The Paradox Web

Randomly decided to write a story.

Right, this story will contain mentions of S+S, but don't expect lots of romance. There will also be some fluff around.

Disclaimer: Applies for the whole story: I do not in any way, shape or form own Cardcaptor Sakura or its characters which belong to CLAMP.

Chapter 1
The Ripples in Fate

Eriol Hiiragizawa sighed and rubbed his temples, closing his eyes to block out the world around him and the one within his mind. Attempting to see what lay ahead was proving futile, the most he could glean from the murky shadows was that dark times lay ahead, something sinister and mysterious. After that, the shadows became tangled within each other, as if unsure of what was to happen.

Sighing once more Eriol pushed all thoughts from his mind and instead focused on his guardians, Spinel was attempting to read another of the many ancient books, which is all he seemed to do. Nakuru, obviously bored, was sitting beside Spinel while dangling a piece of chocolate in front of his face. Needless to say Spinel was having difficulty focusing on the book.

"Come on Suppi-chan, you know you want it," this was accompanied with a slight wiggle from the chocolate.

"I most certainly do not." The fact that Spinel had forgotten to correct the use of his nickname coupled with a slight edge in his voice made his denial seem somewhat unconvincing. Eriol noticed Spinel's eyes flicking from the page to the chocolate, page, chocolate, briefly he wondered if he should stop Nakuru before his house ended up demolished via sugar-high Spinel.

His musings however, were cut short by a sudden, burning pain. Hissing he doubled over, arms wrapped around his waist for all the good it would do. It felt as if something was burning at his aura, his magic, corroding it like acid, he knew that if he were to look at his skin, there would be no physical sign of harm. He was vaguely aware of his guardians calling him, of someone's arms wrapping themselves around him before his mind was blinded by pain, his last thoughts were that at least he didn't have to worry about a sugar-high sun guardian.

Nakuru gazed down at the boy cradled against her, he was shivering and whimpering in pain. Not knowing what to do she hugged him closer, willing the pain to stop. Spinel hovered above her shoulder, book and chocolate forgotten.

"What's wrong with him?" Nakuru questioned the sun guardian.

Spinel just shook his head, "His aura's being attacked, but by who and from where…" he shook his head again in hopelessness before flying down and curling up against Eriol.

"Oh Sakura-chan I have the perfect idea for your next costume!" Tomoyo's eyes sparkled as she stared into the distance, dreaming of the ideal costume for Sakura.

"Hoe! But Tomoyo-chan, I've already tried on over ten of you're costumes this week," Sakura's mutterings managed to pull Tomoyo out of her fantasy, if she hoped this would put Tomoyo off, she was sadly mistaken as Tomoyo gasped in horror.

"Is that all!" Sakura sweat-dropped at her friends antics and began edging away from her as she began ranting about how her poor Sakura-chan must be feeling so neglected and that from now on she was just going to work harder.

"Well, now you've done it," Syaoran decided to state the obvious for Sakura's benefit whilst trying to blend in with the surrounding cushions, he'd found that he had lately become a victim of Tomoyo's costume obsession.

The three friends were all seated in then Sakura's living room, Sakura's dad and brother could be heard in the kitchen finishing the dishes, the occasional 'gaki' floated in courtesy of Touya, soon followed by Yukito's soft reprimand. Yukito had gone along to help with the dishes, but soon discovered a horde of cupcakes and pastries and soon forgot as he and Kero, who had somehow smelt the food from upstairs dug in.

It was at this time that the dark pain decided to assault the group.

Sakura was in the middle of her sentence when the pain struck, instantly the world around her vanished as her eyes squeezed shut. She heard Tomoyo calling her name and running as Yukito, who had been coming in to ask if they wanted any cupcakes, dashed over to, calling her and Syaoran, Kero followed echoing Yukito's calls. A thump in the background and her brother's voice shouting 'Otou-san!' barely registered.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when the pain finally ceased. Blinking tiredly she managed to open her eyes, the world around her was blurred, there was a lump of brown-ish green next to her which soon registered as Syaoran. She turned her gaze and met a blob of violet and beige. Blinking quickly her vision soon settled to reveal a worried Tomoyo, next to her was Yukito, his gaze flicking from her to Syaoran.

A noise caught their attention and both Tomoyo and Yukito turned to see Touya carrying the limp body of Fujitaka in.

"Otou-san," Sakura tried to stand but her vision wavered and she fell, Tomoyo managing to catch her and steady her as she slumped to the floor.

"You should rest Sakura-chan," she didn't attempt to disguise the worry in her voice. Wearily Sakura nodded as Yukito muttered something similar to Syaoran. Not bothering to look for a cushion Sakura lay down on the floor, closing her eyes once more as oblivion welcomed her.

When Sakura next woke she noticed that most of the pain and weariness had gone. Pushing herself up she noted that someone had carried her to her room and that the early morning sun from the morning had been replaced by the long shadows and orange glow of dusk. Suddenly, the whole event from earlier came rushing back, she gasped, Syaoran-kun! Otou-san! She had to see if they were alright. She hastily pushed the covers back and made to jump out of bed, but her aching muscles soon stopped her and she groaned in annoyance.

"Sakura!" Kero was immediately upon her "Are you feeling better? Is something the matter? And why are you trying to get out of bed?" The last one was directed at the fact that Sakura was slowly trying to push herself into a standing position.

"I'm feeling fine Kero-chan," said guardian beast snorted in disbelief "I have to see Syaoran-kun and Otou-san." Kero softened at this.

"Well… just take it slowly, we don't need you harming yourself anymore than you already are."

Sakura nodded gratefully and began the slow journey out of her room, across the landing, one small step at a time.

"Sakura-chan," she glanced up at Tomoyo who smiled back "I was just coming to see if you were awake, Li-kun's been demanding to know how you are." Sakura smiled at this and tried not to show the fact that she was ready to sink to the floor and give up on her quest.

"Tomoyo-chan… could you, help me." Tomoyo nodded and linked her arms under Sakura's. Once they were in the living room she allowed Sakura to slump onto the sofa next to Syaoran, who immediately wrapped his arms around her and started asking her how he was. How he managed to ignore the death glares sent by Touya was a complete mystery to her.

Once it had been established that she was alright and that Syaoran was in a similar condition, she managed to distract her brother from his glare long enough to question her father's health.

"I'm not sure, he just fell over and seemed to be in a lot of pain before quickly losing consciousness. I took him to his room, but he has yet to wake up." He sighed gloomily and Yukito put his arm round his shoulders, drawing him close in a brief hug.

"I'm going back up to see how Otou-san is doing. I'll tell you when he wakes up." Touya tagged the last bit on when he saw a determined look appear in her eyes and had decided that killing herself trying to get back upstairs would not be a good idea.

Not long after he had left Yue emerged whilst Kero settled on the sofa next to Sakura. An air of seriousness replaced the worry as Sakura voiced the question they were all thinking.

"What happened?"

Kero hummed slightly before replying, "We're not exactly sure Sakura, whatever it was, it was attacking through you're magic, although, why Yue and I remained unaffected is a mystery to me." Sakura and Syaoran nodded in agreement, it would explain why they felt so drained.

"You don't think it was Eriol do you." Syaoran voiced the question more as a statement and everyone groaned at his suspicion.

"Syaoran-kun, it's been three years since we saw Eriol-kun, I doubt he'd be the one to do this, why would he?" Sakura was sure she heard him mumble something about Eriol being evil, but apart from that gave no response to her question.

They all sat in silence as the minutes passed by, the only sound was the ticking that marked the passing time as each allowed their thoughts to wrap them up in their own little world. Tick. Tick. Tick.

"I've got it!" Sakura's shout made all but Yue jump in shock and caused Kero to fall from his seat.

"We'll call Eriol-kun!" Sakura nodded her head in what she thought to be an intelligent way, proud of her idea.

Unfortunately the others didn't seem to see her genius.

"What!"

"We thought you'd figured it out!"

"Don't scare us like that!"

"…"

Sakura pouted at the negative response and somehow managed to override the clamour of voices.

"Eriol-kun knows the most about magic out of all of us," Kero pretended to be offended, "and besides, he said to call if anything strange happened and I'd say that this is strange." She left out the fact that he had told her this three years ago.

"She has got a point," Sakura smiled as Tomoyo realised her brilliance and Kero nodded in support. Yue stayed silent, so she took this as support. Syaoran however still disagreed.

"Sakura-chan, that guys nothing but trouble, you call him and just wait and see, we'll end up in an even bigger mess." He waved his arms in the air in order to emphasise the 'mess' he was envisioning. Sakura pulled a tongue in response, childish, but effective.

"Well I'm calling him anyway, so there." Feeling that she had made her point and, with a little help from Tomoyo, walked over to the phone, ignoring Syaoran's shouts that she was dooming them all.

Back with Eriol, who had recently awoken with the feeling that he had taken a bath in magma, it didn't help that not long after Nakuru pounced on him, hugging him while telling the whole neighbourhood (not that they had neighbours) how worried she had been about him. Thankfully, Spinel soon popped up and decided to save him from the menace that was Nakuru.

He had just managed to finish assuring them that yes, he was going to live when the phone decided it was a good time to make its presences known.

Eriol pondered on whether ignoring it would be a good idea, but eventually relented to the incessant ringing and picked it up, thankful that it was conveniently within reaching distances of the chair he had managed to drag himself to.

"Hello, Eriol speaking." For the next few minutes he listened in thoughtful silence, Nakuru and Spinel glanced at each other curiously and waited for Eriol to finish. He nodded a few times, though the person he was speaking to wouldn't be able to see, and after mumbling a few sentences put the phone down.

"Who was it?" Nakuru questioned.

"Sakura-chan." He didn't care to elaborate as he continued to mull over his thoughts and Nakuru curiously tilted her head. Glancing up he must have noticed her questioning look for he immediately broke into a wide smile.

"It seems that we'll be visiting Japan for a while."

Author's Note: It will get better and apologises if the suffixes are wrong, I've mainly picked them up from other stories.

Also, I'm not sure if I should send the guardians into the past as well, opinions on this would be appreciated.