It was now Friday afternoon, school had just finished and its occupants were filing out in a frenzied manner. Celeste had barely been alone these past few days. The entire group had decided to keep a close eye on her and she was never out of sight of at least one of them. Even during the night, Yue would fly over to her roof and watch her until the sun rose. Of course he would never tell anyone of this and no one noticed his absence during the night.
The group was now headed over to Sakura's house where Celeste and Tomoyo would spend the night. When they arrived, Yue had already made tea and cookies and Kero was, as usual, already begging him for the snack. Yue just shooed him away like you would an annoying fly and set the tray on the living room table. He then took a seat himself on the couch and looked on as the group ate.
Kero finally got to the cookies but was only allowed to take two. He grumbled a little and sat at one end of the table, munching on his cookies slowly so they would last.
After the snack, they began talking about school and their homework and after about two hours, Shaoran and Eriol left to go home. The girls went upstairs and played games and talked about magic and boys and Tomoyo's newest movie she wanted to film. They talked about the outfits they would wear the next day and what they would do tomorrow.
The girls were just about to get ready for bed when Sakura and Celeste felt a presence outside the house. They quickly went downstairs, finding that Yue had just come up from the basement, and Kero had just come out of the kitchen, and readied their staffs. Tomoyo stood behind everyone and readied her camcorder.
Yue looked over at his mistress and then at Celeste; he was worried something would happen to her. Sakura opened the door carefully and peeked outside, seeing nothing; she opened the door all the way and stepped out onto the stoop, the rest of the group following close behind.
Everyone kept their eyes open and looked everywhere but could see where the power they felt was coming from. Stepping a little farther outside, the full moon shone down on them, lighting the area enough to see by. The shadows created caused everything to appear menacing but there was nothing to see. Sakura made her way down to the street, Keroberus, in his true form, following closely. Yue stayed closer to the house and near Celeste.
As soon as Sakura turned around, ready to head back inside, her eyes widened as she watched a large, looming shadow grab her moon guardian from behind. "YUE!" she shrieked, but it wasn't in time as the shadow closed around the guardian and held him firmly in place. His form was suspended about a foot above the ground and his wings, arms and legs were entirely engulfed within the shadow.
Celeste took a step back; her staffs clutched in her hands, as she watched Yue become trapped in the shadow. She was almost too scared to act and just stood there. Sakura called upon The Light Card and the shadow released its prisoner and slinked away from the bright light. Once the shadow was away, the Light returned to its card form.
Yue appeared to be fine, but just as Sakura was going to ask, a dark form jumped out of the trees that grew across from her house. It lunged at Keroberus but he spread his wings and jumped into the air just in time.
The creature stood about seven feet high and it appeared to be covered in green vines that had helped it blend in with the trees. Its head was green and triangular in shape with a pointed top. The rest of it had vines all over and wrapped around its entire body, arms, and legs.
It suddenly pointed its arm out at Sakura and a vine shot out towards her and wrapped around her staff. Her wand was jerked out of her hand and flung away down the street. She ran around the creature and went after her staff.
Creature turned to Yue and Celeste and without thinking, Yue grabbed Celeste around the waist and flew up. A vine shot out and grabbed her ankle before they could get too high and Yue struggled to keep his grip on her. He didn't notice when another vine came from behind him and struck him across the back like a whip. He winced in pain but kept his grip on the girl. Using an ice shard he cut the vine from her ankle and flew over to his mistress who now had her wand and was standing on the curb across the street.
Keroberus stood at Sakura's side, slightly in front of her, between his mistress and the strange plant creatures. There were now two of those things and they were slithering towards the group. Yue had set Celeste down and stood next to her, wanting to protect her at any cost. He suddenly felt something behind him and as he turned around, another vine shot out from what looked to be a tree and wrapped around him. It pinned his arms to his sides and his wings to his back. He struggled against the restraint to no avail.
Celeste finally worked herself out of her daze and saw that they were surrounded. The two creatures in front of them shot out two vines each and Sakura called on the Shield Card to protect them and the Sword Card to help Yue. The vines hit the shield and bounced off only to be sliced off a moment later.
Shaoran appeared, his sword in hand, and began severing the long vines from the creature's body. The thing soon looked like chopped salad and the other one backed away a little bit. It only took what looked like one step back and then lunged again at the boy. Shaoran swung his sword in front of himself and sliced through where the chest would be. The sword cut right through but the momentum of the creatures caused it to fly forward at Shaoran and he became entangled in what was left of the vines.
Sakura saw Shaoran but she was more worried about her moon guardian. She lunged the sword towards the vines and began slicing them from his body. She was careful not to hurt him but the creature just seemed to wrap even more vines around him no matter how many she cut off. Meanwhile, Yue struggled as best he could against the thing but not even his strength could snap the vines.
Keroberus, after seeing how much trouble the third creature was being, went after the thing with teeth and claws. Before he reached it to help his brother, a lightning bolt shot down in front of him, singeing his whiskers. He looked up and saw Soren standing atop the trees, looking down at his creations.
Another bolt appeared from the sky and headed straight for Soren, but he dodged it and looked around for the culprit. He saw Clow's reincarnation, Eriol, running towards the battle, Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon flying close behind. He snarled and flew back to his former position so he could watch the chaos.
The vines had, by now, made their way up to Yue's throat and were proceeding to choke him. A shield suddenly appeared around him and stopped Sakura's sword from going through and slashing at the vines. Unfortunately the more he struggled, the tighter the vines became and his vision began to get blurred. He heard Sakura call out to him but he couldn't answer her, his voice being caught in his throat.
Celeste shot a fireball from her own staff, straight into the trees, and the vines around Yue began to lessen. She had set the creature itself on fire and the vines around Yue loosened enough for him to get free and jump away before they could capture him again. The shield was now gone and Soren still stood above the trees, disappointed that his creatures had failed to take care of the moon guardian.
The group looked up at the evil man and saw his smirk. "Why are you doing this to us? What do you want?" Sakura asked, helping Shaoran up from the ground and the vines that covered the street.
"Humph, I only want power. Your powers specifically. And of course, revenge."
Celeste stared up at him and finally understood the reasoning behind this man. There was no reason for his behavior, he was just an evil and insane man who wanted nothing but power. She felt sad for him. His whole life centered only on getting power and revenge. So she said, "you do all this just to get revenge against me. I killed you once and if you continue to hurt my friends, I won't hesitate to do it again."
Sakura gasped at the amount of ferocity in her friends voice but she could understand. She didn't want any of her friends to get hurt and she would do anything to make sure they didn't.
Soren raised his hands, one of which held his own dark staff, and a strong wind rose up. The group covered their eyes and tried to block out the wind as it whipped around them. It got stronger and Sakura rose up from the ground, her light weight caught by the wind. Shaoran grabbed her and together they stayed on the ground. Meanwhile, Yue grabbed onto Celeste and held her down as well. The other winged beings clung onto one another and Eriol ran over to the house where Tomoyo stood, the wind even reaching as far as her.
The commotion caused by the wind allowed Soren to use another shield and place it around Yue and Celeste. They noticed the sudden lack of wind and released each other, unwillingly, to see what was going on. Soren flew down and caught Yue off guard, once again grabbing one of his wings and yanking it upwards, causing Yue to cry out in pain. The others couldn't hear him over the wind and their eyes were closed from the debris flying around.
Celeste watched as Soren used his staff and hit Yue on the back of the head causing him to pass out. He dropped the angel and reached out to the stunned Celeste. Using magic to tie her up he hoisted her above his shoulder and promptly flew off and disappeared.
The wind stopped soon after his departure and the others opened their eyes and stood up from the ground. Sakura and Keroberus ran over to Yue, followed by the others, and Sakura held his head in her lap. She was wary of the bruise on the back of his head and tried her best to avoid it. She called his name quietly, hoping to wake him up and get him to tell them what happened and where Celeste was.
Yue opened his eyes slowly, his vision was blurred and his head hurt but his voice called out, "Celeste . . ." When his vision cleared, he saw Sakura and the others looking down at him with worry in their eyes and he asked, "where is Celeste?"
"We don't know Yue," Sakura said, trying hard not to cry, "when the wind stopped all we found was you on the ground and Celeste gone."
Yue's eyes took on a sad note and he struggled to stand up, his head pounding and his heart breaking. He looked over at the group and they made their way inside the house and into the living room. Sakura's father was out of town again and so they had no worries of bothering him.
Soren was approaching his abode as the group sat down and talked about how they would find the girl he presently had slung over his shoulder.