CHAPTER TEN
"You guys!" Meiling shrieked as she ran along the halls of Eriol's home. "Seriously! Where are you!?"
After a loud crash into a nearby closet, Eriol cleared his throat and called out to her. "We're in here, Meiling. In the library."
"I knew that!" She called back.
Once inside, and after catching up with everybody, Meiling set the egg-shaped meteorite on the table for everyone to look at. The look on Aries' face only indicated that he knew what the object was.
"So it has begun." He said under his breath.
"You know what this is?" Meiling asked the strange man. "Wait a minute, who are you?"
"I'll explain later." Li took her aside.
"It's just an egg!" Nakuru scoffed.
"Shh!" Kero hushed. "It could be full of chocolate, y'know!"
"It's a timer probe." Aries continued.
"A what?" Sakura took the object away and examined it.
"It appears Exitir has already planned for his arrival. These are merely probes for his nearest fleets to scan and monitor the area while the timer counts down to the armada's full arrival."
"Why does he need a countdown?"
"Because, Sakura, when Exitir and his fleet enter your atmosphere, things will no longer be the same. He will begin an invasion of not only Earth's people but of its timeline."
"Timeline?"
"Yes." Aries tapped the tip of the egg, which opened up to reveal a small red light and a green counter. "Just as I suspected. We only have a few days."
"Yeah but what happens then?"
"He will send groups of Valdorians into the past and future of your world and cause severe damage to the timelines, needless to say what he will already be doing to you in the present."
"But I don't get it." Graham interrupted. "Why the past and future?"
"He is very thorough in his conquests. By eliminating Earth's defenses in the past, there will be no way for the present to defend themselves. Eliminating your defenses in the future will only further insure the annihilation of your people."
"No way in, no way out." Li nodded along, at last getting the idea.
"What about those who stay in the present?" Sakura asked. "How can we be here if our past is being destroyed?"
"As much as I would like to answer your questions, Sakura, we must make sure there will be no need to ask them. Time is a luxury we don't have. Exitir must be stopped at once."
"Okay." Sakura sighed. "You're right. First, we take care of Faust."
"Agreed."
"Wait, Faust is back!?" Meiling panicked. "What else have I missed, huh? How 'bout Lorca? He doing good for himself?"
"The Blood Ring freed him." Li smirked.
"What!?"
"And now I expect they're working on getting the Demon Knights back."
"Oh, God…" Meiling started to hyperventilate. "I'm not ready for this… it's too much… too many bad guys…"
"If you want out, Meiling, I understand." Sakura put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "We can take care of it."
"What and let you have all the fun? Yeah, you wish!"
A smile spread across Sakura's face. "You missed it, didn't you?"
"Of course!" She then noticed Sakura's new features. "Hey, you got glasses! Haha!"
"Hoe!" Sakura quickly removed her lenses. "Can we just focus, please!? Aries?"
"I've already located them." Aries' eyes glowed white. "They're on an island of some sort. Undisclosed."
"An island?"
"Near a temple of some sort."
Li immediately knew where they were. "Oh no. They're at the Temple of Xiang Zhou."
Meiling's face turned pale. "The… Temple of… Xiang… Zhou?"
Inside his small laboratory, Kanaye wheeled himself over to his desk as a blinking red light emanated from his computer. The faint beeping indicated the tracking device on the WarHawk was still operational.
"Hello…" Kanaye punched up the jet's trajectory on his computer screen.
Hiroshi kept his eyes on the blinking dot as it slowly moved around the grid. From what he could tell, the jet was indeed leaving Tomoeda but to where he was unsure.
"Tricky girl..." He chuckled to himself. "Let's see where our old friends are going."
The Pentagon
"What's the status of that signal, Major?" General Armstrong called out as he paced around the Space Command.
"We're still trying to decrypt it, sir!" Major Edison replied as he and several other technicians continued jotting down notes.
Meanwhile, the President was waiting patiently as he watched the entire Space Command run around in a frenzy via satellite feed.
"The people are getting anxious, General!" The President growled. "We don't have time to keep bullshitting them! How long until that freak storm reaches us?"
"We're working on it, sir." The General sighed. "Right now we've got all our best and brightest trying to decode this damn signal. Hopefully, when we break it, it'll shed some light as to why--"
"I don't give a damn about some alien signal, General. It could be radio interference for all we know. I just need to know when exactly this storm will reach us! It's been two days now! Europe's already in a mass frenzy! The more time we waste, the more vulnerable we become!"
"Understood, sir."
"Now I know you and your men are doing your best. But can you assure me, in the interest of national security, that nobody else can pick up on this so-called 'signal'?"
"Of course not. To do so, the person would have to be some kind of advanced computer whiz. I mean, one whose skills would severely dwarf our own. Rest assured, sir, I highly doubt there's anyone like that out there."
The Hinata Apartments
"Hey, wow! Look at this weird signal I picked up!" An overly hyper Kaolla Su exclaimed as she rapidly typed on her computer while hanging upside down. "It's really neat! I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before!"
As the strange foreigner continued fingering through her keyboard, trying to decode the signal coming from space, the other tenants of the Hinata Inn stared at her from behind the door.
"She's been at that computer all day." Shinobu nervously said. "Even more than usual."
"What are you talking about?" Naru scratched her head.
"Well for one thing," Keitaro started. "She hasn't even bothered to stop and hit me for anything! Actually… I kind of like it this way."
"She's obviously going on about something."
"Yeah." Motoko nodded. "Some sort of signal."
"Oh my God!" Keitaro panicked and rushed over to Su's desk. "Kaolla! Get off now! You could be tapping into some other country's military defenses and if you are, we're gonna be in really big trouble! No! Wait! I'm gonna be in really big trouble! I'm the manager! I'm responsible for your actions! Oh, God! I'm going to jail! No! I can't! I just can't! I just--"
POW!
Naru managed to shut her husband up with a massive punch to the face. "Will you relax, Keitaro!? You're the manager, not her father!"
"Yeah… good call…" Keitaro responded in a daze.
"You guys aren't listening to me!" Kaolla pleaded with them. "I think I'm onto something big here!"
"So…" Ktisune looked over to her friends. "…Should we call the men in white coats now or later?"
"It seems like it's coming from outer space or something!" Kaolla gasped. "Oh, cool!"
"Now!" Everyone responded.
Elsewhere…
The WarHawk passed the gateway in the sky and easily phased through the gray clouds. Once the island was spotted, the jet made its landing safely and without conflict. When the ramp lowered, Sakura, Li, Eriol, Tomoyo, Meiling, Mr. Graham, Aries and Kaho stepped onto the moonlit beach.
"Oh, man…" Meiling almost gagged. "I can still hear those banjos."
"There weren't any banjos." Li shook his head. "You gotta stop watching those movies, they keep putting stuff in your head."
"It's my head, not yours!"
"Sure is dark out here." Tomoyo put her arm around Eriol's.
"Nothing to worry about." He reassured her. "… I hope."
"Why would Faust come here?" Graham asked.
"I don't know." Sakura responded as she took out a card. "But I'm sure he had a reason."
The last to exit the jet were Yue and three of Graham's assistants while Touya, Nakuru, Kero and Spinel remained seated inside the cockpit.
"Be careful, Touya." Sakura told her brother. "It can get pretty rough out here."
"Yeah, well so can we!" Nakuru joked. "Right, boys?"
She turned to see Kero and Spinel fighting over a bag of goodies while Touya watched in amusement. With a heavy sigh, Nakuru shook her head and sat down on her seat, giving Sakura a thumbs up.
"Where the hell have they gone?" Kanaye desperately tried to search for the jet's position on his screen. "They just disappeared!"
Angry and confused, the man searched every square inch of the map to try and get an idea of where the WarHawk could be. Once he realized it was futile, a spark of enlightenment suddenly filled his head.
"Wait a minute…" He continued. "If they're not on the map… then they must be somewhere… that's meant to be hidden."
A grin then spread across his face. "They're at the temple. Oh, Sakura… you're just full of surprises, aren't you?"
Once the group made it to the village, they noticed a small bonfire dying out. There was nobody to be seen or heard from, much to Meiling's fear.
"What, no welcome back party?" She quipped. "Hello? Anybody here?"
"Shh, Meiling." Kaho shushed. "Something doesn't feel quite right."
"I sense it too." Sakura nodded.
"So do I." Li agreed.
With a wave of her hand, Kaho managed to enliven the bonfire and light up several torches along the village. In doing so, she and the group came upon a gruesome discovery.
"Oh dear God…" Sakura put her hands to her mouth in shock.
The villagers, whom Li and Meiling had a run-in with several years ago, were all laid out across the sandy floor. Dead. Some were mauled by an unknown assailant, others were incinerated and some simply had their throats cut. A wasteland of blood and terror was all that remained of the ancient tribe.
"Faust." Sakura balled up her fists. "He did this, didn't he?"
"Did what?" Meiling kneeled over one of the dead villagers. "Hey, wake up!"
"Meiling…"
"C'mon, wake up!" She started to slap the person around. "Man, these are heavy sleepers!"
"Meiling, please…"
"Oi!" She gently kicked the body. "What the hell's their problem! Hello? Remember me? I brought you the Almighty Mickey!"
"Meiling, they're all dead!" Li lost his temper.
"Dead?"
Li held up a blackened skeleton and shook it in front of her. "Yes, dead! Don't you see!? Faust murdered them all!"
"Ah." Meiling immediately jumped away from the corpse and patted another on the head. "My bad."
"Sakura." Aries pointed out atop of a hill. "I believe that is where we must go."
"Hold on…" Sakura walked around the dead bodies and quickly ran up a grassy knoll.
Once at the top, she immediately saw a jagged black tower standing tall and proud in the middle of the jungle. A dark aura was also visible as well as a couple of dragons, encircling the area.
"You're right, Aries." Sakura nodded. "He's here. The bastard's inside that castle."
Li, Tomoyo and Eriol climbed up the mound and stood next to Sakura, also getting a glimpse at the black tower.
"I guess now we go and stop him, huh?" Li suggested.
"Yup." Sakura unleashed the Sword. "Before more lives are taken."
And with that, Sakura and her team headed for the heart of the jungle, where an unexpected turn of events was waiting for them.
A/N: If that last cameo was a bit confusing for you or rather unexpected, just you wait. I've got several more tricks up my sleeve. ;)