Disclaimer: I wish it was mine, but alas, it is not to be, for it belongs to CLAMP.
A/N: Once more, the three *s signal a change of perspective. Oh, and the reason I shortened the name of the fic is because, well, it was too long, sooo....here it is....
Episode 7: The Voice in the Nothingness
* * *
What's going on, Kero? Sakura asked worriedly.
It's about to happen, he answered, staring at the door expectantly, as more blue streaks began to appear within the pink aura...
Enough of this! Syaoran shouted, walking up to the door, and tapping it with a word, a word carrying a substantial amount of his magical energy behind it. The door exploded inward, with Syaoran running in close behind it, and Sakura following behind almost reluctantly, unable to get that voice out of her head. Kero just curled up in front of the door for a few seconds, but then decided that he might as well see this, even though he already knew how it would play out.
* * *
Onii-chan! Onegai, stop! Sera pleaded, trying to pull his arm away from the book, for now even she sensed the magical energy coming from it. His right arm did come off the book, but only to shove her back, with a bit of magical strength showing, causing him to knock her into the wall. She slumped down sadly, tearing pitifully. Azure just continued with what he was doing, unnoticing, with that same glazed look in his eyes.
As Azure opened the book, the pages inside glowed a light blue. Inside lay a pile of cards, going down through the book. The glow on the pages began to swirl around the cards, and then they moved inward, arcing, small magical sparks shooting off to the sides, into the cards themselves. Azure just stood there, watching the magical light show.
* * *
Syaoran sped up, hearing Sera whimpering, and sensing the magical force let loose. He ran right into the room labeled and ran towards the illusionary wall they had set so many years ago, expecting to go right through it.
Sakura asked, coming up behind him.
The wall won't let me through. He flicked it, and it had the solidness of the stone it had been made to appear as.
That's not right.... she said thoughtfully, slowly walking up to the wall, and tapping against it. She felt the same thing as her dantsuku had. Maybe it's the wrong wall? Kero slowly came up behind her, and headed right towards the .
Iie, Sakura-san, it's the right one. He made a smirk once again, and slowly walked through the illusion.
* * *
Back, or should I say, ahead, in the room of the book, Sera heard her parents' voices, and ran over to the doorway, looking back. As had happened before on this end, she saw through the illusionary wall, but not as if it wasn't there. Closer to it being as if the illusion was a large pane of class, or a thin, translucent drape of cloth.
Why aren't they coming in? she thought worriedly, glancing back at Azure, still holding the book, just staring at it. While she couldn't see his eyes from this angle, she knew they were still discolored. She saw them tapping on the stone, but unlike when Azure had done such a thing, the wall did not draw them in, did not even let them in. It simply stood, unyielding, unrelenting, unpassable.
Then she saw something she thought most peculiar, although not to some of the things she had seen this night. While her parents, both rather decent(although with some of what she'd seen, she figured they might be more powerful than she had thought) spellcasters, as well as the likely creators of that very deception, could not get past, the cat just strolled through as if it was nothing but what it really was, an illusion. As it reached the edge of the pit trap, the cat sprang, lightly landing on the other side and walking towards her, a superior smirk appearing on his face as he glanced back to the wall, Syaoran shouting at it angrily, while Sakura stood next to him, and despite the situation, she was obviously trying very hard to stifle a laugh. The cat then looked ahead to the room, seeing Sera stare at him. He seemed not to care, but there wasn't much that Kero seemed to bother caring about this night; he knew what was going to happen.
* * *
He was surrounded by nothingness.
He was filled with nothingness.
He stood on nothingness.
He was nothingness.
A drop of nothingness, in a sea of nothingness.
A voice spoke to him, coming from the nothingness.
Do you want it? He felt himself not understanding, yet at the same time he felt nothing.
Do you want it? This time, there was understanding, as if the information had been imparted to him through this nothingness that he was in and at the same time, part of. He tried to sort through his mind, not knowing how to answer, for he felt nothing, saw nothing, sensed nothing.
Do you want it? Finally, the word he had been looking for appeared within him, within this nothingness, and from the part of the nothingness that he now was, the word flowed out. Then, a light appeared within this nothingness, and now he was there. No longer nothingness, but himself, in a room.
Behind him, far off, he heard voices shouting, followed by an explosion; his parents.
Closer than them, he heard the slowly padding footsteps of a prowling cat, a cat who seemed to snicker, patient for what was to come, but still with a hint of nervousness, which he felt more than heard.
Closer still, he heard a girl crying fearfully, frightened of something, tears sliding down her cheeks, and he heard her calling out to her parents, both now running towards both him and her; it was his sister.
He heard the footsteps of his parents running down the hallway. He heard them shouting something, but he paid no attention to it; the voice told him to only pay attention to his hands, that what he held was all that mattered.
He looked at his hands, still unsure of what the voice had meant. In one hand there lay an open book, its pages aged, the edges tattered, yet the book was still fine, still healthy, still alive. The pages glowed blue, the blue of his eyes, the blue of his aura. The voice came from there, he knew. It must've. Then he looked in his other hand. And in his other hand, there was a card.
A card like the others in the book, the same design on the back, a picture and name on the front. His parents were only halfway down the hallway. The voice told him but one thing more, a command, almost urgent, but the voice knew he would not disobey. The voice told him to speak the card's name, and then it would be done. He looked at the card, which now also glowed the blue of his aura, yet with streaks of pink seemingly fighting back, fighting a losing battle. His parents shouted at him to stop, but the voice spoke over them, urging him onward, repeating the same thing. To say the name of the card he held. Then, he finally complied. He read the name.
