Disclaimer: I don't own CCS. I never have and I never will. I think the idea has probably been used quite a few times, but hey, oh well. Can't win everything. *shrugs*
Summary: It is believed that a coin cast into a wishing well grants wishes. With a small splash, the coin lands in the water, slowly sinking to the bottom. Syaoran tossed his coin in and asked a wish... and he got an answer. Thing is, was it the right one?
Notes: This builds onto the seuql, so the tale that Clow is telling is in the same world that the sequel is to take place in. This tale should last for a couple more chapters, so I don't know when I'll be getting back to Sakura, Syaoran and the others. Hm... I guess I could add little scenes of them in. I might just do that actually. Anyway, it's 10pm at night on a Friday and I am tired. So... enjoy!
Wishing Well ~ Key to the Memories
"If you're wanting to help us, Kado, we need to have something in return," Takara said. "I believe that you have Sakura's brother's spirit within you, right?" she asked, her eyes narrowing a little. She wasn't quite sure that she could trust the baby yet, but there was something about him that made her want to try. She wasn't going to go easy on him, because she knew the disposition of this one, and he was cunning, so very cunning. He always had a motive, and he obviously had one now.
"Yes, I do," Kado replied. "But what do you want with him?"
"That spirit is Sakura's brother, and without him, there will be things that will be able to be held against her. Sakura is a very powerful girl. She is more than she seems. Her powers surpass Clow's now. I don't think you quite understand how powerful that is," Takara answered.
Kado's lips curled up in disgust. "How can that be? No one had stronger powers than Clow. It's impossible!"
"Believe what you wish, Kado, but she will prove you wrong. I will not ask her for a demonstration, as we do not have the time for that now. I believe you want to help us, but I will have to ask if I may place a spell on you," Takara stated.
"Fine, but I want to know what the spell does," Kado muttered.
"It's a simple tracking spell that allows me to see wherever you are. Since you're so smart, and you'll soon learn to hide your aura, this will help me keep an eye on you." Takara gazed at the wolf.
Kado's eyes narrowed. "I will allow for this, but as soon as all of this is over, I want it removed."
"Very well," Takara agreed. "But when, and only when this is over, I will remove it."
"Let's get this over with then..." Kado muttered hurriedly.
"Fine. Hold still, this will hurt a little, but it is necessary," Takara stated.
"Okay."
Takara walked forward, holding out a hand that began glowing silver. Kado began thinking that this spell was very similar to the one worked when Takara sealed up him and his family and he began backing away a little. "What's wrong, Kado? I told you to stay still."
"That spell looks a lot like the one that you used to seal up me and my family all those years ago," Kado stated.
Takara finally understood what he meant. Now that she thought about it, it did look pretty similar, but it was completely different. The complexity and the way that it worked. That sealing spell was a difficult one and usually used up a lot of magical energy, but this one was very simple, and used hardly any magic at all. However, the finding of the wearer could take sometime. There was a summoning spell that she could easily use on Kado if she needed to, but like the sealing spell, it cost her a lot of energy. "I know it does, but this one is completely different. It will not turn you into statues, like the last one did. All it will do is place a piece of my energy on it and let me sense wherever you are at all times. It will do nothing more than that. I can promise you that now."
Kado eyed Takara warily. He believed what she said, in little ways. There wasn't much that he could do about it if he wanted to help her, or rather, them. He had to be on his guard, because there were probably many things that they could do to him that would risk his life. He could not have that. He could not have them making him die. His eyebrows raised a little. "I don't really trust you anymore, Mitsu, but if this is what you have to do to trust me, then let's get it over with quickly, because I don't want to be here any more than I have to."
"I know you don't want to, but you'll have to stay just a little bit longer. I'm sure that Li and Sakura will want to talk to you a bit more," Takara replied.
"Just shoot the damn wolf already, Kara-san. It's getting so crowded in here, and I wanna be free!"
Takara smiled a little. She took Kado by the ruff of his neck and dragged him into Sakura's father's bedroom. She released her firm grip on Kado's neck and looked directly at him. "Thekia, nga matarei, ki a kua," she whispered. A strange sort of silver dome appeared over Kado.
His eyes widened in alarm and he turned his glare to Takara. "What are you doing?!" he yelled.
"I'm going to talk to Touya, that's all," Takara replied in a calm voice. "It won't hurt, but I need to talk to him urgently."
Kado rolled his eyes. "Then, go on ahead. But I'll bite you if it hurts."
"I'm sure you will," Takara answered flatly. "Hold still. You know what that means? Not moving."
"Sadist..." Kado mumbled.
Takara's eyes narrowed. She glanced sideways at the wolf and took hold of his ruff again, sending her energy into the wolf and making her presence known to the spirit that dwelled within the wolf's body.
Takara found herself floating to the part of Kado's magical mind. There, bound in chains, she saw Touya, Sakura's brother. She ran over to him, and started pulling at the chains, but they refused to come out.
Touya, whose head had been hanging, suddenly looked up at the commotion. His face drew into dawning comprehension when he finally figured out who this person was. "You're Kara-san, aren't you!? You're the one that I've been talking to!"
Takara looked up. "Yes I am. However, I can't quite work out how you figured out how to call me. You don't have your magic anymore; I can sense new powers within Yue. From Meiling, I got that they belonged to you. Is that true?"
Touya nodded. "Yes, it is. When Sakura was still changing the Cards, and Yue was running out of powers, I gave mine to him to sustain him, and they seem to have lasted. I gave them to him to keep my best friend in this world. Without him, I just don't know what I would do. Sakura would be in danger too."
Takara kept pulling at the chains, and listening to Touya speak at the same time. Her head jerked up sharply when she heard him mention his friend. "You mean Yue's false form, Yukito?"
"Yes. We've been friends for as long as I can remember. He never really knew his parents, as he grew up with his grandparents. I listened to him when he was having trouble accepting what was happening to him. I was the one who saw through him, to Yue. It was after he kept having those vanishing spells that I decided to give my powers to him. Not only to protect Sakura, but also to save my friend's life. Without them, my friend would have disappeared."
"That's true," Takara agreed. She gave one last hard pull and the chains yanked out of the wall. Takara broke Touya's fall. "But there's more to it than that."
Touya looked surprised. "What more to it could there be than that?"
"I'm not a complete fool. You care about him more than you know, Touya," Takara said.
Touya furrowed his eyebrows. This girl seemed to know more about him than he knew about himself. How could that be possible? She barely even knew him. "Wait a minute..." Touya mumbled. "Memories... you said that you got some of your memories from Meiling. How is that possible?"
Takara smiled a knowing little smile. "There's not much to do it, Touya. You'll find the answer. Look inside your heart."
"But it can't be..." Touya mumbled. "Meiling... she never had magic. When she came, I never sensed it. She never mentioned anything about it, either. I talked to her a few times. When she came here, she was always bragging about that she had magic, but I could never sense an aura from her at all, and I would have if she did have one. That was one of my powers... to see into the spirit world."
"That was how you used to see your mother, correct?" Takara asked.
"Right. But what does that have to do with it?" Touya asked.
"Being that you could see into the spirit world, you weren't able to sense tiny nuances of aura, the way that Meiling could. She was very empathetic. Her power wasn't very noticeable at all, in fact, many would say it was just intuition, but it was more than that. I was within her, fuelling her, motivating her. I guess that you could say that I was her conscience," Takara said, shrugging.
"I was completely unaware... when did this start happening?" Touya asked. He was so bewildered. Never in his life had he come across something like this when he was proven wrong.
"It started a long time ago, Touya. Meiling's fate was predetermined by me. I needed someone that was going to be included in family affairs. I had to have someone who heard about magical matters. I found that in Meiling, and it was all inconspicuous enough so that she would never know, until the time that I chose to reveal myself, and that day arrived today, when I felt that my help would be needed most. It was only during this matter that Sakura found out that Meiling had magic."
"I see..." Touya trailed off. "But why did you choose yourself to appear just now?"
"Because help was needed."
"And you couldn't have helped anyone earlier?"
"I could have. I felt guilty that I had let Meiling release the wolves. I should have stopped it. I'm trying to make up for that now." Takara cast her gaze down. "But the others don't quite understand about me."
Touya's frown deepened. "Why?"
"I don't know."
He thought for a while. "I think, in time, Kara-san, they will come to accept you. Just give it time. Sometimes people take a little while to adjust to things that are strange to them. Even Li, he's not used to his cousin now having powers when she shouldn't have. They will get used to all of it, Kara-san. I know they will. You just have to be patient."
"I know, Touya, but things aren't quite always what they seem."
"Don't we all know that."
Takara managed a wry smile. "They'll get used to me soon."
"Of course they will."
Takara and Touya both heard a crash. Their heads jerked up, and Takara could sense Kado crashing around inside the silver dome. The spell that she had performed to talk to Touya was hurting him, and she couldn't afford to stay much longer. This was draining her magic, and she needed to keep her reserves up as much as possible if she needed to perform any more spells.
She looked back at Touya and he nodded his understanding. "Make sure that you tell my sister that I'm okay, alright?"
Takara nodded. "I will. Take care, and make sure to stay away from the main part of Kado's magical senses. He could cause you a lot of trouble that you don't want, and I'm sure that Sakura doesn't want to lose you. So take it easy, Touya."
"Affirmed." Touya took his first real look at Takara and noticed some faint resemblance to Meiling. The same facial features and stature, but the colouring was entirely different. While Meiling's skin had been darker than Takara's, her bright blue eyes were clouded with her own doubt and indecision. He could see that she didn't want to leave him alone without any magical defences. "Kara-san, everything will be okay. I'll be fine. I'm no dummy."
"Figures. I bet Sakura would say that you are," Takara said, hiding a grin, but it escaped anyway.
Touya smiled wryly. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. But then again, when I'm out of here and back in my body, I bet that I'll be getting more 'Sakura no kaijuu' than usual. I miss her."
Takara cocked her head. She'd never really had any siblings, but she could sympathise with Touya. The closest that she had had to siblings would probably have to have been Kero and Yue, but she didn't really do much with them after she left. Her eyebrows furrowed a little as she watched Touya for a few more moments. Another loud crash from outside Kado's mind snapped her attention back to reality. "I bet you do. Everything will be okay, as Sakura likes to say."
Touya smiled, thinking of his sister. He remembered her great powers and her smiling face. He missed her more with each passing day, and it hurt him knowing that his sister was not okay. He had the reassurances of Takara, and that made him feel a little bit better, but he couldn't help worrying about his little sister. "Make sure that she stays with people who can protect her, Kara-san. I don't want her getting hurt."
"Will do. I'm going to leave now, so you'll be by yourself. I'm also going to put a tracking spell on Kado so that we know where he is everywhere he goes," Takara stated. "I'm sorry if it effects you, but it has to be done if we want to keep an eye on him."
"Right. Do whatever you have to. I don't want to lose contact with any of you. Are you the only one who can reach through this wolf's mind?" Touya asked.
Takara nodded. "Sadly, yes, I am." She looked around. "I have to go now."
"Okay then..." Touya whispered. "Go."
"Thanks." Takara smiled gratefully and vanished.
Touya watched her go, then walked back to the recesses of Kado's mind. It was obvious that he was going to be stuck here for a while, so he may as well make himself comfortable.
Takara willed herself out of Kado's body and she jerked back into reality. Her eyes snapped open and little flashes of light started clouding her vision for a few moments. Blinking them out and waiting for them to stop, Takara stayed still for a little while. After coming right, her gaze went to Kado and she saw him thrashing around.
"Sorry, Kado. It took a long time," Takara apologised.
"No shit, sherlock. Get me out of this!"
"Be quiet already. I still haven't put the tracking spell on you."
"Well damn well hurry then!" Kado yelled.
"Hold still. I'm nearly done," Takara stated as she laid her hands on the wolf. Her hands began glowing a gentle shade of silver and the spell was complete. Then the wind began blowing again, and both Kado and Takara turned their eyes to the door to see a very familiar figure. Kado began shaking.
It was Kaede.
+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+
Syaoran looked at Sakura, who was playing with her hands. His senses were on the rampage, magic was flying everywhere through Tomoeda, and there was nothing that he could do to stop it. He knew that Sakura had more magic than she had ever had now, but there was nothing that she could do without the cards. They were what she controlled.
He buried his head in his hands. What was going so wrong?
+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+
Touya sensed a new presence from inside Kado's mind. His eyes went to where he could see in the well. He walked over and looked inside. He had seen that sight before. It was the wolf's mother. No wonder the wolf was shaking so badly. He knew that Kado feared the worst from his mother.
Touya sympathised with the wolf slightly. He sat back and watched the events unfold.
+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+
"My son, come back to me," Kaede said to Kado. "You have been influenced by these humans. They are affecting you. We are not meant to be controlled. This is what they are doing to you. Takara is the most dangerous. Don't you see this now?"
Kado shook his head. "I'm going to stay here," he said firmly.
"Mayare will be coming after you," Kaede said. "You're not just affecting yourself."
Takara was stunned. "Who is Mayare?" she asked.
"I can explain that," another voice said.
The two wolves and the human girl were astonished to see Clow Reed's spirit sitting down in a chair.
"Clow! Tell us!" Takara insisted.
"I don't need to hear this," Kaede hissed.
"But you do, Kaede. For I am sure that not even you know the full story. Your son there is not all that he seems. He has some special powers that I infused in him that I did not give to you or the rest of your cubs." Clow looked up at Takara. "However, you, Takara, have taken on some of these. It happened when you went inside Kado's mind to go to talk to Touya. I will tell you now all that I know."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
In the past.
"Mayare, we need you over here." Salyra gestured over to the fallen animal. Wing, her faithful companion was downed, and he could not move. Mayare jogged over to the large eagle and laid her hands down on his big body. He was instantly healed. She was not a celestial angel for nothing. Wing picked himself up and rubbed his head gratefully against Mayare's arm. She laughed and smiled.
"I think he likes you," Salyra said. "He doesn't like many people."
"True, but I think it's because I look like you."
"Could be." Salyra looked at her friend. She did look a lot like her; but then again, Wing always had his sense of smell. It didn't come second to anything. Salyra was known for her fighting, Mayare known for her healing and intelligence.
"Could be also because I feed him," Mayare said, smiling happily, knowing that Salyra wouldn't be very happy about that.
"Yeah, yeah," Salyra waved her hand and the sky clouded over with puffs of dark grey and snowflakes began falling from the sky. One of her more advanced spells came to mind, and she would have performed it, had it not been for Taiaha coming towards them.
Mayare raised her hand and smiled with greeting. Her comrade had never been one of the social types, and he tended only to talk with Salyra about so called important issues. Clearly, now seemed to be one of those times. Mayare went back over to attend to Wing and helped the eagle up.
Taiaha's eyes narrowed as he followed Mayare's progress, and he put a hand on Salyra's arm and guided her out of earshot of their fellow celestial angel. There had been some odd happenings going on in the world, and Taiaha had no idea who was behind it. There had been many spirits roaming around the Asyliah realm, and they were causing much chaos.
Salyra was a little bit suspicious of what was going on, though she had no reason to doubt Taiaha's intentions. He had helped her out of many scraps before, and she owed it to him to hear him out. Not everything that he had come up with was a waste of time, and so she kept her mouth shut while he guided her out of view of her friend and beloved companion. She only hoped that he wouldn't be the one to try coaxing out of her the information that she already knew.
She had been flying along on Wing one day earlier in the week, and she had been shot down. Something had sent her careening out of the sky. She hadn't really had a clue as to what it had been, until she had been chased by some rabid spirits. They had chased her for a long time, and they had possessed Wing, which was how he had come to obtain such horrible injuries.
That had been only a little while ago, and she was still recovering from the shock. She had managed to fend them off, but only after having hurt Wing even more. It had given her great pangs of hurt to injure her loyal companion, but it had had to be done.
She had protected herself.
Taiaha noticed Salyra's preoccupation and gently poked her in the arm to jerk her out of her trance.
It worked.
Salyra jumped a little bit from the shock, but she looked up to see Taiaha's concerned face. She was the only one to him that he could confide in. Mayare had never given him the time of day, and so he stayed away from her, and only talked to Salyra.
She smiled gratefully at him and they kept walking together. Strangely, they felt a bit of a strange connection, and Salyra had always felt that she could slightly trust her partner. They had always worked well together, but she couldn't really say the same for Mayare.
She didn't really like Taiaha, and had never worked with him very well. They always had clashing points of view, and Salyra always had to be the negotiator, a job that she was not very fond of at all.
"Salyra, what's wrong?" Taiaha asked. "Is something bothering you?"
Salyra's face took on an odd expression. "It's hard to explain. I just feel that there's going to be more trouble coming than we've bargained for. I don't know what to think now, Taiaha. We may need to work together. I know that you don't like working with Mayare much, but it has to be done. I mean, there's much more at stake than our friendships, there could be many lives lost now. Not just our world, but the other world as well. We can't afford to be selfish over petty differences, Taiaha."
"I understand what you mean. Maybe it's time that Mayare and I put aside our grudges. You were always the one that wanted us to work together, but we've never made it happen. I'll try just for you, okay?"
"Thanks." Salyra smiled gratefully, and they continued walking.
People are different. Some get along and some don't. Treat others how you want to be treated.
To be continued...
I'm tired... and I'm going to crash out on bed. So goodnight.
Review if you want to.
--Kari