Chapter 4
"Wow! It worked...I think...it must have! Ah! We are out in the yard, just like Mom said. Of course this is where we left from. So it must have gone well I guess. But I'm thinking two things at once. Mom never said it would be this confusing! Mom said? Yeah, so I guess I can welcome you to our world. Thanks, I'm welcoming myself to my own house. Can we really fly now? Yeah, I still have my Tomoyo Cards right here in my pocket. And we have dragonfly wings? Yes of course. Ah, I get it. Yeah, there are two of us now. And I can hardly wait to use our fly card! Wait! I am the me that just arrived in this Timeline. I am Tomoyo1, okay? Okay. Then I'll be Tomoyo2. But it's still hard to tell which me is thinking what. Concentrate!
"Okay, Nadeshiko is alive here so your mission worked. And the way Mom tells it, you had a really tough life. And I'm Tomoyo2 of course."
"Yeah, I guess I did. But Ah!" At this point Tomoyo1 found Tomoyo2's memories but just as she started looking, the massive confusion in Sakura's mind broke into her train of thoughts.
"Tomoyo? What happened? What's happening? I'm all confused. I'm thinking two things at once! I was just in the house and now I'm here and we were using the Return Card- thing...whatever…do you have it?" she finished with a dazed look.
This caused Tomoyo1 to glance down and make sure she had a hold of a purple card with a picture of a spiral on it.
"That must be our Return Card!" Tomoyo2 commented.
"Yes, I have it, and remember what my mom said this morning? The other us will be coming sometime and we will suddenly suddenly jump out to the front yard. So they are here now and we are both ourselves and them."
"I remember her saying that, but I didn't know it would be so confusing..."
"Kero, are you okay?" Sakura asked.
"I am fine, of course! Little things like this don't bother me!" Sakura smiled at Kero for a moment and then got the confused look back.
"He is real!" Sakura announced with a surprised look.
"Of course I am real!" Kero responded in an angry voice. "What's the matter with you, Sakura?!"
Tomoyo1 smiled and shook her head then went back to looking at Tomoyo2's memories and was fascinated.
She had grown up with Sakura! Sakura and her parents had lived with her and her mom, and she had shared a room with Sakura, as far back as she could remember. And then when she was about ten, she had decided that she loved Sakura as more than a sister, and she had confessed. Sakura had said that would be fine with her since she wanted to live with Tomoyo forever anyway. On her thirteenth birthday Sakura had kissed her. A very innocent kiss to be sure, but wonderfully sweet! Then on Christmas eve when Tomoyo was fifteen, they both had the same idea for a Christmas gift for each other!
"WOW! I'll never forget THAT Christmas!" Tomoyo2 broke into her train of thought.
"We've had such wonderful times!" Tomoyo1 exclaimed to herself as she was overcome by Tomoyo2's memories. When she once again became aware of her surroundings, she found herself down on the grass. In front of her Sakura was also now sitting on the grass, shaking her head and still looking confused.
"It must be all due to Nadeshiko! Mom has obviously been very much in love with her for as far back as I can remember. And I know Sakura was aware that her mom loved my mom as well as her dad. So since I grew up like this, I've always assumed that love between girls was perfectly normal."
"It -is- normal! And wonderful!" Tomoyo2 interrupted.
"So that must be why I never hesitated to tell Sakura how I felt."
They had been a real couple for over a year now and there were lots of memories of the wonderful times they had shared. There were also a lot of memories of wonderful times spent with both of their mothers and Sakura's dad. "Sonomi doesn't hate Sakura's dad now! In fact..." Tomoyo1 was stunned for a moment by a memory of a talk with her mom when she was five. "They share a bed?! But then she remembered the rest of it. ""But just to sleep that's all" she remembered her mom making very clear when she was older. Okay, but it still seems -really- weird..."
"What's weird about it?" Tomoyo2 laughed. "Nadeshiko-san loves both of them, and she didn't want either of them to have to sleep alone. And they both love her so much they will do anything for her..."
"Of course this seemed perfectly normal to me as I was growing up. Though I do remember Mom telling me to NEVER EVER tell anyone at school about the sleeping arrangements." Tomoyo1 made their body chuckle.
"It is far from normal of course," Tomoyo2 smiled. "but it seems normal in this house."
"Sakura from this Timeline seems different too. Much more sensitive and aware of her own and others feelings." The reason for this came to Tomoyo1 immediately. "Growing up with her sweet sensitive mom must have had a very good effect on her. And it would explain why she was sure of her feelings for me so much sooner."
"Yeah, she was really messed up in your world. And so were you! I really don't want to remember that pain." Tomoyo2 mentally cringed as she touched some of Tomoyo1's earlier memories.
But in this Timeline, Sakura had never found the Clow Cards! Mom had encouraged both of us to practice our Magic." Tomoyo1 smiled slightly. "But without Eriol's help and the Cards we didn't practice that hard and neither of us had learned to do very much."
"Hey, it's not like we don't have any Magic. We can do lot's of things." Tomoyo2 protested.
"But you didn't have the Cards to deal with, and that makes a big difference. And so, for the most part, we were just two normal girls in love; sweet and safe. What a wonderful past! But now we have jumped into this Timeline with our Cards, and the responsibility of guarding them and making sure no evil person steals them. It seems we have brought our curse with us."
"Why don't we just get rid of them? So then no evil person can get them and we won't be bothered? Tomoyo2 wanted to know.
"No. We can't risk throwing away the power to save the world. There is at least one evil Mage out there with a lot of power and there may be more. It is also possible that the Clow Cards still exist somewhere in this Timeline. So if the wrong person gets control of those Cards only the Sakura Cards will be able to stop them. We are the guardians of the world, and it would be terribly selfish of us to throw that away just for our own pleasure."
"I guess so, but why us? Girls our age only protect the world in anime, not in real life!"
"You have lived a very different life than I have, so I don't blame you for your feelings. But you know I'm right, I can feel it."
"I guess so. But I still think it's really scary. When Mom would tell us about what you did in the other world, saving Sakura's life and fighting that evil Mage I was -so- glad I didn't have to do that." Tomoyo2 whined.
"Well it isn't like I -wanted- to do it. I just did what I had to. And you are really me, so if the same thing had happened to your Sakura, you would have done it too."
"I guess..." Tomoyo2 admitted. "I can't imagine living without my Sakura-chan."
"So we are stuck with the power and the responsibility. But we both have Magic and we both have Sakura, or Sakuras, I guess. So life is still sweet. Tomoyo1 finished that as she thought of something really serious. "I wish we knew for sure if the Clow Cards still exist in this Timeline. And then there is Kutong. I've no doubt he exists in this Timeline and is still looking for the Saku- no, the Clow Cards. He doesn't know the Sakura Cards exist...I hope."
"I never heard of any such person." Tomoyo2 mentioned.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean he doesn't exist. You don't have any memory of Ieran or Syaoran or Eriol or Kaho either. We will have to look into these things."
"Tomoyo! Uh...! It is so messed up to have two of me in my head!"
"Take it easy! Just try to divide your mind into Sakura1 who came from the other world and Sakura2 who has always lived here. That should make it easier for both of you... That's better!" Tomoyo2 finished as she could feel Sakura's mind stop trying to be one person and just let the two Sakura's be separate.
"It's wonderful! She's alive!" Sakura1 suddenly realized.
"Yes Sakura, I know. I remember that too. And she, "and everyone else!" is likely wondering what happened to us. "Fujitaka-san is here too! He came all the way back from Mongolia just for our arrival." So let's go in and you can work on getting rid of the confusion in your mind."
"Okay." Both Sakuras replied before turning to where the Seal Beast was hovering. "Come here Kero. You will have to do your stuffed animal act until we are in a safe place."
"Pretending to be a stuffed animal is very embarrassing for someone of my stature! Did I ever tell you that?"
"Yes, Kero." Tomoyo1 jumped in when Sakura hesitated, looking confused. "You have mentioned it, but you really need to keep doing it. You don't want to cause any trouble for Sakura, now do you?"
"Of course not! I'm her protector!"
"Do you have two sets of memories?" Tomoyo1 wanted to know.
"No! I'm just the same as always."
"Which means that either Kero hasn't awakened yet in this world. Or he doesn't exist here. And Yuki! He exists in this world. Toya lives with him in his grandparents house. But I have no memory of Yue."
Of course by this time the three parents had come out of the house and were standing in plain sight, watching and listening. But it was Sakura who first saw them.
"MOM!" Sakura1 cried out as she ran to her mothers arms.