Ok,
Starlight, starbright,
These characters, I don't own, right?
But I wish I may,
I wish I might,
Borrow them for my fics tonight.
~Shin-chan (NOBODY STEAL THIS! IT'S *MINE*!!!)

Okies, it took me a long time to do this because I was flanked with homework and was brainwashed with Animaniacs. I beg for forgiveness.

^_^ Read and Review, people!!

Feel free to criticize any wrong gramar and speeling. ^_^ eheheh...


CHAPTER 2- Where Are The Sun's Yellow Rays?

Sakura woke up, still tender with what she had experienced. She found it hard to open her eyes, but managed anyway. Studying the room, she gasped. She could have sworn that she had fallen in the clearing last night! But, here she was, lying on her bed, tucked beneath a cozy blanket. Looking over, she spotted Kero, asleep/unconscious on her desk. Syaoran was nowhere in sight.

Trying to sit up, she moaned. A searing ache had zipped up her spine, making her regret what she had done. Easing herself back, she glanced at her bedside clock, and closed her eyes. 4:30 AM. Too early for contemplation. She needed rest. A lot of it.

She would worry about things-to-be-worried-about later.

***

She was walking… following the sound of footsteps echoing around a dark hallway. An eerie silence was staring to form, as the noise faded.

The floor she was standing on began to tremble, as a pale yellow beam emerged from it. It suddenly shot straight up with incredible force, its peak disappearing from sight in seconds.

Then soft words started to float around her, gradually making themselves heard.

"All have suffered...
Have sacrificed what is theirs...
To keep alive a dwindling hope...
A hope that stayed a hope...
A hope that never became...
The reality they wished it to be..."

***

Sakura's eyes shot open. She heard the voice again.

What was it?
What was happening?

She kept asking herself those questions… over and over…

Can't you feel ANYTHING, Sakura?!

She couldn't. Except for what happened last night. If it really did happen… She couldn't tell.

Kero was still asleep, and Sakura didn't want to wake him, but her curiosity got the better of her. She knew that Kero had an idea to what was happening. It showed in the way he reacted to the incident the night before. If he really did react…

She stood carefully, so as not to hurt herself, but as she did so, it seemed like the pain was never there to begin with. She bent down. No pain. She stretched. Not even a sting. Strange…

"Kero… Kero? Wake up…"

"Huh… wha?"

"Ohayo! Its me, Sakura."

He blinked at her with groggy eyes, "Oh…"

"I wanted to ask you about that blue light thing"

"Uh-huh…"

"Hello…?"

"Mmmm…"

"OI!!!!!"

Kero's eyes snapped wide open, "Oh yeah!! Hey… What… Where? Aren't we supposed to be in that place from yesterday?"

"Umm… Yes…"

"How…?"

"I don't know, but as I was saying… Was is it about that light?"

"Oh yes… Well… ummm…"

"Well?"

"Y'see there's supposed to be this thing called The Cessation or The Ending—whatever you want to call it. Anyway, it's supposed to happen at some point of the duration of the earth's time."

"And what's it supposed to be?"

"The end of the world."

Blink. Blink.

"And?"

"It starts with five beams of energy projected from five points throughout Japan."

"Why Japan?"

"I don't know, but there's supposed to be something about a mad/evil sorcerer who cast a spell upon the earth that this would one day happen."

"Mad… Evil… Sorcerer?"

He shrugged.

"Ah… What happens next?"

"There is a chosen person who, after all the beams have appeared, will conduct a ritual written on a scroll that came with the sorcerer's spell. If the ritual isn't performed, then the beams will disappear and will come back in PROBABLY a few thousand years."

"So, WE'LL have to stop that person?"

"Will anyone else?"

"I guess not… But… how will we know who that person is?"

"Beats me…"

"This is gonna be tough…"

"Yup."

***

Syaoran gazed up at the ceiling of his room. He had experienced that explosion. No doubt about it. The proof was the ache in his shoulder and the twinge in his ankle. He felt like he wouldn't be able to walk today. That was bad. He didn't want to look or even feel helpless.

But that was not what he was troubled about. What he WAS concerned about was the fact that he was in his room. How HAD he gotten there? There was no way that anyone could have brought him home. There was nobody, except Kero and Sakura, around when he had passed out. But they couldn't have possible be the ones who had delivered him here. He saw, with his own eyes, that they too had been sedated.

He lay on his bed for quite a while until his alarm clock yelled into his ear, telling him to get up for school. He sighed, then got up. The poor boy had to limp all the way to the bathroom.

***

Eriol smirked, seeing Syaoran hobble into the classroom. He quickly replaced it however with an apprehensive look.

"Ano… Are you OK, Syaoran-kun?"

The dark-haired boy didn't even wait for an answer to his question. He immediately stood up and walked towards the other. Then, taking the shorter boy's backpack, he slipped his arm around Li-chan's (CHAN, Ok?! CHAN!!!) waist.

Syaoran blushed slightly. He was uneasy with Eriol, and was embarrassed by his predicament and their position, but he really needed the help. Lucky for him, there was nobody in the room besides them.

((*HINT* *HINT*))

***

Sakura panted, tired from running so much. Sure, she loved P.E., but with all the magic and stuff she was dragged into, it was kinda tiring. And with that "Cessation" thing going around, it was getting worse. Fatigue had finally caught up with her energetic disposition and was gradually dissipating it.

***

Syaoran moved his hand up, grasping at the purple ledge-thing on the wall he was climbing. Next he grabbed the red one with his other hand, and then stabilized his right foot on a green one. He was about to do the same with his left foot, when it slipped. As it did so, his other foot began to lose traction. When he was about to fall, a 'helpful hand' happened to steady him by holding his B-U-tocks.

=^-^= Eheheh… That's how a friend of mine says it…

Li-chan turned his head, and Lo! And behold! Eriol's smiling face was right in front of him. He blushed a bright shade of crimson; first this morning, now it was afternoon… What was next to expect? A long day.