Yue quickly left Eriol's place and went to Li's where Sakura and Kero were already discussing something. For the first time Li and Sakura Yue being nervous. "Yue-san, are you feeling ok? You look kinda nervous to me," Sakura asked moving closer to him.
"Yeah, you do look a bit pale," Li echoed his concern.
Yue waved his hand, "No, I'm not nervous. However, I do have something to discuss with you. I went with Eriol to do some research on the history of the moon. He said its time I took a look at one of the books. In face it's the only book that shows some sort of connection to the Reed family and the Royal family of the moon."
"So, what did the book say?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Unfortunately, the book was stolen," Yue mumbled.
"Stolen! How could anyone breach Eriol's security system and steal something from his library?" Li demanded with outrage.
"Eriol explained to me about the gateway to the portals. He said this gateway can take anyone to any place they want to go. He also said that only the royal family can open the book. I am assuming however that those with the power to control the cards can also access the book. Why else would Eriol have it in his possession. Anyway, some girl with long golden hair took the book and vanished into the gateway. We couldn't follow," Yue said with a sigh. "We don't know if the book is in the hands of the princess or her associates or if the dark forces have come up with a way to mimick the royal power."
Meanwhile, back at Eriol's place, Nakuru had come back in a rush. "I need to talk to you about something," she said in a hurry to Eriol. "I was with Touya earlier when that girl Usagi bumped into us. We were almost at Touya's house when all of a sudden I felt a connection to the royal family. The queen was in tears seeking help, but nobody seemed to be able to help her. I broke the connection quickly because I didn't want anyone else to know what I was seeing. I just don't understand how I could have such a vision," Nakuru was pacing back and forth in front of Eriol, her face filled with worry.
Eriol listened to her quietly and considered what she was saying, "Nakuru, were you touching anything at that time, or anybody?"
Nakuru thought for a second before she answered, "Well, I was hanging onto Touya at that time, but I've never had visions before by hanging on to Touya."
"Ok, was Touya touching anything other than you?"
"Well," Nakuru simmered for a few seconds as she thought about Usagi, "Well, that girl Usagi was hanging to his arm again." She muttered grudgingly, "But Usagi has been hanging onto Touya's arm for a while now and the physical contacts haven't incited any visions until now."
Eriol nodded again and calmly went to make a call.
Yue was still at Li's place when the phone rang. Li answered it and frowning he handed it over to Yue, "Eriol wants to talk to you."
Yue went to stand in front of a window as he answered the call, "This is Yue speaking." After speaking on the phone for a while, Yue hung up with a frown on his face.
"Well, Nakuru seemed to have a vision of the Queen being sad and helpless. While she was having the vision, she was in touching Touya. Usagi was in physical contact with Touya at that time too. This type of physical contact never elicited any types of visions before. This could only mean that either Touya or Usagi had the book with them at that time. Since me and Eriol saw a girl with long golden hair vanish into the gateway, we have to assume that the book of prophesies is with Usagi," Yue said rubbing his forehead.
Li and Sakura looked confused at that. "If the book is with Usagi –" Sakura was thinking out loud.
"Well Sakura-chan, since we have not determined whether Usagi is on the good guys side or the bad guys, we can't tell anything. Usagi could be one of the associates of the princess, since she was attacked before. If she knows the princess, then we have to talk to her about revealing who the current princess is," Yue said. "If you decide to investigate on your own, you guys be careful!"
Sakura and Li nodded their agreement. Before they could say anything else, a loud angry voice yelled, "Sakura!"
Li winced at that voice and looked at Sakura, "I thought you didn't tell your brother that you were coming here."
"I didn't!" Sakura said, heading towards the door with Li close behind her. Yue stayed back in the room.
Touya was at the bottom of the stairs when Li and Sakura appeared on top. "Sakura! How dare you lie to me! You said you were going to Tomoyo's house, and not this – this – place" he growled, unable to finish what he started.
Sakura gulped, having never seen Touya in such an angry mood, "Well, I knew you'd flip out if I told you I was coming here. I asked dad and he said I could come here anyway."
"Yeah, well dad aint here now. We're going home now," he said as Sakura walked down the stairs.
"But I can't go home yet, we were in the middle of a very important discussion," Sakura said with a pout.
"I don't care, we're going home now. Its already after dark," Touya said and added to himself 'and its close to a new moon'. Saying so, he grabbed Sakura's hand headed towards the front door.
"Hey –" Li called out from behind.
"Boy. Stay away from my sister. I'm telling you for your own safety," Touya muttered and stalked away from the house with Sakura in tow.
Li stared after them in silence. By the time he went back to tell Yue about the little commotion, Yue had gone back to Yuki's place.
Sakura stared at her brother as he practically dragged her back to their home. 'Whats wrong with Onii-chan. Why is he acting like this all of a sudden?' she thought, bewildered by Touya's sudden protective streak. When they reached their home, Touya took her upstairs to her room as he lectured, "From now on, I don't want to see you stay out after dark. In fact, I want you home right after school. I'll be with you while you go to school and come back home. Got that?" slamming her room door, Touya went to his room.
"What was it that I saw, what am I supposed to make of that vision?" Touya muttered to himself as he closed his room door and slid down, running his fingers through his hair. "I know I saw Sakura in pain. She is just a little girl to go through that kind of – treatment" He continued to mumble to himself. "What if she caught that weird syndrome that's been going around lately? She could just slide into coma for no reason. I can't let that happen to her," Touya sighed softly wanting to forget what he saw in that vision. He just wouldn't let Sakura out of his sight for a while!
Usagi was on her bed staring at the book in her hand. "Man what a day. First I get lost in the library, then I stumble into that huge corridor and then I'm in someone's library pulling down books." She laid the book beside her on the bed, "How could I have stolen a book like that? And this looks so old. I bet it's priceless. Oh man! I know the police will be knocking on the door anytime now asking for the thief who stole an ancient book from a private collector."
She was in tears pretty soon as she stared at the book. The book was covered in weird symbols. What surprised her most was the moon that stood out significantly in the center of the book cover. Inside the moon was a building that she thought looked almost like the crystal palace. Frowning as she made out the shape, she opened the book. Her fingers warmed as she touched the first page of the book. Even though the pages were empty, the moment her fingers touched words started to appear on it. Clutching her crystal tightly, she started reading the book.
It was quite late at night when finally closed the book. Looking quite dazed at what she sat up wondering what to make of it. This part of the history about moon was unknown to her. 'Who is this Reed fellow who failed to help the Queen?' she thought, 'And why weren't the senshi informed of this?'
"What should I do now?" Usagi muttered to herself as she stared out the window. She blinked as she saw Touya drag his sister into their house and slam the doors. "Well someone is in a bad mood" she thought out loud. Shaking her head she said to herself, "It's not time to concentrated on him. I've to think of what I should do with this book and the things it said."
"Luna," she called out to her cat suddenly, "Why didn't you tell me anything about Clow Reed?" she asked the cat that was dozing in a corner.
Yawning Luna came awake to the questions Usagi was asking, "What do you mean? I don't know anything about this Clow Reed."
"You don't?" Usagi was surprised, "How can you not know about him? You should know something about it."
"I'm sorry but I can't help you with Reed. Perhaps Ami will know or maybe Rei," Luna suggested hoping that Usagi will finally see her friends again.
"I can't see them, not yet!" Usagi thought for a while and sighing softly she went to her computer. "I could ask them without meeting them though," saying so she started typing up an email to Ami. All it read was:
Ami, What do you know about Clow Reed? Usagi.
Sending the email, she crashed onto her bed hoping to find an answer from one of the girls soon. As she slept that night, she was plagued by nightmares about shadowy places and children crying out for help.
It was the next day that Ami checked her email. Frowning at the single line she received from Usagi, but happy that Usagi had taken the initiative to contact her, Ami had arranged for a meeting at Rei's place. When they gathered at the temple that evening, Ami smiled at the other girls, "Well, Usagi contacted us. Asked if we knew anything about Clow Reed. Other than that single question, she didn't say anything else. I've started looking to see if I can find out anything about Clow Reed, but so far, I haven't been able to dig up anything."
The other girls nodded slowly. "So, it's a good thing Usagi contacted us, right?" Mina asked, relief showing on her face.
"Yes! She might not be ready to meet us yet, but I believe this is progress considering she refused all help when she left us. Perhaps if we found out more about this Reed, we can lure her back to us. Maybe then we can make sure that she is fine and that new dark forces haven't nabbed her yet," Rei said hopefully.
"Yeah. Lets do our best to find out about Reed then," Makoto nodded already standing up to leave. Wanting to find out as quickly as possible about Reed, so that they could meet Usagi again.
"I'll start digging deeper, and see if I can find out anything. Also you guys keep in mind that the new moon is in a couple of days. South, North and East side of the city have been covered. What's left is the West and the central city. If they follow the pattern, the attack will be on the West side of the city. Lets hope we can do something about it this time," Ami said as she stood up as well.
In that moment, a small portal appeared inside Rei's place and a little girl with pink hair dropped down. Completely covered in bruises and blood, Chibi-Usa held a card in her hand as she said painfully, "Pluto gave this" and then fainted.
Flustered at Chibi-Usa's sudden appearance, and outraged at seeing what state she was in all four girls gathered around the little girl. Rei scooped up the girl and gently placed her on a mattress and took the card from the girl's hand. She held out the card to the others and read the word that was at the bottom of the card, "Time".
"Any idea what this card is?" Rei asked the others. When the others shook their heads, Rei turned back to Chibi-Usa. "Well, I'm going to clean up her wounds and call a doctor to attend her." Handing the card to Ami she asked, "Would you mind digging into this card while you're doing research on Reed?"
Makoto looked around the place waiting for Chibi-Usa's kitten to drop in as well, but when it didn't she narrowed her eyes, "I think we should guard her at all times. Rei give us a call if you need someone to take over your place. Meanwhile, Mina and I'll go look for Diana. Maybe she got lost and appeared in a different part of the city."
Nodding their agreements, the girls split up. Makato and Mina went out looking for Diana, while Ami headed to the library.
Once at the library Ami started searching the database for Clow Reed. There was only one hit. When she tried to open the link, she was asked for a password. "Oh damn, this might take a while, perhaps I should do this at home," muttering Ami copied down the link and headed home thinking of possibilities for the password.
A/N: I know I kept you waiting a long time, so sorry for that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you think of it. Comments, questions and flames are welcome. Do review, coz it's the reviews that keep me going forward.