The Dreams We Left Behind

by Melissa Ordesky

COMPLETE. Syaoran wasn’t brave enough to tell Sakura his feelings before he left for H.K. and is held captive by his family. Sakura is forced through a deadly test. Can Syaoran get to her in time?

4. A Major Discovery

~.~The Dreams We Left Behind ~.~

A Card Captor Sakura fic by Melissa Ordesky

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Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura does not belong to me. Duh. PG-13 for bad words, mostly on Syaoran's part. Based on the anime. Warning: Includes genuine-ish maths lesson. ^^;;

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Last chapter: Four years after Syaoran is forced to leave Japan, a new transfer student - "Li Syaoran" - joins Sakura and Tomoyo's class... but Sakura senses that it isn't the real Syaoran, and is only a clone... Meanwhile, Mei Ling is training Syaoran in secret. At the end of the chapter, the Test begins, but Sakura is left with eight of the cards who have been affected by her the most...

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Chapter Four - A Major Discovery

"I'll get them back," I swore again, my words flinging stiffly out into the harshness of the night air, reverberating around the park. "I promise." I clenched my left fist, and rested my right hand on the cards. "I promise."

-----

Syaoran

I know it's wrong to hate your family, but gods I can't help it this time. I've been trained all my life to respect my elders, most especially the clan leader, but I seem to have an aptitude for breaking the most obvious rules. Last time it was don't fall in love with the girl stealing our heritage, and this time it's don't hate your Uncle Tae, he was only following clan lore to send you away from Japan in disgrace, it's also not his fault he resembles a potbellied pig who has digested way too many disgusting Western dairy products and brings out the absolute worse in you...

Both rules are kind of unspoken, but I've broken number one in the worst possible way, and the second... Well, if it was spoken, at least in the particular way I would want to phrase it, it would be classed as instantly broken.

"The Maze card. I'm particularly interested in the Maze card."

His voice reminds me of someone too... Genghis Khan, perhaps? I keep my eyes level on the floor and resist the urge to snort out loud, grateful it is only my mother who knows for the majority of the time what I'm thinking.

"It returns to its original form, a swirling mist, when the person trapped in it finds the exit. You cannot use any other card to help solve the maze. Sometimes it is a 2 dimensional maze, often a 3 dimensional, and - when feeling particularly threatened - a 4 dimensional hideously constructed maze, proving the current Mathematical theory that there is a fourth spatial dimension." I try to keep my voice level, professional, to try and show that at least my training and dedication to learning was not at fault. I still do not see why I have to do this, but mother commanded me, and I have to do as she says. I am assuming it is for the records, or to perhaps further emphasise my myriad failures.

Genghis Khan snorted at me. Pig, I thought, miserable.

"How did Kinomoto secure the card?" His voice his brisk. He should know this, I wrote and told mother as soon as it happened.

"A woman named Kaho used a relic called the moon bell, imbued with power from Clow Reed himself. She rang the bell, and the walls were destroyed, but the power of the bell was lost in the Final Judgement. Kaho-san received the card, as it was her power that enabled us to reach the entrance, but she gave it to Sa-Kinomoto." I kept my gaze level, hoping he didn't notice my almost-slip at mentioning Sakura's name.

"Why did she give it to Kinomoto?"

And not me? I silently added to the end of the question. "Kaho is a close friend of Hiirigizawa Eriol, the half reincarnation of Clow Reed. I assume he instructed her to aid the girl his guardian beasts had chosen as the new master."

"Or because she had more cards than you at the time," he commented gruffly. I could imagine his expression, eyebrows slanted upwards, thin lips pressed together, His face sagging and puffing with barely suppressed anger towards me.

"Perhaps," I replied quietly.

"The Dash card." I could hear papers rustling. "These notes say you caught it."

I nodded. "I did. Only because a girl, Jessie, found the Dash card and it was helping her win races... Kinomoto was soft, and waited, and I managed to capture Dash while in a slightly weakened form."

"But she still ended up with it?"

I tried to be still, but my hands trembled in my lap. "I gave the cards I had captured to her, because split up the cards are useless. The only chance I had of gaining all the cards was if she had a chance at the final judgement and failed. Then the cards would be up again for the taking. But Kinomoto was the one who opened the seal. She was chosen by Keroberus and Yue, and I had to respect the decision of those stronger than me."

Okay, some small lies may have scrambled in there, but it was enough for Mr. Reincarnation of Genghis Khan himself, a.k.a. Uncle Tae. I gave the cards to Sakura because she was the one, I knew it in my heart. She had more power than any of my clan could ever hope of amassing, even if we- if they - all joined together. Those moments when I remember I'll never have magic again are tough.

I raised my gaze off the floor to see Tae scribbling down notes furiously, and my heart thumped a little irregularly. What if... this wasn't to record my failure? When he came to exile me from Japan, he was ordered and precise, but this recording was being done with passion...

A thousand fragments of overheard conversations and my own instincts slammed together into a complete jigsaw. The test... The test that I had warned Sakura about would be going on now... Someone from the clan must be over there, to try and capture the cards. I felt my hands turning into fists on their own, and I forced myself to relax. Everything was starting to make complete sense. Mother's increased tiredness must be because she is siphoning some of her own power to whomever is attempting to capture the cards. Tae was questioning me to find out how to capture the cards.

"Now. The arrow card."

My insides froze. I gulped unsteadily, and my skin felt hot and prickly. Forcing myself to cough roughly, I assumed what I hoped was a dismal expression of discomfort. "Could I have some water, please? My throat is starting to close up."

Tae eagerly swept to his feet, and it seemed to confirm my suspicions. "Of course." He strode to the door, in a flurry of crimson fabric, and tried to calm myself down. He would only be so swift if he needed me to talk. I resolved quickly to lie as much as I could without arising suspicion as he called for Wei to bring cold water.

"While we're waiting... The arrow card?"

"Kinomoto used the Fly to avoid the arrows, the Thunder to knock it backwards, and captured it," I said, as composedly as I could manage, not wanting to admit that I had repelled it with an elemental attack. He nodded. I emptied my mind, and thought of Sakura, willing her to hear to my thoughts. I hope you're okay, Sakura. You'll win the test, I know it. I just know it. You'll win, because...

I looked across at the stern figure jotting down notes and looking at me with dark, beady eyes.

Because you're Sakura.

-----

Mei Ling

"So you think he's quizzing you to help this person whomever he or she is to capture the cards?" I stopped attacking Syaoran momentarily, which I found out was a bad idea when he didn't stop defending and managed to use his elbow to smack me into the pile of coats again.

"I do."

His voice was quiet, subdued, and his eyes were like the moment before a storm strikes beneath his tousled shock of chestnut hair. I bowed slightly at him to indicate I was momentarily leaving the training, and felt his serious eyes on me as I padded over to the edge of the room.

"I've been trying to... change it a little." His voice sounded troubled, and I watched his face as I reached for the satchel I'd hidden down here last week. His eyebrows were close together. He was obviously finding it hard to lie. Syaoran has never been that good at lying, however well he manages to hide his emotions to everyone. Well, of course, everyone but me. I felt the object I'd been searching for, cold and smooth beneath my fingers, and lifted it out. I'd been meaning to test this theory I'd had brewing in my mind for the last four years, but I had only managed - with Wei's help - to smuggle it into the house a month ago, and it has taken a month to get it down here and set up a few charms to muffle the magical aura it gives off. If I get found with it, it would mean expulsion from the family. But there's something I have to test, and if it comes out how I suspect, then... The risk is worth it.

"Li Syaoran. Lying to his elders." I whistled. "I'm impressed. Stand back a little. I got a new training toy today."

His eyes brightened hopefully, and I didn't tell him I'd had to save all my pocket money for the last four years to even afford it. "What does it do?" I felt a smirk cross my face.

"Wait and see, little wolf."

"I thought I asked you not to call me that," he said, his gaze lingering doubtfully on the perfect sphere I had clasped in my hands. I stared flatly at him for a long minute, unnerving him. He'd shifted into a defensive position instantly, which was just one of the small things that had accumulated over the years to convince me that I'm going to get a positive response from this test. Instincts. Against magical objects. He still had them by the bucket-load. And even if this test proves negative, which I very much doubt, they'll be a great help in the tasks that are to follow.

"Asked? More like, slammed me against a wall, waved your sword in my face and said that if I ever called you that again you'd truss me up, stick an apple in my mouth and give me to Wei to cook for dinner."

I stared as he did the last thing I'd ever expected from him. He started to laugh, choking it back with the palm of one hand. I guess staring was a bad idea, because he stopped, wide-eyed, and looked at me nervously. Like he'd been caught doing something wrong.

It's never really hit me this much before. What our clan has been doing to him, I mean. Grounded permanently, interrogated so much, treated so stringently, kept apart from the one person that ever made him really happy, restricted and condemned at every turn... so much that he thinks being happy is wrong.

I felt my blood boil, and angrily I extended my right hand forward. The sphere glinted perilously in my right hand. Please let me be right. If I'm right, we're going to smack down some dumb asses that did this to him... Gritting my teeth, I said the incantation. "Wind-flower, I summon thee. Bring thy wrath to the one with the most strength, let the rainbow reveal the truth. I charge this, so mote it be."

The sphere glowed brilliantly, shooting orange rays through my fingers. Searing heat clouded my vision, and I felt my knees crumble beneath me. I faintly heard Syaoran blurt my name, but the lancing pain of the sphere caused me to drop it. Shielding my eyes, I fell backwards and managed to glance upwards in time to see the sphere careen at Syaoran, blazing a fierce blue colour.

"Yes!" I exclaimed loudly, punching the air with my left hand clenched into a fist. Syaoran's eyes widened and he neatly executed a shoulder roll to the right, lashing out with one of his legs as he landed. The sphere smacked away from his foot, but before it hit the wall it curved and headed straight back to Syaoran.

"Mei Ling, what the hell-!" Syaoran spun, dodged and twisted out of the way, dropping into his favourite defensive stance again. I cursed inwardly. Attack it, you damn stubborn git, I thought furiously, the triumph of the answer running through my veins.

He somersaulted through the air to avoid another lurching advance from the sphere, now flooding the room with a purple light, and finally dodged into an attacking stance. Letting out a short yell, a war cry!, he charged at it, smacking it with his hands, feet, elbow, hands again, feet... His limbs were a blur as the sphere met each attack. The sphere changed colour alternately, skimming through the colours of the rainbow, with a rhythm that matched the repetitive cry of yes! I was right! in my heart. Finally Syaoran pitched his whole weight into one last horizontal sweep, and the sphere slammed into the wall, shattering into a thousand pieces.

Syaoran instantly turned to me, his eyes blazing in a fury. "Mei Ling! What in the-"

"It was a test." I tried to smile wanly at him, but he wasn't having any of it. His face changed like clouds moving across a stormy sky.

"Tests don't normally attack people," he fumed, glancing across at the now-clear shards of the sphere. I was quickly grateful for the sound-suppressing charms we'd been smuggling into the room since we'd started. He put his head to one side thoughtfully. "So, did I pass?"

"Huh?" Confused, I scrambled to my feet. "What?"

"You said it was a test," Syaoran said briskly. "Did I pass it?"

A long smile crept onto my face. "With flying colours," I quipped. Syaoran groaned. I swept out of there before he could answer any more questions. I knew he'd want answers, but I... I had some planning to do before I could answer them.

-----

Tomoyo

"This is not good! This is not good!"

"Calm down," I said, as reasonably as I could, given the situation. "You can't even tell it's you from the photograph."

Sakura turned to me, eyes widened with horror and disbelief. She shook the newspaper in my face. "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS AT ALL?" Breathing heavily, she collapsed on my bed in an inelegant heap, limbs in a pile as she tried to calm herself down. Eventually she looked up apologetically at me. "You're right. You can't tell who it is." Staring forlornly at the article, Sakura scratched her head. "It's just a little weird, you know? I mean, before... There were only small rumours of children running around at night creating trouble. Eriol stopped people being around when I was changing the cards into Sakura cards, and now..." Her hands shook, rustling the paper. "It's gonna be hard. Trying to recapture the cards when people will know what's happening."

I moved over to her side, sitting on the bed and patting her shoulder. I took the paper out of her hands, and she collapsed onto me, hiding her face on my shoulder as she cried. I patted her arm awkwardly, scanning over the article again. "At least some have figured out you're the 'good' guy," I soothed as Sakura lifted her head, her face red with anguish. I haven't seen her cry since the day Syaoran left, and thank god this isn't as bad as that time! "Really." I quickly glanced at the picture. Sakura, standing with the Star staff, her face and hair covered by the hood and mask of the costume I made her, battling the Watery card. Clone!Li stood off to the side, eyes blazing, and thankfully his face was covered too.

I coughed, and noticed my TV blaring the same picture, muted in the corner. I fumbled for the remote and put the volume out. The reporter's edged voice filled my large room .

"There are many things in this world we've never been able to explain, but right here in the Tomoeda district, proof of actual magic has been finally revealed. Last night, these two teenagers were spotted and photographed by local Junior high teacher, Terada Sanomi."

I felt Sakura still, and I turned to look at her gently. Panic was frozen on her delicate, elfin features. I trembled inside for her, and turned back to the TV.

"The sorceress in pink was using a staff with a star on the end to control the wind," Terada-sensei was saying. "She was trying to protect the wildlife. The boy was attacking her with his sword. It was awful. She was clearly trying to capture the evil spirits, while the boy was trying to stop her from doing so!"

The reporter fizzled back onscreen. "The mysterious masked sorceress in pink is assumed to be the Card Mistress of Chinese and Japanese legend. Fifty-two cards were thought to have been created, to help protect the world from an ancient evil. I turn to Tsukishiro Yukito, a local history student, who is currently researching ancient Asian myths, for more information."

Yukito filled the screen, confident and friendly. "The Card Master, or Mistress, is the one fated to wield the power of the 52 cards in defence of our whole world. Clow Reed was a powerful magician from Hong Kong a thousand years ago, where magic was generally more accepted. It doesn't make it fake, though. It's very real. Records from thousands of years ago up to the current day support this."

"His professor, Hikomi Hake from Tomoeda University, agrees."

A man with a mustachio shaped like a crescent moon popped up onscreen, sat next to Yukito, and I faintly recognised him. "Magic is throughout history. Scientists have always tried to pretend it doesn't, because they can't explain it, and the reason they can't explain it is because it is tied to human emotion, and what is scientific about that?"

"The mayor and police chief of Tomoeda have issued this warning."

"A citywide curfew has been called. All civilians must be inside their houses by 9pm. I repeat, 9pm. We are calling for the Card Mistress to come forward, and supply us with more detailed information about the threat to the city. In the interim, we ask all who see any signs of magic to call the police straightaway. We do have information that supports the evidence gathered last night. The Card Mistress has therefore been designated as Protector of the State, and the curfew is the only city law that will not apply to her. We ask you all not to panic. She has been protecting the city for the last four years, and we are convinced she will continue to do so. Do not panic. The situation is firmly under control."

The screen switched back to the reporter. I could feel Sakura's nails digging into my arm, but I didn't have the heart to get her to move her hand. If this was the least I could do for Sakura, than I was doing it, no matter how much blood she clawed from me in these dark hours. "As for the dark masked man, he has been added to the citywide Wanted list. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts will be rewarded. Again, I have been asked to repeat the mayor's request. Do not panic, stores do not need to be gathered in, and citywide curfew is set at 9pm. Keep your minds open, and let our council approved state protectors do their jobs. More news as soon as we get it."

The screen went back to the normal news montage of a clock, although Sakura's photo still filled one corner of the screen. I hit the standby button and turned to her. "Come on, Sakura, cheer up. You're a Protector of the State. I'm sure they'll understand."

Sakura turned to me, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. "I- I- I'll go tomorrow."

"Why don't you ask Yue to come along with you?" I suggested. "Clow Reed's power will have been known to the government, Sakura. They're not going to capture you and dissect you. I'm pretty sure they won't even ask you your name."

Sakura's eyes widened. "D-d-dissect me?"

"Nnnnnhhhhh..." A large sweatdrop threatened to fall. Crap! I forgot she hates anything like that being mentioned... "Uh. So. How many cards are there left to capture?"

With most people, changing the subject so rapidly usually doesn't work, but when Sakura's in this state she's easy to manhandle. Good thing I'm a friend, I thought dismally. "There's twenty-one left," she said softly. "And he has eleven."

There was absolutely no need to ask who 'he' was. "That means you still have twenty-one," I said, comforting. "That's the majority. And you have the experience, too."

"But Clone!Li has experience of Chinese magic," Sakura said, dejectedly. "Experience I don't have."

"Experience, shmerience!" I declared, fed up. Sakura looked at me as if I'd gone completely barmy. Which I'm not excluding as a possibility. "I'm fed up of you and your whining!"

Sakura stuttered, turning red and looking as if she was going to cry again. "Tomoyo!" She blurted, horrified at my reaction.

"Well, I am!" I said, getting to my feet and staring down at her like some terrible, avenging angel. "Experience! You had no knowledge of the Clow cards when Kero chose you as their new Mistress, and now- You're the most powerful sorceress in the world! Kero and Yue trust you with their lives. You will win. Because of who you are."

"And who am I, Tomoyo?" She turned her gaze to me, and I smiled.

"You're Sakura."

"That's a crap answer, and you know it," Sakura grumbled, but there was no sign of tears in her eyes now and she didn't automatically go for that newspaper article declaring she was the spawn of Beelzebub.

"You know, I think Syaoran had too much influence on you, missy," I chided, knowing the Sakura of two minutes ago would have probably socked me one with the Firey card.

"Oh really, Miss Daidouji?"

"Nnngg."

Um. Maybe I deserved the pillow. I bent down, picked it up, and declared pillow war against the Card Mistress.

-----

Syaoran

I guess you have to be born with a particular voice in able to be a teacher. Mei Ling doesn't have that voice. I suppose that's why I've never thought of her becoming a teacher in the future. Aino-sensei has the right kind of voice. Kindly, but boring when talking about maths. Huh. Maybe it's the subject that affects the voice.

"The first numbers which you meet when a child are counting numbers. One, two, three, four, et cetera. Zero also creeps in there eventually. When zero is included, the resulting set is known as natural numbers, and is denoted by..." Aino-sensei stopped, flustered, and started searching for the pen he'd put behind his ears ten minutes ago. After a minute of flapping around like a scalded chicken on crack, while I shared an amused glance with Mei Ling, he located the pen and scrawled an N on the board, with two lines for the diagonal line.

He coughed in his embarrassment, and continued. "If you include negative numbers, this set of numbers is known as integers. Integers are donated by this sign." He scrawled up a Z, and doubled the number of lines at the diagonal again. "Thus integers are all the whole numbers, positive and negative, and also include zero. The counting numbers I mentioned originally can be denoted by..." He scribbled the Z symbol again, and added a positive sign to the top right hand corner. "This symbol."

He coughed again, and started to fidget. I shared another knowing glance with Mei Ling, who smirked at me. He needs the toilet, I know we were thinking in unison. Not a nice thought, really, to think in unison, but it was the truth.

"Uh, Syaoran, Mei Ling. I trust you two to behave yourself when I, ah-"

"-go see a man about a dog?" Mei Ling suggested innocently, referring back to the first lesson when he had used that euphemism.

Aino coughed again. "Sure. Behave yourself."

He tottered off in the direction of the nearest bathroom, and I turned to Mei Ling, eager to quiz her about what the hell she set on me last night. She held up one hand to stop me talking. "Hey, want to see what I found out this morning?"

I stilled, puzzled. "What?"

She tipped a wink at me, and dropped down to the floor. There was an air vent next to her seat, and she expertly untwisted one of the screws and lifted the vent gently to the floor. Holding a finger to her lips, she beckoned me over, indicating that I should be silent. Curious now, I did, not panicking about Aino's return. The old tutor worked like clockwork in the classroom, considering schedules, and his failing body did the same, albeit slowly. He was always away for at least ten minutes.

Still keeping my ears open for other intruders, I knelt down next to Mei Ling and almost swore in shock. I could hear my mother's voice clearly, and Uncle Tae's too. Mother had taken to her bed almost permanently, now, and I wished desperately for her sake that the Test Sakura was undergoing could be finished soon so her power would stop being drained.

"... I understand, Tae," she was saying. "The other is still needing magic. But he only has eleven cards."

"Four times more than Xiaolang at this point in time," a male voice I'd grown to hate responded.

"Tae," my mother cautioned.

"Well, it's true. The boy was hopeless."

I flinched, and felt Mei Ling touch my arm with concern.

"You are only sympathetic towards him because he is of your own flesh and blood. If it were up to me, he'd be out on th streets working for his own bread and shelter by now."

"But it is not up to you."

"The Kinomoto brat has twenty-one. The information I got from Xiaolang will further aid us, I think."

"I hope it will quicken the search. My strength fails, Tae. I will need my power returned in twenty days, or I may never wake up."

"The spell defaults the power back to you before then, Yelan. Trust me. My plane is booked tonight for Japan. I will ensure the swiftest completion."

"And you are sure... that Xiaolang believes all his magic gone?"

Something inside me dropped like a stone, and only Mei Ling's hand, roughly clamped over my lips, prevented me from gasping out loud.

"Positive. And I am sure, even if he did do the foolish thing and attempt it, his belief in his own lack of magic would only release the smallest amount."

"I hope you are right, Tae. How long does the clone spell work-"

A sudden clatter panicked us both, and Mei Ling quickly and quietly replaced the vent. In my ardent concentration on the conversation I had almost forgotten that Aino-sensei would be returning. I clambered back into my seat, grabbing my pen as if it had never left my fingers, and tried to not look flustered. But how was that even going to be possible! I was not devoid of magic. They had lied to me. They had lied to me!

The look on Mei Ling's face surprised me as I glanced quickly at her, my heartbeat echoing Aino-sensei's advancing steps along the corridor. She knew. She knew I... More facts clunked into place like a weary jigsaw. That sphere last night had been to test if I did have magic. It was one of the last Clow spheres. Nine had been made. Four had been lost, one resided in my mother's room, and the other four were held by the four other great Chinese clans. I knew she wouldn't steal anything, so she must have tracked down one of the four lost ones... and I had smashed it last night.

Mei Ling pressed one finger to her lips again, turning her face expectantly to the doorway as Aino strode in, looking flustered.

"Ah, here we all are. You won't tell your guardians how long I was? Don't want your favourite tutor to be fired, now, do we!" Aino settled into position at the head of the table, and I guess I looked rather guilty as he fixed a pointed look at both of us. "You two did revise while I was away, didn't you?"

I tried to force my guilty look away, but I knew I wasn't fooling anyone. "Uh. We were kind of... gossiping..."

Aino rolled his eyes upwards to the ceiling, while Mei Ling looked a little astonished at what I'd said. "You know I should report you both to Bo Tae, or your mother, Xiaolang. No matter, we'll ignore it this once. Honesty should be rewarded, after all, and one silence I dare say deserves another! And honestly, two teenagers like you, it would be unnatural if you didn't chatter in your spare time. I don't see why they ban you."

I flashed a warm smile at Aino. He was employed by Genghis, and didn't enforce our captive state maliciously. He suspected it, and did what he could in these small moments to make it a little easier.

"Right. Where were we?"

"Counting numbers," Mei Ling prompted.

"As yes, it was a little revision of mathematical language, no? Before we got onto theory and proof. Sometimes you can include fractions in your set of numbers, and then this set is called rational numbers and is denoted by this symbol..."

I made small notes from his words automatically, knowing I couldn't listen fully after those revelations. I had magic. After all this time, I could still do magic, even though they told me I couldn't. They lied to me, and in my books, that's justification for lying right back at them.

-----

Sakura

I turned off the computer and headed over to my desk. "God. This sucks."

"I thought I smacked your ass down last time you tried to play the negative card," Tomoyo said, arching an eyebrow at me.

I stared at her in disgust. Tomoyo does everything perfectly. Even tough talk! It's so not fair. "I'm not playing the negative card, I'm playing the telling the truth card," I returned sourly, taking my time to pack my bag. Everyone else had gone, and as Tomoyo and I were the current class monitors, we were the ones left to tidy the classroom. Well, I guess an hour after everyone has left is a bit late, but we'd abused our privileges as monitors, using the computers network to surf the net free for a while every day. "You're not the one who has to go see the mayor in full fighting garb to tell him the truth about everything in, oh, the next hour or so."

A sudden thought seemed to strike Tomoyo as she tilted her head at me from her position near the blackboard. "A telling the truth card could come in awfully handy."

I smirked at her, which she thankfully didn't see as she'd turned away to clean said blackboard. "Or I could use the Earthy, which - by the way - I still have the bruises from, and threaten people with certain death unless they told me the truth."

"True, that may also work. It may also convince the devil theorists they were right about you being the child of Lucifer."

I cringed at my best friend. "Urgh."

"You ready to go get changed and tell the mayor you're the new State Protector," Tomoyo teased. I pulled a face at Tomoyo, which unfortunately she saw as she waved the board rubber at me threateningly. I continued to pull a face, and she threw it at me. I span out of the way, and watched as the rubber sailed through the air, then straight through my desk, splattering white chalk dust on the carpet. My mouth dropped open, and I slammed it shut.

"A card?" All playfulness had gone, and Tomoyo's voice was brisk.

"I can't believe I didn't sense it." I forced myself to be still, and felt with all my senses. I could feel it now. "The Through card," I said, feeling the familiar aura of the card. "It's moved!" I swivelled on my heel and made for the door, but was stopped by Tomoyo. Her face was flushed and she'd obviously dashed to get to the door before me.

"Sakura, you can't risk being spotted! You have to-"

I shook my head. "Everyone will have gone home by now or are in the other end of school, and even if not... I have to risk it. I can't lose another card to clone!Li." I looked at her helplessly. "I can't."

She let go of me. "Go. I'll finish up here and be there as soon as I can to watch your back. And I'll bring your bag."

I nodded my thanks and grabbed the cards from my pocket as I hurtled down the corridor, letting my senses guide me. The red aura of the Through bristled my senses, and I ran straight through the wall it was currently playing with. Bad idea. I'd forgotten I was on the second floor, and managed to execute a lousy forward roll to minimize the damage. The felt my shoulder and arm burn from the rough contact with the ground. I turned, and turned the key into my Star staff without thinking about it.

"Key that uses the power of the stars. Appear before me in your true form. Sakura, the one with the contract with you, commands it…Release!"

Feeling in my pocket for the correct card, it slid gently into my hand. "Windy! Confine the Through!"

Windy streaked forwards eagerly, surrounding a glimmering object. I staggered forwards, holding out my wand. Before me, I felt the full force of the Through card, grateful I wasn't having the same trouble with it as last time. Although how we got dad to believe I fell through the wall because it was a magic trick for school, I'll never know, I thought ruefully. "Return to your original form, Sakura card!"

I briefly saw the Through card's shimmering image, before it disappeared in a swirl of power, and shrank into a familiar pink card. It flew towards me, and I gratefully hung onto it, feeling its aura resonate against my cheek. I pulled a pen out of my pocket, and wrote my name on it triumphantly, shrinking the key as I did so. I felt Windy slide into my pocket, and sighed, relieved.

A sudden movement caught my attention, and I glanced up, scared. My heart thundered into my rib cage, only calming down when I realised it was Tomoyo. She was holding my bag and coat, with her own shouldered, but her face was twisted.

I walked forwards tentatively, taking my bag from Tomoyo silently. "What's wrong, Tomoyo?"

She pointed behind me, her arm shaking. My heart slammed against my ribs again, and I turned around slowly, hoping, and falling, and denying what had obviously happened. "You were seen," Tomoyo whispered.

I dared to look, and for a futile second wished for the millionth time that day that Syaoran were there. Just a touch from him, it would all be okay, I was sure. But he wasn't here. And it wasn't okay.

"I'd say you were seen," an accusing voice rang out.

I felt dizzy, and my world fell down.

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Wanna find out who saw her? Review! I'll finish it faster if you do, I promise.

Jeez, I'm such a review whore! Heehee! ^^;; See ya later, Cardcaptors!