disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 & 8, Card Cptor Sakura and Gatekeepers are not mine and are owned by their respective owners. Please don't sue me!! ~_~; this author is merely borrowing (and besides, I'm not rich).

notes: I have made-up charaters here so please, if you want to use them, please tell me. All comments accepted (but it'd be nice if you don't say anything bad or rude ^-^).

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A MAGICIAN'S CURSE by Rhys Icewind

~Prelude~

It was a dark night.

The rains poured hard upon the roofs of the houses in this quiet village.

From the corner of the street a woman with a long, blonde hair runs, keeping her head low, shielding the baby in her arms from the pouring rain.

"You cannot escape!" a female voice behind her shouted.

"I will not let you have this baby!!" the woman cried back.

The woman holding the baby flung out her left hand and muttered an incantation under her breath. Her hand suddenly glowed green and so did the rest of her body and as sudden as that, the glow disappeared and then, she started gaining speed leaving her antagonist behind.

"you cannot escape, Queen Taraleia..." her antagonist said, a smile forming on her lips clearly showing that she was enjoying all this.

===

Not far away, two children, a boy and a girl, ran through the rain.

"where is she?" the girl; with black hair, deep purple eyes, about the age of 9; said.

"they can't be too far away, I can still sense them" the boy, a year older than the girl with the same long hair held by a brown ring and brown eyes, replied.

They both ran under the rain, the the boy leading, following the aura of the queen and her antagonist.

===

The Queen came upon a grassy field and she stopped. She sensed her antagonist behind her but she was far enough so that she can perform her spell before she came.

"Not so fast, Taraleia" her antagonist spoke, "you think you can escape me? that's foolish!!!" the woman laughed, coming earlier than expected.

The Queen turned to face her "what do you want from my child Yoe?," she asked, while putting a spell of protection over her baby.

The two women faced each other: the Queen with her long blonde locks, deep green eyes and fair skin and Yoe, with her short and straight black hair, ice-blue eyes, pale skin AND a cache of battle magic.

"your son's life, of course" Yoe smiled evilly.

"you'll never get what you want!" Taraleia shouted back.

"they all say that. But the bad guys ALWAYS get what they want."

"Not this time!" Two voices shouted and the two figures appeared in between the Queen and Yoe.

Yoe's smile became wider. "ahh... The Clow twins. how is it, Reed and Saehri?"

The two kept silent. They WERE twins even if Reed was a year older. Saehri's birth was magically delayed so that Reed would be a year older and no one would think of them as twins. But many people call them twins because of their similar looks, from hair color and style, eye shape and so on.... the only thing that differentiates them from each other is their eye color and face shape.

"your majesty, I'll help you make the portal" Reed said as he ran to the queen's side.

As Reed headed towards the queen, Saehri stepped a little bit to her right so that she blocked Yoe's path. "I'll handle you myself." she snarled.

Yoe's grin grew even wider. "you dare challenge my power?"

"underestimating can be a deadly thing" she replied.

===

Meanwhile, Reed's hands started to glow as he starts the portal spell.

"I call upon my star..." Reed said as his hands started to glow blue.

"ancient forces near and far..." the queen chanted as she raised her right hand high.

===

Saehri held a fighting stance as she drew her magical cutlass out of its sheath. Yoe laughed hysterically as she saw the cutlass. "you are going to use THAT?"

Saehri flashed a challenging smile.

In a blink of an eye, she was gone.

Yoe looked all around her, searching for any signs of the girl, even magically.

There was none.

When suddenly... Saehri swiped her blade, aiming for Yoe's heart. Yoe parried the blade with a barrier spell. "not bad.."

"that won't happen again." Saehri smiled and disappeared again.

===

The Pentagon lay across the ground, with the baby at the center, Reed by the right and Queen Taraleia at the left sides, their arms held out in front of them.

Reed opened his eyes and raised his arms high. "open portal, of the star! bring forth light with our charm!"

Doing the same thing, with tears welling in her eyes, Taraleia said, "send my prince somewhere far, away from all harm!"

suddenly, the pentagon glowed brighter and brighter until it was too bright to look at. In the center a hole of a blue-green color starts to form and the baby is gently lifted up from the ground by some unseen force.

As Queen Taraleia watches, warm tears ran down her cheeks. "be safe, my little prince."

===

In the heat of the battle, Yoe sees the portal made and the baby being sent into another dimension. Suddenly, she turned to face Saehri prepaired with a powerful black magic. "Black Mist!"

Saehri focuses on the attacking mage and prepares to strike again when suddenly, she hears Yoe shout out a spell. Saehri stood frozen when she hears the words 'Black Mist'. This was a spell she hadn't learned how to defend herself against. "I won't loose to you!" Saehri says, her voice full of determination. "OPEN! GATE OF INFINITY!!" she shouts, holding her left hand before her, palms facing out. And suddenly, two circles, one inside the other, appears before her hand colored a pure white. A strong energy is suddenly released from within the circle, heading straight for the opposing force.

The two forces meet at the cernter and a huge explosion rocks the gound, sending Saehri tumbling to her feet. While Yoe, floating above ground, turns to face the dimension portal.

Seeing that there was no way to stop the baby from travelling through dimensions, an evil grin forms in her lips as a curse forms in her head. "I curse you! child of Taraleia!" she shouts, drawing the attention of the three people with her. Especially the Queen.

Saehri suddenly jolts to her feet, knowing that she must stop Yoe before she finishes the curse.

===

Queen Taraleia's anger rose within her as she stood there, hearing her child being cursed, helpless to stop Yoe. Knowing that if she broke the circle, her child would certainly be sent to his doom.

Saehri was her only hope.

===

Reed's voice boomed in her thoughts, knowing what the consequences if she didn't do as said. Holding her cutlass at her side, she passes the magical blast at her top speed ignoring the protest of her straining muscles. She had to stop Yoe.

Whatever the cost.

Yoe smiled more as she saw the anger in the queen's face. "That someday," she continued, the dark aura surrounding her becoming darker, "a card mistress will come and to whom you shall fall deeply in love with..."

Saehri pushed herself beyond her limits just to reach Yoe. She was only about ten strides away, but she could feel that her legs will fail her. "NO!!!" she screams.

Yoe heard saehri's fustrated cry near. She had to be quick. "...and when the time comes that you will kiss, the seed of evil shall sprout within you, and the monster that you family has hidden all these years..."

Saehri suddenly rips Yoe's throat with her cutlass from behind. Reaching Yoe...

Thick blood oozed from Yoe's mouth as she felt the cutlass' blade tearing through her throat. "...will come alive..." she gurgled out, blood splattering on her face.

The curse was done.

The baby disappeared, hearing the magician's last words.

...too late.

The Queen's heart throbbed in pain.

"ZELL!!!!!!!!!" she screams.



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that's that for the prelude. Hope you liked it.

PLEASE REVEIW!!!