Created: 9-2-03Samurai Jack was walking all alone, as usual, along the baron road. His robes were completely stained with dirt, blood and grime and his wooden slippers were beginning to look like they’ve seen better days. His hair was really messy and flowing back, some of them sticking onto his sweat-drenched face. His whole body was covered with bruises and cuts and really bad swelling and internal bleeding on his chest. It seems as if he had broken a few ribs. His sword was dragged along the ground, as if he was too tired to lift it and replace it back into the sword case. He walked with a slight limp, obviously having a small sprain on his ankle.
But his wounds and his dirty, appalling attire wasn’t the biggest issue. It was what his right hand was clutching.
It was a shiny, sleek black crystal.
It wasn’t easy for him to get that crystal. He had to put up a battle for it. And I can tell you, it was a battle like no other kind of battle. No ordinary battle at all.
It was a battle between him and the greatest evil overlord that had ever lived.
Aku.
And this was no ordinary crystal he got in his hand. It was the dark crystal heart of Aku himself.
Samurai Jack swept off the blood that was trickling down his forehead and going near his eye. He didn’t go through the battle that easily. Definitely not. It was something he wished he’d never encounter again, ever. Many lives have been sacrificed through his quest to take this heart and return to his time. He did not wish for more bloodshed.
As he let go a sigh of relief and victory, he began to recall back his horrific final battle with Aku…
*FLASHBACK BEGINS*
Samurai Jack was closing in to Aku’s new secret castle domain. It wasn’t easy for him to find it. He had been through many of Aku’s domains and destroyed a lot of evil trying to find them. Aku was constantly running away from him and giving him more and more obstacles for him to endure and cross. Finally, somehow, he had found himself in the ends of the world, where it is bitterly cold and bitingly freezing. Snow and hail rained all over him, and realizing he had no more than a robe and a pair of wooden slippers on, he pulled the robe tightly around him, trudging on.
Finally, at the foot of a really tall mountain, he noticed the enemy’s domain. The castle was tall but its height was no taller than the mountain he was facing. Samurai Jack drew in an icy cold breath and began climbing. The mountain went miles and miles up to the top. Cold and frightful as it may seem, Samurai Jack paid no heed. All he wanted was to get up there and destroy Aku, once and for all.
He didn’t think that Aku was the key to sending him back to the past all along. His main purpose has always been to destroy Aku, demolish him into smithereens and get back to the past, leading him to everywhere in the world in search for another way to get back. Only when he came to a legendary Fountain of Answers that he had received his calling. As usual, it wasn’t easy to reach the fountain. He had to battle scores of scary, malevolent-looking creatures and a huge giant guard before he was able to enter the chamber that held the Fountain of Answers.
“Oh, Fountain of Answers, hear my call,” Samurai Jack knelt down in front of the fountain and asked, “please tell me what is the way for me to get back to my past.”
Soon, a creature in a hood slowly emerged out of the fountain with a scythe in his hand. He loomed over Samurai Jack and replied, “The answer to your problem has always been in front of your eyes.”
“What do you mean? That you are going to send me back to the past?”
“No, mortal. I do not mean by that. I meant by the way to your past has always been in front of you, it’s just that you didn’t pay attention to it.”
“Forgive me but…I do not understand.”
The creature sighed and said, “Who is your worst enemy in the world and you wish to destroy him?”
Samurai Jack widened his eyes as he realized what the creature of the fountain was trying to say, “You mean…Aku has always been the key to taking me home? I’ve been so bent on destroying him that I never realized that killing him and abandoning his body means spending eternity in this god forsaken future! How ignorant can I get?”
“Now you know,” the creature replied before descending back into the fountain, leaving Samurai Jack standing alone in the silent chamber, contemplating about the events that had happened to him in his journey throughout the future realm where Aku’s evil was the law. All he had wished for is to murder Aku and reduce him to dust but he had no idea that is worst enemy was his the most important key to his return.
After many searches and many middle men to find out about Aku’s whereabouts, a Siberian drug dealer tipped him off about Aku being in this cold fortress. And this was where he was going. As he climbed, he saw a dozen guards who looked like the Grim Reaper standing there with their scythes, ready to strike at any trespasser coming through. Samurai Jack took out his sword and began battle. Scythes and his sword clashed together, releasing great showers of sparks. One by one he decapitated each and every one of the Grim Reaper look-a-likes, but was surprised to see their heads grow back again. He tried more and more ways to kill them but they continued to grow back the parts they were missing. He looked around and had his eyes on the scythes they were holding. Finally as a last resort, he lured the Grim Reapers to surround him and when they charged simultaneously to strike, he leaped up and all at once, the scythes hit them and immediately reduced them to dust. Seems like they really were much of a Grim Reaper after all.
Samurai Jack continued his climb. Again, he came across more guards of Aku’s domain. There was the spooky ten-armed beast, the mutant rodents, the ten-foot robot giants and even the electronically brainwashed arctic foxes, but Samurai Jack beat them all. Nothing was going to stand in his way on getting what he came for.
Aku.
Finally, he had reached the top of the mountain. The castle stood towering over him, showing out all its malevolence and evil, emphasizing its power. Samurai Jack was unperturbed. He scanned the area. There were no guards around and there were no traps. Not to mention that this castle had no doors, only windows. He could feel an aura coming from the castle tower. It was the ever familiar Aku. He was sure of it. Aku has been expecting him.
As he set foot onto the perimeter of the castle, he looked up. There were no doors he could go through, and the windows were too high for his reach. It looks like Samurai Jack has to start climbing again. He felt for any dents or protruding bricks on the wall and began his climb. No sooner he climbed the wall than a long shower of arrows came pouring down towards him. A small tip of the arrow’s blade scraped through Samurai Jack’s arm and he could feel it burning with a heat too abnormal to be considered pain.
‘Poison,’ he thought. It was a mild one that only caused his skin to change into an abnormal blue, but he knew that if he let more and more of those arrows hit him, he would surely die of overdose. He braced himself and took out his sword. He soon found himself countering the arrows with his sword on one hand and climbing up the castle wall inch by inch with another, all the while trying to keep his balance and not let himself fall. He even did a few stunts to avoid the arrows from hitting if he was quick enough to counter them. Until what seemed like forever, when he was almost at the top of the castle, the shower of arrows stopped.
Slowly he pulled himself up onto the floor of the tower. He looked around but couldn’t see Aku anywhere. ‘Strange,’ Samurai Jack thought. ‘I thought I felt Aku’s aura here. Where is he…?’
“Looking for me, Jack?”
Samurai Jack turned around and saw the ever familiar Aku looming over him like a huge black live tower himself. He grinned through his red lips and his fiery eyes glared at him with malice and evil. Samurai Jack braced himself again. He winced when he felt his arm going all spicy. It was the poison inflicted on him by the first arrow. He held on it for a while before he got a good grip on his sword.
“So, how did you like my arrows, Jack? Pretty impressive, huh?” Aku sneered. “I assume that you have come here to destroy me, is it not?”
“I do not have to answer the question that you yourself have already known, Aku,” Samurai Jack replied. “You have caused too much terror and caused too many lives to die for you. You have brought misery and pain to both the past and the future, and I have come to end all that!”
“End it if you can, Jack,” Aku said nonchalantly. “But beware, you have to do it within a time limit, because I have to warn you, samurai, that the poison on your arm is going to amputate your arm after about an hour after it has infected you.”
Samurai Jack widened his eyes at upon hearing the news. He took another glance at his arm and noticed that it has turned even bluer. He had underestimated Aku’s weapons. He never should’ve dismissed those arrows. But there was no time for regrets now. He has come here to fight with Aku to the death and he was already prepared to die for this cause. It’s now or never. He brandished his sword, signaling to begin battle. Aku let out a malicious laugh and braced himself as well, signaling that he was into the game.
The battle began. Samurai Jack swished his magical sword, and Aku was able to dodge away from it. Aku shape-shifted into a huge cobra and tried to bite off Samurai Jack’s head but he was able to counter it, hitting him squarely on the nose. Aku snarled and shape-shifted back to his original looming self. He swished his hand towards the samurai and clawed onto his back. Samurai Jack let out a cry and moved further to get a better aim at Aku with his sword. Samurai Jack slashed at Aku’s ribs and it was Aku’s turn to let out a cry. Overall, it was an I-hit-you and you-hit-me kind of battle. The strong wind and blizzard added into the intensity of the fight.
Samurai Jack winced again as he felt his arm going all numb and painful again. The poison has worked up once more to another level. He had to act fast. More I-hit-you-you-hit-me scenes again as Samurai Jack and Aku fought to the death. Slashes, clawing, shouting and curses ensured. Aku had shape-shifted to countless things—a huge bear, a dark, looming lion, a panther, a tiger and a whole lot more, Samurai Jack had to counter them all. He was inflicted with loads and loads of cuts, slashes and bruises but he didn’t care. He had to get at Aku right here, right now.
He looked up and saw a flag pole with its flag that bears the sign of Aku wavering in the wind behind the evil overlord. With a great leap behind the overlord and with a swipe of the mighty sword, he slashed the flag pole and let it fall onto the unsuspecting Aku. The treacherous Aku didn’t have time to run off and the flag pole hit him flat onto the ground, pinning him there. Samurai Jack leapt down and raised the sword high, ready to strike. Aku growled and with his sorcery, sent fireballs coming out of the blue showering onto Samurai Jack. One of them hit him squarely onto the gut and flung him out of the castle tower and down onto the solid ground below. He was lucky that the thick snow broke his fall.
As he looked up and forced his battered body to get up, Aku lowered himself from the tower to the icy cold snow a few feet in front of him. He transformed himself into the dark version of Samurai Jack and said with a grin, “I was thinking that you would like to fight with me like…man to man.”
“Any form you take will not be of any influence to your fighting skills,” Samurai Jack replied as he finally got onto his feet and brandished his sword.
“We’ll see about that.”
The battle resumed. Samurai Jack and Aku battled hard with their swords and sparks flew all over the place. The blizzard and the snow were harsh on them, but they pressed on, refusing to give up and let the opponent win. They both fought with their own purposes: Aku to preserve his life and continue to rule over the future and his underdogs, and Samurai Jack to kill Aku and retrieve the key to return to his past to destroy the Aku before his tyranny reigned. Blood were shed on Samurai Jack’s body but he refused to quit. He was determined to finish the job, and finish it he shall.
After what seemed like an entire eternity, the two samurais (one of them fake, of course) sat wearily on the snow, panted breathlessly. Aku shape-shifted himself back to his original ugly form that he was and glared venomously at the samurai. He couldn’t understand why this young samurai would want to waste so much time to fight him to the death. He should be well aware that he is the almighty overlord Aku who would destroy anything and anyone that defies his logic, well, his logic, that is, and he should be well aware that any attempts to kill the overlord was a futile attempt to make. Why? Why would he want to continue his fruitless quest?
Samurai Jack stared back at Aku who was seated a few feet away from him. He, on the other hand, just couldn’t understand why he couldn’t defeat this overlord. His powers are strong and of great force, that’s true, but it is limited. The last time he and his people fought to fight him in the past and he slashed him with his mighty sword, Aku was rendered powerless against the sword and he almost got him, but he won by sending him into the future. A few attempts for him to try and defeat Aku in this god forsaken future and he nearly had him, but in the end, Aku always win. So many times he found dozens of methods to take him back to the past, but in the end, in a way Aku had succeeded in keeping him in the future. It wasn’t fair. Why the gods that granted him the power of the magical sword have also granted Aku with such perfect luck? Why did the gods that gave him the luck to escape death and destruction also gave Aku the same fortune? Is his fate and Aku the same? Is his luck intertwined with the evil? Does this mean that in order to keep the good alive, the evil has to exist too?
Samurai Jack winced. The poison began to act up again. He could hardly feel his whole arm anymore. He turned and looked at his arm. The whole arm has turned blue. It has begun to reach to its maximum level. He was going to lose his arm sooner or later and if he doesn’t act fast, he was going to lose yet again. He stared at the sword that was covered with Aku’s blood and looked up at Aku. Aku glared back, challenging him to fight back while bracing himself for the samurai’s incoming. He stared back the sword again and suddenly began to comprehend everything that had been happening to him for the past years he had been in this world.
‘The answer to your problem has always been in front of your eyes…’
Samurai Jack narrowed his eyes. He finally began to understand everything: about his birthright, his mission, his training as a samurai, his battle with Aku, him being sent here to the future at the brink of his victory, his near-successes in destroying Aku, everything. He slowly stood up and had both his hands on his sword.
“Aku!” he called out. Aku only looked back at him with his eyes narrowing into near slits, waiting for his move. Samurai Jack continued, “I have begun to comprehend about our fate.”
“What is there to comprehend, Jack?” Aku said with a sneer. “That I am the almighty undefeatable Aku and you are just a puny, unlucky samurai destined to be stuck in this world forever?”
“No, it is something more than that,” Samurai Jack said as he brandished his sword higher. “I have got everything figured out now.”
“Pray tell,” Aku rolled his eyes, granting him a last statement before he meets his doom.
“I have been thinking about the fate that intertwines the both of us. I have always tried to destroy you but you often succeeded in every attempt I do. You always win and I always lose. Every time I try to go back to the past, your tyranny has kept down here in this forsaken land. And then I realized something. You have always tried to escape from me and from the death that I might inflict on you, but you refused to kill me yourself. You always ask your minions to do the dirty work for you. Most of the calamity that falls upon me only kept more alive and much stronger. You tried many times to capture me, but it only leaves me battered but alive. I’m beginning to think that you and I have to exist together to keep the evil and the good together in balance.”
“And your point is…?” Aku was getting restless.
“I understand now that the gods have chosen me as your life supporter. Without me, you would’ve died. It doesn’t matter if I kill you, because it would end up killing me, and to you, it is too much an easy way to destroy me. You want me to suffer a much worse fate, a suffering that declines me death even if I want it. But if I were to die, you will die too, and that is something you don’t want to happen, do you, Aku? You knew all along that your minions will always fail to destroy me, don’t you? Isn’t it why you never worry when you send in hundreds and hundred of your underdogs to take me down, because you expected them to lose, am I right, Aku?”
“You are delusional, Jack. You let the fruitless obsession of destroying me get into your head,” Aku said, but Samurai Jack could see that his eyes were getting wild with fear and he could hear his voice trembling.
“Now that I have made my point, I’m going to do what I was supposed to do,” Samurai Jack began to raise the sword high above his head. But the blade was not aiming for Aku.
It was aiming at his own body.
“Wait, Jack! You fool! What are you doing?!” Aku was really beginning to panic. Finally, he had shown his true colours.
“I have finally won, Aku.”
“NO~!!!!!”
The stab of the sword onto the young samurai’s abdomen was deafening, echoing throughout the whole ends of the world. Samurai Jack couldn’t feel anything all of a sudden. The only thing he felt was a gush and blood splattered all over the white snow beneath his feet. He felt himself going dizzy and blank. He was going down, slowly down.
In the midst of it all, he felt so good.
Aku’s scream was the last thing he ever remembered…
Is this…death? No sound. No pain. No light. No feelings. Nothing.
The scariest thing about death is not the pain that you will feel…but the feeling of loneliness after that…
My memories…are floating away…
Only one thing is for sure…
If I ever close my eyes…I know that it’ll be the end…
Samurai Jack opened his eyes slowly. He saw himself in the middle of a bright space. His whole body was engulfed in light, as if he had achieved the deity of life. He got up slowly. He looked at his arm. It wasn’t blue anymore and it wasn’t as numb as it should be. He checked his abdomen that he just stabbed. No wound, no more blood, nothing. Just a small cut.
He stood up and looked around. He didn’t remember coming here. The only thing he remembered was the stab of the magic sword on his abdomen, then the shrill cry of agony from Aku, and then complete darkness. He slowly muttered to himself, “Where am I?”
“You are in the brink between life and death, the bridge of all paths between the living and the dead,” a voice boomed out of the blue in the middle of the bright nowhere.
“Why am I here? Why am I stuck in the middle of life and death? Am I not supposed to be in the land of the dead? I killed myself…” Samurai Jack’s questions were cut short by the booming voice.
“It is not your time for you to meet your creator. You still have much ahead in life.”
“I do not understand. My task has already completed. I have destroyed Aku by destroying myself. Isn’t it what my existence is to be, to keep Aku alive?”
“My child, your task may have been completed, but your life has not. It was a treacherous thing for Aku to do, because it was not of our intention to intertwine your life with his. When he tore open the vortex to send you to the future, he also had tore open a forbidden spell from the deities to enable his soul and your soul become as one. Your increased strength over the years of fighting his minions was his tool to make himself stronger and increase his reign over the future. That was the reason why he was able to take over the world and become the overlord of the future, because he was kept alive and strong by your own strong will. Since you have understood the meaning of your fate and your survival, and you have sacrificed yourself to destroy Aku, you have also freed yourself of the spell that binds you and Aku. Now that you are free, you are granted a new life without any ties with other beings and you can live the life you have always wanted.”
Samurai Jack looked at himself. He gazed upon his hands and noticed that for the first time in his life, he felt so carefree, so released, so alive. He was finally free from his task of destroying Aku. He was finally free from everything he had ever been through. Finally, he was himself. But then his face looked down as he realized something, “But the creature from the Fountain of Answers. He said that I needed Aku to send me back to my time. I have destroyed myself together with Aku. How am I going to go back?”
Suddenly, a large black crystal that gleamed wonderfully appeared before his feet. He noticed and bent down to pick it up. He looked at it questioningly. As if answering his question, the booming voice came again, “It is true that you need Aku to send you back to the past, because his life and yours have become as one. This is his heart. On it, there is an inscription. Take it and bring it to where you first found yourself when you came to the future. Read it out loud and hold it high above your head. You will return to the past in no time.”
“But then if I have returned to the past, Aku is still there,” Samurai Jack again realized something. “Because in that time, I have not destroyed Aku.”
“You came from the past and Aku has bound himself to you during that time period. Your body still belongs to the past no matter where you go. Now that you are free of your binding spell between Aku by sacrificing yourself, both Aku here and Aku in the past has been destroyed. You will have to fear no more and fight no more except other challenges that might come your way through life.”
Samurai Jack smiled as he held on to the black crystal tight. He fell onto his knees and said, “Thank you, great one. My freedom wouldn’t have been a success if it weren’t for your protection over me.”
“Don’t thank me,” the booming voice replied. “Your time is just not here yet. I shall return you back to your original body. You have to bear with pain again because your wounds are still there in your original body.”
“After this victory, I shall fear pain no longer.”
“A brave samurai you are. May your life be fruitful.”
*FLASHBACK ENDS*
Samurai Jack’s mind cleared when he realized that the first city he dropped into when he was transported into this future was completely deserted. No big giant robots, no androids, no bad guys, no one. The place was too quiet to be a city. He had to stay on guard for anything incoming. There are no taking chances.
Suddenly, everyone came out of their homes. They weren’t coming out to attack him. They were actually coming out to cheer and thank him. Each and everyone of the city’s residence came over to Samurai Jack and poured cheers and showered thanks all over him. They offered to nurse him and heal him, they offered to feed him and sew his tattered clothes, they offered to clean him up, and they offered to shine his magnificent sword. They offered almost everything they could offer to the man who had saved them from the tyranny of the evil overlord Aku. Samurai Jack accepted their offer. He still felt a little woozy and a little tired after his ordeal with Aku.
The next day, he was refreshed and ready to go. He went to the center of the city, the people following behind him. One by one they bid their goodbyes.
“Goodbye, Samurai Jack!”
“Don’t forget us!”
“You really are an angel sent from heaven to save us!”
“We are eternally grateful to you, Jack!”
“Nothing we could do to repay all the favours you had done for us!”
“The only thing you have to do to repay me,” Samurai Jack said with a smile, “is that you have to do something good for your own city. Rid it of all the past essence of Aku and create a better future for your children.”
“We will remember that, Jack!”
“Farewell, Jack!”
Samurai Jack took out the crystal he had kept in his pocket and searched for the inscription. Yes, there it was, right in the middle of the crystal. It was written in the language that he had never seen for a very, very long time. He took a deep breath and began to read the inscription.
Within minutes, the crystal began to shine its dark glow. He quickly held it up above his head. He felt his whole body getting lighter and lighter and there were butterflies in his stomach. He was going home. Finally, after all these years in this time wave, he was actually going home. He turned to the people of the future surrounding him and said his last word:“Sayonara.”
Samurai Jack opened his eyes. He found himself in the middle of a vast forest. The forest was burning and most of them were beginning to turn to ashes. He got up slowly and looked around. No one was there except the wild life that was running for their lives. This forest seemed very familiar but he couldn’t put a head to toe about it, not after that blinding flash and the feeling of traveling through time and space.
He paced slowly out of the forest and looked out into the open. It was his fellow samurais, all gathered down there with really confused faces. Many of them were questioning where the evil Aku was. It seemed as if he just had a serious spasm or a heart attack and suddenly just vanished into oblivion. They couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw their leader Jack whom they saw disappearing into a wide vortex suddenly appear out of the burning forest. They all ran towards him and gathered around him, asking questions after questions about Jack’s whereabouts and where Aku disappeared.
Samurai Jack for once, smiled with joy.
He was finally home.
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