"What The Cards Were For"

A Card Captor Fanfiction

By: Bekah-chan

Rated: PG (For, Um,

blood n' stuff)

Disclaimer: I don't now, have never, and will never own Card Captors. *sigh*

Chapter 1:

Sakura was annoyed. For months these new monsters had been attacking Tokyo, and she and her friends were the only ones who could fight them. So here they were, again, battling evil in the wee hours of the morning.

Sakura quickly ducked as the enemy took a swipe at her with it's claws. It's claws were pretty much all they could see-- just an ominous cloud of blackness; With very sharp claws. ~Why Me?!!~ She thought, dodging again.

When she had finally caught all of the Clow Cards, about 3 years before, she had thought that all the dangers to her and her friends were over with. And , even though, so far, these creatures had been more of an annoyance than a danger, they still worried her. Where did they come from? And what did they want?

"Sakura! Watch It!!", Syaoran warned her. Just in time for her to jump out of the way of a particularly deadly attack.

"Pay attention, Sakura", Li Syaoran stated in his sarcastic voice, while effortlessly dodging attacks himself.

You'd think that after all this time Syaoran would be nicer to her. But Sakura knew that he cared, and was just trying to protect her, from her own folly if necessary. Plus, he was right. Sakura sighed, then made a determined effort to concentrate on the ongoing battle.

Sakura was tired. She had gotten very little sleep in the past few weeks. The monster attacks had escalated to at least one or two a night. She did not know how long they could keep this pace up.

Tonight seemed to be especially difficult, partly because it was just her and Syaoran. Both of her Guardians needed more time to recover from recent events. So she had convinced Kero to stay home, and hadn't even told Yue about the attack. Even Madison was at home in bed, proving that when circumstances demanded it she *could* put something before her beloved camera---- sleep. At least the last meant that Sakura could wear her first and most comfortable battle outfit, her pajamas, instead of those slightly silly and greatly ostentatious get-ups that Madison made her wear.

Even though she knew her friends needed to rest, Sakura was starting to wish that some of them were there also. It wasn't that she didn't think that she and Syaoran couldn't handle this monster, because she knew that they could, they had gotten through much worse then this together. But she was still uneasy. This monster was different somehow. It moved faster and seemed smarter than the others of it's kind that they has fought recently. She was definitely getting a bad feeling about the whole situation.

Sakura was frustrated. She tried to use one of her attack cards again, and failed again. This monster was so fast that it could stop her before she could open a card. Much like it had been stopping Syaoran whenever he tried to call on an element or his lightning attack.

Sakura was about to give up on opening a card, and just bash the thing over the head with her Star wand, when the status of the fight suddenly changed.

"Watch Out!!", Syaoran yelled. This time the concern evident in his voice. He dove toward Sakura, pulling her out of the way of *another* monster who had almost sliced her to ribbons from behind.

They landed in a tangle of arms, legs, a Star wand, and a sword- awkward to say the least. But they somehow managed to organize ownership of limbs and deadly weaponry in time to jump out of the way of the newest oncoming monster.

"I'm getting tired of this!", complained Sakura, "Now there are *two* of them!"

"Ya", her fighting partner returned, dodging again, "and this new one is twice as fast."

Sakura had to agree with him. Amazingly their new opponent was moving much faster than it's counterpart. Also disturbing, was the fact that both of the monsters seemed to be working together.

Syaoran and Sakura realized at the same time that they were running out of options. The enemies' relentless, and now combined, attacks gave them no time to stop and think, much less call on their magic. Another problem surfaced in Sakura's mind, she didn't know exactly how Syaoran was doing energy-wise, but *she* was exhausted. Tonight her energy had been used in running and jumping out of danger, and not having the scant seconds she needed to open a card.

But what could she do if she didn't have time to release a card? The two magic-users couldn't stand still for a second without getting attacked. If they both hadn't had magically enhanced reflexes, she knew they would have fallen already. Part of her was starting to think that they had made it this far unscathed purely by luck. And, even as Sakura thought this, her luck ran out.

She felt a tearing pain in her right arm and looked down to see a jagged gash across an arm laid bare by the short sleeves of her pj's. She stood in shock for a moment and watched warm, sticky blood slide down her arm toward her hand. ~There sure is a lot of it~, she thought vaguely. It was starting to make her grip on the Star wand slippery.

Sakura was jolted back into reality when she heard Syaoran yell: "Sakura!", as he attempted to save her from the danger she had not noticed was coming. This time, however, he was not quick enough to save both of them.

Sakura watched in horror as she observed, seemingly in slow motion, Li Syaoran intercept a blow meant for herself.

"No, Li!" she cried as Syaoran fell unconscious to the ground in front of her. With three deep furrows torn into his back by the claws of the second monster.

Sakura was angry. The pain from her arm seemed to disappear as she looked from her Syaoran on the ground to his attacker standing over them. (AN: Did I mention that the monsters are quite tall?)

She had to do this. She had to save Syaoran. She pulled the Thunder Card out of thin air with her left hand as her right began to twirl the Star wand in a practiced magical pattern. Sakura felt her confidence raising, she could do this. She would do this! But....... she didn't.

Her Star wand flew out of fingers made slippery by blood. It was flung by it's own momentum into the darkness between the two monsters, taking her hopes with it. How could she save Syaoran, and herself, if she didn't have her wand to open the cards?

As Sakura's hope bled out of her, the pain from her arm flooded back, almost crippling in it's intensity. It felt like something was *inside* her arm, burning through her blood. Was it some kind of poison? The monsters that had gone before had not been equipped with poison-tipped claws, but these two were different. She would expect anything from them at this point. From where she was standing it looked like they would succeed where many had failed before, and kill the Mistress of the Cards.

From the ground in front of her she heard Syaoran moan in pain as he regained semi-consciousness. If she died so would he.

Sakura looked down at the now useless Thunder Card in her hand. What could she do?

To Be Continued ^_^