There were a few theories about where Traverse Town came from. The simplest one was that it simply appeared, born of raw potentia, like all other worlds do. But that left a lot of questions unexplained. Like... Why wasn't it self-sufficient? Every other world that conformed to normal physics was isolated but capable of supporting any life on it, yet Traverse depended on imports for all its food. There was nowhere on it where crops could grow and it seemingly had no natural flora or fauna at all. Where did the water come from? The only natural resource the town had in abundance was water, which welled up from underground tunnels without explanation. It seemed to come from small cracks in the rock, but nobody had been able to probe the currents back to their original source. And about heat? There was no sun in Traverse Town - no day, only night. The world seemed to heat itself from within instead. Some people speculated that the town's electricity was generated using this geothermic source, but nobody could get to the power plant any more. The Heartless had taken it over. And so an unconfirmed theory took hold - that Traverse Town was an artificially generated world, created by some race that had frequently travelled across the void, as a waypoint for travellers. Its large ports and even its name supported the concept. But regardless of what the original purpose of the town was, its current one was to draw in every misfit who'd lost their world and house them. Something about Traverse Town seemed to attract those who had fallen into the void and while it was impossible to guess how many appeared on other worlds, a lot of unfortunate people found themselves waking up in a Traverse Town back alley. There were a lot of such misfits. And also a resistance faction that was unique among all the worlds. Unsung Heroes Part 2.1 - Refugees There were four problems. 1) It was an unfamiliar bed. The sheets and pillow weren't quite as smooth as she was accoustomed to, and the mattress was harder. 2) They were unfamiar clothes. Not her pyjamas at all. They were comfortable but too tight and heavy for sleeping in. 3) She had slept dreamlessly, but her last waking moments had been a nightmare. 4) She couldn't hear Kero-chan snoring. Kinomoto Sakura opened her eyes with a start, and saw only the brown side of a wooden set of drawers. An electric lamp sat on top of the drawers, shedding a faint light over her. She looked around a little and saw a bed on the other side of the drawers - this one was unoccupied though, and the sheets were carefully tidied. It sat below a window that opened into a starry sky and allowed some snatches of street sounds to filter in - words of conversation, sometimes in Japanese and sometimes in English, clatters, the crash of someone dropping something and it shattering, and the hubbub that followed. She was afraid, but not because of any direct threat. It was more for her friends. The last thing she remembered... the last moments she remembered were of her friends - Tomoyo-chan, Kero-chan and Yue-san - trapped inside typhoons of water, drowning... and her, too weak to save them. She'd tried to use the Firey card. Firey's flames might have been enough to get rid of the water, but the card had refused to respond. Then, before Sakura could work out what was wrong with Firey, whatever was attacking them had surrounded her with monsters - little midnight-black figures with antennae and claws. She'd tried to get rid of them, but her first hunch - the Shadow card - was as ineffective as Firey, and after trying several other cards she'd been forced to back away from them, defeated. If she'd had time to think she might have figured out the trick, but she didn't. She couldn't run and leave her friends to die, but without the magic of the Clow Cards she was just a little girl! She didn't stand a chance against the monsters, and only her natural athleticism saved her from getting hurt. The last thing she remembered was a boy stepping out of the shadows. He'd had long robes and a large hat, and carried a staff, which he had pointed at her. There had been a dark flash and she'd fallen unconcious... and now she was here. Wherever here was. Sakura sat up. She was a young girl, about ten years old. Her hair was brown and quite short, but not tomboyish, and she was still wearing the battle costume Tomoyo-chan had made for this time - (describe), although she was missing the boots and hat. She swung her legs out of the bed and sat on it, taking time to look around the room again. This was definitely someone's bedroom, but there didn't seem to be many personal touches. The walls were bare plaster and the floor bare boards, apart from a rug next to each bed and a piece of paper pinned above the other bed. It was a pencil sketch of a man's face, and the words "MISSING - Tenkawa Akito" were written on it in both Japanese and English. There was also the word "FOUND," written in red ink. Her hat was on top of the drawers, next to the lamp, and she took it and put it on. There was also a wardrobe in the far-left corner of the room, and an open door sat directly ahead of her - It opened into a more brightly-lit corridor, and Sakura watched as a boy walked past the door. He glanced in to look at her, and then stopped and stared for a brief moment. He looked about her age but was obviously western. His hair was blond and faintly spiked, and he had a green t-shirt and black shorts. "Yeh, eru'oy ekawa!" he said, but Sakura didn't understand him. It sounded like English, and she didn't understand much of that. He stepped into the room, and said something else. "Driew emutsoc. Era uoy a Repus?" She didn't know what to say, and just stumbled out the first English word she thought of. "Ah... yes?" He seemed to like that. "LOOC!" he yelled, and then he vanished, appearing just as suddenly at the side of her bed. "Enoemos esle edam ti! Evah uoy nees yna fo Eht Selbidercni?" he asked enthusiastically, speaking far too quickly for Sakura to try to apply any of the English she knew. [Stop, stop!] she said in Japanese. [Hoeee... I don't know what you're saying!] He looked at her blankly, and she tried to say "Me, English..." and then shook her head and waved her hands laterally. "Ho." he said, and he clearly started to think to himself, mumbling "tahw saw ti?" Eventually he remembered something, and carefully said [wait] to her in awkward, heavily accented Japanese. The boy then disappeared once again, startling Sakura once more, and she heard shouting coming from downstairs. He reappeared at the doorway a moment later, pointing at her and shouting down the corridor about something. A girl's voice answered him, and then the girl herself walked though the doorframe and stopped there. She looked like she was in her early teens - thirteen or so. Her hair was pink and tied up into (those things on top of her head.) She wore jeans and a pale-blue hooded sweatshirt with a picture of a frog on the front. [Hey, you're awake now,] she said, relieved. [We were starting to get worried.] Sakura recognised a slight Hong Kong accent in her speech, though she seemed to be European. [How do you feel? Are you hurt?] Sakura checked herself. [No. I think I'm okay.] She looked around, and nervously continued, [Where am I?] [You're in Traverse Town,] said another girl's voice. A girl with extremely pale blue hair came into the room. She was maybe slightly older than Sakura, her hair was tied up into a pair of loose bunches, and she wore a light gray dress. This made her look almost ghostly when combined with her pale skin and severe expression, and the look she gave Sakura was enough for her to start feeling inferior. [Specifically, you're in my room,] the girl continued. Pink-hair shot Blue-hair a dirty look, which was returned with interest. [The room belongs to both of you now,] Pink-hair said. [What's your name?] [Kinomoto Sakura.] This got a pleased nod from pink-hair. [I'm Anita. Anita King. This is Hoshino Ruri,] she said, indicating toward the ghostly girl, and then she pointed at the boy. [That's Dash Parr.] "Tahw? Tahw era uoy gniyas tuoba em?" Dash said. "Emoc no! Ksa reh!" [Is something wrong?] Sakura asked. [He wants to know if you've seen The Incredibles,] Anita replied, a little annoyed at Dash's interupption. [His family.] Sakura looked at Dash's hopeful expression, and it hurt her a little to say [no. Sorry, but I've never heard of them,] especially when she saw his face fall after the first word. [Are they missing?] she asked, somewhat concerned. [Yes,] Anita replied, and Sakura thought she saw a piteous look on the girl's face, though Sakura couldn't figure out if Anita's pity was for Sakura, Dash, or Anita herself. But Anita's expression scared Sakura. [Where's Tomoyo-chan? And Kero-chan, and Yue-san?] Sakura asked, hoping the answer would quash her fears. [Did they make it out of the water okay?] There was an awkward silence, where everyone present made a point of both not looking at Sakura and not looking at each other. Dash took the opportunity to slink away. [Please... hoeee.] Sakura said, now very worried. [You have to tell me...] [We don't know,] Anita interuppted. [Sorry, but when we found you, it was just you lying in an alleyway, around the back of the hotel. There wasn't anyone else.] [What?] Sakura sat forward. [But, they must be somewhere! Someone must have seen them! Tomoyo... she's my best friend, she's really pretty and kind and she has long black hair and it was tied back into a braided ponytail today and she probably has her video camera still with her.] Sakura stood up and continued to blurt out details about her friends. [And Kero-chan, he's a big lion with wings some of the time but most of the time he looks like a flying stuffed toy... and Yue, he's tall and handsome and he has big wings, but most of the time he's...] she trailed off, as her throat got sore. She hadn't realised how loudly she'd been talking. Both Anita and Ruri were watching her with sympathetic but sad expressions. Anita bowed her head a little and shook it. [Sorry. Nobody like that's turned up here.] [But you don't understand!] Sakura started to yell. [They might be hurt... or even dead!] [We understand,] Ruri replied. [And we're sorry,] Anita solemnly added. She placed her hand on Sakura's shoulder, and as Sakura looked at it Anita and Ruri's implication struck her. [No...] Sakura felt her stomach knot and she had a sudden loss of equilibrium, stumbling backwards and out of Anita's grip. She almost fell backwards into the wall but ended up slumping against it instead. She slid her back down the wall and squatted agianst it, covering her watering eyes with her hands. [No... they couldn't!] Then a sob shook her body, as she knew they could. Or at least Tomoyo could have. Kero-chan and Yue-san were magical and probably couldn't actually drown, but Tomoyo-chan... [Oh no.] Sakura shook, mumbling [Tomoyo-chan...] to herself. [Oh no no /no no/] she whimpered. Another sob wracked her body and for a moment she felt all the air leave her lungs, and her guts heave. The world outside her skin was a bleary blur, but she could hear the other two saying something in English - one seemed concerned, one seemed to be criticising the other, and Sakura heard a Japanese word - [idiot.] She tried to take a breath but instead felt last night's dinner coming back. Sakura closed her mouth and gulped down the bile, and as she did so Anita took one of Sakura's shoulders and quickly helped the overwhelmed girl through to the bathroom, to get her head over a toilet. Sakura spent the next couple minutes with her head down, and was eventually herded over to a sink where she just leaned against, burying her head in her arms and crying. She certainly didn't feel any better for throwing up, and the certainty that Tomoyo was gone was the worst pain she'd ever felt. There was a *chink* from somewhere near her head, and she looked up to see Anita had placed a glass of water next to the sink. [Sorry,] Anita began, [I messed up there... I'm supposed to let JD handle the explanations, she knows how to be nicer about it.] Sakura just wordlessly turned away and rested her head on her forearms again, screwing up her eyes and letting out a small sob. [Look, I didn't mean what you think I meant.] Anita put her hands on Sakura's shoulders and craned her neck around to look down at her face. [It sounded like I said they were dead, but I messed up... they could be alive.] This was like flipping a lightswitch - Sakura's teary eyes opened and she looked up at Anita. [Hoe? She's... Tomoyo-chan's not dead?] [Well... she might not be,] Anita carefully said, but Sakura's face lit up into a hopeful smile. Tomoyo was alive! She had to be! [You should come downstairs when you're ready,] Anita continued. [JD'll explain it better than I could. Here, wash your mouth out and rinse your face and you'll feel a lot better.] Sakura obliged and allowed Anita to lead her out of the bathroom, along the corridor and down a flight of stairs. The stairwell opened into a common-room. It wasn't very big, but there was room for a long table, a smaller one and enough chairs. Sakura couldn't help but notice that most of the furniture was kid-sized. Ruri and Dash were seated at one of the tables - they were playing some kind of card game, and judging by his expression Dash seemed to be losing. There was also a small kitchen at one end of the room, with counters low enough for even Sakura to reach and a small electric cooker. A woman in a wheelchair sat in front of the cooker, frying some eggs. She had her back to Sakura, but she could see that the woman's hair was long and black. Then the woman turned her head to look at Sakura, and she saw a Japanese face with a warm, welcoming smile. The woman was in her early twenties and quite attractive, though slightly weathered for her age - in particular, she had a slight scar below her ear. [Hey, you're up,] she said, before signalling to Anita. ['nita, take over.] The pink-haired girl ran over to take over frying the eggs, and the woman turned her wheelchair to face Sakura. The little girl could see the woman was wearing a heavy sweater over a shirt, and a blanket covered her lower half - which didn't seem to have knees in the appropriate place. [How are you feeling? I suppose you don't have much of an appetite right now, do you?] Sakura shook her head nervously. [Not really,] she said. [That's okay,] the woman replied. [You can eat when you're ready. My name's Jane, by the way.] [I'm Sakura,] the girl replied, before bowing a little. [Please treat me kindly.] [Good to meet you,] Jane replied. [Okay, I think that's it,] Anita said, scooping up the eggs with a wooden spatula. "Ruri! Dash! Hcnul si ydaer!" Dash threw down his cards and was at the table a split second later, waiting for Anita to set down the plates. Ruri just put her cards down and walked over more conventionally. [Come on,] Jane said to Sakura, [we'll talk over here.] She started to wheel herself over to a smaller table, and Sakura followed her. [Aren't you going to have any lunch Jane?] Anita asked. [I'll talk to Sakura first,] Jane replied. [Hoe?] Sakura looked at both of them, and then her gaze shot to the window. A gloomy street lay outside it. [What do you mean, lunch? It's dark outside.] [You get used to that,] Ruri said from the table. [Hoeee?] Sakura looked at the the others. [What do you mean? It's always this dark outside? Are we underground?] Jane sighed and awkwardly adjusted her position in her wheelchair. [I suppose this is a good place to begin...] she said, and with that she started to tell Sakura all about Traverse Town - the tiny world with no sun, no moon and no daytime. The place where increasing numbers of those who got lost in the Void - people like Sakura - were materialising. Jane mentioned this was because the Town was placed at the "space-time coordinates of least resistance" but with the assurance that this meant as much to herself as it did to Sakura - ie nothing. A caveat that made Ruri smirk. Sakura was in the Second District Orphanage. It'd used to be student accomodation for a boarding school in the third district, but the school was no longer open. So now the kids who were washed up on Traverse Town's many shores were placed here. There were seven kids here now - Anita, Ruri, Dash, Sakura herself and three others. This all proved a lot for Sakura to take in. [So I'm on another world? But... how did I get here? How do I get home?] Jane sighed, and and turned away from Sakura for a moment, and the girl noticed that the room had quietened considerably. Even Dash had stopped eating. Then Jane looked back at Sakura, and said [well, first you need to tell me what happened. Can you tell me what you were doing when you were attacked?] That turned out to be a long story. In order to explain what she had been doing in Penguin Park late at night, Sakura found herself telling these relative strangers things she'd never told anyone else, except for Tomoyo. How she'd accidently released the Clow Cards and been charged by Keroberos - the cards' guardian - to capture them all again before something terrible happened. She told them about Tomoyo-chan - her costumer, cheerleader and cinematographer - and Shaoran, her rival and friend. She brought up her father and her brother Touya too, and also mentioned Yukito, though she didn't say much about him because the way she blushed was embarrassing. Eventually she described how she'd been surrounded by the strange black creatures while her friends slowly drowned. She hadn't been able to do anything about them, and then that boy had hit her with a spell... and now she was here. Jane gave this some thought. [It sounds like he was saving you,] she soon said, and Sakura nodded. On reflection it seemed a lot like that. [If that's the case,] Jane continued, [there's a good chance he will have saved your friends too. You might not need to worry about them - though they are missing. It's better than dead.] [But why did he send me here? Why isn't Tomoyo-chan here? Why didn't he keep us on our world?] Sakura asked. [How old are you, Sakura?] Jane just asked, seemingly ignoring the question. [Ten years old... why?] [Ten...] Jane just sighed, and leaned forward in her wheelchair, taking both of Sakura's hands. She held them gently and looked into Sakura's eyes. [Sakura, I'm going to have to ask you to be very, very strong.] And she reluctantly told Kinomoto Sakura about the Heartless. At first the children had been kept in the dark about what the Heartless did. They were told that their parents and friends were coming to get them, that someday they could go home, and they held on to this spark of hope. But the kids were more perceptive than people thought. They noticed that the adults around them did not believe the lie, and the world is much darker after extinguishing a shining light than it would have been if the light were never there. This lie caused one disaster and one tragedy. So when Jane was allowed to take over looking after the Orphanage she decided to give the truth to those old enough to understand it - preferably on the day they arrived. She felt it would be less cruel in the long run to tell them what happened, and then to give them unconditional love and support - that they could start to make a new home, new friends and new hope. And now Sakura knew the truth - that the disaster she had escaped from was not confined to Penguin Park, or even Tomoeda. That the whole of her world was gone, and that it was likely that all her family, all her friends, her teachers and everyone she'd ever met was dead. Jane's approach was less cruel in the long term, but in the short term it was devastating, and Sakura found herself overwhelmed with tears. [But I got all the cards!] Sakura said, gasping the words out between sniffs. [Why couldn't I do something... why wouldn't they help me?] she said, whimpering. [I could have done something!] [Don't say that, Sakura,] Jane said. [It's not your fault at all. There would soon have been thousands of Heartless near you. You couldn't have fought them all. Somebody saved you without even a word, because he recognised how dangerous they were.] [But there has to be something we can do!] Sakura cried. [All we can do is slow them down, where we can. There is someone out there, somewhere, who can stop them... but we haven't found him or her yet.] Sakura sat there for a while, her hands balled up into fists. She felt like her heart had been dug out and squeezed dry - it had been horrible enough when she had thought Tomoyo, Kero and Yue might be dead, but being told they were the *only* likely survivors was incomparably worse. Her father, her brother, all her friends... she didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to feel. She teetered in a delicate balance, caught between despair and anger, and didn't know whether she should finally collapse in tears again, or just run for the door and never look back, or rip up the Firey card in a fit of rage for refusing to respond when Sakura needed her the most. Just that thought horrified Sakura, and she despaired that she'd been pushed far enough to contemplate that. [Sakura,] Jane said, leaning forward, [I know it hurts.] [How?] Sakura found a new target for her anger. [How can you understand? If you understood, you wouldn't have told me this! How can you calmly sit there and tell me this, and say you understand?] Jane seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then Ruri spoke up from behind Sakura. [She's had a lot of practice,] she said, and Sakura turned to see a grim expression on the pale girl's face. Anita leant against the table nearby and looked distant. [She was the one who told us this when we arrived here. It's...] Anita paused for a moment, [it's better that she did.] Sakura's gaze passed over Dash. He looked bored, like he didn't understand what was being said, but he seemed to get the gist and also looked miserable. Sakura remembered what Anita had said about his family, and looked back at the other two. [You... the same thing happened to you?] she asked, and both Anita and Ruri nodded. [It's happened to nearly everyone on this world,] Jane added. [You're not alone.] Sakura tried to find that comforting, but it wasn't, really. She requested some time alone, to gather her thoughts, and retreated to the bedroom where she'd woken up earlier. Away from the others, this all seemed so unreal - nothing she'd been told could possibly be real - her whole world had not ended... it was impossible! But the strange ceiling and wooden drawers by her bed were enough to remind her that she was here - and not in Tomoeda. She ended up sitting on the bed, arms wrapped around her knees, staring out of the window at the dark sky, thinking but trying not to think too much. The stars twinkled in the sky - they were unfamilar constellations but still pretty, and calming. The rollercoaster Sakura's emotions had been on was slowing now, after the loops and corkscrews Anita and Jane had put it though, and it was settling into a melancholic trundle. There had to be something she could do. Some way she could help. She had all the Clow Cards - there had to be a card she could use. She reached into one of the internal pockets Tomoyo's skillful needle had stiched into her dress, only to find... nothing. An empty pocket. Zero cards. [Hoe?] Sakura quickly patted her other pockets, and then searched the rest of her dress. [HOEEE?] Only a moment passed before Sakura burst into the common room. [They're gone! My cards are gone!] "Yeh, stah'w ehs gniklat tuoba won?" Dash asked. [Your cards?] Anita asked, before her face lit up. [Oh! Those magic cards?] [Were they stolen?] Ruri asked. [Nobody in Traverse Town would steal from a new arrival,] Jane said, shaking her head. [But they must be somewhere!] Sakura almost yelled. [I can't lose them too! Not after everything's that's happened!] [Sorry,] Jane replied, [but you didn't have them when you arrived here.] Sakura's shoulders slumped, and she almost fell into a chair. Those cards had been her friends too... and they represented a year's work, the greatest, scariest, most exciting period of Sakura's life - an adventure she had shared with Tomoyo-chan, Kero-chan... everyone. They were gone, and with them went that year, and all her power. Now she felt as if her soul was squeezed dry... she had nothing... But she felt something resting against her shoulderblades. She reached into her dress and pulled the object out - her key still hung on its chain, the key that she transformed into her staff. It was small and the key section itself was gold, while the handle was decorated with a gold five-sided star inside a pink circle. She morosely dangled it in front of her face, and quietly murmured, [well, at least I still have this.] It took a little while for her to notice how quiet the room was. Sakura looked up. Jane was staring at her. Anita was too, her mouth hanging open. Ruri wore an expression of quiet shock. (which Sakura would never see again) The only one not goggling at her was Dash, who was sulking as he hadn't understood the conversation, and hadn't seen the key. Sakura looked around at the others. [What? What is it?] [Can...] Jane's throat seemed to croak as she started to wheel herself forward, [can I see that, Sakura?] [Uh... sure,] Sakura replied, quite confused. She held the key up, and Jane extended a shakey finger, slowly moving it forward to prod at the key. Her eyes widened as it grew near, and then she jabbed the finger forward. The digit touched the gold, and Jane quickly shrank back and slammed a hand over her mouth, as if suppressing a yelp. "Ho ym dog..." Anita quietly mouthed. "Eht yek..." "Dash, nur dna teg Noel," Jane said. Dash looked up from scratching graffiti into the table and started to protest, until he saw Sakura's key and was struck dumb like the others. For about three seconds. "Yloh parc! Eht yek!" A millisecond later he was standing next to Sakura, holding the key in his palm. "LOOC!" [Eyah!] Sakura was surprised by Dash's sudden movement and fell backwards, taking a tumble off her chair. Anita rushed to help her up, and before Sakura had regained her composure Dash was being scolded in English by Jane as he headed for the door.