Hello all, and welcome to my first ever Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan fiction. I'm the High Crystal Guardian, (or just "Guardian" for short) and I hope you enjoy my fic...as much as the endless babbling of my two "muses" (more like pains in the ***'s) Karma, and Slash.

Karma: Hey! Watch it!

Slash: Yeah!

HCG: o_O;; you guys are agreeing on something?!

Karma & Slash: *glancing at each other* Er...no?

HCG: *shaking head* Anyway...Karma'n Slash are my characters, although from a different form of fan fiction. Normally enemies...but apparently not when they're off-duty. They won't be in my Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan fiction (at least, not in this story) but they do like to pop in and chatter at times.

Karma: *grin* That's right!

HCG: *sigh* Anyway, back to the fic. My first fiction is a bit on the odd side (then again, so am I) and portrays the characters very differently then they are in the show. Yugi, through problems with his Millennium Puzzle's magic, suddenly discovers that he has been transported to a completely different dimension--without his Yami.

Slash: Better stop talking or you'll give everything away!

HCG: ¬_¬;; Right...

Disclaimer: Well, sadly for me, I don't own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters or ideas. However, Slash and Karma belong to ME (as well as the plot in this story, but that's pretty obvious.)

Also, a few notes....

Yugi is "Yugi" while Yami Yugi is simply referred to as "Yami."

I don't have that accent for the "e" in Tea's name, so we'll just have to go with "Tea" and hope you know what you're reading.

Italicized words are thoughts or dreams/memories

/word/ -- Yugi talking to Yami in a mind link

//word// --Yami talking to Yugi in a mind link.

Now, too the story!!!

Shadow Turned Light

Chapter 1: Startling Discovery

The air in front of the boy seemed to crack open silently, and within the opening rolled shadows. Deathly, terrifying black shadows, threatening to consume him. Startled, he turned to run, to flee the dangers that came ever closer...but he couldn't get away. The shadows kept pace without even trying, it seemed, if shadows had to try to do so.

Instinctively, the boy opened his mouth to call out for help; but somehow, he couldn't make his voice work. His throat was tight, and he had to fight it to make it loosen even slightly enough for talk. Had to fight too much, in fact. He forgot the need to call out for help and concentrated on the equally strong need to run.

And still, he couldn't escape the shadows crawling nearer. It seemed that, the closer that they came, the more they almost seemed to speak...

Frightened, he noticed that he really could hear voices, startlingly terrifying, yet at the same time speaking with something almost like the melody of a song. "You are destined...you must help...help the others, the ones that you know, and yet do not know...you will help them. They need you. Do not try to run."

The boy's feet pounded on ground that was not ground, that was clear and made of the darkest of colors all at once. Solid, and yet not. He had time for one sharp glance around; he knew where he was now, with darkness ever present, ever living.

The Shadow realm.

Terror built upon terror. Huge eyes widened even more at the registration of such a thought. He couldn't be here...not again...

He opened his mouth again, his throat no longer tight. He wanted to scream. If he did, though, he knew he'd never stop. Never stop until he was as good as dead and gone.

The shadows behind him rolled closer, looming up to high to see with the eye, yet hardly high at all. Tendrils of the dark mass seeped out of its large, gloomy form, reaching out for him.

"You will come. You will follow what is required of you..."

The boy tried to dodge the rope-like restraints of darkness coming toward him--and failed, tripping and falling to the strange ground. The tendrils creeped closer, wrapping around his arms and legs, torso, neck....within moments he was wrapped in something that resembled a spider-web of shadow, neatly caught and not to escape.

At last, he found his voice. "No! God no, please, let me go!"

"We will force you, if we must. You can not avoid your destiny. You must help those that need your assistance. You cannot avoid your destiny!"

The net of darkness dragged him back towards the opening the shadows had first come from. It was much like a doorway, but the boy couldn't have cared at all.

"Destiny..."

The boy no longer cared if he yelled or not. He forced his voice past his tightening throat and screamed, loud, long, and pitifully.

The doorway in the air closed, sealing the sound off as if it had never existed.

* * * * *

//Yugi! Wake up!//

Yugi Moto snapped awake at the sound of his yami's concerned thought through his link. He sat up in his bed, breathing hard, the sheets twisted around him and evidence of frightened tossing and turning. His long golden bangs were plastered to his head with cold sweat, while his magenta-and-black hair was flattened from being smashed against the pillow. He sighed heavily with relief and fell back onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

/Thanks, Yami./ He thought to his other, allowing his breathing to return to it's normal state.

//What was the matter? You seemed frightened...some of your thoughts seeped through the link to me.//

Yugi sighed again, this time with no trace of relief in it. /Nothing./

//I doubt it,// Yami said dryly through the link. //you were tossing and turning crazily. And you were worried about something; I can tell. I know you had a dream of some sort, that's all it could be. Now, what was it?//

/I said it was nothing./ Yugi rolled over on the bed, trying to find a comfortable position that he could return to his slumber in. Not that he wanted to; that dream had been terrifying, and he hadn't liked it at all. He didn't want it to return, either. Memories of the dream--no, nightmare--flashed through his head, and he had to struggle to hide them from the other soul sharing his mind.

The pyramid-shaped golden puzzle around his neck shimmered in the moonlight through the window; he grinned momentarily at it, recalling the times when he had solved it, and later met the spirit that lay within. The grin faded just as quickly as it had appeared when the eye symbol in the middle of the puzzle began to glow. Oh, great, Yugi thought to himself, now he's coming out. He just won't give up, will he?

Yugi sat up in his bed again, knowing it would be pointless to try and ignore his yami. The ancient--and stubborn--pharaoh never gave up trying to get an answer out of Yugi on matters like this. At any other time, he would have felt safe knowing that the spirit was looking out for him so carefully, but right now he was just tired and nervous about his dream.

The boy turned to find a nearly exact replica of himself standing near the bed, wearing a concerned look on his face. On a casual glance, Yami would have looked like another ordinary being; however, when one looked closer, they could see that he had an almost translucent look about him, as if he were a ghost. Which wasn't very far off, as he was a spirit.

"Really, Aibou, what is wrong? I cannot help you unless you tell me." His voice was solid now, not like the thought link the two usually used.

Yugi shrugged, looking up at the spirit. "Just a dream. Nothing I can't handle."

"About what?"

"I can't really remember," Yugi lied. It was as clear as a bell in his mind, but if he told his Yami about the dream the spirit would probably worry.

The ancient pharaoh frowned. "You can tell me, you know."

His Hikari sighed again. "You know me too well," he mumbled. "Alright, I will tell you. I was in the Shadow realm, and there was something there that kept calling to me...it wanted me to go help somebody...but it was terrifying, the way it talked and acted. And then it caught me and--" He shuddered, remembering being drawn through the opening in the air, unable to escape. "--and then I woke up," he finished lamely.

"Odd," Yami mused, before concern spread over his face again. "But it was just a dream. You've nothing to worry about, Aibou."

"I don't know," Yugi said quietly. "It was all so real--more real than any dream I've ever had before--I felt like it was trying to tell me something."

His darker half frowned. He muttered something under his breath; Yugi caught the words "Shadow realm" and "dreamer," but that was all. Finally, he spoke, though slowly.

"It may have been a warning."

Yugi blinked his large violet eyes in confusion. "What?"

Yami sighed. "The Shadow realm has ways of warning people of...things to come, I suppose. I've never been quite sure of how it works, but it does connect to people's dreams in an unusual way."

His lighter side turned to him questioningly. "Than what was it trying to tell me?"

All he received in answer was a shrug. "I don't know, other than the obvious. You're going to help somebody soon."

Yugi shuddered. "I don't want to go through that nightmare again," he whispered, almost inaudibly. "It was horrible."

Yami looked down at his little charge, who was shaking slightly, and sat down on the bed. "Rest," he said gently. "You have no more need to worry of Shadowdreams any longer, or at least for now. I will guard your dreams tonight."

Comforted, the little Hikari lay back down on his side on the bed, staring out the window at the night stars. His yami whispered soothingly to him; within moments the boy had fallen into a deep, relaxed slumber.

Smiling gently down at the boy, the pharaoh released his hold on his visible form, returning to the soul room he inhabited within Yugi's mind. Quietly, he eased the door of his room open and headed to his lighter sides' soul room door. Sitting outside the entrance, he allowed himself to fall into a light doze.

No more evil dreams would bother Yugi Moto that night.

* * * * *

Yugi woke early the next morning, yawning slightly as he sat up in bed. He ruffled his long blonde bangs as he ran a hand through his spiky hair, then threw off the sheets and touched his bare feet to the cold floor.

He dressed quietly, grabbed his backpack, and headed down the stairs for breakfast, still yawning. It was only when he was halfway to the kitchen that he remembered the dream he had had that night, and his midnight talk with his yami.

True to his word, the pharaoh spirit had warded off any other Shadowdreams that may have visited his Hikari, or at least Yugi believed so from the calmness of his dreams for the rest of the night. Switching his backpack's weight from one shoulder to another, he glanced down at the golden Millennium Puzzle hanging from his neck and bouncing gently with his walk.

As if seeing the Puzzle was a reminder of his yami, Yugi concentrated and contacted his other through the mind link.

/Yami?/

//I'm here, Yugi. Did you sleep well?// Though not positive, the boy thought he could detect a faint trace of fatigue in the pharaoh's thoughts.

/Yeah, I slept fine. Thanks again, Yami. There were no other Shadowdreams trying to reach me, though, were there?/

There was silence for a minute. //There was...one incident. Something tried to force it's way into your mind. Something from the Shadow realm. But I took care of it, don't worry.//

Yugi grimaced a little at the thought of another Shadowdream, but he trusted his Yami entirely. If he said he took care of it, there was nothing left to worry about.

/I won't worry. Hey, why don't you get some rest? You sound tired. Were you up all night?/

//Well...yes. I was outside your soul room a majority of the time. I had to ward off the Shadowdreams somehow.//

Yugi chuckled at the rather defensive-sounding note in his darker spirit's thoughts. /Thanks. Get some rest now. I doubt I'd need your help at school or anything./

//Alright, Aibou.//

Silence followed, and the boy could tell that his Yami had retreated to his soul room. Smiling a bit, the Hikari wandered into the kitchen and made himself a quick breakfast. His grandfather was already neatening up the Game Shop, he guessed, as he sat down and munched on a small piece of toast.

Once done with breakfast, he carefully cleaned up the few dishes left and headed down to the game shop. He waved good morning to his grandfather, who was busy sweeping and only made a quick wave in return. Yugi didn't mind too much, though; he had just spotted Tea walking towards the game shop, as usual, and he dashed off to join her.

Tea smiled as he ran up to her, her medium-length brown hair whipping around in the wind slightly. "Hey Yugi! What's new?"

"Hey, Tea," Yugi said, smiling. "Nothing really. Just have a big test in math today and I'm pretty sure I'm going to pass..."

The talk continued on, consisting of mostly small things; tests, classes, plans for the day, and the like. Yugi never mentioned his nightmare though, or how his darker spirit protected him from them again while he slept. He meant to worry no more people than he could help.

The two of them reached the school almost at the same time as Joey and Tristen. The two were bickering again, as usual, and as usual over idiotic and pointless things; this time it seemed to be who could eat the most faster. Wisely, Yugi stayed out of the argument, but mentally he had to agree with Joey. He chuckled to himself at the thought while the other two roared off onto new heights in their arguments, coming perilously close to the point when they began to mock fight each other.

Thankfully, the bell rang, and the four of them filed into the school hallways. Joey and Tristen seemed to be calming down, which was lucky, as their bickering didn't always end so smoothly.

On their way in, they met up with Ryou, who smiled quietly and fell into place behind the others. Without even thinking, Yugi checked him over to see if he was sporting any new injuries or bruises from his own rather abusive Yami; thankfully, there were none.

They moved on to their regular classes as normal, and the morning passed without much excitement. Seto Kaiba, in one of his classes, managed to prove the teacher wrong yet again, much to the amusement of the students. Kaiba, of course, thought nothing of it, returning to his class work with a sly smirk and hardly anything else. At lunch, Yugi easily beat Joey in another duel; this resulted in a smart remark from Tristen, which in turn lead to Joey pelting him with a few french fries off his lunch tray, which finally resulted in a mini war of food. After the two of them barely escaped from a detention with their lives, classes resumed and the rest of the school day passed uneventfully.

At last, the bell finally rang, and students swarmed out onto the courtyard with every intention of leaving as soon as possible. Yugi sighed as he started for home; none of his friends could come over today, as they all had things to do. Tea was babysitting, he believed, while Ryou had a boatload of homework, and Tristen and Joey had their usual sports practices.

Despite the absence of his friends, Yugi walked along with a calm and cheerful pace. There was always a ton to do when you had a Game Shop to run in the family, he reflected, and he, too, had quite a bit of homework to do.

//No friends today, Aibou?//

His Yami's thoughts startled him, and his cheerful walk twitched in surprise. /I thought you were resting!/

There was a chuckle from his darker side. //A bit jumpy, aren't we? Yes, I was resting. I'm fine now.//

Yugi laughed. /I should've known. Yeah, none of the others are coming over today, but that's okay because Grandpa asked me to--/

His thought through the link was cut short by Yami's sudden jolt of surprise.

//I don't believe it!//

His Hikari blinked. /What?/

//There's strong magic nearby...almost like the Shadow realm, but...// the spirit cut off.

Yugi shuddered as a quick flash of his dream came back to mind. He shook it off. /Shadow realm? As in somebody going into the Shadow realm?/ If that was true, it all narrowed down to one person: Bakura. If that was the case, then they were in for a lot of trouble. Although he could have sworn that Bakura had gone in the other direction from him...

//It's not Bakura.// The pharaoh said calmly, as if he knew what had gone through Yugi's mind. Which, the boy thought on reflection, he probably did. //It feels like a portal to the Shadow realm, but not quite...I don't know how to explain it, really.//

Again, a piece of Yugi's dream flashed through his mind--the door, open in the air and dragging him, helpless, through it. He shook his head to drive away the memory and continued his conversation with Yami.

/Do you have any idea what it might be? Are you sure it's not a Millennium item?/

//I'm almost positive. And no, I don't know what it could be. You wouldn't mind if we took a quick detour to check it, would you?//

Another flash of the dream. A warning, Yami had said. He pushed it aside. /I don't mind at all./

He felt his darker spirit's presence meld with his own soul and gently take control of his body. By now, Yugi was used to the idea of another being controlling him, and he hardly paid attention to it, although his friends occasionally remarked that it sounded odd to have such a thing happen.

He turned down a side-street and navigated a few other roads that he didn't really know, trusting his Yami. The spirit seemed to be completely focused on locating the source of magic; it was harder for him, considering that the Puzzle wasn't made to locate things as the Millennium Ring was. Nevertheless, after several minutes of seemingly aimless wandering, his darker spirit steered him into an alley and faced...whatever the magic source was.

At first, it looked as though nothing was there. No people, no animals, no strange items. However, after a second the air began to shimmer, and...

Yugi couldn't believe his eyes; the very air in front of him was slicing neatly open, cutting a rip in the fabric of the atmosphere itself and leaving nothing but darkness within.

My dream! He thought, silently. He almost turned to leave when he realized that he wasn't the one controlling his body; that was Yami.

The rip within the air was widening, now. Shadows, nearly like fog, were spilling out and rolling along the ground towards him. They moved slowly, but steadily.

//Amazing,// he heard the ancient pharaoh mutter in the link. //It feels like a portal to the Shadow realm, but at the same time different...as if it leads to somewhere farther away.// The spirit absent-mindedly took a step forward, as if meaning to move to the rip in the air and examine it.

No! Not closer! The young Hikari screamed frantically in his thoughts. His dream was flashing faster and faster throughout his mind now. He didn't want to go near that hole in the air, whether he had to fight his Yami to stop him or not.

//What is it, Aibou?// He heard his other ask, concerned. The pharaoh had stopped moving forward, sensing his charge's fear.

/The dream...this is what happened in the dream.../ Yugi nearly whispered.

The darker spirit glanced at the portal once before turning and saying quietly, //I will not force you to encounter this, then. Let us go.//

The boy nearly sighed in relief. He didn't have to face that...that thing...and he didn't have to re-live that dream of his. He still felt nervous about turning his back on it, but his Yami's presence comforted him, and he relaxed slightly.

But the rip in the air had other plans for him.

The shadows crawling along the ground moved silently closer, almost as if they were stalking Yugi and his other. Without warning, they snagged the boy's ankles, successfully holding him in place and holding off his escape. His Yami narrowed his eyes, turning as best as he could to face the shadows coming closer.

Without warning, the darkness shot forward, clinging to anything it could grasp of the boy. It was as if he was being chained, caught in a net, all over again. Like in the dream...

It was dragging him closer to the hole hovering above the pavement now. Mentally, the Hikari shuddered; his terror was as real as it had been in his dream.

Yami didn't enjoy feeling his lighter side's obvious fear, and retaliated against the shadows wrapping him up. The Millennium Puzzle glowed brightly, blasting light in all directions, making the shadows writhe and fade away, loosening their hold. Without thinking, he ran. One step, two, three steps--and he was caught again, the shadows only tightening their hold on the yami and his charge.

/NO!/ Yugi cried out, in thought and in the link, as once again he was dragged back toward the portal. The shadows wrapped around his head, over his eyes...he couldn't see. Everything was a black expanse, with nothing friendly and light for him to focus on.

Vaguely he realized that he really was in a black landscape, albeit a mental one. He was standing, no longer caught by shadowy restraints, although distantly he could feel his physical body still ensnared within them.

Suddenly, across the gloom, he could see a small light bounding toward him; the light of a Millennium Item. It continued to strengthen in it's glow, until the figure that came with it was recognizable...

"Yami!" he cried out, surprised, but not really, once he had the chance to think through the situation. His darker side would naturally be in any mental realms that he was in, the two of them being connected.

The ancient pharaoh nodded, glancing around the dark landscape with a shake of his golden bangs. "I don't trust this place at all, Aibou. I need to get you out of here, and quick."

Yugi shuddered. "I wouldn't mind that at all. This place is creepy." The "ground" beneath his feet shifted a little, but he paid no attention.

Yami sighed. "I know...it's a mind trick. Whatever those shadows are composed of, they're smart enough to catch one mentally as well as physically."

His Hakari groaned slightly. "This didn't happen in my dream, but--" his speech cut off short as the ground beneath him abruptly shifted, as if made of water, and then crumbled out from under him.

He dropped like a stone, down to the abyss in the mind that waited for him. He found himself yelling hoarsely for his darker side, and in the next moment found his Yami grasping hold of one of his hands. His other was kneeling on the side of the sudden opening, straining to hold his Light up.

Straining? But I'm not that big...

The realization dawned on him as he stared desperately up at his Yami. The shadows, ones very similar to those that had caught him just moments before, were attacking the pharaoh. It was as if they wanted him to let go of his Hakari and let him fall to...

To what?

Twisting his head slightly, he glanced downward at the abyss below him. Twisting shadows were all that he could see at first...and then his eyes focused on the portal. The portal, a huge rip in the air--in his mind--that shimmered brightly. He could see movement through it now, not darkness. It only made him fear it more.

A glow from above brought him back to his senses. He glanced upward again, startled by what he saw.

Yami was trying his hardest to drive the murderous shadows away, with the assistance of the Millennium Puzzle, but it didn't do him much good. To make matters worse, his hand was loosing it's grip...

Time seemed to stand still for Yugi, dangling helplessly over the void in his mind, and his darker half, trying desperately to save him. Slowly, so agonizingly slowly, his hand slipped from the pharaoh's grasp. Without any more support, he fell, tumbling end over end, towards the portal.

He didn't scream as he fell. He simply felt shocked. He was confused, and scared, and quite suddenly overwhelmed with fatigue.

He closed his eyes and felt himself fall into a deep rest, crashing through the portal below him. It sealed up instantly, as though he had never been there.

Only the devastated scream that exploded from Yami's lips told of anything different.

* * * * *

HCG: ^_^ oooooh, sudden end, huh?

Karma: Hmmph. I know what'll happen next. See--

HCG: *covering Karma's mouth* Don't tell!!!

Karma: Mmmphff!

Slash: *winks at Guardian* I'll take over from here. That was the end of the first chapter. HCG is going to continue to write more chapters, but she would REALLLLY enjoy some reviews. So please, please, PLEASE review for her, okay?

HCG: Could not have said it better myself, Slash ^_^

Karma: *glares at Slash, mouth still covered* Hmm mmpff!

HCG: Anyway, review and I will give you the gift of another chapter!