Darkness in the Midst

First Just to let every one know this is my first ever Fan Fic of any sort, though I do write traditional fiction I figured I'd give this a whirl and hopefully you all enjoy it. Also I need a good editor seeing as my grammer usually sucks, so if your interested feel free to PM me, oh and I don't own CCS, blaw, blaw, blaw, don't sue me CLAMP and were cool so any ways sit back relax and enjoy.

Chapter 1: Bad Moon Rising

"Good Night Syaoran, remember to get some sleep you have that test tomorrow." Spoke a delicate woman with long dark hair as she passed the teenage boy mulling over papers and books. Syaoran looked up from his study and gave a tired "yeah" while closing the book in front of him with a sigh. It had been 5 years since he left Japan after the last clow card had been captured, 5 years since he last saw Sakura.

He looked out the open window into the spring evening noticing the full moon that seemed painted in the sky and smiled as he remembered the last night before he left Sakura, it had been a lot like this night was clear peaceful warm and the painted moon. He closed his eyes and could almost smell Sakura as he in hailed deeply and released in a sigh. "Sakura…" left his lips as he remembered her cheerful smile. "Love is a Fickle thing." A female voice came out of no where breaking Syaoran's concentration as he fell to ground in embarrassment, he quickly rose to his feet and turned to face the voice with an angry face knowing this sisters always picked on him calling him 'cute' when ever he was thinking of the one he Loved more dearly then life itself. He rose with clenched fists and a growl coming from his lips starting to say "Go awa…!" He stopped as his eyes gazed not upon one of his sisters but his own mother, her serious stance with an uncharacteristic joyful smile across her lips. He quickly stood to attention and bowed starting to mutter off apologies for his insolence when she gave a chuckle and said with a wave of her hand, "No need to apologize, I've seen the way your sisters act around you when you are thinking about that Kinomoto girl...err I mean Sakura." Syaoran smiled as he bowed to his mother.

The Li clan wasn't against his love of the Card Captor, even though she didn't come from the clan or another powerful magician's clan, mainly because of the prospect of having the Magic of their ancestor Clow return to the Li family if Syaoran ever married the girl. His imitate family felt the same way though their own encounters with Sakura and the glow Syaoran gave off when ever he was thinking of the girl convinced them of the love Syaoran had for the most powerful Card Captor.

"Thank you mother, I'm just anxious to get back to her, phone calls are nice but I long to smell her essence to feel her aura…heh sorry I get caught up in my emotions to much still I know, I have a lot to learn about restraint still…" His mother silenced his jabbering with her hand as she placed it over his mouth and reassured her son with a smile, "You do have a lot to learn still, learn that love is an emotion we should show and embrace for it can aid us when we most need it." Syaoran blushed and looked down as his mother smiled at her 15 year old boy.

'Clink, clink, clink…' echoed a sound breaking the touching moment as something clattered to the ground directly behind them. Surprised they both turned around to see 3 shadowy figures in the long entrance hallway. They looked hard to make sure it wasn't some sort of light trick or some servants up late but quickly discovered these to be intruders as a dagger flew right past Syaoran's head missing him by inches. Syaoran quickly kneeled down and retrieved the sword from around his neck using his power to enlarge his trusty blade. His mother dogged two more daggers aimed at her with ease taking cover behind the wall right next to the doorway.

Syaoran leaped from his crouched position over the couch in front of him and ran daftly at one of the figures that seemed to evaporate as he swung his leg threw it and sending him flying into the far wall nearly knocking the boy out, 'I know I didn't miss, I hit that thing straight on, then why did I…' after rubbing his sore head he glanced up to see only 2 figures standing in front of him. '…that's it! They are just illusions, just shadows, but shadows that can carry weapons?' he thought to himself as he rose to his feet before being pinned against the wall by the shadows who by now had surrounded the dazed boy and placed their daggers against his throat. He began to frantically try and figure a way out of the desperate situation, he knew he had made a mistake just flying in to action before figuring out what these things were and how they worked but he had his head else where at the time and now that it had returned he silently cursed himself for acting rashly.

Just as it seemed He was about to become a pin cushion for formless shadows a light shined from one of the side rooms as well as 2 bullets, both of which dissipated the shadows with ease. Syaoran collapsed to the ground with a sigh, "thank god for security guards." He sighed out as he relaxed on the ground against the wall. The guard ran up to him and placed a hand on Syaoran's shoulder and asked "Master Syaoran, are you ok?" Syaoran simply nodded and flinched as the pain from the impact of his hurdling kick hit him for the first time.

"I'll take care of him Ming, get the other guards and do a sweep of the grounds, I want to know if there are any more of these things and if you can try and catch one for questioning, I want to know what they are here for." Syaoran's Mothers voice cut through the night, her normal stern manner returning. "Yes Mistress, but what about your son?" Asked the guard as he holstered his pistol. "I'll take care of him; you go about your duty and report anything you find." The guard saluted her and ran off to the front yard to collect the rest of the security guards as Syaoran's Mother turned a stern glance at her injured son. "I know you have more discipline then to attack wildly like that, center yourself before attacking, study your enemy and strike when you know his weaknesses and strengths." She helped her son on to his feet and dusted him off as he gave a weak response, "sorry mother, I should have thought before jumping into a fight." His mother slapped him on the back and hurried him up to his bed saying "Sleep it off; remember no matter what you still have a test tomorrow, Security and I will handle this." Syaoran knowing his mothers power was greater then his own as well as the crippling state he was in continued up with out a sound towards his room his sword still in hand his head hung shaming himself for his rash actions.

As he got to the top of the stairs he noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see a black mass dart out of site in a room. He looked toward where he noticed the movement and gasped as realization hit him. He was looking at the 'ancient' study, a place where the oldest stories of the Li clan were kept, including the chronicles of Clow Reed himself. He had taken a book out of there that had seemed interesting, it was a chronicle of an ancient war called the 'war of darkness' where a group of magic users from all over the world fought back an ancient evil that had been awakened by crazed cultists, he hadn't gotten past the very beginnings of the war in the book but he remembered a mention of shadow creatures that snuck into some of these magicians homes for the purpose of stealing any materials that might aid them in the eventual struggle against what was referenced as just 'The Darkness.' The possibility of a coincidence between these black shadows and the ones described by his ancestors seemed to close for comfort.

Syaoran griped his sword and deftly ran into the room; silently he noticed in fact there were 3 shadowy figures in the room. His correlation seemed to embolden him; his pain forgot he stood triumphantly up slamming the door against the wall in the process. "Shadow creatures of the darkness hear me! I know what you are and you won't get away with this so easily, this time we're ready for you!" In the room there were 3 shadows and surprisingly one responded to Syaoran in a deep hoarse voice, "You have no idea who we are dealing with, we will envelope your world like countless others. You can not stop us this time; you will be helpless against the might of our master." Syaoran looked puzzled, 'master, I never remember a mention of a master,' he thought as one of the figures stepped into the light to reveal a dark hooded figure, quite solid holding books that Syaoran recognized immediately. "Give those back!" He yelled as the figure chuckled, "Your history is ours now." Syaoran gave a slight smile as he responded, "You really think that stealing a few books is going to win a war?" The figure chuckled some more, "You obviously don't understand what these books contain, they hold your only hope for victory and now it is in the hands of your enemy." Syaoran shook his head, "not for long!" he yelled as he tossed up a small strip of paper with Chinese figures on it and impacted it with the flat end of his sword unleashing his flame spell on the solid figure. The sheer power dissipated the two shadowy figures quickly and engulfed the solid figure in its flame. Confident in his victory Syaoran ran through the doorway before the smoke had dissipated, but when he reached the spot where the solid figure had stood was…nothing.

"I couldn't have totally incinerated him…" He looked all around but saw nothing but an open window and a dark mass moving quickly across the family grounds. Syaoran sighed as he watched the figure disappear into the darkness. Just as the smoke cleared his Mother flanked by 2 security guards ran up to Syaoran. The testosterone filled youth turned and began tiredly rambling his discovery to his mother, "Mother the Darkness is back, those things were shadow creatures, they used it against us before and…" His mother again silenced his ramblings with a hand and said in a sincere voice, "Slow down, now what are these?" She released her hand and Syaoran slow began again, "These creatures…I know what they are and what they wanted…" His mother was taken aback by her son's apparent knowledge. "Oh?" She asked with a puzzled expression. "Hold on," Syaoran said as he darted into his room and came back a few seconds with the copy of the book he had taken from the study, "this is what they wanted; I think they have come back. I don't know why but the way the darkness was described is exactly what was in here." His mother took the book and gasped at the title as a Syaoran continued, "I took this out 2 days ago and there were 5 other copies with it, now they are gone…" His mother looked at Syaoran with a determined expression "Syaoran, get some sleep, you'll need it since you start training tomorrow." Syaoran quirked an eyebrow and asked "Oye, but I have a test tomorrow." His mother shook her head "You're suffering from a debilitating sickness you won't get over till you're finished from training." Syaoran quirked a sly smile and bowed to his mother before heading to his room his hormones fleeing from his body and the pain in his back returning.

"What is this about mistress?" One of the guards asked as he scratched his brow and holstered his pistol. "An evil is coming and the Li's alone can not stop it. Call this number and tell them that the Li's require their assistance as per contract." She handed a faded piece of paper to the guard who bowed to her and headed down the stairs. She continued to look at her sons room, hiding her fright for his life, knowing the peril he was about to face.

Alittle wordy I know but hopefully got you interested for Chapter 2, thanks fro reading and pleas review.