Disclaimer: i don't own anything (except the story idea)

Chapter Eleven: New Enemy, Old Family...Wait! What?

After the success of Carmen, Sakura's popularity around Astraea Hill increased dramatically and she found herself spending more time hiding in the greenhouse with Shizuma and Sachiko, who had decided to stay much longer than the rest of the Yamayurikai (all of whom had left to go back to Lillian right after they congratulated Sakura on the play's success) despite her duties at Lillian as Rosa Chinensis. Sakura didn't mind that Sachiko stayed, but it made her worried about how Yumi was faring and she was constantly alert for any verbal sparring matches between Shizuma and Sachiko that could potentially arise whenever the two of them were in the same room together, thankfully these didn't happen very often.

Sakura kept these concerns to herself once she found out from Shizuma that Sachiko had been granted permission to stay for two months as a sort of exchange/transfer student; a fact that was made painfully obvious when Sakura was informed that Sachiko would be her roommate while she attended her own classes at Miator. As the days went by, everything seemed relatively normal, aside from Sachiko's presence, and Sakura felt like she was at a true peace for the first time since Mizuki died, since Lance died. However, that feeling did not last long as Sakura's world was turned upside-down once again.

It started one night, about three days into Sachiko's extended stay, with the most realistic, and confusing, dream Sakura had in her entire life.

Sakura woke up to find herself lying on a grassy hill beneath a cherry blossom tree beside the bluest lake she had ever seen. Sitting up to take in more of her surroundings easier, she realized she wasn't alone.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up,"

Sakura jumped at the familiar voice and turned to her right to find Lance grinning a thousand watt smile at her.

"Oh leave her alone Lance," Sakura turned to her left and found Mizuki sitting on her other side. "You know how she is. Besides, they told us it might take a while."

"Umm, if you don't mind me asking, where the hell am I, is this a dream and what on earth are you two doing here?" Sakura asked, looking from Lance to Mizuki and back again. "I mean, you're dead!"

"Yes, we are well aware of that fact," Lance said. Aside from the soft aura around him, he looked exactly the same as he did when he died, white wings and all.

"As to your questions, you are in limbo, the place between life and death," Mizuki explained. Like Lance, the only difference to Mizuki's appearance was the white wings coming from her back and the soft aura surrounding her.

"Does that mean that I'm dying in my sleep?" Sakura asked, confused.

"No," Lance said, shaking his head. "You are not dying; you are only here because the two of us got permission from the 'Powers That Be' to bring you here. It's the only place where we are able to freely talk without fear of being overheard and thus, stopped."

"Stopped?" Sakura asked. "Stopped by who? For what? What is going on?"

"Calm down," Mizuki said, shooting Lance a filthy look for panicking Sakura. "We ourselves are not entirely sure what is going on either so we can't really say much. However, the 'Powers That Be' do know what is going on, or rather what will be going on, and are doing their best to stop it."

"We only know this because we were the ones sent to inform you of this," Lance added.

"Why do the 'Powers That Be' want me to know about this?" Sakura asked, confused again.

"Because, according to them, you are the only one alive who can stop whatever is going to happen," Lance explained.

"We are merely here to inform and help you," Mizuki said.

"Does this have anything to do with me being a Draconian and being more powerful than regular humans?" Sakura asked exasperatedly. "What do I look like, a superhero?"

"I wouldn't put that way," Lance said. "There is a lot more to the pair of us being Draconians than we ever realized, things that I am not at liberty to tell you, so you will have to figure them out on your own."

"Are people going to get hurt?" Sakura asked suddenly, thinking of Shizuma and Sachiko.

"We hope not," Mizuki said. "It all depends on you and what the enemy decides to throw at you."

"Great," Sakura said, flopping back down on the grass. "Just what I need; something awful is going to happen, I'm the only one who can stop it, and the people who are supposed to be informing me of things and giving me guidance are my adopted sister and best friend, both of whom are dead. This sounds more and more like a dream that seems like a really messed-up comic book. It's no dream though, is it?" she asked, looking at Mizuki and Lance.

"Afraid not," Lance said, shaking his head.

"Perfect, so any idea of what I'm to expect in the next couple days?" Sakura asked, rolling her eyes.

"Unfortunately no," Mizuki said. "Right now our instructions were to warn you that something was coming so that you didn't ignore your gut feeling, like you did during Carmen."

"You saw that?" Sakura asked, sitting back up in surprise.

"We saw all of it," Lance said. "We've been looking out for you since Mizuki got here and insisted that I help her take care of you, from up here anyway."

"You make no sense," Sakura said, "but thanks for looking out for me. It makes me feel better to know that I won't exactly be alone on this."

"Speaking of which," Mizuki interrupted, "Lance, we have to go, we did our job and now Sakura has to go do hers."

"We'll talk again later," Lance said, hugging Sakura quickly.

"Hopefully next time we'll have more information for you," Mizuki said, following Lance's example and hugging Sakura before going to stand beside Lance who was hovering over the lake.

"See you soon," Lance said, waving as he and Mizuki disappeared in a sudden onslaught of mist, leaving Sakura to fall back onto her back and stare at the leaves of the cherry tree until she fell asleep.

Sakura woke up the next day really confused. The dream she had of Lance and Mizuki was still fresh in her mind and she had to fight the tears that came to her eyes when she realized that she had been talking to two of her most important people, both of which were dead, in her sleep. She didn't believe that it was just a dream, as her gut feeling told her otherwise and she refused to ignore that feeling again. Shaking her head to rid herself of her thoughts, she got ready for class and headed down to the dining hall with Sachiko, who looked at her oddly.

That day, nothing out of the ordinary happened and that night Sakura didn't dream of Mizuki and Lance again. The same thing happened the day after and the day after that. By the fourth day, and still nothing from Mizuki and Lance, Sakura began to have her doubts about her dream three days earlier. However, these doubts were squashed on the fifth day when Sakura found out how much trouble she had managed to get herself involved in.

Sakura went to bed and woke up in limbo for the second time in less than two weeks. This time Lance was trying to wake her up and Mizuki was pacing back and forth in front of the pair.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked, as Lance let go of her and she sat up.

"They're moving," Mizuki said, still pacing. "Our enemies are moving and they're moving a lot faster than we had anticipated."

"And that pertains to me how?" Sakura asked.

"They've found out who you are," Lance explained, trying to calm Mizuki and stop her pacing. "We don't know how they found out, but that's not the problem here."

"What's the problem then?" Sakura asked.

"Now that they know that we've gotten your help, and they know who you are, they will most certainly come after you," Mizuki said, sitting down beside Sakura while Lance did the same.

"They will send their minions after you in an attempt to kill you," Lance added. "Thankfully they don't know about your weakness during the new moon so they won't use that against you. However, they will try to kill you in order to keep you from spoiling their plans in the future and they may use others against you."

"Wait," Sakura said, paling as she thought of the danger to Sachiko, Shizuma and Nagisa. "If they're coming after me, in order to kill me, does that mean that they will try to use onee-sama against me? Will she, and others, be in danger because they are close to me?"

"It is not impossible," Mizuki said. "We don't know anything about what they will send after you. It could be as easy as a dumb beast that is unable to think for itself, or it could be as dangerous as a trained assassin."

"Dammit," Sakura said, standing up and pacing back and forth. "What am I going to do? I'll have to fight, obviously, but how am I going to do that? If they attack during the new moon, whether or not they know that it is my weakness, I won't be able to summon the sword that I use while I'm a Draconian."

"Calm down," Mizuki said, placing a reassuring hand on Sakura's shoulder. "We've already thought of that."

"Here," Lance said, tossing a decorative pen to Sakura who caught it mid-air.

"What is this?" Sakura asked, calmer, but confused as she inspected the silver pen with gold plating and decorated with small jewels.

"It's you're weapon," Lance said. "I know that you already know how to fight, even when you aren't a Draconian, so if you don't need to transform, then you don't have to. If you press the top of that down, you get a sword. It's an easy way to carry a weapon wherever you go without having to worry about unanswerable questions about why you are lugging a sword around with you everywhere."

Sakura gave him a sceptical look, but pressed the top of the pen and, sure enough, it glowed a brilliant white before transforming into the most beautiful weapon Sakura had seen in her entire life. Pulling the blade from its silver scabbard with gold swirl designs and precious gems, she noticed that the blade was about an arm and a half in length and the hilt was about two and a half fists in length.

"It's the same kind of weapon that The Guardians use," Mizuki explained as Sakura studied and marvelled at the weapon. "The blade is made of the most valuable, unbreakable ore and the hilt is solid silver with solid gold accents. The large gem at the bottom of the hilt is a sapphire and the smaller gems along the hilt are sapphires, diamonds and emeralds."

"Wow, lots of glitz for a weapon," Sakura said, sheathing the sword and allowing it to turn back into a pen.

"That's because they are usually just used for show and ceremonies," Lance explained. "They are only used as weapons in the most extreme cases."

"And I suppose that evil minions coming to kill me will count as an extreme case?" Sakura asked with sarcasm.

"Pretty much yea," Mizuki said. "But before we discuss more on the subject, it appears Sakura that you need to get up." With that, Mizuki and Lance disappeared and Mizuki's words echoed in Sakura's head.

"Sakura, you need to get up."

"Sakura, you need to get up,"

Sakura finally figured out that it wasn't Mizuki talking to her, but it was Sachiko's voice telling her to wake up. Sakura felt Sachiko shaking her shoulders, as she attempted to wake Sakura up. "Ngh," Sakura said, rolling over to look at her sister, who was already dressed and ready to go. "What time is it?"

"It's 8:30," Sachiko stated.

"WHAT?" Sakura yelled, leaping out of bed and running into the bathroom to start getting ready for her classes, which started in twenty minutes "Why didn't you wake me up?" She asked, flying out of the bathroom and quickly pulling on her uniform.

"I tried to," Sachiko said, as she watched Sakura hurriedly gather her books up. "However, no matter how hard I tried, you wouldn't get up. If you hadn't been breathing, I would have thought you were dead." Sakura chose not to let on how close to the truth Sachiko was and instead grabbed her sister's hand and flew out the door to the school and her classes.

As Sakura sat in math class, she let her mind wander as she tried to process the events, and discussions, of her most recent dreams. She still found it scary and confusing as hell to know that some higher power was up to something evil and wanted to eliminate her because it thought of her as a threat. She also was still having a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that Lance and Mizuki were the ones giving her guidance and information.

"Aoi-san?" Sakura was jolted out of her musings at the sound of her name. She looked around and saw her teacher giving her an odd look.

"Sorry, what was that?" Sakura asked, trying to be polite while attempting to gather her thoughts at the same time.

"I asked if you would please come and do the problem on the board," the teacher replied, finding Sakura's behaviour rather odd, she was not one to daydream in class.

"Ah, right, yes of course," Sakura replied, walking up to the front of the classroom and taking the piece of chalk offered to her by her teacher as she looked at the aforementioned problem on the board. Just as she was about to put the chalk to the board, Sakura froze. It was almost unnoticeable, but there was a painful buzzing in her head, and it was getting louder by the second; definitely not a good sign. "Ahhh!" Sakura moaned, clutching her head in pain, dropping the chalk in the process, as the buzzing continued to grow in volume and intensity. Just as Sakura sank to her knees, hands still on her head as if that would make the pain go away, the buzzing immediately turned into a light hum.

"Aoi-san? Are you alright?" Sakura looked up to see her teacher's worried face as well as those of her classmates.

"I'm fine," Sakura said, standing up. "Just had a major hot flash, I must be getting a migraine. Do you mind if I go to the nurse's office?"

"Of course," her teacher said, nodding. "I'll have somebody drop your work off at your dorm for you."

"Thank you," Sakura said, before gathering her things and exiting the classroom.

As soon as she was out of the building, she made a mad dash for the forest, following the buzzing in her head until she came to stop behind a tree on the edge of a clearing. Staying with her gut feeling, Sakura stayed hidden and peeked around the side of the tree. What she saw made her heart pound in fear and confusion. There, in the middle of the clearing, was what seemed to be a monster resembling some sort of reptile. It was dark purple in colour and had strange red markings all over it and it seemed to be looking for something. Just then, it's head snapped up and it fixed Sakura with its bright yellow eyes before running straight at her. Not needing to be told to get a move on, Sakura turned on her heel and ran further into the forest, the monster right on her tail and hungry for her blood.

A/N: I'm so mean aren't I? First no updates for months, then I leave you all on a cliffy like that. Apologies for both, mostly the updating thing though... finals were awful and then i had to start working right away so there hasn't been much time to update. Im leaving for Europe next week so i wont be doing any updating till I'm back, then my sister's exchange student comes from Tasmania so I'll be carting them around for the last week of August, then school and musical rehearsals start again... I really hope i'll have time to update for you guys somewhere in there but please don't kill me if I don't. Oh, and for those of you who are waiting 'patiently' for the next chapter of "A Rift In Time" don't worry, I'm almost finished and hopefully it'll be posted sometime today or tomorrow. Reviews make me write faster so R+R to get the muse going!

PS: if anybody wishes to submit fanart for this please feel free. I would love to see your interpretations of Sakura's Draconian form!