User blog:AustinDR/Ending (My Version)

In order for there to be peace, sometimes a sacrifice must be made. For fifty years, Jack had sacrificed any chance he could've had to return home in order to help those under the tyrannical Aku's rule. However, after all those efforts, Aku had ensured that the misplaced samurai would never return home. Aku had destroyed every time portal in existence, including the one that was lorded over by the Guardian. Despite not staying to see the results, Aku had driven his most hated foe to the brink of clinical depression. He was tormented by his failures for a long time, at least until he had found hope in the form of Ashi. Even though they were bitter enemies when they first met, they had slowly grown to care about each other. Ashi became enamored with Jack when she began to realize that all of the devastation running amok on the Earth was by her former god's rule. She tried to deny that Aku was truly the evil one, but after seeing the entire cataclysm of his regime, she saw that Jack was correct. When Jack disappeared once, Ashi grew to appreciate Jack when she sees all of the good deeds that he had performed for so many people. Her love for Jack grew stronger whilst her hatred dwindled overtime. With the last piece of her childhood – her mother – expelled from her life, Ashi began to get closer to Jack.

As for Jack himself, while he slowly began to reciprocate Ashi's love for him, he was at the very least reluctant. The last time that he grew to care about a young woman, it was eventually brought to the light that it was his nemesis in disguise. Despite growing closer to Ashi during their quest to destroy Aku, Jack still tried to distance himself from her out of fear of losing her. His worst fear became realized the moment Aku confirmed that Ashi was his blood daughter, her mother having drunk his essence years ago. The evil essence within Ashi quickly overtook her, turning her into a horrid abomination in the likeness of her father. Jack desperately tries to talk his love into fighting that bit of darkness from within her to no avail. With no way of getting out of this situation without resorting to killing Ashi, Jack relents to his hated foe, and was to be publicly executed. Now, Jack was desperately trying to hang onto his life.

Ashi wrapped her hands around Jack's neck, slowly squeezing the life out of him. Jack tried to take a few gulps of air as his throat was being crushed by his lover. Jack attempted to slide himself out of her grasp, but the more he squirmed, the tighter the grip around his neck was. Jack had several encounters of near-death in his fifty years of being in this dystopian future. He could always find a way to free himself from a tight grip, but now, there was no use of trying to fight it. There was no way of getting around it. Jack was going to die then and there by his lover's hands.

"Ashi," Jack weakly says in the midst of unconsciousness.

Jack tried to reason with what used to be Ashi ever since he was brought to Aku's palace, but all his pleading seemingly fell on deaf ears. For all of his concern, Ashi was forever gone, and there was no hope of getting her back. Jack closes his eyes for the final time, waiting for death to take him. At the last minute, Jack felt the pressure from Ashi's hand slowly disappear. Jack was wholly convinced that he was now dead, and slowly opened his eyes. Rather than being in the presence of any of the gods or any other supernatural creature, Jack sets his eyes on Ashi. Her demonic face morphs back to her human face, and she smiles at him. Jack weakly returns the smile to her. It would seem that Ashi finally was able to overcome her dark side. However, the reunion was cut short when they both heard the voice of a certain demonic overlord.

"Is he dead yet?" inquired Aku, looming over the two.

Ashi shakes her head in defiance. "No, not now, or ever," she hissed.

The Shogun of Sorrow gritted his teeth in anger. He had given his daughter this one simple request, and yet she somehow was able to override his order. Throughout this turn of events, Aku gave the two an enraged scowl.

"Ashi, I am disappointed in you," Aku growls "I had given you this one task, and you are going to do what I say!"

Ashi got in front of Jack, and stared up at her father, sharing an equal look of disgust. "You are not my father."

Aku was taken aback by her comment for a moment. First this woman deprived him of the pleasure of seeing Jack finally die, and now here she is declaring that she was not related to him. That was as much as he was going to take. Aku morphs his hands into sharp blade-like protrusions, and he lunges at the two. Without much warning, Ashi morphs her hand into a similar protrusion as her father, baffling both him and Jack at the same time. Refusing to lose, Aku fires streams of lasers from his eyes to engulf the two, only for the lasers to become neutralized when Ashi performed the same trick.

"Ashi, you have Aku's powers!" exclaims Jack.

Ashi looked down at her hands in amazement. "I do!"

Learning this, Ashi extends her arm across the room, and retrieves the sword, angering Aku further. Aku may have been playing around earlier, but now he was genuinely enraged. "Enough!"

Aku fires a stream of lasers at Jack, laughing madly whilst doing so. With nothing to shield Jack from the lasers, it was a given that Jack would be vaporized on sight. Jack closes his eyes in anticipation of the lasers.

"Jack!" a voice screamed out.

Jack immediately opens his eyes, his mouth agape with horror. Ashi was standing in front of Jack, taking the full blow of Aku's powers. The lasers seared deeply into Ashi's flesh, inflicting her with excruciating pain. This pain was worse than the pain she experienced years ago when her mother tossed her into a pit of burning coal. Ashi continued to take the lasers into herself until Aku ceased fire. Ashi's charred body slowly collapses to the ground.

"Ashi, no!" yelled Jack. He quickly runs to her towards her. Upon reaching her, Jack carefully cradled her in his arms. He desperately looked for a pulse, but there wasn't one. Tears began to streak down the samurai's cheeks as he cradled his face against hers.

"What a worthless daughter she was," groaned Aku. Jack immediately turns his angered look on him. This monster had taken everything that he had cared for from him; he destroyed his home, he enslaved his father, he robbed him of his birthright….and now, he had taken away the only woman that he had ever loved – his own daughter no less. Jack bit down on his lower lip, intense. Aku merely laughs at his enemy's look of despair on his face. "You must have really loved her," he sneers.

Jack – with sword in hand – angrily races towards the demon, clearly with the intent to kill. Aku swiftly dodges a blow from the sword, and swats at Jack. Jack is flown across the room, his body colliding with a wall. As Aku approached Jack, Jack tried to make a grab at his sword, only for it to be moved from beyond his reach by Aku. Jack lunges at the demonic overlord with his fists; in retaliation, Aku transforms his hand into a hammer, and he hits Jack with enough force to make a hole in the wall. Jack groans in agony, his blood gushing from open wounds. Laughing at this, Aku transforms his hand into a dagger, and intimidates Jack with it.

"This time, you will die, Samurai," laughed Aku.

Before he could do the finishing blow, a loud noise filled the noise causing Aku to cover his ears. The Scotsman flies towards Aku, blaring his bagpipes loudly. This is followed by the Scotsman's many daughters, who proceed to pelt Aku with several objects. Enraged, Aku takes his mind off Jack, thus giving him the perfect opportunity to escape. As Aku fought furiously with the Scotsman and his daughters, a sudden surge of pain arose in the demonic overlord. Looking down, he sees that Jack had landed a blow on him. Initially horrified by this, Aku immediately began to transform. Aku's size shifts towards a more animalistic size, and his limbs became sharper and pointed, with the addition of a tail. Jack immediately recognizes this form as that of a scorpion's.

Without hesitation, Jack attacks the scorpion, all while avoiding his stinger. With sword in hand, Jack severs the legs of the scorpion, causing Aku excruciating form. Aku began to transform again; this time, the horns to the sides of his head converge, and bend clockwise. Aku charges at Jack, attempting to ram him with his horns. Jack jumps at the last minute, and slices Aku in half. The two halves diverge into one creature. Aku develops wings, and attempts to escape through the opening of his palace. Unwilling to let him go, Jack says a quick prayer before tossing the sword skyward. The sword gets lodged deeply into Aku's body. Slowly, Aku is drawn into the sword, and the sword falls onto the ground. Reclaiming the sword, Jack slams the sword onto the ground, releasing a weakened Aku. Jack lowers the sword on Aku.

Aku grinned devilishly at Jack. Even though he knew that the end was near for him, he couldn't help but to muster up a chuckle; a weak one, that is. "You may have beaten me now, Samurai, but as long as there is evil, I will never truly be gone." Aku tilts his head thereby allowing a deep laugh to emit from his throat. Without as much as a word, Jack lodges the sword into Aku's chest, causing his evil essence to flow from the open wound. Aku laughs wholeheartedly as his essence seeps out onto the floor. Jack sighs in relief; after all of these years, he had finally defeated Aku. While his allies celebrated, Jack immediately remembered Ashi, and he races towards her body. He looks down at the crisp corpse before him, and he gets down on his knees. The Scotsman and the others looked on at Jack as he mourned for Ashi. The Scotsman floats over to Jack, and tries to pat his back, despite forgetting that it would be physically impossible.

"I'm real sorry for your loss, laddie." Jack looks up towards the Scotsman and smiles in an appreciative way. As they made their way out of Aku's palace, they heard a slight cough. They turn around to see that the coughing was coming from Ashi. Shocked, Jack runs to her side, and looks down at her. Sure enough, Ashi was still alive. Jack was relieved to see that she was. "Ashi…"

He gets interrupted by another deep cough from her. Jack's smile immediately left him. Ashi weakly raises her hand to caress his cheek. "Jack, I feel as though this is it for me." Jack's eyes widen in horror. He shook his head defiantly. "No, no, there must be a way!" insisted Jack. Ashi shakes her head causing Jack to shake visibly. He couldn't believe it; even though he had finally killed Aku, Ashi was still going to die. He remembered how earlier he had said that he didn't want her to become just another memory, but it seems that his words were more prophetic than he had hoped. What Ashi said next made him especially surprised.

"Jack, remember when you talked to me about your home?" Ashi asked.

"Yes."

"What if I made it so that you could see it again?"

A confused expression spread across Jack's face. "But Ashi, Aku had destroyed all of the time portals" Jack explained "there is no hope of me never going home."

Ashi pressed her lips together and emitted a sound reminiscent of her father. Before Jack could conceive what was happening, there stood before him a time portal. Jack looked at the time portal and then back at Ashi. "Ashi…"

Ashi nodded her head. "Please Jack," she chokes out "return to your time and defeat my father there."

Jack returned his glance at the time portal. Jack was reluctant; he knew that if he went back in time to slay Aku, the future would cease to be, and none of them would exist. Jack tried to talk himself out of using it. "But if I leave, none of you would exist…"

The Scotsman floats over to Jack with a smile on his face. "Laddie," he began "I think it's best that you start thinking about yerself." Jack was surprised by his response. "But then you wouldn't…" The Scotsman cuts him off. "I wouldn't be born?" Jack nods his head. The Scotsman gave a whole-hearted laugh. "Friend, don't you know how awful that big baby's rule was?" He lays his ghostly bagpipes onto the ground before continuing. "Thousands of younguns were suffering under Aku's rule for years; the threat of death loomed over us for years. If going back in time to kill the baby will stop everything from happening, then I'd rather not be around to see it." Jack was perplexed by his explanation, but he nodded his head.

Jack walks towards the time portal before him. Before jumping into it, he analyzed the room, and saw all of his allies. From the archers to the Spartans, everyone was there to bid Jack farewell. Jack tried to keep himself from crying, but a few fresh tears managed to escape his tear ducts. "Thank you all for saving me" he declares "even if I am never able to see any of you again, I will remember all of you until I die." With that being said, Jack jumps into the time portal, and he began to travel through it. Jack felt at peace. He smiles to himself in resignation; just as he was about to reach his destination, he could've sworn that he had felt someone holding his hand. He looked around the time portal, seeing that no one was there.

Jack slams his sword onto the ground, releasing a weakened Aku from the sword. As he readied his sword for the final blow, Aku sneered at him. "You may have beaten me now, but I will destroy you in the future," hisses the demon. Jack shakes his head, unfazed by his threats. "There is no future for you, Aku!" A devilish smile spread across his face. "I disagree." Aku conjures up a time portal, and whisks Jack into the future. With his hated rival gone, Aku gets up from the ground in triumph. "Do not worry, Samurai," he began "you will see me again, but next time, you will not be fortunate."

Before he could finish his thought, a rip in time appears above him. "What?" he screamed. To his horror," Jack had seemingly returned to the past. "You're back already?!" Not wasting any time, Jack rushes towards Aku, and makes a sharp incision in his body. In fear, Aku attempts to flee. Aku morphs into a larger form, only to see that Jack jumped and was about to dissect him in two with the sword. Jack took no break with making mincemeat out of his hated rival; after all of the suffering and misery that he had placed on his shoulders, Jack was taking immense satisfaction at hacking away at Aku. With the last of Aku attempting to escape, Jack jumps into the air yet again, and impales Aku through the head with his sword. Aku's essence slowly absorbs into the sword, engulfing it. With Jack's anger reaching its zenith, he stabs the sword into the ground, watching Aku's essence crawl up the walls of his palace. Realizing that the building was about to explode, Jack quickly rushes out of the building. A blinding light erupts from the lair, taking it down with the dreaded demon. Jack sighs in relief.

"It is done."

The Emperor hung alone, his arms restrained. Ever since Aku kidnapped and enslaved him, he was worked to a point that he became small and frail. His life had been nothing but continual torture at Aku's hands. While he had some hope that his son would slay the demon, thoughts of his son failing to defeat Aku and dying for his efforts filled him with sorrow. Whilst alone wallowing in his misery, he sensed a presence in the room. He cringed at the idea that it was Aku, returning to torture him. Or worse yet, perhaps now he would kill him. He had been through such suffering he was more than willing for death. He craved death. The Emperor closes his eyes, awaiting his inevitable execution. Instead, he was in for a surprise; a pleasant one, but a surprise nonetheless.

"Father?"

The Emperor opens his eyes in surprise. His eyes slowly adjusted, and he beheld his son in front of him. He opened and closed his eyes several times, tears filling his eyes. He couldn't believe it. He was quite certain that Aku had killed his son, and who he was seeing was just an apparition. Jack reaches forward and touches his father's shoulder. A smile cracked across his face.

"Father I have done it," Jack declares triumphantly "Aku is no more."

(WIP)