The Story: 
A continuation of Cardcaptor Sakura that slowly begins to incorporate some elements (and characters) from Tsubasa, while still taking place in the CCS universe/timeline (what have you) to sort of bridge the gap between the two series, taking place after the events of "The Sealed Card". As such, AU versions of any and all CLAMP characters could potentially cameo and/or have a role.


Rules:
- All Forums Rules still appy
- Cannon characters only, however, since this is something of an AU virtually any CLAMP character is allowed, as previously stated.
- You make assume more than one role so long as your skill level allows
- The above rules are subject to change and/or addition should the need arise

Participants:
- Sailor: Sakura (Permanent Role), Kero (Temporary Role), Fai (Temporary Role)
-  AzarathianMage: Syaoran (Permanent Role), Kurogane (Temporary Role)

Tomoeda had slowly become a very lonely place over the last two years. Two years ago had been the last time Sakura had seen Syaoran, thanks to the efforts of Tomoyo and Mei Ling. During that time she had finally be able to confess her feelings for him, but he and Mei Ling had both returned to Hong Kong shortly after that. She had also transformed the final Clow Card into a Sakura Card then, which had put an end to any supernatural occurrences around the city since, not that that was a bad thing. 

She had been exchanging letters with Eriol, and Kero with Soupy, ever since he had returned to England, but letter soon started coming further and further apart until recently when they had stopped all together. 

Even Tomoyo had been able to spend less time with her over the summer while she had been attending a camp for Film and Photography, though she had promised to tell Sakura all about it once they were back in school together.

Even worse, Sakura's own home seemed lonely now. Her father was assisting a group on an Archaeological Dig, leaving a substitute to take over his class at the University,Toya was beginning to take College courses and was hardly ever at home between his various part-time jobs. This left some occasional extra chores for Sakura, including her current errand of grocery shopping. She didn't mind, but it was still lonely enough that she let out a sigh as she passed through King Penguin Park on her way home with a full grocery bag.

On her way home, she passes through a wooded area, and she sees him on the ground, leaning against a tree with a large gash across his forehead, and a fair amount of blood covering his right arm, which he is obviously not able to move, and he is just sitting there, unconscious from blood loss.

Sakura dropped her grocery bag in complete shock. "S...Syaoran-kun?" She asked before rushing to him to get a better look and confirming without a doubt that it was, indeed, him. Normally, she would have been completely overcome with joy, but he was unresponsive.

She quickly pulled out a small pink handkerchief and began to do her best to dab away the blood on his forehead but it didn't appear to help much. While she leaned over him, her star-shaped key slid out from under the collar of her shirt. With no other immediate ideas and no other people seeming to be around, she unlocked her staff.

"Key that hides the power of the stars, show your true form before me! I, Sakura, command you under our contract! ....RELEASE!"

She then clasped her hands around the staff's base in a prayer fashion and began to focus.

"Please... give me the power to help Syaoran..." she said, though she knew none of her cards had healing powers.

Suddenly, something in per pocket began to glow a bright pink and when she pulled it out it, was her newest and the final card, The Hope. She had never used it before and was unsure of what it's power was but as The Nothing it had been created to absorb the residual negative energy of the Clow Cards so perhaps now it could grant positive energy.

"RELEASE!" she called a second time, touching the card with the end of her wand.

The cardspirit floated out with a smile and held up the winged heart it normally cradled. It began to glow along with all of Syaoran's injuries which began to instantly heal.

His eyes open slightly once the light goes away. "Sakura-chan...? What... what are you doing here? Where am I?" He tries to sit up fully, but winces and grabs the side of his torso, so he moves his legs and uses the tree to help him stand. "Sakura-chan... Please, help me get to your house..." He shuffles over and picks up the spilled groceries, placing them back in the bag, and he stands up slowly, trying not to fall over, then he shuffles back over to the tree and holds the bag out to her. Once she takes them, he tries to use his magic to summon his sword to use as a crutch, but he's too weak, so he gestures for her to come over to help support him.

As soon as she heard the water of the shower running she quickly set the groceries in the kitchen then made her way to the closet and pulled out a small stack of fresh towels for Syaoran. She left them on a chair beside the bathroom door before continuing into Toya's room to pick out a change of clean clothes for him and leaving them beside the towels before finally going back to the kitchen to finish putting away the groceries.

Kero cautiously entered the kitchen a moment later. "Hey, is your brother back already?" he asked in a hushed tone, noting the sound of the shower.

"No.... Syaoran-kun is here," Sakura reluctantly told him.

"What? The kid?!"

She nodded. "It's... kind of a long story, but he's going to need some help once he's done. Do you think you could finish putting these away while I go to check on him?"

He let out a slightly annoyed grumble but agreed when Sakura offered to let him have her helping of dessert that night. Sakura then made her way back to the bathroom to wait for Syaoran so that she could also bandage him properly when he was ready.

Shortly after Kero finishes putting away the groceries, he shuts the shower off and the last of the blood washes down the drain, and then he gingerly steps out of the shower, holding onto the towel rack for support, and he walks over to the door, grabs the towels, then takes one, dries off his torso carefully, wincing every time he uses to much pressure, wraps that towel around his waist, then uses the second to dry off his hair before draping it around his neck as he goes back to grab the clothes as he thinks 'Man, that hurt more than I was expecting it to. At least I got it over with.' He dresses his lower body, leaving the towel wrapped around his shoulders to give him some relief from the constant aching of the burns and lacerations from the explosion of his spell. He then walks over and pokes his head out the door. "Sakura-chan? I'm decent, if you want to come bandage me up now." He shuts the door and sits patiently on the toilet to wait.

Sakura entered a moment later and shut the door behind her before rummaging through the medicine cabinet and quickly pulling out a roll of bandages and a spray-on antiseptic.

"This might sting a little," she warned him, "but it would hurt a lot more if any of your wounds became infected."

She then began to clean and bandage each injury as gently as she could then let out a small sigh of relief when she had finished without seem to have caused him too much more pain. 

"There, that should help," Sakura smiled as she stood up and offered him the shirt she had brought so that he could finish getting dressed again. "I'll make sure your other clothes get clean, she told him, "but  what kind of magic were you trying to use that brought you all the way here? And why?"

He smiles and stands slowly, trying not to aggravate any of his injuries. "That's just it. I was coming here to see you, so I tried to open a portal from Hong Kong to here, and I manage to do that. The problem was after I stepped out of the portal again, because it became unstable and exploded, sending shards of sharpened tree everywhere, which is what the cuts are from, and sending me flying all the way to where you found me. I managed to use my magic as a cushion so I didn't break any bones, but I was still knocked unconscious upon impact with the tree. The explosion is what caused the burns." He carefully pulls the shirt on, then opens the door and sits down on the couch carefully, trying not to land painfully on any wounds. "Would you please make me something to eat? It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just something to restore my energy. Cup ramen would be fine, and I normally wouldn't ask, but that spell took a lot out of me, so I need to restore my energy." He waves his hand and a teapot, a small hot plate, a bottle of water, and some tea leaves appear on the coffee table, after which he starts to make himself some herbal tea to restore his energy as well.

"I see," Sakura said as she returned his smile, partly from being happy that he had wanted to see her. The other part was because she was impressed by how much stronger his magic had seemed to become since the last time she had seen him, even if it had gone a little wrong in the end. "Oniisan won't be home until later, so if you wouldn't mind waiting just wait a little I could make dinner for you instead now that I have all of the ingredients I need. I'm still not that good yet, but Tomoyo-chan has been giving me lessons so I'm sure it would be a lot better than just  ramen," she giggled. Her smile then began to fade slightly. "Oh, but I'm sure you mother and sisters are worried about you by now so you probably need to go back soon, don't you?"

He shakes his head. "I told them that I was planning on coming here for a bit, so they know where I am. I also have some money, so I can go shopping for clothes tomorrow, since the only clothes I had were the ones you found me in. And I suppose I could wait until then." He relaxes with a sigh, then levitates the remote to him and turns on the TV before patting the seat next to him on the couch. "Come on, sit down. You deserve to relax." Once she does, he reaches over and starts massaging her shoulders, gently easing the tension so she can relax.

She sat for only a moment to enjoy the massage before standing up again. "Thank you, but you don't have to. I'm fine," Sakura told him. The magic she had used with The Hope card had not been enough to drain her energy too severely and the effort of helping him to walk  hadn't caused her any real pain to speak of, though there had been some difficulty. Maybe she had also gotten stronger while he had been away.

"You're the one who deserves to relax, so just wait here and I'll start preparing the food," she gave him another smile before turning to go into the kitchen where Kero was still waiting.

"Is everything okay? Your face is all red..." Kero asked suspiciously.

Sakura blinked in confusion before putting her hands up to her cheek and noticing she was blushing. "Uh, it's nothing," she assured him. "I'm going to make dinner a little early so that Syaoran-kun can eat, too. Oniisan shouldn't mind as long as there is something leftover for him."

She took a pot out of the cupboard and began to carry it over to the sink to fill it with water until she suddenly felt a presence that was almost familiar but at the same time also seemed to be filled with the intent to cause harm. When she looked up out the window she dropped the pot when she was the figure of a dark haired boy with glasses wearing an oversized dark blue hat with matching robes that were trimmed with a lighter blue and a golden sun pattern. He carried a tall, golden staff that was similar to hers but topped with a large sun symbol.

He hears the pot hit the floor and rushes in as fast as his wounds will allow him, and he sees Eriol standing outside the window as well. "YOU!" He jumps at the window, phasing right through it, and tackles Eriol to the ground, holding him there and causing his staff to go sliding across the ground, resulting in it ending up out of his reach. "What are you doing here?!?" He grips the front of Eriol's robes and brings their faces close together. "If you so much as think about hurting Sakura-chan, you'll wish that you were dead, because I will make your existence a living Hell." He stands up and picks Eriol up, still holding onto his robes, then clutches his side lightly, a stinging there, but he managed to not reopen the wound. He then opens a portal just large enough to fit Eriol, then tosses him through, causing him to land in a giant puddle on the other side and his glasses to fly off. "And don't even think about coming back." He walks over, grabs Eriol's discarded staff, aims it, then hurls it through the portal, causing it to become embedded in the pavement about half a foot from Eriol's head.

Eriol quickly stood up and collected his glasses without suffering too much indignity with no other people around to have seen him. He then went the retrieve his staff by simply holding out his hand and using his own magic to pull it from the ground, perfectly intact. He then gave it a hard tap on the ground in annoyance to instantly dry off. "So, Syaoran Li is back in town? He may become problematic; I had better tell Fei Wong about this..." Eriol grumbled before waving his staff and disappearing.

Sakura immediately picked the pot back up and set it back down on the counter just before Syaoran had reentered the kitchen.

"That sure was some impressive magic you did there, Kid," Kero smiled at him, noting howhe had been able to go directly through the wall while leaving it perfectly instact.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you, Syaoran-kun," Sakura appologized. "I was just surprised when I thought I saw Eriol-kun that I even thought I sensed something. I guess I'm just a little worried because I haven't heard anything from him in a while, either."

He shakes his head. "It's alright, Sakura-chan. I wasn't that worried, because I can tell you have gotten stronger. I just don't trust him not to leave some kind of sigil on the outside of your home to watch you, or for him to do something similar." He smiles back at Kero. "Aw, thanks, plushy. I appreciate the compliment." He smiles fondly at the old nickname for the flying familiar, and pets his head lightly.

Kero quickly flew out or range of Syaoran's hand with an annoyed huff. "Don't get too cocky," he warned, pointing directly as Syaoran's nose. "You may have gotten a little stronger, but you are still just a kid." Kero then folded both arms in satisfaction. "Besides, that Eriol kid went back to England not too long after you left, there no way it could have been him," he continued.

"It's true," Sakura nodded. She made he way over to a drawer that contained various papers with direction, phone numbers and other basic information on them as well as a stack of papers that was held together by a small paperclip that clearly belonged to Sakura. She showed him the handful of seemingly friendly letters she and Eriol had been exchanging, even though the most current one was dated nearly a month ago.

He looks through them, skimming over the dates, and hands them back. "Well, it is a possibility that that was not him, but if I know Eriol, he probably made a long term duplicate of himself to write those, then got here the same way I did, via portal. If he ended up in the same or was state that I am currently in, that would explain why you haven't heard from him in a month. He has probably been in hiding while he was healing and a little afterwards as well, trying to lay low while he planned his next move." He paces back and forth across the floor, thinking. "We might have to have another confrontation with him, and since I am mostly out of commission for the meantime, you'll have to do most of the fighting, Sakura-chan. I'll help as much as I can, but I can't use my sword in this condition. All I can do is use magic."

"Fight?" Sakura repeated with genuine concern in her voice. "Do you really think whoever that was would come back?" she asked. Sakura still didn't want to believe that Eriol would actually try to do anything to hurt either of them, even though there had been times when he had seemed to have acted strangely around her.

"It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to keep your guard up, just in case," Kero nodded in agreement with Syaoran.

Sakura let out a sigh, reluctantly agreeing to their condition before finally going back to preparing their dinner.

Meanwhile, Eriol reappeared outside the mansion that had once belonged to Clow Reed and entered. He made his way over to a large chair in the main living area that had been positioned in front of the fireplace. "I'm sorry to report that I wasn't able to get the cards back for you. There was... an interference before I could apprehend Sakura," he said to the man sitting in the chair, though he was sitting facing away from Eriol.

A short while later, back at the Kinomoto house, Sakura stepped out from the kitchen and into the living area where both Syaoran and Kero had been waiting while she had resumed preparing their meal. "I'm finished with the cooking," she said with a smile.

Kero let out a cheer, leaping up into the air and then darting into the kitchen ahead of Syaoran. 

When Sakura turned her body to open the door wider for Syaoran to enter as well, it became apparent that she had even taken the liberty to set a place at the table for all three them. She had even already served a portion of a rice dish that also continued vegetables and beef on each plate. "There is plenty more if you want seconds, so please help yourself," Sakura told him.

He sits down and he and Kero lock eyes. "Oh, you're on." He and Kero start trying to out-eat each other, the food literally vanishing from their plates as the two eat.

Sakura watched them with her mouth hanging open in shock. "hoé..." she quietly gaped before finally taking the first bite of her own food.

"Yeah! Tomoyo's lessons have really been paying off!" Kero quickly told her before resuming his race with Syaoran, but the two seemed to remain evenly matched.

She smiled then resumed eating her own meal at a more modest pace. It was not long before Kero and Syaoran had both cleared their plates and shouted "DONE" at the same time, holding up their plates as proof.

"I'm glad everything tasted good, but it''l be late soon," Sakura noted as she set her utensils back down on her plate. "Are you going to stay at your old house while you're here then, Syaoran-kun? I could walk you home it you'd like."