AN: first I would have to say is this: I made this fic because I have read too many stories out there that is all Sakura centered and that she is the most powerful sorcerer that ever was and that she has defeated the most powerful evil enemy thanks to her kindness of heart and EVERYBODY loves her and that she is the most beautiful girl ever and the most sweetest and innocent and blah blah blah blah. Yeah, you get my point.
Personally, I love Syaoran better. I'm not trying to put her down or anything, it just that there are too many fics out there that portray her as that. This is just a What If kind of deal.
And one more thing, I needed to have a break during the month of May because I had too many assignments to do. So, I'm sorry for the delay. And then there were exams.
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"Let the Trial begin!" Xiao Lang shouted. He started to float in the air.
Sakura stared in awe and then wondered what she was supposed to do. She turned around to look for the three coordinators of the Trial and saw them too, floating upwards in the air. Then she looked down and saw that she too, was in the air. She was about one foot above the ground really and she wasn't going higher like the rest of them were.
"Hoe..." she said. She swung her legs back and forth a little as if to propel herself higher.
"Key that hides the forces of darkness! Show your true identity! By the covenant, I, Eriol, command you! Release!!" Eriol yelled out his incantation to release his huge staff.
"Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" Tomoyo asked. Everyone involved in the Trial was about 30 feet in the air and floating higher, expect for Sakura.
"I don't know," Sakura answered back.
"Maybe you're suppose to float with them," Kero said.
"Float with them..."
'Fly with us...' a voice said in her mind. She looked up at Xiao Lang. He gave no indication that he had done anything.
"Fly?" she asked the air. Her eyes opened wide in realization. "Fly!" She hasty took out her magic key that she always wore.
"Key which holds the power of the stars, reveal thy true form before me by the contract, I, Sakura, command you... Release!" she shouted. The key of Sakura glowed and than grew bigger, inch by inch. Soon enough, it transformed into a pink staff with a small star on the end and with wings on the side.
Up in the air in the sidelines, Eriol sweat dropped. "Ano... the Staff of the Stars is still small..."
"Now that is embarrassing," Armen said from across Eriol. They were all spared out in the air. Eriol and Touya were further to the right of Xiao Lang, Armen further to the left, and Meilin further back. Touya shot Armen a glare, who in return, smirked.
Sakura took out the Fly and tossed it into the air. "Fly! Release and dispel!" (AN: I don't remember that exact translation of it. Maybe that's it.) A pair of white wings adored her back and then she started to fly towards Xiao Lang.
----- Tomoyo and the others -----
"Fly card? I though that she was going to use the Float Card because the others are just floating into the air," Tomoyo asked confused.
She watched how Sakura suddenly grew angelic wings on her back and started to fly swiftly and non-too fast in the air.
"Perhaps they want her to speed it up a little bit because she took a while to figure out what was going on and what to do next," Wakari offered, though he was just as confused as she was.
"Maybe it's part of the test?" Tomoyo asked.
"Having her float about a foot in the air is part of the test?" he demanded, but not in an angered way.
"They could have warned her about that. Or at least tell her what to do or what to expect," Kero practically sneered.
"Wasn't you who always taught Sakura-chan to expect the unexpected?" Tomoyo said amused.
Kero blushed. "Well... I... I just thought that they could have at least told her about this so she could be a little bit more prepared."
Tomoyo just chuckled a bit. Yue then said, "Even if she did know, it would not have helped Sakura-san very much." His eyes remained contently on Sakura.
True to his words, there was a suddenly scream coming out of Sakura's month just as Kero was about to reply. But the words died from his mouth as he and Yue unfolded their wings and started to fly towards their mistress.
----- Eriol and Touya -----
Expect the unexpected was right.
It was a concept that Kero had taught Sakura since the first time that they had meet. But Eriol had to wonder, if Sakura fully realized what it truly meant. To expect something that you never thought would happen. Sometimes it seemed like she did. But the other times... There were too many occurrences that Sakura did not expect an event to happen, but it did. Was she ready to really expect the unexpected?
Touya heard what Kero and Yue had said as well. And in his mind, time seemed to stop for only a moment. He knew that Eriol must be contemplating about what they had said. Was she ready? Did she deserve it? Was she good enough? Was she really meant to have it?
So many unanswered questions. So little answers. But the one question that stuck out for Touya was: Did she give enough?
Then, both men heard a young woman's scream in the air.
"Armen..."
And then they prepare to give the Healing Truth.
----- Armen -----
Moments before Kero complain about not telling Sakura about what is to be expected (which should be anything), Armen was sorting in his mind, if you could call it, on what to show Sakura. The First Truth. His own truth about her. He almost laughed.
Oh, there was just too many to pick from.
Should he just start with her infuriating, perky personality? Maybe he could start with annoying habit of always looking at the bright side. Or that she thinks that everything will turn out just fine and great. Or that she actually believes that every person and living creature has a good side, and if you just look hard enough, they'll turn out to be one just nice, loving person. The idea made is stomach turn and he gave a slight frown.
Stupid, naive little girl. She knew nothing about life or what you could really do with life. Or more to the point, what life could really do to you.
Innocent. Yes. Innocence. It was perfect. Her innocence was one of her biggest traits and probably the best thing about her. It drew people to her. It was also a big part in the main source of her power, the stars. Make her faultier in her principle of her innocence that she does not consciously know that is a big part of her, and she'd be a venerable target to break.
Not even the "Seraphim" would say that he broke It's rules. He didn't directly attack her, nor did he openly try to kill her. So he would do nothing wrong.
So he started to concentrate to tell her his truth. Through his mind to hers. And then, he felt her pain and heard her scream.
----- Sakura -----
It was so unexpected. So weird. And painful. Not the kind of pain that left you feeling numb and yet screaming out of your mind while seconds seemed like hours. It felt more like the kind of pain that was irritating and annoying. Like the kind of pain that you would get from a paper cut and it really stinks, even though it's such a little cut.
But this paper cut was from her brain. So you could probably imagine what kind of pain Sakura was in. it actually felt like there was a paper cut in her brain.
Then there was a voice. It sounded familiar, but it was obscured with the feeling of angry and hate towards, what it seemed liked, her. It forced her mouth to open wide and scream in pain for an ache that wasn't as painful as it really felt like. But even so, it hurt. But she could hear her own screams, and won't remember later that she was, for there was something else happing to her to occupy her thoughts for the moment.
'Innocence is a weak and pathetic thing. It is strong, yes, but not invincible. And easy to crush...'
Pain. Fury. Disappointment. Anger. Different types of emotion. Was this the Trial? It wasn't really about fighting someone who she still considered a friend, but to go through pain. Was this the Trial really about? Had she done something wrong? If she did, then she will fix it! Everything is fixable, and then they would all be friends in the end.
She had to believe that everything is going to be alright in the end. Because it's suppose to be alright in the end, ne? Everything was created for good, but then something went wrong along the way. But everything will be fine once this was all over. It always will be fine from then on. So all she had to do was hold on.
Then the pain stopped. Next thing she knew was that she was back on the ground with Touya and Eriol leaning over her. Her throat felt dry as if she'd been screaming or yelling for a while. But she couldn't remember if she had been screaming.
"Hoe? What happened? Onii-chan?"
"Something that we should have considered before has presented itself," Eriol answered instead of Touya.
"Are you alright?" Touya said next.
"Hai. I'm alright," she answered. "But what happened?"
"Armen used too much force when he was telling you the first Truth," Eriol solemnly said.
"Hoe?"
"Expect the unexpected..." Touya muttered angrily.
"Mistress, are you alright?" Yue asked. When Sakura looked up to see him, she was surprised to find him a couple of feet away. He wasn't next to her like Eriol and Touya were. Then she saw Kero next to him trying to get through what seemed like a barrier. Tomoyo and Wakari looked at her worriedly and had a helpless expression on their faces.
'That's because they are helpless,' Sakura thought. 'Helpless to help me. I can see it in their eyes. They're hurt.'
It hurt her. To see them hurt. She wanted them to not be hurt. To be happy and safe. She didn't want to see them hurt, especially for her. She wasn't the most important person in the world and didn't see herself to be the kindest. But she knew that they cared for her. And that made it all worth it.
"Hai. I'm fine Yue. It's just like a bump on the head really. Please, don't worry too much about me everyone," she said as energetic as she could. But she didn't know that Eriol has healed the "wound" in her head and made her body recover from the shock.
Kero stopped trying to get pass the barrier and nodded. He knew that if Sakura did not want them to worry about her openly like this, it just better to worry about her when she didn't have to worry about them worrying about her.
"What happened?" Sakura asked again.
"Armen used too much power," surprisingly, Meilin was the one who answered her.
"What do you mean too much power?!" Kero practically yelled.
"When telling the Truths, we use tell through our minds, not through simple words. Through feelings and expression, more then words," she explained.
'So that's what I was feeling before,' Sakura thought. 'The differences of emotion that contrasted each other were from Armen.'
She looked over to the Fallen who was still in the air, but a lot closer to the ground. His face was emotionless, and almost bored. Xiao Lang and Meilin were at the same level as him, with blank faces as well. No concerned, no worry. She swallowed hard.
"You could have told us before this whole thing had started!" Kero yelled.
"What ever happened to 'expect the unexpected'?" Armen said.
Kero growled and Yue's aura had a dangerous feel to it. Suppi-chan and Nakuru just stood by and waited instructions form Eriol, though they knew that he won't be commanding them to fight this night.
"Since the power of the using of Truth was too much for Sakura, we will no longer require that Sakura undergo the ceremony of the Ehwonessreta," Meilin said.
"Ehhwon- eh?" Wakari asked baffled.
"Truth of the mind to yours," Eriol translated.
"Ohh," Wakari breathed out, but was still confused.
"Anything else you would like to say that you haven't told us?" Kero spat out.
Eriol just looked at him. Sakura would never know what kind of look Eriol sent Kero and Yue. But what ever it was, it worked. Kero and Yue backed away a few steps and let their angry aura calm. They just stood and watched to what was to come next.
"But no more surprises. I'm starting to hate surprises," Kero grumbled.
"Well, this is just fine and dandy, but if you all are finished being all goody-goody, we have a trial to actually start," Armen said almost sweetly.
The others, save Sakura, glared.
----- Armen -----
'What a weak little girl,' Armen thought to himself. He never suspected that.
Oh, sure he knew that Sakura would feel pain. Not the kind of pain that would make you scream Bloody Mary or anything. Just one that would make a person feel irritated and annoyed. So, he gave her a 'little' push to make her scream for a bit. He also had to without a great amount of power when telling her one of his truths, but really. He didn't use that much power when he forced... I mean suggested for a scream from her lips.
Was really his fault that she was just too weak to handle what he had to say?
Was his fault that she couldn't live up to a title that she was chosen for?
Really, they had nothing to mad at him for. It wasn't like he meant to bring great harm to her on purpose, though the idea did cross his mind. But at least she wasn't dead or suffering eternal pain for the rest of her life.
See. She's walking on her own and calling the power of the Fly Card again. Oh look, she's even flying steadily as if nothing ever happened to her. So, why are the others so mad at him and are always glaring at him?
Sakura looked at Armen with a cautious glance.
Oh yes Sakura, be afraid. Be very afraid.
----- Touya and Eriol -----
"He needs to be watched," Eriol muttered as he and Touya risen to the air again.
"He needs to be shot," Touya replied back. "Many, many, many times. Or better yet, he needs to be stabbed and cut into little pieces so small, that even Kami wouldn't recognize him."
Eriol looked at him wryly. "Touya, now is no time to be so overprotective."
"Overprotective?! You so what he did! He could have killed her! And now you just want me act like it never happened?!" Touya was infuriated.
"Don't you think that I feel terrible about what happened as well? But I haven't forgotten why we are here as well. Acting so passionate as this will make us unqualified for what we were chosen for. And if we are not the Adherenceers, who will be? The Trial has to finish tonight. And I doubt that anyone would be free to replace us."
Touya looked away. "I can't just sit here and watch."
"But you must," Meilin said.
Touya wouldn't even look at her.
----- Sakura -----
"Hoe!" Sakura yelled out as Xiao Lang missed her when she suddenly veered to the left.
He quickly recovered and turned around to hit her again with a fist. Again and again, Sakura dodged left, then right, and then left again. His fists seemed to come over everywhere and Sakura didn't know how much more of ducking she can do.
It started out when she was heading towards Xiao Lang again and very cautious of Armen. She knew better now then to be so friendly with the fallen angel. Apparently he wasn't as nice as when she first met him. Then all of a sudden, Xiao Lang came at her from the front and she barely made it in time to duck.
He was fast. Too fast. She quickly shot down towards the ground in hopes of gaining more space between them so she could think for a moment. Soon she was flying 7 feet parallel to the ground and Xiao Lang still right behind her. She flew a bit higher to avoid a tree and then turned right so she wouldn't fly smack into another tree. Then she flew higher into the air.
Swoosh.
The sound of the air made while Xiao Lang made contact with the empty space where Sakura once was.
Sakura wasted no time and flew down to the nearest building and let the Fly go.
"Jump!" she screamed as her attacker's fist slammed into the building's roof, making a huge hole in it and many cracks.
Soon Sakura found herself jumping from building to building as Xiao Lang heatedly pursued her. She thank all the gods above that she loved running so much and that she was a very active girl from the time she could walk until this point. She also thanked the gods that she was a cheerleader because she doubted that she would've kept on going right now because cheerleading was a very demanding sport. All the constant stomps and body movements for hours and hours, and not to mention the yelling encouragement for the home team.
Xiao Lang seemed to be tired of chasing Sakura what it seemed like all around Tokyo, because he started to shot balls of light at her, which she quickly avoided. The energy blast hit a near by building instead, destroying it to pieces.
Sakura looked at the fallen building horrified in the air and landed on another building.
"Shield!" she yelled.
----- Tomoyo and the others -----
"He's too fast for her to handle," Wakari commented on grained teeth. They watched her dodged another punch in the air.
"She will make it," Tomoyo said reassuringly. "I believe in her."
"It's not that I don't believe in her, it just that he is way too fast," Wakari defended himself.
Xiao Lang was so fast that they sometimes had trouble keeping up with his moves. They were worried that Sakura did too.
"Why is she using the Shield on the buildings?" Tomoyo asked confused.
Indeed Sakura was using the Shield Card to protect the buildings from Xiao Lang's blast. They were all confused as to why. Why would she protect the buildings?
Kero looked at the scene closely, as did Yue. "She thinks people are still in the building," Kero said after a moment.
"What?" the others said in shock and surprised.
"The only reason why Sakura-san would shield all those buildings is because she thinks that people are inside it. She thinks that Xiao Lang is going to kill them," Yue explained.
"But he wouldn't do that... Would he?" Tomoyo asked in worry.
----- Sakura -----
'Must hold on. People must not die. Children will live and be happy. Can hold on. Lives will not end,' Sakura thought to herself as she fought to hold the Shield Card.
"Sakura, enough," she heard Xiao Lang's voice say.
That's when she noticed that he wasn't firing energy blasts at her anymore and was several feet away from her and staring at her.
"Hoe," she said almost weakly and let go of the Shield. She felt her knees wobble a bit but was still strong enough to stand on her own.
"You wasted your energy protect the buildings Sakura," she heard Armen say. She blushed embarrassed.
"Did you honestly think that our little angel boy here would actually kill innocent people?" Armen continued. "If you did, I'm surprised. You disappoint me."
Touya and Eriol glared at him.
"Sakura, take a good look around you. And don't just use your eyes, but your other senses as well," Xiao Lang practically ordered her. But she obeyed.
She closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated. She felt something. Something powerful surrounding the city. Then she looked up, and with her magical senses, she saw a great big, dark orange dome in the sky. Startled, she backed a step and stared. It was almost exactly like in her dream. Instead of a green light, it was orange.
"That orange glow makes it so that whatever we do here, like destroy land, would restore itself to it once was before. It even makes it so that humans and other mortals would not be really here during the Trial," Armen explained.
'What do you mean be ''we''?' She thought, but instead said, "Oh. So it doesn't matter if we (meaning her and Xiao Lang) destroy the city, it would go back to what it was before the Trial started?"
"Exactly."
"And there are no humans here but us?"
"Now you are catching on. You're not as stupid as you look."
There was a muffled cry from where Eriol and Touya were.
"I meant it in a good way."
"Sure you did!" Touya snapped as he got free form Eriol.
"So this is sort of like another dimension?" Sakura asked Armen. He had an unpleasant look on his face and Sakura wondered if she asked too many questions.
"You are correct in guess so Sakura," Meilin said. "This barrier that I have put up, makes it so that one could fight without any hold backs that other people would provide. I made it so only we would be here and they," she pointed to Kero, Yue, Tomoyo, Wakari, Nakuru, and Suppi, "would be here as witnesses."
"Hey! I said no more surprises!" Kero yelled having heard what they were saying. He then turned to the other two humans with him to explain why he just said that. They were too far away from where Sakura and the others were for Wakari and Tomoyo to hear.
"Then let us continue," Xiao Lang said.
Then the next thing Sakura knew was that she was flying upwards in the air after being kicked by the Chinese man.
"Windy," she said in a whisper. Windy came out and stopped her flying ascend. Then Windy went to Xiao Lang, trying in fertile to chain him.
"Sakura, you have used that move one too many times," he said as he effortlessly broke through Windy's grasps. "It's time that you use something new."
'I don't really want to fight him...,' she thought. 'But I know now that I must. Just like I fought with Eriol and Yue. I must fight. Who knows what will happen if I lose this Trial because I didn't fight.' Determination came upon her eyes.
"Arrow!"
----- Meilin -----
"So, she finally has grown," Meilin mused to herself.
She watched as Sakura shot an arrow at her cousin, which became several arrows. Of course that wouldn't really work on him, but at least it was better than just dodging them throughout the whole Trial. If Sakura continued to dodge all of Xiao Lang's attacks, then she would be force to be in favor of Sakura.
"And she really has grown in the past years too." She sighed.
She still didn't know if she would vote in favor of her friend or not. Yes she still considered Sakura her friend. Hopefully Sakura still considered Meilin her friend too. But even though Sakura was still thought of as a friend, Meilin could not find it in her heart to fully forgive her. Her whole life as a human, gone. Her family's life and legacy, gone. All because some girl decided that she wanted to be normal. That was selfish.
But she couldn't stay mad at Sakura for long. Though that didn't mean that she forgave her either. Or that she ever will.
Because in a way, Sakura killed them all in that moment. The moment that the Li family had fallen. Well, the direct descendants of Clow Reed anyway.
----- Sakura -----
"Water!" Sakura yelled. Arrow was not the best choice of weapon or magic to use on Xiao Lang. Not only could he dart his away around several arrows at a time, but he could pluck them from the air as if they were nothing.
She would just have to use another way of long range attacks. Water seemed like a good choice. Until Xiao Lang called upon the element of fire that evaporated Water and turned her back into a card.
So she tried Wood and then Earth. Nither got to him. Did nothing harm this guy?!
Damn. Things were turning out just like the day when she was trying to capture the Fire.
Then the idea struck her.
"Water, Windy, Release!" she would use a combine attack like she did for the first time when she capture Fire.
She watched as Water and Windy twined together, heading towards Xiao Lang. And he just called out his sword to tear them apart.
"I was there when you capture Fire," he said to her with a hint of boredom in his voice.
"Oh yeah," now she felt embarrassed.
"Sword!" her staff turned into a sword and then she ran to where Xiao Lang was waiting for her with his own sword.
Out of all the Sakura Cards, Sword was probably the only card that she used more than three times during the years that she lived a normal life. She liked the way Sword could cut apart stone and slice through air like butter. It was so sharp but had the appearance of a dull sword. Even though Sakura was not a fighter, she could proudly say that she knew how to use a sword without the Sword Card. It made her Sword Card more advance then the rest.
The two slashed and parried each other expertly. Neither one having the advantage over the other. Neither one coming close to knocking the sword for their opponent.
Sakura smiled proudly. At least she was fighting Xiao Lang head on without him breaking apart her spell or ducking it like it was nothing. But then again, who knew if he was holding back. He's been practicing the art of sword fight since he could walk.
To prove that point, Xiao Lang's strokes became harder and faster.
Sakura was knocked down by one of his thrusts and before he could swing another one at her while she was on the ground, she call, "Shield," again.
Shield stopped his first swing and then the next one. It didn't stop the third one thought.
"Shield would become opaque if you combine Lock with it," Xiao Lang informed her.
"I never thought of that," she said. "Fight! Power! Dash! Release!"
The idea of combining cards to make another card stronger gave her the idea that she could combine cards to make herself stronger too. She could use Fight to battle Xiao Lang with expert kicks and punches like he did so in the beginning of the Trial, use Power to add a great deal of power to her punches and kicks, and Dash for quicker movements.
The idea worked too. Both of them kicked and blocked. Both of them punched and dodged. Both of them moving at quick speeds to gain the advantage. A punch to the stomach by Xiao Lang, which Sakura quickly recovered from and a kick to the head in retaliation.
They even fought on top of buildings and their debris. Sakura needing to use Jump again and Xiao Lang.... using his own skills.
Punch. Punch. Punch. Kick.
Kick. Kick. Punch. Kick.
Punch. Kick. Block. Kick.
Their pattern went. It seemed, to the on lookers, that this would last a while. The swords fight last what seemed like over an hour. This seemed like it would last for the rest of the night.
Armen's eyes never leaving Sakura. Almost willing her to be hit hard in the head or stomach. He never added any power to his will, that would be against the rules. And he would be the one disqualified for it. But that couldn't mean that he couldn't hope for it.
Eriol and Touya watched with anxious eyes and the other humans and guardians with worried ones. Meilin had a blank look on her face, but had eyes that never left the fight.
A quicker kick to the legs and a swift punch, made Sakura fall to the ground hard.
"Enough. You have nothing left to give," he said as Sakura was about to get up.
She looked at him in confusion. She could go on for a while longer. And while she attempted to get back up, she quickly fell back down. She never noticed until then how much magic she used and how tired she was. She was exhausted.
"The fighting part of this Trial is over. We will begin to discuss whether or not you have pass or not," and with that, he levitated her towards her friends.
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AN II: I will try to get the next chapter out by next week.