DISCLAIMER: I don't own any CCS characters, they belong to CLAMP or (very unfortunately) Nelvana, so don't sue me.




It is time




Upon returning, Concha went back to her room. She had no idea when the Child of Light would be coming, be it months or years, she knew she had bought herself some time. Hopefully in that time, Sobek would come back, and she would be able to find some way to get more information from him. If, though, the Child came before Sobek did, well, then she would have to keep her wits about her.

Sobek, however, was present, hiding, in the shadows. He was able to send his bauble in his place, and it, being the faithful servant that it was, followed Concha, showing Sobek all her movements so that he knew his plan had worked. With Concha doing the dirty work for him, he could watch the Child of Dark with out her knowing, giving him an advantage that would be necessary in order for total victory and winning the keys.

Weeks later, Concha awoke to the sounds of guards scrambling into the front courtyard. She looked out her window and saw two flying figures coming towards the house. Moments later, a troupe of people came into view, all dressed in clothes that looked ridiculous to her, but probably were symbols of power. All of a sudden, fear clenched her heart and she ringed for her maid servant.

This maid, looked astoundingly like Concha, except that the maid had rough hands and hair that was a touch lighter than Concha's for being in the sun so often.

"Here, wear this," she ordered.

"What for?" the maid asked, clearly puzzled.

Briefly, Concha explained to her what would be happening, leaving out any magic and not mentioning the medallion.

"But I don't even know how to act like you!" she protested.

Concha silenced her protests. "You've been in my service since you were a little girl, surely you can pretend."

"But your ministers-"

"Will not notice because you will be convincing."

"But-"

"No more buts. Change clothes with me, before some one fetches you."

"Me?"

"You're Concha starting now. But don't let the power get into your head."

"Yes'm"

Minutes later, another maid came to fetch "Concha". The real Concha followed close behind.

Concha placed herself in the shadows, close to the fake Concha's seat, so she could see everything from the maid's point of view and as she herself would see it were she in the maid's place. Sobek had watched the interchange between Concha and her maid with a certain degree of alarm. Concha was supposed to be in control of the situation! She wasn't supposed to be hiding in the shadows! He was about to materialize when the group walked in.

Yue and Nakuru had been flying and everyone else walking. Their goal was to make the most powerful impression possible without looking too threatening.

"You are...?" the fake Concha asked. They introduced themselves and were also about to tell why they were here when "Concha" inturruped. "My most distinguished guests, you must be tired from your long journey. Let my servants give you quarters in my humble home."

"Umm...ok," Sakura answered, looking around to see if anyone objected. Syaoran scowled at not being able to find the key right away and Rika looked worried.

As "Concha" led the visitors away, the real Concha, hiding in the shadows, let out a sigh of relief. Sobek also took this opportunity to appear.

He grabbed Concha by the shoulders. "What do you think you're doing?" he hissed at her.

Startled, then half relieved to see a familiar face and half disgusted that she had just collapsed into his arms, she sobbed, "can't you feel it? can't you feel it, Sobek? Their aura's, their auras..."

"What about their auras?" he asked, his voice suddenly uncharacteristically gentle.

"It's suffocating. I can't...I can't breath when they're around. Don't you see? I may be more powerful than they, but a new trick and easily disarm a veteran. They will best me in any competition."

"This isn't fencing, Concha. There are ways..."

She knew he was suggesting that he give her some of his own magic, but that would link her to him forever. That would link her to the one man she wanted to wach her hands of forever. But before she could protest, Sobek poured his power into her. "Be brave my little Concha..." he whispered and then disappeared again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Ok, Rika, you've had that expression pasted on your face since last night, you have to tell me what's wrong," Nakuru demanded.

"Yes, I noticed that on the way here you looked like you were thinking rather hard about something," Sakura added.

"Well, last night, I was thinking, since whoever made the fake was powerful enough to change the feel of his own magic, what if this one that we're trying to get is also a fake? And the reason the real one wasn't sensed some where is because his magic is also strong enough to conceal the real location?"

"Rika, you're fears are not unfounded," Yue started, "but if you dwell on them, they only create more problems."

"Indeed," Eriol agreed. "I didn't even think of this. We're so used to magic being straight forward that we didn't even think of that."

"And goodness knows Eriol concealed his own magic many times before," Suppi said.

"All right then, what about this. The key is going to be much harder to find than we thought. The feeling from the key of Power is so diffused through out Concha's estate that I can't pinpoint it's exact location," Rika continued.

"So that means it's been here a long time and that someone's probably carrying it around with them," Kero thought. He was quiet a moment longer before his face turned sad and anxious. "Looks like I'm going to have to wait longer for those video games than I thought."

"But at least you have sweets, right Kero?" Rika teased.

"Please don't spoil him too much," Yue mock pleaded.

Kero stuck his tongue out at Yue, a laughable sight since Kero had remained in his normal form.

Concha, the real one, the one expertly disguised as a maid, entered to tend the fire and to see if the group needed anything. She wanted to try to find out who the Child of Light was, but except for a petty conversation about something called "chocolate", they were silent. These people are either idiots or genius' she thought to herself. When they weren't looking, she would steal glances in their direction, hoping to see some resemblence to Jadis in their faces or the way the carried themselves, but with no conversation to guide her, Concha was lost. And so she left, not a little discouraged.

Sobek was rather proud of Concha now. He had made it so that she could approach them without being seized with fear. Unfortunately, the Child of Light could not be identified from just looking at them, he would have to wait and see who took charge. It would be interesting to watch how they went about finding the Key of Power though. As a general rule, Sobek didn't involve himself in local politics unless it ultimately involved him possessing a Key. He wasn't quite sure why he had interfered to help Concha, because in the end, it would be one more obstacle between him and his precious goal.

His bauble inturrputed his thoughts. As it quaked and quivered in front of him, he could see his ugly snake face reflected in it. He swipe violently at it with a clawed hand. The last thing he wanted to see, ever, was his face, was his appearance. It dispersed into numerous smaller pockets of darkness before it came together again and reformed itself into the shapeless blob it was. The bauble was a puzzle that even Sobek could not piece together. It had suddenly appeared one night while he was sleeping and had followed him around ever since. When he was yonger, he would try to get rid of it. His mother, a great magician, had even commanded it to show its true form, but it had refused and stayed the same.

Over the years, he learned that the bauble was from him. Borne out of a dream he had. It would be used as a vessle for his own magic and made him even more powerful. He had often used the bauble for spying and other unscrupulous causes, but lately, the bauble was not listening to him. It was going off, doing what ever it wanted. Sobek had tightened him control over the thing, yet it still found ways to get around it. What it wanted, Sobek couldn't guess. This had never happened before. Whatever the thing wanted, it would have to wait until Sobek was done here.