Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Chaos Card Captor Sakura ❯ Broken ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5: Broken

 

(a black void)

 

Lycan paces slowly in circles about a black empty space. He swings his thorny tails to and fro like an anxious dog. `Grrr, where is that Damien?! Does he honestly think he can get away with that stunt with Plague, much less hide from me? He could have killed my Card Captor, and then all our planning and scheming would be for naught.' Lycan muses, though it can't be discerned whether he said this or merely thought it. Growing ever more frustrated, he lets out a mighty roar. “DAMIEN!”

 

Lycan is answered with but a dark, empty silence for the next several moments, yet each of those moments would seem to last a timeless eternity in Lycan's wake.

 

Lycan calmly shuts his glowing red eyes. `Never mind that coward. He has no Kaos Cards left, and is therefore of no further use to me at the moment. But I must locate him soon, as the time continues to run thin. Hmm… perhaps a little turnabout could get him to come out of hiding…' he ponders calmly, shunning his inner fury. “Kinomoto Sakura, I invoke the contract which you have made to Kaos. Appear before your Guardian Beast at once,” he commands.

 

Obeying Lycan's command, the darkness before Lycan morphs about and magically takes the shape of Sakura's bed, with Sakura sleeping peacefully under the covers. The bed appears like a small toy to Lycan however, and Sakura appears smaller still. Lycan creeps his face closer and closer, exhaling strong torrents of breath over Sakura's bed sheets.

 

Sakura only rolls over, away from Lycan's breath. “Kero-chan, shut the window. Yucch… and remind me to tell Big Brother to take out the trash. The wind smells like dead fish…” Sakura mutters in her sleep.

 

“Wake up!” Lycan bellows, causing Sakura to jump up under her covers and turn to face the enormously-sized Guardian Beast.

 

Sakura stares up at Lycan's mask, recognizing it immediately. “H-h-h… Hoee!” she shrieks, backing away from Lycan, but falling right off the edge of the bed. She peeks up slowly over the bed, quivering under Lycan's red gaze. “Uh…. Good morning, Lycan-san…” she giggles, attempting very poorly to lighten the mood.

 

Lycan's eyes get narrower, his internal anger begins to boil noticeably, but a whisper in the darkness reaches out to his mind. `She doesn't know any better, Lycan. Your powers have since diminished after surrendering Nightmare to her…' the voice speaks, calming Lycan down, but Sakura doesn't notice this voice at all.

 

“Pleasantries aside,” Lycan snaps. “I have a task for you,” he orders, causing Sakura to recoil in fear.

 

“A task? Ohh...” Sakura whimpers as she slowly crawls back onto her bed. She carelessly slips under the bed sheets. “Sorry, I can't. I'm tired, and I have to get up early tomorrow. Can't I take care of it in the morning?” she groans, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she is effectively at Lycan's mercy, as if he had any.

 

Lycan calmly bides the urge to stomp Sakura like a bug under his paw. Instead, he leers at Sakura with squinted, piercing red eyes.

 

Sakura snuggles warmly under her covers as she rolls away from Lycan. She begins muttering in her sleep. “Kero-chan, I just had the weirdest dream… Lycan asked me to do something… No, I woke up before he said what for…”

 

Lycan's patience grows ever thin until he finally throws his weight onto his hind legs and rears up before crashing down on the `ground' thunderously, eliciting a sharp scream from Sakura that jars her from her rest.

 

Sakura sits up in her bed and grabs at her chest, her heart beating at an incredible rate on account of her being startled awake. With her breath regularizing, she looks around into the empty area devoid of everything. Everything except her and Lycan, that is. Sakura looks back up towards Lycan, still not quite comprehending the reality of her situation. Sakura looks straight forward again as she quickly pinches her own cheek, flinching slightly at the reality-confirming pain.

 

“It's not a dream,” both Sakura and Lycan say in unison.

 

Sakura shoots a quick glance back up at Lycan before standing on top of her bed. She recoils in terror as she looks over the edge of her bed to see an enormous black chasm all around her. There is nowhere for her to run or hide.

 

Lycan's red stare becomes more relaxed and calmed. “And now that we've established that this is real, it is time to attend to the matter at hand. For if you fail to comply… Well, you might say that `it's a long way down'…”

 

Sakura returns a seriously petrified glance back to the edge of her bed and the infinity beyond. Pools of perspiration run down her face as she cannot find the strength to turn away from the omni-present fissure in reality that surrounds her. She gulps in deeply.

 

Lycan raises his right forepaw and slams it down, and the resulting shock causes Sakura to lose her balance and fall forward, straight into the pit of darkness. Sakura clenches her eyes shut and curls up into a ball as she feels herself begin to plummet faster and faster, screaming louder and louder the whole time. In a brief moment of courage after a long while of screaming at the top of her lungs, Sakura cracks one of her eyes open to see the giant claws of Lycan's forepaws. She stops screaming when she notices her bed behind her, and that while she felt like she was falling to her death, she apparently didn't fall at all but was levitating in the void. Sakura stares around blankly before sending a comical grin up to Lycan.

 

“Ehehehehehe… uh, I knew that…” Sakura giggles, coming to a standing posture while floating in the darkness.

Lycan lowers his head and nods it back and forth, muttering deep, incomprehensible curses under his breath. He looks back at his ditzy would-be Card Captor with contempt. “At least try to show a backbone,” he pleads. “You'll need it for your assignment,” he adds.

 

Sakura looks up at Lycan with a tired expression. “Assignment? What am I, an errand girl? I have to clean the house and make dinner tomorrow,” she protests.

 

Lycan continues his stare. “Oh I have a feeling that you'll not only be able to accomplish this task, but that you will want to as well. For I, Lycan, the Guardian Beast of Despair, command you, Kinomoto Sakura…” Lycan pauses for a moment as Sakura begins to look on eagerly. “…to kill Li Xiaolang,” he finishes.

 

Sakura's jaw hangs open in shock. “Hoee! Kill Li-kun?!?!” Sakura climbs onto her bed and stands up, waving her arms in a refusing manner. “No way! Absolutely not! I'd never hurt Li-kun! He swore he'd protect me from the likes of you!” Sakura insists.

 

Lycan smirks, looking around to the emptiness about the two of them. “Well? Do you think Xiaolang would protect you from me… right now? Your hero is nowhere even close to here. It appears as though you and I are all alone in this void. Are you still sure he is going to protect you now? …Or is he a liar?” Lycan asks.

 

Sakura smirks smugly as she folds her arms. “That's not fair, Lycan!” she continues to argue. “Li-kun would definitely come to my aid if I wasn't here, wherever `here' is. But now, he obviously can't!”

 

“And yet he still made the promise?” Lycan continues to prod, poking his nose closer and closer to Sakura. “Why do you think he made that promise, Kinomoto Sakura? For if he was serious about protecting you, he would surely be here now. Xiaolang knew in his heart that such a promise could never be kept, but he made it anyway. He told you because he wanted you to feel safe for the moment… when in fact you are not safe now. What kind of protector does that make Xiaolang to you? He was concerned about your emotions, not your safety. Can you then reason, if he does not care for your well being, that he does not care about… you?”

 

Sakura clasps her hands over her ears, trying her best not to pay attention to Lycan's words as he continues to bombard her with his venomous logic. She looks down and begins to shiver. “No… You're wrong! Shut up! Li-kun promised! He did! He does care about me! I know it!” she responds in a panic, all the while Lycan raises his mighty, clawed forelimb, causing Sakura to inch away further.

 

“To yield to the heart is to stray from reality,” Lycan suggests. “Xiaolang knew this. If his promise cannot be trusted, neither can he. To you, all his words are but meaningless dust in the wind. You wish with all your heart that you could silence Xiaolang's lies…” As Sakura continues to back away, Lycan closes the gap between himself and his victim, leaning in further and further.

 

Sakura drops down to her knees as she throws her arms over her head, desperately taking cover from Lycan's piercing words. “Shut up! Li-kun means well, he really does! Kero-chan! Li-kun! Somebody! Help!” Sakura shrieks, trying to drown Lycan out. She begins to cry, falling on her hands and knees in the process. “I don't like this dream. I want to wake up. Kero-chan, wake me up. Please… Li-kun, I'm scared…” she begs hopelessly.

 

Lycan leans in one last time, close enough to whisper into Sakura's ear. “Heed the call within your own heart, Kinomoto Sakura,” Lycan persuades. “End the cruel deceptions of Li Xiaolang… Kill him…” His message delivered, Lycan backs off, allowing Sakura to stew on his speech.

 

Sakura quivers at the lips, struggling to speak more coherently than a squeal. “Li-kun… you said you'd protect me… Why did I believe in you…?” she mutters in between distraught sniffles as a dual trail of tears runs down her face. She holds out her quivering hands in a cupped formation. A small, solid form materializes in her hand and begins to glow a bright orange, well familiar to Sakura by now as the Elixir of Fire. “You left me all alone. I have no choice…” she whispers, pressing the beak of the bottle in with her thumbs.

 

Lycan backs away, his persuasion having taken the desired effect. “You know in your heart… that which must be done…” he rumbles with a deep, resonating whisper.

 

The Circle of Kaos appears below Sakura. With the bottle to the Elixir of Fire open, the sparkling energy leaks out and surrounds Sakura in a flaming cyclone. The energy of the Elixir of Fire consolidates in her heart as her body begins to emit steam and smoke.

 

Sakura now looks up, her tears vaporized right off her face. She turns a sarcastically mournful expression his way. “Nice try, Lycan. You really had me going there for a second. You should give yourself a pat on the back- no, wait… you can't be touched…” she taunts.

 

Lycan sneers back at Sakura. “Do not do my bidding. Accomplish your own will. Kill Li Xiaolang… NOW!” he orders calmly at first, but raising his already thunderous voice later.

 

Sakura turns away from Lycan. “Sorry, Lycie-chan, but I just can't do that yet. The little boy may be a nuisance sometimes, but he's my ticket to the rest of your Kaos Cards. So you see I can't kill him just yet. Not like there's anything you can do about it…” she taunts.

 

“Oh really?” Lycan asks back.

 

From out of the dark void, long, thin strings shoot out and wrap tightly around Sakura's wrists and ankles. At first, the strings are loose, but in an instant, all four strings are stretched taught, causing Sakura to struggle back to avoid being pulled apart.

 

Sakura grins smugly at Lycan. “What's with these strings, Lycie-chan? Trying to kill me because I won't obey you? Or is poor Lycie-chan finding it a probwem to get awound my Ewicksir of Fire dat he gave me?” she responds with a mocking baby talk.

 

“Don't call me Lycie-chan,” Lycan rumbles.

 

Sakura continues to hang suspended and stretched out by the strings around her arms and legs. “Well, you're the boss… Lycie-wanwan,” she continues to mock.

 

A fifth string shoots out of the abyssal darkness, this one wrapping tightly around Sakura's neck, but is unable to wrap tightly enough to impede Sakura's breathing, much less to choke her.

 

“Ooh, so close too…” Sakura patronizes. “Y'know Lycie-wanwan, you're pretty spunky yourself. Maybe you should try to kill Li-kun,” she taunts, remaining unfazed by Lycan's attempts at lacerating her.

 

The cord wrapped around Sakura's neck loosens and removes itself from Sakura's body.

 

“Anyone could kill Xiaolang,” Lycan begins, “…but only you can hurt him. And hurt him you shall…”

 

The fifth string that had retracted itself shoots right into Sakura's torso from behind, forcing even the elixir-empowered Kaos Captor to clench her eyes shut in pain. The string snakes its way deeper into Sakura's back until she eventually faints. After an orange flicker through Sakura's shut eyelids, the Elixir of Fire leaks out of Sakura's mouth like drool, consolidating back into the empty bottle on her bed, which seals shut when filled. The strings around Sakura's legs recede, and the strings around her arms gently lower her to her bed before retracting. The string in her back remains though, as Sakura lays unconscious, face-down on the bed.

 

Lycan glares with eager and sinister anticipation. “My Kaos Card ought to humble you, Kinomoto Sakura. I must admit, your bond with the Elixir of Fire is indeed incredible, to summon it to your aid like you did. Yes, my choice in you as a Card Captor of Kaos was a wise one.” He shoots a glare out into a random direction, right into the empty darkness. “Hmph. Unlike Damien's selection…”

 

*-*-*

 

(Syaoran's room, before sunrise)

 

Syaoran wears a button-down dark green pajama top as he rests under his green bed sheets. Over on a counter opposite his bed rest his two new Kaos Cards, both inscribed with his name in Chinese characters. Syaoran tosses and turns under the sheets restlessly before finally throwing the sheets off and leaning up. He rolls up the right sleeve of his pajamas with considerable obstruction from the Inferno Crossbow. Finally revealing his right forearm, he confronts the source of his restlessness.

 

The Inferno Crossbow had sunk deep purple veins into Syaoran's arm, clearly visible even in the minimal light of his room from the moon outside. The crude device vibrates subtly, yet annoyingly. Syaoran tries desperately to scratch and claw at the ribcage-like bindings on the Inferno Crossbow with his left hand, but to no avail. The Inferno Crossbow begins to burn at Syaoran's skin like a chemical irritant, and Syaoran's scratching becomes even more desperate and aggravated as a consequence. Syaoran continues to tear at the skin on his arm until it is raw white, but the burning of the Inferno Crossbow persists. Syaoran continues to scratch harder and harder until his skin turns a tender red, and at last his fingernails break through his skin, drawing blood.

 

At the sight of his own blood, Syaoran stops his futile clawing and he holds up his left hand. The fingernails had been stained with the fresh blood of his arm, but with a return of Syaoran's attention to his right arm, he notices that his skin had healed over the scar. He stares at his right arm with curiosity.

 

“What are you?” Syaoran quietly asks the Inferno Crossbow, a trace of fear present in his voice. He reaches towards the device with his left hand, but stops as he realizes that the blood he had drawn onto his fingernails had also mysteriously disappeared.

 

Syaoran's eyes stray over to his backpack, tossed into a dark corner. `I have to tell my mom about this in the morning. This is getting crazy. If I'm going to defeat all the Kaos Cards on my own, I'll need as much support as I can get,' he takes mental note of. Syaoran reclines back down onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. `Well, maybe I don't need that much support… Sakura can't help me. In order for her to seal the Kaos Cards, she has to use the Elixir of Fire. I witnessed what it can do to her tonight, and it didn't even go inside of her. I can't let that happen again because…'

 

Suddenly, Syaoran finds himself short of words in his mind. He closes his eyelids tightly as he slaps himself across the cheek with his right hand. `Way to go, Syaoran. Now Sakura will remember the first time you held her cheek in your hand… when you hit her. There's no way she shares the same feelings as you now. Hope you're proud of yourself!' He continues repeatedly hitting himself in the face as atonement. Eventually, he grows tired of this and lays his arms down at his side.

 

Still unable to sleep, Syaoran's eyes stray over to his desk, where his two Kaos Cards lay face-up. Getting an idea, Syaoran throws himself out of bed and rolls up his right sleeve, once more exposing the Inferno Crossbow and causing the Circle of Kaos to appear before his feet. The circle follows Syaoran as he paces towards his Kaos Cards and recites the incantation along the way.

 

“Key hiding the Powers of the Inferno, show your true form before me. I, Xiaolang, command you under our contract…” he recites softly, raising his forearm over the Kaos Cards that he stands over. “Release,” he commands in a whisper.

 

The Inferno Crossbow's wings whip out and the head of the crossbow rests itself over the back of Syaoran's hand. The beak of the crossbow glows orange and a skinny, orange bolt of energy forms along the spinal column.

 

Syaoran turns his right hand palm up as he taps the beak of the crossbow against the Plague Card. “Mar my skin with a sign, an eternal testament of my misdeed. Plague!” he commands with a forceful whisper.

 

The Plague Card reshapes its form into a green, palm-sized, limber tarantula with thin, long legs and black flame decals on its abdomen. Plague crawls onto Syaoran's hand and rests against his open right palm as it begins to burn at his skin like a cattle prod.

 

Syaoran grits his teeth through the pain, eventually biting the knuckles of his left fist to avoid screaming out or knocking away Plague before it had finished its task. Steam pours out of his palm, as does the smell of searing flesh. Syaoran grimaces in agony as he falls to his knees, the pain beginning to become unbearable. `Suck it up!' Syaoran shouts to himself in his head. `If Sakura will never forget what happened tonight, neither will you…'

 

At that thought, the burning in Syaoran's hand ceases as Plague lifts itself up out of his palm. Plague lets out a shrill squeak before re-forming into a Kaos Card once more. Syaoran stands to his feet and observes his smoldering palm. He nods at the burnt image he sees. “This'll do, Plague. This'll do,” he says to the card. After neatly resetting the Plague Card next to the Chimera Card, Syaoran returns to his bed. Now exhausted for his magical expenditure, he reaches a point of sleep easily.

 

*-*-*

 

(Penguin Park; shortly after sunrise)

 

Syaoran sits stoically on the leftmost of the swings on the swing set, swaying back and forth only slightly and just barely clinging onto the chain links with his hands. He shivers slightly in the morning breeze, but he otherwise appears sleepily detached from his surroundings. He wears his winter jacket from his Tomoeda Elementary school uniform and a pair of baggy tan cargo pants. Least noticeably, he wears wrapped up white bandages over his right hand.

 

From afar off, Tomoyo notices Syaoran sitting and swinging slightly. She gradually paces closer and closer to him, but Syaoran shows no signs of acknowledgment. Tomoyo takes a seat on the swing to Syaoran's immediate right.

 

“Good morning, Li-kun,” Tomoyo begins, but Syaoran continues to apparently ignore her. Nevertheless, Tomoyo continues. “You called and said that you wanted to talk about something important. Well?”

 

Syaoran lets out a deep sigh as he hunches forward. “Thanks for coming out here this early. I don't want any of this getting out. …I have a plan to defeat the rest of the Kaos Cards in one fell swoop.”

 

Tomoyo turns her head in Syaoran's direction with intrigue. “You mean all of them? For good?” She smiles widely. “Oh, this is great news! Wait until Sakura-chan hears about-”

 

“Don't tell her,” Syaoran interrupts, shooting a cold glare in Tomoyo's direction. “…because I'm leaving Tomoeda.”

 

Tomoyo's jaw drops. She grabs onto the chains of the swing to catch herself from the shock. “…What?”

 

Syaoran stares up at the dawn horizon. “I'm going to take the Kaos Cards and the Inferno Crossbow back to Hong Kong. From there, I'll protect them in secret, all by myself. If I can hold out until-”

 

“You're leaving?!” Tomoyo asks, still taken back in shock. “B-bu-bu-but what about Sakura-chan? Are you just going to leave her to die? I thought you-”

 

Syaoran hangs his head. “Please. She's why I'm skipping town,” he interrupts. He holds up his bandaged right hand, staring into his palm. “I've lied to her and hurt her for the last time. I don't know what I was thinking, letting things get this far out of control. Because all those feelings that she thinks I'm feeling inside… that you think I'm feeling inside… even Keroberos thinks I'm feeling… there's nothing there.”

 

“You mean that you don't…?” Tomoyo asks, perplexed.

 

Syaoran shakes his head. “That's why I've had such a hard time trying to tell her how I feel. It's because I really don't feel anything for her. And I don't want to hurt her. Leaving Tomoeda is really for the best.”

 

“I highly doubt that…” Tomoyo mutters under her breath.

 

Syaoran glances at Tomoyo out the corner of his eye. “You really don't know what's going on here. If you did know, you wouldn't be so quick to judge my actions.”

 

“Then say it already,” Tomoyo asks coldly, getting Syaoran to turn his head in her direction. “I'm not going to breathe a word of this to Sakura-chan. It'd break her heart to hear what you're saying, and at least I care about how she feels. So you have nothing to worry about. Spill it then. What's going on that you have to leave?”

 

Syaoran stares up into the sky, rolling his eyes at Tomoyo's accusation with an irritated but brief groan. He pauses for a moment before beginning his explanation. “Yesterday, you asked me why there are only seven Kaos Cards in the story, but there were eight Kaos Cards in the museum. So I did a little further research on it. The reason is because, in the story, while there were four Kaos Cards of Despair, there were only three Kaos Cards of Destruction: Industry, Chimera, and Plague. All of them have been captured thus far, meaning that Damien, Guardian Beast of Destruction, has no Kaos Cards left under his jurisdiction. Or at least not any that he can use…”

 

“Are you talking about that `Life' Card? The one Kaos Gin never finished?” Tomoyo asks, turning Syaoran's head.

 

Syaoran shrugs his shoulders. “Well, at least you pay attention. Anyway, as it was never completed, the Life Card was ironically unable to attain a sentient status. As such, it couldn't die like the essences of the other seven Kaos Cards. The Life Card does have just as much magic as the other seven Kaos Cards, but unlike other magic cards, it has no true form. Thus, without a true form, it has no influence, making the Life Card, for all intents and purposes, a magically-enchanted piece of paper. But if the legend of Kaos Gin is as accurate as it's proven itself to be so far, Lycan and Damien think that they only need to set a few scenarios into place in order to attempt to finish Kaos Gin's work on the Life Card…” Syaoran then pauses for a lengthy moment.

 

Tomoyo waves Syaoran on to continue. “Well? I'm listening. What are those scenarios?”

 

Syaoran sighs again. “The Life Card won't be able to sustain a true form without a successor Card Captor of Kaos to replace Kaos Gin. As such, the Kaos Cards all have to be captured by the new Card Captor of Kaos.”

 

“But you and Sakura-chan both have Kaos Cards. Why do Lycan and Damien even need two Card Captors of Kaos if Kaos Gin only needs one successor?” Tomoyo interjects.

 

Syaoran shakes his head. “But they do need us both, because the second objective that has to be met is…” He pauses again, struggling to make the words come out of his mouth.

 

“The Life needs a true form?” Tomoyo hypothesizes aloud. At the contemplation of the very thought, Tomoyo's jaw drops and her voice falls dead silent.

 

Syaoran responds to Tomoyo's thunderous silence with a somber nod. Afterwards, he stands to his feet. “I'm going to be filling out the paperwork for transferring out of Tomoeda Elementary today. If all goes well, I'll be out of the country in no less than a week's time. I wouldn't worry about Kinomoto-san though if I were you. She'll be just fine. Things always work out fine for her, somehow. But I will ask that you not tell her this.” He begins to pace off.

 

“Li-kun, I can see why you're doing this,” Tomoyo responds. “But I can't in good conscience keep this secret from Sakura-chan. I promise that I won't tell her… but only if you tell her all of this yourself.”

 

Syaoran stops right in his tracks and turns his head back in Tomoyo's direction.

 

Tomoyo shoots a cold stare back in Syaoran's direction. “If you truly don't care about Sakura-chan like I thought you did, prove it. Tell her. Break her heart, if you can…” she challenges.

 

Syaoran turns back to face Tomoyo slowly, contemplating her comment in the back of his mind. “Y'know what? No!” He holds up his bandaged right hand. “I've caused her enough suffering. The least I can do for her is to not involve her in this Kaos Card fiasco. But don't go thinking that means anything.”

 

Tomoyo notices Syaoran's bandaged hand as he holds it up for display to her. “Li-kun, your hand. What happened to it? Did you get into a scrap with another Kaos Card last night or something?”

 

Syaoran lowers his arm, pulling his long sleeve over his bandages. “N-no, it wasn't a Kaos Card. At least not a new one anyway.”

 

Tomoyo's eyes widen. “You didn't do that to yourself, did you?!” she asks in shock.

 

“And what if I did?” Syaoran snaps. “I- I had to.”

 

“Li-kun, nobody is forcing you to hurt yourself,” Tomoyo responds. She pauses amidst an awkward silence before piping up again. “Did you feel guilty about Sakura-chan?”

 

“Shut up,” Syaoran mutters with a calm, bottled fury.

 

Tomoyo cracks a subtle, mostly inward smile. “Thought so.”

 

Syaoran grumbles about, muttering angrily under his breath. “What's all this to you, anyway?!” Syaoran snaps, turning away and folding his arms.

 

Tomoyo pulls herself to a standing position and paces over to Syaoran's side. “It's because I care about Sakura-chan, too. And I'd like nothing more than for her to be happy. It's really a shame, then, that you don't realize how happy she is when you're around to protect her. But, if you make her happy, that makes me happy too.”

 

Syaoran reaches suddenly towards his right wrist. He sneers at Tomoyo out the corner of his eye. “Get a life, Daidouji-san!” he shouts before storming off in a dead run.

 

Tomoyo reaches after Syaoran, but after a single step of pursuit, she lets Syaoran get away. Tomoyo again smiles inwardly. `I'm not worried, Li-kun. You know what's going on. And as much as you want these Kaos Cards defeated, I know that you won't be able to hurt Sakura-chan's feelings to do it. If only you could see why…' Tomoyo turns around to the swing set, but almost falls over at the sight before her.

 

Calmly and uprightly perched on the topmost bar of the swing set, Damien stands silently with folded arms and open wings. His tail curls loosely around the bars of the swing set as it otherwise hangs loose. He stares off with squinted, narrow-pupil eyes, to a barely visible Syaoran in the distance, hardly paying any attention to Tomoyo at all.

 

Tomoyo regains her balance as she begins to shuffle her feet backwards in a very slow attempt at escape, attempting to go unnoticed by the monstrous Guardian Beast. But in the midst of this less-than-hasty retreat, she trips over a cracked, misaligned slab of sidewalk, sending her landing on her rear.

 

Damien turns his gaze lower, immediately in front of him. Disentangling himself from the swing set, he bounds up with a mighty leap before majestically floating down in front of a stumbled Tomoyo like a malign angel. He stoops down onto a knee and gently holds out his claw, eliciting a mixed reaction from the fallen Tomoyo.

 

“Get up,” Damien mutters calmly.

 

Tomoyo's eyes remain open at the coy gesture of courtesy from such an intimidating, inhuman creature. She nervously places a hand on one of Damien's bulky fingers and pulls herself to a standing position, keeping her eyes fixed with his the whole time.

 

Damien stares at Tomoyo, as his monster-like eyes betray his rational, calm actions and speech. “That look… I recognize your fear. I've seen it all too often before, by all who look upon this corrupted shell. You look at me in horror, expecting me to be a monster, just for the way I appear.”

 

Tomoyo nods in compliance. “That, and you forced the Inferno Crossbow onto Li-kun when he didn't even want it,” she responds softly, trying not to raise her voice. She exchanges stares with Damien for a long while before mustering up the courage to speak again. “W-w-what are you doing here, anyway?” she asks.

 

Damien stands to his full, superhuman height. “What am I doing here? Why, the same as you. To watch the Little Wolf, and to hear what he has to say. He is a very interesting human indeed, to say the least.”

 

“Are you here to fight?” Tomoyo asks nervously, beginning to back away again, this time peeking over her shoulders every so often.

Damien sneers at Tomoyo, freezing her in place. “Again with your assumptions. The Little Wolf told you that I have no more Kaos Cards left, yet you run from me. In your fear, you betray the impeccable wisdom that you have for your age. Why?”

 

Tomoyo modestly bows her head at Damien's compliment. “Because Li-kun told me that you and Lycan are going to hurt Sakura-chan…”

 

Damien scoffs. “Yet more hearsay. I dare not kill either of the Card Captors of Kaos, because I appear to be the only one who knows what's going on. Don't tell me, the Little Wolf reached his little epiphany based off something Lycan said or did. Typical. We Guardians and Cards of Kaos may have been corrupted when Reed eliminated our master, but our devices are more complex than merely the wanton obliteration of your species. After all, human extinction won't bring him back…” he drones, staring into the sky.

 

“Fair enough,” Tomoyo answers, nervously nodding her head as she begins to comprehend Damien's motives. “Enlighten me then. If you're not going to kill Sakura-chan, what are you planning to do?” Tomoyo asks.

 

Damien shakes his head. “Sorry, can't spoil the big surprise. The Little Wolf and the Cherry Blossom are going to have to figure it out for themselves. But something I will tell you is that if your friends think that the ultimate objective of the Kaos Cards is to kill either of them, they're way off. Make sure they understand that.” Damien crouches low and stretches wide his wings before jumping high into the air and taking off like a rocket, leaving a warm gust and a low cloud of dust in his wake.

 

Tomoyo covers her head, her hair whipping about in the wind. After the wind dies down, she raises her head and looks around frantically, finding no trace of Damien whatsoever.

 

“How strange…” she utters.

 

*-*-*

 

(Syaoran's apartment, later that morning)

 

Syaoran quickly storms through the door and slams it behind him, disappearing once again as quickly as he came in, heading straight for his room. Just noticing the ruckus, Wei sticks his head out of the kitchen and looks around the living room for Syaoran, who was nowhere to be seen.

 

“Uh… Syaoran-sama? How was your walk?” Wei asks, dumbfounded.

 

Syaoran ignores Wei. His back leans against the shut door of his room from the inside as he slowly slides down to a slouched back sitting posture, resting his shoulders against the door and otherwise letting his entire body hang limp.

 

`Daidouji-san thinks she knows everything… She thinks I have feelings for Sa- …Kinomoto-san… Well I don't. And I'll prove it too. I'm going to march straight to Kinomoto-san's house and tell her myself. She'll cry a river, but what do I care? She's always fine in the end, no matter what…' Syaoran thinks to himself cynically.

 

A thought crosses through Syaoran's mind as he can imagine Tomoyo's response.

 

“Li-kun, the reason that Sakura-chan is always okay is because she knows you're not going to let anything happen to her. Don't-”

 

Syaoran leans up and furiously shakes his head back and forth, scrambling his thoughts and cutting off the imaginary rebuttal from Tomoyo. “That's not it!” he shouts.

 

The Inferno Crossbow on Syaoran's arm begins to pulsate like a heartbeat. Syaoran, considerably irritated, rolls up his right sleeve, and at seeing the device, the heartbeats became more audible. Syaoran holds his right hand to his chest, realizing that the Inferno Crossbow was merely mimicking his own already raised heartbeat.

 

`The Inferno Crossbow is flaring up again. Why? It obeys my thoughts, it mimics my heartbeat, it burns my skin… it's like it has a mind of its own…' Syaoran hypothesizes, holding up the upside-down face of the Inferno Crossbow and staring it straight in the eye sockets. “Smarty-pants…” he mutters, letting his arm flop to his side. “Even this demonic parasite thinks I care about Kinomoto-san.”

 

Syaoran stands up and paces over towards his backpack, grabbing it and taking it over to his bed, where he takes a seat. `I can just call her up… No, I have to do this face-to-face! If staring her straight in her eyes with steel stoicism doesn't get my point across, nothing will!' Syaoran opens up his backpack. He sits still for a few moments after opening his backpack up.

 

`…those pretty emerald eyes…' he ponders.

 

“Did I just say pretty?” he asks himself, coming to his senses. He shakes his head back and forth, trying to shake himself from his rattled equilibrium. He reaches into his backpack and carefully pulls out a pair of Kaos Cards, holding them up in his bandaged right hand.

 

`I could use Chimera to give me the skin of a chameleon, so that I can sneak into Kinomoto-san's room and steal her Kaos Cards- …no, wait. I can't take her Kaos Cards away from her. Not because I feel anything mushy in the pit of my soul, but because it's illogical. She'll be able to protect those Kaos Cards that have fallen under her jurisdiction, and those that will. I only need to prevent the Kaos Cards from being in one location at a time.'

 

Syaoran stares out his window, at a pigeon perched on the edge of his balcony. The pigeon coos erratically before flying off. After the bird flies out of sight, Syaoran flops over on his bed weakly.

 

`It's really too bad that I don't have the magic to sustain the Chimera Card long enough to turn into a bird and just fly. Fly away, as far and as fast as I can. Away from Tomoeda. Away from the Kaos Cards. Away from destiny. Away from… this.' Syaoran wearily lets his eyelids close shut. “Away from her,” he thinks aloud.

 

*-*-*

 

(Sakura's house, that morning)

A lone phone on a small countertop in the middle of a yellow-colored hallway begins ringing with a lengthy electronic beeping sound. It continues to ring three more times in succession before at last a tall boy with black hair picks up the phone.

 

*_*_*

 

(Syaoran's end of the line)

 

Syaoran had dragged a telephone in from outside his room. The cable hangs under the door and leads out of the room entirely. Syaoran sits on the floor, limply leaning against the door, patiently awaiting an answer with his head hung shamefully.

 

`I'm such a coward…' Syaoran thinks to himself, but suddenly the voice on the other end of the phone causes him to nearly jump off the floor in a single bound.

 

“Good morning. Kinomoto residence…” a voice sounding like Toya's voice answers from the other end of the phone.

 

On Syaoran's end of the line, he clamps his right hand over the phone's receiver. `Darnit! It's after 8:00 in the morning, and she's still not up yet?! Somebody's getting back into the school spirit I see…' Syaoran ponders, a why-am-I-not-surprised expression all over him.

 

“Hello?” Toya asks impatiently from the other end of the phone.

 

*-*-*

 

(Toya's end of the line)

 

Toya taps the phone speaker with his finger. “Hey, if this is some kind of joke…” he threatens into the receiver, but his eyes are pulled over to the caller ID device on the table. He notices as the LCD screen lists out the source of the call as from a room in an apartment complex. Thinking the call source over in his mind, he holds the phone up to the side of his head. Toya sighs before responding.

“Alright, what do you want… gaki?” Toya asks snidely, stressing heavily on the last word.

 

At listening closely to the receiver, he can hear muffled grunts in the background.

 

*-*-*

 

(Syaoran's end of the line)

 

“Why did he have to pick up the phone?!” Syaoran quietly fumes to himself, his hand still clasped over the receiver.

 

“Hey, don't go running up our phone bill over there! I know where you live, gaki!” Toya shouts back, causing Syaoran to flinch away from the receiver.

 

Syaoran nervously holds up the phone. “Ki-kino-kinomoto…” he stutters.

 

*-*-*

 

(Toya's end of the line)

 

Toya leers at the phone. “You want to talk to my sister? Well I can't help but say that I'm not surprised. She seems to be a really popular little kaiju nowadays…” Toya says back into the phone.

 

*-*-*

 

(Syaoran's end of the line)

 

Syaoran sits up sternly, Toya's last comment seemingly having struck a nerve. “Don't You EVER… call her a monster…” he blurts out sternly, momentarily forgetting whom he was speaking to. Fortunately for him, Toya didn't seem to be responding to that last comment, but Syaoran can barely hear a muffled bickering in the background.

 

*-*-*

(Toya's end of the line)

 

Toya holds the phone up high, mercilessly taunting his much shorter little sister, forcing her to jump high to even reach the phone.

“Big Brother! Gimmie that phone! And for the last time, I'm not a monster!” Sakura insists, however doing little to sway Toya to give her the phone.

 

Sakura still wears her pink pajamas and has yet to change out of them, despite the lateness of the morning and the fact that she had worn them for nearly a straight day. Sakura crouches low before springing up after the phone as she continues to hopelessly beg her brother for the phone.

 

Eventually, Toya tires of this and tosses the phone straight into the air and walks off. Sakura gets under the falling phone and fiddles with it clumsily, trying to get a grip on it. She puts the receiver up to her ear, but before she can speak, a reply comes from the other end of the line with a volume that causes her to pull her head away.

 

*-*-*

(Syaoran's end of the line)

 

Bubbling over with anger after Toya's seeming torment of Sakura, he holds up the phone receiver right in front of his face, though not knowing Sakura to be on the other end of the line…

 

“Well y'know what I think?! I think you can just shove it and shut up! It's not like I like her or anything, and I don't know where you'd get such a stupid idea like that!” Syaoran snaps.

 

*-*-*

 

(Sakura's end of the line)

 

Sakura freezes up, her eyes glazing over after Syaoran's last response.

 

*-*-*

 

(Syaoran's end of the line)

 

“Li-kun?” a meek voice answers back from the other end of the phone.

 

Syaoran turns a bright, humiliating red as he clasps his hand over his mouth.

 

“Li-kun? Who were you talking about?” Sakura probes.

 

*-*-*

 

(Sakura's end of the line)

 

“Sakur- uh- Kinomoto-san? I-I-I didn't mean that! Your brother just pushed my buttons, I swear! I'm sorry! Kinomoto-san? Kinomoto-san!” Syaoran desperately attempts to repent.

 

Sakura limply lowers her arm to her side, her mind racing a mile a minute, while Syaoran continues to spurt off vain atonement after vain atonement on the other end. Tears well up in Sakura's eyes. She forcefully slams the phone on the receiver. She quickly storms down the hall and to her room. She swings the door open powerfully, almost ripping it off its hinges, before slamming it shut behind her with a loud crash.

 

*-*-*

 

(Syaoran's end of the line)

 

“Kinomoto-san? Kinomoto-san!” Syaoran continues to call out into the receiver, but is answered back by a dial tone. Syaoran eventually ceases his calling and falls to his knees in sorrow. He hangs up the phone gently and hunches over.

 

“Sakura…” Syaoran mutters. He remains motionless for a long moment, revisiting the phone call in his mind, but replaying the conversation with endless amounts of different scenarios. All of a sudden, Syaoran feels a sensation come over him that he had never known before, akin to a punch in the stomach, leaving him suddenly winded. He sniffles.

 

“No, this can't be happening… What has she done to me to make me want to… to…?” Syaoran mutters to himself, catching himself from making a scene, but still reluctantly rubbing his eye with his left wrist. “I'm Li Xiaolang, the youngest generation of the most powerful sorcerers in the world. And on top of that, I'm a Card Captor of Kaos. I am powerful. I am logical. I am self-sufficient. I don't cry, and especially not over some girl. Lis do not cry. Card Captors of Kaos do not blubber like babies! They don't!” Syaoran insists to himself, pounding his fists against the floor while fighting off the accumulating moisture in his eye sockets and breathing heavily.

 

*-*-*

 

(Sakura's room)

 

Sakura storms into her room, slamming the door behind her and throwing herself over her bed. She grabs a pillow from further up her bed and buries her face in it, bawling her eyes out.

 

This scene alerts the attention of the golden-furred Guardian Beast, who was, until just a second ago, staring out the window. Kero flutters over Sakura's shoulder and gently pats Sakura on the back of her head, but her crying continues.

 

“Sakura? What was that all about? Who called you? What'd they say?” Kero asks urgently, like a probing older sibling.

 

“Li-kun didn't mean that! He didn't mean any of it! He wouldn't say such horrible things!” Sakura shouts through her pillow.

 

“The kozo?” Kero asks, confirming Syaoran as the source of Sakura's current state of sadness. “Hmmm… why am I not surprised?” he asks himself, floating in mid-air and folding his arms crossly.

 

Sakura briefly lifts her head out of the pillow. “Kero-chan, Lycan was right!” she bawls, reapplying her face to the groove she wore into the pillow.

 

“Lycan?!” Kero exclaims in shock, but he has no further time to react as he lets his body plummet limply next to Sakura's head as the door creaks open quickly.

 

“Sakura!” Toya shouts, popping his head in. He lets himself in and kneels right next to his distraught little sister. “What did that gaki say to you? I'll kill him!” he exclaims, grabbing Sakura forcefully by the shoulder. He prepares to storm off, but he can feel Sakura's weak grip around his finger. He turns back to see Sakura looking up at him with damp eyes, but otherwise maintaining some sort of composure.

 

“Don't,” Sakura whispers to Toya. “Li-kun didn't mean it… I know him… It must be a misunderstanding…”

 

Toya tugs his hand out of Sakura's grip, much to further his sister's chagrin, and he cracks his knuckles with anticipation as he turns towards the open door. “Whatever it was, I'm gonna' hunt him down and kick his over-privileged Chinese-”

 

“Big Brother, you kaiju!” Sakura fires back, interrupting Toya's rant. Sakura stands fully to her feet, holding up her fists in desperation to convince Toya. “Don't hurt Li-kun. There's no way he meant whatever he said.”

 

Toya turns around, to face Sakura. “Why are you're sticking up for him after whatever he said?” he asks, beginning to grow in irritation. Sakura remains silent, yet Toya probes into Sakura's eyes, penetrating right to her very core in order to deduce the answer he was looking for. “I see…” he turns away and leaves.

 

Sakura follows Toya to the door, and Toya proceeds further down the hallway. “That's right!” Sakura shouts at Toya before slamming the door shut.

 

At the slam of the door, Kero loosens up the tension in his body for posing as a stuffed animal whenever Toya is around. He releases a deeply relieved sigh. “Sakura, you were saying something about Lycan being right about something. Did I hear you correctly about that?” Kero asks, floating up over Sakura's shoulder.

 

Sakura still stands in front of her door, taking several deep breaths before answering Kero. “Last night, in my dream, Lycan appeared to me again. He said that Li-kun really didn't care about me. And on the phone, Li-kun said that he didn't care about someone. Big Brother was talking about me. So I thought that Li-kun didn't care about me, and it was stupid of me to think he did…”

 

Kero perches onto Sakura's shoulder, considering that which Sakura had told him about her dream. “So… Lycan appeared… to try and split you and the kozo up? Hmm… I really don't know. I've heard Lycan go on a rant before. Something about that dream of yours just strikes me as not his style,” Kero deliberates.

 

“Kero-chan…” Sakura continues, pacing over towards her closet and opening it up. “Lycan told me to kill him. And not only that, but when I realized that he supposedly really didn't like me at all, I'd want to kill him. That's why I'm trying so hard not to wish Li-kun ill.” Sakura reaches into her closet and pulls out a long-sleeved, blue sweater.

 

“Is it because you like him?” Kero follows up.

 

Sakura's cheeks quickly turn a bright tomato red. “Kero-chan…” Sakura replies with a soft outrage, pulling the sweater up to conceal her blush. After a moment, she begins to slowly lower the sweater away.

 

“I hope so…” Sakura replies at last, cracking a hopeful smile.

 

*-*-*

 

(a dark void)

 

A deep-throated and long-winded cackling emanates from the blackness of the void itself. Lycan's mask takes shape in the midst of the shade, along with the rest of his sleek, nearly invisible form.

 

“Who would have ever thought that that witless Damien's worthless Kaos Captor could cooperate so perfectly with my plan? It's almost too perfect…” Lycan thinks aloud.

 

“Lycan!” an urgent, human-sounding voice shouts out from a far distance, interrupting Lycan's rant. “Lycan!” the voice calls again, only closer this time.

“So the fool comes… T'was only a matter of time… meh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh…” Lycan mutters.

 

A flicker of flame appears behind Lycan as Damien materializes behind Lycan. He appears from on one knee and he quickly stands to an aggressive posture.

 

“You could not hide from me forever, Guardian of Destruction,” Lycan snarls, turning his morbid mask right in Damien's direction.

 

Damien stares back unfazed at Lycan's nightmarish form. “This is insanity, Lycan. What are you doing with the Cherry Blossom?”

 

Lycan turns away from Damien. “You declare me insane, and then ask of my plan? Oh, great is your passion, Damien. Great, indeed… is your handicap…”

 

Damien swings his arm back furiously. “Lycan! Quit talking in riddles! What are you up to?”

 

“Payback,” Lycan answers monotonously. “You took a cheap shot at my Card Captor. I'm simply returning the favor. We only need one of them, after all.”

 

“Payback? Your Card Captor?” Damien retorts in outrage. “If you're referring to Plague, I did what was necessary to ensure the strengthening of Master Kaos's Card Captor, not yours, and not mine,” he adds, pointing at Lycan accusatively. “…And we do need them both alive. Or have you forgotten already?” Damien reminds.

 

“Correction,” Lycan begins. “We only need one of them alive…” Lycan concludes suggestively.

 

Damien shakes his head in disgust. “Is this really the will of Kaos? Are we killers, Lycan? Was the Master a killer?”

 

“If we have to kill, we shall…” Lycan responds ominously.

 

“Then I take it you must have a good reason to kill the Little Wolf…” Damien reasons. “…So why? Is it just to get back at me?” Damien accuses with great hostility.

 

“You seem to forget whom you are speaking to…” Lycan says before vanishing into the darkness, causing Damien to look around anxiously. After Damien had skimmed through the darkness with his eyes, a pair of enormous red eyes appears before him, sending him staggering backwards in horror.

 

“I am Lycan, the Guardian Beast of Despair! My ends always justify my means. And right now, my ends remain as they always were: to induce Despair. And right now, the despair is yours, Guardian of Destruction. So come forth and stop me if you are able, feeble creature! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” Lycan rants loudly before the giant red eyes close and vanish from the darkness. The echoes of Lycan's laughter resonate through the void, causing Damien to stare about uncertain and afraid.

 

“Grr… Lycan, you're mad! I'll stop you, Lycan, if it takes the last ounce of my being to do it!” Damien shouts out, hoping vainly for Lycan to hear his futile declaration.