Prologue: This Isn't a Dream

It was late at night in the town of Domino. Except for a few extremely late night owls, practically everyone was sleeping quietly in their beds (except for Joey Wheeler, who let out loud snores that kept him from being woken up from even a bomb dropping). Dreaming had yet to start for any of them.

That, however, was about to change.

In Joey's bedroom, as he tossed and turned in his bed, causing the blanket to slide off of him and onto the messy bedroom floor, a strange, ghost-like person appeared by the side of the bed. The young man had midnight black hair and yellow eyes that gleamed in the dark like two twinkling stars. Strangely enough, he was dressed in blue-striped P.J.s and wore light blue slippers on his feet. In his hand, he clutched a large white sack weighted down by something inside.

The man gazed down at the teenage hero as he slept. He reached inside of his bag and pulled out a pinch of sparkling white sand-like stuff out of it. Gently, he sprinkled the sand onto Joey's head; as the sand struck it, it absorbed itself into his head.

Joey winced and started muttering in his sleep, "No…no…"


Joey was standing in the middle of the street in a different city from Domino. All around him, people were dashing the opposite way down the street, screaming out in horror and clutching protectively onto their children.

A laser beam suddenly fired down from the sky and landed only a few feet away from Joey, forming a small crater in the road. Joey jumped away and looked up in the direction the beam came from.

Floating above the ground was a wild-looking man with red hair that stuck out all over the place wearing dark goggles, a long black lab coat, blue men's shirt and black jeans. On his back was a jet pack that spurted out intense flames as it kept the guy hovering up above the people, and in his hands was a large, silver gun-like object which, Joey guessed, had fired the laser.

The man tilted his head back and let out a roar of wild laughter. "Yes, mere mortals! Run! Scream! Fear your new leader of this formerly free world!"

"Not so fast!" a feminine voice cried out.

Joey looked up behind him and saw a young girl hovering on a blue-glowing silver stand-up scooter above the street. Her black hair blew wildly around her face, and red-tinted sunglasses covered up her eyes. She wore a skin-tight bright pink mini-dress with yellow stripes running down its sides and knee-high white boots. 

"Ooh, I'm so scared," the mad scientist laughed. "It's a little girly-girl on a floating scooter! Someone help me, please!"

The girl smiled sweetly at the scientist. Red beams suddenly shot out of her eyes and blasted directly into his shoulder.

He screamed and clutched at his shoulder as it emitted tiny streams of grey smoke. Snarling, he pointed the laser-beam gun at her and said, "Say goodbye, girly-girl."

Right when he fired another beam, however, the girl floated up in the air on her scooter and fired more laser beams down at him from her eyes.

The man and girl started firing wildly at one another, the lasers only narrowly each other as they flew around in a circle.

For some reason, as Joey watched the two battle, he became a tad bit nervous, but he couldn't understand why.

Finally, the man decided to change his tactics. He reached into his coat and pulled out what appeared to be a water gun. Upon firing, however, what came out was a wad of a sticky, gum-like substance which expanded, covered the girl entirely from the neck down, and splattered her into a building. She tried desperately to break free, but the stuff, whatever it was, held fast.

Joey drew in a fearful breath. "No…" he whispered to himself. He tried to move towards the girl, but his feet were practically frozen to the street, and when he attempted to fire out magic, only a tiny green spark came out which fizzled instantly.

The mad scientist grinned and flew up to the girl. He pointed the laser gun at her and let the tip of it glow with red laser light. "Say bye-bye, girly-girl."

"NOOO!" Joey screamed out.


"No, no, no…" Joey murmured. He tossed and turned in his sleep, wildly trying to throw punches and such out at some invisible being.

The guy watched him for a moment, and then vanished into thin air.


For once, instead of pulling an all-nighter, Kaiba slept quietly in his bed and, for the only time in the 24 hours of the day, didn't have a perpetual scowl on his face. The dark-haired see-through man appeared at the side of his white-sheeted bed. Once again he reached inside of his bag, pulled out a pinch of the sand, and sprinkled it onto his forehead.

The scowl reappeared.




Kaiba casually walked through the front doors of Kaiba Corp, dressed in his white suit with light blue shirt and blue tie, and approached the nearby elevator when suddenly his assistant Roland ran up to him and yelled out, "Excuse me, kid, but this building is specifically for Kaiba Corp employees only!"

Kaiba glared angrily at him and replied, "Talk to me like that again and you're fired, Roland."

"Fired?" Roland laughed out loud. "Sorry, pest, but only the C.E.O. of Kaiba Corp can fire me."

"Yes. Right. Me. Remember?" Kaiba cocked an eyebrow, baffled and angered by employee's attitude.

"Yeah, sure. Nice try, kid." Roland pulled a walkie-talkie out of his pocket and spoke into it, "Get security down here; we've got some teenage guy trying to get to the C.E.O.'s office."

"What?!" Kaiba cried out.

At that moment, the elevator doors opened and Mokuba stepped out of them. Kaiba looked over at him and said, "Mokuba, please remind our brain-dead employee who exactly I am."

Mokuba stared at him. "Um, sure…but who are you?"

Kaiba stared. Coming from his little brother, he knew this wasn't just some bizarre joke. "You…don't know me?" he said.

At that moment, security guys dressed in black suits and sunglasses came around the corner. Roland pointed at Kaiba and said, "Remove this young man from the premises."

Kaiba looked over at the men, then back at the elevator Mokuba had just stepped out of. Its doors were just about to close.

Kaiba dashed into the elevator; before the doors closed completely, he heard Roland scream out, "Get that kid!"

Kaiba quickly pressed the button for his office's floor and tapped his foot impatiently as the elevator slowly rose upwards.

Once the elevator stopped and the doors opened, he dashed out of it and ran down the hallway towards his office. However, before he could reach it, a crowd of security guards and even a few of his secretaries with multi-colored hair came out from around the corner and yelled out, "Hey you!"

"Oh, great," Kaiba said, horrified. "My entire company has turned against me."

The guards and secretaries charged towards him.


An extremely angered look overtook Kaiba's face. The man watched him for a second, then vanished once more.

Téa slept peacefully in her bedroom, clad in her pink pajamas. The dark-haired man appeared by the side of her bed and once again took out some sand which he lightly sprinkled onto her forehead.

She stirred slightly in her sleep.


"Téa…" she heard a voice whisper.

Téa slowly opened her eyes. She sat up in bed and looked around the room; seeing no one there, she called out, "Hello?"

The side wall of her bedroom suddenly vanished, revealing a romantic living room with a long red chaise longue in the center that someone was lying on. The only light in the room came from the dozens of small candles all around it, leaving the person's face shrouded in shadow. He was wearing a black jacket, blue shirt and black pants.

Téa got out of bed and stared at the room. "Wha-" she said.

"Hello, my love," the person said. He got up from the chaise longue and walked towards the edge of the room, keeping his face in the dark.

Téa suddenly felt her clothing transform. She looked down and saw that her pink PJs had become a floor-length pink evening gown with white slippers and a necklace with a small, pink stone.

"You look beautiful," the man gently whispered to her.

As though they weren't even attached to her mind, Téa's feet walked her right over to the guy. He gently put his arms around her waist, giving her a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. She placed her arms around his.

"My sapphire-eyed beauty…" he whispered. "I wish I could hold you like this forever…"

Téa smiled softly. "Me too," she murmured.

Téa and the man slowly leaned together and allowed their lips to touch in a passionate kiss.


Téa turned over in her bed and smiled. The man disappeared from her room.

Finally, the man appeared at the side of Yugi Muto's bed. He quietly lay in his bed, the Millennium Puzzle sitting by the side of his pillow. The man once again sprinkled sparkling sand onto the sleeper's forehead.

Yugi's face winced.


Yugi found himself standing in the streets of a familiar city. He glanced up at the towering skyscrapers which glittered underneath the moon's full light and saw the silhouette of a dragon soar past it.

This is Kingrah, Yugi thought to himself, but what am I doing here?

Suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. He turned around mechanically and saw a rather thuggish looking teenager behind him. He was a rather burly guy with spiky brown hair and narrowed, dark, beady eyes. He wore black leather clothing and his outlines glowed with red, blazing magic.

"Well, well, well, look who's here," the burly guy grinned. "It's the nice little punching bag."

Yugi stared at them. He had been bullied quite a lot before, but he certainly didn't remember encountering any guys like this.

"Thanks for coming out tonight, little boy," the burly guy replied. He cracked his knuckles together. "I was hoping to have some fun."

Moving without even really controlling his body, Yugi turned and bolted down the street. Behind him, he heard the running footsteps and cruel laughter of the thug behind him.

"You can run all you want, little boy," Yugi heard the guy's voice yell, "but you'll never be able to hide!"

Yugi continued running and kept his eyes straight ahead of him.

Suddenly, his foot slipped on a small stone in the road. He screamed as he fell towards the ground in what seemed like slow-motion…


Yugi bolted upwards in his bed. He breathed out heavily and sweat trickled down his forehead. "What was that…" he whispered.

Suddenly, he heard a scream of terror in the bedroom. A dark-haired man dressed in blue-striped PJs appeared at the side of Yugi's bed, staring in horror at one corner of the room.

From that corner, another person suddenly appeared. This one had black hair, except for one dyed red stripe running through it, with rather long bangs that went past his midnight-black eyes. He wore a black leather jacket, black jeans, and a red T-shirt with the word Nightmare written in black letters on its front.

He grinned and formed an orb of black magic in his hands. "Good night for all eternity, sandman," he said, the words practically slithering out of his mouth.

The PJ-clad guy looked at Yugi and cried, "Please help!"

The man with red-stripped hair fired the orb at him.

Without a second thought, Yugi held out his hand and created a force field around the PJ guy which absorbed the black orb. He then fired out his own blue magic, slamming the villain into the wall.

The guy opened his eyes and glared angrily at Yugi, then vanished into thin air.

The man in the blue-striped PJs turned to Yugi and bowed. "Thank you, hero," he said.

"You're welcome, but who exactly are you?" Yugi asked.

He smiled and replied, "I'm a sandman. And no, before you ask, this isn't a dream."