Karma
Chapter Summary: Carly becomes a (rather annoying) ghost and haunts Divine while Mikage attempts to reconcile with Jack.
Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh 5D's.
Warning: If you haven't watched the second of season of the anime, there's going to be spoilers.
A/N: How can Carly have a ghost? Is Divine dead? All valid questions. I'm not really sure how to answer them. Also, events might take place in different times apart from the main story, which, by the way, is about Divine and Carly. Because... well... irony aside, I love those two characters.
Chapter 1 -- Change
Something important had ripped in the space-time continuum. It could have been a result of all the havoc the signers were causing or even the result of psychic powers or a funky rainbow colored power source, but it had cut through Neo Domino and taken part of the city in its wake.
It had also oddly separated a girl from her body and as a result made said girl a ghost, even when the corpse had reanimated itself again with the same soul but a very different agenda.
Or at least, that was what Carly had been trying to explain to the person who had killed her.
"Well, I did see myself, and in that I mean my body, get up and leave, but here I am." She looked at her new self, expecting to see something different, but it was basically the same Carly-body complete with glasses. "I guess that means I'm a ghost. So I'm dead? Eeeeaahhh!"
"It must be the mortal part of you." Divine affirmed clearly, ignoring her unghostly yet still ungodly shrieks.
"Mortal part?"
"The mortal, annoying part of you must have died." And here it is, right in front of me, he added in thought.
"You think I can connect with my body again?"
"I hope not. I killed you for a reason."
She began to chuckle at how morbidly sarcastic he was, but stopped herself. It wasn't very funny.
"B-b-but if I'm dead then that means-"
And the girl began reciting an odd assortment of things she couldn't do as a ghost. Divine didn't want to stay around to be the victim of that onslaught, so he trekked about the rubble of the building he had woken up in. Of course, he realized as he walked around, it had been his building and it was hardly standing.
He'd have to find himself a new building and start up the movement all over again. Yet, for some reason, the resolve wasn't in him to do it anymore.
"Waaaaaah!" Carly moaned, as she finished her long list, knocking Divine out of his sentiments.
It was hard to imagine that the ghost-girl had taken down his army, his life's work, albeit, as a different form. It was even harder for Divine to accept that he had killed her and had received his just desserts. Because, naturally, he didn't think of those certain things. It was one of his greatest assets.
"Enough already."
"B-but I'll never," she cried as her trembling lips chewed on a tissue. "You did this! I'll never forgive you! I-I-I'll-!" She flew into a bout of rage, but it soon dissipated because she couldn't think of anything she could do to him, and neither could he.
Divine used the awkward silence to work his other greatest asset on the girl. His charm.
"The world is a cruel place, filled with revenge and suffering. We all have vengeful thoughts," He said, mindful of the rubble around him. "But you should put those powerful emotions to a better use. Perhaps, they might even awaken some special power inside of you." It was his most standard speech, he told it to all of his psychics.
"Well, I do like reading my own fortune."
It was a start.
Mikage had made up her mind. She had always been a determined woman playing the sweet girl act. No more of it! She hated lying to herself.
But that was what she had been doing for the last two years in the service of Jack Atlas. No more of it! She didn't want to be a servant to anyone anymore.
Only...
She liked it. Even when she was totally against ultimate servitude, when the scars of the men she had worked for were embedded in her soul, she still liked serving Jack Atlas.
He numbed her rebellion.
No more of it!
Why hadn't he shown any remorse for her? Why had he always been the same Jack Atlas that she had met, up until recently? Why hadn't he spared a singe trickle of emotion towards her that he obviously showed with Yuusei and Martha and... Why hadn't he changed?
"Atlas-sama?"
He regarded her but said nothing.
She was being too polite. No more. Not anymore.
"Jack!"
That got his attention, but it was rather a turn of the head as opposed to the shock-glare she had been expecting.
"I need to know if you care for me and I need to know it now."
"Care for you?" Of course he cared for her on some level, just as he cared for the world and was battling against the Dark Singers for that reason. It wasn't enough though. Not for her,
"The way I always have for you."
"No... not in that way."
"But why?"
"All that time I was split apart from my friends, my family. Godwin and you had me believing in a lie- that I could be King if I was lonely and forgot about them. I could never trust any of you again." He looked disgusted.
"Atlas-sama." His name came out in a painful, breathless whisper and she meant all of the formality it entailed.
"I'm only just reconciling with those people now. And it's too late for..."
"Don't say it!"
"Kiryu, Crow, the people of Satellite, and her..."
"I see." Mikage did what she always did when something was painful, like a slap in the face or angry words yelled in her direction: she shifted into neutral and blocked out all the pain and resentment. She retreated to the deepest part of herself so that the real-fake Mikage came out. The outer most shell of her personality that not even Jack Atlas could hope to penetrate, even if he wanted to.
"I will be-" No. There would be no reason to tell him where she was or what she was doing.
She simply left.
Carly had been following Divine amongst the wreckage, not saying much. But Divine's not saying much and Carly's not saying much were two different things.
"So... uh... Why are you being so nice to me when you murdered me?" The girl had mellowed down, but her tone of voice was just too optimistic for being murdered. Even Divine thought so.
"You could be useful in the Arcadia Movement." He stated, making it sound less like an invitation and more as a you're-going-to-work-for-me-now.
Unfortunately for him, Carly's thoughts were elsewhere. "It's a scoop then! So Mr.- uh? Divine was it? What is this mysterious Arcadia Movement? What are your goals? Is it true that-"
"You'll see soon enough." Though the sinking feeling in his heart told him everything he had worked for was either rubble, vanished or... where had she gone? A spark in his mind flashed and for a moment he recalled her face, her scream, and darkness. He tried to think about falling. The weightless feeling of impact and whatever had conspired after. A hole in his memory and Carly was making it remarkably difficult to think about that.
"Eyaaah!"
"What are you crying about now?"
"I-I-I just r-realized that I d-don't need to be a reporter anymore!" And with that she scurried around in a hyper fit of emotion that was either depression or insanity.
He let the girl be. He had said what he needed to and had no regrets for what he did. Whether the girl would be useful to him or not was something of little importance. Besides, he needed to get out of the building and form a plan. Then everything would easily fall into place.
Stepping outside offered him no relief. Everything was leveled for what seemed like a kilometer.
Even Carly was speechless.
"And so it's begun, and not by my hand." Divine noted sadly. "And now even Aki is gone too."
"Aki Izayoi?"
He nodded.
"Another big scoop! Does the head of Arcadia have feelings for the famous duelist? Or is it- No. Wait. I did it again." It was the reporting that comforted her, that held her in a familiar embrace. Looking out into the apocalypse, Divine couldn't blame her.
"Yuusei Fudou changed her, I couldn't. It would have ruined her potential. I should have seen it earlier." He said sourly, glaring out into the world around him like it was Yuusei he was looking at.
"Well," Carly added in, as if she were talking about her favorite subject, "I guess change is part of love. You have to change a person so they can truly love you back!" She reverted to a side of herself he had seen when he first challenged her. The same hopeful and optimistic ditz-rat. There was even a twinkle in her eyes that might have looked like she was thinking of some far off warm memory.
"Love?" Divine remained sour. "Is that what you think this is about?"
The girl only nodded happily, unaware of his mood.
"It's settled then. I'm going to find Aki and you're going to help."
"W-Wait. What?"
But Divine either hadn't heard her or was ignoring her as he took his first steps into the forbidding landscape.
A/N: I'm thinking of making this a chaptered fic because I don't think things quite developed in this chapter and few more things need to be explained. But basically, it's meant to be a fun little story. So yes. I'll try to make this chaptered.
Drop me a comment if you have anything to say, anything at all, because reviews are very helpful in the end and all they take is a moment to write.