The Judgement of the World

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: Not so much editing with this one.

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"Wait..." Carly turned her head left and right in a mounting panic. Seeing the colors of the Security Officer who had been with her, she grabbed onto the sleeve in mounting concerned. "I can't go home without my glasses. I can't see anything clearly, so how do I get anywhere?"

A hand gripped her shoulder firmly though with gentleness as the officer who had been with her spoke from behind her. "It seems you have some pretty high up friends. One contacted us and informed us that a mutual friend was riding here to get you."

The officer watched her jerk in reaction and spin around to face him, enforcing that, yeah she 'was' nearly blind without her glasses. The officer she grabbed realizing the situation quickly detached himself from her and went on his way without a complaint. Her overseer guided her to a seat and had her sit down while he went to find this friend. Poor girl, nearly died and ended up on Satellite, it was pure luck that she had been found by one of the random and rare good guys of the island.

What the Officers mistook as extreme near sighted vision was actually a mounting fear of 'who' would come. Carly tried to figure out which friend had made the contact with Security and which friend would be sent. Misty was doing a fashion show in Tokyo so it could be Aki. But who would she send? She never spoke of having 'friends' really, in fact Carly got the feeling that she may have been the first and closest that Aki had to a girlfriend. So who?

The appearance of towering white made her stomach drop into her sneakers. The small smear of gold at the time made her mind ramble that this was the former King. Like a rodent on a wheel her brain kept rambling about nameless crimes that she couldn't recall any longer. Aki had mentioned them, Misty had confirmed and elaborated on them. Realizing that Carly had such a terrible evil in her own heart made her sick.

"You don't remember any of that? Well, that's for the best! It wasn't your fault anyway."

"Sometimes loving someone else can be a mistake, if one does not love all of themselves first."

Cursed poor eyesight made the moment like looking through a tunnel and fearing that light. Carly tried to shrink into her chair, hoping that Jack wouldn't see her and approach her as he marched down between the rows of desks. 'I don't know you,' the words repeated in her mind like the worse background song ever written.

"What are you doing cowering like that? Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?"

If Jack thought to hide his own personal feelings behind the usual wall of towering confidence, he wasn't prepared for Carly sans glasses. Her eyes were wider than what she normal, clearly straining to see anything and failing the whole way. From the widow peak bangs to the rest of her hair it was a tangled disarray that came from nearly drowning. Everything about Carly, from her hair, her expression, her posture, it screamed that she was a scared.

He seriously wished Yusei or Crow was there, so he could have them interact with her so he could keep the appearance of a tall, confident, king. He couldn't think of what to say to those wide, frightened eyes staring up at his general direction. Hell how could she even duel without her glasses back in that duel?

The building was a stoic blend of colors, stern enough to visually beat into the head of criminals their crimes. While at the same time bright enough not to depress the officers that had to spend hours of their shift at their desks. But, as it had been pointed out to him on occasion, that was why Security often wanted beat jobs rather than desk ones. The bullpen was a series of desks each with two chairs, one for the officer one for whoever was meant to be there.

The place was busy, the air was filled with paper ruffling and computers keyboards being worked on at steady rapid pace. But that didn't matter, all that mattered was this bedraggled looking reporter in colors so bright they stood out like a beacon in this bureaucratic headache.

"I... I'm sorry," Carly stumbled as she slowly got up took a step towards Jack, tripped as her shoelace got caught under her other foot causing her to crash right into Jack's stomach.

An officer looked to want to check on her, only Jack was standing there with a look that screamed 'this is normal'. Jack slightly lifted her up so she could regain her footing before she rushed back down to the ground to tie her shoes properly. Said officer looked amused at the expression on Jacks' face as he quickly assessed the situation. Straight man to the clown type of relationship right here.

Jack found it hard to look at her when she was like this, she was so quiet and self contained it just didn't fit his mental image of her. Where was her loud, spazzy personality? Where was his Carly, and why did this Carly look so scared of him? So what if she didn't remember, were memories 'that' important?

She fell in step, her fingers lightly pinching the sleeve of his riding suit as he turned and strode out of the building. Though for those who knew him they would note that he was walking a touch slower than normal, allowing Carly to keep up.

'Why am I going with him? He's expecting someone cooler isn't he? A totally talented riding duelist who can keep his attention in a duel!' She wondered as they walked out into a huge smear of blue and gray. Her fear and apprehension grew making her dip her hand down towards her hip where her deck used to be. Only to be met with empty air and the bitter reminder that she had lost her deck, regardless of what Crow suggested.

Go with him? Insist on waiting for a bus to take her home? She didn't even have the key to her place, she was going to have to find the landlord and hope he understood. But what was she supposed to do now that she was caught by Jack? Her whole reason for hiding from him was to avoid this mess, because he was going to find out very quickly that she wasn't this cool person he thought she was.

The thought that this totally proud skilled duelist who was admired and respected was here looking at her and expecting someone else hurt so terribly. Or maybe this was some type of terrible joke? What were the odds that a top fashion model, a senators daughter, and the former Turbo Duel King had anything to do with 'her'? Maybe they just targeted her because she was such a clumsy failure that no one would believe her?

Maybe they were just bullying her?

But Gods she didn't want that horrible idea to be the truth. She wanted to believe that Misty and Aki liked her and wanted her to be their friend. She wanted to believe Misty when she said that Jack cared about her. But there were stories about how the current Turbo Duel King and Jack used to be in a gang, how they used to hunt down and torment weaker gangs. There were stories of how the senators' daughter had a dark side that took pleasure in hurting people.

This was something that gangs could come up with, this was something bullies who enjoyed tormenting unpopular losers would do!

"Hey... HEY! Are you listening to me?!" Jack demanded, wanting to hide how distressed he was becoming at Carly's clear anxiety. He wanted Yusei and Crow around, wanted to shove Carly at them and tell them to fix her. He wasn't good at this, Jack was a face, an image of strength and power. He wasn't Yusei who could fix broken technology or fix peoples hearts with a touch. Or have Crows' easy going manner to draw out the timid and fearful.

He wasn't stupid, something was seriously wrong with Carly, and now having finally got his hands on her he could see that she wasn't just being an idiot. Carly hadn't been playing hard to get or just being some idiotic fan wanting to have a good chase. She was hurting, something was truly crippling her and it was killing Jack inside. Both her pain and his own ineptitude at helping her deal with it was also making Jack angry. It wasn't something he could just defeat with a duel, this was a battle in Carly's own head.

"H-how did we meet?" Carly finally asked in a voice so tiny, but was all she could get past the lump in her throat.

"Humph, I had been injured and you snuck into hospital trying to get an interview with me," Jack answered. "We got attacked by a puppet of the Dark Signers."

"A puppet?" Carly repeated. "I don't... I don't remember that, I woke up one day and found this chunk of my recent time was just missing. Honestly I didn't care, nothing seemed out of place so I just kept going to work and living my life. Until I went to the press conference where Misty was speaking about the Arcadia movement."

Jack stood there quietly, letting her speak what had happened since the battle, silent but observant to her story. She had been actively avoiding him for the whole time, so now if he could finally get it out of her head why she would, it would make him feel better. Listening was something Yusei always did and it worked for him so...

"I thought it was really weird, how we made eye contact and how the world just seemed to disappear for a moment. Just the two of us, and after the press conference we exchanged phone numbers so we could call and talk. I thought my luck had changed for the better.." Carly drifted as she recalled meeting Misty for the first, or second, time into silence driving the slowly decreasing pressure of Jack's temper back into the red.

"And?! What could have possibly have happened to make you actively avoid me? A King should never be kept waiting! I searched all over for you!"

Wincing Carly turned around so she could see the bright blue sky above and put the buildings of the city to her back. "I wanted to know how Misty and I met, after all, she's a super model and I'm just a lowly reporter. And the first day we hung out I pestered Misty constantly about that because all she would say was that her style of fortune telling told her that we would be friends. But I realized that we had met during that time that I couldn't recall."

She spun on her heel focusing on the gold that was Jack's hair, smiling up at him with trembling lips. "So, I started investigating things that happened during my black out and saw your movie release had happened. While I was doing that I got a call from Aki. Apparently Misty decided that I was alone and opted to contact the senators' daughter. Which is wow, suddenly I was friends with a top fashion model and a senators' daughter. Talk about getting Angela jealous like never before!"

"My fortune was going great! Thanks to Misty and Aki, I scored an interview with the reclusive CEO of Kaibacorp himself! I got to interview him about his involvement with the new bridge and the the further plans to help restore Satellite. But after the interview, I took a chance and asked if anything happened during Earthbound event? Because I didn't know, Misty only mentioned that she hadn't seen me since 'the Earthbound Gods' and I just- I honestly don't know why I would even bother Lord Kaiba with my stupid thoughts. He would only say that the Signers saved the world from the Earthbound Gods."

Jack knew Carly well enough that she probably assumed the best in her effort to stay positive. She would jump the gun and assume herself to be a Signer, but why blame herself for being a Dark Signer? He watched her memories cause her expression to change with each moment, alighted with delight and ecstasy only to have the clouds of doubt roll in.

"Back then I tried to get your attention, but you drove so fast you never saw me, and I was always away from my car. But when I mentioned being a Signer to Aki she grew really quiet and began clutching her arm. She kept trying to force the subject to change and I realized as I sat there that... that I wasn't a good guy. Aki knew I had been murdered, she knew that Divine had killed me... and that I was reborn into the world. So I went to see Divine..."

It was then that Jack was consumed with a rage as Carly broke down in front of him, sobbing while covering her face with her hands. She stopped talking, not knowing what else to do he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. He could feel her pull against the move, unsure as ever but he needed her near by. It kept him from wanting to leave her and go to the prison where Divine was. Beating the information out of the bastard for what he had done to Carly twice now, it being a crime could be damned as well.

"He told me he murdered me, that he didn't think there was anything special about me. But he didn't realize how evil I really am. That I'm a fake, that the reason my fortunes are always failures is because I'm going against my true nature. He told me that I'm so selfish I would willingly partner with a God of Destruction to get what I want, regardless of the people around me!" She gulped the air down to get the rest of the confession out. "I called Misty, I begged her, begged Aki to tell me that it was a lie. That I wasn't a Dark Signer. That I didn't try to destroy the world for my own selfish wants. But they don't know what happened. Aki wasn't at the duel, Misty knew my reason was because I wanted to be with you."

"They tried to convince me that I'm not a terrible person, but if being with you will make me a monster..." she sniffled would have dropped to the ground as her legs gave out if Jack didn't take that moment to crush her to him.

How could someone who was probably locked up in a prison somewhere still inflict this kind of pain on others? It wasn't like he didn't know about Divine from what he had seen or heard from Aki's parents. He realized the damage that Divine could inflict on someone, but how could Carly, who was older than Aki when she met Divine fall for it? Honestly; Jack wanted to shake the nonsense out of Carly and get her back to the way she was before.

"I'm willing to let innocent people be killed just so I get what I want? All my life I've watched myself get passed over for prettier 'better' people. I finally get a chance to feel like one of the beautiful talented people and its to kill others? Is that why I always fail at things? Because-"

"ENOUGH!" Jack roared. Even as Carly flinched at his booming voice he crooked his index finger and put it under Carly's chin. Forcing the woman to face him, even if she couldn't see him clearly. "We Signers are given the duty to fight the Earthbound Gods what we do with our lives outside of combat is our own business. The Earthbound Gods are not mortal people, they select their hosts by the connection that person has with the Signer! You were murdered by Divine. What difference is there between you and anyone else who has a reason to live?"

She stared up at him struggling to see his eyes amid the blur that the world appeared when she was without her glasses. But her crying had stopped, and he could see her desperate attempt to believe him, putting the pressure that what he said was good enough to break through her wall. Well, he wouldn't be King if he couldn't do a grand speech now could he?

"We met because you slipped into the hospital, you guided me through out Neo Domino because I had to face the Dark Signers. I never had traveled without a handler before, so you had to do it. But eventually I met with my group and you went on investigating Divine, you died in that duel and that was when the Earthbound grabbed you. Even after they did you never changed, you grieved and did as told, but you never stopped being Carly. You never became some fully twisted person consumed with rage or grief like Kiryu or Misty did! You made me face you in a riding duel, gave me the option to even let you and the Earthbound win. All for the reason to be together, but for the sake of my friends who were fighting for this world how could I accept?"

"You countered my attempt at a double KO, crashed and died again in my arms. When they were defeated the being that gave us Signers our marks brought you back. You need to stop blaming yourself for the things you had no control over! Start blaming yourself for making me travel every part of Neo Domino looking for you! For looking like an idiot in front of Yusei's woman because I didn't know where you were! Or ranting on a phone at Misty's agent for not letting me directly talk to Misty! Or hell! Misty for deciding that being mysterious and driving me to distraction with hints is 'fun'!"

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"Hey! LISTEN!"

"Seriously? You're going the 'annoying fairy trope' to try and get us help?"

"Don't you think we're in a bad situation?"

"Yeah, but its not like anyone can hear us! No one can hear spirits anymore, so we might as well focus on the task at hand."

Chee blinked before looking over her glasses before excitedly flying up amid the cries of her fellow Fairies. "HEY! CAN YOU HELP US?!" She cried out to a floating rose colored spirit in the distance.

"Huh? Chee! COME BACK HERE YOU IDIOT!"

"But they're a Spirit!" Chee argued as she dipped back down to help hold the belt to the branch it had been hanging on to all day.

"Yeah, so? Can anyone see them? What good is a Spirit? We need a human!"