"What The Cards Were For"
A Card Captor Fanfiction
By: Bekah-chan
Rated: PG ( for some
tense stuff)
Disclaimer: I don't now, have never, and will never own Card Captors. *sigh*
Chapter 10:
"Sakura, are you okay?" asked three manly men with cream filled centers, at roughly the same time.
"Yes," she answered them, showing them her arm, but angling it behind her body so that they could only see the fully healed part of the wound. She wasn't quick enough to hide it from Kero, however, since he landed on her right shoulder. He didn't say anything at the sight of her burn, just gave her a look that meant she would have to explain later. Which she would happily do, if there *was* a later.
Suddenly Sakura felt a mental jerk from the Fiery, it couldn't talk to her, not in this form, but it let her know the urgency of the situation just the same. The elemental cards were tapped out, all four of them. Now they were each pulling power from cards below them to keep the Fiery open. Fiery was drawing power from the Light and the Dark, Windy from the Fly and the Move, Watery from the Mist and the Freeze, and Earthy from the Wood and the Sand. And when each of those cards were drained the elements could pull power from four beneath them. So right now she was pulling power from twelve Clow cards. A number that would double in a matter of minutes. Sakura had no doubt, after what happened with Float, that she would absorb Fiery when she closed it, and it looked like it would be bringing twenty-three other cards with it. Maybe more if she couldn't hurry.
With a valiant effort Sakura kept the panic from her face as she walked around the table, to stand behind Syaoran. "Your turn, Syaoran," she looked at her family, "Dad, Touya, could you hold him steady?" They moved to do as she asked, Yue and Kero coming to her side unbidden. But Syaoran was still worried. A few moments ago he had felt great pain from her, and the sense of danger around her had not diminished, had even grown to an extent that he was becoming quite alarmed.
"Sakura?" he demanded turning half-way in his position to meet her gaze, "What's going on? Something is wrong, I can feel it!" She should have known he'd figure something was up, he knew her better than anyone.
"Nothing is wrong," she denied, forcing a smile. "I'll just heal you and then everything will be fine." she could tell that he didn't believe her.
"Don't try that 'everything's alright' act with me, I know you too well" ~True~ "and I *know* that something *is* wrong, I can't even sense your power anymore!! So what is it!?!"
For someone who's voice was raspy (you know, from the whole dying of poison thing) he could still yell very well. ~Impressive~, thought Kero, before what the Li kid had said, instead of how he had said it, hit him. "You can't sense her WHAT??!!" He yelled, much louder than Mr. Raspy-Voice.
"Her power, I can sense Clow magic, but it doesn't have her power signature. And what power is there," he squinted at her aura, his eyebrows drawing together in confusion, "what is there is... splintering."
"'Splintering' What's that supposed to mean?" the floating fluff-ball returned.
"I don't know! The power just keeps splitting into two, and then two again."
The entire room turned to look at Sakura accusingly, even Kent and Touya who had been lost back around 'power signature' and 'Clow magic'.
"Sakura?" Kent said in his 'I know your doing something that can harm you, and I'm going to be a stern father and save you from yourself, whether you like it or not' voice that he had almost never had to use with Sakura.
"Yes, Dad?"
"What's going on?" Uh-oh, same tone of voice, Sakura couldn't see *not* answering him.
"I've been umm," she looked around at the room filled with her protectors, and rushed on, "kindofbeenusingpowerfromthecards!"
"What was that, again?", asked Kero, not quite believing what his cute little ears had told him.
"I've been drawing power from the cards to keep Fiery open," she admitted, more slowly this time, cringing at what was to come.
Kero stiffened in shock and fell like a stone to the floor, the three men at the table yelled: "WHAT??!!", and from behind her Yue spoke. "But Mistress, that is too dangerous!"
~You have no idea how much~, she thought, feeling the power structure branch again.
"Yes it is dangerous, very much so!," she agreed, quickly switching tactics. It *was* possible to use this groups protective instincts against them. "And getting more dangerous by the moment! But I won't close the Fiery until I've healed Syaoran. So will you help me? Or should we stand here and see what happens to me when all the cards have been sucked dry?" This quickly whipped the gumby men into shape, and suddenly getting Syaoran healed so that she could close Fiery was the most important thing. Kent and Touya still didn't know exactly what was going on, but took their cue from the reactions of the other three, Sakura was in danger, the Li kid *must* be healed. No time to waste.
Sakura almost got whiplash from how fast she was placed behind a tense Li Syaoran, and told to: "Heal that gaki, already!"
Soon she was healing Syaoran's back, swiftly working her way down the first cut and starting the second. Unfortunately, despite the severity of the situation, Sakura had to keep jerking her mind away from thoughts like: ~Syaoran's shoulders are just beautiful~, and ~Oh,~ *sigh* ~look at those arms, yumm!~. She hoped no one noticed her drooling, but she could really see the benefits of Syaoran's intensive sword training.
When she was half-way done with third gash, and staring at the nape of his gorgeous neck, she got another shock as the elementals started drawing power from the last rank of cards. They had been getting weaker as power was drawn further down the line, the cards below having only a fraction of the magic as the ones above. Subsequently their power was being drained *much* faster. ~Oh, no! There won't be enough!~ she thought frantically. Wha... What could she do? If she didn't get all the poison Syaoran would still die!! And all this would have been for nothing.
"Quick! Yue hand me the Star Wand!" she ordered. He obeyed like a good little Moon Guardian (well reacted to her desperate tone of voice anyway), and passed it over. Sakura grabbed it with her free hand, no time for finesse! She dove into the spell structure of the Star Wand, had a second of regret, then snapped the spell that was the Sealing Wand of Clow with a ruthless twist of her mind. As the power was sapped from the Key, the physical representation of it cracked and splintered, crumbling into glittery dust. Sakura quickly channeled this new burst of power to the Fiery, giving it just enough to let her finish her task. Then it was done, and not a moment to soon.
Sakura had barely stepped back from the table when she lost control of the Fiery, the flame leapt from her hand to change into the cards' visible form. It swirled into shape, and when it stopped, it's blazing wings unfolded to reveal the Fiery Card.
Syaoran jumped to his feet, and then off the table toward Sakura, landing beside her. He held out his hand and mentally called his sword to him. It darted to his hand from where someone had leaned it against a wall. He then turned to face the Fiery, ready for anything, or so he thought.(AN: Yes, Syaoran is feeling much better, and ready to protect his 'Cherry Blossom' ^_~) But what happened next no one was expecting, except perhaps Sakura.
The Fiery turned to Yue and Kero the only others in the room who might be able to understand and help stop what was happening. If it wasn't to late, but they probably couldn't have stopped it anyway. The Fiery felt a force pulling it back toward the Mistress of the Cards, and looked frantically at The Guardian of the Seal, Kerberos. It's eyes sad the Fiery mouthed a single phrase to Kero: "Final Test". The effect was instantaneous.
"Sakura! NO!!", yelled Kero, "Your not ready! Yue it's the 'Final Test'! *And* she was using power from the cards!! What are we gonna do?!! What are we gonna DO??!!!!" the little Sun Guardian zipped around the room, squeaking in panic.
"What's going on?" demanded Syaoran.
"Final what?" asked Touya.
"Is Sakura okay?," Kent this time.
"Sakura, exactly how many cards were you drawing power from?", even Yue was upset.
"Al-All of them," she gasped, she gave up the fight to stay standing and fell to her knees. The Fiery was being pulled back faster now. Meanwhile Kero had banged into a wall, which shocked him out of his state of blind panic- Mostly.
"Okay, we have to stay calm!!," shouted Kero, "All we have to do is keep Sakura from absorbing any cards at all. If she hasn't absorbed any cards yet we should be okay. We'll just have to get the Fiery back in the book, that's all." The Fiery shook it's head sadly at this, expressing that the plan would not work.
"What? Why?!!" Kero again.
"Because," Sakura explained, since the Fiery couldn't talk to them, "I've already got two cards in me, the Thunder and the Float."
"Shouldn't that just make you stronger?" Yue asked. He and Syaoran had grabbed Fiery and were trying to hold it a way from Sakura. They hadn't been burned yet which was either a testament to the Fiery's current lack of power, or it's cooperation.
"It did at first, but when I used the Thunder to destroy the monsters I couldn't turn it off again, so it drained me."
"Sakura! You can't absorb all these cards with no power of your own! It could kill you!!" Kero was losing it again.
"I know that!" Sakura yelled back.
"Then why did you do it?!" yelled Syaoran.
"Because I love you!"
Everything seemed to stop for a moment at Sakura's *very* loud declaration of affection.
"I couldn't let you die," she admitted into the silence that followed Then they all noticed that the Fiery, Yue, and Syaoran, were all being pulled across the floor toward Sakura, the Fiery dragging the other two along. Behind them on the counter, unnoticed by them all, the Book of Clow silently opened.
To Be Continued ^_^