Sakura's Last Chance in time

by Nighthawk Imac

When her magic is accidently relevaled to the world and eventfully begins World War 3. Sakura and her freinds must join up to change the past. Project Shelved until later notice, see profile page for details

5. Missing Promise

Sakura's Last Chance in Time

3rd Edition

By Isaac M. Zavelsky

Chapter 5: Missing Promise

Location: South of Tazovskiy, Former Federation of Russia

Date: April 5th, 2011

Time: 01:23 hrs

The convoy moved steady on the old dirty road; out here it was extremely lonely, nobody had could possibly live out in this forest and wasteland. Sakura was wrapped deeply in old cloth and gowns nobody had washed since the start of the war. Sakura felt a little sick of the smell that was making her dizzy. Syaoran was a little different; he had commandeered a uniform standard army overcoat. These old overcoats were last seen in the 1940's as cheap and efficient ways of covering Russia's troops in the fight with Germany. They were not at all destroyed, just disappeared amongst the poor beggars looking for heat. They were smelly and covered in all kinds of dirt and dry mud.

Tomoyo and Theresa sat further in the door having turns drinking coffee that Melissa gave them. It was an army brew style, it didn't taste well, but it was warm.

"So where are we going anyway? There isn't really anywhere around here we could hide" Syaoran asked. Theresa looked at Syaoran for a moment and replied.

"We are taking you and Sakura to the last place on earth the Americans would try and get you. Its four hundred kilometers from here" Theresa explained. Syaoran thought to himself that at 75km an hour on this old truck, he could probably sleep until they arrived. Syaoran didn't get to sleep much while on the missile submarine Konovalov. Sakura fell asleep on Tomoyo's lap, by accident, Tomoyo didn't seam to mind. Naoko and Rita decided to stay up with Theresa and talked for the first time. The trip would be another four hours until then reached Headquarters, so anything was good to pass the time.

"So, who are you" Naoko remembered seeing Theresa on the submarine and assumed that she was a member of her crew, but remained suspicious to who she really was"

"I'm Captain 2nd rank Theresa Testarossa, but you can call be Tessa" Theresa introduced herself in her fashion.

"You're a Captain?" Rika found it hard to believe

"Yes, well one rank below Captain, I'm a commander"

"How old are you exactly?"

"Twenty, I was a captain since I was sixteen, then was demoted to Commander when I was eighteen" Theresa explained her position. Naoko and Rika were left amazed at the story. Theresa continued to entertain them with her story from when she worked with MIRTHIL.

Location: The white house, Washington D.C, Federal States of America

Date: April 4th, 2011

Time: 18:00 hrs

Although it wasn't his best hour, he still had to present the briefing to the, a position that was almost as holy as the pope; seeing that this same man killed millions to produce a new religion abolishing others. The general was the security general in charge of the Clow Card weapons project; a design team from Roswell that found ways to capture the card magic and applied it into producing the most powerful weapons of the war. This was both a succuss and a fail; Yue slowed the process down when he powered the cards under his command, resulting in a deadly conflict in the desert. The project had been able to convert the cards into new age maritime weapons for the navy and some conversions for the air force, but in terms of ground weapons, it came too late before Roswell was bombed into submission by the mysterious 'Red team sigma' submarine force. Fortunately for him, the events didn't cause him to be transferred to the front line in Europe.

The president liked his work and was considering sending him to Japan before he picked The 2nd missile command's General, who had lead the 3rd army into Europe in his vile then down into as far as Iraq to claimed seven million people or 'magic beings' into prisoners or killed them in the face of resistance. But now he wished he kept his decision of sending his other general out to Japan, but it probably would have not changed the outcome. As the president prepared to speak, the door opened, the president already knew who it was and spoke,

"Ahh, Morning chief, your late"

The Chief Officer of the Central intelligence agency; the one-time agent on the field in Japan, was now the top boss in the entire agency. Near legend for his find, the president kept him under his wing and rewarded him for is next mission that eventually lead to the battle of Hong Kong. Simple known as 'chief' by the staff generals in the white house; His main job was boss of the FBI and CIA meant a total control over the Federal American's information and intelligence gathering. His day was normally busy with meetings about resistant groups and daily reports about movement in and out of the borders at sea. When he was confirmed that there was a resistant movement, cult, religious group practicing or even worse, magic beings still around; he gave the order for the FBI to handle it.

The FBI itself was diverted from its original purpose before the beginning of the war; most of its tasks now were done at the CIA. The FBI and the presidential secret service were formed into one service, which the residents of the federal states feared for their lives. This new and haunting secret police had almost mythical status and resembled that of the SS Guard from Hitler's time, working in the night; this police force moved to eliminate suspects and permitted torture in bases similar to the one in Japan. This form of enforcing the law throughout the empire became a example of human discouragement to stand up and freedom of speech.

"So, chief; what wonderful explanation have you got?" the president asked,

"Mr. President, in the last couple of days, my people have been monitoring recent events…" the chief spoke

"Of course you have, who wouldn't!" the 1st general yelled

"Well the situation is this Mr. President, in a swipe attack, they took out the entire base, we have understanding that they attempted to capture Sakura and her subordinate officers; Naoko, Rita and Tomoyo, as well as her fiancé Syaoran"

"What success did they have?" the president spoke,

"None sir, their helicopter was shot down, or ran out of fuel. We recovered a helicopter that crashed on a small island off the Japanese Islands of Okinawa. We found the burnt remains of five girls and one boy, but we have believed that's not them…" a general explained

"What makes you say that?" The president slightly confused,

"They nuked the crash site and the airbase" the chief explained,

"The airbase was nuked?" spoke an air force commander.

The Chief of the intelligence stood up and took the presenter's stand. He inserted a new CD into the presenter equipment. The table that was in the situation room had been replaced from a old oak, and replaced with a 2 million dollar television screen under glass, the centre of the table had a flat screen monitor that often was used to display maps and animated movements of enemy. Every seat had a good view of the screen as the overhead lights were dimmed and the lights near the walls. On the screen, a map of the area around the airbase was mapped out.

"It was a defined attack from the east and west: At 18:00 hours, April 3rd local time, a large deployment of bombers and strike fighters left the airbases, here and here" the person pointed to two areas on the edge of the table "we counted two hundred and two contacts, fifty fighters, one hundred and fifty medium tonnage strike fighter-bombers, and two aircraft that we've never seen before in any description"

"So, what's so incredible about that?" the air force commander spoke

"A hell of a lot, that's the entire eastern strike force in he rebel's arsenal. They wiped every plane we had out to the affect, then there are the two planes here; they flew at mach 6.8, at almost twice the air ceiling of our interceptor fighters in that region, and its stealth. It carried the Russian Mark-2 Minjoiur Electromagnetic bomb, these are modified from the standards mark-2's and are stealth capable, thus far we have renamed them mark-3"

"Oh god, these people want to start another world war?" the 1st general spoke

"Our current understanding is that they use their speed to outgun the radar system, it is capable of being seen on radar when it decelerates below mark 3, a mechanical problem that we believe is why the new plane has never been used in combat bombings of major cities in the inner Federal American states"

"Where is this getting?" the 2nd general questioned the chief,

"This aircraft obviously was sent forward of the main attack group, but it didn't decelerate when it neared Tomada; it did a radar scan of the region and flew out to the pacific ocean, then came around and fired several E-Bombs at the forward Radar station north of the airbase.

"Blinding the enemy…" the Admiral spoke out of turn,

"It then turned around when the main attack group did its primary attack, and dropped these, each fighter had a M-9 Arm slave attached to the belly"

"Christ, out forces didn't stand a chance?"

"At 20:30 hours, two ultra hot contacts were found speeding towards Okinawa and the airbase in the Tokyo bay region, the course and speed in indicate a sea launch"

"A sea launched missile attack?" the president

"A submarine?" the 3rd General spoke,

"Not possible, we know they have submarines, but only their Charlies and Alfa's. But, since when does an Alfa fire nuclear missiles?" the 2nd admiral informed,

"The admiral is right, General" the 1st General spoke out "We creamed their fleets of missile boats and proper fighting ships when we took out all their major ports two years ago. If they have anything to play with, this is they very first I've heard of it"

"A another missile boat?" the 2nd General spoke,

"That's bull, there's none left" the 1st Admiral spoke "They don't have a single Delta or Typhoon left in their fleet"

"Which means?" The President enquired,

The chief sat down "we have no idea if the Russians have Sakura, or deployed a dummy to make believe they have them, or if they outright killed her"

"Why would they just kill the target? There were signs and reports of an invasion force of a thousand troops trying to take the base. That wouldn't be needed in any case" spoke the 2nd General

"Unless they took Sakura" the chief spoke up as he went up from his chair.

"You have a better explanation?" the 1st Admiral spoke

"Yes, fortunately I do" the chief ordered the lower ranked official to place a memory card into a computer in the table.

"Exactly, the radar stations at this base are down, nobody can tell what happened, except for the satellite radar system which could detect the stealth planes decelerating and turning in the pacific. After the first strike force was sent through; about ten twin rotor helicopter transports from the British army and twenty mid range attack helicopters from the Chinese 4th army regiments landed and took to the grounds, the battle wasn't going well for the invaders and our forces backed and held ground. But then this…" the screen related the flight pattern of the helicopter that supposably took Sakura and another helicopter that went to see and back to the fight.

"So they have them?" the president spoke,

"Not exactly, The Russians then fired the two missiles from sea, but we couldn't identify where, we believe that the Russians gave up and ordered a retreat, this backs the theory that we conducted just after the end of the battle of Hong Kong" the chief explained "the Russians obviously are willing to scarify recourses in any battle, they also destroy the evidence when they fail a mission"

"They destroyed their own men?" the president found hard to believe,

"First rule of losing: cover up the evidence" the 2nd general spoke

"So in hence sight, the Russians failed to steal Sakura?" the president continued

"That's our firm belief at the moment" the chief declared "But there is one more piece of evidence that makes no sense, the fact there was a sea launched missile attack and the presence of three Russian submarines just north of the Bering Strait. Two Alfa's and a Charlie"

"The loss of a Los Angles class boat, in the Bering strait?" the 1st Admiral was normal to assume such stupidity in intelligence gathering, but still it was a serious affair.

"The staff should understand that this next piece of info might completely disregard the conventions that we follow"

"Go ahead" the President spoke out.

"Mr President, our boat fought the two Russian Alfa's, that were parked in behind an ice cap on this small island" the chief zoomed the electric map and pointed the island. "When our boat opened fire, there were two Russian Alfa's, we successfully destroyed the first Alfa, but then a Charlie I showed up and shot ours up into pieces, just before the submarine was destroyed, the black box put in a buoy and launched to the surface, the Russians didn't see this, fortunately and we had a seaplane recover it"

"And?"

"The Sonar detected a third Russian submarine, it was larger then even any Typhoon missile boat; and it was heading out of the Bering straight towards the submarines, which is extremely odd because on the sonar, it literally appeared out of nowhere"

"That's bullsh…" the 3rd Admiral loudly enforced the opinion that all the in the room admirals had.

"Admiral, we calculated the time between this and the attack in Japan, a ship could sail at twenty knots average, and have time to carefully go through the strait and be on time to be on that Sonar screen, expect this one showed up almost one hundred miles away, when the range on this certain boat is two hundred miles"

"Meaning the ship was silent for one hundred miles?"

"No, this submarine was travelling at close to thirty knots, but strangely it was just starting its propellers, which could make rotations for five knots at their power"

"Hang on!" an admiral raised his voice "are you talking about a stealth submarine the size of a missile boat!"

"It's a possibility, it would explain why we didn't see any missile boats near Japan at the time of the attack, and a surface ship would easily be destroyed in the strait" The Admirals and Generals started to argue, this to them was absolute trash, but so was Sakura's magic to them when they first heard of it.

"Chief; there is no way that is possible! The Russians don't have the places anymore to even build normal submarines, let alone a stealth missile boat"

"The size of the boat, and the possible fact that Russia may still have Missile boats is a big possibility, this allows us to believe that Sakura may also have been on that boat"

"What?"

"Like the good old USSR in old days, they managed to give us the slip" The chief joked,

Location: Somewhere south of Tazovskiy, Former Federation of Russia

Date: April 5th, 2011

Time: 05:25 hrs

It wasn't the first time Sakura felt fear, but this was a new kind of fear; for the past few days, Sakura didn't even think of what would happen to her now. Sakura kept to her as the convoy approached the base; which from what she heard, was incredibly more secure then the airbase. Escape would be impossible if Sakura wanted to leave. Her nerves were steaming with fear; but it felt like there was something that she didn't expect from all of this; comfort. Syaoran had stayed awake the entire trip, he had been unable to get any sleep since they left Tazovskiy. The base wasn't far way now; it was said to be hard to see at night, and just as hard to see in the day. Up ahead was only a mountain range and a lake and what Theresa said was an abandoned ammo dump. Sakura and Tomoyo looked out of the back and looked towards the roadway road block they past without any stopping.

Sakura then looked around at everyone: Melissa and Webber were sleeping; they swapped position with a British and Danish army officer who was now sitting near the door with readied automatic rifles. Souske was still awake holding an anti-air missile launcher, and Theresa was leaning into the corner of the truck while Tomoyo had fallen asleep on her arm. Sakura felt for a moment that Tomoyo and Theresa would get on very well from that single act. While Rika and Naoko had fallen asleep, it was only Syaoran and Souske still awake. Sakura then leaned her back on the seat and waited. As she did, the British officer gave Sakura something in a flask,

"Here, we are going to arrive soon, its best to keep warm"

Sakura opened the flask of hot chocolate; amazingly still warm, even after four hours on the road. Syaoran looked at the man that gave it to him, a Captain of the British army, and odd appearance considering they were in Russia, it still quirted Syaoran a bit because of that.

"Thank you" Sakura warmed sipped the contents of the flask.

"Not a problem madam, names Bentley, Captain James Bentley, 402nd special air services regiment, British Army" the man was one of the two persons on the door holding an automatic rifle. He didn't look as threatening, but he still managed to scare Sakura by his itching movements on the trigger. Sakura finally calmed down.

"And I'm friend here is Gerrit, sergeant major Gerrit Leanny, 3rd Regimental Special Forces, Royal Danish Army" Spoke the man siting opposite to the British Captain on the truck. It didn't really make Sakura feel anymore safer then before; Sakura and guns Tomoyo once declared 'don't mix well'. Tomoyo was pretty much the same on the issue, but was more accepting. Sakura found some relief from their introduction and drank her hot chocolate. This calm was short lived; as the thundering sound of a Fox-bat Mig-25 flew less then a hundred feet over them. Despite not being at mach speed, they still made a harrowing high pitched noise that rang in your ear and deafened you for a second.

Sakura screamed and catapulted her hot chocolate out of the thermo flask into the air and back onto her, and the British officer nearby. Tomoyo, Syaoran and everyone else was now awake from the noise, Tomoyo quickly seeing Sakura stiff as a board quickly went to her. Souske went to Theresa to wipe the liquid off her face.

"I see you're a little jumpy Sakura, don't worry, were all like that sometimes, jets passing over like that should be old stuff now that you've heard it" Kurz realising what just happened, Melissa responding by hitting him. Everyone calmed down and resumed seating position; for an aircraft to be that low meant that they were close to the base or headquarters

"I suppose so" Sakura whispered; As she tried to sip some of the remaining hot chocolate, a another Mig-25 rumbled over in the other direction, this time it was at mach speed and shocked Sakura's nerves even more, spilling even more hot chocolate over towards Tomoyo and Theresa. Souske covered Theresa as the hot liquid fell towards her; Souske muttered something and sat down again.

"Then again Kurz-san" Theresa spoke "some people take longer to adjust"

"Indeed…" Souske sitting down and fiddling with the tip of his weapon.

"Where are all those aircraft going? I don't see any lights for a landing strip" Tomoyo asked.

"The headquarters is an airbase as well; a unique one at that its runways are all is submerged 15 centimetres under water" Theresa explained "We are about to enter the main tunnel way; take a last whiff of the air, that's going to be the last fresh breath of cold Siberian air you'll ever have to have"

Sakura didn't really take an understanding of what she said, until the truck suddenly decreased speed and dove down a steep ramp that went down a few metres. It was more a trench covered with army nets then its description of a tunnel. The roadways wound towards a small line of hills that sat at the base of the mountain behind them. The lake went right up to the hills and oddly shaped folds on the banks of the lake. Sakura then noticed that this area had more to it then it could appear to have.

The convoy of trucks arrived to a solid steel gate, guarded by to M-80. Syaoran noticed that everything here was rusting badly, the trench was reinforced cement and steel trusses were painted brown and black with the addition of the cover net, which had no holes expect ones to vent the diesel smoke from all the heavy weapons guarding this entry.

"Entry authorised, let them through" a guard spoke to a sentry at the gates. About eight men all then opened the swing doorway at the entry; they pushed it along the track in the ground and opened up a lamp lit roadway. The trucks then slowly crawled down the pathway and further down to the intersection. The entire length of road had barricades and machine gun nests along the one hundred meter road to the intersection. The trucks lumbered by the waiting tank aimed at the door. In case any enemy managed to break it down they would have a hard time getting down the road. Sakura and Tomoyo looked out the back, from a behind view, dozens of soldiers of a variety of nations patrolled the base road to the row of buildings that lined the roadway.

Then the convoy entered a hanger sized tunnel; seven trucks could drive side by side with ease. But it had five tanks guarding the entry. Obvious signs that they took any attempt of attack as a serious threat. The path the trucks took, went along a series of doors on the right side of the tunnel, one was left open, it relieved a Mig-39 and two Mig-25's parked facing towards the trucks.

There was now an apparent the reason for such a wide tunnel. This tunnel seemed to also act as a taxiway to the air force's various planes. Down towards the next intersection, the exact Mig-25 that first shook up Sakura was taxing down to the opened doors of the hanger containing the other three planes. Sakura and Syaoran looked out in amazement at the design of this place; it was massive inside and amazingly couldn't be seen from the outside.

"Impressive isn't it?" the British officer spoke to Sakura and Syaoran "Probably the best secret that we have; it is the largest fully operational air force and army base built by the lake, it has 99 coverage of its base under the hill range and up the side of the mountain behind us"

"I see" Sakura looking at the amount of guns that were being carried by patrols. Sakura's fear of guns and what they did to Chihura, Tomoyo and herself suddenly made scared even more. Chihura was killed with a handgun; Tomoyo and Sakura were given chest and back wounds from a sub machine gun. Everyone here was carrying fully automatic weapons, it wasn't the right place for Sakura to calm down.

"Were about near the entry, take a left here corporal"

The driver, a corporal in the German army turned the truck down another road tunnel. The view in the back revealed another door that lead directly to the shore of the bank. It was lit up with red lights that blinked and travelled in a pattern from the other side of the lake down to the end of the runway. Sakura blinked a few times when she saw another red light above the trees in the sky moving downwards. An alarm of some description rang and everyone suddenly headed out of the way of the door. The light then relieved to be another jet. It slowly touched down on the lake; it suddenly slowed the plane as it quickly approached the hanger doors.

It eventually slowed down and was slow enough not to concern anyone. In turned as soon as it passed through the doors and taxied right, revealing it was a French Euro fighter; something Sakura obviously wouldn't know; but the British army captain would and everyone else did, but this fact didn't matter; Sakura had more important questions on her mind. Tomoyo was amazed at this place; it was like it was straight of the latest 'James Bond' movie. Expect it was ragged and aged; its simple design lasted ad stood against time. Everywhere; imprint paint of soviet era emblems and the national flag of that time were visible in places; But they also looked new in some areas.

"Were here" Theresa ordered the truck to stop, "lift two: this shaft will take you to the meeting rooms, and for now, your quarters"

The truck passed the doorway and turn to backup into a parking bay outside the door. Along the walls in this road were docking platforms that allowed access to the back of trucks like this one. Souske exited the truck first with Kurz, Melissa then stepped off followed by the British and Danish officers. When the soldiers were off Theresa rose from her seat.

"We've arrived, its better we get inside, or you'll catch a cold"

"Were we going" Tomoyo enquired Theresa.

"Well, to your quarters, from there you'll have the opportunity to sleep off your travel lag"

Tomoyo agreed; on the matter that her chest and legs were starting to feel numb on the account of the exposure to the north Russian winter. The soldiers helped them all out and escorted them down to the lift, oddly to Sakura; found not one was pointing their gun at her head, something that she was so use to when she was imprisoned not to long ago. Something like that took sometime to get use to. Kurz was even caring about his stance, holding the gun by the middle and not in any position to fire it. Souske was the only one ready, Melissa copied Kurz's fashion, while the British and Danish men didn't even care if there rifle was loaded.

"You be allowed to sleep and get acclimatized to this place for now" Theresa explained "I would however like all of you to get at least six hours sleep"

"Then, what after that?" Sakura asked,

"You will be asked to a meeting at 13:30 hrs, or 1:30pm today to discuss the details of the last four days, anything else?"

"No, Theresa…Captain Sir" Tomoyo thanked her and walked with Sakura into the elevator. Sakura, with Tomoyo, Syaoran, Naoko and Rita waited as the doors were closed; a sergeant major at the panel removed a key from his pocket and inserted it into the bottom of the panel. They were currently on G3; standing for ground three, the top was E2 and the bottom was B10. The person turned the key; as he finished, all the lights on the panel then flashed and went blank. Theresa then pressed Q2, standing for 'Quarters two' which was five floors up, out of the ten more before E2. The lift started to rise up to the floor. The lift was big enough for twenty soldiers to get in, with Sakura and her friends, plus the five guards and Theresa; there was plenty of room to move. Tomoyo started to quietly shuffle towards Sakura.

"They are nice people Sakura-Chan, but I'm worried about it" Tomoyo whispered very quietly in to her ear, at this moment, Tomoyo dint believe feeling uneasy was an excuse be scared.

"You're not alone on that Tomoyo-Chan" Sakura replied quietly.

Syaoran leaned on the back wall and looked at the ground tiredly; it'd been a while since he had some decent sleep. Naoko walked to Syaoran and looked at his solid eyes, looking directly into space. Confused and some bit scared, she decided it was best to remain out of the way. Rika looked at everyone; making an impression like on the crew of the Konovalov. Rika however was too tired to continue working, or talking for that matter, she cared for some sleep in her own bed for once. As Sakura waited for the lift to stop on the level, she turned to look at the people around her, three of the guards kept with close clench their rifles, at the ready. The looked like they'd not take any complaints or any compliments either. The hard look on their faces showed no mercy for the enemy Sakura thought was her. Tomoyo walked over and leaned on her friend; before Tomoyo spoke, Sakura replied instead,

"Don't worry; I'm sure it'll be alright" Sakura whispered.

This helped Tomoyo feel relief. Syaoran perked his head up, quietly surprising Naoko whom was still starring at him.

"Level, Q2" the solider spoke.

The doors opened momentarily to hallways that lead down to an intersection area on the floor. The hallways were silver and black with a red line on the top and bottom kick boards, the ground had a grating like metal 2 metres in front of the lift, the rest was solid marble; polished marble in fact, it was the complete opposite to what Sakura imagined,

"This way, a brief tour of this level wouldn't hurt"

Sakura was quickly reminded of the interior of the prison that her friends stayed in for two years, but this was different, it was like the officer quarters of the Konovalov, but bigger. Syaoran looked in amazement at the room. That was like the main area here; it was mainly a library; it maintained red, sliver and black as the room colours, but the furniture was dark blue. It was decked with various models; aircraft, battleships, even spacecrafts from Russian history, as well as a few from various other nations, and a few models that didn't come from anywhere.

"Sakura, this way to your quarters"

Sakura and everyone followed the officer and looked at a door that could be locked from the outside; there was one on the end, but no lock, just one from the inside.

"Sakura, Syaoran, Tomoyo, Naoko, Rika" Theresa opened the door "these are your new quarters: Room five, level Q2"

In compassion to rooms Sakura had been to, it was neat; it had eight single beds, with warm heating, and a window view of the lake, from looking outside before, she could now recognise the cliff part that she was now standing behind, the lake was big and from the reflection of the light, you could see three runways criss-crossing each other at the centre. The room was warm and had soft beds; Sakura felt if was a hotel room and not a military installation like it appeared downstairs in the hanger area.

"Your joking right, this is too good to be true" Syaoran spoke as he checked the foot lockers at the end of the beds. Inside each wardrobe were two uniforms that standard with the Russian military, and some clothes to wear when not doing anything.

"Were not joking Syaoran, these quarters would be used in the event of nuclear war by the government. Seeing there is no Russian government anymore; these rooms are spare, and seeing you are here, why not use them?" Theresa joked and explained,

"Still…" Sakura still worried about what was going on.

"Syaoran, please. You will be filled in on the issues later, in the meantime I suggest you sleep, the bathroom is back down the other end; buts its highly suggested that you don't wander downstairs via the lift, you are bound to forget were you are quickly" Theresa nodded and left Sakura and the group to themselves. Sakura heard them walk off, but didn't hear any locks. Sakura instead locked the room's door from the inside and huddled the group together

"Sakura-Chan, are you feeling alright?" Rita asked,

"I'm alright" Sakura spoke, "but I'm worried about why they took us here"

Everyone was considering the options, if they didn't answer to whatever they were brought here for, would they get worse treatment then before or not? Best though that they agreed with Sakura; with that, the girls decided to turn in for sleep. Without warning to Syaoran; all the girls started changing into the warm sleeping garments that were in the foot lockers. Syaoran suddenly felt out of place everyone changing like he wasn't there. He spun on his heel and looked out towards the window; which comically had a minor reflection of what was happening behind him.

Naoko and Rika the suddenly realised that Syaoran was there and looked at him; doing everything to allow their privacy from being undisturbed. Sakura and Tomoyo turned also when their senses realised who they forgot about. Sakura being the closest to him put on her gown and walked to Syaoran.

"Its okay, I'm dressed" Sakura spoke gently; Syaoran took her word for it and turned, opening his eyes shut when he was facing Sakura. Syaoran thought for another second, trying to think about what to say, in the best way he could think of

"I'm sorry Syaoran-kun, I forgot"

Sakura didn't giggle at the funny moment, instead; she kissed him on the cheek. Syaoran went full blush red and froze as stiff as a board.

"That's for not looking, thank you" Sakura whispered,

Syaoran completely didn't know what was going in his own mind, but it'd been a while since Sakura kissed him, like that, let alone made any contact. But something was different in what was normally felt. Syaoran thought about it; Syaoran then opened his eyes and didn't realise that Tomoyo hadn't finished putting on her shirt; Syaoran turned, stumbled and hit the carpet ground.

"Syaoran-kun! Are you okay!" Tomoyo spoke,

"I didn't see anything! I swear!" Syaoran answered loudly,

Tomoyo thought for a moment and then giggled "I'm sorry about that"

"It's okay Syaoran-kun! We know you didn't mean it!" Sakura giggling "Come on, we need sleep, we wont look when you change"

"I'll go outside" Syaoran grabbed his stuff and ran out the door tripping over shoes that Rika left on the floor. Tomoyo and Sakura looked at each other in embarrassment, Naoko and Rita simply didn't try to find an explanation.

"Syaoran-kun hasn't acted like this since you first met him" Tomoyo spoke to Sakura.

"What do you mean?" Sakura didn't quite get what Tomoyo meant it.

"Only thinking" Tomoyo giggled,

"I'll never understand those two" Rita said quietly to Naoko

Naoko quietly nodded to her friend, just as the girls lay their held down to sleep, a loud scream came from down the hall, followed by several doors banging wide open. Sakura and Rika jumped out of bed and ran to the door. Sakura and Rika saw the door on the end was smashed in. With Kurz and Melissa were outside with pistols, pointing inside; Sakura then immediately rushed down the hallway to the scene; Inside was another crazy scene.

Just before; Syaoran left the room to change in the bathroom. Because all the doors had labels in English and Russian; Syaoran couldn't understand what the door on the end was. He believed from before that it was the bathroom when Theresa avidly pointed to the corner of the hallway. He decided to open on door which had a sign on the top, it was only 1 row instead of two like the rest, and therefore Syaoran assumed it was the bathroom. In actual fact, it was Captain Testarossa's private quarters. He opened the door without and walked in, only to see Theresa into her night gown; predictably she screamed, triggering Souske to run from his room, smash the door in and rugby tackle Syaoran to the ground, then pulling a gun on his head. Kurz and Melissa followed suit and were then surprised by who it was Sakura rushed inside and saw Theresa had hid behind the bed, putting on her nightwear. When she had finished, Sakura helped her up and walked over to Syaoran who was lying on the floor out cold for the moment,

"The guy is gutsier then I thought" Kurz lowering his gun and laughing,

"Why is he out?" Melissa spoke,

"He said he'd change in the bathroom or something, and then, well…." Sakura very embarrassed having to explain for Syaoran, who was starting to come about. Rika leaned down and checked him for injuries, Souske still had his gun pointed and ready, in case he had to fire.

"Its ok Souske, you can go now"

"But Captain, he is…"

"Don't worry, ill handle it from here, you get some sleep" Theresa requested. Souske saluted and left the room,

"Rika-chan, you too, you, Naoko and Tomoyo should sleep" Sakura pleading,

"Ok, we'll stay up for you"

Rika hugged Sakura and left the room; only leaving Sakura, Syaoran and Theresa. Syaoran finally work up and then with awaking up, remembered why he was knocked out. He clamped his eyes shut and pretended he didn't see Theresa. Sakura kneeled down and looked at him,

"What happened?"

"I thought this was the bathroom, I swear, it only had one label on the door, but it was in Russian, I swear! I didn't mean to" Syaoran blushing red the entire time, while eyes shut. Sakura and Theresa both then giggled when Sakura told Theresa that the exact same thing happened before.

"Syaoran-san, you must be as committed as Souske when it comes to being clean!" Theresa laughed "That's ok, now that I know it's an accident, I'll remember to put Japanese labels on my door"

Syaoran got up and looked at Sakura and Theresa; suddenly Syaoran noticed a relative beauty in both girls, well, Sakura looked pale, so did Theresa in way. Syaoran lightly blushed when he saw how they looked in light sleepwear and gowns. He didn't notice it before; But Sakura looked strange in his mind, like if she was more attractive; less like a child and more feminine, like Theresa who looked beautiful, despite her upbringing. Syaoran quickly put it to the back of his mind that he had been faithful to keep clean of certain thoughts.

"I'm sorry again, for causing so much trouble and pain" Syaoran spoke standing up.

"No, I should the one that should be apologizing; you go slammed in badly by the sergeant"

Syaoran bowed his head and let Sakura finish

"We will be leaving now, I you have a good night sleep" Sakura nervously left the room

"Actually, would it alright if I slept in your quarters now?" Theresa grinned "if the door is smashed and open, it would leave in a nasty chill, and its better not to get a cold here"

Syaoran and Sakura looked at each other; they were partially responsible for causing this to happen. Sakura felt guilty for it happening and invited her,

"Sure" Sakura agreed "it's the least we can do for what trouble we've caused"

"Thank you" Theresa picked up a pillow on her bed and walked down to the quarters, Syaoran left for the real bathroom and changed finally. After some time; everyone finally gave to sleep, it was now nice and quiet, and the light couldn't be seen yet. An advantage to the Russian winter, having the sun appear very little every day, which meant that sleep was possible for night time eighteen hours a day. Sakura slowly rubbed her body into the warm thick sheets and lay rested looking at Syaoran who was looking directly back at Sakura. Sakura felt relaxed and drifted off into a deep sleep; feeling safe and secure for the first time in a very long time.

Location: Somewhere 300km South of Tazovskiy, Former Federation of Russia

Date: April 5th, 2011

Time: 12:30hrs

The hours past quickly, it felt barely enough time for Sakura and her friends to recover from their travelling ordeals. Sakura was blissfully left in a dream state, dreaming of home, and her old life that tragically was cut short. When Sakura felt a nerve pinch as an abnormally; she suddenly crossed into being awake. The nerve then made Sakura think; what did just happen, was it a dream? Sakura for a moment relaxed and tried to take in the noise around her; only the sound of ruffling sheets, no wind from an open window, no prison guard walking. It wasn't in the prison; as Sakura feared. Sakura had believed for a moment that the past few days were a dream, no, the regular sounds were absent. Sakura slowly opened her eyes a bit to see; it was bright for second, she shut them again as the influx of light disturbed her vision.

Sakura rubbed her eyes and opened them a bit more to reveal the sheets and the heavy blanket covering her. Sakura slowly lifted herself up, rubbing her right eyes a bit more and then leaning heavily on her left arm. Sakura's hair was completely messed up now, some off her overgrown fringe covering her eyes; she straightened it for a second before could see properly. She then tried to scan the room; to her right side, Tomoyo was sleeping peacefully, but unlike her normal sleeping posture, she was on her side. Naoko and Rika on the other side of Sakura and Tomoyo were sleeping well; Rika was almost unseen as her cover was almost over her head. Sakura checked if she could breathe no cause for alarm as Sakura heard her very faint snore from Rika. Then there was their guest, Theresa who was sleeping on the other side of Tomoyo in the spare bunk.

Syaoran on the other hand was completely different to everyone else. Sakura took notice of him as he turned over again; he was sleeping in the bed on Sakura's left. Sakura got out of bed and looked at him carefully, he was sweating and his expression on his face was of frustration and anger. Sakura walked to his bedside and kneed down to his level; she didn't know what to do, Syaoran started to breathe a little faster and his skin turned reddish pink. Sakura worried and slowly put her hand forward to touch his arm that was nearest to her. Sakura's heartbeat increased as she slowly approached his hand. Sakura then touched; it felt of a warmish completion, but very humid and dry skin.

But as in an instant, Syaoran snatched her hand. He opened his eyes wide open and saw Sakura about to faint. Sakura's insides were shaken up and stirred her body to slow down. Her skin went pure white for half a second. Syaoran stared at her for a full five seconds, before breathing through his mouth finally, heavily breathing like he was underwater for hours. Syaoran slowly let go of Sakura's hand,

"Syaoran-kun, are you alright!" Sakura whispered,

Syaoran-kun took a second and answered "I'm fine, just a weird dream"

"Are you sure your alright, you were pretty worked up"

"I was just thinking and then" Syaoran tying to find the words, instead, he saw Sakura's worried eyes "I'm sorry I worried you Sakura-Chan, I…"

Sakura motioned him to stop talking,

"Do you want to talk, for a little while?" Sakura quietly whispered

"Here?"

"Nobody else is awake" Sakura looked around again; everyone didn't notice what had happened, they too tired to notice. Syaoran didn't resit Sakura's help, and allowed Sakura up next to him. Sakura got off the floor and lay on the bed along side Syaoran

Syaoran stared "About earlier, when you and the others were changing…"

"I know, I'm sorry about that Syaoran, about thank you for being trying to help"

Syaoran felt confused. Sakura also had a tough time dealing with the issue. Syaoran was only human, and this was a normal thing for males his age. Syaoran just didn't understand it well, which made Sakura glad that he tried. Syaoran broke the silence of the moment, "When I looked at you before, Sakura-Chan, you looked different…I mean you were beautiful in a another way"

Sakura smiled; it'd be a long time since Syaoran said that to her. But then, remember he said it was different

"What did you like about me that was different?" Sakura started to worry it wasn't the kind of love Syaoran had for her before.

"When I figure it out myself, ill tell you" Syaoran replied, he didn't want to talk about it, and decided to change the subject "let's talk about something else, ok?"

Sakura nodded and continued speaking. She had the strange feeling Syaoran wasn't telling him something that Sakura should've heard. But in her on mind; Sakura felt that Syaoran was doing was he felt was best.

"Well, I've been thinking about these people as well, what if there like the Americans?"

"I had the same suspicion about them before, but I think we can trust them" Sakura responded,

"Maybe they can help us" Sakura spoke "Getting our life back to normal"

"Help us with what?" Syaoran knew how much Sakura wanted a bright future, but now it was possible "Sakura-Chan, our lives weren't normal, and we can't erase what has happened, I'm sorry…"

"We did at act normal, and look what happened! One simple mistake and we lost everything!"

Sakura burrowed in and looked at herself, wanting to cry. Syaoran put himself in a complex situation with Sakura, something that he did enough when they were capturing cards. But now was intensively difficult,

"Syaoran-kun?" Sakura sobbed "Was this world my entire fault?"

Syaoran couldn't answer that question. On one hand, yes; Because Sakura accidentally relieved magic to the world, it set in motion events that changed the entire world. On the other hand, it wasn't; Sakura couldn't tell if she was being watched, and Sakura couldn't known they would believe the person.

"It's not your fault Sakura-Chan, its only fate"

"Please! Don't be so nice!" Sakura clearly was sobbing tears.

Syaoran couldn't stand it anymore, now Sakura was crying it felt like a arrow in his soul. Syaoran the hugged her. Sakura's face dug into his warm chest. Sakura sniffed as she cried even more. Syaoran stroked her auburn hair with his free hand. Sakura felt warm and comfortable feeling his gentle heartbeat soothing her pain.

"Its not your fault, and I'm sure everything will be alright" Syaoran whispered into her ear. Without even Sakura or Syaoran noticing; Tomoyo was awoken by the sound of Sakura crying Tomoyo didn't hear it thought her ears, but through her heart; she could feel Sakura was crying. Tomoyo turned her head to the direction of Sakura's bed, but beyond that was Sakura laying at Syaoran's side, hugging him, crying and wanting comfort.

"Li-kun" Tomoyo whispered

"Sakura-Chan is alright, ill take care of her from here" Syaoran replied silently

Tomoyo nodded and lay back down and started sleeping again to the satisfaction that Syaoran helped Sakura calm her fears. Sakura and Syaoran then lay back down and slept even more peacefully together.

Location: Somewhere 300km South of Tazovskiy, Former Federation of Russia

Date: April 5th, 2011

Time: 15:30hrs

The group slowly started to wake up after a long, but comforting sleep, none of them felt this good and well rested for a long time. Sakura and Syaoran, whom were still asleep; remained together on the same bed; everyone but Tomoyo were left in surprise. Sakura was still naturally hugging him and Syaoran was lying on his back unaware that he was being watched. Syaoran had his arm covering Sakura lightly. Tomoyo restrained herself from shouting some hilarious remark, understanding her friend's predicament before hand. Tomoyo instead motioned the other two to get changed while Syaoran and Sakura were still asleep.

"Come on, we'll let them sleep in, we'll get ready and wait for them in the library" Theresa spoke and agreed with Tomoyo, Rita and Naoko looked at themselves and agreed with a slight nod.

"Besides, we can't have Syaoran passing out at us changing" Tomoyo giggled; Naoko and Rita nodded again. Theresa looked at Tomoyo for a second when she said that, it instantly reminded her of the previous night/morning when Syaoran accidentally went into her room, and then her door was smashed in by Souske.

"Tomoyo-san, it might be a good time to tell you, but there is a shower next door" Theresa lightly reminded the three girls that they haven't had a shower in a while. Tomoyo, Naoko and Rika didn't smell like garage; but it would be better that they cleaned themselves before they went to the meeting. Tomoyo looked at herself and then at Naoko and Rika who were surprised by her suggestion.

"That would be a good idea" Naoko giggled realizing that she hadn't had a shower in a month; Rika and Tomoyo also agreed with their friend, and picked up a towel from the lockers. Theresa then led the girls to a bathroom that Syaoran had missed the previous evening. Inside, it was a pretty typical reminder of the girls changing room at Tomoda High school. But it was pretty; self contained. Theresa walked down to the last door and locked it behind her, Tomoyo then took the one next to it and Rika and Naoko the two on the opposite wall.

"Nice and warm" Tomoyo commented as she felt the hot water on her face,

"This base has a good hot water system, but its prone to breakage, so don't get to comfortable" Theresa reminded her,

"I didn't realize how much dirt was in my hair!" Naoko announced, cleaning her hair clean of dirt that got caught in her hair on her escape.

"I didn't notice it before Tomoyo, but apart from your hair and eye color, you and Theresa look almost identical" Rika commented. Inside their respective showers; Theresa and Tomoyo looked at the wall that faced them at the person. Tomoyo then looked at herself, her height and build made her almost identical to Theresa, despite her being two years older.

"I never really noticed that" Tomoyo and Theresa thought to themselves,

Once they had done with their showers; the girls walked back to the room, where Sakura and Syaoran were still sleeping. Theresa had taken a change of uniforms to her temporary quarters the previous night and decided to change here. The four girls proceeded to their footlockers at the end of beds, while Theresa grabbed the clothes she left on the remanding spare bed. Inside each foot locker was; uniforms for a week, an overcoat for cold weather outside, army boots and shoes that fit their size, and a few other things; like towels, and other essentials.

"Do you know what we are going to do this afternoon?" Tomoyo enquired Theresa, Who was disrobing and changing into the standard uniform provided,

"We will be going to a meeting at 5pm this afternoon" Theresa explained "a brief introduction and a debriefing of the past few days"

Naoko nodded and took out a shirt and started to put it on, it felt bigger then it should've, probably for someone taller, everything felt a lot bigger then what Naoko's real size was, despite these uniforms were made for them. A minor not the tailor left out was that all the name tags on the jackets were in Russian, the only way you could tell was by the insignia on the collar.

"Is it just me, or were these made for a person shorter then me?" Rita spoke fitting her tall frame into a slightly shorter uniform top.

"Tight!" Tomoyo tried to put on a top, oblivious to small for her size and height. Theresa then turned around to see the three of them wearing the clothes, automatically Theresa realized the problem. On the foot lockers, the names of them were printed in Russian, so the person moving the crates could understand, but Tomoyo, Naoko or Rika couldn't read or speak Russian.

"Oh my" Theresa giggled slightly "your all wearing the wrong uniforms"

Theresa only had a light top and her blouse on when she had to fix them up. So she explained it

"Tomoyo, all the stuff in that box is actually Rika's. Naoko, your stuff is in the box Rika opened, Rika, your box has Syaoran's uniform, yours is here" Theresa pointing to a footlocker at Sakura's bed. Without any fortunate luck, Syaoran started to come about. Sakura was still asleep, but Syaoran started to here some strange things he really wished he could block his ears. Only before he attempted to do he realise his predicament; Sakura was using his right arm and chest as a pillow, with his left hand has holding her back. He could only hear Theresa talking, and naming things, but it was weird.

In the time Theresa explained the problem, Tomoyo Rika and Naoko exchanged for the correct uniforms. Tomoyo went to get a fresh uniform and put it on, it fit in terms of height, but in her case it was loose around the middle, Tomoyo remembered how she use to have a problem putting on a school skirt.

"I think they took our height, weight measurements from four years ago, and then guessed" Naoko spoke "but they fit right"

"I think so, my pants are loose thought, but I blame my tubby self back then" Tomoyo giggled,

"You weren't fat at all!" Rita spoke,

"You think so?" Tomoyo asked, Tomoyo looking at herself now. Not remembering that four years in prisons made her lose the extra weight, Theresa took interest and listened in

"No, you had a terrific figure" Naoko spoke "What made you think otherwise?"

Syaoran was pretending everything that he wasn't hearing this, we hoped to god that Sakura would wake up naturally and stop this.

"You remember Eriol-kun?" Tomoyo said reluctantly,

"Yes"

"I was kinda in the same partnership with him, like Sakura-Chan is with Li-kun"

Naoko and Rita looked at the aforementioned pair on the bed, one sleeping, and one supposably sleeping. The reference didn't provide the correct metaphor for Tomoyo and Eriol's relationship, but it provided an example of their bond together.

"Obliviously we should've of hung around you more often" Rita spoke,

The girls giggled. Syaoran blushed deep red. He provide himself everything; every inch of his training to prevent the worst outcome. Syaoran had a cold nerve go down his back. That wasn't a good sign at all to any male. He tried to simulate pain, and got rid of it. It was painful enough to hear this in his condition, he couldn't turn over and he couldn't block his ears. Was it a dream or nightmare? Syaoran oped nightmare.

"Please Sakura-Chan! Hurry up sleeping in and wake up!" he thought to himself,

"That doesn't look to bad Naoko" Tomoyo fixed the tie on the back of Naoko's jacket, making the jacket at the waistline smaller, Rika was still putting on shirt waiting for Tomoyo to explain what she meant,

"Anyway, you didn't answer the question Tomoyo-Chan" Theresa spoke "What does Eriol-kun have to do with you being tubby?"

"Well you know how he cooks so well?"

"Yea…" Rika agreeing as if she knew the next sentence,

"Well, let's say I enjoyed his food a little too much" Tomoyo started to giggle,

"I see" Rita and Naoko joined giggling "But you always looked great, especially in the outfits you designed for yourself and Sakura"

"You sure?" Tomoyo wondered "what about that time when we all went down to Okinawa in the spring?" I felt terrible all that week; I felt full all the time"

"It must've been in your head" Naoko replied "a lot of teenage girls think that, no matter…"

Theresa put on her jacket and started to do up her hair into along braid like always. She took some interest in the conversation,

"You went to Okinawa?" Theresa spoke "I was actually grew up there"

Syaoran 'knew' this all too well, way too well to be helping him to preventing exposing himself. He couldn't help but remember how beautiful or cute Sakura and Tomoyo looked in their bathing suits. And he suddenly imaged everyone else, and how the vacation was. The girls finished getting ready and started fixing their hair. Tomoyo oped to do her hair like Theresa; as Rika made the comment before, they sized each other up in height and shape and they did almost look alike.

"But Sakura-Chan, how can she keep that figure?" Naoko spoke. Syaoran's breaking point was nearing. Now they were hitting something a little close to home.

"I think it's because of all that exercise with cheerleading and when Sakura-Chan was capturing the Clow Cards"

"I guess so" Naoko still wondered about that "you two done yet?"

"Finally…" Syaoran sighed, some relief in his head

"Yep, just let me get the jackets Tomoyo-Chan" Rika spoke

"Okay, let's wait for these two in the library"

Theresa with Tomoyo, Rita and Naoko, all filed out of the room and closed the door. Syaoran waited another ten second before her breathed proper for the first time in fifteen minutes, deep heavy breaths. He finally could move himself; he moved the hand that was supporting Sakura's lean towards him and with that let her fall face down onto the bed. He creped out and then turned her over. But Sakura had already woken up when she couldn't breathe. Sakura took a minute to regain focus on all her senses before getting up.

"Are you alright Sakura-Chan?"

"I'm alright Syaoran-Kun, huh…why are you sweating?" Sakura spoke as Syaoran stood up, confused by his reddish face and swear visible on his face.

"You don't want to know" Syaoran said helping Sakura up, "Lets say it was another product of Tomoyo's torture routine"

Sakura stared at him for a second confused and then smiled and nodded. Syaoran not all more confused, but understood that Sakura got the idea.

"I'll let you change first, I'm going to have a shower before I go" Sakura replied "I suggest you have one as well"

Syaoran looked at Sakura a little weirdly; it wasn't like Sakura to joke about his smell.

"Its alright, we can both change at the same, we did before we were imprisoned, and I know you're not going to hurt me, besides, I think we have to get ready to go to some meeting"

Sakura went to a locker that had her jacket on it; Theresa left it there to indicate it was her locker. Syaoran did the same and went to his locker to retrieve his uniform and some things for a shower. He tried to remember when there was a reason he and Sakura had to change at the same time, then he remembered the situation, it was a few weeks before that day, in fact it was in the mountains at Tomoyo's winter house. Sakura then walked into the bathroom alone, while Syaoran waited. In the meantime, Syaoran decided to wait; he had already enough problems to deal with, and his string of mistakes was only getting longer.

When Sakura was done, Syaoran picked up his gear and swapped places, Sakura a little nervous with him standing and looking at her clean body. Syaoran being a gentleman however tried to avoid contact as much as possible. He quickly showered, shaved and changed into his uniform, which he had taken with him into the bathroom. Sakura and Syaoran then emerged later dressed up and ready, surprising Tomoyo and Theresa in getting ready for action. Tomoyo felt something fishy and then for a moment believed Sakura and Syaoran showered in separate blocks at the same time. But it was highly unrealistic; Syaoran had proven to be extremely scared of even looking at Sakura dressing for bed.

Theresa rose from her seat "Its time we went to the meeting"

"Meeting? What Meeting?" Syaoran and Sakura asked,

"You're to meet the chief generals and admirals, as well as the leader of MITHRIL and the resistance movement"

Sakura gulped and looked at Syaoran, for a moment Sakura noticed his collar unfixed. She went to her duty of fixing it. Making Tomoyo giggled a bit. A knock came to the door, and without an answer, four soldiers in black uniform walked in, each one carried a high powered Mac .145 assault rifle. Sakura fringed and hid behind Tomoyo. Syaoran looked around to Sakura who less then a second ago was just standing next to her. He looked behind and saw that Rika and Naoko did the same behind him.

"We are here to escort Major Sakura, Major Syaoran, Captain Tomoyo, Lieutenant Rita, and Lieutenant Naoko. Madam"

"Very well" Theresa smiled for a moment then waited for them to start walking down with her. Sakura simply nodded to everyone else and followed suit.

Location: Somewhere 300km South of Tazovskiy, Former Federation of Russia

Date: April 5th, 2011

Time: 17:30hrs

Sakura walked out and with her friends walked down the hallway to the doors, the guards now actually saluted Sakura. Sakura wondered if it was because she had a rank pin indicating she out-ranked them, or if it as because Sakura was the mistress of cards. They reached the room door; they were solid wooden oak, elegant considering they were on the top floor of the complex. Two officers opened the doors to reveal a warm room; it had a long table with 20 chairs, simple phones, screens on the walls, and maps that been drawn over many times. Sakura proceed to sit at the table end closest to the door, facing the big screen.

Despite waiting around for almost five days thinking about nothing but getting an answer, Sakura still wasn't calm enough to approach this meeting with a level head. One on hand, she could end up in prison for denying her actual title given, on the other; Sakura could accidentally make a promise that couldn't be kept. When Sakura was seats, she looked at a place mark on the table that were laid out on 5 seats on one side, Sakura was next to Syaoran and Theresa, Tomoyo, Rika and Naoko sat down the side At the other then; two small black doors open, in there came about twelve commanding Generals, Air chief generals, and Admirals. They were a range of militaries, European, and Asian. It was an equal spread. One of each force was represented of the four leading armies; Russia, China, England and Denmark, two seats remained.

"Attention, the CNC commanding and the CNC of MITHRIL" Everyone stood to attention, Sakura and her friends, sought fitting they did the same, regarding that they were just following the chain of command, or put simply, just doing what everyone else was doing.

"Major Sakura, Major Syaoran" Started the officer "Pavli Nemerov, President of the former Russian Federation, and Admiral Borda; commander and chief of MITHRIL operations"

"A rebellion soviet union?" Syaoran knew some history and knew well that something was fishy.

"Very much a metaphor of our only existence" The president replied. "You are standing at the table of the high command of this new Soviet Union, everyone at this table represent the four largest and most influentially armies outside America, as well as the once secret MITHRIL, which before the war, was one of our enemies"

"Enemies?" Sakura looked at Theresa, finding it hard to believe that the president and Theresa were in the same room.

"It's a long story, everyone at this table four years ago would've considered the other, untrustworthy, but things have changed, a great deal since"

Theresa sighed, as the President made it sound like it was good thing. It wasn't, it was in fact an act of desperate measure.

"Shall we begin this briefing?" A Chinese general spoke,

"Yes" the general opposite Sakura picked up a paper "Sakura, as a free and able bodied Citizen of the empire of Japan, an allied nation now inside the USFR, you are hereby conscripted into service of USFR Army, you have been listed as, Major, 1st divisionary army of the USFR"

"What!" Sakura panicked.

"But as of midnight 24:00 hrs, you will be transferred to the Special Forces division of the USFR"

"You are not going to be in combat roles, you instead are here for a reason" Theresa stated "your skills as a Card captor are needed elsewhere, this time for good"

"I don't understand" Sakura spoke,

"You are not aware of the events for the last four years?"

"No"

"Then we have much to teach you…Major" Admiral Borda spoke,

An officer started a film projector; it began to show a map of the modern world, it looks different from that Sakura last saw in geography. Nearly two thirds of the map was under American control. Then the film had shown footage of CNN before its dismissal, the cities in American were been destroyed by there own government not long after her capture

The English general continued "President Harold wanted to use the powers for war, so instead of solving the worlds problems, he began to pressure America on to a path of war, calling himself to congress, and demanding emergency war powers, ultimate control in other words, his support of mostly extreme right wing parties won him that right. Meanwhile the Sakura cards were been tested and used to aid America's new arsenal, president declared himself, the ruler of the Federal states of America"

Admiral Borda continued speaking, "He dismissed the government and began a global assault against the free world. He destroyed East Asia with nuclear weapons, Europe was obliterated with every country burnt to the ground, those who surrendered became apart of the Federal states. North Africa fell later, almost 50 million people died fighting, the new 'king' was on a genocide campaign to rule the world, the Federal states suffered as well, the food was rationed to the point of inhuman, rights abolished and anyone rebelling killed. This became what we tried to prevent after the same events half a century ago"

President Nemerov then continued "Also they awoke a threat, us. The Soviet Union was re-formed and grouped together the remnants of armies that could come to our soil. After a bitter fight, we have been fighting stalemate with the Americans. The Americans know that our nuclear weapons are now the same as there's, therefore we have now entered a stage we call 'the gates of Armageddon'"

"And how does this involve us?" Syaoran spoke

"In the four years of the war, we have managed to hold our ground very well, but we know that we cannot do this stalemate game forever" Theresa answered "and then operation 'Card Capture' came along"

The other General spoke "Since Sakura and Syaoran were the ones who were responsible for the chain of events that followed been captured by the Americans; we believe there is a way that you could reverse this terrible course of events"

"But how?"

"In the four years of war and devastation, we've came across two of your colleagues, who have helped us greatly in operation card capture and gave us reason to hope that this mission would be successful"

Sakura and Syaoran look at each other in confusion. They quickly assumed someone like Souske or Theresa, but they didn't know anyone they knew would be still alive, Sakura and Syaoran knew that their families were dead, so it wasn't possible. With silence for only a few seconds, Theresa stood up

"Tell them to come in"

The door that Sakura came through opened again. Two shadowy figures then walked into the room; same wore the same style uniform as Sakura, he rank pin on one of them was two golden oak leafs and gold star. The other was another rank pink for a Lieutenant. They were familiar in aura, too familiar, Sakura then opened her eyes just before he announced,

"May I present you with the two people responsible for your rescue, Lieutenant Li and Lieutenant Colonel Takashi" Said the General proudly.

As he spoke, the two figures appeared exactly like they were; Melin and Yamazaki stopped walking and stood at attention. Sakura all of a sudden wanted to jump out and hug them both, but resisted from doing so. Although a somewhat natural reaction, it'd have to wait, the high command staff was probably not people to wait for reunions to finish.

"Colonel Takashi and Lieutenant Li; reporting as order, sir" spoke Yamazaki in a formal manner; saluting sharply once he finished speaking. Theresa continued on behalf of the two senior members,

"At ease Colonel, Lieutenant"

Yamazaki and Li then stopped standing at attention and stood in a more relaxed manner. Theresa the continued to explain,

"We were extremely fortunate to get these two people, out of the 500 million refugees during the major conflicts in the year 2009. Lieutenant Li, who is now attached to the peoples republic army; instructed us the possible cards that she knew about which is helpful to us, and Takashi helped us with the rescue plans and the main attack on Tomoda; been a local to the area provided help for the URUZ team to infiltrate and rescue you" the general finished.

Sakura accepted this information with one gulp and continued listening. Theresa sat down again and resumed her quiet mode. Admiral Borda then continued.

"Operation 'Card Capture' was conducted in several phases. In October of 2010; we conducted a top secret mission to a research laboratory in California, Federal states of America. This mission was 100 successful. With that end…Bring in the cards"

"What cards?" Sakura asked,

A door opened, a man with a briefcase came in, with two armed guards around him. The officer approached the table where President Nemerov and Admiral Borda sat. The two CNC's then revealed keys from their pockets and gave it to he person with the suitcase. The keys fit in perfectly and opened the briefcase. The president, Admiral Borda had never seen the contents before. Theresa then stood up and walked over to Admiral Borda, when she caught gaze of the contents, her face stopped and gasped. Sakura and Syaoran then got up and went to see what it was. Sakura stepped forward and approached the briefcase. Sakura gazed inside and looked at the contents, Sakura then spoke

"Time, Return and Hope, these are the cards of the Sakura book, made to serve Clow Reed and then to serve…me" Sakura replied at her sight. Inside the cards lay in her view for the first time in four years. But Syaoran didn't look happy,

"These cards are dead, they have been damaged beyond their limits" Syaoran announced "once a card is ripped or burnt, and they have limited power and eventually die"

Theresa nerves all suddenly went cold, like if her heart had dropped a mile deep into the ground. Everyone else felt the same for the moment, Sakura looked up at Syaoran who himself didn't look steady, The president got up He turns back at the table and stares at the cards and then at Sakura.

"Is it to mean that these cards are nothing but paper?" Admiral Borda asked

"Exactly" Syaoran replied,

Yamazaki and Melin stood still down the other end of the table; suddenly felt a chill of sweat on their backs. The president and the leader of MITHRIL were taking their word on this, that they promised it would work. Theresa who was the leader of the project and was the person who first asked to bust Sakura out of prison; at the moment Theresa was worried very much about what would happen if Syaoran or Sakura said it was impossible to repair the problem.

"Is there no way to relieve or re-birth the cards?"

"from what we have, it is not possible, the Sakura book would be the only place that could properly restore cards if recently damaged, but in this state, a staff is required to re-new the energy sprit"

"And you don't have your Staff Sakura"

"The 'star' staff was broken in the fight, and I cannot create a new one without the Sakura Book" Sakura apologized and then thought of something "but please, I will try to…"

"That is alright Sakura, if not your fault" Theresa whispered, everyone in the room became silent, the president muttered breath could be heard only. The room was quiet, not only physically speaking, but in a sense that their mission was failed. But the people knew it wasn't Sakura's fault; it again was the American miliary that seemed again to won the day.

"I'm sorry sir, if I had kero, or even the book, maybe I could try another way to activate the cards"

"We don't have either you klutz!" a Chinese General exploded at Sakura "and I'm sure as hell you haven't tucked it away somewhere for four years!"

"General Chang" the Admiral Borda interrupted. The general continued his integration anyway; Sakura stood up were she was and started to answer the question, feeling like she had no choice,

"Kero was an animal, not a thing" Sakura defended herself.

"Then I suppose you have an answer to your little dilemma?" General Chang continued throwing questions and insults. In literally terms; he was going off the rails of the command structure, and basically attacking Sakura.

"I don't know" Sakura spoke,

"You don't know, that's just great, I knew this would happen"

"General Chang!" Theresa defended Sakura,

"Mr President, Sir! This is exactly why I didn't want the mission to happen, the chance that she wouldn't be able to perform"

The air chief commanders started to agree.

"Sir, its not their fault" Melin interrupted. Everyone in the room turned to face her and Yamazaki. The general responded furious at his subordinate's outburst.

"I'll tell you when to speak, Lieutenant. I vote to have Sakura transferred to the front"

"General Chang!" Admiral Borda spoke, "Lieutenant Li has a point, now stop for a second!"

The president remained quiet until now, he seemed like he was thinking of how to renew their chances of succeeding in this scenario. Sakura had gone back to her seat at the request of Theresa who wanted her to relax. Tomoyo and looked very worried at what Sakura was feeling; Sakura sat down and looked scared for a moment. Syaoran remain quiet and decided to just listen to the conversation. President Nemerov then stood.

"Sakura, is it possible to find access to re-new your cards, and create a new staff, without any equipment, the only other object we recovered was this" the president lifted the form on the top layer that held the cards, underneath was a brown ball with a red tail. Syaoran automatically recognized it.

"It's my sword" Syaoran then explained "the Sword can act as a staff, in activating the cards, but it cannot rebuild them, but it is a useful item"

"Major Sakura, Major Syaoran and Captain Theresa" the president spoke "I will leave it to responsibility for you to find a solution for this problem in twenty four hours"

"Yes sir" Theresa rose from her seat,

"This meeting is dismissed" the president spoke and rose from his seat. The military leaders all got from their chairs and started to leave the room, Sakura and her friends did the same and waited for Captain Theresa who was talking to Admiral Borda. Sakura then remembered Melin and Yamazaki; she looked at where they were, but they had long since gone off. From behind her; an officer was carried the briefcase ad then handed it to Theresa. Theresa thanked the man and started her way to Sakura.

"Let's go back to our quarters; we have a lot of work to do" Theresa spoke, in a relaxed voice; clearly Sakura could tell that she was still shook up by the fight.

"Thank you, for helping me, back there" Sakura gently bowed,

"It's alright" Theresa replied.

Sakura and her friends then walked off with Theresa back to their room, quietly and in deepened spirits, having been lost faith of the command council.

Location: General Chang's office, Unknown Base, Former Federation of Russia

Date: April 5th, 2011

Time: 20:30hrs

The general had been about to tolerate insults about his views; but today though wasn't his finest days. He didn't expect it, but from her own people? This is why he preferred to be shooting the enemy on the frontlines in Norway then deal with this. He sat down in his office and thought about his strategies in the battle of Hong Kong, the Battle of Beijing, the battle of Taiwan, the insertion of troops in India and finally, the battle of orient; his last battle before being promoted to a staff general. General Chang remembered when he could see M-1 tanks rolling down the streets of Hong Kong; after a extremely horrific battle. He had to order a full retreat and initiated the plan was set in place to blow up the central district with a heavy nuclear weapon. General Chang; when he escaped, could see the mushroom cloud burst; the one hundred thousand American troops and the thousand odd tanks already on the island and making their way to the mainland were incinerated, it also sank the entire south pacific attack fleet, and the flagship of the landing party; the USS America, along with the vice president.

He remembered those as the times he was a true warrior, now; he was a paper pushing freak, nothing he could do now; and then he his own subordinate go against him in the meeting. He had decided to speak with Melin. As he expected and waited, Lieutenant Melin Li entered his office. She was already tired; General Chang then thought it'd be easier to blame her for today in her state. Melin in fact had been in Norway fighting the American ranger squads in an attempt to stop the transport routes being unsafe. Her skills as a sniper had really developed well, a keen eye used in martial arts and her strength and physical fit body made her a prime candidate for such delicate job; it also made her the youngest sniper in the army.

"Lieutenant Li, Reporting as ordered, Sir" Melin Saluted and stood at attention

"At ease" General Chang muttered, "Lt. Melin Li, explain yourself on that outburst"

"You were attacking her too much; Sakura isn't one for been put pressure on like that"

"Nor are you, I only had to remind you what happened in Beijing"

The general knew Melin's past very well, it was General Chang that recruited her in the wake of the Battle of Hong Kong. Although she was great now, she had a shaky beginning, having started service immediately in the battle of Beijing, 3 days after she was drafted.

"I'm aware of my duty, sir, and I'm well aware of my beginnings"

"Then remember this, Li. I don't care what you think, as soon as this ordeal is over; I want you back in Norway"

"With respect sir" Melin handed him a paper "Admiral Borda gave me this to give to you; Captain Theresa would like me to join Sakura's team"

The general was furious when he read the first paragraph,

"That snobby little girl thinks she can use her friends in MITHRIL to get around me!" the general slammed the papers down on his desk "I need you in Norway, not here!"

"Sir, my cousin and would-be sister in law needs my help" Melin continued "if there is chance that Sakura can do this, I'm no better then the other twenty thousand troops up there"

The general slumped back into his chair and spoke,

"

"Hell if they even pull it off, they'll need a gunman or two" the general sighed "I've had you under my direct command, for three years now and I cant say you let me down, you've completed every mission I sent you on" the general picked up a pen ad signed the papers "Okay then, you'll have your transfer, I hat to lose you, but if Sakura even has a chance of making this work…"

I understand, Sir" Melin haste a salute "and thank you sir"

The general saluted back and gave her back the papers.

"Alright, get out of my office then, before I change my mind." Melin hasted her departed as he spoke.

Location: Quarters level 2, sector B, unknown base, Former Federation of Russia

Date: April 5th, 2011

Time: 12:30hrs

The now Major Sakura of the United Soviet Federated Republics Army crashed onto her bed, the stress of her nerves were at breaking point. She wasn't an army officer, she just wanted a normal life; then she became a card captor, and when she managed to get that over with, she was captured and began World War three because of that, then she got busted out and forced to be a solider. When you put it that way, it just seemed Sakura's life was never peaceful; Sakura somehow tried to figure out where she went wrong with her life at that moment, where she should've turned left instead of right. Would've it of been alright?

Sakura just lay on the bed face down and continued thinking for a while. In the meantime Syaoran decided to be alone while Tomoyo, Naoko and Rika all decided to stay by Sakura's side. Sakura for a moment looked like she was crying; this was when Tomoyo decided to intervene,

"Are you alright?" Tomoyo held Sakura's hand as she lay on her side thinking what had happened. Sakura still had the images of General Chang exploding at her, Sakura decided to remain quiet for the meantime and in a way, not think about what she had to do.

"Sakura-Chan? I'm here you know if you need to…"Tomoyo expressing her feeling of pain for Sakura's situation. She was cut short as Sakura leant up and hugged her friend,

"Tomoyo-Chan, tell me is there a way?" Sakura spoke and sniffed, Sakura griped herself to Tomoyo and didn't want to let go of her. Tomoyo understood and sat there hugging Sakura has if she couldn't let go herself. As they did so, Theresa walked into the room, with the briefcase.

"Sakura-san?" Theresa not realizing Sakura was crying, she put the briefcase on a footlocker and walked over to Sakura's bed. There she sat down and looked at Sakura,

"Sakura-san, I know that the general wasn't pleased to hear that happen, but please don't take it personally, Syaoran-san said it wasn't hopeless"

Sakura looked at Theresa and nodded, slowly she let go of Tomoyo who did in kind. Sakura relaxed her head for a moment to get the thought out of her mind. Sakura then breathed and continued,

"He's right" Sakura said, Theresa for a split second though she meant General Chang, but wasn't "Syaoran-kun would never lie to me, if there is a way, we'll find it"

As she mentioned him, Syaoran walked into the room. With a concerned face; he took the briefcase and then walked towards the bed opposite Sakura. The keys remained in the locks, so Syaoran opened the case. He then emptied the contents. On the bed were the three cards and his own staff, or the sword as he referred to it.

"Syaoran-kun?" Tomoyo stood up and approached the bed, Sakura followed suit with Theresa. Together, all four looked at the contents. The Syaoran looked up at Tomoyo for a second. Theresa looked at where Syaoran was looking at and was slightly confused when he was looking towards Tomoyo' chest. In actuality, he was looking at something that Theresa didn't notice before.

"Tomoyo-Chan, can you take off your necklace?"

Tomoyo looked up at Syaoran who was staring back at her neck. Tomoyo then remembered what Syaoran was talking about and removed the necklace. She placed among the other things, to Theresa, it was a rusty piece of metal that looked like a small key.

"What is that?" Theresa enquired

"Eriol's Key; it's almost identical to Sakura's" Syaoran explained,

Theresa thought for a second, and then asked,

"Could it be possible for Sakura-san to…?"

"No, it wouldn't" Syaoran answered the question "A staff is only bound to the person that it is used by, Sakura-Chan can't use Eriol's key, because simply, she is not Eriol"

"Then what about you?" Theresa asked "you have your staff or sword, can't you renew the cards"

"I cannot, the cards were sealed and signed to Sakura, not me, and even if they weren't, the sword wasn't design to seal a card, it can only use them, but that now is impossible because they aren't clow cards anymore"

Theresa signed at that prospect; so close, but yet not close. Sakura were about to give up when they heard a knock at the door. Naoko went to answer it, when I opened, Sakura jumped in surprise to see Melin. She was standing their with a rug sack over her back.

"Melin-Chan!" Sakura spoke surprised, but Melin didn't respond in kind, Theresa approached Theresa with some papers

"This was signed at 21:00 hrs, indicating I was transferred to your command, Madam" Melin saluted "Reporting for duty"

Theresa returned the salute to Melin, and replied, "At ease, you know I don't enforce rules of conduct, you can act normal in front of me and your friends"

With hearing that, Melin slumped her arms, and suddenly started to act like she normally did.

"Thank you, Theresa-san" Melin nodding. Theresa turned and walked with Melin, who was greeted with Sakura hugging Melin tightly.

"I'm so glad you're alive!" Sakura whispered into her ear. Melin had a tear in her eye as Sakura blushed and continued hugging Melin who was already feeling tight from the feelings of meting her friend. Syaoran came from behind Sakura and looked at his Cousin. Sakura let go of Melin who then looked at Syaoran,

"It's good to see you again, Melin-Chan"

Melin blushed more and ran to hug Syaoran. Who hugged her back, it was in a way a family reunion, but they looked like lost lovers. Tomoyo, Rika and Naoko walked up to others and all expressed their gratitude for Melin's Return. Sakura stood in front of her, with millions of questions on her mind. As Melin smiled she quietly nodded a bit subconsciously, slowly falling asleep.

"Do you need sleep" Sakura quickly noticed it happening

"Yes, but I can handle another hour" Melin replied,

Sakura remained unsure, she still had the problem with cards and staff to deal with, she only had another twenty three hours to find an answer, or what? Sakura didn't want to think that she'd be returned to a cell like before. Sakura walked back over the equipment that lay on the bed, two staffs and three cards, but only Syaoran's sword was the only thing that would work. Sakura wished in her mind that the key could work for her, she remained silent and in disbelief; her mind couldn't see anyway of getting around it. Theresa then decided to speak

"Sakura-san, I think for now, that should try sleep on the problem at hand"

"Theresa-san?"

"I think it'll be best if got tonight's meeting out of our minds, and thinking about it now wont do you any good"

Sakura nodded and looked at Syaoran and Tomoyo. Both of them agreed on the idea. Syaoran collected the suitcase and put the contents inside, including Tomoyo's necklace. Sakura then turned to Syaoran who was on his way out with the briefcase.

"Syaoran, can you leave it in here"

"Ok," Syaoran put the bag down and the continued on, until he left the room. Theresa and Sakura then remembered why he would do that. After a quick change into their sleeping gowns, they waited or Syaoran to return.

"It's alright Syaoran-kun, were done in here" Tomoyo giggled, Syaoran took her word for it and walked in, everyone was dressed, with the exception of Melin who was still changing. Syaoran made a quick turn, but trip on his feet, landing on the ground again face first. Tomoyo then suddenly saw why and slapped her head.

"Sorry, Syaoran-kun, I forgot about her"

Syaoran grunted and swore he could never tell if Tomoyo was just playing with him. He remained on the floor until Melin had finished changing. When she had, Syaoran got up and quietly went to bed, without any notice of what just happened. Theresa left the room to go back to her own. Everyone then went to bed. Everyone expect Sakura that is, Sakura remained quietly thinking in her sleep how to solve the problem, but her energy was only going to waste, Sakura started to slowly drift into a dazed sleep, quietly remembering the words she heard, and quietly wishing for the end. On either side of Sakura; Tomoyo and Syaoran both were thinking separately in their minds, how Sakura would pull it off. They knew was strong; and they were relying on her Sakura to create something out of nothing.

Tomoyo kept remembering the look in Sakura's face when she got yelled at by the general, her fear sweated off her face, then later as she cried on her. Tomoyo then silently wished she'd be alright, wanting herself to be closer to Sakura now. Syaoran in his mind regretted saying what he did before to Sakura; never before in his life how did he wish he regretted something. He did lie to her; there was no way Sakura could make a new staff, there was no way ever that Sakura could win.