The Fallen Hero
No, I'm not dead, I've just been…preoccupied.
DISCLAIMER: Yu-Gi-Oh GX belongs to Kazuki Takahashi, not me, and neither do any of the quotes used here, so please do not sue.
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"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
- Dr. Samuel Johnson
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He stood there, like a statue made of obsidian, his steely gold eyes watching his opponent like a tiger stalking it's prey before it strikes.
With a graceful hand movement, he summoned forth monstrous apparitions to strike down his opponent's creatures, then stood back to watch his opponent squirm, reveling in their fear.
His mouth turned up in a wicked smile and commanded his monster to give the final blow. The creature obeyed, bringing it's sharp claws down through the opponent's monster, utterly destroying it, and bringing their owner's life points down to zero.
Even as his opponent collapsed to his knees in defeat, before vanishing into nothingness, the armored being turned and walked away into his looming stone fortress to brood until the next chance to battle arose.
It was impossible to believe that this cold-hearted knight, this near-emotionless warrior was once the friendly, gregarious Jaden Yuki.
But alas, his warm heart had been warped and twisted by dark forces, both inside and out, until he was but a shadow of his former self.
And now, Jaden Yuki was gone; and Haou the Supreme King stood in his place.
Somewhere, lost deep inside him, the real Jaden shivered in the enveloping darkness, his normally light-filled brown eyes replaced with dull golden discs, all traces of his cheerful personality wiped away, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind.
Floating in the air around him hung card-shaped shards of glass, their surfaces containing images of faces he knew, constantly fading away, only to reappear and then vanish once more.
These served to remind him of his actions that lead to his downfall. He had made too many mistakes, and now he was paying the price, in mind, in body, in spirit.
Only the truth remained: he had failed.
He had failed his friends, he had failed his monsters, and he had failed himself.
And when given the chance to save himself by giving up to the darkness, he took it.
The darkness festering in his soul had consumed him, and turned a good-natured person into an evil overlord, who eagerly destroyed others in vicious duels without so much as a conscience to his actions.
Even if he were to released from darkness' icy grip, he would never be the same as he was before.
His soul was too tainted, too torn to ever be considered whole again.
But until someone could free him from the dark chains keeping his soul under lock and key, he would be a prisoner in his own mind, forever.
After all, Jaden was gone, and only Haou the Supreme King remained.
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"If you covet the dark, you must enter it of your own free will. You must erase yourself and become an empty vessel. Only then will you be able to receive the dark and master it. If your disposition is weak the dark will overwhelm you. You will be… lost… oft times you will forget why you seek the power to begin with. Only a few people gain true power. To win such a prize, one's self is a small and insignificant sacrifice."
-Teodor, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword
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