Okay, in my defense I really can't resist writing my dreams. They're the closest way to experience fantasy for real, and they can make great stories! This was inspired by a dream because I wanted to share what it was like. I'll admit that this is way outside the norm, but I'm going to try to roll with it. I've always been fascinated by the subconscious, and if you bear with me I think this could be really cool.

Oh, and I'm only on season three. Yeah. So if I get stuff wrong it's probably because I'm not far enough in the show to know any better. Sorry?

Chapter 1: Introduction

I am Yugi's subconscious. I am the thing that takes care of what he doesn't think about. The thing that makes sure he keeps breathing, that he doesn't make the same mistake twice, that he heeds the warnings too small to consciously notice. When he jumps, I am the thing that makes sure his feet land in the right place. I help him decide on the best choices, the little voice influencing his decisions. My thoughts are the framework of his dreams.

It feels like I've been doing this job forever, but to tell you the truth I don't remember much before the last year or so. I think my memory, the background memories of the subconscious, has been recycling itself, but since anything important tends to come back I'm not that worried. It's my job to notice things that aren't right so really this should be setting off alarm bells. But keeping Yugi safe is top priority, and his knack for getting in trouble normally keeps me too busy to worry about anything potentially wrong with myself.

I'll just ignore all the problems with that thought.

I intervene far more than most people give me credit for. Take today for example. I stopped Yugi from tripping over a tree root he failed to notice in his peripheral vision. I helped him dodge the near-unpredictable students in the crowded hallways between classes, preventing three potential collisions that he was completely oblivious to. When he was distracted during class, I listened to the lecture so that when the teacher called him out for not paying attention he could provide the right guess to their question. This is just an average school day. If I have to intervene now, imagine what it's like when Yugi's in tournaments! But that's okay. I'm not doing this to be noticed. The entire point of the subconscious is to be intuitive background noise, and that's what I intend to be.

All was going well, or as well as I could manage to make it, until Yugi finished the millennium puzzle. Suddenly I wasn't the only thing separate from Yugi's conscious perception. There was something else, something older and confused and powerful.

I didn't know what to do. No one prepares you for a mental invasion. While Yugi didn't notice a difference, I was wary of this new presence. What was it? What were its intentions? The power radiating from it suggested that I, or even worse, Yugi was at its mercy.

The first time this new presence reacted to the outside world was when it saved Yugi from Ushio. I had been working overdrive urging Yugi to do something when suddenly I was shoved aside and it took over. I wanted to fight it—protecting Yugi was MY job—but for some reason I was unwilling to draw attention to myself. If I fought it, made Yugi fight it, it might decide to squish us with that threatening power. So I sat back and trusted that this mysterious thing didn't need my help.

To my pleasant surprise, it turned out that the other mind's intentions were also about protection. I was relieved to find that my help was unneeded.

Over time Yugi finally noticed the presence for himself, and we learned that it was a spirit named Yami. I hid whenever Yami was around. I wasn't needed when he was in control, nor when he talked to Yugi directly. Though he proved himself to be relatively benevolent, it was as if I had my own subconscious warning me to stay away.

That's a funny thought, to imagine I have a subconscious of my own, a little voice influencing my decisions while I do the same for Yugi. I file the thought away for later musing. Yugi's likely to have multi-layered dreams for the next few nights.

Sometimes I worry that I'm not hiding well enough. Ever since we encountered Pegasus with his millennium eye and Shadi with his millennium key Yami has been more observant than ever about the privacy of Yugi's mind. I know I have no reason to be worried. I am part of Yugi after all, and despite thinking of myself and his conscious thoughts as two different things I can't be separated from him. Right? But I can't help but remember how easily I had been shoved aside before. I wonder if Yami will let me continue my job if he notices I'm here. Surely he has a subconscious of his own. Surely he knows that I am needed.

Surely I'm safe, I tell myself. But still I don't interfere while he's around.

A/N: The subconscious is the closest thing we have to primal instinct, and most of our instincts exist for our survival. It only makes sense that something keyed for survival is all about protecting, right?

And before you say anything, I am aware of the changes in tense. That was done on purpose. To this end I'm not exactly sure where to place this on the timeline. The present tense is sometime after Duelist Kingdom, but I am unsure of anything beyond that. Next chapter is in the works and not as strange as this one, don't worry.