The power of belief. The belief that one person can change his or her part of the world they live in, be it for good or ill. The belief that one opinion can change the hearts of others, and sway them to right or wrong. Or, in this case, the belief that two people, no matter the odds and forces against them, were meant to be together. Regardless of their separate fates others dictate for them, and heedless of what must be. The belief in love everlasting. And the will to defy others and believe in that love regardless. In reality, things are not easily changed, and fates not easily remade. But this is Edenina, the Realm of Dreams. And this is one such story--- ------------------------------------------------------------ Citadel City (Today---) "Somebody must have a real spike up his or her butt to call us down here." Captain Michi Asagiri sighs, barreling out the subway doors and onto the platform, followed by Lt. Rahne (her close companion and love), Lt. Nina (helms officer) & Commander Aoi (first officer). As Michi runs a hand through her short red hair to quickly make it presentable, she grouses at the sudden urgency which brought them from a relaxing day off to the Command Center plaza. Now, normally mind you they'd be either lazing around taking the day off, or waiting for more work on their individual title works, but today they've been called down to the Command Center and for the life of them they don't know why. Nina, as usual, is the first with an opinion. "Maybe it's another Artist problem. Can't get 5 pages drawn these days without the Artist going haywire. Just look at Angelic's last Artist." "You look at him. And it better not be that mediocre, dammit." Michi growls, waving the trio to get onto the escalator heading street side ahead of her. "I'm not the title's damn negotiator. Don't they assign people to handle the title's menial paperwork stuff while we do all the hard work?" "Obviously not, but." Aoi shivers suddenly, "Is it me or is there a sharp breeze--" (the four stop as they exit onto the street). "--by the abyss--" Ahead of them was the Command Center, a huge mushroom shaped building which dominated the downtown section of Citadel City. To one side, hovering over a nearby construction site within sight of the street (a few buildings away from the Center itself), was a huge glowing bird the size of a small building, it's wings beating furiously in the air whipping up a wind gust that howled through the streets and sent people scattering for cover. Nina, as usual, is the first with an opinion, no matter how moot it might be. "Think that's why they called us here?" "Well it definitely wasn't for a free meal!" Aoi yells, as the wind picks to a loud howling. "We better get inside--" Rahne motions, herding the others towards the Command Center's doors. ------------------------------------------------------------ Inside the Command Center "What the hell is that thing called again?" "Fly." "And why is it buzzing near Command?" "--it's hungry?" Winterian Admiral Nobringa & her assistant nearly crash into Captain Lazarus (a rather tall gentleman in a black flight uniform, with steely gaze and short dark hair) as they exit onto the upper hangar deck, just below the roof's landing pad. The Admiral's light blue shoulder length hair waving slightly in the breeze as the upper hangar doors open, allowing access to the roof, as the trio board one of the huge fighter lifts (now occupied by a giant mech) as it rises to roof level. "Why weren't we given proper warning about it's appearance?" "Because it came out of nowhere, Admiral." Captain Lazarus remarks, watching the light close in as they slowly reached roof level, the wind picking up as they did so. "Fly just appeared out of nowhere and settled onto that construction site, when some of the workers tried to scare it off it got angry--" (Fly slowly comes into view as they reach the roof, it's upper body visible off to one side as it continues to flap it's wings in a terrible fit) "--and the rest you know." The wind continues to pick up as the Admiral edges closer towards the side where Fly is, straining to get a better view of it. "What's it's power rating, Temsik?" "We rank it at a Level 4, but it's main strength is it's size and the wind it can generate. Each time those wings flap they generate a wind close to 40mph." "And it's just hovering, it's not even trying very hard as of yet." Captain Lazarus adds. "Where's the damn fighters we called for!" the Admiral yells, spinning around to face Lazarus as her assistant continues to watch the scene unfold before her. "I thought the base on the slope of Mauna Kea was going to send out a flight of OmegaTechs ten minutes ago! Where are those damn OmegaTechs!" "Here they come!" the assistant yells out, pointing back over the Command Center roof as a flight of OmegaTech fighters appear in the distance, taking up an attack position. The OmegaTech, long black metal space capable fighter ships, with sturdy wings each holding a weapons nacelle on each wing edge, and a warp capable drive slung onto the back, functions as the backbone of the Alliance fighter fleet. ------------------------------------------------------------ "--it's the Orange Islands all over again--" one of the fighter pilots, a grizzled old pilot, laments. "Cut the chatter!" the commlink suddenly squawks, "It's only one this time and reports indicate no breath weapons, so rank up and take it down. Presser Cannons ONLY, no kill shots." "Like I said--" the pilot sighs as he locks his weapons choice in, "Orange Islands all over again." "All fighters, break and attack! Repeat, break and--" (suddenly Fly turns and sees the fighters) "--BREAK NOW! BREAK NOW BEFORE--" (Fly takes the sky, and begins to flap it's wings at the fighters) "--What the--" (the commsignal begins to break up) "--What's going-- Wind-- sing str-- gusts--" "<WARNING! WARNING! WIND LEVEL AT 50MPH AND RISING! DIRECTIONAL CONTROLS BEING AFFECTED! WARNING! WARNING!>" "Your telling me--" The controls, which were fine a second ago, were now sluggish. The wind generated through the canyons of steel around them was amplifying the wind's effects buffeting them around. It takes all the pilot's strength to keep from slamming into a building as his mech barreled down towards Fly. "Damn-- hard to hold straight-- too much gusts--" Three fighters break formation to avoid another building, veering off down another street to try and circle about. They were closing in but the pressure from the wings' gusts were taking a toll. "Can we fire NOW?!? We're only 30 seconds from point blank!!" "Hold it! No collateral damage! Don't take a shot unless you have a clear lock!" "---easy for you to say---" The computer lock wasn't working. The wind was so strong it created a lot of false positives, not to mention the buildings around them also aided in confusing the computer lock, making the system worthless in such tight quarters. The winds were getting worst, the fighters were falling out of formation faster and faster. "Damn!" Left with no choice the last two fighters begin firing. The shots go wild, shooting around Fly, damaging the construction site and nearby buildings but not landing anywhere near Fly. "CEASE FIRE!! I SAID GET A CLEAR SHOT!!" the link crackles again, but it was already too late. The pilot had committed to the attack, and with hands firmly gripping the controls, he aimed his mech straight at Fly firing everything he had. He was old enough to know better, but today he just didn't seem to care. Bad mistake. ------------------------------------------------------------ As one fighters rushes Fly, it quickly pivots upwards and slams it's wing gusts downward, catching the lone pilot off guard. The one gust throws the fighter through the upper tangled mess of beams that make up the construction site, where it collides with several I beams and disintegrates into a ball of flames. What's left of the fighter slams into the street below, exploding in a fiery mess of metal and heated plasma. The other fighters fall back and commence strafing attacks from all sides to try and catch Fly off guard. "It's absorbing those attacks without even feeling them." the assistant notices. "Those are Presser beams. Mostly meant to force down ships without damaging them. They're just trying to wear Fly down, not kill it." As the attacks wear on Fly, it slowly begins to grow more restless until finally, with one final swoop of it's wings it takes off into the sky at mach 1, leaving a sonic boom that shatters windows for blocks and leaves everyone shaken. The fighters, as they are hit with the shockwaves of the sonic boom, are buffeted around abit like leaves in a dust devil before finally settling back into their pilot's control. With the wind finally dying down, the admiral approaches the edge of the Command Center rooftop and overlooks the damage, several buildings are cannon damaged, and the smoking remains of an OmegaTech lies in ruins on street level. Normals, who die in the Realm of Dreams merely wake up. Fictionals or Morphlings (humans who died and passed into the Realm of Dreams) would simply climb out of the cockpit alive and well. Dreamlings on the other hand-- they vanish, and even the oldest entities in the Realm do not know where they go when they pass on. The pilot of the fighter was a Dreamling. "Well-- that was an interesting afternoon." the Admiral sarcastically laments, walking back to the platform with fists clenched. ------------------------------------------------------------ Council Chambers (inner sanctum of the Command Center) "What part of 'We don't know' are you failing to grasp?" Captain Asagiri yells, pounding her fist down on the koa wood table as she does. In the interim after Fly's appearance and disappearance, an emergency summit has been called. Several dozen Captains & Admirals (Freeworld Alliance & Dominion Republica) stand about, as well as several members of the Guardian Corp and Judgments (judges over light and darkness) who are also in attendance at this meeting. "It's from a Japanese series, right?" Michi tries to reason, "That means it falls under the jurisdiction of the Dream Continent of Nippon (Japan's dream continent). Why isn't one of their representatives here to explain their part in this!?" "One of their reps are here." the Chairman notes, "Ladies and gentleman, the 7th Judgement." From behind Michi's entourage, a woman wearing a black uniform, katana blade slung over her back, and short black hair walks into the room. Nina, at seeing her, smiles and points, "At least she's color coordinated." Without a word she steps up to the podium and takes her place. "Good afternoon," (plops down her notes onto the podium) "My name is Keiko Yamanaka, the 7th Judgment, part of the Judgment Corps." (straightens out uniform) "About two weeks ago we started to notice these creatures showing up here and there, and as you know---" (motions for the lights) "---they're all from the same series--- do we have a pic of her--- there she is---" (motions to the screen) "Card Captor Sakura. Aka Sakura Kinomoto. Created by CLAMP, this series ran for about 70+ episodes, 1 known movie and about 12 manga volumes more or less--- next pic please--" (line up of all cards is listed, some with "?" over them) "From what our records indicate there are at least 52 known cards, not counting cards not on records, or cards created from fan related sources. And even of these 52 cards, only so many are known to us." (points up at screen) "Some are complete mysteries even to us." (motions for next image, that of the Clow book & cards) "In the original series, Sakura caught all the cards and later turned them all into Star cards. Then the series ended, and disappointing the ending was as a matter of fact, but it ended." "So if that's the case, why are they running amok now?" "Good question." (next image) "The best we can come up with back in Nippon is that the cards were set loose by some irresponsible Normal (waking human being in reality). Probably in Japan or another country, who wrote about the cards' re-release." "Can't he or she simply re-write their captures? Reverse the damage?" "Not that simple, because you see--" (makes a motion with her hands similar to uncorking a bottle) "Once the genie is let out of the bottle, it's very hard to put back in, even if the event was done with the best of intentions. And we believe the original writer might be dead." "What makes you think that?" Rahne asks. "The event is a dangling one. It's like the story started, and then stopped without any follow through or continuation. Maybe he or she started the story, and died before beginning the capturing part." "But can't we simply complete the cycle ourselves? Capture the cards?" "Again, not so simple." (next picture is of Sakura again) "Original girl who caught the cards has to do it all over again, because it's her job to round up Clow cards. That's part of her story, and part of her reason to be, which makes her the only choice to do this job in the first place." "Wondrous." Nina sighs, leaning back in her chair. "Anyone know where the Dream Continent of Hong Kong is? When CLAMP ended that one Sakura got stuck with Mr. Potato Head. Don't like Mr. Potato Head. Wish he was like the New Mr. Potato Head and we can take his limbs and shove it up the compartment in his butt." "Think you mean Li Syaoran, and yes he is a potato head--- (would love to see somebody shove his eyes up his butt)--" Keiko agrees, quickly shaking herself out of her fugue state and continuing, shaking the mischievous grin off her face as well. "But sometimes things don't always end the way the creators want it to, especially if fan writers have their say and the willpower to make their dreams come true." "So what does that mean?" Nina asks, her attention grabbed again by Keiko's words, "Where is she if NOT in Hong Kong?" "Right in my backyard, Nippon, and you won't believe where she ended up---" ------------------------------------------------------------ Nippon The Dream Continent of Japan Tokyo (The Daidouji Residence) On the second floor of the manor there's a door. On it somebody has fixed a plaque, upon which the words "Sakura's Laboratory" can be read. For, in truth, the room was Sakura's private lab. of sorts. "Ooohhhh! Sakura-chan! Stuff it! Fill it!! More more!! Harder!! Harder!! Stuff it!! Ahhh!! Oh sweet Sakura-chan! I-- I-- Oooohhh!!" "KERO-CHAN I'M ONLY COOKING OMELETS!!" Kero's face suddenly becomes serious and he shrugs his little shoulders, "--sure but I want more mushrooms-- and you missed a spot." Sakura sighs, flipping the omelet over checking it again. "It wasn't even supposed to be omelets, I was trying to make something else and the eggs came out wrong." "So when life throws you curves, you break out the mushrooms and cheese and make omelets!" Kero chirps up, sighing as Sakura sets his plate out for him on the "testing table" in the room. "And you know how much I LOVE omelets with mushrooms and cheese! They're my favorite!" "Everything's your favorite as long as you can eat it---" Sakura sighs, putting a drink and a fork for Kero on the table as she begins working on breakfast for herself and Tomoyo. Sakura's private kitchen, her laboratory as it were. When Sonomi heard that Sakura was learning how to cook she had this private kitchen built into an unused second story room (near the bedroom she and Tomoyo shared ever since Sakura's 16th birthday) for Sakura to learn how to cook. She said it was for Sakura's education, but somehow Sakura couldn't shake the thought that it was so Sakura would be encouraged to cook romantic meals for Tomoyo, or vice versa. The kitchen was fully stocked, and kept clean and tidy for Sakura's private use. "Look on the bright side--" (munch munch) "--your on a roll! I mean--" (munch munch) "--it's been two weeks since you last set off the fire alarm! Umi-chan was so flustered she couldn't stop herself from dousing you with her water attack when she ran in expecting a raging inferno! Hah!" "KERO!!" Sakura growls, checking the omelets she was making before plating them up and preparing the fixings before taking the cart back to Tomoyo. "Ever since Water, Windy, Woods, Light, Dark & Mirror became real they've been pairing off it seems." "Yeah." Kero smiles as he eats, "Water, or Umi as she calls herself now, is hooked on Woods (Gaia) and vice versa. Light & Dark has a major attachment to the maid (must be her pretty white/black outfit). And Windy? Hmmm.." (smirks) ".we should have introduced those two to each other years ago, then she wouldn't have been so clingy to you for so long." "Leave them alone." Sakura remarks, placing the plates on the tray and checking the setting for the fifth time to make sure everything's right. "They're happy together, so leave them be." As Kero looks over Sakura's settings, he makes a "keen" observation. "Breakfast in bed? You're a hopeless romantic at heart, Sakura." "Thanks." (pushes cart towards the door to head out) "Mostly because Tomoyo's probably been up for hours now and just faked sleeping in to make you feel better about your poor record with waking up early. Hopeless to make a girl who's already wide awake and dressed breakfast in bed isn't it?" "---grrr--" Sakura bumps the door close behind her, fuming for a few seconds. But he was right. Tomoyo was always first out of bed, and always dressed before she even managed to crawl out from under the sheets. But the bed was so comfortable she just couldn't muster waking up, even now at her age (16) she should have had a better relationship with the clock and woke up earlier (or at least an understanding to try to be up earlier especially on school days). "Mistress?" a voice from behind her calls out. From behind Sakura she watches Light & Dark approach along with Fuu, the household maid. These days both Light & Dark have been doing the maid thing, dressling in contrasting maid outfits (one pitch black, the other white as pure sunlight) and helping Fuu around the house with the daily cleaning. "You seem abit uptight about something," Light notes as she regards Sakura's expression, "Are you alright?" "I'm fine." (huffs her breath) "Kero's getting on my case again." "He always tended to get on other people's nerves." Dark notes, "Even Yueh had a hard time taking Kero's rather. well, confrontational attitude at times." "You can say that again." Sakura sighs, finally reaching the door to the bedroom, only to nearly run into Tomoyo on her way out. "Oh! Sakura-chan! I was just going to come to get you." (looks down at the trays and sweat drops) "Guess I was supposed to have stood in bed while you cooked." 'Kero was right.' Sakura thinks to herself, 'He's ALWAYS right! Arrgghh---' Sakura feels her lips open slightly as Tomoyo gently passes abit of food between them and into her mouth, smiling as she takes Sakura's hand, bringing a welcome "Let's eat, I'm hungry." ------------------------------------------------------------ "Your kidding." Nina remarks, setting the ship to shutdown and spinning herself out of the pilot's chair as she did. "She got hitched to Tomoyo? Isn't CLAMP going to have a cow over that?" "They can have an entire dairy full of cows as far as I'm concerned," Keiko remarks with a sly grin, "It's not their Realm of Dreams, so they don't have a say in it. Besides which, you know how much the boss loves the 'Majority Rules' concept of decision making, right?" (steps off shuttle and onto the cool grass of the estate) "Well a majority ruling wanted Sakura/Tomoyo to be happily ever after." "At 11? All those sick porns were right all along, though without the males and rapes mind you." "At 16, not 11 (get real). They didn't get bunky and start sharing intimate moments until 16." (stops in her tracks and looks back at Nina) "But don't get all detaily on me now, we have work to do." As they walk through the garden towards the house, Nina stops to smell the flowers. "Nice. Their gardener must have one helluva green th--" As Nina's voice stops, Keiko hears a thump and spins around only to find Nina pinned to the ground with a rather amorous girl on top of her, eyes shut, sporting a different shade of green hair than Nina's own green on the top of her head. She was wearing only a thong/bathing top. "Gotcha, Umi-chan!" "?!?" (Nina, for once, was speechless) "Your "it"! Your "it!" Your." "Gaia--" (a blue haired girl in her own two piece bather steps out from the bushes) "I'm over here." Briefly Gaia stops, opens her eyes and looks into the green haired girls eyes, then turns to regard Umi, then looks at Nina again, then back to Umi. "I think I caught my evil twin." "I--I-- I'M NOT YOUR EVIL ANYTHING!!" Nina gasps, pushing Gaia off of herself and standing up, brushing herself clean. "If anything you're my evil twin!" "I'm not related to you." Gaia remarks, standing up and walking over to Umi. "Was she any fun?" Umi asked. "No. She sorta smelled like chicken." "----" (Nina grits her teeth, balls her hands into fists, and has to be dragged away by Keiko.) "Let it go already." "THEY SAID I SMELLED LIKE CHICKEN!!" "You do. Eat an entire platter of the stuff on the way down and you claim otherwise? Damn--" (cha-click) Keiko stops. "What did you stop--" (turns and runs into a gun pointed at her face) "--for--" Tomoyo's bodyguards heard the landing and were already waiting for the two when the neared the house, guns ready. Both girls step back, leaning back to back against each other as they stared. "Think they'll believe it if I said we're harmless?" "Nina. I have a katana blade slung to my back, your packing a gun on your waist, and we landed a frigging big gunship shuttle in their backyard--- at what point do we actually start looking harmless here?!" "But it gets better miles per unit of fuel, and the crew compartment's bigger with a CD player." "--we're going to be killed over your desire for trim plush seats and a CD player--" Nina looks over her shoulder at Keiko with a scoffy expression, "And your problem is--?" ------------------------------------------------------------ It takes five minutes to clear the misunderstanding. Ten minutes to see Sakura/Tomoyo. Fifteen minutes to get Keiko comfortable with the idea of letting Tomoyo tape their entire meeting while they talked to Sakura/Kero. The footage of Fly's actions in Citadel City leave Sakura speechless. "--but-- Fly wouldn't-- I mean--?" "Fly's the most mellow and easy going of the cards next to Windy! It didn't do that on purpose!" "Regardless of whether it meant to do it or not--" Keiko begins, folding the viewer up again and putting it back into her pocket, "--the simple matter of fact is that we have 48+ loose Clow creatures (minus the 6 presently residing here)--" (stops) "Where's Mirror?" "Mirra-chan?" Sakura begins, sweating as she tries to think up an explanation. "She's-- she's in school and-- well-- and she--" "She's our daughter." Tomoyo finishes. Keiko/Nina first exchange glances, then look the two square in the eyes. "Well you two certainly didn't waste anytime did you." Nina shoots out, "Did you two go with cloning, or maybe Toya rolled in the sack with & impregnated Tomoyo since he's sorta the same as Sakura DNA wise but male-- or MAYBE it was-- OUCH!!" (Nina grabs her head as Keiko flexes her hand, after hitting Nina on the head) "What was that for?!?" "Your big mouth." (looks at Tomoyo) "What do you mean-- daughter?" Kero fields the question, returning Keiko's gaze with his own as they stare at each other, "Mirror is very easily influenced by others, and tends to mimic people's desires. When she overheard Sakura & Tomoyo talk about children once she changed herself to become their daughter, taking on an appearance that mirrors both Sakura & Tomoyo's best traits." (rubs head as he talks) "They sent her to the same school they went to when they were younger, and she's just trying to be a normal 11 year old girl--- except she still needs to learn not to mimic other people." (Kero chuckles) "Like now." "What do you mean like--" Keiko turns only to find herself staring at two Ninas, one sitting next to her and one standing near her. Both Ninas are staring at each other confused, mouths ajar abit as they regard each other with confused expressions. "Mirra-chan." Tomoyo suddenly interrupts, taking the other "Nina" aside, "You know that's not polite to take someone else's form without permission." Mirra-chan, changing back into her own form, bows and apologizes for her trick. Mirra, hair short like Sakura but dark like Tomoyo's, has a mischievous innocence about her reflected in her face, and Sakura's energy in her steps and giddy motions. She, from what Keiko could see, was obviously a very curious and inquisitive young girl, and sported a full clip of mischief as well. "Now go up to your room and study, I'll come by later and bring you a snack to see how your doing. Alright?" "Yes, Tomoyo-mama." (hugs Tomoyo briefly, bringing a smile to her lips as Tomoyo leans over to kiss Mirra-chan on the forehead, sending her on her way. With a light giggle Tomoyo returns to her recording, only to notice Keiko staring. "Must be something to have her want to be your daughter." "Yes it is. I never thought I'd be a mother-- or have Sakura by me as her father--" Nina looks over at Sakura and smiles, "Papa-chan, eh. I bet you get to wear all the fun toys in--" (Nina falls silent as Keiko smacks her upside the head again) "--well I bet she does--" "Doesn't mean you have to spit out the first thing that comes to mind--" Keiko sighs, pushing thoughts of Nina aside to get back to the talk with Sakura. "It's important that we get your help in recapturing all these Clow cards-- by the way, just how did they all get free?" "I don't know." Sakura honestly answers, "One day I woke up and found all the cards were gone, and six of them were human. Even they don't know how it happened. It just did--" (blinks) "Sorry." Keiko leans back, and begins to lay her thoughts out trying to formulate a plan. "What is she doing?" Tomoyo asks. "I don't know. Today's the first day I ever worked with her." "Is she OK?" Sakura asks. "Think she's zoning out. Must be hormones-- maybe it's that time of month for her." "Is she hungry? I'm hungry." "Kero-chan!" Sakura sweat drops. "Sorry! I'm a growing beast you know--" (looks back at Keiko) "She's coming out of it." "I can hear perfectly well, mind you. Don't talk like I left the room or something--" (everyone blushes at her remarks) "--that time of month my ass. And I was thinking about why the cards came to life, must be part of the story plot the Normal wrote." "What Normal?" "Never mind, Sakura, I'll explain later. Right now we need you to recapture the cards since they don't seem capable of behaving. So I know it's--" "I'll do it." "--dangerous and all and for god's sake let me finish my speech before you jump in like that." "I'll do it." Sakura stands up, determination on her face. "If they're running amok I have to settle them down, capture them again and restore order." (at this Tomoyo hugs Sakura) "If you don't want to I'll understand. You have a family of your own to think about now-- complete with daughter though for the life of me I have to agree with Nina that I never thought that'd be possible without cloning or something--" "I want to do it. You'll help too, right Tomoyo?" "Whatever I can do for you, my love." "Me too! Me too!" Kero jumps in, landing on Sakura's shoulder (to get a good placement for the camera lens) "I missed my days in the spotlight but no more!" (poses) "Kerberos the action hero is about to make his big screen comeback!" "--Kero--" Sakura sighs. "And that's great because I've been working hard--" Tomoyo grabs Sakura's arm and drags her to the next room, "--on new costumes for you! To film you, in your new costumes-- in new adventures--" (stops, clutches herself and blushes in a full out cute fit) "CAN YOU IMAGINE THE PURE JOY?!?" Keiko is confused, "Never seen someone that overjoyed over new costumes." "She's like that sometimes." "So I heard, but really---" Nina watches Tomoyo grabs Sakura (again) and lead her off to her workroom. "Just how many costumes do you think she made for her anyway?" "Reports of the Clow creatures running amok made the news three months ago--" (blinks) "--so I'd hazard a guess and say at least 50 or so, give or take a few dozen." "--damn--" "You can say that again, Nina." "--damn--" "--cut it out--"
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