***
Jack wrapped his bed covers around him. They were soft and incredibly comfortable but he couldn't fall asleep. He stared into the darkness, eyes wide open, velvet based and alert. He just couldn't bring himself to try. He didn't want to. He wanted to stay in a void of darkness and silence forever.
"Jack... you must save the world... I'll... cheer you on!"
"Stop it..." he whispered. "Don't say that... don't say that like you mean it... don't..." his voice trailed off into a bare murmur. He heard Yusei padding across the corridor, and blocked out the sound by borrowing further into his covers. Yusei had been particularly protective over everybody lately, and was especially concerned over Jack.
"Are you... really Carly?"
'Why did you do it?' Jack felt tears form in his eyes. The number of times he had walked to the exact same spot where Carly and Jack had dueled in a twisted fate.... the place where he travelled to in a weak attempt to find her. He wanted it to be a dream. He longed for Carly to smile and say, "Hey, Jack, here I am! It was all just a joke! Fooled you, didn't I?!" But the only sound he could hear was the sound of his heart breaking, dispersed within the overwhelming melancholy mood.
"Isn't it ok if you be a real King, now?"
'Carly... don't leave me..." Jack's eyes shut automatically, and he was aware of how physically and mentally exhausted he was. His eyes were red and swollen, his pulse week and lifeless, his physique losing it's original significance. Nothing mattered. Nothing mattered.
"This life was saved once by you!"
Jack remembered yelling those words, meaning them to the point of no return. He needed to say those words. He needed to break free. Carly... meek, sensitive, clumsy, determined, kind Carly... He needed her most of all. Instead he found a puppet, controlled, dark and deadly. A shadow of the former girl. Jack Atlas won the duel... Jack Atlas lost the duel.
"My wish is that you be a real King and loved by every one..."
Jack gritted his teeth. He was stuck. Stuck is a forged friendship with Yusei, an obvious awkwardness around every one. Welcomed with open arms... but they weren't Carly. He cared for them, but could never value them the way he did Carly. Jack felt himself stand up. His legs took him back where his mind dared not venture.
"If I am to die with you, then I have no regrets!"
But he had only said that when he truly believed that the only girl for him would come back the same way she had left. He walked in the dim moonlight, disguised well in his dark tank top, staring right ahead. Always ahead. 'I'll go back to the place... the original place...' The place where it started.
"I made a wrong choice in order for my own happiness..."
Jack finally arrived, staring into the ocean, looking out onto the sunset. His hand closed over the spectacles that he still kept. "Carly, I will see you again. I promise. I promise."