If you've read the old version of this story/chapter of it, this is just undergoing slight editing. You know, fixing up spelling errors and that sort of stuff.

And even though it's an AU, doesn't mean it doesn't follow canon at parts. 'kay?

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Gi Oh GX or any of its characters. All I own is the story itself.

The Dreamwalker

1 - Prologue

(Jaden's POV)

I was standing in a dark void. Around me were walls of impenetrable, never ending shadow. Around me hovered mirrors that reflected nothing.

I was afraid. I knew this place, but it was one that I feared. My heart. The darkness of which had caused so many people and duel spirits to die by my orders and by my own hands.

I heard familiar dark chuckling around me, confirming my worst fears. Haou was really a part of me. I let out a cry of frustration. Would I ever be free of my actions? Was there really no way to redeem myself?

A shadowy figure with golden eyes stared at me through the darkness.

'Haou ...' I whispered, afraid.

Haou smirked, amused at my apparent fear. 'You cannot change the past aibou,' he said. 'You can only look to the future.'

'No!' I cried. 'Let me be! Leave me to drown in my guilt and my despair.'

He chuckled, before vanishing into the shadows. The mirrors around me flashed. It was then that the full force of my words hit me. A whimper left my trembling lips as I stared, entranced, into the mirror closest to me. The nothingness inside began to take shape. In the now swirling darkness, I could make out villages burning, with the spirits of the Evil Heroes I used as the Supreme King cackling in their midst. Humans and duel monsters alike ran hysterically through the woods, before they turned into particles of light and disappeared ...

'No!' I screamed, pounding on the mirror in agony, as if shattering it would release me from the dark prison that I was encaged in. I fell to my knees, my eyes never leaving the mirror, as it changed to reflect my duel with Bronn. I watched in horror as my friends, the very people I always fought to defend, were sent to the stars because of my own selfish actions. I could still hear their hateful words as they felt the pain of being betrayed by one of their closest friends.

'No ... please ... I'm sorry ...' the world faded into nothing.

I sat up in my bunk in the Slifer dorm, breathing heavily. Unshed tears clouded my eyes, and I could feel cool sweat dripping from my forehead. The moon outside sent a few rays of light through the black-out curtains on the window to bathe the room in a soft glow. I glanced at the clock on my desk. It was 1:57 AM.

Reluctant to return to the black abyss of my dreams, I got out of the bottom bunk of three, and slipped my shoes on silently, before exiting my dorm room and climbing down the stairs towards the beach.

I didn't have to worry about waking anybody else; I was the only student left in the Slifer Dorm, ever since our return from the Dark world. Alexis Rhodes, Atticus Rhodes, and Syrus Truesdale had returned to the Obelisk dorms, where Chazz Princeton and Blair Flannigan joined them after their promotion. Hassleberry had returned to the Ra Yellow Dorms, and the others in their dorm looked up to him as their leader. Axel, Jim and Jesse had returned to their own academies, and Bastion was still to return from the other world, along with Zane, Adrian and Echo.

The experience in the Dark World seemed to being out the best in everybody. Everybody but me. The others, they have found what is really important to them, they know their path. But my path is hidden from me, shrouded in darkness.

I arrived at the beach, and flopped onto the soft sand. Glancing out into the ocean, I caught a glimpse of Neospacian dolphins chirping and playing about in the gentle waves. They waved their tails at me, and I waved back, half-heartedly. My thoughts still dwelled on my dreams.

It wasn't the first time I had dreamt a dream like that. Ever since my return from darkness, the memories of what I had done haunted my dreams.

Previously, I had always followed me heart; no matter what was thrown in my way, I'd follow my instincts and emerge victorious. Whether it was winning a duel, or saving the world, my heart had never led me astray.

Until now ...

My selfish desire to save one friend had cost me the lives of countless others. Luckily, death in the Dark World was reversible, so that I was able to bring back the many lives I had destroyed. But I knew that the scars I left behind would never fully heal.

I lost myself in my anger, sorrow, hate, anguish and doubt, falling into the darkness and causing my other half, Haou, to awaken.

Tears welled in my eyes as I stared into the ocean.

My heart had failed me. Now, I don't know where to turn.