Disclaimer: Sakura Kinomoto belongs to CLAMP, Xellos is the property of Hajime Kanzaka, Kazushi Hagiware retains Dark Schneider, Sailor Pluto is by Naoko Takeuchi, and Kosuke Fujishima owns Urd …. although I wish I did.

Based on Vertigo's "Books of Magic".

Updated 7/24/2009: A few changes here and there, I got rid of the Hooded Figure references and rewrote some of the scenes to make it fit in more with Xellos' character. I thought it was a bit confusing to introduce this mysterious Hooded Guy and then suddenly replace him with Xellos. I also combined a few of the chapters together so it works better.

Horror and Humor, Wonder and Awe: The Knowledge of Hidden Things… A Spellbinding Tale. An Enchanting Experience. An Unforgettable Journey.

Magic.

—Neil Gaiman, "The Books of Magic", 1990

The Books of Magic

Chapter 1:

Sakura's Dream

Sakura Kinomoto dreamed.

Of late, her dreams had been rather unusual ones. Or rather tended to be prophetic ones that heralded fundamental changes or preceding encounters with beings who would greatly alter the course of her life. It was a gift of clairvoyance that had apparently been awakened with her magic.

Of course these dreams tended to be rather enigmatic at best. And hardly at all useful.

She found herself standing in what appeared to be a dimly lit room. There were four people sitting around the low table in the center of the room and they were the strangest quartet that Sakura had ever seen.

Two were women while the other two were male.

"I don't want to have anything to do with it," one of the men snarled. He took a deep drag of his cigarette and blew out a swirl of smoke. "Why should I?" he demanded petulantly. He was tall and powerfully built and appeared as rugged and primitive as they came. He was dressed in what had once might have been fine clothing but they were in tatters and threadbare now. And he even seemed to revel in his primal appearance, wearing them as proudly as a king in his finest and most majestic robes. Golden eyes narrowed into slits as he glared at the others around the table and tossed a long lock of his shaggy silver hair over his shoulder. He reminded Sakura of those pictures of barbarian warriors.

The other man leaned forward and set his elbows on the table. He wore an old fashioned and well worn overlapping tunic with an even older looking travelling cloak. His hair was cut in a rather unusual fashion, short in front while longish on the sides and back and was colored a dark purple. A strange staff topped with a huge red ruby rested beside him. He interlaced his gloved fingers together and spoke intently, "This child possesses tremendous power and potential Schneider. Power that could change the world. But in order for that potential to be fully realized it must be carefully guided and shaped and channeled."

"So? What am I? The brat's father? She's not MY responsibility Xellos!" the silver haired man called Schneider retorted, "Besides, if she's so damn powerful, then she doesn't need us for help."

"She is dangerous."

Sakura turned to gaze upon the woman who had spoken for the first time in a cold tone of voice. She was exotic looking yet was also dressed perhaps the most normally of the four. Her clothing was elegantly modern. The expensive silk blouse and slacks and jacket simply emphasized her feminine figure. Her skin was tanned and her hair was long and tinted a dark green. She was beautifully and coldly aloof.

At first glance, Sakura would have guessed that she was in her early twenties. Except that when she looked closer did Sakura suspect that she was far older than her appearance would have suggested. Despite the lack of any lines or wrinkles, the firmness and shapely form of her body, when Sakura looked at this woman, she sensed an immense weight of age hanging on this woman. It was her brilliant red eyes. They looked old. Ancient. Especially now when they were narrowed and flinty. "She is a threat to the future. We should kill her now. While we have the chance," the woman said firmly.

Sakura felt something cold form in the pit of her stomach. This woman was casually discussing murder as if she was ordering take out.

There was a sharp bang as other woman slammed a large glass bottle of sake that she had been swigging as though it was water. "No killing Pluto. Not now. Not ever," she growled as she glared at the green haired woman who gazed back with a look as though daring the other woman to try and stop her.

Although this woman was almost as darkly tanned as the other, her hair was pure white. This color was not from age however as far as Sakura could tell. She looked roughly the same age as the other woman but they were definitely cut from a different cloth.

Her clothing was a bizarre cross between a modern dress and priestess robes … although no priestess would have the skirt cut so indecently high. She thought that Tomoyo might like the outfit though. Also she wore several necklaces and was adorned with multiple bracelets around her wrists and a few around her ankles including some earrings and rings.

She was also lounging about, sprawled casually on the floor while the woman in the modern clothes sat straight up and proper, holding herself tautly.

Sakura thought the facial tattoos were a bit odd though. It was also strange but her eyes refused to focus directly on the tattoos, whenever she tried to stare at them, her gaze seemed to slide off them. Even more bizarrely, the tattoos appeared to glow softly, radiating their own internal light. And … Sakura cocked her head as she looked directly at the white haired woman. It seemed … off somehow.

When she tried looking at the woman from different angles, things about her seemed to change. At one angle, there was a woman floating above her with wings, one dark and the other white and cold flames wreathed her. Sakura blinked and her appearance shifted again. This time, she was radiating some sort of brilliant light. Blink. Another change. The woman sitting sprawled looked more … Greek? She held some really ancient sewing instrument … a distaff if Sakura remembered correctly in one hand. Blink. The woman appeared almost normal this time. Except that she had a pair of wings herself now. One appeared to be feathered like a bird's and another looked like a bat's. Confused, Sakura turned away.

"She is potentially the most powerful adept the world has ever seen. More powerful than Merlin, more potent than Clow Reed even," Xellos continued his discussion with the others.

Clow?

Sakura tentatively stepped closer to Xellos, her curiosity peaked by the mention of the creator of the Clow Cards.

"She could remake the entire world if she chose to and bring back magic to this plane," Xellos pressed in a grave tone of voice and his ever presently closed eyelids rose fractionally to reveal his pupils momentarily to glance around at his three companions, "That is something important. To all of us."

His eyelids closed as he turned to face Schneider who had finished his cigarette and had fished another one from his robes. Schneider almost casually snapped his fingers and a small flicker of flame ignited from the tip of his index finger to light the cigarette. He grimaced. "Yeah, OK. That is important," he admitted grudgingly against his will.

"Yes. Because you are a magician. And all magicians have a responsibility to magic itself. To see that it is used correctly. Wisely. And even more so, to promote it," Xellos said waggling an accusing finger towards the sulking man.

"I SAID I'D DO IT DAMMIT!" Schneider roared, his eyes flashing with lightning and a howl of wind whipping his silver hair around.

Ignoring his companion's tantrum, Xellos instead beamed and clapped his hands together as his personality did a total 180, transforming from a serious mien to a cheerful grin. "Wonderful! I knew I could count on you!" he said brightly as Schneider growled back. Blatantly turning his back onto his annoyed companion, Xellos turned to the white haired woman. "Urd?"

The tattooed woman who had been swallowing another shot of sake put the bottle down and straightened her spine, giving him a regal nod, "Agreed. I shall show her what has gone before."

Xellos bobbed his head and raised an inquiring eyebrow at remaining member of the quartet. "Pluto?"

The green haired woman sniffed. "I seem to have no choice do I?" she said eyeing the three arrayed before her. "If I must," she grumbled, "then I will take her to the end."

Xellos nodded and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Well, I suppose that leaves me to give her the grand tour in the here and now," Xellos said with a nod before he turned to Schneider and cocked his head.

"And I'll show the brat the other lands. Whoopee. I'm a damn babysitter slash tour guide," Schneider groused as he stuck a finger up his nose and rooted around.

Pluto wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Please stop that."

Schneider removed his extended finger and with a leering grin, exchanged it with his middle one.

Pluto's eyes narrowed. "Uncouth barbarian," she sneered.

"And proud of it baby," Schneider retorted with an extended tongue.

Sakura felt more and more uncomfortable listening to this conversation. She—suddenly Xellos turned to stare directly at her and his eyes opened—she froze as she saw a pair of glowing orbs. His eyes! His eyes are—! She never got a chance to finish that thought as a vague smirk appeared on his face and—"I think that's enough eavesdropping Ms. Kinomoto," he said gently. "It's time to wake up now."

And then she woke up.

"AAAAHHH!" Sakura bolted upright, flinging her blankets upwards.

It had the effect of throwing a small stuffed animal into the air with a startled squawk of surprise. Or rather, what appeared to be a small stuffed animal. "What's wrong?" the small plushie demanded urgently in a high pitched voice as the wings mounted of its back fluttered madly as he hovered in midair.

Sakura looked up at what most magicians and witches would have called her familiar. She would have argued that he was familiar but more than a little strange.

His name was Kerebous. She called him Kero. He was the Guardian Beast of the Book of the Clow. She always thought that lofty title didn't quite suit him. Perhaps something smaller. Less grand. More clownish. Like him.

Kero had taken it upon himself the role of Sakura's instructor, guide, mentor, and all-around nudge in the realm of magic. She wasn't too sure about trusting him with that role either. To put it bluntly, she wouldn't trust him to guide her to the bathroom without getting lost.

In the last job that he was entrusted with, he happened to fall asleep for a few decades and lost most of the Clow Cards that he was suppose to be vigilantly protecting. Not exactly the most impressive testimonial to his competence.

Not that she intended to tell him any of that. It would hurt his feelings.

"You had another dream didn't you!" Kero exploded.

Sakura mutely nodded.

"Right!" Kero said fiercely, rubbing his chin with his hand and tried to look thoughtful. Sakura considered and decided once again not to mention that it made him look like he was constipated.

"Is it a new enemy?" Kero demanded.

"I…"

"Is it some new threat?" Kero snapped.

"I…"

"Is someone coming?" Kero pressed.

Sakura frowned. Her face screwed up in deep thought. "I don't remember," she admitted with a faint blush and pressing the tips of her index fingers together.

Kero face faulted.

"What did you say?" Schneider turned to look at Xellos. He and Pluto had been too busy exchanging insults to pay attention.

Xellos swiveled around to look at them as if surprised, "Oh … well … if you really must know," he paused, pursing his lips and paused, purely for dramatic effect Schneider was sure, "that's a secret!" he finished grinning as he waggled his finger.

"Fruitcake," Schneider growled, not believing the Trickster Priest for a second and wondering just what he had missed. Xellos rose to his feet and picked up his staff and twirled it around like a baton as he shuffled off after Urd. Schneider grimaced and hesitated briefly before he too got to his feet and followed Xellos while wondering just how had he gotten tricked into this crap.

Only Pluto remained behind at the table. She sniffed. "We should still kill her," she said softly.

A/N: This is an updated and slightly revised version of my original thread on Anime Aadventures which I originally posted under the name of Mike! Unfortunately I found out that this was already taken here on so I had to adopt a new one in case you were wondering.

This story was inspired by Neil Gaiman's "The Books of Magic" which starred Timothy Hunter as the central character and introduced him to the worlds of magic and mystery of the DC Universe as the Phantom Stranger, Dr. Occult, Mr. E, and John Constantine all took him on a journey through the past, the present, the future, and several alternate worlds.

I was inspired to do this thing as a Mega Crossover, to try and tie together the various anime and manga series which involve magic and I decided to use Sakura Kinomoto who narrates her adventures in the realm of magic. I had originally planned for the Three Norns from Kosuke Fujishima's Oh My Goddess! to be her guides but I decided that they were too nice and sisterly so eventually I came up with Sailor Pluto and Dark Schneider.

In the beginning I wasn't sure if I had the desire or the will to continue with the story which is why I originally built into the plot, this mysteriously Hooded Figure so another author could include someone from some other series but I found myself writing more and more bits and pieces of the series so I decided to continue with it after all. Several readers made several suggestions including Destiny from DC's Endless, James Potter or alternatively Harry Potter from J.K. Rowling's series (and if you don't know who he is, then you live in a cave somewhere), Crono from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, and even Hikaru Gosunkugi from Ranma ½. But I felt that CrystalBlaze made the best suggestion of Xellos from The Slayers! as I wanted to keep this anime/manga focused which dropped the first three out of the running. Hikaru Gosunkugi didn't really strike me as a viable or competent candidate and I had absolutely no idea who Crono was or the series in question. I wasn't sure at first if he really fit but I grew to like his inclusion as he became a rather humorous foil.