DISCLAIMER: I don't own any CCS characters, they belong to CLAMP or (very unfortunately) Nelvana, so don't sue me.
Their chosen path had brought them to the fortified gates of a large city. The walls were constructed out of massive blocks of stone that were two arms length across in width. Inside the city, people were bustling about gossiping, shopping, wandering. Rika followed her inner sense and led the group to where she thought the key was.
So, after a few minutes of walking about the city, they stopped in front of a sumptuous house. Rika knocked, "Is the master of the house in?"
The door opened and a young girl peeped out. "Who's calling?"
"Err...we just came by to...umm..."
"Who is it?" A voice called from inside the house, saving Rika.
"People to see you," the girl called back.
A taller woman stepped into view. Her pale skin was countered by rich dark hair. She wore a voluminous gown that hid the shape of her body and the way she carried herself suggested that she was used to being treated with a good amount of respect. Around her neck, heavily laden with jewels, hung the sought after medallion.
Rika's eyes lit up. "May we-"
"Who do you think you are?" the woman sniffed. "You beggars these days are bold to actually come to the front door. If you want food, you should go to the kitchen entarence," with that, she turned away and the door closed in their faces.
Eriol blinked. "We look like beggars?"
"She must not be used to our clothes," Nakuru suggested, equally bewildered.
"Now what do we do?" moaned Kero, who had been acting like a stuffed animal.
"I guess we should go back and try to think of something," Yue started walking away.
One the way home, "You look awfully smug, Syaoran," she said glancing sideways at her love.
"I feel smug, my dear," he grinned back at her.
"Care to enlighten me?"
"How do you feel about burglary?"
"Did I hear you right? Did you just say burglary?"
Syaoran nodded eagerly. "I know you can sneak into a house. After all, you've snuck into a museum before."
Sakura choked a little. "Me? Wait. How did you know about the museum?"
"I was there. I was on the roof watching you and Tomoyo."
"Oh, that's right. It was right before you came..." she started thoughtfully. "Well, I just have you know, mister, that I was completely against sneaking into the museum."
"Then why'd you do it?"
"It was a Clow Card. I had to."
"So do it again. Don't you think the fate of our world is just as important?"
The rest of the way back, Sakura fumed silently. As much as she didn't want to participate in what she knew Syaoran was going to suggest, she also knew that it might be the only possible way. Sure enough, when they were back on the ship, Syaoran did suggest robbing the woman's house.
"Robbing a house?" Rika asked incredulously.
"Sakura's snuck into a museum before, I'm sure sneaking into a simple house would be no problem for her," Syaoran replied.
"Syaoran!" Sakura protested.
Eriol chuckled. "Oh, that's right. Tomoyo showed me the video of that."
"I wish I'd been there," Rika said.
"No you don't. We kept on getting transported outside because we were 'loud'," Kero insisted.
"So it's settled then, Sakura is going to rob that woman's house!" Nakuru cried, clapping her hands.
"No it's not!" Sakura protested.
Eriol put an arm around Sakura's shoulder. "Don't worry, Sakura. You won't be alone. We'll have Yue or Keroberos go with you. Besides, you've kind of done this before."
"Hey! That's my line!" Syaoran gave Eriol a death glare.
"You worry too much, my cute little descendant."
"I have not done this before. The museum thing was different. There was a Clow Card involved!"
"Mistress, this is just as important as a Clow Card," Yue gently asserted.
"We'll just have to make it like last time then!" Kero flew out of the room and quickly flew back with a gaudy costume that looked fairly familiar. Sakura nearly fell over.
"Where did you get that Kero?" she asked faintly.
"He had the computer make one," Suppi answered.
"So what's happening?" Rika asked.
"Sakura and either Kero or Yue are going to go rob that woman's house, to get the medal. Then they'll bring it back and you'll figure out whether or not it's the real one....didn't you say there were two? So doesn't that mean one's fake?" Nakuru supplied.
"Yes to both your questions." Rika paused to think for a minute. "Wait....the two keys...they might be two different keys, so maybe this trip will be twice as fruitful."
Yue volunteered himself for the mission because he would be more effective at sneaking around than Keroberos would be. Watching Sakura and Yue leave, Syaoran hoped he didn't underestimate that rich woman's guards.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Once again, Rika was the center of attention. Sakura had gone along with Eriol and Syaoran's plan and snuck into the woman's house along with Yue. Unfortunately, the woman's security was better than any of them had anticipated, and they had gotten the medal, but the guards found them out. Sakura used the shield card to protect herself and Yue from their projectiles. Yue then attacked them using his blue crystal/fire while Sakura used the illusion card to make it look like they had disappeared and the two made their get away.
So now there they were, back in the ship, a little shaken, but safe, and Rika was going to test the key. In her hand, she held the box. The lid snapped open and she slid the key into one of the slots and closed the box. Rika turned the box so that the side with the snake emblem was facing up. "What," she whispered in a flat, disbelieving voice.
"What's wrong?" someone asked, so absorbed she was in her own thoughts that she couldn't tell who it was.
"Rika..."
"This...this..is..this isn't a...this is a fake! The Key of Power is somewhere else." she announced, her eyes filled with alarmed resignation.
"All that for a fake?!" Sakura protested. "Are you sure?"
"If it were real, the snake on the box would be glowing," Rika affirmed, "so now the question is...why? Why does this feel like the real thing?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"There's one more key on this planet. Perhaps that is the real one," Yue suggested.
"It has to be," Rika declared, staring intently at the star chart they had pulled up a few minutes ago. "There are six keys in all. There are five marks on this map that show us where we are going. We don't know where hope is...yet," she paused, trying to shake off the feeling of dispair in not knowing where one of the keys was. "The other key on this planet is going to be the real one."
"So this person obviously has a lot of magic..." Syaoran started.
"Didn't we decide that already?" Sakura asked tiredly.
"Let me finish, when we go visit this person, we should go ready to use our magic."
"We're always ready to use our magic though," Nakuru pointed out.
"I believe what Syaoran is suggesting is that when we go," Yue paused, " when we go, Keroberos and Spinel Sun are in their normal forms and the Mistress and her friends be in their battle costumes, or at least, have their staffs and sword out."
"Right," Syaoran confirmed.
Rika looked up, "I don't have magic though. What should I do?"
"You do have magic," Eriol insisted, "it's just different from ours."
Seeing Rika's blank look, Spinel filled in for his master, "he means to say that since the keys are magic and you can sense them, you must have magic too."
"Oh, I see. Wouldn't it look odd, though, if all of you had your magical things out, and I had nothing?"
"Well, you have the key and the box, don't you?"
"Yes, but wouldn't it make sense to keep those things hidden. The magician behind this doesn't want to give his or her key away, so he or she might also try to take the key we have right now."
"I hadn't thought of it like that," Syaoran admitted.
"Clow didn't always have a staff the way Eriol does," Kero said thoughtfully, "So, you'll just have to look commanding."
"Not too commanding though," Rika quickly added, "I wouldn't want to be singled out.
"Of course not."
There was nothing left to talk about, but something was still bothering Rika. She feared thought, that if she told her idea, it might cause more worry, so she shouldered the burden herself. Nakuru, whom Rika had grown particularly close too, noticed that Rika seemed to be aged with thought and also noticed that she didn't want to share. Grateful for her understanding, Rika smiled in the dark and tried to stave off worry: if this person had enough power to alter his own magic to feel like the key's, what's to say that he didn't conceal the real keys power and that the key they were going to find the next day wasn't a fake?
So dawned the next morning: Rika still mulling over her pell-mell thoughts. She continued to be preoccupied until Sakura caught her attention.
"Here, Rika, wear this," she said, thrusting a gaudy looking outfit at her. "I figured, since everyone else is dressed up, you and I should be too."
Rika eyed the one Sakura was holding as well as the one she was wearing. "Aren't these rather...conspicuous?"
Sakura shrugged and smiled. "Since you know everything now, remind me to show you the video tapes Tomoyo had of us cardcaptoring. Trust me. There were ones more outrageous than this one."
"When did this one come from?"
"This one was from...let me think. Oh yes, this one was from when I had to defeat Yue to become the new owner of the Clow cards."
"You had to defeat Yue? Remind me to have you tell me more about your cardcaptoring days when this is over," Rika laughed.
