Chapter One: Enter Grimm's Realm

Téa Gardner was rudely snapped out of her slumber by the sound of the incredibly annoying buzz of her alarm clock. From under the sheets, her muffled voice groaned, "No, not now…"

Her eyes slowly opened, still very much dull and dazed from slumber. She glanced towards her bedroom window. Maybe she didn't have to get up yet; perhaps her clock was running ahead and she was free to go back to sleep.

But no, the sky outside was a bright blue, dotted with puffy white clouds, and the golden sun was shining so brightly that it hurt her eyes to look at it.

Téa angrily turned onto her side towards her nightstand and glared at the clock, still emitting that annoying buzz. With a frustrated little growl, she slammed her hand down on top of it.

The persistent hum almost immediately died away, as though it was frightened into silence by her hard slap.

Téa rolled onto her stomach and buried her face into her pillow. Normally she wasn't this opposed to getting out of bed for school, but today was most definitely an exception. She'd been having the most wonderful dream...she smiled happily as faint memories of it slowly came back to her…

She was standing on the marble balcony of a beautiful white castle which practically glowed underneath the light of the full moon and the thousands of twinkling stars. Her beautiful garb consisted of a flowing pink and white gown decorated with glittering pearls and pink rubies.

She had been leaning on the balcony railing in solitude, gazing down at the never-ending grassy field dotted with occasional patches of thick trees below, when a gentle hand had tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and found a very familiar young man standing behind her, wearing an elegant blue coat with gold buttons and a wide grin on his face. Clutched in his hands was a silken pink rose on a thick green stem, all of the thorns having been plucked out so that it was truly perfect.

The young man held the rose out to her. He glanced down at his feet rather shyly and murmured, "Forgive me…I did try my hardest to find a lovely one for you, but I'm not certain there's any flower in the world which could come close to being as beautiful as you are."

Téa smiled at his compliment; it was a bit corny, true, but very sweet. She delicately plucked the rose from his fingers and placed it up into her hair. The rose's color matched perfectly with her gown. "That's all right, thank you; I appreciate the effort."

He quickly looked back up. From the way he trembled she could tell he was having a hard time containing the sheer excitement he felt. "You're quite welcome," he replied as calmly as he could.

He reached out and took her hand in his; his soft, warm touch sent a tingle through Téa's body. "May I?"

"You may," Téa smiled. She, too, now had to try and stop her hand from shaking with delight.

Since she was taller than him, he had to stand up on his very tiptoes in order to be face-to-face with her. She closed her eyes, excitement building up inside her like a bubbling fountain, and…

That had been the point at which the alarm clock's buzz had cut through her slumber. Perfect timing, of course.

Téa let out another groan as she turned onto her back. She placed her hands behind her head and stared up at her blue ceiling, deep in thought.

She'd been counting how many times these dreams had come to her, and exactly what kind of dreams they had been. The most recent one had been number twenty-six, but it wasn't nearly as romantic as the dreams of the past-especially since they'd been unfortunately interrupted before they could kiss.

Téa heaved a heavy, depressed sigh. I really wish that they weren't just dreams…

She remained in her warm bed for just a few more minutes, thinking about…him. It wasn't until her mother finally rapped on the door that she awoke fully and got up to put her school uniform on.

As she tightened her blue bow around her neck, her gaze turned towards her dresser. Atop it, alongside a few stuffed animals, was a frame holding two separate pictures of the young men in her dreams, although technically, since they shared the same body, they were one and the same.

Téa walked over to the dresser and picked the photos up in her hand. She gently ran her fingers over the glass separating her from the pictures, wishing deeply that she could reach inside, go beyond the simple picture, and actually run her fingers through their true tri-colored locks.

"Guys…" she addressed the photographs as though they were the real things, "I do like being your friend, don't get me wrong…but sometimes…" She hugged the photos tightly to her chest. "I wish I was something more…"

Unbeknownst to Téa, her every move from the time she'd awoken was being watched with great scrutiny. The Queen was observing her with great care through the all-seeing power of the magic mirror; after all, if she was going to get rid of these heroes, then she had to do so properly. Every one of those children had to have some sort of weakness, and if she could find out what it was, then ensuring that they'd never obtain a happily ever after would be a simple task.

When Téa placed the pictures back onto her bookshelf, The Queen leaned up closer towards the mirror and squinted in order to obtain a better look at them. She could just make out that the photographs were of two young men, so similar looking that they could have been brothers.

It was the photo of the more youthful of the two, however, which made The Queen's eyes widen with glee. There was no mistaking that he was one of the heroes she'd seen in the mirror; how could anyone forget his young, innocent face and his pointy, tri-colored hair?

"Ooh, this is perfect!" she laughed to herself. "He can become a part of her story as well! I'll be able to kill two birds with one stone!"

She quickly took the book Fairy Tales, which she was clutching firmly in her hands, and balanced it on her knee. She licked her finger and began quickly flipping through it once more. Her eyes only scanned over the titles of the various tales; they became more and more narrowed as story after story was eliminated. "Not The Pied Piper…no, The Boy Who Learned What Fear Is doesn't seem correct either…argh, not Puss in Boots…oh!"

The Queen took the Fairy Tales book in both hands and held it up closer to her face. On the right side of it was a painting of a beautiful young woman and a hideous creature standing in the midst of a garden in full bloom. The creature was holding a bright red rose out to the girl, whose face registered quite a bit of shock, assumedly from both his shocking appearance and his surprisingly kind gesture.

"Wonderful," she smiled. "The two of them can most certainly go into that story. Unlike the original version, however, I'll make it highly doubtful that even that young woman will be able to see through his appearance for who he is…"

Téa was at the doorway of her house, sliding her flat brown shoes onto her feet. She let out a small grunt as her little yellow backpack heavily weighted down upon her while she bent over. "Maybe I should consider getting one of those backpacks on wheels…" she murmured to herself.

She stood up straight with another grunt. "Agh…" She winced her eyes shut and pressed her hands up against her lower back. "I don't think 'consider' is the right word…"

Téa slowly took one hand off of her back and used it to reach out and open the front door. Her eyes remained squeezed shut from the pain as she stepped outside.

The change happened in a passing moment, only marked by the instant blast of cold wind all around her. It took Téa a few seconds to realize that the heavy load had been lifted off of her back. Though at first she sighed with relief from her liberation, her feeling quickly changed to one of terror.

She snapped her eyes open to find herself in a place which was certainly nowhere near Domino. The sky above her, so blue and almost completely clear before, was now covered with black, rolling clouds that threatened to rain at any instant. Before her stretched a seemingly endless forest of grey, barren trees whose branches waved like threatening claws in the chilly wind.

Téa wrapped her arms tightly around her body, shivering from the coldness that fiercely whipped around her. It's so cold out here…I should have worn my jacket…

She blinked. Wait a minute, I did!

Téa glanced down at herself. Her school uniform and backpack were gone, replaced with a yellow tube top, a flowing pink skirt that went all the way down to her ankles with a bright blue ribbon tied into a bow around the top, and dainty pink flats on her feet.

She quickly turned around to go back inside her house, only to see that it had disappeared. Behind her was only more of the dark, dreary landscape, with no clear end in sight.

"What's going on?" she called out into the dark woods. "Where am I…?"

Yugi hurriedly dashed down the stairs, sliding his arms through the straps of his tan backpack at the same time. His alarm clock hadn't gone off that morning, so he'd woken up a half hour later than usual. Thankfully a few sparks of magic were able to bathe, clothe, and feed him in just a few minute's time. All that he needed to do now was run the entire way to school, and his constant dashing in the midst of battling psychopathic nuts had wonderfully prepared him for that.

He pushed his way out the door leading into the Game Shop, barely avoiding hitting Grandpa while he was leaning down behind the counter to scrub it clean. Yugi leapt over the shop counter with a flying jump and called out a hurried goodbye over his shoulder before he pushed open the shop door and ran outside.

The sight that greeted him made him stop cold in his rush. Instead of the familiar streets of Domino, he'd run into a cold, dark forest filled with trees whose only covering consisted of grey bark. The ground beneath him with hardened and grey, and as he'd run forward, his feet had kicked up a tiny cloud of swirling dust.

"Wha-" Yugi turned around to go back into the Game Shop and ask Grandpa if he saw the same sight, but it, too, had vanished. All that lay behind him was more of the bleak woods, the grey trees stretching off into the horizon.

In his mind's eye, Yugi saw the Pharaoh also staring around the cold and dark forest in surprise. Yugi, what is this place?

I…don't know…

Suddenly, a cackling voice spoke from behind them: "Hello there."

In the instant that Yugi spun around, the Pharaoh took over their body. His narrowed eyes fell upon a beautiful young woman clad in elegant violet and black garb, who in turn gave him a sickly sweet smile. From the crown on her head, he deduced that she must have been of royalty, though from the cruel look in her dark eyes he could tell some blackness was mixed with her blue blood.

"Who are you?" he snapped at her.

"I am The Queen," she replied in a deep, dramatic voice. "I have been the ruler of the land of fairy tales for five years, but I've become tired of just reigning over one single world. Now I'd like to expand the boundaries of my kingdom, and I plan on beginning with your place."

She raised one hand into the air and pointed out one finger. Violet sparks started shooting out of its tip with fervor. "First, however, I have to ensure that there won't be anybody else around to stop me."

The Queen brought her glittering finger down. The little sparks became violet blurs of light as they soared with incredible speed towards him; they hit his chest before he could even rise up his own hand in retaliation.

Pharaoh dropped down to all fours as a soft, violet aura surrounded him. A terrible, wrenching pain ripped through the entirety of his body. He let out an unearthly roar as he felt his bones and muscles begin to snap and twist with loud, sickening grinding noises into some new, bizarre form; when he looked down at his hands, he saw thick, brown fur beginning to burst out of the cracks in his skin.

"Which means, little boy," the woman sneered, "you and your little friends have to go."

Téa looked around the forest wildly, shivering from both the miserable chill in the air and the fear of not knowing where the heck she was. Now what am I going to do...she thought to herself. The forest doesn't look the least bit inviting, but just standing here isn't going to help me get home…

She was suddenly snapped out of her consideration by something dropping down from the sky and landing with a thud at her feet. She glanced down at the ground and saw in the midst of the tiny cloud of dust that had formed a gold, ornate box shaped into the sarcophagus of an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh.

Téa gasped from shocking recognition. The beautiful box had been where Yugi held his Millennium Puzzle when it had still been in pieces. She'd seen it so many times when she'd been in Yugi's room that she knew of almost every last one of its elegant carvings and designs.

She knelt down onto the ground and lifted the lid off of the box. Once again, a horrified cry leapt from her throat.

Inside of the box lay the Millennium Puzzle itself, broken back up into its dozens of little gold pieces which still shone brightly despite the lack of light in the woods.

Téa slowly reached inside and pulled out one particular piece. It was a rather large one with an Eye of Osiris protruding from the center that seemed to gaze back at her wide, terrified eyes.

"Yugi…" Tears began to form at the corners of her cerulean pupils. "What happened to you…?"