Disclaimer:
I have no affiliation with Cardcaptor Sakura or any other of CLAMP's works. Also any similarities to real life events or people are unintentional unless explicitly stated.
The static sound cut off. Tomoyo could hear Sakura calling out to her. At least the communicators were still functioning.
"I am all right," replied Tomoyo. "I am currently at the base. How are you and the others? Please state your location."
"We're okay," replied the Other Tsukishiro. "We're in an alley way nearby."
"We have a visual of them," reported the bodyguard who controlled the camera.
Tomoyo walked over to the crystal sphere that was magically connected to floating camera using Ariadne Thread technology. The image was dim but Sakura, the Other Li and other Tsukishiro appeared to be unharmed.
"What happened to those people?" asked Sakura.
"The injured have been brought to base and are being given medical treatment. However, the barrier is still up preventing people from entering or leaving the city. Stay there. It is not safe. We shall come and rescue you."
The Other Li shook his head. "I'm not leaving without her."
"And my brother!" added Sakura. "We can't just give up on finding them!"
"What happened to the handkerchief butterfly?" asked Tomoyo.
"It burnt up." The Other Tsukishiro showed the camera its crumpled remains in his hands.
"Abort the mission," the head bodyguard told them through the communicators. "Stay there. We'll come and rescue you."
This started an argument. The bodyguards kept demanding that they stay where they were despite their protests.
"That's it!" declared Li. "I'll find her myself!"
He threw off his communicator ears and stormed off. Sakura and the Other Tsukishiro looked at one another. She picked up the ears and they both ran after him.
"Don't go! It's dangerous."
Tomoyo held up a hand out, silencing the bodyguard.
Meanwhile, the camera operator continued to manoeuvre it after them as they descended winding stairs and squeezed in the spaces between buildings. Sakura pleading with him to wait but he progressed further into the dark depths through the twisting passageways. He turned the corner and walked into a passageway between two buildings that ended in a solid wall. He swore, slamming his fist into the wall.
Sakura approached him hesitantly. "It will be all right."
"How can you say that?" he asked, his voice strained and muffled. He faced away from them. "We have no idea where she is. We don't even know where we are."
In the dim, flickering lights, Tomoyo thought she saw something.
"Move the camera closer to the right wall, please."
"Yes, my Lady."
There was a plain door.
"Can you move the camera further down?"
"Yes, my Lady."
It the same door she saw in her dreams; the second door to the right.
"Someone, can you come to the camera and open this door."
Sakura remained standing by the Other Li who sat slumped against the wall but the Other Tsukishiro went to the door and after a couple tries, pushed the door open. It opened into a dark corridor, its walls slimy. Pipes ran low overhead.
"Through here," instructed Tomoyo.
"My Lady," said her bodyguard, "we need to get them out while they're still safe."
"No. It is as Star said. We cannot leave her brother and the girl there."
Sakura pulled the Other Li to his feet lead him the door.
Tomoyo addressed her bodyguards, "Surround the perimeter and secure the entrances as best as you can. The Walled city may be out of the jurisdiction of the law, but notify the law enforcement teams and the Li Clan."
"Yes, my Lady."
They immediately set about to complete their orders while Tomoyo returned her attention to the crystal sphere.
As they walked through the city, Tomoyo recognized the impossibly narrow corridors, the wooden staircase clinging to concrete walls, the makeshift bridges spanning mix matching buildings… Her dream was piecing itself together. She led them into its dark depths. It was deeper underground than what it was above ground. They walked through a hidden door that led them to a building too the roof, only to go through another to end up in a small square that had a view of the sky from several stories down.
However impossible the layout was, the group finally they ended up at the rusted gate which stood before a set of descending steps. Beyond this point, Tomoyo did not know what would happen. All she could do was hope and pray that they would return safe and sound.
The Other Sakura stopped.
Toya couldn't figure out why. Nothing seemed to have changed. They were still walking down in the caves underneath the Walled City. There was nothing but stalactites, stalagmites and shadows unlike the buildings, people and spirits upstairs. He directed more energy into the flame in his palm
"The item you're looking for is in this direction, right?" he asked.
"It's further in there," she said, pointing a finger ahead into the darkness, "I think."
"Sakura!" exclaimed the stuffed animal.
Toya plucked it out of the air by its ear. "What did I say about names in this place?"
"Sorry, habit," it said, floating to Sakura after it was released. "But, "you think?" You were so certain before."
"There's something strong masking it," she protested.
Toya began to turn. "If you don't know where it is, let's go back."
"No!" they said.
"The key is dangerous in the wrong hands," said the soft toy.
"And I need it," she said.
"Fine," Toya relented. He began walking in the direction she was previously pointing to. "You said this way, right?"
She jogged so that she was beside him. "It's all right for you to leave. You've done so much already."
He shook his head. "I'm not going to do that." He wouldn't leave her alone in this place.
They continued walking. The stalagmites grew closer together until they could only walk in a single file, with Toya in front. The path opened up into a large pit. There were stairs leading downwards clinging to the walls.
"It's down there," she said with certainty.
"Are you sure you want to go down there?"
She nodded.
"All right," he said, "but I'll go first."
The stairs were barely wide enough for one person to walk down and there was a steady downward draft. His feet kicked pebbles over the steep edge and he Pebbles tumbled down the edge. He wasn't sure how they'd get out of there afterwards.
He heard squeaking sounds from above.
Bats swooped down at them. She shrieked. He raised a barrier around her.
Toya twisted and slipped, but his fingers found an edge. He scrambled to find food holds but the bats kept pulling on him. His grip on the cliff was slipping. A small hand wrapped around his wrist.
"Go back to the barrier!"
"I don't want to!" she said pulling at his wrist.
The rock crumbled under her feet crumbled and they fell.
Sakura stopped.
Her heart was pounding so loudly.
It was probably just her imagination.
The sight sash gave everything a green glow. Tomoyo explained that that was the energy flow. Sakura saw the glow dance over the inhabitants of the Walled City, the Other Li and Other Tsukishiro. Her cousin also said that swirls of energy meant that there was a spirit. There were plenty of slow moving swirls in the city which wouldn't hurt you as long as you didn't disturb it, but here underneath the city all the energy seemed to flow in the one direction; the same directions her companions said they were able to sense the Other Sakura.
She kept moving but soon she thought again that she saw something flickered in the corner of her eye.
It disappeared. There was no point on dwelling on it too much. She had to focus on finding her brother. She had to save him.
No. She definitely saw something this time. A bright green glow flashed between the stalagmites and stalactites, coming towards them very rapidly, towards the Other Li.
Sakura jumped in the monstrous rat's path, pulled her nunchaku taut and braced herself. It bit the chain, and she swung it with all her strength into rock. It let go. Then, while it was trying to get back up, a white crystal shard pierced it and it dissolved into dust.
"Is everyone all right?" asked Tomoyo through the communicators.
"Yeah…"
"I didn't even sense that coming," said the Other Li.
"Me neither," said the angel.
"Where's Tsukishiro?" asked Sakura. In the background she could hear Tomoyo issuing instructions to the bodyguards.
The camera floated over where the rat came from.
"Right here," said the celestial being. The Other Tsukishiro now had long hair and flowing robes that were pearly white. And he had wings like a dove's. "Do not be afraid."
"Retreat immediately!" Tomoyo interrupted over the communicators. The camera zoomed towards them. Behind it, the cave was filled with countless pinpoints of bright light. "I repeat, retreat immediately."
A high pitched screeching sound resonated through the communicator. Li threw paper talismans onto nearby pillars. A wall of lightning buzzed and crackled.
"Hurry!" he said.
She clicked her heels and jumped after the other two. "Where-"
"Don't know. Hurry!"
The path sloped upwards and suddenly opened into a large cavern with a gaping hole in its centre. They ran to it, but spirits in the shapes of the creatures of the dark swarmed out of the hole. More blocked their path.
They all stood back to back, surrounded on all sides by spirits. The angel staggered.
"What's wrong?"
"The aura from the chasm," it said.
Sakura could feel it too. The flow was pulling her in, sucking the life from her.
There was a large rumble below and a giant flare of fire burned away the spirits. There was a piercing scream.
"Wait," said the Other Tsukishiro.
Li, slashing his sword ran into the swarm. "Obey the command! Thunder Emperor, Come Forth!"
Sakura saw him jump into the hole, and recoiled from the sudden cold from where a spirit bit her. She tumbled into the hole.
She tried to cover her face and body but there were too many bats screeching and biting any exposed skin.
There was a blinding light and the spirits disappeared, but she was still falling. She twisted her body, but she was falling too fast. A hand enclosed hers. It was the angel and he slowed her descent without any pain.
Her feet touched the ground gently, and his wings disappeared. He crumpled with a thud and was the Other Tsukishiro again. He was breathing, but his face was pale and covered in sweat.
The air was filled with dust. The other Li was running towards the Other Sakura by a broken archway. She really did look like her. She was sitting on the ground showing him something on her palm. He closed his hand around hers and leant in and kissed her on the lips.
Finally she noticed voices coming from her communicators above the ringing sound.
"Miss Kinomoto, behind you," she heard Meiling said. "Your brother, is he breathing? Does he have a pulse?"
Sakura snapped back into reality, saw her brother lying on the ground and knelt beside him.
"He's breathing," she sighed in relief, "but his leg looks broken."
"Oh no," cried the Other Sakura. She knelt by the Other Tsukishiro, holding his hand in one of hers. The other was cradling something that looked like Sakura's golden stuffed animal.
"We need to find a way out of here," she heard the Other Li say in the communicator.
"We are sending in a team now," was Tomoyo's reply.
"Someone's coming to get us," he said to the Other Sakura.
"No need," said the Other Sakura. A staff materialized in her hand. She took out a couple of cards from her pocket and tossed it into the air where it spun before flashing white. "Leave it to me. Float! Windy! Carry us to safety!"
Next thing Sakura knew, they were all inside a sphere of some kind. It lifted them out of the cavern and moved them through the tunnels to above the Walled City.
Yukito struggled to retain consciousness. He still had is assignment to do. He needed more energy. He needed more food but there was none left in the fridge.
His head hurt so much he was seeing red which occasionally it faded into black.
The scent of stir fried beef permeated the apartment. Nakuru put the take away containers on his desk and he began to devour the food.
"Guess what I found out," she said in a sing-song voice. "Toya's little sister's name is, "Sakura"."
Immediately he visualized the character for cherry blossoms.
"Don't-" he said. Yukito paused his eating. He didn't want to say it out loud, didn't want to make it come true.
"Don't what?" she asked innocently enough, but knew her that he should dread that expression. "You don't look that good. Would you like something to drink?"
"No," he snapped.
"Suit yourself," she said, stretching. She walked to her bedroom. "I'm going to sleep now. You should too, after you finish eating."
Author's Note:
Hello! Too tired to say much right now. It's been busy, so I haven't had that much time to check it thoroughly... but I hope you like this chapter =)
