We do not own "Yu-Gi-Oh!" nor any characters.

This story is set approximately 2.5 years after the end of the series, and features the couples of: Yugi x Tea, (Atem x Teana), Seto x Serenity, (Seth x Kisara), Joey x Mai, (Jono x Maya), Tristan x Miho, (Tobin x Mihala), Ryou x Rebecca, (Adonah x Bekah), Duke x Vivian, (Deuel x Veroni), Shadi x Ishizu, (Shada x Isis), Marik x Karen (Namu x Kara), Odion, (Karim), Mokuba (Kubarin), Maximillion x Cecelia, (Akunadin x Shindia), Dark Magician x Dark Magician Girl (Mahado x Mana)

"Yugi-Oh A Time to Every Purpose"

Act I: Present Day

Chapter 1

Strains of pounding music blare loudly from a tall, highrise building in the middle of town, as a lone girl dances with a fierce intensity that she has only felt in recent weeks and days.

She considers the events the of the day as her long, thin legs gracefully, and artfully, carry her back and forth across the dimly lit studio room. Classes were over by now but her kind dance instructor had seen Tea's frustrations during the session. He had let his most promising student remain behind to use the studio as he thought it would be for the best if the young girl worked her emotions out. What better way to do so than in the blood pumping dance moves she so loved.

Love...

But it wasn't the exertion of her dancing that left Tea with a lack of air. Nor was the fury of flung out arms and kicked up legs the source of the chestnut haired girl's breathlessness. It was the dream-the dream that would not let her go. It had haunted her every sleeping and waking thought for days and nights on end. Unlike other normal dreams, Tea could still everything that happened in this particular one. She could still see his handsome face. She could still hear his deep voice calling her "his love." She heard the whisper over and over that he was her husband, and she, his wife.

She could still feel the strong, tanned arms around her. The heat of his skin touching hers possessed her...

"It is you, is it not, my Queen?" A mysterious voice whispers to her through her daydream and wakes her from her reverie. So wrapped up in both thought and music surrounding her, Tea had never noticed the dark woman enter the studio, and was now standing startlingly close behind her as Tea opens her tightly shut eyes.

"Wh-who?"

Tea stutters, finally managing to breathe out. Her already short breath was being tried to its fullest by the shock of being face to face with someone who she could've sworn wasn't there, just moments ago.

"More precisely-who are you, my young mistress?" Ishizu Ishtar smiles softly as she scans the pretty face before her. She sensed now, more than ever, the striking resemblance.

Tea's mouth falls open as she struggles for breath to respond to the woman's enigmatic questions.

"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you before, Ishizu. But I was so wrapped up in my dancing that I wouldn't have known my best friend if I saw him!" Tea laughs after a few brief introductions, smiling at the Egyptian woman that she and the others had met not so long ago, when they were dueling against her brother, Marik, at Seto Kaiba's tournament.

There was so much weirdness going on then, with Mai and Ryou, and some of the others passing out into what was called the "Shadow Realm" because of some power that Marik had held over them all.

Sure glad THAT'S all over with...And Yugi...he was able to stop your crazy brother before anyone else got hurt. But all this ancient magic...is getting way over my head.

Tea laughs at herself for the joke.

"Maybe because he's not only your best friend, my Queen. And you have not yet realized just who he is to you." Ishizu speaks, erasing Tea's smile from her face.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...Ishizu, I don't get all this! Why do you keep calling me 'Queen' anyway? I'm just me! Tea Gardner!" Tea almost shrieks out her name, as if trying to yell it so loudly, that not only Ishizu would believe her identity but maybe, she would be certain of it too, herself.

"Yes, Tea. I know it is your name, but as certain as I am that the boy you call 'Yugi' is in this way, connected to the Pharaoh - then I am absolutely certain, and just as equally sure, that you are she - in meaning - you have deep ties - no, the deepest bonds - with the queen from over 3000 years ago. My senses keenly assure me of this fact, without question. Now that I look into your own eyes, Tea...Or should I say the chosen descendant and mirror soul of "Queen Teana," the great Pharaoh Atem's beautiful and adored wife.

"Pharaoh Atem?"

His gorgeous tanned face flashes through Tea's mind and she blushes with the intensity of a Phoenix fire at just the thought of being his...

"...wife?" Tea tries to steady herself as her dancing legs almost ungracefully knock her clumsily to the studio floor.

"Y-you're talking crazy stuff, Ishizu! That's just nuts! How could I be like some ancient Queen? I'm me! Just plain simple me!"

Tea lashes out at the unknown that was trying to grip her mind senseless.

"And Yugi Motou is...?" Ishizu prompts with one raised eyebrow, looking down at Tea's teary face.

"...The tan skinned Pharaoh in my dreams..." Tea weakly whispers. Her mind and heart were both too exhausted to fight it anymore. Her love for Yugi-and the Pharaoh who once resided within him-overwhelmed her entirely by now.

"So you did have that vision as well. The time is drawing near." Ishizu quietly comments, wondering why the girl would deny what her soul already accepted. Tea nods, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Why do weep, my Queen? Could it be this 'you' no longer desires to share in his destiny?" Ishizu cocks her head, knowing that souls did not change in the sands of time, but often hearts did.

"No, that's not it...I would do anything for Yugi! Anything! I...I love him..." Tea trails off in less than a whisper through her tears. But Ishizu had heard the girl's emotional plea of a denied love that could not be trampled down. It was a spiritual bond that fate wove through two souls to become one. It was an unextinguishable love, destined to last throughout the ages.

And even if neither one realized it, their great love for each other would somehow shine through-so strong it was...

And is...

At least Ishizu prayed for it to be so.

For the sake of the world-I pray that your love is strong enough to span the ages.

"I am so pleased to hear you say that, my Queen." About to explain her mission the girl, Ishizu's smile suddenly stiffens. Her hand placed on Tea's shoulder for comfort, now tensely tightens as her eyes widen with a dangerous intuition flashing through her mind.

"I have to get you out of here!" Ishizu urgently grabs Tea's hand, lifting the quizzical girl up, and rushes to the doorway in an inexplicable panic.

Tea dutifully follows her racing lead to the stairwell, when-

"Foolish woman! Did you truly imagine you could deter me?" A deep, foreboding voice echoes through the lonely stairwell. Fear grips Tea's heart and Ishizu's as well, from the blanched look her usually tanned face takes on.

"Tea! Run!" Ishizu's scream is knocked right out of her as the dark cloaked frame sends a shockwave of energy that sends Ishizu flailing over the railing.

"ISHIZU! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Someone help! YUGI!"

Tea shrieks the name of her love, who always triumphed over evil as the decidedly dark clothed, evil man grabs Tea roughly by the arm, dragging her away with him as she kicks and screams out Yugi's name.