Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Heavenly Little Bunny ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

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

Celeste flew rapidly towards the park. She looked down at the entrance just as she was about to fly over it, and saw Eriol standing there with Sakura and the four guardians. She called out to them, "hey guys. You felt it too," and landed amidst the group, her wings disappearing as soon as she landed.

"Yeah, do you know what it is?" Sakura asked, looking over at Eriol and back at Celeste.

"It has to be Soren. It's probably a trap. If he didn't want us to sense him, we wouldn't." Celeste answered, looking into the darkness that encompassed the park.

"You're probably right, but he may hurt innocents in there. We'll have to stay together and stay on guard." Eriol reasoned.

"All right, let's get going." Celeste said. She took a step back from the group and held her staff before her. It was about seven feet long and had gold points at the top and bottom. A gold circle, about eight inches wide, sat near the top of the staff, just below the point, and held the symbol of the earth within it. Near the bottom, the same symbol sat, only much smaller. Below the large symbol, the staff was wrapped in gold, to form a handhold, and the rest of the staff was colored black.

Celeste gripped the staff just below the large, golden symbol at the top. She flicked her wrist and the staff seemed to bend and twist. She quickly, and fluidly, moved the arm that held the staff above her head, the top symbol growing smaller, and draped the end over her right shoulder, the smaller symbol now resting on the right side of her chest. The now whip-looking staff wrapped itself around her waist, over the school uniform she still wore, and continued down her leg, the end of it coming to rest on the outside of the lower half of her right leg.

"That was so cool!" Sakura exclaimed, holding her own staff close to her body.

"It keeps my hands free," Celeste shrugged and then a slight smirk appeared on her lips, "and makes me look good," and with a twist of her hips she turned and began walking into the park.

After a few seconds, the rest of the group followed after her. They stayed on guard, Keroberus and Spinel Sun in their true forms, while Yue and Ruby glided slowly above their masters.

Just as the group reached the center of the park, four large creatures jumped out at the group. They had long sharp beaks, similar to a predator birds, and feathers running down from their heads to the middle of their backs. Their arms had long, colorful feathers extending down that looked like they allowed some flight. Their feet and hands were taloned and extremely sharp looking. The four could be told apart by their colorings, one was mostly red, one had blue feathers, one had mainly yellow coloring, and one was mostly violet.

The red creature flew up towards the flying guardians, while the blue and the yellow creatures attacked the Keroberus and Spinel Sun simultaneously. The fourth creature, and seemingly the largest of the four, lunged towards Celeste. She sidestepped swiftly, just in time for one of the talons to catch the front of her shirt and slice across her stomach. Celeste grabbed the whip and it magically unwound itself quickly from around her frame, and cracked it in the direction of the violet creature. She caught it across the face, causing a line of blood to appear, oozing from the wound.

Keroberus flew up just in time to dodge the blue creature and land on its back, causing it to fall forward. Being wary of the talons it possessed, Keroberus held it firmly down until something could be done.

Spinel Sun caught one of the talons with his front paw, blood dripping from the wound, as he attempted to dodge the yellow creature. It turned and lunged again, attempting to get its talons further imbedded in the sun guardian. Spinel dodged this time and, using his own claws, caught the creature in the back; it's feathers turning red from the blood. It collapsed in pain and Spinel watched to make sure it didn't attempt to get back up.

Yue and Ruby split and flew in separate directions as soon as the red creature dove at them. Yue turned and fired crystal shards at the creature; it dodged and flew straight at him. Ruby, seeing a chance to surprise it, fired her own crystal shards at the creatures back, catching it off guard. The shards sliced through its wings, shredding the feathers, and causing the creature to fall, landing heavily on the ground, back down.

Sakura, seeing that Celeste was distracting the violet creature, and that the rest of the creatures had been taken care of, and that they weren't that bright, brought out the Sleep Card. She said the incantation and the little fairy that was Sleep came out. She went to each of the creatures and put them to sleep, but for some reason, the little girl couldn't put the violet creature to sleep. Sakura returned the card and thought of what else she could do.

Eriol attempted to use his own magic to put the creature into a deep slumber, but the creature ignored everything else and only concentrated on Celeste.

Celeste was getting a little anxious; she wouldn't be able to hold this thing off for much longer. She had already gotten a few scratches from its talons but she had also wounded it even more with her whip. Calling, once again, upon her wings she flew into the air. Hopefully she would be able to get away long enough for someone to help her.

Sakura called on the Wood Card, but the creature jumped and flew out of the cards reach just in time. Yue and Keroberus flew after the creature when it suddenly turned around and fired several sharp feathers at the two guardians. They dodged the attack as best they could but Yue caught one across his right cheek, causing blood to drip down to his chin.

The violet creature turned back to continue its chase after Celeste. Celeste couldn't seem to shake the thing. Keroberus attacked, claws extended, but didn't cause enough damage for the creature to fall. Fortunately, the attack gave Celeste enough time to prepare and launch an attack of her own. She turned in midair and said a little incantation. She snapped her whip forward and, just as the creature turned and quickly launched another feather attack in her direction, lightning crackled and shot from the whip, catching the bird-like creature and causing it to fall in a burning heap to the ground below.

The sharp feathers caught Celeste unawares and she couldn't move fast enough to get completely out of the way. The feathers caught her left wing and her leg and, unable to maintain flight, she began descending rapidly towards the ground. Sakura shrieked, "Celeste!" and watched as her friend plummeted to the ground. There was no way to reach her in time. Just as Celeste closed her eyes and prepared herself to hit the ground, strong arms caught her and stopped her descent.

"Thank goodness Yue," Sakura cried out as she and Eriol ran over to the landing Yue, Celeste held protectively in his arms.

Celeste carefully opened her eyes and looked up into the piercing gaze of Sakura's moon guardian. "Thank you so very much Yue," Celeste whispered, her energy drained from the fight.

"No thanks is necessary," Yue said simply as Ruby and Keroberus came over.

Celeste's eyes were drawn to Yue's cheek and the blood beginning to dry there. "Oh, Yue, let me take care of that," she said and, before he could protest, she placed her hand over the injury and it glowed. A moment later, when she removed her hand, the blood had stopped altogether and the cut was completely healed.

"That's a useful thing to have," Eriol said as he observed the healing power that Celeste displayed. "I don't believe that Rakesh had that particular ability."

"He didn't," she stated simply, "I have magic of my own as well as what he had."

Spinel Sun limped over to the group and Celeste, seeing this, asked Yue if he could put her down now. She leaned heavily to one side; the majority of her weight off of her injured leg, and bent down. Spinel raised his paw and allowed Celeste to heal it. Once healed Spinel leaned up and licked her cheek, much to the surprise of the group, and said thank you.

"Your quite welcome Spinel. Unfortunately, I can only heal myself while I sleep, so, since his trap failed, I should head home."

"How are you going to get home? Your hurt." Sakura asked, worry plain in her voice.

"Don't worry, I can manage."

Eriol turned and looked at the tall moon guardian and said, "Perhaps you could take her home, Yue. You could carry her."

"Yes, Yue, why don't you take her? She might get hurt even more. Please Yue." Sakura pleaded, eyes wide, puppy dog-like in appearance.

"As you wish mis-Sakura," Yue said, remembering to call her by her name.

He picked up Celeste, once again, and flew up into the sky. "You will have to direct me as I don't know where you live."

"Ok, just fly that way," she said, pointing in a direction. After about eight minutes, Celeste pointed down and said, "over there."

Yue landed on the balcony that Celeste pointed to and allowed her to open the doors leading to her room. He walked into the room and quickly saw the bed, walking over to it and setting her down. He turned and began leaving until he heard her say, "Yue, can I ask you something?"

He turned back around, standing about three feet away, and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Thinking that this was a sign to continue, she cleared her throat, suddenly a little apprehensive, and asked, "what happened between you and Rakesh?"

Yue, completely surprised by the question, blinked rapidly, his arms falling to his sides. Celeste noticed a pained look that appeared in his eyes and immediately regretted asking such a personal question.

"Why do you want to know? I thought you had Rakesh's memories." Yue asked straining to keep his voice neutral but some emotion slipped through.

"I do have a lot of his memories, but only what I've seen in my dreams. I had a dream last night though that I don't understand. You and Rakesh were standing at the top of a long staircase and then you kissed each other. I just want to know what it means and how close you two were." Celeste said and then, seeing the hurt in his eyes, whispered, "I'm sorry, I guess I shouldn't have asked."

"It's all right. I will answer your question." Yue said, folding his arms back across his chest and finally getting his emotions under control again. "We were lovers for a short time; too short. He was killed soon afterwards." And with that Yue turned and walked onto the balcony.

"If you ever need to talk, please come see me. I would like to get to know a little more about the man who I was." Celeste called out to the retreating guardian.

Without a word, Yue spread his wings and flew off into the night. Celeste watched, tears forming in her eyes as she thought over Rakesh's life and what role Yue played. She silently cried herself to sleep, visions of Yue through Rakesh's eyes, laughing and happy, invaded her dreams and she couldn't stop the smile that spread across her lips during the night.