DISCLAIMER: *sigh* I'm so tired of writing this disclaimer, I even forgot to write it on the last chapter. Oh well, by now, if you don't know that I don't own ccs....i have nothing to say about you.




Here-say.....being two places at once




Far away, Sakura woke up. She had dreamed the most wonderful dream, she was with Syaoran again and they were in Hong Kong together. But looking at her surroundings, she was still Sobek's prisoner. The nights on Sobek's world were cold. In fact, the days were cold too. Sakura shuddered and pulled the blankets closer to her body.

She hear laughter down the hallway and a scuttleing of feet. Her door opened and shut quickly as a servant scrambled in and slumped to the ground. Sakura blinked. This was a servant she had never met. The little creature turned around and squealed in terror, trying to claw it's way back up and out of the door.

"What's wrong. You don't have to be scared," Sakura soothed. She got out of bed, dragging a blanket around her for warmth, and creeped over to the quivering servant. As she inched closer, the servant only shaked more violently. "I'll stay here then," she said, sitting down on the ground, hoping to befriend the scared thing.

As the servant became convinced that Sakura was not going to hurt him, he started to make more coherent sounds. "You...you're...how..."

Sakura was dozing in her position on the floor. As soon as it started to talk though, she became more alert. "What about me?"

"How...can....How can you be in two places at once?"

"Me? Two places? That's impossible. I'm not allowed to go out." Now Sakura was curious. What could Sobek possibly be up to that would allow the poor servant to be seeing double?

"You tried to hurt me outside..." it said in an injured tone.

"I would never hurt you. I've never seen you in my life." Obviously, whatever Sobek wanted to do was not good.

"I...you...." the servant, overwhelmed by the complexity of the idea as well as fear, fainted.

Sakura sighed and got back up. She sat down on her bed and ran through the facts. She was a prisoner in Sobek's castle. Sobek had wanted to get Rika, but ended up getting her instead. Sobek had something that looked a heck of a lot like her, but wasn't like her at all. What was he going to do? Was he trying to trick Syaoran? What for? He wanted Rika. Or was the other her a failed experiment. Either way, she didn't like the idea of being imitated.

Sakura watched out the window as the sun came up. A squat little servant, the same old woman who came in every day, waddled in, clucking to herself. She say the little fainted servant on the floor and squeaked, and started tsking again. "Poor Toba. We've been looking for him all night. Tsk, Tsk. What was he doing wandering around?"

The old woman pulled Toba out of the way and started to light a fire. "Why are you awake so early today?" she asked, ignoring how Toba got in Sakura's room.

Sakura shrugged. "I couldn't sleep."

"Did Toba wake you up?" she asked, obviously thinking the worst of the little one.

"No, no. I woke up on my own. Then I heard laughter and Toba ran in, saw me, and then fainted."

"He shouldn't have been wandering the halls at night," the serving woman whispered ominously.

Sakura let her finish building the fire before she spoke again. "Can you tell me what's going on?"

She shivered. "I'm not supposed to tell you."

"Why not? I never go anywhere. I'm in here all day, what could I possibly do?"

"It's a bad, bad thing the master is doing."

"What's bad?"

The servant scrunched down near the fainted Toba and picked him up. "Maybe someday, you'll find out." And she walked out the door with Toba on her back.

Sakura sighed and flopped onto the bed. She wanted to know what she wasn't supposed to know, but since she didn't really know anything, she had to content herself with thinking.

What were Syaoran, Eriol, Rika, Yue, Kero, Nakuru, and Suppi doing now? Sometimes she imagined them close to saving her. Sometimes, she imagined that they were still stuck on the last planet they were on. The one covered in snow. Hopefully, Syaoran had gotten the two missing cards. Hopefully.

She prayed that they were all fine. She had been devastated when she was separated from Syaoran. How had he reacted? She thought back to her battle with Yue, when she had first been appointed the mistress of the cards. Yue had shown her a world where she was completely alone. A world where she didn't have friends. That was how she felt now sometimes, but she knew that she was not alone. She had Syaoran, and Rika, and Eriol, and Yue, and Kero, and Nakuru, and Suppi. All of them cared about her. They were trying to find her right now. She knew that was what was happening. It had to be happening.

If she was so sure though, why was she so scared?

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

Two days later, Sakura sat forlornly at her window. All of a sudden, a green ball of fire shot up from a lower level and into the night sky. As the flame disappeared among the stars, there was much activity in the hallways. Sakura could hear it, the excited chittering of the servants. She wanted to open the door to see what was happening, but before she could, the door opened as the bent old woman who lit the fire every morning came in.

"The master just left."

"Is that why everyone's so noisy?" Sakura asked.

"The woman shook her head. "No, we are trying to decide what to do," seeing the blank look on Sakura's face, the servant continued. "You see, we haven't decided yet, but I'm going to tell you anyway," the woman straighted up. "The master is going to try and trick your friends. He made a thing that looked just like you."

"And that's what hurt poor Toba the other day?" she asked. As the magnitude of what she just heard dawned on her, Sakura gasped and reached for her coat. There must be some way I can warn them! There has to be! She thought to herself, nearly fainting from lack of air as her lungs constricted on their own.

"Why are you telling me this?" Sakura asked. "Are you going to try to help me?"

"There's no way we can help you. We only know what the Master lets us know."

"Then why did you tell me?"

The old woman suddenly became shy. "There are rumors," she whispered, "that you have magic. Like the Master. We thought maybe you could..."

"Rumors?"

She nodded. "You should try and help your friends." The old lady left, leaving the door slightly ajar behind her - an invitation to freedom.

Sakura closed the door. She needed time alone. Time to think. What could she possibly do? She had no idea what the cards were capable of from a distance, and there was quite a distance between her and Syaoran. Heck, she didn't even know where Syaoran was!

She pulled out the pile of cards from her coat pocket. Sobek still had not discovered that she had them, which was good. Fanning the cards face up, she looked at her arsenal. There really wasn't much to work with since she had no idea where they were. Not much at all. But she had to try and do something. Different cards raced through her mind.

No, cards like dash, fly, and jump wouldn't help her at all. Light and Dark wouldn't either. Create might, but what could it do? Last, she came to the Hope card. Syaoran had its counterpart, Love. It was a long shot, but could Hope possibly communicate with Love? She sighed. "Key of the Star, with powers burning bright, reveal the staff, and shine your light. Release!" she recited. "Hope, is there some way you can get in touch with the other two cards I think Syaoran probably has? If there is, can you please try?" she begged.

Hope released itself and smiled reassuringly at Sakura. She closed her eyes, in what Sakura presumed to be an attempt to contact the two missing cards.

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

Syaoran couldn't sleep. Something big was going to happen, he could feel it in his bones. He had fallen asleep for a short while earlier, but his dreams were full of Sakura. It was too painful for him to handle. He picked up the two Sakura cards off his dresser and sighed. If only Sakura were here now.

"Syaoran!" a faint voice called out to him.

His head jerked up. "Who's there?" he demanded.

"Syaoran!" the voice called again, and then it occured to him that it was Sakura's voice he was hearing.

"Sakura!" he whispered, getting out of bed and looking around. "Where are you?"

"Watch out for the other me," the voice said.

"Where are you? Sakura! What other you?"

"Be careful Syaoran."

"What? Sakura!! Where are you! Tell me!"

"I love you."

He felt the voice leaving. "Sakura!!!"

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

"Did it work?" she asked the Hope.

"If he had the cards with him, I hope it worked," Hope replied in her eerily hollow voice.

"He has to have the cards," Sakura said determinedly.

"I'm sure he does, Mistress." The Hope returned to its card form. Sakura sighed again. She was sighing a lot lately. Her mind couldn't think of anything else that needed to be done. Hopefully, he'd gotten the message. Filled with a new resolve, for the first time in over two months, she got dressed and stepped out her door.