<__< BLOSSOMS IN THE SPRING <__< A crossover Improfanfic started by The Eternal Lost Lurker Street Fighter and all related trademarks belong to Capcom. Cardcaptor Sakura and all related trademarks belong to CLAMP, Kodansha. Used without permission. Part 26: SLEEPless in Sakura By Pang Sze Chuan "KERO!" Sakura bellowed for the magical guardian. Ever since she started asking him about how strange the BIG Card felt when she used it after her last encounter with Mad Gear, Kero had begun to avoid her. That had been when her suspicions that there was something different about BIG became full blown. It should have been obvious to her earlier, considering that the Card had a different design on its back from the other Cards, but now that she thought back about it, Kero had always found an excuse to keep her from examining that Card. She could have sworn that it had had the same design when she first caught it. Something had happened to that Card. Something that Kero did not want her to find out about. "KERO! I don't have time to play hide and seek with you. There's a Card out there on the loose and I need to go catch it. If you don't get out here by the time I count to three, I'm going to go without you." Kero poked his head out from his hiding place behind a bookshelf. "How do you know there's a Card out there?" "Ah hah, so there you are." Sakura grabbed hold of him and dragged him out of his shelter. "And to answer your question, Rena just called to inform me that there's a Card in the park. Now can we go?" Sakura's tight grip left no question as to what his answer was to be. Kero could only nod weakly. Sakura arrived in the park dressed in her normal Street Fighter outfit. A rare occurrence she was not going to miss. Tomoyo and Li would be back in three days, which meant this would be one of the few Cards she would not have to put on one of Tomoyo's costumes to catch. "So Rena, where is this Card?" Sakura asked as she walked up to her. The park was almost deserted; save for the occasional discreet couples she knew would be around at this time of night. "Right here." Rena turned around and directed a punch in Sakura's direction. Sakura felt the flare of a Card's power in Rena and quickly raised an arm to block the blow. Which proved to be a HUGE mistake as Rena's fist ploughed through her defences. The next thing she knew, she was hurtling through the air, coming to a jarring halt as she slammed into a tree. Sakura got to her feet unsteadily, her left arm clutching her ribs. Gods that HURT. Her back was also in pain from her rough introduction to the tree, but it was her ribs that hurt the most. It had been as though Zangief had just hit her. Zangief on steroids, that is. No need to ask Kero what Card had taken control of Rena. Only one Card could give a normal girl this kind of strength. POWER. Sakura began to back pedal away from the possessed girl who was steadily advancing towards her. "Shinkuu-Hadouken." She fired a weak attack that should knock Rena out without causing too much damage. Her opponent did not even make any move to block the incoming attack. She just walked into it without even seeming to acknowledge its presence, moving forward like an unstoppable juggernaut. Oh well, so much for ending the fight quickly. Plan B it is. Drawing a Card from her deck, she brought her staff down upon it. "DREAM, put Rena to sleep." Energy flared within the Card. It hung there for a moment, glowing in the air before the light suddenly vanished, the now powerless Card dropping to the ground. WHAT?! Sakura heard DREAM's apology in her mind. Sakura found herself with no time to wonder why the Card failed to work as Rena came into reach. She launched a flurry of punches and kicks at Rena who either blocked the blows (and at the same time sending jarring shocks through Sakura who felt as though she was hitting a steel column) or simply ignored the blows. Sakura found herself dodging the POWERed up Rena's attacks with a little difficulty. There was no way she was going to try blocking one of those sledgehammer-like blows again. YEOW! Sakura screamed mentally as she got clipped by one of Rena's blows. That was going to leave a serious bruise if the pain was any indicator. Rena and POWER might not have any fighting skills. From what she could tell, they were just lashing out using moves resembling martial arts. Trouble was, Rena's body was fast and with POWER giving her inhuman strength, she was really having trouble holding her own against her. Sakura took a step back from Rena. She had not wanted to do this, but she was going to have to hit her full force. Rena was not used to taking blows, so she had been pulling her blows earlier to prevent hurting her friend, but with POWER enabling her to shrug off her controlled attacks, she was going to have to risk it. With a silent apology to her mind-controlled friend, she aimed a kick with all her might at her mid-section. She was rewarded with a small grunt for her efforts, but before she could pull back her leg, she found that her ankle had been caught in a bone-crushing grip. "Very good, Card Captor, but you're going to have to do a lot better than that." POWER lifted Sakura easily off the ground and began to whirl her in the air as though she weighed nothing. I think I'm going to be sick, Sakura thought as she lost all sense of bearing. Then, without warning, Sakura was hurtling through the air over the park. In her dizzy state, she was unable to use any of her Cards. Sakura woke to find a boy quickly scrambling away from her. Her body was in a sea of pain as she registered new injuries to her body. In addition to the injuries she had gotten before her impromptu flight, she had gotten additional bruises and sported several scrapes and gashes along her body. Her outfit was also ripped in places. Probably when I crashed through those branches overhead, she thought as she noticed the fallen leaves on the ground. She was not about to complain though. They had most likely saved her life by slowing down her fall. That and the suspicion that she had landed on that unconscious girl the boy was hurriedly carrying away. She wished she had the chance to apologise to the couple for ruining their rendezvous. Sakura pulled herself painfully into a sitting position. POWER was proving to be a more dangerous opponent than she had thought. Her martial arts would not be enough to defeat POWER and for some unknown reason, DREAM had failed her. She was going to plan carefully what Card she could- Sakura suddenly realized that her hands were empty. The Key Staff! Where was the Key Staff?! She looked about frantically. How was she going to seal POWER without the Key Staff? She gave a sigh of relief when she spotted it a few dozen meters away. She groaned as she made her way towards it. Her body complaining every step along the way as they served to remind her of each and every single injury she had sustained. She had just gotten her hands on the staff when she suddenly felt DASH's magic. She looked up to spot Rena heading towards her at what was definitely a DASH-enhanced speed. But that was impossible, she thought as she checked her Cards. DASH was still in her possession. Rena/POWER stopped in front of Sakura and stumbled a bit. "Guess that'll teach me to use someone else's magic without her permission," POWER chuckled to herself, as she got ready to fight Sakura again. Sakura could feel that POWER was definitely weaker after that stunt she had pulled. "Well, aren't you going to fight me? Or are you afraid to face me without a few elephants to help you?" POWER taunted her, "Oh wait, it wasn't the elephants that helped you win, you won last time because lover boy cheated on your behalf." Lover boy? She didn't mean Li, did she? He had HELPED her the last time she faced this Card? Sakura just could not picture it. Never mind about that. Right now the important thing was sealing POWER. She pulled out a Card and prayed that it would not fail. "WOODY." She directed WOODY to entrap Rena in her branches. Rena/POWER cried out in anger as she found herself caught and directed her strength to breaking free. This was her chance. Sakura leaped forward with her staff. WOODY was not going to be able to hold her for long. Sakura reached her at the same time, as she ripped free. Even as Sakura's staff began to draw POWER out of Rena's body, a final POWERed up punch rammed into Sakura's gut. "Oh my god, Sakura," Rena cried as she regained her senses. Sakura was lying on the ground, writhing in pain from POWER's last move. "Thank you for helping my daughter home," Sakura's mother thanked Rena. "It was nothing, Ma'am. I feel responsible for her condition somehow." "Don't blame yourself. This is the path she chose. The life of a martial artist is fraught with perils." Rena could not help but smile at Sakura's mother's wise man impression. "Well, tell her I'll see her in school tomorrow. I think she's got a few questions for me. Good night, Mrs. Kasunago." "Hey, you sure you want to go to school today? POWER really did a number on you last night," Kero asked as he saw Sakura move around the room stiffly. "If you were so concerned about me, Kero, where were you last night?" Sakura regretted her words as soon as they were spoken. The combination of her injured state, and the fact that the pain had kept her up last night, was making her extremely irritable. "What could I have done against her? She could have easily thrown me halfway across Tokyo." Sakura quietly acknowledged his argument, but was not about to tell him that. "I really need to talk to Rena about what she did last night." Sakura frowned at the memory of how Rena had tapped into DASH's power last night. "By the way, what happened to DREAM last night? Why didn't it work?" "Oh look at the time, you really have to get going if you don't want to be late for school." "Chiharu, have you seen Rena around?" Sakura asked as she entered the Track team's clubroom. "Her mother called in sick for her today. Why?" Chiharu turned towards her and saw how Sakura was walking as well as the occasional bandage peeking out from under her uniform, "Oh my god, what happened to you?" Sakura felt a twinge of guilt. She hoped it was not because of her. Rena had not seemed to be badly hurt after they had fought last night. "The POWER Card possessed her last night. I had to fight her for it. Did I mention that the Card gives you superhuman strength and endurance?" "Ow," Miyuki mouthed sympathetically, "makes us glad that we don't go into fighting like you are. So you wanted to see if she's alright?" "Yeah, that and she did something strange last night. I could have sworn she was using DASH last night, but DASH is with me. I don't understand how she could have used it. You guys aren't still linked with the Cards back from when we fought WATERY and her minion Cards, are you?" Chiharu and Miyuki suddenly turned very quiet. "I can call Rena's home for you to check on her if you like," Chiharu offered. "As for whether we're still linked to the Cards, I can assure you the answer is no." The way she said it made it obvious that she knew more than what she was telling Sakura. "She can't come to the phone? That's all right. Some sort of strange illness, huh? Yes, I understand. Well, I hope to see her back in school soon." Sakura hung up the phone. Rena's mother had assured her that Rena was not hurt, but had come down with some sort of bug. "Okay, so what do you know about it?" she turned to Chiharu, who was studying a science textbook. "Know about what?" Chiharu tried to feign innocence. "How Rena managed to use DASH last night." Sakura's tone indicated that she wanted to know and she wanted to know NOW. The other two girls looked at each other and mentally drew straws. Miyuki lost. She sighed. They figured Sakura would find out about this sooner or later. She just wished she would not have to explain it alone, just her luck that Yukari was also ill today. "Remember back when we were going to fight RAIN?" Sakura nodded. "Try to remember what Kero told you about why the Cards were so much more powerful when you 'loaned' them to us." Sakura frowned as she tried to recall what Kero had said. "He said that the Cards were more powerful because both sides were willing and I had performed the proper rituals so the Cards had full access to your magical potentials. Before that, the Cards were trying to access your magical abilities..." A light went off in Sakura's head. "You guys have magical abilities as well?" She asked incredulously. "All those the Cards possessed did. It's just a matter of how much and what type. Most of those the Clow Cards possessed had little power of no fixed type, so they would not be able to use it unless someone were to train them long and hard. Rena, Chiharu and myself have slightly more power than the others, but we had an advantage over the others in that our magic were of the same type as the Cards that we held." "Same type of magic?" Sakura asked dumbly. Miyuki gave her an exasperated smile. "Didn't Kero teach you anything about magic? Magic can come in different forms, the most famous examples being the elemental magic in popular culture. Rena and Chiharu's inherent magical abilities deal with enhancing their physical skills. Mine deal with bending space and time. This was one of the reasons why you had so much trouble figuring out that all four of us had Cards back when we first met. Since all four of us had Cards that were aligned with our own inherent magical ability, you could only tell that we had Cards. You failed to see that the Cards were different." "I don't get it," Sakura admitted, "why didn't I notice that? You just said yourself that you have different magical auras and how come I didn't notice that you still have magic after the Cards left you?" Chiharu shrugged. "Because we're a lot weaker than you. Compared to you, our magic is just part of our auras. You just filed it subconsciously as being the result of part of our individual nature. As for why you never noticed why we still had magical power after the Cards left us, by that time I guess you were so used to the level of magic in us, you simply discounted it after the Cards were removed." "Before all this started, we had the power, but not the knowledge that we HAD that power or how to use our abilities. When Kero told us we had inherent magical abilities, it got Rena and me thinking if we can learn to use it. We discussed it with our Cards and they decided it wouldn't hurt to teach us a bit of magic. Since our magics were so similar and simple, we had no problems learning it." Chiharu winced. "That's probably why POWER took control of Rena. Her magic is better suited to it and your familiarity with it helped it mask itself." God, it could easily have been her that night. "So you can make a LOOP?" Sakura asked Miyuki. Miyuki made a face. "Not really, it never really occurred to me back then to have LOOP teach me to use it. I only have what you could call 'body memory'. Besides, compared to the enhancement of physical abilities of JUMP and DASH, the bending of space to create a LOOP is very complicated. Chiharu and Rena would only have to affect their own bodies, which I might add is something they are familiar with. To create a LOOP, you need a lot more energy; you are bending space unnaturally after all. You also need to account for many things, like the width of the LOOP, distance and direction between the ends as well as a lot more things. Back when I held LOOP, it would deal with all of this for me. I just had to tell it what I wanted to do. I've experimented a few times with my power, but it doesn't always work and I can't create a very big one. The biggest one I've been able to create so far is around the tracks of my brother's toy train set." She turned to Chiharu. "By the way, you realize that when Yukari find out about this, she might have to stop you two from competing. It'd be too easy for you two to cheat." Chiharu clapped her hands together and bowed to her. "Please don't tell her about this." "Wait, how come you haven't mentioned Yukari in all this?" Miyuki pressed her lips into a thin line. "You will have to ask Yukari that. It's not really for me to tell you her secrets. Let's just say that she knows how to control her powers well enough to hide it from you and Li." "Ah-choo!" Yukari sneezed. Dumb cold. They were having great weather outside and she was stuck at home with the cold. A soft tinkle was the only warning she got. She spun around just in time to see a small blue fairy wave her wand over her. With a sinking feeling, she fell into an enchanted slumber. "She DOES? I thought it was because she had one of the four elemental Cards." Chiharu looked surprised. Miyuki shook her head. "That's not completely true." She turned to Sakura. "In case you don't know, the four elemental Cards, WINDY, WATERY, FIREY and, I guess there would be a Card dealing with earth, are among the strongest Cards. If they are matched with the appropriate elemental magic," she paused ominously, "well you remember what happened with WATERY and that magic book. They took control of three other Cards of the water element AND boosted their power to natural disaster levels." "So back when Yukari had WINDY..." "You're lucky that WINDY likes you and Yukari is your friend. Otherwise, you'd be lucky if they just blew you into the next prefecture." "Kero!" Sakura hollered as loudly she dared without letting her mother hear. "Kero, you better get out here right now. I have some questions for you." No, he was not behind the bookshelf either. Sakura's eyes narrowed. There was only one place left she had not checked. For his own sake, he had better not be hiding in there. Walking over to her drawers, she opened her underwear drawer and found- Nothing. Not a sign of the yellow plush toy. Now where could he be hiding? From his hiding place among Sakura's plush toys, Kero breathed a sigh of relief. It had been pure genius on his part, removing some of the stuffing in this teddy bear to give him space to fit inside. Sakura would never find him in this 'outfit'. "Whoa, didn't get enough sleep last night?" Miyuki asked as she spotted the shadows under Sakura's eyes. "No, I'm still hurting from where POWER hit me. Didn't get a wink of sleep last night. On the plus side, when Hitomi knocked on my door this morning, I was already awake." "You mean she's still doing that?" Miyuki asked in surprise, "we only got her to do that while you chased us to keep you a little off balance." "Yeah, she seems to have decided to make it her mission to wake me up every morning. I swear she had some kind of sixth sense about whether I'm awake. This morning, the only thing she did was knock softly on my door to tell me it's time to get out of bed." "Well, that's Hitomi for you. Even we think she's a little eccentric sometimes. Say, you don't suppose..." Sakura shook her head. "No, there's no Clow Card in her, nor do I feel anything strange about her." "Well, good luck staying awake in class today." "Tell me about it," Sakura groaned, "I still have that maths test coming up that I have to study for. Not to mention that Li and Tomoyo are coming back tonight and I promised to meet them at the airport." As Miyuki got ready for bed, she began to think. She had called Yukari a few moments ago to see how she was getting over her cold. Her mother had confided that Yukari had fallen into a coma yesterday. Rena had not been to school ever since her fight with Sakura and Chiharu had not come to school today either. When she had called them, their parents had said that they could not come to the phone. She was getting a bad feeling about this. Then there was Sakura who could not get to sleep. An injured person should require more sleep, even if her wounds hurt. Was there a Card at work? Miyuki was just about to get out of bed when a blue fairy appeared above her. Sakura slumped against a pillar. She was so tired, and being injured was not helping. It was a true miracle that she had not fallen asleep in class, or anywhere else today. She could have sworn she had nearly dozed off on the train to the airport. Instead, her concentration was shot to hell. If the airport was not the terminal station, she was sure that she would have missed her stop. Right, now which gate were they supposed to exit? She had just checked that information a few moments ago. She could not believe she had forgotten already. She was just about to head towards the nearest information display when she heard Tomoyo's cry. "Sakura, over here." She and Li were just coming out of the gate in front of her. "Hi, Tomoyo." She was about to help her with her bags when she stumbled and would have fell if Li had not caught her. "Sakura, are you alright?" Tomoyo asked, greatly concerned. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit woozy." Sakura picked herself up. Tomoyo. Wasn't there something she had wanted to ask her? For the life of her, she could not figure out what it was. Li did NOT like the feeling he was getting from Sakura. "Let's go. I think we have private business that we can't discuss out in public." Li raised the divider in the cab to prevent the driver from hearing their conversation. "What Card did this to you?" he asked as soon as it was safe. "POWER, it beat me up bad, but I managed to catch it all the same." Sakura raised the Card to show them. "Oh no, I missed out a chance to film you in action," Tomoyo's disappointment showed. Li held his anger in check that he had missed out a chance to capture a Card as well, but focused on the more immediate problem. "No, I meant what Card did this to you." Li poked Sakura's forehead. "Haven't you noticed that you've fallen under a Card's power?" "Huh? I don't sense any Card in me." Sakura could not quite understand what Li was saying. "IDIOT. I meant that a Card's using it's power on you, not that you've been possessed by a Card." Li tried to remember what Cards he knew about. Was there a Card that turned it's opponent's mind into mush? Sakura was acting even dumber than normal. Sakura growled at the insult. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN IDIOT?" She began to summon a Hadouken inside the cab. As soon as the fireball was formed, the ki started to fizzle away, as Sakura was unable to maintain her concentration. "Wha-?" Sakura flopped back into her seat. "Can't concentrate. Too tired." Her eyes glazed over, but failed to close. Tomoyo exchanged a worried glance with Li. "We'll go to her place and question her plush toy," Li growled. "Kero," Tomoyo called out as she entered Sakura's room. Hearing her voice, Kero popped out of his hiding place. "Whoa, what happened to Sakura?" Kero asked as he saw Tomoyo guide her in. "We were hoping you knew, Kero. Li says she's been affected by a Card's power." "Er, well," Kero scratched the back of his head, "truth is, I've been sort of avoiding her lately." Kero went closer to examine Sakura. Yep, the brat was right. She's under the power of a Card. "Kero," Sakura focused on him, "I need to talk to you." There were so many questions she had for him. She found it difficult to concentrate on a single question for him. She just chose one in passing. "What had POWER meant when it said that Li cheated to let me defeat POWER the last time?" Li started. He did WHAT? "Sakura, I have no idea what you're talking about. You sealed POWER the last time by yourself." Oh man, if Sakura was asking such insane questions, her brain must really be flaking out, thought Kero. Li breathed a sigh of relief. There was as much of a chance of him helping her capture Cards as of him falling in love with her. "Yuriko, Li, your cab is waiting." Sakura's mother called out. Li and Tomoyo winced. It was already late. If they did not leave soon, Sakura's mother would wonder what was going on. "We'll come back again tomorrow. Look after her until then." "Oh hello, Yuriko, I'm afraid, Sakura isn't feeling well. She's not going to school today." Sakura's mother met Tomoyo and Li at the door. "That's all right. We just wanted to check on her. May we come in?" "Of course." "Sakura, may we come in?" Tomoyo opened the door to her room softly. Sakura sat up on her bed and looked at the girl standing at the door. "Yeah, come in..." she had to struggle for a moment to remember her name, "Tomoyo." She watched as Li came in behind her and Kero popped out from his drawer. "Well, Kero how is she?" Li asked. Kero yawned as he turned to the brat. "I don't know. She spent the whole night staring at the ceiling. Otherwise, she's fine. I didn't know you cared." "She's the only one with the power to seal the Cards. We need her to gather the remaining Cards," he huffed. "Well, as long as you have your priorities straight." Sakura glared at him for a moment before forgetting about it. "Any ideas on which Card this is, Kero?" Li asked. "Well, from the way Sakura didn't get a single wink of sleep last night, I'd say it's probably the SLEEP Card, but..." Kero did not sound to sure. Sakura blinked. Sleep sounded good, she just could not seem to get her eyes to close. "Wait a minute, the SLEEP can't do this. It can only put people to sleep," Li protested. "Well, yeah. That's what I thought too, but we've seen the Cards being used in different ways and honestly, I can't think of any other Card that can do this." Kero admitted. "Kero is right. It is the SLEEP Card," Tomoyo declared, "I don't know how it's doing this, but I know that it has to be the SLEEP Card and Sakura isn't the only one affected." She turned on the small television in Sakura's room. "-experts are baffled over the sleep disorders that have begun to crop up. Many people have in recent weeks begun to report sleeplessness. Most of them are able to sleep only a few hours a night, leaving them tired throughout the day. This is in contrast to the few, but disturbing-" Tomoyo shut off the television. "Sakura seems to be the only one who can't sleep at all," Li concluded, "The Card knows she's the only one who can seal it and is making sure she's out of the way." "If that's the case, we need to seal that Card quickly. Before Sakura can't even concentrate long enough to activate her key or seal the Card," Kero said in alarm. "Right, then let's go seal that..." Sakura tried to stand up as her eyes lost focus and she wavered. What Card did they say was responsible for this again? "Sakura." Tomoyo cried in alarm as she helped to support her. "I'm fine. I'm fine. I just need to sit a bit..." Sakura found herself unable to control her thoughts. Why else would her danger sense be going nuts at having Tomoyo close to her? It made no sense. Still she could not help but feel the desire to push her away. And just as quickly as the desire came, she lost her train of thought again. "Man, we're going to have problems bringing her around," Kero scratched his head as he saw Sakura lose contact with reality. "Should we even try that? If we get into a fight, there's no way she can defend herself." Li said. "Guys, you're forgetting something. Even if we want to, her mother will never let us bring her out like this," Tomoyo argued. Sakura managed to catch part of that statement. Her mother? "Isn't my Mom dead?" she asked no one in particular before losing her train of thought. "Come on, Sakura. Let's put you back to bed." Tomoyo tucked her back in. "Well, since there's no way we can bring her to the Card, we'll have to bring the Card to her." Li brought out the Derivator. "It might be a bit difficult to find the Card though. I can attune the Derivator to the spell signature SLEEP put on Sakura to find it, but if she's not the only one affected, we might have a long search on our hands. The Derivator is going to be attracted by every single person affected by SLEEP. Unless the Card's host happens to come close to us while we search, we're going to have a lot of false trails." A steady beam of light suddenly shot out from the Derivator as it was held over Sakura's body. What was even more surprising was the appearance of a ghostly line coming from Sakura, running in the same direction of the beam. Li began to swear in his native Cantonese. At least that was what Tomoyo assumed he was doing as she saw the way Kero blushed occasionally over his pale face. "Shaoran is something wrong?" "It looks like our search is going to be a lot easier than I thought. We just have to follow this line to find SLEEP and its host." Li sounded like a doctor who was about to tell a terminal patient how long he had to live. Tomoyo was confused. They wanted to find the Card quickly, didn't they? "Why is that bad?" "The line you're seeing is the magic SLEEP is draining from Sakura. THAT is how SLEEP is creating this insomnia in the city. You're supposed to sleep to let your mind replenish its energy. SLEEP is stealing this energy. Her body might be resting, but since Sakura's mind doesn't get any of its energy back, it tells her that she's not sleeping. Since part of the energy Sakura is supposed to recover is her magic, Sakura's magic is being drained as well," Kero explained grimly. "If SLEEP or its host is doing this, they're going to be a lot more powerful when we meet," Li added. Li, followed by Tomoyo, tracked down SLEEP to its host. They had left Kero to watch over Sakura. There was nothing Kero would have been able to do anyway to help them. Li looked up at the building where SLEEP and its host were hiding in. How ironic. They were in a building that housed a sleep clinic. He turned to Tomoyo. "Stay out here. I'll go in and find SLEEP and bring its host out." He entered the building quietly. There did not appear to be anyone around. As he peered into one of the consultation rooms, he realized his mistake. All the beds were filled with sleeping people. From what he could sense, they were all sleeping under SLEEP's power. Li followed the trail to one of the doctor's rooms. He opened the door a crack to peek inside. There was a young boy about his age who appeared to be sleeping on a chair inside. From what his Derivator told him, he was the host of SLEEP. He checked that the Clow Card was still within its host with his Derivator. This made things a lot easier if he did not have to watch out for the Card's manifested form outside the host's body. Not that it would make much of a difference, he thought as he brought out one of his special ofudas. These ofudas had been specially designed for the Clow Cards. He knew the Cards could manifest themselves from their hosts. If that happened, he knew from Tomoyo that even Sakura could not seal them until they returned. So far, they had not run into any Cards that have tried this tactic to remain free, but he had anticipated the problem. Once he placed this ofudas on the host, the Clow Card would be forced to retreat into its host if it had been manifesting itself and trap it there. Confirming that the host was alone in the room and that the Card had remained inside him, he tensed. The door to the room burst open and Li charged in with ofuda leading. He took care to be ready to dodge any sudden counter at any moment, but it proved unnecessary as he successfully placed the ofuda on the boy's forehead. It was at this point that the boy's eyes opened. From the emptiness in them, Li knew that SLEEP was in control. "It looks like the remaining Card Captor has arrived." His eyes closed once more. A minor frown crossed his face as SLEEP tried to manifest and found it could not. A small smile replaced the frown as SLEEP opened its host's eyes. "Not bad. Not bad at all, I can't leave this body to put you to sleep." Li shifted into a ready stance. The boy did not look like a fighter, but he was not going to risk being touched by him with SLEEP in residence. "You're going back to Card form, SLEEP. You've caused enough damage already. That body of yours can't beat me in a fight. I can tie you up and wrap you in ofudas if need be." "Me fight? Who do you think I am? FIGHT? Fighting is so... barbaric," SLEEP sneered. "I'm FAR better than that. Why should I resort to fists when there are so much better ways to disable you Card Captors? After all, did you see ME injure Sakura the way POWER did?" "So you're going to come with me quietly?" Li did not let his guard down. He could not believe it would be this easy. SLEEP snorted. "Of course not. By the way, are you familiar with the term somnambulism?" Li was getting a very bad feeling from the confident way SLEEP was smiling. A sound at the door made him turn back. His eyes widened as he saw the sleepers he had previously seen in the rooms outside pour into the room with their eyes closed. "I believe the laymen call it sleepwalking." The opening of a door behind Li warned him of another group entering from the door behind SLEEP. Both exits to the room now had sleepwalkers blocking them. He was trapped. The small blue fairy that was SLEEP grinned in triumph as it hovered over Li's comatose form. Her plan had gone perfectly. There had been a brief moment of fear when the ofuda had been placed. It had feared that it would lose control of the sleepwalkers it had summoned, but its links had remained functional. The Card Captor had done his best with his fighting skills, magic and Cards, given time; he would have defeated all the sleepwalkers. They were, however just a feint for it to get a sleepwalker to remove the ofuda. Once removed, it had come out and while his attention was occupied by the fighting, sneaked up on him and put him into a coma like the rest. Now it was no longer in danger of being sealed again. There was no one left to try to catch it. The sounds of footsteps alerted it to the interloper. There should not be anyone stirring. It had let all the sleepwalkers return to their sleep. With lightning speed, it flew to the intruder and used its power. Tomoyo never had a chance to escape as she fell asleep. SLEEP breathed a sigh of relief. NOW there was no one left. It nearly got a heart attack when the girl it had just put to sleep got up to her feet again. How could the girl have resisted its power? Then it realized who was responsible for Tomoyo's mobility. "You." SLEEP folded its arms as it gazed into the now silver eyes of Tomoyo. "SLEEP, stop this nonsense at once. You are overstepping your bounds with your actions." Yue regarded the Card. "And who's going to stop me? You?" SLEEP waved its wand at him. To its surprise, Yue did not fall asleep. "That won't work on me. You are a Moon Card, after all." SLEEP made a dismissive sound. "So I can't put you to sleep. That doesn't change anything. That body of yours does not have any magic. You're running on fumes while I have dozens of people that I drain sleep from. How long more before you fall into the eternal sleep?" "Why are you doing this? Our master Clow did not make you to cause sleeplessness or make people sleepwalk." Yue moved Tomoyo's body towards the fallen Li. "Clow is DEAD. We no longer have any masters. I no longer need any master to support me. I am my own master now. Only I decide what I can or cannot do," SLEEP retorted angrily. "The Card Captors are gathering the Cards. If one of them passes Judgement-" "Pass Judgement? What makes you think things will be any different THIS time round? I know you Yue. No matter how weak you get, you'll never let anyone pass Judgement. You won't accept any master except Clow. You'd rather die. Besides, are you forgetting something important? The new master would have to support us with his magic. No one, except Clow has that kind of power. Even if you did accept a new master, we'd still die." SLEEP raged. Yue struggled in Tomoyo's body as he tried to lift Li. Her body had barely enough strength to lift him, but he was not about to expend any more energy than necessary to control her body. Using his powers to strengthen hers would be a waste of the resources that he had to carefully husband. "So your way is better? Making people suffer so you can live?" "Better than helplessly waiting to die in a prison as a Card." SLEEP folded its arms stubbornly. Yue had no answer for it. He just carried Li out of the room while SLEEP watched on. It was not worried. Yue would not be able to lift the spell it put on him. It had made sure that the spells on the Card Captors were as strong as it could make them. Nothing could break them, especially not Yue in his weakened state. The sound of the doorbell caught Kero's attention. Sakura's mother had gone out for some reason and Sakura was in no condition to answer it. She had tried to go after Li and Tomoyo a few times, but kept spacing out halfway. Unable to carry her all the way back to her bed, he had to settle with letting her curl up on the floor in the corner. The bell rang again. He was tempted to ignore it when he felt Yue's aura outside. "I take it the kid wasn't successful," Kero commented as Yue lay him down in Sakura's bed. "No." "You have any ideas on how to stop SLEEP with the two of them out of commission?" Yue glanced at the form of Sakura in the room. "Not here." Kero turned around towards Sakura. "You've got to be kidding? Her brain's completely mush." Y ue did not answer him. He just tossed Tomoyo's bag and video camera on the table and headed out the room. Kero had no choice but to follow. Inside the book of Clow, a serious discussion was taking place. "DREAM, stop being this stubborn. You're running out of energy. You HAVE to do this." MIRROR was almost sick with worry. "No, I'm all right. I can afford to wait." DREAM's voice was nearly inaudible. "What do you mean, you can afford to wait? You didn't even have the energy to be activated three nights ago." FIREY could not contain its anger. "Sakura will provide. Just like she did with BIG," DREAM reassured them calmly. "DREAM, Sakura can't even take care of herself right now, much less us. For that matter, she does not even seem to be aware of our plight." THUNDER rumbled. "Right, just tap into the stream of magic that SLEEP's draining from Sakura. Your energies are similar enough for you to accept it," MIRROR tried to persuade DREAM. "No, that would make me no better than SLEEP. It would be better to die than resort to that kind of tactic." DREAM's words set off a round of murmurs among the Cards. "Why are you so weak anyway? You bonded with Yukari not long ago. Even if her magic is not fully compatible with yours, you should have gotten quite a bit of magic from her to last you a while. I know that I did." FLOWER who had bonded with Rei back then asked. The Cards waited for an answer, but DREAM remained silent. "Because she's been using her power on me." Had the Cards been able to jump while confined to the book, they would have. "WATERY?!" WATERY gave the equivalent of a nod in her Card form from the bottom of the deck. "DREAM's been using her power to cure me of my insanity. She's been helping me remember how I went mad," WATERY explained. "WATERY, you're not insane anymore, are you?" RAINY asked timidly. It still remembered the time it spent under its power. WATERY did not answer for a long time. "No, but there are times when I wish I still was. Then I wouldn't have to know what I remember." Outside in the room, Sakura's attention was suddenly attracted to the whirl of lights that had appeared. Her mirror image was really pretty, she decided as she looked at the winged girl that stood where the lights had been. "Shhh..." Constellita put a finger on Sakura's lips. "I'm going to go downstairs to talk to Kero and Yue, okay? In the meantime, why don't you tell Li a fairy tale?" Sakura nodded. After she saw herself glide out of the room, she got up and headed towards Li. As she did, she noted that he was on her bed. Why was Li lying on her bed? She wondered. It had something to do with a... fairy tale? Oh, that's right. Sakura's eyes lit up. Her sleep-addled brain fit everything together. They were practising for the Sleeping Beauty play. She was Prince Charming and Li was Sleeping Beauty. This was the scene where Prince Charming kissed Sleeping Beauty awake. She strode over to where Li was lying and leaned bodily over him. Slowly, Sakura moved her face towards Li's. As their lips met, a magical tingle set in and Sakura felt the wonderful feeling of release wash through her. Back at a certain sleep clinic, SLEEP suddenly felt a drastic loss of power. What was going on? The cantrip Constellita left upon Sakura's lips accomplished their work. At the moment of contact, it linked the two spells upon the Card Captors with each other. One, a spell to drain sleep away and the other, one to enforce sleep. The two spells immediately began to fight each other as each tried to impose its power over the other. Having been created by the same source to be the strongest it could be, neither could gain an advantage over the other until finally both spells collapsed under each other's weight. "Well? Any luck?" Kero asked Yue who had just set down the phone. "She is in a coma as well." Kero wailed in despair. That had been the last one, everyone who they could contact who knew about the Cards. All of them had been put into an enchanted sleep. Rei, Miyuki, Chiharu, Rena, Yukari and even Dan. SLEEP had done its job too well. "Okay, what about Touya?" Kero was desperate. "He would be our last resort. I do not wish to involve him any more than necessary. He already suspects something is wrong with himself. If he meets either of us, he will realize the truth," Yue replied. "In case you hadn't noticed, we ARE down to our last resort. Sakura's the only one who can seal the Card. If we wait too long, she wouldn't even be able to unlock the Key Staff from its pendant form, much less seal the Card," Kero argued. "The matter is not that desperate. We need only isolate SLEEP's host and let Sakura seal it." "And if SLEEP decides to put her into a coma as well?" Kero was aghast at Yue's unwillingness to use his other self. "Perhaps I can be of service?" Kero and Yue whipped their heads in the direction of the stairs. Seeming to float down the stair was a vision of Sakura Kinomoto as she would be had she lived. Sweeping white wings behind her made her the very image of an angel. Kero goggled. How could this be? "Is something wrong?" Constellita flashed them an innocent smile. "Who are you? You cannot be Sakura Kinomoto. Not even her ghost. She had been reborn into Sakura Kusanago." Yue stated. "Who am I?" Constellita pretended to think it over. "I won't tell you, Yue, Moon Guardian, Judge of the Clow," she answered impishly. "You should know even better than Keroberos, Sun Guardian, Beast of the Seal, that in magic circles, to know a person's name have power over that person." Her body language gave the impression of friendliness. He must be dreaming, he decided. It was the only explanation for the heavenly kiss he felt on his lips. Without thinking, Li let his arms wrap around feminine form. Desiring to see the face of the angel, he opened his eyes. Li found himself on the other side of the bed with lightning speed. Breathing heavily from the shock, he looked over to where Sakura was sleeping soundly with her body half lying over the bed. What had happened? Oh yeah, SLEEP. It had inflicted Sakura with insomnia and put him to sleep. Apparently that kiss had negated both spells. He quickly checked the room. No witnesses. He breathed a sigh of relief. He slipped off the bed carefully without waking Sakura. Checking on her, he could see that the bruises she had gotten from her fight with POWER had not completely healed yet. Lifting her carefully, he laid her gently into bed so she could sleep in a more comfortable position. He would need her to be properly rested before they went after SLEEP again. Now where was Tomoyo? She must have been the one to bring him back here. "You need me." Kero and Yue suppressed the urge to wipe that stupid smile off that THING's face, preferably as violently as possible. "And why should we trust you to help us? You won't even tell us your name," Kero growled. "I never said you have to trust me. You just need me to help you deal with SLEEP." "We will decide whether we need your help." Yue told her coldly. "Oh, but I'm asking the wrong people. You two are merely the Guardians of the Clow Cards. I should ask the Card Captors instead. Right, Yue?" Constellita made a dramatic show of turning to the stairs. "Hello, Sleeping Beauty, would you like me to help you catch SLEEP?" From the stairs, Li stared into the silver eyes on Tomoyo's face in shock. Tomoyo's face showed the briefest display of dismay before Yue regained control and settled it back into an emotionless mask. That THING had masked his approach. "What is going on here?" Li asked when he finally recovered from his shock. "I was just offering these two," Constellita waved to Kero and Yue, "my help in catching SLEEP." "Li," Kero stammered, sweating nervously. Li did not hear the question. "You knew." His accusing gaze went from Kero to Tomoyo. Kero found the ceiling to be very well decorated. "And who are you?" Li turned to look at the strangely familiar girl. "That's a secret." Li found that the winged girl who had been sitting on the couch was now draped all over him. She feels like... Sakura? Li was confused by the sensations he was getting from her. Constellita slipped off Li and regarded the three of them with amusement. "Er, so Li. How did you break free from SLEEP's spell?" Kero asked. Li blushed as he thought about that. If Kero did not know about how it happened, then neither would Yue. That left... He looked at Constellita. "Guilty as charged. So do you want my help?" she asked Li. "Why would we need your help now that Li is awake? He can catch SLEEP and bring him to Sakura to seal." Li gritted his teeth as he heard Yue's voice issue from Tomoyo's mouth. How could he have been so blind? His attraction to Tomoyo, her ability to remember the past properly. That's right; Yue must have ensured that he would not notice. "Sakura is sleeping right now," he said. "Huh?" "But she still has not slept in days," Constellita spoke up. "We just have to wake her up to seal the Card," Kero decided. That's right. They did not need this faux Sakura. "And how do you intend to get past SLEEP's defences? My little trick to free them from SLEEP's spells has only weakened SLEEP temporarily. It can still put the two Card Captors back under its spell if it catches them," she rebutted. "You have a plan?" Li asked her. "Of course." "Very well." "Li," Kero protested, "we can't trust HER." "It's my decision. She has helped Sakura and me already." His tone made it clear that the decision was final. They found themselves standing outside the sleep clinic. Constellita, Kero, Yue/Tomoyo and Sakura who was being carried by Li. "Right, we're here. What's your brilliant plan?" Kero grumbled. That THING had insisted that they bring Sakura along, yet let her sleep through the whole journey. "It's show time." Constellita turned to Li and Sakura. Before anyone could do a thing, she 'stepped' into the same space Sakura was in. To those not sensitive to magic, it would seem as though the two girls shared the same space. Though the mind said it was impossible, the bodies of both girls could be seen at the same time, that of the smiling Constellita and that of the sleeping Sakura, who seemed to move slightly out of step with the former one's. Li, Kero and Yue, however had their magical senses were temporarily overwhelmed by the merger. When they recovered, they had trouble believing their senses. Sakura had already been rather strong in magic. The merged entity, on the other hand, dwarfed her again in power. If Sakura had been a hundred watt light bulb before, now she was shining at over two hundred watts. Constellita/Sakura raised the key pendant in her palm and began to recite the unlocking ritual. Sakura and Constellita could both be heard simultaneously. "Key that hides the power of darkness," "Key that hides the power of the stars," At first, they could hear both voices clearly, but then they merged into one. "Reveal you true form to me! I, Sakura, command you under our contract! RELEASE!" The Key Staff now lay in their hand. To the amazement of the three spectators, it had the same property as the body of the new Sakura. Two Key Staffs were there at the same time, the one that should have been there, and the one that Kero had seen before, in the hands of the Sakura from the future. A Card was drawn out and they chanted once more. "Card of Clow, discard your old form and be reborn, under the name of Sakura, your new mistress, DREAM!" The Clow Card DREAM was transformed into a new form. The Card that had nearly run out of energy was now filled with a new breath of life. "DREAM, let those within enjoy a sleep of pleasant dreams." SLEEP screamed in frustration as it felt the reins of control of the sleepers within slip from its hands. It could still hold them in slumber, but the power to make them sleepwalk was lost. "You know Yue, if that THING really is Sakura's ghost, she must REALLY be upset with you to pull that stunt right in front of you," Kero commented privately to him. Yue's answer was a stony silence. "What did you just do?" Li asked in shock. "The Cards no longer have a master to supply them daily with magic. As a result, they were dying as they ran out of energy. Taking hosts was a stopgap solution for them to gain a temporary supply. However, once sealed back into a Card, they must survive on whatever energy they have left until a new master is found. Kero," the Key Staff was pointed in his direction, "seemed to have 'forgotten' to inform you and Sakura about this fact." "DREAM was on its last legs. When Sakura tried to use it three nights ago, it failed because it no longer had enough energy. I merely attuned it so that it can take Sakura's energy to survive." Constellita finished her explanation. Li shot Kero a dark look. If what she said was true, then all the Cards they had captured, including his own, were in danger. "Don't go transforming the Cards on your own just yet though," she warned Li, "you not only need a lot of energy to supply a Card, the whole process is not supposed to take place until after Judgement and Yue has pronounced the new master." "Yue is allowing the rules to be bent a bit for DREAM and BIG because they would have otherwise died. Isn't that right, Yue?" she flashed him a megawatt smile and ignored the look she got in return. "If you've finished talking, can we go in there and catch SLEEP now?" Kero tried to defuse the situation. "Just one more moment. I have another trick I have to show you." Constellita now drew the SILENT Card. "SILENT, enter the mindscape and take your other form. Enshroud our minds in the silence of concentration and let nothing disturb us from our goals. FOCUS." Li felt a sense of peace fall upon his mind. Suddenly, it was all clear to him. His doubts, fears and questions from the recent twists were erased. He knew what he had to do, go and catch SLEEP. SLEEP chose to meet them in the waiting room. It had hidden itself and its host and waited for them to come in. There would be no fancy plans this time. It had no sleepwalkers to control and no insomnia to weaken its opponents. It would just rely on its speed and power to put them to sleep. They came in through the front door confidently and spread out to search. It noticed the strange appearance of Sakura and began to have reservations. Who was that? A Guardian it did not know of? Was she the reason for the way her plans came crashing down? SLEEP shook its head. It had no time for questions now. It had to take advantage of their search to disable them. It eyed the small Guardian. He would be its first victim. It waited until he came into range and swooped out of hiding. By the time it was noticed, SLEEP had already used its wand on Kero. "I found SLEEP," Kero cried and chased after it. SLEEP barely managed to dodge him. How could this be? He was immune to its power. It spiralled away towards Li and let its sleeping dust fall on him. It found to its dismay that he was immune to its power as well. That simply was not fair. Kero pounced on SLEEP right then. "I got it. I got it," he crowed. "And I've found its host," Yue pulled him out from behind the counter. "Okay, it's my turn." Li placed his ofuda on the host. SLEEP wailed as it was sucked into its host. Constellita/Sakura walked over to the host and brought the Key Staff down. The SLEEP Card formed at the end of the staff. "The need for FOCUS is also at an end," Constellita declared as the Card reformed in her hand and returned to its form as SILENT. "Hey, everyone's still asleep," noted Kero as he looked around. "You forget that DREAM is still in use," Yue reminded him. "Before I recall DREAM, there is something I must do and that is to erase your memory of Yue, Li," Constellita told him. "What? Why?" "Yue's identity is something you and Sakura must discover on your own. I exposed his identity today because I needed your trust," she explained. "So you had planned this all along?" "I knew what would happen and what had to be done," she corrected him, "there are things you need to do and learn first. You must also grow stronger before you have a chance of defeating him. If I were to let you remain with the knowledge of Yue's identity today, he will call Judgement upon you immediately." "This," she indicated Tomoyo, "is only a minor part of Yue that he uses to keep track of the two of you. If you were to fight Yue now, you would lose." Li could see the sincerity in her eyes. "Very well, do it." Constellita produced another Card. "ERASE." As ERASE's power was used to erase Li's memories, Yue relinquished control of Tomoyo's body and let it drift into a light sleep on a chair. "There. Finished." Li blinked as he saw the Card that had just been used on him. ERASE? Wait, that's right. He had agreed to let her erase a memory, so he should not be bothered by the fact that he no longer knew what he had been supposed to forget. "Here. For letting me do that without a fight." She handed him the ERASE Card. "Thanks." "And this is also for you." "Hey, you can't do that. Sakura caught that Card on her own," Kero protested as he saw her give Li the POWER Card. "Let us say that it is to return a favour you did in Sakura's past life," she smiled enigmatically. "What is that supposed to mean?" Li accepted the Card. "Time will tell." The Key Staff returned to its normal state as Constellita stepped out from Sakura's body, letting her fall towards Li. In a whirl of lights, she disappeared. Sakura yawned and opened her bleary eyes. The brief nap had energized her a bit. She still very tired, but was now ready to take on that Card. She found that she was being supported by Li. The Key Staff was already in her right hand and the SLEEP Card in her left along with the DREAM that was just returning after being used. How did that happen? When did she seal the Card? And why was POWER in Li's hands? For some reason, seeing the POWER with Li felt... right. "Sakura? Li? What happened?" Tomoyo asked as she too woke up. Sakura took a look at the boy stirring beside Tomoyo. Hadn't he been at the park that night when she caught POWER? "Let's just get out of here first. We'll explain everything back at Sakura's place." Li saw that others in the clinic were waking up as well. He certainly did not want to explain what he was doing here. Sakura yawned again. Going home sounded good. She was still quite tired. Maybe she could get them to explain another day? "Li, did you see my video camera?" "You left it at Sakura's." Kero informed her. Tomoyo frowned. Why would she do that if they had gone out catching Cards? She would want to film Sakura in action. LEAVE IT TO HAMKERO A small figure dressed in a hamster suit walks out. *cough* *cough* "Welcome to Hamkero's corner, the segment presented by me, Hamkero. Absolutely no relation to the wonderful, majestic and powerful Keroberos, of course." In the background, Sakura can be heard angrily shouting for Kero. "Today, we're going to take a look at the FOCUS Card. Now, the FOCUS Card was originally found in Sakura's sensei, Dan, back in part seven. We were in Hong Kong at the time." "Ah, the Beef Chow Mien," 'Hamkeros' mouth starts to water. "Er-hrm, coming back to the Card, Sakura discovered that the Card and fought him for it. The kid did too, even forfeited his match to go after the Card. They had a real hard time fighting Dan. FOCUS turned that normally joke of a Street Fighter into an opponent worthy of his boasts, but Sakura prevailed in the end as usual." "Now back then I was already suspicious of some of the Cards. I was sure that there wasn't a PUSH Card in the deck originally, so I went to talk to Li's mother about that, and a few other things as well. We discovered that someone had been changing the Cards. In the end, I had Sakura change them back to the way they were supposed to be. The PUSH turned out to be the MOVE and FOCUS, well it turned out to be SILENT." "I still don't know why it happened, but it's a pretty good bet that that fake Sakura had something to do with it," he mutters darkly. "Coming to today's part, FOCUS was used to protect us against SLEEP. It's not a hundred percent protection, but it helps us resist SLEEP's power pretty well. The way I figure it, it works by letting our minds focus on our task and allowing us to ignore any distractions or psychic attacks." 'Hamkero' notices Sakura approaching. "And that's all the time we have today folks. 'Til next time." 'Hamkero' goes into a doll-like state. Author's notes: Whew! My third and longest part for BitS so far. Kero and Yue now know about Constellita' existence, but not her name. What a great start to their relationship. ? We've also discovered that other people can use magic. Idea came mostly from the fact that the hosts of the Cards are also supposed to have magic. Most of them just never knew about it or how to use their powers though. But now that they know they have magic... Well, I'm sure most of us wouldn't mind being able to use magic. Secrets have started to come out. The fact that the Cards are weakening has been revealed. Li found out, albeit only briefly before having the knowledge erased, that Tomoyo holds part of Yue. Others are merely hinted at. Further, one of the puzzles that had been around earlier has been solved, at least partially. We now know the reason for the FOCUS Card's existence. There still remains PUSH and no one knows if more Cards have been altered. For those unaware of how the POWER Card was originally defeated, here a brief summary. Sakura had gotten into a tug-of-war with POWER at the zoo where POWER had been freeing the animals. Even with a couple of elephants helping, she was losing. Li who was watching, used the TIME Card to stop time and went up to cut the rope. POWER fell down and Sakura used the chance to seal it. Please remember to C&C at sc_pang@pacific.net.sg Pang Sze Chuan