Author's note: Thank you to my reviewers. Enjoy.
Sakura was restless. And angry.
"Messenger! Let me out!" she bellowed, though she could not see the guardian. She knew it heard her regardless of their distance.
Fully aware of some presence in the room--most likely Messenger in its' nonphysical form-- Sakura began pacing around the room, showing her anger.
"You can not keep me locked in here forever without answers, Messenger!" Sakura continued, her voice rising. "There is hardly a difference between a prisoner and what you are doing to me. Show yourself!"
She felt a gush of wind at her neck and turned around to face Messenger in its centaur form.
'Anger: emotional excitement induced by intense displeasure. Rage: suggests a loss of self-control from violence of emotion.'
Sakura gritted her teeth, "I know what I am feeling right now, Messenger. You don't need to define it." Her pressed her fingertips into her temple, and let out a deep sigh, hopping that her emotion would flow out along with it. (It did not.)
She lifted her eyes for a moment to Messenger's face, knowing it would tell her nothing. She glided across the room to the door, which she had never been allowed to pass, closed it, than turned the lock.
'You know very well that the barrier cannot contain me. I may leave whenever I feel it is convenient.' Messenger's soft voice echoed.
"Oh, hush up. You can't feel anything anyways." Sakura pressed her fingertips to her temples again and slumped down on the window seal.
It was most unusual to find Sakura in this state of her emotions. Her normally cheerful exterior had given way to a somewhat colder interior, given her circumstances. On days when she did not feel entirely pleased with the world, she would sulk and within a few hours be her old self. However, when one is held in one place for over a week, they drastically change. Sakura was no different.
It was everything that had driven her to her anger. She was alone, exhausted, and, in all basic terms, bored. The absence of real human contact had left no small mark on her either. Her days were filled with waiting endlessly for Messenger, which always proved to be a great disappointment. She was finally beginning to see the guardian from what it truly was, and that had only uncovered a tangled mess of mystery that she could only pick at in her hours alone.
Sakura hated the room now. It was not the safe suite she had arrived in; it was a cage to hold her like some animal. 'That is what I am to Messenger, is it not? A animal?' She thought bitterly. The window seal was the one thing that she liked; it showed the outside world, the world with birds, and trees, and grass, and other people. The window had become a symbol for her intense longing to be out of the room.
Sakura glared at Messenger, determination boiling under her skin. "You," she said, trying to keep her voice level, "-are going to tell me once and for all what is truly going on."
Messenger cocked its head to the side, slightly interested in what the girl was saying. 'What have you learned?'
"I know that there is more going on here than you are telling!" Sakura said, feeling confident.
'I can not tell a lie.' It replied.
"Yes! But you never said that you can not withhold parts of the truth!" Sakura retorted, fed up with being polite.
'What do you wish to learn?' Messenger asked.
Sakura shut her mouth for a second. Messenger would never give her a direct answer to anything, and she knew she would have to find some way to beat it at its own game. This was part of the reason why their discussions lasted for so long.
Having hardly nothing else to do, Sakura had done a lot of something she had not been able to do on Earth; think. Truly deeply think. Uncover hidden wells of power and knowledge inside of her, face down her own demons. In all truth, she had discovered more about herself in these past few days than in the past year of her life.
Another thing she had uncovered was more of the mystery that was Messenger, the guardian.
" I want the truth. What is this plan you keep referring to? And what exactly do Syaoran, Hiyoshi, and I have in it?"
Messengers gray eyes grew in and out of focus as it thought, searching for the right words to answer. This was not a light question, and it knew the effects the real answer might have.
Sakura waited. Throughout all their discussions, Messenger's replies were never instant. It always took a moment or two before it answered anything, as though it was concentrating on more than one thing inside its head, and, knowing Messenger, Sakura would not doubt such a notion.
'Truth is powerful, Human. Too much of it can destroy the plan.'
"There it is again! The plan!" Sakura said, "What is the plan?"
Messenger stood another moment in silence. 'Do you know your role in the worlds, Human?'
Sakura was taken back by surprise. It was just like Messenger to ask something that had seemingly nothing to do with what they were talking about moments before. Yet she knew that the guardian would take her in a complete circle around her thoughts and she let it guide her.
"Kero-chan said I was the most powerful magician on Earth." Sakura said, "More powerful than any magician before me."
'Yes, but do you know why you, of all humans, were given such a role?'
Sakura shook her head. That was a question she had asked many times herself, yet she never had an answer. Now, she realized, she might get one.
'You are just one more human in a long line.' Messenger's soft voice said. 'Humans are general worthless, pathetic creatures. They thrive by the millions and die just as quickly. In the great span of the universes, they are nothing more than a speck. Yet-' It paused, and its gray eyes turned toward Sakura, freezing her to the chair she sat on, ' yet, they are one of the few creatures in the whole universe that can use reason and change their habits.'
'It is what you call irony: incongruity between the actual result or a sequence of events and the normal or expected result. Humans are selfish, yet given the one thing that can be truly called power; the ability to change a result in a chain of events.'
"Than what am I?"
Messenger's eyes chilled her even more. It penetrated deep inside of her and for the first time, Sakura felt scared.
'You are one of the few that have the ability to change, and therefore, you are important.'
Its gray eyes did not change their cold exterior and froze her even more.
"Is that why you took me? Because I was important?"
'Yes and No.'
Sakura pressed her lips together, feeling angry again. "Can't you give me a straight answer?"
'What do you mean?'
She was tempted to roll her eyes but refrained from doing so. "I mean, can you answer my question using more words than yes and no. Tell me why you took me."
Sakura tilted her chin up and looked at Messenger straight in the eyes. "Well?" she said.
Messenger returned her stare fully, almost challenging. 'You are important because you will destroy the demon that is currently inhabiting the planet below us.'
Sakura wanted to shout. She wanted to scream and yell and kick and punch. She wanted to release her magic. The answer Messenger gave her was expected, and did not in the least answer the question she wanted to answer.
"I know that there is more to this than you are letting on! You have been leaving me alone for longer and longer. Why? What are you doing behind my back?"
'Fate is amazing, yet sometimes it works to slow. Typical for such a power. For all its benefits, there are always an equal downside.'
"What?" Once again, Sakura was confused. "Fate? What does that have to do with anything now?"
'I will not repeat myself.' Messenger said, its voice cruel. 'I shall take my leave of you now. Goodbye, Human.'
Before Sakura could react, the guardian vanished without a sound. "Hey, hey! Get back here, Messenger!" She called, than held her breath, waiting for an answer. There was none.
Once again, Sakura was alone in her chambers. Only now, she had a headache. 'This is becoming too much,' she thought, rubbing her fingers into her temple once more. 'I have to get out of here.' To make matters worse, Syaoran's aura began emitting warmth once more. 'Oh, not now, Syaoran. Stop thinking about whatever your thinking.'
"How do you suppose Sakura-chan, Syaoran-kun, and Hiyoshi-san are doing?" Tomoyo asked Eriol as she folded up a pink T-shirt.
"Don't really know. I guess they are having fun," he paused, "-then again, it is likely that they are not."
Tomoyo nodded, tossing the shirt on a growing pile of clean laundry. "Uhg. Where is that lazy sun beast? Isn't he supposed to be helping?"
Eriol shrugged, and grabbed another piece of clothing.
Tomoyo sighed looking at how much more they had to fold. While she loved making clothes and outfits for Sakura, folding and ironing other people's clothing on her day off was not what she had in mind. She paused, thinking about the past week.
After the scene in the theater, Eriol and her had high tailed it out of there, praying that everyone would assume they had been caught under some falling debris and had trouble getting out. Lucky, when they came out, covered in dust and coughing extra hard for effect, no one questioned them. After being checked up on by a nurse and doctor in the back of an open ambulance, they were excused. Eriol stubbornly stuck around, wanting to hear what the police had to say about the theater.
"But why?" Tomoyo complained, wanting to go home and figure out this mess. "Come on, lets' go before anyone sees us."
Eriol smirked, or at least, Tomoyo thought he smirked. It was hard to tell under the dust covering his face. "I would have thought this would be a wonderful addition to your collection of Sakura's adventures," he said.
"It's kinda hard to film her when she's not here!" Tomoyo snapped back. She was slightly aggravated by the latest turn of events. Besides the subjects of her mini movie gone, in the commotion her camera lens had been scratched and cracked. While it was fixable (with a reasonably large price), when her equipment was damaged, she generally disliked whoever broke it. At that moment, it was Eriol.
"If the police find any evidence of anything other than what they think went on, than I have to know about it," Eriol explained. "For instance, anything magical."
"You're a magician for goodness sake! Can't you just make everything the same it was?"
"At the current moment, no. Normally that's Sakura-chan's job, and I wouldn't dare think of taking her responsibilities. Plus I think it is better this way. This town could use something to gossip about."
"Basically, you're too lazy." Tomoyo said.
"You're words, Tomoyo-chan, not mine. Now hurry up, I can see to men up there." He pointed with his forefinger at to large men in dark blue uniforms.
The two men were shaking their heads side to side, talking. "I have no idea what happened," the first one, a young officer with black hair said. "From the eye witnesses, some say there was a sound, others say the roof just came right on top of them. Might'a been sabotage, or bad roof in general, sir."
"Well, check again with the eyewitnesses. Do we have their home addresses?" another man, an older cop with graying hair and a small beer belly, asked.
The young cop nodded. "Yes sir."
"Good. Next, get that team of construction workers to the roof and check out what the heck is going on up there. Tell them not to touch anything if they see somethin' up there. A fuse, a wick, nothin'."
"Yes sir."
"And get those damn reporters out of here! I don't need their yak now. Call up the architect, too."
"Yes sir. What do you suppose they're gonna do with the place now?"
The older cop sighed, lifting his cap off his baldhead to wipe away sweat. "Well, they could fill it up with water and have a nice swimming pool for all I know. Where's the head of the construction team?"
When Eriol heard that, he was at last satisfied and permitted Tomoyo to lead him out of the parking lot. Tomoyo's happiness at leaving the theater was short lived, for she eventually realized that they would have to explain what really happened to Touya, Kero, and Yukito/Yue. She cringed, already seeing their shocked, loud, and angry reactions. Especially Touya's.
It was inevitable, and as much as Tomoyo did not want to explain Sakura's sudden disappearance (along with Syaoran's, at which point Touya's mind would make false assumptions) she found herself at Sakura's door, staring into the fuzzy face of an angryKero.Than Tomoyo called Touya and Yukito to tell them the news, which was the least pleasant phone conversation of her short life. They rushed home (by speeding. Touya was driving and manage to make a normally two-hour trip one hour and seven minutes). Tomoyo's predictions about each of their reactions were surprising accurate, and was extremely grateful for Yukito, who was the kindest of them all.
During the explanation of what happened, Tomoyo made sure to leave out the part where Messenger said in their heads that Syaoran found his 'One' (which she knew meant Sakura. Somehow, she doubted Touya was ready to hear his sister already found the person she would spend the rest of her life with). Eriol was annoyingly vague when it came his turn to tell his part of the story, and refused to say more until later. Touya was ready to explode. "You mean to tell me that my sister," he clenched his fists, "is with that-" indicating Syaoran, of course, "thick headed weakling GAKI!"
"And Hiyoshi-san," Eriol added, "which I believe you had the pleasure of meeting already. Right, Tomoyo?" He paused to look at Tomoyo, only to see her slap her forehead with her palm.
Touya fumed. "TWO GAKIS!"
After four cups of coffee (espresso), three teabags, eight spoonfuls of sugar, and one giant headache for everyone present in the room, the semi adults and teenagers and mystical beast came to settling down and talking. They collectively decided to leave Sakura's father, Fujitaka, out of this mess. While he had discovered of Sakura's abnormal powers a few years earlier, he was considered very new to magic and was extremely uncomfortable with it (When asked why, it got into a heated argument, ending with, "I've already lost one person I love, damnit!").
"If he discovers what is happening to Sakura, he might worry himself to death. " Yukito said, "Fujitaka must be exposed to magic slowly." He paused. "Very slowly."
'If that's the case, he should not know about Sakura's One, either.' Tomoyo thought, 'He'll have a heart attake.'
As fate would have it, Fujitaka's job required fieldwork for two weeks. It seemed like a gift sent from heaven. Cleverly using a system of phones and impersonations, they managed to convince Fujitaka that Sakura could stay at Tomoyo's. Touya and Yukito had to go back to college for classes, yet they came home as soon as they could. Tomoyo and Eriol spent most of their time with Kero. They all came to realize it was pointless. Sakura, Syaoran, and Hiyoshi would only come back when they were finished with whatever they had to do. So, there was nothing for them to do other than wait, worry, and move on with day-to-day life.
Touya would simply not believe there was nothing to be done. His persistence was admirable, if not needed. He made Tomoyo and Eriol come over to Sakura's house, and they would end up doing housework for the Kinomoto's. Eriol and Tomoyo, being who they were, could not refuse. It did make them feel better, for it gave them something to do, and not worry about their friends. This is how Tomoyo and Eriol came to folding the Kinomoto's laundry and cleaning their home.
Tomoyo discovered Eriol to be pleasant company and began looking forward to the time they spent alone. Though Eriol had been in Japan for a little more than one year, Tomoyo had never really had the chance to see him alone, for hours at a time. Before, it had always been Sakura, Tomoyo, and Eriol doing something together.
Tomoyo glanced at Eriol, wondering what she was feeling. She enjoyed being with him, and was almost certain he enjoyed her as well. Beyond that, she was unsure.
She sighed. Unlike Sakura, Tomoyo never really knew what she was feeling. That was the problem with being a listener, a watcher. She had amazing skill with deciphering others and knowing what they wanted without speaking to them, such as with Syaoran. However, if someone asked what she was feeling, Tomoyo would smile and tell them what they wanted. But she never really knew herself.
It was in this regard that Tomoyo envied Sakura. Sakura was her exact opposite in some respects. While Sakura was blind when it came to decoding people and their actions, for example Syaoran's most obvious acts of affection toward her; she knew what she was feeling or not feeling. This is why it was so easy for her to turn down whoever asked her out. She somehow always knew, deep down and locked away inside of her, that she loved Syaoran. Another thing Sakura had was the confidence to act upon her emotions. Tomoyo was positive that when Sakura found out who her One was, Syaoran, her actions toward him would be much different than before. Gone would be the clumsy mess, in its place would be someone who knew how to use her smarts and act upon them. Tomoyo could even image Sakura publicly kissing the shy boy, that is how confident she knew her friend could be.
Tomoyo, on the other hand, found that while she was good at knowing others, it was a 180-degree turn to know herself. She found herself to be an annoying tangle of emotions and memories. She knew her own habits well enough, yet when it came to something like love, she avoided it like water avoided oil. When Tomoyo did finally figure out what she was feeling, it was normally too late and she had gotten over the feeling. So when it came to Eriol, Tomoyo did what she always did-she left it alone. Sooner or later, she knew she would be able to name the emotion, but until than, it was useless.
Tomoyo folded another T-shirt.
"I've been wondering," she said, keeping her eyes on the cloth between her fingers, "-how did you ever find that thing, the thing you said was not human?"
Eriol raised one eyebrow at her. "I thought I already answered-"
Tomoyo cut him off. "No, actually, you didn't." She smirked at him, "It's not like I'm going to tell anyone. As far as anyone else is concerned, it's old news. But I'm curious."
"How so?"
"Well, you were gone for one whole week. People gossip. I just want to know if they're right or wrong."
Eriol pushed his glasses up, the corners of his mouth turning upwards. "Hm, I'm sure." he said. "Fine, I'll tell you. After all, I like an audience."
Tomoyo stopped folding, sitting herself down on the sofa, and stared up at him to continue.
"I actually did not start looking for the thing until two days before I found it."
"What a minute," Tomoyo interrupted. "Where were you than? After school, Sakura, Li-kun, and I went to your old house."
"I was in the library ignoring you. It's quite easy really, though Syaoran eventually figured out that I was there, but I did not want to come out. That's why he urged you two ladies to move." Tomoyo nodded, not really surprised. "Anyways, after searching through all the scrolls for any mention of what we were looking for, I came to back to my first thought. That we weren't dealing with something that originated from Earth. After that, I took to the streets, searching for anything odd."
Tomoyo imagined Eriol dressed up in a dark cloak crawling around alleyways and on top of roofs. She smiled at the thought. "So how did you find it, then?"
Eriol sat down next to her; the clothes were forgotten. "I was a bit away from the city, in the country side a few miles out and saw someone walking strangely. At first, I thought this person was very drunk. Than I noticed he never blinked, and was having quite a difficult time with controlling the swing of his arms, the normal symptoms of someone being possessed."
"So I attacked him. We rolled around and fought for the next few hours." Eriol paused. "During the fight, we got to talking. It took a while before I figured out this thing was not the enemy, after all, the thing could not really control the tongue and lips of the person, so its words were very slurred. After that, I realized the urgency the creature had, and led it to the school. You know the rest." he finished.
Eriol's voice drifted off when he was describing the fight, his eyes unfocused. Tomoyo noted all this. She suspected that there was much more to the story than Eriol was telling. Itching to ask him what really happened, Tomoyo bit her lower lip to stop herself.
She could not help but question the authenticity of the tale Eriol told. The part that she found untrue was when Eriol said he attacked the thing. It did not seem right, from him to attack. Normally, she guessed he would have watched the thing for a day or so. Plus, she did not tell Eriol that while she, Sakura, and Syaoran did go to his house once together, she went several more times to check up on him. He most certainly was not inside the mansion as he claimed.
Figuring she would probe him later, she asked another question to distract him. "How did you know that the person was the creature? It sure looked like a man to me when I saw it."
Eriol looked at her, smiling. "It told me so. It told me that it was momentarily using the body of a man to move around on this Earth and find Sakura. It was a genius, really. I would have loved to have a cup of tea with it, but alas, it had a tight agenda." Again, there was something in Eriol's voice that made Tomoyo doubt him. There was something that was out of place, that did not match.
They moved back to folding clothes in silence. Kero had mysteriously disappeared, not that anyone minded the toy imposture was gone.
Suddenly, Eriol stopped. Tomoyo glanced up at him. "What?" she asked.
He drew in a quick breath, than let out a 'huh,'. "What is it?"
"I just realized something." he said, very matter-of-factly.
"What?" Tomoyo asked again.
"Syaoran has no idea about the Ones."
Silence.
"What!" Tomoyo explained. "What do you mean he has no idea?"
"Exactly what I said. He has no idea about the existence of Ones, period."
Tomoyo was dumbfounded. "What! How could he not know? You knew, Kero knew, how could he not know, considering he is a One!"
Upon hearing his name, Kero came tumbling down the stairs, and flew (more like crashed) into the kitchen. He's eyes were bloodshot, his thumbs twitching. Eriol, his expression still very happy, walked over to the sun-beast and picked him up gently.
"Kero-chan,"Eriol said, "How did you know about the Ones?"
Kero looked up. Since Sakura's disappearance, he had taken to his video games harder than ever before, playing hours on end. Today was no different. "I intercepted letters coming across the ocean." he responded, his voice very high.
Eriol nodded, placing Kero down. "I guessed as much." Kero promptly passed out on the counter, his thumbs still twitching.
"Great," Tomoyo said, "Can you tell me?"
"The letters Kero intercepted must have been the letters written by the Li clan to other well known magicians about my cute descendent. They have been debating about the myths and truths of Ones for quiet some time now. They were planning on informing Syaoran about his little One dilemma sometime in the next five years."
"Small world." noted Tomoyo. "How do you know all this?"
"Syaoran's mother keeps me well informed. One or two of the Elders don't like me much, so they try to keep me out of their discussions. After all, I am Clow, sort of."
They paused, both pondering the same thing; Syaoran's reaction to finding out that he was destined for only one person. They looked at each other, shrugging.
"Well," Eriol started, "It will be most interesting to see when he finds out, correct?"
"I'll bring my camera." Tomoyo stated.
Author's note: I had lots of fun writing Tomoyo and Eriol and hope I did all right with them. I know they are most likely very OOC, but I tried. Please review.