Something immeasurably dark prowled in a darkness only slightly less intense than itself. It had the patience only an immortal being possesses. It knew that something, someday would break the balance that kept it chained. On that day...
...it would break free and destroy all the workings of the magician who chained it...
...Clow Reed.
********
"So, Kin, how goes it?" Yue asked.
"Thought you would stay with the brat today," Kero muttered.
"No, Eriol-san wanted to spend some more time with him. I want to spend today with you. What do you think about being human now?"
"It's interesting to access Elements apart from Sun..." Kerberos admitted, "Though harder than I imagined. I always thought the Elemental Cards were an easier magic to use. Li is really good at it, and much faster changing between the Elements than I'll ever be!"
"Have you tried to use any of Li's other magic abilities aside from the Elemental Cards?" Yue asked him.
"Naw...that's got to be part of Li and not something I could learn to do," Kerberos reasoned.
Yue shook his head. "I think Li-kun has trained his magic into his form in the same way your magic is part of your form. He isn't able to perform any of his magic while he is switched with you. I suspect his innate magical abilities are in you right now."
"..." Kerberos pondered. "If you're right how do I..."
"I don't know. Let's work together and see if we can figure it out!" Yue offered. "After all, you helped me determine what abilities I had when I was first made..."
"Yeah. As I recall, it was by attacking you..." Kero realized.
"Yes...but only after you asked Clow to place me under the Shield Card's protection. Let's find Sakura!" Yue suggested.
"But...is it really necessary?" Kero hesitated.
"What are you worried about?" Yue demanded.
"I dunno...some of your attacks are really powerful! They look like they'll really hurt..."
"Then you should learn Li-kun's magic fairly quickly then!" Yue replied flatly. "I think you have to learn this!"
"Do we have the Moon bossin' the Sun around?! What's up with this?" Kero griped.
"No...you aren't the Sun right now...'Li'," Yue retorted. "Come on!"
Yue threw his
arm around Kerberos' shoulders and dragged him off to find Sakura.
"Just don't use
that Moon Arrow attack of yours..." Kero begged.
"Are you kidding?! That's the first one I intend to use! What better way to teach you how to defend against magic attacks than to focus one on you!" Yue laughed.
********
"These Cards are really complex, aren't they?" Li asked peering over Eriol's shoulder.
"These? I suppose so," Eriol replied fanning the Deck out, "The soul is a very subtle thing to affect with magic."
"How...?" Li shook his little toy head, "Never mind!"
"No...what were you going to ask?" Eriol insisted.
"How do you...make Cards...in the first place? I always wondered..." Li admitted.
"Hmm! It's not easy...and you'd think that I would have gotten it out of my system with the two Decks I made while I was Clow..." Eriol laughed. "It just seems to be something that I like to do. It takes a great deal of magical energy and control to make a Card..."
"Hmm..."
Li floated quietly in the air before landing on Eriol's shoulder.
"Well...what
does this Card do?" he finally asked, pointing to the top Card of
the Deck.
Eriol looked deeply into Li's stuffed animal eyes for a long moment before smiling a secret smile. Li blushed.
"This?" Eriol finally responded, "Oh this one is interesting...but exhausting to use...almost as bad a magical drain on the magician as the Time Card..."
********
"So...how was it today?" Fujitaka asked as he set dinner in front of the gathered group. "What did all of you do?"
"Oh, Yue tried to kill me," Kerberos said off-hand as he helped himself to some potatoes.
"Stop exaggerating!" Yukito told him. "That's not what happened!"
"So tell us what did happen," Touya suggested as he piled steamed vegetables on Yukito's plate.
"Yue decided that Kero-chan could learn Li's personal magic best if he had some reason to..."
"And that reason?" Touya pressed.
"Well, Yue did focus some attacks on him..." Yukito admitted.
"Sounds like Yue tried to kill Kerberos to me!" Touya noted.
"Kero-chan was protected by the Shield Card, Onii-chan!" Sakura exclaimed.
"You trusted your life to Sakura? You're pretty brave, Kero!" Touya teased. "Ouch!"
"Sakura, don't kick your brother under the table!" Fujitaka smiled.
"Oooh!!" Sakura fumed.
"Did you actually
learn Li-kun's magic?" Eriol asked, accepting the platter from Kerberos.
"Well..."
Kerberos flushed. "Yeah, I did! At least some of it..."
"And you are still alive..." Eriol noted.
"Yeah...But look!" Kerberos pulled back his sleeve and showed everyone an angry red burn that ran the length of his forearm. "Yue hit me! This really hurts!"
"Ouch! That is rather nasty!" Eriol took Kerberos' arm and examined the burn. "One of his arrows, right?"
"Hmmm," Eriol cupped his chin and stared at Yukito closely. It took Yukito a moment to realize he was being scrutinized and stop shoveling food in his mouth.
"What?" he finally asked.
"Yue-san hurt Kerberos..." Eriol began.
"Yes...I know he's sorry about it..." Yukito admitted.
"How would you like to 'make it right' and heal Kerberos' wound?" Eriol asked with a smile.
"I...I can't...I haven't any ability..." Yukito stammered, wondering why Eriol was putting him on the spot like this. Right now, he actually had the potential to work a few spells, through the five Sakura Cards Yue now controlled, but Eriol knew that it was important to keep that fact a secret from three people at the table. As far as he knew, healing wasn't one of the spells he could potentially access from Sakura's Cards anyway.
"Are you sure of this Eriol-san?" Fujitaka asked quietly.
"I think it can work," Eriol replied.
He turned back toward Yukito, "Fujitaka-san and I never realized how deep your personal alignment with the Moon is. We have always known you were Moon-aligned, but we thought it was because of Yue."
"Both the Moon and Sun have several aspects," Fujitaka took up the explanation. "Clow used the more positive, helpful and friendly aspects of the Sun to make Kerberos and the more negative...uhm, militant and hidden aspects of the Moon to make Yue."
"It doesn't mean that Yue is always hostile...or that Kerberos is only helpful, just that their natures are oriented away from each other. It's why Kerberos is so cheerful most of the time and Yue is normally so..."
"Testy?" Touya supplied.
Fujitaka smiled his agreement, "It's not that he doesn't feel helpful and friendly...it's just harder for Yue-chan to express it. His nature is focused more on attacking a threat or defending against it...not explaining and teaching as Kero-chan does."
"Why did Clow-san make them opposites like that?" Li asked as he darted toward Eriol.
"Kerberos was made first, after all, without the Sun the Moon can't shine. The Sun has great destructive potential as Fire is the most destructive Element," Eriol explained. Li and Kerberos both nodded.
"Clow wasn't certain exactly what would happen when he tried to harness all that power magically into one place in Kerberos. He didn't want to make a creature too destructive, in case Kerberos ever decided to harm people. Therefore, Clow used the gentler aspects of the Sun's power to make him, so that he would be helpful and friendly; rather than the harsher powers, the ones that can hurt and burn. It's not that Kerberos can't attack with his power, he can draw on the full power of Earth and Fire, it's just that he is more comfortable helping and guiding rather than attacking," Eriol continued.
"Yeah, that's what Clow told me when he made me," Kerberos agreed. "I have lots of power, but I don't like to use it to attack or hurt anyone unless someone I care about is threatened."
"Yue is the opposite. He is more inclined, by the nature Clow gave him, to defend with all of his might, and attack readily in defense of his Master or Mistress, once they have earned his respect. Since those attacks are based on more gentle Elements, Wind and Water, it balances against his willingness to use those attacks more quickly than Kerberos would," Eriol finished.
"So, you could say that Yue is more apt to respond with hostility...but that hostility is calibrated by the power it is based on," Touya noted.
Eriol lifted both eyebrows in surprise, "Yes! A very astute way to put it! Kerberos can draw on more powerful Elements, but is inclined not to, and Yue is more likely to use the full power of the weaker Elements he can access. Ultimately..."
"Ultimately, they are in perfect balance with each other, despite the power differences of their basic Elements," Fujitaka continued. "It was very important that the Sun and Moon Guardians of the Clow Deck be balanced, just like the Light Card and the Dark Card must be balanced with each other."
"Why?" Sakura asked.
"I, I don't remember," Fujitaka admitted. "Do you?"
"No...actually I don't. Maybe it was just Clow being a perfectionist in his Art..." Eriol guessed.
"Well, that explains a lot about Yue I didn't know before..." Yukito admitted. "But what has it to do with me?"
"You too are a creature of magic," Eriol began. "And we now know, through the Soul Wings Card, that you are strongly Moon-aligned yourself. You should be able work magic through that alignment. Given the over-all gentle and friendly nature you possess..."
"...you should be able to tap the more supportive magic of the Moon," Fujitaka finished. "We think."
"Me? Use magic?!" Yukito was stunned.
"Why not? I'm just a human and I can use magic," Touya pointed out. "You actually are magic, it would make sense you could work it too!"
"B, but...!"
"Relax, Yukito-san!" Eriol laughed. "What are you worried about?"
"...I would never want to hurt anybody, even accidentally. I know Yue-san was only trying to help Kerberos-san...but he did burn him..."
"Oh, Yuki...!" Touya exclaimed.
"Not to worry!" Fujitaka reassured. "Your Moon-alignment is almost the complete opposite of Yue's. So much so that I don't think you would even have an ability to attack with magic."
"Hmm," Eriol cupped his chin in thought again. "You might be able to blind someone with a strong flash of light, but I think that would be the worst harm you could do with your magic. Your spells would be more helpful, creating a light in the darkness or healing an injury..."
"R,really...?" Yukito seemed stunned. "That...that..."
"That would be something you would like a lot!" Touya finished for him.
"Uhm...yeah..."
"What are you waiting for?! Figure out what you have to do and heal my arm then! This stings!" Kero yelled.
********
"The Card you used..." Li began as he flew to perch on Eriol's shoulder, "That's the Card we were discussing before..."
"Yes," Eriol replied.
"You said it was very draining?"
"Oh, I'm drained all right! I'll probably sleep all day tomorrow!" Eriol admitted with a laugh. "Fujitaka-san probably will too! But the combination of our two spells brought forth Tsukishiro-kun's personal potential to use magic and activated it."
"I watched the whole time, but I still don't understand what you did," Li admitted.
"Understandable. When Fujitaka and I combine our magic into one spell, it goes beyond anything that's been done before, even beyond what Clow could do. Fujitaka-san is very skilled with the innermost workings of the soul, more skilled than I. He isolated Yukito from Yue for me so that I could target Yukito with the Maximize Card. That Card brought out his potential to work magic apart from Yue. What Yukito does with that potential is up to him," Eriol explained.
"He learned the healing ability right away!" Li pointed out.
"And Kerberos will be able to help him learn other things. Really, he should have been working magic all along! I know the switch has been hard on you, but good things have come from it."
"Switch? Oh, yeah..." Li seemed startled.
Eriol looked at him closely, "I wonder if Kerberos is as comfortable being you has you have become being him. You haven't complained about being a stuffed animal for awhile!"
Li crooked a lopsided smile.
"It's nice to have everyone concerned about me a little. I don't think I would have gotten to know you as well if I were just...myself. Though I do miss being...uhm...romantic with Sakura..."
"Hmm," Eriol turned his head and grinned at him, then became serious again. "You've learned most of Kerberos' magic and he's learned most of yours. You haven't fought with each other for days. I'm not certain what else Kero-chan has to learn, it is obscured from me, but I sense that you must manifest as the Guardian Beast. Once you do that, and Kero does whatever he must do as Li, the Change Card should reveal itself and reverse the switch. I think," Eriol noted as he cupped his chin.
"Oh," Li said flatly.
"Is there something wrong, cute relative?" Eriol reached up and pulled Li off his shoulder.
"Uhm, no...that would be best..."
"You'll miss being a stuffed animal?" Eriol's gaze probed deeply into Li's toy eyes.
Li sighed, knowing he couldn't duck answering Eriol's question honestly. "Yeah...a little. Everyone has been so kind, Yukito-san (even though he's always kind!), Yue-san, Touya, you, Kinomoto-sensei...Sakura and Tomoyo haven't teased me as much as they normally do..."
"That's because you are still Li, our friend, not because you are switched with Kero. I think you will find that some changes will remain even after you are switched back..." Eriol smiled warmly. "Even when we were younger, back in school, I wanted to be your friend."
"Why would you want to be my friend?!" Li exclaimed.
"You still almost revere me, even after all this time, don't you?" Eriol asked gently.
"..."
Eriol only smiled his enigmatic smile, opened his hand and allowed Li to float free.
---------------------
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde@stargarde.com
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