I do not own CCS

Chapter  2: Secret

Sakura had been walking for at least 10 minutes trying to figure out what had happened to her earlier. She clearly remembered securing the cards with Li in the narrowest corner of her gigantic basement and whispering the chant to keep them silent and magic less. But, if she had remembered that that entire well, why had she awoken with that thick brown book perched on her chest? It wasn't logical...The cards no longer held power...But they still did something that last night. They had to of...
"Sakura!!!"
And then that dream. Li was there, she remembered. He had told her not to worry and to trust him...Why?
"Sakura!!! "
And why had the dream blacked out? As far back as she could remember, she had never contained a dream that ended in a black hole. Never...
A thin hand slid onto Sakura's shoulder and Sakura yelped in surprise. Turning, she recognized the thick black ponytails of Meilin and the keen eyes of Li. They were more awake today it seemed. Li and Sakura had seen each other so much that Sakura noticed these things now. He was staring at her in a nervous sort of way as if she were about to pounce at him and start firing questions like a machine gun. Now is not the time to tell him about my dream...Sakura smiled instead.
"Hi."
Meilin raised an eyebrow and her eyes flickered. "Hi? That's all you have to say? I've been calling you the last 10 minutes and 'hi' is the only thing you have to say?"
Sakura shrugged allowing her chest length hair to bounce along her shoulders. "Um...How are you?"
Meilin sighed. "I believe the question is how are you?"
Li nodded. "Usually you're more alert. Don't tell me you think it's over?"
Sakura looked at him with interrogative eyes and that look of fear returned to his face.
"Oh no...I'm fine. I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night... With Madison leaving for Cordella High and sealing the cards...you know."
Li nodded and Sakura noticed him sigh in relief.
"Li, what's wrong?" Her voice hit him like an oversized churchbell and he muttered in an almost un understandable voice. "Nothing."
Sakura grinned to herself; She had him. He was nervous about something. She giggled to herself. Maybe he was going to ask her to the 8th grade 'Forever' dance...She personally wanted him to, but on another hand, didn't. They knew each other really well but on a 'friendship' term. That rules the dance out then... Sakura sighed.
But he's still hiding something!!
"Li, what's wrong? Can you tell me?"
When Li turned to Sakura she knew she had asked the wrong question.
" You know why Sakura so don't badger me."
"Excuse me?" She peered at him. "Apparently I don't."
Li examined her for a moment and turned his head away.
"Li!?" Sakura was growing impatient.
Li ignored her and kept walking as if she wasn't there.
Sakura turned to Meilin and stopped her while Li continued on.
"Meilin....What's wrong with him today?"
Meilin looked up to Sakura innocently and shrugged. "He doesn't know something and it's ticking him off. It's best if for now you leave him alone."
Meilin pranced off after him and Sakura frowned. This day was going to be rough.
**********
It wasn't very long into math that Sakura began to think about her problems with Li. For instance why he was ignoring her... and what he was hiding.
Her thoughts began to sink slowly away into a relaxing calm...She was too tired to think.
No she wasn't...Why did she feel that way?
Everything was growing dark around her. Her teachers long thin pointing stick was fading out of her sight. She could hear her name on the tip of a breeze slowly beating on her back.
"I must be...falling asleep..."
She said to herself and felt the world around her darken.
***
"Sakura...................Angel of cards."
Sakura felt her stomach flinch as her eyes opened to a bright light. A boy stood there....A boy her age...
His body was obscured in light, so much that she could only make out his eyes. Blue...A light blue surrounded by the darkest shade of blue that she could ever imagine...It wasn't even a color. He was reaching for her with a long arm. Why could she feel him grin with lips she could not see?
"Sakura, angel divine. You have proven yourself yet again...Take my hand...I will take you from this place."
Sakura felt something urging her to take his hand.
"No! I don't even know who you are! What's going on?"
She felt her muscles weakening and another blackness sweeping over her.
The human before her began to disappear. "Damn you." He muttered, as if to an invisible person beyond her.
*****
"Sakura!!"
Her eyes slowly breached open and she saw Li staring at her angrily. The school nurse, Mrs. Nukoto, was also staring at her, but in a more serene way. Both showed looks of concern and wonder.
"Sakura," Mrs. Nukoto began, "You passed out in math class...What were you dreaming?"
Sakura sat up and frowned. "Why?"
Mrs. Nukoto smiled "You said something before you fell asleep that well, it's why you're here."
Sakura grinned. "I said 'I'm falling asleep' or something like that."
Li turned away from her with a look of pain and regret.
"I'm afraid not Ms. Kinomoto..."
Sakura looked up.
"What do you mean?"
"You said, and I quote from your teacher, "You're all going to die."
Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. "You guys are joking right?"
Neither of them smiled in return to her.
Li snorted instead. "I told you it's not over."

************************************
Sakura flopped onto her blossom colored bed and tilted her head towards the ceiling. Had she really said that? Ever since Tori had picked her up from school, she had noticed the questionable looks on her friend's faces. More importantly, on Li's. He said, "I told you it's not over." Did he know something he wasn't telling her?
Sakura moaned in desperation and sat up, her mind protesting to the movement. She peered at her desk, stood on her feet, and slowly walked to it's oak edges. Even though the drawer was tightly closed, she could sense it's hardback cover and powerful cards pulling at her--as if they knew something too. She pulled up her smooth white hands to the drawer handle and opened it with little force. The red and gold book floated from it's rested position into her arms where she allowed it to sit there, unopened and almost untouched. She was afraid...truly.
But the book, trained under the circumstances of trust, flipped open and the cards spun gracefully about Sakura's creamy face and gentle strands of hair. Sakura stepped backwards but they followed her in protest. "Hey...guys..." She tried to smile but they sensed her hesitation and slowly fell to the floor. All except for one. One card lingered in the air, it's flashy edges fresh from sleep and clarity. The Mirror Card. Sakura looked at it in a peculiar way and gently lifted her hand to its sharp corner.
"Mirror?" She peered onto its surface as the Mirror card transformed into a glorious mirror with two petite handles designed thoroughly with gold tassels. The mirror positioned itself directly across from her face making it obvious for her to glance inside. Except the reflection the mirror showed was a reflection unknown by her...yet so familiar. The gorgeous blue eyes...the phantomlike smile...the perfectly pointed face...
Sakura gasped as she recognized the portrait-the boy in her dream. He was smiling with dreamy eyes; alluring eyes.
Sakura backed away and the figure spoke.
"Sakura...please don't be afraid...I need to tell you something..."
Sakura was intoxicated by his voice...so smooth...it ran like water through her ears.
Noticing her halt, the figure spoke again. " Sakura, Angel of the Sakura Cards, I want you..."
Sakura blinked."W..Want me?"
The blonde haired blue streaked boy grinned gently in a sadistic way.
"You belong here with us."
"Us?"
The cards around her slowly flew into the air around her and began to jiggle with energy.
The figure laughed. "So sweet...You're the one we need."
Sakura stood up and ran to her bedroom door, swung it open and raced down and out into the rain.
"I've got to go to Li's....I don't know what to do. I know I didn't imagine that... or did I?"
Without attempting to look backwards Sakura took off towards Li's apartment.
***********

Li took his bowl of Ramen and sat on his vanilla colored couch.
" I can't believe it... She said that." He shook his head and sighed.
"Well, another opponent is coming...I hope it's one I can fight."
He lifted a spoonful of the hot creamy noodles to his lips and ate quietly.
By the time his bowl was about complete he heard a call from his door. He felt Sakura's aura from his spot and he silently crept over and unlatched the door. He poked it open an inch and said adhesively, "Sakura, what are you doing here?"
But when he saw the expression on her face and the way rainwater ran over her body, he allowed her to come in. She was soaked in water and shivering from the afternoon breeze.
"Li, I'm afraid...The cards they.... and the boy..."
"Boy?" Li's voice was stern.
" He...he says I belong there with them...Who's them? Who's he? Why did the cards reject me? Li you know why...Tell me!"
Li stepped over to his closet and yanked out a blanket and one of his extra large T-shirts.
"Sakura, go get changed so you don't get sick."
Sakura stood forward towards him. "Tell me."
"Sakura go get dressed."
"Li..."
Li rose his hands into crises cross pattern across his chest. Sakura was sad and angry but went to his bathroom. She wasn't going to win this argument.
As the door slid shut behind her, Li cursed to himself and turned to sit on his couch. Could it be? Could they really be back? It seemed like he knew what was going to happen...but that was impossible. He couldn't predict things and it would be t ironic if they arrived here and now...Sakura was only fourteen...Or was she fifteen?
Li shook his head. She still has those innocent eyes and that perfect smile... She can't be that old yet...
"She can't be old enough for Yoni-san yet..."
Li took his dinner bowl to the kitchen and stuck it into the dishwasher. She was hiding something from me earlier though to... With that final thought Li sat back down on the couch.
When Sakura came out she wrapped herself inside the light brown blanket he had given her and at on his couch next to him. "Tell me." She repeated from earlier.
Li sighed. "I think is that all of the energy the cards took from you is making you mad and crazy...I thought that as the Card master you would have a little more control." Li sarcastically remarked. He didn't want to give any thing away...if it was Yoni-san....
"Li...I'm afraid to go back to them...." Li spotted the fear in her voice. She wasn't lying... "What was it about a boy?"
Sakura blinked and frowned. "He said I was sweet and belonged with them..."
Li shook his head and walked to his kitchen. Opening a cupboard and grabbing a small jar of pills, he stated, " Sakura, earlier today Madison said you were to sweet for your own good... then, after that, Doreen came up to you and said you should have been with them in the soccer team. You're hallucinating." Maybe the cards had taken too much energy from her.
Sakura felt restlessly assured. "In any case, why don't you stay here for tonight. Here, this will help you sleep, you need to calm down."
He extended the palm of his hand containing a small round pill. His other hand had a glass of water.
Sakura trusted Li..He was a lot smarter than her in many ways...Why shouldn't she?
"Fine...Are you sure?"
Li shook his head. Sakura needed to calm down before he decided to interrogate her.
"Where should I sleep?" Sakura glanced around the room, snapping out of his thoughts.
"My bed or the couch...you choose."
"Couch..." Sakura sipped some water and swallowed the pill and moments after fell into a deep sleep.
*********

Li settled into bed. He had to get some sleep. Besides, he wasn't going to get anywhere anyway. It had been at least an hour since Sakura had fell asleep and he was growing tired himself.
He heard something rattle in the living room but thought nothing of it...He was tired...
*********
Sakura mumbled on the couch as she slept. A gust of wind blew through the window and rattled the blinds. She woke up in time to feel herself being lifted up...She smiled. It was like being on feathers...

*********

Li stood up ready to silence the jingling coming from the living room. He opened his bedroom door and silently walked down the hall. He felt a deep cold coming from Sakura's spot on the couch and when he looked he stood in shock.
Sakura's curved body was flexed in the air, the wind card curling around her elicit body, sending strands of auburn hair twisting about her face and head. The sight was majestic and amazing, but then Sakura's face turned toward his. Her eyes were wide open and big with surprise. As if she were in a trance, they were thick and solid, almost unseeing. She looked like a puppet in a scary movie, a perfect porcelain doll with a glossy appearance. Her mouth moved in an uneven pattern singing gently in synchronization with the wind that seemed to breath soundlessly around her.
" I see forests with pastures of lilacs and lace,
Spun with the glitter of the essence of space,
I cry with the willows as my life is denied,
I promise to protect the sunless land,
Because
I cry,
And cry,
For the song I can't deny,
When my heart's final beat,
Is even with defeat,
My one last breath is with you."

Li stepped back as she held her hand out to an invisible person above her. He frowned angrily and stepped forward.
"Halt!"
With that, the song ended and Sakura fell like an angel in to a blond haired boy's arms. He appeared automatically at Li's command and stood protectively over the auburn haired girl.
"So you remember." he stated.
"Give her back, now." Li grit his teeth.
The figure laughed. " She's mine now!"
Li stepped forward and drew his fists up.
Sakura, still dazed, opened her lips for seven last words before she fell unconscious.
" My one last breath...is with...you."

            With that the sun shattered through the window and everything went black. The blue-eyed boy grinned and said, "I'm sorry Li. I guess you lose either way." With that, Sakura's voice ran in his head. " Li...I trust you. "Madison broke through the door along with Meilin as the world seemed to cease and as everything went black a voice ran through the unlighted sky like a soft sound in an empty meadow, "Why have you returned?" Li yelled.

The figure said, "I've return to destroy your life Li Showran! You've destroy mine now you'll pay!" The figure laughed an evil laughed.   Li knew the only way he could get her back is to go to the shadow world and the only way to get there is using the shadow card to take over him. " What happened to Sakura, Li?" Madison and Meilin asked unison. He pointed to the shadowy figure, somehow the figure disappeared. Li told Madison to call Kero and tell him what happened. Li and Sakura had some kind of magical powers of light and dark. Each had some of both but Li had more of dark then light in him and Sakura has more light then dark in her. So Li used his dark powers to summon the shadow world. While Li stepped into the shadow portal, he turned around and said, " If I don't return in 5 hours call Kero and try to figure out how to get Sakura back with Kero. Ok?" Madison and Meilin said in unison, "Ok!"