To the Readers:

The official introduction will be in the next chapter so that you can enjoy this first chapter without interruption. (Disclaimer: I don't own anything, save for plot and a character that will be introduced shortly.)

So, until next time, enjoy!

(And remember, reviews are always welcome!)

She let out a scream of pure anger, shock, and horror as her guardians, her protectors, her friends fell from the sky, their wings broken and bloody, bodies just as mangled and streaked with blood. Her eyes locked on their falling forms, she began to run through the decimated streets of her beloved city, tears spilling freely down her cheeks and broken sobs echoing through the silence.

This wasn't right…this was all wrong.

It should have NEVER happened like this.

How had everything just gone so terribly wrong?

She reached the edge of the giant magical seal just as the two figures landed upon the ground, their wings barely able to keep them aloft for very long. One of them, a large lion-like creature with blood-matted fur, was hardly able to manage to lift his head, his gold eyes staring up at the girl as she dropped to her knees between the two of them, her expression one of terror and grief.

"G-get o-out of here…while y-you s-still…" he begged her as the last of his strength gave out and he slumped, unconscious to the ground, his heart beating sluggishly beneath his fur.

His partner, a similarly winged angel with long flowing hair, also lifted his head, eyes glazed with pain and anger that in this state, she was in danger and he was unable to protect her. Her name was a whisper that slipped through his chapped and cracked lips, weakly breathed through the strands of silver hair that fell over his cheeks, and when she turned to look at him, eyes filled with helplessness, he felt his heart clench.

"He is r-right," he murmured, voice a rough rasp as he lifted his cheek further from the concrete ground to fix his gaze upon hers. "Y-you must g-get as far a-away from h-here as you c-can."

"No!" she cried, shaking her head resolutely, stubbornly, pressing a shaking hand to her mouth to stifle the sobs that threatened to overtake her. "I won't leave either of you to die like this!" Her hands scrambled for the cards at her hip, fumbling through them desperately for anything that might be able to heal them of their wounds and replenish their magic…and finding nothing. "Please…please, please please," she begged of the cards under her breath, repeating this plea like a mantra over and over again.

"Enough," he told his young charge when her voice broke, his traitorous hand trembling as he lifted it up to place it gently, insistently, upon her wrist. Her head snapped up to look at him, tears balanced precariously on her lashes, and the cards that started all of this quivering in her hands. Struggling to clear his throat of the blood that threatened that rise, he tightened his grip on her wrist and used his hold to pull his torso further up from the ground. "You cannot worry about either of us any longer; you must get yourself and the cards to safety first; that is your priority."

"But-,"

Before either of them could argue any further, from the black smoke that billowed around them came a roar and a pair of glowing red eyes…a gaze filled with rage and a singular promise of vengeance for the wounds afflicted upon it

Wounds from claws and crystal-tipped arrows….

The girl let out a cry of surprise at the sight of those crimson, feral eyes, as memories of the violent attack she had lived through echoed in her mind. The scars on her back ached in remembrance of the beast's claws that had ripped through the tender skin when she had tried to flee from it, as well as upon her shoulder where it had savagely bitten her in an attempt to tear her head from her head from her shoulders.

And if she had been alone that night, she would have surely perished.

Yet as he had saved her then, he would make sure she did not perish now.

"Get up and r-run," he commanded her then, his concern granting him enough strength to speak clearly. Yet she made no effort to move, still frozen in her fear of the dark creature in front of them, and so he lifted himself further off the ground, though the action cost him dearly. Pain wracked his body as he did so, but all he could think about was getting her out of harms way. "What are you w-waiting for? Y-you cannot s-stay h-here any longer! Go!"

"No…I-I…I can't," she stammered back in reply, her heart slamming against her ribs in a fierce rhythm that left her breathless, fear keeping her petrified in place…while another part of her clamored that even if she did manage to somehow get away from here, that Beast would tear her guardians apart.

And she would never survive the guilt and grief of letting them throw away their lives so that she may live on.

…But she also knew that if she didn't flee, as the moon guardian had just commanded her to do so, the Cards she had been given would fall into his hands…and that was something she could never allow. He would only use their power for his dark, twisted purposes and make everyone she had ever loved suffer for their involvement with her.

But that would never come to pass. She would make sure of it.

Starting now.

As the beast padded closer, snarling with annoyance and recognition, he saw a change come over the young spellcaster's face; a crease formed between her brows as the fear suddenly cleared from her eyes, replaced by indomitable, obstinate will that he had come to both admire and disapprove of immensely. With surprising surety, she straightened from her crouch and rose to her feet, taking a battle stance with her staff at the ready. She turned to face the Beast fully, despite the fact that her heart was beating frantically in her chest, determined to protect her friends…no matter the cost.

Twirling her staff around her body as if it were a baton, she began the sacred invocation of the card in a strong, confident voice magnified by her magic; her movements fluid and graceful, as if doing so was second nature.

"Shield card," she said as she took one of her sacred mediums from the pouch around her waist, holding it out in out front of her like a talisman as the dark creature roared in defiance to her words. "Cloak us with your power!"

She flung the card out in front of her as she spoke, and when she reached the end of her invocation, she pointed the tip of her staff at the card…and allowed the magic to flow through her and into the card as her magic circle formed beneath her feet and expanded out until it encircled both her and the two guardians…and causing the former magic circle to waver before disappearing completely.

"Shield card! Release and dispel!" she cried as the spirit within materialized in their world, shooting free from its sealed form into something more ethereal…more magical. Like a waterfall of gold, the spirit of the shield card sprang forth just as the Beast surged forward with a mighty roar, the force of the sound nearly bringing the young magician to her knees. Yet she stood tall and held her ground, and when the monster brought it's paw down, with murderous intent in it's unearthly-glowing eyes, she was unwavering.

However, just as the Shield card was partially formed, starting with protecting its mistress from the Beast, the silver-haired angel felt a sense of foreboding run through him, and well as knowledge that she was in terrible danger.

And that he was nearly powerless to stop whatever was coming.

As the air shimmered a few feet from where the Clow guardians were lying, the moon representative was jarringly aware that their enemy had planning this all along. Clenching his teeth tightly as a male with short, dark hair stepped forth from a darkened rift in the material plane, a staff in hand and cruel smile on his face, bringing with him the stench of death and dark magic that the guardian had come to recognize all too-well.

After all, he had once been a slave to the darkness that writhed around the other male…and it was an experience that he longed never to repeat again.

However, enslaving the moon guardian seemed to be the farthest thing from the other's mind as his eyes locked with the angel's briefly before he lifted his hand to flash a card similar to the ones that the girl had used only moments before, deliberately revealing the image with a malevolent smirk.

He did not hear the incantation the boy used to summon this new spirit, for all he now heard was the sound of his heart¾no, the heart of his host¾pounding loudly in his chest, resounding in his ears as both fear and a primal, protective instinct welled up inside him.

He needed to protect her…that was his duty.

And he wouldn't fail her a second time.

With the last of his energy, he drug his debilitated body up from the ground, pouring every ounce of his sheer willpower to force his body into cooperation.

As a consequence, everything their enemy had worked for fell into place.

The young mistress of the Clow gasped in horror as the bestial spirit suddenly vanished into thin air; concurrent with the strange ripple that went through her body…a phenomenon that she quickly recognized as another casting taking place, one that was identical to the one that had called up the dark entity.

However, as she was about to turn and pinpoint the exact location of this new magic, she felt arms slip around her torso, pulling her back against a firm chest and into a warmth that she never failed to recognize. His name caught in her throat, and yet as his body curled around her own, she heard his shuddering exhale, the strands of his long, silver hair falling over her shoulders and caressing her cheek with his next breath.

"Forgive me…mistress."

He bent around her smaller, diminutive form and let his wings flare open for the last time, wishing to shield her as much as possible as the spirit of Chaos broke through the golden dome of the Shield card, impaling both his body and wings in several places. The shock of it was enough to evoke a pained gasp from his lips, his wings quivering in unspeakable agony and body shrieking its own suffering at this sudden onslaught. He felt her go ramrod stiff in his arms and heard the catch her throat as she finally realized what had happened, but by the time she turned, his grip had already loosened and he fell once more to the ground…

This time never to rise again.

As the magic of the Shield too fell, needing to repair itself of the damage brought to it, the girl stared in horror at her guardians, both now lying there beyond any and all hope of salvation or healing. In her mind's eye, she could see the last of their magic beginning to fade away, and she knew it wouldn't be long before…

She could hear her enemy laughing maliciously at the ragged, weakened state the mistress of the Clow was in, and over the pounding of her heart she could hear him mock the dying guardians at her feet, his words like daggers flung directly into her heart. Grief poured out of her in a wild torrent as she began to sob brokenly, begging the two of them to get up, to say something…to not leave her.

Yet when they didn't answer, she felt both her heart and soul shatter with their silence, her staff falling from her hand to land on the ground between the three of them.

"Poor little magician…too weak to do anything without her celestial guardians… it's a wonder you've lasted this long against someone with natural talent for magic…though it won't be long now until I put an end to you, little usurper that you are, and take the Clow cards for myself…pity you won't live to see the empire I build for myself…the beginning of a new era…of a new time, where my family and I reign supreme."

…New…time?

Through the haze of her grief and the monotonous voice of the dark sorcerer, these two words reverberated inside her mind with a strange sort of purpose…and in the shadows that had come with the death of her guardians…brought forth a new solution.

Ignoring the boy gloating in front of her, she fell to her knees beside her companions…her guardians…her friends, the tears continuing to drip down her cheeks. With shaking hands, she lifted the cards out of the pouch around her waist, riffling through them in order to memorize each of the spirit's faces and names, committing each of them to memory just in case…

Just in case her efforts were in vain, and everything was to fall to the dark.

"Those worthless cards won't save you…too weak to do anything else but surrender and die…"

Upon the location of the card she had been searching for, she lifted it up and closed her eyes for just a moment… focusing on her intent to reset the balance of magic… and to bring those that she had lost back from the edge of death.

She set the lone card aside before spreading the others in an arc between her and the staff, the edges of the cards at each end touching the sun and moon guardians, while the very middle one laid underneath the bottom of her staff. After this was done, in taking the fifty-third card, she leaned forward and, careful not to disturb any of the others spread out before her, set it in front of the staff, so that the top point of the star was pointed at this singular card…the fulcrum of her final hope.

"Wait…what are you doing? Stop that! STOP THAT!"

Regardless of the tears that streamed down her cheeks, she lifted her bowed head to stare with defiant eyes at the dark sorcerer, her entire body radiating a new-found sense of hope and purpose. Her hands no longer shook as she reached out and laid one atop each guardian, her left hand rested upon the Moon's head and her right lying on Sun's mighty paw, while the Star remained fixed at the focal point…with the Clow cards bridging all of them together as one.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

The strands of her hair lifted as the remaining magic within each of them comes flooding out, coating human, angel, lion, cards, and staff in golden light that somehow is strong enough to deflect all and every dark spell the evil spellcaster attempted to send towards them, intent on ensuring that her efforts were undone.

Yet it was to no avail. His magic no longer held any sway over her now.

Gleaming with the combined magic of all of them and connected with the fragile strands of fate, the girl took hold of her staff and raised it up, tears of both sorrow and hope glistening on her cheeks as she turned her face to the sky, letting a gold pillar of light shoot up into the air. It split through the ominous covering of clouds with an astonishing display of magical power, something her enemy had thought her incapable of doing in her severely weakened state.

With a roar of vexation, the young sorcerer flung all manner of curses, spells, and hexes at the girl, and yet each one in turn was absorbed into the golden filigree of her magic or rebounded back at him, in some cases.

Ducking out of the way of a particularly nasty execration, he snarled in rage and glared balefully at the vessel of light, as the darkness within his own soul began to heave and pitch violently in a vicious desire to end this tiresome battle once and for all.

Yet before he can do anything more to stop her, she lets out a cry and brings her staff down as if it is a blade in her hands, aiming it at the card that shines more brightly than any of the others.

"Time Card! With all the magic I have left to give, grant me one final command: Turn back the hands of time!"

"NO!"

While their opposing screams mingled with each others in the stagnant air¾pouring all of the magic she was able to muster into the card's summoning¾ was enough to force open a magical seal even larger than the one from before. To the dark sorcerer's horror, it swiftly spread outward in every direction until it was gone from their sight…

And continued to stretch until it was able to encompass all of Tokyo, as well as the urban area that surrounded the city.

"For all the people you killed with your evil curses, I bring back!" she screamed at her enemy, sheer willpower giving her strength to speak once more. "For all the lives you ruined in your quest for power, I restore! For all the people I love, I sever your ties to this world, Enlai Chao!

"Now obey me, Time Card! RELEASE AND DISPEL!"

And with the rush of a thousand typhoons, golden strands of light shot out from the very edges of the magic circle, pulling together at the very zenith of the pillar of light from which emanated from this young magician, uprooting the very source of the darkness's magic and filling the city with it's own kind of luminosity…

…As well as undoing all of which had been done that day…and even farther than that.

Yet what the young magician did not know then that her action of turning back time, of rewriting the past that had already come to fruition, carried a terrible cost.

One that would cause two worlds, two timelines, and many destinies to cross in inexplicable ways…

…And would bring about a greater evil than could have ever been realized.

~End...for now...~