AN: Hey hey hey, a new chapter. Here's where we're going to find out the actual purpose behind this story. I hope anyone who decides to read it likes it. And thank you very much to my wonderful reviewers. Love ya! CLAMP owns these characters—I'm just borrowing them for a little while ^^

Clouds

Tomoyo fell through the darkness for what felt like a long time. It was a wonderful feeling. She was free falling, yet for some reason, she had no fear of what might happen when she landed. She could see nothing when her eyes were open, so she kept them closed, and focused on the feeling of the wind dancing through her hair as she fell, the warmth that seemed to emanate from the darkness itself, and the overall feeling of safety she had that really had no basis.

At the moment, she felt like one endless paradox. She was being and nothingness, light and dark, heavy and weightless, everything and nothing, truth and lies, good and evil, past and future, joy and sorrow…the list went on and on as she plummeted through the seemingly neverending void towards her still unknown fate.

At the same time, she was a mass of questions, questions that had yet to have answers. What had happened? What was happening now? Where was she? Where was Sakura…Li…Eriol?

This just didn't make sense.

And some lonely, logical corner of her mind was sending up red alerts, reminding her that she was freefalling, and God only knew what could possibly be waiting for her at the bottom. Yet she was still unafraid, no matter what that annoying little voice of reason kept saying.

Suddenly she became aware that she had stopped falling. She opened her eyes. The darkness was gone. She was hovering, floating in midair amidst a bright light. She was vaguely aware of something that looked like flowers all around her, weaved through the light.

By moving her arms a little bit, she managed to move herself so that her feet were pointing towards what she somehow knew was the ground, though there was nothing but light. The minute she was upright, she was lowered down to the "ground" by whatever magic had been keeping her afloat.

"Welcome," a voice said behind her.

She whirled around, stifling a cry of surprise. For a moment, she squinted into the brightness, but within seconds her eyes adjusted, and her vision returned. She was able to see the speaker.

A beautiful woman was standing only a few feet away, regarding Tomoyo with a mixture of concern and amusement. The woman had dark hair, even longer than Tomoyo's, and bright eyes. But her eyes weren't normal eyes. There was no iris or pupil. In their place was the night sky, dotted all over with stars and constellations. The heavens were written in the woman's eyes.

Suddenly, Tomoyo was very afraid. This was not a normal person.

"Be not afraid, child," the woman said, obviously reading Tomoyo's anxiety. She said child, though she could tell that this adolescent was already more towards the 'woman' end of the spectrum, in mind if not necessarily in body.

"Who are you?" Tomoyo ventured a question, not at all mollified by the assurances of this stranger. She wanted to go home, back to the safety of the familiar, back to her friends, her family, her school—in short, she wanted to get out of here and go back to her life.

"My name is Maya," the woman bowed. When she straightened, she folded her arms casually; her hands disappeared into the wide sleeves of her gorgeous red kimono. "And you are Daidouji Tomoyo?"

Tomoyo felt like someone had just hit her across the head, she was so stunned. "H-hai," she said, feeling like a complete idiot. She was starting to sound like Sakura at her most confused or Li at his most lovestruck. It was not a pleasant thought. "Where am I? What happened? Where is everyone?"

Maya hesitated. The girl didn't know. She didn't know at all. Not a clue. This was going to be very difficult. Even though Tomoyo seemed like an incredibly calm, capable person at the moment, there was no telling what this news would do to her. Not many could take this kind of a shock calmly. It was never easy to tell anyone what she was about to tell this girl.

"I want to go home," Tomoyo said suddenly and very bluntly.

"Tomoyo, listen very carefully to me," Maya said slowly and with a very deceptive calm. "You can't go home. Not now and not ever."

"Why the hell not?" Tomoyo actually yelled in shock and anger. Just who did this Maya person think she was, anyway? How dare she say such nonsense! She almost instantly felt a little guilty for yelling at this being she had only just met, but still!

"Tomoyo!" Maya grabbed the teenager's shoulders firmly, forcing Daidouji to look straight into those starry eyes. "Listen to me. You can't go home. Remember how everything around you went silent, and then a lot of things hit you all at once? Remember the pain? Falling through darkness?"

"Hai…but how did you know?" Tomoyo nodded slowly, a little confused, and suddenly not sure if she wanted to hear where this little speech was going.

"Tomoyo…you died," Maya finally said bluntly. "You are no longer among the living."

For a long, silent moment, silence descended over them. Even the bright light around them seemed to dim a little with the shock of Maya's words.

"I…died?" Tomoyo repeated incredulously. She was suddenly aware that she was doing a credible imitation of a fish out of water, but this was just too hard to believe. How could she be dead? There was so much going on. She was supposed to go to the park with her friends today for a picnic and a walk, and she had a big project due at school in two days. And that choral competition next week—she had a big solo! She had to be there to sing it! She couldn't be dead! There was too much to do!

And she had been planning to have that little talk with Eriol soon…

She couldn't be dead.

Numbly, she listened to the explanation she was being given. Something about a car, two teenagers, a dare, coming around the corner…and she had been hit. She had been thrown over the car and landed on the pavement. And she had died there in the middle of the street, a street that was now bright red, splattered with blood—her blood.

Still, she didn't believe what these beings were telling her.

Suddenly, an image appeared before her eyes, forcing her to believe. It was like a terrible, terrible movie, playing itself out in midair, right before her eyes.

She saw the accident. She saw the car come barrelling around the corner at top speed just as she was darting across the street. She saw the car hit her, send her flying, and keep on going. And she saw her own death. She had quickly and quietly passed away while Sakura sobbed over her, hysterical, and Li ran to call an ambulance, though it was already too late. Eriol had stood behind Sakura, frozen, staring blankly at her lifeless body, lying broken on the pavement. It was as if for the first time ever, he was at a complete loss for what to do.

She closed her eyes desperately, trying to shut out the scene, a scene that was just too awful for words. But it persisted. She saw Li returning, Sakura telling him, Sakura hugging her best friend's limp body and sobbing into the long, dark hair. Then Li fell to his knees and put his arms around both Sakura and Tomoyo and, to Tomoyo's shock, also started to cry. And Eriol. He fell to his knees, still pale and staring. He reached out slowly with a trembling hand and touched her hair. He moved slowly, deliberately, and stiffly, like a robot.

Crowds were gathering on the sidewalk, watching, staring, pointing, and whispering over the scene. They were staring at her, like she was some attraction in a freak show. Something to be oohed and aahed over, but not really thought of as being important. Subhuman.

Soon the scream of sirens entered the vision. As the flashing blue and red lights fell over the three figures huddled over the lifeless body in the street, the image faded.

Tomoyo fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying desperately to warm herself up, to stave off an icy cold that seemed to be coming from deep within. She leaned forward until her forehead was touching the ground, not wanting to look at anyone or anything. She shivered desperately, not wanting to believe, but not having a choice but to believe.

A hand touched her back in a comforting gesture, and warmth flooded through her, fighting off the inner chill and thawing the ice that had formed around her gut. She lifted her head slowly and looked through tear-filled eyes at the woman—no, the being who had introduced herself as Maya. The angel, who was now kneeling beside Tomoyo, watching her with sad yet comforting eyes.

"I know it's not easy," Maya said softly in that voice that so reminded her of bells. "Especially for one as young as you, dearheart. It's never easy, but it's even more difficult in the young. I know. I was a young one as well, even younger than you."

Tomoyo's head snapped up. This beautiful, heavenly being had once been a living, breathing person? Someone who had lived on Earth, among normal people? She had died young?

"How did you—" Tomoyo started, but she stopped. Was this kind of question even remotely acceptable up here? It seemed to her that one did not go around asking how other people…died.

To her surprise, Maya laughed. "To put it delicately, I got sick. And I just never got better. At least, that's what they told me was happening. They told me I was very sick. I was only ten, after all."

Tomoyo nearly choked. "Ten?!?"

"Hai," Maya nodded. "Like I said, I was younger than you. It was so difficult, but it was long ago. It does not bother me to speak of it now. Ask me anything you like."

A million questions raced through Tomoyo's mind, and each one seemed to spawn at least a dozen more. She didn't even know where to begin. This was all just too overwhelming!

"I have an idea," Maya said, seeing the conflict on the girl's face. "Perhaps you would like to see those friends of yours? See what they are doing?"

Two wide, violet eyes stared at her in amazement, and the angel smiled. Something about that expression made Tomoyo seem very young, indeed, far younger than her sixteen years. She looked almost hopeful. "Can I…really?"

"There is a way," Maya nodded. "Come with me." She turned and walked into the light; Tomoyo scampered after her, determined to keep up.

It wasn't long before Maya stopped and turned back to Tomoyo. She pointed towards what looked like a sort of cliff or something similar. "There. For now, at least, you can watch them from there, though they won't know that you watch. There will be more you can do, but that will not come until later. I'll leave you to your friends now." She bowed and turned to leave.

As she turned, Tomoyo noticed something she had somehow failed to see before.

The two large, immaculately white wings spreading from Maya's back.

Shaking herself from her shock, she looked at the place where she had been told she could see her friends. It was a little bit up ahead. Slowly, she inched her way towards the spot. It was a cliff of some kind, or something like it, she thought, as she moved closer.

But when she actually leaned over, she was startled to realize that she was looking down off of a cloud. Fluffly and white, like the softest pillow. And she was standing on it.

She looked around. There were other clouds, and there were people residing on said other clouds as well. Some were looking down, others were simply sitting, while still others were engaged in conversation with their fellow beings. But they all had one thing in common—all had those large, silvery wings sprouting from their backs.

Tomoyo stared at those beings for a long time. They were so beautiful. All of them seemed to be glowing softly. Everyone single one of them looked happy and peaceful.

Then one of them rose from where he—or she, she couldn't quite tell—had been sitting and flapped those wings. A shower of gold rained from the feathers as the beings took flight. This being had light hair, and somehow reminded her of Yue.

Thinking of the Moon Guardian reminded her of why she was here, and she leaned back over the edge of the clouds. If she was as high up as the clouds, then how could she possibly see her friends? This didn't make any sense at all.

But to her surprise, she wasn't seeing the Earth from a bird's eye view.

She was seeing a hospital room, as clearly as if she was actually standing there. And there were people in the room as well. People she knew all too well.

Her heart shattered inside her.

"Okaasan…"

AN: And so we continue. I hope the idea behind this is becoming clearer. From here on out, we'll be skipping around from character to character, possibly POV to POV. Feel free to stick around—especially all you E+T fans, 'cause there's going to be some romance in it. It's a promise, so just wait…thanks for reading!