It's a strange feeling to be both alive and not. Maximillion Pegasus J. Crawford has a vague memory of hearing a quantum thought experiment of a similar nature, some boring show he'd turned off in favor of cartoons, but he doubts even Schrodinger could puzzle out the true nature of Duel Links. For being such a technological marvel, the mysteries and magic surrounding the game only seem to grow over time, and he idly wonders if Seto Kaiba knew even half of what he was getting himself into what he created the game.
What began as a pet project, a personal challenge to analyze and use brainwaves across the globe, now extends far beyond even Kaiba's reach, and Pegasus knows too well the consequences of that overreach. He looks to the sky and can see the linking neurons and memories, lines of code and brainwaves and who knows what else reaching far into what looks like space but is something deeper and darker. Kaiba can deny it all he wants, but Pegasus knows better than most that magic is involved in his game; even discounting the digital Millennium Items with powers equal to the real deal, shimmering with captured memories, he has enough intuition to sense the powerful forces at work, whatever they may be.
(He doesn't have a name for the forces, not with this blend of bleeding-edge tech and ancient magic.)
He's not sure if it's fate or some cosmic joke that he's here now, in this threshold of memories, dead and alive and both and neither at the same time. Pegasus remembers the confusion he'd had when he arrived in Duel Links for the first time, well before any guests approached him—gasping for air he didn't need, clawing to retrieve an Eye that was firmly lodged in his head, and feeling like he'd woken from a long, torturous nightmare. When he'd come to his senses he was quickly pressured into duels from all over the world, and even now, with so many others alongside him, it takes up more of his free time than he'd care to admit.
(He tried to keep track of the names, the places, the people, but it's all too much, and he is only one half-alive half-dead man.)
A quiet part of Pegasus longs for the rest he can't have, especially when his schedule is filled and duelists are clamoring for his time like he has all of it in the world, which, he supposes, is true. He wondered once if Duel Links was some sort of purgatory, but he knows now it's more than that. With the power of his Millennium Eye he can see others' minds, others' lives, and worlds he could have never imagined—one where Duel Monsters are used for war in a perversion of Kaiba's hopes and dreams, another where a boy invented a new way of dueling that spread across the globe, and yet another where, somehow, card games created the universe.
(Some don't know his name at all. It's a comfort and a curse.)
Seeing the scope of it all can be overwhelming, even now, so Pegasus focuses on smaller details that are easier to compartmentalize—in one world Bandit Keith was gunned down in a Penalty Game, while in another he was dropped into the ocean and survived. In one world a classmate of Yugi's, Miho, stayed with the group as a friend, while in another she was a passing acquaintance.
In one world he lives, in another he does not. Pegasus, if he's honest, still has trouble reconciling the two, especially with the impact his life had, or hadn't, on those he knew and those he didn't. The memories burn behind his good eye and the glittering Millennium Eye, memories that are familiar to him like breathing and yet totally alien.
(Sometimes, if he's honest, he wants to rip the Eye out himself.)
But it's not all bad, as far as liminal spaces go. He can make amends to those he wronged. He can learn about other places, other lives, see how far his game—and sometimes not his game—has spread. When he's lucky and the endless throng of challengers has abated to a crawl, he can rest until he's called again.
And Pegasus wonders if, somewhere in the here and there, the between and in-between, his Cecelia, his Cyndia, waits for him to find her.
(He hopes she remembers his name.
He would never forget hers.
In different worlds, even their names are different, but the love is the same.
He hopes so, anyway.)