Author's Note

Was really hoping for a hat trick yesterday and post this sooner. Unfortunately, this chapter need a lot of TLC that I didn't have the patience to give it until today.

I hope you enjoy! This was a fucking blast to write.

p.s. Big props to technotreegrass for help and inspiration for this chapter!

Kiss, Marry, Kill

Chapter 4:

Kill (Part Two)

"You..." Ashi was stunned into temporary silence. Her husband's grip on her waist was tight, his eyes hardened to stone. She looked at Ikra, a woman she had known for years, a woman she almost considered a friend, in shock. "You two know each other?"

"Know him?" Ikra laughed, long and loud. Exaggerated, even. The lines in Jack's face deepened as he scowled.

Ikra swiped a fingertip under her eye, wiping away fake tears of mirth. "Oh, my. Know him. Where do you think he learned to fuck like that?" She swept the back of her hand beneath her chin and curled her lips upward; a smile meant for the devil. "All me, baby."

Jack's hateful expression did not waver as he lifted his gun to aim at her chest.

Ashi's jaw hung open in shock.

"You slept with my husband?"

"God no," she said dismissively. "He was merely a boy when I met him." She pointed her gaze to him and licked her lips slowly. "I turned him into a man."

The aim was redirected from her chest to her forehead.

"Ease up, baby," Ikra said. "We both know you're not going to shoot me."

"I would not be so sure of that."

"Right, right. Because you've got your lady to protect." Ikra flashed Ashi a smile. "Ashi, my dear friend. When Jack told me all those years ago that he was getting married, I didn't know it was to you."

"Jack... told you?" Her eyes narrowed, the bitter taste of jealousy coating her tongue. "When?"

"You were on a business trip," Jack explained. Ashi did not miss the implication in his tone that she must have been lying about the nature of said 'trip'. It hardly mattered now. "I wanted to make sure she never stepped foot in my door again. And that if she ever showed her face around me or my wife, my response would be swift."

"'Punishing', I believe was the phrase you used. A pretty sexy threat, if you ask me."

"No one is asking you," Ashi growled. She looked up at Jack. "You didn't think to tell me you'd met up with your crazy ex-whatever—girlfriend—before marrying me?"

"Crazy is a weak term. Ikra is psychotic."

"Charming," Ikra said with a grin.

"Answer the question, Jack."

"I did not think it necessary, no." Jack looked down at his wife, his eyes still hard. "I did not know you two were colleagues."

"Colleagues!" Ikra laughed. "Ashi's like a sister to me! Well," she said, tilting her head in thought. "Considering what happened to her real sisters."

"Sisters?" Jack asked. "What sisters?" His eyes shifted to Ashi. "You told me you were an only child!"

"I am." She winced. "Kind of."

"Didn't you know?" Ikra cut in. "The Daughters of Aku were one, big happy family. Septuplets, even."

"Yeah, I'm a real walking miracle of science," Ashi grumbled. She looked at Jack with cold eyes. "We will talk about this later." She looked back to Ikra. "What are you doing here, Ikra? I assume you came here to kill me?"

Ikra shook her head. "Quite the opposite, actually. I didn't come here to kill anyone. I came to congratulate you."

Ashi paused. "For what?"

"Your new life." Ikra looked at Jack. "Can you put the gun down now? I told you I'm not here to harm anyone."

Jack considered it. For all of one second.

"No."

Ikra sighed with a quiet laugh. "So be it." Her hands moved up to her chest. Jack took a small step forward, Ashi still attached to his hip, and growled.

"Be still!"

Ikra opened her palms. "Easy, easy. I'm not reaching for a weapon." She kept one hand open in front of him and used the other hand to reach beneath the top of her dress. Slowly, she pulled out a small, dark-colored pamphlet.

A passport.

"Josephine Clench," she read from the book. "DOB November 8, 1985. Ooh, look at that, you'll even get to be a few years younger." She waved the book towards Ashi. "It's all here, love. Passport, social security card, a one-way ticket to New York City. You'll get to live out the rest of your days as an American woman; far away from all of this."

Ashi's mind slowed to a crawl. Ikra continued.

"I have ten thousand dollars, cash, out in the car. Figured you didn't need much more than that. I know how dedicated you are to saving up funds."

"I don't understand." Ashi gulped. "How do I know this isn't a trick?"

"I assure you, it is not. This is just Aku making good on his word. The gift of freedom."

"Ashi?" Jack looked down at his wife in confusion. He also did not understand.

"Think about it, Ashi," Ikra continued gently. "Aku finally knows the true identity of 'The Samurai'. He knows he's your husband. You obviously can't stay with him; Aku would have no choice but to take both of you out. The only choice you have now, the only way to save your life." Ikra paused dramatically to look at Jack. "Is to end his."

Ashi looked between the two of them, once again conflicted. She loved Jack but her mission was clear. The hours of passion the two had just shared made it so that her brain did not see consequences. What was she to do now? If she couldn't kill Jack then, in the heat of battle and betrayal, could she do it now?

But seeing... evidence. That Aku would actually let her go; let her be free. It was all too good to be true, wasn't it? Who could she trust?

There was only one way to find out.

She elbowed her husband in the gut, removing herself from him in his shock, and wrenched the gun out of his hand. She stepped away from him and aimed the gun at his chest.

"She's right."

"Ashi?" Jack exclaimed.

She looked over at Ikra without lowering her aim. She stuck out her free hand.

"Let me see that passport."

Ikra did as she was asked. Ashi opened it up and flipped through the pages.

"What, did a college kid make this?" She closed it and threw it back at Ikra. "I can't use this!"

"A teeny, tiny, white lie," Ikra laughed. "The real passport is back with Aku. But I promise you it's all there. You're mere hours from true freedom."

"Ashi, don't listen!" Jack shouted. "She's lying to you!"

"Shut up," Ashi replied. She turned back to Ikra. "Why are you really here, Ikra? Why did Aku send you?"

"Why, because I'm one of the few people who knows what we're really dealing with when it comes to the Samurai." She tilted her head and offered Jack a smug look. "Isn't that right, Jack? You aren't the only one who has secrets."

"How?" Jack grunted. "How did you find out?"

"I didn't know. At least, not at first. I met you, what, when you were just starting out? I had my suspicions but I never dwelled on them. Besides," Ikra said before licking her lips. "The things you were capable of in bed kept my mind delightfully occupied."

Ashi snarled as she redirected her aim on Ikra's chest. "Don't make me have to shoot you both."

"Sorry, love," she laughed, "just having a bit of fun." She tilted her head towards Jack. "You know, darling, you should be more careful who you show your sword collection to, lest they be able to recognize it on the battlefield."

"She's seen your sword collection?" Ashi asked in utmost annoyance.

"It has only been seen by people I think I can trust," Jack said.

"The innuendo here is delicious," Ikra laughed.

"Both of you, shut up!" Ashi screamed. She looked at Ikra. "If you knew all of this, if you knew the Samurai's true identity, why are you telling us now?"

"You aren't the only one who's found true love, darling. I just wanted to see his face one more time before his demise. Consider it an... early wedding gift." Ikra grinned.

Jack's face twisted in disgust. "You are marrying Aku?"

"What, are you jealous?" Ashi said.

"No!" Jack shouted. "A psychopath and a psychopath. You two were meant for each other."

"Such a romantic," Ikra said, pretending to swoon.

"That's it!" Ashi snapped. "I've had enough of this." She whipped around and pointed the gun at Jack, her eyes gleaming with rage. "There is only one way to end all of this."

Jack held his hands up, trying to placate her. "Please, listen to me, Ashi. Aku is pure evil. He—"

"You don't think I fucking know that!" she interrupted. "I've lived under his thumb for almost my entire life! But there's a way out. This ends now."

"Please," Jack begged. "You cannot let it end this way. Please."

She kept speaking as if she wasn't listening. "One way to finally be free."

A shimmer of tears appeared in her eyes. She clenched her teeth as she made her decision.

"Forgive me, Jack," she whispered. Ikra noticed the how the moment seemed to drag on. She saw her friend's hand begin to tremble. She sighed dramatically.

"I had a feeling this might happen."

Jack's eyes widened in fear as Ikra reached behind her and pulled out a dagger. His words of warning to his wife caught in his throat as Ashi swung her arm back, without even looking at her target.

She fired.

Ikra stumbled backwards, hitting the wall behind her. Blood seeped out of the wound, the bullet having hit her square in the chest. She made no sounds, save for the gasping of her breath. She reached up and hovered her hands over her chest, as if afraid, unbelieving of the wound. She slumped down to the floor in a heap.

"No!" Jack shouted. He watched in horror as the light of life was extinguished from Ikra's eyes, the deceased woman slain by his own wife. He looked to Ashi in shock, struggling to breathe. "Ashi... why?"

Ashi did not answer. She turned at looked at her fallen colleague with disgust.

"I always told her that hole in suit was a stupid fucking idea."

She faced her husband with a cold stare. "Jack. You need to get away from here. Now."

"Ashi, I," Jack fumbled on his words, still reeling from witnessing death. "What are you talking about?"

"Aku knows who you are. It's only a matter of time before he finds out what I did. You need to get away from me as fast as you can."

"No," he said, his voice hardened. "I will not leave here without you."

"No, Jack. You don't understand. I just killed the fiancee of the most powerful mob boss in the city."

Jack shook his head. "That does not matter. I'm not leaving. Not without you."

"Don't you get it?" Ashi cried. "I just unseated you as public enemy number one! There is no way to keep you safe if you stay with me!"

"Aku is after me as well! I will not abandon you!"

"Jack! You're not listening!"

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door.

The couple looked at each other in stunned silence. Ashi looked toward their front door, her stomach dropping with anxiety and dread. Blue and red lights flashed against their window.

"Shit," she whispered. Someone had called the police.

She slowly made her way to the door and looked through the peephole. Two officers stood in front of their door and she recognized a woman, one of their neighbors, behind them.

"Shit!" she said with slightly more force. She gestured for Jack to move beside her. She undid a few buttons from Jack's shirt that she still wore and looked up at him.

"Follow my lead."

She wrapped an arm around his waist to bring him as close as possible and opened the door.

"Good evening, officers," Ashi purred. She nodded her head toward her neighbor. "Krystle."

"Evening, ma'am. We got a call about a disturbance. Just wanted to make sure everything was alright."

"A disturbance?" Ashi feigned shock.

"We heard a lot of commotion," Krystle said. "We just thought it was some kids setting off fireworks. But after we heard it again, well, we," the woman looked at the couple with an embarrassed smile. "We were just worried."

"I'm so sorry. You see, my husband has been away for business for so long and I just wanted to make sure he got a... proper greeting." She looked up at Jack with a seductive grin. "Isn't that right, darling?"

Jack leaned down, a lewd grin of his own, moaning quietly as he kissed his wife's temple. "That's right, my love."

"Oh, my," Krystle said with a blush. "Well, um, if you say you're alright..."

"I assure you," Jack replied, "there is nothing to worry about here. I apologize if we have inconvenienced you in any way."

Krystle stood on her tiptoes to nosily survey the ruins of their den over the officer's shoulders. "Are you two redecorating? I can refer you to a fabulous designer, she just redid our kitchen!"

"Krystle. Officers." Ashi grinned. "Have a nice night."

"Are you sure you don't want the referral? First meeting is free!"

Ashi closed their door with a laugh. "Bye!"

She backed away from the door immediately. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," she whispered. "Jack, please. Please run."

"I told you," he said in a low voice. "Not without you."

"Then we need to get out of here now." She looked out of the peephole again, straining her ears to hear the conversation outside.

"Ma'm please return to your home. We have reason to believe you may be in danger if you stay."

"Danger? What kind of danger? They seemed fine to me."

"Return to your home," the other officer repeated. "Let us handle this."

"Shit. We need to leave." She watched her neighbor depart down their driveway and walk across the street to her house. She backed away from the door once more.

The rapping against their door was louder this time. Rougher.

"Police! Open up!"

"What more do the police want with us?" Jack asked.

Ashi looked at him in a panic. "Jack."

"If you do not open the door right now, we will have no choice but to use force!"

"Those aren't cops."

"Open fire."

Ashi tackled Jack to the ground mere moments before bullets starting ripping their way through their door. The two of them went into 'fight' mode immediately, staying low the ground and scrambling to get to a safer place. Jack managed to grab the gun that killed Ikra, readying it, should the pounding at the door give in to the intruders.

Jack and Ashi rounded the corner of their living room and stood, Jack grabbing her hand to race across the house to their basement. They heard the front door crack against its hinge as it was forced open. They sped down the stairs, each immediately taking to opposite sides of the room to gather supplies.

Ashi grabbed a pair of rain boots near her gardening supplies and slipped them on. She shoved a massive bag of fertilizer from its spot on the ground and pressed into the wood firmly, revealing a hidden door. She slung a small duffle bag—packed with clothes, weapons, and ammunition—over her shoulder and stood to watch Jack.

Her mouth hung open in shock. "Are you kidding me?"

Jack was underneath an old pinball machine, one that Jack had famously insisted on buying but used, maybe once—the stupid thing had been the source of one of their biggest fights—removing the bottom and fishing out his own bag of supplies. He stood and grinned, tossing her a gun, throwing a shirt on and readying his own weapon.

Ashi returned his smile with a shake of her head. "You tricky bastard."

"Always hiding in plain sight," he acknowledged, gesturing towards her gardening supplies.

Their humor was short lived as they heard voices above them. The fake officers. Ashi and Jack stood still as they strained their ears to listen.

They heard the basement door gently creak open. The two aimed their weapons at the door, ready to take action.

They were met with silence. They strained their ears, expecting the crashing sound of boots on the steps, but they could hear nothing. No voices. No footsteps.

Tink-Tink-Tink.

"What is that?" Jack whispered. Ashi held up a hand, recognizing the sound.

Tink-Tink-Tink.

A small shine of metal caught her eye. A small, robotic device shaped like a beetle was quietly skittering down their stairs. It stopped and stood on its haunches, its eyes turning from cerulean to crimson.

"Shit."

Jack flung open the hatch to their basement and grabbed Ashi, climbing out to their front yard. They bolted to a safer distance. Ashi fell to the ground and covered her head. Jack fell on top of her to shield her from any debris as the basement erupted in flames. The explosion was quick; destructive. Jack hesitantly lifted his head, hoping to shake the ringing from his ears as he quickly surveyed the damage of their partially destroyed home.

He sat up quickly, spotting the two fake officers exit the front door and point their weapons. Jack took quick action, firing his own weapon before dragging himself to stand and running, Ashi in tow, to their detached garage.

The two forced open the door and ran inside. "Toss me your keys!" Ashi yelled.

"You can't drive!"

"Now!"

"You told me you didn't know how to drive stick!"

Ashi looked at her husband with wide, manic eyes and screamed. "I fucking lied!"

"Okay." Jack tossed her the keys, in no mood to fight his wife in such a state.

They entered the car and Ashi started the engine with a roar. "Are you ready?" she asked. Jack quickly nodded, buckling his seat belt. She shifted gears, released the clutch, and slammed on the gas pedal, flinging them out of the garage, the tires squealing as if they'd been harmed.

"So," Ashi said through gritted teeth. "You fucked Ikra."

Jack rolled the window of the passenger's seat down with a groan. "Is that really something you wish to discuss now?"

"Sure do. What better time could there be?" Ashi had navigated them out of their neighborhood after quickly circling their block a few times, noting that three cars were after them.

They were on the highway now, the roads relatively clear given the skies were still black from the late hour of the night. Jack was preparing to open fire when her question blind-sighted him.

"I really don't believe this is the appropriate time!" Jack shouted, ducking back into the car as bullets sprayed from their pursuers.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ashi drawled, swerving the car into differing lanes to avoid the bullets. "When would be a better time for you? Perhaps we should meet in secret? Like you did with Ikra? Before our fucking wedding?"

"It wasn't like that!" He leaned out of the open window and fired, successfully shooting out the tires of the closest car. The two of them watched as the car lost control and crashed into the median of the highway. One car down. Two to go.

"Look," he said. "I was with Ikra long before I met you."

"So you were with her. She was your ex-girlfriend."

Jack winced. "Not exactly."

"Then what!" Ashi shouted. "You were just fucking? Carrying on some fucked up affair with Aku's long time squeeze?"

"No! I don't know! We were seeing each other for a short time. She left me for Aku!"

"So that was it then?"

He winced. Again. "Not exactly."

"Jack, if you don't start talking right fucking now, I'm going to regret taking Ikra's life instead of yours."

"She kept coming back! She would arrive unannounced at my door whenever she claimed Aku was 'treating her badly.' I always encouraged her. To leave him for good. I thought there was good in her. I was wrong. She chose her path."

"And now she's dead."

"...Yes."

"Because of me."

"Because of the path she chose."

"Did you love her?"

Jacked looked at her in shock. "What?"

She spoke her words slowly, her jaw still clenched. "Did. You. Love. Her?"

"No!"

"Oh, really? You sure seemed pretty fucking upset when that bullet when through her chest."

"Of course I am upset!" he yelled. "I just found out my wife is an assassin for my most hated enemy. I watched a woman die in our living room! You pulled the trigger!"

One of the cars had managed to sidle itself next to theirs. Their shots were premature, busting out the window of the back seat on the driver's side of the car. Ashi looked to her left enraged.

"Do these assholes mind?!"

She pressed the button to automatically roll down the window before snatching the gun from Jack's hand.

"I'm trying to have a conversation with my husband!"

The screech of her voice was otherworldly.

She swerved the car into the other until it scraped against the highway divider. She fired rapidly, the bullets hitting their targets. The two men were killed instantly.

She tossed the gun back to her husband with a "god fucking damn it!" and shifted gears to speed along further down the road. Two cars down. Only one to go.

Jack gulped at the display. In less than six hours, he had seen her blow up a corrupt politician, shoot a woman point blank in the chest, and now shoot two men in the head while operating a speeding vehicle. She certainly was a force.

Perhaps one that he should not argue with.

"Ashi, listen to me!" he yelled over the rushing wind.

She had managed to gain enough speed to put a sizable distance between her and the remaining car. A few more turns and she might actually lose them. She veered off the highway, taking an exit and followed the road to a mostly empty concrete parking lot. The tires squealed as she made her way up, floor by floor. She slammed on the brakes and turned, the car parked at the top of the fifth floor, headlights pointed in the direction of the exit. The direction of their attackers.

If they were going to face these assholes, she wanted to face them head-on.

"Ashi," Jack said, catching his breath as the adrenaline in his system finally began to calm.

"Do you hate me?"

"What?"

She had asked the question in such an uncharacteristically small voice that he almost missed it entirely. He looked at his wife, who breathed deeply through her mouth as if trying to catch her own breath.

"You asked me... earlier tonight if you were just a cover for me." She turned to look him straight in the eye. "You weren't. You never were."

"Ashi, I—"

"No. Shut up. I need to say this." She took a shaky breath in. "I loved you from the night we first met. There has never been anyone else. Anyone. But... I need to know if there was someone else for you. And if that someone else is now lying dead in our home."

He leaned over to brush her bangs, damp from sweat, from her brow. He cradled her head in his hands and forced her to look at him.

"Ashi. Listen to me. Ikra was toxic. A poison. I was young and foolish. But you... you are my light. Believe me when I say that I have never loved anyone the way I love you. Do you understand?"

Ashi sniffed, trying to avert her gaze. Jack would not let her. "Do you understand? There is no one else. There will never be anyone else. It is only you. I love only you."

She felt a familiar prick of tears in her eyes. Jack looked down at his wife's face lovingly admiring how her cheeks flushed. He knew that it was in part because she had exerted herself but he also knew that speaking to her in such a way, professing his love for her, never failed to make her blush.

He let out a puff of air in amusement. "I ever tell you you're cute when you're flustered?"

She grabbed the collar of his shirt, mumbling for him to shut up, and pulled him in to kiss him, drawing on his lips with her own as if he were the last source of oxygen in the world. She fisted her hands in his hair, still long and loosely hanging to his shoulders. He returned her kiss fervently, squeezing the back of her neck and drinking in everything she had to offer.

She broke apart, panting. Growling.

"You are mine."

"And you are mine."

They kissed each other for a few more precious seconds before they split apart at the sound of squealing tires.

Ashi looked at Jack. Her husband. Her enemy. Her partner. Her face split into a sudden grin.

"You ready to kill these motherfuckers?"

Jack sighed, dropping his shoulders. "Only if I must."

Ashi rolled her eyes. "Pacifist."

"Barbarian."

They smirked at each other for a brief second before moving into action.

The battle, if one could call it that, was one-sided at best. Short. Three men stepped out of the vehicle, spraying the car with bullets. The runaway couple had left the front doors open as if they had fled. Two of the men approached either side of the door cautiously.

Turns out, Jack and Ashi had never left the car. The man unfortunate enough to approach Ashi's side of the car was kicked forcefully in the knee, then gut, disarmed, and shot dead in mere seconds. Ashi stood out of the car, aimed her newly found weapon, and fired at another gangster, he, dead before he hit the ground.

Ashi walked around the car to the passenger's side. She wondered how the last of the three had fared against her husband. Her eyebrows lifted in surprise.

"What have we got here?"

Jack held the last remaining thug, a fist in the back of his head, pinning him chest down into the roof of the car. Ashi could tell that his other arm, though behind his back, was twisted at an unnatural angle. Jack lifted the thug's head from the hood, forcing him to look at Ashi.

"You see that?" Jack said. "If you had gone after her, she would have killed you. Aren't you glad you have me?"

"Fuck you!" the man shouted out. He looked at Ashi. "And fuck you, too, you traitorous slut!"

Jack's eyebrows tightened together as he wrenched the man's arm further, causing him to cry out even louder. Ashi walked up to the pair, unfazed by the man's insults and slipped her hand into his coat pocket, pulling out a phone.

She waved it in the man's face.

"What's the password to this thing?"

Ashi could hear the sickening sound of saliva coming up the man's throat. He didn't even have time to open his mouth to spit before Jack slammed his forehead down into the hood. It was not hard enough to knock him out but it was certainly enough to make him rethink his actions.

Jack yanked the man's head back up. "You will not get a second chance. Understood?"

The man blinked slowly, his curses and rage tempered by the blow.

"Password?" Ashi repeated.

The thug continued his struggle against Jack's restraint. "You must think I'm an idiot if I'll talk to the bastard-ass Samurai or his cock-sucking wife."

Jack growled before bringing the thug up to his full height and kicking him in the back of the knees, painfully forcing him to the ground. He stepped around to face him, cocked a pistol, and pressed the gun to the man's forehead.

"Well, we can certainly agree on one thing," Ashi remarked. "I definitely think you are an idiot."

Ashi knelt in front of the man. "Level with me here. Do you really want your last words to be insults? And not very good ones, at that."

The man's face was red, eyes wide and manic with fury. He did not answer.

"Jack?"

Jack drew his hand back and punched him with the butt of his gun, an awful crunching sound accompanying it as the thug's cheekbone was broken. The man grunted harshly in pain. "Fuck you," he said defiantly. He cried out once more in agony as Jack hit him again, in the mouth, the goon spitting up blood and even a few teeth.

Ashi eyed her husband warily but he did not return the contact. She had no idea that her husband was capable of such brutality.

Not that it mattered now.

"Last chance, creep."

He coughed weakly. "Zero-Five-Two-Zero."

"Thank you," Ashi said sweetly.

"You think this is over?" He said, his voice cracked with pain. "Do you have any fucking idea what you're doing? Aku's gonna have your fucking heads!"

"We're done here," Ashi said, locking the screen when she found the information she wanted. "Have a nice life, asshole."

"Fuck you, you miserable cunt!" he spat out, rage giving new strength to his voice. "I hope Aku ties up your fucking Samurai, bleeding and broken, and makes him watch as he forces you over and fucks—"

Ashi jumped in pure shock as the sound, louder than a crack of thunder, ricocheted off the stone walls of the garage. Her wide eyes settled on Jack, who calmly straightened his posture above the now dead gangster, watching the blood slowly pool around the open wound in his skull.

Ashi could barely hear her own voice over the ringing in her ears and the pounding of her heart.

"Jack?"

He did not look up. She could barely see his face, covered by his bangs. He was standing up perfectly straight. Eerily still. Even his hands did not shake.

"What the fuck, Jack?"

His eyes met hers and Ashi reeled back. Jack's face wore an expression she'd never seen before. Cold fury shined in his eyes, his jaw set like stone. Realization dawned on Ashi just then. She knew her husband was the Samurai. She knew the Samurai's actions had petty criminals running scared in the night. But the look that he wore showed her just what he was capable of.

He was not a man to be taken lightly. He was a man to be feared.

She watched as he wiped the barrel of the gun on his slacks, tucking it into his belt and adjusting the once pristine collared shirt, now dirtied with the dust of concrete and dark splatters of blood. His eyes met hers again.

"I thought you only killed in self defense."

"I did," he said in a low voice. "I killed him to defend you."

She nodded, not having any words to say. She grabbed their bags out of their car and ran to dump them in the much less destroyed car of the fallen gangsters. She made a point to take a picture of Jack's now battered vehicle with the dead man's phone, knowing she'd need it for later.

The two got in the car and drove away from the gruesome scene without a word.

"You are awfully quiet now."

Ashi didn't respond right away. Her head was too full of what they had just done. The people they had killed. And what would come to be.

"I'm fine," she said. "I think my adrenaline levels are finally tapering off."

He sighed deeply. "As have mine."

They drove in silence for a few more miles, Ashi having no idea where to go.

"Fuck!" she said suddenly. She hit her fists on the steering wheel. "What are we going to do, Jack? That back there? That was just kid's stuff! Small time! What are we going to do when Aku starts sending off his real assassins? I don't know if I can do this!"

"There is a simple solution," he replied evenly. "We must take down Aku. Once and for all."

"How?" she said, exasperated. "We can't do this alone!"

"I think I know someone who can help." Jack pointed out of the window. "Take the left exit in about a mile."

Author's Note

I talk a lot about my love/hate relationship with this story. There was no hate here. This was all love.

This was an especially fun chapter to write because I got to explore a side of Jack I rarely write for. I'm used to writing cinnamon-roll!Jack. The kind of guy that's quiet, polite, and composed but is completely and adorably shy. That's still my favorite piece-o-canon. That's why I've got 20+ chapters of a silly college!AU. That's still my Jack. My baby.

But! I've missed seeing the badass, hardened warrior in my own work. The one I fell in love with when I started watching Samurai Jack nearly two decades ago.

The moral of this story (/chapter) is a simple one. Don't fuck with Jack. Specifically, don't fuck with Jack's wife. He will literally kill you.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much I enjoyed writing it. This shit was fun.

Until next time!