My Dark King – Chapter 4: Reconciliation
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.
[-]
Officer Tetsu Ushio stared hard at the Dark Signer before him, his pistol sight not leaving her forehead. He was a man of justice, and that meant clearing away scum like this before they could hurt anyone else.
Still, something was…off about this one. He didn't get quite the same vibe from her that he got off of Demak or Kiryu, whom he was unable to regard as anything other than despicable bastards. Blinking, he realized why: he recognized her, vaguely.
"Err…don't I know you?" he asked awkwardly. The tip of his pistol lowered slightly.
Carly stared back angrily at the broad man. Jack was gaining distance on her by the minute, and though she was fairly confident that his next destination would be the hummingbird control tower, in a vain attempt to seal it and prolong the world's inevitable end, she was nonetheless loath to let him get too far.
He was in a highly volatile emotional state, and she was on a strict time limit if she didn't want him to become dust in the wind by the end of the week. Dark Signers might not fear time, but right now Carly had to admit that it had the advantage on her. So much work still left to do, and here was this…buffoon standing in her way.
He would receive no mercy.
Squinting, she realized that she did indeed recognize the burly Security Officer. This was the man whom Rudger had possessed in order to challenge the recovering Jack in the hospital. That had been the day that she had met them both, and the…unique circumstances of their duel had been the driving force that first brought her and Jack together.
Almost laughing at the irony – after all, who was wielding the mark of a Jibakushin now? – she slowly lowered her right hand. The fool had only met her one time that he could possibly remember, a brief visitation to her home in the aftermath of the hospital incident, and the physical differences between her current and former selves were so drastic that identifying her would be nearly impossible.
But the fact that her appearance dimly registered in the back of his mind had caused him to hesitate for a moment, and a moment was all she needed.
With one swift motion Carly brought her hand forward and sent a concentrated burst of dark energy at the service arm held in the Officer's hands. The gun exploded on contact, singing the skin on both his palms and eliciting a sharp cry of pain.
The Dark Signer followed up the action by rushing forward through the air, her palm extended. Pouring more energy into her hand Carly pressed it hard against Ushio's chest, the impact immediately cracking some ribs and sending the man flying at least twenty feet. With a satisfying crunch the Officer struck the ground forcefully, writhing in pain.
She was about to move over to his crippled form and finish the job when the voices of two children interrupted her.
"Ushio, what the fuck is taking so long?" a tiny emerald-haired boy asked rudely. "Haven't you found Jack yet?"
"Rua! Don't use that kind of language!" chastised a little girl who could only be the boy's twin sister. Carly was sure that this was one of the contestants from the Fortune Cup who, through photographic evidence of her arm, had been proven to be a Signer.
Well, it was never a bad time to eliminate potential threats, even if she was running a bit late…
Ushio turned to the sources of the voices, panic settling in. The twins were emerging onto the hill, unaware of the danger that awaited them. As a mere Security Officer he might be expendable, but these were just kids Goddammit, and Ruka was a Signer.
Based on what he had just experienced Ushio had no reason to doubt that this orange-and-black-clad woman would be willing to slaughter children, and indeed when he looked her way he saw her eyeing them with a disturbingly focused gaze.
Ushio stiffened his resolve, knowing what he had to do. Gasping for breath, he turned toward the twins, his face anguished.
"Run, now!" he screamed, clutching his chest. "Get in the jeep, drive off, just get the fuck away from here!"
"Ushio-sama, we can't leave you like this!" Ruka shouted back. "What in the world happened to you?"
"No time to explain! Just get away from that woman over there!" Ushio yelled, pointing shakily at Carly.
"Not even going to give me a choice in the matter, Ushio-sama?" asked Carly, stressing the honorific condescendingly. Despite the circumstances she was starting to enjoy having a little action, and her smirk reflected it. "I happen to rather like children, you know."
And with that, Carly rushed forward and grabbed Rua by the collar. "The boy first, I think," she said, staring down at Ruka the entire time. "I'll let you watch, filthy Signer. Then it will be your turn."
Carly raised her hand and gathered an inordinate amount of dark energy within it – her mercy toward children extending only so far as that she would grant these two quick deaths – before being blindsided by a desperate but evidently still mobile Security Officer.
His awkward tackle sent the pair tumbling to the ground, and Rua fell down hard right at his sister's feet. Wincing, the Dark Signer grabbed the man by the neck and roughly flung him to the side before an enormous burst of crimson light forced her to hold her face in agony.
Where a normal human's eyes would have sclera, a Dark Signer instead possessed enormous pupils, allowing them highly advanced vision but also vastly decreasing their tolerance for light. And so to Carly, it felt as if she had just spent the last hour staring at the sun…from point-blank range.
Ruka stared in wonder at her birthmark, which was evidently acting of its own accord. More red light flew out of claw, enveloping Rua and Ushio in a large bubble.
Ruka knew that the Akaki Ryu's intervention had only bought them a few precious moments, so she quickly turned and ran back to Ushio's jeep, the bubble following her through the air. As soon as they reached the back seat the bubble disappeared, depositing its "passengers" onto the soft cushions. Both immediately opened their eyes in amazement.
"What the Hell did you just do, Ruka?" Rua exclaimed, his arms in the air.
Ruka didn't bother to tell her brother off for his language this time. "I don't know, but I do know that we won't be around to figure it out if we stay here," she said. "Ushio-sama, can you drive?"
"Yeah, I think so…" the Security Officer answered, flexing his hands. "It's amazing…something in that light must've healed me or something. Alright kids, buckle in!" he ordered, settling into the driver's seat.
Starting the jeep as quickly as possible, Ushio drove off to rendezvous with Yusei, Crow, and hopefully Aki-san and Mikage-san. They had failed to find Jack, but at least the three of them were still alive.
For now, that would have to be enough.
[-]
Mikage Sagiri paced her holding cell several more times before swearing loudly.
Normally the high-class woman kept a strictly clean tongue, but her current predicament was severely annoying her. Whoever the fraudulent Security Officer actually was, he evidently wanted to keep her out of the way while he conducted other business…probably with Aki-san. Or else with the other Signers, who could not possibly be too far behind them by now.
In turn Mikage had seen signs for the monkey, killer whale (she still wasn't sure what to make of that one, considering that it represented nothing relating to the old Momentum reactor), giant, spider, and finally hummingbird suddenly appear and then disappear from the sky. Surely, then, Yusei or Crow or Ushio would soon come to rescue her from this cage. Or, better yet…
"Atlas-sama!" she screamed her thought aloud. As uncomfortable as this cell was, her imprisonment might be worth it if she could extract a daring "damsel in distress" rescue from the man of her dreams.
But in her heart of hearts, she knew that it was not to be. Jack's love belonged to another, less worthy source, and try as she might there was little she could do about it.
Carly Nagisa. What Jack saw in that silly, klutzy girl, Mikage simply couldn't fathom. It couldn't possibly be her looks; besides a decent figure and a fair bust size, Carly had nothing particularly special going on for her in terms of her physical appearance, and even these assets were completely negated by the girl's utter lack of fashion sense.
Those glasses that seemed to fascinate Jack more than every star in the heavens put together were, quite frankly, atrocious, and as for the rest of her typical wardrobe – white and periwinkle blue stripes? Really?
It couldn't possibly be her personality, either. Carly was forgetful, spacey, and clumsy to a fault. Some men, she acknowledged, might find such a person somewhat endearing; she had a vague sense that it might be the kind of personality type that could attract Yusei's friend Crow, for instance.
But Atlas-sama? Her Atlas-sama? He deserved far better than a fool who could never really provide for him, never take care of him, never nurture his every need and desire…like Mikage would. So how could he choose her?
"Atlas-sama!" Mikage cried out once more, but this time she received an answer. Mikage could hardly believe her eyes when she saw an arm marked with the wings of the Crimson Dragon push the door open.
Mikage prepared to act weary and faint in order to…persuade Jack to carry her, until she looked closely at the figure entering the room. It wasn't Jack at all.
It was Crow. "Is someone in here?!" he called out, cupping his hands around his mouth to better carry the sound.
Severely disappointed, Mikage shouted back, "Down here, Crow-san!"
The teenager looked around confusedly until he turned his gaze straight down and saw Mikage standing on the ground several meters below him, the two separated by thick metal grating.
Nodding to indicate that he had seen her, Crow began scoping out the room to see if there was any way for Mikage to escape. Fortunately there was an open trapdoor near the end of the room; evidently her abductor had neglected to close it after throwing her in.
Motioning the woman toward the opening Crow then searched the large piles of debris lining the walls until he found what he was looking for: a thick cord of rope.
In a few short moments Mikage had climbed free and dusted herself off before turning to Crow. "What happened to Atlas-sama?!" she demanded in distressed tones, taking him aback. "Why do you have his mark?! Tell me!"
Crow looked downward and shuffled his feet a bit before answering in somber tones, "I'm sorry, Mikage…this isn't going to be easy to hear. It certainly wasn't easy for me."
Taking a deep breath, Crow finished, "Jack is dead."
Shock pierced Mikage's heart like a well-aimed bullet. Of all the things she had been dreading that Crow might say, that was…unthinkable…
Swiftly drifting away from consciousness, Mikage began to sway violently where she stood. Crow had just enough time to grab her and prevent her from falling backward before she fainted completely.
[-]
Several minutes after the fiasco with the young Signer, Carly finally managed to gain enough strength to stand. Her eyes were still swimming with spots, and she was continually repeating the word "shit" under her breath with various inflections.
The child was no longer going to gain the privilege of a quick death; she was now damn sure of that.
After a few more moments on her feet the Dark Signer's vision cleared completely, and in a deep temper she made her way to her custom D-Wheel.
That little…detour had cost her more time than even she had anticipated, and with any more delay Jack could be about anywhere by the time she caught up to him.
Donning her helmet and revving the engine, Carly shot forward at an alarming speed, straight toward the control tower that it was her mission to guard.
[-]
Divine smirked with immense satisfaction. His plan was going perfectly.
His code phrase had reawoken the lethal ferocity of the Black Rose Witch once more, and now Aki was tearing through the Dark Signer Misty's defenses as if they were cardboard. Which, he supposed, they technically were.
Divine allowed himself a hearty laugh at that thought; he hadn't really had a decent chance to do so since the downfall of Arcadia. His laughter was heavily cut short, however, by a sharp pang in his psychic aura.
Looking down at the duel, he noticed that the Dark Signer's grin was wide as she gazed upon the card she had drawn. This didn't bode well.
"This is the end," Misty declared. "I activate Advanced Force! Through this card's effect, Bad End – Queen Dragon can be released for two tributes."
Divine swallowed. Indeed, this did not bode well at all. The number of things that could make the psychic duelist sweat could be counted on one hand, but those fucking Jibakushin topped the list.
Last time one had appeared he had come within an inch of death, and the prospect of seeing another…
Misty seemed to radiate savage pleasure as she continued, "The God who revived my life…I offer you my soul! Come forth, Jibakushin Ccarayhua!"
The release of energy was instantaneous, as pure power beyond even Divine's massive potential poured out of the Dark Signer's ebony Duel Disk. Looking into the sky, Divine saw an enormous heart (well, he wasn't really sure what to call the abomination, but it vaguely resembled the shape of a heart) materialize from out of the card's energy and begin to gather what appeared to be the shadows of the air itself.
Once satisfied, the heart positively exploded with dark energy, and left in its wake was a titanic lizard, towering over the two duelists.
"Do you see this God, Izayoi?" Misty shouted while employing her trademark glare, though not to the effect that she had hoped for; the accursed Signer didn't even flinch. Misty would not let this unexpected calm deny her, however; revenge was a dish best served cold, and though she no longer ate she had waited for far too long not to savor this meal.
"It is the mark of my hatred of you," she continued. "Let every ounce of its onslaught make you feel the pain that I felt when you took Toby from me. Ccarayhua, direct attack!"
The massive God obeyed its host's call, reaching down to the Signer to extinguish her life permanently. Unfazed, Aki simply pressed an activator button on her Duel Disk and pointed forward with her arm as an enormous stone fist clenched onto Ccarayhua's reptilian hand, impeding its progress.
"Trap, activate! Ground Capture!" she yelled. "I halve the Battle Damage from one of my opponent's monsters!"
Though the ensuing granite shrapnel rained down upon her and cut away most of her Life Points, the Black Rose Witch stood firm. She was still in this duel, and she would see it through to the death.
[-]
Although Jack had been running for at least twenty minutes straight, he found that he was not tired in the slightest. He supposed that this was to be attributed to his newly acquired…status.
Jack shook his head violently as if to try to wake up from a horrible nightmare, but the world around him remained resolutely physical. Still, it was simply unbelievable that Carly, his Carly, could have killed him…
But she had. Jack Atlas was no dreamer, which was part of the reason that the fantasy-driven Carly had attracted him in the first place; she could dream enough for the both of them. He was a realist by nature, and so he forced himself to accept the truth: driven by some insane brainwashing on fate or destiny or whatever, Carly had dueled him, won, and then killed him as a result.
And now she had brought him back as a Dark Signer himself, which represented a whole host of other problems.
Jack had been so sure that dueling Carly would be enough to save her from the Jibakushin's curse and bring her back into the light where she belonged, but instead he had merely joined her in darkness.
Despite what he had shouted to her as they parted, Jack knew that he could never return to his friends now. They would, reasonably, suspect him to be an inside agent for their enemies, rendering him ostracized at best and dead again at worst. It would be what he would do if, say, Kiryu showed up and asked to join them.
But at the same time, he couldn't return to Carly, either. That fucking hummingbird had done something to her that forced her to believe the Dark Signers' garbage about "making a better world," and now she was so fargone from the woman with whom he had fallen in love that he hardly recognized her.
Okay, he had to admit, that last part wasn't entirely true. There were elements of her new personality that utterly disturbed him – the way her joyous smile had been replaced by a cruel smirk, or the way that she callously dismissed the klutzy charm that she had possessed in life – but at the same time he couldn't deny that she still massively attracted him.
Even some of the traits that she had picked up as a Dark Signer impressed him, reluctant as he was to admit it – her newfound confidence, for one, and her strength as a duelist for another.
And he had to say, though he resented the Dark Signers for sticking an innocent girl like her in such…revealing clothing in the first place, he couldn't say that he hated seeing more of her perfect skin.
Jack did a mental double-take on that one. He was disgusted with himself not only for having such thoughts, but also because engaging in some of the activities that his subconscious was now actively imagining would essentially be necrophilia.
He hoped that he would at least never stoop that low, but given how hard it was to let go of her when they had embraced earlier, he honestly wasn't sure that he would be able to maintain restraint if she offered.
Jack was relieved of further contemplation on this…unnerving subject as he reached his destination, a silver tower marked with the same sign that now adorned his right arm.
He was somewhat surprised that there was no better security than a simple door, but he supposed that the flaming geoglyphs that the Dark Signers could conjure at will served as a much better blockade than any lock or alarm system ever could.
Kicking his way in (just like his endurance, Jack could feel that his strength had vastly increased in his current state), Jack approached the platform upon which the seal on the old Momentum reactor's power rested.
While he was no longer in fit condition to join his friends in opposing the Dark Signers, he hoped that at least this last, small action would give Jack Atlas something to be remembered by in the eyes of Yusei and the others.
Jack removed his deck from his pocket and extracted the card he needed before an unexpected surge of power scorched his fingers, causing him to drop all of his cards to the floor in shock. Red Dæmon's Dragon burned with crimson light, and Jack could guess why; it no longer recognized its master, and was furious at being handled by one with the touch of the enemy.
Still, this job needed to be done, so Jack steadied himself against the pain to come before quickly grabbing the Signer Dragon and slamming it onto the activator designed for it.
Immediately the tower began to sink, a development that Jack had neither anticipated nor planned for. There was no time to gather up his fallen deck; as it was, there was barely enough time for him to snatch up his Red Dæmon's Dragon and dive out the open doorway before the control tower completely disappeared.
Panting, he stared back somberly at the empty ground. He had completed his task, but at a great cost – the cards that he had owned ever since he'd first begun playing the game in Satellite, save one, were now gone. And even then, the only one he'd salvaged was one that caused him tremendous pain whenever he even touched it, let alone played it in a duel.
Distantly, the former King heard the roar of a motorcycle engine. Turning his head Jack saw Carly approaching on the western horizon, framed by the rapidly approaching sunset. She was still a decent distance away, but he knew it would be futile to run now; the area they were in was basically flat, and in a straight-on race of speed a D-Wheel would always beat a foot-racer.
Given this, Jack simply got to his feet and remained standing, waiting for the war of words that was surely soon to come.
[-]
After nearly an hour of constant struggling, Yusei finally wriggled free of the debris that had been pinning him down.
It had been incredibly sudden, the burst of energy that'd brought the aged Hall of Mirrors down, but that didn't make the result any less painful. Virtually the only intact wall left in the place had fallen upon him as he'd searched the Hall for Aki, crushing his lower body, while small mirror fragments had embedded themselves in his upper body and face.
Fortunately his arms were free and he was able to extract most of the shards, but he was still bleeding as severely as one could while still being basically mobile. In any event, his focus was not really on his physical pain right now…
What was really disturbing him was that he could've sworn that he had heard Aki's voice call out "Black Rose Gale!" the moment before the wall had come down. Yusei remembered uneasily the chaos that Aki's psychic powers had caused at the Fortune Cup…but she had control over them now, didn't she?
He had smiled so genuinely during their last duel when Aki had managed to arrest her conjured wind and prevent her father from being killed, confident that his fellow Signer would become more open and less guarded now that she had mastery over what she had once called a curse. Could she be backsliding?
Frowning at the implications of this thought, Yusei tore toward the open area in the distance as fast as his injuries would allow.
A shimmering glass dome stood there, towered over by what was unmistakably an Earthbound God. This wasn't good.
[-]
Jack wasn't running away from her, which was a hopeful sign. Carly was still convinced that she could bring the proud man to her side. She just needed to change…tactics.
Dismounting her D-Wheel, Carly turned to Jack, who remained silent; evidently he was waiting for her to make the first move. She did, as she forcefully pressed her lips onto Jack's.
The feeling was utter bliss, and for just a moment Carly forgot why she had come in the first place. This was nothing like kissing Jack's corpse; as romantic as that had seemed when she'd first conceived of it, the action had been downright disturbing when actually put into practice.
But this was different. No longer were the man's ruby lips loose and unyielding – now they were pleasantly firm and were returning every ounce of emotion that she was conferring upon him tenfold.
She could tell that he too was forgetting the circumstances, that he too was leaving all thinking by the wayside and just feeling, that he too had wanted this for so long that when the release finally came he'd found it almost unbearable…
Finally their lips parted, though after how long Carly did not know; it was not because of a need of oxygen, since Dark Signers didn't breath. But pleasure mixed with her disappointment as Carly swiftly but tactfully put her plan into place.
"Open your eyes, Jack," she asked him softly, and she knew that there was no way in Hell that he would refuse her now.
As Jack's black eyes fluttered open, Carly willed the Hikari no Yami that had shown her the truth to flow through her body and out of her own empty corneas.
She had been trying things wrong, trying to use logic to persuade a Jack still bound by the cognitive limits of mortals, and she hoped that as with her this light-that-was-darkness could show him the answers that eluded all but the most enlightened.
Jack's features were stern for a moment before relaxing…and then abruptly, the Dark Signer fell unconscious.
[-]
Hell stretched before him, and Jack Atlas merely smiled.
Everything around him was his. Finally he was not only called a King but treated as one. Servants resembling zombies from American movies did his every bidding, while numerous other ghostly figures gathered outside of his magnificent palace every day merely to worship him.
And of course, Carly, the love of his life (or rather death, he supposed) stood beside him at every turn. She was his as well, though he didn't own her like he did the palace. No, she stayed at his side because she loved him in return, and together they ruled over the fallen land that Earth had become.
So engrossed was he in his mental canonization of the woman next to him that it took him several moments to realize that she was speaking.
He tuned in as she paused for breath – a force of habit that the former humans still hadn't entirely cured themselves of, even though it was no longer strictly necessary – and began a new sentence.
"…And in this world, you're the High Ruler of Hell, Dark King," she said.
Jack wasn't sure why she was telling him something he already knew, but he didn't care; he adored the title that his wife had chosen to bestow upon him, and he never got tired of hearing her use it.
"Dark King…" he muttered, before truly taking the implications of that honor to heart and smirking sinisterly. "That's right, I've awakened through death! I don't need friends, bonds, or happiness!"
He trusted that she understood herself to be excluded from the preceding list; there was no question of the fact that he needed her. "This Hell-like world is the ideal place the true King should rule over!" he declared.
Carly's face mirrored his in its demonic glee. "This is wonderful," she said. "This is the world we truly desired."
Lightning crackled before them, and on a whim the Dark King grabbed his wife by the shoulders and bent down over her, kissing her with unrestrained passion.
In a whisper only she could hear, he told her, "Indeed. This is all I ever desired, my beloved. My…Dark Queen."
[-]
"Jack! Jack!" Carly's voice called out distantly.
Slowly, Jack climbed back to reality, his mind unclouded by the foolishness that had so recently had control over it. That light that emanated from Carly's eyes was truly incredible, having mercilessly stripped away every weak thought and every idiotic goal that burdened him in a manner of seconds.
Now he was truly reborn.
"Carly…" Jack said hoarsely. "I understand now. To plunge the world into Hell is necessary if we are to be together for the rest of eternity. No pathetic humans shall encumber us, no self-righteous Crimson Dragon will try to decide what is best for us, nothing whatsoever shall come between us, ever again."
He smiled at her, his expression truly and completely contented. "I love you, Carly Nagisa," he added. "I love you, my Dark Queen."
And with that the couple was kissing once more. If their passion was still this incredible in the future that his vision had predicted, then he had a very vested interest in making sure that vision came true.
This kiss was, if anything, lengthier than the couple's first, and when it finally ceased it was only because Carly had pulled away to have her say.
"I love you too, Jack," she told him. "By Aslla piscu, I love you too. I loved you enough to make life and death bow at my command to bring you to me, and you don't know how…how happy I am to see you by my side again."
It took all the restraint in her body to keep her from kissing him again, but she held back her impulses for now; they still had urgent business to take care of, judging by the sun's position in the sky.
"I suppose you just sealed the hummingbird tower?" she asked, trying to keep her voice as level as possible.
"I'm so sorry, Carly, but I did," Jack answered, his demeanor shifting immediately from immensely pleased to immeasurably guilty. "I was such a fool so little time ago, and I'm afraid that my former self's conscience wouldn't allow him to just stand by and let the end of the world take its natural course. If I could only take that back…"
"No matter," Carly interjected quickly, trying to forestall Jack from getting too dejected. She had planned for this eventuality, but they needed to act quickly; her senses were telling her that they had less than an hour until sunset.
Still, the lizard mark was shining bright in the sky some distance away, so all hope was not yet lost.
"Get on my D-Wheel," she said. "We need to go help Misty-san. Her tower is the only one that still stands."
Jack nodded, impulsively brushed his lips against her forehead, and climbed up on Carly's D-Wheel after her.
Once Carly was assured that his grip on her waist was secure, she revved the engine and shot off toward the Ccarayhua control tower.
With a bit of speed and a lot of luck, they just might make it there in time.
[-]
A/N: Fortunately we still haven't been assigned anything particularly grueling in my classes (only had three days of them so far, LOL), and plus I have Fridays off this semester. Those two factors enabled me to push out another decently sized chapter in basically two nights of writing. Hope y'all enjoy it!
Since I keep forgetting to do so, massive, massive, massive kudos go to YouTube user PrismWeapon for his well-done and incredibly quick 5D's fansubs. If dialogue in this story comes directly from the show, then the translation that I will be using will be PrismWeapon's. If you like the original version of 5D's and don't know a lick of Japanese (like me), then I would highly suggest subscribing to the dude's channel.
Meanwhile, shout-outs continue to go out to all of my loyal reviewers! I always love to hear from both new faces and from the various users who are – miraculously – sticking by me. I literally would not have taken this story past Chapter 1 if it wasn't for you guys
So kudos all around to Cap'n Sanji, Nightshade07, KaliAnn, Cobalt Rose, and of course the greatest reviewer EVAR, orangerebellion. Reading your in-depth, thorough, and exceedingly complementary reviews is very similar to the sensation one would get if heroin was injected directly into the part of the brain that processes words. :)
Now, to answer the Cap'n's questions, if you take a look at Aslla piscu's card in the real-life game, you'll see that for whatever reason the "p" is not capitalized. I couldn't tell you why, but it's certainly unusual, as the other Jibakushin with two-word names (i.e. Ccapac Apu, Chacu Challhua, etc.) all have both words capitalized.
Still I like the fact that this little detail differentiates the hummingbird from its fellow Earthbound Gods, as it's currently the most important one in the story, so I'm perfectly happy to go with that "special" spelling.
And as for the second question, I think that the opening of this chapter makes it pretty clear: Carly is worried not about the gun but about wasting time that she could spend catching up to the fleeing Jack.
Speaking of Aslla piscu, for those who haven't figured it out yet, Carly tends to use its name as a mild oath (i.e. when someone would normally exclaim, "By God!" she would say, "By Aslla piscu!" instead). Hope this clears up any confusion (if it existed at all, LOL).
I think that about covers it for now, so keep on reading and reviewing, and stay tuned for Chapter 5: Retribution.
– Masterdramon