Chapter One

The Beginning

Sarah stretched her arms when she woke up from her nape in her parent's room. Her dad looked lover at her and smiled.

"Had a nice nap?" he asked her.

"Hai," she answered, smiling up at the ceiling, which she had decorated when she was little with glow-in-the-dark stars.

Syaoran Li sat down next to his 13 year-old daughter and watched her roll over the bed and onto the floor.

"I'm okay!"

Syaoran laughed. "I sure hope so!"

"I need more sleep, though! Just one hours was not enough for me," Sarah said, getting up and looking at the clock.

"Don't we all? I have a long night tonight," Syaoran said.

"How long is your class tonight?" she asked, watching him get back to his desk and ruffle his already untidy hair.

"Two to four hours…possibly," he said. Syaoran taught both Japanese and Chinese at the university in London. "You go get some more sleep, honey. While you can."

Sarah nodded and left her parents room. Sarah Li was a Chinese-Japanese 13 year-old with dyed blonde hair and natural green eyes. At age 5, she had entered her first movie in Japan, hoping she could escape her magical roots and live something of a different life, but she couldn't. She magical training had continued, but so did the movies. At age 7, she had moved to England from Japan to try and learn and live in an English speaking world. Also, things seemed calmer in England.

At age 12, she won 2 Oscars (one for best supporting actress and one for best actress) for one Japanese speaking role and one English speaking role. After that, everyone was sure she could stand up to anything. If only Sarah had known things were going to change forever…

Sarah walked into her room and closed the door. Her room was different form other 13 year-old girls rooms. Her room had a family coat of arm's hanging on every wall. The Li family coat of arm's was the Clow magic circle with a diamond in the center of the wind symbol, a turquoise in the center of the water symbol, an emerald for the earth symbol and a ruby for the fire symbol. The Clow family shield of arms was the sun and the moon hanging each by a single wire. Underneath the sun were the elements Fire and Earth and underneath the moon were the elements Wind and Water.

Those two family shields were on her wall. Behind her closet, however, was something ever more amazing. Behind her closet was a room full of weapons. Sarah's favorite weapons. Two swords, both with a turquoise in the holders, a black whip and a red whip and two daggers, one with a snake imprinted in the blade and one with a star imprinted in the blade. A bow made of wood with a pink string tied around it in honor of her mother, Sakura Kinomoto, the mistress of the Sakura Cards and the strongest magician after Clow Reed. All the arrows, all 30 of them, had a green ribbon tied around them in honor of her father, Syaoran Li, the husband of Sakura and the second strongest magician after Sakura and Clow.

When friends came over, Sarah removed the coat of arm's and placed extra pictures of her family or friends or a poster from the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings movies on her wall. She would also either put medal's or trophies up. She wanted to make her life seem completely normal to her friends…when in reality it wasn't.

There was only one person that could see her training that she did with her father and mother and her weapons and magic: Karen Daidouji, adopted daughter of Tomoyo, cousin of Sarah and closest friend to her. Sarah called her Wolf after her favorite animal. Wolf was not born into a magic family as Sarah had been, but she did know magic and could perform some. Her mother did have the chance to learn magic from Sakura and Li, but simply replied "No" to this offer. She was fine videotaping them.

Inside Sarah's closet were three Japanese outfits and three Chinese outfits. Two kimonos, two Chinese dresses, and two battle outfits. To her parents, having just one uniform wasn't enough, considering they were of two cultures and also Tomoyo would always create Sakura her costume for her when she went out to capture the Clow Cards. It only seemed fair that Sarah should have to wear something as well.

The two kimonos were red or dark blue. The red one had roses (with the thorns) on it all connected to one another. The dark blue one had the outline of a half moon on the back and the outline of stars on the bottom. The Chinese dresses were blue or green. The green one was long enough for her not to have to wear pants under it, just shorts. On the bottom was the outline of a butterfly. The blue one she did have to wear pants. The Japanese battle outfit was a long black dress with the sleeves hanging off her arms. There were straps on it to keep them on her, but they still hung off her arms loosely. The sides of her dress had slits in it so her legs could move.

"I never wear it because I feel like a slut in it!" she had told her dad a year ago. It still fit her very well.

The Chinese battle outfit was a blood red dress, with a short skirt at the end. A half moon was outline on the back. The sleeves were short and cut so her shoulders showed. There were three straps on each of her shoulders to keep each side together.

Sarah slipped into her red Japanese nightgown and slipped into bed. Deep inside, as she closed her eyes for the second time, she felt weak. She needed someone to help her sustain her powers. They were dwindling. She could feel it. Her blood wanted to be touched by a boy's blood…a power boy's blood.

A powerful boy who'd be willing to love someone so different.


Michael Haku cringed as his older sister, Care, bandaged up his arm.

"Well…you gave Eriol three more cuts than usual if it makes you feel any better," she told him, giving him a cheery smile.

Michael sighed sadly as her watched her finish. "Thanks," he muttered.

"You put up an excellent fight, Michael. I'll give you that," came a voice.

Michael stood up as Eriol Hiiragizawa walked into the room. He stuck out his hand, still smiling. Michael sighed again and shook it.

"Take a rest, Michael. You deserve it. Fire-tail!" Eriol called into the hallway.

A white dog ran into the room and over to Michael, gently licking his fingertips. Michael smiled slightly at Eriol and left, the dog at his side.

"Shall I start packing, Eriol?" Care asked.

"Right away. I'll tell him soon enough," Eriol said, still smiling.

Michael ignored the girls glances at him, as usual, as he took his dog, who loved the company of all the people very much, on his walk. He could sense if they had magic or not and none of them did. England, sadly, was dwindling in its magic greatly. It used to have so much that it reeked of it and people could actually smell the magic at least two miles away. In his mind, he could hear their thoughts like, "He's so hot!" and "God, look at that body!"

He was all too used to it by now. He could hear Eriol thinking to him, You're not going to even bother looking at any of them or ever flash a smile?

Flash a smile? I forgot how to do that a long time ago, Michael thought back.

Two years is not a long time.

Maybe not to you, but to me…it's a lifetime. Michael shut off his mind to Eriol after that.

Michael had been orphaned at the age of seven and brought up by an old friend of the family, Eriol Hiiragizawa. Michael was one of the last of the Haku clan, which meant that he and his sister were the last of the descendants of Clow Reeds apprentice, Eri Migufutsu.

He was 17 year-old Chinese-English Jap. Man with red hair (from his mother's side, whom which was a English Jap.) and dark gray eyes (from his father's side which held all the magic from Eri). His disposition was cold and he had almost a pure dislike of all humans, except for Eriol and his older sister, Care Haku.

A small yelp reached his ear and he looked down to see Fire-tail come limping over to him from the forest from where they had stopped to just rest for awhile before going back. He was licking his hurt paw. Immediately, Michael's cold heart disappeared and was replaced with a warm one. He got down next the dog and lifted up his paw.

"Winds of healing, come forth and grant this creature comfort and compassion," he whispered in Chinese.

Fire-tail's paw healed up and he gently licked his master's chin in thanks. Michael just laughed slightly and, taking his leash, started to walk back home. Underneath it all, he knew he was lonely. He wanted someone to walk the lonely paths that he walked and the lonely streets with and hold and protect…do something that would make his life feel more meaningful than just practicing his magic every single fucking day of his pathetic life!

Care watched her brother, sighing sadly. She knew his loneliness was there. She and Eriol saw it every day. It seemed that even if his head was hit with the sword during practice, he didn't care. He never did, just hoped the wound was deadly, but it never was. He may hate people, but it didn't mean he didn't want to be with someone.

"You all packed yet?" Eriol asked Care.

"Almost," she responded.

Eriol smiled that smile again. "I've been waiting for this moment for twenty-two years since I first met them." He walked over to the window. "Michael!"

"Yeah?" he answered.

"Pack your bags. It's time to meet and love, quiet literally, your powers."


"What do you mean?" Michael asked for the third time.

"I can't tell you. I can tell you this, however, Haku. Eventually, you will love this challenge," Eriol said as he closed his suitcase all packed and ready to go.

"Can't you tell me anything else, though?"

"Yes, I can." Eriol turned to him and spoke, "Trust the first four people you meet our first day there. You don't have to like them, just trust them."

Michael stared at the floor for a second, then looked up at Eriol, half between surprise and half between anger and yelled out, "What!"

"Just do as I say and everything will be fine from here on out."


Sarah jumped out of bed the moment her alarm went off.

"God, was that needed!" she yelled sarcastically as she hit it.

She got dressed in her school uniform and ran downstairs, pulling on her shoes.

"Sarry! Sarry! Sarry!" came her one year old brother, David.

"Hi David," Sarah said, gently kissing his forehead. He gave a little giggle of delight that his older sister acknowledged him and threw his spoon onto the floor.

"Hi honey," Sakura said, setting a bowl of cereal down for her. "Do you and Karen have plans today for after school?"

"Yeah, Karen's mom is taking us to the mall to get us our belated birthday presents," Sarah said, picking up David's spoon, though he just threw it again onto the floor for her to retrieve and pick back up for him.

"Don't be too late, understand?" Syaoran told her, sitting down next to her with his tea.

"I won't be."


Karen rested her hands on her friends head and rested her chin on it. Sarah simply smiled and continued to work on the homework she hadn't finished before first period started.

"Tut, tut, Ms. Li, I'm surprised at you! Didn't do your homework!" she said in mock horror, sitting down next to her as she pulled out her own.

"I should be saying the same to you, Wolf!" Sarah said, laughing slightly.

Karen gave Sarah a noggie and continued to work. Sarah glared at her best friend. She hated it when she did that.

"You didn't do any of your homework, did you?" came another voice.

Sarah Voll, a pure British girl with black hair which was in the form of a fohawk, glasses and a crazed look half the time, was sitting down in front of them.

"I'm usually very good about it!" Sarah whined.

"Yeah…sure you are," Karen muttered.

"Oh yeah, Squeak. You're really onto of your work," Sarah V. added.

Sarah V., otherwise known as Rooster for her fohawk, and Wolf were a lot closer then Sarah V. and Sarah were. Sarah admitted it to herself that at points she felt left out…but she wasn't going to go off on a rant about it all. Why should she?

Sarah was known as the shy one. The one who was always calm and very quiet. It was rare for her to blow up…but at points she would. Very rarely, but she would at points.

"Squeak! Yo, Li! Wake up!" came Wolf's barking call to her.

"Huh? What?"

"We have to get to class. Does Ms. Squeak Li wish to ruin her perfect attendance? Come on!" Rooster said, pulling her along to first period from the library.


After school, when Karen and Sarah went to the mall, the first place they went to was the bookstore. Sarah had been hoping a new book she had read about would be out. Her hopes weren't high, but she could always wish.

"Found it!" Karen called to Sarah, showing her the thing she had been needing for awhile. It was a new pack of tarot cards she had needed. Hers had been eaten by her room. Karen just said "the bedroom demons got to them before I could save them."

"Good for you, Wolf. Now…if I could just find what I'm looking for…"

While Karen bought the cards, Sarah continued to search for the book. She looked in the vampire section, but it wasn't there. Karen came back and helped her search.

"What the hell…Karen!"

Karen looked and took on the same face Sarah had: surprise, amazement and shock. There, right in front Sarah's face in the manga section of the bookstore, was the Sakura Book. The pink binding and detailing was exactly right. Sarah pulled it from the shelf.

"How'd it get here? It was in my parent's library last I looked!" Sarah whispered to Wolf.

"Let me see it. Maybe it's just a-"

"No, it's the real thing," Sarah whispered. She felt over the word 'Sakura' that was on the cover it. She looked around the room, then said quietly to Karen, "Put it in my backpack."

"What!"

"Put it in my backpack! I'm taking it back to where it belongs! At my house with its mistress!" she said.

"Isn't this called shoplifting?" Karen asked her as she unzipped Sarah's backpack.

"Do you see a price tag on it?" Sarah asked.

Karen looked, saw none and, shrugging, placed it in Sarah's backpack.


Sarah placed the Sakura book in front of her parents, both of them in shock.

"You might want to watch your stuff a little more carefully, Mom," Sarah said.

"Where was it? It was looking all over for it!" Sakura yelled, grabbing the book and look at it, trying to make sure it wasn't hurt or damaged in anyway.

David woke up and started to cry. Syaoran ran over to him, picked him up out of his playpen and tried to calm him down.

"Where was it?" Sakura repeated, this time keeping her voice down.

"In the bookstore down at the mall," Sarah said, offering to take David and see if she could calm him down.

"Well…all I have to say is thank god you found it, Sarah!" Sakura said after Sarah had calmed David down and took him in her arms. "Go up and do your homework now, honey. Dinner will be ready soon."


"It's time for her, Sakura; she's three years older than both us of were when you had to go through it all. It's time," Syaoran said that night as he set David down in his crib.

"I still don't think so, Syaoran. It took me forever to capture them and return them. Then I had to make them into my own…I just don't want her to go through it all like I had to!" Sakura whispered as they passed Sarah's door. Her light was still on.

"Give her the cards, though. She's ready. She's got Karen…and as I recall, someone's coming," Syaoran said. "She's also got you, the Mistress of the Cards, and me, the descendent of Clow Reed, the husband of the Mistress of the Cards and the one person who'll probably be the one to protect her from this new gaki coming in…well…me and I suppose Kero to protect her…as well as Karen as I think about it. Have a little courage in her, Sakura."

"I do have courage in her, Syaoran…I just worry about it. Maybe she doesn't want to do it! Maybe…in fact, I could send them to Karen! She could probably handle it!" Sakura said, practically pleading with her husband to allow it.

"Karen could, you're right…but how would that make Sarah feel? She's the daughter of the Mistress of the Cards. Maybe she's expecting them to choose her. Besides, they already told us what they wanted: her to be the new mistress. Let the cards go," Syaoran told her.

Sakura was about to argue with him again, but stopped when he shook his head. She sighed and looked at the book. They were ready and they knew what was to come. They were expecting it, which was why the book was glowing. Yue's wings were whiter than ever on the back of the book. He knew what to do when she completed her quest. Kerberos' growl hit Sakura's ear.

"Must it really happen all again, Sakura? Why!" he growled.

"It was not your choosing. The cards wished for another mistress. Kero…please, just do as the cards wish and take good care of her while she's on this quest," Sakura whispered.

He growled again in reply then was silent. Sakura whispered the Chinese incantation over the book and it disappeared.


The sound of water was strong. Sarah walked closer to the sound and found herself standing at the entrance of a castle that was appearing right out of a waterfall. She waved her hand, whispering in Japanese, "Open your doors unto me, heiress to Clow." The doors opened slowly and she walked inside. The doors slammed shut behind her and a small firefly, or what seemed to be a small firefly, appeared in front of her.

It flew ahead of her and she fallowed, knowing somehow that she should. The entrance to a grand library stood in front of her when the firefly stopped. On each side of the entrance were two marble dragons. Their mouths were open and a red substance was dripping from the open jaws of the creatures. Sarah took a step back. They were the same kind of dragons Karen had in her room, except for the, what seemed to be, blood dripping from their mouths. She had always been terrified of them when she was little and would go over to her house and she still was, but once again, she was not one to speak her mind.

The firefly flew over to the dragons and gently brushed each of them over the back of the neck. They blinked, closed their mouths, curled up on the floor and fell asleep. The firefly then touched the doors and they slowly opened, dust falling as they opened. The firefly beckoned her to fallow and she did. It flew over to a pillar and laid itself down on it. AS Sarah walked over to it, she saw it had turned into a book.

It was pink. On the cover of the book was a lion with great white feathered wings. Sarah turned it over and saw the same white wings surrounding a single star. She turned it back to the front and suddenly realized what she was looking at. A female voice hit her ear and she recognized it as her mothers. She spoke to her in Japanese.

"They were asking to be taken to you, my daughter. They were asking me to bring them to you. Asking for your power."

A hand gently took hers in it's and helped her open the clasp of it. Sarah thought it was her mother's hand, but she did not have such rough hands with scars all over them. Her mothers hand held her hand with a firm, but still gentle grip. This hand held hers with the most gentle grip she had ever felt. Her father's grip was tight, only to make sure his daughter knew he wanted to keep her in his grasp to keep her safe and her little brother's hand wasn't even all that big! Karen never held Sarah's hand only because she was not the kind of person who held hands with someone. This hand was bigger than hers, but still so gentle.

The person took her other hand in theirs and they opened the book together.

"Take the card," came a voice in her ear she did not recognize. A British male voice. His voice was extremely cold, but she could hear a bit of kindness in it.

His hands took her wrists in his and he moved her hands to the first card on top. The Windy card. Her fingertips gently ran over the woman in it and the others cards inside the book flew out of it. They flew in all directions. They soon all disappeared. Sarah took the empty book and held it against her.

The man or boy's hand gently touched her forehead and whispered in Chinese, "Let sleep come and dance with you. Let him touch your eyes and let him control. For 'morrow is in due time and also in dead sight." Sarah closed her eyes and the last thing she knew, the man (she could tell it was a man from the way his body towered over hers and how he had muscles in his arms) was picking her up and cradling her gently in his arms.


The dream world ended and the Dream flew into Sakura's hand. The Mistress of the Cards smiled at one of her favorite cards and gently kissed it.

"Please be kind to her," she whispered and let it go. It flew out the window and into the sky.

Michael laid Sarah down on the bed and stared at her, his mind spinning. This girl was the daughter of Sakura Li, Mistress of the Cards! This weakling of a girl was her daughter! He saw nothing special about her, only felt it. She was in the line extremely powerful magic, but it seemed to be dwindling…much like his was.

How? How could one of the descendants of Clow Reed have her magic be dwindling? And how could anyone expect her to capture the card while it was happening?

"Please fallow us, Haku," came Syaoran Li's voice from the hallway.

Michael fallowed, turning off the light and closing the door behind him. He fallowed Syaoran into the living room where sat Sakura, Eriol and Care. Syaoran sat down next to Sakura and he beckoned Michael to sit down with them. He did, across from everyone else.

"So now you know why you were called here, Haku. To help her recapture the cards and help her earn the title she was born to have," Syaoran said.

"I do not have any choice in this?" Michael answered.

"No, not unless you wish to be disowned from the Haku family, your powers taken away from you forever and live practically as a nobody in this world," Eriol said.

Aren't I already just that? Michael thought.

"I heard that," Eriol said.

Michael cursed out loud. Fire-tail, which had come with him, barked disapprovingly and whined afterwards. Michael scratched him on the nose, calming him.

"You are bound to help her, whether you like it or not, Haku. Since you are of the Haku clan and being a descendent of Eri Migufutsu, it is your duty to help a Clow descendent," Sakura told him.

Michael was not going to go against Sakura's words. He had too much respect for her and what she spoke of was true. This was the first time the Haku clan really had distanced themselves from the Li clan. It was time to repair that rift.


A raven flew into Sarah's room and landed on her desk. Karen transformed back into her human form and walked over to Sarah's canopy bed. It wasn't long after Sarah had had that dream that Karen and it as well. Karen looked at the drapes and found them open, which surprised her, seeing that Sarah liked them closed. Karen took the empty Sakura book from Sarah's hands and the card and set it in the book. She shook Sarah.

She didn't wake.

She shook Sarah again, this time a litter harder. She was kind of a heavy sleeper at points.

Still, she didn't wake.

Karen transformed into her raven from and scratched Sarah's arm and then transformed back into her human form. Though blood ran down her arm, she still did not wake. Karen turned into her wolf form and barked at her. When nothing happened, she pulled Sarah onto her back, ran at the door, went right thought it and ran downstairs to where everyone was. Sakura screamed at the sight of her lifeless daughter.

Karen laid her down on the floor and transformed back into her human form.

"Nothing I did woke her up!"

Eriol ran over to her side and lifted up her head. He checked her pulse and her breathing. "Releasing the cards took a lot out of her. Michael, get the vile I brought with us! It's in my bad! I knew something like this would happen."

Michael grabbed Eriol's bag and pulled out the small glass vile that was filled with a red liquid. He handed it to Eriol. He took a droplet of the red liquid and placed it on her bleeding arm where the scratch was. Karen could smell it. Blood and powerful blood at that.

Eriol took two more droplets of it and placed it on Sarah's bleeding scratch and he sighed when he saw her waking up. She let out a feeble squeak at the sight of Eriol sitting next to her. Sakura let out a sigh of relief as Syaoran picked Sarah up off the floor.

"What happened?" Sarah asked, her head throbbing with pain.

"I was trying to wake you up, but you wouldn't! I was afraid something bad was happening to you, so I got you downstairs. Eriol just got you back," Karen told her, still sitting on the floor.

"The book…why…" Sarah muttered, looking at her mother.

Sakura looked sadly at her daughter. "I'll explain tomorrow, Sarah. You need more rest."

Sarah was breathing deeply, trying to calm herself. She was her arm and looked at Karen, as if knowing. "What did you do?"

Karen just smiled slightly. "I tried to wake you up," she said truthfully.

Sarah shook her head slightly, and then caught sight of Michael. He was staring at her. Those eyes…a perfect green…a brilliant green…like her mothers. He hadn't seen Sarah's eyes until now. He felt weak just at the sight of them. He wanted to freeze time, walk over to her and get a closer look at that color in her eyes. God they were beautiful.

Sarah felt herself shaking in fear. She could tell he was four years old than her…and he had the same scars on his hands as she had seen in the dream. She saw his dagger and could just see him pulling it out and slashing her throat. She saw his muscles and could just see him hitting her with those powerful arms and hands. She got away from her father's grasp and ran.

"Sarah? What's wrong?" Karen asked, watching her go.

Half way up the stairs, Sarah fell down and fell down the stairs, but she got right back up and ran up against and out of sight. Karen heard the door slam shut. She looked at Michael and saw what it was that had scared her so much. She shook her head and said, "Pardon Sarah. She's a wimp."

She walked up the stairs and walked right though Sarah's door. Sarah was sitting in her bed, the Sakura Book in her hands.

"I don't understand. Why is this all happening?" she whispered and looked up at Karen, tears slowly trickling down her face. "How'd it all happen so fast?"

Karen sighed sadly and sat down next to her. Sarah fell into her, hoping to be comforted.

"I didn't ask for this, Karen. Half of me doesn't even want this! That's the half of me that wants to die and forget all of this!" she cried.

"Nobody asks for anything in this lifetime, Sarah. Both you and I know that. Just like your mother didn't want to be Mistress of the Cards or your father didn't ask to be a descendent of Clow. You will win, Sarah. You will become who you were meant to be and nothing will stand in your way."

Sarah looked up at Karen, her Wolf, and wanted to badly to hug her…when she remembered that she didn't like hugs.

"Now put on that stupid smile of yours and be that blonde happy Squeak all of us love," Karen whispered.

Sarah couldn't while she was still crying like this. To her…that was impossible at the present moment.

"Well, is this an awkward moment or what?" came a voice in Japanese from Sarah's desk.