avi of the Samurai." The monk spoke to her kindly, smiling at her with the sincerity that she believed mimicked her father. "The Grand Master has chosen his replacement wisely, and I will be honored to help you grow." He bowed lowly to her, and Avi smiled in return. She copied his action, her face still wet from her family's departure.

"I owe it all to my father." Her reply came as she gazed at the ground.

She rose and turned back to the treaded forest ground, the path her family had taken out of the temple and out of sight. It was impossible to say where they would go next, to high mountains or deep caverns, but they would be together. They would be together because they were bound by the one force of nature that superseded all change. The force that brought the catalyst of change or the wall that prevented it.

It was that love that would keep her family together, even as she walked her new path.

"I owe my family everything."

---

Author's Note:

Bmm! Bmm! Bmm! … Another bites the dust!

But seriously, this was a fun/horrifying chapter to write. Its difficult to stick to the old aesthetic of Jack, long shots, low dialogue, and emotional story telling through actions when you're in the medium of story telling, which requires words over actions, as they are easier to convey.

This chapter is mostly focused to be a mix between "Jack and the Monks", obviously, and "Jack and the Mountain", not obviously. This is because I wanted to convey the emotional story telling that comes with having a great vision, and realizing the need for change to grow. Both the need to change, and recognizing that you have changed.

Jack hasn't yet, but this is the first big key to getting them there.

As for Avi, I thought it would be either her or Aphi would go with the monks, but I decided on her because Aphi would just be another member of their order, while Avi brings the new wisdom that Shaolin Monks so often seek with their younger members. Balance in mind to bring new ideas that do not destroy old ways.

Hopefully the Ash Angel part wasn't too on the nose either, as I wanted that to be in line with the heavy imagery of Jack, unlike the beginning. The difference between the solitude that was Samurai Jack and the change into him having a family to take care of.

But that's enough about the struggle for writing. I'm happy otherwise to report that following the completion of Magic Tale this update and Man of Focus the next, I'll move this and Unknown Legends into bi-weekly or monthly updates! Yeah!

Take care and please leave a review! I want to make sure everyone is understanding what's going on.