General Jack's Rebirth

The chains were cold, colder than the stone floor, colder than the night wind creeping through the shattered walls, colder than the voices chanting his name outside the ruins of the palace: "Traitor, coward, scapegoat."

General Jack knelt in the center of what had once been the throne room, his wrists bound behind him, his armor torn open. The metallic tang of blood was still warm against his tongue. Smoke curled from burning tapestries, carrying the scent of oak, ash, and the death of a nation.

He forced his eyes open long enough to look at the bodies laid flat beside him; blood stains covered his long face. His soldiers, his family, his emperor—ALL GONE, yes, ALL GONE.

"Get up!" A deep voice said behind him, and boots echoed as someone stepped into the faint light. Jack didn't lift his head. He didn't need to. He knew that voice better than he knew his own heartbeat.

Lieutenant Kao, the man he grew up with as a child, the man he had trained and won most wars with, the man who was loved by his parents before their sudden demise, the man he had trusted, the man he had raised from nothing, the man who killed his family mercilessly.

"You should've chosen the winning side, general." KAO crouched, blade tapping Jack's chin. "The God of War could've spared your life."

"God... God of war!" Jack repeated slowly in a low tone.

King George, popularly known as the God of War, is also General Jack's father-in-law. A man known for his brutality to the human race, a man that has never lost any battle since he became the emperor of Woodpeckers. He was a cunning and ruthless man to the core. His hatred for General Jack goes beyond ordinary, since he married his only daughter, Elena.

Jack's voice came out low, hoarse, and almost broken. "Now I know what this is all about." He let out a cough to clear his throat. "My father-in-law might kill me now, yet I believe in this kingdom."

"That was your mistake." Kao uttered. "You never listened to me; you never followed his biddings ever since you became the general."

"Kao, you've always envied me; what's my offense?" Jack managed to look him in the eyes with the little strength left in him. "I took you like my own blood brother."

"Really!" Kao chuckles in a low tone. "So, you actually observed my hatred towards you. I guess you inherited your father's hatred. Now die like him."

The blade cut a thin line across Jack's throat, not deep enough to kill, just enough to mark the end.

Outside, the enemy's banners rose over the lifetime protecting lay in ruins. And watching his family's lifeless faces was a pain sharper than any sword.

"Why me? Why, Cara, my daughter? Why did he kill Elena, the daughter of his king?" Many questions remained unanswered to him as his life slipped away before his eyes and he couldn't do a thing.

Jack closed his eyes, not in acceptance, but in fury. If I could turn back time, if I could stop the betrayal before it began, if I could live again, I would destroy every last one of you, but wishes were wasted on the dead.

Kao lifted the sword. "Goodbye, old friend." The blade fell. Darkness swallowed him whole.

*******

And then light, a single breath struck his lungs like a hammer. Jack jolted upright like an electric, choking like he had metal stuck in his throat, gasping, clutching at a throat that should have been slit open. His fingertips met smooth skin, warm and unbroken. He blinked hard, vision swimming. A wooden beam ceiling with sunlight filtering through paper windows.

"Is this hell? Is this an illusion? Why am I young again?"

While he was whispering to himself, A familiar incense smell, not the palace, not the ruins, not death, his old room in the Eastern Barracks.

A place that had been burned down ten years ago by enemies from the Nightshade kingdom. Jack froze in shock, his hands strong, unscarred, and not yet marked by war. His body was younger and leaner, not the battered husk he'd died in.

He stumbled toward the mirror on the wall at the right corner of the room; he nearly fell to the ground at the revelation before him.

The face staring back was a decade younger. "Impossible," he whispered.

But the world didn't care about his disbelief; it answered instead with a voice, cold, echoing, and divine.

"Heavenly retribution system activated." Jack's blood ran still.

A translucent panel materialized before his eyes, filled with symbols he had never seen in either life: "Welcome, General Jack." "You have died in disgrace; you have been granted one chance to correct your fate."

Jack staggered back, breath shaking as his legs did; this wasn't a dream. This wasn't mercy; this was judgement.

Footsteps echoed from outside his quarters, familiar, sharp, and hurried. Someone he knew from ten years ago. Someone who should have the first invasion.

"General Jack! Are you awake?" A young soldier called. A boy whose grave Jack had once dug with his own bloody hands. Alive, everything was starting again.

Jack steadied himself; the kingdom had fallen because he had trusted too much, because he had believed in loyalty, because he thought honor mattered in a world ruled by knives and Shadow.

"What's going on?" He asked himself inwardly.

He flexed his younger hands, feeling strength he hadn't felt in a decade. His muscle pulled stronger than before. This is a part of him he had left.

"I won't die the same way twice," he murmured. "And neither will this kingdom."

Standing behind him at the entrance was Lieutenant Kao in his red and black royal soldier attire; he was fully equipped with weapons. As the general turned, his eyes met his.

"Jack, I was told you are awake; that's why I came." Lieutenant Kao spoke, but his words had no more meaning than the words of a traitor, betrayal, or murderer; he's POISON.

"Kao, he's here with me!" He whispered to himself while gazing directly at him. "If he could do that before now, then he'll definitely do it again, only this time I'll kill him first."

General Jack's desire to kill but knowing he can't yet made him smash his fist on his palm; Kao's subtle suspicious behavior was all written over him.

He maintained strong eye contact for a few minutes until, all of a sudden, he heard voices screaming from outside.

"My Lord, your daughter is dying; Cara is dying!" Amelia, Lady Elena's personal maid, cried out loud. I quickly rushed out of the room without hesitation.

This sends a shiver down to his spine. A flashback of holding her corpse in his past life came running through his entire body, the fear that he might lose her even in his second life.

"Cara won't die while I'm still alive; this might be my last chance of saving her."