DISCLAIMER: I don't own any ccs characters, they belong to CLAMP and Nelvana...I wish I owned Syaoran, or Eriol, or Touya, or Yue *sigh* but I don't ;_;


Cat- Thank you for reviewing my story. You must come and check often to know when I update or something. Amazing. I really appreciate it.

Kirjava-chan- Actually, keep the quote in mind while your reading the rest of part two...and actually most of part three, probably. I haven't gotten that far yet. I think if you keep the quote in mind and ....well...you'll see. Just don't forget it. ^_^

And I forget if it was Aerin or Kirjava, one of you was asking about the bauble a while ago. Um. I was going to put parts two and three into their own stories, so it'd be three different stories, but then I realized that was kinda against the rules. Let me just say that had I posted part 2 as its own story, it would have been named The Bauble's Choice.





Sobek and the Bauble





Sobek paced back and forth. Legends, facts, and suspicions crowded his mind. When he was little, he heard storied about "Light-born" people. People who had magic. "Are we Light-born too, Mother?" he had asked.

He remembered clearly that his mother's face clouded, "No, we're not Light-born."

"Then why do we have magic?"

His mother had walked to a window and looked out. "The people in out part of the universe aren't 'blessed with light,'" she had replied. Sobek didn't understand her answer then. Later, he realized that the phrase "blessed by the light" or "blessed with light" were ways the Light-born described themselves. He also found out why his mother was always so bitter about the Light-born.

She was one of them. Years before, his mother, who's name he never knew, had been one of the brightest of the Light-born. She had fallen in love with a shape-shifter and given him a son, Sobek. But because the child was born out of wed-lock and because he was what he looked like, her father, his grandfather, banished her from their planet. The shape-shifter put her on another planet where he promised she would be well cared for.

Sobek never knew his father either. His mother's father had banished her, but had not taken away her magic; his father had not been Light-born, but he had magic; something the Light-born called Shadow people. His mother had used her power to drive his father away and as far as Sobek knew, he had never come back.

All that happened hundreds of years ago. Since then, the Light-born had slowly disappeared, as did the Shadow people. Light-born and Shadow people still existed, but more spread out and in fewer numbers than before.

Sobek's mother, had taught his the legends and prophesies of the Light-born as well as the Shadow people. The Light-born saw the Shadow people as bearers of evil. Their legends and prophesies spoke of a time when a Child of the Light would battle a Child of the Dark. The legends of the Shadow people said the same thing. Sobek, curious to see how true the prophesies were, studied the signs and omens.

Light and Dark had battled several times already, but the vessels the powers chose were too weak and were always destroyed before anything important could happen. Sobek wished he could be the Child of Dark. He knew he could handle the power. He knew it.

But now there was something else to complicate things. The girl, Rika Sasaki. She could be either the Child of Light or a Child of Dark. Born on a planet not claimed by either, but with more Light and Dark, she could easily be the Child of Light. But the Dark also saw her as a suitable vessel. If she was in his hands, he could help the Dark win her, but right now, he only had her friend, a certain Sakura Kinomoto.

Sobek was desparately tempted to kill her, except everytime he tried, he couldn't. Something was stoping from killing the little girl in his possession. It could be that this little girl still had many things to do. Sobek had gotten tantilizingly close to killing her once. He had ordered a servant to kill her, but at the last minute, the servant died. The same thing happened with everyone he sent. Then he had tried himself. He was so close. But he ended up hurting himself instead. Something was deffinately protecting the girl.

He had a dream one night that told him he was forbidden to kill her. "Why?" he had asked. But the dream had said nothing that alluded to why. The unknown always drove Sobek a little crazy.

Since he couldn't kill her, his decent side had taken some control and had given her a room so she would at least be comfortable.

Sometimes though, he really wondered why he even bothered being decent to his prisoners. Especially the ones that didn't seem to want it.

"Stop thinking about this," he ordered himself out loud. He had another way he could use Sakura Kinomoto to his advantage. She wasn't exactally the Child of Dark, but she was close enough so that he could hurt the one who had killed his beloved.

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

Sakura sat looking out the window in a room given to her by her captor.

A month ago, when Sobek saw that she wasn't Rika, Sakura heard his howls of rage echoing through the halls of his home. She always thought of this place as a castle, but it was more along the lines of a really big house made out of stone. She had sat along in a dark little cell waiting for nothing.

The servants had surprised and scared her at first. The furry little creatures with large eyes perfect for the dark "castle," but they were very nice to her. She had looked forward to their visits to bring her food. They had even warned her that their master was wanting to kill her. That had made Sakura more nervous, but at least she was on the look out.

Then one day, Sobek came. "I'm not allowed to kill you," he said, irritated and tired. Sakura looked away. His appearance was disturbing. "Since I can't kill you, you might as well, leave-" Sakura's heart had fluttered when he paused. She thought he was going to let her leave, but after the short pause, he had continued, "-this cell...You'll get a room, but you are forbidden to leave it for any reason."

So there she was. Incredibly bored. Incredibly heart sore. Incredibly tired. Sakura had befriended the servant who brought her food and had learned from her that Sobek drugged the food she recieved. Sakura wished she could use the Sakura cards to get her out, but she had no idea where she was, so even if she did get out, chances were that she would starve before finding Syaoran or anyone else.

"Syaoran," she sighed. "I hope you know that I'm alright." Sakura looked at the card in her hand. It was the hope. Soon after she had been given a room, Sakura counted the cards. She was missing two. Illusion and Love. "I hope you have the cards, Syaoran. I hope you know that the cards are trying to tell you I'm alright."

The Mirror card appeared. One of the cards would often appear and talk or comfort Sakura. She suspected that this was their way of showing sorrow. Out of all the cards, Sakura felt like the Mirror understood her the best. "After all," Tomoyo had once said, "The Mirror card does seem to like Touya, she would understand what it's like to not be close to someone you love, or like a lot in Mirror's case."

"Mistress," the Mirror card lowered her head a little, to show her respect.

"Can you feel my sadness? Can the cards feel what I'm feeling?" Sakura asked out of curiosity. The last two cards to come out had been dash and jump. They couldn't talk. Then before that, the twin card had come out and tried to cheer her up by replicating everything in the room. She had used to Erase card to clean up the mess. Their efforts cheered her up, but Sakura wanted something different. She wanted to be with Syaoran. In her mind, she let out a long, agonized moan, "Syaoran," she tried to call across the distance. "I miss you, I love you!"

Mirror looked away. "Yes...We're sad too."

Sakura nodded and continued to look out the window. The Mirror sighed. While her back was turned, the Rain card had appeared and crept close to Sakura. "Is little Sakura still sad?" the Rain card called everything "little."

Sakura smiled down at the adorable incarnation of "rain." "A little," she replied as she turned her attention back to what was outside the window.

The little Rain card's eyes teared up. "If little Sakura's sad, then I'm sad toooooooooooooo!" as it sat down and proceded to wail.

"Oh, no," the Mirror cried out. "If you cry, you'll end up flooding everything!" she scolded.

"A...flood?" Sakura repeated, not noticing that the remark was directed at the bawling Rain card. "Be good, Rain. Go back into the card. There's....something..." Sakura trailed off frowning outside the window.

"There's....something...?" Mirror repeated.

"Yes. Rain. Go back into your card, please. There's something out...side..." Sakura looked outside again. When she turned around, the Rain had obediently turned back into a Sakura card. Sakura beckoned to the Mirror card and pointed outside. "Don't stick your head out too far, but do you see that thing? Down there? That's kinda hovering?"

The Mirror nodded. "What is it?"

Sakura ignored the quesiton. "It's been like that all day for the last week. But it's not always there. I don't really like it. I want to know what it is."

Sakura turned around and put her hand on the pile of Sakura cards, wondering which one to use. She drew out the Wood card. "Wood," she whispered, after taking out her staff. "I want that's black thing that's hovering under my window. Trap it, and bring it back. Release and Dispell."

The Wood card went out the window and soon returned with a little ball of wood. "It's in there," she said. "It can't move in a straight line very well...it sort of wobbles," she informed Sakura.

"It wobbles?" Sakura repeated. "What is it?" she asked more to herself than anyone else.

"It's a little black bubble of something. It floats, and it doesn't feel very good," Wood informed her.

"It doesn't feel good?" Sakura was confused.

"It doesn't feel good." Wood repeated firmly. She squirmed a little.

Sakura nodded. "I won't make it stay in there long," she assured the Wood. "Loosen up a bit on it, so I can see what it is."

The thing the Wood had caught stayed in the shadows though. Sakura thought for a minute. "Mirror, can you show me what it is?"

"If I see it, but even I can't see it," she replied.

"The thing doesn't move very fast, did you say?" Sakura asked. Wood nodded. "Then if you let it go really fast, just so Mirror can see it, and then capture it again, could you do that?"

Again she nodded and did exactally what Sakura said. The Mirror also turned into a little black floating bubble, reflecting what she saw.

"Where have I seen that before?" Sakura muttered to herself. "It wobbles...it can't move in a straight line....Mirror, move around, but not in a straight line, kinda wobble all over the place."

Sakura stared at the black bubble. She looked at the wood's cage for the bubble and then back at the Mirror's projection. She licked her lips, trying to think, but try as she might, she could not remember where she had seen the thing. "Ok, Wood, you can let it go, outside again," Sakura sighed in resignation. The two cards turned back into cards, leaving Sakura with her thoughts.

Here was a mystery to take her mind off her depression. Where had she seen the black bubble before? Why was it always under her window? And what was it?

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

It simply woke up one day. It didn't know where or what it was, it just knew its purpose. It was able to speak the language of the humans, but prefered to stay silent and watch. It was drawn to one particular being, one called Sobek. It had been following Sobek since before it had an awareness. Sobek called it the "bauble," so it assumed that was its name. Bauble.

To the bauble, there was no past, present, or future. Only now. It was guided by impules that did not originate within itself. It's instincts were from another entity it had never meet before. Everything the bauble did was planned, but the bauble didn't know that. All it knew was that the ultimate goal was to find the Child of Dark.

Sobek had caught another human. He had insisted that she was the Child of Dark, but the bauble knew other wise. The human in Sobek's holdings was so infused with light that it hurt to look at her. The bauble also knew that Sobek was not allowed to kill the human. A condition that was set because Light and Dark sensed that the Time was near. The Time when Light and Dark would battle for the Universe.

The bauble had no feelings about this. It was an instrument, an apendage that the Dark found valuable. The bauble simply did what ever it was told. End of story.

Its "instincts" told it that at one point, Sobek was thought to be the Child of Dark. But he had softened. He had changed and there was another in the Universe that the Dark would prefer as a vessel, but she had been slowly infused with Light. The Dark could still take over her though, slowly and carefully. If it ever found her.

If it ever found her.