For the next week, things went on uneventful for the most part. As it had turned out, Elliot won first prize, and Abby had won third. Cassie was still sulking around about not winning anything. Terry kept trying to get Elliot to spend his prize money on frivolous things, and Sami was busy being the voice of reason. It was on that particular Tuesday that things changed from the peace that had been around for the last week. "Alright class," Mr. Tomika said, "today we are going on a field trip."

The whole class cheered. Then, Mr. Tomika said, "We will be going to the history museum," and the whole class groaned. Mr. Tomika answered the groans by saying, "now, now. Let's be on our best behavior."

Everyone in the class boarded the bus. As she was getting on, Sami felt something. Elliot, who was right behind her, obviously felt it too, because he stopped for a moment. Terry, who had gotten on right before Sami, said, "What's wrong?"

Sami shook her head and said, "Nothing. Come on, Elliot."

They all got on and sat down. Sami sat next to Elliot, with Abby and Terry behind them, and Cassie in front of them. While they were all distracted, Sami said, "Did you feel that, too?"

Elliot nodded and said, "Something is up. Possibly a clow card. I'm not sure, though. It's hard to tell.

Sami nodded. "I know what you mean. Sometimes I get that feeling, and its difficult to tell if it's a clow card or not. Well, either way, I'm prepared. I brought the cards with me."

------------------------------------------------

The bus arrived at the museum at ten in the morning. Mr. Tomika said, " you may go about on your own. We will be studying the medieval time period, so stay in the medieval area."

The five friends went off on their own. Eventually, Abby and Cassie went off with some other friends, so Sami and Elliot filled Terry in on what was going on. After they told him, he said, "Cool, I can finally do what I have been wanting to do."

"And what would that be," Elliot asked.

"Tape you guys catching a card," Terry responded as he held up a camcorder. Sami and Elliot both sweat dropped as Terry continued, "I talked to Great-aunt Sakura a few days ago, and she said that her cousin Tomoyo taped her as she caught cards. She also said that Tomoyo made costumes, but I'm not good at sewing. Maybe Abby could do that…"

Sami then said, "You know, it can be kind of dangerous….. And who would you show the tape to, anyways?"

Terry shrugged as he turned on the camcorder. He looked through the lens and said, "I wonder what card it will be……"

"The Shadow," Sami suggested.

"Maybe, but it would be cooler if it were the Evil," Terry said, his voice sounding evil-like at the end. Sami laughed and said, "I don't think that there's an 'Evil' card, Terry."

Elliot, however, wasn't taking part in the conversation. He was deep in thought. Tomoyo? That was my Grandmother's name…no, it's not the same person. It can't be. I'm just imagining things.

Elliot pushed the thought out of his head and continued on with his friends. They all went to a new room full of weapons. Terry gave the room a once around, then his eyes fell upon a sword. It was thin, and it had wings on the handle. "Cool," Terry said as he put down his camcorder, "A sword."

Elliot rolled his eyes and said, "Thank you, master of the obvious…."

Terry leaned over the glass barrier to pick it up. "Don't touch it," Sami whined, "We'll get in trouble!"

"Relax," Terry said as he picked up the sword, "It's not like I'm going to try to kill anybody."

He stood up straight with the sword in his hand and studied it carefully. As he was, he said, "Wow, imagine the guy that owned this thing. He must have been a pretty good ……"

Sami and Elliot looked at Terry when he stopped short. "A pretty good what," Elliot asked. Terry turned to face them. His eyes looked empty. Sami said, "Terry, what's wrong?"

Terry brought the sword up, and attacked Sami. Sami just barely got out of the way. Elliot quickly released his sword and said, "What do you think you are doing?!"

Terry turned and attacked Elliot. Elliot could just barely block the blows that Terry dealt. Since when has he been a good swordsman, Sami thought. Suddenly, it clicked in Sami's mind. "Don't hurt him," Sami called out, "He's under the influence of a card!"

"alright," Elliot said, sounding a tad irritated, "Then what do I do?!"

"Just hold on," Sami said as she pulled out the clow key. She released the clow wand, and then pulled out the Sleep. "put Terry to Sleep," Sami said. Sami hit the card with the clow wand, and a flash of blue flew over to Terry. Soon, he was asleep. Sami said, "Sword card! Show yourself!"

In a flash of light, a sword surrounded by chains appeared in front of Sami. Sami brought the clow wand over her head and said, "Return to the form you were destined to be! Clow card!"

After she sealed the card and it went to her, Terry began to wake up. He said, "What happened."

"The Sword card possessed you, and we stopped it," Elliot said simply. Terry looked disappointed. He said, "Aw, man! And I missed it, too!"

Sami and Elliot sweat dropped. Right then, Abby came running around the corner. Sami and Elliot quickly hid their stuff. Abby said, "Come on, let's go already! I heard that there is some cool stuff up ahead!"

-----------------------------------------------

After they had lunch, Mr. Tomika said, "Alright, we will be here one more hour, then we are going back to school. Go ahead and look around a little more."

Cassie sighed and said, "This is boring!"

"Beats being in class," Terry said as he studied his camcorder.

"Well," Cassie said, "Abby and I are going ahead. Catch up with us later, alright."

They all agreed, and Abby and Cassie left. Elliot said, "Now that we caught the card, it's kind of boring here."

Sami was about to agree, but she suddenly felt the presence of another card. Elliot felt it, too. Terry looked back and forth at them and said, "What? What is it? Is it another card?"

"I'm not sure," Sami said. Terry grinned and said, " well, if it is, then I guess I'll get to tape you guys in action after all."

They all got up and began to walk in the direction that everybody else had gone in. there was nobody else around. As soon as they reached the doorway, they ran into some kind of invisible force field. Terry rubbed his nose and said, "What was that?"

Elliot looked at the doorway for a moment, his eyes full of curiosity. He tried to push his hand through the doorway, but it ran into the invisible wall again. He said, "Curious…. I wonder what it is…"

"Could it be a clow card," Terry asked. "Maybe," Elliot said, "But I'm not sure. It might be some kind of magic."

"Who would be using magic," Sami said, "It's not like a lot of people have magical powers."

Elliot laughed. He said, "Well, there are definitely more people in this city that can use magic. My family, for one. Well, my brother, father, and grandfather, anyways. My mother is a normal person."

"your not suggesting that Eriol is doing this," Sami asked.

"Maybe," Elliot said as he rolled his eyes, "This would be his idea of a joke."

"you guys have weird families," Terry said.

"that's an understatement," Elliot muttered. Silently, he added, How about 'your family follows a cult which is very dangerous and kills lots of people.' Yeah, that'd be more accurate.

"Well," Sami said, "If it is a magical shield, then we can break it with our magic."

She released the clow wand and pulled out the sword card. "This card should do the trick. Sword!"

Sami hit the card with the wand, and it turned into a sword. It looked exactly like the one Terry had used to attack her earlier. She walked up to the doorway, pulled the sword over her head, and said, "Watch and learn, boys."

She brought the sword down hard, breaking the barrier. Elliot said in a sarcastic voice, "Bravo," While Terry taped the whole thing. Sami walked through the doorway and said, "Come on, let's go find that clow card!"

Elliot followed her, but when Terry tried to, he ran into the barrier again. He said, "You guys, I'm stuck!"

Sami went to cut the barrier again, but this time her sword just hit the surface. Sami said, "What's going on?! That worked a second ago!"

"this is definitely the work of some kind of sorcerer," Elliot said, "He's making this a challenge for us."

Soon, the room that Terry was in began to fill with a light mist. When the mist cleared, he was unconscious. Sami said, "Terry, wake up!"

She went to go knock on the barrier, but it was no longer there. She fell flat on her face. Elliot released his sword and said, "Get ready, Sami."

Sami stood up, and looked where Elliot was looking. There was a figure standing in the shadows above a window. He was hard to see, but one could tell that he was male, and he was an older teenager, maybe 17 or 18. He also had glasses. He said, "So we finally meet, Li Samantha. I have been waiting a long time to meet the fool who thinks that she can become the new mistress of the clow cards."

"Hey," Sami yelled out, "I'm not a fool!"

The figure laughed. He said, "Do you really think you have the power to capture all of the cards? Even with the help of that traitor Elliot, you will never get them all back."

Sami said, "What do you mean, traitor Elliot?!"

The figure laughed and said, "you mean he never told you?! Ha! You don't even know the truth about your own friends! You are an idiot!"

Sami said, "Come down here and fight!"

"I will," the figure said, "But not today. So long, idiot Sami and Traitor Elliot."

The figure disappeared. Sami looked over to Elliot, who looked extremely pale. "How…..does he know….." Elliot stammered. Sami said, "What did he mean when he said you are a traitor?"

Elliot shook his head and said, "It's nothing important. Just something from a long time ago. Don't worry about it. We should worry about that other clow card that is still loose in the museum."

"That jerk," Sami said, "Who does he think he is?! I'm no idiot!"

Sami kicked a nearby trash can, but she hurt her foot. She cursed and fell to the ground, unable to balance on one foot. Elliot looked at the trash can for a moment, then he got an idea. He walked up to the trash can and tried to drop a wrapper in it. It rolled off the side of what looked like an invisible shield. Elliot smiled and said, "I believe we found our clow card."

He brought his sword over his head, then brought it down hard. It broke the shield, and a giant wing covered in chains appeared before them. Elliot said, "It's the Shield card. Hurry and seal it, Sami."

Sami stood up and sealed the card. It went to Elliot. He said, "Yet again a card thinks I am more worthy to be it's master," then handed it to Sami. Right about then, Terry woke up. He said, "I missed it again, didn't I?"

Sami and Elliot nodded. Sami said, "Look on the bright side, I only have twelve of the cards. You still have a lot more chances to tape a capture."

" I guess so," Terry said as he stood up, "What card was it?"

"The Shield," Elliot said, "Very symbolic. Both the Sword and the Shield found in a museum."

"But something bugs me," Elliot said in a thoughtful manner, "Why would the Shield be around a trash can? I mean, it's only supposed to protect what is precious…"

Then, Sami said, "Maybe….there's something in the trash can?"

Elliot thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "No way. I'm not digging through trash to see if something valuable is in it."

Terry sighed and said, "I'll do it."

He didn't have to dig through much, though. Near the top was a photo album. Sami recognized it immediately. "Oh! That's Abby's photo album! It has pictures of her brother, who is off in the military right now. Those pictures mean a lot to her!"

Elliot said, "Well, I guess the Shield was protecting something valuable."

-----------------------------------

The ride home was pretty quiet. Abby was very happy to get her photo album back. She had said "thank you" no less than 20 times. Other than that, it was uneventful. The whole class was bored out of their minds. Sami and Elliot didn't even talk. Instead, Sami used the time of quiet to think about the events of the day. I wonder what that guy meant, Sami thought, Elliot, a traitor? A traitor to what? Could this be the big secret the Kero was talking about? Boy, I have more questions now than before. I'll have to look into this a little more.

----------------------------------

When Elliot arrived at home that day, nobody was home except for himself and his Grandpa. Elliot said, "I'm home, Grandfather."

"Elliot," his Grandpa said, "Come into my room for a moment."

This surprised Elliot, because nobody except for his dad was allowed to go into his Grandpa's room. Elliot never knew why that was, either. In his family, when an order was given, you didn't ask questions. Elliot entered cautiously. The room was musty and dark, except for the light coming from the window. His grandpa was sitting on the windowsill. Except for the fact that his hair was all silver, he didn't look that old. There was just a few wrinkles here and there. He said, "Elliot, I have some things to tell you. Sit down."

Elliot sat down on the edge of his grandpa's bed. Elliot said, "What is it, Grandfather?"

"You have heard of the Clow Reed, right," his grandpa asked. Elliot nodded. What magic-user didn't know of Clow Reed? His grandpa said, "Well, I am half of the reincarnation of the Clow Reed."

Elliot was very surprised by this. He didn't know that Clow Reed had been reincarnated. This fact meant that his Grandfather was very powerful. He didn't say anything, though. His grandpa continued, "When I was younger, it was my duty to provide the situations for the new card mistress to change the Clow cards into Star cards. I did this with the help of my two companions: Spinnel Sun and Ruby Moon. Then, after all of the cards were transformed, I gave half of my power to The card mistresses' Father and went back to England. I thought my job was done. I was very wrong. A few years after I left, horrible things happened. Things to horrible to describe. It was all the work of a group called the Dark Sorcerers. They changed me greatly. They killed many who I held dear. Your grandmother, your uncle and aunts….. Your father was my only child left. Soon after they did all of this, they disappeared. I thought they were gone forever, but now they are beginning to regroup. They know the Star cards have changed back into Clow cards and have been released. I believe that they are the ones who caused the transformation of the cards, even though few have the power to do so. If I am right….You need to be prepared. The new child chosen by Keroberos(1) is in great danger. I already know Syaoran gave you his sword, so I am counting on you to help this new child."

Elliot was to stunned to speak. His grandpa said, "You will face many trials, and You won't be able to succeed on your own. Therefore, I will give you a guardian of your own."

Elliot's grandpa waved his hand around a little, then held it palm up at eye level. Soon, a black creature with wings appeared in his palm. It looked like a cat, but it had small, translucent wings on it's back. It looked like it was asleep. "this is Spinnel, the chosen form of Spinnel Sun. His nickname is Suppi, though he doesn't like that name too much. When he changes, he becomes quite larger and more powerful. Suppi, wake up."

The little creature snapped to life. He said, "Master, please don't call me by that name."

Elliot's Grandpa smiled and said, "I want you to meet my grandson, Elliot."

Elliot did a short wave and said, "Hi………."

"You will be his guardian from now on," Elliot's grandpa said, "He needs you more than I do."

"Alright," Suppi said reluctantly, then flew over to Elliot and landed on his shoulder.

"Stay hidden from the rest of the family, especially my son and oldest grandson," Elliot's grandpa said, "Speaking of which, you might want to go hide. The rest of the family is going to be home soon."

"Alright," Elliot said, and turned to leave.

"Be very careful," Elliot's grandpa said as he left the room, "The Dark Sorcerers are a very dangerous group. Do not ever doubt your purpose in this world, or else they will use that doubt to benefit themselves. They can twist even the slightest bit of self-questioning and cause it to be your downfall. They are closer than you think, Elliot."

"I'll be careful," Elliot said as he closed the door behind himself and ran to his room. He closed the door behind himself, and sat down on his bed. "This is big," he said, "Very big. Even bigger than I originally thought."

Suppi flew from Elliot's shoulder and sat down on his desk. He said, "How are things going with the Star cards?"

"Well," Elliot said, " They turned back into Clow cards, and Sami accidentally let them loose. So far, we have managed to get 12 of them back."

"Then there is a long way to go," Suppi said, "Before the danger is gone."

Elliot nodded. He then said, "What do you want me to call you, anyways? Grandfather said that your nickname was Suppi, but he also said you don't like it."

"He was correct," Suppi said, "I don't like being called Suppi."

Elliot said, "How about I just call you Spinnel? Grandfather said that it was your real name."

"That would be alright," Spinel said, " It's a lot better than Suppi, that's for sure."

Elliot suddenly felt a strong power enter the house. "Dad's home," Elliot said, "We better be careful now. I'll call Sami and see if she can come out. Then I'll be able to introduce you two."

Elliot picked up his cell phone and dialed Sami's number. When Sami answered, he said, "Sami, can you come out? I have to show you something."

"Not today," Sami said, "I'm in hot water with my dad. What do you have to show me?"

"I can't tell you over the phone," Elliot said, "I'll just bring it to school tomorrow. Bring Kero to school, also."

"Alright, see you then," Sami said, then she hung up. Elliot hung up the phone and said, "You'll meet her tomorrow."

A moment later, someone knocked on the door. The voice of his brother Eriol said, " Munchkin, dinner is almost ready."

"Alright," Elliot said, "I'm coming," then he whispered to Spinel, "Will you be alright for a while?"

"Just give me a book and I'll be alright," Spinel responded. Elliot took a book off his bookshelf and said, "I'll bring you some dinner."

He then went downstairs to eat dinner. As he was eating, he was thinking, This is big! If what grandfather said is true, then we are in big trouble! I hope we can handle this. And I wonder what he meant by 'they are closer than you think'……

Elliot was snapped back to the scene when Eriol was in the middle of a conversation with their parents. "Yeah, the club is great. We do a lot of stuff. Like today, we helped out at the park."

"Is that so," Elliot's father said, "Sounds like the club is doing pretty well. Hey Elliot, remember the group I am a member of?"

Elliot nodded. "yeah, it's called 'The Sources of Night,' right?"

His father said, "Yes, that's it. Well, the club your brother is in is actually part of the group. You should consider joining, Elliot."

"I'll think about it," Elliot said, though he had no notion in his mind of doing anything of the sort. Not only was that group bad news, he also had way too many things to do as it was!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) I do not know what his Japanese name is! Will someone tell me?