[Crossover] Cards and Devices

[Sniperk]

Okay, so here is my first ever multichapter fic. Since I'm using some settings from AS RadiantBeam's Shadowverse, be prepared for heavily shipping during some parts of it. Posting here because I intend to finish this some time in the near future. It's just that I couldn't get the time or the energy to continue with it. Specially since some stuff happened over at AS that had me away from the fandom for quite a while.

Getting back on topic. This is a Nanoha x Clamp crossover, primarilly using CCS cast, and not much else. I'll post the first chapters that are already done, just to have the whole thing here. Then I'll work on getting the rest done.

I'm not a native english speaker, so my word choosing and grammar can be a little jumbled, so please, be warned. The first few chapters were beta'ed. Later ones weren't.

And one last note, again, I have to warn that there is heavy shipping on this. So if anyone doesn't like, please don't read. Thank you and on with it.

---

Cards And Devices​

----
Leaving the airport after Syaoran had taken his flight back to Hong Kong for the nth time in those six years, Sakura took her cell and dialed her best friend. It was almost a ritual to her nowadays. Every time Syaoran would go back home, she would call Tomoyo so they could chat. After a few rings, Tomoyo picked up.
----
The long black haired girl was in her study, trying to improve an idea about a dress she'd though of a few minutes before when her cellphone went off. She didn't even need to look at the ID to know that it was her best friend by the ringtone.

She wasn't too keen on answering that call though. She knew what it was about, since today was the day that Syaoran would go back to Hong Kong, so Sakura was probably looking for her shoulder to cry on.

She knew her friend would get clingy with her every time it happened, and she didn't really like that. All through middle school and high school she managed to repress her unwanted feelings for the cardmistress, and sometimes when Sakura got in her clingy mood, Tomoyo would get extremely upset afterwards.

Her heart raced every time it happened, and she hated that. She didn't want that feeling. It was too hard on her to see her best friend in that kind of light.

So she repressed it, and it got to a point where she really thought that she'd managed to kill that feeling for her friend.
But life wasn't so easy.

Those feelings would resurface when Sakura was in her clingy mood. She would hug Tomoyo out of the blue, and keep theirs hands together all the time.

The blue eyed girl hated to see her best friend in clingy mood because it was too hard for her to cope with the inconsistency of her feelings. Part of her loved to feel her friend and the other part hated. But both parts felt even more strongly when Sakura was in this mood because normally she would cry. The sad face of her best friend was even worse than those feelings so she didn't protest to Sakura's whims. Tomoyo always said that a smile fit her friend the best. So she picked the phone.

"Hi, Tomoyo-chan," the girl in the other end of the line started.

"Hello, Sakura-chan." Tomoyo wanted to add 'what is it?' but didn't. She knew what it was about.

"Are you busy right now?" Sakura asked, hoping for a negative reply but trying not to show it in the tone of her voice.

Tomoyo thought about it a little. She in fact should have been busy, since she was studying for the entrance exams for the university before the idea for the dress came to her mind, but she brushed that thought aside and answered, "No. Not really. Why?"

"Can we hang out a little today?" the cardmistress asked, still managing not to change her tone.

"Sure. Where do you wanna go?"

"For now let's meet in front of the station, okay?"

"Okay. I'll be there in about thirty minutes. And you?"

"I'm already near the station of the airport, so I think probably a half an hour too."

"Okay. See you in a few then. Bye, Sakura-chan."

"Bye, Tomoyo-chan."

Tomoyo knew that they would be talking about nothing of importance, just to take Sakura's mind off of it, but she also knew that in those times, her best friend needed her support.

She set aside the sketches of her new creation, and changed clothes. A simple white one-piece dress, a little above her knees, a round white hat with a ribbon tied and sandals. She looked in the mirror to see if everything was okay, left her room in the oversized house, and asked her bodyguard to accompany her to the station.

A few minutes later and she was at the place, waiting for the cardmistress. The day wasn't too hot, and a small breeze seemed to relief the extra heat that managed to gather.

A pleasant day.

After a few minutes, her friend arrived.

"Hi, Tomoyo-chan." Sakura jumped and tackled her best friend in a hug, almost knocking both of them to the ground.

"Hi, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo answered, trying her hardest not to stammer. "Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know. I just wanna take a walk and really don't want to be alone right now. I'm feeling a little lonely today."

Leave to Sakura to be blunt about this kinda thing, Tomoyo thought. And those words stung her more than she thought it would, but she made effort not to show any signs of it. "For now, let's go get an ice cream," she said, freeing herself from Sakura's hug.

Sakura let go of Tomoyo, but still held her hand as they walked. They bought their cold treats and went to sit at a bench in the small park nearby.

"Sorry to always do this," Sakura said, after sitting down. She realized that it was selfish of her to call her friend like this every time.

"Don't mention it. We are friends after all. Best friends." Tomoyo had calmed a little, even though Sakura was still holding her hand.

"Yeah. But it's always you doing something for me. I don't do anything for you." Sakura smiled bitterly.

Tomoyo knew that wasn't really true, and was starting to get worried about the shorthaired girl.

Normally, about now, they would be talking about other things and not about the matter at hand. She would do anything to take her mind off things in these times, to try not get her even sadder than she was, but she chose not to say anything, instead just tugged her hand.

"Yeah." Sakura understood the gesture. "I shouldn't be thinking about this right now, right?" Still, a small bitter smile stayed on her face.

She tried to move her thoughts to other things. But the more she tried that, the more she thought about Syaoran. She really liked him. They weren't really dating, and after he confessed to her when they were in fifth grade, nothing more about it was said, but they acted ever since as a couple in a long distance relationship, only that they weren't really one. And that saddened her even more. Her life for the last couple years had almost being driven by the times when they were together and the times they weren't.

Tomoyo knew that, and was the first to actually voice those thoughts that even Sakura hadn't realized by then. So the cardmistress felt like she needed to do something for her long haired friend. Not just for that, but for everything that they had experienced together.

"Do you want to go shopping with me? Before you called me, I had a great idea for a new outfit, and now I need some materials." Tomoyo smiled. She knew what she had to do. For herself and for her friend. Just spend a few hours with her talking about nothing and by tomorrow Sakura would be as good as new. Well, not so good, but would be in better shape than right now.

Sakura nodded, and they finished their ice creams before starting to walk again.

----

Later Sakura was in a much better mood, smiling and cheerful, but it wasn't her normal happy self. It was clear to Tomoyo that the cardmistress still had something else on her mind, besides the separation from chinese martial artist, even so she didn't probe any further. In fact, she really wanted to get away from her right now, so when they got to their normal parting spot, Tomoyo stopped, holding her bag with the cloths and ribbons that she had bought earlier in front of her and smiled.

"Bye-bye, Sakura-chan. See you tomorrow. Take care okay?"

"I will. Bye, Tomoyo-chan. Till tomorrow," was the answer of the cardmistress before she started walking home.

Tomoyo still waited in the parting spot, as always, till the moment she didn't see Sakura anymore, so she could go home too.

When Tomoyo got home, she left her bags in the corner of her room and busied herself with the books.

She didn't want to think about anything else right now.

Especially about Sakura.

-----

"I'm home," Sakura said as she got home and saw that her father's shoes were there. She went to the kitchen and hugged her father. "I'm a little tired right now, so I'll take a nap in my room now, ok, Dad?"

Fujitaka took a glance at his daughter and smiled. "Of course. I'll call you when dinner is ready." Then after looking with a little more attention he asked. "Are you ok?"

"Thanks, Dad. And, yeah I'm ok. Just a little tired. Really." She climbed the stairs and entered her room without her usual energy, despite having just stated the opposite to her father.

Kero opened the drawer that had been his room for years now. "Hello, Sakura." 'How are you feeling,' he wanted to add, but decided not to. It was always that way when Syaoran went back home and he knew that, so instead he decided that the greeting was enough for now.

The cardmistress took a seat on her bed and, after sighing deeply, she lay down her upper body. Her mind began to travel to the events of the day. "She didn't look so good today, but even so, again she went out of her way just to be there for me."

"Who?" Sakura had said that more to herself than to her guardian, but even so he replied.

"Tomoyo-chan."

Kero flew over to her bedstand and took a look at her face. "Well, she is your best friend. You two have been together even before you became a cardcaptor. She likes you. She would do anything for you."

"I know, but today was a little off. It was almost like she was trying to avoid me. Did I do something to her and don't remember, I wonder?"
Kero crossed his arms and closed his eyes, frowning."Probably. You are a little too honest at times."

"I know. It's just that..." Sakura trailed off, not sure what it was. Maybe Tomoyo doesn't see me as her best friend anymore. Maybe she's thinking that if she got into Tokyo University, she won't have time to be around me all the time anymore, so she wants to minimize our time together so we don't feel so lonely when we separate.

She sighed and sat up again on the bed, looking at the drawer where the Sakura Book was. All her cards were there, and despite she now being the master of the Sakura Cards, nothing really happened to her ever since the time she'd transformed and captured the cards, save for one or two episodes. She would still call them every now and again just to talk to them, but her powers weren't really needed anymore.

The last time she really used a lot of her magic was when she created that card, thinking about Syaoran.

Her eyes went wide as the idea came about it. "That's it!" She shouted, standing.

"Gwahhh!" Kero jumped back, surprised. "That's what?"

"I'll show what my friendship for her is all about."

"Huh?"

Sakura dashed out of the room, reaching the kitchen where her father was still cutting a few vegetables that would be for dinner.

"Dad, I'm going out a bit, but I'll be back in about an hour, ok?"

The teacher looked at her and smiled gently. "All right, but please, don't stay out too long because dinner will be ready in a short time."

"Ok." Sakura climbed the stairs again and looked outside. It was already dark, so it wouldn't be a problem if she just flew out the window, but she wanted to save every bit of magical energy that she had. "I'm off, Kero-chan." Without waiting for an answer from the guardian she storms off the room and gets her rollerblades. "I'm off, Dad."

"Take care outside. It's already dark." Fujitaka voiced his answer before he heard the sound of the door closing.
Sakura was skating furiously in the pavement, as if her life depended on it.

Within minutes she was at her destination.

The penguim park.

The place where she had the most wonderful memories with Tomoyo. She went to the back of it, into the small woods, and after confirming that no one would see her, she reached for her pendant.

"The Key which hides the power of the Stars. Show your true form before me. I, Sakura, command you under our contract. RELEASE!" Her key pendant transformed in its staff form.

After she got it, she took her book and opened it. "Guys, I need a big favor from all of you."

The cards all flew off their housing in the book and formed a circle around her, shining in response to Sakura's words.

Sakura held her two hands together and rested them against her heart. The magic circle formed on the ground. She tried to pour everything that she'd ever felt for Tomoyo into it. She felt the outline of the object form itself in her hands, and started to pour every thought she had in it.

Then she asked for her cards to do the same, to pour a little of their essences into the object. The cards glowed again, and after a few moments, the brightness faded, and she looked at her hands.

A Card.

A new Sakura Card.

A Card made from her feelings for her friend.

A Card made from all the moments that they shared together.

She looked at the Card. As all of her cards, this one had a will of its own, and the card knew the reason why it was created.

Sakura smiled at it.

"Hi," she greeted it. All her other cards went back to their place inside the Sakura Book. She looked again at the card she was holding.
The brightness still hadn't faded from it, so she couldn't tell what the image was, but she felt it. All the emotions she had poured into creating this card.

After a few moments, the glow faded and the image appeared.

Two fairies, one with her hair short the other long, back to back with each other, hands clasped together, holding a single white rose, fingers interwined, looking at each other with the corner of their eyes.

The cardmistress lifted the card in the air. "Go now. Your home will be with her from now on."

The card then glowed one more time before disappearing completely.

----

"What the hell!?" The redhaired man asked his companion, that until a moment before was lying on the couch, but had jumped off of it. "Did you feel that?"

Feigning ignorance, the short man looked at the other "You mean a huge change in the magical flow of energy of this planet coming from the far east?"

"Exactly."

"Nope. Not a thing," said the short man, despite being already changed into his 'battle' clothes, that consisted of two sneakers, old jeans that long had lost their color, and a blue tanktop. "Let's go."

The man leaped from his seat where he was having breakfast and started to change out of his pajamas. "Are we gonna follow that?"

"Of course. I came here trailing a tip about a magical power source that had been felt from this area for years. No one had ever being able to pinpoint the location of it, but as far as I know, this could be it. Working with you was just a side job." The black haired man looked at his watch. Eight in the morning. "Damnit!" Bad time to fly. Especially if you are working on a planet where the power of magic wasn't something publicly known, but even so it had technological weapons that could kill him in one hit from hundreds of yards away."Damnit it all!"

"Calm down, man. You know that I, too, am here for the same reason? It's just that I have more bussiness on the side," said the tallest between the two. "It's not my fault that the boss found this goldmine of a planet when he destroyed the Bergamini family and took over their bussiness. The drugs from here are cheaper and more addictive than the magical ones."

"Yeah, yeah. Damnit. Damnit all. I hope this change in the magic flow doesn't disappear until it gets dark again." He threw a punch at the near wall to calm himself a little, then turned to his colleague. "Is the last shipment ready yet?"

"Yeah. I'll ship it later this afternoon. They still need to land and come to the port by water, as to not get on the natives' radar, and scanners from the patrol ships."

"I still don't buy that whole 'the dope gets bad if teleported' crap."

"Hey, we get paid to do our job, not to ask about these things," the redhead snickered.

"Heh. Paid. You talk like you work at a friggin' convenience store. We're dealing with dope here, you know?" He grinned. He knew it wasn't like that, but wanted to make fun of his companion.

"I don't really care about what it is. If I can pay my bills and let my wife and my kid live happily, I'd turn into a demon if I needed to."

"To some people you already are one, you know."

"So are you, Chris."

"At least I don't pretend to be a goody two shoes." He snickered, and got back from the door.

"Ok. Ok. You win. I'm not up for it today. I still have to finish packing" Giving up on their discussion play, the other man finished putting his suit on and started with the tie.

"Tch. Fine then."

"And I was going to go home in that ship too, but with this now, I think I'll need to check it out with you." He sighed, knowing full well that it wasn't a decision for him to make. He would accompany his colleague, wanting to or not.
The short one grumbled. "Pack up everything except what you'll need, Reeve, and send it with the shipment. Don't worry, we'll be going back home tomorrow, with something that will get your family ecstatic when your 'pay day' gets around."

"One day more, one day less. At this point, it doesn't really make a difference to me anymore. My wife is going to kill me either way" He sighed again, finishing with the tie. "Let's go to the port and get over with the shipment."

----

 

[Sniperk]

---
Hayate was leaving her office in the Ground Division when a monitor with a waiting call flashed in front of her.

"General Yagami! We need to report urgently!" said the small framed girl through the monitor, saluting.

"What did I already told you, Mariko? You don't need to salute me every time." Hayate chuckled at the beet red face her subordinate got.

"So, go ahead," she added, before her chuckles turned into laughter.

After steadying herself, the black haired girl take a deep breath. "We're receiving strong magical readings coming from a planet outside TSAB jurisdiction."

"If it's outside the jurisdiction, why are you informing me of it?" This kind of news weren't exactly new to Hayate. Some planets out of the jurisdiction were indeed home to very powerful magical beings.

"It's just that... It's from Non-Administrative Planet 97." Mariko stated with worry in her eyes.

Hayate's eyes got wide at the fact. "I'll be there in five minutes. Gather all possible data you can about it." After moving her hand a little in the monitor, she opened various channels of communication. "This is General Yagami Hayate with a priority one order. All operators are to assemble in the control room in five minutes. I repeat, all operators assemble in the control room."

Walking through the base's corridors Hayate called her husband. "Honey, something came up. I'll get home a little late today, I think. I'll call you later, ok?"

"It's not like I have other option, is there, General?" Verrosa grinned, using the recent position acquired by his wife to pick on her. "I'll pick the kids up at the church. You don't need to worry."

"Thanks. Till later." When the General finished her call she was already at the door of the control room.

"Attention," Alto, the Chief Operator of the base, stated as all the others saluted when Hayate entered the room.

"At ease. What is the situation?" The Ace of the Ground was sitting in her armchair as she said that.

"On the monitors," she ordered, as various screens popped up in front of them. "About 35 minutes ago, a huge burst of magical energy was detected on Non-Administrative Planet 97. Were still trying to pinpoint the exact location of the source, but we managed to narrow it down to this small archipelago." An image of the archipelago appeared on the monitor. "Mariko?"

"Y-Yes, sir," the girl stammered and almost knocked off the papers in her desk before getting up and saluting again.
Hayate frowned at this, but didn't want to add oil to the fire reprimanding the short haired girl.

"What can you say about this?" Alto asked.

"W-well, the source of the power is certainly magical, but its type isn't registered in the TSAB's database. It isn't either Belkan or MidChildan, nor is it natural. The magical energy within the planet started to flow from every corner of the planet and gather at this archipelago. We're having problems scanning further down because the fluxus goes haywire when we get too near."

"A Lost Logia?" Hayate asked, the palms of her hands starting to sweat.

"Yes and no. The reading is recognized as a Lost Logia but the pattern is completely different." She sat down in her chair again and started to type in her terminal, as more screens popped in the air. "The left is a standard Logia wave pattern. As you can see, it is stable, fine. But the right one is the reading we're getting right now. The wave pattern is non-existant. We already checked the equipment and it's working fine, but we can't read the wave pattern from this source, or it's completely continuous, in the zero mark."

"Damages on the planet?"

"Physically none that we could gather. Everything is in order down there," another operator voiced from his chair without turning. "But the magical energy flow is a mess."

"Humm..." Hayate put her elbows in the armrests of the chair and clasped her hands together, interwining her finger. "For now, I want everyone to gather as much information about it as you can. Search the database again, and monitor the activity of this energy."
The room entered into busy mode, with everyone getting to their designated seats and starting to carry out the order.

"Connect me with the Infinity Library." Hayate told Alto.

The shorthaired blonde moved her hands to comply with the order.

"Hello. What can we help you with today?" A grown woman voice was heard, but what was shown on the screen was a little girl.

"Sir." Alto moved the call to Hayate's table.

"Hello, Arf-chan. Is Yuuno there?" Hayate asked, recognizing Fate's pet/familiar.

"Yes. Just a moment." After a few moments, "I'll pass to him now."

"If it isn't my esteemed General. What can this humble librarian do for you?" Yuuno, still in his ferret form, asked.

"Cut the crap, Yuuno." Hayate still couldn't get used to people using her new position in the military to make fun of her, as the changeling was doing right now. "I need you to take a look at something for me. Urgent."

"And what that would be?" Yuuno changed back into his human form and pushed his glasses to the bridge of his nose.

Hayate turned to her subordinate "Alto, send Yuuno all the data we have till now about this." And turning back to the screen, "We detected a huge magical burst on Earth. But we can't seem to identify its type, and it isn't listed on the database."

"I see." He turned to the side "The data is here. I'll go through it and call back if I have any leads, ok?"

"Okay. Thanks, Yuuno."

"Always a pleasure." At this Yuuno cut the call. Hayate knew her childhood friend would find something. Even if he himself liked to downgrade his own skills, he was the best at this.

"Contact the Navy. I need to speak with Admiral Fate." Hayate asked again.

And again Alto contacted the asked place. "Sir."

A woman was on the other side of the screen. "I need to speak with Admiral Fate." Hayate didn't even bother to introduce herself.
"I'm afraid I can't comply with the request General Yagami. Admiral Fate is off duty right now." The woman answered, after recognizing the famous face of Hayate.

"Ok. Thanks for the information." Hayate cut the call and called her unison device that was sleeping in her bag. "Rein, wake up."

"What is it, Hayate-chan?" Rein was still sleepy. Even after twenty years she was the same as the day she was born, not showing any sign of aging.

"Contact Bardiche for me, please. I need to talk to Fate-chan immediately." Despite her and her two best friends being almost thirty now, she still called them with the suffix every now and then.

"Bardiche is in combat mode right now." The little unison device voiced to her master the situation.

"Oh, god. I hope it isn't what I'm thinking." The frown in Hayate's face wasn't noticed by anyone besides Rein. "Alto, if there's any news contact me immediately. I'm leaving all channels open." She got up and started to leave the control room.

"Sir." Alto saluted.

"And stop calling me 'Sir' you too, mou," Hayate sended mentally to Alto, but as the later was already with her back to her, the General didn't notice the snicker on her face.

When Hayate got back to her office, she asked Rein again. "Try contacting Bardiche again, please."

"Still in combat mode." Rein stated.

"Try Raging Heart"

"It's in combat mode too." She answered after a few moments.

"Oh, boy. Here we go," Hayate sighed. "Rein, contact Bardiche again in emergency mode." She was already picturing what would be happening, since she didn't receive an alert of a magical fight between two S+ ranked mages yet.

"Mou, Fate-chan. Again?" Nanoha's voice echoed in the room, as Hayate, in reflex, made motion to cover Rein's eyes, despite the unison device being already old enough to know what was happening, since she and Agito had long gone past that point.

"Sorry to interrupt you guys. But it's an emergency." There was sounds of scrambling from the other side of the screen. "Erm... Fate-chan, contact me as soon as you can, okay?"

Hayate cut the call as she heard Nanoha starting to yell something that she didn't want to hear.

A few minutes later Fate called her, not in her best presentable way, with her hair messy and her face flushed.

"Sorry again, Fate-chan. Is Nanoha-chan there with you right now?"

"No." And after surveying around her home office, "No, she's not here."

"Good." Hayate knew that if Nanoha got hold of the information that she was about to relay to Fate, not even her and Fate together would be able to stop the White Devil. "She can't hear what I'm about to tell you. At least not for now."

"Go on." Fate narrowed her eyes and supported her chin with her fist and her elbow on the table.

Hayate told Fate everything that was happening. "Do you think you can go there to take a look at this if the need arises?"

"It's about Earth. Of course I would want to go there." Fate sighed and rested against the upholstery of her armchair."But my ship is being serviced right now. I can't take off from here till it's fully repaired. Atelaia got really damaged in my last mission." She frowned as she remembered.

"Really? That's a problem. Let's hope the situation doesn't require our direct intervention, but I doubt that. That's why I contacted you in the first place." Hayate was playing her options in her head. She needed someone that she could trust for this mission if it was indeed necessary to go down to Earth.

"I know what you're thinking. I think we have the right ones for this job." Fate said as she read Hayate expression.

"Really? Who?"

"Teana and Shari. They're both on the planet right now and I trust their partnership." The blonde stated "They've worked together numerous times already."

"But isn't Teana stationed in your ship?"

"She was till last mission." Fate smile grow wider as she praises her subordinates. "I can trust the two of them with one or two secrets about this and they won't talk about this to anyone."

"Okay. Good enough for me. Contact them then and get them on stand by."

"I will, and don't worry. Nanoha won't know anything about it. At least for now."

"How's Vivio by the way?" Hayate had to ask, hoping that she wasn't at home too.

"She's okay. She wanted to stay home today, because I just arrived, but Lutecia came earlier and took her out to play."

"Humm..." Hayate grinned. "Okay. Bye then, Fate-chan. I know that you still have a hungry wife to feed, so I'll not hold you any longer." Hayate's grin grew wider at this.

"Bye, General. Don't worry about me." 'Actually I'm the one hungrier here.' She added in her mind but brushed off the thought, and cut the call as Hayate started to pout playfully, at the 'General' word. She really was starting to regret her new rank.

The SS rank ground mage then sighed and looked through the window to the now night sky and thought. "What's happening down there?"

---
Tomoyo was fixing the drawing of her dress. She should be studying but the idea for the dress got so stuck in her mind that she didn't want to let it get away.

It was a white backless long dress, that would go down to the shank but had seven inversed 'V' shaped cuts that would go a little above the knees with yellowish frills, held in the top front by a ribbon strap that rounded the back of the neck.

She was drawing it and trying to improve it when something started to glow at her side, and she felt like someone was calling her.

She lifted her head and looked af the glow, and saw the object hovering.

She reached for it and the object came closer to her.

She wasn't afraid because she already knew what it was.

The voices in her head were telling her.

As soon as she touched the object she felt the great deal of emotions that it held.

The voices, she learned at that moment, were from the fairies in the object she was holding. Both of them talked in unison, like they were one.

She was holding a Sakura Card. But it was a card that she had never seen.

Then the two voices talked to her again.

They were there for her.

She would be safe from then on, and they would remind her from then on that she had a great friend.

Tomoyo held the card to her chest.

"I don't deserve this," was the last understandable thing she said before she started sobbing.

---

"I'm home," Sakura called as soon as she got home. Contrary to earlier, now she was really tired. But she was energetic all the same.

"Welcome back," Her father echoed from inside the house. "Dinner is ready. Go wash yourself and come eat."

"Okay." The cardmistress went up to the second floor and put the Sakura Book back in its drawer. "Thanks, guys. You are all amazing."

Later that night, when the green eyed girl was about to go to sleep, she could barely stand the expectation of seeing Tomoyo tomorrow. She changed into her pajamas and lay in her bed. "G'night, Kero-chan"

"Night, Sakura." Kero yawned and closed his drawer/room.

But sleep didn't came to Sakura, as the expectation grew in her. Even thought she was exausted from the stunt she pulled earlier she couldn't get to sleep because of it. Excitment got the better of her and she stood from her bed again. Opening her drawer she got her cards again and searched for the one she wanted. Sleep. But before she found Sleep she found another one, Dream.

"That's it." Closing the book she took Dream to her bed and lay down again. "Dream. Show me how will Tomoyo-chan react to my gift and what will happen tomorrow." She then threw the card into the air and called, "DREAM"
Dream then glowed and Sakura immediately fell asleep, dreaming of the future.

---
"Everything ready?" Chris asked his companion when he came back from the ship.

"Yeah. Everything is good to go, but since I still dislike the idea of flying all the way to the eastern by ourselves, I asked the Captain if he could take us till the point he will take off." He smiled behind his sunglasses.

"Great. And?"

"They're just waiting for you to get your butt in there."

Chris grumbled and started walking to the ship. "Then say so already, damnit!"

Reeve took of his sunglasses and looked at the landscape before him, sighing, then put them on again and went to the ship. When he got there, they both go to the upper deck. When the ship starts to undock he turned to the blackhaired man. "What time is it?"

"Three on the dot. This guy really is a punctual bitch." Chris said, referring to the captain of the ship.

"Good for him, isn't? Better than keeping the clients waiting."

"Yeah, yeah. I know I'm not the most diligent person around. You don't need to remind me about it."
Reeve smircked at his colleague but the latter didn't noticed.

After a few minutes, as they were drifting slowly, and the coast was getting off their sights, Reeve called his device. "Kron, survey the flow of the magical energy and locate the source for me."

"Scanning, Chief." The pin in the lapel of his suit answered as a few windows and a keyboard appeared in front of the red haired man.
Several minutes later Reeve turned off all the windows. "Thanks Kron. That's all for now."

"Anytime, Chief."

"You know I'm from this planet, don't you?" Reeve turned to the small figure sitting at his side, with his back against one of the walls of the ship.

"And? You lived here till you were just seven anyway. Then the boss got you and took you to Mid. What? Are you getting homesick?"

"No. I don't even like this place, but I studied it a lot. And that's why I'm always in charge of negotiations with the natives." Reeve turned and leaned against the handrail. "Did you know that in this planet there's more different languages than in all the TSAB's monitored planets together?"

Chris knew this, because he had to use Ana's auto-translating system every time he needed to talk to someone in this planet, aside from certain areas where the language was similar to the MidChildan language. "I know that already."

"Well, then this news will be good for you to know. If we're going to where I think we are, we can disable the auto-translating system from the devices."

"That's good to know."

"It's just that there, it will be harder to go by unoticed if someone saw us."

"It doesn't matter. When we get there it will be already nightime."

A couple hours later a fat old man came down to the upperdeck and calls for the duo. "Hey, mates. We're changing to fly interdimensional mode in five minutes. If ya don't want to get stuck in ma ship, then get off now."

"It's time already?" Chris wanted to curse his luck. "When I finally managed to relax enough to get some sleep. Damnit."
Reeve chuckled. "You were already slobbering, man."

"I was not!" The short one got up from his place. "Anyway, let's get out of here."

"Yeah. Thanks for the ride, Captain." Reeve waved to the captain. "We'll be going then."

"Cya, mates!"

The pair got to the front of the ship.

"Ana, keep surveying ten miles at every direction for signs of intelligent life the whole time. We don't want to be shot down by the natives' weapons."

"Okay, Honey," his watch answered.

"Don't call me that, damnit!"

"Understood, Pumpkin."

Chris sighed. "If I find the bastard that programmed you to be like this..."

Reeve was fighting hard not to laugh at his companion arguing with his device. "Let's go, Chris."

"I know, damnit!" He lifted his left arm as to make his watch be in front of his eyes. "Let's go, Ana. Lock and load."

"Command recognized. Changing mode, Honey," Ana stated, as its form changed to a staff, with the same height of its holder.

Chris's clothes changed into a full body protection, similar to a diving suit, but made of leather, leaving only his head out.

Reeve was laughing outright by this point. He loved how ridiculous Chris's barrier jacket was. He then supressed his laughter, and called his device. "Kron. It's our turn. Lock and load."

"Activating, Chief." Kron flew off Reeve's suit and turned into its staff form, at the same time the barrier jacket formed itself around his master. The design was pretty much equal to the TSAB's aerial mage's standard barrier jacket, only difference was that its color was brown instead of purple.

"Time." Chris said after both of them take off from the ship.

"Five O'clock, Honey."

"That bastard must have a clock attached to his brain," he said as he watched the ship take off from the water and change its shape for that of a interdimensional ship.

"Good for him." Reeve grinned. "Let's go. Kron, track down the source of the magical energy."

"Tracking, Chief."

They both started to fly in the direction the device was pointing.

---

 

[Sniperk]

Several hours into the night had passed and Hayate was still in her office going through the data gathered by her personnel in the control room. She didn't realized the time till Verossa called her.

"Is it another all-nighter?" The green haired man was worried about his wife. Since she got the latest promotion, she had stayed more at the office than at home.

"I don't know, Honey." Hayate sighed and adjusted herself in the chair. "This time it's more personal than any other thing, so it can take some time."

"Personal? How?"

"It's about Non-Administrative Planet 97." Hayate closed her eyes and rubbed the eyelids.

"Oh. For a moment I thought you were having an affair." The man grinned, but at the sight of Hayate's condemning face he changed his expression to a more serious one. "So, anything you can share with me, or is it top-secret?"

"Sorry. I still don't know the reality of the situation myself. Just the outline of it. And I'm afraid that it'll still take some..." Before Hayate could finish her sentence another call popped at her side "...time. I gotta go now, Honey."

"Okay. I'll be waiting, though I'll probably will not stay awake, you can call me if something comes up. Love you."

"Love you too." Hayate finished one call and answered the other one. "Tell me you have some good news Yuuno."

"Well, I do and I don't," The Chief Librarian answered, not looking at the monitor hovering at his side. "Earth is a planet where its inhabitants have little to no magical energy, but the planet itself has a great deal of it, so it's normal for kids born there sometimes to acquire magical powers, like Nanoha and you." He picked up a book that was at his side. "According to the records, since it started being filed 70 years ago, 43 people were identified by the TSAB as beings with latent magical powers, including you two. From those, only six had the potential for being ranked above A+ and only you two above S."

"Are you saying that there's a new rank S mage in Earth?"

"Again, yes and no." Yuuno sat with his legs crossed floating in front of the screen, now looking at Hayate's projected face. "About six years ago, if you remember there happened various changes in the flow of the magic energy on Earth, but all of them were considered minimal, so the matter wasn't investigated very well."

"Yeah, I remember that only the last burst in magical energy was something considered dangerous, but after that the flow went back to normal and the matter was rotulated as a natural occurrence."

"That last episode, the graphs of that magical energy was exactly like this one that you sent me. That is to say, there isn't anything in the graph itself, just a straight line in the zero axis."

"So it can be another 'natural occurance'?"

"Yes, but something caught my attention. Look at this." Yuuno sent two images to Hayate's monitor. "The top one is the graph for a Logia, a Jewel Seed in this case. The one below is from this flow of energy."

"I already saw both this graphs earlier. I sent them to you remember?" Hayate frowned, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Now was not the time to get angry.

"Easy there, General. I know what you sent me. Now look again at the graphs." As he said this a new line was drawn in both graphs. In the upper one, the line started at zero, went up, and stayed there for a few units of time, then went back to zero and stayed there a few units, repeating the cycle.

"What's this means?"

"That line is the latent power output for a normal Lost Logia. As you can see, the output goes up to its maximum and stays like that for a period of time before going back to zero, to 'recharge.' Now look at the bottom one." The line started at zero and started to go up at each unit of time, without going down till the end of the graph.

"Wait, are you telling me that the latent power output from it is constantly going up without stopping?" Hayate started to get nervous.

"I can't say that it doesn't stop at some point, but this output goes out of the range that our equipment can measure."

"And how can this be considered natural? Better yet, why wasn't this investigated before?"

"The latent power output isn't like the power output itself. It's more like a condensed energy that gathers by itself and can't do harm to anything alone. If channeled right, it can be a powerful resource of magical energy, but since there's no technological or magical way to use it, even if this power is great it's also no use to us, since we can't channel it."

"So you are saying that someone might have found a way to channel it?"

"It's just speculation at this point, since a power of this scale only happened once in the past, and it wasn't investigated then too because the TSAB didn't exist at the time."

"Ok. Anything else you want to add?"

"As I said, it's only speculation. It could really be a natural occurrence for all I know."

Hayate leaned back in her chair. "Thanks, Yuuno. It was a great help. If you find anything else, contact me right away. I'm leaving the channel open."

"Right-o. Don't worry, I would even if the channels weren't open. Bye." He smiled and waved to the General before cutting the call.

Hayate started to pace in her office. After a few minutes of digesting the information she'd just received, she called the Control Room. "Have you guys managed to pinpoint the location of the source?"

"Not yet, General. We managed to narrow it down to a small area but we couldn't get any further than this without the system overheating by itself," Alto reported from the other side of the screen.

"Okay. Send the updated data to me. You can dispense the personnel that isn't on duty tonight." Hayate cut the call and turned to the window where the aerial photo of the region power source was, recognizing its landscape. "For the love of god. Tokyo?!" She gasped. "Rein, contact Bardiche for me again."

A few moments later. "Hi, Hayate-chan. Fate-chan is on the bath right now. Can I help you?" Nanoha answered the call.
Hayate wanted to avoid telling Nanoha about the events at all costs. "Actually no, I'm sorry, Nanoha-chan, but it's about Fate's last mission. Some of the reports about it."

"Is it so important that you need to call her so late into the night? Wait, I thought that Fate-chan didn't need to file her reports until tomorrow." Nanoha narrowed her eyes, looking at Hayate.

Hayate mentally kicked herself but still smiled. "No, it's not her reports, they indeed are just for tomorrow. The problem is with some of the reports from her subordinates."

"Oh. Okay. When she get out of the bath I'll tell her that you called."

"Thanks, Nanoha-chan." Hayate was about to cut the call when she heard someone calling her.

"Aunt Hayate!" Vivio appeared in the monitor, tackling Nanoha and pushing her to the side. "When will you send me in a mission? Ever since I got into middle school, it's like I'm chained to the ground."

"Vivio! Why are you so eager to get into a fight?" Nanoha frowned at her daughter.

"I'm not looking for a fight, mom. I just want to show off my new skill. I finally mastered the Radiant Shooter in class today."

"Vivio, I'll send you a solicitation for a mission when it's needed. You should be thankful that you aren't being called. It means that the dimensions are at peace." Hayate tried to sound diplomatic.

"Yeah. I know. Sorry, Aunt Hayate." The heterochromatic eyed girl still pouted.

"We'll need to talk, little girl." This time was Nanoha, sounding not so diplomatic. The younger winced at the sound of her mother's voice. "Bye, Hayate-chan."

"Eh. Yeah. Bye." Hayate was surprised that Nanoha wasn't paying attention to her little lie anymore, but was thankful to the younger Takamachi all the same. Before she could cut the call she still heard Nanoha saying something along the lines of 'What about this showing off thing?'. She felt sorry for Vivio, having to deal with the White Devil by herself.

She sank back into her chair, waiting for Fate's call, playing with the options in her head one more time. If it was indeed a powerful source being in some form channeled, she couldn't use Shari in this mission, since she was just an Aide B ranked mage. Shari was a great asset to any division, and in mission she was very good at gathering information, but she couldn't handle the situation very well in a fight if needed. Hayate needed someone stronger to this situation. And with Atelaia out of commission for now, Fate too was tied to the ground. She would need to pull some strings. And fast.

"Rein, call Signum for me please."

"I think that you should go home and talk to her yourself, Hayate-chan." The silver haired girl floated in front of her. "It doesn't change anything. You already dispensed the personnel. Anything else you can handle at home. Not to mention that you still haven't eaten anything since lunch."

"Yeah. I think you're right, Rein." Hayate sighed but her stomach was indeed protesting the lack of food. She got her jacket in the back of her chair and putted over her shoulders. "Let's go."

"Right!" Rein saluted and sat in Hayate's shoulder.

"Even so, call Signum and tell her that I'll be stopping by there on my way home."

"Okay."

"But before that, call Chrono for me." Hayate said as she locked the door of her office. "In emergency mode if needed," she added as an afterthought.

"Can I know why I have the pleasure of getting a call from you so late?" Chrono asked, even before Hayate could greet him.

"You know that you'll always be my favorite, don't you?" She then looked again. "You're still working too, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Still working out some things with my second division."

Hayate knew what he was talking about, even if she didn't like its methods, she knew that they were necessary, but that wasn't subject at the moment. "I need a big favor."

"What is it?"

"How much time do you think you can get a ship in teleportation range for Earth?"

"Non-Administrative Planet 97? I don't know. It depends, a few hours to a few days. It all comes down to what you're gonna say next." He smiled, prompting Hayate to explain why he would need to change the course of a ship, maybe two if a chain teleportation was in order, to a planet they weren't even supposed to get involved with.

"Rein, please send the data to him, including Yuuno's findings."

After a few moments, Chrono's eyes went wide, as the amount of data started to pile up on his screen. "Wow, calm down. I think this is a little too much for me to handle right now. Can you tell me a shortened version?" Hayate then explained what was happening. "I see your point. But now I really need to go through this data to make a judgment. I'll call as soon as I finish reading this. I'll try to be quick, so don't worry."

"Thanks, Chrono."

"Hey, no problem." He closed his channel of communication. "Oh, boy. This is gonna take a while."

Hayate was already in her car that, thanks to a modification, could be driven by Rein. As she sat in the passenger seat another call was waiting. Fate.

"What's the news?" Fate started after the usual greetings.

"It could be worse than we thought at first." She then proceeded to tell Fate the whole story after they had talked earlier. "So with that said, I think that the best would be to send two combat fit mages."

"I see your point." Fate bit her lower lip. "So who you have in mind?"

"I think I'll send Signum and Vita. They should be at home right now. Can you contact Teana and Shari again and tell them that they can call off the stand by?"

"No problem. That's what 'stand by' stands for, you know?" Fate smiled, still feeling a little sad that she couldn't send the pair. "Don't you think I should go too?" She actually wanted to beg to go if needed.

"I would, but you just came back from a tiring mission, didn't you? It would be bad for my image to send a tired warrior back to battle if there's others that can handle it." Hayate wasn't actually afraid of damaging her image. She just wanted Fate to stay at home, resting. And keeping Nanoha at bay, of course.

"Well, I'm not that tired. I can manage something like this."

"Sorry, but not this time. Don't worry, whoever I send there will make sure everyone stays safe." The Belkan mage didn't want to displease her friend, so she added, "It's my homeland too."

"Okay. But keep me informed."

"No problem. I can do that. Good night, Fate-chan."

"Good night, Hayate."

As Hayate finished her call, Rein pulled the car in the driveway of Signum's home. She got out of the car and knocked on the door, that was almost immediately opened, with the pink haired knight in the other side.

"Good evening, Hayate. Come in."

"Good evening, Signum." She entered the house after Signum signaled for her. "Is everyone home?"

"Everyone but Zafira," Shamal answered from the living room. "Vita-chan! Hayate-chan is here!" the blonde called up the stairs. "Are you hungry? I'll fix something for you, right now." She didn't wait for Hayate's answer before entering the kitchen.

Vita came down the set of stairs and hugged Hayate. The eternally little girl then went to the couch, signaling for Hayate to sit down.

"Well..." As Hayate was about to start talking a new call appeared in front of her. "Just a moment, please." She answered the call. "So? What can you do for me?"

"Sixteen hours. I have a ship already getting to the teleportation range, but the other in middle of the chain will be positioned only in sixteen hours, minimum," Chrono stated.

"Thank you, Chrono." Hayate thought that it was too much time, but knew that in this case it was the best that her friend could do.

"Who's going?"

"Signum and Vita. I'm already with them and will explain the mission to them."

"Ok. They have to be in the tele-port before then. The window for the chain teleportation will be open only for five minutes."

Closing the call, Hayate turned to the other two in the room and explained everything. "Sorry it's so sudden, but can you guys go there for me? I would prefer it very much if someone close to me handled this mission."

"There's no need to ask, and you know that, Hayate." Signum spoke in a firm tone. "Whenever we're needed by our Master we'll be there."

"Yeah. Don't worry, Hayate. This will be a cinch," the small Belkan knight added. "We'll be back before you know it."

"Thanks, guys." Hayate then got up and hugged her two guardians, that she considered family more than anything.

"Dinner's ready." Shamal voiced from the kitchen despite it being already way past the time for dinner and the only one that hadn't eaten yet was Hayate.

"Thanks, Shamal."

"We'll get ready then, Hayate" Signum informed to the brown haired woman, as she and Vita started climbing the stairs.

---
Sakura woke up unusually fast for her. The eternal sleepy head was up as soon as Dream ended its job. She needed to get a hold of Tomoyo. She was in danger. Or would be by that night. Dream had never failed her before. She looked at the alarm clock. Time to get up and get ready for school. After preparing a light breakfast for her and her father, she ate her part and left a note on the table for him. Ever since Touya had moved to Tokyo so he could go to university with Yukito, she and her father divided the home duties by day, and today was her day to do everything around the house. Thankfully for her, Fujitaka had a habit of doing a week's worth of cleaning and washing when he had a day off, and the day before was his day off. Sakura wore her rollerblader gear and stormed away from the house.

A few minutes later, as Sakura was passing the Sakura pathway by the street that went to her school she voiced her thoughts. "What the hell did I do to her?" The events in her precognitive dream passed through her head. If everything happened as in the dream, her friend would attacked by two strangely dressed people, because they wanted the Card Sakura had created for her.

Sakura was frantic at this point. Her friend should already be at school, since she was on duty that day. As she got to the school building she looks at the shoelocker of her friend and found that her shoes were there, meaning that Tomoyo was already at school. She changed her own shoes and started to run to the classroom. When she got to the door, Tomoyo was already at her seat, in the backrow, already finished with her work.

"Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura ran inside the class, that was empty except by her friend, and tackled her in a hug that sent both of them to the ground. Tomoyo felt the hot stinging pain in her back as she falls flat in the classroom floor. "Thank god! You're okay! Sorry about this. I'm really sorry, Tomoyo-chan."

The blue eyed girl until that moment was still in wonderland. The gigantic flow of emotions that she felt from the Card was something that incredible. Words like love and friendship seemed too little to describe those feelings. They overflowed in her in a way that she pretty much got to school today because her body did the job by itself. And now Sakura was hugging her. She couldn't stop herself from smiling, despite the worry in the cardmistress's words. She wanted to continue feeling that warmth. Her thoughts on the day before seemed like a lie to her now. She wanted to be with Sakura forever. She looked down to her bosom, where Sakura's head was buried right now and her smile grew even more, if possible. She was too happy.

"Tomoyo-chan. About that Card I sended to you..."

"It's safe, Sakura-chan. I'll never lose it. Don't worry. I locked her it in my treasure chest. The one that you used the Sword Card to capture the Shield Card." Tomoyo was still with a dreamy smile playing in her face as she started to stroke Sakura's head.

"It's not that. You aren't safe while you hold it."

Tomoyo wanted to stay down embracing her friend but her body knew that they needed to get up. So she pushed Sakura a little signaling for the other girl to get off of her. She then got up. "Don't worry, Sakura-chan." And she sat at her table reaching for her briefcase. "Get to your seat, Sakura-chan. Later we can..." She trailed off as she opened the briefcase and felt the presence of the Card, making her gasp.

"H-how...?! I made sure to put you safely inside the chest."

Sakura was already panicking at this point, because she noticed that her classmates were arriving, so she got Tomoyo's hand and pulled her out of the class and to the back of the main school building. "Tomoyo-chan. There's a few things I need to tell you about this Card." Tomoyo didn't protest nor even reply, so Sakura continued. "Apparently that card is the most powerful one ever created, even by Clow himself. And it has been detected by some unknown people. As we speak right now, they are coming here to take the Card from you. But there's more. When I created the card, I made it so never leaves your side, even if you wanted. It'll follow you everywhere, only watching you, to not be noticed by anyone else besides us two."

Tomoyo was having a hard time understanding all of that. So Sakura made a Card as powerful as that and gave her? She didn't know if she should jump in the arms of the girl and cover her face with kisses, or if she should start cursing the cardmistress. But as the idea of jumping the girl got the better of her she started to force her body to get closer to Sakura instinctively. The other noticed this and put both her hands on Tomoyo's shoulder, holding her at an arm distance.

Sakura let her head get down and sighed. "I'm sorry, Tomoyo-chan. But I need to destroy the Card."

All thought process stopped in Tomoyo's head. Sakura had given something so wonderful for her and now she wanted to destroy it? That couldn't be right. So she took a step back and kept looking at Sakura till she lifted her head again. Only when the blue orbs locked with green ones, did Tomoyo speak. "You don't need to destroy it." Her voice soft but firm. "I know that you'll never let anything happen to me, Sakura-chan."

The confidence in Tomoyo's tone of voice was something that even the cardmistress herself didn't have. "Tomoyo-chan, what I'm saying is that when they find out that they can't take the Card from you, they'll take you instead. That's what happened in my premonition."

"You had a premonition about me? How sweet. But don't worry. Aren't those premonitions always to show what you need to do in order to not let it come true?" Tomoyo was beaming now. "My life is yours, Sakura-chan."

Sakura didn't probe any further. She didn't have the strength anymore to talk back to Tomoyo. And besides that, the confidence in her that Tomoyo was showing started to make its way into Sakura's mind. "Yeah. You're right, Tomoyo-chan. But just to be safe, keep yourself close to me the whole day today, okay?"

This was music to Tomoyo's ears. "I will." And she hugged the cardmisstress much like she herself got tackled several times before by Sakura herself.

"This is gonna be a long day," Sakura sighed.
---

 

[Sniperk]

"Slow down, man. We need to accompany the sunset, else we will be flying ducks," Reeve warned his companion.

"Ok, ok. My bad. I just want to get over with this already." Chris was starting to get impatient. He knew that they needed to go slower, as to get there at night, but the sunset seemed to be playing with him, going slower than he wanted.

"Kron, what's the ETA?"

"At this speed, one hour and twenty two minutes, Chief."

"Did you manage to pinpoint the source already?" Reeve was already feeling in his skin the flow of magical energy, but it didn't do anything to him.

"Narrowing the scans each time, Chief. The general area hasn't changed since our departure."
After a few minutes of silence between the duo the black haired one cried, "Damnit. Is this some sorta curse?" Chris was flying with his eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean, man?"

"This sun. It's starting to burn my eyes."

"I told you to go slower so we follow the sunset, didn't I?" Reeve didn't have that problem because he was wearing his sunglasses.

"Damnit. Ana, how are the survey? Any signs of life?"

"Intelligent life-forms not detected at the moment, Honey."

Chris briefly thought to throw his staff, but didn't. After calming himself a little he said, "We'll be getting in range with islands in a few minutes, so if you detect intelligent lifeforms, try to scan if they have weapons too."

"Understood, Honey."
---
Sakura was changing out of her school uniform in her room. She wanted to put on light wear, because if her premonition was to be believed, Tomoyo would be attacked at nightfall. She didn't want her blue eyed friend to be in the center of this mess she'd created, but she had no choice now. She didn't want her to get hurt. She took the Sakura Book from the drawer. "Kero-chan, get in the backpack. We'll have a battle to win at all costs tonight."

"Wh-What?! Battle? How come?" Kerberus flew from the front to the side of the window and hovered near Sakura. "What happened?"

"Last night I used Dream to see what would happen with Tomoyo-chan after she received my gift." She took the cards from the book and put them in the backpack. "Turns out that I may have put her in danger."

"What the hell kinda gift did you give her?" Kero was stupefied.

"Remember the Card I created when Syaoran had gone home the first time?"

"Yeah, but that card is still with you."

"I created another one, apparently much more powerful, and gave it to Tomoyo. Actually, I created it for Tomoyo." Pushing her guardian into the backpack she added, "Let's go."

"Gwahh!" Was the last audible thing that Kero said before the bag was closed.

---

Tomoyo was in her room, with the Card hovering in front of her. The two fairies were talking to her. She was still feeling the aftermath of the sudden burst of emotions in her heart during day before, but had pretty much collected herself. "So you'll protect me forever?" After a glow from the card, "Then your power is tied to Sakura-chan's emotions. Care to explain to me how?" The card glowed a few more times as the fairies explained to Tomoyo that their power was a mirror to Sakura's feelings for the blue eyed girl. If they grow they would get more powerful, if they dimmed they too would get weaker. "Ok, then it's all come down to Sakura-chan's feelings in the end, am I right?" The card glowed one more time, then closed the gap between the both of them, and glowed again. "Very well. I'll put you inside my dress, ok? I think I can manage to make a holster for you that I can wear underneath my clothes."

As she said that, she started busying herself with some cloths, ribbons, needles and lines.

---

"Intelligent lifeform detected. Weapons detected. Distance of 9.8 miles and decreasing, Honey," Ana warned as they got nearer to the coast.

"Ok, thanks. Keep surveying and warn me if we're detected by them."

"I'll do my best to protect you, Honey."

"Stop with the 'Honey' crap already."

"Okay, Pumpkin," the device stated, and Chris could sworn he heard a grin coming from it, but he decided to let the matter go.

Reeve was fighting against his laughter again, but as they got closer to the coast he slowed down. "Chris, let's fly closer to the water and wait the nightfall before proceeding," the redhaired man recommended to his companion.

"Yeah. I think it would better this way." He turned in the air and got his body to stand midflight.

"How much time till night falls completely, Kron?"

"In our current coordinates, 10 minutes and 42 seconds, Chief."

"Okay. Let's keep going slowly then, Chris."

"Right."

---

"So, what do you think of this mission?" the rehaired Belkan knight asked the pink haired one at her side. "If it's just another kid with magical powers, then it's easy to knock him out and bring him back with us, but if it's an object instead of a person?"

"We'll think about it once we see what it is." She stood, her eyes closed and her arms crossed, leaning against a wall, but was alert even in this seemingly laid back position.

They were waiting for their teleportation window to open, at the tele-port. Despite Hayate's protests that they didn't need to go so soon, they did so anyway. So now the duo had been waiting for over an hour at one of the benches in the lobby. And they still had another hour to go.

---

"Tomoyo-chan," the cardmistress whined. "Now's not the time for this."

"It's always time to make you even more beautiful, Sakura-chan." Tomoyo was feeling like they were back in the days when Sakura was hunting cards down, wearing the outfits that the blue-eyed girl had made for her. She regretted that she didn't have a camera at the moment, and Sakura didn't want her to go out of the house. So she settled for making Sakura wear her newest creation. A white ballerina dress modified with a few more ribbons around the waist, in various light colors, and a tiara with diamond looking gems.

"But, but..." Sakura wanted to go without it tonight, because she didn't know what would happen in what little time they had until the precognition occured. "I need to carry my cards." She tried to coerce Tomoyo into letting her go off the hook.

"The dress has a hoslter in the waist," Tomoyo showed the little opening in front of the dress. "Don't worry, it won't hinder you in any way." Tomoyo was already pushing Sakura into the bathroom.

"Just tonight, Tomoyo-chan. Please. After tonight I'll wear any dress you want me to, anytime."

The tought of having Sakura wear the most different kinds of outfits flashed through Tomoyo's head, and she was about to give up when she looked at the dress in her hands again. She grinned, "No can do, Sakura-chan. Now get dressed."

The cardmistress sighed in defeat. "Okay, okay. I'll change now." She went into the bathroom.

---
Night had already fallen as the two men hovered a few hundred yards away from the ground.

"Kron, how's the tracking?" Reeve was so completely overwhelmed by the amount of magical energy coming from every side, like a whirlwind, that he had already given up the idea of trying to feel the source himself, relying on his device for this.

"Narrowed to a hundred yards area, Chief. Can't pinpoint the location yet. Need to get closer."

"Show us the way then." As they both took off in the direction the device was pointing, he asked to his colleague, "What is the battleplan?"

"First let's get near the place. Once there, we'll see if we need a battle plan."

"Good enough." And turning to the device, "Kron, how much time until we get to the place?"

"At this speed, one minute and four seconds, Chief."

"Magical being detected, Honey," Ana informed. "Readings are erratic. Can't identify its type."

"How come?" Chris asked his device.

"Type of magical energy isn't registered in my or Kron's databases, Honey."

"That's weird." Reeve raised an eyebrow.

"We're directly above the source, Chief." Kron voiced after a few moments.

Both men look down to see a huge house.

"Change into battle mode now, Kron, but keep tracking."

"Yes, Chief."

"You too, Ana."

"Understood, Honey."

They both started to descend. The house had a very large patio, with maybe two to three hundred yards between the house itself and the outer wall. The illumination close to the house was perfect. Not a single dark spot, but little ways off the house, still inside the house area there were a few trees. Chris signaled and both of them landed on one of the trees nearby. "Location?"

"Kron?" Reeve asked his device and he pointed to a window on the second floor of the house.

"Magical being detected in the same direction, Honey," Ana added.

"Is there any weapons around, Ana?" Chris asked. "Natives', technology, weapons," he added as an afterthought.

"Yes, Honey. Seven in total in the area."

"That can't be good. Damnit." Chris didn't like the idea of getting hit by one those bullets. Being non magical they were difficult to detect, and consequently, hard to defend against. His shields could handle the impact of them fine, but the problem was raising them in time to defend against the shots.

"So, are you ready to tell the battleplan?" Reeve tried to joke, but his face was too serious to make Chris even notice it was a joke.

"Let's get closer to that balcony. I need to pinpoint the location of the source before thinking of anything."

They both took off from the tree, flying fast enough to not get noticed by anyone that would happen to be in the courtyard. When they got to the balcony Chris signaled for the tall one to create the mental link.

"Stay here. I'll go to the other side of the window. I'll pass to the other side to see things in there."

As Chris was doing this, he saw two girls in the room. One had long black hair and the other short brown hair. The black haired one was pushing the other into another room.

"Two targets. Try and find the source in there."

Reeve concentrated and started to feel the flow of energy. "It's in this room. Seven yards from the window."

"It's that girl?"

"I can't say for sure. The reading I'm getting is of a sentient being but without life." He tried to concentrate a little more. "Could be a type of Device."

"How do we find out?"

"I'll need to scan her directly."

"Well, time for some action then." Chris concentrated a little and at the tip of his staff a small ball of energy formed. With a swift motion he moved to the front of the window, aimed, and fired it at the girl. The shot hit the back of the neck of the girl, and she fell to the floor."Now."

Both men entered the room and Reeve started scanning the girl. "It's inside her clothes. It's not herself, just some object attached to her body."

"Rip off her clothes then."

Reeve frowned a little. He really didn't want to do that, but he had to. So he reached for the low of her shirt and lifted it. He saw a holster and after scanning he discovered that the object was in there. He tried to yank the thing off her body, but discovered that the holster was really well tied to the girls body. He then took a knife from his pocket and started to cut the ties off of it. When he finally managed to get the item, he heard the door in front of him clicking.

"Tomoyo-chan, I can't be wearing this tonight. It's really embarassing." The short haired girl said still looking at her dress and not out the door.

"Shit." Reeve took off, leaving the girl in the floor.

Before he reached the window he heard a cry. "TOMOYO-CHAN!"

He was already out the window and flying directly upward with the holster in hands when he called Chris mentally. "I've got the package."

"Perfect. Let's get out of here." After a few moments, Chris catught up with Reeve. "Open it to see what it is."

Reeve got his knife again and ripped open the holster. A bright glow blinded him the moment he opened it. "What is this!?"

"Damnit. My eyes!" Chris cursed his luck again.

"What the hell? It's empty! This damn thing is empty."

"Was it a trap?"

"No, the readings matched Kron's. It was the real deal." Reeve didn't undertand what was happening. "Kron, track the source again."

"Tracking, Chief." The device then pointed down to the house again.

"What the hell? It's back there?" Chris muttered.

"Apparently, yes." Reeve wanted to curse too, but didn't.

---
Sakura was shaking Tomoyo lightly. She looked at the open window but didn't see anything. "Tomoyo-chan! What happened?" Still holding the girl, the cardmistress lifted her head again and barked to her backpack, "Kero-chan! Where are you?"

The little guardian peeked out from the backpack. "You should warn me when we get to the places, you know? It was taking so long that I got sleepy." And after getting out of the backpack and taking in air, "What happened to Tomoyo?"

"I don't know, but I think she was attacked already. Her clothes are ripped, and the window is open. Take care of her for me. I'll go take a look outside." As Sakura was getting out the room she heard Tomoyo moan, and gets back. "Are you okay?"

"Humm... Ouch... The back of my neck hurts." After a few moments, she looked at her clothes and realized something was missing. "The card, where is it?"

"Huh?" Sakura didn't understand the worry in the eyes of her friend.

"The card isn't here anymore." Lifting her shirt she showed Sakura a few cut leather straps. "I made a holster that would be tied to my body and put it under my clothes so I was always with it."

Sakura understood now, but sighed in relief instead. Tomoyo wasn't injured. Just a small bump on the back of her head. "Don't worry about the card. I told you, it will always come back to you. You just need to call for it."

Tomoyo blinked. Then looked at Sakura and blinked again. "Really?"

"Yes."

"I'll try." Tomoyo closed her eyes and sure enough, the card started to hover in front of her. "Tosa! Sato!" she cried as she reached up for the card.

"Huh?" It was Sakura's turn to not understand what was happening. "What did you just say?"

"The fairies. Tosa and Sato. They said that I need to name them, because they didn't have names, so I took the first syllable of each of our names and named them."

"Anyway." Sakura shrugged. "You don't have to worry about the card being stolen from you. It will always be by your side, even when you don't call for it, and if too much time passes it will come back to you on its own." Turning to her guardian, she said, "Kero-chan, guard Tomoyo-chan. I'll go check the things outside."

"Okay," said the little guardian changing into his beast form.

---

The two Wolkenritter were entering the teleportation pod.

"State destination," a mechanic voice said.

"Interdimensional Battleship Duna, stationed at the outskirts of the TSAB's jurisdiction," replied the taller one.

"Chain teleportation needed. Authorization required. Enter code of authorization."

"ADS-22320-90," the small one read from a piece of paper in her hands.

"Authorization recognized. Chain teleportation activating in five seconds."

---

"Magical Beast detected, Honey. Type, Guardian Beast. Type of energy used, unknown." Ana's voice was heard in the middle of the two.

"Well. Guess we lost the element of surprise." Chris frowned. "Estimate magical rank of both the magical beast and other beings in that house."

"Can't get reading accurate enough to estimate precisely, Honey."

"Try again."

"Still can't. The power ranking keeps switching between B+ and AAA, Honey."

"Well have to take our chances then, damnit!"

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that," Reeve said. After taking a deep breath he added, "Well, you know what best way to rip off a band-aid is?"

"Fast and swiftly," Chris completed, starting to dive at full speed.

When they were getting to the ground Chris raised his shields. He didn't want to get shot. Reeve did the same.

---

As Sakura got out of the window she looked at the two men in the courtyard. One was tall with red hair and a staff that had a round green gem attached on the top and a triangular one at the bottom. The other was short with black hair, holding a similar staff with his left hand only the gems were violet and the staff was almost taller than the little man.

"Are you the ones that attacked Tomoyo-chan?" Sakura barked at the two.

Chris looked at the girl wearing strange clothes, even for this planet, and assumed that it was her barrier jacket. "We're here just to take something to our boss. We don't want to cause any injury to you or your friend."

"And what that would be?" Sakura was already holding her Star Staff.

"I believe you know what it is, so do you think you can give it to us the easy way or it will it be the hard way?"

Sakura was a little slow at times, but she understood what the small man meant by that. So she mentally called one of her cards to her hand. "I guess the hard way then." She then threw the card into the air. "SLEEP!" At once, the little fairy started to spread her pollen around the vicinity. The two men raised their shields. "No need to worry. I didn't ask Sleep to affect you two. I asked him to put the rest of the people around to sleep so we aren't bothered by them." She then reached for another card. "Now let me show you what happens when someone hurts my precious friend. FIERY!" The sprite surged from the card and flew in the direction of the two men, sending fireballs at them. They both took flight and avoided the attack. Sakura looked up to them hovering in the sky and called another card. "FLY!" At once a pair of wings grew in her back, and she hovered in front of the two. She was getting angrier by the second.

"She's good. That last attack was AAA almost S ranked," Chris said to his partner mentally.

"I felt that too. Care to tell me a battleplan now?"

"Let's pincer her. Let's see how she manages a double attack." The duo started to fly off in different directions Sakura looked from one to the other. When Chris reached a distance that he judged safe he called to Reeve, "Now."

"Extreme Blazer." Kron said the name of its attack as rays of green energy started to gather at the tip of Reeve's staff.

"Dancer Ray." It was Ana's turn to say the name of the attack as violet energy gathered at Chris's extended right hand.

Sakura watched both of them while reaching for another card.

"Fire." Both of them fired simultaneously.

"SHIELD!" Sakura called at the same time.

The two men saw both attacks hit the girl at the same time, creating a cloud of magical smoke.

Inside the cloud Sakura smirked, as she pulled out two cards. As the smoke cleared both men saw the spherical Shield around the girl.

"This is bad, Chris." Reeve was starting to sweat. "Maybe she's a little too much for us."

"Calm down, man." The short haired man was calmer than his companion. "It's not like this little girl lived with the TSAB. Despite the sheer power I feel from her, she doens't seem to control it very well."

"DASH! SWORD!" Sakura called her two cards. In a instant she seemed to divide herself in two, attacking both the men almost at the same time, using her sword. Reeve barely managed to block the attack with the help of his staff and two of Kron's auto-shields that were smashed in the process, but he was sent crashing down to the ground. Chris managed to avoid the girl's first attack, but the second collided with his shield. He still managed to stay up, aside from being sent almost twenty yards to the side.

"Are you alive?" Chris asked his companion.

"Alive yes. Okay, is another matter." He coughed some blood and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "Damn, it feels like I'm fighting against one of those TSAB's S ranked bastards."

"I have an idea. Let her hit you another time, then fake it like you had passed out from it." Chris changed the position of his staff.

"She seems to have to call her attacks like us to activate them. The only problem is that she seems to have a variety of them, but I think that I can manage to fend her off to buy some time. In that time, try to get the source inside the house again."

"I don't like the idea of getting my butt kicked by a little girl, even if it's on purpose."

"Don't worry, when she attacks you I'll send one of my shields to aid yours."

"Will you guys, please leave my friend alone now?" Sakura was glaring at the men in front of her. "I don't want to hurt you more than I already did."

"Don't worry. That was the foreplay, kid." Chris smirked. "Now it's the main course." As he said that, Ana's tip started to get brighter, and he fired a volley of purple energy balls at Sakura.

"SHIELD!" The cardmistress called again. If they wanted ranged attacks, then two could play at that game. "WATERY! THUNDER!"

Chris's shield indeed were capable of fending off the brunt of the attack, and Ana's auto-shield took care of the rest. But Reeve was flying down again. "Ops." Chris mentally kicked himself. He had forgotten to send one of his shields to his partner. "Are you alive?"

"Alive yes. And almost out of comission too, not to mention that question is getting old. Damnit, Chris. You said that you would send one of your shields." Reeve wasn't one for cursing, so hearing him curse, even mentally got a grin out Chris. "I think I can handle... Wait, wasn't there a Guardian Beast inside there too?"

"Oh yeah, damnit, I forgot about it." Chris frowned as he shot another volley of purple energy balls at Sakura. "Do you think you can handle it?"

"I have no idea. I thought I could handle this girl before starting the fight, now I don't know anything anymore."

"Try to create a ruckus, just enough so you can get the source and we can get out of here."

"Ok."

"WATERY! THUNDER!" The battle between the two in the air was getting heated. Both of them firing their spells at each other and at the same time being cancelled by each other shields, but Sakura was in better shape since the Sakura Cards were beings of their own, and Chris was actually alone against the cardmistress. But, of course, he didn't know that.

Reeve started to crawl out of the light and flew to the balcony. Thankfully the battle in the sky left the balcony to the window that led to the room as a blind spot. Walking slowly to feel the magical energy in the room, he heard the guardian talking with the other girl.

"Don't worry, Tomoyo. Sakura won't let those guys steal your card. And even if they did, the card will always come back to you."

"I know, Kero-chan. But... I don't know. I'm worried that Sakura might overdo it out there and kill those people. You know that she is caring, too caring, but when she gets her mind on something she won't measure her force. She'll go all out."

Reeve gulped at that. Indeed he felt that the girl was powerful. Maybe too powerful for them to handle, but what the guardian said before answered to him more than anything else. "Chris, we have a problem."

"Ack. What is it? I'm in middle of something here." Chris said as he fired several shots from his staff at the growing sharp branches that were attacking him.

"Well, I found the source. Apparently, it's a card. That's what it was in the holster. The problem is, this card is attached that black haired girl, so it won't leave her side. If it's taken away it will teleport back to her."

"Is she powerfull?" Chris breathed, in the moment he got between attacks.

"No. I can't get any reading from her. Apparently she doesn't even have a magical reading."

Chris started to digest the information when both Kron's and Ana's alarms went off.

"TSAB's aerial mages are detected approaching fast, Chief. ETA minus two minutes"

"Estimated rank AAA to S, Honey. Reading pattern confirmed."

"Damnit, damnit, damnit. Ok, let's finish this off quickly." Chris was panting by now. "I'll send a energy blast in your direction. Use that to cover and get the girl. I don't care if you have to beat her. Fend off the guardian, get the girl and get the hell out of there." Chris didn't wait for Reeve's answer before charging his attack. "Purple Disruption!" Sakura used Shield once more to fend off the attack, not noticing that the blast of energy now was going in the direction of the house.

As the blast exploded in front of the balcony Reeve used air displacement from the attack to propel him forward. As the guardian was creating a shield to protect himself and the girl from the attack he used his own green energy shots to destroy the floor below the beast. It worked, and the guardian had to undo the shield in order to not to drag the girl down with him. Reeve used this moment to catch the girl. "Sorry about this." He then knocked his hand on the back of her neck, rending her unconcious. He put her on his shoulder and flew off full speed from the window, into the evening air. "I got the girl. Let's get the hell out of here."

"That's the best news I heard all day." Chris sent another attack in the direction of the cardmistress before flying off in the direction that Ana was sensing the TSAB mages.

At that moment Sakura remembered her dream, and her eyes widened. "Oh, no. It can't be." And she started to back to the house.
Chris looked back and didn't see the girl tailing him, so he stopped. When he saw the two figures coming in the middle of the sky he turned back to where Sakura was and fired another volley of purple energy. And went into the middle of it, flying at full speed. Cursing his luck once more, he went to the ground. "Damnit. Trying to put the good guys against each other only really works in movies. Okay, man. Think.
They're here probably tracing the same source as us. But since they just arrived they shouldn't have too much information about what is happening." A crazy idea played around in his head. "Maybe I can do this. I'm dead if I don't do something anyway."

"Reeve. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. Where are you, man."

"Can you handle an extra teleportation?"

"I think I can, why?"

"On my signal, teleport me to your side. Ana will send you the coordinates at the time. My life will be in your hands, man. Take good care of it."

"Thanks for the pressure." Reeve sighed. "I'm ready."

"Ok. I just need to set up a trap." He followed the traces of magical energy from the girl he was fighting moments ago, and found her getting out of the house.

"Where did you take her?" she said as soon as she saw him. Chris smiled. Maybe this could really work.

As the girl started to call another attack on him he used his shields to supress part of the power. He waited for the right time.

"Two TSAB Aerial Mages are in fire range, Honey."

"Perfect." Chris moved a little to the side so as to get in the right angle.

"This is Signum, from the TSAB's Ground Forces. State your name and bussiness in this non-magical planet," the taller between the two behind him prompted.

"WHERE IS SHE!?" Sakura yelled as she sent Thunder against him again.

"Now, Reeve." In that moment he was teleported to the side of the red haired man. "Perfect, man. Now let's get the hell out of here, before they can track us down."

"Yeah, hold the girl while I get hold of the teleportation pod and pass the coordinates."

A few moments later the duo disappeared from the face of the planet.

 

[Shaderic]

Right, I'll be honest. I've only just lightly skimmed this, and I don't really like it.

But rather than nitpick your style (or lack thereof), I'm going to give an important tip.

Format.

Like spelling, it's one of the littlest, easiest things to do. Doing it badly though, will turn people off pretty hard. In part, because it just makes your story harder to read. The other reason will be that if you can't be bothered to properly format your story, some assume that you put an equal amount of effort into the story itself. Which is to say, that they may think you half-assed it.

Which doesn't really bode all that well for people looking for something with quality to read.

 

[Filraen]

Are you... actually planning to continue it?

 

[Deathwings]

Oh god the formating. X_X

Seriously man, big wall'o texts AREN'T a good thing.

 

[Nanya]

I think he just copy+pasted from his FF.net version.

I can tell ya, doing so is a PAIN on the formatting.

 

[Rising Dragon]

Best way to avoid that is to keep a document for the story that's written specifically in BBcode format and copy from that, rather from another webpage that may or may not destroy the formatting in the copy.

 

[Sniperk]

Sorry about the formatting guys. It was terrible, and I know that I should have looked better before posting.

@Shederic
Thanks. I really don't have a style, but I do put a good ammount of effort into writing, since as I said before, it's already hard to write a coherent history. Doing that in another language is hard.

@Filraen
Yes. I intend to finish it. You see, I didn't finish before because some stuff happened over as AS (Where I first posted this) that had me away from the fandom for some time.

@Deathwings
Sorry man. Fixed that at least.

@Nanya & Rising Dragon
I didn't copy paste from the other site. I did from my files, but yes. It came out horrible. Can you tell me if there's a way to save a document in BBCode format?

 

[Rising Dragon]

I simply just write in the BBcode where necessary. Using bold and italics tags on words that need them, rather than using the document program's own function.

As for spaces between paragraphs, make sure you're not holding shift when you hit enter. In my experience, when you use shift+enter, the space doesn't appear when copying it over to something else.

 

[Sniperk]

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no. It can't be." The girl was a wreck. She had just played her role exactly like she'd done in her premonition without realizing it, and now, Tomoyo would be with them. She got to the window of the room, or where the window was, seeing that half the wall had disappeared. Hoping that somehow her friend was still there, she called. "Tomoyo-chan! Tomoyo-chan!" Tears starts to form in her eyes. "TOMOYO-CHAN!"

"He got her." A voice from a hole in the middle of the room was heard. "It was too fast. I had to turn off my shield in order to not drag Tomoyo with me down this hole." Kero, back in his stuffed animal form, flew up from the hole. "Sorry, Sakura."

Sakura turned her back to her guardian, not wanting to acknowledge the fact, and flew off again. She then looked to the direction where she had been fighting with the little man, and saw him. Her thoughs were completely disordered. The anger controlled her senses. "Where is she?" she asked, a little above a whisper. When no response came she called Windy, and asked again, "Where did you take her?" Louder this time, as to be heard by the man in front of her. He managed to avoid Windy's blast. The anger blurred the vision of the cardmistress. "WHERE IS SHE?" She called Thunder, and launched the attack at him.

---

"Signum. The magical energy source is getting further away, but there's signs of a magical battle directly in between us and the source," the short girl informed the pink haired Belkan Knight.

"Let's make haste then."

"Two devices detected our presence."

"Then there's more MidChildans here?"

"One of the Devices is near the source. The other is engaged in the battle."

"I'm already feeling the shockwaves," Signum stated.

As they both got closer to the battle the Belkan knights saw a man, a little taller than Vita, avoiding an attack that came from the opposite side. Both of them then stopped at firing range and the taller voiced, "This is Signum, from the TSAB's Ground Forces. State your name and bussiness in this non-magical planet." In that moment, he vanished and a Thunder strike was coming directly at her. She raised Levantine and literally cut the eletrical energy that was attacking her.

"He teleported." Vita said mentally to Signum. "I can still feel their presence. They are still close enough. He didn't teleport off of the planet."

As Signum was about to answer the short one, she noticed the origin of the earlier attack. A girl, with white wings.

"SWORD!" The girl called as her staff turns into a sword. "Give her back to me." And after lifting her head., "GIVE HER BACK!" She dashed forward, attacking the pink haired one.

"Give who back?" Signum asked, as she parried the attack with Levantine's hilt. She wasn't one to fight without knowing the reason. "Vita, track down the source of energy. I'll keep this one busy for the time being."

The red-haired girl hated to step off a fight, but Signum was still her superior, and she knew that in missions the orders she received from an officer were to be followed at all costs. "I'm going."

"WHERE IS SHE?" the green eyed girl barked at Signum. The old Belkan Knight understood then that anger had taken over this girl, and she didn't notice that her targets weren't the same anymore.

"Calm down, and tell me who are you talking about." The girl jumped back.
Eyeing the knight the winged girl called. "DASH!"

In a blink of an eye the metal of Levantine's blade was already clashing the girl's sword. Her technique was superb, and she was fast. As fast as Fate in Sonic Form, if not faster. Signum had trouble fending off the attacks from the girl, but felt that they didn't have much power behind them. It was more like that the girl was releasing her anger at each strike, so she let her strike again and again, just parrying the blows.

"Found them, but they teleported again, this time off the planet," Vita said through the mental link "They took the source with them. And they were with an unconcious girl. I didn't have time to stop them."


Now everything was falling into place. "Undestood. Come back here. I need you to help me calm down this one," Signum ordered to the other.

"On my way."

"Where is she? Where did you took her?" The girl started to sob.

"We didn't take your friend. Can you calm down so we can talk?" Signum asked, parrying the girl's sword one more time. She more or less understood the situation. The one, or two, according to Vita, men that had devices came to take the same source of energy she had come to investigate. They started to fight with this girl and in the middle of it, they took the other girl, this one's friend, apparently, with them.

The girl struck again without power, and started to descend. When she got to the ground, her sword turned back into a staff. "It's all my fault." She was crying. "Why did I have to create that Card?" Her cry turned into wail.

Signum landed a few steps away from the girl, looking at her, when a beam of energy was shot in her direction. Before she could lift her shield, Vita had already lifted hers, standing in the line of fire.

"What did you do to Sakura?" A magical beast landed between Signum and the girl, raising a shield around them.

"Where did this came from? I didn't sensed him before," Was Vita's first telepatical question.

"We didn't do anything to her. Believe me when I say that those two weren't working with us," the pinkhaired Belkan knight stated firmly, looking directly into the eyes of the magical beast. "We came on a investigation mission, and would like to avoid unnecessary battle."

The face off between the three lasted a few minutes, neither moving an inch from their place, till the girl stopped crying and said, "Let them, Kero-chan. I already know who they are. They aren't the ones that took Tomoyo-chan."

"They could be with them for all we know, Sakura."

"This happened in my premonition too. They aren't here to fight us. They too came for the Card, but they don't intend to fight for it." Sakura then lifted her head, eyes red with tears. "Please, tell me that you know who took my friend." A sob climbed up her throat. "Please." And she started crying again.

The magical beast lifted its shield. "I'm Kerberus, Guardian of the former Clow Book, now Sakura Book. State your names and intentions."

"Levantine. Mode release," Signum ordered as her sword changed back to pendant form, leaving only her barrier jacket. The small red haired girl followed suit, releasing Eisen. "From the Ground Forces of the Time-Space Administration Bureau. Liutenant Coronel Signum. This here is Liutenant Vita from the Training Corps. We came to investigate a burst in the magical flow in this planet, and tracked the source to this place."

"And what were your intentions if you found this source?" Kero still hadn't moved an inch.

"Verify if was dangerous to the rest of the planet, or the dimensions. Case affirmative, neutralize, case negative, leave it alone."

The magical beast wasn't sure how to react to that. If they deemed the Card to be dangerous, undoubtably Sakura would fight them.

"There's no need to worry about them anymore, Kero-chan. They're willing to talk. They could be our only hope to see Tomoyo-chan again." Sakura had calmed by now. "I'm Kinomoto Sakura, third year at Tomoeda High School, and Mistress of the Sakura Book," she stated firmly looking at the eyes of the pink haired woman in front of her.

"We would like it if you explained to us what happened here in the last twenty four hours," Vita prompted. "We can't help you if you don't help us in the first place." She was known by her short temper, but was known too for being caring with people in need.

So Sakura started to explain what happened the day before and today.

---

"The flow of magical energy within the planet is returning to normal," Mariko said from her chair in the Control Room.

"The source of the phenomenon disappeared," another operator voiced.

"Any word from the frontline team?" the short haired blonde, Operator Chief, asked.

"None at the moment. We are receiving readings of two other magical beings in the vicinity of them."

The General was sitting in her chair, eyes glued at the monitors in front of her. "Signs of fighting?"

"Levantine and Graf Eisen entered mode release."

A few minutes passes, without changes in the situation. Then.

"Incoming contact from the frontline team," Announced one of the operators.

"Connect it," Alto answered immediately.

Hayate was almost falling off her chair, so far to the tip of it she was sitting. A few moments later, her red haired guardian appeared in the monitor.

"This is Vita, from the expedition team reporting," she stated. "Control, do you copy?"

"The connection have a little interference, but we can hear you. Proceed," Alto answered.

The eternally little girl then started to relay everything that Sakura had just told the pair.

"Can you guys identify the two MidChildans?" the General asked.

"Negative. Aside from their stature, I couldn't get their faces, but the girl here fought them," Vita said, pointing to the girl standing behind her, talking with Signum.

"Do you think she would be able to identify them?"

"Affirmative. She already confirmed that she could."

"Bring her with you to Mid. Even if she can't identify them, she has some other informations that could be used." Hayate was interested in how the girl could tap into the latent power output of the planet and channel it, something that Yuuno had said there was no magical or technological way of doing.

"Roger."

"You'll have to travel through TSAB's central on the way back. There's no ship positioned to make a chain teleport anymore. Duna should still be on range for the first leap though." Hayate's face hardened. "Talk with the girl, and try to get her to come at her own will, but you are allowed to use force if needed to bring her."

There was a moment before Vita answered, "Roger."

Hayate's face then softened one more time. "Take care on your way back, ok?"

"Thanks. We will." Vita expression too softened a little before cutting the communication. "Over."

The tension in the room could be felt by everyone that was there.

After a few moments that seemed like an eternity for them, the General spoke again. "Alto, try to track traces of the teleportation. Try to find where the source was taken to."

"You heard the General, people. Move it."

"Contact me with any new information that you can gather," Hayate said after getting up from her seat.

"Yes, Hayate-san." Alto understood that now wasn't the time to kid around, so she didn't call her 'Sir', even if it was the proper way of acting towards her superior.

The General got out of the room and walked towards her office. They would take at least a day to come back, since they didn't had the authorization for a teleportation from the ship, and would have to go to the Central with the Duna to be teleported back from there. When she got to her office, the little unison device flew from her mini-desk in her direction. "Any news around here?"

"Nothing that I haven't already taken care of, Hayate-chan."

After sitting at her table Hayate sighed. Earth was safe for the time being, but unknown individuals were now in possession of a potentially inexhaustible source of magical energy. "Rein, contact Fate-chan, Nanoha-chan, Chrono, Yuuno and Carim for me. Tell them I need to hold an emergency tele-meeting with them."

"Alright, Hayate-chan."

Hayate then sank in her chair. She couldn't do anything else for now. Then she heard a knock on her door. "Come in."

"General Yagami, it's me, Alphine. I finished my report." A violet haired girl appeared at her door, not looking at the General, still looking at a floating monitor at her side.

"Lutecia-chan." Hayate had forgotten completely about the mission she had sent the Belkan summoner on a few days before. "Come in, have a seat." She always had a soft spot for the girl, ever since she was rescued from Scaglietti during the JS incident.

"Thanks." Lutecia walked to the chair Hayate was pointing. "Here," she said pressing a button in the floating monitor, sending the report to Hayate.

Hayate skimmed through it quickly. "Everything seems to be in order. Rein, print this for me, please." Then turning back to the girl, "Anything else you want to add?"

"Not at the moment. Everything is on the report."

Hayate was one of the few that knew about secondary unit, the NSIS, commanded by Chrono, and of which Lutecia was a part of. She had been given this information as soon as she received her promotion. Even if the girl in front of her was given regular missions from time to time, her main job was with that secondary unit. "You always complete my mission in half the time given. Don't you want to work under me full time? I can manage to convince Chrono about it." Hayate wanted to take the girl out of that secondary unit, not just because she didn't approve of its methods, but because the Belkan summoner was indeed one of the best operatives she had ever worked with. Since the General was one of the few that knew about the unit, the Belkan summoner always reported directly to her, and not to her direct superiors in the Ground Forces.

"I appreciate your offer, but right now I can't abandon my... other duties." Lutecia flashed a little forced smile.

Hayate didn't want to probe any further. She knew that the girl wouldn't give in so easily. So instead she changed the topic. "How's Miranda?"

Understanding the hint, Lutecia softened her expression. "She's okay. She received time off to prepare for her wedding."

"Hooo..." Hayate smirked. "You'll be her maid of honor, I assume?"

"She asked me to, but I still haven't decided."

A call flashed in front of the General in that moment. "I'm sorry, I have to answer this."

"Oh, don't worry. I'll take my leave then." The violet haired girl got up and saluted, which made older one pout.

"How many times do I need to repeat myself?"

Lutecia smiled and left the room as the General answered the call.

---

She was still groggy when someone started to talk to her. "Are you ok?" a male voice asked

"I'm..." She trailed off and winced at the pain in the back of her head.

"Sorry for being so rough with you back there. It was an emergency." A suit cladded man was offering her a cup with water.

She looked up to his face. A red haired man, maybe in his late twenties, early thirties, wearing a grey suit, with a black tie. His face was swollen a little over the right eye. "Where am I?"

"For now, let's say that you won a vacation, free of charge, to the planet in the middle of the interdimensional vortex." He smiled.

"Huh?" The raven haired's though process wasn't working very well, because of the pain. She only managed to register that she was chained by her right leg to a wall, in what seemed to be the inside of a cargo container.

"Don't worry. Once we get there you'll understand," the man said, still smiling.

She looked up to him and accepted the cup.

---

"General Yagami." The girl saluted as soon as Hayate answered the call.

"Yes, Private Level 2, Mariko." Hayate glared at the girl, not wanting to repeat herself anymore, using the title of the operator as a way to transmit her point to the small girl.

The girl wilted at the glare and stammered, "W-we m-managed to track down the route of the source. But we lost the signal as soon as it entered Mid."

"Did you guys manage to at least track the general area of the arrival point?"

"Sorry, but it dispersed too much in the teleportation."

"Alright. Anything else?"

"Not at the moment, Sir."

Another glare from Hayate made the girl wince. "Very well. Keep me updated. The channels will remain open."

Hayate cut the call and sank back in her armchair, supporting her elbows on the rests, clasped her hands and interwined her fingers, supporting her head. She didn't blame the operators for not managing to track down the source when it reached Mid. The planet itself held so much magical energy that it was one of the reasons the TSAB positioned the Ground Forces here in the first place. And without a previous reading of the magical wave pattern of it, it was almost impossible to track any source of magical energy, let alone one that was so inocuous.

"Hayate-chan. The meeting is scheduled to start in five minutes. Nanoha-san is on the base and will attend personally," Rein informed her.

"Oh, boy." Hayate winced. "I hope she's in a good mood." And sighed.

"She seemed to be," Rein mused out loud, patting her index finger on her lower lip and looking up.

"Alright," the General answered, getting off her chair. "Prepare all the data and send it to the briefing room."

"Right."

She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and left room.

---

That wasn't good. He didn't want that kind of news. When he received the call from Hayate on the day before and changed the course of those two ships, he though that was enough for the General take care of the problem. If she asked an emergency meeting right now, something must have gone wrong. "Hold all the calls, and cancel my other next appointments," he said. opening the channel of communication with his secretary. "When I'm free again I'll contact you."

"Understood, sir," the bespectacled girl echoed from the other side.

He opened the link to the Ground Forces briefing room, and waited.

---

The Ace of Aces and Liutenant General of the TSAB's Air Force's Training Corps was in great mood. The day before her wife had just arrived home after a month away on a mission (and would be tied at home for at least two weeks with her ship being repaired), her last batch of graduates had finished her course with a average grade B in their records (wich would warrant at least an A+ with any other instructor) and she had just read the latest reports from the Rescue Corps, where various of her formers students had gone to, that described how they managed to save countless people from a volcano eruption. Seemed like nothing could ruin her day.

She was walking down a aisle in the Ground Forces HQ, when a call flashed at her side. "Hi, Rein," she greeted as soon as she recognized Hayate's little unison device.

"Hello, Nanoha-san. Hayate-chan wants to schedule an emergency tele-meeting ASAP."

"Is she here at the HQ?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll be there personally. I'm at the HQ right now too," Nanoha informed, since visiting Hayate was one of the reasons she had come to the Ground Forces base.

"The meeting will be held at the briefing room."

"Okay. I'll be going up there then. Anything else?"

"No. See you in a few minutes then, Nanoha-san."

"Yeah. Bye, Rein." Nanoha cut the call, going to the elevator.

---

"Do you want to inform anyone about this trip?" The Belkan Knight was in front of the teenaged girl that she and Vita were talking to earlier.

"Yes. Can you guys give me half an hour to pack up some things?" Sakura asked the older woman.

"Sure. Take your time." Signum knew that she couldn't force the girl to accompany her, even if Hayate said that she was allowed to, since the short brown haired girl was a valuable witness, and from what she could gather till that moment, a powerful mage. If her anger hadn't take the better of her earlier, she probably could be a match for the Belkan knight.
But Sakura wasn't feeling forced to go. At least not by them. She would beg or threaten them to take her if necessary. She had to save Tomoyo, and right now, the best lead she had was with those two. "I'll talk to my father. Wait for me here. I'll be right back." She descended to the back of her house, and called Fly off. She then rounded the house and entered the front door. "I'm home."

"Welcome home." Her father's voice echoed from the dining room. "How was the sleepover?"

"Great." Sakura faked a smile, that her Father could see through, but chose not to reveal. "Listen, Dad. Chiharu-chan won in a lottery yesterday a free of charge trip to a Hot Spring resort and invited me and Tomoyo-chan to go with her." Sakura was a bad liar, but at least now all those anime shows Kero was so fixated with lately had come in handy. At least till her father heard the news of the Daidoji's residence being half destroyed, but by then, hopefully she would be light years away from home.

"Humm... It's a little strange..." Fujitaka wasn't a distrusting person. He believed that if his daughter needed to tell a lie to him it was because she had her reasons, so he decided to play along. "Ok. Just make sure to contact me if anything happens."

"T-That will be a difficult." Sakura stammered. She didn't know if the place where she was going had some way to contact home. "I think she said that the place was so far into the mountains that it has no phone and no cellphone signal."

The man looked again to his daughter. "Alright. How much time will you be away?"

"Two or three days. I don't know for sure."

"Wait. Isn't today a school day?"

"It is, but sensei said that today would be study hall and tomorrow is a day off, so I won't miss anything." And making the best puppy dog eyes she could muster, "Please?"

Fujitaka took another firm look at his daughter before softening his expression. "Very well. Have fun."

"Thanks Dad." Sakura hugged her father and planted a kiss on his temple. "I love you."

"I love you too."

The girl let go of her father and climbed the stairs. As she opened her backpack Kero flew out of it.

"Are you really going with them?" The little guardian spoke as soon as he was off the bag.

"I have to. They are the only clue I have to save Tomoyo-chan." She sits at her writing table, takes a page from a notebook and starts to write.

"I'm coming with you then."

"Sorry, Kero-chan. But this is my mess. I have to do this alone." And pointing to the note she just wrote, she said,"I want you to wait for three days. If I don't come back, put this note in a place where my father will easily find it."

"I'm worried, Sakura. You'll be alone in an unknown land."

"Don't be. I'll take everyone with me," she said, pointing to the Sakura Book. "They'll be there with me. With them I'm never truly alone."
She then started to pack a few of her clothes in the backpack.

 

[Sniperk]

"And this is the current situation." The General was talking with the three people on the monitors and the one on the other side of the table. "Any questions?"

After a moment of silence, she started again. "I know that this goes without saying, but the situation might lead to a big incident if not handled correctly, so I'll ask for everyone to not let yours subordinates know the whole thruth, even those that are chosen to take care of the mission itself. Relay only the utmost necessary information. Officially, this is a simple kidnap case, but our main objective is to get hold of this energy source, and analize it."

"They'll find weird that such a small task is being investigated by TSAB itself," Fate pointed out. "Even if they don't ask the questions outright, some of them are smart enough to connect the dots by themselves."

"For now let's wait for the girl that's coming with the expedition team. As I said before, apparently, she was the one that created it in the first place. Until we have more information about this, don't touch the subject with anyone else."

"Agreed," they said in unison, except for the woman that was at the table, but she didn't make mention to say anything too.

"I'll contact you again tomorrow, and Yuuno?"

"Yes?" the bespectacled man asked.

"I would like if you could came here personally." Hayate rested her hands in her lap. "I think it would be better if you can analyze this girl's magical powers personally."

"I'll try. As you know, right now I'm a little busy here."

"Very well. Anything else?" Hayate asked again. When no one made notion to say anything she completed. "Then see you all tomorrow."

The various windows of communication were closed and the Belkan mage closed her eyes, thinking about what to do next when a voice snapped her back from them. "Hayate-chan."

"Oh, crap," she thought. She had forgotten that Nanoha was in the room too. "Yes?" she answered, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

"I know that right now we are in the middle of something that can very well turn into a big crisis, and I know that you're doing your job." The lopsided ponytailed woman was smiling, or better saying, forcing a smile. "And I won't say anything right now, but after this thing is over, I think you'll need to come by the training center, to have a recycling lesson." Her left eye was twitching.

"I don't think I need one right now, but thanks for the offer, Nanoha-chan." Hayate was wondering if Shamal wasn't too busy in that moment to teleport her out of that room.

"Oh, don't be like that, Hayate-chan." Nanoha had rounded the table and was in the back of the chair where her childhood friend was sitting. "You know that if we don't exercise every now and then we can get rusty. And when we get rusty, we start to forget some little things, like warning your friend that their home could be destroyed at any minute." Her hands were now on the General's shoulders.

Hayate wasn't scared of the tough training that Nanoha was undoubtably planning for her. The General was scared of actually being forced to admit by her that she was wrong in not telling Nanoha about these events earlier. She knew that the Ace of Aces was a good person, but that sometimes wasn't a good thing in the overall picture. So she didn't wince when the power of the grip on her shoulders got a little too tight for comfort. The Belkan mage knew what was best in the situation, and her friend wasn't exactly a part of it. Even so, she felt that Nanoha needed to know about it, and that's why she'd asked her to take part in the meeting in the first place, but her resolution about it didn't waver. "When this is over, I'll send a requirement for it, don't worry." But she didn't have the will to confront the White Devil at the moment.

"I'll be waiting." Nanoha let go of Hayate's shoulders and smiled, but her aura didn't have anything remotely friendly about it. The Ace of Aces turned on her heels and walked out of the room.

After the other left, Hayate sighed. "Poor Fate-chan," she mused as she realized that her friends would have a long night ahead of them.

---

"Where are we?" Tomoyo, sitting in the floor, asked the fairies, hoping that they would be able to answer her more than the redhaired man had when he was with her. Sadly the Card didn't knew too. "Don't worry, I'm okay." The Card then disappeared from her vision, but she felt it hiding underneath her clothes, on her back. "Does this mean someone is coming?" she asked, but before receiving a reply the door of the container opened. The redhaired man was there accompanied by another one, a small one. Despite his height his face showed that he was around the same age as the other man. Both of them seemed like polar oposites, one very elegantly cladded in a suit, and the other seemed like a construction worker, wearing old jeans and a blue tanktop.

"We're almost there, sweetcheeks," the small one said, looking at her. She got scared. He noticed and, after crouching to be at her height, said, "We're gentlemans here. You don't have to worry, kid."

She looked away from him. His breath was sickening with the smell of tabacco.

"What you think?" Turning to the other man and turning his head to look her.

"About what?"

"About this source. Do you think the boss will find a way to use it?" he asked, looking at Tomoyo's frame, as if she wasn't really a person.

"I have my doubts. That card doesn't leave her side, so how can it be of any use?" He sighed. "Though we aren't the ones to decide this things. Our job now is just to deliver it."

"Yeah, you're right." He got to his feet. "Get up, sweetcheeks. We're getting off here in a few moments."

Tomoyo was almost spewing what little food she had in her stomach, because of the smell. She couldn't help but think about the irony of the situation. Her mother had always taken care to not let these type of things happen to her. She had bodyguards all her life that would make the Prime Minister seem an easy target in comparison. And now she was a hostage, kidnapped by people that would make her bodyguards seem like babies in comparison. She almost smiled at the thought. "Where are we?" she asked, so faintly that the men almost didn't hear.

"Yes?" The taller one asked, getting closer to her. He, too, stank, but at least was more tolerable, being the odor of too much cologne used to cover the smell of the sweaty suit. She wondered how much time had passed since he'd cleaned that suit.

"Where are we?" she asked, a little louder.

"Well, we are..." He trailed off, going to the door again, then continued. "We are near the port of Dim Barah. But of course, you wouldn't know where this is. As I said, think of it as a excursion to the center of the worlds."

Tomoyo looked at the open door, and saw a beatiful azure sky, that coneccted at the horizon with the sea. If she wasn't in this situation, and had a camera at hand, that was an image that she would love to capture.

"Sorry we don't have time for sightseeing," the small one said, entering her line of vision. "It's time to get off this ship," he said, reaching for his back pocket, taking a piece of cloth, and tieing it around her head, blocking her vision.

She heard the other one get closer and felt her wrists being handcuffed before he unchained her leg. In the midst all this, Tomoyo felt the card in her back, and thought about Sakura.

---

"So this place where we are going is like a magical land?" the green eyed girl asked the other two that were sitting in front of her. Currently she was in one of the rooms of the Duna, a interdimensional battleship, heading to what they said to be middle of the dimensional sea. The Central of the TSAB, or something like that.

"More or less. Although I don't know what is you're definition for 'magical land'?" The pinkhaired taller one asked, Signum.

"Does it have dragons?"

"When summoned, yes, otherwise they are confined to other planets."

"Fairies?"

"Well, we don't have fairies in your concept, although some unison devices can be seen as fairies too."

"Witches?"

"Witches are what you could be called, in our definition."

"I'm a witch?" Sakura was surprised.

"We are mages. We use our inner magical energy to perform our spells. Witches use outside power, and not their own. Although I do feel a very large amount of magical energy from you, according to your descriptions, you use outside power to create your spells."

Sakura was baffled. She never though of herself in that way. After thinking a little about it she explained, "I meant bad witches, those that use their magic to hurt and curse the others." She wanted to think that they weren't accusing her of being na evil being.

Signum understood the worry in the girl eyes. "Don't worry. I'm not saying that you are a 'bad witch.' Just that your type of spells would be classified as those of a witch. What defines a person as good or bad is what she does with this power."

"If you were a bad witch, I don't think that you would be traveling with us right now to save your friend," the small Belkan knight added, and soon after regretted, when she saw the pain on the girl's face.

Sakura didn't want to think about Tomoyo right now. It was too painful for her. She had created the Card thinking that it would bring her Tomoyo-chan back to the way she was so long ago, when she was hunting down cards all over the place. Bring back the Tomoyo-chan that always smiled for her even when drilling her with math exercises. Bring back the Tomoyo-chan that encouraged her every athletic festival they had at school. The Tomoyo-chan that would always be there for her every time Syaoran would go back to Hong Kong so she didn't have to feel lonely.
Sakura's eyes widened at that fact.

She hadn't thought about the Chinese martial artist at all in those three days. Ever since she'd left him at the airport and encountered Tomoyo that afternoon, her mind was filled with thoughts about her best friend the whole time. She regretted even more now. Even when she was thinking so much about her best friend, she didn't manage to protect her. She didn't manage to make her smile like she wanted when she created the Card. She curled into a ball, hugging her knees, lifting her feet off the floor. The cardmistress was even more lonely now. She didn't have Syaoran or Tomoyo anymore.

As she started to sob, Vita switched places and sat on her side, caressing her head. "Calm down, kid. We'll find your friend. She'll be with you again before you know it." Signum at that moment stepped out of the room.
But Sakura kept crying, she let go of her knees and put her palms on her face, supporting her elbows on her knees. "Tomoyo-chan..." She was crying out loud now.

The red haired knight pulled the girl, and hugged her, whispering soothing words to calm the girl down. She remembered the scene were she was hugging Fate almost the same way, in the rarest moments the then Enforcer had broken down, after Nanoha was attacked all those years ago. She hated to see someone suffer so much because of a dear friend.

Signum comes back with a cup and a bottle of water.

---

A call flashed in front of the General, as she was reading a few reports done by her subordinates. Nothing out of the ordinary, just the daily reports. She answered.

"It's about the teleportation route used by the unknown individuals," Chrono started before even greeting. "I looked into it a little. One of my operatives used it once, during an undercover mission."

"So, we can assume that whoever took the source, and the girl, isn't someone exactly trustworthy," Hayate guessed.

"Yes. This route was closed several times already, but we turn our backs and they reopen it again." He sighed and looked around his room. "Is this channel secure?"

Hayate pressed a few buttons on her translucent keyboard. "Now it is."

"Ok. My second unit worked three years ago on a case about one of the most proeminent Mafia familys at the time, the Bergaminis." Hayate frowned at the mention of Chrono's 'Second Unit'. Officially they were all normal operatives, that received normal missions from time to time. But their main job was another. Espionage, murder, sabotage, among other things. They were people whose names were known by few, but feared by all that ever heard their codename. They were known as the 'Shadows'.

"And?" She brushed her thoughs aside. Even though she never would approve of its methods, she knew that the unit was necessary in order to maintain peace, and was the most reliable source of information about the underground world that they had.

"Turns out that this route was used by the Bergaminis to send people to planets outside the TSAB's jurisdiction. There were thoughts about smuggling goods being transported over this route, but after beeing monitored for a few months, nothing was found over it. Aside from some individuals that had warrants, no contraband was ever found with the people that used it."

"And what does this mean?"

"My assumption is that this route is used to send only the negotiators, and not the goods themselves. So it could be used to bring back a person too, without much of a problem. The Monitors in the stations are all corrupt, and we didn't take them down yet just because we still need them to be there."

"I see. We already know the route, but didn't the Bergaminis vanish last year?"

"They didn't vanish. They were overtaken. Another unindentified group destroyed them and took over their bussiness." Chrono frowned. "I lost three operatives trying to uncover information about them. So far we only know that they have a few mages with them, at least three of them being AA ranked, and that they are into non-magical drug deals."

Hayate leaned back, absorbing the information. After a few moments she asked, "Anything else?"

"Not right now."

"Thanks Chrono. We can't do very much right now, aside from waiting."

"I agree." He sighed "Until tomorrow then."

"Until then." After finishing the call, she turned to the window and looked at the horizon line. "All I can do now is wait." She sighed.

---

"Home, sweet home." Reeve said as soon as he got off of the boat.

"Don't go kneeling down and kissing the ground on me, man."

"As if I would."

"Did you contact the boss?"

"Yeah. He said there would be a transportation waiting for us at the exit."

"Well, let's go then. I can barely wait to hang around Sadi's tonight."

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

Chris stopped in his tracks and took back the three steps that he had made. "Yeah. Let's go get the girl."

After they entered Dim Barah's docks, a car was waiting for them. They put the girl in the middle of the backseat of the limo.

"Sorry for this, kid." Reeve got a bottle and dampened a piece of cloth with the liquid inside. The girl, after breathing through the cloth, seemingly passed out after a few moments of struggling.

Half an hour later they were in front of the gates of what seemed to be a large particular park, but they knew that it was actually the entrance to the driveway of the mansion of their boss.

"So, who will tell the news to the boss?" Reeve asked, as the car started to move through the gates.

"Which news?" Chris didn't understand the question his companion was asking.

"That the source is attached to the girl and all."

"You didn't already told him when you contacted?" Chris frowned.

"You know how the boss is. I didn't wanted to go on foot all the way from the port to his house."

"Oh, man. And here I though that everything was already resolved and we would only deliver the girl." The small man facepalmed. "Alright. Let's get all the information we can and jot it down quickly. If we explain the situation to him before he can speak I know that he won't be so mad."

"Good idea. Kron, gather all the data about last night's battle, categorize it, and list it for me."

"Alright, Chief."

"Ana, you too."

"Alright, Honey."

Chris took his watch off and glared at it. "Look here, stop calling me Honey now. I'm not in the mood."

"Understood, Pumpkin."

"Stop with that too." He was almost ready to throw Ana out the window.

"Okay, Sweetie Pie." This time Chris really threw Ana out the window, snorting with anger.

"Are you sure you want to throw Ana away?" Reeve snickered. "Wasn't the boss the one that gave it to you?"

"Oh crap." And Chris flew out the window of the car, going back to where his device had fallen.

---

The purple haired girl was at the doorstep of the house with her blonde friend. She reached for the door knob when she heard the noises coming from inside the house. Well, noises were an understatement. It sounded more like a brawl was taking place between a horse and a marching band on top of a cupboard full of crystals, and somewhere in the middle she heard the voices of the mothers of her heterochromatic eyed friend. She looked at the Belkan sumonner, frowning. This wasn't exactly new. The two Aces would argue and fight from time to time. Thankfully, they never relied on magic for this. She looked at the door again, then at her hand closed on the doorknob, then at her friend one more time. "What do you think of going to go have dinner with Erio and Caro tonight, Vi?"

The younger sighed, put a hand on her temple, and turned back to the street. "Yeah, I think that would be good."

Both of them started to walk away from the house, wincing at another loud noise that came from it. "Do you think they'll be ok?"

"If there's one person that can calm Nanoha-mama down, that person is Fate-mama."

Lutecia looked back at the house for a second before leaning down and asking again, worriedly, "But what if the person she's angry with is Fate-san?"

"Then I'll have to sleep at Caro-nee's house today." Actually, Vivio wasn't all that bothered about the little skirmish happening at her house. That meant that she could spend a little more time with the Belkan summoner, which she was more than grateful for.

"Well, let's get going then," Lutecia said, hoping that she was doing the right thing in not warning someone about what was happening back there.
Vivio then grabbed the older one's arm and snuggled against it. "Cia?"

"Yeah?" Lutecia was still fighting with her inner self if she should really leave things that way.

"I like you a lot, you know that?" Vivio beamed.

"Yeah, I like you too," The Belkan summoner answered instantly, as if it was a mechanical response, and didn't notice when the younger girl pouted.

---

 

[Filraen]

Yes. I intend to finish it. You see, I didn't finish before because some stuff happened over as AS (Where I first posted this) that had me away from the fandom for some time.

 

[Sniperk]

She woke up in a bed that was part of a well furnished room. Blue eyes skimmed through it, but she didn't recognize the place. She quickly checked to see if the Card was with her. The object hovered at her side, almost at the same time she thought of it. She noticed that the clothes she was wearing weren't hers. The leggie jeans with white shirt had been changed to a one piece pink dress. She touched the material, but didn't recognize it. It was soft as silk but it wasn't as smooth. She sat up on the bed and looked around the room again. There were two doors to the far left, one on each wall, and a window with white curtains on the wall in front of the bed. She got up and walked to the doors and the first one was locked. She frowned little before turning to the other one. A small bathroom, with a shower, a toilet, a sink and a mirror were inside. She closed the door and moved to the window. On the way she noticed that the walls had nothing on them. There was no pictures on the walls, on the dresser or the bedstand. The floor was covered with a carpet patterned with various symbols that she didn't recognize. When she got to the curtains and peeked through them, she noticed that she couldn't see the other side of the window, just the light that came from it. She got back on the bed and took a seat near the bedstand. Aside from the weird window, the place seemed like a guest room. She felt her stomach claiming to be fed, but couldn't do much about it. Tomoyo though that maybe if she knocked at the door, someone would come to her, but she too remembered the talk between the two men, and how they seemed to not think about her as a person, but as an object.

She was scared, and not even Sato and Tosa were able to lift her worries. She wasn't worried for herself, but for Sakura. The raven haired girl was sure that the cardmistress would go to hell and back if she had to just to find her. And the thought of Sakura getting hurt because of her was more than the already fragile girl could take. As the tears started to form in her eyes, she heard the previously locked door being opened. Two men cladded in black suits entered the room and stopped at the door, and a woman entered after them, carrying a tray with various differents types of fruits.

She left it at the bedstand oposite of where Tomoyo was and turned to the door. As the blue-eyed girl saw that she was leaving the room, she asked, "Where am I?"

The woman turned back to her, smiled and said, "For now, eat. You should be hungry. Later the answers to your questions will come. These fruits are from your planet, so you can pick anything you like from it without worry." She then turned back again.

"Can't you please at least tell me where am I?"

The woman didn't answer and left the room. The two men followed and the door was closed.

---

"Are we really in another planet?" the cardmistress asked the brown haired woman that came to pick her and the two knights up at the tele-port.

"Is it so hard to believe? You were in a interdimensional ship for almost twenty hours. You saw the TSAB's Central base. Do you need more proof?" the woman asked back.

Sakura looked outside the car she was riding in. "It's just that it seems like a normal big city, like the ones in my planet. Skyscrapers, buildings, parks. Everything seems to be the similar."

"Yeah. I thought that too the first time I came here." She smiled. "But this really is another planet's city. More specifically, Clanagan, the capital of MidChilda."

"I see. You seem to talk like you too aren't from here," she said, turning to the driver of the car.

"I'm from Earth, too. From Japan."

"You're from there?"

"Yes. I lived here most of my life though. I moved here as soon as I finished middle school, but by that time I'd already spent most of my time here. Well, not specifically here in Mid, but you get the picture."

"So... Hmm...?" Sakura had already forgotten the name the woman had told her not ten minutes ago.

"Hayate. Yagami Hayate." She grinned. "Kinomoto-san, was it?"

"Yes."

"How old are you?" Hayate already knew the age of the girl, but feigned ignorance so they could continue talking.

"Seventeen." As a reflex, she asked back, "You?"

"Twenty-six." The Belkan mage answered instantly. Her age wasn't one of her concerns in life. It never was.
Sakura's jaw dropped at that. She hadn't thought of the woman next to her as more than nineteen, twenty-three at most, but trying not to seem rude, she smiled nervously and changed subjects. "How much time until we get to... where are we going again?"

"The Headquarters of the Ground Forces of the TSAB. As for how much time... I think ten more minutes," she said, making a turn. "See that building at the end of the street?"

"Yes."

"That's our destination."

Sakura decided to not ask anything anymore. Everytime she asked something her jaw would drop at the answer, and she didn't want to make a fool out of herself anymore.

"Don't worry. You aren't making a fool out of yourself," Hayate said, as if reading the girls mind. "This place is pretty much mind baffling for the first timers."

Even so, she decided that it was wiser not to say anything anymore until they got to the place where they would be going.

---

"I'm... home," the girl started to announce as she entered her house, but seeing the mess that it was, she started to wonder if she had entered the wrong house before recalling the reason she stayed over Caro's house the day before. "Anybody home?" she called, and when that no answer came, she called again, "Mama?" Still no answer. She climbed the stairs and got to the door of the room of her mothers. Peeking inside she saw both of them sleeping soundly, with the blonde embracing the brunette, pretty much like nothing had happened the night before. She sighed and entered the room, walking slowly to not wake them up, covered them with a sheet that was at their feet, and took a good look at them. She sighed again, then smiled and left the room.

A few minutes later, after she took a light shower and changed clothes, the blonde girl was already at the first floor again, preparing to clean the mess her parents had made. Not that she was a diligent girl, or something like that. She just wanted them to forget the night before when they woke up, so they wouldn't fight again, whatever the reason was this time.

During the task she started to wonder what she needed to do in order for her crush to notice her. She'd already tried to be subtle, dropping hints. She'd already tried to be direct, confessing her feelings outright. The heterochromatic eyed girl was starting to wonder if her crush was just too dense to notice her. Her mind was so focused on those thoughts, and with the task at hand, that she failed to notice that two adult figures had just snuck around passing from the stairs, through the corridor, to the kitchen. After she made sure she had taken care of all the broken glasses she started to put the furniture back to their original places, aside from the center table, that was from where all the glass had came from, since it was the top of it. She lifted the wood frame of what once was part of the furniture and leaned it against one of the walls, then sweeped the floor one more time and put the carpet back in its place. She was pretty much panting by now, but her thoughts were so far from her body that she didn't even notice. After she finished with what she could, she sat on the couch to catch her breath, and looked at the clock on the wall and concluded that she should have at least fifteen minutes before her parents woke up, so she decided to start making breakfast. As she entered the kitchen she saw that breakfast was already prepared and a note was in the top of the table. "Sorry, Vivio" was writen in the note, with two small figures scribbled, with their heads down and their hands together at the same height of their heads, apologizing.

She picked the note, sighed and smiled. "Your drawings are awfull as always, Nanoha-mama," she called to the corridor.

"No, they're not," Nanoha said, storming in the room.

Vivio grinned. "Let's see if at least your cooking haven't dropped to the level of your drawing skills."

"Come here, you little..." Nanoha said, catching her daughter and starting to tickling her.

Fate leaned against the frame of the door, smiling as she watched her wife and daughter play together.

---

"And this is where we prepared a room for you," the General informed the girl. "Do you want to put your things there now, or to continue?"

"If you don't mind, I would like to keep my things with me for now," Sakura said, gripping the strap of her backpack that was over her shoulder.

"No problem." Hayate smiled. "Though I don't think there's anymore that I can show you around here," she thought out loud. "Do you mind in accompany me to my office?"

"Not to be disrespectful, Yagami-sama, but I believe you know the reasons I came to this planet, right?"

Hayate looked at the girl. She couldn't believe her ears. "I'm sorry. Care to repeat what you just said?" she asked.

Sakura looked at the woman in front of her. She couldn't read her expression at all. Hadn't she heard about Tomoyo? Wasn't that the reason she picked the cardmistress up personally at the tele-port? So she repeated.,"I believe you know the reasons I came to this planet, right?"

"No, no. Before that." Hayate leaned a little to her side.

"Huh?"

"Repeat what you said before that," she said, making a circular motion with her hand.

"Hum... I would like to keep my things with me?" Sakura tried. She was honestly getting annoyed with the other avoiding her question.

"No, after that." Hayate had stopped walking and was in front of the cardmistress.

Sakura skimmed through her recent memory and picked. "Not to be disrespectful, Yagami-sama, but..."

"That!"

"Huh?" Sakura was starting to wonder if the woman was crazy.

That was certainly a first for Hayate. She didn't know if she should scold the girl for adressing her so formally, or if she should thank her for talking like that. She turned on her heel and took three steps, taking a deep breath. "Accompany me to my office, please?" she asked, without turning back. The Belkan mage wasn't sure of how to react, so she let the matter go.

"Ok..." Sakura at this point was thinking that this place was weirder than she first thought.

After a few minutes of walking in silence they reached Hayate's office. As soon as they stepped into the room, Rein came flying up. "Hayate-chan, Fate-san called asking what time the meeting would start."

"It will be at eleven O'clock. Call the others for me too, please?" And turning to Sakura, "Kinomoto-san, this is... Kinomoto-san?"

Sakura was pointing to the little unison device, floating beside Hayate, seemingly trying to say something.

"Are you ok?" The General became concerned for the girl.

"Fairy-san!" Sakura finally let out. Hayate started to chuckle at this.
Rein looked at the girl. "I'm not a fairy! I'm an one hundred percent Belkan unison device!" she said, pouting.

"C-C-Cute!" Sakura was almost jumping to catch the little floating girl.
Hayate was laughing hard now. She almost couldn't cope with it.

"Fairy-san! Fairy-san!" The cardmistress started to run after Rein.

"I'm not a fairy! Mou, Hayate-chan, stop laughing and explain!"

"I'm... hehehe... I'm sorry, Rein." Hayate took a breath to steady herself, and wiped away a tear that had formed in her right eye. "Kinomoto-san, this little girl here isn't a fairy like the ones in the books on Earth. I can't explain to you exactly what she is now because it will take too much time, and I'll probably just make your head hurt from the amount of information."
Sakura was a little disappointed, but accepted what the General said. She was about to ask something else to Hayate as a translucent window popped in the middle of them. "Wah!" She fell to the floor. "Wh-What is that?!"

"I'm sorry, Kinomoto-san. I have to answer this call. Could you wait a moment?"

"H-Hum..." Sakura nodded, looking up, without getting off the floor.
Hayate then sat on her chair and answered the call, signalling for Sakura to sit at the chair in front of her. "Yes?"

"I'm calling just to tell that I'm already at Clanagan. How much time do I have until the meeting starts?" Yuuno asked.

"Plenty. I scheduled it to begin at eleven." After looking at Sakura, Hayate added, "The creator is here with me."

Sakura looked around to see if someone was behind her and then looked at Hayate again. She pointed to herself. "Me?" Hayate nodded at her.

"I see. I'll be there in a flash. I really wanna talk to her before the meeting," Yuuno said as he cut the call.

"Wait, wait. Creator? Me?" Sakura was once again speechless.

"Oh, don't worry about it. We didn't know your name until a little while ago, so we had to call you something." She smiled. "So, Kinomoto-san..."

"Sakura."

"Huh?"

"Just call me Sakura." The girl never felt comfortable with people calling her by her surname.

"So, Sakura... chan?" After a nod from the girl, Hayate continued. "Can you tell me how you cast your spells?"

"Are you gonna call me a witch too, Yagami-sama?" she asked, remembering the talk she had with Signum in the battleship.

"First, please, cut the 'sama'. Call me Hayate. And second, no, if you don't want to, I won't call you a witch, but I have to warn you that depending on how your spells are cast and from where you draw the energy to cast them, some people will still call you that. It's not a bad name or anything around here, but if you prefer I won't call you that."

"Okay." Sakura fidgeted. "It's a little hard to explain. I don't create anything by myself. My magic comes from my cards." She reached for her backpack as she continued to talk. "Every card has one type of magic, and they are the ones that actually cast the spells. I just have to ask them."

"Ask them?"

"Yes. They aren't just cards. They're my friends. Every card has a will of it's own. So when treated with respect they respect you back, but when treated poorly, or badly handled, they can go out of control."

"Have they ever gone out of control?"

"Actually, I turned into a cardcaptor because they went out of control, when I inadvertently freed them."

"Can you tell me how?"

And like this, Sakura started to tell her tale as a Card Captor, starting with Clow Reed until she created the Card thinking about Syaoran and more recently, the Card for Tomoyo.

---

"I don't know when we'll come back, so if by nightfall we're not at home yet, call Verossa or Caro and stay with them, ok, Vivio?" the blonde informed her daughter.

"Okay. Can I call Cia to stay here with me?"

"Sure, if she wants. Don't force her though. Even if we know that she's your best friend, she has to go out with people her age from time to time, too. She's almost an adult, you know?"

"I know that," Vivio said, looking down. "I won't force her."

"Lunch is already done, so you just have to heat it again, ok?" This time it was the slate blue eyed mother's turn to inform her.

"Right."

"And don't forget to do your homework."

"Don't worry, Mama. I'm already halfway through it."

"Then we're off." After hugging and kissing her daughter's temple, Nanoha said, "Love you, Sweetie."

"Love you too, Nanoha-mama." Vivio hugged back.

"Hey, I don't get some of that love?" Fate grinned behind Nanoha.

The heterochromatic girl jumped into her other mother's arms and kissed her cheek. "I love you lots too, Fate-mama."

"Now I'm happy. I love you too, Hun." Fate beamed to her daughter.

"Alright, let's go, Nanoha."

"Bye, Vivio."

"Bye, Mama. Take care."

After they both got into the car, Nanoha started to think about the meeting that would take place at their destination. "Do you think that this girl, what's her name again?"

"Kinomoto Sakura."

"Yes. Do you think Sakura-chan lives near my house back on Earth?"

"I don't know. Maybe. According to Hayate, the girl lives near Tokyo, so it could be possible. Why?" Fate asked, pulling the car out the driveway into the street.

"No reason. Just wondering if I had ever met her before, but probably not. She's only seventeen, right?"

"Apparently."

The brunette sank on the passenger seat. "How long do you think this meeting will take?"

"No idea. Could be hours to minutes. It's all comes down to what the girl will tell us."

"Yeah."

---

"Hello. My name is Yuuno Scrya. Nice to meet you, Kinomoto-san."

"Nice to meet you Yuuno-sama." She bowed to the bespectacled man.

"Wow. No need for such things. Just call me Yuuno, and between you and me, if you don't want to hear everyone around here say the same thing, don't add the 'sama' after their names. At most, add just their title in the military. Right, General?" Yuuno winked to the girl, as Hayate slapped his shoulder.

"I'll try." Sakura felt a little uncomfortable with the idea of not calling people she just met with suffixes. She was too used to it to not do it.

"So, I believe Hayate already told you that we'll be helding a meeting concerning your case, and the kidnapping of your friend."

"Yes." She dropped her eyes, then Hayate put a hand in her shoulder and she looked up at her. "I'm okay."

"Well, do you mind in accompany me a little before the meeting starts?" he asked, pointing to a door in the corridor. "I would like to run a few tests with you. Of course, only if you're willing to. We won't force you to do anything."

"What kind of tests?"

"Oh, simple things. Basically I'll only watch you perform a few of your spells and ask a few questions. Is there a problem?"

"Well, actually, yes. I can't perform my spells without a reason. As I explained to Yaga- Hayate-san, I don't actually perform spells. I only ask my cards to do it."

"Cards?" Yuuno raised an eyebrow. He knew about a lot of mediums used for performing spells, like stone tablets, basins of water, beads tied around a strand, and so on, inclusive cards, but all of those methods dispersed too much energy, and the spells would always be weak.

"Yes," Hayate answered before her. "Her story is a little too long for her to re-tell now, so I'll ask her to tell again at the meeting. Suffice to say that her cards are almost living beings, like our devices, just that they can only be called, perform a task that Sakura-chan asks them, and then go back to the card."

"I see." Yuuno put a hand on his chin, still looking at Sakura.

"Being that way, I can't call them if I don't have a task for them to perform. If I do, depending on the card, it can go out of control," Sakura added.

"Depending on the card?"

"Yes. A few of them are docile, and don't go berserk even if I call them without a task to perform, but I prefer not to."

"I see, I see. Well, sorry for asking then."

"No, don't be. Hayate-san already asked me to perform a spell during the meeting, and I agreed to it. It's just that I don't want them to think that I'm using them just for show."

"Them?"

"Her cards have a will of their own. She says they're all her friends, so she doesn't like to use them without a reason," Hayate again explained.

"Oh, okay."

"So, Sakura-chan. Do you want to eat something now? I think the meeting will be long, so it's best not to go on a empty stomach."

Sakura agreed and they left the office, going in the direction of the cafeteria.

---

 

[Sniperk]

All the people invited by the General went personally to the meeting, even if some of them weren't exactly involved with the situation, Hayate thought it was best to inform all the people that she would probably need help later on in this case. They were all sitting at 'U' shaped table, with the Belkan mage standing at the wall contrary to them with her back against the monitors on the wall. "First off all, thank you for the effort from all of you to free time from your schedules to be here today. I know that today is Sunday, and some of you probably had other plans already made, so you have my thanks."

They all nodded in silence. After a few moments, Hayate began to briefly retell the events until that moment that, most of them, had already heard the day before. "So with that in mind, I would like to introduce to you Kinomoto Sakura-san. She was the one that created the source of the disorder in the flow of the magical energy on Non-Administrative Planet 97 and agreed to come here to aid us with the investigation of the fact." Turning to Sakura, she motioned for the girl to stand. "Please?"

"Kinomoto Sakura. Third Year at Tomoeda High School, and Mistress of the Sakura Book," she said, eyeing everyone in the room. After receiving a nod from everyone, she sat again.

"You don't need to be so nervous, Sakura-chan," said the blonde knight that was sitting at her side, smiling. "You are with friends here." She got up. "Carim Gracia, leader of the Knights of the Saint Church. Nice to meet you."

After she sat, the man beside her got up. "Admiral Chrono Harlaown from the TSAB's Navy. Nice to meet you."

"Admiral Fate Harlaown, from the Navy too. I lived on Earth for some time during my childhood."

"Takamachi Nanoha, Lieutenant General from the TSAB's Air Force's Training Corps. I'm from Earth too, but as you can see, I live here now. Nice too meet you."

"I already introduced myself earlier, but let's not break the protocol," the blonde bespectacled man said, even though he had just did what he mentioned that he was not gonna do. "Yuuno Scrya, Chief Librarian of the Infinity Library, and Researcher for the TSAB."

"Yagami Hayate, General from the TSAB's Ground Forces, though you already know that. Well, with the introductions out of the way, I would like to ask you, Sakura-chan, if you could tell us the story about your Cards and your powers."

"Ok. From the beginning?" she asked as she got up again.

"Yes, but you don't need to add the details about each capture. Just the outline of it for now will be enough."

The cardmisstress then decided that it would be faster just to show her cards. She took the Sakura Book from her backpack and opened it. "These are my cards. It's with them that I perform my spells."

"Hum. Do you mind if we take a closer look?" the blonde asked. When she saw that Sakura was a hesitant in handing the cards, she said, "Just one is enough. If you don't want to we'll understand, of course."

"No, I don't mind, it's just... Never mind." She passed her deck of cards to the people at the table.

After a few moments, Chrono said, "They are quite innocuous, aren't they?"

"Excuse me?" Sakura asked, clearly displeased.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean in that way," he said, looking apologetic. "Let me rephrase that. I just think that it's strange. I don't feel any sort of magical energy coming from them."

"That's because they are sealed right now. Only when I call them it's that they appear. Although I can talk to them, even in this form, they don't have much of a magical presence."

"I see. Wait, talk to them?" He looked again at the girl.

"Yes. Every single one of them is a sentient being, and they are my friends. They were created by a powerful Earth mage called Clow Reed. These cards are now called Sakura Cards, because I'm their mistress, but when they were created they were known as the Clow Cards."

"I see. Do they speak only with you or they can talk with anyone?" the other blonde, with burgundy eyes, asked.

"Actually just a few of them can speak human language. The others only I can understand."

"Can you call one of them so we could see?" She rested her elbow on the table and her chin on the palm of her hand.

Sakura looked at Hayate. After a nod from the General, she took back her cards from the people around the table and got to the middle of the room. She then reached for her pendant and after chanting it transformed into her Star Staff.

She was skimming through her cards, when Yuuno talked again. "Wait, do you mind if I set up a few sensors around you so we could analyze it? Don't worry. Nothing will touch you."

She looked at him, then at Hayate, then at him again and nodded. "Ok."
After a few moments, "Everything is ready."

Sakura got one of the cards. "Create the image of a starry sky in this room. ILLUSION!" After a few moments, they were all looking at the a night sky where was supposed to be the roof of the room. Sakura continued, "As you can see, this card is called Illusion. It can reproduce any image I tell it to do, but it is just images in the end."

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan," Yuuno said. "But could you perform your spell again? It's just that I couldn't register any type of magical energy concentrating before you casted it."

"Well, I don't concentrate energy. The cards do when I call them."

"So you don't call energy from your Linker Core to cast the spell?" Carim was the one asking this time.

Sakura didn't understand. "Huh? Link what?"

"Linker Core," Hayate answered. "When we perform our spells, we use energy from it. For now, let's just say it stands for your magical energy the same way that your heart stands for your body." Turning to the rest, she explained, "She doesn't use energy from her Linker Core. To cast spells, her cards gather energy from the ambient."

"So you are a witch?" the blonde knight asked again.

"I'm not a witch!" Sakura yelled at the blonde, angry.

"She doesn't like to be called a witch," Hayate intervened again.

"How come?" Carim was surprised.

"I think I can understand her," The brunette pony tailed woman from the other side of the table voiced. "Back on Earth, witches were usually associated with bad things. There was even a point in the history when they were hunted. Even after the times had changed, the very word 'witch' is still shunned around there."

"Oh, I see. I'm sorry. It was rude of me. But there's no need to be upset about it." Seeing that the girl hadn't calmed down, she added, "It's a normal thing around here."

"Even so, I'm not from here."

"Very well, I'm sorry to have upset you."

"You are from Japan too, aren't you?" Seeing that the mood at the room was getting heavy, Fate changed the subject, smiling at the girl.

"Yes. From Tomoeda Prefecture."

"It's near were I lived there, in Uminari city." Nanoha, too, smiled.

"Really?" Sakura looked at the older woman.

"Yes. I live here for about ten years or so now, but my parents still run a Cake Shop there."

"Ha-hem." Chrono cleared his throat to get the attention of the girls. "So, Kinomoto-san, can you tell us how you created that source of energy?" he asked after everyone looked at him.

"You mean the Card?"

"Yes. Tell us about the Card you created three days ago," Hayate, again, intervened.

"Well, it's kinda hard to describe. The first time I created one, it was unintentional. I was just so sad that Syaoran was going back home that it kinda created itself."

Chrono wanted to know who Syaoran was, but guessed it was some friend or lover of hers. "If it was unintentional, then this second one was intentional?"

"Yes. I wanted to show my best friend what she meant to me." After taken a deep breath to retain a sob that was forming in her throat, she added, "she's always been by my side, and now she was taken because I was careless. I didn't pay attention to my premonition."

"Do you get premonitions too?" Carim asked.

"Well. I don't get the premonitions. I ask for them."

"Your cards?" she guessed.

"Yes. Dream. Its premonitions are always dead right," she said, feeling a little proud of her Card/friend.

"You said that you had created another card before. Do you still have that card?" Yuuno asked

"Yes." Without looking at the cards she pulled one out. "This one."

"Do you mind if I take a look?"

She fought with herself for a moment before handing him the card.

"Well, let's get back to the matter at hand. Can you call your spell off?" Hayate asked Sakura.

"Yes. Illusion, come back." Nothing. "Illusion? It's okay now. You can come back." The starry sky faded as the card formed itself in Sakura's hand. "That was weird." Everyone in the room looked at her talking with the card in her hand. "Are you okay, Illusion?" A few moments passed. "I don't understand. How?" More silence. "That IS weird."

"Something the matter?" The General was concerned for the girl.

"Yes. Illusion said that it was almost impossible for it to obey me. It felt like I didn't have any power over it anymore. It came back just because it's my friend."

"I think I understand that." Yuuno motioned and formed a translucent keyboard in front of him. After a few types an image appeared on the monitor behind Hayate. "Your cards tap into the latent power output of the magical energy flow of the planet to feed their spells." The image of Earth appeared. "Non Administrative Planet 97, Earth, has a level of this type of magical energy that is inferior to MidChilda." A image of the other planet appeared besides the anterior. "Your cards do something that it was thought to be impossible." He smiled. "When you called your card, it tapped into the flow of energy here, and since it was much greater, let's say it got drunk on it, or something like that."

"So they won't obey me if I call them here?"

"This is just my assumption, but I think that they only need to get used to it. Of course, for this you'll need time."

"But I don't have time! I have to save Tomoyo-chan!"

"I understand your concern for your friend, but without your cards you can't do much, am I right?"

She fisted her hands and gulped. "No."

"I don't think they will take too much time to get used to it. You just need to use them more often in a environment that is propitious for it."

"We can arrange that," Chrono said, "but before that, let's continue here. Did you identify the mages that captured your friend?"

"Yes, she already did before the meeting started." Hayate waved her hand and typed a few strokes as photos of two men appeared on the monitor.

"Those are two faces that I'll never forget," Sakura added, with anger in her tone.

"Unfortunately we don't know much about them. This one." The photo of the black haired men enlarged. "Chris Gulliver, 29 years old. Potential magical ranking at the time of registering, A+. Recruited to the Ground Forces thirteen years ago. Had a problem with discipline and was discharged after the third warning eleven years ago. Specialties: protective spells and high evasion speed. Current residence and occupation, unknown. The other one," the photo of a red-haired man switched places with the other, "Reeve Borges, 28 years old. Potential magical ranking at the time of registering, A. Never worked with the military. Last known working place was at a security company. Specialties, unknown. Current residence and occupation, unknown. According to the report brought by the expedition team, Reeve is tall, around six feet and Chris around five feet."
The room fell silent for a few moments, then Hayate continued. "Carim, can I ask you to assist in the investigation of these two?"

"No problem."

"I would like to ask for you to not divulge this information. Just say who they need to investigate."

"Very well."

The room fell silent once more, then the General continued, "I would like if all of you made this case a priority." After everyone nodded, "Anything else?"

"Yes." Nanoha waved. "Where'll be Sakura-chan staying?"

"We prepared a room for her in the HQ."

"I see." She looked at the cardmistress, then back at Hayate. "Well, in this case, I would like if Sakura-chan stayed with me, and I would like to be the one that handles her training too."

Fate looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah..." She paused a moment after Nanoha looked at her and turned at Sakura. "I think it would be best if she stays with us, since she just came from Earth, it would be best to soften the cultural shock."

Hayate looked between her childhood friends, then nodded. "Yeah. I agree." She looked at the cardmistress. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No. But I do have a question. When can we go save Tomoyo-chan?"

"Well," Chrono spoke again, "before we 'go' first we need to find out 'where' to go. We need to investigate the two that took your friend. Don't worry. We'll be putting our best into this mission."

"Anything else?" Hayate asked one more time. No one seemed to want to say anything. "Then, until next time."

They all got up, and Yuuno signaled to Chrono. "Go to Hayate's office. I need to talk to you two," He said mentally.

"Ah, Sakura-chan, I'm sorry again if I offended you." Carim went to Sakura's side as she was leaving. "I didn't think before I spoke back there. Again, my apologies." She bowed slightly to the girl.

"No, don't be. I'm starting to think that it's all in my head anyway." Sakura flushed as the older woman smiled at her.

"Well, if makes you feel any better, I too was called that before."

"Why?"

"Because of my rare ability. Like you, I get premonitions too, although I believe they are not exactly like yours."

"How?"

Carim continued accompanying Sakura, with Nanoha and Fate behind them, talking about her rare skill.

After they all left, Hayate sent mentally to Nanoha. "Thank you."

"Huh? For what?"

"For not letting her stay at the HQ. If she talks to someone here it might be problematic and we don't want that the information leaks."

"No problem." Nanoha smiled. Actually she wasn't thinking about information leaking at all. She just didn't want the girl to be in a place completely unfamiliar to her without someone to talk to.

Hayate was getting to her office when she noticed that Yuuno and Chrono were still with her. "Yes?"

"I think we need to talk."

"Something the matter?"

"Some things that I'm concerned." After the three of them entered the office, Yuuno continued. "Look at this." A window flashed in front of the trio showing various graphs. "It sounded a little strange for me that the girl didn't use her energy to perform spells, but even so, her cards would obey her, so I checked a few things without her noticing. This is the activity reading of her Linker Core at the time she called her spell." A line in the graph that was at zero got a peak at one unit of time then went back to zero. "And this one is from the duration that the spell was active" The line remained at zero the whole time "And this is when she called her spell off." Another peak at the graph then going back to zero again. "As you can see, she does have a great amount of magical power, that's why she can command the cards. If trained well, and with the mindset she has, she could turn into another Ace."

"You could have said that during the meeting." Chrono frowned. "There was no need to hide this from the others."

"Well, that's true, but the real reason I called you two here is this." Another image appeared on the monitor, the card Sakura created for Syaoran. "This card has the same properties of the other cards, even in sealed card form. The thing is, it converts all the latent power output from the magical energy flow into normal power output, just in a much lesser scale than we registered from the other card she created three days ago."

"Wait, what happens with all this converted energy?" Hayate asked.

"It disperses back into the flow, and turns into latent form after some time. But the other card is a great source of magical energy, as we thought before."

"But it changed the energy magical flow from all the planet when we detected it. Why isn't it happening now?"

"My guess is that the card isn't converting just because the holder, Sakura's friend, doesn't have magical powers, so it doesn't need to do it. I believe that, being sentient beings, they can learn things too, that's why I believe that the cards can adapt with Mid's energy flow and don't go out of control." He leaned back into the chair and looked at Chrono. "Can you prepare a training ground that simulates the environment of a low energy planet, and that can be adjusted to more or to less?"

"I think I can." He too let his body lean back, and supported his chin with his hand. "But why so suddenly?"

"I believe if the girl tried to use the cards without the precautions, they'll start to convert all the energy from planet non-stop, making it saturate and literally explode."

"I can't believe this." Hayate didn't know what else to say.

"As I said, it's just my assumption," Yuuno said, but the other two knew that generally his 'assumptions' were as good as facts.

"I'll prepare it immediately," the General said. "I'll warn Nanoha-chan about this too. She and Fate-chan will need to take care so Sakura-chan doesn't use her cards before they get used to Mid's energy flow."

"Tell Nanoha to train her as a normal mage," Yuuno advised. "As I said, she has the potential for a S rank mage."

"That can be a problem in the future," Chrono said after thinking about it.

"I know what you're thinking, and thought about it too. She's already powerful without the powers of a mage. If she learns how to use mage abilities, she can be problem to deal with if she turns against the TSAB, but after what she said at the meeting, and the way she cares so much about her cards and her friend, I doubt that she would turn out to be a problem."

"Well, for now, let's just focus on the matter at hand. The investigation and the training grounds for her."

The three of them then discussed how they would proceed after the investigation was done on Carim's part.

---

"We're home," Fate called inside the house as soon as she opened the door.

"Fate-mama! Welcome back," Vivio appeared in the corridor.

"Were you a good girl?" Nanoha asked as she too entered the house.

"Don't worry. She was watching a movie with me until just now." A violet haired girl appeared behind the blonde.

"Ah, Lutecia-chan. Hello."

"Hello, Nanoha-san."

Turning to outside the door, Nanoha called, "Come on in, Sakura-chan."

"Pardon the intrusion," she said as she entered the house. It was a normal house, like the ones back on Earth. Totally different from the fell of the rest of the places she'd been during that day.

"This one is my daughter, Vivio," Nanoha said, pointing to the girl on the corridor. "And behind her is Lutecia-chan, her best friend." Turning back to Sakura, "This here is Kinomoto Sakura-chan. She's from Earth too and will be staying with us for a few days."

"Pleasure to meet you," the three said almost in unison, bowing. Sakura was wondering why the girl had called the blonde woman 'Fate-mama' even though Nanoha had said that she was her daughter, but didn't ask anything.

"Come with me," Nanoha said, taking the girl by the hand. "This is the kitchen, the living and dining rooms are down the corridor." Pulling her up the stairs, "Here's the bathroom, here's is Vivio's room, and you can stay here," she said as she opened the door. "Put your things in here for now."

"Yes." Sakura was too awed to say anything else by this point, but the house had indeed a cozy feeling to it.

"So, Sakura-chan. Do you mind in telling me all about the things that happened in Earth lately? As you can guess, we don't hear much news about it around here."

"Huh... Sure. I can tell what I know." And so, Sakura started to answer the barrage of questions from Nanoha, and they didn't stop until Fate called for them, when it was already night.

---

 

[Filraen]

"Because the Book was in her home ever since she has memory. One day, through a magical event she became the Mistress of the Book even if she had never even heard of real magic before. That event granted her other beings, constructs made of magic and bound to the Book. Nothing is so easy, however, as the very magic she had awakened, her own great potential she possesed caused some events. However with the help of unexpected friends she could overcome all the triels and attain True Mistressship of the Book, while always making a point to treat the magical constructs not as simple tools, but with a closer relationship than simply Mistress and servant to the Book.

"Sakura Kinomoto, Mistress of the Sakura Book, meet Hayate Yagami, Mistress of the Book of the Night Sky."

I would have posted earlier but I had to undust that random thought.

 

[Sniperk]

Sakura was panting. It was the third session of training that day.

"Now use any means you deem necessary to avoid my attacks. Take it seriously, or you could get badly hurt," Nanoha warned, distancing herself.

And she still had two more sessions to go before that day was over.

"Raging Heart," Nanoha called.

"Axel Shooter," the device answered.

To make matters worse, the cardmistress couldn't take back her words now. "FLY!" She was the one that'd asked Nanoha to train her hard. She wanted her cards to get used to the environment as soon as possible. "SHIELD!"

"Don't rely only in your shield. Try to maneuver to avoid the beams, or try to blast them with another attack," The Ace of Aces said to the green eyed girl.

Of course, she didn't know before she asked for the training that Nanoha wasn't considered the best instructor in the military because she was good with her students. She was good and very strict with her students. "WINDY!"

"All attacks neutralized. Mission completed," the device informed.

"Very good. Mission completed."

She descended to the floor and flopped down. Sakura had been in MidChilda for almost a week already. She didn't want to make Tomoyo suffer more because of her, so she decided that she would train her mind and body, as well as her cards, during all available time she had at hand before the investigations handled by the TSAB could get her some leads for the whereabouts of her raven haired friend. During this time she'd learned about the world. She wanted to know everything that she could beforehand. She got to know the story of the three Aces, the tale of the Three Great Admirals. She was getting used to the planet itself, but her mind was still set on her objective, so, even though she could learn more if she wanted, at the moment, what she really wanted was to find Tomoyo. "Thanks."

"Time's up," Raging Heart informed.

"Well, time for lunch, Sakura-chan."

"Thanks... huff... Nanoha-san." She could barely catch her breath.

"Your cards are already used to this level. In the afternoon let's raise the level again. If everything goes well, tomorrow we can train without the restraining field."

"Okay." Sakura nodded as she unsteadily got in her feet.

They left the training room, which Hayate had prepared for her, and walked to the cafeteria. The training room was actually the size of the gym at her school back on Tomoeda High.

"Any news about the investigation?" Sakura asked again for the third time that day.

"No, nothing yet," Nanoha answered with a smile. She wasn't at all bothered by the girl asking the same question over and over. She hadn't really heard anything, but she doubted that Sakura could do anything about it even if she heard any news. At least, not at the level she was at the moment.

"Nanoha-mama, Sakura-san!" The blonde haired girl was running down the hall, behind the pair, as she called them.

"Vivio."

"Hi, Vivio-chan." They were up so early in the morning that the girl weren't awake when they left the house.

"What are you doing here? What about school?" Nanoha asked.

"Mou, Nanoha-mama. I told you yesterday that Aunt Hayate called me. Do you think she has a mission for me?" Vivio eyes were almost sparkling.

"Oh, yes. Sorry, Vivio. I forgot." She then turned her expression to a more serious one again. "Wait here, little girl. What did I already tell about picking fights?"

Vivio smiled. "I'm not picking a fight, Mama. I'm following orders."

Before Nanoha could say anything else, a call flashed at her side. "I have to answer this, but we'll take about later. Don't think that you are off the hook just yet, missy." She left the two teenagers to answer her call.

"She's really strict, isn't she?" Sakura thought out loud.

"Yes, but you get used to it." The blonde started walking, pulling Sakura by the hand. "Let's eat. My appointment with Aunt Hayate is in the afternoon."

"Wow. Calm down. I'm going, I'm going." Sakura was already used to the pushy way the younger Takamachi acted around her.

---

"Any questions?" the raven haired man asked his subordinate. When she didn't answer he took it as a sign of understanding. "Then the transportation will be ready for you at thirteen hours sharp. It will take you to the limitations of the city, but from there you are alone. Don't take any communication device with you. Any information must be relayed after the mission is over. Remember, this is only a recognition mission. Don't act on your own."

"Yes, sir." The violet haired girl saluted.

"Dismissed."

She turned to leave the office. Another mission. Another case. Another time where she would be doing things that she didn't like very much. To make matters worse, she was alone. Her partner was still off duty. She read the report again, memorizing everything that was there. She couldn't take it with her, so she had to make sure to remember everything. Her mission: find the whereabouts of at least one of the two men. According to the report she was reading, the investigation team from the Saint Church had discovered that the two men lived in Dim Barah, a port city, known as well as the Hell City by the TSAB agents, because it was rumored to corrupt or kill anyone. Every agent that had gone to investigate the city had only two destinies after their missions was over. Being corrupted by the mafia with loads of money or being killed if not susceptible to corruption. And now she was in charge of investigating there. She read everything she could, burning their information in her mind, so she could recognize both of them with only a glance. She was still reading the report when she got on the transport.

---

"Aunt Hayate!" Vivio said, tackling the older woman.

"Vivio! My, you've grown!" Hayate noticed that the girl's grow spurt had started rather early for her. Or it was just that she hadn't seen Vivio in the flesh for about six months, since the girl had gone to her triplets' fourth birthday party. "How are you?"

"I'm okay." Then Vivio realized that they both were in uniform and they were at Headquarters, backed a step, and saluted. "Private Third Class, Vivio Takamachi, reporting, Sir!" She started to giggle.

Hayate too started to chuckle at the sight of the heterochromatic eyed girl saluting. "There's no need to salute, Vivio. It's just us here anyway." She stopped chuckling. "Well, first of all, congratulations on making Third Class. Seeing that you are still in middle school, you won't receive too much work around here yet, but I want you to stop by here from now on three times a week after school. You'll be working under me directly until you are designated to a unit with a more experienced officer. Do you understand?"

Vivio saluted again. "Yes, General Yagami!" Her face brimming with happiness.

Hayate smiled at the girl. "Very well. For now you are dismissed. I want to see you here again next week."

"Thank you, Aunt Hayate!"

---

hareta hi ni wa tengoku no mannaka de

"She's at it again," said the white haired old man, wrapped in a robe.

tsui kimi o sagashi teru nichiyoubi

"Yes. It seems that it calms her down. I don't blame her though. In fact, I kind of like. She has a beautiful voice, and she sings with such emotion that it's hard to tell that she even is a hostage." The woman was handing him a towel.

atatakai basho wa boku o tsutsun de kureru kedo

"It is. She's so docile and sweet. I almost feel bad for keeping her here, but business is business. Did you call Chris and Reeve?"

demo kimi o kakushi teru sora no shita

"Yes. They are underway." Looking at the clock on the wall, she added, "Reeve said that would pass by Chris's house to get him."

naru hazu no nai keitai wa tsunagari taku te hanase nai

"Very well. How are the preparations for the auction?"

takusan no koe ga atsumari satte yuku

"The invitations were sent, but a few of them haven't replied until now."

hitotsu hitotsu ni kokoro ga miekakure

The man frowned. "Well, it's not like we had good relations with any of them, but they can't pass an opportunity like this."

hanashi tai koto ga takusan aru hazu na noni

"Anything else you need now, Mr. Hon?"

iza to naru to kotoba ga de nai kara

"No, thank you. Tell the two to wait for me when they get here." The woman left the room and he continued to listen the song for a few more moments.

atama no naka de egai teru waraikake teru kimi no sugata

"It really is a beautiful voice."

yuugure ji ni samayou orenji uradoori

takusan no mono tachi

He took off his robe and started to change into the clothes his secretary had prepared.

---

She had been walking for about three hours now, and she was thankful that night was approaching so the scorching sun wouldn't bother her anymore. Night was when she could get into the city mostly unnoticed too, which was always a good thing when you were doing a spy's job. It was rather hard for her to not to draw attention to herself, though. Her exotic beauty, even on this planet, didn't help her hide her presence, so since training, she'd learned that there was only few places that she could go and remain more or less unnoticed. Of course, most of those places weren't really places where a girl her age was supposed to be. Of course, right now, she wasn't a girl. She was an agent, a spy for the NSIS.

As the sun started to set she saw the city on the horizon, and stopped by one of the rare trees she saw on her walk on the deserted road. No one used roads anymore. If someone had to travel from city to city, they would use teleportation, and to a city in an arid land that didn't favor any kind of farming, be it legal of not, that road was even less used. The whole time she walked she didn't saw a single living soul, not even vultures would go so far into the desert it seemed. She leaned against the tree and waited for night to come. The sky was clean, not a single cloud dared to tarnish the immensity of the crimson sunset. It was a beautiful sight that seemed to lessen the burden on her legs. As she watched the sky she started to replay her orders in her head. She wouldn't have a contact at the city. The only thing that she had was a map of the city's layout. She knew where to go without attracting too much attention to her. As the night started to fall she got up again.

She needed to know exactly where to go when she got there. A little recognition was in order so she didn't seem like she was just wandering about. "What I desire..." She started to chant. "O small ones, ones that flap their wings." Various translucent violetish tentacles emerged from the ground. "Answer my words and fulfill my command. Summoning, Intelligent Insects." From the tentacles countless little winged insect-like creatures emerged as the tentacles dissolved. "Mission. Area recognition." She opened her eyes and smiled warmly at her just summoned little army. "Have a safe trip. Take care on the way." She watched as her swarm of little friends disappeared from her view into the night sky.

After a while, she started to concentrate again, and started to feel the city through her summoned friends, starting to walk again. Looks like they'd found a winner. A place where she could go. "What I desire..." She started to chant again. "O dark one, one that blends with the night." A black shadow ball appeared in the palms of her extended hands. "Answer my call and fulfill my command." The shadow ball grew and floated away from her. "Summoning, Guardian Beast, Garyuu." A humanoid creature emerged from the shadows. She looked at him and smiled. "Hello, dear friend. How are you?" The creature nodded. "I have a request for you today, is that ok?" Her expression changed, becoming more serious. Her instructors had already told her that her summoned beasts didn't have any other choice aside from do her biding, but she couldn't bring herself to treat them as tools. "Blend in the shadows and follow me. Don't stay too close. If someone detects you, but doesn't detect me, you can go back. Be prepared for battle." She softened her expression. "Take care, okay?" The creatures nodded one more time, as she started to walk in the direction of the city. Midway through from where she had summoned her beasts and the city, her friends came back to her in a swarm. As they started to tell her what they saw, she noticed that a few of them didn't came back, being squashed like normal insects in the city, but she made effort to not show that she had already felt that to her beasts, otherwise they would be worried for her. It was hard to lose friends like this, but she knew that otherwise they would get too sad and worried to obey her next command. "You can go back now. Good job." The little creatures blinked a faint violet light before starting to fade. She waited some more. It would be better to get there later in the night. So she stopped again and waited a couple more hours before starting to walk.

When she got to the city, she started to walk with conviction to the street her beasts had told her about. The further into the city she got, the more crowded the streets became. Neon and smoke were the only things that could be really seen in the street, aside from the people. A few men tried to talk to her, a few others whistled, and one or two even howled, but she didn't pay attention to them. She continued to walk to the place and soon found it. A bar, a really shady bar where she wouldn't go to have fun even if her life depended on it. She looked at the sign, with a woman lifting her leg at regular intervals as the neon blinked, and confirmed that was the place. Her complex was her trump card. She entered the place and soon was greeted with the smell of smoke from the dry ice machine, and numerous blinking lights from the dance floor. Any person that wandered into the place would notice the glaring difference in age from men and women in the place. The males were, aside from a few, all well over forty, or greasy, or bald, or fat, or a combination of some of those aspects, if not all. The women were all girls, that if not beauties like her, they weren't too far off. After surveying the place, to make sure no one knew her, she sat at the counter of the bar and waits. She knew what was gonna happen next. Some guy would come to talk to her, offer a drink and, basically, try his hardest to get into her pants. In some cases, not even so hard, some could be blunt, with questions like 'how much?' or 'what do you do?'. She knew that in this place, she looked like any of the other girls. Sure enough someone came to talk to her, but to her surprise it was a woman.

"Hello there, dear. I never saw you here. Are you one of the Jun's new girls?" She wasn't old, with her hair curled in a tone in between black and gray, around thirty, Lutecia guessed, wearing a long dress and a fluff scarf around her shoulders. A cigarette hung between her fingers.

Remembering the name of the place she entered, the purple haired girl answered, "Oh, no. I was just drifting around the city and got thirsty." She smiled at the older woman, even though after she sat at the counter she didn't order anything to drink.

"Well, well. We can't have someone as beautiful as you getting dehydrated, can we?" Turning to the bartender, "Jun, please serve a martini here for miss..." She trailed off looking at Lutecia again.

"Violet." She smiled at the older woman. Lutecia knew that she would catch on her obvious fake name, but at the place she was, it didn't matter if it was even her real name.

Turning back to the bartender, "To miss Violet here." Looking back at Lutecia, she asked, "And why would you think that this is a good place to have a drink?"

"At least is the cleaner one around here." Lutecia answered immediately.

"Well, it certainly is." The woman seemed pleased. "Jun takes very good care of the place. His girls are the best of the best in Dim Barah."

"Interesting."

"You wouldn't be looking for a place to work, would you?"

"Oh, no. I'm here to have fun a little. Tending to business all day can make you get a little wary at times, miss..." This time it was Lutecia's turn to prompt the woman.

"Lidiane. Well, seems like we came with the same intention." The bartender put the drink in front of the purple haired girl. "I'm sorry if I offended you before."

"Oh, don't worry. Can you excuse me a second. I need to use the toilet," she said, getting up. "I'll be right back, Lidiane."

"No problem. I'll be here." She turned to the barman again. "Jun, the usual for me."

Lutecia went to the bathroom and into one of the cubicles. She reached to her purse, got a pill and took it. The effect of the pill would nullify the effect of the alcohol. Unfortunately, at the same time by tomorrow she would feel a headache worse than she would if she had a normal hangover, but now she didn't have a choice. The fact that she was underage wasn't even passing through her mind at the moment.

When she got back to her place, Lidiane proceeded with the conversation. "Where are you from?"

"Mau Gram," Lutecia answered instantly. The mention of Mau Gram would undoubtedly make the woman think that she was a fugitive, since it was still a penal colony, even if it was supposed to be a rehabilitation one, it still was much like a prison.

"Oh, I see. I see. Born there or..." The woman trailed off.
Lutecia took a sip at the drink in front of her almost wincing when it got down her throat, burning. "Or," she answered.

"I assume you are in town for really for business then."

"I already said that, didn't I?"

"Oh, sorry. It's just that it's rare to see someone so young involved with the kinda business that goes around here."

"How old do you think I am?" Lutecia feigned being angry at the woman.

"Seventeen, eighteen at most," Lidiane answered instantly.

Lutecia face palmed, then took a deep breath, "Look, I know that I'm baby faced, alright, but that doesn't mean that I'm a kid."

"So how old are you?"

"Twenty six."

"No way."

"Yes. Way. If you excuse me, I think I'll take a walk out of here."

"Oh, sorry if I offended you. That wasn't my intention. You have to be fair with me here. You do look young, too young to even be in a place like this without being a ..."

Lutecia looked at the woman before she finished her sentence. "I believe that it would be rude if you finish what you was saying."

"So what do you do for a living then?"

She went back to her cup and started to play with the olive. "Almost anything and everything. Right now I'm here to see if the rumors are true."

"Rumors? What kind of rumors?"

Lutecia felt like she was playing the reverse role that she should be playing. Usually she was the one asking the question with a nonchalant look on her face, while flirting with some man. "About the last shipment, and the goods that came with it."

"The snow?"

"Well, along those lines, yes, but actually it's more about what came with it."

"Oh, you mean the auction?" The purple haired girl's mind flickered at Lidiane's words. She knew she was getting something good, but she still had to act as though she was the one with the answers and not the other way around.

"Yes. The boss sent me because he still thinks it's a trap." Playing a role was something that Lutecia was used to. She just needed to make sure she was still playing the right role.

"I think your boss doesn't have to worry. The whole city knows about it already. I doubt that Hon would do something to damage the reputation he gained." A name, Lutecia had just received a name, but she still needed to confirm if it was really who she was looking for.

"Reputation, huh?" She took another sip in the drink, finishing it, and waved the empty cup to the barman. "I think the boss is worried because of that 'reputation' of his." Lutecia remembered the report about the group that overtook the Bergamini family and decided to play with it.

"You mean what happened last year?"

"Yes. The boss thinks that they could be using it as a way to get all the others together and kill them all at the same time." The Belkan summoner was babbling much like the men she flirted information off of before did with her.

"So he sent you to examine the goods, I assume?" The barman served another martini to the purple haired girl.

"Basically. And to make sure that the item really exists."

"And?" Lidiane got close to Lutecia, and she had to wonder if she was really interested in what she was talking about or if she was just trying to flirt information out of her.

"Ops. Sorry. I think we talked too much about work here." She frowned. "I have to go now." Lutecia wrapped her arms around the other woman's waist, so fast that made the older woman yelped in surprise. Getting close to her face, she touched her cheek with hers, with her mouth close to the other's ear. "I know that you won't talk about this with anyone, right?" Gripping more firmly onto her waist, she glued their bodies together, then leaned her upper body back and looked at the flustered face of the woman. "I'll come back another day so we can talk about something else that it isn't so stressful, okay?" She smiled, then reached for her purse and put two bills at the counter. As she was about to leave, she noticed that the woman was still frozen in the same way that she had left her, so she leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on her lips. "Don't worry, I'm not a bad girl." She left the place.

The woman kept looking at her back without so much as moving, and after she lost sight of the girl when she passed through the door, she put her hand to her lips, and smiled fondly.
---

The song in this chapter is 'Hokousha Tengoku' by Little Non, from the single of the anime Saki, "Bloomin'".

 

[Sniperk]

"I'm home," Nanoha said as soon as she entered the house.

"Welcome back." Fate echoed from the living room, before she appeared at the corridor. "How was your..." She trailed off as soon as she noticed that her wife was carrying an unconscious Sakura on her back. "Is she okay?" Fate stepped closer and noticed that the girl is snoring.

"Yes. Just tired. I'm amazed actually. She was the first person that could handle my special training menu, aside from you, Hayate-chan and her knights. Not even Subaru and the rest of the trainees at Riot 6 managed to handle that." Fate reached for the sleeping girl and lifted her from Nanoha's back.

"She's a hardworker. And she has a good mindset."

She climbed the stairs. After putting the girl in bed, she covered her with a blanket and stood there watching her sleeping for a few moments, smiling.

"Do you want me to get jealous?" Nanoha's voice reached her ears from the door.

"I'm just thinking about something. It's like we adopted another children."
Nanoha came closer and embraced her wife, resting her chin on Fate's shoulder. "Why do you think that?"

"She's just like you. Even Vivio thinks of her as a sister." Fate put her hands over Nanoha's.

"Like me? No way. Other than the color of her hair, I don't see any resemblance."

"Really?" Fate tilted her head to the side while turning it so she could face Nanoha. "Let's enumerate then. One, she's a hardworker. Two, she cares about her friend more than she cares about herself. Three, she treat her cards like they're part of her, much like you treat your students like they are your own offspring. Four, she's doing all she can just to save her friend, just like you did when you met me, or Vivio, or Hayate and her guardians. Five-"

"Ok. Ok. I got your point." At every compliment her wife gave, Nanoha's face got a bit redder and by the end of Fate's little speech she was completely red.

Fate turned to her and cupped Nanoha's cheek. "She's you all over again."
"Nyahaha." Nanoha gave a brief kiss on her wife's lips. "I'm gonna take a bath now."

"Alright. I'll prepare something light for you to eat."

"Thanks, Fate-chan."

---

She walked a few minutes after leaving the place before reaching an alley that was dark enough for her purposes. She double checked to see if anyone would see her and called her summoned beast. "Garyu," almost instantly the beast appeared from his hiding place in the shadows, "Take me to the top of this building."

The beast took the girl into his arms and started to jump, using the buildings that formed the alleyway as a support. Before a minute had passed they were already on top of a thirty story building. He let her down and she walked to the edge of the building, trying to see beyond the concrete jungle, to a neighborhood that would be more suitable for a person with money. From what she gathered on the streets, Hon lived in a mansion, where the internal area of the property could very well be mistaken for a park by someone unaware of it. After a few moments looking at the horizons, she found a spot in a neighborhood that seemed like what she was looking for. She again prepared her summon and chanted. A few moments later, a swarm of little insect-like creatures appeared around her. "Mission. Area survey." She raised her hand for the creatures and smiled gently. "Take care on the way."

She sat there, and waited, thinking about what she needed to do next. After a few minutes she felt her friends calling her, and turning to the shadow beast at her side, said, "Take me to them, please." The beast nodded and took her in its arms and jumped from building to building until they reached a small wooded area. After a few moments, the flying creatures came back and relayed what they knew about the area. Lutecia waited for all of them to come back, then started to walk in the direction of the place where the Inzects pointed her to. When she got to a wall, the creatures confirmed that it was the place. She created a mental link between her and her friends and issued another command. "Mission. Scatter about and be my eyes and ears." After a her little minions started to fly off, she hid in the shade of a tree and asked Garyu to cover her with its shadows.

---

"Man, there's so much people around town that it's almost impossible to track everyone down," the redhaired man sighed, leaning against a wall, near a window.

"Yeah. There's so many magical signatures around that I had to actually turn off Ana's tracking system yesterday at Sadi's." Chris was lying on a couch, at the big mansion.

"If the TSAB wanted to get to us, now would be great time."

"But they don't have the guts. Not after the last two we sent to them in those little packages." The little shivered. "The boss can be scary sometimes."

"I'll take that as a compliment." The white haired man was climbing down the stairs at that moment. When he got to the last step he turned to the woman that was accompanying him. "Get me a bourbon, would you?"

"As you wish." The woman turned and entered a side door.

"If we want the city to be in our hands, we need first to make the people trust in us," he said after sitting on an armchair next to where Chris was sitting.

They both looked at their boss. He was scary as hell in their mind. Even more for Chris, who hadn't known him for all that long. Reeve on the other hand was pratically raised by him, but he never was close to the business before, because his adoptive father was working with the TSAB at the time.

Yoru no sora ni matataku

"Huh?" The red haired perked up while Chris sat upright.

Tooi kin no hoshi

"It's the girl," the man said while the woman came into the room with a tray.

Yuube yume de miageta

"She seems fond of singing."

Kotori to onaji iro

"I see..." Chris said, still unsure as to how to react to that.

Nemurenu yoru ni

They listened to her for a few moments.

Hitori utau uta

Wataru kaze to issho ni

Omoi wo nosete tobu yo

"Beautiful voice, isn't it?"

Yoru no sora ni kagayaku

"Yeah, and powerful too, to reach down here from that room," Reeve noted.

Tooi gin no tsuki

"What I don't get it is why is she singing? She isn't in a situation to be singing. Is she nuts?" Chris was looking up the stairs from his sit.

Yuube yume de saite ita

"She said that these songs held memories with her precious one, or something like that. Romantic, isn't it?" Hon poured another glass of the beverage.

Nobara to onaji iro

Chris turned to his boss. "Putting this aside, how are gonna rip that Card off her to sell at the auction?"

Yasashii yoru ni

"I never said that we would rip it off. She's a side prize for the source." Hon smiled. "I just hope that where she goes, they don't destroy her voice. It would be a shame," He said, without actually showing any sign of being worried.

Hitori utau uta

"Hmm... Boss, there's something that I wanted to ask ever since you said that we would sell the source."

Asu wa kimi to utaou

"Go ahead, Reeve."

Yume no tsubasa ni notte

"Well, I don't understand why did you go to such lengths just to get something that you won't be even using."

Yasashii yoru ni

"Let me ask you two something. What did we get when we took over this town?"

Hitori utau uta

The redhaired and the small man glanced at each other, then Chris said. "Respect?"

"Power?" Reeve echoed.

Asu wa kimi to utaou

Hon smiled at both of them. "Money. A huge money-making machine. It's what this town really is."

Yume no tsubasa ni notte

The man took a sip of his beverage, then looked at his two minions. "That's what the source is all about. Money. How much do you think we're going to get with it?"

"No idea, but even then, isn't it dangerous to sell something that can be used against us in the future?" Chris asked, uneasy.

"No need to worry. The people to whom we are selling this to have bigger targets. They don't need the money. They want the world, or worlds."

"I see." Reeve frowned, but hid it by looking outside the window.

"How is the city? Have our guests arrived?"

"Yes. There's too many people running about in town. We don't have even a hope of tracking them all down." This time he didn't hide his frown.

"Don't worry. Don't worry. The more the merrier," Hon said, lifting his almost empty glass to his protegée.

"It's just that at least half of these people are enemies with some of the others. I'm surprised that there were no fights everywhere until now."

"Don't worry. Let them fight. As long as it doesn't affect us or the city, I couldn't care less."

Suddenly, Ana's and Kron's alarms went off.

"Magical Beast Detected, Honey. Type, Summoned Beast. Type of energy used, Belkan."

"Ranking estimate, A+ to AA. Distance 824 yards, Chief."

Chris jumped from the couch and got to the window, squinting his eyes to look into the night. "Protect the boss. I'll see what's happening out there. Ana, lock and load."

"Command recognized. Changing mode, Honey." Chris's clothes changed to his barrier jacket.

"Change it to combat mode too."

"Alright, Honey." Chris frowned.

"Boss, after this, can we have a little talk about Ana's programming?"

"Sure, sure. Whatever." Hon was talking more under the effect of the alcohol than from his mind. The woman stood by his side. Chris looked at her then at Reeve and then took off.

---

"Crap. Detected. Think fast, Lutecia." She couldn't run, because they would detect her, and couldn't teleport because they could probably track the traces of her teleportation. Then the idea came to her. "What I desire..." She summoned another beast. The second biggest that she had. "Jirayo!" She felt sorry for not chanting his summoning, but now she didn't have the time.

"Garyu, grab me in your arms and start to run. Jirayo, start to attack us. For real, with everything you've got. Try and kill us. We have to act as if we're really in battle."

The shadow creature started to run. Not long after that he made a hard turn to the side, avoiding a huge thunder strike that exploded at where they were. "Good." She looked at the distance. "Avoid the city, go to the beach." The creature nodded one more time before changing direction. She concentrated again. "You can all go back now. Thanks, guys," she said, talking to her little army of insects.

Another explosion, and they got to the beach.

---

"A second Magical Beast was detected, Honey. Type, Summoned Beast. Type of energy used, Belkan. Estimate ranking, A to A+."

"Huh?" Chris was starting to wonder if someone was having a summoning party.

"The two beasts are engaging in battle, Honey," Ana's metallic voice announced as he saw a explosion little ways from where he was.

"That's even weirder." After a few moments he was flying above the battle.

"Reeve, is the boss ok?"

"Yes. A little drunk, but ok. Why?"

"There's two creatures here, not only one. They're engaged in battle, or rather, a big beetle-like thunder beast is attacking the first one we detected, a Shadow Warrior. This one is holding something or someone, and running from the first one."

"Okay. Just a moment. I'll see what the Boss says." After a few seconds, "Is it attacking with full power, or is it seem like a diversion?"
"I can't tell from here." He turned to his staff. "Ana, examine the attack pattern and calculate the level of engagement of the battle."

"Attacks registered as being the full potential from the beast, Honey."

"Apparently, it's for real. What do I do? Do I engage them?"

"Just a sec." Again a moment of silence before Reeve answered. "What direction are they going?"

"I'm already over the beach. Wait. The shadow creature just entered a cave that's too small for the big one to enter. It's hovering around the entrance. Wait. It's using an attack to create a landslide at the entrance of the cave."

"Just watch for now. If they turn to the city, then intervene, for now, just be on guard, and relay the play-by-play."

"Alright. But there's not much more to say. The beetle creature just created the landslide and apparently caved in the entire cavern."

"Signs of life?"

"Ana, scan the cavern area for life signs."

"No signs of life inside the cave, Honey. The magical beast presence disappeared, too."

"No activity from the cave and no signs of life. Wait. The big one just disappeared in a Belkan magic circle. Seems like it was summoned back."

"Install a sensor near the cave, Chris."

"Ana, life, activity and magical sensor. Prepare to install."

"Prepared, Honey."

Chris pointed his staff to the rubble of the cave. "Install."

A small ball fired from the device and stuck itself onto one of the rocks. "Receiving readings, Honey. Activity normal. Sensor working well."

"I'm going back."

"Okay."

---

She was in the middle of the desert. She walked near the road almost all afternoon. That had been a risky move for her to do, asking Jirayo to create a cave in to cover the tracks of her teleportation with his magical signature. Good thing it worked in the end. Now she was far enough from the city, but her transport would still take at least four more hours before getting there. The information that she had needed to be relay sooner than that, so she started to chant a proper teleportation spell, one that would take her directly to Clanagan. Unfortunately, she still didn't have good control teleporting over great distances like this one, but she figured that if she teleported a few miles before the town, she could get the rest of the way more easily. The only problem was that each teleportation would drain her of a lot of magical energy, and she would need to be in a rest center for at least a week after that little stunt, but she had not other choice.
When the first jump was made she managed to get the city in sight, but the Belkan Summoner almost fainted as soon as her feet landed on the ground. She droped to her knees, refusing to let her vision fade. She was panting and looking at the ground when she started to recite her mantra.
"We do our job in silence to make the other do theirs with a bang," she said, almost out of breath.

The mantra Miranda taught her.

"We kill so that they can save the lives of the ones that deserve to live," she panted again.

The ideal of how things should be.

"They are the heroes, and we are their guardians." She knelt, forcing herself to stand.

The reason she existed.

"They are the light that create the shadow." She looked up into the starry sky.

The reason that she let go of her life in Mau Gram.

"A Shadow's job is to make the light shine even brighter." She closed her eyes and felt the wind fluttering her purple hair.

The life she'd sworn to dedicate to those that she'd made miserable when she was under Scaglietti's influence.

"That's why we'll always be tarnished with the shadows." She forced herself to stand, supporting her hands on her knees so they wouldn't bend again.

The comprehension of how the world really worked.

"We are the ones the ones that will suffer, so they don't need to." She stood upright, with her head still down.

The selflessness needed to do such a thing.

"We will never exist. A Shadow doesn't exist. A Shadow is a mere projection of the light." She lifted her head and opened her arms, viewing the place where she needed to leap next.

The need to finish their mission as soon as possible.

"We will never exist. But with out help, the light will shine today more brighter than the day before." She disappeared from that place, and was in front of her superior a moment later.

---

"Sorry. This case is taking its toll on me too, but I can't leave it alone for a second. Every moment can be crucial."

"Alright, I'll not ask anything from you anymore, for now," his wife said from the other end of the call.

"Thanks."

"Just promise one thing."

"Anything," he said, forcing a smile. He knew what Amy was about to say.

"After this case is over, I don't care if the world is ending. You're going to take a vacation."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Not see. You will." At this, she cut the call.

"Oh, boy." He sank in his chair. He was reviewing for the nth time everything that was in the reports from the Saint Church and from Sakura's training. Every bit and byte of information was crucial. In that moment he felt the energy of an incoming teleportation. Few people could manage a teleportation without the Admiral sensing it before it finished, so he reached for his device and waited. A few moments later, his subordinate appeared before him.

"Alphine reporting, Sir," was the last thing she said before stumbling back to the ground, trying to catch her breath.

"I need an medical team to treat a case of energy wear out in my office immediately" The raven haired man reached for the girl lying on the floor, lifting her up and sitting her on the couch. He wanted to know why the heck his subordinate got there so suddenly, and more than seven hours before her mission was over, in this state. Looking at the girl, if she said that she had teleported all the way from the Central to MidChilda by her own powers he wouldn't be surprised.

"I... need to make my... report immediatly, Sir." She was almost fainting.

"First, breathe. Then stay still and awake. The medical team will treat you in a few moments."

"Okay." Lutecia stayed there, feeling like her body was trying to rip off her soul from it until the nurse came and gave her an injection that almost instantly made her head pang with the sudden burst of energy coursing trough her. "Waaaaaahhhh..."

"Calm down. Calm down. It was just a light energy boost, to make your Linker Core more stable. I'll go get an stretcher," the nurse said as she walked out of the room.

When the nurse lef of the office, she looked at her superior and held her head. "Sir, I need to pass on this information now, else I'll pass out without telling you anything."

Chrono frowned. "You've got two minutes to tell me, so be quick."
Lutecia then relayed to him what she could manage in those conditions, about the auction, about the girl, about the city and even about the girl singing, before she finally fainted in his arms.

"Good job. You earned a well deserved rest," he said as the nurses came back with the stretcher and took her to the medical center.

---
The music this time is 'Yoru no uta' from Card Captor Sakura.

 

[Sniperk]

How much time has passed since she'd been locked in that room? She didn't know. Everyday was exactly like the one before that and the one before that. Morning would come, that woman would bring her some food, she would ask questions about where she was, the woman wouldn't respond. Noon and night it repeated. The same woman would bring her lunch and dinner. The long haired girl would spend her whole day talking with the fairies. They said that Sakura was near. They could feel the cardmistress, but they were not allowed by the bond created by her to leave Tomoyo's side. They would be always near her, comforting her, listening to her. Tomoyo had long given up in trying to ask them to go to where Sakura was. It wasn't that they wouldn't, they just couldn't. But one thought still permeated her. Her friend came to where she was. She was near, even though she couldn't tell how near, she too felt the cardmistress. She was too happy to take notice that she was a hostage anymore. She didn't care. Her mind was filled with how Sakura would save her. She played those images in her head over and over, imagining the cardmistress exploding a wall near her, calling her name. Or Sakura flying in through the window, or taking the door down in magic blast. Those images played over and over, and to her now, her situation wasn't that of a captive anymore. She was like the princess that would be rescued by her charming prince, like in the fairy tales. She picked up singing again, one of the things that she deemed too painful in the past years to do, because everytime she sang, she would sing with all the emotions she had in her heart, and her heart was almost completely filled with love for the green eyed girl. But now, her songs had a meaning. They soothed her, they calmed her, and most of all, they would express all her feelings for the girl that, until a month ago, she didn't want to love so much as she did.

---

"So this is the situation till the moment," Chrono finished telling the news to the sequence of screens on the top of his desk. Hayate, Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno, Carim and, even if he didn't want the girl to know yet, Sakura was one of them too.

"Where is this place?" Sakura asked, trying to get up from her chair, being forced to sit again by Nanoha.

"Wait, Sakura-chan. There's probably too many people there." Turning to the monitor, she asked, "Hayate-chan, how's the scans of the city area? Did you guys pinpointed the place where Tomoyo-chan is being held?"

"No." Hayate frowned. "The whole city is being hidden by a type of gap." She touched a few strokes and a picture of a white haired man appeared in the monitor. "I believe he's the reason."

"Is this that Hon guy?" The cardmistress was torn between forcing herself out of Nanoha's grip and staying to listen to what these people were saying.

"Yes." The General continued, "Hon Ittsu. Age 53. Worked for the TSAB for twenty five years. According to his record, he was part of the team that created the IA concept for the devices that we use today. He was an expert with magical signatures. He was the one that developed the first sensors that were compatible with the Devices, and was part of the team that came up with the idea of infusing personality traits in the Devices to transform them into companions for the mages, not just tools for battle." She took a moment to breathe. "About eleven years ago, he was discharged from the TSAB Engineering Departments. Apparently he was suspected to be the one that sold the secrets of the devices' technology to the mafia, but since nothing was ever proven, he was just discharged."

"Is he a mage too?" Yuuno asked.

"A C ranked one, that is to say, almost a normal person, but because his expertizes in recognition and survey, he was often used in missions accompanied by normal mages. He was once used in a mission in Non-Administrative Planet 97 too, but I believe it would be unrelated to this case, since it was more than twenty years ago."

After another pause Chrono asked, "And how is this related with our current inability to scan the Hell City?"

"He probably created something to counter our sensors. It isn't actually all that difficult," Yuuno said. "The concept is pretty simple, but the problem is having the equipment to build it."

"So what do we do now?" Carim was the one asking this time.

Hayate leaned back in the chair. "From what I can see, we have three options. First, all out attack with full power to the city itself. Second, infiltration in the auction. Three, wait for the auction to end and catch the buyer. But I'm open for ideas."

"Do we have manpower for an all out attack?" Nanoha asked.

"Unfortunately, at the moment no. We have too many ships in long distance missions," Chrono informed.

"Wait. What is our primary objective in this mission?" Fate argued.

"Find the girl, Tomoyo, and take her and the source out of the hands of the group that is holding her captive." Hayate answered.

"Then we don't need a whole city layout. Just the location of the mansion, am I right?"

"Yes." Hayate was almost guessing what her friend would suggest.

"Then can't we take the agents that uncovered this information with us, directly to the place?"

"No, we can't." Chrono frowned and then sighed. "The agent is in an induced comatose state for draining too much energy from her Linker Core in the teleportations back to the base. It'll take days to weeks before she's is capable of any activity."

"Oh."

"Sakura-chan, can't you ask your cards for a premonition to where the house is?" Carim suggested.

"I am using Dream every night." Sakura flushed at this, remembering the dreams she was having every night.

"What she meant was that Dream and Sleep were the last cards she used in every training session, since it took eight hours of deep sleep for each usage. After she used them, I would take her home every night. Since it wasn't used so much, Dream's one of the few cards that isn't yet used to the normal level," Nanoha explained.

"And Dream is acting strange. It doesn't show images of the future. Just past memories I have with Tomoyo," Sakura added.

A few moments of silence between them, then Fate spoke again. "Yuuno, is possible to track down the source from a close range?"

"I believe it's possible. Why?" the librarian answered.

The idea formed inside Fate's mind. "How about this. We gather a special unit, with only mages triple A ranked and above, and create a diversion in the city. Meanwhile another unit would enter from a different place, the sea, I believe would be best for this, and track down the source."

"I think we don't have that many people available. I can count just about a handful of people that would fit your description and that are on Mid right now." Chrono started to count. "You, Nanoha, Hayate, Vita in unison with Reinforce, Signum in unison with Agito."

Nanoha looked at Fate, then turned to Hayate. "I think it's enough." She grinned.

"But then who would be in the second unit?"

"It won't need to be at full power like the main one, since Sakura-chan already proved that she can handle her own against the two that took her friend, she and two or three more can make a unit. She would be the main attacker, so a wing guard, a full back and a center."

"The best wing guard and full back on the planet right now on the planet would be Erio and Caro," Hayate mused. "And they already work together, so they're partnership is already proven, and Caro is apt with detection magic. We only need a center. Teana maybe?"

"Teana left on mission two days ago," Fate informed.

"Take Vivio," Nanoha suggested, to everyone's surprised

"Vi-Vivio?" half the people on the screens said almost in unison. They weren't surprised by the name of the girl coming up, since it was known that the younger Takamachi was indeed powerful. The surprise came from Nanoha putting her name on the table.
"She received training in school, already is a Third Class Private, is a ranged mage, and in Sankt Kaiser mode, she has the firepower to pull it off. Since Caro is going, we can switch the command to her, and not worry about Vivio's inexperience in real battles."

"Na-Nanoha..." Fate stammered "Vivio is still too young. She's just reached her teens."

"And how old were we when we started doing this kind of thing?"

"But you remember what happened to you that day."

"That's why I trust her. She isn't like me. And with Caro and Erio there, she'll be alright." Nanoha smiled. "After all, she wasn't training with me all her life for nothing."

"Are you sure? Wasn't you that said that she shouldn't be picking fights?" Fate asked mentally to her.

"Nyahaha. She isn't picking a fight this time. In this situation we have to go with what we have, and she's one of the more capables mid to long range shooters we have available. Even if the mother in me doesn't want to involve her in this."

Fate closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair.

"Is everyone okay to go with this?" Hayate asked.

"It's not like we have time to plan more," Chrono said. "Very well. Contact every one of them. Yuuno, how much time do you think it'll take to get here?"

"If I have authorization for a leap, five seconds." The librarian grinned.

"Consider yourself authorized." Hayate then turned to her floating device. "Rein, contact Signum, Vita, Agito, Caro, Erio and Vivio. Everyone is to assemble at the briefing room in an hour." She turned to the screens again. "I'll call Shamal and Zafira too. See you all in an hour."

There were nods and understanding sounds coming from all the screens before every one of them closed.

---

"We'll be splitting into three teams," Hayate started after the briefing of the situation was finished. "Vanguard, infiltration and backup. Vanguard will be me, Vita, Fate-chan, Nanoha-chan and Signum. Signum and Vita will be in unison with Agito and Rein. We'll enter the city in the flashiest way we can. We need to gather as much attention to us as we can. Meanwhile the infiltration, Caro, Erio, Vivio and Sakura-chan, will enter the city from another point. This team will be in charge of pinpointing and rescuing Sakura-chan's friend along with the source. The backup team, Shamal, Zafira and Yuuno, will be in charge of getting us near there and out once the mission is over, and it'll be our communication link with the control room. Zafira will be the guardian of the backup team. I want to remind you all that we don't know how many people are in the city, be it innocent or criminal, so proceed with caution. Remember, our mission isn't to take down the criminal factions that are in the city. This is a search and recovery mission. As soon as this objective is achieved, I want every one out of there, no exceptions."

"Also, don't forget that Hell City is in a complete communication black out, that is to say, you can't rely on your devices to communicate with the Control Room directly. Every contact will need to be relayed through Shamal and Yuuno."

"The Control of this mission will be with Chrono. Is everything clear?" Hayate asked after the brief in the mission was complete. When no one made mention to say anything, she said, "We're departing immediately then."

---

"Yuuno, you take them to the sea shore, on the other side of the city. Not too close, but still in its sights. As soon as I give the signal, understood?"

"Okie dokie, General."

"Shamal," Hayate continued, "you remain here and relay all information to the control room. Zafira, guard them."

"Very well, Hayate-chan," the blonde answered.

"Understood," the Wolf guardian echoed.

"Everything ready, guys?" After a few nods and words of understanding, "Then let's go."

They all took off full speed in the direction of the city. They were expecting some kind of artillery being triggered against them as soon as they got in range, but that didn't happen. A few minutes later and they were all hovering above the city, in what seemed to be the downtown area.

"Look for a place spacious enough for us to start." A smirk played in the General face as she said the last word.

"There. A park." Fate answered after a few seconds.

"Good enough for me." They all went to the place and landed there, back to back with the others forming a semicircle. "Well, I hope we don't need to fight, but... Everyone, set Devices to track every source of magical power that can be considered a threat."

"Roger," the other almost instantly answered, as they talked to their Devices.

After they landed there, nothing happened for a few minutes. No Device triggered in the vicinity. The women were starting to get restless, and Fate was starting to wonder if this was really a good idea. When she was about to suggest that they should split up, the Devices started to report, one after the other.

"Seven devices triggered," Raging Heart started, followed by the others.

"Number of triggered Devices increasing, Hayate-chan." Rein, in unison with Vita, informed. "Total of 44 and counting."

"Alright. Seems like it worked. Let's take this guys down. Just remember, try to take them down directly, or lure them away from the city. We don't want to hurt innocent people." Then she relayed to Shamal, "Code green. Send the Infiltration team."

---

"Not yet?" Vivio was more nervous than she thought she'd be. This wasn't her first mission. Since she was ten, Hayate had used her several times, but this time was the first that her mothers would be participating in the same mission.

"Calm down, Vivio." Caro patted her head. "You're the pillar of this team. You have to get yourself together, okay? Look, not even Sakura-chan, who has everything waged in this mission is so nervous." Vivio glanced at the cardmistress. She indeed didn't seem nervous. She was holding her deck near her forehead, eyes closed.

"Summon Friedlich, Caro-san," Shamal said after Clearvind's sensors started to pick up signals from the city. "I think Hayate-chan will give the signal shortly." Caro immediately called her dragon and climbed on his back, followed by Erio. Less than a minute later, the Lady of the Lakes informed, "Yuuno-kun, now."

"I hope you guys are ready for this," the librarian said. "Remember, you'll be teleported in midair," he added, and ended his chant while saying this.
After a few moments, the four of them were gone, and only the trio remained there.

"I'll raise a shield here, just in case," the librarian decided.

---

"FLY!" the cardmistress called as soon as she felt that her legs weren't supporting her weight anymore.

"Let's go. We have to find the source as soon as we can," Caro said to the other three, as they all nodded.

A few minutes later they were near enough to the city for Caro to start scanning the area. Anyone that seemed to have magical powers were in the direction of the TSAB Aces on the other side of the town. If her little group was lucky enough, they wouldn't need to pass by them to get to the source. They landed on a beach that was most likely abandoned a few moments before they arrived, seeing that there were a lot of itens left behind in the sand.

"Huh?" Sakura started to look in a direction contrary to where Hayate and the others were.

"I'm picking up a faint sign-" Caro started, but was cut off by the cardmistress.

"I can feel her."

"Huh?" Caro looked at the green eyed girl a moment before scanning the area she was looking at.

"The signal is coming from there. Let's go."

Before she had even finished her sentence Sakura and Vivio had already took off.

"I can feel her. We're getting near."

A little behind the two, Caro and Erio rode the dragon, watching as they got closer to a residential area, with various mansions and big properties.

---

"What the hell is happening there?" the white haired man yelled at his cohorts.

"The information we have so far is that four or five TSAB's aerial mages entered town and are in a stand off in the middle of the Great Lake Park," the woman behind him answered. "They're just there, not moving, as if waiting for something."

"At this point there isn't much for we to speculate," Chris finished.

"They intend to fight every single mage in the city? They wouldn't be so stupid to do that," Reeve said as soon as his barrier jacket was summoned.

"Maybe they are a forward team, and the rest of the TSAB is going to invade town after they start to fight," Chris said while looking at the windows.

"Raise the house's defenses. Send everyone available to the courtyard," Hon yelled at his secretary. "You two go get the girl and let's get out of here."

Immediately, the two men ran inside the house.

"Five magical beings detected, Chief," Kron stated. "One aerial mage, two ground mages, one summoned beast and the fifth has the same pattern as the source."

"What?" The redhaired man didn't know what to do for a moment. He was still battling with himself when Chris dashed past him.

"The source is being taken away from the house," Ana informed.

"Shit." Chris was already seeing what must have happened before he entered the corridor to the door of the 'guest room'.

When the duo got there, they noticed the guards on the door were down, and a redhaired young man was holding a spear in their direction.

"Who are you?" Reeve asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"We're here to take something back that doesn't belong to you lot," the young man said. "As long as you don't resist, you won't end like these men here," he added, nodding his head to the guards lying on the floor.

"Damnit." Chris cursed mentally. "Estimate rank level?" He asked Reeve.

"AA. But he isn't an aerial mage." Reeve answered.

"Big deal. If you didn't fuckin' notice, we're fuckin' indoors, idiot."

"What I meant, shrimp, was that if he isn't an aerial mage, then the aerial mage must already have gotten the girl."

"Damnit. Damnit all." Chris breathed deeply once to calm himself down. "Look, kid. If you don't wanna get hurt, then get out of our way."

The young boy smirked, almost at the same time a huge explosion came from the room. "I think I'm not the one who will get hurt," He said as the duo raised their shields to cover themselves.

"What the...?" Reeve pointed his staff to the place where the young boy was.

"Stay down," the boy said, pinning Reeve to a nearby wall, after piercing his shields so fast that even Kron's auto-shields didn't managed to reform themselves in time.

"Why, you little..." Chris turned to the boy that was on his back now. When he was about to fire a shot at him another explosion destroyed the wall at his side, taking him with the debris into another room.

"I said that we're not the ones that would get hurt, didn't I?" The boy appeared from in the opening, taking Reeve in his shoulder, with a seal binding his companion.
"Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit." Chris started cursing as he got up, unsteadily. "Reeve, are you okay?" No answer. "Damnit, these binds are strong. I can't even communicate with him."

"Don't worry, you'll accompany us." A pink haired girl riding a dragon appeared hovering outside the house, through the destroyed wall, with the raven haired ex-hostage at her back. "Just be glad that we managed to convince Sakura-san to take care of the courtyard. Otherwise you two wouldreally be inra world of pain." She smirked. Chris got to his feet, and was wondering what should he do when the girl spoke again. "Surrender now, or you'll end up like your friend. You can come with us at your own will, or we'll use force."

"And do you think you can take me down, just like that?" Chris smirked. He still had one trump card. "You just got me because I was careless. That's all." And his trump card was, of course, to bluff. "Ana, release limiter."
"Command recognized. Changing mode, Honey," Ana said. A second later all that was left of Chris in the room was the place where he landed with the debris. He used Ana to create a bright glow to blind the boy and the girl that were in his line of vision, at the same time that he took off through the window outside.

"Helga. They got the girl and Reeve. I can't go against them alone. Ask the Boss, what should I do?" he asked mentally while trying to get altitude, when a multicolored beam, shot from outside his line of vision, nailed him in the back, shattered his shields, and sent him to the ground. He took a moment to verify if his bones were still intact before he looked to where the beam came. A blonde little girl was hovering, pointing her staff in his direction.

"I believe we said that we would use force," the pink haired one said as her dragon landed a few feet away from him. "Now be a good man for once and stay quiet." She finished as she bound him with a seal.

He took a moment to look around the courtyard and saw that it seemed more like a warzone.

Then he saw the image that would haunt his nightmares for months. The brown short haired girl that he had fought on the other planet, the one that almost killed them, stood alone in the middle of debris and people that were part of his boss's defense unit. She looked at him, and he could swear that she was fighting with herself not to get on top of him and start firing at point blank. He got so scared of the mental image that he had to close his eyes. When he opened them again, it seemed like it was really going to happen, as the girl was walking in his direction. He looked at her companions, waiting for them to stop her, but they didn't move. He looked again at the girl and she was already only inches away from him. He could see the anger in her eyes. Fear took over him when she raised her staff and pointed in his direction, effectively brushing his barrier jacket aside in the process. She took a card from a holster.

"SLEEP!" The girl called and he was out, completely asleep, not noticing sighs of relief coming from the others that were around.

---

"With this, I think we can go back now," Caro said as she positioned the two men they had just captured in the back of Friedlich.

"Call Yuuno, and pass the coordinates. Let's get out of here," Erio said, still looking around to see if some of the men in the ground would get up. It took some time to convince Sakura to not attack the house herself. She was the most suitable to take care of the people around the house, and if she had attacked the house, she probably would've ended up killing the ones that kidnapped her friend.

"Someone called?" Yuuno was already beside the redhaired boy, which took him by surprise, and he almost knocked off the head of the librarian in reflex. It just didn't happen because Yuuno transformed into a ferret in that instant. "Hey, calm down." Then he changed back into his human form, and steadied himself. Erio was still eyeing him when he gulped and looked at the others. "So, who need a ri..." He trailed off finally noticing the amount of people lying in the ground. "I don't even want to know what happened here." He then looked at the group around again. "I can't take you all in one leap."

"Take them first." Sakura said. From the moment the cardmistress put the short man to sleep, she rushed to her raven haired friend and was hugging her till that moment, crying in joy. "Then you can come back and get me."

"I'll stay too." Vivio said. "Sakura-nee alone can't protect her friend. Not here at least." Sakura felt a pang in her chest at the little girl's words, but she didn't had the courage to say anything back.

"Alright. Get ready people." Yuuno started to chant. "I'll be right back."
In the moment that he finished the teleportation chant a beam came from behind him. They disappeared in the instant that beam was about to reach them, but now it was going directly to the trio. Sakura reached for her cards, but before she could call any of them a multicolored shield had already formed in front of them, deflecting the attack.

"The girl stays," A white haired old man said while being carried by a woman who was floating in the direction from where the beam was sent. She landed and put him on the ground, before getting up again. She was wearing what it seemed to be a standard barrier jacket from the TSAB's Air Forces, only the color was brown instead of purple. Her black hair was at the height of her shoulders. "She is my golden pot at end of the rainbow."

"Not quite." Vivio got in front of the duo. "The only thing you two will get is a one way ticket for the TSAB's penal colonies."

"Vivio-chan." Sakura let go of her friend. "Take care of Tomoyo-chan. Leave those two to me." Vivio was about to protest when she looked at the cardmistress determined face. "I'll take care of them myself. Okay?"

"Yeah." Vivio didn't know if what she felt was fear or compassion when she locked with Sakura's eyes.

"Don't worry. Sakura-chan is invincible," Tomoyo said behind the heterochromatic eyed girl. "She'll take care of them."
Vivio wondered if she should bring up the fact that the blue-eyed girl was in this situation because of Sakura, but accepted her words. She then put the raven haired girl on her back and raised her shields.

"I believe that you don't intend to surrender peacefully." Sakura eyed the woman on the other side of the courtyard.

"Surrender? Why? You don't have a chance of defeating Helga," the man said, taking a sit beside a tree. "Make it fast, Helga. We don't want to get stuck here when the other TSAB's mages arrive."

"Very well." She lifted her staff in the direction of Sakura. "Brink Destruction." A flash of blue energy formed and fired almost instantly from her staff.

Sakura didn't move at all, as the attack was getting closer. In the last instant, without reaching for her cards, the cardmistress called. "SHIELD!" A sphererical transparent ball of energy surrounded her. She still didn't move, even after the shot hit the shield. The woman took flight and was aiming another attack when Sakura looked up. "FLY! DASH!" An instant later she was behind the blackhaired woman. "WATERY!" The sprite came out of her card, and collided against the woman's shield, shattering the first two layers, sending her back a few yards.

"She has indeed a large variety of spells, as Chris and Reeve said," the woman thought. "And what's worse, she can switch between them too fast to raise a specific shield against each of them, in that case..." She looked at Hon in the ground, and he nodded. She flew back to open more space between her and the cardmistress. "Activating Magilink Mode. Activating Protection Field. Activating AMF."

Immediately a pulse of energy flowed from her and engulfed the whole area. Vivio's shield disapeared in the same instant. She gulped and then reformed it, but she noticed that she needed to use almost all her powers just to keep the shield up. "AMF. I learned about this, but didn't think it would be so hard to act inside this field in a real battle."

"You're making a mistake there, little missy," Hon said from his spot. "This isn't just a AMF. It's a draining field. Every magical being in the area will have his powers drained to Helga. She can use this as a way to feed her spells." He started to laugh. "The more power you put into using your spells, the more powerful her counter will be."

Vivio gritted her teeth, then looked up, and widened her eyes. She looked at the man again. "Are you sure?"

"Huh?" The man looked up as he saw Sakura still hovering near Helga. "How can this be?"

"Simple." Yuuno appeared behind him, with Caro, who started to bind the white haired man. "She doesn't use any type of energy that you had time to research. If this device of yours really is what I think it is, then it'll have no effect on her." He knelt beside him. "She draws energy from the planet itself, not from her Linker Core."

As the librarian was finishing saying this, Sakura called, "FIERY!" The flames engulfed the woman hovering, melting her shields faster than she could raise them again. She started to scream in horror. The cardmistress then called another card. "SWORD!" She floated, slowly getting closer to the woman. When the flames subsided Helga saw Sakura's sword pointed directly at her throat. A few more inches and she would be stabbed. "Surrender, or I'll make you feel all the pain and sorrow you people made me and Tomoyo-chan feel."

The woman looked at her staff, the equipments she used to call her field were completely destroyed. She then looked at the old man being sealed, and admitted defeat.

Hon looked at the woman floating back to the ground still with the girl's sword pointed at her and at the pink haired one that had done this to them and started to seal his secretary. He then reached for his pocket and pressed a button in a device he kept there.

Vivio released her shield and started to walk in the direction where Caro was, while pulling Tomoyo by the hand.

Hon activated his mechanism, and instantly the binds that were around him disappeared. "If I can't have the source, no one will," he said as he reached for behind his shirt, pulling out a pistol, a non magical one. He pointed to Tomoyo and pulled the trigger. Everyone starrted as the loud shot came from the direction where he was.

A body lay in the ground moments later. A blonde haired little girl.
---

 

[Sniperk]

The car parked in front of a western styled house.

"So this the place."

"Yes, Master," answered the driver. "It's the address that your mother sent you."

"Thanks," was the answer heard by the driver. "I'll go alone from here."

"I'll be waiting here for your return."

"Don't. I don't know how much time I'll be there. I'll contact you as soon as I arrive back in the city."

"Very well. Have a safe trip."

Two feet entered the courtyard, walking in the direction of the house. Before the door could be knocked, it opened revealing two girls, in frilly dresses.

"Welcome to our shop. What can we do for you?"

"I have a wish."

"You must have one, if you was able to find this shop," answered a voice from inside the house.

"So you are the one that can help me?" said the brown haired one to the tall woman that walked in and stood in front of him.

"It all depends on what your wish is, and if you're willing to pay the price for it."

"I want to know where Sakura is, and I want to go there to help her."

"The one you speak of is in another world. The price will be high."

"What is the price?"

"To grant you your wish, I need you to pay something of equal value to you."

"How much? I'll pay as much as you want."

"I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about something important to 'you'."

"Something important to me?"

"Yes. That will be your price."

---

"They're already in possession of the source, and captured the mages that kidnapped Sakura-san's friend," Shamal communicated to the people in the city.

"Are they all they out of the city already?" Hayate asked.

"No. Yuuno is going back there to pick up Sakura-san, Vivio and the other girl."

"Okay." Then she said to the others that were scattered around her, "Fall back and regroup. Shamal will pick us up in a few moments."

After they all got together, they could see it in the eyes of all those people, thinking that they had forced them into a corner, and Hayate couldn't help but to smile to herself. When some of them dashed to attack them, the teleportation kicked in and they were out of the city in a few moments.

"Did you see the look on their faces?" Nanoha started as soon as they were in the meeting point, almost laughing. There were indeed a lot of people there, but she didn't doubt that if left there, they could have overpowered all of them.

"Yeah. Did everything go along with the plan?" Fate asked as soon as she surveyed her surroundings, and seeing just Erio with her. "Some people of the other team aren't here." And after looking again. "And Yuuno isn't here too."

"Yuuno-san had to teleport immediately. One of the infiltration team got injured. Nothing serious. I already treated her here. She just need a little rest and a few more exams, so I asked him to take her there," Shamal said, trying her hardest not to mention the name of the injured one. It wasn't really serious, but she didn't want to be the one to break the news, even thought she would be anyway, but at the moment, her priority was getting everyone out of there.

"Who got injured?" Was the inevitable question that came to Hayate, but she asked mentally to the blonde, since she noticed that Vivio wasn't there and the only male of that team was.

"It was her. But wait until we get back to Clanagan. Otherwise, I think Nanoha-san is going to beat him to a pulp right here," she said, nodding her head to an unconcious and already pretty badly beated up man on the ground. "I mean, more than he already is."

"I-I see."

"Very well, people. Get together. We're going back. Shamal-san, let's start," the Librarian said as soon as he materialized, not waiting for anyone to question anything.

"Where's Vivio?" Nanoha asked as soon as the teleport was completed.

"In the Medical Center," Yuuno answered after he saw the others weren't willing to do it. "She okay. Just a minor injury"

"How bad?"

"Not bad at all. The bullet passed clean through her shoulder and left through the other side. She'll need to wear a sling for a few weeks, though."

"SHE GOT SHOT?" About this time everyone around was already either slinking away or bracing themselves. Nanoha's voice was a mix of anger, fury and worry.

"He said that she's already okay." Fate's voice came to her ears, as the blonde embraced her. "She's really okay, right?" She asked telepathically to the others. Despite the way she was acting to make her wife feel better, she was also worried sick over what had happened.

"Yes. She's okay. It's just as I said."

"How did this happen?" Nanoha asked again, struggling to calm herself down.

"It will be all explained at the debriefing," Hayate said, trying to put an end to the matter as quickly as she could.

"I want to see her."

"She's asleep with a sedative right now, so it's better if you just leave her for the moment." Yuuno tried to coerce his childhood friend, but knew it was to no avail, since she wouldn't stop worrying before she saw her daughter.

"Wich room is she in?" Nanoha asked while taking off in the direction of the Medical Center, not even caring about the rules.

Yuuno sighed. "707."

During this, Signum and Vita were handing the people they arrested over to the Officers that gathered around, having the whole situation being already explained to them through Shamal. They knew it was better to act as if it was a normal occurence, and in fact it was. People normally got hurt during missions, and someone in need of medical attention after one of them wasn't exactly new. The only real difference was that this one happened to be the Ace of Aces' only daughter.

---

She woke up to a white ceiling that she didn't recognize. Looking around, her hazy mind took in her surroundings during a few moments before the information sunk in. She was in a hospital bed; the images of the battle came to her in a instant. The sparkling that got her attention. Her momvements to get in the line of fire, tackling the older girl to the side. Her shield that wasn't raised in time. The loud thud. The pain in her shoulder. The cries of her companions. The image of her uncle Yuuno holding her. Everything after that was a blurr. The pain was too much.
She raised her right hand to her left shoulder, and felt the fabric of gauze. She pressed her finger against it just a little to feel the slight pain in her shoulder. She tried to move her left hand, but realized that it was tied firmly against her stomach, in a sling that constrained all the movements. She moved her fingers, and realized that she could at least manage that.

"Finally awake, Sleeping Beauty?"

The voice came through her at once and she shot up, regreting almost immediately as the ache in her body protested against the sudden movement. She winced and let her body fall back again.

"Hey, don't move so suddenly. You might hurt yourself more." She looked in the direction the voice was coming. Soft footsteps coming closer. Heterochromatic eyes tried to glance over the covers.

"Feels like I've bungee jumped into hell and was pushed back by the recoil of the rope," she said to the owner of the voice. "How much time has passed?"

"A few hours." The pink haired girl appeared in her line of vision. "To be honest, it's been almost a day. They sure used a strong dose on you."

"I would want one more of those. This feeling isn't as painful as is annoying," Vivio stated after a few moments. "It's not like it hurts, just that it feels itchy inside my shoulder."

Caro smiled, then sat on the side of her bed, and caressed the girl's hair. "You better get ready. Nanoha-san is gonna eat you alive when you go back home."

Vivio gulped hard. "I hope that Fate-mama is still there, at least."

"There where?" Another voice came into the room. Caro turned to the door instinctively, but Vivio got another sharp sting in her shoulder as her body tried too.

"Fate-san." The MidChildan Summoner got up from the bed and looked at her guardian, bowing slightly.

"You don't need to worry about Nanoha, Vivio," the blonde said, walking towards the bed. "The shock already passed. I'm a little disappointed that you got hurt, but that it's something that we all should be prepared when dispatch in mission," she finished, holding her daughter's free hand.

"So I won't be be scolded?"

"I didn't say that. Knowing Nanoha, she'll find something to say, but to be honest, I think that deep down she's actually proud of you."

After that Vivio continued to ask about what had happened earlier that day, getting to know the end of the tale she'd participated in.

---

The last few hours had been a flood of revelations for the raven haired girl. Sakura had come to this strange, yet familiar world to rescue her from those people. They were on the roof of the HQ of the TSAB's ground forces, talking about what had happened in the last few days.

"I can't believe that you lied to your father," she said, almost surprised.

"I don't like it, either. When I get back, I think I'll be grounded until I turn twenty."

"Your father wouldn't do that to you. I'm sure that if..." She trailed off, remembering that the cardmistress couldn't exactly tell the truth to her father.

"Let's not think about this now. I'm sure you must be tired with all the action today."

"It's weird. My body is pretty tired with all the commotion, but my mind is wide awake." 'Especially since I can be near you again,' she added in her mind, smiling fondly at the green eyed girl seating on her side.

"Yeah me too," Sakura answered, fidgeting.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." Sakura smiled fondly at her best friend. "All the action I had these past few days is taking its toll on me, I guess, but I'm still wide awake, because you're finally safe, and with me."

"Where are you staying on this world?" Tomoyo asked after a few more moments of awkwardness.

"At Nanoha-san's house. She, Fate-san and Vivio-chan live together, and since she's from Earth, her house is almost the same as the ones there. They thought that it would be best for me to stay at a familiar place."

"I see. I wonder where I will be staying. Or can we go back right now?"

"I have no idea if we can go back right now, but I doubt it. They'll want to ask you all kinds of questions tomorrow, so I think the best we can do is rest. I'll ask Hayate-san to arrange something for you."

Tomoyo looked at Sakura for a few moments, then lowered her eyes to the floor. Moments later she sighed and raised her head, looking at the night sky.

"Even after all this time, you're still the same," Sakura said after looking at her friend for a few minutes. "When you found out that I was capturing the Clow Cards, you didn't find it weird. Instead you began to accompany me on my hunts." The cardmistress leaned back on the wall, looking at her friend. "I guess this whole world wouldn't be too much for you, either."
Tomoyo looked at her friend, and took the three steps that kept both of them apart. Looking directly at her friend's eyes, she leaned in, raising her hands to cup Sakura's cheeks, gently prompting the cardmistress to look at her. She could feel the other girl's breath caressing her pale face through the cold night air. She touched their foreheads and looked in her green orbs. They stayed in that position, until she saw Sakura starting to blush slightly. "The reason I can be like this is because everything is about you." She moved her arms to embrace her friend, touching her cheek on Sakura's, and said almost whispering. "It's only because..." She trailed off but completed in her mind '...I have always loved you.'

"Yeah, I love you too," Sakura said, pulling the other girl in a embrace through her waist. "Without you I would have been crushed a long time ago."

'Did Sakura just confess to me?' the raven haired girl wondered, almost thinking that this was another one of her fantasies.

Sakura's heart raced when she said that. Her words were coming out of her mouth before her mind could process what she was saying. The flow of words came without warning, and she poured them out without realizing, but when she finished, and took a moment to think about what she had just said, she blushed heavily. "I-I-..." She tried to explain what she had just said, but only stammer came out of her mouth. She didn't know what to say to not be misinterpreted by the raven haired girl.

"Shhh. I know. You don't have to say anything anymore," Tomoyo said, understanding what the other girl was trying to do. "You don't need to explain to me. I know you love me as your best friend." She took a step back, fingers still interwined behind Sakura's neck, and looked at her blushing face. "I just needed to tell you." She took a deep breath again. "It's not that I just love you. I'm IN love with you." She flashed a pained smile that didn't get past Sakura, but as the other girl was about to say something else, she completed. "The same way I know you feel for Syaoran."

That last statement was a bombshell to the brunette. She'd all but forgotten completely about the chinese martial artist in the days they were in MidChilda. But as her friend said his name, the images of the times they spent together, him and her, came back to her. Again Sakura opened her mouth to say something, but her words didn't come out on their own. She realized that the struggle was futile, and decided to give up.
Tomoyo understood this and let go of her friend. "You don't need to do anything," she said, as if answering Sakura's unsaid worries. "I just wanted you to know. I just couldn't remain with this just for me, with this feeling eating me up from inside. I know it's selfish of me to say this to you now, after all these years... But after what happened, I felt that I had to." She took two steps back and leaned against a wall. "You don't have to do anything about it. Just keep being yourself, Sakura-chan." She looked to one of the moons in the sky, and finished, only mouthing the words, without actually saying. "My Sakura-chan."

"If that's really true," Sakura began, "then why are you crying?" Tomoyo was surprised by that. She hadn't noticed that tears were flowing down her own cheeks. "I knew you for so long and didn't notice anything. It took something like this for me realize that I can't be apart from you."

"You can pretend that today didn't happen." Tomoyo tried to remain calm. "I-I already passed several years this way. I ca- I can continue... You don't have to..." She stopped, only now remembering why she hadn't confessed her feelings for all those years. She didn't want Sakura to feel an obligation with her. To feel that she needed to do something for her. And most important of all, she didn't want to tarnish the pure love the cardmistress had for the young boy with her own feelings. But now everything was done, and she couldn't think of a way to make it so that Sakura didn't think about her anymore. So instead, she started to run inside the building.

"Tomoyo...chan..." Sakura raised her hand to her friend's back, but upon realizing that she had nothing to say, she leaned her back against the handrail and let her body sink to the floor. She looked at the door for a few more moments before burying her head on her knees. Her mind raged with thoughts, so much that everything was almost a blur.

---

"Hello there."

The blonde girl sat up instantly upon hearing the voice, and regretted it almost at the same time. Her body was still sore. She looked to the direction where the voice had come from. "Hi." And after focusing on the red eyed girl, "What happened to you?" She was in a wheelchair.

"Right back at ya, kiddo." She smiled.

"Mou. I'm not a kid anymore. I'm a teenager." Vivio pouted playfully.

"Okay, okay. Then how are you, madam?"

"Better than you, from what I'm seeing." Vivio gave up the joke and voiced her concerns for her friend.

"I'm okay. I just used too much magical energy in my last mission and put a strain too great on my linker core, according to the doctor. Right now I'm just resting."

Vivio smiled at the Belkan Summoner, that in return caressed her hair. "Did you hear what happened?"

"Yes." She held the blonde's hand. "I can't say that you shouldn't have done that, since it was your job to protect the girl, but next time, try to be a little more careful, ok?"

"Yeah. Mama already gave me that speech earlier."

"Don't worry. It's only because we care about you."

"You too?" The blonde girl turned to her friend.

"Of course." Lutecia ruffled Vivio's hair a little. "Who do you think I am?"

Vivio turned her head away from Lutecia, and said, "I've never got so scared in my entire life, you know?"

"Really?"

"No, that's a lie." She stuck her tongue out at her friend. "But I always wanted to say something like that, like in the movies."

"Silly girl." Lutecia ruffled her hair again, harder this time, and they laughed at this.
---

 

[Sniperk]

Okay. This chapter is where things get ugly grammar wise. Sorry about that, but I'll put up with anyone who's willing to correct it for me before I post later chapters.

---

"Mama."

"Yes." The brunette answered. They were getting closer to their house, since Vivio was discharged from the Hospital. "What is it?"

"Is it too late for me to change my training?"

"What do you mean?" Nanoha answered, pulling the car in the driveway of her house.

"I want to be a Frontliner."

"What do you mean? I thought you always wanted to be a ranged magic user. Why the sudden change?"

"Well, I've been thinking about this for a while now, and this mission kinda made my mind."

"Why's that?"
Nanoha opened the door and only after Vivio was already seated in the living room did she answered. "I want to boost my shields. I wasn't fast enough this time to raise my shields, and Burning Glory Auto-shields are tuned only to keep up with me, not to be better or faster."

"That's a given. Every device is like that."

"That's why."

"But if it's just your protections, we can always train you in this segment." Nanoha had entered her 'instructor mode'.

"I know, but it's not just that. There's some other things as well."

"Care to fill me in?" Fate was at the door to the living room, having just arrived home.

"Fate-chan! Welcome back."

"Welcome back, Fate-mama."

"So what are you guys discussing?" Fate said after kissing her daughter's temple and sitting beside her wife.

"She said she wants to be a frontliner."

"Why?" Fate raised an eyebrow and looked at the girl in front of her.

"That's what we are discussing." The brunette answered. "I'm all ears. What other reasons would you have then?"

"Well," The little blonde started. "I thought about turning a full back, but I lack the protective and support spells required, and I don't have the speed to be a Wing Guard. So I thought a Frontliner would be better for me. "

"I see. Well, it's true that the defense response rate for a frontliner has to be honed to razorsharpness, but you can do that as a Center too. Why change it now?"

She rubbed her hands together and looked down. "I don't know very well. It's just that I feel that it should be this way."

Fate sank back and put a hand on her chin. "Hmmm..."

"I still don't have the skills to be an all-rounder like Fate-mama, that's another reason."

"So you think you can boost up your capabilities one position at a time?" Nanoha questioned, sitting on the edge of the couch.

"More or less..."

"Okay. For now you are still healing young lady, so you shouldn't be focusing on that. Right now you have only two main tasks. Rest well, and eat well."

"But..."

"After you are healed, we'll discuss about this again."

"Okay." Vivio felt that right now she wouldn't go anywhere, even if she continued. "I'm going to take a bath now then."

She got a nod from both mothers, then got off her seat and climbed the stairs. After the girl was off earshot Nanoha turned to her wife. "What do you think?"

Fate hugged and pulled her so they were embraced. "Do you want me to answer as her mother or as Admiral?"

"Both."

"Well, as her mother, I wouldn't want that. You know how much greater are the risks for a frontliner, and I'll always see her as my baby girl. The number of casualties are greater too for them."

A few seconds passed as Nanoha pondered Fate's words. After she let them sink in. "And as Admiral..." She prompted for the blonde to continue.

"Well... She has the Belkan's Sankt Kaiser blood coursing through her veins. Even if it's a product of the Project F, the power that she have is real. Belkan style's users are capable close range fighters. The Belkan Strike Arts are much like the Shooting Arts that Subaru, Ginga and Nove use."

"That's true."

They stayed silent a few more moments till Vivio climbed down from the stairs. "Mama. Can you help me?"

"Yes. What is it?"

The blonde girl looked down embarrassed. "I can't get my shirt off alone because..." she pointed to her sling "...of this stupid thing."
Both mothers laughed half-heartedly, then Nanoha pinched both her daughter cheeks. "Don't call it stupid. It's for you get better faster. Let's go to the bathroom. I'll help you."

Fate waited for both of them to climb the stairs before heading to the kitchen to prepare something for them to eat.

---

She was seating at the inside a dark room. One of the only rooms that she was already familiar with within that base. She was looking at her deck of cards, or more specifically, the card she made all those years ago. Her mind was a wreck. She didn't know what to think anymore. She hadn't realised till that moment what really meant her action in the past few weeks. How was things over there? Did Kero put her note to her father properly? How did he reacted? How did Daidoji-sama reacted? Did Syaoran heard about it?
She was lost in thought and didn't realized the door behind her been unlocked.

"So I'll contact you again later, okay?" Hayate said as the window of communication closed at her side. She took a few steps inside her office and turned on the lights, getting a shriek from the girl that was already inside and returned another one to her soon after. "What are you doing here?" She looked at her door, then at her key. "Better saying, how did you get inside here?"

"Sorry." Sakura bowed. "I-I needed to be alone a little and this was the first place that crossed my mind."

"But how did you..." Hayate was at a loss as to what to think, since her office was teleport proof.

Sakura raised her deck. "Through." She answered simply. "It let me pass through solid things. I asked it to help me. Sorry again for barging in here."

"It's okay." Hayate took a deep breath, then a few steps inside her office and a better look at the girl. She seemed to have been crying not long before she arrived. She took a seat at the center table, in front of the cardmistress. "So, what's happening? Talking to someone can help sometimes."

Sakura sighed heavily, lifted her head to see the General. After a couple of false starts she said. "I... I really don't know... Has anyone ever confessed to you... I mean, of course you must have already been confessed to... I mean..." She took another deep breath, trying to put into words what she was feeling. Hayate decided not to say anything for now, and just listen to the girl. "I just don't know what I feel anymore for who anymore." Another sob came up her throat, but she managed to stay focused. "I told you about Syaoran, in the meeting, and how I created this card thinking about him." She got a nod in response. "He's been my boyfriend even before we knew what dating was. He's been with me for so long that I can't even think about another person the way I think about him. My life for the past few years practically were dictated by the times I was with him and the times I wasn't." She let her head hung. "I love him so much, but now..."
Hayate took in the girl words, waiting for her to continue, when she didn't, the General echoed. "But...?"

"But in these past couple weeks I barely even thought about him. All that was in my mind was Tomoyo-chan. First when I wanted to show her everything she meant to me, and then that I had to save her. How can I say that I love him so much, and after that not thinking about him at all. I mean, even during the meeting, or when I was telling you my story, every time I mentioned his name, he wasn't on my mind. Tomoyo-chan was. I feel like I have betrayed him."

The general changed seats from where she was to a empty seat at the side of the one Sakura was sitting. "I see..." She muttered. Hayate pondered her words a little. She knew relantionships could be nerve-wrecking in the adolescence, but even then, it seemed so weird for her that the cardmistress got so upset over something like this. The general wasn't exactly the best person to talk this kind of thing, but even so, she was still a girl.

Sakura sighed again. "You know what's weird. My best friend confessed to me today. Tomoyo-chan said that she was in love with me, and I didn't answered her... She's the reason I'm here. Actually I'm the reason we are both here, but that's not the point. I-I... I know I love her. With all my heart, but I never thought of her as a lover. I mean... I don't know. What I feel for her is so different yet so equal from what I feel about Syaoran." Sakura looked at her hands again, at her card.

Now Hayate was starting to understand. "So when Tomoyo confessed to you, you started to wonder who do you love more, and that's how you are right now, right?"

"Something like that, I guess..."

The General tried to picture herself in the situation, but that didn't helped. She didn't never had that kind of relationship before with anyone. Verossa was like her brother till five, six years ago, when they started dating, and before him, she never really had a crush. Or more precisely, she never allowed herself to have a crush. She stood on her feet and walked to girl. "Well..." She put a hand in her head and pulled her, embracing her. "I can't answer that question for you." Sakura felt her hopes of an easy answer diminishing. "That's something you should really find on your own. It won't be an easy answer, but I have a gut felling that you'll find that answer soon enough."

"Ok." The cardmistress managed to answer after a few moments, still downhearted.

"Don't try to put weights in each relationship you have. Before everything happened, they were your boyfriend and your best friend." Hayate let her words hang in the air for a few moments, before ruffling Sakura's hair, trying to change the subject and get the cardmistress thoughts away from the matter. "Will you stay with Nanoha-chan today? Or here at the dormitories?"

---

Thankfully, that last operation was a sucess, for him at least. Injured were within, even below, the norm for a operation of this calliber, where all three aces were together. He knew Hayate would 'talk in private' with him after everything was settled in the meeting, but she was the one that put him in command of the operation, so he just acted the way his position required. Nothing more, nothing less. Seeing that the Non-Administrative Planet 97's native isn't a registered mage for the TSAB, and she participated in this mission as a collaborator, he didn't had any power over her, but the others knew that they should always act the way their superior orders to. That's the way of the military. That's the way things happened around here.

The image of Lt. General Regius crossed his mind in that moment. A man with charisma, that truly loved this land. He was someone that managed to create an almost perfect society in MidChilda. It's a pity that he became paranoid. He tried to create a even better place for the people of Mid, but lost himself along the way and met his end in that tragic day. Chrono wasn't stupid. He knew that he too was going down the same path, if not even darker, that Regius once walked. That's why he sighed and opened a communication window with his secretary. "I'll be taking the rest of the day off. Don't call me unless it's an dimensional extermination emergency." He closed the channel, before his secretary was able to even talk anything back.

He got off from the building and into his car. Right now what he needed the most was the comfort of his family. Even if they weren't aware of this fact, they were the ray of light to his darkness, and if they weren't there, he too would turn into another maniacal that his 'secondary unit' had the tendency to produce from the people that worked too much in there. "I'll not go down that path. Not now, not ever." He sighed out. "Maybe I'll hear what Amy wants for once and take a vacation."

---

"Ok. I'm done for the day now." Said the blonde closing the door of the infirmary and changing the sign to inform anyone that comes around, then turning to her unexpected guest.

"Care to tell me what happened?"

"Sorry to imposing on you like this," The girl apologized for the nth time since she arrived. "I was just walking around, and yours was the first face I knew that I crossed, so..."

"You thought that I could help you?"

"Well, not really. I don't know. I just did something terrible, and was looking for a rock to crawl under." She sighed. "I just wanted a place where she wouldn't find me."

"She?" The Lady of the Lakes could guess who she was talking about, but asked anyway.

"Sakura-chan."

"Don't tell me you two had a fight?"

"Actually, no. Quite the opposite. Well, in some ways the opositte."

"I'm listening? From the beggining, please. I want to understand what happened." She didn't know the raven haired girl all that well, only that she was Sakura's friend, and what the cardmistress told them. After those two days in the base, the only time they had a conversation was during the examination, to see if she was clean of any strange object, but since then, Shamal had already noticed a few things about her, like how she was refined and well educated. But aside from that, she didn't had the time to chat with her.

"I..." Tomoyo didn't know how the blonde would react to what she was about to say. "Where can I start... Do you know where I came from?"

"Yes. Earth. In certain ways that's my home planet too." The doctor smiled.

"Some ways?"

"It would take me too long to explain now. Let's just say that it was there that I came to know what it really means to live."
Tomoyo took another deep breath and tried again. "From where I come from..." She sighed again. "No, that's not right. I shouldn't blame this." She looked around the infirmary, then at Shamal again, then dropped her gaze to the floor. "I don't know how to say this."

"Very well... It's okay if you don't tell me your history." She got up from her seat, in the direction of the door. "Take your time. Do you want some tea?" She received a nod in response. "Try to calm down a little. I'll be right back." She left and closed the door behind her.

---

"WHAT?!" Sakura was baffled with those people were saying. At the moment they were having a little conference.

"Calm down, Sakura-chan. First hear what we have to say." Hayate took the girls hands in hers.

They were now in the middle of a meeting. Hayate, Nanoha, Sakura, Fate, Tomoyo were there. Yuuno and Chrono were participating in two screens at the table too.

"How can I calm down. I came here to save Tomoyo-chan and bring her back home. Now you're telling me that I can't?"

"It's not that you can't." Fate tried. "It's just that we need a little time to find a way to make sure Tomoyo-chan isn't going to suffer another one of these attacks. You see, there were an unknown number of people in that auction, and we don't know how much they know about you and your cards, but we know that all of them want the powers that they represent."

"We can't let that happen again. You can watch yourself pretty well, and your skills are on par with ours, if not higher, but even so, you can't take care of her all the time. We just want to find a way that she will not be in danger again, before letting her go home."

"Who are you to say what I can and what I cannot do. I can take care of Tomoyo-chan just fine. I can..." Sakura stopped when Tomoyo, that till that moment was with her head down, looked at her with a stoic expression.

Everyone around the table looked at the raven haired girl in that instant and the ones that were in the room could almost feel the tension downing.

"I'll stay." Tomoyo looked at the table, then close her eyes and shook her head. "No. I think the right would be that I 'want' to stay."

"Why..." Sakura was perplexed, and that was the most she could manage to say.

"I'll be home as soon as they find what to do with me." She smiled. "Don't worry, Sakura-chan. I'll be home in no time at all."

"How can you say that? We don't know that for sure. Heck. Even them don't know that."

"I know. But I have a feeling. This way will be better. For both of us."
Sakura tried to say something more, but couldn't find the words to say. She wanted her friend to come with her, back home, back to their friends and family, but she couldn't force the girl. "You can't be serious, Tomoyo-chan. What about your mother?"

"We can arrange for her to come here too, if you want." Chrono interfered in the exchange between the two girls. He wanted to finish this as soon as possible. After a few moments of silence he continued. "We know that the well-being of your friend is your top priority. We've seen you this couple of weeks, but we can't guarantee her safety if she go back to Non-Administrative Planet 97 now." He shifted in his chair. "We have only these two options."

"What options?" Sakura asked.

"Letting her stay here, till we find a way to counter the properties of the source, or destroy the source altogether."

"That I'll not allow." Tomoyo stated.

"Then you'll have to stay here... By force if necessary."
Sakura exploded in anger. "We'll see about that." She flicked her wrist and a card came to her hand. "TIME!" The people in the room froze. "Let's go, Tomoyo-chan. I'll find a way to bring us back home."

"Are you really sure you want to do that?"

Sakura was startled for a few moments before recognizing the voice coming from the other monitor.

"What Chrono said was impolite, and I apologize for him," Yuuno continued. "...but even if you manage to get out of there, there's no other way for you to go back to your planet. Please, calm down a little first. We don't want to keep you away from your friend. We just want to help you."

"I'm sorry by my lack of composure." The admiral continued. He was impatient too, but he recognized that what he said lacked tact. "We just want to help you."

Sakura tried to steady herself. They were right. She was starting to hate them, but what they said was right. She released her spell.

"I want to talk to Tomoyo-chan alone first. We'll decide what to do after that."

The rest of the people in the room got startled when the cardmistress was not in the place she was a moment before.

"Very well." Chrono stated. "Hayate, can you lend them your office for a few minutes?"

The General was still surprised, but managed to nod in response.

"We'll resume this metting after you two talk then."

---

 

[Sniperk]

Atelaia was receiving, aside from the normal staff, many guests this time around. Her mission was more like a field trip, the Admiral decided. Fate would take advantage of her mission to visit Nanoha's parents back on Earth, as well as, accompanied by Vita and Signum, escort Tomoyo to and from her house back to MidChilda.

"Are you sure you don't want us to accompany you to your house?" Vita asked, concerned.

"No." Sakura answered instantly. "I think it would be too much trouble for you."

"No trouble at all. And besides, you did disappeared from your home for several days, and I don't believe your father can be comprehensive enough to just let it slide."

"Yeah. I'll problably be grounded till I turn 30." She gave a half-smile. "But I think he'll understand. Not that he'll approve, but will understand."

"If you say so." Vita reached for her jacket pocket. "Here. Just in case you need to contact us." She handed a little box to the cardmistress. "If you need us, open the box. The rest will operate by itself, so don't worry." When Sakura made mention to not accept the item, Vita shoved it into her hands. "I'm not giving to you. I'm only delivering the package." Then after the girl took the item, she smiled. "If you want to return it, you'll have open it and call Nanoha."

Sakura tried again to protest, but Vita was already out the door to the ship's corridors. She stepped out her room into and was about to call the little red haired woman, when she saw the door to Tomoyo's room suddenly being closed out of the corner of her eye. She sighed and entered her room again. After looking at the images being displayed in one of the walls, as if it were a window, she lied down on the bed and closed her eyes trying hard to not think about the conversation she and her friend had earlier that morning.

---

"C'mon. We have to get out of here." He said as soon as the land stopped shaking. "It's not safe here anymore."

"Take Mediel and go now, boiya!" The crippled old lady said in an almost pleading voice. "She still have all her life ahead of her."

He took a single glance at the kid crying in the cradle before turning back to the lady on the floor. "She'll not live for long without you, Meniel-obaa-san." He ripped the sheets that were on the bed as another smaller quake tumbled him and the lady down to the floor, knocking the cradle with the baby. Between startled, painful cries from the other two, he managed to stand up and moments later he was already cradling the little girl in his arms, as the shakes diminished again.

"You're hurt." Meniel pointed to his forehead where a trail of blood started to form, coming from his scalp.

"Don't worry." He dismissed instantly. "Here, hold her a little. I just need to do something." As he said that, he tore another strip of the sheet. After a few moments he made a makeshift baby sling. He took the girl from the woman's arms and nested her in it, making sure it was strong enough to hold her and she was well tied to his chest. After this he turned his back to the woman and crouched. "Jump in my back."

"I can't... I'll just slow you down, boiya."

"We don't have time to argue. Just crawl in my back."

The woman reluctantly reached for his shoulders, but stumbled and almost knocked him down. He was forced to put one of his knees on the ground for support, but managed to stay upright. The woman crawled her way into his back and grabbed around his neck. He, in turn, took her legs in each side of his waist and forced his body to stand. "We need to get out of this house." He walked and upon opening the door, he saw the swirling dark clouds in the sky. He took three steps out the door and looked around the pretty much empty village's streets.

"Boiya, go to the fields." Meniel suggested. "That way."

"I'll have to run. Hold on tight." With that he started to run furiously. He reached the fields soon enough, and saw at distance a gathering of others villagers, waving at them. Several times during his run he had to reinforce the knot in the sling to make sure the little girl wouldn't fall. After a few minutes of running he caught up with the others.

The village wasn't big, but it still had several people living there, that took care of the rice fields. As soon as he put the old woman on the ground and the baby back in her arms he sat on the ground to catch his breath. During this he looked up at the village and to the people gathered with him. There wasn't nearly one quarter of the people who lived in that village, he decided. He stood up again and turned back from where he came. "I'm going back there."

"Wait, boiya." The old lady's plead fell deaf on his ears, as he continued to run back to the village.

---

"Tomoyo!" The woman lounged at the raven haired girl, as soon as she appeared in the room. "I'm not dreaming, right? You're really here, right?" She hugged the girl as tight as she could. "Thank god, you really are alive."

Tomoyo noticed that her mother was thiner than she last remembered. From what the maids and bodyguards had told her, Sonomi hadn't been eating well, and the family doctor had prescribed sedatives for her, so she could sleep. "I'm okay, Mother. Very much alive, as you can see."

They stayed in that position for a few more minutes, before her mother got back a little just to look at her daughters face better. She then hugged her again.

"After the gas explosion, everybody said that you had died in it, but I knew it couldn't be true."

The girl smiled to her mother. "Come with me. I need to introduce a few people to you." Getting to her feet she held her mother's hand.

Sonomi instead hugged the girl, as if just her hand wasn't enough to feel that her daughter was with her. "Where are they?"

"In the living room."

A few moments later and the woman was in front of the guests her daughter had brought. Three women, one with pink hair, a blonde and a red haired. All of them wearing strange military uniforms.

"Mother, these are Signum-san, Fate-san and Vita-san. They are the ones who rescued me."

"Rescued? Then you were kidnapped? Did they do something to you? Are you really okay?!"

"Ma'am." The blonde started. "I believe that it would be better if you hear us out first. After that, if you still have questions, we'll gladly answer them."

She looked at them for a few moments, then took a deep breath and turned to one of the maids that were at the door. "Please, bring more tea for our guests. I have a feeling that this could take a while."

As soon as the maid brought them their drinks she prompted the woman. "Go on."

"First, I would like to introduce ourselves properly." The blonde started. "I'm Admiral Fate T. Harlaown. This here is Liutenant Coronel Signum and Liutenant Vita. We work for a military entity called TSAB. I'm sorry for not revealing what it stands for, but this information in classified at the moment. We found your daughter at one of the terrorists bases we raided earlier this week. She was been held captive for, from what she told us, and the information we gathered in the local news, a little more than a week. At first we thought that she was being held captive for ransom."

"But I never got a call from anyone, not a message, anything." Sonomi intervened.

Fate rubbed her cup and put it on the table, before adjusting herself on her seating. "Then it could be worse than we thought." She signaled for Vita.
The red haired woman grabbed a case on her side and took a few papers and radiographs from it, handing them to woman. After looking around she turned to Sonomi. "Can you dispense your maids from the room?"

"Why?"

"Please, Mother." Tomoyo asked. "You'll understand."

Sonomi looked at her daughter then signaled for her employees to leave the room.

"These are exams we performed in your daughter at our base." She pointed at one of radiograph marked with a circle. "I'll try to be as laic as possible. This is a scan of her head. As you can see, there's an abnormal body inside the back of her head. We believe that it's a tracking device of some sort." She looked at Fate who nodded. "What I'm about to tell you is top-secret military intelligence. I believe I don't need to mention what will happen if such information leaks to the press." She got a nod. Sonomi was getting confused. "These devices are like a brainwash mechanism. They can take control over a person who has one of these to do anything, from killing other people to killing themselves. A terrorist group is implanting these devices in prominent people around the globe. People that can turn out to be very powerful in the near future, be it in politics, economics or military."

The short haired woman was about to say something when Signum cut her off. "You are the president of one of the top selling toy companies of the planet. Imagine what could happen if someone used your daughter to, let's say, start a new branch in your company, like developing and producing weapons." Sonomi thought about it for a few moments. Signum let her take her time absorbing all of that information. "We can't say for sure what this device is without a proper examination. Unfortunately, the device has countermeasures against someone trying to remove it forcefully, so we need to take her to our central base to get the examination and extraction done."

"Wait. You want to take my Tomoyo from me again?" Sonomi shot up. "I won't allow it. I'll take her to the best hospitals in the world. I'll make sure that..."

"I don't believe I said you had a choice in this." Signum stated flatly.

"So you are going to take my Tomoyo from me again?" Anger clearly raising in her tone.

"No." The soft spoken word made Sonomi turn back to her daughter. "I'm coming with them of my own will, Mother."

"But, Tomoyo-chan... You just came back to me. How can you say that you're going away again so easily?"

"It wasn't easy." Tomoyo waited a few moments before continuing. "I already talked with them about all the possibilities, and in the end came to the conclusion that this is the better way."

Sonomi tried to retort again but found herself without words to say.

"Sorry if what Signum said sounded rude." Fate broke the silence. "We're not taking your daughter from you. It'll be just till we can make sure there's nothing that will harm her any longer."

"How much time it will take?"

"We can't be sure of that, Ma'am." The blonde took another sip on her tea. "Do you have anymore questions?"

"Well..." She looked at Vita a moment. "No. Not really." She looked down before asking. "But she'll be able to call home, from wherever you're taking her, right?"

"Phone calls are impossible at the moment, but we can relay letters or videoletters, if needed."

Sonomi looked at her daughter again.

"I'm sure you want to stay with her at least for a little more time." Fate voiced softly. "Signum and Vita will stay outside the house on guard. I need to run some errands in the city. I'll be back in about two or three hours." She then looked at Tomoyo. "Please, prepare your luggage in this time frame." She got a nod in response. The three of them got up and bowed to the woman before leaving the room.

When they were outside of the house, Vita stood on guard on one side of the front door, enjoying the effects of her transformation spell that made her look much older.

Signum followed suit to the other side, then asked mentally to the other two. "Why do I always need to play the bad guy in these little facades?" She didn't got an answer aside from a smirk from Vita that she missed and a giggle from Fate.

---

"I'm home." Sakura absently declared when she entered her house, like she was there just the day before.

"Sakura?!" She heard the voices of her father and brother at the same time coming from the living room, moments before she saw them both at the end of the corridor. "Sakura!" Both of them tackled her in a tight hug.

"Thank god you're alive!" Her father started, voice cracking. "I thought I had lost you too."

"Where the hell have you been, Kaiju!"

"I... " Sakura was at a loss about what to say. "Didn't you read the note I left?"

"Note? Wich note?"

"I wrote a note and left it here for you, Dad."

"I didn't find anything." He looked confused. "Where have you been this whole time? When we saw the news that Tomoyo-chan had disapeared and the Daidoji residence was partially destroyed we almost thought that you and her died then, but then I remembered that you came home that morning and..." He separated himself from her to look straight in her face, not sure if he should continue with what he was saying.

"And I lied to you." Sakura completed. "I'm sorry, Dad. But right now I just want to lie down and rest a little. Can I?"

Fujitaka took a few moments to examine the girl before consenting. "You don't look tired, but ok." He got up. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Not really. I'll eat something after I rest a little."

Sakura grabbed back her backpack that fell on the floor and started to climb the stairs, failing to notice that her brother was still watching her.

"Kero." She called her guardian, as soon as she entered the room, talking in a low voice, but almost barking at him at the same time. "Where are you?"

"Here." He called from a opening in a loose tile in the ceiling. "Welcome back, Sakura. How was everything there?"

"I'll tell you later. Why didn't you delivered the note to my father?"

"I couldn't." He floated to the top of her drawer. "After you disappeared, and came to them the news about Tomoyo's house, your brother and father started to get frantic. Even Yukito-san came here. He didn't transform, so I couldn't talk with Yue about it. They searched your room, found my drawer. If it wasn't for me getting up there, they would have found me too."

"But what about the note?"

"Syaoran came, two days later, and... I told everything to him... He asked about the note, and when I showed him, he left the house running, taking the note with him."

"Syaoran came here? And took the note? But what for?"

"I don't know. I think he didn't even realized that it wasn't for him."

"I'll call him right now." She reached for her drawer. "Where's my cell?"

"With your father, I think."

"Oh, great..." Sakura paced in her room a few moments, thinking if it would be wise to climb down now, and ask for the phone but she dreaded that it would be signaling for her father that she was already okay to talk about what he wanted to know. After pondering for a few minutes, she decided to give up for now. She sat on her bed and concluded that getting some sleep would be the best thing she could do.

---

"This is creepy." The bespectacled woman voiced her thoughts.

"What is?" The other woman asked.

"The programming of this Device." She said typing away in one of the keyboards in front of her. "It's freaky as hell."

"How so?" She asked taking another sip on her coffee.

"Well, it's gotta be some sorta of a prank they pulled in the owner or the owner is a sad little man. Literally." She turned the window so the other could see better. "It's programmed to act as if it was his lover."

"Pfftt... What?!"

"Don't ask me. I told you it was creepy." Shari continued to type.

"A-Anyway... Is there any useful information in it?"

"Lots of it." She turned again to the other device. "This devices are incredible. It's hard to imagine that someone managed to create them without TSAB's technology. Well, they don't compare to your Cross Mirage in terms of functionality, but the amount of information they have stored is humongous. Not to mention the tracking system installed that is top-notch."

"Can you make a copy of that information and send to me later?" Teana asked her partner.

"No problem. I think you guys will have a rough time ahead of you. These little fellas had so much protections in the storage system, like passwords, DNA's scan, voice recognition, and so on, that took me forever to finally be able to access it. But it worth it. There's everything you could imagine in them, from smuggling routes to contact information of suppliers. There's so much information in here that you guys will take months to investigate it all."

"I see. Anyway, try to classify the information by groups. I'll talk to the Admiral and see what we'll make of it."

"No problem."

---

"We'll take you out of there in no time. Just calm down." He said to the man screaming in pain, his leg trapped below of what once was a wall of his home. He turned to the other two men that were around him. "On three." He positioned himself "One, two," He took a deep breath. "Threeeee!" They forced the remnants of the wall up just enough to free the man's leg and he could drag himself out of the position he was.

"Arrrrgghhh!" The man wailed again, more for the sight of his smashed limb than from the pain.

"Calm down, Ojii-san."

"Gord-san, calm down." The second man said. "We'll take to the others. I'm sure that help is coming."

"Grid?! Is Grid there!? And Samantha?" The man asked when the first shouldered him.

The man grimaced. "No. We didn't found your son or your wife."

"Maybe he's still inside the house." The second one added, without thinking, at what Gord started to squirm.

"I need to go back. I need to get my little boy."

"You're in no condition to save anybody, Ojii-san." The boy tried to coerce the man. "I'll go take a look."

"We'll be right back, boiya. Don't try anything stupid before we get back."
The boy waited till the two where out of ear shot and took a shovel that was nearby. He got around the house and looked for something that could be an entrance. The house had collapsed all around and he couldn't find anywhere to enter the rubble that was once a caban. "Damn it."

He started to dig the durt, trying his hardest to move the debris. His mind was raging. Wasn't this supposed to be a magical land? How can be that ever since he arrived he haven't seen anything alike. There were no dragons, or spirits, or faeries, or demons, elfs, trolls... nothing. It seemed just like any other remote village back on Earth. He wasn't even sure if he did had really come to the right place, but right now that wasn't important. Right now what was important was to save these folks from the rage of mother nature.

"..lp..."

He was thrown out of his reverie when he thought to have heard something.

"...help..."

The voice seemed weak. Probably a kid. "Are you ok?" He screamed at the rubble.

"Help me."

He dug deeper in the rubble. Trying his hardest to use the voice as a guide as to where he should use the shovel, stopping only to make sure the voice was still there. The blood on his face had already closed his left eye, and he was having trouble to keep the other open, using a piece of the sheet that was still around his neck to clean the excess. After several minutes of intense battle against the debris he found an small opening. What once was a window. He cleared around and kicked the frame, breaking it. He took another look, and after confirming that it wasn't going to collapse on him, he went inside.

"Where are you?"

"Down here."

He turned to where the voice was. There was a trapdoor, that collapsed by the weight of the debris and a few more furniture that fell on top of it, and it was now blocking the passage to what he thought to be the cellar of the house. "Are you okay?" He asked, even knowing they probably wouldn't be.

"I'm okay, but Mom is bleeding too much."

"I'll take you out of there in no time. Just wait." With this he started to take all the rubble that was blocking the opening.

"Boiya, are you in there?" The voice came from outside the house.

"I think I found the boy. He's trapped inside the cellar."

"We're going inside." Another one announced. "We just need to open more this."

"Okay." He turned to the debris again. "Stay away from the door." He continued to dig it till it was enough to see inside the hole. "I'm almost there." He looked through the crack and saw nothing but darkness. He took away some more until he was able to crawl into the hole. "I'm here." He squeezed himself into the hole. "What's your name?" He asked to the darkness.

"Grid." The boy answered, seeing the silhouette of the older boy in front of him.

Turning to the voice of the kid. "So Grid, how old are you?" He asked as he finished entering the cellar.

"Eleven."

"Good. Where's your mother?"

"She's here. But she won't wake up."

His eyes were getting accustomed to the darkness. He felt his way until he found the body of the woman. She was cold. He felt something wet in his hand, and sniffed. Blood. She was bleeding, and from where he could tell, something had pierced her right shoulder. He got closer to the woman and put two fingers on her neck. It was weak but she still had pulse. "Good, she's still alive." He took the rest of the sheet from his neck and blindly wrapped around the wound as best as he could.

"Boiya, is he okay?"

"The mother is bleeding heavily here. We need to take her out of here first."

"Okay." After a few moments, one of the two that were outside inched a board inside the opening. "Put her on top of this. We'll open the hole a little more."

Crack.

He put the woman on top of the board and tied her as best as he could, tearing his own clothes. "Grid, help me." They inched the board to the opening.

"Alright, I got her now." The man said, cursing when what little light that they had finally managed to land on the woman's body.

Crack. Crack.

When they managed to take the woman out the hole, the boy turned to the darkness again. "Grid-kun, your turn." He felt his way to the kid's hand. "Here. I'll help you." After a hummed response he put the kid in the opening.

"C'mon, Grid. Give me your hand." The man managed to pull the kid out of the hole.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

The house around them started to collapse. The hole where the boy was started to crumble. The rocks started to fall hitting hard against the body of the brown haired boy. Then they heard a metallic voice stating. "PROTECTION!" All at once the collapsing house came to a stop as a tri-pointed magic circle appeared on the ceiling.

"Are you okay?" Said the girl, through the opening, to the people that were inside.

"Were okay."

"NII-CHAN!" The little boy cried when he saw the rubble now collapsed on top of the boy.

"I'm okay, Grid-kun." He said weakly. "Take your mother with you."

"Shit." The girl outside cursed. "This is rescue unit S-03. I need a medical team on my coordinates." Then turning to the ones inside. "Don't move. I'm coming inside." As she entered the house, she quickly found the group of people inside. She pointed her fist to them. "Mach Calliber!"

"BARRIER FIELD." Her rollerblades answered. Moments later a blue cacoon of energy enveloped all of them.

She took that moment to confirm the situation. The two men seemed to be okay, the little boy too. The woman on the floor was bleeding heavily through her shoulder and the other boy was trapped with his lower half in a hole. "This is unit S-03, requesting clearance."

"Clearance granted." The voice through her comn confirmed.

"Mach Calliber."

"Protection will be nullified in T minus 3 seconds."

"Load Cartridge."

"2"

"Revolver..."

"1"

"Shoot!"

"Zero." As soon as the device announced, the tri-pointed shield disappeared and the blue energy shot blew the ceiling of the house. "Opening confirmed. Damages to the structure are minimum." The device called instantly recasting the previous nullified spell.

As soon as the opening was created several more people began to climb it down. After all the others were out of the house, the boy started to feel the pain in his body.

"We need to take this one out of the debris." The girl screamed.

"Yes, sir!" The others responded and immediately started to work in the rocks and wood pieces.

The boy was almost collapsing with the pain.

"What is your name?" She asked him.

The boy lifted his head and forced a smile. "Li Syaoran." He passed out.

The girl put a hand on his head. "You can rest easy now, Syaoran-kun. We'll take you out of there in no time. C'mon, People. Move it."

---

 

[Sniperk]

"Sargent. There's a reading up ahead. The fluxus is erratic but it's constant at the same time," A few steps more and the girl points in the direction of a cavern, "It's coming from there."

"Alright. Marcos, maximum output on your shields. Bernard, battle mode now. Jean, stay behind me and keep tracking."

"Yes, sir." They all answered in unison.

Once they were inside the cave, Marcos summoned a white ball of energy and made it float above their heads, giving them the light they needed to continue. With a few minutes of tense descent, they reached a relatively large cave. "Position." The Sargent demanded.

"Distance: Fifty seven yards." The only woman in the group pointed to the darkness.

"Proceed with caution." The Sargent warned one more time.

They walked a few more steps in the direction the girl was pointing till they heard some noises coming from the darkness. "Who's there?" He demanded.

More rustling noises. No response. "We are with the TSAB. Identify yourselves." Still no response, but he could feel the tingling sensation on the back of his head that something wasn't going well.

"The reading is moving, sir." The girl behind informed, "Seven... no, ten readings. They are dispersing throughout the cave." Then she got even more alarmed,."They are circling us."

"Tch. Battle formation, now." They all scrambled to their assigned positions. "Marcos!" At the Sargent's sign, the man fired several white energy balls to the darkness, trying to reveal their attackers. "We would like to avoid unnecessary fighting if possible." He continued, as his forward continued to shower the place with energy balls. They heard the rustling sounds coming closer.

"Sir! The signals are multiplying themselves. There are about sixteen now, and they keep increasing at every scan."

When the girl was about to scan one more time, something lunged forward in their direction, colliding with Marcos' shield. "What the...?"

"What is this thing?" Was the first question that came to Bernard as soon as the flash of light from the collision with his auto-shield faded. He was staring at a humanoid creature, wearing human clothes, ripped at the arms and legs where grotesque muscles, toned above the normal for a human being, had made the fabric give away. But the thing that was most horrendous was its head. The first thing to notice was the mouth that occupied more than half of the head, and was open baring teeth that resembled a shark's. Where the eyes should have been there was nothing, just a cavity in the skull covered with skin.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Was the order that came to Bernard's ears when his Sargent himself started to fire several energy shots from his staff into the creature.

They all started to fire a relentless rain of magical beams at the creature when a second one sprouted from the darkness, jumping at a distance impossible for them to conceive as real. Then a third, and a fourth. Then a countless number of these creatures started to flood into the place.

"Retreat! Retreat!"

---

Rocks falling from the sky, as he ran through a plain green field, while dodging them. Each boulder made the ground tremble as he fled. He couldn't see anything else. Everywhere was that same greenery, not a place for him to take shelter from that strange rain of rocks. All he could do was continue to run. He looked up, and the sky was a beautiful blue. The rocks would appear out of nowhere and start falling down, wherever he'd go. It didn't matter if he stopped or if he had ran miles away from where they fell last. They would always fall on him. He stopped again, after he had dodged the most recent barrage of rocks. He tried to catch his breath.

When he was about to sit on the ground to try and relax a little another wave appeared, "Are you kidding me?" He turned and started to run again, only to realise that there was a canyon right in front of him, where before there was only greenery. He tried to run in the other direction, but everything around him had turned into canyons, and he was on top of one of the hills in the middle of it. He had nowhere else to run from the rocks so he braced himself. When the first one was about to him, he closed his eyes instinctively. But the impact never came. He opened his eyes and noticed that there was a blue light circling him.

"You're safe now, Syaoran-kun. Don't worry." A voice, almost angelic, came from the light.

"Who are you?"

"I'm..." The voice faded as he slowly opened his eyes to a black and green ceiling.

He tried to sit up, but his limbs didn't respond, and he felt the bands tying his body and head to wherever he was lying. "Are you awake now, lad?" A man's voice came to his ears. Moments later the owner of the voice came to his field of vision. "Don't try to do anything rash now. We're transporting you to the medical centre."

He tried to understand his situation but his mind was blank. The images in his dream still vividly played in his mind "It wasn't a dream?"

"No. You are a hero. You saved several people back there, even if you got in this state."

"I... saved...?" There wasn't anyone else there with him. "From the rock shower?"

The man looked at him curiously, and then chuckled. "No, I think THAT was a dream. Don't try to force yourself now. Go back to sleep."

The boy tried to look at the man again but his head was tied firmly. His body was completely immobilised. He started to feel dizzy again, then fell asleep.

A few minutes later, a pair of female hands grabbed his left one, "Hey there, Syaoran-kun," She talked to the inert person in the stretcher. "We will be arriving at the medical centre in about thirty minutes." She looked at his battered face then smiled.

"Subaru-san," The same white haired man called her attention. "Did you get scanned already?"

"Yes, sir. No injuries or abnormalities." She saluted him.

"Good. Can I ask you to take care of our little hero there once we get to the medical centre?"

"No problem, sir."

---

"This is all the data the database has on them." The woman said through the holoscreen at one end of the table, "It's a type of ancient beast that can turn any person that comes near it into one of its minions."

"Is it safe to assume that it assimilated the investigation team then?" The General asked.

"Yes. Their devices are still responding to the wide area scan. We don't have the images but from the audio we can infer that all four of them were captured." She answered.

Hayate leaned back on her chair. "Any other information that can be added?"

"Not much. This type of beast is so ancient that very little knowledge of them remains."

"Thanks. I'll put up a request for the infinity library then ."

The other woman saluted then the screen shrank and disappeared. She summoned another screen. A few moments later another person appeared in it. "Hello, Yu~uno-kun." She singsonged sweetly.

The man looked like had just seen hell open up in front of him. "Don't talk like that, Hayate. It gives me the creeps."

She laughed softly. "I'm putting a request for some information hunting."

"From your tone it can't be just information hunting..."

She smiled and pressed a few buttons, "I'm sending you right now,"
The blonde skimmed rapidly through it, "Okay. I'll see what I can do."

---

"Li Residence."

"Good evening, this is Sakura. Is Syaoran-kun at home?"

"The young master has not returned from his recent travel yet, Sakura-sama."

"I see..."

"I believe he was hoping to find you. If you have already returned home safely, it could be problematic."

"Do you have any way to contact him?"

"Unfortunately, no. But maybe Madam Yelan has."

"Thank you. I'll try to contact her."

"Always a pleasure, Sakura-sama."

Sakura hung up and dialed Syaoran's Hong Kong home.

"Good evening. This is Sakura."

"Good evening, Sakura-sama. How may I help you?"

"Is Yelan-sama at home?"

"Not at the moment. I believe she will be later this evening."

"Okay. Can you ask her to call me when she gets home?"

"I'll make a note of it."

"Thank you. Good night."

"Have a good night, Sakura-sama."

Sakura didn't have anything to do but wait now. Tomoyo was going back to MidChilda with Fate, Signum and Vita. Syaoran was who knows where. At that moment, her father chose to knock on her door. "Yes?"

"Sakura-san. Can we talk now?" He said, with a tone that didn't combine with his soft gaze.

"...yes." Truth be told, Sakura had no idea of what she would tell her father.
"Can you tell me what happened, and what did you do during all this time?" The directness of the question made Sakura wince.

"It's..." She tried to fish for her words, but nothing seemed to come out her mouth.

Fujitaka smiled and took a seat beside her daughter in her bed. "Go on." He only prompted her, but she was feeling almost urged.

After a couple of false starts, Sakura finally gave up. "Dad, can we go visit Mom's grave?"

The man looked to one side, then back at her. His ever present gentle smiled still adorning his paternal features, he nodded. "Okay, but you must tell everything." He got up from his desk and walked to the door. "Get ready, then."

"...alright."

---

"How old are you?" The blue haired girl asked again.

"..."

"Look, if you don't want to talk, it's okay to just tell me, you know?"

The boy looked at her again, trying to focus his eyes on the girl, but failing miserably. "Who are you?"

"Subaru Nakajima. Disaster Relief and Rescue Squad."

"Nakajima...-san..."

"Call me Subaru. I have too many relatives with the same name, so it's easier."

"Subaru...-san..." He tried again to focus, but only a blur came to his vision, "...where am I?"

"In Clanagan's medical centre. The emergency treatment is already done, and you're already in a recovery room," She took two steps towards the window, and stretcher. "You are lucky that those kinds of injuries can be healed quite quickly nowadays. If we were on another planet, you would probably be quadriplegic for the rest of your life."

"...injuries?" He looked at the girl bewildered.

"You don't remember?" She turned and looked straight at him, eyes changing from amusement to worry.

For several moments he sat there in silence, trying hard to recollect the memories of him getting injured, but to no avail. Finally he gave in and shook his head in a negative response.

"I-I see... Well... These things happen when we have severe trauma... I think... hahaha..." Some silent awkward moments passed between them. "Don't worry, once you get back to your village you'll start remember everything again. I've seen it happen before, okay?" She got a half-hearted humph in response, "Don't worry, Syaoran-kun!"

His eyes seemed to have flickered at this, "Subaru-san... What did you call me?"

"Syaoran-kun... It's your name, right?"

"... I... I don't know... Is it?"

"A-Anyway, as I said, don't worry." She paced around him. "For now just rest. Tomorrow we'll escort you back to your home and when you see the faces of your relatives you'll remember everything, okay?"

He looked at her for a few more moments before nodding and lying down on the bed again.

---

"...and now Tomoyo-chan is going back there with them. I couldn't make her change her mind about it." Sakura finished telling everything she had kept from her father from the day she turned into a cardcaptor till the morning she came back from MidChilda. They were leaving the graveyard, where her mother's tomb was. She felt completely drained, after talking for what it seemed like hours, and right now she was just waiting for her father to start firing questions at her.

Fujitaka was walking a little behind his daughter, contemplating what he should say. Everything she told him was unbelievable from a scientific point of view. During several moments he was afraid that her daughter was having hallucinations or something alike, but everything she told him fell into place, in a way he couldn't very well refute. So, he did what any normal person would do, "Can you show me your magic?" He asked her.

"Well... Remember that I said that in MidChilda the magic of the planet was stronger and the cards needed to get accustomed?" He nodded, "I don't know what will happen to them if I use them here without them get accustomed again,"

"I see..."

"Ah!" Sakura lifted her head, "I know. When we get home, I'll show Kero to you. That'll be good enough, right?"

He looked down at her, smiling. When he was about to ask another question her phone went off.

She hurriedly picked it from her pocket and snapped it open as soon as she saw the caller ID. "Kinomoto Sakura speaking." It was from Hong Kong.

---

The next day, amazingly the boy was already walking in his own feet. According to the doctors, he didn't have anything wrong with his body, since the bones didn't break and the rest was magically healed. Aside from the soreness he felt great. Walking in the hospital courtyard he came across a little grassy area, with a few trees. He walked to it and sat there. Trying his hardest to remember who he was. He only knew his name because the girl who rescued him told him so.

"So what now..." He couldn't remember much of anything. It was a strange feeling of emptiness. He saw a bamboo stick thrown at ground near a tree and walked to it, "Familiar..."

He got the stick and looked around to see if anyone would mind what he was doing. When no one seemed to care, he simply held it a little, feeling its weight. After a few moments his body started to move on its own, first his right arm, that was holding the stick, began to roll it. A few moments later, his body was acting on too, and he decided to close his eyes, letting the growing feel of habit take over his movements. His arms would thrust the stick forward, other times his feet would kick, then turn around, then jump. Acrobatic manoeuvres that would be impossible for anyone who had just being off a hospital bed to be doing.

After several minutes he stopped in a pose that seemed the final one. Then he heard a few claps and opened his eyes. About everyone in the courtyard was watching him and his ballet. One of the audience came closer and he recognized her, "Hello, Syaoran-kun."

"Ah, good afternoon, Subaru-san." He bowed to the woman.

"That was amazing. Where did you learn to move like that?"

"I... don't remember." He sighed and let his shoulders droop, "It seems my body does, though." He tried to smile, but it didn't come out.

"I see... Well, I came to check on you, but since you already moving like that I believe the doctor will let you go soon. Let's go talk to him." She grabbed his wrist. "If they let you go now, we can take you home today."

---

"Are you certain that this is the place?" She asked her boyfriend's butler, after he stopped the car in front of a western styled house.

"Yes, Ma'am. This is the address where I left Master Syaoran."
She looked out the window, "Thanks." She got out of the car, and stood in front of the house, taking a deep breath.

"You don't need to think about something appropriate to say." She heard a voice coming from the side of the house. "I know why you are here. Come in." She saw a tall woman with dark long hair appear beside the house. She idly wondered how she could hear the woman's voice so clearly from such a distance.

"Pardon the intrusion." Sakura said, as she bowed. Then walked into the courtyard. After she took the first few steps into the patio she had a feeling of deja vu. Looking around nothing seemed to trigger her memories, but she felt strongly on her body.

"You don't need to be so alarmed." The woman walked to her, "Come, have some tea." She said, pointing to a prepared table with two sets on top.

"Were you... expecting someone?" The cardmistress asked, but the woman just smiled at her, before pointing her to a seat and claiming one for herself on the other side of the table. "You know who I am?" Sakura asked after sitting herself. The feeling of something misplaced still tingling on the back of her head.

"I know." The woman answered simply. "Kinomoto Sakura, Mistress of the Sakura Book, formerly the Clow Book."

"Ho-How do you know that?"

"I'm a fortune teller." Seeing the girl's eyes widen slightly, the woman continued. "Is earl grey suitable for your tastes?" She received a nodded response then poured a cup for her guest, "You came here to seek something. You have a wish."

"Ho-How-" Sakura started to ask again but was cut off.

"That you have a wish?" She poured herself a cup. "If you didn't have one, you couldn't have found this place..." She sighed. "..is what I would normally say, but your case is a bit more special." She sipped her drink.

"What do you mean?"

The woman's face turned a bit more neutral from the friendly one she was wearing until that moment, "I could go on a long winded response for that question, but I believe that you don't need it. Let's just say it's 'inevitability'. One who can read what is 'inevitable' can know about these things," She put her cup back on the tea saucer, "You don't have a wish, but you found this place. It means that you have a great destiny ahead of you. You'll be necessary for someone else's life one day, but not right now. The strange feeling you're having ever since the moment you stepped into this place, means that you are no longer on Earth. You are no longer anywhere, but at the same time, you are everywhere." She smiled again. "But the reason you came here, was to know more about the whereabouts of yours beloved ones."

"What do...?" Again the cardmistress started, but stopped midway. "Yes."

"You'll go back from where you came from again. The ones that helped you. They'll need you again."

---

 

[Sniperk]

"Have you decided what you'll do from now on?" The General asked the raven haired girl, after she entered the car. They were in the tele-port, after materializing on the planet. Vita and Signum were called to their respective units, so Hayate offered herself to pick the girl up. That, at least, was the story they told her. The fact was that Tomoyo was going to be under surveillance the entire time by powerful mages, but the General thought that it would be better if the ones to do this were people she could relate to in some way.

"No," Tomoyo sighed, "I just want a fresh start," She didn't want anything else at the moment, just some time to take her mind off Sakura, and this place seemed perfect for it.

"Really?" Hayate looked at her out of the corner of her eye, still paying more attention to the road ahead of her, "You know, if you don't want to talk about it, I understand, but do you think you can answer me something?"

"Sure," The girl turned to the driver of the vehicle. "What is it?"

"I talked with Sakura-chan... about your confession..."

Tomoyo felt a little prickle in her stomach at the mention of the card mistress name, "Hm..." She nodded.

"Did she reject you?" Straight to the point was better than beating around the bush, in the General's opinion.

"No," The younger girl leaned back. "I rejected her."

"Huh?" Hayate was puzzled, "How? I thought that you were the one who confessed,"

"It's... complicated…" She said leaning her head to the side of the window.

The commander was about to pry further the subject, but bit her lip and changed her question. "Say, Tomoyo-chan. Do you have anything else do to right now?"

"I don't know. Yuuno-san asked me to answer some questions for him when I got back. Aside from that I have nothing else,"

Hayate looked at the girl again, "Say... What do you think of having some tea with me at my house? I'm sure that by now you must be sick and tired of bases and battleships," She smiled.

Tomoyo nodded and Hayate changed directions. Then she waved her hand and a screen appeared on her side, "Rein."

"Hi, Hayate-chan. Good morning, Tomoyo-san," The little girl bowed.

"Good morning, Rein-chan,"

"Can you take care of the paperwork for me for the rest of the morning? I'm taking Tomoyo-chan to the house," The General asked.

"No problem," The little girl made a peace sign.

"Thanks, Rein," At this she cut the call.

After they drove through the streets for a few more minutes, Hayate parked in the driveway of her house.

"Welcome," The General said, as they entered.

"Pardon the intrusion,"

"My sons are at school and my husband is at the Saint Church, so no need to worry, okay?"

The raven haired was surprised, "So you're married?" The woman didn't seem old enough to be married with more than one child, and she was a General. Tomoyo didn't know much about military stuff, but she knew that a General was pretty high up in the ladder.

"Yes," Hayate offered a seat in her couch, while moving to the kitchen, "I know, I'll show you the pictures of them. Just give a minute to prepare the tea,"

"Okay," Tomoyo smiled, while sitting. She felt the presence of her Card on her back while shifting, "How are you guys? ... I see... Don't worry, I still love Sakura-chan the same way..." She smiled, "I'm certain that she does too. She just needs to sort out her feelings. That's all,"

"Am I interrupting something?" Hayate asked thoughtfully at the girl talking alone.

"No. No. Sorry. I was talking to the faeries,"

"Faeries?"

"Tosa and Sato," Tomoyo reached her hand and seemingly out of thin air the Card appeared in her hand, "Them,"

"Oh, I see," Hayate put the tray in the centre table, "But I thought only Sakura-chan could talk with the cards,"

"Yes, with the others. This one is... special," She trailed off at that, sadness heavy in her tone.

The General picked up on it and changed subjects immediately, "Ah, I know, I said I would show the photos, right?" The younger girl nodded, "Let's see..." She clicked a few translucent panels that appeared in front of her, and then moved the window to her guest, "Here. This one is Verossa, my husband. These three here are my triplets. This one is Kage, the middle one is Justice, and the other is Hikaru."

"Amazing. How can you tell who is who?" Tomoyo asked. To her the three children on the image were identical.

"Mother's instinct," Hayate grinned, while changing the picture, "These you've already met. Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan and their daughter, Vivio,"

"Their daughter?" The girl looked puzzled.

Understanding what the girl meant, Hayate informed. "Yes. They're married."

"But..."

"They're both girls. I know. But they love each other. Here on Mid, there's not so much problem with same sex relationships, especially between women. You see, the population split here is about four to one, women to men, so relationships like this are pretty normal around here," She smiled.

"I see,"

Hayate changed the picture again, "These are Caro and Erio. You know them already, right?"

"Yes. They helped Sakura-chan that day,"

"Yes. Yes. Fate-chan is their adoptive mother,"

So like this they spent the rest of the morning, talking about the people and the way of life in MidChilda. Tomoyo got to know much of the lifestyle and how things worked on this planet. A few thoughts came to her mind as Hayate explained the things to her, like how the society here seemed almost fascist, but she brushed that aside, simply because the General and her circle of friends seemed mostly formed by people in the military.

"It seems like I've being talking too much..." Hayate finally said, after she felt her throat dry.

"Not at all. It's so interesting," Her raven haired guest answered. Even if the woman was already a full-fledged member of this society, the way she acted was much more like a teenager, and that relieved her.

"So, Tomoyo-chan, what are you interested? What things you like to do?"

"Well... A few things like singing, design clothes and filming. Mostly as a hobby, though. I still haven't decided what I'll do with my life,"

"What type of clothes do you design?" A glint could be seen in Hayate's eyes.

"Gowns and dresses mostly... but... No, never mind."

Hayate perked up, "Go on, go on,"

"No... It's embarrassing,"

"It can't be too embarrassing. And if it is, I promise not to tell anyone,"

Tomoyo fidgeted, "I like to design costumes,"

"Seriously?!" Hayate almost fell from the couch while shifting to get near the other girl, "You're not just saying this, right?"

Not looking at the woman on her side, Tomoyo nodded, "I know it's pretty childish, but I like it,"

"Oh-ho, I think I'll let you in a little secret not-so-secret of mine," Hayate smirked while changing the album in the screen, "These are my creations," The screen displayed the images of the Wolkenritter with their Knight's Garb.

"Really?" Tomoyo looked closer, "They're so cool,"

"Aren't they? But those are normal, compared to the others..." She grinned while changing the pictures again to show the images of dozens of other costumes she had designed with the several different people wearing them.

---

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing much we can do for you, boya," The old woman said apologetically.

"Oh, don't worry, Meniel-obaa-san," The boy bowed, "You don't need to feel sorry about me," He turned to the exit of the tent again.

Now he was really in a pinch. None of the villagers seemed to know him. From what they told him, he had appeared a week earlier, saying that he was after his girlfriend and their friend, but since he didn't talked much about himself, the others couldn't answer his questions. At least he got the names of both of the girls. Sakura and Tomoyo. When the earthquake happened he was in the village waiting for the next cargo transporter to pass by so he could hitch a ride.

He started to walk aimlessly through the destroyed village with the woman named Subaru when she asked, "So, what do you want to do now, Syaoran-kun?"

He looked to the rice fields that were still intact, "I don't know. If I don't belong here, if I came from somewhere else... But first I need to discover who am I. Maybe those girls, my girlfriend, would know,"

"I can request a search in the database if you want. From what the doctors told us, your rank is estimated to be around A, so it's pretty easy to narrow the search, I think,"

"Rank?" The boy asked.

"Mage rank. It's standard procedure to measure the Linker Core's potential ranking when dealing with injured mages,"

"I'm a mage?"

"You think you're not?"

"I... don't really know. It sorta feels familiar though,"

A man was passing near them and Subaru called out to him, "Good morning, sir. Can you answer a few questions for us?"

"Of course," The man said, after seeing the boy. The whole village was thankful to him.

"Did Syaoran-kun here use any spells during his stay in the village?"

"Not that I recall, though since he spent most of the time taking care of Mediel-jou-chan, I think Meniel-obaa-san would know better,"

"Thanks," She turned again to the boy, "Let's go back there and ask her," She pulled him along. When they got back to the tent, she asked again the same question of the old woman.

"Ah... I don't remember ever seeing him use anything like magic. I never thought that he was a mage,"

"Oh, we don't know yet if he is or not," Subaru answered, "At least we don't know if he's registered as one," Subaru mused as they departed the woman's tent, "I'll take look into the register,"

"Can you do that?"

"Piece of cake. Though I don't have access to classified information, I can search the open files," Subaru pressed a few of buttons on a keyboard that popped in front of her, "Personnel search. Name: Li Syaoran," Several people appeared in the monitor, but none of them were him, "Hmm... Why things aren't easier... I know, when we get back, I'll put up an official request for you. I'm sure we can find something in the database,"

"Thanks," They were walking to a transport nearby, when they took in more carefully the state village was, almost completely in shambles and ruins. The people were camped in tents that the TSAB provided. When Subaru was boarding the chopper, she stopped looking back.

"What's the matter, Syaoran-kun?"

"Subaru-san, would you mind if I stayed here?"

She looked at him a little surprised, "No, but can I ask you why?"

"These people... They seemed to have helped me a lot. I just want to return the favour, I guess. They could use more people to help them rebuild their village. I think I would be more useful here for now, at least,"

"I see. Well, if that's what you want, I won't stop you," She fished in her pocket and took out a little box, "Here. It's a communication device. If you need anything, just open the box and ask to talk to me," She smiled, "When I get back I'll put up the request. What were the names of the girls again?"

"I think... Sakura..." He repeated, "Sakura..." It sounded familiar.

"And the other..."

"To... Tomoyo. That's it. Tomoyo,"

"Noted. Okay, if anything comes up, I'll contact you through the comm device. Don't lose it, okay?" She waved, "Bye then,"

He waved back, then bowed as the chopper took off.

---

The General didn't know that she would find a goldmine when she took onto herself the job of escorting the Source Holder. She had so many ideas and designs in her mind for clothes, both normal and costumes, that the older woman was stupefied. She got around showing photos of her own classics, and the girl would always have something to say to make the costume better or prettier in some way. It was unnerving at first, but Hayate had long disregarded that type of childish behaviour when she met someone with some skill. Tomoyo wasn't just for talking. She actually knew what she was talking about. They continued talking for hours, all the way through lunch, and on to the afternoon. Then a call flashed in front of her.

"Good afternoon, Yuuno-kun," The General immediately wore her game face. If the librarian was calling her directly, then he must have found something regarding the information she had asked earlier.

"Hello, Hayate," He waved, then after looking at her side, "Hello, Tomoyo-san,"

The girl bowed to the man, "Good afternoon, Yuuno-sama,"
Yuuno wanted to wave off the extra politeness in the girl's speech, but decided that it wasn't the right time, "About the information you asked for earlier…"

Hayate looked at the girl in the room with her, "Tomoyo-chan, do you mind if I ask you to wait in the other room a little? This is confidential,"

"Oh, don't worry," The girl waved off, "Is in the kitchen okay? I need a glass of water," She smiled upon receiving a hummed response, then walked out of the room.

"So, what do you have for me?"

"Everything I have here if from folktales. There's nothing official registers about this type of beast. I looked into it, and all stories date back to before the dimensional dislocation," He said. The dimensional dislocation was a cataclysm that destroyed several worlds in the past. Little to no record existed from the period of time before it happened.

Hayate sighed, "And? At least tell me what you have,"

"There's several different legends. Some more strongly believed than others," He took off his glasses to clean the lenses, "On earth, do you remember what was said about Vampires?"

"Well, yes. There are several legends about them, but there are several things that differ from the real Vampires, like the sunlight and mirrors."

"It's the same thing. These legends talk about the Am-Hor. In some myths they were a tribe were they would continuously capture more people, seemingly without regard for age or gender, and transport them to their hive, where these people would be turned into another one of their number. In other myths, it's said that the hive didn't exist and the people would be eaten by a monster to feed her unborn in spring. This monster would be always hungry and always pregnant. But there's only one thing that it's the same in all those myths. The monster would be described as humanoid, with immense teeth and without eyes,"

"It didn't have any weaknesses?" Hayate asked.

"No. In none of the legend books says how to destroy them. Each individual can be destroyed like any normal human being, but according to them, they just keep on coming, in a relentless wave of destruction. None of the books I searched mentioned anything about them being able to destroy them completely,"

The General was munching on her thumb, "I see. Do you think it could possibly be anything else about it?"

"I don't know, but I'll continue with the research," He smiled then waved a goodbye, before the window closed.

Hayate fell back on her couch. Another case without much information on it. At least in her last one, the perpetrator herself told all the information that she needed to continue, but now there was no one who could possibly... "Seems difficult." The soft spoken voice threw Hayate out of her reverie, before she turned to the owner of the voice and saw the raven haired girl. "I'm sorry for listening in your conversation, but I kind of overheard the beginning of it from the kitchen and got interested," Tomoyo smiled. If there was something that she was already used to it was these unknown things happening around her. It started with Sakura and the Clow Cards, and, from what it seemed, her fortune would continue to draw her near these types of events.

The General sighed heavily, "Sorry, Tomoyo-chan. Can you promise not to tell anybody about this?" She was nodded at, "I need to pass on this information. Do you mind if I make another call?"

"Not at all," The girl smiled, as Hayate dialled again.

---

The boy walked around the desolate village during the rest of the day, talking to some, helping others, but mostly trying his best to fish up something that would spark his memories back to what they should be. It was an interesting feeling if nothing else. He couldn't remember anything, so he didn't really have anything to anguish over. His body told him that he was a man of action, not the thinking type.

After the sunset had already past, and the last rays of natural light were almost gone, he walked to the end of the village and sat by the remains of the house of the old woman that had taken care of him. That was the only place he could feel some kind of connection to his past. It was, actually, the only past he knew about himself. He sat on the ground and leaned down against one of the destroyed fence posts, overlooking the rice fields. The horizon seemed distant and the orange turning black light of the night, along with the evening warm breeze, was somewhat soothing. In the distance he could still make out the different landscapes.

His thoughts went back to the names he heard earlier. "Sakura..." He tasted again the name in his lips. It really felt familiar to him, like a spoonful of sugar in an especially bitter cup of tea. "Tomoyo..." It too felt familiar to him. Not like the previous one, but it still held something dear to him. From what the village folks had said, one of them was his girlfriend and the other her friend, but he had forgotten who was who. He thought hard on the names again, but nothing clicked.

He sat up and sighed. He didn't felt any more self-conscious about the unknown girls, but he wished to at least remember their faces. He walked back to the tents, where they were serving the food the women had prepared. At first he wanted to decline the offer, but his body was complaining the lack of nourishment, so he settled with a bowl of noodles that was offered. After eating his part, he thanked the women and went to another large tent were several other men were preparing for the night. He was offered a blanket and a small futon, that he placed in a corner and immediately after touch his head on the fabric he was welcomed to a dreamless slumber.

---

"Anything else?" The General asked to the people on the several monitors.

"General Yagami," A white haired man started. "The location of this unknown is the same as the epicentre of the last earthquake in that region. I have three teams deployed in that area for quick response in case there are more aftershock quakes," The image of the man changed to display several people, "If you want, I can put one or two of these teams in your care for this mission."

The General skimmed swiftly through the images, and smiled, pleased, upon recognizing a few of the faces, "Can you put the N2R under me, for the time being then?"

"No problem," He tapped a few keys, "Already sent you the paperwork, and their call signs," He smiled, "Just don't be too harsh on them, okay?"

"Thanks. I'll take good care of these kids, anything else?" She looked again at the other people. When no one made motion to say anything else, she nodded then closed the windows.

She looked up the digital documents regarding the temporary transfer of the unit to her care, then digitally signed and sent them back. After the procedure was over she dialled the newest addition to her crew, and a few moments later a familiar eyepatched girl picked up, "Hello, Cinque."

"Ah, General Yagami. Good to see you," The eldest of the quartet answered.

"Good to see you too. I need you guys to do me a favour in your position. I already spoke with your superior, and he agreed to let me use the N2R in this mission. I know that it was impolite of me to do this before asking if you four are willing to accept, but right now I'm pressed for time,"

"There's no need to such formalities, Sir," The girl bowed, getting a scowl from the older woman, leaving her puzzled. Even so she continued, "The N2R will act with the best of its abilities to serve you,"

"Thanks, Cinque. I'll send you your orders in the morning, okay? Right now, I just want you guys to have a good night sleep," She grimaced, "You'll probably need it,"
---