Story: Tomoyo's World -Part 1- World Turned Upside Down (all chapters)

AUTHORS NOTE: This is really an adventure story with only bits of shoujo-ai. Yet it is crucial to Tomoyo's evolving relationship with Sakura.

Tomoyo's World - Part 1 - World Turned Upside Down

Chapter 0

When summer break finally came, Tomoyo was confident of her ability to maintain her control. She even had herself convinced that she felt good that her plans for Sakura were moving along so wonderfully. She told herself she was happy that after just two days Sakura left to visit Syaoran's family in Hong Kong for a week. Tomoyo was totally sure that Syaoran would propose and all would be well for her Sakura-chan.

XXX

Sunday, July 23 10:13am Tokyo time

"Hello, Tomoyo-chan? Yes, I'm fine. Sort of. Anyway, you were right about Syaoran. He was just waiting for us to reach sixteen. He asked me to marry him last night."

"Oh I'm so happy for you!" Tomoyo replied into her cell with her usual happy tone and only a slight twinge of the old pain.

"Uh... I'm really sorry but... I know you think he would make a perfect husband for me, but I just couldn't do it! So I said no."

For a moment Tomoyo was in shock. It couldn't be! They were destined for each other! How could she refuse him? Can't she see how perfect he is!

"I just couldn't see myself spending the rest of my life with him. I like him a lot, but I guess I don't really love him. I hope you aren't too upset with me?"

Tomoyo couldn't answer her immediately as she was still struggling with the idea that all her carefully thought out plans had fallen though. "No! Of course not!", the words finally came. "I would -never- want you to marry someone you don't love! I am very happy that you know your own mind and you must be the one to choose who you will spend the rest of your life with." But as she was saying this she was still struggling to understand what could possibly have caused Sakura to make such a terrible mistake.

"I'm glad you aren't upset. Anyway, I have a flight out Tuesday. but I don't have my ticket here and I don't remember the time, so I will tell you tomorrow evening when I call you, is that okay?"

"That will be fine. I will pick you up at the airport with my limo. Just tell me your flight number and the time, okay?"

"Sure. I can hardly wait to get home and see you again! I've missed you so much lately, and we had such a short time before I came here. So once I get back, we can spend lots of time together, okay?" When Tomoyo didn't answer right away Sakura just went right on talking. "So... Well, there is something important I want to talk to you about. If that is all right?"

"Of course! I love spending time with my Sakura-chan! And you can always talk to me about anything." Tomoyo answered cheerfully as a black feeling of doom came over her.

Monday, July 24 12:37am Tokyo time.

Tomoyo was tossing and turning in her bed, much too upset to sleep. What can I do? I can't make her love him. But I put a year of my life into Syaoran! He has powerful Magic and obviously loves Sakura. Well, as much as he could love anyone. He isn't a very emotional guy after all. Maybe that's it. My Sakura needs a more sensitive and sweet Prince. Taking a deep breath she forced the tension out of her body. I can do it! And I will do it! I will find a Magical Prince that Sakura will love!

But enough of that. I will be seeing her Tuesday, and I have to be ready to maintain my concentration so I don't fall apart again. I have to! I just have to. And I can do it. I am much stronger than I was at Christmas time. Thoughts like these continue to trouble her far into the night.

Her Monday is spent alternating between wild plans for finding Sakura another magical prince and anxiety about seeing her love again. She checks her summer break homework yet again, to make sure she did it all correctly; and of course she did. But as the evening goes by and her phone doesn't ring, she begins to worry. At nine o'clock she tries calling Sakura's cell, but she gets the voice mail. She leaves a little reminder that she was promised a call. At ten o'clock she calls again, and again gets Sakura's voice mail. She hangs up without saying anything and shrugs. Well this certainly isn't the first time Sakura has forgotten to call me when she had said she would; she is so absent minded. she reminds herself. Then as she tries to get to sleep, she continues to think about ways to fix her Sakura's life so it will be as it -must- be.

An hour later, she gives up trying to sleep, grabs the remote for the TV and the wireless mouse for her video computer, and starts playing her favorite videos. Of Sakura of course. But even watching the very cute, young Sakura capturing Cards in her costumes begins to wear on her by the time another hour has past. On a sudden impulse she switches to the cable. Perhaps I can find a nature program, they always relax me. But before she can call up the listings, she sees a view of buildings on fire. A lot of buildings on fire. Then one of the taller buildings leans over and as if in slow motion, it topples into a cloud of dust. "Good special effects. Surprisingly good. It looks real. But I don't like disaster movies" she says to herself as she presses the guide button on her remote. But when it comes up she notices what the current program is... "Cable NEWS! Oh Kami-sama! This is real!" But where? She turns the sound on and listens to the news commentator, but he says everything except where it is happening. Her frustration increases for the next few minutes as there are more fires and more buildings crashing to rubble. Then finally the commentator says, "It looks like some invisible monster is trying to destroy Hong Kong."

"SAKURA!" she screams to the empty room. After a moment of agony she begins thinking again. Sakura has Magic. And she has the cards. They will protect her. She has Fly to get away, and no one can hurt her through Shield. And she has Kero who is powerful in his large form. She is probably the safest person in the whole city. This helps her a lot, but there is no way she can sleep, so she continues to try to call Sakura's cell and to watch the news.

"We have just received word that there has been a major earthquake near the city and shortly after the west side of the island was hit by a very large Tsunami. All communication with the area has been lost, so we have no details. However we know that over a million people live along that coast near the sea, so casualties are expected to be very high. Back in the down town area it looks like at least half of the buildings are now on fire." After watching buildings burning and being knocked over for another half hour the video is suddenly cut off. "We are no longer getting any communication from Hong Kong at all. We expect that the facilities that were relaying the signals to us have been destroyed as you have seen with other buildings. As of now, the only information source we have is the Chinese military. They say that the only people being allowed into the Hong Kong area are military personnel engaged in rescue work." Then they started playing the video over again from the beginning, Tomoyo hated to watch, but felt she had to, just in case there was a clue as to how her Sakura-chan was. She tried calling Sakura several more times as well as Syaoran before she convinced herself that all the phone service was likely destroyed so she was wasting her time. What could this madness be? It's impossible that it could be natural. Not strange fires, and earthquakes, and tsunamis. Magic! It has to be magic. Someone is attacking Hong Kong with something like the Sakura Cards! Perhaps they are after Sakura! Now Tomoyo was really scared. Even worse than earlier. Even if they aren't after Sakura, she is bound to try to protect the people and fight whoever is doing this. Sakura is in deadly danger and there is NOTHING I can do! She screams at herself in her head.

As the night wore on, the only video was from mainland China showing refugees from Hong Kong being taken care of by the military. And the military said little more than the fact that the destruction was continuing. There had been more earthquakes and at least two more tsunami's, one coming from the south and the other from the east. Again no details were known. Then the news leaked that any aircraft that flew over the devastation area was being destroyed somehow.

That confirms it. As if there was any doubt. This is not natural. It has to be a magical attack. And since it is continuing that means... Her mind locked up for a moment before she could even think the words. Sakura is probably dead by now. Or she would have stopped this destruction. And I am powerless as usual. If I had magic I could have flown to her and maybe saved her. "BUT I AM JUST A USELESS NORMAL!!"She screamed out loud in her frustration. Then as she fought the black depression that reached up to swallow her she had an idea. Eriol! He may know something about what is happening! And I think it's daytime in England now. So she pulled his number up on her computer and quickly dialed it on her cell. But all she could get was his answering machine. And the torment continued through the rest of the sleepless night.

Chapter 1

Tuesday July 25 7:34am Tokyo time.

The next morning when Tomoyo didn't come down to have breakfast with her, Sonomi checked her room. And found her daughter watching a news channel. "Is something interesting happening?"

"Hong Kong is being destroyed. They are still calling it a strange but natural disaster, but the Chinese military is being very secretive about it."

"What? What happened?" Sonomi was understandably shocked.

"Earthquakes, Buildings just tipping over, lots of unexplained fires and huge tsunamis. And they have just found a new volcano which is erupting just north of mount Cameron and pouring lava towards the down town basin.

"That's impossible!"

"Yes, it is. But it's still happening."

"But what about..." Sonomi started to ask, then thought better of asking about Sakura. Tomoyo didn't seem to even notice her mothers unfinished question.

Once Sonomi was finally convinced that the impossible was true, she was stuck to the TV alongside her daughter for a while. They kept replaying the earlier footage of the fires and toppling buildings over and over. Then she remembered what she had come up for. With the promise of breakfast served in the TV room downstairs, she did get her daughter out of her bedroom and with some difficulty, got her to eat something, but it was obvious that she was deeply depressed. All she wanted to do is watch the news.

That afternoon, while she was checking her email Tomoyo's cell phone rang, and she pounced on it immediately. "Hello? Sakura?"

"No, I'm sorry, it's Eriol."

"Do you know anything about Sakura?"

"Yes... I do." The tone of his voice plunged an icy sword into her chest.

"Well?" She forced herself to say. "What have you heard?"

"She was killed-" The words tore at Tomoyo's insides. It was her worst fear and had been tormenting her horribly since she realized the disaster had to be magical. "-but it should be possible to go back in time and save her."

"Save her? But? Did you said "go back in time"? The Time card?"

"No. Too late for that, but it should be possible to go back with the Return card and save her."

A bright flood of warmth drove the icy pain out of her chest.

"You have another Return card?"

"Well, this is complicated and I don't have time right now to go over the whole thing on the phone. I just wanted you to know that Sakura can be saved."

"But why are you coming here? Why don't you just go to Hong Kong yourself?

"I don't have time to explain that. Anyway, I need your help, so don't go anywhere. I expect to be there tomorrow morning on JAL flight 3849 arriving at Tokyo airport at 7:30am. Can you arrange for a car to pick us up and bring us to your house?"

"Just a moment." Tomoyo said as she opened a text file and typed the information into it. After saving the file she returned her attention to Eriol. "Okay I have it." After confirming the information Eriol hangs up, and Tomoyo is left with a ray of hope. She is dead, but Eriol can save her anyway. Magic is wonderful! After this call Tomoyo's mood improves a lot. She is still very anxious, but her depression has lifted, which relieves a lot of the stress on Sonomi, and allows her to finally go to work.

Wednesday, July 26, 8:10am Tokyo time

Tomoyo was surprised to see Kaho with Eriol at the baggage area, but after only a quick hello, she started questioning Eriol. "So what happened to Hong Kong?"

"The Cards." He answered sadly. "Sakura was killed Monday evening before all the destruction happened."

"So you are sure she is dead?" Tomoyo asked very softly. "Yes, we are sure. Her ghost came to me in England and told me what happened. I expect that her cards went crazy with rage after she was killed and attacked the whole city."

"You say she "was killed". Does that mean murder?"

"Yes, it does. But I have investigated this event very throughly and I have found that there is a way to prevent it from happening."

"The Return card?"

"Yes. Are you familiar with it?"

"I remember Sakura used it to go back in time and see Clow."

"Exactly. It's a time travel card; using it, a person can go back in time to before Sakura is killed and save her, which would then save the countless people the Sakura cards have killed in their rage.

"You can actually bring my Sakura-chan back!"

"Well, actually..." he hesitated for a frustrating moment before continuing, "it is you who will have to do it."

Chapter 2

"Me?" Tomoyo was understandably stunned. "But how? I have no magic."

"Not true. You do have Magic. It was clear in the possible futures I examined that you had to have some sort of Magic, so I checked and confirmed it right after we met in the airport. There are many kinds of Magic and some show up later than others.

"But I never noticed anything. And Sakura never said anything."

"I expect she didn't have any reason to look for Magic in you. And I don't suppose you have been involved in any Magical things lately?" Tomoyo confirmed this with a slight shake of her head. "And of course your Magic is totally untrained so you have no idea how to use it." Tomoyo's eyes were unusually large at this point, but Eriol paid no attention to her shocked look and continued. "So my plan is to wake it up and force your development enough for you to use the Return Card to go back in time and save Sakura from whoever killed her. Sakura told me that Li met her in a mall, told her there was an emergency and that she had to come with him. Then as soon as she was in the car with him she fell asleep. When she woke up the car was in a garage. At that point she glanced at her watch, wondering how long she had slept and noted the time was less than an hour from when she left the mall. This is an important clue! Li then took her into the house and upstairs where she fell asleep again in a bedroom. The next time she woke up she was still in the same bedroom but Li was now very angry. He first asked, and then demanded that she remake the Sakura cards so he would be their master. This convinced Sakura that that this wasn't the real Li but a magic double, like the Mirror card. But in any case, after strongly refusing his demands, Sakura found herself dead. And I think it was shortly after Sakura's death that the Cards went berserk."

"Of course I will do anything I possibly can to bring Sakura back. But why me? Why don't you use the return card and warn her yourself. You have much more Magic than I could ever have."

"That may be, but it doesn't really matter. I can't capture the cards like Sakura did. They have changed. Sakura changed them. When Clow created them, he made them as servants, slaves actually, and they had to do the bidding of whoever was their master. But Sakura never looked at the cards as slaves. She thought of them as friends. And so when she remade them as Sakura Cards, she gave them stronger personality's and more free will. Some of the cards I could overcome with my Magic, but I'm not sure I could control the elementals long enough to explain. And if they were together, as is likely, they would kill me before I even got close to the other cards."

"And they won't kill me?"

"There is a very good chance that they won't. I have examined many possible alternate paths to prevent this terrible event and the one with the highest probability of success by far is if you go and talk to the cards without me. They know you! And they also know that Sakura loved you." This line stabbed at Tomoyo but she concealed her pain and concentrated on what Eriol was saying. "They will listen to you. And once they realize that Sakura can be brought back they will be happy to cooperate. Or at least this is very likely."

"But if I can calm the cards and explain to them about making Sakura live again, why couldn't you be the one to go back and fix things?" This innocent question clearly upset Eriol.

"I don't know the answer to that! I dearly wish I did! It seems crazy that you can do something that I can't, but every path I checked where I used the return card was a failure. And I join Sakura in death. And I can't find out why since the use of strong Magic makes associated events impossible to read with Magic. This in itself is reason to worry, and is another reason to doubt that Li caused all this. I suspect another, far greater power is involved, and I dearly wish I could be the one to go back and deal with it! But," he sighed, "I must not give in to my pride. It seems there are some things that I must depend on others to do for me." Eriol took a deep breath and calmed himself before continuing. "So the only threads of possible reality that result in a live Sakura and no further disasters is for you to take on this challenge alone."

"Me? Alone? That makes no sense at all!" Tomoyo stared at Eriol for a moment, expecting some more explanation, but he just looked back with a tired look. After a while Tomoyo gave in. "I guess I have to trust you. I have nothing else. So I will do whatever is required of me. Where do we start?" Tomoyo now spoke firmly and had a very determined look on her beautiful face.

"Well, I am going to prepare your spirit and show your mind how to enable your Magic and how to control it. This is a process that normally takes years, but we don't have that kind of time. The further back in time you go the more difficult it is to predict the outcome. So I am going to force your development. I have never done this and neither has Clow, so I am going to be feeling my way along as I go. I expect it may take hours to complete the process and I fear it may be very painful for you. And then there is a chance your mind could be permanently damaged, and even a very small chance that I could accidentally kill you. But even if it works like I hope it will, there is a significant possibility that you will fail and die on this mission. Are you sure you want to try?"

"I am sure!" she replied without hesitation. "I will take whatever risks are necessary to bring my Sakura-chan back."

"I thought you would say that. Okay then, while I work on your mind and spirit Kaho will do her best to ease your discomfort. But we can do nothing until we get to your house."

When they arrived Sonomi was away at work so they went right up to Tomoyo's bedroom where they had Tomoyo lie down on her large bed. Eriol sat on one side of the bed and held her left hand, while Kaho sat on the other side and took her right hand. Tomoyo took a few deep breaths while staring at a large picture of Sakura that was on the wall. "Okay, I am ready."

"Then try to make your mind blank. Or as blank as you can. I know, that's really hard under the circumstances, but try your best."

With this Tomoyo closed her eyes and laid back against her pillows; but not for long. She started twitching in just a few seconds and it continued off and on, as the minutes passed. Then after an hour or so had past, Tomoyo's twitching grew stronger and became more frequent and what was far worse, the twitching was now accompanied by moans and small cries of pain. Kaho's expression went from concentrating to frustrated and back again many times as the minutes slowly past.

When three hours had past, the two Mages rested for a half hour while Tomoyo's twitching slowed down and finally stopped. But about two hours after Eriol resumed his work, Tomoyo suddenly started convulsing violently, and screaming in a horribly painful way. They stopped immediately and when a bodyguard burst through the door holding a gun. Kaho met her and made her forget what she had heard, took her to another bed room, had her lay down on the bed and put her to sleep. The second guard that showed up was treated the same and put into the same bed. The very tired pair, then took a much needed full hour break.

The third session started out with the convulsions and horrible screaming again but after less than an hour it slowed down and became little more than twitches and moans once more. This session went on for four hours, by the end of which Kaho and Eriol were totally exhausted and Tomoyo seemed to be peacefully sleeping. "That's it. I can do no more." Eriol pronounced, "Torturing her like that was by far the hardest thing I have ever done. But if we can save those millions of people the Cards have destroyed, it will be well worth it." After standing and trying to work the stiffness out of his body he looked down at the sleeping girl and continued softly. "But I expect that you value Sakura's life more than all the people in Hong Kong."

"The poor girl. I tried my best but I'm afraid I could not help her very much without interfering with your work. Can I have her forget the last few hours?" Kaho asked.

"I'm afraid not. There is too much chance of your spell undoing some of the work I did. You can however, help her deal with the memories after she wakes up."

"I hope we haven't done her permanent harm." Kaho sighed.

"As do I. But even if all goes according to plan, she will have Magic now for the rest of her life, and as you well know, she will no longer be the same person she was. Did you feel where her power comes from?"

"Yes. But I didn't know it was even possible to draw power from the Earth itself."

"It is a rare type of Magic. And has unusual properties. And it is likely the reason she is so special. Perhaps this mission can only be done by someone with Earth Magic. Clow was not an expert on it but he did know an Earth Magic adept and learned a few things. Their special power is more like anti-Magic than Magic. They are particularly good at removing static spells and defending against nonphysical attack spells. Clow suspected they also had other powers but they were very secretive about themselves, as is usual for mages." After a pause Eriol continued. "She needs to be at the remains of Hong Kong Friday afternoon to follow the thread that leads to success."

Kaho looked understandably shocked. "The day after tomorrow? How can she learn to use her Magic in one day!?"

"What I worked out on that endless airplane flight will hopefully make that at least possible. First, I connected her mind to her Magic as carefully and naturally as I could. I tried to simulate a connection built up over years of use. Neither I nor Clow ever did this before, and I wouldn't have attempted it without my vision of her succeeding. To succeeded she must have had Magic and she must have gotten it from me. And there is no time to do it properly. So there is my logic." When Kaho didn't have any questions he continued. "And then I was able to follow her Magic back to it's source. An ancestor of hers who lived six generations ago. She is the reincarnation of that very powerful woman. So I tried to connect her mind, through her Magic, to the memories of that person. Clow never did this either, but he had heard that it was possible. So, since I saw no other way she would have any chance at sucess, I tried it. I am hoping that when she needs them, she will be able to call upon those memories just as I can call upon Clow's memories. When she wakes up we will see how successful I was. Then if it went well, she will need to get used to her Magic and how it feels and works, and then learn to draw and hold a large amount of Magic Energy so she can use the Return card." After a moment Eriol continued. "When she wakes up, don't encourage her to try anything while she is still weak. Just watch over her and try to keep her from having nightmares. Now I have an errand. I am going to find Yue and see if he knows if Kero is alive."

When Eriol returned, he found Tomoyo still sleeping and Kaho sleeping on the edge of the bed next to her. With the lightest touch of his Magic Kaho awoke. "I've bad news. Yue is gone. Toya says Yuki just suddenly said he had to leave, turned into Yue and flew off without explanation. Now I doubt that either of them are alive any more. So now she has no allies and I need a way for her to fly to a zone where airplanes are not allowed. And it's a place I can't go myself. But I did get reservations for three to Taiwan at ten fifteen this morning at least. That will get us most of the way there if flights to Taiwan are not canceled and she is awake by then. But now I will rest and plan in another room so I do not disturb Tomoyo."

Shortly after dawn as Eriol slept and Kaho was watching, Tomoyo awoke. When she saw Kaho she looked puzzled for a moment. "Oh, good morning." She mumbled. You came yesterday? And then... My Sakura-chan is dead, isn't she?" When Kaho nodded sadly she continued. "Then that wasn't just a nightmare... But then there WAS a dream. It was horrible. It was like I was being forced to do something I couldn't do and then tortured when I failed and it seemed to go on endlessly and I couldn't wake up. I KNEW it was a dream but I COULD NOT WAKE UP!" Tomoyo screamed as she finished. Then she was crying so hard it was painful for Kaho to watch.

"It's over now. Try not to think about it." As she said this she eased Tomoyo's mind and softened the pain she was remembering.

"Yeah. It was just a dream." she said as she sniffled then leaned over and pulled some tissues from a box on the nightstand. After wiping her eyes and face she still looked miserable.

"Do you remember us talking about saving Sakura?"

"Oh yes! I remember now. You were going to give me magic and then I was to save her. And I remember Eriol saying... Saying it would be painful. So that was the nightmare I was trapped in." She paused, closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. "But it was worth it to save my Sakura-chan... So how did I do? Do I have magic now?"

"We certainly hope so. Later after you are stronger we will test you and see what you can do, but first you must rest some more."

"Okay, I will try, but now my mind seems to be very awake indeed. It's like my thoughts are racing around inside my head." Then, just as Kaho was going to ease her mind with Magic, she yelled, "SAKURA!" jumped to her feet and rushed to the door. "But they said you were dead!"

Chapter 4

"I am dead, Tomoyo. I'm a ghost. But how can you see me?"

"Eriol-san gave me Magic. So I guess it's working and I can see and hear ghosts now, like Toya can."

"That's wonderful! I always felt bad that you didn't have any Magic of your own, Tomoyo-chan... But I thought it was impossible to give someone Magic?"

"Well he said I was born with it but it was just very slow to develop and was still sleeping. So he woke my Magic up and fixed my mind so I should be able to do stuff now." They just smiled at each other for a bit and then Tomoyo chuckled." "So, Sakura-chan, are you still afraid of ghosts now that you are one?"

Kaho had to smile at the sight of the live Tomoyo and the dead Sakura laughing together. "No, Tomoyo, I will never be afraid of ghosts again. I've met a lot of them lately and they are mostly very nice people. They are just dead that's all. I even got to meet and talk to my MOM! Being dead is kind of neat in some ways.

"But you don't want to stay dead do you? Tomoyo asked seriously. "No! Of course not. I'm way too young to die, or... stay dead actually. Anyway, Eriol said that he could use the return card to bring me back. Isn't that great!"

"I guess you left before Eriol checked possible futures. It seems that things won't go right if he uses the Return card, but it will be okay if I use it. He doesn't know just why that is though. But that's why he gave me the Magic I have now. I need it to save you."

"YOU are going to save me because Eriol can't? But..." Sakura's ghost shook her head and struggled to understand that for a moment. That seems -really- strange...but I guess we don't have any choice. We have to trust him. And even if you can't bring me back, it's really neat that you have Magic now." There was a moment of silence when the live girl and the dead girl looked at each other before Sakura spoke again. Uh... Tomoyo-chan?"

"Yes?"

"I can't stay here anymore. I've used up my time for visiting, and I really want to spend as much time with my mom as I can before you bring me back to life."

"Of course. We'll have our whole lives to see each other. You go now and enjoy this opportunity while you can."

After Sakura's ghost disappeared, Tomoyo seemed much more relaxed and significantly stronger than she had just a few minutes before.

It seems odd that she has recovered so much in so short a time. Perhaps she is drawing energy with her Magic... Kaho wondered. Then as Tomoyo laid back down in bed and tried to rest, Kaho explained in detail, what Eriol had done.

"But I don't really feel different." She paused a moment before continuing. "Well, maybe I do feel different. But I'm just not sure in what way. If I'm suppose to have the memories of one of my ancestors I don't know where they are."

"I expect it will take some time for you to get in touch in a controlled way with those memories." Then Kaho couldn't resist a little checking of how Tomoyo's Magic was. "Can you feel my Magic?"

Tomoyo's eyebrows suddenly went up. "Oh yes! I feel so much! Wow... I'm sorry! I didn't mean to... whatever I just did. Did I do something wrong?" She was blushing as she finished talking.

"No Tomoyo. You didn't do anything wrong. I invited you. And you just touched the outer part of my body and mind as well as my spirit with your Magic. And you did it very gently and nicely.

"With my magic... Oh. So this is my magic! I can feel it now.

"One thing to remember, we Mages consider it very impolite to use Magic to touch someone in a social situation without permission. But of course, only people with Magic will be able to tell."

"Okay. I'm just sending my Magic around the room and I can even sent it through the walls... I feel something strange... Across the hall. I think it's magic too. It's like a big egg shell and...it's really hard to feel what is inside..." Suddenly Tomoyo felt something reach out and touch her all over for just an instant and then it was gone.

"That's Eriol, and he keeps a shield around himself when he sleeps. A very good idea incidentally as we are all vulnerable when we sleep. Well, he's up now, your touching his shield awakened him."

In a couple of minutes Eriol did knock and Kaho let him in. "So, you started without me."

"She seems fully recovered from her stress."

Again Tomoyo felt the touching all over but this time it seemed to reach inside her. It felt kind of creepy and suddenly without thinking she pushed the touching out and away from her.

Eriol grinned suddenly. "Indeed she is, and it seems she is rather sensitive to being probed. That's a good shield you have there Tomoyo. And you may well need it. You will also have to fly though. Since it takes too much time and energy to make a Card from scratch, I have just converted my own Fly card to a "Tomoyo" Card. See?" He held out a purple card. "It even says "Tomoyo" right on it."

"A Tomoyo Card! This is so exciting!" Kaho had to grin at the girl practically bouncing up and down with the Magic Card in her hand. "I'm sure it is, but remember you have a very important job to do. And we have a plane to catch. However we should have time for breakfast before we leave. I will meet you in the hall when you are dressed."

They were half way down the stairs when Kaho remembered the guards she had put to sleep. So she reached up with her Magic and gently woke them up. Then she chuckled a bit at how embarrassed they were. The cook was already up and in the kitchen, and seemed perfectly happy to supply a large western style breakfast for the three. In less than half an hour they were eating and shortly after Sonomi came into the room and stared with a delighted expression at her smiling daughter. But it was still a few minutes before she had satisfied herself that her daughter was doing just fine and had time to turn to her guests.

"It seems you have been a very positive influence on my daughter. I want to thank you for what you have done."

"I'm glad we were able to help." Kaho replied politely. They made small talk while they ate, Sonomi being careful to avoid mentioning the disaster or the latest news that she had watched just before coming down. Even though the news was somewhat encouraging she didn't want to risk upsetting her daughter. It seemed that there hadn't been an earthquake for nearly seven hours and there hadn't been any Tsunamis for twelve hours. There were still fires and they had flown a remote controlled plane into the devastated area and observed it explode with long range cameras. But at least it didn't appear that the damage was spreading anymore. "Well, the difference in my daughter from yesterday to today is amazing! It's like magic!" Sonomi said at one point. "Yes it is, isn't it?" Kaho politely agreed and then couldn't resist a chuckle. After Sonomi had been reassured again by Tomoyo that she was fine, she left for her office.

Chapter 5

As soon as she was gone, Tomoyo had a question. "If you can make new cards, why not just make a Return card right now?"

"I can't make a Return card. Clow decided before he died that he would not send that knowledge on. He deemed it a far too dangerous power to be allowed to spread. There is, and will be, only one Return card. In fact he had been planning to destroy it before he died, but then he examined the future to see what sort of person would be the next master of the Cards. And when he saw it was Sakura and she even came back and visited him using the card, he decided to trust her with the future of everything. And I'm very glad that he did, as we dearly need it now to correct this terrible disaster. Clow had imagined what could happen if the Cards fell into the wrong hands, and it frightened him, but he never imagined the Cards in a rage over the killing of their Mistress. But then, these aren't his Cards anymore, they are Sakura Cards and quite different."

After breakfast, Tomoyo thought about what to wear and how to fix her hair. In order to fly she would need some snug windproof clothing and a hairstyle that wouldn't whip in the wind. So first she braided her hair then rolled it up on the back of her head and fastened it firmly. She knew from flying with Sakura that it was easy to get chilled from the wind, so she packed a selection of warm snug fitting clothes. On the way to the airport in the cab Tomoyo noticed a motorcycle roar by and started thinking. "Will I fly very fast?"

"Well, not as fast as a jet plane, but certainly faster than any bird. Depending on your Magic power you may be able to exceed 150 kilometers per hour." (93mph)

"Well won't that be a terribly strong wind in my face? And chilling my body?"

"Yes it will. But I intend to make you a Shield card as well as a Sword card, just in case you need them. And you can use Shield to protect you from... No, you can't use the Shield Card to protect you from the wind, because if you tell the Shield to stop air from penetrating, then your wings won't work and you can't fly. Your wings do support you and move you partially by magic, but they also do actually move air and have to be able to interact with the air that is rushing past you. So I guess you will need some warm clothes."

"I was thinking that people go very fast on motorcycles, and they have special clothes for them, to protect them from wind and cold."

After a moments thought Eriol responded. "Yes, of course. Driver! Is there a large motorcycle store near here?" "Perhaps ten minutes out of our way." Eriol thought about this. He had allowed an extra hour in case of bad traffic, and the traffic seemed light. So they took the side trip and in forty minutes they were back on their way to the airport again with her bag now containing a set of insulated motorcycle leathers, boots and gloves. The only set they had in her size was purple, which Tomoyo wasn't happy with, but of course she couldn't be fussy. She got a full face style helmet that would protected her whole head from the wind and cold. The helmet, boots and gloves she got all in black as that seemed to go best with the purple. She did have to adjust the hair some so the helmet would fit comfortably but that only took a minute.

"Will my wings make their own holes in my clothes like Sakura's do?"

"Yes they will. And incidentally, that makes the card more difficult to make, but I think it is worth the effort to be able to fly with your clothes on." He finished with a small smile.

Chapter 6

Thursday July 27 9:40am Tokyo time.

They had a half hour until the plane left and Tomoyo continued to plan what she needed to do, which brought up a question immediately. "How far back in time should I go?"

"You will return to last Sunday at about five in the afternoon. This is consistent with the threads that lead to success. "Why can't I just go back to before Sakura was kidnapped? Or even before she went to Hong Kong?"

As far as I have been able to tell, if you go back to any point other than last Sunday at five PM, Sakura will almost certainly die, and likely you will as well. There are a limited number of threads of reality that include Sakura being saved, and they all require you to enter the time stream last Sunday at five PM. So you have to tell the card to take you back to that point and then use your time wisely."

"When I return to the past will I be in the same place by Hong Kong?"

"No, not at all. Since you are returning to a period within your own lifetime, only your spirit will go back, and you will find yourself in your own body wherever you were at that point in time. It is far more difficult to go back bodily to before you were born."

"So I will have to fly back to Hong Kong again!"

"Yes, indeed. The thread involves you flying back there. It appears that Sakura died around midnight, Tokyo time, Monday night."

"You said you read the future to pick this way of saving Sakura... So can't you tell me more about what I will find when I go back?"

"What I did is to look at the probable outcomes for many different courses of action on my part. Which, I may add, was VERY difficult and time consuming. I fortunately I did find a small set of threads that had a high probability of saving Sakura and Hong Kong. But unfortunately I didn't get much in the way of details on just how you are going to do it. My vision was very murky after we part. This is likely due to the law that makes events which are determined by strong Magic to be unreadable with Magic. All I know is that you will most likely manage it somehow. You are very smart, resourceful, and have a lot of Magic power. Now all you need is to believe that it is possible and that you will find a way to do it."

"Isn't there anything else you can tell me about my future?" Tomoyo was for the first time, sounding a little scared.

"Well, there is a delay between the time you leave me and the time you use the Return card. So you should probably expect some sort of a problem, but what happens during that period is completely blank to me. All I can say is that you will probably be able to use the Card and go back. And the period just before Sakura is killed is another blank. That's really all I have." he shrugged. "I'm sorry I can't help you more."

After this very limited help, Tomoyo couldn't think of anymore questions to ask, so she just just sat and thought about what was happening. And she found herself tormented, thinking about all the death and destruction that was probably still going on as they sat there in the airport and waited. In fact however, the cards rage was nearly spent. Only Fiery was still going around and burning things here and there. So when she thought of something to ask, she did. "You said that some things were destined and some weren't? Why are some events destined?"

"I suppose you could use gods to explain that. But if that doesn't satisfy you, I think it's because that event is necessary for things to turn out the way they are suppose to. If that makes any sense. The future is sort of fixed. Which is why we can read it. Anyway, I have been working on trying to understand Magic and how it changes reality by using modern mathematics and physics. And in the process I've worked out, what I think is a very interesting visual model of reality. Would you like to hear it while we are waiting?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes, very much!"

"Okay, you had some statistics and probability in your math classes haven't you?"

"Oh yes. I thought they were very interesting."

"Good. So the future can be described as a collection of events each of which has a probability curve associated with it. This is grossly simplified, but bear with me. So if you combine these curves and extend them over time, they form a very distorted surface. This surface can be visualized as looking rather like a complex canyon. The bottom of the canyon represents events that are nearly certain to happen. Their probability approaches one. The further away from the bottom you get, the higher the sides of the canyon are until they approach a probability of zero. So, of course the actually path day to day events take is normally somewhere around the bottom of the canyon. But people do have free will. And the power of their spirit can make things happen that wouldn't otherwise. So when you try really hard to do something difficult, you are in effect, pushing reality uphill. And Magic is just a stronger way to push the path of reality uphill. But it is still limited. No one is powerful enough to push reality in any direction they want. The sides of this valley get really steep and high when you get too far from the normal path at the bottom. And events that are destined, sit in a very narrow channel with very steep high sides. So to get to the other side that event has to happen."

"But what makes something 'destined'?" Tomoyo still wanted to know.

"I believe it is because the event is necessary to keep all the paths going the right way so they will in time get back to the main channel. This principle seems to be one that is a basic property of reality. Does this make any sense to you?"

"Yes, I believe so. But aren't there very different paths that the future could take depending on something someone does?"

"Yes indeed! Reality is MUCH more complex than the little model I just described but surfaces of N dimensions are impossible to visualize. My little simplified model is just a way to picture some of the characteristics of reality. Anyway, there are in fact a huge number of interlacing canyons that we can push reality into, and these can change the future in what appear to be very large ways. However, as I said earlier, all the side canyons will eventually come back to the main channel. So no matter how you push events around, if you go far enough into the future, it will have not made any major difference. And this is how we can have both free will and destiny."

After pondering this for a while she thought of another question. "I expect I will remember this future after I use the Return card, but who else will?"

"That, I do not know for sure. I don't have a clear understanding of just how the Return cards works. But if it is anything like Time, how much memory any person retains of before the card is used is related to just how close the person is to the one using the card and how involved they are with the events, as well as how much Magic power they have. So in this case, you will be sure to remember everything, and I probably will remember as well. I suspect that Sakura will also remember but that is a guess. And I have no idea about others." By the time the discussion wound down, the fasten seat belts sign came on for the decent into Taiwan.

Chapter 7

Thursday July 27 11:45am Taiwan time.

Since they had no checked luggage it wasn't long after landing that they were leaving the airport in a cab. They asked the driver to take them to a nature preserve that Eriol had found on a map, and on the way Tomoyo remembered something. "Would it be okay if I called my mom?"

"It isn't really necessary you know. All this will be erased as soon as you use the Return Card and she isn't going to remember anything."

"I know. But remember, I can expect to have trouble and it may be a day or so before that happens. And when I'm not at home tonight she is going to wonder where I am. And perhaps try to find me. And I just don't want to worry her."

"Okay, but don't tell her where we are. If she thinks you are trying to get to Hong Kong she will really try to find us."

"Okay." she replied with a smile, then dialed Sonomi's cell." "Hi Mom!" "Hi Dear. Is this important? I'm very busy right now."

"I just wanted to tell you that I won't be home tonight."

"So where are you going to be?"

"I don't want to get into that right now, but I'll explain it all if you ask me when I get home, okay?" A promise she could keep she figured with a slight smile.

"Well that certainly sounds strange. Why can't you tell me?"

"It's a long story, and I don't want to get into it right now, but I just didn't want you to worry about me."

"This doesn't have anything to do with Sakura and Hong Kong, does it?!" "Bye Mom." Then she hung up and turned her cell off. "I guess that was a really bad idea, but I hated to just disappear. Now I hope I didn't mess something up..." she sighed.

In less than an hour they were walking through the woods looking for a good place for Magic training. After a frustrating twenty more minutes they finally found a suitable clearing well off the paths and the training started. The first thing Eriol had Tomoyo try was to draw magic power from the earth and store it. And as Eriol had hoped, she seemed able to do this almost at once. "Can you feel the memories of your ancestor yet?"

"No, not really. Or not like my real memories anyway. It's just like when you describe something, it sounds familiar and then I remember how to do it."

"Well, I doubt that your ancestor knows how to use a Tomoyo Card, so we had better work on that. Draw some Magic from the earth and send it into the Fly Card."

"Don't I have to take it out first?" "No, not really. Since it is the only Card you have, there is no way you can make a mistake."

"How much Magic should I give it?"

"With the Fly card you can just fill it till it won't take anymore. Can you feel the Cards thirst for Magic?"

"Yes, I think I can. Okay, here I go... There, it doesn't want anymore energy. Now don't I need a staff? Like Sakura's Star Staff?"

"I hope not. I tried very hard to advance your Magic control to the point where you shouldn't need a staff just to use a Card . You may seem to be just starting in Magic like Sakura was when she was ten, but this is a completely different situation." When Tomoyo nodded Eriol continued. "Just reach out to the card with your Magic and tell it to do it's job."

In a couple of seconds wings sprouted out of Tomoyo's back. But they weren't angel wings like Sakura's, they looked like insect wings. And there were four of them. Long narrow transparent insect wings, which caught the light and reflected it back in many colors. The sudden weight of the wings on her back caused Tomoyo to step back and then lean forward a bit to balance them. The wings weren't heavy for their size but they were over eight feet from tip to tip. I can feel them! They are really part of me! Kind of like having four more limbs, no...they are very different from arms and legs. They don't have that much feeling. More like ears maybe... And they don't come out of my shoulders like Sakura's, they come out lower down my back...

"I saw you working on those wings last week. Are you sure you want to give Tomoyo new and untested wings?"

"I have tested them! And they work perfectly." He replied to Kaho then turned to Tomoyo. "Those are dragonfly wings. And dragonfly wings are far more efficient than bird wings, or as people call them, angel wings. Dragonflies can fly forward and backward as well as lift very large weights, fly very fast and stop almost instantly. Try that with angel wings and you'll tear half the feathers off!" When Kaho smiled and shook her head, he turned to Tomoyo. Okay Tomoyo-san, now you can practice flying. Try to get the feel of your wings to the point where you don't have to give specific commands but just think what you want to do and have them respond."

At first Tomoyo made some faces but nothing happened for several seconds. This is kind of like trying to wiggle your ears... Ah! They are moving! But they must have to move much faster than that to fly. After wiggling for a few seconds her wings suddenly started beating faster than the eye could see with a roaring sound like a big electric fan. And up she went perhaps twenty feet into the air. THAT'S IT! But I'm going up too fast! Her wings suddenly stopped and she stared falling. NO! Beat! Immediately her wings started roaring again and she went higher. Too hard! Gently now... Finally her wings only slowed and she almost held her position for a moment before slowly coming back down backwards. No, now that's too slow. There has to be an easier way to control these things. Sakura never had this problem. But then she is really talented. Oh SAKURA! Tomoyo had forgotten that she was flying with her own wings for a moment as her mind filled with thoughts of the girl she loved. Now hover! Hold position! Her thought command to her Fly Card worked and she did indeed hover perfectly still. That's it! Instead of saying, beat harder or less, I just tell the card which way I want to move and how fast.

After moving forward and backwards and turning a few times, she decided it wasn't that hard after all. Now to land. Fly Card! Land straight down from here. And instantly she felt weightless as the ground rushed up at her. NO! Not so fast! Not so FAST! She mentally yelled at her Card as the ground rushed up at her. But it seemed that she had over reacted because she not only slowed rapidly as she got close to the ground, but before her feet could touch she reversed direction and flew back up backwards. "This is a lot harder than it looks when Sakura does it!" she yelled out. After flying around rather erratically, and banging her shins painfully on a tree branch at one point, she tried landing again. She did get down this time but due to the placement of her wings down on her back, she wasn't flying in an upright position but nearly prone, so when she got down to the ground she couldn't get her feet under her and wound up face down on the grass. "I'm sorry, that I am doing so poorly." She sighed.

"That's okay," Eriol told her with a smile, "you are doing fine. And if it will make you feel any better, Sakura's wings are a lot easier to use than yours, but yours are much faster and far more maneuverable. It's like you have the special high performance model." I didn't ask for "high performance" wings! But perhaps I'll need them to save Sakura. In any case I -have- to learn to use them! But I could use some protection. "I think I had better put my helmet on. And I might as well put the rest of the motorcycle stuff on as well, It should give me at least some protection if I fall again."

Chapter 8

In a few minutes Tomoyo was all outfitted in her leathers and helmet, and flying again, now looking rather more like an alien from another planet than a fairy. After another bad landing Tomoyo apologized again from where she lay on her back on the ground. "It's okay. It just takes time to get the feel of your new wings that's all." Eriol assured her.

After landing on her knees once, she tried something new. She came in close to the ground and then pulled up sharply which brought her close to upright, then quickly told her wings to slow and give a brief push backwards. It worked perfectly and she landed with only a step to get her balance. "Yay! I did it!" she yelled inside her helmet. Then after giving her audience a little bow she took off again.

Unfortunately the second time she landed she got her timing a bit off and fell again. But she just got back to her feet and tried it again.

When she had landed perfectly six times in a row she felt like celebrating and showing off a bit, so she took off like a shot, soared to the top of the tallest tree on the edge of the clearing and then perched on a branch barely big enough to hold her weight. Then she just stood there for a while with her wings fluttering just a bit to maintain her balance.

"She is amazing!" Kaho exclaimed.

"Yes, she is." Eriol agreed. "It took me nearly a week to get that good."

"Actually I've never seen you fly -that-good." Kaho observed with a smile. Eriol just gave her a sour look and said nothing. Of course if the two Mages had seen Tomoyo learning to ice skate or ski they wouldn't have been quite as surprised at her quick learning and coordination.

Eriol was about to shout at Tomoyo to come down when he had an idea. He reached out with his Magic and called her, then was pleased when she immediately flew to him and landed as precisely as a house fly. "I think that is enough time spent on flying. I've converted two more of my own Cards to Tomoyo Cards for you. This is your Shield Card, it works exactly the same way Sakura's Shield does. Just call it when you need it and it will surround you with a spherical shield."

Tomoyo then did call the card but didn't notice anything, until she tried walking back over to where Eriol and Kaho were standing. As soon as she tried to move she felt herself being picked up off the ground. As she lost her traction she felt her feet slip out from under her and in a moment she was very upset to find herself hanging upside down with her helmet just clear of the ground. Her reaction was to turn her shield off which dropped her on her head. "THIS IS ALL MESSED UP!" She called out, with more than a little anger in her sweet voice.

"I forgot to tell you, you can't move on the ground while you are shielding. Shield won't let anything solid enter including the ground beneath your feet. So as you move your spherical shield rolls up out of the ground and on to the surface. Since Shield insures that all of you stays inside it lifts you up. You need to remember to only fly or stay still when you have your shield on.

"But why did it turn me upside down?!" She demanded.

"It didn't. Gravity did. Shield defaults to centering at your physical center, but the top half of your body is heavier than your legs, so when you are suspended by your center your upper body drops and your legs go to the top."

"Does Sakura's Shield work the same way?"

"It will roll up onto the surface, yes, but Clow somehow made his Shield Card able to hold a person upright even if they are not touching the ground. Unfortunately I couldn't get this Card to do that."

"So the only way I can move with my shield on is to fly? But then when I land will I wind up hanging upside down?"

"I expect you will. So don't do it."

This really stinks! But I guess it's better than nothing. I don't know what kind of reincarnation he is if he can't make Cards as good as Clow...

"But enough about Shield, here is your sword Card." As Tomoyo took the card and tried to figure out what the picture on it represented, Eriol continued. "Now this Card works very much like Sakura's Sword Card. I just made it look differently. It's erm... called Light Saber."

Chapter 9

"Light Saber? Like in Star Wars?" Tomoyo said with a hint of a smile.

"Yes, well...I made it years ago after I watched one of those movies. I was just a kid then and I wanted a light saber and so I made one. Since I had it and you needed a weapon of some sort, I just converted it to a Tomoyo Card for you."

"Sakura's Sword comes out of her Magic Staff..." Tomoyo noted.

"You don't need a Magic Staff for Light Saber. You just call it by name while you are holding a hand out with your fingers curved like you were holding a flashlight, and it will appear in your hand. The default is an 80 centimeter (31.5 in.) blade, but you can make it any length you want. However the longer it is, the weaker it is so it's not useful as a long range weapon... Go ahead and try it."

Tomoyo held her right hand out and called, "Light Saber!" and instantly there was indeed a light saber in her hand. It was smaller than the ones in Star Wars and didn't make any sound but otherwise seemed the same, including the blue white light coming from the 'blade'.

"I included a safety block in the Magic so you can't accidentally cut yourself with it." Eriol announced proudly. "However you can of course accidentally cut anything else with it, including your friends. Remember if you are cutting through a wall, to not make the blade any longer than it needs to be. And I couldn't figure out just how Clow made his Sword give the user sword fighting skills, but in this day and age, you aren't likely to be dueling anyone with a similar Magic sword so you shouldn't need that."

Tomoyo had no problem at all with her two new Cards individually but she found that trying to use them both at the same time was hard. It took much time and practice before she could do it reliably. But when she had two cards out and called the third, one of the first two would nearly always go back to Card form. "It is difficult to control three Cards even for one as talented as you are. I don't think we have time right now to use on a skill you probability won't need, so I will just give you your final exam for card use; listen carefully. See the large dead tree there?" When Tomoyo nodded he continued. "When I say, GO, I want you to put your wings out, fly up to the top as fast as you can, use your Saber Card to cut off a good size piece of the top, then fly under the falling tree top and divert it with your shield card, and finally put your shield away, call your Saber and cut it again before it hits the ground.

"Are you serious?" A stunned looking Tomoyo asked.

"Very serious." "What if I can't call out "Fly, Light Saber, Shield, Light Saber" fast enough?"

"You don't need to call their names out loud anymore. Just call them with your mind and you should be able to do it. You can fly fast enough and use your Cards fast enough, but up till now you haven't stretched yourself to your full potential. So just visualize the whole thing in your mind as clearly as you can while at the same time feeling the Magic Power inside yourself. You have to really believe you can do it, or you can't. Confidence is critical. Finally you might imagine that you are saving Sakura's life with this action and just do it."

Kaho was as surprised as Tomoyo at Eriol's words but she just kept quiet and watched. Tomoyo nodded to Eriol, then stared at the tree top for perhaps five seconds before Eriol yelled "go". Instantly she shot into the air with such a sudden roar that it sounded rather like an explosion. She moved so fast, Kaho could hardly follow the flying girl with her eyes as she went up to the tree top, there was a flash of the Saber, then she shot down half way, and stopped for just an instant before there was another flash of light and then she was down to the ground again. Did she do it? Kaho wondered before noticing that pieces of tree were raining down on the ground next to where Tomoyo was standing. And the top two meters of the tree were gone.

"Excellent job!" See how fast you can be when you need to? Eriol congratulated Tomoyo. "And my dragonfly wings worked even better than I had hoped! See that?" He pointed out proudly to Kaho who did look impressed.

After a short rest, they started working with nonphysical Magic attacks. Eriol had been impressed with Tomoyo's shielding ability when she had pushed his probe out of her mind back in her bedroom, but the truth was far stranger. No matter how hard he attacked her he couldn't detect the slightest softening of her shield. Clow had heard that Earth Magic adepts had good nonphysical shields but he had never had the opportunity to test one. "Well, it's obvious that you have inherited a really good shield against nonphysical magic from your ancestor, so you don't need any practice with that. So now lets try a whole different field; physical Magic. Physical attacks are things like fireballs, magic arrows, and even ordinary things like furniture which can be thrown by Magic power. There are basically two ways of protecting yourself from such attacks, the first I call the 'brick wall' style of defense. Brick wall is easy to do, but you have to be significantly stronger than your opponent at Physical Magic. And since we have no idea who you may have to deal with, we will concentrate on a more subtle form of defense. This is where you slip inside the attack and fool the spell into diverting the attack into a safe direction. This is much harder to learn, as you have to do delicate work while something scary is coming at you very fast, so we may need to spend considerable time on it." Privately Eriol was very worried that a girl as young as Tomoyo wouldn't have the self discipline to handle this sort of technique, but it was worth seeing what she could do. He was aware of the weakness of his Shield Card against both kinds of Magic attacks. She picked up slipping into spells fairly quickly, thanks to her ancestors help, but she still needed to hone her reflexes to respond fast enough. And this took practice. Lots of practice. But as for self discipline, she impressed Eriol more than he was willing to admit.

During a rest break, Tomoyo brought up something she had thought of. "Once I save Sakura, could you teach her this kind of Magical defense?"

"I doubt it. Indirect defensive techniques wouldn't suit her. I do plan to teach her as much defense magic as I can, but for physical attacks I would just show her the "brick wall" style. It's more suited to her. You should know that she isn't the subtle type. And she can direct more raw power than anyone I, or Clow has ever known, so for her, "Brick Wall" should work fine. The problem would be her knowing the attack was coming. She would still be vulnerable to an attack she didn't see coming. And remember a Mage isn't limited to just using Magic to fight. And no matter what your power is, if you don't have your Shield Card protecting you, you can be killed by an ordinary, non Magical, bullet just like anyone else."

Thursday July 27 8:12pm Taiwan time

Yet another physical Magic attack was diverted by Tomoyo and badly shattered a beautiful tree before Eriol could stop it. "That poor tree!" Tomoyo sighed. "Remember Hong Kong and Sakura." was all Eriol had to say to make Tomoyo forget about trees. Which was a good thing, because by ten o'clock that night, there were smashed and charred trees and scorched earth all around. Several people had come to investigate the noise and fire, but Kaho made them lose interest and go to their homes. When Eriol was satisfied that Tomoyo could protect herself from any magical attack he could deal out, they started on combinations. First defensive Magic and any one of the cards. Tomoyo had no problem at all with this, so then they went to keeping her natural shield up while using two cards. She found this a lot harder and it took some practice to get her to the point where she could do it reliably. He was pleased to note that whenever Tomoyo lost something, it was always one of the cards. She never lost her shield even when she first started with two cards.

When Eriol noticed that it was after midnight he decided to quit for the night. "Very good Tomoyo-san. Very good indeed." He felt much better now, and was beginning to understand just how the young and totally inexperienced girl was going to pull off something he could not do himself. She was an amazing person.

A half hour later they were all at a late night restaurant where Eriol and Kaho had to smile at each other to see the usually very proper Tomoyo eating furiously. The late dinner completed they moved to a hotel room and after getting Tomoyo's permission, Eriol put a sleep spell on her so she could get as much rest as possible.

Chapter 10

Friday July 28 7:15am Taiwan time.

After breakfast they went back to the ravaged clearing in the nature preserve, but it was full of people looking at the damage. So they found another quiet place a half a mile away which was easy as Eriol said they didn't need a clearing this time.

"So what do I practice now?" Tomoyo asked.

"Spell cracking is what I call it. In the books it's called disenchantment." Eriol started with simple spells on things, mostly trees, getting Tomoyo used to the feel of different types of spells and explaining to her the steps to removing each type. But as it turned out Tomoyo didn't need these details as she could actually see the spell and just sort of unwrap it with her Magic. This unique method worked with even quite complex spells without her having to know anything about their structure or how they were cast. He just smiled and shook his head, in amazement at the power of her Earth Magic.

Then, they used Kaho as what she called "the crash dummy" and Eriol put many different spells on her, even turning her into a wolf at one point. With just a little practice Tomoyo was able to remove each spell without even making her uncomfortable.

"Awww... I wish you had left me as a wolf a bit longer, I wanted to do some sniffing around and see if I could catch a rabbit or something." Kaho then grinned as Eriol looked at the ground and shook his head.

"This is deadly serious!"

"I know. But a little humor relieves the tension and makes it easier for Tomoyo to absorb the incredible amount of knowledge you are stuffing into her."

"This may be true, but I find it very distracting." Eriol replied in a rather stuffy manner.

"Please? Lets continue?" Tomoyo reminded them and they got back to work. After a short rest Eriol had Tomoyo try removing spells while being attacked at the same time. She practiced very hard but still didn't do well. Not well at all.

Eriol checked his watch before he spoke. "We are out of time. It's eleven o'clock and you have to be leaving very soon. What you have learned will have to be enough." he finished quietly.

"So how do I tell which way to fly?"

"You should be able to find it with your Magic. Just touch my Magic with your Magic. Now can you feel me reaching out?"

"Yes."

"Now keep touching my Magic where I am reaching out, in other words follow my Magic. Tomoyo nodded and then found her Magic stretched far further and faster than she had ever tried before. "Now do you feel that?" Tomoyo felt around with her Magic and then nodded. "Okay, that is the coast of mainland China. "Reach out in different directions, really far out... Now can you feel different things in different directions?"

"Yes, I can."

"Excellent! By checking your relationship to your surroundings from time to time, you will be able to maintain your direction. Now pay attention to where my magic is pointing, that way is Hong Kong. To be on the safe side, in case there is north wind, head to the right of that line and you will hit the coast of China east of Hong Kong. Then just follow the coast till you get there. Any questions?"

"I fly that way." Tomoyo pointed with her Magic. "I fly until I reach the coast of China, then I follow it to Hong Kong. I contact the cards, talk them out of killing me, use the Return Card, save Sakura from Li or something that looks like Li, and I'm done, right?

"Exactly right."

"I don't suppose it will be that simple to actually do it through."

"I'm sure it won't be simple at all. I fear there will be plenty of trouble along the way, but I am confident that you will be able to deal with it. You may have other abilities that I do not know of, but those you will have to learn on your own. I have done what I can. Do you feel ready to face some really angry card sprites?"

"I have to. To bring Sakura back." she replied more calmly than she felt. Then she nodded at Eriol, lowered her face shield and took off straight up. When she decided she was high enough so she would be hard to see, she hesitated as the reality of what she was getting into finally struck her and she was filled with a terrible fear.

"I'm heading into deadly danger that I know nothing about! It's powerful enough to kill Eriol who has much more Magic power than I have! I'm just a high school girl, how can I be expected to do this?! How I wish I could just go home to my room and forget all this horrible stuff."

But then she thought of the one she loved and the fear blew away like mist in a sudden wind. "Sakura." "I WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SAVE MY SAKURA-CHAN!!" She shouted at the sky, then she aimed at Hong Kong and in a second she was roaring along with a powerful wind battering her small soft body.

"The Cards will feel me coming and try to attack me as they did with all the planes that tried to fly over the destruction. All I have to do is calm them and keep them from killing me long enough to explain how I can save Sakura."

As she flew she congratulated herself at having thought of the motorcycle stuff. It was cold up where she was flying and the wind from her speed beat against her like a solid thing.

"I wish I had an air speed indicator and an altimeter." she mumbled to herself. Then she imagined Eriol's expression if she had asked him to add those features to her Fly Card and chuckled.

She remembered seeing pictures of people flying with their arms stretched out in front of them, and just for fun she tried it. It was really uncomfortable. What worked the best was flying with her hands in her jacket pockets. The air blasting at her caused her legs to wiggle back and forth in a sort of flutter which was annoying. But she found that by hooking her feet on each other she could stabilize them, and make flying a little less uncomfortable. "I really prefer flying inside an airplane!" she complained out loud to no one. After only a few minutes of flying she realized she had a problem.

"The wind blast hits my face so hard it jams the back of my helmet into the back of my neck, which is getting sore from all the pressure. I need a pad on the back edge of this helmet! But I don't have anything like that. Maybe if I faced down? After all I don't need my eyes to see where I'm going since I am using my Magic sense to guide me."

This worked for a while but it was putting a lot of strain on her neck muscles. "I feel like I am trying to balance a weight on top of my head! But I've seen pictures of women in Africa carrying huge jars of water on their heads... I guess I just have to concentrate on keeping my head pointed exactly straight into the wind blast."

After nearly three hours of constant flight she saw the coastline. "Finally" she sighed. She turned and then followed it for another hour, "I should be getting close now." And sure enough, what had looked like low clouds on the horizon was in fact smoke. The south wind blew it into a huge curved pointer with the tip on the city, where many buildings were still burning. She called on her Shield Card to protect her and began scanning the area with her Magic, looking for something that felt like her Tomoyo Cards. "They should be around here somewhere." She said to herself as she flew.

But it wasn't until another half hour of flying that she found Fiery. Or rather Fiery found her. He was approaching her from behind as she had flown past while he was down on the ground and she had been unlucky enough to have missed detecting him with her inexperienced Magic scans.

He struck without warning. To Tomoyo there was just a stabbing pain in her back and the feeling of intense heat. It was fortunate that she wasn't inhaling at that moment as the super heated air could have killed her if it had gotten into her lungs. It was also fortunate that she was wearing leather which doesn't burn easily and a helmet. Her shield hadn't worked all that well against Fiery's powerful attack. It did stop the heat magic all right, but when it tried to absorb the the Magical energy, it overloaded and let it dissipate in the air just outside the shield, which heated all that air till it glowed orange and expanded explosively. And her Shield wasn't set to stop either air or radiant heat that doesn't come directly from magic. So it was like she had been hit by a huge torch flame for a moment. Not long enough to burn her leather suit, but plenty long enough to cause her delicate wings to turn black, curl up and then break off. As she fell, the super hot air rose and she was back in cool air in little more than a second; safe from the heat but not from the ground that was coming up at her.

Chapter 11

"Aaaah!" She cried out as she fell. "DON'T PANIC!" She yelled at herself as she felt the Fly card with her Magic. It seemed to be fine, then she finally felt the pain in her back. My wings hurt? She looked behind her to see how they were and couldn't find them. "They're gone! I've lost them. The heat! They must be burned off! Now what?" she asked herself. "I DIDN'T GET ANY INSTRUCTIONS WITH THESE WINGS!" she screamed at the ground that was rapidly approaching. "THINK! I've got to think calmly or I'm dead! Maybe it's like a computer? Reboot!" So she instructed Fly to put the wings away. Then she told the Card to bring them back out. And it worked! She could feel the pull as well as hear the sudden roar and her fall quickly stopped.

But as her panic subsided she also felt a terrible burning pain under her chin. The superheated air had found an area that wasn't covered and had burned the underside of her chin and part of her neck until it blistered. But when she looked up and saw Fiery looking at her, she forgot her pain.

"I'm TOMOYO! I'm SAKURA'S FRIEND!" But the words just blasted her own ears as Fiery tossed another fireball at her. It moved frighteningly fast, but this time she had seen it coming and she used the indirect defense that Eriol had taught her to divert the fireball away from herself. She felt a momentary burst of pleasure that she had done it, but Fiery was coming closer now and looking really angry. And the closer he was the less time she would have to divert his next fireball. Suddenly it dawned on her that Fiery had no way to tell who she was in the helmet. So she unfastened and pulled it off as fast as she possibly could, and screamed her identity again at Fiery. This time, instead of sending another fireball at her he came closer. "FIERY! REMEMBER ME! I'M SAKURA'S FRIEND! I ALWAYS TAPE HER. You know me, don't you." By this time Fiery was right in front of her. "I can bring Sakura back! I can use the Return Card to save Sakura and prevent her from dying! Do you understand what I am saying?"

"Yes. But how is it possible to save Sakura when she is dead?"

"The Return Card. You know the Return Card?"

"Not hardly. Time is the only one who can talk with Return."

"Well, I can use Return to go back in time and save Sakura before she dies."

"I don't understand what you are saying. But if there is a way to get Sakura back I want to do it. I like Sakura. She treats me with respect."

"Success!" she thought excitedly to herself. "Can we go down and land and talk, I am tired of flying." Fiery nodded and in a couple of minutes Tomoyo was back on the solid ground and loving it. "Now can you call Return here?"

Fiery closed his eyes for a moment then spoke. "Nope. He's not anywhere around here."

"But I NEED him! Sakura needs him!"

"Okay, okay, I'll look for him." he grumbled.

Then Tomoyo had an idea. "Tell any other Cards you can find to also look and then come back and tell me what you found." With this, Fiery nodded and flew away.

Tomoyo leaned back against a tree and watched a house in the distance burning. Her burnt chin was hurting horribly now, particularly when she turned her head and rubbed the burned part on her jacket collar. "I wonder how many people were in that house when Fiery burned it... The pain of being burned alive is beyond my imagining." But when these thoughts hurt too much, she concentrated on the fact that in a little while she would roll back time and make all the horror and death go away. And in fact to have never happened. And then she would be seeing Sakura. "A live Sakura-chan! That's a sweet thought!" But then she had a scary thought. "I didn't tell Fiery when to give up and come back? What if he keeps looking for days?!" This thought had tormented her for nearly an hour when she finally saw Fiery coming.

Chapter 12

Friday July 28 3:15pm Hong Kong time.

Tomoyo was delighted to note that there were several other sprites with him. "One of them must be Return." She assured herself. Unfortunately she had no idea what Return looked like.

Once they were all gathered around she asked the important question. "Okay, which one of you is Return?"

"We couldn't find Return." Fiery informed her.

It took Tomoyo a moment to get her mind to accept this unwelcome news. She had had her hopes up so high, and now they had crashed. "No! I will succeed! Eriol said that it was very probable that I would and so I WILL succeed!" She assured herself.

"Does anyone have any ideas where Return might be?"

Silence.

"Why did you get separated?"

More silence.

She then asked with a bit of a whine in her sweet voice. "Please! Any information may be important. When was the last time anyone saw Return?"

More silence.

Tomoyo was about ready to cry when Fight finally spoke. "There was a fight, right after we destroyed the human that killed Sakura. Fiery called for all the cards to destroy everything, and kill all humans. All of us here agreed with Fiery. It seemed like a good idea. But Light and Dark disagreed, saying the guilty party had been punished and there was no reason to destroy anything. Windy took their side. Then as we argued back and forth all the cards separated into two groups. Light and Dark's group tried to stop us, but we were too strong for them. We destroyed those who fought us, including Light and Dark, Windy and Woody for sure. Others too maybe. The rest of them scattered."

Tomoyo closed her eyes for a moment thinking of the beautiful Light And Dark. Windy was sweet too. And gentle Woody... Then a frightening thought came to her and she asked immediately. "Did any of you destroy Return?" She was relieved that no one had even fought the card. So then she went back to thinking of ways to search for Return. "Fiery, you called all these cards here, how far away can you talk to other cards?"

"I have no idea." Fiery answered with a shrug.

Tomoyo felt a surge of anger but closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to calm herself. "I really should not yell at a being that just burned a city. Not to mention, tried to burn -me- to death."

"Well then," She continued calmly, "everyone spread out but don't loose contact with the others. Call for lost cards and tell them that it's safe to come out and we need them to help Sakura. Fiery, stay with me please. Now let's look."

And so they flew around the edge of the destroyed area with the cards calling for close to two hours, but when they hadn't found a single missing card, Tomoyo accepted that it wasn't working and she had to stop and think some more. "I have my Magic sense, and I can reach really far out with it. And I now know just what Sakura Cards feel like. Why didn't I think of that sooner!"

So she reached out with her Magic, feeling blindly for other cards. In less than ten minutes she thought she located one, but it was far from the destroyed area. Flying to the spot took another half hour, but she found both Flower and Sweet hiding together in the basement of a house. She calmed the frightened cards and asked about Return. No luck. They had no idea where any of the other missing cards were. So Tomoyo reached out with her Magic again, and again she located a hiding card. It was Twin and they had no idea where Return was either. The third card she found was Shadow, but when she asked if he knew where Return was, she got a much different answer. "I can find any card which casts a shadow."

"Finally! Success! It won't be long now and I can undo all this destruction." But after a minute Tomoyo began to worry again. And after five minutes she couldn't wait anymore. "Shadow? Are you still looking?"

"You haven't said you wanted me to look." Again she felt fury inside her. The Cards were so stupid! Or at least some of them were. After a deep breath to calm her she spoke to the dark shadowy figure again. "Find Return, and lead me there." After a couple of seconds without any answer from shadow she wondered if she had said something wrong. "Are you looking for Return?"

"Yes, I am. I will tell you when I find Return." So Tomoyo sat on the ground and waited. The pain in her chin was agony, but she had no ice to put on it. When she got thirsty she had Watery make her a little fountain, and then ran the cool water on her burnt chin for a while. As the hours past, she noticed that she didn't feel really tired or hungry. She decided it must be her Magic that was energizing her. Finally Shadow spoke. "Return is not casting a shadow anywhere I can reach."

Tomoyo couldn't help whimpering a bit, but then she reminded herself that it WAS possible to save Sakura, and it was up to her to figure out how to do it. "Of course!" Tomoyo thought to herself, Return must be hiding in the dark somewhere. Or, a frightening thought came to her, Return had jumped back in time to escape the angry Cards.

"Still, I have to keep searching!" she ordered herself, so she had Shadow and Flower locate and bring back all the cards they could. Shadow could find the cards and Flower could talk to them. Fiery had told her that no one was afraid of Flower so she would be the best one to talk to frightened cards. But in less than an hour it was too dark for Shadow to find anyone. One of the cards that they did find however was Time, and Fiery had said that Time was the only card that Return talked to. Time didn't know where Return was but he did say one very encouraging thing.

"Return couldn't have gone back in time. Because unlike the rest of us, Return can't use it's own power without outside energy. So unless Return found a source of Magic power it is still in this time."

"The most likely thing is that Return is hiding in a very dark place. Which is probably underground. So maybe my Earth Magic will work better through the earth..." First she had Earthy find her a house with a basement; an unusual thing in the area. Then she sat down on the floor in that basement with Earthy and began using her Magic. Earthy knew what Return felt like and she seemed very compatible with her own Magic; so she tried to blend their power. She began reaching out and sweeping the area, feeling for Return. Reaching a little further with each sweep.

She found many more Cards but Earthy assured her that none of them was Return. And so she reached and strained, and suffered the pain of her burn until it was nearly morning. She was thinking for about the tenth time that she must smell horribly inside her leather clothes when Shadow came to her with news.

Chapter 13

Saturday, July 29 4:28am

"I have located Return." Shadow stated flatly.

"How could he do that when it's still dark out? Oh well, it doesn't matter, as long as he knows where Return is!"

The excitement of finally locating Return pushed everything else out of her mind. "Everyone! Follow me please." she told the Cards, then she put her helmet back on and tried to fasten the chinstrap exactly on the strip that wasn't burned. But after several tries it seemed impossible to keep it off her blisters. "Actually I don't even need this stupid helmet anymore. In just a little while I'll have Return and I will be going back in time, leaving all this here anyway. Including my poor blistered chin." So she pulled the helmet off and took off without it.

It was impossible to look into the blast of wind, but she didn't need to as she could follow Shadow with her Magic sense. But as the minutes went by, she began to wonder if dumping her helmet was a good idea. "I remember reading how you can lose a lot of your body heat if your head isn't covered in the cold... But we should get to Return soon. It can't be all that far. None of the other cards were. I hope I didn't make a mistake by leaving the helmet behind."

Her braids had quickly come loose from where she had pinned them, and then the wind blast had torn off the ties on the ends. Once the ends were loose the braids didn't last long and soon her loose hair flapped in the wind like a flag, pulling her head back rather hard. "It doesn't matter. We should be landing soon." She assured herself.

But after nearly an hour of flying she was getting impatient, so pulled up close to Shadow and yelled. "How much further is Return?!"

"I don't understand." Shadow replied with no expression.

Tomoyo took a deep breath and tried again. "How long before we get to where Return is?"

"How long what?"

"Time! How long a time until we get to where Return is?" There was a slight delay before Shadow replied to this.

"I am not Time. I am Shadow."

Tomoyo wanted to scream in frustration at the stupidity of Shadow, but she knew it would do no good and might confuse the Card. After a few more questions she decided that Shadow had no concept of either time or distance. All he knew was direction and movement.

So on and on they went, through another hour and then another. "We seem to be going Northeast, but without a proper compass I can't tell any closer than that. Well at least my chin doesn't hurt as much in this cold." After she had been flying for three hours, her excitement was waining and the fact that she hadn't had any sleep in more than twenty-four hours was catching up with her. She felt totally exhausted. So she found a quiet place away from houses and had Shadow hide them in shadows beneath the trees. She told Time to wake her after four hours and closed her eyes. She was asleep in seconds.

When she opened her eyes Time was standing next to her. "It will be four hours in forty seven seconds. You woke early." To her surprise and relief, aside from being really hungry she felt rather good. But then as she thought about food her thoughts began to bounce around in her head. "I could use the cards to steal some...after all, none of this is going to have happened as soon as I use Return...but I hate the thought of stealing...but I do have a credit card...so maybe I could just buy some...but that would take time...Eriol hadn't said that I had to use the Return card by a certain time...but I'm scared that something will go wrong if I waste any time...he had told me to use my time wisely."

"Okay, everyone! I need you all to hide in your card form for a little while so I can stop somewhere and get some food. You can come out of your card form afterwards." There was some hesitation but with some threats from Fiery, they all went to card form and stacked themselves so she could put them in a pocket. "Well, at least my chin feels better..." She thought as she took off again.

At the next town on their way, she found a business district and looked for a good place to land. Seeing a dark alley just off a likely looking street, she dropped very fast down into it to avoid being seen, but when she used her wings to stop her decent they made a terrible roaring and to add to the mess, the backwash from them knocked over garbage cans and sent them rolling around. "Well so much for stealth!" She thought angrily as she put her wings away.

"Now everyone is going to be looking to see what caused all the noise." Sure enough in the next minute or so many of the back doors of the businesses opened and people looked out. She just glared at them and kept walking towards the street she had picked out.

There was a group of young men standing near one wall at the end of the alley, and when they saw her they laughed a bit and blocked her way. "I'm carrying enough power to destroy a city and these idiots think they can play games with me?! Not going to happen!"

"Fiery!" she called and in an instant the flaming sprite was out in front of her.

"You want me to burn them?" The flaming sprite asked as he materialized a white hot fireball. But of course this wasn't necessary as the men let out some terrified cries and ran as fast as they could out into the busy street; knocking several people over who had been in the way.

Out on the street she was looking for a restaurant or even a grocery store, when she walked downwind of a street stand that was selling some kind of food. The aroma blowing across the street stopped her cold."Oooh, that smells so good! But I don't suppose he takes credit cards. I should just go on and... But it smells SO good!"

Then she thought about the men in the alley and came up with a plan. If she hadn't been so tired and hungry she would never have considered it but... She simply went back into the alley, took off and went up high before coming back down fast, braking perhaps twenty feet up with an impressive roar, and then descended slow enough for the people to get out of the way. She was an impressive sight alright, with her beautiful face and very long windblown hair, not to mention her roaring wings. After landing she noticed that some of the people were kneeling and apparently praying to her. The vendor bowed respectfully but didn't back away. The way he kept glancing at his food cart made her smile. He obviously wasn't going to leave it for anything. She didn't try to use her very limited Chinese, but just pointed at the food and then held out her hand. In a second, his eyes suddenly got big and then he smiled just a bit, and with his hands shaking only a little, he filled a cardboard container with the rice mixture and handed it over with some chop sticks. She took it, nodded slightly to him, then flew up and out of town.

Little did she know of the excitement she left behind. The story that spread through the town was that a goddess had heard about how good Yung How's food was and wanted to try it herself. So she had flown down from heaven to get some. And enough people believed it for him to become instantly famous and quickly sell all the food he could make.

She stopped at a quiet place outside of town and told the sprites that they could come out of card form if they wanted to. Oddly enough a few of them stayed as cards, which she put back in her pocket and zipped. As soon as she had eaten they continued on their way again, following Shadow.

As she flew along in the cold blast she had an idea. "Fiery! Fly in front of me, please." It didn't work as well as she had hoped but she could feel some warmer air directly behind Fiery. She just had to be careful to not get too close.

Chapter 14

Saturday July 29 12:00pm Hong Kong Time.

Tomoyo wasn't used to pulling Earth energy and was concentrating very hard instead of just letting it flow, so it wasn't surprising that she was exhausting herself. Then the more tired she got, the harder it was to concentrate on her Earth energy and keep feeding her Fly card. The fact that she was giving it much more energy than it needed didn't help either. Two hours later she reached the coast of China. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

"Shadow! Follow me down!" And so she found a place to rest some more and think. "The next land this way should be Japan, but I don't have any idea just how far that is over water. I wish I had a map! Actually, I wish I had an airplane. Or just had Return in my hand. This is so crazy! Flying to Hong Kong just so I can fly back to Japan!"

After resting as best she could for an hour she took off and followed Shadow and Fiery out over the water. She was flying much lower now since there was no one to hide from. so it was warmer than high up, but the powerful wind blast was still chilling her. After four more hours of flying Tomoyo was again exhausted, but there was no land in sight. "It feels like I've been following that stupid Card for several days now!" she complained to herself. "I just have to keep going until I get to land. Japan isn't that far from China. I should be almost there." This would have been true if she had left from Shanghai, due west of Japan, but at the angle she was flying it was 720 miles (1159 kilometers) to Japan.

She managed to struggle on for two more hours, but then she found the sea getting closer and closer. "I can't make it! I'm coming down into the sea. But I can't fail! Think!" And as she struggled with her tired brain she remembered something. "I have Magic. I have Sakura's Cards, or some of them. Float could keep me up, but I don't have Float. And the water keeps getting closer. Water!"

"Watery! Can you make the surface of the sea solid to hold me up and keep me dry!"

"It is done." Watery replied. Sure enough there was now a circle of very flat water sticking up above the rolling swells. She landed on it, and when she fell, she was happy to find it was soft, like a mattress. It felt dry, but it was icy cold.

"Fiery! Can you please warm this surface a little?" Fiery grumbled a little but the surface did get a bit warmer. "A little warmer please?" Now it actually felt warm to the touch. "Okay, hold it right there." "Thank you Watery! Thank you Fiery! Keep this surface firm till I fly again."

"I will do as you ask." Watery replied while Fiery just ignored her.

She laid there, limp, far out at sea, but more comfortable than she had been in what seemed like days. She woke up in a little more than an hour this time as her body was getting better at using her Magic to restore her energy level. Return was close now, she was sure, though she still couldn't actually feel the Card with her Magic. So on she went, and in a little while she could see the lights of land again.

Sun July 30 12:30am Tokyo time

She knew her geography well enough to know she was over Japan, but she took a low pass over a town to check the signs on the buildings anyway. Her hunch was coming true. But it was nearly six more hours before she could see Tokyo tower above the buildings. The sunrise had been beautiful, but she was too tired to enjoy it. Not long after that she wasn't surprised when Shadow led her right to Sakura's house. She landed on the sidewalk in front of the house and fell again. This time on the concrete. Her legs were so stiff she could hardly move them. Her knees and hip hurt where she hit but the leather protected her skin from abrasion at least. She could clearly feel Return now. "No one should be home now so it doesn't matter what we do. This is all going to be erased anyway."

"Earthy! Break the door. Time! Go talk to Return and bring it out here to me."

"I really need some rest now. So why don't I just go home? No reason not to. None of this matters anyway. But maybe I could just rest here a little before I do."

A minute or so later, Time came out with a misty spiral.

"So that's what Return looks like. No wonder the Cards call Return "it" instead of he or she."

Tomoyo wasn't paying any attention to the cars driving by but the people on their way to work were nearly all staring at the strange sight along the otherwise average street. There was a girl in purple suit with insect wings coming out of her back laying on the sidewalk, and if that wasn't odd enough, there were some really strange things around her, including one who appeared to be on fire. All but one of the people just looked away and kept driving. The brave, or maybe stupid, guy stopped. When Tomoyo saw him get out she took off without even standing, since by now her wings were stronger than her legs.

"Return! Stay close to me, please. Everyone else, just follow us."

So off they went; a parade of card sprites with her and Return leading. It was only a couple of miles to her house but it seemed much further.

Chapter 15

Sunday 7:00am Tokyo time

"If only Eriol had looked for the Return Card after he arrived in Japan! It was only a few miles from my mothers house where he came. All that effort, and torment could have been avoided!" It was so frustrating it hurt. Then as she thought some more she realized that it was quite possible that Return hadn't arrived in Japan yet when Eriol was there. "But it's all in the past and doesn't matter anymore. And anyway I will be going back and switching reality to another Timeline so none of this will have happened. And -that- is so strange I can't even imagine it right now. What I need is a bath and a good long sleep...and then some food. Or maybe the food first..."

As she approached her house her tired mind wasn't at all concerned about being seen, so she wound up landing in the back yard in full view of her mother and a maid who were on the terrace. "Oh well, it doesn't really matter. All this is going to be erased anyway." she tiredly thought to herself as she came in for as gentle a landing as she could. She settled to the ground on her hands and knees and then just flopped down on the nice soft grass. After resting for another moment, she remembered to put her wings away and ask the Cards go back to card form. After that she just laid there until she was disturbed by a familiar female voice.

"Are you hurt?"

Tomoyo smiled before she turned her face towards her chief body guard and replied. "No, Aoi. I'm just really really tired."

"Tomoyo-sama! Your mother has been doing everything humanly possible to find you!"

"I'm very sorry, but it was an emergency. I tried to explained that when I called her from Taiwan."

"You went to Taiwan?" Tomoyo just nodded as Aoi helped her up and half carried her to the door where Sonomi was waiting.

"TOMOYO!" she cried out as she rushed to meet her. "Are you injured? What happened? Where have you been?"

"I'm not injured, well, my chin is burned a bit but mainly I am really tired. I'll explain the rest up in my room, please?" Sonomi nodded, looked at her daughters blistered chin, then took Tomoyo's other arm and between the two of them they got the exhausted girl up to her room where Aoi was dismissed.

As soon as the door shut Sonomi took one sniff and started undressing her daughter. "Oh my... You smell!" Tomoyo gave a tired little chuckle before speaking.

"Well, I've been living in these leather clothes for... I don't know...three days?" her tired mind guessed.

"Why? Where were you that you couldn't bath and change?"

"I went to Hong Kong."

"Hong Kong? But it's all destroyed!"

"Yes it is, but I had to go to stop further destruction and then... It is a long story Mom; long and real hard to believe."

"Stop further destruction? Well save it for after you take a shower at least."

"What a wonderful idea. Now if I can just stand by myself. Nope. But maybe if I draw some Earth energy and direct it to my legs... Yes! Now into the shower." She adjusted the water nice and hot, then got in and felt a searing pain. "Right, don't put hot water on a burn. I knew that. Now to carefully wash without hot water on the chin anymore."

When she got out, Sonomi was waiting with several towels, and some burn cream. "It is -so- wonderful to have her back again and not be tormented by all my imaginings of her being killed and worse." Sonomi thought to her self as she helped dry her very tired daughter.

"Now if I can please call the cook before I start?" Tomoyo said as she slipped into a robe. "It seems like a day or so since I ate last."

"Of course!" Sonomi was happy to comply and once her daughter had finished her phone call and she had applied the burn cream, Tomoyo started her story.

Chapter 16

"Well, you did see me fly in to the back yard?" Tomoyo said as she sat on her bed.

"Yes. I suppose this means that you have magic wings like Sakura?"

"Yes, exactly." Tomoyo replied before her exhausted mind told her that her Mom wasn't suppose to know this. "You know about Sakura?"

"I saw her coming out of your window once. I was afraid she was going to fall and kill herself for a moment, but then she suddenly had these big white wings that seemed to glow in the moonlight...and she just flew away... I was going to ask you and her about it, but I was afraid maybe I had hallucinated and you would think your mother was crazy. I'm very relieved to know that there really are people with magic wings and I'm not crazy. Unless, I just think I saw you, a woman, an old man and some really strange looking things fly into the back yard."

"No, Mom. You're not crazy. There really are Magic wings and many other very amazing things too." Tomoyo could see the relief on her mom's face but she seemed to be smiling as well.

"Okay, but then why couldn't I see your wings?"

"I'll show you." So she bent over and called on her fly card. See, Mom, I have different wings than Sakura's."

"They look like insect wings! Why don't you have nice angel wings like Sakura?"

"Well. I didn't have a choice. I was given a magic card that would allow me to fly and these were the kind of wings the card makes. And in fact these wings are much faster and stronger than Sakura's pretty ones."

"But why couldn't I see them?"

"They are transparent as you can see, and they move very fast when I fly, like this." There was suddenly a roaring, and a wind in Sonomi's face and in fact she could hardly see the rapidly beating wings.

"And now you can just make them disappear?" As Sonomi finished the question the wings were gone. "And those things that were following you?"

"Those are Card sprites. When they are 'put away' they become cards like these" Tomoyo then picked up the Sakura Cards and showed them to her mother. "These pink ones are Sakura's magic cards. But these three are my Cards, and this is my Fly Card. When I call on this card with my Magic I sprout wings as I did a minute ago. And those wings have carried me all the way here from Hong Kong. That should explain why I'm so tired."

Sonomi nodded slowly before speaking. "Of course. It is a long way...to fly with your own wings..." After she had digested this for a moment she continued speaking. "Well, I did see you fly, and you have shown me your wings. So unless I am hallucinating, you do have Magic and it would seem, Magic cards. But those things I saw following you. You called them what?"

"Card sprites. Fiery!" In an instant the flaming sprite was out and looking at Tomoyo. "Why did I call Fiery of all Cards? I guess after all the talking we have been though I feel closer to him than the rest. I hope he doesn't blister the paint on the ceiling."

"Would you like me to burn something?" he smiled as a fire ball appeared in his hand.

"Not right now, thank you."

"It's no problem. I did burn all of Hong Kong after all." he said proudly as he turned to Sonomi and smiled. Sonomi's eyes got rather large as she stepped back from the flaming sprite.

"Please go back to Card form, Fiery." Fiery then shrugged, shrunk to a card and flew back to Tomoyo's hand.

"And the earthquakes? And the Tsunami's?"

Tomoyo nodded and held up Earthy and Watery. "But why...?"

"Everything was fine as long as Sakura had the Cards. They all love her and will do anything she asks. But someone killed Sakura."

"Oh." Sonomi said softly and then sat down in a nearby chair.

"And then Fiery and many of the other cards were so furious that after they had killed the guilty person, they just kept on killing and destroying. And they would kill anyone other than me who tried to stop them. So Eriol powered up my Magic and made some Magic cards for me, then helped me to learn how to use my Magic and pointed me towards Hong Kong."

"So now you have all these destructive things? Isn't it horrible dangerous to have them here with you?"

"Not really. They are doing whatever I say because they know that I can bring Sakura back."

"But you just said she was dead!?"

"She is right now. In fact a few days ago I talked with her ghost. But with the Return card, I can now go back in time to last Sunday, rewind time actually, and save her. And then the Cards won't destroy Hong Kong."

"You can...what?."

"That's okay Mother. It's a lot to absorb at once."

"Wait! Did you just say that even though Sakura is dead now, you can go back in time, and save her?!"

"Yes. That's correct. And this will also save all the people who died when Hong Kong was destroyed."

"You can change the past?!"

"Yes. If it is permitted."

"Permitted by who?"

"Well, you can call it either natural law, or the gods. Some things have to happen. They are destined. But others don't have to happen, and those can be changed."

"How do you tell the difference?"

"I can't. But Eriol, who was here a few days ago? Well, he can tell what is destined and what isn't."

"Oh. I was just wondering if you could go back and save Nadeshico."

"I don't know. But I can't do anything until I save Sakura."

"Of course. And all those people... But how are you suppose to stop a killer? Tell the police?"

"No. I don't even know who it is. I just have to go back and do my best. I have my Cards, Saber, Shield and Fly and the Magic to use them. If I must fight whoever it is, then I will do so. And Eriol said I have a very good chance of succeeding."

"But what happens if you fail?" Sonomi asked with a worried look.

"Then I guess, Sakura, and all those people in Hong Kong will die again."

"But what will happen to you?"

"I don't know."

"And you are trying to avoid telling me that you are risking your own life in this."

"Yes Mother, I am risking my life. And I think Sakura and all those millions of people are worth some risk."

"But why can't someone else go back and fight this killer?! Why not this Eriol? He seems to have magic power too."

"He does. And much more than me. But he looked at the possible futures and in all of them where he went back, Sakura and all those people in Hong Kong still died, and he died as well. The only way that Sakura and Hong Kong can be saved is if I go back. I have a special kind of Magic that no one else has. I expect that's why it has to be me."

"This is all so strange and confusing. I don't know WHAT to do!"

"There isn't very much you can do, Mother." Tomoyo said quietly but firmly. "You can help me or not help me, but you can't stop me. I may be only sixteen, but with the Cards I have more power than just about anyone on Earth. And I will do -whatever- I have to, to save Sakura; and undo all the horror and death that happened there." Then as Sonomi looked thoughtful, Tomoyo realized how she was vulnerable. "And you had better not try drugging the food or anything like that, because if Fiery and the rest think that I'm not going to save Sakura as I promised, they may just do to Tokyo what they did to Hong Kong."

As this image appeared in Sonomi's mind the shock showed clearly on her face. "They could..."

"Yes, they could. And I doubt that there is any power on Earth that can stop them... except me. I am the only one they will listen to right now."

Just then there was a knock at the door. The food Tomoyo ordered had arrived. Sonomi sat quietly and digested as well as she could, all that her daughter had told her. Fortunately she was both intelligent and imaginative, and she had loved magical fantasy when she was young. As she went over it in her head she realized that, in fact there was nothing she could do to stop her daughter from risking her life. "Okay, I think I understand now. And I won't do anything to interfere with you. But I am very frightened." She was silent again for a moment before continuing. "If you go back and change time what happens to me?"

"Time gets sort of wound back. You go back to Sunday, and start living your life from there. Without any disasters."

"Will I remember any of this?"

"No. As far as you are concerned, it will have never happened."

"But you will remember it."

"Yes. I have to. And I think Sakura will remember it too. But I am really tired now and I would like to sleep for a while."

"When you are ready, just do it. I don't really want to remember this past week anyway...except... Once this is over and you and Sakura are safe, please tell me about it again. I promise I won't cause you any trouble. I just want to know."

"Okay mom. If it's okay with Sakura, then I'll tell you about the Magic."

"Thank you." Sonomi nodded.

"I really would like to get some sleep now."

"Of course. Sleep well and... I'll see you again last Sunday." She finished with a small smile. But as she was going out the door she turned. "You remember when I told you how I wanted so very much to be a Magical Girl when I was little?" When Tomoyo nodded she continued. "It's good to know that they really exist. I missed out, but at least my daughter gets to be Sailor Moon. Good night my Magical Girl."

"Good night, Mother." Tomoyo answered politely. "So I'm a magical girl like Sailor Moon? In a way I suppose. But not really. This is real Magic and a lot different from the dumb stuff they do on television."

Chapter 17

After locking the door and going back to bed she found it impossible to sleep. While she was laying there thinking, she realized something. "Only my mind is going back and it will be in an earlier body; one that isn't tired. So I don't really need to sleep." So she picked up the cards off the nightstand where she had put them and pulled Return out. Then she realized that there was no way she could pull and store enough energy to use the Return card properly, so she did need to sleep. So the cards went back down on the stand and Tomoyo closed her eyes and thought some more. The Sleep Card could put her to sleep. But she didn't have the sleep card. So she just laid there with thoughts racing through her head. "I have Magic now like Sakura. And according to Eriol or Clow or whoever he is, I am the only one who can save Sakura... and Hong Kong. That is such an incredible fact that it still feels more like a crazy dream than reality. What happened? Less than a week ago I was just an ordinary girl with no power at all. And now Sakura and millions of people are depending on me and -my magic- to save them!" Then a tiny voice deep inside of Tomoyo said something she really didn't want to think about. "Now you are a Magical Girl like Sakura. And it is your job to save her. No one else can. Not Syaoran, not Eriol, no one but you. Doesn't this make you a "Magic Prince" worthy of her love?"

"NO!" she answered the little voice out loud. "I am still a girl! And girls can't be princes! My Sakura-chan needs a boy prince." Then as she kept trying to ignore that insistent little voice she finally fell asleep.

Tomoyo woke up six hours later feeling fine. After using the toilet she noticed in the mirror that something was hanging from her chin. "It's my blistered skin. It's all dead and dry now and my chin feels fine!" After washing her chin, it appeared perfectly healed. "And it was still hurting when I showered this morning. It must be my Magic. I guess I just needed some rest for it to work."

Then she had a thought that made her smile. "I tried not to be, but I really -was- envious that Sakura had Magic and I didn't. Not to mention Syaoran having Magic. But now I don't have to be envious of anyone! I love having Magic!"

"Okay, now I have to concentrate. This is the most important job of my life. I MUST do it right, or Sakura will die again! "I will draw earth energy and fill the Return card." she said to herself out loud. "Then when I give the command it will send my spirit back to last Sunday. And... My Tomoyo Cards! What if I need Fly, or Shield? Or even Saber? And what about my Magic? Will I still have Magic back in my past body? "Return! Will I have my Magic when I arrive in my past body?"

The spiral appeared before her but she didn't hear anything. She did feel a response from Return but she didn't understand what it was trying to tell her. "Time! Come out of your card!" And in an instant the old man was standing before her. "Can you talk to Return for me?"

"Of course."

"Ask Return if my Magic will go back in time with me."

Time looked at the Return card for a moment and then back at her. "Yes, you will still have your Magic when you move to your younger body since it is a property of your spirit."

"Now ask if it's possible for me to take my Tomoyo Cards back with me."

"...It is possible. But because that is a time before they were created, their bodies will have to be moved back in time. This will take much more power than just moving a spirit."

"So now I wonder if I can draw and hold enough power?"

"Ask Return what will happen if I don't have enough power to send me and my three cards."

"Not all of you will go." He replied in a moment.

And I won't know if my cards came with me until it's too late!"

But then Tomoyo had an idea. "Ask if I can send the cards one at a time before I go."

Again in a moment Time spoke. "Yes."

"And if I send the cards one by one and then go myself will we all wind up in the same moment in time?"

The pause was a bit longer now. "No, Return says it's not that perfect. However they will only be spread out over a few minutes."

"And will the cards appear close to my younger body?

In a moment Time answered. "Return can send them back so they are close, but not too close or they might appear inside your earlier body."

"How close is "close"? Tomoyo was suddenly worried that what Return called "close" might be like within a kilometer.

"They will be within the length of a card from the same hand you are holding them in."

"That should do fine!" Tomoyo thought with a smile. So she proceeded to draw as much energy as she could and poured it into Return, then held up her Fly card. "Send this card back to last Sunday, July 23th at five in the afternoon!" As she finished the Card vanished out of her hand. Then she repeated the same thing with the other two cards. And then finally she gave the command to send herself back.

Chapter 18

Sunday July 23 4:59pm

In the blink of an eye Tomoyo found herself at the dinner table with her mother. She was holding her Light Saber Card and looking at it. "Ah...this one arrived before I did and my earlier self had no idea what it was. I'm glad I didn't put it someplace where I couldn't find it." Tomoyo then looked around casually and couldn't see any other Tomoyo Cards so she felt that everything was going fine. A minute or so later, as she was eating, a card appeared in the air next to her right hand and almost fell on her plate. "Ah, there is the second one, now just one more to go." After that she kept her right hand over her lap and waited.

"Are you full already?" Her mother asked.

She thought quickly. It appeared that she had just started eating and she didn't want her mother to worry that she wasn't feeling well or something. "I should have sent the cards with my left hand, then I could still eat. I'll have to make a note of that idea for the next time I go back in time." She smiled to herself.

"No, I just have to use the bathroom." Once in the bathroom she expected the last Card to arrive in a minute or so. But after five minutes and no Fly Card, there was a knock on the door.

"Are you all right Tomoyo?"

"Yes, Mother I'm fine. I'll be out in just a few more minutes." Then she realized that she did need to use the toilet. And of course the fly card picked the worst possible moment to appear. As she was about to flush she saw it peeping out from under the toilet paper. "Aaaaah!!" she screamed as she jerked her hand back from the flush lever.

"What was that? What happened?" Sonomi's worried voice came through the door.

"Nothing important Mother. I just accidentally dropped something in the toilet and was startled." After rescuing her Card she carefully washed it while hoping Magic Cards were waterproof. Once she had it dried off she stuck it in her skirt pocket with the others and then went and finished her dinner.

As soon as she could get away she checked the date on her computer in her room. Sure enough it was 5:21pm Sunday, July 23. She had gone back in time a full week. Eriol had said she needed to go to Hong Kong, but she tried Sakura's cell anyway. And wasn't surprised when she got her voice mail. She packed a carry on bag with practical clothes, and took a quick shower. Her body wasn't really dirty or smelly at all in this time but it seemed like she could still feel the smelly stickiness that she had been enduring in the future. "And I don't know how long it will be before I get a chance to take another bath." she reasoned. "Now I just have to explain to my mom that I have to suddenly fly to Hong Kong when Sakura is suppose to be back the day after tomorrow... Unless I tell her that Sakura decided to stay longer and wanted me there. That sounds reasonable. And as much as she has been pushing me to be with Sakura she shouldn't have a problem with that."

And Sonomi didn't. She was delighted at the news that Sakura had rejected Syaoran and then just smiled a lot when her daughter told her that Sakura was staying longer in Hong Kong and wanted Tomoyo's company. She even made the reservation herself. "Have fun with Sakura!" Were her final words as Tomoyo left in the limo.

"I wish I could Mom. I really wish I could." The new Magic Girl thought sadly to herself. A few minutes later Tomoyo was surprised to receive a call from Li's mother, Ieran.

"There is a terrible disaster coming and it has something to do with you and the Sakura Cards! Do you know anything about it?" Ieran was in turn very surprised indeed when Tomoyo explained briefly all that she had just been through. "I will stop this now! Don't worry, I will save Sakura for you."

"I'm coming anyway. Even if I am not needed. So I will see you soon." Tomoyo told her and then she ended the call. It took over an hour to get to the airport in the Tokyo traffic but she had allowed for this and by seven fifteen she was sitting at the gate waiting to board her plane. She was just relaxing a bit when it dawned on her that Sakura was probably already kidnapped. And hidden in a house somewhere. So she -had- to get to Hong Kong after all. "Why couldn't I have come back to this morning before Sakura had gone anywhere? Then there would be no problem just getting her out of Hong Kong before anything happened. But, it seemed that wasn't allowed. So now we have to save her the hard way." Then a possible answer came to her. "Perhaps if I had brought Sakura back home this morning, then maybe whoever killed her would have followed her here, and killed her anyway. And maybe me too...and then it would be Tokyo that the Cards take their rage out on...and there would be no one who could stop them..."

Fifteen minutes before her flight was to leave she got another call from Ieran. "Sakura is missing. Meiling says that Syaoran met them at the mall and took Sakura away for an emergency, but Syaoran says he hadn't seen her since she left to go shopping with Meiling. My Magic is telling me that my son is telling the truth, so it must have been someone with a Magical disguise. I have tried to locate Sakura and the cards from my home with my Magic and have been unsuccessful."

"I have to board now, Ieran-sama, I'll call you from the plane phone, give me the number you are at, please." Once Tomoyo was in the air and the phones were working she called Ieran back.

"If we do not find Sakura," Ieran stated, "The destruction will start a little after 11pm tomorrow night. And I have a vague memory of my house falling on me. I suppose that is the future if we don't change it." Ieran announced without even saying hello.

"Did you see where the destruction started?" Tomoyo asked.

"No. I didn't even see what exactly killed me. And all my Magic can read is vague feelings of destruction and death. But you were alive and watching the news, where did they say the destruction started?"

Tomoyo closed her eyes for a moment and tried to remember what they were saying when she first heard the news. "All I remember is the man said at one point that the destruction was so far limited to the north half of the island. They were talking about buildings being toppled and fires."

"I have a helicopter coming here to pick me up and I will try searching from the air. Perhaps I can detect something if I am closer to where Sakura is being held. I will start by searching the down town area and then move out from there. Tell me your flight number and arrival time and I will have someone meet your plane."

"Okay, but before we do that I just remembered something. Eriol told me that he learned from Sakura's ghost that she had traveled less than an hour before she got to the house she was killed in."

"Did she say where the house was, or which direction, or anything?"

"No. She was asleep on the way and she never saw the outside of the house."

"Well at least we know that she is within an hours drive from that mall."

"I want to help you search for Sakura! Eriol says I have a very good Magic sensing ability and there is a high probability that I will find her!"

"Very well, I will pick you up when you get to the helicopter pad." There didn't seem to be anything more to talk about so Ieran passed the phone to a man who took her flight information.

Chapter 19

Sunday July 23 10:30pm

The man who met her at the terminal drove her a short distance to a sightseeing company. There she was directed to a helicopter that was idling on the pad. Once inside and buckled up, Iran handed her a set of earphones with a microphone attached which she put on. As Iran informed her that she had found no trace of Sakura, the helicopter rose up and started flying slowly back and forth over the city between the mountains and the sea.

Ieran had a bowl with water in it that she kept looking into while Tomoyo just probed the buildings below directly with her new Magic senses. She could feel the people in the buildings as they passed over them, but no sign of Sakura or the Cards. Ieran had even rented two helicopters so they would always have a full one while the other one was being refueled. "I wonder what that is costing her? But of course, cost would be no object to Ieran when her whole city as well as her own life is at stake." she idly thought.

After two hours over the downtown area they started searching further out. But after five more hours they had covered all the north side of the island and part of the mainland without any results.

"If they are being shielded we won't be able to sense them directly, but a Magic shield is never perfect. It will leak some Magic and we must find that. We will now try looking for anyplace that has the feel of strong Magic and investigate it." Tomoyo nodded, assuming that this method would work since she was confident that they would find Sakura.

The sun rose in a beautiful red and pink sunrise but neither Tomoyo nor Ieran even noticed it. They searched all day, covering the entire area that she could be in, landing and investigating one Magic user after another without any trace of Sakura, the Cards or a Magically shielded area. Tomoyo was getting really exhausted from straining her Magic as hard as she could for so many hours, so she took a break and tried to just clear her mind and rest. And almost at once she had an idea. "Ieran? Can you feel the energy that flows out of the earth?"

When Ieran replied, "Energy from the earth?" Tomoyo knew that she would have to do it herself.

"When I draw my power from the earth, I can feel the flow of it faintly from every square foot of the surface. Perhaps, if there is a magically shielded room somewhere it will show up as a shadow where I can't feel any energy."

"Why didn't you say that hours ago!" Ieran said angrily and her words cut Tomoyo like a knife.

"I just thought of it." Tomoyo said sadly,

"Stupid child!" Ieran commented sharply before instructing the pilot to start over and fly faster. Tomoyo felt a horrible pain inside. "I was SO stupid! I just went along with Ieran and didn't even try to think for myself!" As she was searching, it didn't occur to her that she was a sixteen year old girl who had only had Magic for a few days while Ieran was a Magic Master with many decades of experience, so it was perfectly natural for her to follow Ieran's lead. Instead she punished herself without mercy.

As they went back and forth over the city Tomoyo had her eyes closed and was concentrating on the Earth energy, looking for some place where she couldn't feel it. As the clock drew closer and closer to 11:00 Tomoyo felt the strain build. She -had- to find Sakura! Eriol had said that she had a high probability of success, so she -would- find the hiding place. Or so she kept telling herself.

Monday July 24 10:48pm

Finally she felt a hole in the earth energy. There was a large house far up the side of mount Ghough and there was no energy coming through the house. It was a completely dark spot. "I FOUND IT!" Tomoyo yelled into her microphone, and then she pointed to the house. "That house is shielded!"

"Pilot turn around. See the large white house with the red tile roof just a little to the left of where we are pointing."

"Yes."

"Land as close as you can to it, quickly."

But as they descended, the house suddenly exploded in a huge ball of flame. "NO!!" Tomoyo screamed as she realized what this meant. "THIS IS NOT...SUPPOSE TO...HAPPEN!!"

Chapter 20

The pain tore through her like fire, but before she could even start crying she remembered something. "I can't afford to fall apart now! This isn't over, the Cards will start destroying and killing any minute now. I have to stop them!" She reached out to the cards with her Magic and tried to talk to them as Ieran told the pilot to continue landing. But the cautious pilot was doing it rather slowly as he watched the tall flames coming out of what used to be a house.

Too slow for Tomoyo. "The cards will start their destruction soon, there is NO time to waste!" She thought as she unbuckled her belt. Then she took a breath, opened the door and jumped out.

As she went through the Helicopter door the headphones that she had forgotten to remove were pulled from her head causing the microphone to rake her cheek but she hardly noticed it as she called on her Fly Card and flew as fast as she could, down to where she could feel the cards. On the way down she suddenly realized what she could do and the pain in her chest eased.

All the sprites were out of card form and roughly in a circle. As she flew towards them Fiery tossed a ball of fire at her but she just diverted it and kept on coming. "FIERY!" She screamed. "I'M TOMOYO! SAKURA'S FRIEND!" He seemed to have heard because he didn't throw anymore fireballs as she landed near him.

She could feel the Cards rage but they were at least giving her a chance to talk to them. Only because of who she was to Sakura, Fiery made it clear. She was happy to see Light and Dark there and they were supporting her, but the cards didn't seem to listen to the two beautiful ladies at all.

As she tried to get them to quit interrupting her and just listen, the sound of the helicopter got really loud. She turned and saw it landing nearby on the road. She waved angrily at them to go away, as she couldn't hear anything over the noise and in a moment it did take off so Tomoyo went back to talking to the Sakura Cards. But just a few seconds later Watery shot out several steel like jets of water. Tomoyo was startled but quickly realized they were not aimed at her. She turned to see what Watery was attacking and saw Ieran on her back on the ground. By the time Tomoyo had dropped her shield and gotten to her she was dead. "There must be no more killing! Please, be calm. I have come to save Sakura!"

"Sakura's dead! So how can you save her?" Fiery said angrily.

"I will use the Return card to go back to before she died, and prevent it from happening."

"Return can do that?!" Fiery asked.

"YES!" Light shouted. "Return can be used by someone with enough power to change the path of events. After a bit more explaining with Light and Dark helping Fiery seemed to get it but it took him a while to explain the idea to the others.

"Return! Come here please." When the smoky spiral came before her she gave it all the earth energy she could, then commanded, "Return! Send me and my Cards back four hours!" But after a couple of seconds she realized that it hadn't worked and panic started building inside her. "RETURN!" She screamed, "Send me and my Cards back two hours!" Again nothing. One hour didn't work either. Not even ten minutes.

Chapter 21

Tomoyo's panic didn't last long before her powerful self control took over and pushed the panic down. "I have to think clearly to save Sakura! But why? Why doesn't Return work? Is the Universe preventing me from saving Sakura? It can't be! Eriol said that saving Sakura was permitted... Maybe... Maybe I can't use Return while I am in the past due to using Return once already. That makes a certain amount of sense. But that would mean that I can't save Sakura. And I HAVE to! I just need a little more time." Then it hit her. She checked her watch and it was just 11:05. "There is still time!"

"TIME!" she called loudly and the old man floated over to her. "Can you turn time back?"

"Certainly." The old man said with a little smile.

"Does it have to be midnight for you to do it?" She asked, having remembered Time's capture all those years before.

"Not really, though I do prefer it that way. It's much neater."

"Oh. Well it doesn't have to be neat, we just need to save Sakura! Turn time back 24 hours now!" She commanded.

"I can't." Time said, keeping his little smile.

"Why not?!" Tomoyo demanded.

"You haven't given me any of your Magic power yet."

"I am SO stupid sometimes!" she berated herself before again drawing as much energy as she could from the earth and giving it to the old man who seemed to suck it in. "Now can you turn time back 24 hours?"

"Yes." Time replied with a slightly bigger smile but nothing happened.

Then Tomoyo realized she hadn't given him an actual command. "Turn time back 24 hours!" She ordered and-

Sunday July 23 11:06pm

Tomoyo was back in the helicopter flying over the city with a very alive Ieran. "Ieran-sama! Do you remember what happened before I used the Time card?"

"Time card? Oh. So that's what it was. I was with my mother again. And before that I was walking up to you and the Cards... and there was this terrible pain... The Cards killed me didn't they..."

"Yes. Watery did before I could stop him."

"I wanted to help but it seems my shield is useless against the Cards." Ieran added shakily.

"I'm just glad that we get another chance to save Sakura, as well as you."

"Pilot! Fly to Mount Ghough and search the north slope." Then as the helicopter turned and sped up she turned back to Tomoyo. "I remember now how you opened that door and jumped out. I thought you were trying to kill yourself from grief until I saw you land safely. You never mentioned that you had the power of flight." she finished with a hint of a smile.

"Well... Eriol gave me a Magic Card he had made that gives me wings." Tomoyo explained. She was about to tell Ieran about her other two Cards but she was cut off by the pilot talking to Ieran. Then they were getting close to Mount Ghough and she had to start scanning. When Tomoyo again found the hole in the earth energy they took very careful note of the location of the shielded house. Then they had the pilot continue his search pattern so as to not tip off whoever was in the house that they had been found.

Tomoyo was all for going in immediately but Ieran said they must be careful. Whoever had shielded that house so perfectly and completely was very powerful indeed. They would need help to get Sakura out alive. So they went back to Ieran's house and rested while all of the people who were both magically powerful, trusted by the Li family, and in Hong Kong were called and asked to meet at Ieran's house.

Monday July 24 10:09am Hong Kong time

Tomoyo was startled awake when her cell rang. "Mother! I'm sorry I've been very busy and I forgot to call you last night... Yes, everything is fine here. We are planning an outing today... Yes, it should be very interesting... I'm sorry but Ieran is going to be explaining what we are going to be doing today in just a moment now... No, Sakura isn't with me, she is at someone's house but we hope to be meeting her there a little later. Yes, Syaoran will be coming with us... It's a kind of a surprise. I don't really know the details. Could I call you back tonight? Okay then, bye now mom."

XXX

Tomoyo listened as Ieran stood in front of the group and spoke. "First, will everyone here accept my leadership?" Seeing as how Ieran and one of her uncles were the only ones who had actually been in a major Mage battle, and he supported her, the rest agreed that she should be in charge.

Then she went over the tactics. The first thing she did was to divide the group into those who were best at Magical attacks and those who were best at shielding from attacks. Tomoyo wasn't surprised to see Syaoran as only the second chosen for the attacker group as she had seen his power. There was some disagreement about who should be shields but in time these were settled. They wound up with five shields and seven attackers. The two strongest shields were each assigned two attackers to protect. The other three shields each had only one attacker to protect.

"When we go in," Ieran said, "we do it as a group. With everyones shield merged together. Does anyone not know how to merge their shield?" After a few seconds a red faced Syaoran raised his hand and everyone stared at him. "Don't be so embarrassed. It is my own fault for not teaching you. So you can just shield yourself until we begin attacking... We will maintain a united defense until I see how many we have to deal with, so stay together until I tell you that your team may break off and fight on your own."

Chapter 22

By late afternoon, all was prepared. Ieran, her twelve Mages and Tomoyo were in four cars illegally parked along a road up slope from the target house. "Now everyone refrain from using any Magic and blank yourself as well as you can. Tomoyo?"

"Yes Ieran-sama?"

"Stay here. You should be safe enough, and yet still be able to tell what's happening. Do not probe the house until after we attack." Tomoyo was not pleased with this order but before she could say anything, Ieran continued speaking to the rest of the group. "Now, does everyone understand what they are to do?" When no one spoke she started down the hill towards the back of the target house followed by her team.

As Tomoyo waited the anxiety was driving her crazy. "We will win! We have to. Eriol said it was very likely that we would save Sakura, so there is nothing to worry about." But the confident words did nothing to ease her fear.

Half way down, the slope got steeper and as Ieran was cautioning everyone to step carefully she missed her own footing and fell, sliding several feet into a thorny bush. She was badly scratched but just whispered a few select Chinese cuss words and continued.

The first problem was a security fence around the back yard of the house. Ieran's uncle stepped forward and with a few hand motions a red glow cut a large inverted "U" in the steel mesh. As the cut out part fell to the ground Syaoran remembered he was suppose to be up front with Ieran. But as he tried to cut in front of the man in his way he was pushed into the still glowing wire ends on the edge of the hole. To his credit he winced but did not cry out as several wires burned all the way through his clothes and blistered his skin. On the way to the back door he did manage to get in front and as he had been instructed, he summoned a lightning bolt directed at the door.

As it exploded into splinters everyone could feel the cloaking spell go down and a powerful Magical probe wash over them. A second later Ieran spoke loudly. "There is only one person to fight, everyone stay together!" But before they could take another step they were hit by a massively powerful nonphysical Magic attack. It felt like they were engulfed and smothering in putrid slime while white hot needles stabbed at them from all sides. The combined shield of the group (except Syaoran) was able to keep the burning needles out, but not the feel of the slime. "Everyone stay close and keep your shields locked together!" Ieran yelled. The feel of the attack was so disgusting it made everyone nauseated. Fortunately Syaoran was the only one who had eaten recently and as a prime attacker he was in the front next to Ieran, so when he lost his meal it didn't spray on anyone. And since he didn't have his shield merged with everyone else his distraction didn't do any real harm.

XXX

It seemed like a very long time and Tomoyo was beginning to worry that something had gone wrong when she finally felt a burst of Magic and then a moment later heard a loud crash. She reached towards the house with her Magic and found the barrier was down! She quickly scanned the house, noting the battle on the first floor, and then faintly she felt something familiar. "That's Sakura! I'm sure of it! And I don't care what Ieran said, I have to go to her!" So she called on her dragonfly wings and took off with a roar.

In less than a minute she was hovering outside the upstairs part of the house where she felt Sakura. Checking the layout with her Magic she moved to the end of the room furthest from Sakura, put her shield away and invoked Light Saber. She then used it to cut a window out of it's frame. But when she tried to go in through the hole her wings hit the sides before she could get close enough to stand on the windowsill. "Blast it! I've got to get in there now!" With this thought she fired up Light Saber again and sliced the wall all the way to the next window over across the top and bottom. But the cut piece of wall didn't fall, it stayed right where it was. "I need to get in there NOW!" She screamed in her mind and with burst of unusual fury she used her still lit up Light Saber to slash the wall over and over until it fell in small chunks both inside and outside the room.

Now she was able to fly right in but when she landed on the chunks of wall she twisted her ankle and fell painfully on the jagged pile of debris. "OH RATS! What a stupid way to hurt myself!" As she struggled to her feet she saw Sakura, fully dressed laying on a bed with her eyes closed and with her Magic sense she saw the thick magic spell wrapped around the Cardmistress like a shroud. For a moment she forgot she had just sprained her ankle, took a step and fell again to the floor when her left leg collapsed under her. "I must save Sakura! I don't care how much it hurts!" she yelled at herself in her mind, then got up and hopped on one foot over to the bed.

Meanwhile downstairs, as Ieran led her group down a hall towards where she felt the attacker was, four of her group took out handguns and made sure they were ready. They were Ieran's little surprise for the Mage they were fighting. "Let's see how he handles a nonmagical attack." she thought to herself with a smile.

But as they dueled back and forth with nonphysical Magic, Ieran sensed something unusual about the shield the Mage had. "Are there two people there, or one? It feels like a double shield...but only one person..." Just then Ieran's thoughts were interrupted by a stream of fireballs which were coming through the wall that separated them from their enemy. As the shields deflected the attack, they quickly advanced until they could see who they were fighting. He was a young man in a business suit standing by a staircase. He looked mildly annoyed.

That's when the four attackers opened up with the handguns... The sound of the powerful weapons was deafening but all that firepower was having no effect at all on the young man. "That strange shield! It's a physical shield, and a strong one."

"Stop shooting and concentrate on nonphysical attacks and fireballs! They are the only things that can hurt him through that shield!"

"He is much stronger and better defended than I had assumed was possible. This is going to be a hard fight... But we -will- win." she assured herself firmly. As powerful nonphysical Magic attacks were repeatedly stabbed into the young mans shield and a nearly constant stream of fire balls were exchanged, Ieran was amazed that one person could not only hold off all her attackers but attack them back so powerfully at the same time.

When the group managed to stop all his physical attacks he hit them with his strange nonphysical slime needle attack at the same time as the fireballs. "Now I wish I had waited longer so I could have had more people. My over confidence will kill me yet!" Ieran raged at herself.

When Ieran's group had dueled furiously with the young Mage for a minute or two he suddenly seemed startled by something and stopped his attacks. His glance upwards gave Ieran a hint. Breaking off her own attacking for just long enough to momentarily probe upstairs, she found Tomoyo with Sakura, and just as she did she felt the immense attack power of the man striking at Tomoyo. "NO! You stupid girl!" Ieran screamed at Tomoyo in her mind. "Now you are dead, and for nothing!"

Chapter 23

As Tomoyo started to strip the spell off of Sakura upstairs, she felt the full power of the young man's slime needle attack. It went right through her Shield Card but was stopped by the natural shield that had impressed Eriol so much.

"Ick! What a horrible disgusting feeling! And it's -way- stronger than Eriol's strongest attacks were. It feels like I'm being attacked by a demon monster instead of just a man." As she had this thought she put all of her concentration into just holding the attack off and trying not to retch.

When his attack stopped on Ieran's group she had the shields give power to the attackers for a merged nonphysical Magic attack. As the invisible Magic spear hit him, Ieran felt his shield soften to the point where some of the stabbing Magic may have leaked in through a tiny break. The man screamed, though from pain or rage Ieran couldn't tell. Ieran then took an instant to check upstairs and found Tomoyo still alive. "She survived the full power of his attack all by herself?! How is that possible?!... Perhaps it's... Earth Magic..."

Upstairs, the attack on Tomoyo stopped suddenly. "I have to get Sakura away from that guy or I"ll never be able to strip this spell off." she thought as she took advantage of the break by putting her arms around Sakura, and dragging her off the bed. She was surprised at how light the girl seemed. "Must be my Magic" she thought to herself. She found she was able to pick up Sakura in her arms like a baby but the pain in her ankle was excruciating when she put any weight on it. And she didn't think she could hop while carrying Sakura. "Well if I can't walk, maybe I can fly." So she put out her wings and found that she did indeed have just enough room between the floor and ceiling to fly. She felt her wings slapping against the ceiling as she flew but it didn't hurt much and didn't seem to be damaging them. So in just a few seconds she was out the huge hole she had chopped in the wall with her beloved Sakura in her arms.

Downstairs, the attack was back on Ieran's group, but not quite as strong as it had been before. Ieran tried advancing closer to the man but his combination physical and nonphysical attacks became stronger the closer they got. "No one can keep up this level of power for too long, so if we just keep at him he should tire before we do." But as if to make a lie out of Ieran's thoughts, his attacks suddenly grew strong enough to begin penetrating the teams combined shields. Syaoran felt a terrible stabbing pain in his head, which killed his ability to attack, but it only lasted a moment. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that the jacket of the attacker next to him had a hole burned in it. "Well at least I wasn't the one getting burned this time." He thought as he put all his power into his lighting attack.

Ieran had felt the combined shield leaking and ordered the team to retreat as far as they could without backing around the corner. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of a lot of flames through the holes that had been torn in the walls behind them. "This will have to be over soon or we will all be cooked in here." The extra distance reduced the level of the attack to one they could handle but it also decreased the power of their own attacks. "This will have to be decided by endurance. As long as we keep attacking him as hard as we can, he is bound to tire first." Sure enough, his attacks began to weaken and Ieran had her team approach him again.

Then he stopped his attacks yet again, Ieran quickly checked upstairs as she was preparing an attack and found Tomoyo leaving with Sakura, she smiled as they hit him with another concentrated nonphysical attack and this time she was sure she felt it penetrate. "That had to hurt a lot but it doesn't seem to have weakened him at all. But he has -got- to be getting tired!"

Just as Tomoyo got out of the house the Slime Needle attack was back stronger than ever and on top of it a volley of fireballs came shooting out right through the roof of the house and coming straight at her. Her natural shield was was now protecting both herself and Sakura from the nonphysical attack but Tomoyo realized she didn't have time to use her indirect defense to divert all the fireballs that were coming at her so fast and close together, so she used the power of her dragonfly wings to dodge out of the way. Unfortunately when she did, the sudden acceleration was so powerful it pulled Sakura right out of her arms. "NO!!" She screamed as it looked to her like the fireballs were going to hit her beloved Sakura. But before she had lost her grip she had given Sakura enough speed that they passed behind her harmlessly.

Catching the falling girl should have been easy considering the skill she had demonstrated back in Taiwan, but she was too excited and was trying -too- hard. This resulted in more of a collision than a catch, with Sakura's forehead hitting Tomoyo's face hard enough to break her nose. Even though she was blinded by the pain for a moment, she not only hung on to Sakura with her arms, she also wrapped her legs around the girl. "She is -not- getting away from me again!" she assured herself through clenched teeth.

Meanwhile back in the house, the mystery man's face was distorted with a scream as he blasted out a volley of fire balls, and at almost the same instant his slime needle attack seemed to smother and crush them while still stabbing at them. As it started overwhelming all their combined shields they were forced to fall back again. But this time they had retreated fast enough and their combined shield wasn't penetrated.

When the attack stopped again, Tomoyo was able to unwrap the spell from Sakura and as she started waking up, Tomoyo turned her head so she could hear the Card Mistress over the roar of her dragonfly wings.

"Uh... Tomoyo-chan?!"

"Yes, Sakura-chan? Tomoyo replied with a huge smile.

"Uh... You're flying?"

"Yes, we are." Sakura was quiet for a moment.

"Are we dead?"

"No, we are very much alive!" Tomoyo said with enthusiasm.

"Oh... Yes. I remember now. Something killed me and then I saw my mom and then you. And you had Magic and you were going to use the Return card. So I guess it worked. So where are my cards? I can't feel them."

"I would guess that they are down there in that house magically bound as you were until I freed you." This reminded Tomoyo that if Ieran and her Mages couldn't defeat who ever it was that had kidnapped Sakura then they would need the Sakura Cards. So she went back part way and reached into the house with her Magic sense. She could feel a terrible battle going on downstairs, but she couldn't tell who was winning, if anyone. She felt The Sakura Cards in the basement wrapped in Magic as she expected. There was something else there too, but she didn't worry about that. As she concentrated on peeling the spell off from a distance she wasn't surprised to be again attacked.

But this time she was far enough away from the house that she could dodge the stream of fireballs that shot towards her without losing her grip on her Sakura. But she couldn't finish releasing the Cards while being attacked.

Meanwhile downstairs in the house Ieran was relieved when the young man stopped his attack again. So again Ieran's group hit him with the same attack they had used before but this time she was sure he screamed in pain as his shield had leaked even more. She was only pleased for a second, before he was back hitting them with another massive combination attack. "Why isn't he getting weaker?! That should have hurt him a lot! If he doesn't weaken soon we just might lose this battle... NO! WE WILL WIN!" she yelled in her mind to help her sagging confidence.

A few seconds after the Sakura cards left the house, the young man turned his back, blasted a large hole in the outside wall and jumped through it, spreading dark colored bird wings.

One of Ieran's attackers read this move as running away due to weakness. In his excitement he rushed forward, and got ahead of the slower moving group. As soon as Ieran saw what he was doing she risked her life and that of her whole group by thrusting the combined shield out faster and further than was safe to keep him protected. And it may well have worked except in his excitement he wasn't watching where he was stepping. And it just happened that part of the destroyed wall had fallen into the room right in front of him. When his toe caught, he was moving way too fast to stop, so he went out the hole head first. The sound of his scream was like a knife through Ieran's heart.

Chapter 24

The remaining members of Ieran's group continued attacking the young man as he flew, but their attacks became less and less effective as he got further away.

Meanwhile, as Tomoyo felt the Sakura Cards coming, right behind them was a figure with wings, and the magical attack was back, slime-needle plus a stream of fireballs. As she dodged the fireballs she was careful to keep an iron grip on Sakura with both her arms and legs, and as usual the slime-needle attack only managed to get the sickening feeling through her natural shield. But it was getting stronger as he got closer and Tomoyo knew what needed to be done. "Sakura! You have to use the cards to... You have to kill him!"

"Tomoyo-chan!"

"You have to, Sakura! If you don't, we will both die and so will all of Hong Kong!" Tomoyo was doing her best to run from the man but with carrying Sakura and using a lot of her power shielding and dodging he was catching up rather fast.

"NO ONE IS GOING TO KILL MY TOMOYO-CHAN!" Sakura suddenly yelled, and just an instant later the sickening Magical attack stopped. Tomoyo looked back and could only see a cloud flashing light then dark then light again. Reaching out tentatively with her Magic Tomoyo could feel Sakura cards and lots of magic. "I have Fiery, Watery, Earthy and Thunder attacking as hard as they can but they can't break through his shield!"

"Star Power! Send them all the star power you can! Now!"

Sakura tightened suddenly in Tomoyo's grip and in spite of it being daylight, short bright streaks of light appeared all over the sky from horizon to horizon. In just an instant, the battle was over and the streaks winked out.

Sakura then called up her own wings and hovered next to Tomoyo, as Windy brought back a somewhat charred ball of something. "What should I do with this?" The beautiful elemental asked.

As they looked at what had once been a human being and felt sick, Tomoyo saw a ghost of an old man in a robe. "That must be what he looks like without his Magic disguise." Tomoyo thought to herself, but then she noticed there was a faintly glowing string going from the ghost's hand to the charred ball. What was even odder was that the ghost was smiling. "I have a real bad feeling about this."

"Sakura, could you have Fiery burn the remains to ash, and have Windy hold the ashes together? We may need to dispose of them in a special way."

"Uh, sure. Fiery! Burn that thing! Fiery smiled as he reached out to the ball with blue white fire and at the same moment Tomoyo heard the ghost scream. A horrible high pitched sound. As Fiery surrounded the ball with a very bright shell of intense heat, the string vanished and the ghost began furiously trying to push Fiery away. But all of the ghosts fury had no effect on the Card Sprite and after a few more seconds, it looked to Tomoyo as if the ghost was being sucked into a crack. It's body stretched and it screamed louder and flopped around trying to escape whatever was pulling it into nothingness. But the ghost's struggles were useless, and in a matter of seconds it had been completely drawn into the invisible crack and there was silence. As Tomoyo looked back at Fiery, he was handing over a small glowing ball to Windy.

"Tomoyo!" Sakura exclaimed, "You're hurt! There is blood all over! I can carry you if you need me to!" Sakura offered before she remembered that Tomoyo had just been carrying her while dodging fireballs a couple of minutes earlier.

Tomoyo looked down and sure enough she had blood all down the front of her clothes. "Oh yeah. The collision."

"That's not necessary Sakura. I just hit my nose is all, and it just hurts a little." The last part was a lie as the pain was rather serious now that there weren't any life and death distractions. "Come on, let's see how the others are."

As they approached the burning house Tomoyo could see a group of people on the front lawn near the street, so she landed nearby with Sakura coming down just behind her. Her penalty for forgetting her sprained ankle was a blast of pain and a fall to the ground. "Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura cried out as she knelt next to Tomoyo who was at this point very angry with herself for being so forgetful "What happened? Are you alright?" "Yes, mostly... I sprained my ankle a little while ago and just now stupidly landed on it." "I guess the pain in my nose made me forget about the pain in my ankle. But it was still stupid."

Once Sakura had helped Tomoyo to her feet and held her steady, Tomoyo asked the young woman who was looking at them, "Where is Ieran?"

"There." She replied and moved out of the way so the girls could see Ieran, who was kneeling on one side of someone who was lying on their back.

There was a middle aged man kneeling on the other side who looked up and spoke. "He is dead. His physical injuries are minor, so I'm guessing that the Magic attack tore his spirit right out of him..."

Chapter 25

As Ieran stood Tomoyo was able to see it was Syaoran who was lying there. "Poor Sakura. This is going to be traumatic for her." Tomoyo thought to herself as she turned to the Cardmistress.

"Syaoran!" Sakura cried out. "Why did it have to be you..." she trailed off as she began crying. "And you were trying to rescue...me" She mumbled through her tears.

As Tomoyo looked back at the corpse so she wouldn't have to see her Sakura cry, she caught sight of something strange. It appeared to be a very fine glowing thread coming off of Syaoran and and leading up into nothingness. This triggered something deep in her mind and suddenly she knew what she could do. "It's not too late!" Tomoyo announced as she hopped over to the dead boy. She fell to her knees and as her right hand touched Syaoran's chest the thread got brighter. "Yes! now the other hand goes...here." She thought as she put her left hand on the boys forehead. "Now I have to reach down the thread and find his spirit... And I need Earth Energy. And lot's of it..." As she concentrated she closed her eyes and her face took on an intense look.

"What are you doing?" Ieran demanded, but Tomoyo didn't even hear her.

When nothing had happened after five seconds or so, a women standing next to Sakura asked her if this was a Japanese ceremony of some sort. Sakura just shook her head and continued to watch Tomoyo.

A faint creamy white glow had started coming from Syaoran's body. As the seconds went by the glow grew brighter and brighter until it was so bright it hurt the eyes. Everyone could feel the power of the Magic, but no one had ever felt anything quite like it. Syaoran now looked like a statue made of light but still the light got brighter. Finally, after everyone had looked away or closed their eyes to avoid being blinded, the light suddenly winked out.

Everyone had spots in front of their eyes, but as they looked they could see Tomoyo sprawled across Syaoran's body. The man who had pronounced Syaoran dead got to Tomoyo before Sakura did. He gently pulled her off Syaoran and laid her aside, then laid his hand on the boy's chest. "He is alive! He was dead and now he is alive..." He repeated as if he could not believe his own words.

Then as if to prove the man's claim, Syaoran opened his eyes, went ridged...and screamed... Ieran had her hands on him in seconds and he went limp.

There was suddenly a lot of talking which Sakura ignored as she watched Tomoyo who was now being examined. Sakura could feel the man's Magic as he passed his hands over the unconscious girl from head to toe. "How is she?!" Sakura asked with some fear in her voice."

"She has a broken nose and a sprained ankle. Other than that, she is just exhausted. The Magic she just used must have been a great strain on her. But she is replenishing her energy as she sleeps and she should be fine in a few hours.

After a sigh of relief Sakura knelt next to the unconscious girl, took her hand and held it tightly with her left hand as she tenderly brushed some stray hair off Tomoyo's face with her right.

Meanwhile Ieran was talking with her Uncle. "My grandfather told me stories about Earth Magic Adepts who could bring people back to life, but I never really believed him. It seems I did him a disservice." she admitted with wonder in her voice.

When the cars were brought around from where they had been parked, a man carefully lifted and laid Tomoyo on the back seat of a big limousine. Sakura got in and knelt on the floor next to her, holding her hand and keeping her head from moving as the car went around corners. When the car pulled into Ieran's compound the Cardmistress was surprised. "Shouldn't you be taking her to a hospital?" Sakura demanded and the man in the passenger seat replied.

"Her nose has already stopped bleeding on it's own so all it needs is a little tape to hold it straight. With that and a wrap on her ankle and some ice bags she should be fine just resting at Ieran-sama's fine house. And I guarantee it will be more comfortable for her there than any hospital."

"What if something goes wrong? Who will watch over her? I don't know what to do!"

"Don't worry, There will be a fine doctor in the house to watch over her."

"So why isn't he here?" Sakura practically snapped at the man.

"He is attending to Syaoran-sama in another car. It was Ieran-sama's orders."

"Oh, okay." Sakura said quietly as she realized she had forgotten all about the boy who had asked her to marry him just two days before.

It wasn't long before she was cleaned up, had her nose taped and her ankle wrapped. Then with ice bags on both, she lay in a large bed in an elegant room.

Once the Cardmistress was convinced that Tomoyo was as comfortable as was possible, she moved a chair over to the the bed, sat down, took Tomoyo's hand and watched her sleep.

XXX

Ieran and Dr. Li had just left after having checked on Tomoyo for the third time when Tomoyo's cell went off. Sakura hesitated but then answered it. It was Eriol.

"Tomoyo?"

"No, she is asleep, this is Kinomoto Sakura."

"So she did save you! Of course I did say she was very likely to," he continued proudly, "but...you never know."

After telling Eriol all that she knew of what had happened and assuring him that Tomoyo was okay and would call him back when she was rested she ended the call. When Tomoyo's phone went off again in just a few minutes, Sakura figured it was Eriol with another question, but it turned out to be Tomoyo's mom. And she wanted to speak to her daughter.

"She is sleeping right now. Uh, she was up late last night and she needed a nap."

"Oh? Were you two having fun?" She asked suggestively.

"No! Uh...we were just busy. Sort of... I'll have her call you when she wakes up, okay?" Sakura managed to stammer.

"Okay, but don't forget to tell her."

"I won't. I promise."

Sonomi still wondered how her normally energetic daughter had gotten so tired, but after another assurance that Tomoyo was fine, she hung up.

"I forgot to tell her about the broken nose...and her ankle..." Sakura remembered after hanging up. "Oh well, Tomoyo really should tell her about that herself."

Chapter 26

Monday, July 24 7:20pm Hong Kong time.

Tomoyo opened her eyes and saw the ice bag on her nose. When she pushed it away she saw Sakura looking at her. The sight caused a surge of warm pleasure to flood through her. "I have my Sakura-chan back!" she thought to herself happily. But her next thought put her happiness out like a snuffed candle. "She isn't MY Sakura-chan! She will belong to the Magic Prince that I have to find for her." But this time the words didn't crush her completely. A little voice deep inside reminded her that she was magical now, just like Sakura. She even had her own cards. "No! I'm still a girl. That hasn't changed." But as hard as she tried she couldn't entirely quench the tiny flame of hope that had kindled inside.

Then when she shook her head and tried to get herself back under control again, there was another problem, or two actually, shaking her head made her nose hurt and Sakura was holding her hand. The first stopped when she quit shaking her head, but the second was still there.

"How are you feeling, Tomoyo-chan?"

"I feel fine! Except that my nose hurts, but I am thrilled that my Sakura-chan is back among the living!" She said truthfully, then gently pulled her hand away and tried to get up.

"No, Tomoyo-chan. The doctor says you have to stay off that ankle for a couple of days."

"It's not that bad." Tomoyo protested, but there was no way she could get past Sakura.

"Okay, I'll stay in bed for a while."

"I need to get away from Sakura soon...but perhaps not just yet. After all this adventure and Magic, I feel like we are ten years old and capturing Cards again." she smiled to herself, "And I really don't want to think about my sad destiny just now. I'll just think about food. I am really hungry!"

"I wonder if they could come up with something for me to eat?"

"I'm sure you can have anything you want, anytime you want. You saved all of Hong Kong, brought Syaoran back from the dead and brought ME back from the dead! The Li family considers you a great hero. And I consider you a great hero too, Tomoyo-chan. I owe you my life..."

"I wish she wouldn't say it like that. And look at me like that. I have to change the subject."

"Does anyone have any idea who it was?" Tomoyo asked.

"Well, Ieran is guessing he was a guy named Kutone or something like that. He was a really powerful Mage who caused a lot of trouble in China up until nineteen fifty or so when he was driven out in a big battle. He was suspected to have taken up residence in North Korea, but that was never known for sure."

"But YOU were the one who defeated him, don't they consider you a hero too?"

"Well, actually... They do. And it's really embarrassing."

"Sakura still blushes very cutely" Tomoyo said with a soft smile. "I only wish I could have gotten the fight between you and Kutone on tape."

"There was no way you could have, you were fighting right along side of me. And as I recall, you were using both hands to hold me from falling!"

"I guess I was. But how is Syaoran doing?" Tomoyo wanted to know.

"He's resting now. Ieran told me that it must have been very horrible to be killed by Kutong's slime needle attack. It may take some time for him to recover from the shock. But he should be fine in time. And he would still be dead if it weren't for your amazing Magic!"

XXX

While they were waiting for the family cook to fix the Japanese style dinner that they had agreed on, Kero flew into Tomoyo's room. "I highly recommend the food here! It is excellent. Particularly the cakes. The cakes are very good. You should try some."

"Kero-chan!" Tomoyo said happily. "Where have you been? I was afraid you were dead." Kero hesitated and then spoke reluctantly. "I was looking for Sakura and then suddenly I was here with Ieran. She said that I had been found in Kutong's basement-"

"Kutong?" Tomoyo interrupted as she looked at Sakura who just shrugged. "I said it was "something like..."

"As I was saying before I was interrupted! That sneaky guy caught me when I wasn't looking and put a spell on me." Kero looked embarrassed until Tomoyo asked about the cakes he had mentioned. In a moment he was happily describing all the wonderful good things they had made for him.

Tomoyo guessed that the time in London was a reasonable hour, so she called Eriol. Once he was assured again that everyone was fine she related a very brief version of what happened. He was, not surprisingly, delighted and impressed. "I told you that you had a lot of potential power! But it seems even I underestimated you. Now I can understand why you had to be the one to go by yourself. I didn't know about this Kutong and would have met him on my own, with apparently fatal results. It was fortunate indeed that Ieran gathered so many Mages and even more fortunate that you have such an amazing shield. It is certainly a relief to know that Sakura and her cards are safe now. But since the news has obviously spread, there may be more who are interested in her. You had better stay close to The Cardmistress just in case."

"Of course, I will." Tomoyo answered without really thinking about what this meant.

Not long after the phone call, Tomoyo's dinner was served to her in her bed.

"Now I want you to tell me everything that happened to you since I spoke to you on the phone yesterday... but it was last week to you, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was last week to me, but you just heard me tell the story to Eriol." Tomoyo sighed.

"Not very well, and I couldn't ask you any questions. Now I want all of the details and don't leave anything out! And the first thing I want to know is just how your nose got broken."

"Well, actually you broke it." Tomoyo said with a little smile.

"Me! I couldn't have! It was broken when you woke me up." Sakura protested.

"I didn't say you were awake. But seriously, it was my own carelessness that was responsible. It seems while I was carrying you out of Kutong's house I dropped you."

"What?! You couldn't have!"

"Oh but I did. I was dodging Kutong's fireballs and you slipped out of my arms. Fortunately, the fireballs all missed you, but then I had to catch you. And I did it very badly. I was -so- frightened of you hitting the ground before I could catch you, I came at you way too fast and ran into you. My poor nose hit your very hard head and was broken." Tomoyo finished with a grin.

"So that explains this bump on my forehead." Sakura said as she fingered it.

"Your bump is my fault actually, I hit you with my nose." Tomoyo finished and then laughed.

"Okay...I'm sorry I have such a hard head, but now tell me all the other stuff, and don't leave anything out." So Tomoyo started her story over again, but this time she included all the little things that she hadn't bothered to tell Eriol. The only thing she did leave out was how painful getting her Magic awakened had been. "Sakura doesn't need to know about that."

Sakura was suitably amazed at Eriol's "Card use" final exam. Then chuckled at how she had used Fiery to frighten the teen aged boys who had blocked her way. She grinned at the story of the food vendor and how people had dropped to their knees and was amazed that Tomoyo had flown all the way from Hong Kong to Tokyo with her own wings. She applauded Tomoyo's cleverness at sending the cards one by one to be sure they all got to the right time, then laughed again at what had happened to Tomoyo's fly card in the bathroom.

"I'm really surprised at how well your mom took the news about our Magic and everything." Sakura finally said.

"I'm not. She is really a very intelligent and understanding person. And I promised to tell her about our Magic in this...world, no, Eriol called them Timelines. Anyway would you have any problem with it if I told her when we get home?"

"I'm not sure. But I guess if you think it's okay..." Sakura hesitated and then shrugged as she finished. "Then I guess it's okay."

"Good! Now I can look forward to telling her." Tomoyo finished with a smile.

"You know back when I told my brother all about the cards and Yui and everything, I was worried just what he would do. But it was never a problem. Still, as far as I know, my dad still doesn't know anything about my Magic. It seems like he is always away now anyway." She looked sad for just a moment then grinned and spoke happily, "Now I can call you Card Captor Tomoyo! After all, you did sort of capture the cards, and you really did keep them from destroying this whole city and killing millions of people. That's much more than I ever did!"

Tomoyo couldn't help but feel embarrassed at Sakura's praise. Sakura noted this and then continued with a grin, "Tomoyo-chan also blushes very cutely." Then they were both laughing together. Tomoyo stopped first and just listened to her Sakura-chan's laugh. She thought it the most wonderful sound in the world.

End of Part 1

Continued in "Tomoyo's World - Part 2 - Bitter Turns to Sweet!"