Chapter 5

"What happened Li-kun?" Shaoran looked up, distracted from his thoughts. Yamazaki was standing in front of his desk. Rika, Chiharu and Naoko were arrayed behind him, all looking worried.

"There were some dangerous people in the park." Shaoran said. It was all he could think of short of 'I fell down the stairs' which was a plain lie. The girls held hands to their mouths, gasping.

"Are you alright?" Chiharu asked. Shaoran nodded.

"Yeah, thanks." He said, forcing a smile. The girls sighed in relief, then Naoko stepped forward.

"Is that why Sakura-chan hasn't been at school?" She asked. Shaoran froze for a moment, a memory of Sakura's comatose position flashing into his mind. He shook his head to clear it. "I don't know why she's not here; I haven't talked to her since the first day." He lied.

"Maybe she's ill then?" Rika suggested, the idea was quickly accepted as it seemed the most realistic situation. Tomoyo entered the room and greeted them with a 'Good morning' then put her bag down on the desk. Yamazaki's group walked away, chatting, their troubled minds now at ease. Tomoyo leaned over to Shaoran.

"Are you alright?" She asked, Shaoran nodded.

"I am… but Sakura…." Shaoran's good hand clenched into a fist. "She wasn't answering her phone, have you seen her?" He demanded, Tomoyo leaned back from the fire in his eyes and shook her head.

"No… she hasn't come to school and I haven't been to her house. We could go today, after school?" Tomoyo suggested, Shaoran nodded.

"I'm worried about her." He murmured, Tomoyo smiled. A voice interrupted their conversation.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea." The voice said, the two looked up to see Julius. Shaoran stood up, turning around.

"What do you mean?" He demanded, the blonde boy held his hands up in front of him, trying to calm Shaoran down.

"Now, now. Although I can tell you that Kinomoto-san is safe right now." He said, Shaoran relaxed for a moment, then stepped towards Julius.

"How do you know? You've been saying mysterious things ever since I first heard you talk. What do you know?" He took another step forward. Tomoyo stood in between the two, looking between them, worried. Julius continued smiling kindly.

"Do you not wonder why you're still here?" He asked. Shaoran stopped for a moment, the last moments before he lost consciousness coming back to him.

"You're saying you saved us? Who are you?" Shaoran was relaxing a little now, more cautious than aggressive.

"Julius Ragnar… I am descended from a long line of magic users in England. Eriol-san sent me here to do what I could for you and Kinomoto-san. I apologise for being too slow two days ago, I hadn't anticipated how quickly the twins would act. They prefer to play with their victims but they were obviously in a hurry this time." Julius slid into a seat, turning it around to face Shaoran, crossing one leg over the other's knee.

"You know about them? What happened to Sakura?!" Shaoran demanded, raising his voice and taking a step towards Julius. Some turned around and Julius waved at them, smiling. Shaoran glanced up and regained his composure.

"Is something the matter?" Chiharu asked. Shaoran shook his head violently so the group turned away.

"Kinomoto-san is safe, don't worry. She's at home, her father and elder brother are looking after her and I'm sure she's recovering." Julius looked at Shaoran, who had relaxed significantly at this news, curiously. "Do you know about the powers of the twins? Of what they did to her?" He asked. The image of Sakura's death-like state popped into Shaoran's memory again.

"No, I've never heard of them before. What they did to her… I don't know; but it worked on her." Shaoran said, the image strong in his mind.

"Those twins are magic eaters. They eat a person's magical energy to sustain themselves; but these two are picky. They will only eat the energy of a couple and as you can imagine, those aren't common. So when they find a couple who possess magical energy, they pursue them until they get what they want; and now they've got their targets set on you and Kinomoto-san." Julius pointed at Shaoran here.

"So what are we meant to do?" Shaoran demanded, Julius' smile dropped and his eyes narrowed.

"They don't give up on their pray, ever. I know… so there's only one way to get them off your backs." Julius held a hand up with the index finger held up. "Kill them."

"Kill? Sakura can't do that… she wouldn't want to hurt anyone. Isn't there any other way?" Shaoran demanded. Julius shook his head.

"They won't ever give up. They can't be captured, they can't be negotiated to, they can't be deterred in anyway. If you defeat them but let them live, they'll regain their strength and come after you again, more determined than before." Julius stood up.

"And as for why I said why it was a bad idea to see Kinomoto-san… you seeing her might trigger a second wave of trauma." Shaoran's eyes opened wide.

"W-what?" He managed to say.

"My guess is they used her love for you against her and broke her mind with that. In other words, seeing you will make her remember that." Julius turned to go.

"So what?! I'm meant to avoid her?" Shaoran demanded, Julius stopped.

"I didn't say that at all. I just said it would be a bad idea to see her right now. Let her work it out and look after her when you can."

"Why do you know so much? Who are you to tell people what to do?" Shaoran demanded. Julius froze by the doorway, his head looking down at the floor. He turned around, his eyes full of sadness.

"Those twins targeted my parents. I told you they don't give up on their prey, ever." Shaoran watched Julius leave, leaning back on a table. Tomoyo put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, it'll be alright." She murmured, Shaoran barely noticed her.

"Are you sure you're ready to go back?" Sakura's father asked, concerned. Sakura nodded.

"I'm alright now… and there are things I need to do at school." She said softly. Ever since she had woken up again she had been quiet, her normal cheerfulness had vanished and there was always a detached look in her eyes.

"If you're sure then. If you don't feel up to it at any time, just come right back, okay?" Her father said, Sakura just nodded and walked out the front door.

"Take care and have a good day." Her father said, the corners of Sakura's mouths twitched a little in a weak smile and then she was gone, leaving her father to stand by the gate.

It was during lunch break when Shaoran heard the exclamation and he shot to his feet, running as fast as he could towards the source of the sound. Tomoyo held a hand out, about to say something but decided against it and followed as quickly as she could.

"Sakura-chan!"

Shaoran ran into the athletics field, the gates just up ahead. Yamazaki's group were assembled in a ring around someone and he knew who it was. He didn't slow down as he ran towards the group, they noticed him coming and parted so that he could get through where he stood, panting, his hands on his knees.

"Sakura!" He gasped. Sakura's eyes were full of conflicting emotions; but the most prominent he saw was fear and Julius' words came back to him.

"My guess is they used her love for you against her and broke her mind with that."

"Shaoran…." She murmured, the others looked from one to the other, confused. An uneasy silence descended upon them, Sakura and Shaoran staring at one another, neither sure what to do. The moment was broken when Tomoyo arrived, huffing and puffing.

"Sakura-chan! Are you alright? You were off school yesterday." She said, Sakura turned away from Shaoran and smiled half-heartedly.

"Yeah, I was ill so Otou-san made me stay home." She said, Shaoran stood to the side as Sakura walked to Tomoyo and they started to talk, walking towards the main building.

"Sakura-chan doesn't look so good…." Shaoran didn't hear the others talking as they walked away, leaving him alone to stare after Sakura and Tomoyo.

"You understand now, don't you?" Shaoran's head jerked up and he looked sideways to see Julius standing next to him. "The extent of what they did to her, she's not sure how to distinguish what was shown to her from reality." Shaoran turned to watch as Sakura and Tomoyo entered the main school building.

"Yeah."

"This is a bad idea, Ragnar is here."

"Be quiet. He's over there, we can get this over and done with before he can do anything."

"They're here. Come, she's in danger." Julius suddenly said, breaking the silence between them, sprinting towards the school. Shaoran responded a second later and although he was fast, he was no match for Julius who sped ahead of him.

"You don't look so well, Sakura-chan." Tomoyo said quietly, looking with concern at her best friend.

"Tomoyo-chan… I'm… I'm scared of Shaoran." Sakura whispered.

"Why? Li-kun is-"

"I know! But I was shown things… I think it was in a dream and I saw Shaoran and he was hurting me… Tomoyo-chan, what if it was a foretelling dream? I love Shaoran but I'm scared of him too! If it was a foretelling dream then Shaoran might try and kill me… I don't want that." Sakura stopped, tears falling down her cheeks. Tomoyo turned around and held Sakura's hands up, making her look up into Tomoyo's gently smiling face.

"It couldn't have been a foretelling dream, Sakura-chan. Li-kun loves you very much too, he couldn't ever hurt you."

"But Tomo-" There was a crash at the far end of the hall and the wall of the corridor fell away, a boy and a girl flying in through the gap.

"Hello again, Sakura. I'll show you sweet dreams again."

Julius took the stairs two at a time, there was a crash upstairs, screams, a cloud of dust billowed down the hall.

"Hurry!" He yelled to Shaoran who stood at the bottom of the stairs. Shaoran gritted his teeth and leapt up one story, landed on the banister, then leapt up another story and followed Julius around the corner and into the hall. There they saw Tomoyo lying against a wall, shuddering.

"Daidouji-san!" Shaoran yelled, running forwards and keeling beside her.

"Sakura-chan… they took Sakura-chan, up there!" Tomoyo said, pointing to a hole in the ceiling. Julius had already jumped through the hole and Shaoran followed.

"Time!"

Shaoran heard Sakura's voice and it leant him new energy as the world around him was stopped by her magic.

"Shield!"

Her yell was followed by an explosion and a scream.

"Sakura!" Shaoran roared, leaping through the last hole and onto the rooftop. Sakura was crouching under the defence of her spell, glowing white around her. Shaoran ran forwards and knelt beside her.

"Are you alright?" He asked, Sakura glanced at Shaoran and he saw the fear in her eyes again.

"Whatever you saw, it was a trick they showed to you!" Shaoran said, a confused look came onto Sakura's face.

"Hoe?"

"Sakura, whatever you saw, when we were in the park, whatever you think you saw it wasn't real! They showed it to you!" Doubt covered Sakura's face.

"He's right, Kinomoto-san." The voice made them both look up, they saw Julius standing in front of them, facing the twins who stood on the far side of the rooftop. "These two attacked you yesterday, although you won't remember it. Whatever you were shown was to neutralise you as a threat and also to separate you from Li-san. Whatever it was, rest assured, it wasn't real and never will be." For some reason his calm words and kind expression wiped away Sakura's doubt and she turned to look again at Shaoran who smiled at her and nodded.

"Shaoran!" She cried, reaching forwards and hugging him.

"Ow! Hey Sakura, ow! That hurts." Shaoran exclaimed, Sakura released him and noticed the bandage around his shoulder and arm.

"Shaoran! What happened? Why are you hurt?"

"They did it." Shaoran said, pointing at the twins, Sakura stood up, what could only be described as 'Sakura rage' filling her.

"You!" She yelled, pulling a card out of her pocket and throwing it forwards, lifting her staff up, the card glowed as she called its name. "Wood!" Trees sprouted out of the rooftop and grew towards the twins but they just ran forwards, avoiding all the searching branches and vines with contemptible ease.

"You're going to have to try a bit harder than that." Julius muttered, leaping forwards and meeting the two. The male twin swung a sword at him and Julius ducked under the blade and then grabbed the boy's hands clutched around the hilt, stopping his movement. The girl cracked the butt of her staff on the ground and a spike rose from the rooftop at Julius' chest. He leapt to the side, flipping over the male twin's head as he did so and pulling the boy over his shoulder, slamming him onto his back. The boy gasped and the female twin howled in rage and pointed her staff at Julius.

"Raitei Shourai!" Shaoran's yell was followed by a thunderbolt blast that struck the girl in the side. She screamed as she was blasted several feet away before swiping the thunder away as if it were nothing with an enraged screech. The male twin swiped his sword at Julius but blonde boy rolled backwards away from the blade, the boy flipped into his feet and leapt back to join the girl again.

"I told you it was a bad plan."

"Quiet. We can't beat all of them at once, let's leave them for now."

The twins turned and ran off the rooftop, leaping the last step and disappearing. The trio sighed in relief.

Julius turned around and touched his hand to the rooftop, a blue glow emitted from his hand and the hole in the roof closed up, the holes on the other floors doing so as well. Sakura released the Time spell and the card moved back into her pocket. She swayed a little, her eyes half closed. She swayed too far and toppled over right into Shaoran's waiting arms.

"Shaoran…." She mumbled sleepily. Shaoran smiled as the effects of fatigue slowly lifted from Sakura and she shifted until she was sitting again. "I'm sorry Shaoran… I shouldn't have believed you would do those things." She cried, tears beginning to well in her eyes. Shaoran reached forwards and wiped them away from the corners of her eyes.

"It's not your fault, it's theirs." He said, standing and helping her to her feet. They both had released their weapons, returning to them their normal positions.

"But I should have known bet-" Shaoran silenced her, embracing her, bringing her to him and his mouth closed over hers. For a moment Sakura's eyes widened in surprise, then they closed contently and she wrapped her arms around him.

Julius turned away, giving the two some privacy and smiled to himself.

Looks like things will be alright.

Note: Here y'all go, something to make it up to you ;).