Summary: When Yugi steps through a mysterious curtain, he is transported to another dimension that mirrors his own. The same also happens to his friends as well. In this world, there is an evil lurking about in a place that they once considered safe; an evil that seems to be after Serenity for some mysterious reason. Yugi and his friends soon find themselves fighting to stay alive; and to protect Serenity, who unknowingly holds the key to saving them.

Yay! My first fic! Hope you all have as much reading it as I did writing it. This was a self-made challenge: for chars, I could only use the cards I actually had. Btw, if you have a good challenge for me, I'm open to ideas. Maybe I'll start a love story next. As to the pairing, that's still up in the air--for now. Ok, that's it. Enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Chapter 1

Moonlight streamed in through a nearby window, coming to rest on a Duel Monsters deck laying on the floor, with other numerous dueling cards scattered around it. A few feet away, a small, spiky-haired teen sat on his bed, looking out his bedroom window at the moon.

'It's finally done,' Yugi thought to himself with a smile. 'I've re-done my deck so that now I'll be ready for just about anything. After all, the Battle City Tournament starts tomorrow.' Yugi looked over at his calendar on the wall—which had every day in the current month crossed out except for May 31. "Oh, yeah. Tomorrow's the...last day of...school," Yugi said between yawns as he started to nod off. The boy fell back onto his bed and finally gave in to the welcoming embrace of sleep.

About five hours later, however, he was awoken by a particularly loud noise coming from down the hall. When Yugi opened his eyes, the room was still dark. He checked the digital clock on his nightstand: a quarter to six. The boy sat up and rubbed his eyes, then walked down the hall toward the room where the sound had come from—in this case, the living room.

He was about to enter the room when he stopped—there was something quite strange about the doorway. He couldn't see the room on the other side, just a slowly swirling curtain of black, purple, and blue.

"What the...? What is that?" Yugi muttered to himself. Intrigued, he edged closer to the darkened doorway. The boy reached out to move the curtain away, only to have his hand disappear once he pulled his arm away. "Aaah! But, how...?" How indeed. How could this "thing" have dislocated his hand without even the slightest sensation? What's more, the curtain was still there, as if it had never been disturbed. Infuriated by this, and without thinking, Yugi kicked at the curtain. Now he had a leg missing from the knee down.

Yugi's sudden loss of half a leg caught him off-balance, causing him to fall forward—right into the curtain. ("Nooo!") Yugi's head had already gone through by the time his other hand had grabbed onto the edge of the wall. He could now see around the inside of the room. ("Did Grandpa remodel this room or something?") The visibility was very poor, and there were strange shapes all around the living room; many of these things were on the many shelves that lined the walls. Yugi finally looked down and saw that his hand and leg were both suspended in midair where they had gone through the doorway. Experimentally, he moved his right arm forward, seeing more of it appear on his side of the curtain as he did so. Soon he had his whole arm through and finally walked through to the other side, into the dim room. Directly in front of Yugi was a figure he recognized almost instantly, despite the gloom. "Hey, Grandpa! What are you doing here in the dark?" For a moment, his grandfather remained silent, then said, "I was trying to find my flashlight since that light bulb's still out."

"Oh, ok. I heard a noise and wanted to find out what it was."

"Heh heh...That was just me. Oh! Before I forget, I have something for you here if I could just...find that...flashlight...Aha!" With a small "click," a beam of light shot through the darkness from the handheld flashlight on a shelf, to shine on a blue-velvet pillow upon which rested a pair of glass spheres no bigger than three inches across. Soloman Motou picked up the pillow and its spheres and presented them to his grandson. "Go on, pick one."

"Ok." One sphere contained swirling colors of red, orange, and gold; while the other had the same colors of the curtain: blue, purple, and black. Yugi reached for the fiery-looking one when it suddenly turned completely white. "Oops. It looks like your friend just chose that one." Yugi then reached toward the darker sphere. He picked it up and, for some reason, just watched as the color drained from the sphere and into his palm. For a moment, his right palm was black, purple, and blue; then it faded and his palm was normal again. The sphere, however, was now as white as the other one.

"What just happened!"

"Relax. You've just gained a skill, that's all."

At this point, Yugi was now completely confused. "A skill?"

"That's right. Only use it when you really need to. Just say, 'Activate skill.' Now get ready for school, you're going to be late," Solomon Motou said after having looked at his wristwatch. "It's already 6:30!"

With that, Yugi ran back to his room to change from his pajamas into his school uniform and comb his hair. He walked into the kitchen at about 6:47 and had a quick breakfast of pancakes before heading out the door at 7:10. 'Please be late. Please be late.' The teenage boy turned his head as a familiar rumbling issued from over the hill. 'Yes! I didn't miss the...bus?' The big yellow vehicle that came over the hill and down the street was definitely not a bus. The bottom of it resembled one (except that it had only four wheels), but the top looked like a tank that had a huge machine gun attached to the front of it(1).

"Hey, Yugi!" A tall, blonde-haired teen waved to Yugi from across the street.

"Hiya Jou!" The yellow...bus-tank rumbled to the bus stop where Yugi was waiting and the door opened. "Um, I think I'll just walk," he said without even looking inside the vehicle. It rumbled away, rapidly picking up speed as it went. After looking both ways, Yugi ran across the street to walk to school with Jou.

"So, what's up Yug? Glad it's the last day of school?"

"Yeah. I'm ready for a vacation."

"I wonder what that thing was..."

"I don't know, but if it's the new bus then I'm walking from now on."

The day went by uneventfully all through the first three classes. Then it was time to go to fourth hour geometry class. Normally, Yugi didn't like to go to math class, but today was different—no work to do! It would just be one more hour to spend talking with friends and goofing off.

The spiky-haired teen made his way up the stairs and down the hall to room number twenty-two. Yugi opened the door and went inside, taking his usual seat by the window. A few minutes later, Jounuchi came running through the same door to his seat behind Yugi. Seconds later, the tardy bell rang and the teacher called attendance.

She was what most people would call "stuffy." That is to say, she was quite rigid in behavior and appearance; and her voice was slightly nasally. It was because of these personal quirks that very few students actually liked her. The teacher then announced to the class, "You may all talk quietly with your neighborsss now." She seated herself behind her own desk and took out a book to read.

Yugi turned to sit sideways in his seat so he could see Jou behind him.

"Hey, Yug, we should have a party or somethin', you know?" Jounuchi said.

"Yeah, that would be fun. This weekend at my house would be a good time. Grandpa will be out of town on a business trip. So, should we invite our usual group?" Yugi was practically bouncing in his chair with excitement about the upcoming party.

Jou thought about his friend's question for a moment, and then said, "Yeah. Serenity too?" A few desks in front of them, a girl with long auburn hair turned around at the mention of her name.

Yugi smiled. "Of course, Jou. She's in our group of friends."

Jou saw his sister turn around and listen in on their conversation, so he waved her over. "Yug's gonna have a party, sis. Wanna come?"

"Really, Yugi? I'd love to come to your party. You live in the Turtle Game Shop, right?" Serenity got up and starting walking over to the two boys.

"Yeah. I—"

"Ssssit down in your seat," cut in a voice from behind a paperback book at the front of the room.

"Can't I go over there and talk to my frien—" The teacher suddenly threw down her book, came around to the front of her desk, and angrily stomped over to where Serenity was standing. Her teeth were bared, and seemed unusually pointed today.

"You dare defy me!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Yugi thought he saw a blue something flash past the open doorway. A few moments later, he could just barely hear the faint sound of a flute playing.

"No, ma'am."

"You shall pay for your insolence!"

The next sequence of events seemed to pass by in a blur. The person standing before Serenity had turned into a creature that was human-like from the waist up, and had the body of a green and yellow snake from the waist down.(2) The strange creature suddenly wrapped itself around the girl in a death lock before she could even blink.

"We've got to do something," Yugi exclaimed.

"Hang on sis!" Jou sprang up from his seat, determined to protect his sibling.

(1) The monster described here is Overdrive

(2) Spherous Lady

A/N: Muahahahahaha. A cliffhanger. XD I've already started the second chapter, so you won't have too long to wait ;) So, how was that chapter? Please R&R! Thanks