Chapter Ten: Running Out

……

"I'm guessing Sakura hasn't come back yet?" Eriol said, as Tomoyo past through the gates, alone.

"Not yet," She sighed, dropping onto the bench beside him. "I'm worried though. It's been two days almost… and she's not back yet. She's going to be trapped." Tomoyo muttered into her hands, shaking her head.

Eriol cast a glance over at the purple haired girl, putting a hand on her shoulders. "She'll be fine Tomoyo… you know Sakura, she's strong. I don't doubt her."

"Me either… but shouldn't we send in reinforcement? You could take down the barrier for a moment… or something like that, right?" Tomoyo said hopefully, looking up at him.

"No can do," A voice behind them said, as they sat down on the picnic table. "Sakura took the Return Card with her – there's no way for us to go and help her. She's on her own." Syaoran said, shrugging.

"She's a unit, you know. Wanting to hog all the attention to herself, she could have at least taken one of us with her." Meiling huffed, crossing her arms across her chest.

"She had to go by herself. She knows the way around Readington, we don't. We'd just slow her down." Eriol shrugged, waving Meiling off, nonchalant.

"Well she's not doing too hot is she? She knows her way around and yet she still hasn't come back!" Meiling snapped, sitting down beside Syaoran.

"Like you could do any better!" Tomoyo snapped, glaring at Meiling.

"Speaking the truth," Meiling shrugged. "Don't deny it Tomoyo – you think so to!"

"WHAT!" Tomoyo screeched, jumping up, Meiling following suit.

"Both of you – calm down." Eriol said, jumping up as well. "Sakura will be fine – sheesh; you guys just need more faith in her. No wonder she isn't doing well – you guys think she'll be stuck there!"

Tomoyo was about to reply to his comment when the school bell rang. She sighed, grabbing her school bag. "Let's go. We can't be late." And with that, she trudged off towards the school.

……

"This isn't good, this isn't good." Sakura moaned, pacing back in forth in front of the University. "The cards' getting cold… something must be happening in the future. Why didn't I bring those cards? I can hear Meiling now 'Stupid Kinomoto… can't even remember her cards. She'll be doomed'."

She cast a glance at the University doors, and sighed. She had spent the past two days looking through the school for the Clow Book… and still she wasn't having any luck. She wanted to go home… but Return wouldn't take her back until she found the book – and now! The card was getting cold… that couldn't be a good sign. She sighed, she had to keep moving and find the book. Otherwise she'd be trapped here – invisible to everyone until she vanished.

Yes, vanished. As the time wore on in the past, her image started fading more and more. She'd be a vibrant colour – just like everyone else, and then she seemed to become a washed out colour. All of this, she realized, happened when she felt a tinge of coldness from the card. Something was definitely wrong in the future.

"Here goes nothing." Sakura muttered, shaking her head as she past through the closed doors. Being invisible she no longer needed to open doors but pass right through them – much like everyone past through her.

"I've already looked in the library on the first and second floor… the cafeteria… could it be in a classroom?" Sakura pondered, looking at a layout of the school ground. "…That's a lot of classroom's…" Sakura moaned, looking at the three floor layout designs. "Not good… not good…"

"Did you guys hear what happened in the basement last night?" Sakura's ears picked up, as she swiveled around to find who was talking.

A little ways away from her, a couple girls were making their way out of the front doors to the stairs leading up to the second floor science ward. Thinking maybe it had something to do with the Clow Book, Sakura quickly left her post by the layout of the building, in favor for following the girl and her friends.

"Nope, didn't hear a thing. What'd you hear?"

"Well you know how that's the restricted section that only the teachers have access too?" Nod. "Well remember Kinomoto-sensei? He sent a book back here and there was an incantation written inside it – in Chinese none-the-less!"

"Like magic! What happened?"

"That's the thing – nothing happened. They think it was already activated! The pages were all cut out – like something was sitting inside it… until… you know someone let it out." The girls listening to the story looked around at each other, warily. "Whatever it was – it was about the size of playing cards… and someone let it out."

"So someone has a magic deck of playing cards? Wish I had that… it would be so much easier to beat those guys then!"

"Not that kind of card! The incantation… it talks about the elements of life… and some beings that watch over it… and it's unleashed and walking around here! Maybe even on this campus!"

"What… what… if it is and it eats us!"

Sakura broke off from the group of girls there. It was definitely the Clow Book they were talking about… what with the talk of cards and the being watching over it… that would have to be Kero.

"Wait a minute… did she say 'beings'? That means… Kero isn't the only one." Sakura sighed, shaking her head. "I don't have room in my bedroom for another being…"

Shaking her head, Sakura went back the way she came, intent on looking at the layout board again to find the basement that those girls were talking about. If only she had brought the other cards with her… she could have done this a whole lot faster using those powers to go through floors to get to basement – unfortunately being invisible to others didn't give her the power to go through floors… just doors, walls and people. She quickly made her way down the stairs, she had quickly ran up after the girls – passing through those that were on their way to class as she stopped in front of the layout board again.

"What! There's no basement on here…" She muttered, looking over the maps again. "Great… wonderful… really it is. I'm doomed!"

So there's no map to the basement, with the amount of talk going through the University of being's walking around and a magic deck of cards it was definitely under lock and key and only teachers now how to get there… Sakura sighed, leaning back on the layout board of the school.

However, forgetting that she was invisible and could pass though things, and went crashing to the floor, but never hit it, instead she had a rushing feeling, and then a sudden stop.

"Huh?" She said, looking around her. Everything was pitch black; she couldn't see a foot in front of her face. "What's going on… is anyone here? Hello?" She called out through the darkness closing in around her.

"Sakura, can you hear me?"

"Where are you, I can't see you!"

"Unimportant at the moment, we'll meet later on. The cards are growing cold, preparing their breakout of their confines intend on running free as they were made to in the first place. Time is running out, and before the sun sets today, the cards will be cold and you'll be unable to return to your time."

Sakura went cold as the voice said sunset was the last straw, or else… "I'll vanish?"

"Yes." The voice paused for a moment, deciding what the next move should be, as Sakura looked shocked trying to comprehend all this information. "I can bestow a magic gift on you, allowing you to find the Clow Book to return you to your own time. However, it will only help you to find the Book, the rest you must do on your own."

Sakura nodded. "What do you mean; 'the rest you must do on your own' is something waiting for me down there?"

The voice didn't reply for a few moments, causing Sakura to blink in wonder as she waited. "Time is running out, it is nearing four pm, the sun will set in a mere two and a half hours."

"It's that late already!" Sakura shouted; surprised by how much time she had wasted looking for the Book! The last time she checked a clock, it was one pm!

Before she could say anything else, the darkness closing around her, started to spread out, causing a large blast of white land to splurge out a few mere meters away from where she was standing. Bringing a hand to cover her eyes from the bright light, she thought she saw an outline of a man behind the light clad in glasses and a robe. That was all though, as the light, being at its brightest, started to grow as it came towards her. Surprised, she let out a small scream as the light impacted with her, giving her a jolt and instant warmth.

"What did you give me?"

"Warmth." The voice replied, as the darkness started to fade into the corners of her eyes.

"No wait," She started, as the University started to come back into view. "What do you mean by warmth? I wasn't… the cards! I get it!" She smiled, happy at her decision of the cryptic clue.

Knowing what she should do, like it was second nature, she reached into her skirts' pockets pulling out the Return Card. Holding it in both her arms; she held it close to her, closing her eyes in the process.

"Fate of the Clow, come to my aid," She murmured, the words spilling out before she could think them through. "Please, transfer the power of warmth to this card, in order to buy some more time to save my time." She waited, concentrating hard on the gift given to her, in hopes of transferring it into the card in her hands.

Her eyes scrunched up as she felt something inside, feeling like someone had just shoved their hand through her stomach and attempting to wrench the gift from her. It was soon over there, as the card felt warmer in her hand soon after the pain had left her stomach. The small power that the man in the darkness had given her, must have given her the ability to suspend her in the air long enough to decipher what to do with the gift. Now that it was over, she was dropping once again, to the floor.

"Oww!" She muttered, landing on the ground on her hands and knees.

Standing up, she brushed the dirt from her skirt, looking around. This wasn't the room she was in before… there was no layout map, the large staircase and the hustle and bustle of people. Instead, the room was dark, lit by torches and was decorated in the form of large, cracked bricks.

"This has got to be a step up; I got somewhere else… could this be? Yahoo, I made it to the basement corridor!" Sakura grinned, taking off down the stretch of the corridor, nearing her destination.

……

Syaoran's head shot up, casting a glance down at the pocket in his cargo pants. Glancing up at the top of the classroom, he saw that Kaho-sensei had her back to them, writing a note on the chalkboard, and slipped his hand into the pocket, pulling out the stack of cards Sakura had left behind. Flipping through the deck quickly, his face went from surprise, to shock, to triumph. Sakura was getting somewhere in her quest. Turning around in his chair to tell Eriol, he was met with a gaze that Eriol was far away from Hong Kong.

"Eriol!" Syaoran hissed, bringing the navy haired boy back to reality.

"Hmm? What is it, Syaoran?"

Syaoran slapped the cards down on Eriol's desk. "The cards… there getting warmer, Sakura's got to be close."

"Is she now?" Eriol asked, looking at the stack of cards.

"Will Sakura be back soon then?" Tomoyo said, leaning over as well.

"Should be, the cards are getting warmer and not colder. She's close to the Clow Book." Syaoran said, turning to the purple haired girl.

"Tomoyo, Eriol and Syaoran!" A voice broke out through their conversation. "Can I ask what's so interesting you have to hold your own conversation?"

"Um… just getting help on the first question! Yeah, I didn't understand it." Syaoran said, glancing at the notes behind Kaho-sensei.

"Yeah, and I, uh, wanted to see if I got the correct answer. We all know Eriol the smartest." Tomoyo said, sweatdropping at the lie.

Kaho-sensei nodded. "Next time you don't understand something, at least wait until I'm done teaching to ask your peers, or ask me to help you. For that, the three of you will receive detentions for this and then you'll know now to do it again."

The three of them nodded solemnly, turning around and going back to copying the questions on the board onto their papers. The three of them tried to ignore Meiling as she was laughing quietly at their detentions and her remark that even though Kinomoto wasn't there, they still were getting in trouble, as they tried to focus on the idea that Sakura was closer to her target and that she'd be back in her right time soon enough.

Eriol however just grinned, hoping that Sakura had managed to figure out the gift he had given her in the darkness. Otherwise, she wouldn't be returning to this time, she would be hanging around – literally – in the basement of the University of Readington, about a year ago in the past.

Now, all they needed was luck that Sakura could find the book in the next two and half hours.

……

A/N: Yahoo, I'm back yet again. I've been having disc problems with the disk that this was located on, and I finally got it too work properly! I think that this story is starting to wind down; I think there's only going to be about five maximum more chapters, if that. Well, enjoy it while it lasts!

Also, I've decided to dedicate this whole story to Sakura Potato and KawaiiQuerida-chan – as said in Chapter Nine's Authors Note – for giving me loads of ideas in their reviews when I was putting this story on hiatus. Without them, this would still be on hiatus, most likely permentantly. So yet again, THANKS A BUNCH to both of you! I owe you guys: )

R&R!