Nihao Minna-san!  This is my first CCS "series" fic (at least, it will be if you think I should continue).  It's mainly about some new Clow cards, but it focuses a lot

on S+S (how can I write a fic without them? ^_^ They're just too Kawaii!!). To tell you more would give away some of my plot, so I'll just shut up and start the story ^_^

Reviews are important for this one, so I know whether or not to continue!! Arigato!

~Manda-chan

THE FORBIDDEN CLOW

"...What's going on?"

Sakura Kinomoto stood in front of the brightly lit Tokyo tower, gazing at the enormous full moon. 

"What are you trying to tell me?"

Suddenly, a Clow card floated down from the sky and gently landed on the ground next to her.  Overwhelmed with curiosity, she bent down to pick it up.  She gasped when she saw it and retracted slightly.

"A black Clow card?"

She apprehensively held her hand out toward the card, almost fearing what might happen if she picked it up.  Her shaky hand slowly inched closer to the card and finally grasped it.  Relief flooded over her when nothing happened.  She stood back up and gazed intently at the almost-normal looking Clow card (except for the black background instead of the usual red). Her eyes widened when she flipped the card over.  It was blank.

"I don't get it...what does this mean?" she half-whispered into the wind.

A soft noise, like a ring, alerted her senses and she turned toward the tower.  There, at front and center, stood Syaoran in his traditional cardcaptoring robes, his face shrouded in shadow. The robes were silently billowing in the wind, the bells on the ends jingling just barely enough to be heard.  Although his face was in shadow, his piercing amber-colored eyes stood out, gazing at her from across the open space.

"Syaoran..." Sakura mumbled, moving closer to the tower, "What does this mean? 

Why are you here?"

Lips parted, he began to speak.  But all Sakura could hear was faint whispers of inaudible words.

"I don't get it!  What are you trying to say?  Please answer me!" She begged.

But he only stood there, staring at her in silence.

"Tell me what's going on!!!"

                        *************************

"Tell me what's going on..."

Kero woke up from his peaceful slumber at the sound of his mistress's voice.  He pushed his drawer open slightly and peeked over the top of it.  Sakura was flailing wildly in her sleep and reaching her arms out above her.

"You've got to tell me what's going on..." she mumbled.

"Sakura?" Kero questioned, floating toward her silently.

He hovered just a few inches above her and looked down on her with concern.  Her expression seemed somewhat troubled and that worried the miniature guardian beast.

"Sakura? Sakura!" he pleaded, gently pulling on a lock of her auburn hair.

            Yet she still seemed oblivious to his presence, continuing to dream.  So Kero flew down to her ear level, took a deep breath, and screamed in her ear.

"SAKURA!!! WAKE UP!!"

This effectively lulled Sakura out of her dreamland and she yelped in surprise, immediately sitting up straight.

"Huh?! Wha..." she questioned, looking around.

"Down here."  Kero said, waving to her from her pillow.

"Kero-chan?" she asked, eye's widening a little, "What's wrong?"

Kero took flight and suspended his yellow mouse-like body a few inches from her face.

"You were talking in your sleep and thrashing around in your bed, which woke me up.  That's what's wrong." he said, crossing his arms in front of him.

At the mention of his words, the dream flooded back to her mind.

"That's right...I had a weird dream, Kero-chan." she said, looking out her

window where the sun was slowly coming up over the horizon.

"Care to fill me in on the details?" Kero asked.

She turned to him, still deep in thought.

"It was like the old dreams I used to have." she explained, "The full moon, Tokyo tower...but there was this Clow card that appeared and it was...black.  Then I saw that it was blank and-"

"Did you say "Black Clow card"?" Kero interrupted, sounding almost frightened.

"H-hai," she confirmed, giving him the eyebrow, "Doushite?"

Kero flew off into the corner and began whispering to himself furiously.  Sakura could only catch a few whispers of "could it be...clow...forbidden..."

'Does Kero-chan know what my dream is about?' she wondered.

"What is it Kero-chan?" she asked, "Do you know something about a black Clow card?"

He was about to answer, but a figure suddenly burst into the room, causing him to go into 'stuffed animal mode'.

"KAIJUU!! Are you up yet?" Toya yelled.

"Hai onnisan!  I'm getting up! And I'm NOT a kaijuu!" Sakura covered, hoping he didn't notice Kero fall onto her desk with a small *thump*.

However, Toya did hear this, and immediately turned to the desk by the window.  Kero sweat-dropped and tried to stay as still as possible. Toya glared at the toy.  He had a strange feeling about that thing for quite some time now.

"I said I was up!!" Sakura yelled, desperately trying to get him out.

Toya turned and went for the door, but not before giving one more glance to the inanimate Kero, who continued to sweat-drop nervously.  As he shut the door, Kero slumped on the desk and Sakura let out a huge sigh.

"Kero-chan, you've got to be more careful!" she reprimanded quietly, "That was cutting it close there!"

"Like I just KNOW when he's going to burst in or something!" Kero shot back indignantly.

Sakura sweat-dropped.

"Gomen, Kero-chan.  Just try to be a little more careful."

"Hai, hai." he agreed.

Sakura looked over at her bedside clock and gasped.

"HOE!!  I'm going to be late!!"

She quickly hopped out of bed and hurried to get her uniform on and get her things ready for school.  As she ran out her bedroom door, Kero floated to the game counsel in the corner.

"Gonna' beat that boss today...la de da." he hummed as he switched on the TV.

"Here's your lunch, Sakura." Fujitaka said with a smile, handing her a small paper bag, "Now you'd better hurry, you don't want to be late!"

"Arigato otousan!!" she said, giving him a hug.

"Alright. See you later."

Sakura hurriedly snapped on her roller blades and dashed out of her house at top speed.  She waved to Yukito and her brother as she zoomed past them.  Sadly, she didn't have enough time to skate alongside them today.  She entered the school and sped straight to her locker.  She quickly opened it, deposited her skates inside, grabbed her Math book, and slammed the locker shut. 

'Don't ring! Don't ring!!' she pleaded urgently, running to the classroom as fast as she could.  The bell rang about five seconds after she entered the room.  She sighed heavily, walking to her desk and promptly slumping into it.  She was still panting from the prior loss of breath and laid her head on her desk.  Tomoyo gave her friend the eyebrow and a worried look.

"Ohayo, Sakura-chan." the dark-haired girl greeted with her usual cheerfulness, "I understand you being late and all, but you don't usually don't cut it THAT close."

"Ohayo, Tomoyo-chan..." Sakura greeted in a tired manner, "Gomen, I just had a strange dream last night and I guess I was a little out of it this morning."

"A strange dream?" a deep voice questioned from behind.

Sakura did a 180 and found herself looking into a pair of serious amber eyes.

She blushed pink at the sight of him.

"...H-hai, I had a weird dream last night." she said, averting her eyes to the window to hopefully hide the redness of her face, "It was about some sort of Clow card that was black."

'A black clow card?' Syaoran wondered.

"Anything else?" he prodded, hoping to get all the details.

"Yeah, you were-"

Sakura was suddenly cut off as she felt a strange tingling all over her body. 

"Sakura?"

She couldn't answer, but as he said her name, it kept repeating over and over again in her head.  Then, without warning, she jumped up, almost knocking her desk over in the process.

"...What? But I-"

She cut herself off in mid-sentence, realizing how stupid it would have sounded to say that she didn't stand up.

'But I didn't...' she thought, 'something in me just clicked when he spoke my name, and I jumped.'

"Is there a problem Kinomoto?" Terada-sensei asked from the front of the room, giving her a weird look.

"Iie...gomen, sensei." Sakura apologized, sitting back down, "I don't know what came over me."

            'Hoe...what was that about?  Does this perhaps have something to do with the dream I had last night?' she wondered, letting her gaze waver to the open window.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to meet Syaoran's deep amber stare once again.

"Sakura-" Syaoran started.

He was suddenly cut off as she slammed her fist down on top of his desk.  Syaoran backed up in his chair a little and gave her a concerned look.  But Sakura looked as freaked and flustered as he did.

"Gomen!!" she apologized, "I don't know what's going on, I-"

"Miss Kinomoto, Mr. Li, to the hallway immediately." Terada-sensei said, pointing toward the door, "If you have a problem, take it out there."

Sakura blushed in pure embarrassment as she and Syaoran walked out of the room.  In the hallway, Sakura sighed and leaned against the wall, letting out a large moan of frustration.

"What's going on Sakura?" Syaoran asked.

Once again, after her name was spoken, she had an unexpected, uncontrollable reaction.  This time, she lunged at Syaoran and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him.  His face turned about a million different shades of red.

"Nani?!?!" he screeched.

Sakura immediately let go of him as soon as she had control over herself again.

"Gomen, Syaoran-kun!!  I don't know what's wrong with me!!"  Sakura apologized, looking even redder than him,  "I seem to be having this weird reaction to something all of a sudden and I can't seem to control what I do!!"

"Is it...?"

"I think we would've sensed it already if it was a Clow card." Sakura explained, "But I still can't figure out exactly what's going on."

"Well, first of all, we have to figure out exactly what the trigger to these reactions is."  Syaoran decided, becoming serious.

"All of the sudden outbursts happened after my name was said," Sakura explained, "So I think that may be the trigger."

Syaoran raised an eyebrow at her.

"Do you want to confirm that theory?" he asked.

"Hai." she nodded.

"Sakura."

She expected to kick out or something, but she actually ended up punching herself in the nose.

"Owie..." she mumbled, rubbing the front of her face.

"So, we've got to somehow stop everyone from saying your name?"

"Yeah, unless you want to find out what else I can do." she replied sarcastically.

                        ***************************

Sakura had been dreading lunch hour.  She tried to avoid her friends as best she could, but it didn't help much.  She had already fallen flat on her face, kicked some poor boy in a very painful place, done a back flip, (although she had to admit that doing that felt kind of cool)slapped Naoko across the face, (which took some extensive explaining)pulled Tomoyo's hair, threw her Science book at Syaoran, and countless other things.  By now, she didn't have to avoid people, they were freely avoiding her.  Eriol had thought the whole ordeal was amusing and kept saying Sakura's name in odd places, causing her to lash out at either herself or others in a very peculiar ways.

Now she, Tomoyo, Syaoran, and Eriol were all walking home from school discussing the main events of the day, which almost all had something to do with Sakura's frequent outbursts.

"Did you see that?  The look on that kid's face when Sakura just pushed him off the bicycle he was riding?  And the poor kid didn't even do anything!"

"Geez. You make it sound like it's my fault, Eriol-kun." Sakura pouted.

Eriol smiled that evil smile of his.

"Of course it isn't your fault, Sakura-san."

Sakura's reactions kicked in at the sound of her name and she started choking the unsuspecting Eriol.

Soon after, Eriol was on the ground gasping for breath, Sakura was shouting apologies, Syaoran was laughing at Eriol's misfortune, and Tomoyo was taping the whole scene with a grin.

"I think I'll call this 'Sakura's-'"

Tomoyo suddenly clamped a hand over her mouth, realizing what she just did.  Sakura elbowed Syaoran in the side.

"Gomen, Syaoran-kun!" Sakura apologized, "I really hope Kero-chan knows what's going on. I don't think I can go through another day like this."

"Neither can we." the three said in unison.

Sakura sweat-dropped.

                        **************************

"...Maybe I'll tell you." Kero decided.

"Hey!  What do you mean, 'maybe', Kero-chan?" she asked, hands on her hips.

"Well," he said, turning toward her, "you have to do something for me first."

"And that would be?"

"I believe you're having pudding for desert tonight..." Kero stated, smirking, "All you have to do is bring me some pudding."

"What would you do if I added cake and a chocolate bar?" Sakura asked slyly.

Kero's beady eyes turned into saucers.

"OOOOoooooooo!! I'll tell you anything you want!"

Sakura smiled.

"Then I guess it's agreed."

Sakura hummed a happy tune all the way downstairs.  What was losing a few sweets if she could actually get Kero to tell her what was going on?

'He sure does have a soft spot for sweet foods though...' she thought, grabbing a chocolate bar from the bottom drawer of the fridge.

She found the chocolate cake on the counter and cut a hunk of it off, placing it on a dish.  Finally, she rummaged for some pudding and added it to the assortment of goodies.

'If this doesn't get Kero-chan to tell me, nothing will.' she thought, making her way carefully back upstairs with all the sweets.

She walked into her room and deposited all the confectionaries in front of the wide-eyed guardian beast.

"Okay, there you go." she said, gesturing toward the chocolate foods, "Now spill."

Kero sat down on the desk and motioned for her to sit down in her chair.  But before sitting down, Sakura went and shut the door.

'Just in case.' she thought.

She sat down in the chair and looked expectantly at Kero, who stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Now where should I start? Ah, yes!  The black Clow card from your dream probably has something to do with this."

Sakura's eyes opened wide.

"Hoe?! It does?" she asked in disbelief.

"You said you saw a black Clow card in your dream, correct?"

"Yeah." Sakura confirmed.

Kero had a slightly worried facial expression for a moment, but shook it off.

"I think we're dealing with the forbidden Clow cards." he stated.

Sakura cluelessly scratched the top of her head.

"Hoe? Say that again?"

Kero sighed.

"Well, we'll start from the beginning. The forbidden clow cards were made by Clow reed just as the others were, but no one knows exactly why he made them.  Some think he was possessed or pressured into doing it, while others believe he was just plain crazy.  Whatever the case, the forbidden clow cards were somehow created." Kero explained.

"So whatever is going on with me DOES have something to do with clow cards!" Sakura realized.

"I'm getting to that." Kero said, continuing his story, "I myself, am not sure exactly how many of these clow cards there are, but there are significantly fewer in number than the originals.  It also seems that these cards have minds of their own, which created the question of if they even WERE created by clow reed, instead of creating themselves."

Sakura was completely dumbfounded.

"Created themselves?  How is that possible?  Just what can these cards do?"

"WHOA, whoa! Slow down there!" Kero said, backing up a little, "Save the questions for later."

Sakura nodded apologetically and sat attentive.

"The forbidden clow cards are different than the ones that you're used to capturing." he stated, making motions with his arms as he spoke, "These cards usually take advantage of an individual, whether it be body, mind, soul, or heart. That's what makes them so dangerous.  They don't focus on real pain, but go more for tearing a person apart from the inside, or taking control of their body.  Besides that, you cannot sense the presence of these cards, so you can't really do anything at all until the target is affected."

Sakura made a face.

'That's why me and Syaoran couldn't sense the card's presence...this sounds complicated.' she thought.

"Now the real shocker." Kero announced, bringing Sakura out of her thoughts, "You can't use the wand to capture these cards."

"HOEEEEEE!!!?? Then how??"

"You have to somehow manage to show the card that you're stronger than it is, that you possess a power it can't fully understand or somehow prove your worth to it.  If you can do that, the clow card will return to the card form on it's own."

"Are you saying that these clow cards actually have feelings and free will, just like normal people??" she asked curiously.

Kero nodded solemnly.

"That's why they were forbidden."

Sakura was finally beginning to understand.

"So I have to prove something to this card that's controlling me?"

Kero shrugged.

"That's the only way to capture it."

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows in concentration as Kero's words echoed through her head.

'Prove my worth...show strength...'

"Oh yeah, you and the brat should be expecting a lot of attention from these cards.  They already know that you're the chosen cardcaptors, so they'll try to create problems for you two in particular." Kero added.

"I guess I had better tell Syaoran about this then." Sakura decided, reaching for her pink cell phone.

*Ring, ring*

"Moshi moshi, Li Syaoran speaking."

"Li-kun...we have a slight problem."

"S-sakura?" Syaoran stuttered.

'She's using my last name, something must be up.' he thought.

He heard something crash on the other line and sweat-dropped.

"Gomen, I forgot.  So, what's the problem?" he asked.

"Ouchie...Anyway I know it's late, but I wanted to talk to you about some new clow cards and-"

"I'll be right over." he intervened quickly.

*click*

Sakura sweat-dropped and put the phone down.

"I take it the brat is on his way?" Kero asked nonchalantly.

Sakura's sweat-drop grew larger.

"How'd you guess?"

"It doesn't matter." Kero stated, stuffing his face with cake and pudding, "It's probably better that we talk face to face anyway."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Sakura admitted.

'As much as I hate to admit it...' Kero thought, taking a bite out of the cake, 'that Chinese brat cares about Sakura...and I can count on him to protect her.'

A few seconds later, Sakura thought she heard voices outside of her window.  She curiously walked over to the window and opened it.  Sure enough, Toya and Syaoran were on the ground beneath her window, arguing away.

"And now you come stalking my sister from a tree!!!  Luckily for her I caught you before you made it to the window!" Toya yelled at Syaoran from down below.

"I wasn't stalking her!" Syaoran spat, "We just needed to talk about a project for school!!"

"Yeah right, brat. And I'm Santa Claus."

"Ho ho ho." Syaoran mocked.

Toya lost his patience.

"Now get your ass out of our yard before I do it for you!!"

"I HAVE TO TALK TO SAKURA!!!" Syaoran yelled.

A sudden cry of "HOOOOEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!" alerted the two young men.

Syaoran mentally kicked himself for saying her name out loud and ran to catch the girl who just fell out her window.

"Go home gaki!! And keep your grimy hands off of my sister!!" Toya demanded.

It became an all out race between the two, to see who could get to the falling Sakura first.  It was a close, but Syaoran eventually won, successfully catching Sakura in his open arms.

"Are you okay?" Syaoran asked, losing himself in her deep emerald eyes.

"H-h-hai Syaoran-kun," she nodded, "thanks to you, that is."

Sakura and Syaoran blushed simultaneously.  Toya on the other hand, looked ready to explode any moment.

"I SAID KEEP YOUR GRIMY HANDS OFF MY SISTER!!!" Toya screamed.

Sakura lowered herself from Syaoran's arms and faced Toya.

"I was expecting him onnisan." Sakura explained, "We have a Science project to work on."

"T-that gaki was telling the truth?!" Toya stammered in disbelief.

Syaoran smirked at him triumphantly and Sakura just glared at him, hands on her hips.  Without as much as another word, Toya walked into the house, leaving the two of them out there alone.  They both breathed sighs of relief.

"He's impossible..." Sakura sighed.

"Sorry about the window incident." Syaoran mumbled, scratching his head nervously, "I should've been more careful about saying your name."

"It's forgotten, Li-kun." Sakura said, smiling, "I'm just glad that you caught me before I hit the ground."

"It was nothing.  Y'know, you don't have to call me by my last name, Sa-" he cut himself off before saying the whole name.

"I know, but you're here on business, so I thought I would make it more formal."

Sakura explained.

Sakura thought she saw his expression sadden for a moment, but dismissed it as her imagination.

"C-mon!" she called, running to the front door, "Let's go upstairs."

Instead, Syaoran walked over to the tree.

"I'll meet you up there."

He gave Sakura one of his rare smiles and she nodded with a smile of her own.  As Sakura walked into her house, Syaoran likewise made his way up the tree. 

When she closed the door, she was met by Toya's angry face.  He looked behind her, then at her, back and forth, back and forth.

"Where's the gaki?" he asked suspiciously.

Sakura smiled and pointed above her.

"He said he would meet me up there."

Toya scowled and glared up the stairway.  Sakura just smiled as cheerfully as ever and pranced up the stairs.  She entered her room and found Syaoran sitting on the edge of her bed.  She cocked her head to the side and smiled at him.

"Been waiting long?"

He blinked and shook his head.

"That's good." she said, going to close the window, "I hope the overall pinkness of my room doesn't bother you."

Syaoran looked around.  She was right, almost everything was pink.  Pink walls, pink curtains, pink bedspread, pink pillows...etc.  But he didn't mind.  The color pink only made him think about her and the lovely blossoms she was named for.  And in his mind, there was nothing wrong with thinking about that.

"So the gaki is finally here?" Kero questioned, popping out of his drawer.

He and Syaoran had a brief staring war, but Sakura quickly jumped in.

"Shouldn't we explain about the situation now, Kero?" Sakura asked, hoping to break the two out of it.

Kero grunted and turned his back to Syaoran, breaking the eye contact.

"Yeah, yeah." he muttered.

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

After about a half an hour, Sakura and Kero clarified everything.

"We can do this." Syaoran decided, standing up, "As long as we work together."

Sakura nodded and assured him with a smile.

"I know we can."

"Alright!" Kero said, pumping a fist into the air, "The cardcaptors are BACK IN BUSINESS!!"

"So...what now?" Sakura asked.

Kero looked to be deep in thought.

"Do you think you can capture that card, Sakura?" Kero asked, sweat-dropping as she rammed her head against the foot of the bed.

"UMMMMMMMMM.....I think that's going to be a problem." Syaoran pointed to Sakura who was rubbing the large lump on her head.

Kero flew over to Sakura and patted her shoulder encouragingly.

"C'mon kid!  I know you can do this!  Show that card how strong you really are!"

Syaoran put a hand on her opposite shoulder.

"I believe in you." he said, giving her a serious smile, "You've got to believe in yourself too."

Sakura felt herself smile at all the encouragement.

'They really believe in me!'

Sakura closed her eyes and tried to concentrate completely on the card.

'Why are you doing this?' she questioned.

"Sakura?"

She felt her arms try to spring forward, but she mustered up all the strength she could to hold them back.

'You can't do this!' she insisted, 'I'm not going to hurt anyone anymore!  Do you realize how many people you hurt today?  Why can't you realize what you're doing?!'

She almost thought she felt the card give in a little, but it made a quick comeback, fighting for control over her arms.  To Kero and Syaoran, it looked like Sakura was pulling on some invisible rope.  And she was pulling as hard as she could.

'STOP IT!!!' she begged, 'What you're doing is wrong!'

Sakura took a deep breath and pulled with all her might.  Images of people flew through her mind.  The kids in the schoolyard, Nikki, Tomoyo, Syaoran, the kid on the bicycle, even Eriol.  The card had used her to attack them.

"YOU WILL NOT CONTROL ME!!!!!!!!!" she yelled, startling Kero and Syaoran.

She clenched her teeth hard and continued to pull against the force of the card.  She seemed to be tiring out, but her body slowly started glowing with a pinkish aura.

'If you really are like a human being, you have to have feelings just like we do.' she reasoned, hoping to come to a truce with the card,  'Listen to me, I can understand that you may be angry, but...I can't let you hurt the people I love.  I will protect them.'

Sakura suddenly felt the force on her arms cease.

"Huh?"

She opened her eyes and held up her arms.

"I can-I can move!" she realized.

The glowing being in front of her suddenly caught her attention.  She gazed at the tall white animal and gasped.

"Are you the Clow card?"

It didn't answer her, but instead touched it's nose to her hand.  Before Sakura could do anything else, the beautiful animal willing turned to card form and landed by her feet.  Sakura picked the black Clow card off the floor and turned it around to see its name.

"The...Reflex." she spoke quietly.

The card had the white fox animal on the front, with its eyes closed and it's head facing upward. 

'I did it...I proved myself to the card.'

She stared at the fox and it almost seemed to speak straight through to her mind.

'You've proven that you are worthy to don my power, I commend you cardcaptor and hereby swear my loyalty to you.'

Sakura blinked.

'It talked to me?'

"Nice job, Sakura!! I knew you could do it!" Kero exclaimed.

Sakura turned around to face him.

"It was because you and Syaoran believed in me.  I couldn't have done it without you guys." Sakura said gratefully.

"What card is it?" Syaoran asked curiously, trying to look over her shoulder.

"The Reflex card." she stated simply.

Syaoran shrugged.

"It makes sense." he said, "Oh, and by the way, Sakura, that was a great capture."

Sakura felt herself blush a tiny bit.

'It's rare to get praise from Syaoran,' she thought, 'so I must have done good.'

"Arigato, you guys." Sakura thanked.

"Hey, we're in this together." Syaoran reminded her with a wink.

"Yeah." Sakura agreed with a cheerful nod.

"Don't get overconfident." Kero broke in.

'This is just the beginning...' he thought.

~That's the first chapter!  I hope you all enjoyed it.  I would appreciate it if you reviewed this, so I know whether or not to continue.  Criticism is appreciated also!!  I like knowing when I screw up somewhere, so I don't make the same mistake again.  Arigato for reading my fic!! ^_^ ~Manda-chan

Japanese terms: onnisan-big brother  hai-yes  arigato-thank you   hoe-a word Sakura made up  doushite-why  kaijuu-monster (what Toya always calls Sakura)  Gaki-brat (both Toya and Kero call Syaoran this, but Kero usually adds 'Chinese' before it)  otousan-daddy  gomen-sorry  nani-what  moshi moshi-a greeting used over the telephone