Chapter 1

The book store they stood in had a closed-in, dusty sort of feel to it. Not that that was a bad thing, the best used book stores were all like that. Bob immediately began to browse the nearest shelf while Kate wandered slowly around, finding all the sections and deciding which ones deserved her wallet's priority.

They had found the store on a previous journey out that way, tucked into a tiny little corner of the strip with a dimly glowing neon sign that declared it as "open." There was no one behind the counter when they entered, the string of bells on the door jangling discordantly into the musty silence of the one-room store.

Bob and Kate met in the foreign section, both of them with a stack of books in their arms that they set down as they perused the shelves before them.

"Hey, Bob," Kate said quietly after a few minutes. She pulled a book from the shelf and showed it to him. It was a pale pink, though you could barely tell through the layers of dust on it. On the front cover was an intricately patterned circle with a star at the center and a sun and moon to either side. "Look at this." There was a lock on it, a tiny golden thing that resembled something on a diary.

"Nifty," Bob replied, taking the book and examining it. "Looks like a magic circle, doesn't it?"

Kate began fishing around in her bag. "Yeah, kind of."

"Shame we don't have a key."

"Oh yeah," Kate replied, pulling out a knitting needle from the sock she had been working on. "Real shame, that."

Bob watched as Kate took the book and examined the lock thoroughly. "What are you doing?" he asked with a hint of amusement in his voice that said he knew exactly what she was doing.

"This looks like it works like the locks on my sisters' old diaries. I used to pick them for fun and read their stuff. It was never very interesting, though." Kate carefully poked the needle into the lock and began to fish around.

"You know, I'm pretty sure we'll get in trouble if the owner finds you picking the locks on his books."

"Oh, come on. I'm probably going to buy it anyway, and I doubt they have the key to it here." Kate twirled the needle around a bit more and suddenly, there was a click as the lock popped open neatly. "There, see? And not a scratch on it."

"Right, right. So what is it? You can read the devil language, right?"

Kate examined the covers one last time, noting the scrawling Japanese kanji decorating it. "Yeah, kind of. I don't always know what they mean, though. However, you do the honors."

She held the book out with a small grin, and Bob stared at it for a second before turning the cover over. Inside, the book was hollowed out and there sat what appeared to be a deck of cards. But before either of them could say anything the book began vibrating, a low hum that filled their ears as a light began to emanate from the book in their hands. A breeze picked up as the light grew brighter and the cards began to move. The wind swirled around them more and more violently as the cards were swept up out of the book and disappeared into the blinding light around them.

And then, suddenly, it all stopped.

Kate and Bob were left squinting in the dimness of the shop, the book still clutched in their shaking hands.

"What… was that?" Kate asked, blinking rapidly.

"Better question: what is that?" Bob was staring at a small something that was sitting on the book.

"It's… is that…?"

"It's a turtle."

"I'm not a turtle," said the thing morosely. It had a tiny voice, but they could hear the horrible depression that laced it clearly. "I'm a guardian of the cards."

"What cards?" Bob asked, resisting the urge to poke it with difficulty.

"The Sakura Cards."

Kate stared. "But I thought Kero and Yue were the guardians of the cards."

"They preferred not to lose another master, and so Sakura brought their existence to an end."

"So, she made you instead?" Bob let go of the book and picked up the small creature to examine it better. It was a turtle, a small one about the size of his palm. On its shell, however, was a pair of lizard-like wings that ended in a three-fingered hand. They folded neatly against his shell, their dappled pattern blending in easily.

The turtle heaved a sigh that was laden with the weight of the world, and began to explain. "No, YOU made me. The two of you, I guess," it amended with anguish. "Sakura worked it so that whoever opened the book would create two new guardians from within themselves."

"So you're a projection of our combined inner thoughts?" Kate sounded perplexed.

"No. I'm more like a brainchild. You dreamed me up subconsciously, and now I've come into being."

Bob looked at Kate over the turtle's head. "Man, we are some horrible people to come up with something this depressed."

"My life is one of suffering, yes," the turtle conceded.

"What's your name?" Kate asked.

"Billy."

There was silence as Kate and Bob both digested this.

"Sooo… where's the other guardian?" Bob asked after a while, trying to break the ice.

"He hasn't been created yet."

Kate blinked. "Oh. So…"

"So why don't you go find some Sakura cards before they do horrible things to the people you love?" Billy said, flexing his wings and flying up to land on Kate's shoulder.

"Um, don't we need to make a pact or whatever?" Kate was looking at the empty book. "I mean, we can't seal them unless we have a staff, can we?"

"Oh, right. Well then. Repeat after me, both of you."

They repeated his incantation intrepidly, neither of them sure if this was a dream or not. It was possible, they'd both had some pretty messed up dreams in the past. "Cards made by Sakura, released into the world, we seek to capture thee once more." The light from the book began again, with the wind picking up faster and even more violently than before as they both recited. "Hear our plea and lend us your power!"

The book flew from their hands, falling to the floor with a soft thump. Out of it rose a staff, about as tall as they were, topped with a sun-and-moon-styled circle edged with compass-like points. With a blinding flash, the staff split into two, hovering inches in front of Bob and Kate. They reached out and each wrapped a hand around the staff before them. There was a tingling in their hands as the light faded and they were left, once again, standing in the dim book store.

Bob examined his staff, which had lengthened slightly. It still had the sun and moon motif, but it was a waxing moon, taking up half of the face. The sun half was lined with tiny points. The staff itself was a dark green, the face a dark silvery gray. Kate's was shorter, brighter green and silver, and the moon on hers reversed. It was waning, and the sun's points were on the other side of the face.

Billy launched himself from Kate's shoulder and landed on the book, picking it up in his tiny clawed feet. That was when they noticed there was not one book, but two, each a green to match their staffs. "But… isn't there only one deck of cards?" Kate asked, taking her book.

"But there are two of you," Billy replied in a way that made it seem like he was trying to teach advanced calculus to a third-grader. "So, there should be two books." As he spoke, their staffs glowed slightly and began to shrink rapidly, until they were the size of very small skeleton keys.

"So," Billy continued, flying over to land on Kate's shoulder. "You should go look for some cards."

Kate and Bob were so caught off guard by everything that had happened that they took their books and walked right out of the store, staring at the keys in their hands.

"Okay, so, seriously, I thought the Sakura cards were all fictional. I mean, hell, there was a TV show about them!" Bob burst out once they were outside the store.

"Yeah, I mean, I always thought so too. But… I guess not."

"What about your cards, Kate?"

"Cards?" Billy's long neck swiveled and he stared at her as he fluttered laboriously alongside them. "What?"

"My deck…" Kate stopped for a second and then ran hurriedly to the car. "I have a deck of Clow Cards!" Bob unlocked the doors, and Kate dove in head first, returning triumphantly with a small plastic box modeled after the Clow book from the show. "Se-" She opened it, and the hollowed-out space inside was empty. And now that she looked at it, it really didn't look the same at all. In fact, it was so completely different, Kate couldn't find any hint of Clow about it.

Billy caught up last of all, and looked at the plastic box in Kate's disbelieving hands. "So what is this supposed to be?"

"An error in space-time," Bob said with a shrug. "What a coincidence. As soon as they exist in real life, they cease being fictional."

Billy landed on Kate's head and looked at Bob. "There is no coincidence. There is onl—"

"Only hitsuzen," Kate completed. "Yeah, I know."

Bob made a face. "And what is that again?"

"You don't read XXXholic, so you wouldn't know. 'Hitsuzen' is the belief that there is no coincidence, and that everything happens for a reason. CLAMP talks about it a lot through Yuuko in XXXholic. But you've only read Tsubasa, so you don't know the other side of the story."

As they spoke, the sky began to cloud over quickly, and large drops of rain fell in rapidly increasing intensity. The two hurried into the car, with Billy sitting with Kate in the passenger seat. They frowned at the rain around them, now falling in thick, heavy sheets that practically nullified visibility. Bob was a little puzzled. "You know, normally I like rain, but…"

"This one is strange," Kate finished. "Yeah."

"That's because it's a Sakura Card," Billy supplemented with a sigh. "Gosh, you two really are slow."

"Well, if you're so smart, why not tell us what to do about it?" Bob asked.

"Capture it, of course."

"How can we do that?" Kate was in despair as she looked at her little key, still clutched in her hand. "We have nothing to combat The Rain with!"

Billy blinked slowly in turtle fashion. "How do you know which card it is?"

"I'll tell you that once you tell me how we can fight a card when we have nothing to fight it with!" Kate stormed. She was getting angry and frustrated now, and that didn't bode well for anyone.

Bob looked at his book as this went on, examining the cover and the tiny key lock. He opened it, and stared at the inside. "Kate, look. I have a card." He held it up for her to look at, and Kate stopped yelling at Billy immediately to look at it.

"The Shield," she said slowly, looking at the way the card had been changed. It was no longer pink, but rather a dark green and gray, with a sun at the top and a moon at the bottom of the card, and the name scrawled in very pale silver across a straight box just above the moon.

"You should have one too, you know," Billy said. "If you'd stopped complaining to listen to me, I could have told you that."

Kate hurried to open her book, looking at the card that fell out onto her lap. "I have The Jump." She immediately frowned in thought. "The Shield and Jump…. Shield and Jump…"

Bob watched her think it over as the rain got heavier and heavier.

Suddenly, Kate grinned. "Ha! I've got it!"

Billy tried to roll his eyes and found that turtles don't have roll-able eyes. So he settled for a sigh. "And…?"

"Bob, you use the shield to trap The Rain, and I can jump up to it and seal it away!"

Bob shrugged. "If you think that'll work, sure. I don't know how this stuff goes."

Billy sighed again. "It won't work. I bet you it'll fail."

Kate tapped the top of his head very lightly, making the tiny thing hit her shoulder with enough force to shut the small Billy up. "Let's try it."

They stepped out of the car into the rain, which was gathering in puddles around their ankles by this time in the badly-drained parking lot.

"So where is it?" Bob called through the water to Kate.

"It'll be a small cloud, obviously lower to the ground than anything else!" Kate responded, looking at her key again. "How do I use this, Billy?"

"Well, obviously you have to release the seal on it." Billy called from Kate's hood, where he had taken refuge from the battering rain.

"Um…."

Bob threw together a quick rhyme in his head, hoping that it would be enough to release whatever it was Billy was trying to get them to release. "Little key of moon and sun, lend your power to this one. I need your seal to be undone!" The key glowed brightly as it expanded into its staff shape, and Bob stared at it for a second. "Oh man, I'm stuck using that gay-ass rhyme now, aren't I?"

Billy peered out from his hiding spot and made a turtle-y sort of grin. "You're the one that said it. Oh, how I revel in your misery."

Meanwhile, Kate was repeating Bob's rhyme with no luck. "Why isn't it working for me?"

"It's because it's the spell that tunes your staff to your own magical essence. If you use someone else's spell, it doesn't work." Billy adopted a superior look. "So you need to think of your own."

"Well, while you do that, I'll try and find the card." Bob looked around, staring up at the thick clouds above the parking lot.

Kate wracked her brains for some words that rhymed and a way to fit them together. "Little key of dark and light, lend me your strength to aid my plight! Release the seal that binds your might!" Her staff extended and grew, and once more she examined it for several moments before turning her eyes skyward and also searching for The Rain.

It was Billy, though, who called out, pointing with a wing to a small dense cloud. "There!"

Kate spun as Bob threw his card into the air above his head, swinging his staff up to point to it with the topmost of the compass-like sun spikes. "Shield!" It was just a few seconds, and then...

Nothing happened and the card hung suspended in a faintly glowing circle before it fell back into his hand. "Oh, come on! Rhymes for the cards, too?"

"Try just asking the card to release its power for you," Kate called over, her staff pointing upwards as she tracked the movement of the Rain's cloud. "They should accept you now that the staff has recognized your power, I think. The rhyme just makes it easier."

"Ugh, okay. Let's see..."

"Don't take too long, we'll float away soon boy..." Billy's small voice cut through the thunder of the rain hitting the every-growing flood that was rising up around their shins now.

"Shut your dirty mouth, you jerk. Card of power, hear my plea: reveal your true form to me! Shield!" Bob threw the Shield upwards again, and the glowing circle of light caught it once more, mimicking the pattern that was on the covers of their books. The card disappeared into a silvery mist, swirling quickly upwards to encircle the little cloud that was pouring out rain. It hastily changed shape into a very small girl decorated with raindrops. She pouted angrily, and turned back into a cloud, hurling rain water at the shield that surrounded her. The Shield, in turn, flared brightly as the intensity of the Rain increased. "You might want to hurry up," Bob said, watching the two cards struggle against each other. "I'm not sure how long the Shield can stand up against this."

Kate looked at her card, a lighter green than Bob's, and threw it out in front of her. Her own circle snagged it and it floated steadily in the air. "Awaken and lend me your power!" Bringing her staff up above her head, Kate slammed the face of the staff down onto the card. "Jump!" Tiny iridescent wings appeared on her feet, and Kate crouched. With all the force she could muster, she sprang into the air, much higher than intended, and came hurtling back down to earth with a splash, landing on her hands and feet.

"Are you okay?" Bob asked, trying not to laugh.

Kate crouched again as she replied. "Just misjudged the strength of my jump. Here we go!" She jumped again, a few feet above the silvery dome that The Rain was still pounding away at. As she descended again, she brought her staff out in front of her, pointing it at The Rain. "Return to the form you were meant to be! Rain!"

The Rain changed back into a little girl, and she grinned wryly as she slowly dissolved into a misty sort of vapor and formed a card that fluttered slowly down as Kate landed on one knee. She reached up for it and caught the card, looking at it. Bob sauntered over as the rain slowed to a stop almost immediately, holding his staff like he'd been born with it.

"Hey, Billy," Kate asked. The turtle climbed slowly up out of her hood and onto her shoulder, looking slightly dazed. It had been a hard landing for him. "Sakura had to change the cards one by one after she captured them all, right?" she asked, tilting her head to look at him.

"Yes, that's what happened."

"So why have our cards already changed?"

"When Sakura began capturing the cards, she was still only in fourth grade. She was young, and most of her latent magical talent was still dormant in her body. You two, who are much older and wiser about the ways of the world, have much more magic coursing through you than she did when she began. It is second nature for you, then, to change the cards immediately." Billy sighed.

They both blinked. "So, my magical abilities are acting on their own by doing this?" Bob asked. "I'm not sure I like that."

Billy attempted another eye-roll and failed miserably. "Don't mistake me, boy-"

"My name is Bob."

"Don't mistake me, Bob. Your lungs go on breathing in and out while you focus on doing other things, don't they? Your heart beats on its own. It's as simple as that: a natural reaction. Your magic will increase every time you find a card and bring it under control. But your inherent magic is different from that of the cards, and so, like most natural things, it forces the cards to conform with your magic so that you can better control them and not have some sort of backlash if something goes wrong. However, it will still leave you drained." Billy's tone became slightly smug. "Since you are so unused to your powers working in this way, your body will take some time to adjust. You'll be tired for a while."

Kate was placing The Rain in her book and pretended not to hear this last part. "I have a pen in the car, I'll write my name on it on the way home."

They headed back to the car, still soaked from the rain, and sat down without a word. It was a silent ride back to the apartment that Kate shared with Patrick, and she stepped out of the car with nothing more than a small wave and a tired, wary smile. Bob returned the gesture, finding himself as weary as if he had just completed a mental triathlon. It seemed that some of what Billy had said was true. He was exhausted suddenly, and the drive home was a long eternity that ended in him falling quietly asleep on his couch.