Card Captor Sakura: Forever
Stage One
"Biography lends to death a new terror" - Oscar Wilde
Titania Ellenor Wilde walked across the Martian plain with her respirator and the flashlight. She was a short girl with tanned skin from the sunshine falling through the Martian atmosphere, which was thinner than Earth's. She wore a pair of old walking boots she'd found cheap in a thriftstore along with thick outdoor wear, dark blue slacks and shirt turned light purple from the red Martian dust. Her hair was black with a violet streak that overhung her forehead, and only her right ear was pierced three times, each time by a ring that interlaced the others, as was the fasion.
She was walking around one of the earliest settlements on Mars, a Chinese mission which had been abandoned when several defective air seals had gone bad at the same time. Luckily for the settlers, other nearby towns had been able to take the refugees in. There had been attempts to move back in once sealant was shipped from Earth, but then a meteor had crushed the central habitat. It had been taken as an omen, and other than removing necessary equipment, the place had been abandoned.
Of course, now that Mars was almost completely terraformed, antique habitats like this were only good for romantic rondevues and illicit activity. But today, 'Ella' had the place to herself. She didn't really have any great love for her first name, and much preferred her middle one.
Stepping into a sleeping habitat, she shone the light around the room, seeing that the room looked solid. She 'heard' a light tone, and the question //How long are you going to keep looking around here? You have music class in two hours, you know.// It was Belle, the AI who Ella had grown up with from birth. Belle's computer was in a small locket hanging from her neck, as she wasn't old enough to have an implanted AI. At least she was old enough to be slightly wired, so that Belle could electronicly talk to her without letting anyone else listen in.
//I hate the piano,// she thought back to Belle, //and I've got a feeling about this.// She'd had the feeling since last week when Fai had brought her out here. He had promised to show her something 'fun', but it turned out he just wanted to neck. She'd slapped him, and stalked off, but ever since then she'd felt a pull to return. She almost walked past the bed when the pull told her to turn. She knelt on the floor, and found a box under the bed. She pulled it out.
The box was actually made out of wood, which made Ella whistle in appreciation. Wood from earth was expensive, and even if the box held junk she knew that she'd be able to sell the box for an impressive sum. There was a simple latch which she opened, to reveal a number of rectangular objects which looked rusty from the martian dust on them.
//Are those books?// Belle asked excitedly.
Ella laughed, knowing that Belle had had her eye on a number of upgrades. //I think so.// She reached in, and pulled one out. It turned out to be Shakespear and in Chinese, which she could read somewhat. She could imagine herself getting starry-eyed. //Real books!// she shouted to her companion, //Real books from Earth! My parents are going to go nuts!// All four of Ella's parents worked hard, and a find like this would make the whole family more comfortable. Ella could give the books to the family, and sell the box herself, and everyone would be happy.
Ella whistled to herself as she worked, having pulled the respirator aside. The atmosphere was thick enough to breathe as long as she didn't do anything too active. She found books on Confusionism, engineering, fiction, and then her hand felt almost like something had stung it. Looking into the box, she found a large book bound in rich red cloth, with gold tooling. She picked it up, and studied the sun and moon designs on the covers, and puzzled at the name. "The Clow?"
She opened the box, and blinked in confusion. The book was really a box hollowed out to hold a deck of cards. She picked up the top one, which illustrated a girl in an oddly designed outfit that didn't look terribly practical. There was writing on the card, which was unfortunately in English. She tried to sound it out anyway. "W- Won-"
//Windy,// Belle said, //it's called windy.//
Ella smiled. She didn't know how people had managed to live without AIs to help them. "Windy," she said with a slight accent.
There was an explosion of light, and around Ella's kneeling form a magical circle of light drew itself around her. There was suddenly a great wind that caused the books she had removed from the box to blow away. Ella made a shout of alarm and threw herself forward, dropping the odd book as she rescued the valuable ones. She barely noticed the cards all flying away, out the door, and into the distance.
Finally the wind died down, and she looked around, feeling a little stupid. "What the fark was that?" There wasn't much wind on Mars, because there wasn't much air on Mars. She could feel herself becoming short of breath, though, so she put the respirator back in her mouth and breathed the concentrated air it held with relief.
//I don't know what it was. I've never heard of anything like that before.//
Ella shook her head and picked up the Clow. It was empty now, and she sighed. There was only one card left, so she put it back in and dropped the book into the box, following it with all of the rest of her finds. She hoped she could find some sort of a cart nearby to help carry the heavy box home.
Back at home she was glad to find that her younger brothers Mike and Mark were out, as well as all of her parents. She lugged the wooden box up to her room, remembering to throw a towel on her bed before she dropped the dusty old box on it. And then she opened the box and began stacking the books, thinking of all the nice things her parents could buy with them. Maybe the seven of them could even take a trip to Luna! She'd heard of people flying in the domes of Luna against the one-sixth gravity there, and she'd always wanted to go.
And then she reached the odd book. She flipped open the Clow, and saw the lone Windy card sitting there. //What happened?//
//I don't know,// Belle responded, //I've never seen something like that before.//
//It's called Windy, so it's named after the wind. I'd almost think someone was pulling a prank with a could full of nano,// Ella said as she looked back at the other books, //but this is too expensive a prank for anyone I know, and if those books have been here since the original settlements, then there's no way they had nano that powerful back then.// Nano was short for 'nanomachines', molecular engines that worked together. Nano could even be programmed to fly in the air and produce effects as a cloud.
//That's correct, Ella,// Belle said in her 'teacher voice'. //Effective nano of that power would only have existed in the last fifty years.//
A burst of light flashed between her hands, where she was holding the book, and she dropped it. Luckily, her hands had been over the desk, and the book landed there. Ella gaped as a small toy bear climbed out of the side of the book. A small toy bear with wings. The bear stood up straight and then started stretching, first up in the air, and then trying to touch his toes. However, touching his toes was made difficult by the bear's big belly, and the figure fell over instead of reaching his feet.
Ella couldn't resist it, and giggled at the same sight, hearing the musical tones that Belle used to laugh as well.
The funny bear looked up at her. "Hey, no laughin' at me! I'm Kerberos, 'Guardian of the Clow'! Show some respect, see?"
"What's the Clow?"
"These are," Kero said, and waved at the single card in the book. Then he did a double-take, and rushed over to the book. "HEY! What happen' to the cards?"
Ella blushed slightly. "Well, I was holding that one, and I said it's name, and they all suddenly blew away."
"AGAIN?" Kero started bashing his plush head against the book. "CLOW! THIS'S YOUR FAULT!"
Ella couldn't resist it, and started to giggle again. The bear shot her a reproachful look, and then looked back out the window. "Hey, how come everything's so red outside?" He popped up into the air, and flew to the window, looking out at the city of New Shanghai. "WHERE AM I?"
"Mars, of course."
Kero whirled about. "Mars?"
Ella nodded. "Yeah. New Shanghai."
"I thought I wuz speakin' Chinese again. What year is it?"
Ella pointed at her calendar, which showed horses racing across a field on Earth. "2205."
Kero's mouth hung open. "Well, in that case..."
Ella leaned forward for the rest of the sentance. "In that case?"
Kero grinned. "What do ya got to eat in the future?"
Ten minutes later, Kero was chowing down on a chocolate bar that Ella had hidden in her desk. "It can't be too different out there," the bear pointed out, "If you've still got Hersheys."
Ella laughed with Belle. The little bear, as impossible as he was, was simply too cute for words, especially as he crammed pieces of chocolate larger than his mouth into it. Soon enough, Kero was finished. "Ah, that hits the spot," he said.
"So, who are you really? Are you a Hendersons Industry Superbear? How'd you hide in the book?"
"I'm a magical guardian of the clow cards! It's my job to keep them safe."
"Well," Ella said with a chuckle, "you don't seem to be very good at it."
Kero grunted. "You let them free, not me. They were just fine until you came along!" The little bear jumped to his feet. "And it's your job to get them back!"
Ella shook her head. "Oh, no. Besides, you've got to be joking. There's no such thing as magic."
Kero got a crafty look. "Oh, yeah?"
Ella nodded. //No such thing as Magic, right?// She asked her companion.
Belle laughed musically back at her. //Nope.//
Kero continued. "So, how about a bet? If I prove to you magic works, then you've got to collect the Clow cards."
"Okay!"
The bear returned to the book, and pulled a small key out of it. It looked like a stylized ostrich head, hanging from a string, with a small key. "Now, stand up."
Ella stood up. "Yes?"
Kero held out the key, and started to speak. "There is a girl who whishes to have a contract with you. A girl named Titania Ellenor Wilde." Wind picked up in the small room, rushing around them, causing the old books covers to flop open and the pages to flutter.
//Is it getting brighter in here, Ella?// Belle asked her owner.
Ella looked down, and saw a strangely complicated circle grow around her. "Ah?"
"Key, grant her power!"
The wind built up, whipping the curtains aside, the magic circle becoming very bright as it rotated around her. "What's going on?"
"RELEASE!"
Ella's attention was grabbed by the key, which suddenly rotated about in mid air, the key part lengthening to a staff, the head growing larger. It was like a bird's head, only with odd stars in the eyes. She looked up at Kero.
Kero smiled back. "Take the staff."
Ella reached out to the staff that still impossibly hung in the air, and grasped it. For a moment it was weightless, and then she felt gravity turning its attention back to it as it got heavy again. The magic circle flashed under her, and then it was gone. It took a few moments for her to get her breath back as she held the staff. "Magic *is* real," she whispered.
"Ah, it's the birth of another card captor," Kero said, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye.
A hundred miles away, in the capital city of the Chinese province on Mars, the patriarch of the Li clan woke. He summoned the oldest girl of the youngest generation. "Li Chan Juan," he said to her, "The Clow cards have awakened once more! You know what to do."
The girl bowed before him respectfully. "Yes, honored grandfather," she replied.
Millions of miles away, inside a hollowed out asteroid, Kinomoto Sakura and Kinomoto Tomoyo woke in their bed together, held down in the zero gravity by their sheets, and wondered what had woke them.
Stage One
"Biography lends to death a new terror" - Oscar Wilde
Titania Ellenor Wilde walked across the Martian plain with her respirator and the flashlight. She was a short girl with tanned skin from the sunshine falling through the Martian atmosphere, which was thinner than Earth's. She wore a pair of old walking boots she'd found cheap in a thriftstore along with thick outdoor wear, dark blue slacks and shirt turned light purple from the red Martian dust. Her hair was black with a violet streak that overhung her forehead, and only her right ear was pierced three times, each time by a ring that interlaced the others, as was the fasion.
She was walking around one of the earliest settlements on Mars, a Chinese mission which had been abandoned when several defective air seals had gone bad at the same time. Luckily for the settlers, other nearby towns had been able to take the refugees in. There had been attempts to move back in once sealant was shipped from Earth, but then a meteor had crushed the central habitat. It had been taken as an omen, and other than removing necessary equipment, the place had been abandoned.
Of course, now that Mars was almost completely terraformed, antique habitats like this were only good for romantic rondevues and illicit activity. But today, 'Ella' had the place to herself. She didn't really have any great love for her first name, and much preferred her middle one.
Stepping into a sleeping habitat, she shone the light around the room, seeing that the room looked solid. She 'heard' a light tone, and the question //How long are you going to keep looking around here? You have music class in two hours, you know.// It was Belle, the AI who Ella had grown up with from birth. Belle's computer was in a small locket hanging from her neck, as she wasn't old enough to have an implanted AI. At least she was old enough to be slightly wired, so that Belle could electronicly talk to her without letting anyone else listen in.
//I hate the piano,// she thought back to Belle, //and I've got a feeling about this.// She'd had the feeling since last week when Fai had brought her out here. He had promised to show her something 'fun', but it turned out he just wanted to neck. She'd slapped him, and stalked off, but ever since then she'd felt a pull to return. She almost walked past the bed when the pull told her to turn. She knelt on the floor, and found a box under the bed. She pulled it out.
The box was actually made out of wood, which made Ella whistle in appreciation. Wood from earth was expensive, and even if the box held junk she knew that she'd be able to sell the box for an impressive sum. There was a simple latch which she opened, to reveal a number of rectangular objects which looked rusty from the martian dust on them.
//Are those books?// Belle asked excitedly.
Ella laughed, knowing that Belle had had her eye on a number of upgrades. //I think so.// She reached in, and pulled one out. It turned out to be Shakespear and in Chinese, which she could read somewhat. She could imagine herself getting starry-eyed. //Real books!// she shouted to her companion, //Real books from Earth! My parents are going to go nuts!// All four of Ella's parents worked hard, and a find like this would make the whole family more comfortable. Ella could give the books to the family, and sell the box herself, and everyone would be happy.
Ella whistled to herself as she worked, having pulled the respirator aside. The atmosphere was thick enough to breathe as long as she didn't do anything too active. She found books on Confusionism, engineering, fiction, and then her hand felt almost like something had stung it. Looking into the box, she found a large book bound in rich red cloth, with gold tooling. She picked it up, and studied the sun and moon designs on the covers, and puzzled at the name. "The Clow?"
She opened the box, and blinked in confusion. The book was really a box hollowed out to hold a deck of cards. She picked up the top one, which illustrated a girl in an oddly designed outfit that didn't look terribly practical. There was writing on the card, which was unfortunately in English. She tried to sound it out anyway. "W- Won-"
//Windy,// Belle said, //it's called windy.//
Ella smiled. She didn't know how people had managed to live without AIs to help them. "Windy," she said with a slight accent.
There was an explosion of light, and around Ella's kneeling form a magical circle of light drew itself around her. There was suddenly a great wind that caused the books she had removed from the box to blow away. Ella made a shout of alarm and threw herself forward, dropping the odd book as she rescued the valuable ones. She barely noticed the cards all flying away, out the door, and into the distance.
Finally the wind died down, and she looked around, feeling a little stupid. "What the fark was that?" There wasn't much wind on Mars, because there wasn't much air on Mars. She could feel herself becoming short of breath, though, so she put the respirator back in her mouth and breathed the concentrated air it held with relief.
//I don't know what it was. I've never heard of anything like that before.//
Ella shook her head and picked up the Clow. It was empty now, and she sighed. There was only one card left, so she put it back in and dropped the book into the box, following it with all of the rest of her finds. She hoped she could find some sort of a cart nearby to help carry the heavy box home.
Back at home she was glad to find that her younger brothers Mike and Mark were out, as well as all of her parents. She lugged the wooden box up to her room, remembering to throw a towel on her bed before she dropped the dusty old box on it. And then she opened the box and began stacking the books, thinking of all the nice things her parents could buy with them. Maybe the seven of them could even take a trip to Luna! She'd heard of people flying in the domes of Luna against the one-sixth gravity there, and she'd always wanted to go.
And then she reached the odd book. She flipped open the Clow, and saw the lone Windy card sitting there. //What happened?//
//I don't know,// Belle responded, //I've never seen something like that before.//
//It's called Windy, so it's named after the wind. I'd almost think someone was pulling a prank with a could full of nano,// Ella said as she looked back at the other books, //but this is too expensive a prank for anyone I know, and if those books have been here since the original settlements, then there's no way they had nano that powerful back then.// Nano was short for 'nanomachines', molecular engines that worked together. Nano could even be programmed to fly in the air and produce effects as a cloud.
//That's correct, Ella,// Belle said in her 'teacher voice'. //Effective nano of that power would only have existed in the last fifty years.//
A burst of light flashed between her hands, where she was holding the book, and she dropped it. Luckily, her hands had been over the desk, and the book landed there. Ella gaped as a small toy bear climbed out of the side of the book. A small toy bear with wings. The bear stood up straight and then started stretching, first up in the air, and then trying to touch his toes. However, touching his toes was made difficult by the bear's big belly, and the figure fell over instead of reaching his feet.
Ella couldn't resist it, and giggled at the same sight, hearing the musical tones that Belle used to laugh as well.
The funny bear looked up at her. "Hey, no laughin' at me! I'm Kerberos, 'Guardian of the Clow'! Show some respect, see?"
"What's the Clow?"
"These are," Kero said, and waved at the single card in the book. Then he did a double-take, and rushed over to the book. "HEY! What happen' to the cards?"
Ella blushed slightly. "Well, I was holding that one, and I said it's name, and they all suddenly blew away."
"AGAIN?" Kero started bashing his plush head against the book. "CLOW! THIS'S YOUR FAULT!"
Ella couldn't resist it, and started to giggle again. The bear shot her a reproachful look, and then looked back out the window. "Hey, how come everything's so red outside?" He popped up into the air, and flew to the window, looking out at the city of New Shanghai. "WHERE AM I?"
"Mars, of course."
Kero whirled about. "Mars?"
Ella nodded. "Yeah. New Shanghai."
"I thought I wuz speakin' Chinese again. What year is it?"
Ella pointed at her calendar, which showed horses racing across a field on Earth. "2205."
Kero's mouth hung open. "Well, in that case..."
Ella leaned forward for the rest of the sentance. "In that case?"
Kero grinned. "What do ya got to eat in the future?"
Ten minutes later, Kero was chowing down on a chocolate bar that Ella had hidden in her desk. "It can't be too different out there," the bear pointed out, "If you've still got Hersheys."
Ella laughed with Belle. The little bear, as impossible as he was, was simply too cute for words, especially as he crammed pieces of chocolate larger than his mouth into it. Soon enough, Kero was finished. "Ah, that hits the spot," he said.
"So, who are you really? Are you a Hendersons Industry Superbear? How'd you hide in the book?"
"I'm a magical guardian of the clow cards! It's my job to keep them safe."
"Well," Ella said with a chuckle, "you don't seem to be very good at it."
Kero grunted. "You let them free, not me. They were just fine until you came along!" The little bear jumped to his feet. "And it's your job to get them back!"
Ella shook her head. "Oh, no. Besides, you've got to be joking. There's no such thing as magic."
Kero got a crafty look. "Oh, yeah?"
Ella nodded. //No such thing as Magic, right?// She asked her companion.
Belle laughed musically back at her. //Nope.//
Kero continued. "So, how about a bet? If I prove to you magic works, then you've got to collect the Clow cards."
"Okay!"
The bear returned to the book, and pulled a small key out of it. It looked like a stylized ostrich head, hanging from a string, with a small key. "Now, stand up."
Ella stood up. "Yes?"
Kero held out the key, and started to speak. "There is a girl who whishes to have a contract with you. A girl named Titania Ellenor Wilde." Wind picked up in the small room, rushing around them, causing the old books covers to flop open and the pages to flutter.
//Is it getting brighter in here, Ella?// Belle asked her owner.
Ella looked down, and saw a strangely complicated circle grow around her. "Ah?"
"Key, grant her power!"
The wind built up, whipping the curtains aside, the magic circle becoming very bright as it rotated around her. "What's going on?"
"RELEASE!"
Ella's attention was grabbed by the key, which suddenly rotated about in mid air, the key part lengthening to a staff, the head growing larger. It was like a bird's head, only with odd stars in the eyes. She looked up at Kero.
Kero smiled back. "Take the staff."
Ella reached out to the staff that still impossibly hung in the air, and grasped it. For a moment it was weightless, and then she felt gravity turning its attention back to it as it got heavy again. The magic circle flashed under her, and then it was gone. It took a few moments for her to get her breath back as she held the staff. "Magic *is* real," she whispered.
"Ah, it's the birth of another card captor," Kero said, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye.
A hundred miles away, in the capital city of the Chinese province on Mars, the patriarch of the Li clan woke. He summoned the oldest girl of the youngest generation. "Li Chan Juan," he said to her, "The Clow cards have awakened once more! You know what to do."
The girl bowed before him respectfully. "Yes, honored grandfather," she replied.
Millions of miles away, inside a hollowed out asteroid, Kinomoto Sakura and Kinomoto Tomoyo woke in their bed together, held down in the zero gravity by their sheets, and wondered what had woke them.