Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Tokyo Babylon Fan Fiction ❯ The Bet ❯ Endgame ( Chapter 10 )

Disclaimer: Tokyo Babylon/X/1999 and Card Captor Sakura do not belong to me; they belong to CLAMP and their respective publishers. I make no money from this work of fan fiction at all.

A/N: This is it, folks. Last chapter. Probably no epilogue, because it leads directly into the sequel, which I may or may not write. I think I will right now, but that changes.

There was a thing that Eriol hated beyond anything else in the world.

He knew his fate. The fate that Clow had made for him, setting up causality itself to put him in this position. Presumably he should have been equally able to do it… Yet he was not Clow.

All he could do was follow the path laid before him. He would act out the part, until the puppet’s strings were cut…

And all he could do now was dream. He would sleep, and dream of the tragedy to come.

Walking through the dreams of others, he saw their terrors, the pains of the past, and the seeds of the future.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~  

//Yue stood before Yukito who sat, limp in a pool of moonlight.

“Please- talk to me,” the Guardian whispered. “It’s not right for you to be so silent.”

The false form said nothing, still locked in whatever hell he had thrown himself.

Yue took his hand. “I’m sorry. I should have protected you better. It’s my job to take care of Sakura… and you do. You’re the one she turns to when she needs help, when she needs a friend.”

Taking a deep breath, he stared into the distance. “You’re also the one that… that Touya gave his powers up for.” Sitting beside Yukito, the moon Guardian put his head on Yuki’s knee.

“I never thought I’d be able to love after Clow. I never understood why I survived after his death. I guess it was so you could meet Touya. I don’t think I could ever truly be free of Clow… but you can love freely. I guess that’s why I’m the one who has to make things right.”

Sitting up, Yue leaned over to give his other side a chaste kiss on the lips.

“Zettai daijoubu yo.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~  

Sakura sat next to Tomoyo after yet another bout of weeping. She was still shocked over what they had discovered- her brother was the Sakurazukamori: an assassin who used onmyoujitsu to kill.

He had done it to save her.

She wasn’t sure which was worse- knowing he killed, or knowing he did it to protect her from the same fate.

Sakura-chan wished she could understand what had happened- how in a day, everything in her life could be torn apart, again. Even more so, she wished she knew how to go about living her life when it seemed like the world was about to end.

How do you pick up after that?

“I need to go for a walk,” Sakura murmured, and pulled away from Tomoyo’s comforting shoulder. The other girl let go reluctantly, but nodded when Sakura didn’t hesitate.

“Where are you going?”

“Home, for a little while.” She needed to just… get some perspective. The entire universe had flipped; there was a subtext to her life that she had never suspected. Her existence was…

It just wasn’t fair. Ruby Moon had locked herself away, mourning the loss of Soupy, Eriol was in a coma, Yukito was traumatized, and Sakura was dwelling on her own hurt. She shouldn’t. She should be out there, trying to find a way… some kind of way to make everything right.

Yet at that moment, all she could do was huddle in her little ball of misery. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  

When Tomoyo went home that night, she headed directly to the family shrine.

She had no idea what it would be like to have the most important person in her life betray her. The heiress did know what it was like to have someone you loved.

“Mother,” she whispered, kneeling before the shrine. The oddly shaped bundle behind it seemed to hum. “What will happen to everyone now?”

There was no answer, as always; the pictures of her parents were silent. ~*~*~*~*~*~  

When a person is miserable, the moment stretches for eternity, yet the days slip through your fingers.

Two days had passed since Touya’s disappearance. Yue had been unable to call Yukito back to the surface- all he’d touched was a blank wall. Yukito was all but gone.

“Mistress, I’ve failed you.”

The Guardian sat atop the roof of the hospital, hugging his knees. There was no one but himself, no one at all. Yukito was silent.

Somehow he had to make things right. Touya had become a monster to save Sakura, yet he lost his soul to save Yue, to save Yukito.

He had to make things right. He didn’t know if they had ever really been that way; considering what he’d learned. Yet he knew, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Touya with a heart was infinitely better than one without.

A solution started to percolate though his mind. It was drastic… but it would be final. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sakura wandered home. Not her home at CLAMP campus- her father’s home. She needed someone who didn’t know of what had happened… She needed to see the place they had grown up together, to remember the happy times. She needed to figure out what had happened. Sakura needed her daddy.

It had been four days since Touya had disappeared. Two days since Yue had vanished into the night as well. She knew he was alive; their bond as Guardian and Master was intact.

The memories of her old life floated to her, as she walked back to Tomoeda. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~  

The air was cool and moist as it flooded Yue’s lungs. Though that was his fault, he was gulping every breath.

He knew the price of what he wanted. Worth that price, yes, but no one was ever truly willing to pay it, no matter how brave they were.

Resplendent in his normal white garb with his wings hidden, his bare feet made barely an impression in the thick bed of cherry blossom petals that carpeted the ground. Closer and closer he walked, the smell of the petals and blood filling the air. A dark shadow moved underneath the dense branches.

“Ah, I’ve been waiting for you,” Touya said mildly, puffing on a cigarette. At his feet was the body of a dead girl child. Her chest was a gaping hole with roots squirming into and through her, pulling her down into the dirt.

“I see you haven’t had time to change,” Yue said coldly, staring at the blood soaking Touya’s clothes. The man was already starting on the psychological warfare. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  

There was King Penguin.

Here was the school.

The clock tower was above her.

There were so many memories of this place. She longed for them and the simple time they represented. Her childhood had been happy-

Then she frowned. Those memories were tainted now. Memories of her brother’s sacrifice, of her mother’s betrayal and the first time her brother had killed, in front of her eyes, reared their heads. Nothing could ever be simple anymore. In fact, it never had been.

She mourned the death of her illusion.

Her eyes flickered, and then steadied over the direction of her house, and she blinked. Once, twice, three times; she thought she saw a bright… light? ~*~*~*~*~*~  

Something almost like dim amusement passed over the Sakurazukamori’s features as he shrugged.

“I’m a busy man. You should be happy I found time in my busy schedule for you. What do you want, doll?”

Yue gritted his teeth.

“I want for things to be right again. I know they can’t… But I believe I can correct a mistake.”

“You want to kill me?” Touya tilted his head. “You realize you cannot- not here, not at the base of my power.”

“Killing you was never my intention. What I want though- is you.”

“Me?”

He almost looked amazed, and Yue wondered if his ploy had worked.

“I know you cannot feel love. That is why I want you. Once, before I die.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  

Sakura’s feet had begun running before conscious thought had a chance to catch up.

Her house was in that direction and her instincts had told her what was happening before her mind understood. It was her house. Her father’s house was burning.

“No! Father, no!”

She could see a dim shape inside the blaze, standing there and looking upwards. “Father- what are you doing?”

Gathering speed, she prepared her wand.

“Water!”

A wave erupted from her wand- and parted against a powerful spirit shield.

“What- father? What’s going on?” She approached. “Are you trapped?” Summoning Sword, she struck-

-and was again deflected.

“Father? Please, come here, I can get you out. We have to get out of here!”

“No, Sakura-san.” He was sitting on a table, the last whole piece of furniture of their home. “Running away is something I can not do. There is no reason; this is my destiny.”

“What?” She didn’t understand- she couldn’t understand.

“Sakura-san,” his tone was gentle. “It was my destiny to die like this. Touya’s destiny was to sacrifice his freedom for yours, so you could decide on your own.” He acted like he was talking to her over the dinner table… in effect, he was.

“I must die here, Sakura-san. It is fate. It is the destiny that cannot be changed. Be strong, Sakura-san. Go back to CLAMP campus. Sakura- never forget your invincible spell.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~  

It was a mad hope and dream that fueled Yue, as he coupled with Touya on their clothes against the knobby roots of the Sakura tree. Placing his lips to his Touya’s throat, he slowly started to feed his energy back into him. A trickle at first, then a stream…

He came undone. The sex was indifferent, emotionless, a dying man’s last request. The power Yue that had sustained him unraveled as it flowed back to its original master. It clipped the strings that had moved him, leaving behind only the power gained from their master.

It would be enough to sustain one of them.

Yue watched Touya’s face as the last bit fled his body. The expression slowly changed from distantly amused to more involved- to ecstatic, and Yue gave himself over to physical pleasure as he enjoyed their first- and last- time together.

The orgasm hit him first, raw sensation taking second place to seeing the play of feeling over his lover’s face. Going still, breathing out, watching…

“NO!”

She beat her fists bloody against the glassy surface of her father’s kekkai, driven beyond thought to save him.

It was useless. All of it. Inside her, she felt her father’s death even as she lost sight of him in the dense smoke.

Tossing her head back, she howled her denial. ~*~*~*~*~*~  

On a mountain, a man in black stopped practicing with his sword.

A blond man stepped out of his café, going home from work, and looked in the direction of Tomoeda.

A blue haired girl dropped her school books.

A pale boy in glasses stopped ranting at taller boy, dressed in gi and hakama, and both looked startled.

A small, braided girl with red hair stopped kendo practice, eyes wide.

The heartbeat monitor on Eriol’s bed sped up, along with his respiration, and Ruby Moon shivered violently.

Meilin and a blond woman dropped their tea.

And Yukito woke up, alone and cold. A shadow ran from him.

All of them felt Sakura’s instinctive cry, and all of them whispered a single word.

“Kamui.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~  

Tomoyo sat in front of her mother’s shrine, staring at the sword.

“Sakura-chan…”

The end.