Jack didn't know where he even was let alone how he had gotten there. One minute he was following his friends through the mansion, and the next, he was alone in a big white room. It was rectangular, with an arched double doorway on both ends and a row of expensive looking columns on either side of what he now realized was a giant hallway.

The double doors on the opposite end of the hallway from him were especially fancy. They were bordered by a complicated pattern, and Jack was immediately curious as to what was on the other side of such a carefully constructed and decorated doorway.

He repeatedly turned and looked behind him. He couldn't help feeling like he was being watched. He had never accidentally traveled through some sort of space portal before, so he was a little unclear on the protocol.

Suddenly, Jack was on his back looking at the ceiling. His eyes registered the fancy shoe that had swept his legs out from under him. It was raised above his head, preparing to smash his skull into the marble floor. Jack rolled to the side at the last moment and leapt to his feet, turning to see who had sucker kicked him.

There was nobody standing there now, only the cracked floor where the foot had just missed his head.

"What do we have here?" a hoarse, male voice said and Jack followed it to the back of the room next to the last column on his right side.

There was an average sized, middle aged man with curly white hair down to his shoulders and pale skin. His eyes were light blue and he wore a black tuxedo and held a long but thin black cane in his right hand. At the top of the cane, there were three balls descending in size like a tiny black snowman. He looked at Jack with the smile of a man watching his favorite dinner getting placed in front of him.

Zachias hadn't spoken to Jack directly since he had dropped him and Arthur from the simulation, but Jack could feel his apprehension.

"You are not supposed to be here" the man practically hummed. "That means I get to have fun with you." He immediately jumped almost eight feet into the air and brought his cane down on Jack's head.

Jack was barely able to pull his staff out of Zachias' fractal key in time and stop the cane from braining him. He caught the blow in the middle of the staff with both hands above his head. The marble floor under his feet cracked and his knees almost buckled from the force. Whoever this man was, he was disturbingly strong.

"Are you having fun yet?" the man asked him and Jack clenched his jaw.

He projected his aura and manifested his qi. Blinding blue lightning covered him arcing from all over his body. He was worried that the man hadn't reacted to the sudden appearance of an ornate black staff or even to the flashing lightning surrounding Jack.

"This isn't my idea of fun" Jack replied. The well dressed man looked genuinely confused for a moment, tilting his head to the side and furrowing his brow.

"Of course it is!" he said as if it were obvious. "You clearly love to fight as much as I do, or you would be running. Now let me see you smile!"

The crazed man took a fencing stance with his back straight and his cane held out in front of him like a sword in his right hand while he put his left hand behind his back.

"Who the hell are you?" Jack asked angrily. It pissed him off that this man presumed to know him.

He willed the staff to become a spear. The man saw the weapon transform and didn't bat an eyelash. Jack hoped he was just insane because if he had seen artifacts like the Aggre Staff before, then he would have to be from another world. Was he dealing with another alien?

"My name is Janus! What is yours?" he croaked with excitement.

Jack held the spear high in a defensive stance, hoping that he could distract Janus with conversation while he worked out his next move. Unfortunately, Janus lunged forward and stabbed with the cane forcing Jack to use the spear handle to block.

Janus followed up with a flurry of strikes that Jack was barely able to intercept. Every time their weapons made contact, Jack's hands shook from the incredible force. At this rate, his hands would be too numb to be of any use before long.

He would've liked to answer, but he missed a block and took a blow to the gut. Jack doubled over and flew backwards as the air was forced out of his lungs. He rolled backwards over his head and slid to a stop, the blue lightning coming off his body sliding across the floor with him.

Before he could even gasp for air, Janus was standing right in front of him. He swung his cane from the right and Jack barely managed to put his spear handle in the way. The cane smashed through his guard and nearly broke his left arm as Janus batted him to the side. Jack stayed on his feet this time and tried to do some damage of his own.

He turned his spear into a scythe and tried to take Janus by surprise with the new shape. However, this turned out to be a mistake, as Janus ducked under the blade and jabbed Jack in the chest. He thought he felt some ribs crack as he flew back through the air.

Jack landed in the middle of the room on his back. He coughed and tasted blood. Rolling to the side, he came to his hands and knees and spit crimson. Jack grabbed his scythe and stood up slowly. For some reason, Janus was content to wait for him to rise.

"There is the smile that I have been waiting for!"

Jack was surprised to find that Janus was right. He was smiling, his teeth stained red with his own blood. Why was he smiling? Broken bones and internal bleeding wasn't exactly most people's idea of a good time.

"You might have been right about me" Jack finally admitted. "Maybe I am more like you than I wanted to admit."

"I knew it!" the curly white haired man shouted with fervor.

"I do like the action. And I never feel more alive than I do when I am close to death." Jack was obviously having a revelation and Janus allowed it. Jack understood now what Zachias was trying to tell him.

"I didn't come here to try and save the world" Jack admitted with a humorless laugh. "I came here for my people. Unlike me, they actually deserve everything that life has to offer.”

He thought about his family and the few friends that had actually stood by him all these years. Jack would do anything for them.

“I can't fix the world, but I can tilt it in their favor, and I will. Even if I have to pick it up and drop it on its fucking head to do it."

As Jack was speaking, he started to feel more in tune with the world around him. His qi was easier to manipulate than it ever had been before. He could feel a subdued sense of triumph from Zachias. Jack was finally beginning to understand who he was.

"Who cares if I'm a good person or a bad one?" Jack laughed. "All that matters, is that my people get to live however, and do whatever they want."

The lightning arcing from his body was getting denser as he manifested more qi. Jack could see now that he had been in denial. He wanted to believe that the love he had for his friends and family made him a good person, but that was just wishful thinking. He would do anything for that love. There was no line that he wouldn't cross for their sake. Jack finally understood himself more clearly than he ever had before.

He realized that one of his favorite authors was wrong when she proposed that love might be the only purely good thing in the world. Jack thought it was more likely the opposite. Most of the world's evil actually began with love, and all of Jack's did.

He decided that he didn't care.

Jack's people loved him in spite of all his flaws, and that grace was absolutely sacred to him. The least he could do was return the favor. There was no moral or conviction more important to Jack than their health and happiness.

Sensing his chakra for the first time was almost overwhelming. He could feel the world around him ready to respond to his will. His qi moved through his body and aura more smoothly than it ever had before. He noticed that he could do more with it than just manifest it in the form of lightning. He willed the excess qi to flow into his legs and the lightning moved from all over his body and flooded his leg muscles.

He had never held so much qi in one place before. It felt like his legs would burst with the power if he didn't use it. He held his scythe to the right side and exploded into motion. With one step, Jack was across the room with blood on the end of his scythe.

A drop of blood.

Janus was sporting a new scratch on the right side of his face. He had dodged the fastest attack that Jack could manage. He couldn't even imagine moving faster than that.

In that moment, Jack decided that a strategic withdrawal was his best move. He had heard some loud crashing sounds coming from outside the doorway behind him, so he started to inch backwards without taking his eyes off of his opponent. Janus' pale blue eyes immediately noticed this movement and his permanent smile widened.

"Oh no you don't." Janus lunged at him like a fencer once again.

Jack transformed his scythe into a staff and pushed the cane sideways, rolling out of the way at the same time. He used his chakra to fill his arms and legs with power. His staff was a blur as he jumped and spun and slowly retreated down the hallway.

He found it easier to keep up with Janus' speed in this exchange, however, his strength was another story. Every time he blocked an attack, his entire body seemed to shake with the force. Even when Jack tried to compensate by avoiding direct contact, his bones still rattled with the impacts of every glancing blow. It was like the cane was made out of shockwaves. He wondered if it was Janus' qi.

Jack retreated all the way down the grand hallway until his back was against the big, arched double doors. He invited Janus to attack him, and then dodged to the left at the last moment. As soon as the cane touched the white door, the entire doorway exploded into flying splinters as if a truck had just run through it. Jack glanced back to see an opulent staircase of more white marble and a railing on each side.

He pointed the staff at Janus and willed it to take the shape of a spear. Jack leapt backwards and cleared the first seven steps.

"It's over Janus" he said imperiously. "I have the high ground."

Janus only smiled and followed him up the stairs.