[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

4 January, 2001

Card Captors

"Dimensions II - Test of Evil"

By : The MOUSE……………………&helli p;.

Soothing, healing incense filled the room with a pleasantly pungent odor, wrapping around the quintet gathered in the small bedroom. Early morning light filtered through the gauze like curtains, softening the rays of the sun, making the scene all the more ethereal. One could have imagined such a sight as having come straight out of a fairy tale.

Magical Kero, Guardian Beast of the Seal of the Book of Clow, sat on the bed's pillow watching Card Mistress Kinomoto Sakura sleeping deeply. He keened quietly in worry for the lovely High School cheerleader. She had been in this deep slumber since he had found her and the restored warrior/sorcerer of the Clow Reed descendance, Li Syaoran, in King Penguin Park and since she had been brought to the male Card Captor's apartment.

Kero's eyes left his Mistress and looked at the future leader of the Li Clan. This one's dark honey gold eyes were riveted on the sleeping sorceress as he stood at the foot of her bed. His green robes lay off to a side on a chair, forgotten, as he stood there as still as a statue, dressed all in white. The sorcerer's arms were crossed over his chest in a stance that stated he wouldn't be moved from his avid contemplation.

Standing not far behind him was his Cousin and once fiancée, Li Meilin Rae, and Sakura's best friend, Daidouji Tomoyo. Kero could see a touch of jealous longing in Meilin's terra cotta eyes at the attention and devotion her beloved Cousin showed for the female Card Captor. For her part, Tomoyo was simply content to record the whole scene on her video camera with a thin smile, both pleased and worried. To her amethyst eyes this was romance at its best. The enamoured warrior watching over his princess's safety.

"You're sure she'll be alright, Meilin?" Syaoran suddenly queried, breaking the thick silence.

"Positive." she answered. "You got her here in time. Hypothermia was just beginning to set in."

"Then why isn't she waking up?" Kero demanded.

"Try going through what she has and see how much energy you have left, you animated ball of lint!" she snapped. "Being attacked by the Death Card, soul merging, emergency surgery, running from the hospital in twenty below temperature... She's just really tired."

"You're absolutely sure?"

"One hundred percent certain." she assured.

Syaoran didn't move from his vigil through the whole conversation the two had.

Tomoyo couldn't help but smirk at how much of a guard he resembled. "You'd think you were trying to keep her from bolting off, Li." she chuckled.

"She's done it before." he answered simply.

"True, but she has no reason to do that now. She has the Death Card," and she indicated the Clow Card sitting patiently on the nightstand, "… and you're back to your old living self. She's not going anywhere."

Syaoran turned to her this time, giving her a plaintive look that told her he was dreading the idea of leaving Sakura's side. Both Tomoyo and Meilin gave him a sympathetic grin. His Cousin then stepped forward and gently gripped his shoulder in a form of reassurance.

"Your apartment only has one door to go in or out of. And it can be locked. Besides, why would she want to go anywhere? She'll sleep for a few hours at the very least. Something you should try to do too. You may not feel tired now, but you will when you hit the pillow."

"She's right, Li." Tomoyo agreed in urging. "If you want to continue being her protector then you need to rest up too. Going through a change like you did… well… I can't even imagine what it's like."

He couldn't argue. He did feel a little tired, but it was more from worry about Sakura's wellbeing than from what the Life Card had done to him. Syaoran couldn't shake the nagging feeling that danger still lurked nearby. He couldn't understand it. It didn't feel like a Clow Card, yet it tugged at his senses, demanding not to be denied. And its target, whatever it was, was definitely the Mistress of the Cards. He could just barely feel the eddies of magic faintly probing Sakura's powerful aura. This is what had kicked him into full protector mode. No one would hurt Sakura so long as he was around. But the two girls had been right. He needed rest to better defend his soul mate.

He sighed in response to both Meilin and Tomoyo's gentle orders. "Two against one, that's really not fair." he smirked slightly.

The girls merely grinned in victory. Reluctantly he allowed them to drag him out of the room, leaving diminutive Kero to guard the teen cheerleader. Syaoran was half pushed, half dragged the few steps down the hallway to his own bedroom where he was gently shoved inside and the door was shut behind him, leaving him alone. He looked at his bed with a blank expression before sighing and flopping back on the thick covers. Minutes passed as Syaoran just stared at the ceiling with a small frown. Sleep eluded him despite the fatigue he felt. It was a sense of foreboding that kept him awake.

Something was going to happen.

And it was going to happen soon.

* * *

Darkness.

A black darker than pitch surrounded the lone Mistress of the Cards. She couldn't see a thing, but she did feel very powerful magic all around her, concentrated in one direction. She took a blind step in the dark, following her senses. The air was musty and damp with age, dirt and water. Her own footsteps and breathing were the only sounds to reach her ears. The silence was deafening. She was alone here. It caused a cold chill to run up her back. She walked in the darkness for what seemed like hours, surprised she hadn't tripped or run into anything. The darkness lifted slightly as torchlight came into view. Ancient, crumbling columns were everywhere, both fallen and still standing to support the ceiling. There were no windows in the roughly cut walls of hard clay and stone. Both the walls and the ceiling resembled more those belonging to a cave adapted for…

For what?

Kinomoto Sakura stopped walking and looked around her dimly lit surroundings. The walls and columns were covered in carvings and frescos. She recognized the styles of the carvings from her history books.

Ancient Greek.

Inca.

Ancient Chinese and Japanese.

And others she couldn't quite remember or recognize.

Where was she? Was this some sort of temple?

How's that possible? she questioned inwardly. I was just in Tomeda District a second ago… wasn't I? Is this another vision?

Syaoran…?

Kero…?

Tomoyo…?

Meil in…?

Anyone…?

The magical presence she had felt earlier began to tug at her senses yet again. Curious, she began walking again, moving deeper into this cave-like temple. Torchlight was the only source of illumination until she reached a large circular chamber with a high domed ceiling. A round hole was punched through the center of the dome, allowing bright daylight to shine down…

… on a raised stone altar where a body lay hidden under a white sheet.

She froze at the morbid sight. How long had this body been lying there, alone? For all she knew a skeleton could be under that immaculate sheet. She suddenly frowned in thought as she stared at the sheet. Ancient fabrics had a tendency to turn yellow and fall apart after a few years. With the mustiness in the air this sheet should have been mere strands of fabric by now, yet it looked brand new. She took a step past the room's threshold to investigate and began to hear soft whispers.

"… she is the one…"

"… power…"

"… Card Mistress…"

"… the Chosen One…"

The rest of the voices were in languages and dialects she didn't understand.

Even with fear gnawing at her nerves, Sakura went farther into the vast chamber and slowly turned in place to take in the sheer size of it all. Huge, massive stone pillars reached three stories high to support the dome. They were so wide Sakura was certain not even all her friends together, linked hand to hand, could encircle just one of these behemoths. They were pushed away from the walls to allow for a kind of alcove-like corridor to run the whole circumference of the chamber. The tiles of the floor were arranged in a pentagram within a circle. Symbols in various languages, including Greek, Chinese, and Japanese, were scattered all around the design. If she focused hard enough Sakura could make out heat eddies rising up from the patters and lines. This was a symbol of great power, a nexus.

The covered body once again caught the magic wielding cheerleader's eye. As morbid as it was Sakura was also curious about it.

Who was this person?

How long had he or she been here?

Why was this person here in the first place?

With hesitant steps she walked up to the stone altar dominating the center of the chamber. She felt the room's power hum all around her as she crossed the pattern's lines. Her hand trembled in nervous fear as she reached for the sheet. Her fingers gripped the flax like material and she paused.

Her eyes closed.

A bracing breath was taken.

The sheet was torn off.

Silence.

No sound of clattering bones.

Sakura gulped in disgust. Then the body still had flesh on it. She took another bracing breath and slowly opened her eyes. She cried out in surprised shock, recoiling from the altar in total astonishment.

There, dressed in his ceremonial green battle robes, was the ashen and immobile body of Li Syaoran.

No breath was present to move his chest. His eyes were closed to the world. Sakura's mind went into a kind of panic. She refused to believe what she was seeing, refused to believe that he was lying there dead. That he would die again. This had to be a vision, she knew that now. She had seen her beloved partner alive, he had held her in his arms, she had felt his heart beating not hours ago… hadn't she? Why was it Fate was conspiring against her to kill him yet again?

With tears beginning to sting her eyes she approached the body of her beloved and gazed down fondly at his pallid features. He was so still, so peaceful. Quivering fingers reached for his cold cheek, touching his smooth skin.

Dead Syaoran's eyes snapped open without warning. Sakura gasped in surprise and growing fear at the sight. His beautiful, rich amber eyes were now as black as coal. Before she could recoil away his hand shot out from his side and grabbed her arm in a vice grip. She cried out in pain.

"Give me your power, little Cherry Blossom." his hollow voice demanded.

She blinked. This was definitely not her Li Syaoran. From out of nowhere a hand wielding a knife appeared, the blade aimed straight for the Card Mistress's heart.

* * *

Li Syaoran's frown at the ceiling deepened as the feeling of dread intensified. What was he dreading? Did he fear having to tell Sakura how much he truly loved her?

No, that wasn't it.

He was nervous about telling her, but certainly not afraid. Why should he be? He had resolved himself to the fact that he would love her no matter what. The more he thought about the possible reason for this fear, the more he felt detached from it. It was distant, yet a part of him. It felt as if he was experiencing or channeling someone else's fear.

Hai, that was it.

Someone else nearby was afraid of something and he was picking up on that primal emotion. He sat up on his bed abruptly, a deep frown of concern on his features. At that very moment he knew exactly where and who the source of this feeling was.

"Syaoran!" a voice screamed in pure terror.

The Chinese warrior/sorcerer leapt from his bed and ran flat out for the guestroom not far away. He barely took notice of Meilin or Tomoyo running up behind him as he burst through the door. Magical Kero was floating in front of his Mistress who was now sitting up in bed, voicing soothing words to her to try to calm the wild eyed girl. Terror generated tears traced salty trails down her flushed cheeks. Syaoran's heart tore at the sight of the liquid crystals falling from the evergreen that were her eyes. Seeing her cry was enough to cause him the most pain imaginable. Something had horrified her.

Her!

His angel.

No one was allowed to do that to her.

No one.

Her glittering eyes noticed him standing just within the door, watching her, and she flinched. The Little Wolf blinked. Spring jewels met confused dark gold and all her fear seemed to melt away. Syaoran raised an eyebrow in silent self-questioning. There had been no mistaking her reaction to him just now. She had seen something that had terrified her of him? The sorcerer carefully sat at her side on the edge of the bed, facing her, and dotingly wiped away her tears with gentle fingers. She held his palms against her cheeks with her eyes closed, drawing on his strength. Syaoran just sat there and waited, giving Sakura the precious moments she needed to calm and compose herself again. Their friends moved closer to them, adding their support.

The warrior's thumb gently glided across the sorceress's cheekbone. "You… were afraid of me just now." he posed, letting the question hang unspoken.

She seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then, "I… I wasn't sure…" she breathed ever so softly.

"And that made you scared of Li?" Tomoyo questioned her best friend carefully.

Sakura blinked and looked at her, collecting her thoughts as she kept a hold of her beloved soul mate's hands now in her lap. "I… I wasn't scared it was him… I was scared it wasn't him."

Meilin was confused. "A nightmare?"

The Card Mistress shook her head in a negative. "A vision."

Kero landed on her knees in concern. "Are you sure it was a vision?" he asked, but he already knew the answer.

"I know how they feel like, Kero, and this definitely felt like a vision."

"Damn Clow Reed for letting you have these visions." Syaoran growled before he could stop himself.

The three girls and the Guardian Beast of the Seal all gave him a curious look for his outburst. He blinked, realizing his mistake of voicing his concern aloud, a blush creeping up the back of his neck. He quickly waved away their silent questions before any could be said aloud.

"What was it you saw?" he directed at the Card Mistress.

She frowned in thought. "It… it was dark… I was in a cave… but it wasn't a cave. There were pillars and columns everywhere… a sort of temple…"

"Temple?" Kero mumbled.

"There were lit torches here and there… made things look really creepy… There was… something guiding me on, pulling me in one direction…" She felt Syaoran's hands tighten on hers slightly. "I came to this huge room with a hole in the ceiling to allow for light… There… there was an altar in the center of the room, surrounded by weird symbols…"

"Symbols? What symbols?" the warrior interrupted.

"Um… some were Japanese… some were Chinese… Gomen, I couldn't recognize the rest of them."

"What was on the altar?" Meilin probed.

Sakura shuddered. "A body."

Tomoyo blinked. "A body? As in a dead body?"

"I thought he was dead. He looked like it at first."

"He? Who was it?" Syaoran thought to ask.

Emeralds met amber fearfully. "It… It was you… but not you."

He frowned in confusion. "Me, but not me?"

"What do you mean?" Tomoyo urged.

"His eyes… When he opened his eyes they were completely pitch black… He said he wanted my power… He… he tried to kill me and that's when I woke up." She looked to both Kero and Syaoran expectantly. "What does it all mean?"

"Trouble." the toy-like magical creature muttered, crossing his tiny arms in thought. "This all sounds like dark magic. And it looks like you and the gaki are the targets again."

Something was vaguely familiar about the things Sakura had described, but the memory seemed buried too deep in Syaoran's mind to remember properly. He would have to review his Father's and Clow Reed's notes and scrolls to figure it out. For now he pushed the thought away from his subconscious to work on. This way he could concentrate on another task at hand: calming Sakura enough to get her to rest again. She needed all the rest she could get to help her both heal and recover from everything that had happened to her in such a short time. He gave her hands a reassuring squeeze, getting her to look at him.

"You have nothing to worry about, Sakura. I won't let whatever that is get you without a fight. He'll have to get to you over my dead body."

She covered his mouth in a panic to silence him. "Don't say that!"

"But he's right, Sakura." Tomoyo continued. "Whatever this thing is might have him to deal with first, but then it has the rest of us to deal with after."

"So you better rest up if you don't want us putting our lives on the line for you." Meilin concluded, seeing the terror in the Card Mistress's eyes at the prospects of losing her friends in the act of defending her. "And I know another pretty good reason for you to rest up."

"What's that?" Sakura questioned.

"You have to face your Otou-san and Onii-chan and try to explain to them why you ran away from the hospital like you did, not to mention explain what you're doing here." she grinned impishly.

The sorceress's eyes went wide. "I almost forgot about that! What am I going to tell them?"

Violet-eyed Tomoyo merely grinned in reassurance. "You'll think of something. After all, you're Card Captor Sakura!"

Sakura groaned in dismay at the starry expression that her best friend gave her. Sometime the camera-crazed teen had far too much confidence in the cheerleader's abilities and powers. Syaoran quickly got to his feet at this point and began to usher the two other teens and Kero out of the room. To get the Guardian Beast of the Seal moving the young warrior had to pick him up and toss him lightly towards the door, hard enough to give him momentum, but not hard enough to keep him from recovering and flying on his own. Kero glared at him in clear annoyance, but a deep glower from Clow Reed's descendant was enough to send the creature speeding away towards the living room.

"Out! Let her get back to sleep." he ordered the two teen girls who had remained behind.

Tomoyo pouted as she tried to resist being pushed out of the room. "Not fair! I risk missing some really kawaii shots! Why aren't you leaving too?"

"Someone has to watch over her well being." he countered calmly.

"I could do that!"

"Tomoyo, it's my job to watch over her. Now out."

"It's still not fair!" she griped.

"Then take it up with Kami-sama and the Fates, I'm just obeying my karma." and he gave her a final push out of the room, closing the door behind her to prevent her from coming back in.

He turned back to Sakura sitting on the bed, only to be confronted by her indescribable clear jade eyes. Syaoran felt frozen in place by her gaze, unable to move, barely able to breathe. Silently he wondered if she knew what kind of spell her eyes put him under each and every time she looked at him this way. A small, curious grin adorned her soft lips as she stared at her partner and soul mate. All coherent thought left the warrior/sorcerer. She was just so painfully beautiful just sitting there as she was. He suddenly blinked and was able to be able to speak, breaking enough of the spell she unknowingly cast.

"Nani?" he asked of her.

"Did you really mean it?"

"Mean… mean what?" he asked with some trepidation. He was silently worried she had heard something he didn't remember saying.

"About it being your job to watch over me."

He smiled, partly in relief. "Oh, that. Of course I meant it. Have you ever known me to say something I don't mean?"

She chuckled softly as he walked over to her and sat next to her pillow, leaning back comfortably against the headboard. "You beat around the bush and never volunteer a lot of information, but whenever you say something it's always the truth."

"That's how I was raised." Syaoran smiled as he helped her settle more comfortably onto her pillow, tucking the covers in around her shoulders.

"I was wondering something…" she voiced after a moment.

"Wondering what?"

"Well… I know Touya has always been able to see or feel spirits when they're around, but…"

"But it's like I didn't exist around him when I was a spirit?" he completed for her.

"Yeah. Why was that?"

"It's a little something I found out I could do when Kero and I were experimenting what my limits were that first night. I could specify who could and couldn't see or fell me."

"Oh."

"I figured it would be safer if Touya couldn't see or feel me. By Kami-sama, he's seriously out to kill me, you know."

Sakura laughed softly. "I know. He's holding a grudge for that first impression you made five years ago when you attacked me for the Clow Cards."

"I'm really sorry I did that back then."

She smiled gently. "You were just doing what you were told to come to do. I can't blame you for that."

"Even when your Onii-chan does."

"He doesn't know your reasons."

He sighed. "He just may never drop that grudge, but Tomoyo told him something that should make him think twice before attacking." he smirked in self-satisfaction.

She blinked and looked up at him. "What did she say?"

Syaoran smirked down at her with a shake of his head. "It's best if you ask her… after you've rested."

She pouted, knowing full well she would never get him to tell her. He could be as stubborn as a mule when he wanted to. Then, after a short moment of silence, "Syaoran?"

"Hai?"

"Gomen for being such a burden to you."

He blinked, clearly not having expecting this statement from her, then carefully brushed stray strands of her hair away from her face. "What makes you think you're a burden to me?"

Thrilled goose bumps raced across her flesh from his gentle touch and equally gentle tone of voice. "The fact that you're always putting your life on the line to protect me because I can't do it for myself and the fact that you always take care of me when I get hurt. I lost count of how many times you saved my life."

He smiled. "Again, what makes you think you're a burden to me?"

Sakura met his gaze and felt herself melt from the shivery warm smile he was giving her. She sighed in defeat. "It's just…" and she gestured helplessly.

"You don't always want to rely on others?" She nodded and he chuckled. "It's almost like you want to learn to run before you even know how to stand." He paused in thought, tenderly stroking her silky hair. Then, "No reason to put it off anymore. The moment you're well again I'll teach you how to properly defend yourself."

"Honto ne?" she smiled hopefully.

He chuckled again, this time at her beautiful child-like innocence glowing in her eyes. "Honto. Now, you need to rest." and he carefully placed his index finger on the center of her forehead.

Sakura felt the familiar drowsy humor invade her senses and she smiled. "Domo… arigatou… Syaoran…" she managed to mumble before falling into the magical slumber.

Syaoran carefully took one of her hands and gently kissed the back of it. "You're welcome, My Love." he whispered ever so softly.

To Be Continued…