Hello, how's it all going? Hope you like this chapter; I think the action picks up in this one. I am so sorry that this was such a late update I had exams. I HATE EXAMS!
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Links in a Chain
Chapter 10
Having Nightmares
Sakura sat perched on the end of her bed (the bloody sheets had been changed) watching the games take place in front her. Syaoran had left for his apartment a while ago, so it as only Sakura, Kero and Lost in the room. Kero had challenged Lost to a couple of video games, but since Lost had never played the video games before he was doing badly.
"Not fair Cerberus, you know how to play and I don't!" Lost wailed, this was his tenth attempt at beating the sun guardian and once again he lost.
"Now I know why Clow Reed called you The Lost card, because you lost ten times in a row!" Kero taunted, doing some sort of ridiculous victory dance.
"Ooohhhhh! Miss. Sakura tell Cerberus to stop right now!" Lost whined and came up to tug on Sakura's pyjama pant leg. "Isn't time to go to bed or something?" He still was in his human disguise, which was recently named Shieng and was no longer dressed in his overalls but in one of Toya's old t-shirts.
Sakura shot a nasty look to Kero, as if to say 'stop being mean' then looked down fondly to the sweet boy/spirit and patted his head, "I guess we really should get to bed, I mean there is school tomorrow." She began to roll out a spare sleeping bag for Lost to sleep in.
"Hey Lost, do Clow cards need sleep?" Sakura glanced over to spirit standing at her side.
He shrugged, "I don't know I've never slept before so I don't know if I need it or not."
Sakura smiled and shook her head, 'I guess that means he doesn't need sleep.'
Kero yawned and floated over to his drawer where his bed was, "Well I think I did enough butt kicking tonight, I'm going to go to bed. Night Sakura, night Lost." The stuffed animal like creature was asleep as soon as his hit the pillow.
"But- but shouldn't he stay awake to protect too, Miss. Sakura?" Lost looked up to the young woman. Obviously he was serious about protecting Sakura.
Sakura smiled brightly to the boy, "I'm not worried Lost, you said you would protect me." Lost instantly blushed and looked to the floor.
"Yeah I'll watch you, but you need to get to bed so you get to sleep and go to school tomorrow." Lost began to usher her to her bed.
As Sakura slid underneath her sheets and Lost began to borrow into his sleeping bag, someone knocked on her door.
"Come in."
Toya opened the door and suspiciously looked around like he was expecting to see Syaoran hiding somewhere the room, "Just came in to say good-bye and good night, I'm going back to my apartment."
"Bye Toya." Sakura waved to her brother, but instead of him leaving, he came further into the room. He came to a stop in front on Sakura. To her surprise he bent down and enveloped Sakura in a hug. The hug was only a pretence so that he could whisper in her ear.
"I'm not stupid you know, I know that something is going on." He whispered to her, Sakura when rigid in her brother's hold. "Your little friend there better be able to protect you from those…nasty bed bugs." Quickly he straightened himself and patted 'Shieng' on the head.
"You better protect my sister Shieng, or else." Toya warned playfully to the supposed human boy. 'Shieng' nodded vigorously.
"Yes sir, I'll protect her." He saluted from the sleeping bag.
"Good." Toya proceeded out off the room.
Once he was gone Sakura got up from her bed and locked the door so she would have no intruders in the night. She couldn't have her dad walk in and catch sight of the true form of 'Shieng' patrolling around her room.
Turning to make her way back to the plush and temping bed that called to her, Sakura saw Lost looking to her pleadingly.
"What is it, Lost?"
"I don't want to be any trouble Miss. Sakura, but do you think you could lift the spell now, I think I have a rash developing." Lost scratched at his chest.
With a nod of her auburn haired head the spell that surrounded the Clow spirit dissipated. Promptly the young spirit shot out of his sleeping bag and bounced around the room.
"No more itching!" He cried with joy.
Sakura giggled at his antics and settled down into her own bed, "Lost you're going to have to settle down if you want to stay in my room. I have school tomorrow so I need sleep."
Lost shut his mouth and ceased all movement at Sakura's word. A small smile graced her lips in thanks for his silence. She reached to her night side lamp and clicked it off leaving her little guard to watch over her from his floating spot on his lamp in the corner.
(Hours later, sometime real late at night)
Lost remained vigilant on his watch. Not once had he moved from watching his precious Miss. Sakura sleep. All was well and it seemed like no one was going to attack that night, for which Lost was completely grateful.
Slowly, so as not to make any noise, the spirit boy slipped from his lantern to the floor and skittered over to Sakura's desk. Lightly he knocked on the draw that contained the Star Cards.
"Hello? Star Cards, do you want to talk, I'm lonely?" He whispered, "I'll understand if you don't."
A glow came from within the drawer signalling that the Star Cards did wish to talk to the Clow Card. The large book drifted out off the draw and hovered before their spirit brother. The book opened on it's own accord, the Cards came spilling froth and danced around the sitting boy. Lost giggled and reached out to the Cards.
"It's so good to see you to!" Lost bubbled, "You all look so good, I see Miss. Sakura has taken really good of you guys…" He paused to listen to their answer, "You really think I would look that good as a Star Card… Oh stop, your embarrassing me…why would I be stuck with suck nasty creatures like the Dark Clow Cards? Well, they used to be really nice and were my best friends… Of course I want to join you guys! But not until the others are fixed… You guys are so sweet, I love you to!"
While he chatted with the many Star Cards, Lost let his guard down. Unfortunately he was so wrapped up in his talking, Lost missed the blackened shadow that slipped past the window and made it's way towards the sleeping form of Sakura.
Suddenly the Cards stopped their dance and froze in the air. In a sudden frenzy they began to shoot around the room silently screaming so that only Lost could hear.
"What?! What is it?!" Lost called frantically. A random card flew over and smacked his head so that his eyes were turned towards the bed. He gasped at the sight; a dark mass was slipping into Sakura's body through her mouth.
"No! Nightmare don't do it!" Lost shot to Sakura's bed and gripped the last inches of the mass.
"It's my job to protect Miss. Sakura, I can't let you hurt her!" Lost strained to pull Nightmare from Sakura's mouth. For a second Nightmare seemed to hear Lost's plea, he backed out of Sakura's body and rematerialized to his original spirit body.
Lost relaxed his grip on Nightmare and smiled hopefully, "Thank you for stopping, Nightmare!"
Nightmare grinned and raised his fist, "It wasn't her I was after you idiot." He sneered and brought his fist down onto Lost's head. The smaller spirit let out a surprised squeal before he was knocked out from the blow.
The Star Cards went into a further fury and crowded around Nightmare, trying to force him out of the room.
"Get away from me you half wit playing cards!" Nightmare growled and swatted at the pink zooming cards.
"Who are you calling playing cards, you horror movie reject!"
Nightmare and the rest of the Star Cards froze as the voice of the Card Mistress cried out in the dark room. All eyes turned to see Sakura standing on her bed with her star key at the ready to transform into the star staff. Her green eyes blazed in the darkness full of anger towards the intruder who had slipped into her room.
The navy demon who stood opposite of Sakura smirked, "You don't actually think that you can be a match for me, do you oh beautiful half dressed one?" Nightmare taunted, letting his eyes roam over Sakura's body.
He frowned slightly; "I liked you better in that nice little pink number you had on the other night."
"Shut up and get out of my room Nightmare!" Sakura yelled.
"What will you do if I don't?" Nightmare taunted.
"This!" Sakura transformed her star key into the star staff and summoned Windy to attack Nightmare. Little did that do, the demon merely stepped out of the way and smirked.
"Come on, I know you're weak but that was pathetic. Now here is an attack!" Nightmare gathered his energy and prepared to unleash an attack on the Card Mistress. At that exact moment, Kero had awoken to the ruckus that was going on in the room.
He exited his drawer quickly, only to see the form of Nightmare hovering in front of his Mistress, ready to attack. In an attempt to save her, he transformed into Cerberus and threw himself at Nightmare, jabbing his claws into the demon's lower back.
"What the!" Nightmare was pitched forward from shock toward Sakura. Nightmare saw where he was headed and saw this as his opportunity to have his fun. At the last moment, he grabbed the still knocked out Lost.
"Got'cha!" he hissed before morphing into the dark mass that he was when he tried to sneak into Sakura's body. His dark form enveloped the poor Clow Spirit, trapping him inside the nightmarish depths of the demon. Sakura was unable to move or look away at the fearful sight until it was to late.
Nightmare came forward in a dark flash forced himself through Sakura's mouth. She felt him inside of her, making his way through her body to her mind. The world began to haze over as dropped to her bed, clutching her head.
"Sakura!" Cerberus rushed to Sakura's side.
"No! Please don't do this, stop it!" She cried. She could feel Nightmare within her body, exploring her and going throughout her most personal places. There was such a violation that Sakura felt it was overwhelming her.
It was no use, any magic that she tried to use to expel Nightmare was not working, he was too powerful for her. He began to twist her mind to his will, making Sakura bend into the tormenting sleep that he presented. She fought hard, and the Star cards around her tried all they could, but eventually her consciousness soon faded into unconsciousness.
"No, Sakura stay with us, don't give in! You can over come this!" Cerberus shook her shoulders, but to no avail. He couldn't help her now, but there was one person who may be able to… As much as it pained Cerberus to say, he had to go get the Brat. So as fast as his wings could take him, Cerberus took off into the night towards the Chinese warrior that could hopefully save his Mistress.
Sakura's body was left writhing on her bed, tears spilling down from her closed eyes. As the nightmares began to play within Sakura's mind, she still called out a single name into the dark room.
"Syaoran!"
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(At Syaoran's apartment)
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Eriol and Tomoyo had left a long while ago. Eriol had taken his time leaving; making sure to poke fun at Syaoran for everything that had went on that day. Then he had the audacity to expect Syaoran to thank him for pretending to be "Shieng's" father over the phone. Syaoran had enjoyed forcing the reincarnated sorcerer out of his apartment.
Now Syaoran was alone in his apartment. Curiosity had gotten the better of him and he had taken the Records of Clow book from the table. The warrior sat on his couch, debating whether or not to open the book. If it held information that would help him and Sakura, how bad could opening a book be?
Syaoran took a deep breath; he was going to open the book. Carefully he pried open the first page, the old yellowed paper crackled from the movement. He looked down at the faded writing and let out the breath he had been holding. No explosions, no traps, no big obnoxious words scrawled across the page that read "HA! HA! GOT YOU!" It was completely safe. The only thing in it was writing.
"I have created the Clow Cards. There are so many of them, each is a beautiful and unique spirit, I look forward to getting to know each of them. Along with the Clow Cards, I have given them guardians: one of the sun, the other of the moon. Cerberus and Yue. How I enjoy their company, it gets lonely here without any other humans around to talk to. No other person dares to come near me for fear of my power...
With so many people in the world who fear and hate me, I have decided to keep a record of all the Clow Cards. Some day I will pass on and a new master will be chosen. I can only hope they find this book to help them with the immense task of caring for the cards and their guardians."
With the dim light of the table lamp illuminating the words, Syaoran flipped through a few of the pages. It went over the 52 Clow Cards that Sakura had transformed into Star Cards. Talking about ways to sub-due each spirit with least amount of force and other useful tips. Next to each description, there was a beautiful sketch of the described Clow Card.
Syaoran sighed, "Now why couldn't we have had this book eight years ago. It would have made Sakura's and my life way easier."
As he made his way further into the book, he came upon a section that was sealed by both a wax seal and magic.
"What the…" Syaoran narrowed his eyes and pried at the wax, it gave away easily by the magic seal that kept the pages closed remained in place.
"Why would Clow Reed seal his records book?" he wondered. Syaoran got a sneaking suspicion that if he opened the back section of the book, he would get quite a few of the answers to the many questions that were floating around in everyone's head.
From his room, Syaoran retrieved some of his more powerful charms and sutras in hope of breaking the seal. After a fair amount of time and spent magic, his attempts were rewarded. The seal that had been placed of the pages was broken, and the first page revealed something that made Syaoran gasp and stare at the book.
Right there on the page was a striking sketch of both Life and Death. They stood side-by-side, tall and proud with their living chains attached firmly to their wrists. If Syaoran didn't know that this was just a sketch, he probably would have thought that the two spirits were alive and real on the page.
'What the hell are you doing here?' Syaoran ran his hand over the sketch. 'I wish Sakura was here to see this…' he thought just after he ran his hand over the drawn in chains. They cracked under his touch. Syaoran pulled his hand away like it had been stung and brought the picture close to his face.
The chains weren't cracked anymore. 'Was that just a trick of the light?'
"I must be seeing thing." Syaoran sighed and rubbed his eyes, "might as well see what Clow Reed wrote in this book." He turned to the next page and tentatively began to read what had been written hundreds of years ago.
"They have come for me. After so long, Life and Death has come to claim me and take me to the after life. We have met few times before hand and from those delightful past meetings I have learned of the curse that they carry. My fascination with these unusual benevolent spirits is still present as they inform me that my time has come to die.
An idea comes to me as Death is about to take my soul, I could lift the curse that they have carried for so many years. There is no way to describe the way Life had reacted to the news; she was so overjoyed. In the end, I was able to strike a deal with the great beings. Life granted me one more year of life, in return I find away to break the chains that bind them to this mortal plain…"
That was the end of the first entry; the second was written right under the first.
"My year has been spent and I now have the solution to the curse, but the magic it took to create the solution has drained me severely. I welcome the time in which Life and Death come to collect on their end of the deal, for I am tired and weary. All my affairs have already been set in order; the Clow Cards have been sealed away and Cerberus and Yue have been informed that they will have a new master soon. I can feel Death with his ever present companion Life, this shall be my final entry in these records."
'Why would Clow Reed seal this away, it doesn't have anything important written-.' Syaoran stopped as his eyes came upon more writing on the next page. It was not the writing of Clow Reed, it was much more spidery and delicate. His amber eyes were drawn to the writing, even if he had wanted to turn away he couldn't.
"Oh my dear friend Clow Reed, Death has taken him. He had worked so hard to help us, and now we have this slim chance of being free. Within the year that I gave Clow Reed, he had worked with the many forces of nature and divination to help us. Somehow during his toiling the man came upon what will be in the future. Somehow his descendent and his successor are of great importance to us if we were to be granted freedom.
He gave us Clow Cards, eight of them and told us to take care of them until the time was right, when the new master was chosen. He told us that they were the key to seeing true love, whatever that means. I don't see how baby-sitting Clow Cards, waiting for mortals to come along, and seeing true love has anything to do with me getting away from these mortal binds. But if I get to be free, I swear to God I'll tie myself to either the descendent or the new master to make sure I get my freedom!
I wonder how long me and Death have to wait?"
Syaoran stared at the page disbelievingly. So everything that Sakura and he has to go through, the things that the cards did to them, was just so Life and Death could be free! How selfish was that?!
There was a spark of anger that welled up inside him, a hatred for the forces of Life and Death that he couldn't control. They had given the impression that they were fair and noble spirits, when in truth neither Life nor Death wouldn't have bothered with him or Sakura if it weren't necessary for their freedom.
'If I ever get the chance, I'll make both of them pay for the pain they put Sakura and I through!'
In an in-the-moment kind of anger, Syaoran tossed the book from his lap and let it hit the wall with a satisfying thump. After it hit the floor he remembered that it wasn't his book, he was only borrowing it and it should be kept in good condition, so he got up and went to get the book. It had fallen open to a sketch that he didn't recognize, so Syaoran brought the page up to take a closer look.
"No way." The title to the page said 'Nightmare' but whoever the sketch was it definitely wasn't the demon jester that Syaoran had seen in the park. This spirit was tall, in sweeping formal Chinese robes, with funny horizontal stripes and a bat pattern. He was drawn with a bright smile and lively eyes, looking far more friendly then the terror that he knew.
"If this is the real Nightmare, then who the hell was the guy we met?" Syaoran growled and started to flip to the next page, but he stopped when something huge hit the glass door to the balcony.
"Hey Brat! Sakura's in danger, I hate to say this but you're the only one who can help!" Cerberus yelled.
The instant those words left his mouth Syaoran had ripped open the door and was in the guardians face, "What do you mean Sakura is in danger! I thought you and Lost were watching her, you stuffed animal!"
Cerberus growled threateningly, "Look, do you think that the kid spirit would be able to stand up to Nightmare! And in my defence, I was asleep!"
"Maybe you shouldn't go to sleep anymore because bad things tend to happen when you do go to sleep!" Syaoran yelled, running back into his apartment to grab his sword.
"Come on Brat, we don't have time for this, Nightmare is inside of Sakura doing God knows what!" You could see the worry that was etched out on his furry face. "Hop on my back, it will be faster that way!"
Syaoran nodded and leapt onto the sun guardian's back. They took off into the night flying faster than you could imagine. When the two of the desperate males had made it nearly have way to their destination, the moon guardian unexpectedly joined them.
"Yue, what are you doing?!" Cerberus hissed.
With his cool blue eyes Yue looked over to the winged beast that flew next to him, "Recently there have been strange powers around Tomoeda. I sensed that something was wrong; I was going over to check on Sakura to make sure that she was alright."
"You're a little late for the party Yue! Where were you when Sakura woke up with wounds all over her body, huh?!" Cerberus roared. Yue only shot him a look and kept on flying.
"Come on, can't we go any faster!" Syaoran yelled and kicked Cerberus in the sides.
"I'm not a horse you know! I'm going as fast as I can!"
Soon the house was in sight and the group of three rushed through the open window of Sakura's room, only to be confronted with the sight of a writhing and crying Sakura twisted on the bed.
"Sakura!" Syaoran dived to his secret love's side. Her aura was dark and contorted with pain. Carefully the amber eyed young man shook Sakura's shoulders, "Come on Sakura you have to fight this, you're stronger than Nightmare! Please don't give up!"
Random Clow Cards zipped about in the room, hovering worriedly over their mistress. Sakura tossed on the bed, arching her back as if something had hit her from behind.
Yue and Cerberus stood above their Mistress surveying what was going on. How could they fight an enemy that was inside of Sakura with out hurting her?
"What can we do? This is really bad!" Cerberus lifted up onto his hind legs and attempted to shake Sakura awake himself. It didn't work; all he accomplished was shaking her body uselessly and getting Syaoran mad.
"Get off her before you hurt her you idiot!" Syaoran shoved the sun guardian away.
"If trying to wake her does not work, why don't we try combating the nightmares?" Yue offered. Sakura cried out as a bloody slit suddenly appeared on her cheek. Immediately Syaoran took part of the bed sheet to cover the wound.
"If we're going to start fighting something, we might want to do it quickly before something worse than this cut happens!" He hissed at the moon guardian. As he said that a bruise began to appear on Sakura's flailing wrist and she whimpered.
"No- no please don't do that! Someone, help me! Syaoran!" Sakura curled up into a ball with tears streaming down her face.
"Sakura, I'm right here. I'm going to help you so hold on!" Syaoran hollered and hugged Sakura's frail body closer to himself. He turned to the guardians who stood behind him, "We've got to think of some way of fighting Nightmare while he's inside of Sakura!"
"I can help you with that…"
Everyone in the room swung towards the window where the graceful figure of Life sat balanced just outside the window on a seat of silver chains. She looked somewhat worried sitting out there looking in on Sakura, Death stood behind her with a similar look on his face. Syaoran growled remembering that all they wanted was their freedom; anything that was happening to Sakura right now was their entire fault.
"This is all your fault!" Syaoran bellowed and lunged at Life.
She evaded his attack easily, letting the young warrior get caught off balance and have Death catch him. Syaoran straightened himself quickly and glared at the white haired creature.
Yue came up and placed a hand on Syaoran's shoulder to hold him back from attacking uselessly again, "You are Life and Death are you not? What is your business here?"
Life opened her mouth to say something rash, but Death intervened, "Our business is the girl. As Syaoran had said, her condition is partly our fault and we wish to assist in correcting the problem." Death looked to Syaoran.
There was something in his white-blue eyes that let Syaoran drop his guard on Death, though he still kept it up with Life. There was something unpredictable about the woman that he didn't trust.
"How can you assist us?" Yue inquired.
"We can get one of you in there to help poor little Sakura." Life cooed and ran a hand through Sakura's auburn locks slowly. "It's easy for either Death or I to displace life forces into different bodies."
Syaoran stepped forward with a determined look on his face, "You can do that, get me into Sakura's head so I can help her?"
"Hai, we wouldn't be here if we couldn't." Life rolled her eyes.
"Right, then I volunteer to help Sakura, but not before you answer one of my questions." Syaoran stated with an icy glare.
Life tipped her head, "What question?"
"Nightmare, in the Records of Clow book his portrait was completely different from what I've seen. Are there two different Nightmares, or is this some kind of sick joke of yours?" Syaoran asked forcefully.
Death cocked his head, "His portrait? You mean you read the Records of Clow?"
"Yes, now answer my question!" Syaoran stamped his foot.
Death nodded, "Humans are not the only ones who can be possessed young warrior. The spirit you know is not the same one who was given to us, this evil Nightmare is not the friend who Lost so desperately wants back. He is merely a puppet now to the master who is controlling him."
"Yep!" Life shot up and rattled her chains excitedly, "So now that you know, in you go!"
Next thing Syaoran knew he was wrapped up in the many layers of chains and hoisted up into the air. A feeling of something pulling at him from within came to his attention but it was it only lasted for a second, then all of him felt like he was ripped inside out. He was on the other side of the room still wrapped up in silver chains, staring at his own body that lay limp in the chains grasp.
There was no time to ogle at the scene, for a second later he was hurtled into Sakura and thrust into and very dark place.
"Good luck Syaoran. I hope you kick Nightmare's ass in there!" Life called cheerfully.
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(Inside Sakura's mind/body)
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"Sakura! Sakura where are you?!" Syaoran yelled. He saw nothing but blackness around and heard nothing but silence from his surroundings. Secretly he wondered if he was even in the right place, Sakura is such a nice and bright person how could the inside of her mind look so dark.
"Wait, what's that?" Syaoran squinted to get a better look at the light off in the distance. What ever it was, it was coming closer by the second.
When the lights were close enough to see clearly, Syaoran gasped. The many lights were windows and each window held a different scene. The first few were from when Sakura was very young, before she had even met Syaoran. With each memory that Syaoran saw hey got worse and worse, bullying and fights, in some of them ghosts were chasing Sakura around her school.
'Nightmare is twisting all of Sakura's memories into nightmares!' Syaoran thought alarmingly. He banged his fists on a few of the floating windows.
"Don't fall for these tricks Sakura, this never happen! You were never chased by ghosts, or bitten by bed bugs or-!" Syaoran stopped as the last window came up.
It was a cathedral with a huge pipe organ in the back. He could see up to the front were Syaoran could see the form of four figures. Lost was squished into a tiny birdcage floating behind a cackling Nightmare. Sakura was crouched on the ground clutching at her head and whimpering. What shocked Syaoran the most is the image of himself standing protectively in front Sakura, facing off with Nightmare.
"Watched closely Cherry blossom as I kill your little protector." Nightmare sneered. He dove forward and drove his own fist through the Syaoran in the cathedral. Syaoran screamed as Nightmare wrenched fist around in his body, then with drew and pushed Syaoran backwards toward Sakura.
"SYAORAN!" Sakura screamed and ran forward to the warrior's falling body. He landed with a dull thump in a puddle of his own blood.
"No please don't die, Syaoran you can't die!" Sakura sobbed into Syaoran's shirt.
"Sakura, I- I tried…" The dieing Syaoran mumbled and slowly caressed Sakura's tear stained cheek. "Good-bye." With that his hand went limp and fell to his side.
"Syaoran? Syaoran NO!" Sakura wailed over Nightmare's laughter and Lost's yells of "You are a very bad person! You killed Mr. Syaoran!"
Syaoran backed away from the window. There was such a weird feeling welling up inside him.
He just watched himself die.
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END OF CHAPTER 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for reading this chapter. I hope it is okay. Illusion dragon, if your reading this, thank you so much for being so kind to me. To the rest of me reviewers, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my story.
Please review me! I'm starting to get desperate and lonely for reviews!