Approx. four years ago, FerryPort Landing

The peaceful quiet of the Grimm household (a seldom found pleasure that Sabrina Grimm had learned to utilize to the fullest) was disrupted at 2:53 in the morning by an earth-shattering scream. Being the light sleeper she was, Sabrina startled awake not a moment after–almost screaming herself in the process.

"Liebling?!" Granny's panicked shout resonated throughout the recently-rebuilt Grimm home. Had this been any other household, Sabrina would have dismissed the commotion as a vivid nightmare and, grumbling about her unwanted and sudden awakening, have attempted to fall back into sleep's sweet embrace. After all, Granny Relda was already up and could handle whatever was going on this time. But given the fact that this household and those who lived in it were, to her dismay, all but normal, Sabrina was painfully aware that said nightmare could just as easily be real as imagined.

This being said, Sabrina jolted out of bed and skidded out the door, too groggy with sleep to consider whether it would have been smarter to sneak in case there really was some kind of intruder. The screaming had been reduced to whimpering, coming from...the room that Red shared...with Daphne (the little girl had moved out of her shared room with Sabrina shortly after the end of the Everafter War, which Sabrina tried not to let bother her). Which meant the person whimpering was-

"Oof!"

Sabrina crashed into Uncle Jake, who'd apparently had the same idea about whatever the commotion was this time. His hair was sticking up in all directions, but smushed to one side; he'd probably been asleep and fallen off the bed. Over wrinkled pajamas was his signature long green coat, with it's hundreds of pockets. Sabrina wasn't surprised. He and Puck would be leaving to go globetrotting and treasure hunting in about two weeks, so it kind of made sense to be ready to flee within a moments notice, but Jake wore his coat all the time anyways. Come to think of it, Sabrina wasn't sure she'd ever seen Uncle Jake without his coat, give or take a few rare moments when it was unavoidable.

In their haste, Granny Relda had already made it to the girl's room and, through the doorway, Sabrina could see her holding a shivering Daphne in her arms. With newfound energy, she leapt up from the floor and hurried to them, fearing what could possibly have shaken her bubbly sister so much.

Behind her, Veronica burst into the room. Uncle Jake staggered in shortly after.

"Daphne! Sweetie, are you okay? Did someone hurt you? What's wrong?" Veronica's panicked questions were met with a weak shake of Daphne's head. Her cheeks were were wet, eyes glassy and wide with fear, lip quivering. It hurt Sabrina to see Daphne like this. She thought her heart would splinter apart if she looked at the girl long enough. Daphne didn't deserve this! She deserved her biggest worries to be what outfit she'd wear tomorrow, or how her friends were doing, or-or what TV show to watch–not evil, psychopathic magical creatures out to destroy her and her family!

Daphne's eyes rested on Sabrina's figure, and she seemed to calm down. Was that relief in her eyes?

"Sabrina! OH, thank goodness you're okay-I was so scared!"

"Okay? Why wouldn't I-" Sabrina was cut off by Daphne, who'd raced over to her and flung herself into Sabrina's arms. The force of the tackle landed Sabrina on the ground. Again. And it wasn't even 6 AM yet.

"You 'kay, Daphne? What happened back there?" Uncle Jake pressed gently.

"Liebling, you had us so frightened!"

Still in Sabrina's arms, Daphne raised her head and smiled sheepishly.

"Well, I was dreaming about New York. We were there with the whole family and there were Everafters everywhere, and there was no war-it was kind of weird 'cuz they were walking around humans and no one freaked out or anything-and it was soooooo gravy! We were solving a mystery there and...I can't really remember all the details, which is weird, I guess"-

Daphne's rapid-fire speech had Sabrina dizzy...she suspected she was still half-asleep.

-"but I remember all of a sudden I was chasing something down the street, and Puck was flying above me, chasing it too. We were gonna trap it. I can't remember why, but it knew something that we needed to know, desperately. Something that would solve everything. And then..."

Daphne's chin wobbled and her voice shook. She faltered.

"Something was wrong. I-I couldn't...couldn't run. My legs wouldn't work. And Puck kept flying, kept chasing that-thing, and was shouting for me to hurry. I tried to tell him I couldn't move, but he didn't come back for me. Didn't even look back, like he'd forgotten I was there. And the thing stopped, and turned around, and-"

Her voice broke, and she let out choked sob. All she managed to whisper was,

"It felt so real. Like...I knew I was dreaming but his voice cut through everything, and-and he was real. And he wanted you..."

She turned her teary gaze to Sabrina, and she shook her head slightly, like she didn't have the strength to talk anymore.

The stunned silence that replaced Daphne's shaky voice was deafening. Finally, Veronica walked over to Daphne and gave her a gentle squeeze.

"Daphne, there is no need to worry–I promise. I know it seemed real; all nightmares do. But now that Mom and Dad are back, nothing in this whole wide world will separate our family again. Anyone comes for you or Sabrina, and my fists will make them regret the day they were born."

She playfully mussed Daphne's hair. Daphne giggled, and gave us a sleepy smile.

"Thanks, guys. You're right, everything's fine. I just can't shake this feeling..."

"C'mon, Daph, you know I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, but..." Daphne's eyes welled. "What if, next time, you...can't?" Sabrina had to strain her ears to hear the last word. And upon hearing it, she couldn't bring herself to say anything, too overwhelmed by the tidal wave of emotions raging through her, leaving pain in their wake. How could sweet, innocent Daphne be worried about things like that? Hadn't she taken care of the both of them long enough for the little girl to have some faith? What if all these battles had scarred Daphne beyond Sabrina's knowledge and Daphne would never truly recover, forever haunted by ghosts of the past?

Red had silently padded over while Daphne was talking, and now gently squeezed her hand. Daphne gave a small jump of surprise (she hadn't seen Red coming and, in all honesty, she'd forgotten that the shy girl was also in the room in the midst of all the activity), but squeezed back.

"Don't think like that, Liebling. You two lead a war and won, remember? There is nothing that the Grimms can't handle," Granny Relda reassured affectionately.

Only much too late would the Grimm family realize how wrong she'd been.


"Hey, Ugly!" The hiss sliced through Sabrina's demented dream realm and woke her up again. Seriously? "Wake up..."

That voice...she recognized that voice. Oh, no...

"Puck..." Sabrina warned, "this better be good, or you'll wish you were never born". She heard a snort and, with difficulty, finally cracked open her eyes. The boy fairy was peering at her from the edge of the bed. It must have been really early in the morning, because the sky was several shades brighter than it had been when Daphne...Sabrina blinked. Hard. Hoping that would somehow cut off her thoughts. There was a strange glint in Puck's eyes, but he wore a relatively, uncharacteristically serious expression. At least, he wasn't grinning like a madman. Sabrina couldn't decide whether this was a good or bad sign.

"Oh, please. That's the reaction anyone has if they look at your face long enough." he sneered.

She rolled her eyes and sighed, too tired to waste her nearly depleted energy on a comeback. "It's–five in the morning?! Puck, what the heck is going on?"

Puck gave her a weird look, an unreadable one. Finally he asked, "What happened to the Marshmallow?"

Sabrina just gaped at him, completely thrown off guard by his strange question. "What kind of prank is this?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait...so, she didn't come wake you up?"

"W-What?"

Puck looked at her like she was in idiot. Slowly, he said, "Daphne didn't come into your room in the middle of the night to tell you anything".

Sabrina scowled. "No, you weirdo. Why?"

Sabrina could've sworn his cheeks colored slightly, but it was hard to tell in the dim lighting. She must've imagined it. "Because she woke me up a while ago, walked right into my room. And she...told me...things." He fidgeted.

"If she already told you, then why do you want me to tell you what happened?"

He glared. "Your stupidity amazes me, Grimm. She told me other things, and I figured something happened to make her say those things. So tell me. Now. And stop trying to change the subject!"

His eyes bored into her. Sabrina felt a stinging in the back of her eyes and abruptly turned away, gazing at the wall instead and clenching her jaw. After an endless pause, she finally relented.

"Daphne had a nightmare", she said flatly. Puck blinked once, twice. When she didn't elaborate, he slowly grinned. When the shaking started, Sabrina realized with a pang that he was silently laughing at her. And that stung, more than she wanted to admit. What was so funny about the fact that Daphne was traumatized?! Or fearing the dream was more of a threat than they'd thought? He hadn't seen Daphne's face...hadn't heard the panic and fear in her voice...the sense of urgency laced with doubt...

"So you...mean to say...that you've been pulling the...boo-boo face, bec-...because...of some dumb nightmare?" he gasped between laughs. Sabrina could feel her cheeks heating up, realizing how overdramatic and stupid she must have looked and sounded, sulking and brooding over a silly, bad dream that wasn't even hers and that Daphne had likely recovered from hours ago. Veronica was right; all nightmares seemed real but, no matter how unpleasant, they were just nightmares. But it was 5 in the morning. And Puck, of all people, was the one to witness this moment of shame and humiliate her even further for it. So she poured all of her hurt and anger into the withering glare she shot him. At her look, he straightened and quieted down, but the smirk never left his face. Suddenly more serious, he stepped toward her and opened his mouth to say something, but Sabrina cut him off

"Puck, get out. NOW. I don't want to hear it, and you shouldn't want to say it." She swallowed, eyes now glued to her bed. Sabrina felt bad, but Puck was the last person in the known universe she'd even consider confessing these fears and worries to-so, naturally, he didn't know to look for them. Or so she thought. Still refusing to look at him, to acknowledge whether he'd left or not, she didn't see him slowly make his way to her side.

She gave a start when Puck's hand brushed across her cheek, which she only now realized was wet. Great. Just great.

"Don't cry yourself to sleep, Stinky. It was just a dream."

And with that, he stalked out of her room, without so much as a glance behind him. Sabrina lay in bed the next few hours, trying to ignore the strange, fiery-and somehow numbing-sensation that had been gnawing at the pit of her stomach and brewing behind her eyes ever since Daphne had made her confession; reawakened with her rousing. Maybe she was coming down with something, because heaven knew that it wasn't just emotional turmoil.


"Sire?"

The lazy flick of a hand prompted the greasy man to continue.

"Subject 57, G was tested with the powder. The results were much better than we'd anticipated, everything played out perfectly. It seems we have our next target." He paused, tentatively

For the first time since Hunding had entered, the man spoke. His raspy, hollow voice resembled that of a knife grating against stone and filled the torch-lit hall, even though it came out as hardly a whisper.

"Kill off Sector 13, and bring her in tomorrow."


A/N: Okay, let me make this clear: I have, like, at least seven different outcomes for this story, and that's just off the top of my head. So...reviews are welcome and MUCH needed! Oh, and did I mention? While the story itself has been living in my head for months, this is my first written fanfic. I've never tried to transfer my ideas into words like this before. Yeah.

Depending on how much feedback I receive, I may or may not take a while to update my next chapter. This was more of a prologue-ish thing that set the scene as a flashback of sorts into the past.

I really hope you liked it, and keep in mind that any advice I receive is crucial to the forming of this story and will play a major role in the outcome I (finally) decide on. School is starting in a few days, too-so the more input I receive, the more motivated I will be to set aside time amidst all the homework and extra-curricular activities and events and computer-hogging to solely dedicate to this story.

If you have read this far, I am really, truly, SUPER grateful. Ecstatic, in fact. So THANK YOU! (YES, YOU!)

Constructive criticism is welcome. But even just a friendly comment works, so I know whether anyone actually likes this story or not. I'd hate to put all that effort in for nothing...