Disclaimer: I do not own anyone from "CardCaptor Sakura". They are all owned by the ladies of CLAMP who are much more talented than I. (smile) I also do not own anyone from "Sailor Moon". They are all owned by Takeuchi Naoko whose vision will live eternally. (smile) (Much to Elflina's dismay...) All other characters are my own. Feel free to steal them.
I do not hold chapters ransom for reviews, but I sure appreciate compliments, constructive criticism, and grammatical corrections. So if you feel like it, please press that little review button, and let me know what you think.
Oh, I AM getting spoiled. Five reviews again, including a first time (for me) reviewer! Welcome crazy-lil-nae-nae! And greetings to yaoifanboy, Taeniaea, Mangaka-chan, and aserene. Yes, Mangaka-chan, sometimes I slow down and plod a bit. (smile) Actually, I think these chapters were written when I suddenly started to realize that I didn't know how I was going to end the story. But, this chapter is also the Part II of Chapter 29, so maybe that will help. (smile) And I can't say much more, or I will spoil it, so... Enjoy, minna! - Raya
Moonlit Sakura
Chapter 30 – "And the door will open..."
Impatiently, Sakura waited for school to end. As usually happens on days that you wish would fly by, the day seemed to drag on endlessly.
Fortunately for her sanity, everyone that she needed was available immediately after school. She managed to control her impatient fidgeting as she waited for Tomoyo and Shaoran to change into their street shoes, but once they were outside, she rushed ahead and tried to hurry them along.
"Calm down, Sakura," Shaoran said as he shook his head. "Even if we hurry, we will still need to wait on Yukito-san."
As Sakura frowned at this, Tomoyo added her delay. "I really need to buy another memory card," she said as she turned to walk downtown. "I'm not sure how much space is left on the one I have in the camera, and I don't want to miss a single frame tonight."
"Tomoyo-chan," Sakura groaned. With a heavy sigh, she reluctantly followed her friend.
Tomoyo turned and gave her an amused smile. "It will only take a few minutes, truly," she said soothingly. "The store is right over here. Oh, I should probably get another battery while I'm at it."
Sakura stood in the front of the store and fidgeted with her book bag as Tomoyo made her selections and went to the register to pay for them. Shaoran browsed through the store, amazed at its selection and shocked at the prices.
Tomoyo caught the expression on his face as she walked past him. "It's really not that bad," she said with another amused smile as she stopped beside him. "The prices are a little high, but the quality is high, too. You get what you pay for. And I need the higher quality to capture my cute Sakura-chan just right."
He blinked, then snorted softly and shook his head. "With your talent and determination, you don't need to buy expensive materials to capture Sakura's essence for all time," he said softly as they began walking towards their impatient friend. "You could probably do it with pencil and paper." Tomoyo's only response was a slight blush and a wider smile.
Finally, everyone assembled in the Kinomoto living room. Tomoyo panned her video camera around capturing the amused and slightly nervous expressions Yukito, Shaoran, and Kero were wearing. Sakura still looked excited and impatient as she put the Sakura Book on the coffee table.
Tomoyo sighed happily as she studied her friend and the outfit she had somehow convinced her to change in to. The white, v-necked leotard clung gently to her curves while a big, dark pink, butterfly-shaped satin bow at the point of the v helped to maintain a sense of modesty. Demi-sleeves accented her shoulders and arms, while a pink choker necklace embroidered with dark green thread emphasized her slender long neck. A stiff, dark green skirt hung in triangular panels down to her knees at its longest point. It had deep slits in it, up to the tops of her thighs, and was cut to resemble a spiky flower bud that had opened to reveal the white flower above. Under the skirt, she wore dark green biker shorts and green tights to maintain her modesty. To Tomoyo, they made her legs seem like the stem of a flower. She sighed again very pleased with the overall effect.
Gently, Sakura drew out the transformed Cards and laid them out in a row. "Moon/Purity, Sun/Life, Fire/War, Death/Destruction, Strength/Protection, Metal/Beauty, Water/Affinity, Wind/Rebellion, Time/Revolution," she named them as she gently placed them on the table. She held one more Card in her hand, and then took a deep breath and laid it down. "Water/Wisdom."
Eagerly, her friends leaned forward to study the new Card. Innocent looking Cloud slept on the face of the Mist Card. After a few moments, Shaoran suddenly frowned.
"Wait, WATER/Wisdom?" he questioned with a puzzled look. "Don't you already have a Water card?" He pointed to the Card which showed Mirror hiding Watery.
Sakura blinked and looked at him in surprise. "Yeah…" she said uncertainly as she shifted her gaze down to the Cards in front of her. She reached out and picked up the Watery/Affinity and Water/Wisdom Cards, one in each hand. "How can I have two Waters?" she asked in puzzlement as she studied the two Cards.
As her gaze shifted from one to the other, she realized that a taste came and went in her mouth. Still looking at the Cards, she licked her lips. "Salt?" she questioned softly. "No salt?"
"Salty and unsalted?" Yukito asked studying her face. "Does one seem saltier to you?"
"Mmm…" she said as she raised her confused green eyes to him. "When I look at this one, I get a salty taste in my mouth," she added as she raised the Water/Affinity Card a little bit and lowered it. "I get a feeling of depth, too. Of space." She raised the other Card slightly. "When I look at this one the salt taste goes away. And, the depth feeling changes to a feeling of lightness."
The five friends pondered the Cards for a few more minutes. "Salt water and fresh water?" Tomoyo asked tentatively when no one else spoke. "Technically, they are different." As her four friends looked at her uncertainly, she continued. "They have different properties and abilities. Like the ocean and a lake. A lake will freeze more quickly, not only because it is shallower, but because it doesn't have any salt in it. Lake water will also absorb more pollution than ocean water because it had less dissolved in it to begin with. And, things that would sink in lake water will float in the ocean."
"So… One is Ocean, and the other is Lake?" Shaoran asked as he looked back at the Cards.
"Or River or Stream or Pond…" Tomoyo replied.
"I think… I think Salt Water and Fresh Water suits them better," Sakura said as she looked between the two Cards once more and then laid them gently back on the table.
"Planets," Yukito said suddenly. As the group looked at him in surprise, he shook his head with a small smile. "We forgot the planetary association. Salt Water and Fresh Water would be good names. So would Neptune and Mercury. Neptune as Salt Water..."
"And Mercury as Fresh Water," Sakura said, smiling in sudden comprehension. "So the water lilies were for Neptune, not Mercury." She considered this revelation for a moment, then took a deep breath and looked up at her friends.
"I had a dream last night," she said seriously. "I've been having it for several nights now, but last night Kero-chan helped me to see and remember it. The first part of the dream is that Hall I've been dreaming of for several months now. It has pictures in it. Portraits of people." She paused as Kero nodded, and then continued. "The portraits seem to be related to the Cards somehow. Twice, I've seen a changed Card appear in front of me in the Hall then fly off to become a portrait. When I finish looking at the portraits, the hallway disappears and everything goes black for a moment."
"When I can see again, I am floating in some sort of pink mist. In front of me, I can see the spirits of my Cards, the original, unmerged ones. I also see a large group of people. They look a lot like the people in the portraits except that their clothes are different." She paused and cocked her head as she remembered the group of people. "In fact… Most of them seem to be wearing the same thing… a body suit, bows, and miniskirt. Almost like a uniform, except that the bows and skirts are all different colors."
"They're all women?" Tomoyo asked in surprise.
Sakura shook the image out of her head. "All but one," she replied with a little smile. "And, all but one of the women are wearing that outfit. The one who looks like the Lady on the Moon is wearing a regular, tea-length dress."
"The Lady on the Moon?" Shaoran asked curiously.
"That's one of the portraits," she replied. "A lady wearing a long white dress sitting on top of a crescent moon."
"Tea-length?" Yukito interrupted before she could continue.
Sakura blinked, and then responded with a smile. "A dress or skirt that comes to about mid-calf. Anyway," she continued, "I see Windy standing near one of them and I say her name. Suddenly, I can hear what they are saying."
"Can you understand them?" Yukito asked as she paused again.
"What are they talking about?" Shaoran asked at the same time. "Invasion plans? A status review? The Cards that are going to be changed next?"
Sakura smiled again as she shook her head. "No, nothing like that. Yes, I can understand them," she added as she glanced over towards Yukito. "They are talking about how to get home. But, they can't seem to come up with a satisfactory answer. One of them makes a comment about using a mirror just as I am looking at Mirror, so I say her name, too. Suddenly, they act as if they can see me. But before we can do anything, there is a big tremor and I fall away and wake up."
"Hmm…" Yukito said, looking at the Cards as he mulled the dream over in his mind.
"They saw you?" Shaoran asked sounding a little nervous and protective.
"I'm not sure," Sakura responded. "I think so, but I always wake up at that point so I don't really know."
"Hey, relax Kid," Kero interjected. "She wasn' in any danger."
"Why, because you were there?" Shaoran asked irritably.
"Yeah," Kero replied suddenly irritated by his tone of voice.
"Stop it you two," Sakura interrupted. She gave them both a serious look as they quieted and glared at each other. "I wasn't in any danger," she said as she turned her gaze back to Shaoran. "I didn't feel any danger, and even if they had attacked me, the Cards were there. They would have helped me."
"Hey!" Kero cried. "I was there, too. So you were in even less danger!"
"Yes…" she replied sounding just a little amused. She winked at Kero as he glared at her. "Yes, you were there this time, too, Kero-chan, so I was even safer."
"So what did the dream tell you?" Yukito asked in an attempt to bring them back to the topic at hand. "So far, all I can tell is that the Cards are apparently in the same place as the people in the portraits that you see in your dream. But where is that?"
Sakura shook her head slowly. "I'm still not sure. But it tells me one other thing, too, and that's why I wanted you all to come here tonight," she replied. She looked at the Cards again as she continued. "It tells me how to communicate with them. And I want to try it out."
"What! No way!" Shaoran and Kero hollered in unison. Yukito just looked at her in surprise, while Tomoyo smiled happily behind her video camera.
"Yes," Sakura replied stubbornly. "I have to! They might know what is going on! If we help each other, maybe we can return things to normal."
"It's too dangerous," Kero said as he slashed his arm in a negative motion and shook his head.
"You want to use those changed Cards to communicate? We don't even know how their powers have mutated!" Shaoran said agreeing with Kero. "He's right. It's too dangerous."
"That's why I wanted you here," Sakura said reasonably. "If there is a problem, you three and the remaining Cards can back me up."
"The mos' powerful Cards 're the ones that've been modified," Kero said trying to use logic to change her mind. "Light, Dark, Earthy, Firey, Watery, Windy… Those 're the top two ranks! An' so far, they've been completely unresponsive. The only really powerful Card you've got left is Hope."
Sakura looked nervous and uncertain for a moment, and then shook her head. "We have to talk to them, and this is the only way I can think of. They don't mean any harm. They're not evil."
"And you will do it whether we help or not, won't you, Sakura-chan?" Yukito asked sounding sadly certain. Mentally, he agreed with Shaoran and Kero, but his gut and his heart were telling him to trust Sakura.
She paused, and then slowly nodded. "We have to," she repeated more softly. Kero and Shaoran stared angrily at her, clenching their fists.
Sakura looked down at her Cards and let the silence grow. Several long minutes later, Shaoran and then Kero began to relax.
"Okay, we can't talk you out of it," Shaoran sighed. "So what do you want us to do?"
Sakura gave him a sad look, a little disheartened by the lack of support and enthusiasm in his voice. "I think the four of us should concentrate together. Then, I'll invoke Windy and Mirror."
Shaoran caught her gaze with his own and stared into her emerald green eyes. He tried to convey an apology and his support in that gaze. Sakura relaxed and smiled a little, then nodded slightly to let him know that he was forgiven.
"All right then," Kero said in a suddenly determined voice as he ignored the interplay between his Mistress and her love. "Let's do it!"
"Mmm!" Sakura said with a wider smile and nodded her head sharply in agreement. Tomoyo watched a little jealously as the four magical friends closed their eyes and began to join their powers. As usual, though, she quickly brushed the useless emotion aside and concentrated on what she could do.
Although she could neither sense it nor see it, Tomoyo knew that an aura of power was beginning to build around her friends. Automatically, she checked the light/radiation gauge on her camera's display. As it climbed into the red zone, she deftly dialed down the aperture to let in less light. Almost seven years had given her plenty of practice at capturing the image without spoiling it so she could see later what she had missed.
"Windy…" Sakura said softly in a commanding voice. The room was still for a moment, and then a slight breeze began to blow. It ruffled their hair almost playfully, but it didn't move the Cards at all.
Tomoyo's eyes widened in surprise when she realized that she could see the Cards glowing. Suddenly, something like a hologram appeared above each of the Cards. Quickly she played with the zoom on the camera to see if she could capture the images. 'So pretty,' she thought to herself in awe as she studied the women. When she saw the handsome man hovering over the Sun/Life Card her eyes widened again.
"Mirror…" Sakura said.
Tomoyo watched as the figures suddenly started and spun to stare at Sakura. They jumped together in the middle of the table, long misty cords connecting them to their Cards. The women dressed in mini-sailor outfits formed a ring surrounding the other woman and the man. The man placed his arm protectively around the woman's shoulders and she leaned into him just a little. All of them stared intently at Sakura.
A/N: Chapter titles for Ch 29 & Ch 30 "D... D... D... Dreaming... Dreaming... Soshite tobira ga hiraku yo..." from 'Tobira o Akete' written by Kikuko and performed by ANZA. Slightly modified (Do! changed to D...), and used without permission. 'Tobira o Akete' was the second opening theme song for the CardCaptor Sakura TV Series, and the singer, ANZA, was the first actress to play Tsukino Usgai / SailorMoon in the musical stage productions. ANZA reigned as SailorMoon from the summer of 1993 to February 1998, and in the opinion of many fans will always be THE SailorMoon.