Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Celtic Guardian's Choice ❯ Celtic Guardian's Choice ( One-Shot )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This fanfiction, my first Yu-Gi-Oh one, was inspired not by the Celtic Guardian but by the Dark Magician (those who hate introductions and explanations should skip this note). It happened in the episode when Yugi dueled Seto Kaiba for the right to duel Pegasus (Purists should note I was watching the Kids WB version. And please forgive me for any inaccuracies. Memory isn't perfect). Right after Yugi used the Mystic Box with the Dark Magician, Seto asked how it was done. Yugi said something to the effect of "you know a magician never reveals his secrets." And as he was saying it, the Dark Magician was shaking his finger (I kinda doubt Yugi told him to do THAT)... which got me thinking.
My thesis in this fic is that Kaiba's technology affects the Duel Monsters, and not necessarily positively. After all, when you're just laying down cards, nobody gets hurt. But now... well, read it and see!
Some may think I'm stupid for angsting over a Duel Monster. Those people can click the Back button on their browser any time they like. They don't have to listen to me. For those who want to... hang on for the ride.

AUTHOR GENERAL'S WARNING: Readers of this fic who have not watched the episodes containing Yugi's duels with Panic, the Brothers Paradox, and Seto Kaiba the second time around may not understand some of the references.

The Celtic Guardian's Choice
I had forgotten what it was like outside the dark; that is, if I had ever known.
So when I lifted my eyes to see something other than dark;
When I realized I was not quite real;
How could I not feel surprise?

When I lifted my eyes
To see the sight before me,
Of course I felt surprise.
All the times before- there must have been others I know- were in the dark. No sight and no pain.

The sight before me was one of those times,
Only this time it wasn't in the dark.
Even if I did not quite feel real, I could see, I could feel!
Later I discovered to see and to feel, for me, comes at a price.

The other times were always in the dark;
I was always in the dark; I saw nothing, I felt nothing.
Sight comes at a price.
He wouldn't know if I was pained; to him I wasn't real.

We were all of us in the dark.
When sight deserted me for the rest of these times, when my writhing body which was not quite real but real enough to be pained
Was dragged not altogether unwillingly back to that dark, why would he know or care? To him I wasn't real.
He worries when I fade back into the dark because the numbers go down; I know they go down, because with everyone else, they do.

The dark comes as my ironic salvation to whatever inflicted on me by the ones on the other side;
I can make no sound. I can only obey this child
Who worries about the numbers going down.
Did that different dark of panic, the Dungeon Worm, the Blue Eyes Dragon

Who pained me though I could do nothing,
Did they know what they did? It was only temporary, but that could be worse than if it was final.
Those in the different dark, the Dungeon Worm, the Blue Eyes,
Did they too feel pain once they left the safe prison of the dark?

If I had a choice between being imprisoned in the dark for eternity and a day after that
Or being ordered out by a machine and then obeying the words of another, words that often send me to a temporary (that's the problem) death,
And having to do this, too, for eternity and a day after that.
I would choose the dark.

If there were a third choice, the choice to have sight without pain,
The choice to fight the way I choose,
The choice to never have to obey another,
I would take that choice. If I had a choice.