Disclaimer: I do not own Card captor Sakura or any of its characters and places. It's all Clamps'. I just own the story I made up.
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It All Began With A Dream
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Chapter Fifteen : Realising a Few Things
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Syaoran was running in a black tunnel.
He couldn't see the end of it and was getting tired. On the walls, sometimes, an image would show up and tell him something in a language he knew but couldn't remember.
A light!
He tried to run faster, but his legs were too tired. He knew that if he couldn't reach the light, he would never see the end of the tunnel.
His legs seemed to be made out of rock, they felt numb. He stumbled and fell hardly on his stomach.
He tried vainly to stand up as he saw the light at the end of the tunnel become weaker and farther away, beyond reach.
'I won't be able to reach it' he thought; panic painfully erupting in his chest. "I don't want to stay here!" He shouted, hoping someone would hear and come to the rescue.
He closed his eyes, sensing hot tears ready to fall.
No! He wouldn't give up!
A picture appeared in front of him, faintly glowing, like a spectre.
It was a beautiful woman, dressed in an ancient Chinese dress, her long silky black hair tied up in a high pony tail, she had a serene look on her face, not so young anymore but not old either, but her whole body burned with authority.
Her magnificent eyes sowed nothing but care when they gazed at the boy lying at her feet. Even without knowing her, you could guess that she shared a special bond with the amber-eyed boy.
When she opened her mouth to speak, the words that flew out were like soft butterflies, light and comforting.
Immediately, Syaoran felt all of his weaknesses leave him and he stood up, still facing the woman who was almost as tall as him.
What she said was in that weird tongue, but the boy could now understand it, as if he had spoken it for his entire life.
"We are finally reunited." She smiled "But it won't be for long. You need to know that you have to trust your heart. And most importantly, even if everything seems useless, never give up. Now, Xiao-Lang, my only son, wake-up!"
And she disappeared in the air, leaving a confused boy standing in front of where she was a few seconds before and staring blankly at the thin air.
'Who was that woman?' he wondered, not realising that the light was getting nearer by the second, even if he didn't move. 'I've heard this name, Xiao-Lang before. But she called me 'son'. Could she be…' the blinding light was almost upon him 'my mother?'
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The light surrounded him in a cloud of awareness and Syaoran, after two hours of unconsciousness, finally woke up.
The first thing he saw was something shiny. His sword? He tried to grab it but his arm was too heavy.
He blinked and his sight became clearer. The shiny item wasn't a sword, it was…
A pair of spectacles. Round ones.
He blinked again, and recognised the colour of the eyes behind the glasses: Dark blue.
Eriol!
'Phew! That was all a dream' thought the amber-eyed boy, smiling naively 'Yeah… all a dream. I'm still at Eriol and Tomoyo's and Eriol is waking me up so I can leave on the journey to find Sakura. There was never another me or another Sakura'
"Eriol…" he mumbled, still weak from the fever.
Through some kind of fog, he could see his friend smile widely and turn his head to face a corner of the room.
"Hey, that one is far more gentle than you my cute little descendent. At least, he's happy to see me. Do you think it's possible to exchange?"
'What is he talking about?' Syaoran managed to rub his eyes and his sight finally became clear.
"Shut up Hiiragizawa" a voice said, coming from the corner Eriol had been facing.
But where had Syaoran heard it before?
He was sure he knew it… Come to think of it, it sounded a lot like his.
But how? There was no such thing as two Syaoran right? It had all been a stupid dream and he was just waking from it in Eriol's house.
The amber-eyed boy tried to lift himself up so he could see who the voice belonged to. Seeing him acting so, the blue-haired boy took a step back to be out of the way.
Syaoran closed his eyes in pain. His head was hurting awfully.
Resting on one of his elbow, he massaged his temple to ease the pain and opened his eyes…
Only to shut them immediately.
This couldn't be happening to him!
He gave a furtive glance at Eriol, who was silently laughing at his reaction.
"Eriol! What is happening! Why is Sakura here? And why are there two me? Am I still dreaming?" There was a small hint of fright in his tone.
"It's not a dream." Answered the blue-haired boy, amused "And we're as confused as you are."
"Who are you?" asked the Syaoran standing beside Sakura, his arms crossed and his brows furrowed.
The amber-eyed boy in the bed swallowed hardly. He could feel drops of sweat pouring from his forehead. His breath was short and heavy, as if he had been running a hundred meter dash.
"Answer dammit!" said the other boy, clenching his fists into tight balls. "Who the hell are you and why did you attack Kinomoto?"
He immediately stopped when he felt Sakura's arm softly holding his.
"Come on Li-kun. This boy has been through a lot of things. He has just awaken from a high fever? You mustn't shout at him."
He lowered his head in defeat and she turned her gaze to the boy lying in bed.
"Ahem" she continued to attract his attention "I'm glad to see that you're awake. My name is Kinomoto Sakura, this is Li Syaoran, and the dude over there is Hiiragizawa Eriol."
The smile on her face made all of Syaoran's built-up stress leave him. He gave a dubitative glare at that Li-kun dude, who looked like he despised him, and another one to Eriol who had a curious look on his face.
"My name is Syaoran." All of the people around the bed had surprised looks on their face. "And I don't know my family name, I had amnesia. The only thing I remembered was my birth date, July 13th."
"Where do you come from?" asked Eriol after a moment "Your clothes are weird."
"I was in a small town called Edo before I entered the tower and found Sakura." Answered the boy.
He had now understood that he wasn't in front of the Eriol, nor the Sakura he had once knew back in Tomoeda.
"Edo?" asked Sakura turning to Eriol with a quizzical look.
"It's the former name of Tokyo, where we are now." answered the blue-haired boy scratching his head.
"So you mean… He's coming from the past?" she tuned her wide eyes to Syaoran who blushed lightly.
"I don't think so. The tower has been built right after the name was changed. My theory is more of an alternate reality…"
"WHAT!" all of them shouted, disbelieving.
"I know it sounds weird, but it's the only explanation I came with…" the guy defended. "And the portal must have been in the tower."
"I remember that I felt a weird aura coming from that tower. It's the reason why I was there in the first place." said Sakura making the heads turn in her direction.
"And when I entered the tower, I felt like I was passing threw some kind of… of invisible veil." added Syaoran, still sitting on the bed.
"Then the tower must be the passage between the two worlds." said Sakura.
"But… then, how come we didn't go in his when we left the tower?" asked Li showing his replica with the chin.
"I'm not sure" explained Eriol, uncertain "It could be that the magic is unstable and sometimes it opens a passage, but only for a few seconds, OR, it could be that someone managed to open it."
"Is it even possible?" asked Sakura. "I mean, it must have been a extremely powerful wizard. Even I am not able to do it. Even with the Time and the Return combined, it wouldn't be enough to pass from a world to another."
"What!" suddenly shouted the sit boy "I can't stay here! I have to go back to my world! I can't let Sakura down!"
"Whoa whoa! Calm down boy." Said Eriol, holding him back "I promise that we'll find a solution, but for now, you'll have to stay here, in this world. And what do you mean, not letting Sakura down?"
"I mean, she has been kidnapped! I can't let her being hurt by a maniac! God knows what he'll do to her!"
"Oh My Gosh! My alternate me has been kidnapped! What are we gonna do?" Sakura was starting to panic.
"Don't you worry" said Eriol as calm as ever "Don't forget that I'm Clow Reed's reincarnation. I'll make Syaoran there go back to the past, when the time will come. It'll be risky though, and I cannot guaranty the success of that return in time. It'll depend on the time he had been staying here."
"Fine." abandoned Syaoran "I won't try anything drastic… Hey, hold on a minute. If you're Clow Reed's reincarnation, then the other one must be too. Then how come he gave the book to Sakura?"
"You mean this book?" asked Li coldly, holding the Clow book. "How did you get it?"
"Well," explained the boy "The Eriol in my world gave it to Sakura for her birthday. When she got kidnapped, I took it with me so I can use it to save her."
"Hoe?" gasped the green-eyed girl "Didn't she find it in her father's library like I did?"
"I guess there are a few differences between the two worlds." answered Eriol, taking the book from Li's hands and examining it carefully.
"In addition," added the amber-eyed boy in the bed "I think her father's library is huge! She is the princess and he is the king of the Kinomoto kingdom after all."
"Hoeeeee!" shrieked Sakura, forcing the others to cover their ears with their hands "I wish I was a princess too!"
"Well, it's not so great to be a princess in our world. We're at war, and she had to flee to a small cottage in Tomoeda, well I think so at least. Why else would she live there?"
"Just a question Syaoran" said Eriol, interrupting his reflection "Why don't you remember your family name? Since you are Li's double, your name must be the same as his. Don't you know any family with Li as a name?"
"Well…" answered Syaoran slowly, not sure of what to give for answer "I remember Eriol—in my world—telling me that he was from the Li kingdom, but I highly doubt I'm from there. Actually, I was found by Sakura in the river behind the cottage. I couldn't even remember my own name, until I heard Sakura say it before she fainted once. Eriol seemed to know a lot about me—since I was three he said—but he wouldn't tell me anything, except that I could use magic…"
"That Li family," Li said, smirking "What do you know about it?"
The amber-eyed boy in the bed scratched his head and tried to remember the supper he had had with Eriol and Tomoyo, where he had learnt about the Li's.
"Well…" he finally answered slowly "I know it's a Chinese family, they have a son named Xiao-Land or something like that, and the mother's is Yelan, I think… See?" he asked, wondering why they had wide eyes "We've got nothing in common. My name isn't Xiao-Lang or whatever, and I can't speak Chinese."
"Then…" Li said, in that weird language Syaoran had heard the beautiful lady in the tunnel talking in "How come 'Syaoran' in Chinese is Xiao-Lang? And how can you understand what I'm saying, since it is Chinese."
Syaoran gulped, swallowing hardly, trying to understand the meaning of everything.
"Do you say that…I…am a prince?"
They all nodded in a same movement.
Syaoran scratched the back of his head, trying to analyse the information.
"Oh…"
(A.N: So here it goes… I explained a few things in this chapter. In the next chapters, Sakura will be refered as Kinomoto, Syaoran, the normal one as Li, Syaoran the prince as… well, Syaoran, and Eriol as Hiiragizawa. Oh, and Tomoyo, who will appear soon, as Daidouji. If there are things you still didn't understand, please say it in the reviews and I'll explain it in the following chapter. Don't stay in ignorance! I'm ready to answer anything I can, so please, work with me people! This chapter was quite hard to write; because it was kinda difficult to sort all of the explainations… maybe it doesn't appear good… OMG! Syaoran is a PRINCE! Yay! I'm sure you had already guessed it, but now it's official. I can't wait to see what happen in the next chappie (okay, that sounded weird) Please review!
So, 'till next time, this has been Suohfeil.)