Prologue

It was a once upon a time story - or rather, twice upon a time, but let's take it one beginning at a time, shall we?

The first of twice upon a time, in a land far, far away, so far, in fact, that it did not even exist in our dimension, was a world called Magnolia. In this world resided Sweete Plumm, the fairy queen of Magnolia, and her various subjects, enemies, and creatures that hated everybody. Oh, yes, there were hateful creatures even in a place as sweet as Magnolia, just as there are in any world. Perhaps these creatures were even more dangerous than in other worlds, because these creatures were beautiful and bore the faces and flesh of people. Their true forms mimicked men's hearts, and that was most frightening.

This first of twice upon a time starts, where any epic tale does, with a change. The winds blew two points off course. The sun rose a little later and set a little sooner. The animals cried out in the night. Sugar was a little less white. But most of all were the shadows.

Cliché as it sounds, shadows are important, and when they change - well, when they change, you know you have a problem.

Despite the best efforts of Queen Sweete, the Sugar Plum fairy, the changes didn't stop. They grew, and they became more terrible.

And that's when It happened.

Literally, It, the seven-headed beast. This beast, and others like It, came from the time dubbed the 'Shadow Dyeing.' It was once several large mice -seven, in fact - and they were quite nice mice too. They never chewed on things that didn't belong to them, always swept up after themselves, and never bit anyone. Well, these seven mice happened to all be in the same shadow when one of the 'dyeings' occurred and then they were It. Seven once nice mice, bonded in one for a mysterious purpose. Together, they were larger than a man and just as fierce a warrior. But It was also evil, as was wont to happen with dyed things. It committed evil and loved doing so.

Certain upstanding members of Magnolia's elite were not going to stand for this. A wizard by the name of Drossden was not among them. Well, in a way he was, but not really. The wizard Drossden was unenchanted by his fellow men - and women too - but he did not wish the destruction of Magnolia. He loved his world as it once was, pure and unadulterated. So, Drossden went out to find It and battle It to keep his world safe.

It he did find. The battle lasted for six days, and on each day he separated one mouse of It from the rest. He tried to kill each mouse as he separated it, but they all got away, mad with fear, speed born of desperation; they knew what they'd become, and the seed of evil still resided in them.

Finally, on the sixth day, he was down to the last of the mice, this one too stunned to run away. Instead of killing this mouse, he captured it, and took it back to his wizard's tower. Not many Magnolians, even the Queen herself, know what exactly went on in that tower - they probably didn't want to know - but, after spending three years shut inside his tower, Drossden appeared in the royal court, unwashed and empty-handed.

"Wizard Drossden," the Queen had asked, fixing him with a queenly stare, "What have you to say for your time in your tower?"

"Majesty," Drossden had started, his eyes colder than ice cream, "I have an announcement."

The members of the court whispered amongst themselves snidely. The Queen bade him - rather curtly, not liking when anyone other than herself had an announcement - to inform herself and her court of his news. Drossden gladly did so.

"This world," he'd begun, "Almost fell to the Shadow. The Shadow almost took Magnolia because man is no longer ruled by good judgment. It was only by my actions that you were saved from It, but I will not save you again. I will move away from Magnolia, from this dimension, to a place where men are men and women are beautiful. Andromeda galaxy, maybe - anyway," he'd continued, clearing his throat, "I will not leave you totally defenseless. The last head of the great beast It I have sealed in a new form, instead of killing it. I will hide this form, but I beg you not to forget it; the Shadow may come again, and surely will, if you continue as you have on the road to corruption. When it does, I think It will try to reform...but the shadow will need the last head to do so. Remember It and It's last head when you think to do evil."

With this speech, the wizard Drossden disappeared - for the Andromeda galaxy, maybe.

Hemperdink, Queen Sweete's cheif advisor, urged that she immediately begin a search for the form this last head was hidden in so that they might destroy it and save Magnolia from another coming of the Shadow, Hemperdink himself being a rather unscrupulous character, uneasy with the idea of It reformed. But Sweete, who had listened carefully to Drossden's words, did not.

"I believe that wizard is right," she said all those years ago. "We need a reminder, a warning over ourselves to be better people. I will let this head stand, and we will remember it, just as Drossden said. No attempt will be made to find It's last head."

Little did they know (quite a phrase, 'little did they know' is. It always ensures a third party) that it was already too late. Among the elite of Sweete's kingdom there were already more dark hearts and darker desires brewing.

But this now brings us to our current story, our second of twice-upon-a-times, where we more or less leave the world of Magnolia, and once again settle on our own little beautiful blue marble of the universe: Earth.

AN: This story is pretty much done. I've working on it the past year, and am very proud of it, and will continue to updates regularly.

I always wanted to do fractured fairytales, and so have started with my favorite. Keep in mind that I've tried to keep the core facts as close to the original as possible, so there may be some things you don't recall from whatever version you know.

Cheers,

Alexis