RECAP: Last chap...umm they got stuck in a reverse spell and were sent to Hyrule with Link. Sakura and Syaoran find each other, steal some horses from a ranch, and go looking for Link (Syaoran teaches Sakura how to ride). Oh, Syaoran laughs somewhere in there, then they find Link, and they go talk to an owl, and it tells them to go the Death mountain to get back home. So they go there, get beat up and stuff, Syaoran slays a dragon =) and then they find the fairy and go back home. Meilin tells Syaoran in a roundabout way that she was the one to do the spell, and Syaoran yells at her. That’s about where this starts, I guess.

Chapter 18

Sakura groaned as her alarm clock went off. It felt incredibly early in the morning, though it was the same time she got up ever day to go to school. The problem was, Sakura had been trying to sleep the previous night to make up for three days of sleep, and that was impossible to catch up that fast. Kero had been very insensitive about the whole thing, and was sad to hear that she was running out of working cards. Sakura hadn’t bothered to call Tomoyo yet, she would see her in school today, and she had gone straight to bed after leaving the parking lot of Syaoran’s apartment complex.

Sakura threw her covers off and crawled out of her warm bed into the cold air of her room. Why does it have to be so cold in the morning? Sakura stumbled her way over to her closet, and pulled on her school uniform slowly. She looked with sleepy eyes over at her clock, and saw she had fifteen minutes left to get to school. Sakura lumbered out of her room into the hall, and made her way down the stairs.

She had used the Dream card on her family, though she knew they had a hard time accepting it, because the Dream couldn’t account for the change in date, that it was three days later, and none of her family could remember seeing her around for the past few days. Sakura said she had just been carrying on as usual, and they must of had a realistic dream to make them think that.

"Will you drive me to school today, onnichan?" Sakura asked Touya, who was sitting in the kitchen with a bowl of something in front of him.

"Maybe. I still have a hard time me and dad both had the same dream...There’s something suspicious going on." He said, looking up from his breakfeast.

Sakura smiled broadly, though it was fake. "Strange coincidence, I guess. I’ll be in the car in ten minutes." Sakura said, rushing out of the room before more could be said. She rushed up the stairs and headed into the bathroom, and looked at herself in the mirror for the first time since...well since a long time.

Sakura looked and pitied the person in the mirror. She had dark circles under her eyes, probably from lack of sleep, and her hair was a mess, not to mention she had managed to put her school shirt on backwards. Sakura quickly turnedi t around, then brushed out her hair, shoving it up in a ponytail for today. Well at least I can pass for someone who’s been sick for three days. The teachers in school will have no trouble beleiving that.

Once Sakura had finished fixing her hair and everything, she ran downstairs and reached Touya’s car just as it was starting. Sakura hopped in the passenger’s seat and threw her bookbag at her feet, which had all of their winter homework in it that she still needed to turn in.

They rode most of the car ride in silence, only speaking to comment on the warmer weather that had finally made its way to Tomeoda. They reached the school and Sakura jumped out of the car at the middleschool, then ran her way into the hall. Sakura found her locker, and was greeted by Tomoyo. "Hey Sakura! You were out fighting some cards, weren’t you?" She said.

Sakura hurriedly opened her locker and emptied all her books into it. "Yeah, I’ve got so much to tell you!" She pulled out her books for first class and walked with Tomoyo to the room, happy to see all her old friends again, who were walking around in the halls. This isn’t a Twin version of Tomoyo, this is definitely her. Who knows what Syaoran was talking about... "Let’s sit over there." Sakura said, pointing to a corner of the room where no one was at.

"First thing, were you with Syaoran all this time?" Tomoyo asked, grinning.

"What does that matter, Tomoyo? I mean, yeah, I was, but-"

"Kawai! And I missed taping all of this because I was stuck at boring home. I tried to call you house a couple times, but Touya said you hadn’t been home since Saturday."

"Tomoyo, please. Listen to this story, okay? Link, the boy off of Zelda, was transported here. And so was Ganondorf-he was the bad guy, and we had to try and fight him to figure out how to send them back home."

"You leave out all the good parts, Sakura! Was Link and Syaoran good friends? Or was Syaoran the usual sweetheart he is and he gave him the cold shoulder?" She sighed forlornly. "A whole soap opera, and I missed filming it."

"Anyway. Meilin said a spell but it backfired, and we were sent along with Link to Zelda-land. Then we had to figure out how to get back, so Link helped us and we talked to this Owl thing, and it told us to go to Death Mountain."

"Oh my. Wait though- Meilin used a spell?"

"I don’t get it either. We better stay off that subject for a little while, Syaoran was very mad at her for doing it, but that doesn’t matter. So we went to Death mountain, and these huge rocks were falling out of the sky, and then we had to go up this big wall, and Link used a hookshot; that’s like this retracting chain thing, to get us up. Once we went into this big cave, we all got seperated by the Move card or something. I almost got killed, and I dislocated my ankle, but it’s fine now. Then this dragon thing was flying around, and it almost got me again, but Syaoran ended up killing it. This big fairy person sent us back home just before the cave was about to collapse."

"Wow. I can’t beleive I missed all of this! Syaoran slaying dragons, Sakura near death, but conquering, a complicated relationship chart of jealousy...." Tomoyo sighed again, staring off dreamily.

Sakura shook her head and smiled. "Whatever, Tomoyo. So tell me good news, how much homework do I have to make up? Not alot, I hope."

"Only three days worth of torture. We really didn’t have that much, only math class."

Sakura groaned. "Great."

Meilin stomped into the room, her black hair flagging behind her as she stormed to her seat and sat down, staring straight ahead. Sakura watched the doorway and saw Syaoran come in, looking competly exhausted. He sat down in the opposite corner of the room and put his head on his desk.

"What happened here?" Tomoyo whispered to Sakura.

"Syaoran was mad at Meilin for saying that spell, he said some mean things, I guess she’s still mad at him." And I don’t really blame her. Syaoran was very mean, if he said that to me I would probably never speak to him again.

"Hey Sakura!" Rika said, sitting in front of them. "Were you really sick these past days?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, I had a really bad version of the flu."

Rika nodded. "My brother got that." She looked over at Syaoran, who still had his head down. "Did you know Syaoran was gone most of this week too? I wonder if he caught the same thing?"

Sakura shrugged. "Maybe, it’s going around."

Chihura walked over and sat next to Rika. "Oh, hello Sakura." She faced Rika. "Did you hear Meilin? She was yelling at Syaoran in the hall. I feel bad for him, I don’t know what he did, but Meilin was really publicly badgering him." She looked over sympathetically at Syaoran, who still was holding his head on his desk.

"Aren’t they cousins? Maybe it’s a family problem."

Their conversation was cut short, as the sensei walked up in front of the class and went right into a lecture. Sakura sat back with sleepy eyes and tried to pay attention, but her brain was sleeping against her will.

____________________________________________________________________

"This unit is over badmington and ping pong. Extra points will be given to the winners of the tournaments. You may begin." Called the gym teacher.

Sakura studied the long racket in her hand. She had never played badmington before, but it looked fun, so she figured she could do it. Sakura walked over to the list of names to see who she would play first. A boy she didn’t really know. Sakura looked around the gym and spotted him by the rackets, choosing one for himself. Sakura bounded over and smiled. "I play you first. There’s a court open over there."

The boy nodded and grabbed a racket in front of them, and then they headed over to the court. Nets had been set up across the gym, and many people were already in intense games. Sakura looked over at Tomoyo, who was doing quite well against Tamakazi. She hit it with little effort, but the birdie she hit flew a good distance away.

Sakura got to her side of the court and looked up. "You’ve got first serve." She called.

The boy nodded and held the birdie out, then hit it upperhand over the net. Sakura ran to the birdie’s destination and hit it with her racket. The birdie flew straight over the net and clear into the boy’s court. He hit it back with the same strength, and Sakura had to jump up to reach it. The birdie just barely made it over the net, but this boy was quick, and he just so slightly tapped it over, and the birdie landed on Sakura’s side.

The boy grabbed the birdie and prepared to serve again. "One zip." He said, then served it over. His serve just barely hit the in bound line, and Sakura ran full speed just to get it in time. He hit it to the other side of the court and scored again. Sakura frowned, she wasn’t liking this game very much.

The game continued on like that, and Sakura lost by ten: The final score was five to fifteen. The boy she had been playing was looking pretty happy with himself, and Sakura did her best to accept the defeat maturely. Tomoyo had just finished her game, and she was beaming.

"You know the story about the person who won the badmington tournament? They say she was tortured-" Tamakazi called over the net at Tomoyo, but Chihura pulled him away before he could finish.

"Good job, Tomoyo!" Sakura said brightly, and they walked their way over to the list of names for the tournament.

"Thanks! I used to play this game in my backyard when I was little."

"Oh. I am not very good, I’m not good at all. I just got beat by Jun Yamada. I hit it too hard every time." They reached the table with the list of names and looked through. "Let’s see, since I lost, I play..." Sakura found her name and matched it with her next opponent. "Eki-in. Great, I bet he’s really good. I hate this game." Sakura said, crossing her arms.

"Oh my, I am playing Meilin next. I hope she has cooled down a little bit." Tomoyo said, making sure her card matching was right.

"Come on, let’s wait for them to finish their games over here." Sakura said, motioning to an empty spot on the pulled out bleachers. Sakura sat down and looked around at the games in play. Meilin was in a heated game of ping pong, playing against Rika. Mark was playing Chihura in badmington, and Chihura looked like she was winning.

"Looks like you’re not the only bad badmington player." Tomoyo said, watching with an amused smile at the match going between Syaoran and Tamakazi.

Sakura looked over and saw what Tomoyo was talking about. Syaoran had no trouble hitting the birdie, and he could make it fly the whole distance of the gym, but that was his problem, he kept hitting it all the way out behind the court, and Tamakazi was scoring from that.

Sakura watched sympathetically for a while, then she noticed her next opponent had finished his game. Sakura got up from her seat and jogged over to him. "Eki-in, I play you next." Sakura said.

He looked away from the cards he had been looking at and nodded. "Alright." He said, leading the way to a court. They were going to be playing at the court next to the bleachers, so Tomoyo was watching. Sakura gave Tomoyo a weak grin before tossing the birdie up and serving it.

Eki returned it easily, tapping it just under the net. Sakura sprinted up just in time and saved it from the ground. He hit it with more power this time, and the birdie went sailling over her head. Sakura jumped and put her racket as high above her head as she could, and hit the birdie as hard as she could. It went flying into the out line, and Eki had a slight smile on his face as he went to get it.

Sakura frowned, her face darkening. "Why can’t I play this?" She asked, speaking to Tomoyo.

"You don’t need to hit it so hard. Just tap it." Tomoyo said.

Sakura sighed and nodded. Tap it. Right. He served it to her, one of those hits that just barely make it over the net. Sakura hurried over to the net and tapped it with her racket, and the birdie went through the net, instead of over it. She looked up with frustration at Tomoyo, who was shrugging.

Sakura faced Eki determinedly, and he lobbed it over the net. Sakura returned it with more power, and it was an in hit. No points were given yet, though, because Eki returned it. Sakura desperately tried to hit the birdie as it went sailing over her head, but it was too high. Another point for Eki.

Sakura lost this game, also, with a whopping score of three to fifteen. Sakura charged over to the list of names. Maybe I’ll be better at ping pong. Sakura looked around at the list of names. She would be playing Tomoyo at ping pong, but all the ping pong tables were taken, and Tomoyo was involved in another game already, anyway. Sakura sighed and looked back to the list of badmington names. I play...Syaoran. Great. Well, maybe I will be able to beat him? But if I do, I’ll probably pay for it for the next three months. Sakura looked around the gym. There were several badmington courts open. She spotted Syaoran, just finishing a game of badmington at the far end of the gym. He had a look of death that would make any normal person run away, and Sakura could see the obvious annoyance in his expression.

Sakura walked away from the table to meet him. "I play you next in badmington, that is, if you want to play."

Syaoran looked up at Sakura, then contemplated. Make a fool of myself? No, I don’t think so. "I am waiting for a ping pong table." He said monotonously.

Sakura couldn’t help but grin at his reluctance. "They’re taken for a while, besides, there’s no way you can lose to me, I can’t play this for my life."

Syaoran’s amber eyes flashed around, trying to find a way out, but not seeing any. "Fine." He said, making sure to put a thick layer of diffidence on his voice.

They walked over to a court and got on their sides, then Sakura served first. "Serving-" Sakura called, whacking her racket into the birdie. It sailed a good ways into Syaoran’s court, and he hit it back with the same strength. He actually hit it to her, unlike the other mean kids that had just tapped it over the net, and Sakura got to hit it twice in one serve. She pounded her racket into it, and it sailed clear across to the endline of his court. Syaoran didn’t seem to keep track of outs, but only concentrated on hitting it back.

They volleyed it with the same incredible speed and strength, neither of them gaining an inch. Sakura’s arm started to ache as the volley went on, though her hits remained strong and far. After a while, her arms were starting hurt unbearably. "How about we call it a draw?" Sakura called, having to jump to hit the birdie above her head.

"That wouldn’t be-whack- a strong thing to do." Syaoran called back, his arm starting to hurt from the constant tension.

"It’d be the-whack- maturer thing to do." Sakura said.

Their gym sensei had made his way over to their game, and was watching with interest. "You two are never going to score." He called to them.

Sakura barely acknowledged him, she was whacking her racket in the birdie. "This is-whack- the only way I can-whack- play, Sensei." Sakura said.

A couple kids had come around to watch, as class was almost over and they didn’t want to have a match be split in half. Tomoyo shook her head and watched, having just won her previous match. "These two are going to be here until midnight." Tomoyo said to herself.

Sakura hadn’t noticed their crowd of specators, but was only thinking about getting the birdie back over the net. The back part of her arm was going numb, and her fingers had lost most of their circulation from gripping so tightly to the racket. She refused to let the birdie fall on her side, especially since they had kept it moving for so long.

The sensei looked at his watch, then looked up at the class. "Students, it’s time to go, you can go to the lockers." The crowd around them disappeared out the door, except for Tomoyo, who was holding a minicamera under her arm and capturing this heated competition. "First one to score wins the match." The sensei said to Sakura and Syaoran.

Now they were playing with new energy, and the birdie was moving a little bit faster than before. They continued to volley it, neither side giving in. The sensei glanced at his watch again, then looked up. "Better score soon, school is almost over." The sensei said, amazed that these two could endure such a long and hard volley.

Sakura found that if she exhaled with her hit, it seemed to move faster. Syaoran must have caught onto some type of technique, too, because his hits were moving a little faster, also. Sakura paid no attention to the people putting the tables away, or the other nets being taken down, she played with determination. Her whole arm, fingertips to shoudler, was numb now.

The sensei had left, helping out in moving stuff out of the way, since it was the end of the day. Tomoyo had left also, though she had a camera set on record in the bleachers. Syaoran was hitting his hardest now, and they were on clear different sides of the courts. He hit one that went over Sakura’s head, and she jumped up to hit it. Just as her racket pushed forward, horrible electricity ran though her arm, and she abruptly dropped her racket and fell to her knees, holding her arm, which was tingling sharply.

Syaoran had been so ready for the birdie to return that it took him a moment to realize that Sakura was on the ground, and he quickly ran under the net and over to her. "Are you okay?"

Sakura moved her hand around in a circle. "Yeah, it was like the racket shocked me. Guess the ghost’s starting to use the Thunder card."

Syaoran looked at her hand to make sure it was alright, then stood up, looking around to make sure no one had seen Sakura fall in such an odd way. The sensei had, and he jogged over, concern in his face. "What happened, Kinomoto?"

Sakura got up and winced gingerly. "Oh, I just twisted my wrist the wrong way, that’s all." She smiled. "I guess you won, Syaoran." She said, remembering that she hadn’t returned the serve.

"Do you need to see the nurse?" The sensei asked.

"NO! I mean, no, it’s fine- see?" Sakura moved her hand around a few more times. She still hadn’t talked to the nurse since they put the Silent on her, and quite frankly, Sakura was afraid to.

"You two go get dressed. You’ve got four minutes before school’s out." The sensei said, taking their rackets.

Sakura nodded and walked towards the gym door. Syaoran walked along quietly beside her. "We’ve got to finish this ghost off soon, Sakura. She could seriously hurt you with Thunder, be careful. Electricity is very dangerous."

"So I won’t be able to touch metal for next couple years. Great." Sakura said.

"Just be careful, that’s all." Syaoran said.

Tomoyo came through the door, her bookbag on and her normal school uniform. "Who’s the big winner?" She asked.

Sakura shook her head. "No one, there was an interference."

Tomoyo nodded, grinning slyly. "I get it, another ‘interference.’ Good luck catching it, guys."

Sakura smiled and nodded. "What are you doing back in here?" She asked Tomoyo curiously.

"Me? Oh, heheh, I left my necklace on the table, silly me." Tomoyo said, walking past them, laughing to herself.

Sakura glanced at Syaoran, who was watching Tomoyo with the upmost caution, his expression slightly darkened. "That can’t be a twin, can it?"

Syaoran looked up from his thoughts. "Huh? Oh, uh, probably not. She seemed normal." No weird smiles, no odd eye contacts, no attempts to assault me. I guess she was pretty normal. But then, maybe that’s just how she is around Sakura? No, the twin said she didn’t like Sakura...those can’t be Tomoyo’s true feelings, can they be?

They walked out of the gym and went their seperate ways. Sakura hurried in the girl’s locker room and changed quickly, knowing Touya wouldn’t wait for her if she was late. She noticed that Meilin was watching her from the corner, and Meilin’s face wore an expression of thin lips and a constant frown. She’s probably just mad I overheard all that Syaoran had said to her. He was very mean, I mean, I understand he was angry, but maybe he went a little overboard?

The bell rang, and Sakura hurried to the high school’s parking lot, spotting Touya’s car in the distance. She saw Touya coming out of school, so she jogged over and waited for him to come and unlock the car.

The weather outside was strangely pleasant, the cold temperatures were finally giving way, and the warm winter sun was finally starting to melt away the mountains of snow that were around. Touya reached her and opened the back door. "Yukito’s coming, backseat for you."

Sakura was in between blushing and sighing. She hadn’t seen Yukito or Yue around for a while, and to be quite honest, she had started to forget about their existance. Yukito came strolling up, a permenant smile plastered on his face, and got into the passenger’s seat. They rode the short ride home quietly, and Sakura was glad to get out of the car as she reached home. She got out and walked into the kitchen, where Chindra was baking something.

Sakura breathed in the sweet smell and smiled. "Cookies again?" Sakura asked.

"Celebrate your arriving home." Chindra said, turning and smiling.

Sakura’s eyes went wide, she had completly forgotten to use the Dream card on Chindra. She rushed over to her at the stove. "Chindra, this is really important, my family doesn’t know I was gone, and they can’t know. You didn’t tell anyone did you?" Sakura asked.

Chindra shook her head solemnly.

"Good." Sakura said, sighing with releif. "I’m sorry, I can’t explain everything to you, but I was out fighting for them, and they can’t know I was gone."

Chindra slowly nodded. "Fighting for your family?" She said.

Sakura nodded. "Yes. So they can’t know I was gone, got it?"

Chindra nodded. "Yes." She said, smiling.

Sakura smiled back, then turned to see Yukito and Touya just making their way through the door. "You’d better hide some of those cookies for us if we want any later, these two monsters will eat them all before they ever reach the plates." She said aside to her.

Chindra looked with wide eyes. "Monsters?"

Sakura smiled and shook her head. "Cookie monsters; they’ll eat all the cookies..." Sakura explained.

Chindra slowly nodded. "Okay. I hide them." She said, shoving a few into her apron.

"What’s this about cookie monsters?" Yukito asked, walking over to the kitchen counter and looking with longing eyes at the cookies sitting on the cooling racks.

"Heh, nothing- I was just saying how much we all enjoy Chindra’s cookies." Sakura said, patting Chindra on the shoulder.

Chindra looked up with curious eyes at Yukito. Sakura took the responsibility for introductions. "This is Yukito, Chindra, Yukito this is Chindra." She said.

Chindra courtsied, being the well mannered person she was. Yukito smiled brightly. "Nice to meet you. You make cookies, you are my friend."

Chindra looked at the cookies with raised eyebrows, amazed the things it had taken her ten minutes to bake could cause such an uproar.

Touya walked over to the counter. "Where are they? I smell ‘em."

"Touya-san, be polite, these two young ladies made these cookies for themselves, it’s completly their decision whether they share them or not." Yukito said, scolding him.

"You may have these if you like." Chindra said, trying to keep her accent down to a minimum. She tugged on Sakura’s arm that was out of sight, and started walking off. Sakura smiled at Touya and Yukito one last time, seeing that they only had six cookies to share, then walked off with Chindra.

They went upstairs, then retreated to Chindra’s temporary room. She sat down on her small bed and laughed. "Look at all!" Chindra said, dumping the hoard of cookies out of her apron.

"Awesome! All we need is some milk!" Sakura said, getting up from the edge of the bed she had been sitting on. "I’ll be right back!"

Sakura hurried out of the room, and her trip was interfered by Kero, who blithely flew out of her room. "Cookies. Come on, I know you’ve got them, hand them over."

"Not until you explain to me once more how staying home and playing Space Destroyers is more important then helping me save the world from an unmentionable evil." Sakura said.

Kero’s bright smile faded, and he retreated back into her room. Sakura continued down the stairs and quietly grabbed two glasses out of the cupboard. She then took the milk out of the fridge and poured it in, and managed to get out of the kitchen before Touya and Yukito, who were lounging in the living room eating, had ever noticed her.

She hopped back up the stairs and headed back to Chindra’s room, who was sitting quietly on her bed. They quickly ate down the cookies and milk, then talked about a movie they had seen recently, quickly passing time away.

They went down and ate supper with Touya and Yukito, though Sakura’s father wasn’t home yet from a late night at the university. Sakura mostly listened to Yukito and Touya talking about their high school, and ate quietly, as did Chindra.

After their dinner, Sakura headed to her room. Kero had the tv on mute and was playing Space destroyers again, so Sakura collapsed on her bed and ignored him. She had math homework to do, but she felt horribly tired, not exactly in the mood to do algebra. Sakura decided to look at her cards.

She took them out and spread them across the floor, one half-more like one fourth- were the ones that worked still, and the distant ones were on the other side. Water and the Fight had the horrible eyes that followed her around the room, and the rest were just dull. Sakura’s eyes were drawn to the Fly, the first card that had left. She took a closer look at it and frowned. The pink backing and Sakura’s name had dissappeared, and now it was replaced with a yellow orange, that had a moon and sun on it.

Sakura picked up the card and turned it over, looking at its back. The Star card’s normal backing was now that of a Clow card, it had changed back, but the back of the clow card had a bit of unfimiliarity to it, it’s sun and moon looked darker, the borders looking black tinted. "Kero!" Sakura exclaimed.

Kero flew over from the controller and looked at her. "What’s up- woah, a Clow card?" Kero said, looking the card over.

"How could this of happened? I transformed this card! I don’t get it!"

"I don’t remember hearing anything about cards changing back...let’s see..err..."

"Maybe Syaoran knows." Sakura said, looking around for her handphone.

"Not the brat, nooo..Just, ugh, nothing going to happen right away." Kero said, showing obvious resistance to calling his enemy for help.

"He probably has a better handle on the situation, seeing as he was actually helping me." Sakura said, glaring at Kero as she finished dialing Syaoran’s number.

She waited impatiently as it rang, scared to death for the moment when someone would answer. "Hello?" Melin’s voice answered.

Oh crap. "Hi Meilin! Can I talk to Syaoran for a second?"

"What do you want?" Meiiln’s voice lowered.

"Something’s happening with the cards, I needed to ask him a question." Sakura said, dying from this conversation.

The line was silent for a moment, then filled with Meilin’s loud sigh. "Hang on." She said, her voice annoyed. Sakura heard footsteps going away from the phone, then another pair coming to it. "Hello?" Syaoran’s voice answered, his voice sounding low and expecting a horrible blow.

"Hi, it’s Sakura, I just-"

"Meilin, you liar!" Syaoran shouted away from the phone. Sakura stopped her sentence, and heard Meilin giggling hysterically in the backround. Sakura heard more footsteps, then a door shut, and a much quieter atmosphere. "Sorry, Meilin, she told me it was my mom." Syaoran said.

Sakura laughed. "You’re not trying to avoid her, are you?" She asked sarcastically.

Syaoran sighed on the other line. "If you knew her as well as I do, you would kill yourself the next time she called you."

Sakura smiled to herself, thinking about her visit with Syaoran’s mother. She seemed like a very nice person, but then again, she wasn’t Sakura’s mother.

"Well listen, I was looking at my cards, and the Fly, it was one of the first to leave, it’s changed back into a Clow card, only it looks different than I remember them looking. Kero has no idea, (Kero in the backround- "That’s not true!") so I was hoping you might have an idea of what is going on."

Syaoran thought carefully. "Sounds like they are trying to return to Clow Reed, but that wouldn’t make any sense, because...Does it still feel dull when you touch it?"

Sakura looked down at the card in her hand and concentrated. "It feels....kind of like...I can sense something there, but it is unfimiliar to me. It’s not like the card, I don’t know what it is."

Syaoran sighed again. "To be really honest, I don’t know, but I will look into it, okay?"

Sakura was a bit dissapointed there was no immediate advice. "So what should I do meanwhile?"

"Just keep it somewhere out of sight, that way it can’t escape as easy...keep checking on it. Tell me if anything changes."

"I will, thanks." Sakura said. She turned her phone off and looked at the card. Hide it. That’s not that hard, I’ll put it in my closet for now. Sakura started collecting up her cards.

"What advice from the allknowing brat?" Kero asked, hovering over the Clow card in her hand.

"He’s looking into it." Sakura said firmly.

"Ha! I knew he didn’t have a clue either."

"Kero, I got shocked from a badmington bat today, I think it was the Thunder. We’ve got to watch out."

"Can’t you put a Shield up?"

Sakura sighed, Kero was so behind times. "The Shield doesn’t work anymore."

They sat silent for a while, thinking, then Sakura sighed. "I have to finish my math homework then go to bed." She said, setting the stack of cards into her closet and then opened her bookbag, pulling her math book out of it.

"I hate math." Sakura said to herself, starting to working on the first problem.

____________________________________________________________________

Sakura yawned. She was in music class, and the day was almost over. It was Friday, and she would have the next days off to work on the Clow card problem. She and Tomoyo were playing a game of tic tac toe on the music sheet in front of them while the music teacher was lecturing about differences in the timing that was written at the beginning of a musical staff.

"I win again." Tomoyo mouthed, crossing her o’s. Sakura sighed and looked up at the teacher for a while.

"3/4 timing gets three beats per measure..."

Sakura yawned again. She starting doodling on the paper, drawing a dragon across the page. Tomoyo looked at it, then took the pencil out of Sakura’s fingers. She started adding on to Sakura’s picture. Sakura looked up and watched the teacher blankly, waiting for Tomoyo to finish drawing.

Tomoyo took her hand away from the paper and smiled. Sakura looked down at it. She had added a boy with a sword, fighting off the dragon, and a girl standing behind him, watching worriedly. Above the picture she wrote ‘syaoran and sakura’s trip to hyrule’. Sakura looked up with wide eyes at Tomoyo. "Tomoyo! We have to turn these in!" Sakura whispered.

Tomoyo smiled, then took her little camera out of her pocket and quickly got a picture of her art masterpeice. Sakura shook her head and quickly erased the pencil drawing. Their teacher was watching them suspiciously as she talked, and Sakura turned all her attention back to the front. Only gym left. I better not have to play anymore badmington, my arm is killing me.

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"Did you hear about the mall? This morning it was having all kinds of electricty short outs. I was going to go see a movie tonight, but I’m not so sure I want to get caught in an electrical fire." Rika said.

They were sitting in the locker room after gym, waiting for the bell to ring so they could go home. Tomoyo and Sakura were both listening curiously. "Do you think it’s one of your cards?" Tomoyo whispered to Sakura.

Sakura nodded, trying to keep listening to Rika. Chihura was leaning against the wall, and she spoke. "I think it’s the dry weather. It seems everything I touch shocks me. I wouldn’t worry about the mall, if they had any dangerous problems they would shut it down. I think I am going shopping tonight."

"Me too, maybe we can all meet there?" Naoko said.

"How about you, Sakura, Tomoyo? Are you going out to the mall tonight?"

"Now that you mention it, I might stop by, I heard they were having a sale on camera tapes." Tomoyo said.

Sakura looked over at Meilin and Nataly, who both sat quiet on one of the benches in the room.

"Did you see Syaoran play ping pong? He cracked three balls before he realized he was hitting it too hard." Chihura said.

Nataly smiled from her corner. "I played Mark in ping pong, he was awful."

"I don’t think ping pong’s a guys sport." Rika said.

The other girls all agreed with a nod. Sakura was already planning her night out in her head, she would have to go by the mall now, it sounded like the Thunder was at work there. Sakura looked down at her watch. Two more minutes, and she would be free from school for another two days.

Once the bell rang, Sakura went after Syaoran, hoping to tell him about the mall’s electricity problems. She didn’t find him at first, and thought he might of left, but at last minute she saw him heading for the door. "Syaoran, wait up!" Sakura called, jogging down the hall.

Syaoran stopped and turned, then continued walking once Sakura was beside him. "Did you hear? The mall is having electricity problems, I think the Thunder’s working there."

"That’s not good." Syaoran said, shifting his bookbag on his back.

"Uh-uh. But what can we do? My cards are next to useless. I don’t have anything to contain electricity..." They pushed the doors open and walked into the snowy outdoors.

"We’ve got to think of something, we can’t let these cards put the public in danger." Syaoran said.

"I know, but what can we do?" Sakura asked again.

"Listen, I read a little bit last night-" This was a major understatement, as Syaoran had read until the early hours of the morning trying to find out answers- "And all I could find was that a card changes when it wants to change masters. This can only be done if a master summons the cards to him, and they want to leave their current owner. But that doesn’t make entire sense, because for this to happen the summoner must be a master magician." Syaoran paused, they had reached the sidewalk where they would part ways to get to their house.

"Do you want to look at the card? Touya’s not going to be home, and my father is on a trip to another school to represent the university."

Syaoran glanced around for a moment, deciding. "I guess." They walked forward, heading in the direction of Sakura’s house. "So anyway, it takes alot of power to change a card like that, against another magician’s will. Someone has it in for your family."

"That just makes me feel so at peace." Sakura said, shuffling some snow around as she walked.

Tomoyo came jogging up beside Sakura, smiling. "Can I walk with you guys?" She asked, stepping in stride with Sakura.

"Of course! You can come look at my cards too. Kero’ll be glad to see you." Sakura said.

"I suppose." Tomoyo said, smiling. She glanced up for a blinking second and looked into Syaoran’s cautious eyes for a second, before looking straight ahead, the smile permenantly on her face.

Syaoran looked down at his feet as he walked, his ears burning. There she goes again. Why did Sakura have to invite her? Is this the Twin or not? I don’t sense anything, it’s almost like this is really Tomoyo. But why did she look at me like that? Maybe I’m just imagining it, maybe this is just the normal Tomoyo. In the back of Syaoran’s mind his thoughts still raced, but he kept them back there for now.

They walked the rest of the short way quietly to Sakura’s house and stepped into the warm house through the side door. Chindra was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching the news, and she looked up and smiled at them all. "I did not know you were bring visitors." Chindra said.

Sakura again ignored Chindra’s grammar. "Sorry, we’ll be upstairs, anyway." Sakura said, then led them through the kitchen, up the stairs, and into her room.

She shut the door behind her, and then turned to see Kero flying over to Tomoyo. "Hey guys! Bring any good food?" He glared at Syaoran. "What’s brat face doing over here?"

"Investigating what you were too lazy to look into." Syaoran shot back.

Kero crossed his arms and flew indignantly around. "Bob is starting to talk in his jar again, Sakura. You’ve got to let him have some fresh air."

Sakura cringed at the name of the talking bug. "I poked holes in the jar, he’ll be fine."

A tapping sound came from across the room, and Bob was pressed against the glass. "Sailor! Angel!" He called, though his voice was somewhat distorted through the glass confinement of the jar.

"Quit calling me that! Why do you call him Sailor, anyway?" Sakura asked the bug from across the room.

"School uniform looks like sailor outfit. You wear." Bob replied, tapping all six of his legs relentlessly on the glass.

Syaoran turned horribly pale. He dimly remembered thinking to himself that the school uniform looked like a sailor outfit, but how did this bug know? Syaoran remembered that the spell allowed a certain amount of consciousness of the spell giver to be copied into the object, but just how much? This bug was calling Sakura angel, ...things were starting to come together in Syaoran’s head. If that bug knows all my thoughts, just what other information is he leaking out?

Now more than ever, Syaoran felt the urgency to rid Sakura of that bug once and for all, the spell had been a fluke; Sakura was afraid of the bug instead of liking it, and the bug had the potential to completly humiliate Syaoran in front of Sakura.

Sakura, not knowing any of Syaoran’s thoughts, walked over to her closet and pulled down her cards. She leafed through them until she found the Fly. "Look at this." Sakura said, holding the card for Syaoran’s veiw.

Syaoran took it from her hand and studied it closely, his eyes covering every inch of the card before looking up. "It has become a Clow card, but an evolved form. See here, this black frame?" Syaoran said, pointing to the black outlining the edges of the card. "That wasn’t there before. It’s like Clow Reed is trying to get his cards back, but that doesn’t make any sense."

"Eriol is living in England, he said he didn’t want to have anything to do with magic anymore. He just wants to live a normal life." Sakura said.

"Then how do you explain this? The card transforms into that of its master, so if these are trying to get back to Clow Reed, they would turn into Eriol’s version of a card."

Tomoyo was standing by the door, listening to the TV playing downstairs. "Hey you guys, you might want to come look at this." She said, looking from the door to them.

Syaoran and Sakura looked up from the card. Sakura walked over to the door and opened it. She immediatly noticed what Tomoyo had been talking about; the television downstairs was talking about an electrical problem in the mall. Sakura rushed down the stairs and sat beside Chindra, who was watching the television intently.

"Over a thousand people are being held hostage by these wild streams of electricity that are making electrical walls around the Tomeoda mall. Local police and fire fighting teams are doing their best to work quickly and get the people out of the mall before any damage is done to the imprisoned public."

Syaoran had reached the television right now, and was standing next to Tomoyo behind the couch, watching the news with wide eyes.

"As of now, a main wire short is suspected to be the source of all this action, though that theory is not yet confirmed..."

Sakura stood up from the couch. She looked at Syaoran and Tomoyo, who all seemed to be thinking the same thing. Sakura walked around the couch and jumped up the stairs quickly. She went to her room and pulled on several sweatshirts, preparing herself for the cold. Syaoran and Tomoyo walked into her room, and she tossed Syaoran the sweatshirt he had lent her the day before, then tossed Tomoyo one of her extras. "I hope we can think of something." Sakura said, heading back out of her room and down the stairs.

"I’ll be back a little later, Chindra. Don’t wait for me to eat supper." Sakura called, walking outside.

Once on the sidewalk, Sakura made sure it was all clear, then brought our her staff and cards. "Dash! Help us reach the mall!" The Dash swirled around them, and then Sakura slowed out of a run to find herself already in the large paved parking lot of the mall.

The long building of the mall had streams of blue and yellow electricty slashing down around it dangerously. Bolts of lightening crashed from the roof, making for a very dangerous entrance. Syaoran wished in vain that he had his cards working, but it wasn’t time for self pity.

"What do we do first?" Sakura said, having to shout over the screeching noises of moving electricity.

"Look for the source." Syaoran said, looking around for a good entrance into the mall. A door that seemed very small against the large brick wall of the mall seemed to be safe from the banners of electricity, at least at the moment, and no one was standing gaurd around it.

"Over there!" Sakura said, pointing at the door in the distance. "Tomoyo, this is really dangerous. You probably shouldn’t follow us in there." She said, facing her.

Tomoyo clutched her video camera. "I’ll stick around until I know I’m in trouble." She said, smiling convincingly.

Sakura nodded and they started across the parking lot, Syaoran in the front, Sakura in the middle, and Tomoyo tagging along the back. They approached the building carefully, the electricity biting the ground still a distance in front of them.

As they came closer, Sakura looked around nervously, the sharp teeth of electricty were shooting down around them like giant pillars, and Sakura was very jumpy, jumping sideways every time lightening would strike down near her. The ground would occasionally shake, adding to things to be scared about.

They reached the door, and Syaoran carefully opened it, praying with all his might that the electricty wasn’t on the handle, so he wouldn’t get electricuted. Sakura followed him in side, and Tomoyo shut it behind them. The room was dark, sparks were flying from bare wires on the wall, and the lights on the ceiling were showering them with orange sparks that dazzled the eyes. Syaoran carefully stepped forward, hardly able to see the ground. He watched carefully for uncovered wires, but the floor was relatively clean. He reached the end of this room, and Syaoran carefully opened the door, making sure it was not filled with electricity before touching it.

They were now in a store of the mall, but it was dark, and Sakura could only see the shelves as the sparks would shower down with their synthesized light. Syaoran put his hand out to stop her from walking forward, as a long bare wire ran along the floor, electricty surging down it.. He turned and walked a different way around the store until he found an exit out into the main hall.

People were sitting in here, all of them very quiet and grave, frightened into silence. Some looked up to see who was walking, but most just continued staring off into space. They picked their way carefully down the people blocked hall, Syaoran seeming to know where he was going.

He turned down a dark and abondoned hallway, with a door at the end. Syaoran opened it carefully, and a static sound radiated from within. Sakura stepped carefully behind him, peering in. "It’s the electrical room." Syaoran whispered, as if not wanting the people in the mall to hear him.

"What are we going to do?" Sakura asked for about the thousandth time.

"I know a little wiring. If the Thunder doesn’t want to put up a fight, we might be able to short out the electricity in here." Syaoran said, stepping in as carefully as he could, for wires were strung all across this floor.

The main power bar in the center of the room had raw electricty surging up and down it, visible to the naked eye. He walked towards it, getting a quick jist of the wiring pattern in the room. He was currently starting an advanced wiring class after school, he had taken a basic one in seventh grade with Meilin, but they had never covered anything nearly this complicated. A thousand different colors, every one of the rainbow, was hooked into this powerbar. Syaoran tried to sigh away all his apprehension and looked for the first wire. He started with a yellow wire, and began putting them together. "Do you have any cards with light? I can hardly see." Syaoran said.

Sakura looked quickly to her cards. "Yes, Glow! Give light to this room!" Sakura called. The Glow appeared out of the card and washed the room with a bright glowing yellow light, constant, not shadowing like the surging electricty’s light.

Now that Syaoran could see, he was working more quickly. He had gotten down to the last wire, and he couldn’t remember if he would put it with the blue wire or the red wire to short it out. He glanced back at Sakura and Tomoyo, though he knew they could be no help. "Which color do you like better, blue or red?" Syaoran asked Sakura, after a bit of deciding.

"What- uh...I like..Blue. Blue better." Sakura said, thrown off gaurd by the question. What is he going to do? Does he know what he’s doing? "Do you know what you’re doing?"

"Pretty much." Syaoran said, preparing himself to jam the blue wire into the one he held. "Let’s hope luck is on our side." Syaoran said under his breath. He jammed the two together, and sparks flew out of them. Syaoran immediatly let go of them, letting them burn each other up without his hands in the way. The power bar began to spark crazily, and Syaoran backed away to get away from the shower of orange and yellow sparks.

"I think we got it." He said, smiling with releif at Sakura, amazed at his luck.

Sakura watched the middle of the room surge with power, then it cracked with sparks, completly dying out. Sakura’s eyes reflected the light, dazzled by the electricity, and it left the room, the bright sparks fading out into complete darkness, with the exception of some still sparking cords with ends broken off. All was silent for a second, then a fuzzing sound of static was collecting all through out the room.

A huge object of electricity had compiled in front of them, and the shape of a giant wolf was forming, Thunder’s visible form. Sakura stepped back with fear, she didn’t know how to defeat this without any cards. This card was very dangerous, not to mention powerful, and to face it with nothing but your own strength was practically suicide. "We can’t fight this!" Sakura said to Syaoran, who was a ways in front of her, holding his position bravely against the foe.

Thunder started sending bolts of lightening across the room. Tomoyo, who was taping in the corner, had to move out of the way as the fatal streaks of light were flying wildly by her. Syaoran ducked and rolled out of the way of one well aimed bolt, then did a kimp back to his feet and jumped just barely away from another bolt. He ran back to Sakura’s side and quickly turned to face the Thunder again. "We need opposite electricity, something to use its strength against it."

They jumped apart, a bolt landing right between where they had been standing. Sakura stood against a wall on her right, watching with alert eyes for where the lightening’s fingers would reach out to next. Syaoran had to jump out of the way from another bolt, then it quickly shifted directions, and Sakura did a sloppy speeded up version of a forward roll, coming so close to the lightening that she felt her hair stand on end as she rolled out of the elctricity. Sakura stopped short of a bare-ended wire, sparking in front of her. It snaked up to the powerbar beside her, which apparently was still giving some amount of power off.

Sakura looked up from her sprawled position on the ground to see Syaoran dodging another bolt of lightening. It forced him into the wall on his side, where he narrowly missed a bare wire sparking dangerously. Syaoran glanced nervously at the sparks licking his back, but he couldn’t linger on that nervous thought, because he quickly had to duck under a lightening bolt that had been aimed at his head.

Sakura watched with terror as he a little too slowly notice the electricity coming at him again. He pulled himself sideways, but Sakura could see and hear the lightening contacting with flesh as it hit his leg, and she could see the pained look he had as he cleared himself out of the way. Another bolt was going to come at him, and he might not move away as quickly as necessary this time. Sakura mindlessly grabbed the wire in front of her where it still had covering, and threw its broken end out with as much force as she could manage at the large wolf source of all this electricity. The end of the wire found its mark, and a more dominant sound cracked in the air as it reached it.

But Sakura had made a mistake, and her fingers had held on to the wiring a little too long, and the end of the wiring she held on to quickly became a connecter; a road for the electricity to travel up and down. The rubber covering on the part of the wire she was holding was no match for the amount of electricity surging its way down, and though it did help to ease the amount that reached her, Sakura felt the effects of the intertwining powers, and her body burned and tingled as the electricity moved through her.

Sakura’s muscles all contracted with the electricity, and her hands gripped the wire tightly. Her throw had done off with the Thunder for now, and it roared away, sealing himself into a card, though it had the warped eyes of a disfunctional star card. Sakura’s legs would no longer support her, and she fell to her knees, and with a final breath, she collapsed onto the ground and dead wires in front of her.

Syaoran could hardly take in what had just happened, but he quickly got up, ignoring his still tingling leg, and ran over to Sakura’s lifeless body. Syaoran was between panic and hysteria, and he tried desperately to stay calm as he gently shook her shoulder. "Sakura-chan, you’ve got to wake up." She didn’t stir even as he shook her, but he continued persistently.

"Come on, Sakura-chan, don’t give in, you’ve beat him, you can’t give up now." Syaoran looked up to see where Tomoyo was, ready to send her for help. Tomoyo had disappeared from her corner of the room, though Syaoran was sure she was still in there somewhere.

Syaoran quickly dismissed that for now, and looked back to Sakura. Her face was very pale, she needed oxygen, but she wasn’t breathing. "God dammit Sakura, wake up, you can’t do this to me, you have to wake up!" He shook her harder, though was careful not to let panic overtake his actions.

Sakura’s eyes seemed to stir under her eye lids. At first Syaoran thought it was an illusion and was dismayed, but she rolled over onto her side and started coughing, then finally took a gasp of air. Syaoran leaned back out of his panic, shakily breathing. Sakura started breathing more than she was coughing, and then slowly, she began breathing regularly, though her breaths came fast and shallow. Syaoran knew she wasn’t alright yet, she needed real care, not to be in some electrical room of a mall. He quickly took her up in his arms and lifted her off the ground, getting a good supportive hold of her. He started walking quickly out of that room, then walked down a hall in the mall that was quite desolated.

Sakura’s eyes slowly opened, though she couldn’t see very clearly, her vision was blurred and glazed. Her balance was awful, and she felt that she was off the ground, though something firm was keeping her from falling. Sakura slowly realized, more like sensed, she was with Syaoran, though she couldn’t see him. Some dim memories of the Thunder becoming visible were in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t get beyond that. She tried to speak, though her voice came out in a whisper. "What- What happened?" She asked, her eyes only half open.

Syaoran knew she wouldn’t remember the story if he told her now, so he continued hurrying down the halls of the mall, reaching the door to the outside. "You played hero very well." He said, pushing the door open with his shoulder. Outside was very cold, and Syaoran felt Sakura shiver, so he pushed himself faster.

Sakura didn’t have any clue what he meant, but her energy was spent on that question alone, so she just stayed quiet. Something cold hit her, cold air she beleived, and she thought she was outside, though she wasn’t entirely sure. But there was all that electricity outside. I hope all those people are safe now, they could die. Have we helped them? Is Syaoran taking me away before we could help them?

He hurried up the cold and quiet street towards his apartment complex, ignorant of his now aching arms, feeling awful that Sakura was so cold that she continued to shiver. He reached the blacktop parking lot of the complex and picked his way carefully across, the starting to melt snow turning to ice in the absence of the sun in the night’s cold. He reached the lobby and hurried into it’s heat, ignoring the late shift pizza worker at the small resteraunt that was eying them skeptically. He hit the elevator button with his knee then quickly stepped inside, leaning against the wall to help ease some of the weight off his arms. Sakura was leaning against him heavily, still shivering slightly as she recovered from the outdoors cold, her breaths coming unevenly; some very shallow and short, some so heavy her whole body seemed to shake.

Her eyes were shut, though not peacefully as when she slept normally, for a good deal of pain was still travelling in her body. They reached his floor, and Syaoran quickly stepped out of the elevator and headed down the hall. He reached his door and tried to open it, but it was locked, and the key was on a chain he had somewhere around his neck, there was no way he was going to get that out in the present situation. Syaoran banged the door with his knee, hoping that it was still early enough in the night that the neighbors would forgive the noise and not be angry about being woken up.

Meilin had come to the door curiously, wondering who would come and knock on their door at such a time in the evening. She unlocked the door from the inside and pulled it open, then met with surprise Syaoran’s eyes. He was carrying Sakura, who looked like she had been through both the World Wars, and was still suffering after affects.

Syaoran quickly pushed past her, and Meilin shut the door and followed him through their apartment, following him into his room, where he laid Sakura gently down on his neatly made bed, pulling the covers over her.

Syaoran stood silent for a while, watching Sakura, oblivious to Meilin’s presence, when, finally fed up with curiosity, Meilin spoke. "This has something to do with the mall’s electrical problem, right?"

Syaoran nodded silently, then finally forced himself to reply. "The Thunder card escaped. Sakura beat him, but she got electricuted in the process."

"Is she gonna be okay?" Meilin asked, seeing the obvious horrible worry in her cousin’s eyes.

"I don’t know." Syaoran said, watching Sakura. They went through everything, it seemed impossible to reason that Sakura could die, though it was as equal a possibility as the other way around.

"She needs to sleep." Meilin said after a while, putting a hand on Syaoran’s shoulder.

Syaoran slowly took his eyes off Sakura’s sleeping face. "You’re right." He said, finally turning himself to the door. He and Meilin left the room, though they left the door open. They walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, where Meilin still had the television running.

"Is that where you went after school?" Meilin asked, looking at the tv.

"Pretty much." Syaoran said monotonously.

"Your sister called, I don’t know which one it was. You should probably call at least one of your family members sometime soon."

"Mm." Syaoran said, staring blankly at the late night news running on tv.

"The electricity crisis at the mall ended just recently as an unknown occurence unexplainably shorted out the many wires in the main electrical room that had been causing the riot. Authorities say only a handfull of people were injured, and the...." The television reporter said.

Meilin watched Syaoran’s behavior with downcast lashes. He is so worried for her. If she only knew how much he thought about her...Why does he not feel that way for me? I knew him for so much longer, I stayed by his side so faithfully, it isn’t fair! None of my life is fair! Meilin sighed and forced her eyes down to the floor in front of her. It’s like he thinks of me as a baby sister, always nagging. I know I nag, all my other attempts to get his attention turn up in failure. And when I try to help...He said it himself, in his own cold words, ‘I screw up’. I don’t want to stay like this, it’s not fair.

"Do you want anything to eat? I am going to make some ramen."

Syaoran looked up from his stare. "I’m fine, thanks."

"Alright. Umm, listen, you should probably get some sleep too. This magic does something to you, I can tell. You always seem so tired when something happens..." Meilin said quietly, afraid Syaoran might yell at her for ordering him.

Syaoran looked over at Meilin, standing at the counter. She would be so annoying and cousinly sometimes, but she surprised him with some maturity and observations yet. He tried to let her know these thoughts with his eyes, while his words said otherwise. "I’m gonna go make sure Sakura’s sleeping. You can go ahead and do whatever, I’ll sleep in the den."

Meilin nodded as she pulled out a package of noodles from a cabinent. "Night." She called, though her words were lost, because Syaoran was already down the hall.

Syaoran stepped carefully into his room and tiptoed to the other side of his bed. Moonlight was falling in from the balcony sliding door on the far side of his room, and a good portion was falling across his bed, across Sakura’s pale face. Syaoran walked over to the window and drew the heavy curtains all the way across, so that Sakura could rest peacefully without the light hindering her.

He sighed, exhaustion was finally making its way to him, and the effects of his magic usage was starting to weigh on his eyelids. Syaoran sat down quietly on the chair next to the head of his bed and leaned against it, exhaling slowly. He couldn’t stay in this darkness long, he was sure to fall asleep. He gazed at Sakura, who was sleeping soundly now, though her breathing was still a bit short, it came quicker than it would normally, and she still looked off color, and he was sure her whole body ached with the power of the electricity that had hit her.

She hadn’t moved from how Syaoran had laid her down earlier, she was probably too weak yet. She didn’t want me to get hurt. Syaoran breathed out quietly again, then stood up, standing over her. Though she was pale, and her expression might have not been one of peace, something shown through her closed eyes, her ever present peace, her calmness that wasn’t skin deep, but visible in the most stressful of moments, like now. Her strength was aware to Syaoran, even now in the dark, as she fought to keep breathing.

"Keep fighting Kinomoto." Syaoran gently ran his hand across her soft but cold cheek, then gazed at her for a few more minutes. His attention was wavered as he heard Meilin moving pans in the kitchen, having finished her food. Syaoran quickly tiptoed out of his room into the hall and headed for the den.

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Syaoran didn’t sleep very long on the small stiff mattress shoved in the corner of the room filled with books, it wasn’t a very comfortable sleep, and Meilin had been watching the television rather loudly. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and looked around. The room had gotten slightly cold through the night, and now that he was out of the covers he could feel the full extent of the cold influence of winter.

A shallow cough down the hall caught his attention. Syaoran set his feet on the floor and started walking down the hall quietly. The coughing stopped, returning to the shallow breathing that had been coming from his room a long while ago. Syaoran peered in the doorway and saw that Sakura was sleeping again. He leaned against the doorway and watched her to make sure she was for sure sleeping soundly, then stood back up rightly. Syaoran turned and headed into the kitchen for a glass of water, he enjoyed the night’s quieting darkness and the escape it allowed one to stowe their mind away for its few hours of peace.

He filled a glass of water to the brim and quickly drank it down, he had hardly dranken anything earlier that night, he had been to worried about whether or not Sakura would pull through. Syaoran filled it again and walked quietly out of the kitchen into the hall, and from there he went into his room to check on the coughing beauty.

She had rolled over on her side sometime through the night, but aside from that, all was the same with her. Syaoran walked over to the chair next to the bed and sat down, setting his glass of water beside him on the bed table. He turned his head and gazed at her for a while, until he fell into a deep slumber.

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Sakura’s eyes slowly fluttered open. She had coughed herself awake, the cough was barely audible, but it contracted the muscles in her stomach horribly, and it choked her already limited air supply. She knew it had to be morning, but the room she was in was dark, and hardly any sunlight allowed her eyes to see. She looked around at her surroundings for a few moments, studying the bare walls, the old furniture, the large sliding glass doors in the far corner of the room with rich black curtains across them, and finally came to a conclusion. This must be Syaoran’s room. Have I been here before? I can’t remember. How did I get here? I can’t remember that either. Sakura turned and noticed abruptly the sullen faced boy sleeping on a chair next to the bed she was in, his head bowed down, his amber hair fallen across his face. Sakura would have spoken, but her eyes went blurry, sending her into a dizzy spell.

She gained hold of her consciousness and tried to prop herself up against the large bedhead behind her. The blankets around her were heavy and warm, plain in color, but an intriguing material. Sakura pulled them close around her and forced herself to sit up. Her whole body groaned in protest, muscles she didn’t know she had were screaming at her to go back into laying position. What happened to me?

Dim memories were somewhere in the back of her mind, but nothing urgent was paining her, so she knew she must have foughtten something and defeated, or at least kept someone safe in the process, she wasn’t sure. I hate these blurred memories. Syaoran probably knows. She tried to concentrate harder, to think into her own mind, and peices and images came to her. Thunder appeared. We were dodging its attacks. Syaoran got hit in the leg, I almost got hit, then ...then I threw a cord at it. And...and what? Did I get shocked? Must of been more than that, I feel like a freight train ran over me. Sakura looked at Syaoran again. He must be okay, he is sleeping in a chair. His neck is going to be awfully sore, sleeping in that position.

Sakura felt dizzy, and she realized she didn’t have enough oxygen. Sakura breathed in deeper, but she choked exhaling it, and her cough was much louder than her previous ones. Syaoran’s fire glazed eyes fluttered open, and he turned his head to her. His eyes slowly came out of their sleepy state into a sleepy smile. "You woke up."

Sakura turned to him out of her cough and smiled. "Y-ye-ah." Sakura said, quickly finding out her voice was hardly working yet, and it had a lower tone to it that Sakura didn’t remember having, though she didn’t mind the adding sound it gave to her voice.

Syaoran quickly reached for the glass of water beside him and held it out to Sakura. "Don’t try to talk yet, it’s probably further damaging your throat."

Sakura frowned and tried to reach for the glass of water, but her weak hand was exstremly slow to respond. "Why......why am I...so weak?" She asked, closing her eyes midway in the sentence to concentrate.

"Thunder got you, fully. I wasn’t sure if...if you were going to make it." Syaoran said, looking down at the floor in front of him, remembering the feeling of helplessness he had had.

"I feel like crap." Sakura said bluntly, trying to move closer to the glass of water so she could have a drink. Her throat was incredibly dry, her whole body felt like that, and Syaoran had just explained why. Of course, she would feel dry after electricity sucked everything out of her just the night before. "Touya....be home...soon."

"And when he does, we’ll both see hell, I mean...sorry. You are nowhere near being able to walk. You’ll be lucky if you can make it to school on Monday."

"I’m glad to see we’re (cough) optimistic." Sakura went into a few more coughs before going back to her rapid breathing.

Syaoran could see she needed water, but she had no strength in her arms to hold anything. He carefully tipped the full glass of water to her lips, so not to choke her anymore than she already was , and he let her drink from it until she looked like she had had enough.

"Thanks." Sakura said after getting her breath back. The water had definitely replenished some of her vocal features, her voice included.

"Are you hungry?" Syaoran asked.

"No." Sakura said quietly, relaxing her tense stomach muscles.

"You probably still want to sleep, I’m sorry if I’m bothering you." Syaoran said, standing up from the chair.

"No, no. I don’t feel that tired, at least mentally. I mean, unless you have to go?"

Syaoran stopped from midstep and turned to her, shaking his head.

"Did anyone get hurt? And what about Tomoyo?" Sakura throat narrowly escaped a coughing fit, and she ended Tomoyo’s name a bit abruptly.

"They, um...No one was really hurt, everyone got out of the mall fine, thanks to you. Tomoyo, she...I don’t know where she went. I really think something is going on there." Syaoran’s quiet eyes started to cloud back over.

"She left?" Sakura asked. That didn’t sound like Tomoyo at all. Sakura knew her friend had said she would leave when things got dangerous, but being the dedicated camera woman she was, Tomoyo never left a scene of action unless she was physically dragged away.

"Yes, she, she’s done some things before this...I noticed forever ago, but I wasn’t sure, maybe she was different, maybe she changed...Twin card, I am not sure how much of the truth it mirrors. When...when she’d meet my eyes hers were so different than what I remembered them being, but then I don’t remember ever looking into them before. Sorry, this is nonsense, it’s just a clow card, star card, whatever, doubling her."

"But that’s not all. She left an impression on you, Syaoran, and I know you and impressions. Once you get one of someone, it’s very hard to change. It took me a good two years to convince you otherwise of your first impression, that I was a clueless schoolgirl. Even now you hold to that sometimes, I notice. So what did she do, that would change your mind about her?" Sakura felt a little dizzy and offbalance from the long sentence.

"She kissed me." Syaoran said quickly, leaning on his knees and letting his hair shield his eyes, but glancing at Sakura up through it.

Sakura untintentionally went into another coughing fit. Through her spinning head, she thought she had heard Syaoran, but surely he couldn’t said what she thought. Then again, it now made perfect sense; his hesitation to tell her, his nervousness around Tomoyo. "T-t-omoyo?" Sakura said after her coughing finally settling down. "It-it must be the Twin,....she couldn’t..." Sakura started thinking about this. She used to be so close to her friend, being with her constantly, her friend never missing out on taping an adventure. But recently, she hadn’t seen that much of Tomoyo, and she had been different from time to time.

She said she was sorry for being late to the party! I remember now! Was there two of her there? Must have been. Her confusion slowly turned to anger, a feeling Sakura rarely felt. She...is that how she feels inside? Is that what Syaoran means-he is not sure how much of the truth is mirrored-he thinks that could be how she really feels? My-my friend would betray me? She would kiss him, even though she knows that I-that I....I... "This has got to stop. Too many people are being twisted around whatever this is, I can’t stand it, we’ve-" Sakura stopped her sentence, short of oxygen.

"Yes, we’ve got to finish this. You almost died Sakura, you stopped breathing, I thought you were, that you would...I couldn’t do anything..." Syaoran said, looking up from his hiding position and pained and angry amber eyes.

I stopped breathing? "Syaoran, don’t think about that, you did everything you could."

"But it might not be enough next time." Syaoran said, looking down with shame.

"It always has been. You never doubted yourself before, why are you saying these things now?"

Because your life is on the line. "I’m gonna get some more water." Syaoran said, standing up. Touching his sore spots was not something Syaoran could tolerate very long, and talking about him being helpless was one of those spots.

Syaoran left the room, not planning to come back for a while, and Sakura adjusted herself into a more comfortable position. She sighed as she waited for Syaoran to return, but he didn’t, and she started to go hopeless and consider falling back asleep, when footsteps brought her back awake. For a moment she though Syaoran had come back, but her eyes met Meilin instead.

"Good, you’re up, Kinomoto. You had us worried."

Sakura was happy to see that she and Meilin were on friendly terms. "Thanks for letting me stay here, I definitely would’ve had a hard time getting home."

Meilin smiled, despite the conflict of feelings inside of her. "You’re very lucky to have such a good caretaker."

"Huh?" Sakura asked, blinking her eyes out of a dizzy state.

Meilin shook her head. "Nevermind. Listen, I am making waffles, do you want any?"

Sakura shook her head. "I don’t think I can stomach anything but water right now, even though you are such a good cook." She said, adding the last part as insurance not to insult Meilin’s culinary skills.

Meilin grinned. "Alright. You should eat something as soon as you can, your family will be looking for you, and you’ll need some strength in that little body of yours."

Sakura smiled and nodded, but she found her neck was even starting to ache, even though she was propping it against the headboard. Meilin walked out of the room, leaving Sakura alone in Syaoran’s dark and quiet room. She quickly fell fast asleep in Syaoran’s warm and soft bed, her head swimming in the things they had discussed.

______________________________________________________________________

Sakura adjusted the coat on her back and forced a brave smile. "I’ll be fine, I promise. If I collapse on the street you’ll probably hear about it in the news, don’t worry." She said. She was preparing to head back home that evening, despite the fact she could hardly walk, her balance went psycho every five minutes, and her vision was still a little off.

Syaoran had no words to say, so he only watched her with his fiery eyes beneath his thick lashes, not daring to meet her straight in the eye, for fear that his concern would show through. Meilin smiled at Sakura, something she rarely did and meant. "Good thing it’s not a long walk. Remember, you spent the night at Meilin’s house. That’s your alibi, stick to it."

Sakura nodded. "I told Chindra I was going out, she’ll probably help me out." They silently said goodbye, and Sakura turned and walked out their apartment door, not stopping until she had to wait for the elevator. Already her legs ached underneath her, her spine seemed to bend under her weight, her whole body felt dry and overworked.

She left the elevator and walked quickly through the lobby while her legs still obeyed. Anymore electricity and I would have been paralyzed. Sakura walked out into the snow and sighed, she wished very much that Syaoran could have come with her. That’s very nice, being carried by Syaoran. If only I could always travel around like that. I guess I’ll have to keep breaking my ankle, getting electricuted... Sakura looked down the street and made sure she was going the right way.

Syaoran had insisted on going with her, but Meilin had told him very seriously that he needed to stay home and do something, what that something was Sakura was very curious about, but she hadn’t had the energy to press questions. So much for that, oh well, it could be worse. At least it’s finally warming up outside. Late January weather was finally starting to roll in to prepare for March, though the huge amount of snow they had accumulated was very slowly melting. Sakura tried to keep her mind elsewhere, not to linger on the pain it took to force her feet forward, and she made time coming home. Her feet finally took her to her house, which looked doubly gloomy on this overcast day.

She opened the sidedoor and stepped in quietly. Chindra was sitting on the couch with a book in front of her, but no one else was in the room. She looked up from the book when she heard the door close behind Sakura. "Oh, hello."

"Hi! Is Touya or otto-san home?" Sakura asked, looking around nervously.

"No, Touya leaves earlier, he arrives only for little while. Was gone all last night. Your father not home from meeting."

Chindra’s Japanese seemed worse than usual. "Are you reading a book in arabic?" Sakura asked, trying to see the cover of it.

Chindra smiled sheepishly. "You tell? Sorry. Much still to learn about your language."

"Oh it’s alright. It’s funny, actually." Sakura looked towards the stairs. She had some things to sort with Kero. "I’m going to be in my room if you need me."

"Alright." Chindra said.

Sakura turned and headed up the stairs, already planning the lecture she was going to give Kero, but just thinking about it made her tired. Why were her friends become so unreliable? And her previous foes turning to be the best allies she could have ever dreamed of? Sakura opened the door to her room and stepped in to see Kero reading a food magazine, drool hanging out one side of his mouth.

"You never help anymore, Kero-chan." Sakura said spitefully, collapsing on her bed.

Kero looked up innocently. "I fed Bob, pinch of grass and leaves, just like you said."

"That’s not what I’m talking about. Don’t you sense this magic anymore? Everything’s messed up, nothing’s the same. It’s not just dangerous anymore, it’s...it’s become a mission to kill. My family, my friends, this can’t be a cruel test, we must of done something to provoke it."

"I’ve talked to Yue." Kero said quietly.

That wasn’t enough for Sakura, too many things had piled up, she needed a long time to unleash her anger. "And see how productive that is? ‘I’ll look into it’, ‘I’ll see what I can find out’, I need some action, Kero-chan!" Sakura sat up from how she had been laying. "But you always seem to have a bit of information ahead of me, yet you hold it back, I don’t understand."

"Some things you are yet to be able to handle." Kero said, his usual happy go lucky voice turning into a grave seriousness Sakura hadn’t heard in a very long time.

Sakura sighed and laid back on her bed, planning on sleeping, though it was still early evening. "All I know is things are building up. To what? I don’t know. Why? I’m not sure. I would love your help, Keroberus, if you would lend it to me." With that she let herself sleep, her heavy eyes quickly weighing down into a deep and undisturbed sleep, the spinning thoughts remaining in the back of her head for this amount of blissful time.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Wow. I wrote this chapter in two turns! I have been sick this week (I put that in my last chapter too) and look how productive I’ve been! If my parents saw how healthily I am writing, they might reconsider having me finish my geometry make up work (blah). I am going to be home from school tommorrow, I hope (seeing as I am writing this at one in the morning while watching Willow on the sci fi channel), and I might get to write some more! Yay! I need more comments! [email protected]

visit my site if you’re not already there at geocities.com/KeanusHorsechic

I finally put my site on some search engines in hope that I can get more people to send some stories into my fanfic page. Well that’s it, sick kids need their sleep! (I didn’t have a hard time writing about Sakura feeling crappy, all I had to do was relate!)

Your most dedicated author! ~Syaoran’s fan 4 Life~

Oh, hey I don’t know if anyone wants to hear this or if they care, it’s pretty retarded, I must say, but it’s CCS related. I finally had a dream with Li in it! It was sooo cool! I had never had him in my dreams before, seeing as he is a cartoon, but I guess my writing finally influenced my subconscious! It was really weird, I don’t know where we were, but I think I was Sakura- that’s what it seemed like (alright!) and we were with my friend and Meilin driving around on a gator- one of those tiny little tractor farm vehichles. Okay so you’re laughing and making fun of me, go ahead, make fun, I know it sounds really stupid when I try and explain it, but what dream doesn’t when you put it into words? It was great, I’m telling you. Hmm maybe if I go to sleep right now I can have another one...??

Really g2g now!!!

~Syaoran’s fan4life~