My Dark King – Chapter 3: Reawakening

Disclaimer: In case you haven't figured it out yet, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. All Yu-Gi-Oh!-related characters, settings, etc. are the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi.

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Jack Atlas stared at the cheap construct of wire and glass and wished for death.

The roof of Rex Goodwin's mansion was ideal for the quiet, contemplative solitude that the former King so cherished. No one bothered him up here, with the occasional irritating exception of Mikage.

Jack's brow furrowed at the thought of his attractive but overly attentive secretary. He would need to make it clear to her soon that there was absolutely no chance of a relationship between them; he resolved to do it once they arrived in Satellite. That way he would be free to go off and try to save the woman to whom his heart truly belonged…

Jack had no idea how a young girl of virtually no social or economic import had so completely captured his love in so short a time, but ultimately he did not care. He would save her from the grasp of either the hummingbird or lizard Jibakushin, and he would rip the offending God's wielder to motherfucking pieces.

And if he died trying, he would accept it as an appropriate punishment. If Carly had not so generously taken him in, she would never have been involved in the Signer/Dark Signer War in the first place, and she wouldn't have been in the Arcadia Building when it went down. Either he would rescue her back into life or join her in death; he would not allow the barriers of life and death to separate them any longer.

Carly…

The image was fading. Jack had more than a bit of experience with lucid dreaming, having very rarely slept with a restful mind during his formative years in Satellite, but he had never before experienced a dream attempt to slip away from him. The image of him holding Carly's glasses was flickering out like a bad television signal, while the sounds of his former thoughts were growing ever more distant.

Jack reached out his arms as if to reign his dream back in, but it was no use; pitch-blackness was the only thing that filled his mind now.

Quite distinctly, Jack was sure that he heard a deep but distant voice say, "How quaint – you're resisting. But My strength has returned to Me, and you are Mine."

Jack's awareness of his dreaming state dissipated into the void surrounding him. Aslla piscu was satisfied; the boy would remember none of this upon his awakening.

Jack's eyes flickered open. Standing over him was Carly, smiling as only Carly could. "C…C…Carly?" he managed to utter, completely bewildered and yet strangely relieved.

"Rest for a moment," Carly told him, rubbing his temples as she did so. It felt so good, so relaxing; his millions of questions faded away as he focused solely on enjoying her touch. Suddenly he felt tired, so very tired, and he knew that slumber would claim him within moments.

The last thing he heard before drifting off was Carly's soothing voice assuring him, "All will be explained in due time, my beloved. My…Dark King."

[-]

Jack's eyes flickered open. Standing over him was Carly, her smile even wider than it had been in his dream. He scarcely had time to look around before she locked him in a tight embrace.

"For a moment, I was sure that I had lost you," she choked out, and Jack realized that she was crying. Questions, he decided, could wait for a moment; he focused instead on comforting the woman that he loved.

[-]

Divine was confused, and that never boded well for him. According to his psychic visions Yusei Fudo should have just appeared around the nearby corner, with Divine ready to spring his false trap. Divine's warning about the falling billboard would gain the imbecilic boy's trust, allowing him to lead the interfering Signer into his true trap.

The boy had an annoying tendency to…distract Aki from her missions, and the psychic couldn't have that happen today. The Dark Signers needed to be exterminated, and Aki needed to be the one to do it. He couldn't lose his Black Rose Witch, not after he had spent so much time and effort cultivating her.

Divine waited several more minutes before giving the operation up as a bad job. Clearly, someone or something inordinately powerful was toying with fate, for only powers greater than his could alter the future as he predicted it.

Divine had little time to consider this issue, however, for unless all of his predictions for that day had been invalidated, Aki was due to fall onto an enormous shard of glass in three minutes. Yusei or no Yusei, it was time to put his plan into action.

Divine chanted the phrase in his mind that would bring him victory today, the phrase that he had long ago – alongside a dozen or so others – planted into Aki's subconscious, the phrase that would turn the relatively mannerly girl into a killing machine…

Reawaken the rose and strangle the weed.

[-]

Yusei Fudo was walking without really moving. After Crow had revealed to him his newly acquired sign, Yusei had hoarsely suggested that they split up to cover more ground as they searched for Aki, and Crow had readily accepted the excuse to go off and cry privately. The high-spirited boy hated for others to see him vulnerable, and Yusei did not want to intrude on his privacy.

Besides, Yusei had his own contemplations to get along with…

The one duel the Signer had not personally attended to support his allies had been the one duel that he should have gone to above all others. Yusei had been sure that Jack – proud, self-sufficient Jack – wouldn't need his help to take down the hummingbird Dark Signer, but apparently he had been sadly mistaken. And Jack had paid the price with his life.

The two duelists may have had their differences in the past, but if anyone were ever to ask Yusei for the identity of his best friend, the answer "Jack Atlas" would have been delivered instantaneously. Jack was like a brother to him; no, screw biology, Jack was his brother.

Trying to think of things from a practical perspective didn't help to alleviate Yusei's guilty conscience much either. Though Yusei was somewhat touched that the Akaki Ryu had acknowledged Crow's growing role in the War, he knew that Jack's role in their group was irreplaceable.

He brought a supreme confidence and drive to their operations, always keeping the Signers focused on the larger picture and the greater good. Yusei vividly remembered how Jack had convinced him to confront Kiryu once again via a punch in the gut. The subsequent pain was exactly what he needed to get out of his funk, but Yusei knew that none of his other friends would have been able to deliver it.

With Jack's death the world had not just lost a great man, but an inimitable hero as well.

Yusei allowed himself a single tear before turning to search for Aki in the Hall of Mirrors.

[-]

Jack had no idea how long he sat there holding Carly, nor did he much care. She might be an enemy now, but he had waited to do this for so long.

Finally they parted, Carly's eyes having dried themselves unnaturally quickly. Though he was loath to disturb that beautiful face, he needed answers, and this seemed as good a time as any to ask the questions.

"What's going on here, Carly?" he began. "The last thing I remember, I had…lost the duel. But I'm still here, somehow. I…I should be dead."

Jack was somewhat embarrassed by his undignified tone, but there was little choice for him, as he was utterly disoriented.

"You are dead, Jack," Carly stated simply. The girl was using the same disconcertingly calm voice that she had used to describe her own death to him earlier that day, and it disturbed him immensely.

"What are you talking about?" Jack demanded. "I'm sitting and talking to you right now! How can I be dead?"

"The same way that I am sitting and talking to you right back, of course," said Carly. "Take a look at your arm."

Wondering what she was getting at, Jack glanced downward for the first time since he had awoken and immediately saw what the girl was alluding to. Absent on his right forearm was the deep crimson birthmark that marked his position as a Signer, and in its place was an intricate representation of a violet hummingbird, matching precisely the mark that still burned bright on the arm that was holding him comfortingly.

Jack knew that there was only one thing that the symbol could signify, but he would not, could not, believe it.

"I am not a Dark Signer!" he declared in a booming voice, but Carly just smiled slightly as if he was a toddler insisting fervently that Santa Claus was real.

"Come now, Jack. You've never been one to go into denial about the obvious. What other explanation could there be?" Carly asked him, trying to push him to think logically about the situation as only Jack Atlas could.

Jack didn't respond immediately, instead merely clenching his fists and shaking his head vigorously. Carly had expected this; what she hadn't expected was for him to suddenly erupt in fury. "How could you do this to me, Carly?" he yelled, taking her aback.

At least he was no longer in complete denial about the entire affair, she noted. Still, now that the infamous Atlas temper had come to the surface, she needed to handle this…delicately.

"It was my only choice, Jack," she said. "Destiny decreed that I battle you today, and that I attain victory. It was not my decision that you had to die. But it was my decision to give you new life. An eternal life, with me…"

She moved to place a hand on his cheek, but he swatted it away immediately. "And so you had that…demon get inside me?!" he cried disgustedly.

At this she finally became cross. "Aslla piscu is not a demon," she stated in a commanding tone that the previous Carly, his Carly, had never used. "It is a great and mighty God, to whom I owe my entire existence…as do you, Jack. You sound like an ungrateful child."

"Ungrateful?!" he roared. "Just because I don't want to be a pawn to evil forces trying to cause the end of the world?!"

"Evil is…a point of view, Jack," she attempted to explain. "If you had only seen what I have seen, visions of the glorious times that shall follow this unfortunate but necessary War, then you would understand that the Jibakushin's goals are not so ignoble after all. Together, you and I are now free to make a new world, a better world!"

"Carly, listen to yourself!" Jack shouted back. "The Carly that took me in a few weeks ago would never have talked like this. 'Better world' my ass!"

Carly was stunned slightly by this turn of conversation, but recovered quickly.

"I'm still that same girl, Jack," she told him softly, though a brief mental image of her heel crushing her glasses danced through her mind. She ignored it. "I'm just…stronger, is all. I'm no longer that stupid klutz who was incapable of walking ten meters without tripping over her own feet. I've worked tirelessly to become worthy enough to stand by your side, the perfect Queen to you, my Dark King…"

"Don't call me that!" Jack responded boomingly, his temper continuing to rise. "I am no longer King, and as for 'Dark'…you may have had your filthy bird turn me into a Dark Signer, but I will never fight on its side! I am a Signer, and I need to rejoin my friends."

And with that, Jack turned around and began tearing his way back toward the hummingbird control tower.

Carly was frozen where she stood, confused and conflicted. This wasn't supposed to happen; everything was supposed to be alright again once she brought Jack back to life! She had expected a tearful reunion, a reaffirmation of purpose, and maybe even, Aslla piscu forbid, the couple's first kiss. She hadn't expected a fight, not of that magnitude…

Well, there was no use moping around about the situation now, she resolved. That was how her former, foolish self would have acted. Now she was wiser and would accept reality, working to correct the situation instead of just crying about it all day.

Her mind set, Carly began walking toward her D-Wheel in order to pursue Jack, but was interrupted by a brash male voice shouting, "Freeze!"

Carly stopped immediately, her senses informing her that a gun was being trailed on the back of her head. Raising up her hands Carly slowly turned around to find an incensed Officer Tetsu Ushio, his service arm continuing to point straight at her.

"Shit…" she muttered under her breath. "This could take a while."

[-]

Rex Goodwin smiled at the glowing arm before him, his empty eyes no longer glamoured white for the benefit of the public.

The prospect of his ascendance being so close at hand was making the Director nearly salivate with anticipation. The wheels of destiny were turning, bringing the Earth and the Underworld ever closer to collision. And bringing him ever closer to being master of both.

In mere hours, he would become God.

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A/N: Okay, I did in fact manage to push out one more chapter right before classes started, though at the expense of it being a little short. Hope y'all don't mind. In any event, you have United Airlines to thank for this chapter, as I finished about half of it during an hour-and-a-half flight delay.

Once again, I'd like to thank my wonderful reviewers; if it were not for you guys, I wouldn't be updating nearly this quickly. I'd like to thank everyone for their generous compliments, most particularly Cap'n Sanji and, again, orangerebellion (seriously girl, you are like the greatest freaking reviewer on the planet…do you plan to go into that much detail for every chapter? :p)

In the interest of promoting speculation, I'm going to begin previewing the next chapter title at the end of each Author's Note. So stay tuned for Chapter 4: Reconciliation.

- Masterdramon