"Hoe! I can't do it!" Sakura cried holding a icing bag in one hand. They we're baking cakes in their double Home Ec. Class. She was trying to frost a devil's food cake in front of her but with no luck. It was messy and she had to remove the icing again and again twice this time already. She glared daggers at the cake as thought it had been rude to her.

The whole class were like a hive of bees. Everyone was talking,no surprise there. But a few were taking a look at their classmates works and some borrowing tools or ingredients.

"Sakura,stay put and keep calm. You won't be able to do that job if you keep grunting and moaning." Tomoyo advised a small smile formed her porcelain-like face. She herself had managed to frost her angel cake easily and with no mistakes. Tomoyo was great at cooking and designing clothes. She was good at singing too. Sakura admired her for keeping her cool all the time. Especially at the time when Tomoyo was all alone in the music room at school and Sakura,Syaoran and Kero had to find her using the shadow card. Sakura cried that night. She was scared for Tomoyo and was not herself. Thanks to Syaoran she gathered the courage and determination to do her best. All in all Sakura saluted Tomoyo's acts.

"Ok,everyone,stop what you're doing." their teacher declared,everyone who just had finished adding their finishing touches to their masterpiece looked up triumphantly. "Clean all your tools and let them dry beside the washing sink while I examine your cakes."

"Phew,that was a big workload." Sakura sighed taking off her apron and gathered her equipments to wash them. It took her the whole class to frost her cake. She could feel cold sweat running down from her forehead and she hastily wiped it with the back of her hand.

"It was fun." Rika said with a smile plastered on her face. Rika was also very good at cooking too. She made a black forest cake topped with vanilla frosting and glazed cherries.

"Yeah it was." Naoko said lightly wiping her hands clean with a kitchen towel.

"You know about cakes-" Yamazaki said abruptly making the group of friends jump.

"You can tell your lies later." Chiharu said skeptically covering his mouth.

"Sakura-chan you look worn out,what's the matter?" Chiharu commented on Sakura's weary state.

"Huh? Oh it's nothing." Sakura replied waving her hands to dismiss the subject.

The last minutes of Home Ec class consisted of praises from the teacher on all of their work. Sakura's devil's food cake turned out to be great and Sakura's lips curved into a small sheepish smile. The bell rang and they filed out of the classroom to Maths.

"Ugghh. We've maths now. I don't feel like learning maths." Sakura said disgruntled and pouted. Tomoyo giggled as Syaoran came into view and joined them.

"Hey,how was Home Ec.?"

"It was fine." Sakura answered dully.

"You look pale. Anything wrong-?"

Sakura only shook her head and did not anwser.

Syaoran frowned but did not open his mouth to argue. Instead he let it drop seeing Sakura looking very exhausted.

Maths went on with more confusing equations and formulas including how to solve the midpoint of a line segment and measuring the distance of a line.

Sakura tried her best to concentrate but her mind kept thinking of the dream she had last night. She struggled to answer the questions and didn't get most of the lectures.

Sakura was about to doze off when something peculiar and what shouldn't be happening caught her full and utter attention. The teacher's voice was muted. The ruffling and shuffling of notes and scribbling of pens on paper was hushed. Everything was deadly quiet. The whole environment seemed to be in a state of sleep. But the problem was her class mates weren't sound asleep. They were staring endlessly at the teacher who had her mouth open but not making any sort of sounds. This scared Sakura. Beside her, Tomoyo, with a pen in hand, was frozen in mid air as if she was about to raise her hand but was stopped by an unknown force.

"What's...what's happening?" Sakura said horror struck at the scenario before her eyes.

"Time has stopped." a voice said behind her. She turned around and found Syaoran on his feet tapping Yamazaki on the shoulder. He wasn't moving.

"Why are we moving but the others aren't?" she heard herself say in an unsually high pitched voice.

"We have enough magical powers to sustain us at this state." Syaoran replied calmly.

"Is Kero and Yue not frozen too?" she thought she knew the answer to this.

"It's a possibility,yeah."

Sakura was already standing up before Syaoran could finish his sentence and was out the door in a flash.

"Oi! Wait!"

Sakura was sprinting down the corridor. After a few seconds Syaoran was at her heels. She ran as fast as she could across the school grounds but she halted when she saw Kero and Yue flying towards them. There was no wind or signs of life. The trees looked like they were dead and the sun was glowing without any warmth.

"Did you sense it?" Kero asked.

"Sense what?" Sakura raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Yeah,I did. I can feel the presence getting stronger." Syaoran said gritting his teeth.

"Why can't I sense anything at all?" Sakura said looking questioningly at Syaoran,Kero and Yue then back to Syaoran.

"No time for explanations. Follow me." Yue announced urging all of them to come with him.

"Matte!" Sakura said. She took out her star key that was hung around her neck and transformed it into a staff. With the Fly card in her hand (which she procured from her pocket where she now carried the cards around with her everyday) she tapped it with the star staff.

"FLY!"

She grew soft,fluffy wings and she felt it beat the air and she was flying.

"Syaoran,you ride on Kero-chan!"

"Alright."

They rose up and up until they had a clear view of Tomoeda.

"Is that it there?" Sakura pointed at an area which shot blue sparks that hung in the air. It was weird and she could feel a distant vibration from it. Even though she couldn't feel the presence,she just had this strange feeling about it.

"I can feel it stronger at that place." Yue nodded.

They landed on a building near where the blue sparks are emanating from.

"What is it?" Kero said aghast.

Before them was a huge swirling black hole which emitted the bizzare blue sparks. The black hole swirled even faster making it a black and blue blur. Sakura's heart thumped and thumped against her chest as she watched it's progress with mild curiousity.

"Get..." said a faint voice. It was very faint that Sakura was surprised she heard it. It was almost like a gentle whisper of the wind. But there wasn't any.

Sakura jumped a little in surprise. She whipped around rather sharply at the three who was standing behind her in a rather dazed state at the furor that had brought them there.

"What?" she said addressing them.

"What?" Kero and Yue asked in the same manner in unison.

"You said something."

"None of us said anything." Yue stated.

Sakura was hit by those words. None of them...said anything? But she was sure she heard a voice saying something. Was it..."Go." ? No...it was...

"Get..."

"What now?" Sakura was starting to get a bit frustrated.

"What's wrong?" said Syaoran.

"Someone's saying something."

"Huh? But we didn't hear anything." replied Kero.

"But then... who-?"

"Get rid of..."

This time it was louder,like someone was saying it to Sakura's ears and it wasn't Kero,Yue or Syaoran. As a matter of fact it was another voice. One that belonged to a female. It was a flinty if not commanding voice which brought chills up her spine. Sakura's body shook and shivered.

"Get rid of it!" it finally said completing it's sentence.

"How?" Sakura thought. She could use her cards but the erase and glow are 'almost' ordinary cards. The cards! Now that she remembered,she also had another pressing dilemma. She was beginning to get desperate when Syaoran abruptly toppled over to the ground. Then he was being dragged...by nothing. It was as if an invisible rope was pulling him to the edge. To where the black hole was. He was fighting to get up but something was keeping him flat on the cold cement floor of the top roof of the building. He was nearly on the edge,his hands gripping onto the rampart. Then everything in Sakura's mind became clear and ticked.

Oh hell NO.

When Sakura's brain came to life again and worked properly,she ran toward Syaoran and grabbed hold of his hand before he fell below. She had dropped her star staff a few inches behind her. The Fly card was abandoned a bit further from the staff.

"Syaoran! Hold on!" she screamed,on her knees grasping his hands tightly.

Yue and Kero rushed to help but was stopped by an invisible barrier between them and Sakura.

"We can't get through!" Yue shouted banging his fists furiously against the invisible glass like barrier.

"Shit!" Sakura mumbled as she struggled to get Syaoran up but he was too heavy. She held on to him with both hands and pulled as if her life depended on it. Which it actually did. To Syaoran.

'I can't let him go. I have to keep holding on.' she thought fiercely.

Syaoran was saying something but Sakura wasn't listening. Her palms were starting to get sweaty and she had to figure something out fast.

"Use your Fly card Sakura!" Kero called from behind.

"I-I can't!" Sakura screeched back. But she had to in Syaoran's life-and-death situation. She let go of one hand and scrambled for her staff. She reached for the Fly card and bellowed "FLY!" and tapped it hurriedly. Her wings magically unfurled and flapped.

Slip.

"No! Syaoran!"

She was in tears when she realized that she had let him go. Cursing fate,she stood up and flew as fast as she could to his helpless falling figure. At once,the blue sparks which have been hanging relentlessly in the air shot into her direction like it sensed her coming their way. Sakura stretched her arms to reach out for him but he was falling too quickly and was not within reach for her. She dodged a couple of blue sparks whizzing at her.

Her mind and heart was racing wildly and was about to explode. She couldn't think of anything else but to save Syaoran. Her Syaoran whom she had waited for two miserable and lonely years. Her tears blurred her eyesight as she flew like a cannonball. A blue spark hit the edge of her left wing and began to burn.

"Aaahh!"

The black hole and the blue sparks unexpectedly faded into a mass of dust as she lost her balance with her wings but she kept going.

'Where is he,where is he?' she thought frantically biting her lip so hard it started spurting blood. Her eyes did a 360 degrees search for a sign of brown messy hair,kind and light amber eyes or a flailing body.

With one wing still intact, she looked around for Syaoran but he wasn't there anywhere. This was all her fault. Everything was. It was her fault why Syaoran left. She didn't tell him what she felt and kept him hanging. It discouraged him and upset him too in a lot of hurtful ways Sakura couldn't imagine. I guess he had been gathering up all his courage to tell her. How brave of him,she thought. Not like her. She was very stupid for that and she ought to punish herself. Was this her punishment? It doesn't make sense though. He came back and her suffering was already finished.

Or was it?

Had she not acted earlier this shouldn't have happened. If she should die,let it be. Her wing beat energetically but it couldn't keep her in the air.

She closed her eyes and waited for the end breathing shakily. She had not expected to die like this. She had wanted to die in Syaoran's arms. She prayed that Yue and Kero would be able to fix everything if she reached her end.

She felt herself fall slowly and wind was surrounding her like a hurricane. Is this what dying feels like? She didn't know.

All she knew was that she was out of breath and Syaoran was gone. He's might be...

~oOo~

She felt strong,warm arms around her and this made her gasp quietly and hold her breath. It felt like an angel's embrace and it was very caressing and full of love and passion. The moment she opened her eyes,she saw a clear blue sky and amber eyes playing in the sunlight gazing at her. The sunlight dazzled her moist eyes which had released tears.

"Don't cry." the angel said with a melancholy voice which was enough to make her heart ache and wiped her face from her river of tears.

Sakura held her gaze at the amber orbs that showed concern and worry.

"Don't ever do that Sakura. I can take care of myself." he said gently stroking her auburn hair.

At that moment,she realized that those eyes were Syaoran's. Sakura sat bolt upright as memories of her near death flooded back to her. Syaoran was sitting on the uneven ground of a street. As she sat up her hand shot up to her head and she groaned. Her head was sporting the worse headache she had ever encountered in her whole lifetime.

Syaoran pushed her back onto his lap in a lying position.

"Don't. Just rest for a minute alright?"

Sakura nodded slightly her head throbbing viciously with unbelievable pain. She did not utter a sound for five minutes as she waited with impatience when her headache slowly ceased. She heard Yue and Kero conversing quietly in a corner shooting glances every now and then at their silent mistress. They looked serious and solemn,Sakura wondered why.

Her headache slowly dissolved into horrible memories of the black hole and left her as fragile as ever. Time didn't seem to have resumed. Kero and Yue were as clueless as she was at how to solve this other problem. After a few fruitless moments in which some of them opened their mouths but closed it yet again, the silence which bugged Sakura finally made her to decide that they go back to school and investigate.

Sakura stood up,wobbled a little, and her star staff in her hand she took out her fly card again.

"FLY!"

Nothing happened.

"Nani?" Sakura whispered horrified.

Her eyes fell on the innocent card in her hand. It feels... cold. As though it was lifeless. Empty. As though it lost its power.