Note: Off to Jersey for a few days, expect a new chapter sometime at the weekend.
Chapter 2
The next day the rain hadn't let up, in fact if anything it had only become more intense. Students ran through the torrential downpour to the gates and then into the school proper where they shook the rain free of their umbrellas.
"At least we were prepared today." Shaoran said; opening and closing his umbrella in quick burst to blast the water off of it. Sakura nodded her agreement as she did the same as Shaoran. They each had their own umbrellas today, their borrowed ones in their individual bags.
After changing their outdoor shoes for their indoor shoes the couple ascended the stairs to their classroom on the first floor. Most of the class had not arrived, many would be waiting until the last minute in the hope the rain would stop; but it only seemed to be the reverse and that the downpour increased in its intensity.
Standing by the windows the two stared out across the town, although they could not see far for the rain fell down upon the town like a solid wall, shortening sight range hugely. The classroom slowly filled as more students arrived. Suddenly Sakura had inspiration and turned away from the windows.
"Hey Shaoran-kun, have you seen Chiharu-chan and the others?" She asked excitedly. Shaoran shook his head, surprised by the girl's sudden outburst. Sakura grinned. "They're in the other eighth grade class which is just down the hall! Let's go visit them?" She suggested, looking expectantly for Shaoran's approval. As per usual Shaoran couldn't resist the pleading look in her eyes, not that he had any problem with the proposal, in fact he quite liked the idea of seeing their classmates from the previous school.
Sakura lead the way, speeding out of the classroom with Shaoran following more slowly, smiling as he saw the energetic love of his life running down the corridor, allowing her enthusiasm to rule her actions.
A bell rang, which was odd since the school's start time had not yet been reached and all movement stopped as the speakers placed at intervals around the school burst into life, a low static hum emitted. The students and teachers at the school waited expectantly for the forthcoming announcement.
"Due to the heavy rains the school board has decided to call off school today to ensure all students can make their way home safely. All students and teachers are to leave the premises and return home. I repeat…."
Shaoran caught up to Sakura who was staring up at the speakers.
"It seems things are getting out of hand." He murmured and Sakura nodded.
"Should we clear the clouds away later, to stop things going any further?" She looked to Shaoran who thought the idea through. It sounded like a good idea but something stopped him, he remembered the visions he had seen when the rain had fallen on him the previous day. The rain was not ordinary, there was something else to all this.
"We should consult Mithran." He said finally.
"Elena-chan?" Sakura asked, blinking in confusion.
"She was the one to first realise something was odd about these clouds, maybe she knows more about the rain now?" Shaoran suggested. They had nothing to go on so it was the best course of action they could take for the moment.
"But Elena-chan and Tomoyo-chan haven't arrived yet." Sakura pointed out but as she spoke the two girls in question walked up the steps. Tomoyo saw Sakura and Shaoran and stopped to wave to them, smiling a greeting. Elena stopped too and she glanced at the couple as well but frowned, the expression again looking unnatural on her face.
As Sakura and Shaoran joined them the announcement was repeated and the two girls, who had arrived just after the first one, listened to it.
"Oh, it seems like coming to school was a waste." Elena said, sighing. She wavered a little, as if unsteady then caught the waist height wall that ran around the inside of the stairwell for safety reasons. She slowly sank to the floor, her knees facing towards each other and she held her left temple with her hand as she grimaced in pain.
"Elena-chan!" Sakura and Tomoyo knelt by the pained Elena whose eyes were clamped firmly shut. "What's wrong, Elena-chan?" Sakura asked, gently touching Elena's shoulder.
"Can we get out of here?" Elena said; her voice a whimper of pain. Sakura and Tomoyo looked to Shaoran, the only one who looked calm.
"There's no point remaining here anyway. Daidouji, is it alright if we all go to your house. There are things I need to ask Mithran."
"Of course; but only if Elena-chan's well enough to talk. She said she had a bad feeling about the school today. I'll call home; the car can't have gone far." Tomoyo reached into her bag and fumbled about before she found a cell phone and dialled her home number and asked for the car to come pick them up since the school had been closed for the day.
Sakura helped Elena to her feet and supported the girl as they descended the steps down to the ground floor and then down the corridor to change their shoes. Elena fumbled with her shoes. Every moment the pain she was mysteriously in seemed to heighten and as they were waiting on the sheltered steps at the front of the school she began to shudder.
"Himie… it's coming Himie. It wants to be the only one. Himie… help me…." Elena trailed off as her half closed eyes shut and she slowly fell sideways to collapse onto Sakura who was sitting next to her.
"What's wrong with her?" Sakura asked, alarmed as she held onto the unconscious Elena.
"I don't know; but I bet it's something to do with this rain." Shaoran muttered, glaring up at the sky which suddenly seemed so dangerous and aggressive. The limousine pulled up and the guards piled out again. One of them picked up Elena without a word and put her in the car, then Tomoyo slid inside and gestured for Sakura and Shaoran to do so as well.
The car drove off and the three sat in the car, staring at the prone Elena lying on one of the seats, muttering to herself inaudibly and shuddering occasionally. Tomoyo looked with concern at her old friend, stroking the unconscious girl's hair.
"She said something was coming… what could be coming?" Sakura said, breaking the heavy silence. Shaoran glanced out at the clouds above.
"Who knows? But it's definitely got something to do with this rain." Shaoran recounted how his umbrella had blown inside out the day before and the visions he had been given when the rain had touched him. Tomoyo looked thoughtful.
"That's rather odd. Yesterday I ran inside from the limousine to get out of the rain and I didn't feel anything odd, it was just rain to me; but Elena-chan was gasping as if she'd been running for a long time when she got out of the rain; but she didn't tell me anything at the time." Tomoyo glanced back down at the now still Elena who was mumbling but the shuddering had stopped. "It seems she's recovering." Tomoyo remarked.
At last they arrived at the Daidouji residence and the limousine pulled up in front of the big doors. The guards got out of the car and opened the doors, letting the passengers out. A guard held an umbrella above the door and then one of the guards standing behind her guided each person to the door under the protection of another umbrella.
Sakura slipped on the wet stairs and her hands flew out in front of her to stop her fall. Her hands fell onto the wet stone and images flashed through her mind. She saw her mother, a younger her and her brother and her father, she saw her mother's funeral; and then she saw an older her, or at least she thought it was her, holding a small child in her arms and smiling at an equally aged Shaoran.
Then the guard was helping her up and leading her towards the house.
"You okay?" Shaoran asked; his hands on her arms. Sakura nodded, distracted.
"Yeah… I think I know what you were talking about earlier now." She said and Shaoran nodded, not asking anymore with the guards around them. The door behind them opened and a maid stepped out.
"Of it isn't Sakura-san! We haven't seen you for a while, please, come in." The maid stepped aside and the group walked in, the last guard carrying Elena in. The maid saw the condition of the girl and was instantly flustered.
"Elena-san! Oh we must call a doctor and take her to the hospital! What happened?" Tomoyo calmed the maid down and said they had already seen the school nurse who had said Elena simply needed some rest. The maid yielded to the convincing lie and the guard took Elena up to Tomoyo's room. The trio followed and waited for the guard to leave as they all sat down in the large and richly furnished room.
"I'll go check on Elena-chan." Tomoyo said, standing up and going up the stairs to her bedroom. After some refurbishing her bedroom was now upstairs, downstairs remained her private cinema and lounge.
"Shaoran-kun, I don't understand any of this. Why is this rain showing us things involving ourselves? And why did this happen to Elena-chan? I don't get it…." Tears welled up in the corners of Sakura's eyes and Shaoran, ever desperate to stop his beloved from crying, for to him it was the most heart rending sight he could think of, put his arm around Sakura and pulled her close to him. Sakura didn't resist and rested her head on Shaoran's chest, her hands wrapping about his torso. She sniffed a couple of times but the tears didn't fall. Shaoran looked out the window and asked himself the same questions Sakura had. None of it made sense.
"Elena-chan's awake!" The call from upstairs startled the two and they jumped to their feet and out of the tender embrace before hurrying up the stairs. Tomoyo noticed the slight blush fading from Sakura's cheeks and smiled; but otherwise didn't comment.
"Elena-chan! Are you okay?" Sakura asked, rushing over to the bed. The blonde girl was sitting up against a pile of stacked pillows while massaging her forehead.
"Yes, I'm fine now… the rain." Elena stated, looking out the windows opposite the bed towards the rain. "I figured something out who's making the rain when it fell on me yesterday; but unfortunately my senses are rather keen and they went into overdrive so it had an adverse affect on me and tired me out completely. There's power in this rain; and when it touches you, you see your past and perhaps even, your future. Right?" Elena asked this of Sakura and Shaoran. The two nodded, then Sakura remembered the image of her holding a baby and Shaoran standing beside her and blushed heavily.
"Elena-chan, h-how do you know that's the future?" Sakura blurted the question out a little too loudly and Shaoran, realising that Sakura had also seen a vision involving the two of them, blushed too, and turned to stare fixedly at a rather bland painting on the wall next to the door.
"The caster of the rain is a being we call 'Fate'. It has many names but that is the most common and well known name that it goes by. It resides in some space in between worlds where no one is supposed to be able to reach it, nor can it actually leave that area. Unfortunately Fate likes to play with the lives of mortals and sends troubles to plague them and so entertaining it. Fate can see the futures of everyone and can manipulate them, forcing them to make different choices should it want to. This rain is caused by Fate and it's drenching this city in magic." Elena paused, leaning back on the pillows as if more of her strength had been drained.
"Why would this Fate want to do this though? It hasn't actually done anything except cause magic users see what could be the future and cause you to enter this state, which I don't understand either." Shaoran put in, looking away from the painting. Elena smiled weakly.
"Magic users often have specialities in their magic. Destruction, restoration, protection, manipulation, necromancy… the list goes on and on. One of my specialities is simply a heightened sense of magic. I can sense magic nearby and understand it faster than anybody else I know. With so much magic about it's overloading my head and when that rain fell on me it would be the equivalent to someone hitting you with cast iron rods; but it's all mental, in the head." Elena tapped her head, and then winced at having done so and pushed herself back into a sitting position.
"The thing with Fate is that it likes to toy with us mortals; but it gets very angry when people with strong wills change their own destinies beyond those that it decided for that person. Most of these people are magic users; but many are not and Fate often tries to exact some kind of punishment on this person as if they were defying it. I suspect this rain has something to do with that. I don't understand it fully; but the entire town is becoming saturated with Fate's magic. Whatever it aims to do is probably going to be problematic for someone in the town; and I guess it's probably going to be one of us."
"Why don't you consult Imanda-san, he might know more about this?" Tomoyo suggested to Elena after a few minutes of silence as everyone dreamt up horrors that Fate might visit upon them. Elena sighed.
"I tried yesterday when we got back; but this downpour is blocking my magic, I can't connect to him at all."
"Can't you phone him or send him an e-mail?" Sakura asked but Elena shook her head.
"Phone calls and e-mails don't go between worlds." She said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. For a moment there was gob smacked silence then Shaoran and Sakura both leant forwards.
"What?" They demanded. Elena laughed for the first time in a while, her face brightening up somewhat.
"I think it's time to come clean. Himie and I are from England, yes; but we're not from this world's England. One of our abilities it to cross between worlds. Fate doesn't like us for it because it's a power it doesn't have; and it can't control our destinies at all. Himie sensed something was up and suggested it was time I came and saw Tomoyo-chan again and I was all too happy to do so. It had been so long and I wanted to see how things had changed." Elena grinned at Tomoyo who smiled back, completely unphased to the revelation.
"You knew, Tomoyo-chan?" Sakura asked, shocked. Tomoyo nodded and smiled.
"Yes, although I always thought it meant something else until Elena-chan suddenly appeared again in England when I was there; and after the whole affair with the Clow Cards I didn't doubt her anymore. That's why I wasn't overly surprised when I found out about Kero-chan and the Clow Cards." The mention of Keroberos startled Sakura.
"Oh, Kero-chan, maybe he can tell us something about all this?" Sakura suggested, pulling out the cell phone Tomoyo had given her. It was one of a few her mother's company produced and could only be linked to a few locations, or at least the first models were like that, this model was just like any other cell phone. The ringing started and then the phone picked up.
"'Eya who's calling?" The Osakan accident blared out through the speaker.
"Kero-chan, have you felt anything weird about the rain?" Sakura asked.
"Ah, Sakura! I thought you were at school today? And the rain? I just thought it was a little heavier than usual, why?" Sakura sighed; once again Keroberos was not as useful as she had hoped.
"School was closed early today because of the rain. And Elena-chan says that the rain's caused by Fate." There was a pause on the line then Keroberos exploded.
"Fate? What'ya talking about? Where are you anyway if you're not at school?" He demanded, blurting out the three questions. Sakura held the phone away from her ear as the sound blasted out.
"We're at Tomoyo-chan's house. Maybe if you come he-" The sound of glass breaking and a ferocious roar came through the phone.
"Kero-chan? Kero-chan!" Sakura cried into the phone. Her raised voice dragged the attention of the others towards her.
"What's wrong?" Shaoran asked, Sakura shook her head, listening to the sounds of roaring and biting, the sounds of things breaking from the other side of the phone.
"I don't know. There was a sound like a window breaking and a roar and Kero-chan stopped talking." The sounds stopped and there was the sound of panting before Keroberos' voice came through the phone once again; but this time the voice of his larger form.
"Sakura, are you still there?" He asked. His voice was filled with pain.
"Kero-chan! Are you alright?" Sakura asked.
"I'll be fine. Something just came through the window and attacked me. It's like a man but with fur and a wolf's head and claws. I think there are more, I'll head over to you now, have the window open but keep a look out." There was a click as the Beast of the Seal hung up. Sakura sighed and put the phone down.
"What's going on?" Shaoran asked. Sakura's face practically had 'worried' written all over it.
"Kero-chan said he was attacked by something like a half man half wolf. He sounded like he'd been hurt." Sakura's eyes filled with tears again at the thought of her close friend having been injured and Shaoran's arm was around her again, comfortingly.
"A worg." Elena's voiced made them all look up; she was staring thoughtfully at the patch of bed in front of her. "A worg." She repeated before she looked up at them.
"I get it now! Worgs can be half man, half wolf. Usually they retain human stature but are otherwise wolf-like. They're very sensitive to magic, being born from it themselves; but they were all captured and sealed away years ago. I think Fate released them on this world then drenched this place in magic to act as a beacon to them all."
"So what, these things are all coming here?" Shaoran demanded and Elena acknowledged the point with a nod of her head.
"That's what Fate wanted. Fate can't do things by itself so it has to use roundabout methods. In this case, it's sending worgs here to do the dirty work; and they're simply monsters with the instinct to kill; and they tend to seek out people with magic first. As Beast of the Seal, Keroberos is a strong lure since he was created from magic. Also he was where Sakura-chan lives which will retain a lot of her power from just her being there. Once they've gone there they'll go for the place with the next highest concentration of magic…." Sakura had stood up and gone to the window where she stared outside.
There were shadows crawling through the grounds towards the house. Suddenly a shadow leapt up onto the balcony outside the window, smashing a table aside with one large, furry and clawed paw and padded over to the window. The worg stared at Sakura on the other side of the glass then howled to its brethren. Sakura screamed and the others turned to see the worg standing right in front of her on the other side of the glass.
"Sakura!" Shaoran yelled, diving forwards, pulling the beads out of his pocket which formed into his sword.
The worg's paw rose and fell onto the glass, smashing it and falling towards Sakura with blinding speed. The shards of glass fell on Sakura, one of them cutting into her hand but she didn't notice because the clawed paw was looming ever closer to her head, claws outstretched.
"Sakura!" Shaoran screamed, knowing he would be too late.
The paw fell.