Chapter Two: Samurai Showdown


(Present Day)

The Spartans, the children of the rave, the archers and the woolies and many others were still warring with Aku's robotic forces outside around the surrounding region of the fortress on both land and in the air. There were some that got wounded from the battled. A number of them serious and others critically. Those wounded were brought to safety while their friends did everything they could to tend to their injuries and provide whatever medical aid they could.

But there was no turning back now, they knew that Aku would hunt them down and kill them for their actions. But Jack never all the possibility of death to ever stop him from defying Aku to his face. He fought and battled against Aku and gave them all reasons to stand up and fight back against Aku's malicious tyranny.

"We're several men down!" one of the Spartans stated, "And these cursed machines are bent on fighting and resisting us!"

"Then let me provide you all with some cover fire!" A hardened voice declared as he started firing rounds after rounds of laser ammunition from his gatling gun. The Spartan king and his men and allies looked to see a man in his early 50s having long brown hair in a braided ponytail dressed in black pants, boots and robes geared with samurai armor with a long naginata strapped to his back. He was destroying as many of the robots coming at them as he could with precision and zeal.

"Who are you?" the Spartan King inquired.

"Someone who owes Jack his life," the stranger replied, "I was a baby when I first might Jack and after my time with him, I achieved the spirit of the samurai which became the alias I'm known by."

"That being?" the Spartan King asked.

"Sakai," the stranger revealed as he continued ravaging the android forces against them.

"Well Sakai," the Spartan King stated, "An ally of Jack is an ally of the Spartans."

"I'll fight as many as I can while your soldiers help those who are hurt!" Sakai offered, "I already assisted the others!"

The Spartan King gave the order to his soldiers to help those who were wounded while the rest of his men stayed to provided protection and cover fire.


(Meanwhile)

Jack found himself back in Aku's fortress with Ashi standing next to him after he had gotten back his sword. Just as Ashi was about to open her mouth and release the time rings from out of her mouth to open a time portal…

"Ashi!" Jack called out, stopping her from doing what she was about to do, "I have a plan and a way to put your new powers to use."

"What plan is that?" Ashi asked.

"Can you shapeshift like Aku?" Jack asked.

"I'm certain I can," Ashi assured, "But why resort to that? I know of another way we can defeat Aku."

"If you're thinking about time traveling to the past then reject that idea!" Jack disagreed, "Time traveling to the past is not the answer! We must stand our ground and defeat Aku here, in the present!"

"But you always dreamed about going back to your time and defeating Aku then!" Ashi reminded, "You dreamed of reuniting with your family and people!"

"Yes, I did," Jack admitted, "It was always something I dreamed about for many years. But…realistically, it's something that can never truly be attained. I accept that now."

"Soooooo!" Aku bellowed with a triumphant tone, "You've finally come to accept that going back to the past is a dream that will never happened since I destroyed all of the time portals!"

"You destroying the time portals have nothing to do with why I'm choosing to accept to stay in the present and not go back to the past anymore!" Jack retorted.

"Why are you choosing now to give up your dreams of going back to your home timeline?" Ashi asked with a perplexed expression, "Aku isn't the only person who can open and use time portals."

"WHAT?!" Aku shouted when it dawned on him that Ashi had more than just his powers.

"I can open a time portal to the past and bring you back to your home timeline," Ashi said,

"Don't attempt it!" Jack objected, "Nothing good will come of it! There's nothing in the past to go back to!"

Now even Aku was interested in what he was hearing.

"Am I hearing this right!?" Aku asked loudly in disbelief, "The samurai doesn't want to go back to the past anymore, even when he's presented with the opportunity to do so? Even I find this hard to believe."

"Why the sudden change now in your life's goal now?" Ashi implored, "You spent years looking for a way to go back and now you don't want to anymore?! I don't understand your reasons for not wanting to return to the past anymore!"

"Because I was so blinded by my obsession with the past and only saw the bad in this present timeline," Jack explained, "I didn't look for the good that still exist. I only thought about myself and what I wanted, not what anyone else wanted. I completely failed to see the good that still exist here in this current timeline and drowned myself in my own anger, self-pity and loneliness."

Ashi remained quiet as she listened to Jack's words.

"All these brave and noble people around the world risked their lives to come here and fight against Aku and his empire to save me and help me bring about his downfall," Jack pointed out, "They joined forces because I inspired them to break the chains of Aku's tyranny. They helped me save you, Ashi.

"I cannot dishonor their valiant heroism and self-sacrifice by deserting them for another timeline and attempting to erase their lives in this timeline and everything they've done today."

"Changing the past by removing Aku from the equation to give them a better future wouldn't dishonor them!" Ashi insisted, "You'd be doing them a great service!"

"No Ashi, I would not!" Jack countered, "And even if I succeeded in going back to the past and killing Aku then, nothing would change! The future would not change! Aku would still exist in this timeline!"

Ashi was shocked on hearing this as she didn't expect to hear that from Jack. Even Aku was surprised by what he heard from Jack, especially after he heard Jack's last three sentences which served to intrigue him.

"Did I hear that right!?" Aku laughed loudly in disbelief, "The samurai doesn't want to go back to the past anymore because it wouldn't change the future that is Aku? I never thought in all my existence that I'd hear such beautiful words! I'm almost moved to tears!"

"Jack," Ashi replied, "We won't know that unless we try! Why are you giving up your dreams to go back to your timeline? To your family? To your people? Your friends!"

"Ashi, don't you understand?" Jack explained, "You're Aku's daughter! If I go back and kill Aku in the past before you're born, then you'll never exist!"

Ashi gasped as that revelation struck her. In all honestly, she never took what would happen to her into consideration.

"I…," Ashi realized, "I never thought about that. I'd be forever erase from history."

"But that's not all," Jack continued, grabbing Ashi's attention, "In the process, that will mean that going back to the past never happened because you never existed to send me back. That will mean that I never went back and killed Aku in the past, returning the original historical timeline back to when and where we are now. That's why you sending me back to the past will never work. It would be an unending cycle of failures."

Ashi couldn't believe how logic and reality completely nullified any reasons for her to go back in time to the past with Jack to kill Aku. No matter how much she tried to get around it, Ashi saw that in the end nothing would work and she would ultimately never exist as a result before the timeline rebooted and corrected itself.

"Even if I were to find and use another time portal that Aku didn't destroy," Jack explained, "The future still would not change. That's because the various circumstances that gave me the ability to find a time portal wouldn't exist, canceling any reasons for me to go back to the past and undoing my actions. That's why traveling to go back to the past will never work because the past can never be changed."

Ashi allowed everything Jack explained to her to sink in. Even Aku was intrigued by Jack's words.

"WOW!" Aku laughed, "Oh, the wasted years! All this time I feared what would happened if the samurai went back in time to kill me! I can't believe I carried that fear of your possible time traveling to the past for nothing! Had I known everything you explained here just now in advance, I'd have happily allowed to you suffer for eternity jumping through time portals again and again in your futile attempts to change the unchangeable past!"

"While the past is gone and unchangeable," Jack retorted to Aku, "That doesn't mean we can't stop you now in the present and shape the unwritten future, which has more possibilities and hopes than the past!"

"I already know the future and I can see that you won't be in it samurai!" Aku stated darkly.

"None of us here will let that happen Aku!" Ashi replied. Aku looked over at Ashi and retorted, "I don't have either the time or patience for a family dispute with you!"

"You don't have time at all because your time in this world is up!" Ashi stated in defiance.

"To think that I made the effort to acknowledge you as my daughter!" Aku spat in disgust, "Your defiance will not go unpunished!" Aku declared before his eyes flashed white.

"AAaaaaaaauuuuuhhhh!" Ashi screamed in pain as she felt like something was being suppressed within her body.

"ASHI!" Jack panicked as he went over to her. But he and the others saw what was happening to Ashi:

The black coating encasing Ashi's body disappeared off her, returning her body back to her original appearance.

"What the!?" Ashi said when she saw and realized what happened, "My powers are gone!"

"What!?" Jack exclaimed, "All of it!"

"Aku neutralized and deactivated my powers!" Ashi confirmed.

"Seriously!" Aku remarked, "Did you honestly think I'd let you continue to defy and attack me with my own powers? You're still half human! I awoke and activated your powers, and I can deactivate them just the same! Know your place!"

Aku turned his fingers in his right hand into blades and elongated them swiftly as he moved to stab and kill Ashi.

"ASHI!" Jack yelled while thinking and acting fast. Jack rushed over to Ashi and tackled her away just moment before Aku's elongated bladed fingers could get to her as they plunged to the ground. Getting back up fast, Jack helped Ashi to her feet as Aku was now in pursuit of them. The Scotsman blew into his bagpipe and fired energy waves at Aku, causing Aku to scream as he felt himself being pushed back and becoming distorted. While Aku was disoriented, the Scotsman said to Jack, "I'll hold him off as long as I can until you and Ashi rebound and come up with a way to defeat this menace!"

"Thank you!" Jack thanked as he and Ashi ran as fast as they could to a large opening in the wall leading to outside the fortress. Upon their arrival, Jack and Ashi saw the all-out war that was happening between Aku's forces and all of those who came to Jack's aid.

"I had no idea you inspired such a massive number of people in all the time you've been here!" Ashi marveled.

"All the more reason why I can't possibly desert them for my own self-centered dreams!" Jack stated before Aku's previous words replayed again in Jack's mind:

"I awoke and activated your powers, and I can deactivate them just the same!"

That's when Jack came to realized something…

"Ashi!" Jack said, "There's a chance that you can still tap into and reactivate your powers!"

Ashi turned to Jack in wonder and asked, "What? How would that even be possible? Aku took away my powers!"

"No," Jack pointed out, "Aku said that he awoke and activated your powers, and later deactivated them. He never said he stripped you of your powers. Your powers were always inside you Ashi. They're part of you; they were just lying dormant this entire time. You have to use your own mind and willpower to access them yourself, the same way I got back my sword when I first lost it."

"I understand," Ashi said.

"Jack!" a voice called out from behind them. Jack and Ashi looked behind them to see the Scotsman and his daughter hurrying out of the fortress on their bucks with the Scotsman leading them.

"Scotsman!" Jack called out, "Ashi and I need a way out of this fortress!"

"Not a problem lad!" the Scotsman said as he instructed his daughters to grabbed Jack and Ashi. The pair board two of bucks along with one of Scotsman's daughters. Using his bagpipe, the Scotsman made a pathway for family and friends to ride down on as they hurried out of the fortress. Soon they were on the ground, and made their way to the Spartan King and his man. Jack and Ashi dismounted from off the bucks and went over to the Spartans.

"Jack!" Sakai and the Spartans cheered happily seeing that their hero was freed and now in their company. Soon, the children of the rave, the archers and the woolies, everyone else regroup with the Scotsman and his daughters and all those already in their company. Soon the wrecked mecha appeared and made a hard landing, but fortunately no one got hurt in the process.

"Mission accomplished!" Scotsman exclaimed happily, "We rescued our comrade Jack from Aku's hold! Well done everyone!"

Sakai went over to Jack and greeted, "Jack, it's been many years since our first adventures together. But I can't believe you still look exactly the same you did fifty years ago! You haven't aged a day!"

"Do I know you?" Jack asked quizzically.

"I'm not surprised you don't remember me Jack," Sakai said, "I was only a baby when we first met and through my time with you, I achieved the spirit of the samurai."

Jack thought briefly for a moment until it finally hit him.

"You're that baby boy I returned to his family who gained those hardened warrior eyes of the samurai!" Jack realized, "I can't it's been this long! You've…aged."

"Don't rub it in just because you haven't aged a day for reason beyond what we can understand!" Sakai said, "Anyway, people now just call me Sakai! I've been fighting against Aku's reign since the time I learned to fight and defend myself. I came here as soon as I learn that Aku was planning to kill you. There was no way I could live with myself if I had stayed away and did nothing to help save you."

"I owe you and everyone here my thanks," Jack said before turned to everyone else, "I truly appreciate the valiant heroism everyone has made in your successful to rescue from would have been certain death. Your selfless actions also helped me save Ashi. Truly I don't deserve to have such loyal friends."

"Don't think that way samurai!" one of the archers said, "Time and again, you've selfless place your needs and desires aside to help and save all of us. We've all been indebted and grateful to you for all these years and we never forgot your nobles which have always served to inspire us."

"I was blinded by my lone quest to return to the past," Jack confessed, "Believing that was the answer to everything as I walked my path alone But I was wrong entire time. All of you here made me see and realize that standing my ground with all of you against Aku is the answer, in order to fix the present and make way for better future."

"The future I see for all of you is that of the grave!" Aku roared as he flew out of the fortress and over to them. Jack and the others turned to face Aku. Jack pulled out his sword and aimed it at Aku as he declared, "This will be our final fight Aku! After today, only one of us will walk out of this alive!"

"I couldn't agree more samurai!" Aku replied. Jack turned to Ashi and requested, "Ashi, stay here with the others and try to access and reactivate your powers! Scotsman, I'll need one of your daughter's bucks and your powers to provide me cover fire and protection! Spartans, I'll need one of your shields."

"I understand," Ashi complied.

"Consider it done lad!" the Scotsman agreed.

"You have our support!" the Spartan king replied. Jack went and straddled one of the large bucks with his sword in hand. The Spartan king went and handed Jack his shield.

"My grandfather told my people and I the story of how he and his men battled alongside you to protect his kingdom and people," the Spartan king said, "All of us here are honored that we have the privilege of helping you vanquish Aku from our world once and for all."

"No," Jack said and smiled, "I'm the one who should be honored for having such greats friends and comrades."

"It's time Jack," The Scotsman said before he started playing into his bagpipe and surround the buck's feet with swirling energy, allowing it to levitate off the ground. Ready to fight, Jack rode off into Aku's direction with the Scotsman following for a distance to provided assistance and to keep Jack and the buck afloat in the air.

Aku shaped shifted himself into a serpentine giant dragon and flew into Jack's direction.

"Time to die, samurai!" Aku declared as he soared towards Jack. Having him in range, Aku fired two white energy beams from his eyes at Jack. The samurai however deflected the beam attacks with his sword, and redirecting it to the ground. Angered that his attacked was blocked, Aku continued his pursue and flew after Jack who continued galloping away on the buck through the air. Turning swiftly, Jack narrowly evaded bitten in half by Aku as he swung and made a large slash at Aku on the side of his enemy's right shoulder.

"Aaaaarrrggghhhh!" Aku screamed in pain after feeling the blade of Jack's sword wound him and throw him off balance. Seeing another opportunity to wound Aku further, Jack hurried and hacked at Aku's rib cage. Aku screamed again as he flew and backed off from Jack. But his pain and wounds caused Aku to unintentionally crashed down to the ground and into a large pile of debris, which turned out to be the remains of his robotic forces. Jack moved in from the air and galloped downs towards Aku in his effort to hack him to pieces.

Aku, after pulling himself together, shapeshifted into a huge octopus and grabbed the remains of his robots with his tentacles. Aiming at Jack, Aku begin hurling the scrap robot parts at Jack as flying projectiles. Jack gasped and quickly changed course as the debris came flying in at him. Aku kept this up in throwing large robotic scrap at Jack hoping one of the debris would strike and injure Jack, in not mortally wound him.

"You can't keep this up for long samurai!" Aku yelled as he watched jack ride around the debris being thrown at him. Jack was having a difficult time trying to get close to Aku. Multiple times he used his shield to block the smaller metallic rubble from harming him while riding and avoiding being hit by the larger metallic scraps.

"I have to find a way to get closer to Aku!" Jack said to himself. Soon an idea came to mind…

"Scotsman!" Jack requested, "Is it possible to be provided with a barrier?"

"I got you covered!" the Scotsman said and he played a different tune for Jack who landed down on the ground with the buck galloping towards Aku. A spherical force field appeared and surrounded Jack and the buck just as Aku hurled more debris into their direction. The force field served to deflect the attacks and protect both Jack the buck, allowing them to get closer to Aku.

"What!?" Aku bellowed after seeing how the debris thrown at Jack were being deflected allowing Jack to gallop into his direction. Seeing this, Aku shapeshifted again, and changed into a giant scorpion. Swinging his tail, Aku elongated it in an attempt to attack and stab Jack directly. Jack managed to gallop around and dodge the attack at the last second as Aku's stinger struck the ground. Growling that he missed, Aku ran forward towards Jack and aimed to grab him with his pincers.

"I'll peal you alive samurai!" Aku roared as he lashed at Jack with his twin pincers. Jack used his sword to defend himself as the dark lord made several attempts to grab and catch Jack alive. The buck Jack was riding on quickly moved backwards as Aku's stinger came at them again as it plunged deep into the ground.

"That was way too close!" Jack remarked as he watched Aku pull his stinger out from the ground.

"Yet still not close enough!" Aku retorted as he changed shape again, this time he changed into a giant worm monster. Aku then plunged and tunneled his way through the ground as alarming speed towards Jack's direction. Jack had the buck turn around and gallop as fast as it could while Aku was again in pursuit. A large lump of gravel from the ground was seen chasing after Jack and the buck, indicating that it was Aku tunneling through the ground.

Aku suddenly launched himself from out of the ground into the air as he attempted to attack Jack by colliding into the ground on top of him. Jack narrowly escaped as he changed directions and went to the left allowing Aku to plunged back into the ground and out of sight. The hard impact briefly threw Jack and the buck of balance but they managed to keep themselves from falling to the ground.

"Though all of your friends will suffer slowly," Aku stated darkly before he went in pursuit of Jack again, only this time he was collapsing the ground around Jack like one giant black sinkhole as he chased after his hated enemy, "I'll grant you a quick death!"

Seeing the danger coming at him, Jack rode off as fast as the buck could run.

"You're only delaying your inevitable demise, samurai!" Aku shouted, "Grant me the pleasure of uniting you with your fallen ancestors!"

The sinkhole was gaining speed and catching up to Jack fast. Jack was tempted to look back to see how close Aku was gaining on him. But he refrained from doing so, knowing that being distracted for even a moment could prove disastrous.

"Faster!" Jack said urgently, "Faster! Please go faster!"

Seeing the danger Jack was in, the Scotsman flew in close to Jack and played into his bagpipe, forming a pathway for the buck to gallop upon moments before the ground underneath them caved in. Jack rode to safety above the opened sinkhole as the Scotsman was leading them to solid ground.

"Thank you my good friend!" Jack thanked.

"The pleasure is all mine!" the Scotsman said, "Can't have you dying before Aku does!"

Jack rode down to the surface on solid ground. After being brought to safety, Jack turned to see the wide-open sinkhole Aku made in his effort to kill him. From out of the sinkhole crater came huge eight-legged crab monster that Aku changed into. Smiling darkly, Aku raced into Jack's direction in an attempt to used his body to crush both Jack and the buck he was riding on. Jack stopped the buck and swiftly changed course just before Aku slammed his body to the ground, cratering it in the process as he failed to crushed his hated enemy into the arid ground. Aku ran and went after Jack who was now looking to made some distance between himself and Aku.

"I'm going to smear you into the ground, samurai!" Aku yelled, "And as I do, I'll have your friends watch in despair as I bathe and soak myself in your blood!"

"Don't you ever shut up Aku!?" Jack retorted as he turned and galloped back towards attack to meet Aku in combat. Seeing Jack come his way, Aku started using his bladed legs and weapons against Jack. Jack using his shield to block some of Aku's attacks while using his sword to attack and inflict injuries on him. This pattern continued until Aku finally managed to find an opening and smack Jack off his buck and onto the ground. Jack, while still having his sword and shield in hand, quickly rose back to his feet as Aku ran after him. Aku leaped high into the air and then burst into thousands of raining arrows. Jack readied his shield to block as many of the arrows as he could. The Scotsmon acts fast and provided a barrier for the buck and saw as he was about to make one for Jack, a body of shields come and completely shielded and protected Jack from any harm as the black spears came raining down onto the ground.

"What is this?" Jack asked in confusion as he was surrounded by darkness.

"It's the woman you love that's protecting you," Ashi replied in the darkness.

"Ashi?" Jack replied before a crevice of light opened up through the darkness surrounding Jack. The said darkness turned out indeed to be Ashi who was using her stretched out body to cover and protect with the Spartans' shield being held onto her body. Ashi reshaped herself back to her original form as her body drop the shields off her back. Jack saw that Ashi was back in her black outfitted appearance.

"Ashi you did it!" Jack cheered, "You managed to get your powers back!"

"WHAT!?" Aku voice bellowed as all of the thousands of arrows made from his body flew back and regrouped as they molded back into Aku's true form, "Impossible! I deactivated your powers!"

"While that's true," Ashi said, "But my love for Jack and strong will helped me to conquer and subdue my inborn darkness and tap in and reactivate what's mine by birthright," Ashi retorted, "You have no control over me anymore Aku!"

"You've proven to be a more than a problem like the samurai!" Aku stated murderously, "When I'm through, both you and your samurai lover will beg me to allow you die!"

"Your choices have clearly led you here, as have ours!" Ashi declared.

"But we will give you no new choices as you face your destiny!" Jack stated, "And your destiny is eternal death!"

Aku snarled venomously, "Your father and mother and the rest of your ancestors are waiting for you! I'll grant your release from this world brutally and allow you to join them in death!"

At that Aku gathered all of his powers together. With it, he grew and changed into a massive, colossal sized serpentine eight-headed hydra monster. Aku gave a thunderous roar that was enough to even frighten all of Jack's allies who were watching the earlier battle between him and Aku.

The androids that were piloting the samurai mecha, were outside the machine and watching the scene alongside the others.

"This was unexpected!" the commanding android commented. Aku turned to the Samurai mecha and thrusted one of its head at it. Everyone ran as Aku grabbed the mecha by its left leg with his mouth and used his other heads to grabbed the right leg, arms and head of the mecha. While holding it up in the air, in one go, Aku pulled and tore off all of the limbs and head of the mecha with its body falling to the ground in front of him. As soon as the headless and limbless body hit the ground, Aku used his monstrous right hand to crush it completely.

"Aku destroyed our battle machine like it was nothing!" the commanding android exclaimed.

"Things have escalated beyond our ability to take!" the archaeologist dog remarked.

"You think!?" Sakai replied.

"Aku is really going for blood now!" the Scotsman said.

"Yeah!" the Scotsman eldest daughter agreed, "All of ours and Jack's too!"


Back on the battlefield…

"Oh my…," Jack remarked as he saw the hugest monstrosity that Aku had ever transformed into, "This is worse than the battle I had with Aku in the graveyard years ago and I barely escaped from that battle as Aku nearly killed me!"

Jack was no fool. He knew that with the form that Aku changed into, there was no way he would survive his battle with the dark lord. Even with his sword, Jack knew he would surely die. Ashi stood beside Jack and looked at the creature that her mother and former cult worshiped.

"I can't believe that…thing is related to me!" Ashi remarked with abhorrence as she started thinking up of a plan to help Jack to defeat Aku. She had to think up of one fast as some possible doable ideas ran through her mind. Aku turned Jack and declared, "This will be our final decisive battle samurai! There will be no next time!" Aku the stated darkly, "It's Victory or Death!"

Jack held onto his sword tightly, and accepted, "If I have to die to stop you once and for all Aku then so be it! I'll happily lay down my life if it meanings freeing this world and everyone living on it from you and your wicked rule!"

"There may be another way we can stop Aku without you needing to die, Jack!" Ashi interjected. Jack looked at Ashi and asked, "How so?"

Ashi's face and hair started being covered up by her black mask appearance, but without the four horns.

"With my powers," Ashi suggested, "I have an idea about how we can use my time rings to-"

"Ashi!" Jack objected, "We already discussed that time traveling to the past won't work!"

"Jack!" Ashi asked, "I thought this through carefully this time after listening to your explanation and I came up with an idea to put my time rings to effective use. But I need you to trust me and let me help you. Do you trust me with my powers?"

After a moment self-deliberation, Jack agreed and consented, "Yes."

Ashi then went behind Jack and wrapped her arms securely around his chest and her head on the back on his neck. Concentrating, she melted onto his body and morphed herself into the exactly likeness of the full body samurai armor, boots, clothes, gloves and gear Jack used to wear before Ashi, during her dark assassin days, and her late sisters, ambushed Jack and destroyed it. Jack's helmet however was much shorter than the original one but it carried the traditional samurai designs.

"Did Jack and the chick in the black just fuse together?" Sakai asked with a disbelieving expression.

"It would appear to be so!" the archaeologist dog said, "But from what I'm seeing, she transformed into a complete suit of armor for Jack."

"I wish my girlfriend could do that with me," a male child of the rave remarked.

"I'm not Aku's daughter!" a female rave child retorted.


Back on the battlefield…

"Amazing!" Jack marveled, "When I thought about utilizing your shapeshifting powers, I never thought you had the capacity to do this!"

"In this way Jack," Ashi declared through the armor, "You have a better chance at surviving as we'll fight and defeat Aku as one! Together, we'll bring about his eternal downfall!"

"I couldn't say it better myself Ashi!" Jack agreed, "Though I can't overlook the fact that you're completely wrapped around my body. It's weird, yet feels sensually amazing at the same time! You practically turned into a living suit of armor!"

"I knew you'd love my idea," Ashi remarked, "But let's take care of Aku first and we can have fun with this later!"

Though Jack didn't miss the sexual innuendo in Ashi's comment however, he decided to focus more on the battle at hand.

"Enough talk from both of you!" Aku roared as she lashed out and dived into the smash both of them with his razor-sharp teeth. From out of the back of the armor, a large pair of majestic black feathered wings sprouted and with a mighty flap, Jack flew off the ground into the air just before one of Aku's eight heads bit down on them deep into ground Jack was previously standing on. Aku tore a chunk of the ground off and held it in his mouth. With a mighty thrust, he threw it at Jack who just barely dodged it in mid-air as Ashi helped him fly around it to avoid being struck it.

"I wonder if this was the form Aku used to beat and kill that same guardian of that obelisk time portal that beat me in combat years ago," Jack said aloud.

"If he did," Ashi said, "It's all the more reason why we can't let Aku have his way and win against us!"

Jack hoovered in the air looked as Aku back at him with hate, malice and bloodlust. The samurai looked back at Aku with fierce defiance and iron determination as he readied his sword and prepared to fighting.

"I'm with you Jack," Ashi assured through the armor, "No matter what happens from here on out, I'll stay with you and fight to the end! I'll protect you, even if it means losing my life!"

Jack recalled the memory and pain he felt when Ashi vanished and died in his arms during that time paradox. Not wanting to experience losing Ashi again, Jack stated, "Ashi, I didn't go through all those past troubles and dangers protecting you with my life just so you can die in in my arms in front of me! We'll fight together, win this final battle together and live together, forever!"

"I know your future!" Aku roared, "YOU BOTH WILL DIE TOGETHER!"

"BRING IT ON AKU!" Jack challenged before Aku rushed at Jack and Ashi. Jack flew into Aku's direction thus commencing their final showdown, a no holds bar fight to the death…


The final battle between Jack and Aku has begun. How will their final war end?


A/N: I apologize that my chapters for this fanfic are much shorter than my standard size. But I'm juggling between this new short story fanfic, my new chapters for Sealed Legacy and Digimon 02: Epoch, and three projects outside FFN I must complete by this month into early July. My schedule is hectic but I hope that this chapter still proved to be entertaining.